Caterpillars
James woke up in Regulus's room with Regulus sleeping on his chest. James smiled softly and then cast Tempus to check the time. It was 7AM 'fuck, Sirius will be up soon' James thought to himself. James gently moved Regulus off of him and kissed the top of his forehead as he stood up. Then James fixed his shirt so that it wouldn't be wrinkled and quietly walked out of Regulus's room.
”James? What were you doing in Reggie's room?" 'speak of the devil' James thought to himself as he slowly turned towards Sirius. 'fuck, we're busted and it's not even 7:30 yet' James thought to himself. "oh uh, I was just borrowing a book from him." James said. James was a terrible liar. "Then where is it?" Sirius asked, pointing at James's empty hands. 'fuck' James thought to himself "oh well, um, what I meant was I was reading a book from the library that I saw yesterday when we were there, and Regulus wanted to read it, so after I finished it I gave it to him which is what I was doing just now." James said he figured if he just talked long enough Sirius would just stop paying attention and forget about the whole thing. "You read an entire book in a day? I mean I know it's doable but to be honest I've never even seen you read before, in fact I thought you didn't know how to read for a solid year or two." Sirius said confused as to how James could go from avoiding books like the plague to finishing an entire book in a day. "oh, well, it was a fairly short book you know." James responded, he couldn't believe he had lasted this long. "what book was it?" Sirius asked, he had accepted James's lie and was now more curious about what book had piqued James's interest. 'Alright all you have to do is pick a normal but fairly short book, think, think' James thought to himself. out of nervousness James blurted out the first book that came to his mind "uh ya it was uhhh... The Very Hungry Caterpillar." James wanted to die at this moment. "Regulus wanted to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar?" Sirius asked with a very confused look on his face. "uh ya, you know that book has some very good morals and lessons in it about... gluttony." James said he knew that there was no way Sirius was gonna believe this, but he had to at least try. "huh, I guess he did always really liked butterflies, see you downstairs mate." Sirius said walking past James and patting him on the back. The second Sirius was gone James gasped for air, he had been holding his breath that whole time. 'how the fuck did that work' James thought to himself.
-at the breakfast table-
James sat down next to Sirius as Euphemia put the food out on the table. James took a pancake from the huge plate of them in front of him. They were chocolate chip pancakes, a favorite among all of the marauders. Then James grabbed the syrup and doused the pancake in it. James always loved to say that 'if there wasn't enough sugar in your breakfast to make a dentist cry why even bother eating breakfast at all'. "where's Reggie?" Sirius asked, pointing to the empty chair that Regulus normally sat in. James shrugged his shoulders and said "he's probably just sleeping in again." while swiftly taking a bite of his pancake. "isn't that kind of odd?" Sirius asked while turning to look at James. "no, he sleeps in practically every morning. In fact I would have found it weird if he was at breakfast." James said, taking another bite of his pancake. "well ya but you were just with him this morning giving him that book. Shouldn't he be up?" Sirius said with a very confused look on his face. James choked a bit on his pancake and he widened his eyes. 'fuck' he thought to himself. "oh ya, right well I mean I didn't hand him the book myself I just put it down on his night stand while he slept." James said frantically. "So then why did you have to get up so early to give it to him?" Sirius asked, pointing out the obvious flaw in James's lie. "oh uh, you know, I just didn't want to forget about it," James said, "you know what actually I'm gonna go bring him a pancake, I mean he'll be hungry when he wakes up won't he." James continues frantically getting up and loading three pancakes onto a plate. James quickly walked away and walked into Regulus's room.
Sirius and Euphemia gave each other a confused look. "what was that about?" Euphemia asked, taking a sip of orange juice. "I don't know, but I'm gonna go find out." Sirius said getting up from the table and quickly following James into Regulus's room.
James put the plate down on Regulus's night stand and sat on the edge of Regulus's bed with his head in his hands. This sudden movement woke Regulus up and Regulus very quickly sat up and put his hand on James's shoulder. "Jamie, are you alright?" Regulus asked. Suddenly the door opened and Sirius walked over to Regulus and James. a wave of realization washed over Sirius he now knew exactly what was going on.
"I know exactly what's going on here." Sirius said, giving James a dirty look. "you do!" James said with a look of horror on his face. This was it, James was going to die, Sirius was going to kill him. "ya I do, you two have been studying caterpillars together and you didn't want me to know because you thought I wouldn't support it." Sirius said. James and Regulus looked at each other confused. "ya, you caught us Sirius, we just really love caterpillars." Regulus said somewhat sarcastically. "Well you don't need to worry, I support your love of caterpillars." Sirius said proudly.