Chapter 6
Regulus woke up with his head pounding, and feeling rather nauseous.
"Morning, sunshine," Barty laughed.
Regulus put a pillow over his face, and his voice was muffled as he complained, "I don't have the energy for your bullshit. Merlin, why did I drink that much?"
"You ask that question every time, and then you drink yourself under the table again, anyway. Though, I have to say, that's the first time a guy walked you to the dorm and didn't try to sleep with you," Barty told him, pulling the pillow off his face and handing him a glass of water.
"A guy walked me back here?" Regulus questioned, after begrudgingly drinking the water he was given.
"You don't remember? Really? Take a guess at who it was."
"James Potter."
"So you do remember?" Barty inquired, now rather confused.
Regulus bolted upright, which he instantly regretted, but he asked, "What?"
"Oh, you were doing that thing to get me to say it? Yeah, Potter walked you back here. He's already better than all your exes in my book, just because he didn't try to sleep with you."
All the memories from the night before flooded back, and Regulus murmured, "He refused to."
"Hm?"
Regulus got out of bed, once again cursing himself for drinking that much, and repeated, "He refused to sleep with me. Something about me being drunk off my ass, I think."
Barty looked over, and told him, "You can't just say that and not tell me more. You asked him to sleep with you?"
Regulus turned red as he started getting dressed, and answered, "Something like that. Unrelated, did you see him 'performing?'"
"Practically the whole school was watching. Especially those of us who like guys."
"Back off."
Barty laughed, "You know I have a boyfriend. Potter certainly knows how to attract attention, though. Dropping to his knees, arching his back, flirting with everyone, just generally singing dirty songs. Though I guess that probably wasn’t his fault."
"Don't remind me," Regulus groaned, leaning back against the post of his bed frame.
"So, what happened?"
"I met him outside, we threw some things back and forth, until I got jealous about him dancing with Evans, and he gave me puppy dog eyes until I admitted that I'm in love with him."
"Hold on, he actually managed to make you say it? That's impressive. I thought you were determined not to be the first person to say something?"
"I was. Until I was on my fourth drink and he fucking winked at me when he dropped to his knees."
"Jesus. You have to tell me what happens when you see him later, but right now we should get to breakfast."
"Do I have to? This hangover sucks."
"Yes, Reggie, you do. Come on," Barty urged, before pulling him to the door by his shirt.
Regulus swatted his hand away and fixed his shirt, before following him out. Barty laughed quietly and made sure he kept following him all the way down to breakfast.
James was already at breakfast, definitely looking less fucked than Regulus. All of his friends were teasing him about the previous night, and he slightly looked like he wanted to die.
Regulus suffered through breakfast with a headache, then his classes. After, he went to the corridor and waited for James to hopefully come meet him. He waited about ten minutes, and was about to leave when James finally arrived. His face was bright red, but Regulus immediately asked, "You walked me back to my dorm?"
James started and looked around for him, and when he saw him, replied, "Mhm. The fact that you don't remember proves my point about why I wouldn't make out with you."
"Yeah, shut up," Regulus replied, trying not to get embarrassed. He also added, "You know, I don't think I've ever been rejected before."
"Good for you?"
"You're the only guy that hasn't tried to sleep with me when they brought me to my room."
"You have shit taste in men."
"You're saying that as someone I'm attracted to."
"Yeah. I may be arrogant, but I'm not stupid enough to believe that I'm a good catch. Especially for Padfoot's brother."
Regulus went to hit his head back against the wall in frustration, but did not hit stone, instead hitting a hand. James' hand, to be specific, who just said, "No."
Regulus looked down at him, and questioned, "No? What am I, a dog?"
A smile pulled at the corner of James’ mouth, because of the irony that Sirius, his brother, was, in fact, a dog. He softly answered, "No, I'm just not going to let you hit your head."
"Why the fuck are you being so nice to me?"
"Because you deserve someone being nice to you," James responded, as if it were obvious. Regulus rolled his eyes, but he blushed a tiny bit, and James, being James, had to point it out. "Seriously? That's what makes you blush? You didn't blush at all last night, and you were drunk off your ass, but me saying that you deserve to be treated well does it?"
"Fuck off," Regulus said, but grabbed James' shirt, because he was pretty sure James would do the same thing again.
"So you remember that, at least," James chuckled.
Reggie nodded, and let go of his shirt, then told him, "I also remember your little performance. You really can't let go of a spotlight, can you?"
"You sound like Lils. I've been the singing at nearly every party since I started going to them. You're just usually too in your own world to notice."
"Why were your friends teasing you so much about it?"
"They do that every time. Are we dating now, or what?"
Regulus was confused by the flip in topic, but after a bit he just went with it, replying, "I guess?" James got a cute smile on his face, and he wrapped his arms around Regulus, who had his arms at his sides and was therefore quite incapable of moving. "What are you doing?"
"Hugging you. What, never heard of that, either?"
"Hugs are for children."
"You're not telling me not to," James pointed out, not letting go.
"Ugh. Why are you even doing that?" Regulus asked, stalling.
