dance with me
It had been a few days since James had first gone to talk to Regulus late at night and the two boys had fallen into a bit of a pattern. Euphemia would give James a tin of cookies after supper every night (half peanut butter cookies half sugar cookies, James and Regulus's favorites), than James would go to his room and pretend to sleep so Sirius wouldn't get suspicious (James didn't quite know why Regulus wanted to keep their friendship from Sirius but he was willing to do it if it kept Regulus happy), finally at about 3AM James would sneak into Regulus's room and they would just talk and eat cookies all night long. Regulus had even begun to actually talk to James outside of their nightly chats as well. It was nothing big, just a word or two here and there but every time he did talk to James it made James so happy.
James woke up and looked around his room. He had no idea how long he had been asleep for or what time it was. He fixed his glasses and reached for his wand casting tempus to see what time it was. 'shit It's already 12:15' James thought to himself, how could he have let himself sleep in this late. James slowly got out of bed not bothering to change out of his pajamas. He was wearing a plain white T-shirt and a pair of pajama pants that were red with tiny golden snitches all over them. James combed his hair with his hand quickly and walked out of his room heading downstairs to the living room.
When James walked into the living room he saw Sirius on one couch wearing a queen T-shirt, his signature leather jacket that he wore every day no matter how hot it would get, and a pair of black jeans, and Regulus on the other couch across from Sirius. Regulus had his hair tied back in a ponytail and was wearing a white collared shirt with the top two buttons undone, and a pair of baggy black jeans that were rolled up at the ankle a few times. James figured that Regulus had rolled his jeans because he had borrowed them from Sirius and Sirius was about two inches taller than Regulus. James walked up to the two brothers and sat down next to Sirius. "Well good morning sleepy head!" Sirius said mockingly as he ruffled James's hair, "look who finally decided to join us Reg." Regulus looked up from the book he was reading and looked at James and Sirius with his usual 'stop talking to me' face and then looked back down at his book.
"Awe what's wrong Reggie, still don't wanna talk to James?" Sirius said, leaning over the coffee table and lowering Regulus's book from his face. Regulus started at Sirius and then rolled his eyes and got up to walk away. "Where are you going?" Sirius asked. "The library so I can read in peace." Regulus responded as he walked through the kitchen into the library. "What a baby, still can't take a joke." Sirius said, turning back to James. James chuckled a little and then said "alright well I'm gonna go get something to eat from the kitchen." Sirius looked at James a little confused that both his brother and his best friend had decided to leave at the same time and then said "alright mate, I guess I'll see ya later." "Ya I guess I'll see you later Pads." James said as he began to walk towards the kitchen.
Once James got fully into the kitchen he looked behind himself to make sure that Sirius couldn't see him anymore before walking past the kitchen into the library. James quickly spotted Regulus perusing a shelf in the middle of the library and walked over to him. Regulus looked up at James with an emotionless expression on his face. "did Sirius actually believe you when you told him you were going to the library?" Regulus asked with a light chuckle in his voice and a small smirk on his face. "nah, I told him I was heading to the kitchen, I figured he'd believe that." James said with a wide grin on his face. Regulus laughed a little bit and looked down at the ground before looking back at the shelf. James spotted the book in Regulus's hand and pointed to it asking in a gentle voice, "what are you reading?" Regulus looked down at the book in his hand before looking back at James and simply saying "none of your business." James took a few steps towards Regulus and swiped the book out of Regulus's hand holding it just out of Regulus's reach. Regulus immediately yelled at him "give that back!" as he tried to reach for the book. "I'll give it back if you ask nicely," James said, fixing his glasses to try and read the title. "or how about I slit your throat while you sleep." Regulus said, pulling on James's arm in an attempt to get the book back. When Regulus pulled on James's arm James immediately fell to the ground. James laughed loudly, putting the book down next to him. "alright alright you win now help me up please." James said with a big smile on his face, sitting up a little bit and reaching his hand up for Regulus to grab. Regulus rolled his eyes with a big smile on his face and reached down to help James up. Suddenly James pulled Regulus to the floor too.
Regulus fell to the floor landing right on top of James. Then Regulus pushed himself up with his hands laughing. "alright I guess I kind of deserved that." Regulus said, shifting his weight to his hands in an attempt to get up off the floor. Regulus had one hand on either side of James's head and as he shifted his weight the two boys locked eyes. Regulus's face went bright red and James felt his heart beat quicken. Then suddenly they heard footsteps coming towards the door.
