Regulus and Sirius walk beside each other, their steps in sync. Walburga and Orion are immediately in front of them, leading them to the ballroom, where they are hosting their annual winter’s ball at the palace. Apparently, there will be some new princes and princesses. That’ll be fun, Regulus groans to himself. Their walk comes to an abrupt stop, and large doors are opened. Regulus can suddenly hear the classical music and loud chatter in the ballroom.
“Boys, your father and I will be seated at the throne. Be quiet and make a good impression,” Walburga says threateningly.
“Yes Mother,” Sirius says.
“Yes mama,” Regulus says. Walburga walks through the doors, but Orion lingers for a moment.
“Have fun,” he whispers.
“Okay, papa,” Regulus replies. “You too,” he adds, seeing the small smile on Orion’s face. Orion walks in and Sirius and Regulus follow, Orion walking up to the throne and the boys leaning against the wall. They both loosely hold wine glasses in their hands, glancing about.
Regulus is bored, really. He’s used to these by now. Sirius starts to talk, but it all fades into the background when Regulus sees this- this boy. This prince, he realizes. A boy, nearly the same age as Sirius, probably, is dancing confidently, swinging his hips and holding up a glass to the sky.
He has brown skin, much darker than Regulus’s, a stark contrast, almost white. His hair is a mess of dark brown, and his eyes are a golden brown. He’s wearing thin glasses and is laughing loudly. He’s wearing all black- shoes, pants, tie, and dress shirt. Regulus bites his lip, and can feel his face warming.
He looks so nice, Regulus thinks to himself.
The thing is, Regulus has known he was gay since he was thirteen, after a series of denial and ‘crushes’. He never told anybody, but Sirius had figured out, somehow. Regulus was lost in thought when that boy, the one he’d seen, was right in front of him, holding out a hand.
“Care to dance?” he asked, grinning, and oh. Regulus didn’t even know this man and he was already down bad. His cheeks were burning and he knew it. He turned to look at Sirius for help, but Sirius just smirked and wiggles his eyebrows.
“Okay,” is the stupid answer Regulus settled for.
“I’m James,” the boy said. taking Regulus’s hand. “James Potter, from the kingdom just south.”
“I’m Regulus,” Regulus answers dumbly. “Black. Regulus Black. I’m from here- live here.” The boy—James—doesn’t respond, instead lifting his hand and spinning Regulus round. Regulus lets out an exhilarated laugh, smiling. He hasn't felt this happy at a ball for a while. Generally, he just stands with Sirius, talking occasionally, and standing by himself whenever Sirius goes to talk with someone like his charismatic self. Regulus doesn't go out of his way to talk to people at the balls, but if someone talks to him, he'll converse with them for a period of time, before standing apart from the crowd once again.
The prince, James, was apparently leading, and Regulus had no qualms about it, following without hesitation. Regulus caught his gaze for just a moment before being spun around, and just from that he felt the blood rush to his face, making his face red, no pigment to hide it. Regulus absently wonders why they haven't met before, but dismisses the thought as soon as it arrives.
The music starts to fade out for a new song to begin playing and James briefly dips Regulus down before picking him back up and bringing Regulus close to his chest as the song ends. Regulus punches out a sharp breath before breathing in deeply, feeling like his oxygen was pulled out from his chest. James just held Regulus's hand lightly, looking satisfied.
"Liked the dance?" James asks, and Regulus nods quickly before realizing how eager he seemed, and abruptly stops, his body feeling hot. James lifts one of Regulus's hands to his mouth and presses a kiss to it, never once looking away from Regulus's eyes. His stomach feels jumbled, like he was rapidly shaken and then placed back on the ground in an instant. He can't tell if he wants to kiss James or kick James. He settles on neither, just- watching him.
Rather than dancing to the next song, James pulls Regulus's hand and takes him to one of the servers walking around, a tall but thin man with lashing scars on his skin, with drinks on a tray. He picks up a drink, a green one, and holds it to Regulus as he takes another different one, a red one, for himself. Regulus sips it slowly as they walk over to where Sirius is standing, right where Regulus left him. Sirius doesn't look at him, looking rather enamored with the server's face, so Regulus just leaves him be and continues walking.
Regulus has barely drank any of his drink when James turns around quickly and says, "Wait, I want the green one," holding out his red drink to Regulus to switch.
Regulus laughs, saying, "I already drank some of it."
"That's fine," James says, waving his hand around to show that it's okay. "I didn't drink any of the red one, if it makes you feel any better," James shrugs. Regulus wordlessly takes the red drink, handing the green one to James. While Regulus sips on his drink, savoring the flavor all while watching James intently, James takes large gulps of his drink, finishing it almost immediately.
"Oh my God," Regulus says, laughing.
"What?" James asks, raising an eyebrow.
