Begin The Begin
Marlene is excitedly standing in front of Mary, smiling big.
“What?” Mary looks over.
“We have a heart for Denisa Duquette.”
Mary stands up, cheerful now too---an emotions she doesn't wear often, “Did you call her yet?”
“She’s on her way here.”
“Alright, you need an intern?”
Marlene thinks, deciding to pick Regulus since he's usually the best one, “Get me Black.” Not her favorite, but the best.
“Black’s out.”
“What?” Marlene’s eyes go wide, surely it can't be that bad, he definitely looked weird the other day with Sirius but nothing too career-halting. “For what?”
Everyone knows the Black family are surgery-crazed addicts. They can’t spend five minutes away from a scalpel.
Mary pages someone, “Broken finger, he’s at home today and will be back tomorrow for clinical work. I paged Rosier.”
Marlene wants to ask Sirius what happened, surely he would know. “Perfect.”
〚*〛
James is staring at Regulus, who hasn’t moved since he laid down last night. He’s awake, on his side, eyes just latched onto the stupid splint on his hand.
The only thing that could fix this is a time machine.
“Reg, you want some breakfast?”
He answers slowly, methodically, “I’m not hungry.”
James leaves the plate he made for him on the counter, hoping Regulus will see it if he decides he’s hungry later.
He leans over, kissing his hand and then touching Regulus’ leg, not wanting to get too close if Regulus is still mad at him, “Bye, Reg.”
“Bye.”
He leaves for the day, the silent car ride to the hospital not helping his racing mind.
〚*〛
“Denisa Duquette!” Mary says, walking into the patient room.
“Hey, Dr. Macdonald,” the woman smiles, oxygen under her nose. “And you can call me Deni, you know that.”
Evan is staring at her, oddly.
She’s young. Can’t be any older than him. Her dusky brown hair is cut right at shoulder length, and she has two piercings on each of her ears.
Evan is holding her chart in his hand, listening as Dr. Macdonald asks, “What do we know about Ms. Duquette, Rosier?”
She finally looks at Evan, her interest piquing.
“Denisa Duquette, twenty-six, admitted today for a heart transplant necessitated by viral cardiomyopathy.”
“And what does that mean?”
“That her heart is unable to fill and pump blood normally.” Evan explains.
“Good,” Mary says, “Deni, this is Dr. Rosier, he is going to be tending to you prior to surgery.”
Evan’s face goes a little pink when Deni says, “Guess I’ll be seeing you around, Dr. Rosier.”
“You will.” He says, following Macdonald out of the room.
〚*〛
Barty’s patient’s parents are whisper-fighting because they think it makes them less noticeable when it doesn’t. Everyone can still see them arguing.
Lily Evans steps in the room, “Dr. Crouch.”
Thank goodness, he doesn’t know how much longer he could take that. “Right, hi, this is Mr. and Mrs. Singleton, Rebecca, this is Dr. Evans,” Lily shakes the parent's hands.
The mother is panicking, holding her pink cardigan tight against her body, “You don’t think it’s cancer, do you? Bex is too young for cancer, right?”
Evans holds her hands up, “Mrs. Singleton, I’m just getting up to speed, I’m sorry. Dr. Crouch?”
Barty takes over, “Rebecca’s been admitted for-”
“Could you stop calling me that?” The girl snaps, eyes angry.
Her father steps in, “She prefers Bex, not Rebecca.”
He nods, “Bex has been admitted for an ultrasound guided biopsy on an enlargement of a pelvic lymph node.”
“Okay, Bex, you mind if I check it out?” Evans closes the binder, handing it to Crouch.
Her father steps out of the room, not wanting to be in the way.
Evans is speaking, “It’s a minor procedure but we are going to give you a local anesthetic to manage the pain.” She assures her.
The mother takes the sketchbook out of her daughter's lap to give Dr. Evans more room to examine.
She looks very uncomfortable so Barty asks her, in a lame attempt to try and distract the girl, “What are you drawing?”
Bex looks down at the pencil marks on the paper, “It’s just a dumb comic.”
“You’re pretty talented, better than I could do, surely.” He says, which is true. Barty can’t draw for shit. His handwriting is bad enough.
Dr. Evans looks at Bex’s mother, when she talks again, “It’s big, I know. It just appeared one day.”
