One Day - MONSTA X
Chapter 1. One Day - MONSTA X
James
Holding my breath, and then I count to ten
James winced at the familiar lyrics spilling out of the speaker in Lily’s car. He’d been glad when his friends believed his lie that the song was ‘truly hypothetical’, because they would have asked questions, but that also meant that they didn’t skip over it like they did with most of the breakup songs he’d written.
It wasn’t hypothetical. It was about Regulus Black. But then again, almost all of his songs were about Regulus Black.
Maybe I’ll maybe I’ll see you one day
One day one day I will
He’d written the song a few days after he and Sirius had moved to London, which was a few weeks after the breakup. It made his heart hurt every time he listened to it. It reminded him of curly black hair and gray eyes the same color as the sky above them. It had started raining, and he’d held Regulus one last time, trying to memorize the feeling of his body. Tears and rain had caught on the boy’s lashes, and his shirt had been wet with both.
Get a grip, he told himself, irritated. It’s been nine fucking years.
I try to forget you, how your body felt
Your head on my chest, the summer in the hills
They say that your first love never leaves you completely. And James had been ready to live with that. He’d thought that he could find someone and love them and forget about the beautiful boy who used to play him songs in his basement. But two years and three relationships later, he’d realized that he’d never really love anyone like he’d loved Regulus Black. And he’d learned to live with that, too. However..
I wish you the best with somebody new
But they’ll never love you like I do
“Lily?” He called to the front seat, trying not to sound strained. Sirius turned in his seat, raising an eyebrow.
“Can we listen to something else?”
Sirius frowned slightly, confused, but complied.
Drinks, coffee
Drinks, coffee
Drinks, or coffee…
James closed his eyes and tried desperately not to think about Regulus.
“Hi, Amir,” he greeted the photographer. Amir was dressed like the gay friend in Devil Wears Prada, as usual. The look suited him.
“Hey,” Amir smiled back at him. He was a rather handsome man, with a perfectly symmetrical face that had no large flaws. He’d been a child actor when he was younger.
“How’s Laura?” James asked him, putting his name on the paper Amir gave him.
“Fine, she told me to tell you that her sister loves your songs.”
He put the pen down and gave it back to Amir along with the paper. “Tell her thank you. I’d better go now.”
“Hi,” he said, smiling. The makeup artist who’d been working on him had gotten an emergency call from home and hurried out. The new one gave him a disapproving look for moving his face. He stopped quickly, giving her an apologetic look.
Accepting that she wasn’t going to talk to him anytime soon, he pulled out his notebook and tried to arrange his random thoughts into lyrics. In the half-hour it took, he pulled together a decent bridge for the song he was working on. It wasn’t good by any means, the lyrics and the song both, but it was still more work than he’d managed to get done in a few weeks. Maybe his burnout was ending. It had lasted ridiculously long, anyway.
He thanked the makeup artist one more time and left the room. He rubbed his eyes, wondering why there was a speck in his vision, before he realized it was on his glasses, not his eye.
He hummed along to the song playing softly in the background and wiped his glasses on his shirt. For once he wasn’t thinking about work, his thoughts entirely pleasant and devoid of his own failures.
Can you come through
Can you come through…
He collided with something solid and tripped.
Regulus
Regulus was having a bad day. He’d woken up with a stranger in his bed, his room reeking of sex, sweat, and weed. The coffee capsules in his house had run out, making him get takeout. The shop coffee was too watered-down, which meant he wasn’t caffeinated properly by the time he arrived at the studio.
He was still feeling slightly delirious from sleep, not looking up as he turned a corner in the hallway, when he crashed into James Potter and spilled his coffee all over him.
They both froze for a moment, James with his coffee-splattered glasses halfway to his face and Regulus sprawled on top of him.
Fuck.
Regulus scrambled up, backing into the wall and staring in horror at the man still lying on the floor in front of him. James stared back, a similar expression on his face.
“Oh fuck no.”
He didn’t register that he’d spoken the words aloud until James blinked and opened his mouth. Closed it again.
Fuck shit fuck fuck fuck…
“James?” A woman’s voice called from around the corner, approaching them. “Why aren’t you-”
She broke off as she came into view of their predicament, eyes darting between James and him.
“It’s fine, we just-” James lifted his hand to gesture weakly.
Regulus snapped out of it.
“I’ll pay you back for the clothes and the time,” he said to the ground beneath Evans’ shoes.
“Regulus-”
He winced at James’ voice. He’d heard it so many times in restaurants, in cafes, but hearing it in person was a wholly different experience. It was exactly as he remembered it. It was summer and soft kisses in lakes, laughing words whispered into his ear, James what are you doing climbing through my window, his lyrics sung in James’ basement, I missed you, Regulus, and-
“I’ll pay you back,” he repeated, looking anywhere but James’ face. “Contact me.”
And then he ran away.
James
James was drunk. Very, very drunk.
“Idiot,” Remus snorted beside him.
“I know,” he replied miserably.
“It’s been nine years, James.”
“I know.”