"Because I feel like it. Stop pretending you hate it," James replied, then started pulling away. Regulus rolled his eyes and looked away, but pulled him back in by his shirt. "Ever tried using words to get what you want?" he teased, hugging him again.
Regulus couldn't think of anything to say to that, so he didn't.
Eventually James pulled away again, and Regulus let him that time. He simply mumbled, "Thanks," and avoided eye contact.
"You're cute."
"No, I'm not," Regulus contended, sounding a little offended.
"Yes, you are."
"No, I'm not," he insisted, blushing a bit.
"It's adorable that you blush at being called cute," he told him, and tucked Regulus’ hair behind his ear.
Reggie tilted his head forward and shook his hair to make it fall in front of his still darkening cheeks again. "Do you have to keep pointing that out?" he demanded, though his voice sounded less annoyed than he was hoping for.
"It makes you blush harder when I do," James replied, as if that was a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Regulus turned his head to the side so that his hair completely hid his face, and tried to sound irritated when he responded, "Well, stop. It's annoying."
Regulus grabbed James' wrist, in an attempt to stop him from brushing the hair away from his face, a second too late, and James saw the flustered grin that he had been trying to hide. He still pushed the hand away and let the hair fall again, but he could hear the teasing smile in James' voice when he stated, "Knew it."
"Shut up," Regulus softly replied. He didn't expect his voice to sound that... cute, but James was clearly unfazed, as he continued teasing him.
"You like being called cute, huh? I hope you know I'm never gonna stop, now."
"Piss off," Regulus said, then asked, "Can we go to my dorm? If you're going to insist on embarrassing me, I don't want you to do it where someone could hear it."
James, for once, decided not to push his luck and point out that Regulus was indirectly giving him permission to keep teasing him. Instead, he just answered, "Yeah, sure. Is it empty?"
"My roommates might be there, I don't know."
"You think they're not going to have a problem with me?"
"They're my best friends. One of them said that you already have a point above my exes in his book because you didn't try to fuck me last night."
James' eyes widened a little, but he just said, "Okay."
They walked to the dorm, or rather sneaked, to make sure no one would see either of them, especially with Regulus looking- ruffled. When they got there, no one was there, but the second that they sat down on Regulus’ bed, the door opened, and Evan and Barty came in. Barty looked at them, grew a smirk on his face, and greeted, "Potter."
James looked sideways at Regulus, then returned, "Hi."
Barty looked at Regulus, and rhetorically asked, "Celui-ci peut vous faire rougir ?" *Can this one make you blush?*
"Va te faire foutre." *Go fuck yourself.*
James chuckled quietly, and Reggie turned to him, and asked, "You don't know French, do you?"
"'Va te faire foutre' is the only phrase I know. Padfoot tells me to 'go fuck myself/fuck off' every other day," he laughed.
"Makes sense. You're insufferable."
"Says the guy who invited me to his dorm."
Regulus hit his shoulder with the back of his hand, and Evan asked him, "Should we leave?"
Regulus didn't blush at all at that. "No, we're just talking."
"You're really hard to fluster unless someone pushes the right buttons," James innocently observed.
"I don't get flustered," Regulus groused, even as the slightest bit of heat settled in his face again.
Evan began to point out, "You've been dating less than- are you even dating?"
"Less than a day, I guess," James provided with a nod.
"You've been dating less than a day, and Potter's already figured out how to make you blush? You're fucked, Reg," Evan commented, sitting down with Barty on his own bed.
James glanced over at Regulus again, and asked, "What, like it's hard?"
Evan told him, "It is, just not for you. Reggie's become something of a pushover when it comes to you."
"I am not a pushover, Evan," Regulus protested, his hair over his face again.
Evan shrugged, then leaned over to kiss Barty. James cluelessly remarked, "Oh, so we're all at least a little gay."
Barty started laughing, and echoed, "'At least a little gay?'"
Regulus chuckled, "Yes, Bambi, we're all kind of gay."
James grew more confused, and questioned, "'Bambi?'"
Regulus looked at him with equal confusion, then covered his mouth as he started laughing. James tilted his head and furrowed his eyebrows, which only made Regulus laugh harder. James instead turned to the other two, and asked, "Is someone going to explain?"
Evan tried not to laugh as he replied, "We assumed you knew. It's kind of funnier that you didn't, though. People call you 'Bambi' because you tend to be a bit oblivious."
"What people?" James asked, a bit amused, also seeing the humor in the fact that he didn't know, but definitely slightly embarrassed.
"Essentially everyone," Evan answered.
James, for once, wasn't exactly sure what to say to that. After another few seconds, Regulus finally stopped laughing.
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He stayed for a while, but left before dinner. Barty and Evan, at the same time said, "Keep him."
Regulus laughed, "Better than my exes, eh?"
"Your taste in men has definitely improved a little, even if he is a Gryffindor," Barty told him.
"Now that you're actually dating, though, what about your brother?" Evan asked.
"He just can't know."
"That seems dangerous."
Regulus nodded and shrugged.