Evans removes her hands and pulls the gown back over her stomach. “I’ll perform a biopsy this morning and Dr. Crouch will have to take some blood so we can run some tests. Then, from there, we’ll get you some answers, okay?”
Mrs. Singleton rubs her hand on Bex’s shoulder, trying to comfort her.
“There is no need to panic, Mrs. Singleton, I’ll keep you updated every step of the way.” Evans assures her. “Crouch, you got her?”
“Yep.” Barty says, pulling gloves on his hands while he steps to Bex’s side. “I’m going to borrow your arm to get some blood, Bex.”
When Barty pulls her jacket sleeve up, there’s a single scar on her wrist. He tries not to think too much about it or make Bex feel like he’s judging her. But it did catch him off guard.
Once getting the labs, he finds Dr. Evans, “Here.”
“What’d we find?” She asks, eating a granola bar.
“Her hormone levels—estrogen, progesterone—they’re sky high.” Barty notes.
“Huh, you did a history right?” She asks him, “Any mention of birth control pills?”
“No, but her parents were right there.”
“Talk to her again.” Lily shuts the chart, handing it back to him.
Barty thinks this is stupid, “She hasn’t hit puberty yet. Isn’t it weird she’s having sex? She’s barely twelve, Evans.”
“You never know.” Evans finishes her snack, shrugging. “Talk to the patient.”
Barty walks back into her room, Bex having switched from pencil to black marker. Her parents are in the cafeteria, getting food, while he steals some of her time.
“Hey, Bex, I wanted to talk to you because your lab work, well, it shows—have you been taking birth control pills?” He blurts it out, hating the awkward dancing around the topic bit of any conversation.
The girl looks up at him, stopping her drawing, “If you tell my mom and dad-”
“No, no, I won’t.” Barty shuts the door, “I just need to know why. Do you have a boyfriend or. . .”
She makes a face, “Like anybody would want to have sex with me.”
Oh, Barty does not like this. Evan is the intern who is good at comforting people, not Barty. This is leading down a road he does not want to go down.
“Then why, Bex?”
She stares up at him, “Dude, I’m as flat as a board. I took like five of those pills a day, and nothing is different.”
Barty gets it now, “You were trying to make your body grow?”
“I just wanted to be normal. All the other girls at school are.” Her face goes pale for a minute, “Is this what caused the-”
“No, no.” Barty shakes his head, “The pill wouldn’t have any effect on your lymph nodes, but the amount that you were taking is really dangerous, Bex. It caused a major hormonal imbalance, have you been feeling different than usual?”
She puts her head in her hand, sighing as she goes back to her artwork, “I feel like I always feel.”
〚*〛
Regulus is at home by himself. He cleans his room, then Evan’s room, then Dorcas, and leaves Barty’s for last because it’s the messiest. He does four loads of laundry and by lunchtime, he is unbelievably bored. He decides that he is going to go see his father for family lunch at the home and then sneak back into the hospital to watch surgeries, so at least he is seeing part of the O.R. rather than none of it at all.
When Regulus walks in and finds Orion, his father is just staring at the wall.
“Hi, Papa, it’s me, Regulus.”
“Oh, Regulus, hi. How was school?” He seems to be stuck in the years of his residency, when Regulus was fourteen and Sirius was sixteen.
Otherwise known as the worst years of his life.
Around age thirteen, Regulus had noticed that Sirius began to fight with their parents a lot. Always talking about how he didn’t want to be a surgeon just because of them, all that.
Of course, it’s ironic now. Sirius did become a surgeon, a great one, in fact. The only thing was that he never went into general, like Walburga and Orion had desperately wanted them to, carrying on the family name and all. He chose trauma, something their mother used to say was the worst specialty, even before she knew her son would focus on it.
He wouldn't put it past Sirius to choose his career just to spite their mother.
She told Sirius he was going to be a waste of generational talent if he didn’t become a surgeon exactly like her.
And two years later Sirius left which led Walburga to focus on Regulus. She used to make him come straight to the hospital after school to sit in the galleries and watch her. Usually though, she sent him straight to the skills lab.
He’s read more books in the library at the hospital than he can count.
“School was. . . it was good.” Regulus pretends, “How are you, Papa?”
“I had a sixteen hour surgery today, I’m exhausted.” He sighs, “Don’t tell your mother that.”
Regulus promises him he won’t.
〚*〛
“You see that, Dr. Crouch?”
Barty leans into the ultrasound, “Looks like the tumor is compressing an ovary.”