A look of shock washed over the boys faces as they quickly scrambled to get up off the floor. "Mate, what's going on in here? I heard something fall" they heard Sirius shout from the door. They both looked over to Sirius round the corner. Sirius looked at them with a confused look on his face and asked "what are you doing in here James? I thought you went to the kitchen." Regulus and James looked at each other with fear in their eyes and then looked back to Sirius. "uh, I needed help finding a book, so I asked him for help." Regulus explained. Sirius raised an eyebrow not totally believing the story he had just been told "Ok, I guess that makes sense. wait but then why did I hear something fall?" Sirius asked. James shrugged his shoulders and simply said "I don't know mate, I mean we didn't hear anything. Maybe you're just going crazy." "no, I definitely heard something. I mean I might also be going crazy but I definitely heard something." Sirius said. "you know maybe it was something upstairs, I mean you know Monty he's always knocking something over." Regulus said. "ya maybe you're right reg." Sirius said, turning around and walking out of the library. Both boys sighed heavily as soon as Sirius was gone. It was almost like they hadn't breathed that whole time. "alright, see you tonight, same time as always?" James said as he slowly walked away, giving Regulus finger guns as he backed away. Regulus smiled, catching his breath and said sweetly "ya, see you tonight."
-Later that night-
James took a deep breath as he pushed his door open gently and slid out into the hallway. He was holding the usual tin of cookies in one hand and an ABBA record in the other. The night before James was talking to Regulus about how much he loved the band, and Regulus said he had never heard their music before, so James decided to play some of their music for him. James gently turned the door knob of Regulus's door holding the record behind his back as he slipped into the room and shut the door silently. "guess what I brought." James said with a big smile on his face as he showed Regulus the record. Regulus looked up from the book he was reading with a smile and rolled his eyes upon seeing the record in James's hand
The boys quickly put a charm on the room that made sure no one outside of the room could hear them, and put the record on the record player in the corner of Regulus's room. James sat on the edge of Regulus's bed and opened the tin of cookies while the music played. "THIS is what you were going on about yesterday." Regulus said in disbelief. James gasped dramatically putting his hand over his neck as if he were clutching his pearls and said in an offended tone "Regulus Arcturus Black, are you saying that you DON'T LIKE ABBA!" "I didn't say I hated it, it's just not THAT good." Regulus explained, laughing at James's theatrics. "I'm offended," James said, turning his head away from Regulus and crossing his arms.
The boys sat there talking for a few minutes enjoying each other's company. Then after the first song was done the song 'Take A Chance On Me' began to play. "Oh my God, I love this song so much." James said with a huge grin on his face. "I thought you loved all of the songs, wasn't that the whole point of this?" Regulus said, laughing a little bit at how enthusiastic James was about this song. James didn't respond to Regulus's snarky remark, he simply got up and started dancing to the song and singing into his wand. "IF YOU'RE ALL ALONE, MMMMMMMMM!" James sang humming along to the portion of the song he didn't know the lyrics to. Regulus hid his face in his hand and said in an embarrassed tone "Merlin, you don't even know the words." Now James was singing while looking Regulus directly in the eyes "HONEY I'M STILL FREE, TAKE A CHANCE ON ME!!" James sang. Regulus couldn't help but feel like James was directing this line in particular towards him. "GONNA DO MY VERY BEST AND IT AIN'T NO LIE!!!" James yelled out barely in tune with the song.
When the chorus of the song had ended James stopped singing along and instead turned to Regulus and said "oh come on Reggie, dance with me!" James shouted, walking over to Regulus "For the last time don't call me that Potter" Regulus said with a big smile on his face. James walked over and pulled Regulus off the bed and towards the center of the room where James had been dancing. Regulus crossed his arms and stood in place in protest but after a second or two of James dancing in front of him (like an absolute idiot) Regulus gave in and began dancing with James. "If you change your mind, I'm the first in line." James sang, grabbing onto Regulus's hands. He was singing softer now, probably so he wouldn't hurt Regulus's ears. "Honey I'm still free, take a chance on me""If you need me, let me know, gonna be around" on that last line James slid his hands from Regulus's hands to his elbows getting closer and closer to him.
"If you've got no place to go when you're feeling down" James sang, moving even closer to Regulus. Now the two boys were barely an inch away from each other. James stopped singing along, looking deeply into Regulus's eyes. Regulus's whole face turned red as they got closer and closer. Suddenly Regulus closed what little space was left between them, grabbing onto James's face and kissing him passionately. They stayed there for a moment before James pulled away from Regulus and said softly "see I told you you would like this song." with a wide grin on his face. Regulus rolled his eyes and said sharply "Merlin shut up." with a matching grin across his face, pulling James in for another kiss.