“Ziggyyyyyyy”, is the first thing he hears when he answers the call.
“Jay. It’s 3 am”
“Yeah, I know”
“What did we say about calling at 3 am”
“Not to?”
“Exactly”
“Okay, it’s just, I’m really bored”
Regulus sighs, fully aware that he can’t save himself anymore at this point. “Well, why are you bored?”
“See, the thing is, I was supposed to hang out with my best mate, but he’s too busy with his boyfriend, so now I’ve got like 6 bags of crisps and no one to eat them with.”
“That sounds terrible”
“I know! Do… you wanna come eat them?”
Again, Regulus sighs. “Fine, meet at Big Ben?”
“Yes! Okay! See you in a sec”
Jay hangs up and Regulus reluctantly changes into his suit. He grabs his backpack, stuffs his phone, keys, wallet, book and headphones in before climbing out his window and swinging away. He travels through the streets, heading straight for the old clock tower. He crosses the Thames, trying to ignore the pull in his stomach. Regulus hates water. He slips in through one of the windows, then sits down, looking through the giant clock.
“Hey Zig”
He startles slightly, then fights his smile when he sees Jay carrying about 5 bags of crisps.
“Hey Jay”, he says, a bit too soft for his liking. He can’t really help it with Jay though. Not like it’s his fault.
“So, ready for a few crisps?”
“A few?”
“A lot”, Jay laughs. They both lift their masks up a little, so that they can eat.
After they’ve polished off 3 bags, Jay asks, “Hey, are we friends?”
That surprises Regulus. They’ve been the spidermen for 6 months now, and to Regulus, Jay is probably his favourite person. He loves Evan and Barty, his brother and even Remus, he supposes. But Jay is the best. He’s funny and sweet and Regulus genuinely misses him when he’s not around. And his heart stops every time Jay gets injured in a fight.
“Do you want to be friends?”
”Do you?”
”…yeah.”
”Oh. Cool, yeah. Same” Jay looks down at his feet, his lips curling into a small smile.
They continue to sit in silence when something catches Regulus’ eye. They’re looking out over the city, facing away from the river. In the distance, there’s a green flickering light.
“Jay?”
”Hm?”
”What’s that?”
He points to where the light is, pulling his mask back down. Jay stands up to get a better look, pulling his own mask down.
“...I'm not sure. Let's go check it out”
They leave their backpacks in the tower, then make their way towards the light. Regulus watches as Jay lands on the balcony above the one with the light, then jumps down next to him. The green light starts to flicker more violently, a slight vibration emitting from the source. Sharing a look, he and Jay silently climb down and peek into the window.
Inside, there’s a figure typing something into a glowing computer, back turned to them. Jay starts to pull up the window slowly, careful not to make a sound.
Regulus slips in first, pulling the window back down after Jay. They make their way through the room filled with servers, nearly falling over when there’s another shake.
They hold onto each other, trying not to make a noise as the entire room starts vibrating.
The shaking stops, but the figure starts turning around. Without even thinking, Regulus pushes Jay behind one of the servers, then turns himself invisible.
From the front, the figure is wearing giant reflectant goggles, so Regulus has no way of seeing his face. He quickly moves out of the way when the figure starts walking towards him, heading for where Jay is cowering on the floor, trying to stay hidden.
He gently places a hand on his shoulder, to let him know he’s there.
At first, Jay would almost always scream. Now he just nods his head a little, making space for him.
The figure walks towards the window they came in from, placing some kind of parabolic antenna in front of it, facing outside.
Jay touches his side, making Regulus look over at him. He nods his head towards the computer, green words flashing clearly:
Death-sequence-activated
Regulus is too fucking tired for this.
He stands up and quietly heads for the computer, while the figure is still adjusting the antenna.
The keys aren’t etruscan, Regulus doesn’t even know what alphabet this is. He stares at it hopelessly, looking back up at the screen, realising the only thing he can read are those three words flashing in neon green. Great. He turns back towards Jay, who's watching the figure.
He sneaks back over to him, whispering in his ear as quietly as possible, “I can’t read the alphabet”
Jay does jump a little at his sudden closeness, but nods at him, seemingly having understood.
The figure suddenly starts walking back towards the computer, then starts to type something.
A mechanical, emotionless voice speaks up then, “Destruction starting in 50 seconds. 49 seconds, 48 seconds,...”
Jay’s eyes widen, he looks frantically at where he must think Regulus is. He taps his shoulder to let him know he is in fact not where he’s looking before whispering, “What do we do?”
Jay shrugs hopelessly, shaking his head.
Regulus lets out a frustrated breath, startling when Jay suddenly smacks him. Regulus watches affronted as he pulls out a bag of crisps.
“What the fuck, Jay?”
Jay just silently stands up, sneaks over to the antenna and starts to open the bag very very slowly.
Obviously, that doesn’t work.
The figure turns around, a gun in his hand, pointing it right at Jay. Regulus shoots it out of his hand, finally turning back to visibility. He heads for the figure, punching him right in the face, meanwhile Jay starts stuffing every last crisp into the antenna.
“There is no way that will actually work, Jay!”
“You don’t know that!”
“18 seconds, 17 seconds, 16 seconds”
Regulus finally manages to knock the figure out with his own weird goggles, before rushing to the computer. He starts just hitting things, pressing any button he finds worthy, trying to do something.
“Ziggy…”
“Shut up, I’m trying”
“It’s not going to work”
“Yes it is!! Just keep stuffing your stupid crisps” Regulus is crying now, he knows he is, knows Jay knows he is. He can’t really help it, as he frantically hits the computer, 7 seconds left.
A warm hand touches his waist, strong arms wrapping around him, “It won’t work, Zig”
“It has to” he sobs.
Jay tightens his hold on him, turning him around and hugging him properly. Regulus can’t think of anything to do but press himself as close to him as possible, squeezing his eyes shut.
“3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 second…”
There’s a loud bang, Jay’s hold on him tenfolds, and then…
Crisps fly around the room like confetti at a party, the whole thing smelling awfully like vinegar and cheese and onion.
Regulus has never heard Jay laugh so hard.