“Is that bad?”
“I’m going to get this up to pathology so we can figure it out, okay, Bex?” Lily says, “Crouch, do the dressings.”
Bex pulls her beanie down tighter on her head, watching Barty. “Are you being weird because of the scars?”
“I’m just trying to figure out why an artist with so much talent would want to do that.” He shrugs, watching Bex look at her own paper.
“I told you, it’s just a comic book.”
“What’s it about?” Barty asks.
“Me and my best friend Jenn when we were kids.” She says that like she's not still a kid. Like they’re all grown up and you can’t go back. You can never go back. “Satisfied?”
Barty looks at her, “Does Jenn write it with you?”
“Jenn has a boyfriend, just like everyone else. I get to be a freak all by myself.”
Regulus would like this girl. They both seem to have the same self-antagonizing personalities, albeit one much more vocal about it. But then again, Barty likes this patient much more than the adult ones who don’t tell the truth. He wouldn't let Regulus pry this case out of his hands.
“That makes two of us.” He laughs, trying to make her feel better. “It’s not the easiest thing to be in high school, huh?”
“You sound like my shrink.”
Barty rolls his eyes, “I wasn’t always a doctor, Bex, I used to be in high school too. And as much as it pains me to say, I was a mathlete. But you are under no-circumstances allowed to tell that to anybody here. I will lose my street cred.” Bex is chuckling, which is a step in the right direction, “You just have to get through high school, because high school sucks for anybody who’s the least bit different. My name is Bartemius, for god's sake, I wasn’t normal either. But then you get into college and then out in the real world, and you’re going to find where you fit in.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.” He nods.
〚*〛
Evan feels bad walking into Deni’s room while she’s asleep. But then she peeks an eye open, almost scaring him, and saying, “Hi.”
“Deni, ah, I thought you were sleeping.”
“Nah,” she coughs, “I don’t sleep in hospitals. Scared I’ll never wake up.”
Evan puts the stethoscope on.
“Dr. Rosier?” She opens her mouth, “Can I ask you something personal?”
“And if I say no?”
“I’ll hold my breath, which is going to stop my heart and it’s going to be your fault. I think Dr. Macdonald would kill you for killing me.” She wagers.
Evan tilts his head from side to side, “If it’s between getting murdered by Macdonald or inappropriate questions from a patient, I’ll take the questions.”
“Good,” she sits up, “do you have a girlfriend?”
Evan laughs, writing something in her chart, “That’s what you want to know?”
“I need an answer, Rosier.”
“Why?”
She tucks hair behind both of her ears, “Cause you’re falling in love with me right now, so I’m just wondering if your girlfriend is going to be mad and come to fight me for you.”
“Oh, am I now?”
“You definitely are.” Deni snorts. “It’s not your fault, Rosier, I’m well-off but not into money, I’m pretty smart but not a know-it-all, I’m decently funny, pretty nice, I love animals, and you know, if you saw me out of the hospital gown I think you would agree I’m hot.”
“Mhm.” Evan says, one hand on the bedside as he leans in to hear her talk.
“I’m a total catch, as long as you can wrap your head around the failing heart and the dependency to I.V. meds.” She waves her hand up.
Evan sighs, standing back up, “You’re right. I’m so in love with you. It’s a shame, because I’m your doctor and all.”
He walks out of the room with a smile on his face.
〚*〛
James calls Regulus on his lunch break, heading to the cafeteria. He goes to voicemail, James leaving him one.
“Hey, Reg, uh. . . just wanted to check and see how you’re doing. I miss you, is that weird? I don’t know. I’m headed to lunch and I think I’m getting off early tonight. Maybe we could talk? Hopefully, bye, love you.”
He’s sitting at the table when Remus walks over, setting his tray down.
“Hey, James.” Remus greets him, “How’s Regulus?”
James shrugs, “I wish I could tell you.”
Sirius was right behind him, “He’s being weird about it?”
“I think he’s depressed. He wouldn’t get out of bed.” James leans back in his chair, “I’m freaking out.”
Sirius waves his fork, mouthful, “Don’t be. He gets in his head but he’ll be fine.”
“When should I be worried?”
“You should be worried if he starts being all sappy. If you go home and there’s a bunch of desserts on the counter, call me.” Sirius says.
James likes dessert though.
He sighs, resting his cheek on his palm.