"You literally just downed that drink," Regulus says as an explanation, pointing at the empty glass in James's hand. As Regulus studies James's face, he notices that James's face reddens, but only slightly, as his skin is darker. To see it, one would have to look very closely at his face. As he thinks about this, he realizes how very close his face is to James's. He looks up to meet James's eyes, already looking back intensely, wide and brown and helpless, like a deer in headlights.
Regulus can't help the urge to lean in just slightly, to brush his lips against James's, as his eyes flicker down to James's lips then back up to his bright eyes. Regulus hopes he doesn't notice, but he knows he's been caught, because the corners of James's mouth tip up and he takes Regulus's face into his hands, cradling them softly. Regulus instinctively melts into his touch, tipping closer to James.
James closes the space between them, pressing their lips together. Regulus blinks for a second before reciprocating, and watches as James's eyelids flutter open when they pull apart. As soon as James catches Regulus's gaze again, Regulus's entire face feels like it's burning. James grins, his eyes crinkling with happiness. Regulus ducks his head and stares at the ground in embarrassment, but James just puts a hand under his chin and lifts his face up to look at him.
Regulus doesn't know what to say now, so he doesn't. He just lifts James's hand to his face, palm up, pressing soft kisses to his palm and fingers, then lowering it and placing his hand in his. James grips his hand like he never wants to let go, and follows when Regulus starts to approach Sirius, who is waving to the server that they had gotten their drinks from. Sirius looks James up and down, sizing him up.
"Name?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Prince James," he says proudly, a hand on his chest.
"Mhm," Sirius says, looking at James threateningly.
"Can the shovel talk wait?" Regulus asks, sighing.
"Fine," Sirius sighs, looking falsely dejected. Regulus watches comfortably against the wall and Sirius and James converse, James laughing while Sirius tries to maintain his threatening gaze but ends up losing that internal battle. Regulus smiles and is always looking back when James turns from Sirius to glance at Regulus.
As he waits for their conversation to end, in which they are becoming fast friends, he looks around the ballroom in boredom, and, without meaning to, catches sight of his parents up near the thrones. Regulus intakes a sharp breath as he realizes that his mother is watching Regulus with a glaring focus, her eyes never leaving him and Sirius. He has had multiple talks with parents, his dad being much more accepting of him.
They know he's gay, they'd found out two years ago, and God knows how. He'd been terrified when they'd called him to their room, shaking and going over the million ways they could react. Orion didn't really have problem with it, whereas Walburga clearly did, but she couldn't do anything about it, obviously. All they'd told him was that even though he wasn't attracted to them, he still had to marry a woman and produce an heir, the same as Sirius was told a few months afterward.
Walburga was still bitter, though, and hated whenever Regulus showed any affinity towards a boy, even when it was another person of royal blood, another prince. Even when it only lasted for the span of a ball. Regulus knew why she was giving James a murderous glare, and because she was so busy scowling at James, Orion had to keep all those who wanted to socialize with both him and Walburga at bay, talking and laughing and covering up the fact that Walburga was blatantly ignoring everyone else at the ball. Orion was sending desperate glances at Walburga, it seemed that the people were starting to question what Walburga was doing.
Walburga finally turned back around and started speaking to other royals and people at the ball, only sending occasional glances towards Regulus, Sirius, and James. James and Sirius finally ended their conversation, waving as Sirius began to approach that same server again, who he seemed to like, and as James walked back towards Regulus.
"How do you feel about Sirius?" Regulus asks when James takes his hands again for another dance.
"He's a delight," James says solemnly.
"Oh no," Regulus says, feigning terror. "Sirius's absurd sense of humor has transferred to you." James laughs at that, and pulls Regulus closer, peppering kisses all over his face as they sway to the music. Regulus smiles in pleasure as the night flies by, Regulus being whisked into multiple dances and conversations by James, both of them sticking to each other's sides the entire duration of the night.
As the end of the night approaches, it dawns on Regulus that after this ball, he may not see James again for a while, at least until the next ball they host or attend, if he's even there. Usually, Regulus doesn't care. He doesn't tend to get too attached to whoever he dances with that night, either not dancing with anyone and just talking with Sirius the entire night, or dancing with and subsequently forgetting the person, never making a deep connection with them.
But tonight, Regulus feels as if he has formed a close and pulling bond between he and James, and doesn't want to part from him. He tries to ignore it and not let it get to him, hoping that he will just be able to cry over him for a night and forget him the next, but he has a feeling that won't be the case.
He might regret never bringing it up to James tonight, but he decides to deal with the backlash of that later. It's just that he doesn't know how to bring it up without making it awkward, and he doesn't want it to be awkward, he wants to savor every last bit of this night. He wonders if James is going through the same emotional turmoil he is and distantly wonders is he even cares. He pushes down any emotions that try to creep up his throat, spilling out.
Little does Regulus know, he will be seeing James a whole lot more than he'd expected in the next few years, from unexpected circumstances and high stakes.