Traditional
They were sat on their respective sides of the room, James on the left and Regulus on the right. James had a bored look on his face as he mindlessly flicked through his phone, Regulus with his face in a new book.
He flicked the page, the silence in the room suddenly too loud. He sniffed, flicking his eyes away from the book and towards James, who had resorted to attempting to flatten his hair, it wasn’t working.
“What are you doing?” Regulus chuckled.
“Does my hair look flat?” He asked desperately.
“No, it looks like a birds nest.” A groan. “I’m just being honest!”
James put the comb down and gave him a wonky smile. “I know.” He sighed and hung his head off the side of the bed, his hair now sticking straight up, Regulus resisted a laugh at the sight. “Can I ask something?”
“Depends what it is?” Regulus questioned, a quiver in his voice.
“When did you run away?” He got a weary look from Regulus. “I was just always curious why Sirius didn’t take you with him.”
He blinked slowly, it wasn’t an odd question to ask someone like him, yet coming from James it felt different. It was clearly something he’d been thinking about for a while, Regulus wanted to know why he cared so much though, judging as they met a mere few days ago.
Regulus stared at him for a moment, contemplating his next words, before he decided that James was the human embodiment of the sun, and could do no wrong even if he tried.
“I chose to stay.” James gave him an odd look. “Then as soon as I turned 18, I said goodbye to all of my parents traditional views, took the money they put away for me, and ran to Pandoras house.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” Regulus snorted. “Now that’s enough of that.”
Letting out a chuckle, James nodded to him, now fishing out his laptop from under his pillow and going to stick a movie on, inviting Regulus over.
He smiled and walked over to the bed, watching as James chewed his lip in concentration as he picked a movie.
-
Don’t ask Regulus why he thought it would be a good idea to tell James to put a horror movie on, but it most definitely was the best idea he’s ever had.
“This one’s not even that scary!” He laughed out.
“Reg it’s two in the morning, and there’s a clown running around killing kids.” James gasped. “What the fuck!”
Regulus let out another snort, covering his mouth with his oversized jumper sleeve and watching as James’ eyes trailed pennywise on the screen.
“How are you laughing right now?” The older boy gave him a pointed look, turning his head to face Regulus, their noses close together and the dull light of the laptop illuminating James’ face.
Regulus coughed. “Don’t be such a wimp.”
Receiving a pout from James, he smirked in return.
Now they sat with nothing but the sound of the movie in the background, the occasional pitter patter of leaves blowing against the window and creak of the bed when either of them moved.
The scene now was quiet, the characters whispering and intense music building up. So Regulus positioned his lips right up against James ear and gave a short. “Boo.”
The James let out the highest pitched squeal known to man, jumping back and proceeding to glare at Regulus.
“That wasn’t funny!”
But Regulus was laughing, head thrown back against the wall, rosy aching cheeks and a lightness to his face that even he knew was rare.
James didn’t speak, Regulus looked over at him, smile still on his face as he raised a mocking eyebrow at the older boy. “You-“ He threw a pillow at Regulus. “Little shit.”
“Aw, but you like me.” Regulus spoke in a mimicking voice, blinking up at James. The brunette didn’t say another word, smiling and shaking his head fondly before looking back to the screen.
Regulus tried to avert his attention to the movie, he really did, but James looked so happy.
Yes, he looked good, jaw dropping gorgeous even. But it wasn’t just that, there was a kind twinkle in his eyes and a quirk to his lips, a genuine smile. Not the one he puts on for people, because he doesn’t have to do that with Regulus. It’s a sweet one, short, small, but sweet none the less.
He’d much rather watch James than the movie, he never realised just purely looking at someone be happy can bring him so much joy, bubbling up inside him and making him want to hold onto the smiling boy and never let go.