〚*〛
Evans is showing the biopsy to Crouch, “We’ve got to arrange a meeting with the parents and then get the psychiatrist on-call.”
“That’s a testis.” Barty looks up, “Are you serious?”
“Bex is a hermaphrodite.” Lily Evans tells him.
When the parents get in the conference room, they’re not happy. In fact, the father cannot believe it. “So, you’re telling me my daughter might actually be a boy?”
“I don’t understand how that is possible.” Mrs. Singleton is tearing up.
“Externally, Bex has female genitalia.” Evans explains, “She looks like a girl, but internally, she has both female and male sex organs.”
The mother is shaking her head, “What are we supposed to do?”
Evans slows them down from snowballing into panic, “The good news is that the lymph node tumor is benign, so physically she is going to be just fine, but emotionally, psychologically, I strongly recommend therapy.”
“She’s already in therapy.” Mr. Singleton huffs.
“I’m talking about therapy for all of you.” Evans says, pen in hand, “This is not going to be easy for Bex to hear and it’s not going to be an easy adjustment for you to make.”
“A big adjustment? What kind of adjustment?” Mr. Singleton asks.
The psychiatrist speaks up, “Many intersex people begin to identify very strongly with one sex and it’s not necessarily always the sex they’ve been raised in.”
Mrs. Singleton is full-on tears right now, “She’s a girl. She looks like a girl, she’s always been a girl.”
Barty can’t stay silent anymore, “This at least helps explain why she feels so different.”
“Aren’t you an intern?” Mr. Singleton snaps at him.
The psychiatrist tries to defuse the situation, “The point is, biologically and emotionally speaking, she has a choice to make.”
“A choice?”
〚*〛
“Hey, Deni, you okay?” Evan asks, stepping inside.
“Hi, Dr. Rosier.” She mumbles, her hands tapping against the bedside, anxiously, “I’ve been waiting for this a long time, you know? You open up my chest, take out my heart, and replace it with another one.”
“Well not me,” Evan says, “and not just another heart, a better heart.”
“What if something goes wrong?” She shakes.
“Don’t be nervous,” Evan steps to her bedside, “Dr. Mckinnon is an incredible surgeon and you’re getting a new heart today. That’s good news.”
Evan instinctively backs away when he hears Macdonald approaching behind, “Deni!”
“Dr. Macdonald.”
She looks at her patient, “I’m going to be on the phone with Dr. Mckinnon through the heart recovery process. We’ll make sure the heart stay viable, isn’t damaged. We’ll have you in the O.R. and if it is a go, we start the procedure before she even gets back.”
“Evan?” She whispers. That’s the first time that Deni has ever used his first name.
“Yeah?” He stops himself from walking away.
Deni smiles, “I’m getting a new heart.”
“You’re getting a new heart.” Evan assures him, “I’ll see you.”
“Bye.”
Macdonald eyes them, trying to decide whether or not she thinks something is going on with her intern and the patient.
〚*〛
Before Dr. Evans and Dr. Crouch step into Bex’s room, Mr. Singleton stops them, shutting the door so their daughter cannot overhear.
“Uh, Mary and I were talking,” he starts, unsure, “we think Bex should stay-”
Mrs. Singleton interrupts, “She cannot handle something like this. You saw the scars. It would be too much.”
Barty cannot believe this, “You’re not going to tell her?” They stay frozen for a second, “This could help her. You can’t not tell her who she is.”
“Dr. Crouch,” Evans stops him. “We will go ahead and schedule surgery to remove the tumor and you can talk to your daughter on your own time.”
No fighting here.
Evans likes to keep it as calm as possible.
“Actually,” Mrs. Singleton holds up a finger, “we thought since you’re already going to be in surgery that, well, uh—we know fixed isn’t the right word, but we were thinking that with the hormonal confusion, it might be easier on her to remove whatever boy parts she has.”
“She’s a girl, keep her that way.” Mr. Singleton makes it simple.
Lily Evans folds her arms, “Just to be clear you are asking me to perform sexual reassignment surgery on your daughter?”
“Without her knowing?” Barty scoffs.
The worst part is, her parents think they are actually helping her by doing this. “All she’s said all her life is that she wants to be normal. She doesn’t feel normal.”
“We just want to put an end to her agony.” Mrs. Singleton adds.
“Well, first of all, removing her male sexual organs may not do that. It could do just the opposite.” Lily tries to make them aware of that.
