>Regulus’ POV<
They’d been doing this for a long time. They were The Spidermen, heroes of London, and yet, they had no clue who the other one was. When he says they have no clue, he means no clue of the people that were in the lab when the radioactive spider got out. Even though they probably could figure out who the other was, they both agreed not to.
To the other, Regulus was whatever nickname he’d come up with lately, though usually he was Ziggy. Regulus honestly doesn’t even know why. To Regulus, the other was just Jay. He knew that wasn’t his real name, but apparently it was similar, so he just stuck with it.
Right now, he’s walking back home, to the flat he shares with his friends Barty and Evan, after an excruciatingly boring patrol. He opens the door, only to find his friends making out on the couch. Idiots. He rushes to his room as quietly as possible and shuts the door. As he plugs his phone in, it buzzes in his hand so he unlocks it.
Jay 🕷️❤️
Hey Zig, does your suit smell rlly bad 2?
Ew, no
huh
maybe clean it for once in ur life?
I do clean it!
sometimes
yeah sure
k, imma go clean it now
good for u
c ya
bye
He sighs, shaking his head and flops onto his head. He finds Jay kind of endearing, though he’d never tell him that. He decides to finish some paintings before having dinner, so he gets up and changes.
He manages to complete one of his 20 unfinished paintings, before heading out. It’s Saturday, a.k.a. ‘Brother-bonding-time’. After Sirius found out he ran away to Barty’s, who had already run away himself, at the age of 17, his brother decided they had to ‘fix’ their relationship and the only way to do that was to drag Regulus around for Laser tag and Paintballing and movie nights and god know what other things his brother has planned. Though he’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy their little outings.
He’s 21 now, Sirius’ 22, and they get along as any other siblings do. Neither of them speak to their parents anymore, nor do they want to. And Regulus can tolerate his brother’s friends. Though Sirius can’t stand Barty. But, to be fair, neither can Barty.
Regulus walks up to his brother’s apartment which he shares with his boyfriend, and rings the bell.
“Oh, hello Regulus”, Remus greats.
“Hi”
“Sirius is just having a meltdown”, Regulus frowns, “he stubbed his toe”, Remus clarifies.
“REMUS I’M DYING”, his brother always was one for the dramatics. They walk into the living room to find Sirius lying on the ground, clutching his foot. “Help meeeee”, he wallows. “Oh, hi Reggie”, he pauses his crying to say, then immediately continues. Regulus scoffs.
“Sirius you stubbed your toe, you didn’t take a bullet to the kidney, stop crying”, Remus says.
“But mooooooooooneyyyy”
“No, get up, your brother’s here”
“Ugh”, he groans and reluctantly stands up.
“So, Reggie, ready to go?”, it’s remarkable how quickly he just got up and stopped whining, Regulus thinks.
“If we must”
It turns out, Sirius’ bonding activity for the week was watching a movie. Paddington 2, to be exact.
As they leave the cinema, Sirius ranting about how a bear is surely stronger than some criminal cook, and he should’ve been able to break the door himself, he gets a message.
Jay 🕷️❤️
Code Red
Paddington station
Shit, Regulus thinks. Also, how ironic is that?
Jay 🕷️❤️
Code Red
Paddington Station
Shit, okay, omw
“Hey, Siri, sorry, but I kinda have to go”, his brother turns to him, frowning.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, just gotta go do something”
“Okay, well, see you later then?”
“Yeah, I’ll call you later”, he says and runs off into the underground. He feels a bit bad, but what can you do, right?
He finds a sheltered area and slips his clothes off, stuffing them into his backpack, pulls on his mask, then runs out of the station. He immediately spots Jay, struggling to wrestle some weird guy with mechanical wings. He shoots a web, blinding the guy. Jay turns to him and smiles, or at least Regulus thinks he is, he can’t really tell with these masks.
But before he can ask what’s going on, he’s shoved to the ground. He quickly gets back on his feet and looks around, but he can’t see where his attacker is or even came from. He turns frantically, confused, until he’s pulled up from above. The fuck?
Oh. There’s more of these weird bird people. He looks up and spots eight. Two already webbed up by Jay. That leaves six. Regulus latches himself onto the one trying to throw him into the Paddington Basin. He waits till they’re no longer above the water before kicking them right in the face, making them both fall. Shooting a web towards a lamp post, Regulus manages to catch himself just in time.
