Embroidery
James woke up abruptly to Regulus shaking him. "Jamie, wake up, it's already 12 o'clock!" Regulus said as he shook James. "What!? How did we sleep that late?" James said as he frantically got out of bed and began getting dressed. "I don't know, good thing it's the weekend or we'd both have detention for at least a week." Regulus said, trying to be optimistic. Optimism was highly unusual coming from Regulus so when he tried to look on the bright side, it wasn't usually very reassuring. James grabbed the cloak and threw it over his shoulders grabbing his tie off the ground and stuffing it into his pocket. James figured he could put his tie on as he walked. Then James leaned over the bed and gave Regulus a quick kiss on the forehead before throwing the cloak over his head.
James walked into the common room which luckily was empty, so no one would question why the door was opening and closing on its own. James quickly left the common room and took off the cloak upon entering the hallway. James took the tie out of his pocket and tied it messily around his neck without looking down at it, he knew that if he looked down he would probably trip over something. As James walked towards Gryffindor tower he felt as if everyone he passed was looking at him. Eventually James ran into Remus, Peter, and Sirius again. "Oh, hey guys, I've been looking for you everywhere. I went to the pitch to practice a little this morning and when I got back you guys weren't in the room." James explained as he slowly caught his breath from his walk up the stairs from the dungeons.
"JAMES! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK ARE YOU WEARING!" Sirius yelled angrily. "What do you mean? I'm just wearing my uniform like always." James said with a confused look on his face. "James, you might wanna have a look at your tie." Remus said, trying to hide the fact that he was laughing behind his hand. James looked down at his tie, 'fuck' he thought to himself, he was in fact wearing Regulus's tie. "You're sleeping with a Slytherin?!?!" Sirius said in shock. James sighed heavily before saying, "yes, Sirius please don't be mad." James buried his head in his hands. How could he have been so stupid that he grabbed the wrong tie and didn't even notice until it was too late.
"Merlin, please don't tell me it's one of my cousins!" Sirius said, stepping closer to James. "It's not your COUSIN." James said. "The fuck is that supposed to mean. Why did you just emphasize the word cousin?" Sirius asked with a confused and pissed off look on his face. "I didn't emphasize anything, it's not your cousin." James said defensively. He was just now realizing that he was a really bad liar. Sirius's gaze lowered as he spotted something on the tie. Sirius reached out and grabbed the tie bringing the little black spot closer to his face. Upon inspection Sirius realized that it wasn't a smudge on the tie but rather a bit of embroidery.
At that moment Sirius remembered how Regulus would always embroider his initials (RAB) into all of his clothing. Sirius always found it strange, what did he think was going to happen? Was he scared that someone was going to mistake his clothes for their own? Sirius always thought he could trust James with his life. Honestly he didn't even think James was capable of lying to him. Maybe that's why he had been so blind before, but there it was right in front of him. In black embroidery thread were his initials, RAB.
"You son of a bitch!" Sirius said, raising his hand to his mouth in shock. "What are you talking about Sirius?!" James said, looking down at the tie. James's eyes were so shit he couldn't even see the embroidery. "Don't you fucking lie to me James! Not again!" Sirius yelled. Sirius had stepped even closer to James, so close that they were mere centimeters away from each other. Remus reached his arm out and put his hand on Sirius's shoulder but Sirius shrugged it off.
Suddenly Regulus came running out from around the corner holding a Gryffindor tie in his hand. Sirius's gaze darted to his brother. "Oh, shit" Regulus said softly, covering his face with his hand in disappointment. "Sirius I can explain." Regulus called down the hallway as he walked towards the friend group. "No I don't I need you to explain Reggie! I think I understand the situation quite clearly." Sirius said, the anger in his voice rose with every passing second. "Don't you mean queerly." Peter said in a jolly tone as he raised his hands making a finger gun motion at Sirius. Sirius, Remus, James, and Regulus all turned their heads slowly towards Peter with confused looks on their faces. "Not the time, ok, message received." Peter said, using more finger guns on that last word.
Sirius turned his head back to James. "You fucked my brother! Are you serious right now James!" Sirius yelled. "Of course he's not serious, you are." Peter said. "Wow, I just can't stop myself can I. Alright I'm gonna walk away now." Then Peter quickly turned around and walked down the hallway and went into the Gryffindor common room. "You know all this time I just went along with the lies you told me because I thought, 'he would never lie to you, he's your best friend' but I guess I was wrong." Sirius said, a tear slowly started to form in his eye. "Oh come on Sirius, we both know you're over reacting. The only reason he didn't tell you is because I told him not to." Regulus yelled from down the hallway as he walked even closer to the group. "Well why the fuck did you even lie about it in the first place!" Sirius yelled back. "Because I knew that you would react like this! Look at yourself Sirius! You're being so fucking dramatic!" Regulus yelled, now he was standing right next to James.
"Don't you fucking dare call me dramatic! I'm sure you would react the same way if I Shagged Barty!" Sirius shouted. "Ya cause that would be fucking gross, but I wouldn't be screaming about it in the fucking corridor!" Regulus yelled back. Sirius looked back at James, now he was fully crying. "And what about you? Do you have anything to say for yourself." Sirius said through tears. James opened his mouth to say something but closed it again, he was at a loss for words. "Ya, that's what I thought." Sirius said as he slowly turned away from James and walked back to the common room.
Regulus and James turned to each other once Remus and Sirius were in the common room. "Are you ok?" Regulus asked with concern in his eyes. James turned his gloomy expression into a smile and took a deep breath. "Don't worry about me, love. I'll be fine." James said as he kissed Regulus on the forehead. Usually Regulus liked it when James kissed him on the forehead, it made him feel safe, and protected, but this time he didn't feel that. He could only feel worried for James. Regulus was used to feeling protected by James, at times he felt like James was invincible, or lucky. He felt like James didn't feel any of the bad emotions that he did, he felt like James was almost super human in that way, but now he could feel that facade start to crack. He could see that while James seemed ok on the outside, on the inside he was just as broken and sad as Regulus.
-Later that night, in Regulus's dorm-
Regulus found himself laying awake staring at the ceiling. He didn't realize how hard it was to sleep without James there until he was gone. Regulus sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes. In the corner of his eye he spotted the sweater James had given him the night before. Regulus slowly crept out of bed and grabbed the sweater off of the chair he had thrown it on that morning. Regulus quickly walked back to bed and put the sweater on. The faint scent of James left on the sweater allowed Regulus to finally sleep.
-The next morning-
"Awe, look who misses their little boyfriend." Barty said mockingly as he stood over Regulus. "You look quite good in Gryffindor red, maybe you should switch houses." Evan said from the other side of Regulus's bed. "Piss off. At least I have my shit together enough to admit that I like someone." Regulus said as he sat up in bed. Barty's face turned a bit red as he looked over at Evan "I-I don't know what you're talking about." Barty said in a shaky voice. Regulus looked up at Barty with a knowing look. "Mhm, keep telling yourself that buddy." Regulus said as he patted Barty on the shoulder.
"alright mate, well we came to tell you that breakfast is in like 10 minutes and if you're late to one more class you'll have detention for a week, sleepy head." Evan said as he rifled Regulus's hair with his hand. "Alright let's go." Regulus said as he got out of bed. "Mate, aren't you gonna change." Evan said while pointing to Regulus's sweater. "Oh fuck, yeah you guys go ahead I'll catch up." Regulus said, shooing his friends out the door.