He stared into his glass, his vision foggy and a hangover already forming in his skull. The two of them were in a particularly secluded bar in the middle of nowhere, where the customers could not care less if two very famous celebrities were among them. They’d been sitting there, not talking and getting drunk for the past hour. Or rather, James had been getting drunk. Remus was probably sober.
The condensation from the iced drink dripped down his fingers. It looked like rain.
Rainy day, gray eyes, black hair..
A cello, a grand piano, a violin..
Remus stared at him spiral for a moment and shook his head in disbelief. “You really are a fucking idiot, aren’t you?”
“I am.” He said, still not lifting his eyes. He wasn’t sure if he was capable anymore. His head felt too heavy on his neck and shoulders.
The other man sighed and snatched the glass from his fingers. James didn’t complain.
“Get up, James. We’re going home.”
“Why?”
“Because if you start crying, I want to be able to toss you into your bed and leave.”
His alcohol-soaked brain registered that as a completely logical and reasonable argument and nodded.
He stared at Regulus’s instagram profile for the entirety of the ride back to his house, his finger hovering over the DM button and his mind replaying the former events in a never-ending loop.
Regulus had looked the same. So different, but the same. The same elegant, haughty features, the same height, just a few inches shorter than he was, but he was infused with a new confidence now, along with the weariness and the anger that had always been there. He didn’t make himself small, didn’t try to be unnoticeable.
Contact me.
Sure, he didn’t need the money in the slightest, but..
Hi. He hit send and turned off his phone. Regulus had told James to contact him, hadn’t he? He was just doing what he’d been told to do. Sure, he’d probably regret it tomorrow, but..
“Get out, James.”
He complied, almost tripping over on his way out. He stumbled his way to his front door with an arm around Remus’s shoulders for support.
Regulus
“So you ran away?” Barty giggled, almost falling off the stool in his mirth. Regulus glared at him. He wondered if he had enough money to get away with murder.
“That was a dumb thing to do,” Mary remarked, stirring her cocktail.
“Thanks, Mary, I had no idea.”
“Yeah, it was,” Evan agreed from behind the counter, his head popping up to look at him.
“I’m going to put needles in your mattresses,” Regulus told them.
“You wouldn’t, Reggie, you love us too much.”
He flipped them off, glaring at Evan as he took Regulus’ phone to the couch to play games.
“Use your own, Rosier,” he grumbled.
“But-”
Evan broke off, staring at the screen with a shocked expression, his eyebrows rising practically to his hairline.
“What?”
“James Potter DMd you.”
“What?” Regulus sounded hysteric.
“Who DMd Regulus?” Barty stared at him.
“James Potter.”
“Fuck,” he muttered, hopping off his kitchen island and snatching the phone from Evan’s loose fingers. He only almost-tripped once.
“What’s he say?” Marlene quipped, looking up from furiously typing an email, her work glasses balanced on the tip of her nose.
“He says.. Hi.”
Regulus stared at the screen in disbelief. Hi?
“Text him back,” Mary chirped gleefully.
What, he sent before he could think about his life choices. James immediately read it.
you tokd me to dontact u
Are you drunk?
I tjink so
yeah i proabably am
“Regulus! Tell us what he’s saying,” Barty said, leaning over him on his tiptoes to look. He burst out laughing when he saw the screen.
“Why does Regulus look like that?” Evan frowned. “That’s his plotting murder face.”
Barty didn't answer, too busy doubling over. Regulus flipped him off.
“Are you plotting someone's murder, Regulus? Is it James' murder? Can I help?” Mary said.
are u anget
angry
im sirry
“I’m rethinking my life choices,” he muttered, slamming his phone down on the countertop and ignoring his emotions.
“James is drunk,” Barty wheezed.
“Wow,” Evan said.
“You two are soulmates, you’re equally pathetic,” Marlene remarked, shutting her laptop.
“I hate you,” Regulus told her.
“You love me.”
Regulus poured himself some more of the mystery cocktail Evan had made.
Two hours later, Regulus was drunk enough that he couldn’t ignore his emotions anymore. Which led to him flopping down onto his bed, his friends in their respective guest rooms that he kept for them, and logging onto instagram.
What are you doing
He hit send.
It had been nine years. He was a grown adult. He could casually contact his childhood ex without any emotions. If he didn’t think about exactly why he was contacting his childhood ex, that was his business.
James replied almost immediately.
lyking in bed
Wgat are u doiung
Same
Why did you contact me
I dont renember
og right
My cvlothes
Regulus did not feel disappointed. He did not.
I’ll send you the money
How much is it
Idk
Im gonma dry clean them
u can come witg me ti pay
It was a testament to how drunk he was that he did not find this suggestion to be illogical in the slightest.
Fine
when
Is tgis weekend
ok
Yeah
It is
k
The texting bubble didn’t appear. Regulus very determinedly put down his phone. It dinged again after five seconds. He definitely did not feel relieved.
r u goung to sleep
Yes
Are you?
Yeah
Im goung to
Go sleep then
No
whars ur faborite movie
Anything from disney
Yours
abything u like
Regulus blinked at the screen. He didn’t mean that, did he? No. It was a joke.
It was a joke.