“Ziggy!”, he hears Jay call, so he runs towards the voice. Jay’s currently being pressed to the ground, a bird person on top of him, holding a blade to his throat. His breath hitches as he sprints towards them, shoving the birdy person off. Jay immediately gets back up, “Thanks”, he breathes. “You okay?”, Regulus asks.
“Oh, yeah, never better”, Regulus can actually hear the grin in his voice. He rolls his eyes and is about to retort when his spidey sense, as Jay calls it, tells him to turn around. He and Jay both do at the same time and shoot webs. Their target falls to the ground, spasming. The thing is, Regulus and Jay were bitten by the same spider, but they don’t have exactly the same powers. Jay can shoot webs out of his actual arm, while Regulus needs web shooters with fake webs they made together based on Jay’s webs. But, Regulus can shoot venom through touch, and his webs, that electrocutes people. And he can turn invisible. Though he’s not quite as strong or fast as Jay, he’s more agile. The differences in their powers is why they have different suits. Regulus’ is black with grey-ish green linings. Jay’s suit is red and blue.
“It’s so cool when you do that”
Regulus finds himself smiling. “Thanks, Jay”, he says softly. The last two of the birdy people surge forward then, picking Regulus up. “Shit!”
They fly right towards the basin and before he can do anything, they drop right into the water. The cold seeps through his veins and he sinks deeper. Obviously, he can’t swim. He flails around helplessly trying to do something. But, nothing happens, and his vision is blurring, his thoughts becoming mushy and his eyes drooping. That’s when a pair of familiar arms wrap around his waist, pulling him up. When they break through the surface, he gasps for air, not getting anything in through his soaking wet mask.
It seems Jay is having trouble, too, because once they’re safely on the ground, the birdy people all tied up, he turns and rips his mask off, hiding his face. Regulus immediately turns and rips his own off, coughing water. Even now, he can’t seem to breathe.
“Zig? You okay?”
“C-can’t fucking breathe”, he coughs
“…Is it okay if I turn around and help?”
“Yes! Hurry up, p-plea-“, he breaks off in another coughing fit.
>James’ POV<
He turns around immediately, panicking slightly. God, his heart nearly stopped when Ziggy didn’t come back up after falling into the water. When he sees Zig’s figure bent over, coughing, with a head filled with black curls, he rushes over to him. He didn’t think their friendship would grow as it did, but he’s glad. He always comes to Zig when his friends are being stupid, or he’s just overwhelmed. And while Ziggy pretends to find him annoying, hates his nicknames and insults him constantly, James knows he doesn’t mean it. He’s his little Starman after all, bright and so much better than everyone else on this stupid planet. He knows Zig doesn’t actually know why he calls him that, but he doesn’t mind. But, when he approaches his figure and sees his face he actually stops breathing.
“JAMES!?”
“REGULUS!?”
“You’re Jay!?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”, he asks a bit offended, but then Ziggy- no, Regulus, Sirius’ fucking little brother, starts coughing again. James quickly puts a hand on his back, rubbing it gently. Once he seems to have gotten all the water out, Regulus lets himself fall back into James, sighing. “Holy shit”
James laughs, “Yeah”
Regulus looks up at him, beautiful grey eyes digging into his soul. “You… you’re like, my favourite person”, he whispers.
James finds himself grinning. “You’re like, my favourite person, too”
Regulus smiles, it’s soft and sweet and James can’t get enough of it, “Yeah?”
“‘Course you are Zig. Reg. Reggie. Regu. Gu-lu. Ziggulu. Zegu-“
“Okay, stop!”, he tries to say sternly, but he’s smiling. He shakes his head, “stupid birdy people, now you have a whole other list of stupid nicknames”, he grumbles.
James laughs, “Birdy people?”
“Birdy People”, Reg says determinedly.
“Well, we better get a move on”
“Ughhhh”
“Come on, Reg, we can’t stay here forever”.
Regulus turns in his arms, hugging him and snuggling his face into James’s chest.
“I want to, though”, he mumbles.
“Okay”, he says and kisses his forehead. That causes Regulus to look up though, again staring into his soul with those perfect eyes. He seems to decide something, because he looks determined as he pushes himself up and kisses James. James finds his eyes fluttering closed as the soft lips press against his. He moves his hand to cup Reg’s cheek, both of them smiling into the kiss like idiots. “Stop smiling”, Regulus whispers.
“You’re smiling too”
“Yeah, I am”, he says and holds James tighter.