“But her hormones-”
“Can be controlled with an oral medication.” Barty finishes their sentence.
“Look, doctors, we just want the best for our Bex.”
Evans shakes her head, “To do surgery and alter her body permanently is—I would never do that on someone who is unaware of the procedure, and quite frankly, you’re going to be hard pressed to find a surgeon who will.” Lily steps back from the conversation.
Barty isn’t done, “She’s going to learn the truth. . . someday. How do you want her to find out?”
He leaves too.
〚*〛
Evan is waiting there, Deni all prepped for surgery. When Mary walks in, Deni also jumps to ask, “Any news?”
“Still no final word, I just got off the phone with Mckinnon.”
She nods, “Okay. Is Dr. Rosier going to be in my surgery, too?”
“I will.” Evan assures her. “I’ll be back to check on you soon.”
Evan meets Barty downstairs, picking at his lunch tray.
“You could get your own food, you know?” He rolls his eyes, never actually stopping him.
Evan takes his jacket off, it’s always hot in the basement for some reason. “Why are you in such a bad mood?”
“My patient’s family sucks.” He says, “I get that there is a right and wrong time to hear big news but wouldn’t you rather know sooner than later? I mean, so you can move forward one way or another?”
Evan has no idea, “Maybe?”
“Whatever.” Barty rolls his eyes, “I heard you’re on a heart transplant today.”
“Yeah, Mckinnon’s not gave us the final word yet, so I’m worried that something is wrong. And I like my patient.”
“We need to be more like Dorcas, she never gets attached to her patients.” Barty says, “Regulus, too.”
“You’re right.”
“I always am, Evan.” He says it like he's flirty but Evan is quite aware that that is just his default setting, "Did you know that?"
〚*〛
Barty looks at the time, “I gotta get Bex into pre-op, I’ll see you later.”
“Good luck, Barty.”
“You too.”
Barty is taking Bex’s vitals one last time when she blurts out, “Did you tell my parents about the pill? They seem mad.”
He shakes his head, “I didn’t tell them.”
“Am I going to die?” She says, itching her neck, “Is that what nobody wants to tell me?”
“Of course not.” Barty shakes his head, putting the pen in his pocket.
Her voice is so young, “Will you just tell me what’s going on?”
“What’s going on is that we are preparing you for surgery to remove the lymph node tumor that’s compressing your. . .”
“Ovary.” She completes his thought, not understanding why he stopped.
Barty looks at her, about to break when Evans walks in with the parents behind her.
Bex isn’t shy, “Mom, Dad, this is really freaking me out.”
“Everything is going to be fine, Bex.” The mother shakes her head, her hand falling on top of her daughter's leg.
“Why is everyone being so weird then? He’ll barely even look at me!” She points to Barty. “I’m having surgery to remove the tumor that is pressing over my ovary, right, Barty?”
He hesitates, Evans reminding him, “Dr. Crouch?”
“Barty?” She begs for an answer.
He stares at the girl.
This right here? This is why Barty avoids as best he can to not like patients. It only makes things more difficult.
Barty bites his lip, “What, am I just supposed to lie to her?”
“Okay, that’s enough.” Lily sighs, the parents looking at one another. “Dr. Crouch, please leave the room.”
“No, wait, tell me what’s wrong with me. Please.” She says, repeating herself, “Tell me what’s wrong with me.”
They all look at each other but nobody is looking at Bex.
Barty doesn’t speak again, knowing he could get fired with another word. Evans can’t either, not right now.
It’s the father who explains everything.
“I’ve had this my whole life?” She realizes, taking it in all at once, “Does this mean. . . I could be a boy?”
Barty doesn’t speak, he just nods slightly.
〚*〛
Safe to say, Bex’s parents are not too happy about all of this.
“You engineered a conversation. You forced our hand!” Mr.s Singleton yells in teh hallway.
Barty feels no remorse, “Well, you were lying to her.”
“We were protecting her.”
“She’s a fourteen year old girl.” Mr. Singleton says.
Barty pokes at the comment, “Maybe. Maybe not.”
“This isn’t your life. This isn’t your child!” She gets up in Barty’s face, trying to intimidate him.
It doesn’t work, he doesn’t move an inch. He’s not scared of her. The only person who has ever scared Barty---truly made him flinch---was his father.
“For fourteen years I have raised my daughter. For fourteen years. What, you throw all this information out at us and expect us to, in one afternoon, suddenly be okay about it? What is Bex supposed to do? How is she supposed to go home and tell the other kids—what? You had no right!”
