Chapter 7
James knocked on the door of Regulus’ dorm, who opened it, pulled him inside, and shut the door. "Hi," Regulus greeted, trying not to smile.
James leaned up and kissed his cheek, then returned, "Hey." Regulus rolled his eyes a little, still fighting a smile. "When are you gonna figure out that you can't win?" James asked, and held his face in his hands.
A smile forced itself onto his face, but Regulus replied, "I will someday."
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," James answered with a smirk.
"Get that smug look off of your face, James Potter. This is still my dorm, I can kick you out whenever I want."
"Do it, then."
Regulus opened the door, and started to push him out, but the smirk on James' face didn't waver. Regulus turned his head away and pulled him back into the room by his shirt, closed the door again, then stated, "You can call my bluffs now. Great."
James informed him, "You're not making it very hard, Reggie."
"Shut up," Regulus groaned, although he was still unable to wipe the smile off of his face.
"If you want someone who knows how to shut up, then you should not be dating me. It's something I am simply incapable of," James told him, and put his hands on his hips softly, then leaned up to kiss him, on the lips this time. After that, though he started peppering little kisses over his face, wherever he could.
"Jamie!" Regulus protested, pulling his head back to try to get away. That majorly backfired, as James just started doing the same thing to his neck, which made Regulus start giggling and involuntarily push him off. He turned red and backed away, waiting for a reaction of some kind.
James just asked, "You're ticklish?"
So he's not going to comment on...
"Would you believe me if I said no?"
"Absolutely fucking not," James grinned, and followed him to where he had backed away to.
Regulus nodded and kept backing away, then joked, "Aren't deer supposed to be non-predatory animals?"
"There are exceptions to almost every rule, Reggie," James replied, and just kept following him, until he backed himself into a corner by accident. James put his hands on the walls on either side of him, and told him, "You're stuck."
Regulus cleared his throat. Evan walked in, reading a book, at that moment. Regulus breathed out, "Thank god."
"What, do you think he's going to protect you?" James asked quietly.
"What?!? You- you wouldn't. Not in front of Evan," Regulus whispered pleadingly, his aloof front disintegrating.
"Why wouldn't I?" James replied, truly seeing no reason why he shouldn't.
"Jamie, please, you don't have to do this," he pleaded again.
"Give me a good reason why I shouldn't."
"It's embarrassing!"
"That's not a good reason, Reg."
"It's childish."
"You have one more shot to give me a decent reason why I shouldn't tickle you."
"He'll tease the hell out of me?" Regulus tried, but he was pretty sure that it wouldn't work.
"Nope," James replied with a grin.
"I don't think there was a correct answer, then," he insisted.
"There was at least one answer that would've made me back off," James told him.
Regulus demanded, "What would that be?"
"That you hate being tickled," James said, making direct eye contact.
Regulus sputtered, "We- Well- I- I- I do."
"Hm, no. The fact that you didn't think to say it makes me very certain that you're lying," James stated, then put his hands on his sides and started squeezing.
Regulus started giggling, though not as hard as before, and tried to push James off again. James was prepared for it this time, though, and didn't budge. He was ordinarily stronger than the taller boy, and right now the latter was weakened by laughter, so he stood no chance.
Evan started at the noise, as he hadn't even realized that the two were in the room. He looked over at them, and grew a smile of his own, then called to James, "Try going for his ribs."
James laughed and replied, "Thanks."
Reggie giggled out, "Fuck you!"
Evan just told James, "Happy to help." Then went back to his book.
James chuckled, "So you were just bargaining on me having the decency to not tickle you in front of him?"
Regulus couldn't afford wasting air on a response, so he just nodded. James switched to scribbling over his stomach, which gave him a little more chance to breathe, despite still not being great. Once he was breathing a bit more, James took Evan's advice and moved to softly kneading between Reggie's ribs.
Regulus started giggling harder, curling forward a bit. He clamped his arms down to his sides as hard as he could, but that barely did anything, with how weak he was becoming.
"You're adorable, you know that?" James told him, then moved again, snaking his hands up under his shirt, to scribble over his sides and ribs.
Regulus’ eyes started watering from how hard he was laughing, and he wrapped his arms around his stomach. After several more seconds, Regulus’ legs started giving out, and he slowly crumpled to his knees. James removed his hands from under his shirt, and dropped onto one knee next to him.
Regulus kept giggling for a bit, and swatted James' hand away when he tried to put his arm around him. James raised his hand away as a sign of peace, and sat on the floor next to him. Evan watched them for a bit, decided that James looked worried, and declared, "He's fine. That happens any time he laughs that much."
James thanked him for that information, and looked back to Regulus, who was breathing heavily. Regulus could feel James looking at him and just nodded. James just kept sitting next to him while he regained the ability to function.
After several moments, when he could talk again, he annoyedly stated, "You're obnoxious."
"Stop lying, Reggie. You know you didn't mind that," Evan said, then added, "The part that bothered you the most was probably that your hair got messed up."
James waited to see what Regulus did. He didn't say anything, just flipped Evan off and turned away from James, a little worried about his reaction to that humiliating little fact.
"Is he serious?" James finally asked, quietly.
Regulus mumbled, "Yes."
"That's helpful."
"What do you mean?"
"I like tickling people, so the fact that you don't mind it is helpful."
"Why aren't you making fun of me?" Regulus quietly asked, before he could stop himself.
"Why would I?"
"Because it's weird to not mind being tickled."
"Well, apparently me and most of my friends are weird, then. Good to know," he stated, then added, "And there's a difference between teasing you and making fun of you. Teasing someone is trying to embarrass them a bit. Making fun of someone is trying to humiliate them and hurt their feelings."
After thinking for a bit, Regulus said, "That's the most intelligent thing you've said in a while."
James laughed, "And that's called using insults as a love language."
"Yeah..."
James quietly teased, "You look pretty on your knees."
Regulus was shocked for a second, then teased back, "So do something about it."
James didn't reply, just leaned over, pulled his face over, and kissed him. Regulus smiled, but called, "I'm going to kill you, Evan."
"I'm simply helping your boyfriend get to know you better," he replied, not glancing up.