Lily steps in between them, “Crouch, go-”
“No, I know,” he looks them up and down, “I’m off the case.”
〚*〛
Evan is standing by the door when Deni laughs softly, “Are you stalking me, Evan?”
“Can you blame me?” Evan smiles.
Mary steps in, lingering by her bedside for a long moment before she ends up speaking, “I’m very sorry, Deni, I just got off the phone with Mckinnon and-”
“I’m not getting the transplant.” She nods, slightly.
Evan sees it in her eyes, the loss of hope, “There is still time, Deni.”
“I didn’t get the heart.” She says, trying to come to terms with it on her own. “I didn’t get the heart.”
Mary is the one who escorts Evan out, “We’ll give you some time, Deni.”
〚*〛
Barty waits until everyone else is gone to sneak back into Bex’s room.
“Hey, Barty.” She says, sitting criss-cross-applesauce on her bed.
Barty hops to the end, sitting two feet away and facing the door, “I wanted to check in on you.”
“I heard my parents weren’t too happy with you.”
“No,” Barty laughs, sadly, “they were not.”
She pulls the hat down over her forehead a little more, “Thank you for telling me, making them tell me.”
Barty turns to her, “You know, there are people you can talk to.”
“I know.” Bex bites her lip, “But I don’t know, Barty, I don’t know if I want to be a boy or a girl.”
He shrugs, “That’s alright. You don’t have to decide.”
“Can you bring me some scissors?” Bex asks, catching the worried look on Barty’s face after the request, “I want to cut my hair.”
“Oh,” he says, relieved, “yeah, I can do that.”
〚*〛
They’re wheeling Deni out of the hospital, “Bye,” Evan says, “I’ll see you soon, okay?”
She puts on a smile, “Find me a heart, Rosier, I mean it.”
〚*〛
Marlene falls onto bed, Dorcas beside her.
“You look upset.” Dorcas points out.
“My heart for Deni died.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Dorcas says, caressing her face with her hand, the cool silver of the rings making goosebumps run up her spine.
“Don’t be,” Marlene says, “I’ve been meaning to ask, do you wanna be my girlfriend, or something?”
Dorcas did not see this coming, she removes her hand from where it cradles Marlene’s face, “You mean that?”
“I don’t know. I like you, you seem to like me. Why not?” Marlene shrugs.
“You’re my boss.”
Marlene pushes her tongue through her cheek, “That didn’t stop you from sleeping with me.”
“You want me to be your girlfriend?”
“Yeah, I do.”
She pauses, “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“I will.”
Marlene laughs, obnoxiously loud, “I love the enthusiasm.”
“Piss off, Marls.”
〚*〛
James gets to his house to see Regulus laying on the cold, wet grass, staring up at the sky.
He doesn’t even think before he pulls the keys out of his car, shuts the door, and lays down right beside him.
“Hi.”
“I’m up there.” He points to the sky, “So is Sirius.”
James is only staring at Regulus, he can look at the sky anytime, he’s been missing this sight since this morning. “I called you today.”
“I was busy.”
“What did you do?” James asks, innocently.
Regulus scoots closer to him, letting James put an arm around his neck for padding, “I saw my father, cleaned my house, watched you perform a tumor dissection in O.R. three, came home, made food, did laundry, pondered the bane of my existence, now I’m here.”
James laughs because he never knows if Regulus is being serious or not. “I love you.”
He still can’t say it back.
Regulus is really trying to figure this whole relationship thing out.
“I’m losing my mind, James.”
“Aren’t we all?” He kisses Regulus’ forehead.
Regulus sighs, “Do you ever think life would be better if you never became a surgeon?”
“Easier, yes. Better, no.” He shakes his head, “I wouldn’t have met you.”
That makes him sad to think about, “You don’t think we would’ve bumped into each other at the supermarket or something?”
“Maybe the library. Definitely not the supermarket, you hate shopping.”
“It’s boring.” Regulus huffs, blowing the hair out of his eyes. “I don’t understand why anyone would want to do that.”
“To feed themselves, Regulus.” James squeezes his eyes shut when he grins, faint raindrops falling on the glasses. “I guess you’re just lucky to have me.”
“I don’t disagree with that.”
“Come on,” James sits up, offering his boyfriend a hand, “let’s go inside.”