Regulus
Regulus stared in complete disbelief up at James, jaw dropped and struggling to comprehend how anyone thought this was a good idea. It had to be a joke. It had to be. Surely. Because his brother was an idiot, but he couldn’t really be this stupid.
“You’re kidding, right?”
James shook his head, and his mad grin grew madder.
“We’ve done it loads of times and I promise you’ll enjoy it,” he gestured to the book Regulus had abandoned after his brain short-circuited trying to understand this incredibly stupid idea. “You can even take your books, Remus always does.”
Regulus blinked. Then he blinked again. Maybe if he blinked a third time he’d wake up from this really weird dream and James would stop making idiotic suggestions? He tried. It didn’t work.
“You do realise how many ways this could go wrong? And by go wrong I mean I die? Painfully?”
“Sirius figured out the whole thing himself.”
“That doesn’t help at all.”
“What if I said Remus?”
Oh my god…
Regulus dropped his face in his hands and groaned. Why did he think being with James was a good idea? He was his idiot brother’s best friend. They shared a single braincell. Of course, he was an idiot too.
I cannot believe I’m having this conversation
“I am not going camping.”
It was one of, if not the, most stupid idea he’d ever had the displeasure of hearing.
What if the tent blew over? What is someone left the zipper down? What if the tent was ripped? What if a bear attacked them and tore holes in it? What if there was a bushfire and they had to evacuate? What is James or Remus got in trouble during the day and needed help?
And that was only things off the top of his head. By the time the weekend rolled around, he’d had dozens more. Like what if a tree fell on the tent and it got torn? Or what if a tree fell on it while James was inside and he got severely injured and thus needed to get rescued and leave the tent to get treatment?
“Come on, Reg. Why not give it a chance?”
Regulus looked up, screwing up his face in just… what?
“The sun can kill me. And you expect me to feel safely protected by of some cloth?”
James nodded and Regulus tipped his head back and took a deep breath to calm himself.
Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts.
He loved James, he really did, but god he was dense.
“So… you aren’t opposed to camping, just the sun part?”
“Which is a factor impossible to separate from this sleeping in tents by the beach plan, so I would call that pretty opposed to camping.”
“Ok. But what if the sun wasn’t a factor?”
“But it is.”
“But what if it wasn’t?”
Regulus groaned and shut his eyes. Next time James complained about him being stubborn, he was going to bring up this conversation.
“In a perfect magic rainbow fairy lovey dovey hippy world where I wasn’t a vampire? Yes, I would probably be interested in giving it a try.”
“Exactly, so why not just-”
“Because this isn’t that happy world,” he spat before James could finish. He was sick of hearing about this. “This is what being with me means, James. We can’t do normal human things. I have limitations and I can’t just wish them away no matter how much I want to.”
He swallowed the lump growing in his throat, keeping his eyes shut tightly.
“I’m always going to limit you,” he added in a whisper. Because that was the truth, wasn’t it? That’s what this conversation was pointing out.
James was an extroverted, outdoorsy person who loved being out in the sun and going on adventures with all the people he loved. Regulus was an introverted, indoorsy person who wouldn’t mind getting out a little more but couldn’t because oh yes, that’s right, he wasn’t human and couldn’t do the normal human things James liked doing.
They were incompatible and this stupid camping trip was just making that abundantly clear. He was cursed and he was dragging James into his curse, forcing him to endure the misery with him.
He wasn’t like Sirius. He wasn’t brave and he wasn’t reckless enough to be able to risk fun without worrying the entire time about things going wrong. He would just be on edge the whole tip, stressed out of his mind that something would happen.
He wouldn’t be able to sleep. He wouldn’t be able to enjoy himself. He’d just be grumpy and unpleasant, which would make him extra hungry, and then James would do something stupid and hurt himself and the blood would be too hard to resist while already anxious and he’d attack him and-
“That’s not true, Reg.”
He scoffed.
“Yes, it is.” He had the overthinking notes to prove it. “Unless you’ve invented some super-sunscreen, I’m never gonna be able to do the things you want to do with me, like camping.”
“And? Just because you can’t do some things, doesn’t make me love you any less. Besides, there are work arounds for just about everything. The only activity I’m pretty certain we can never do together is lie on the sand and tan, but I’m already tanned so that’s fine with me.”
“The work arounds aren’t the same,” he muttered and James sighed.
There was a shuffle of footsteps, and dull thud as James sat right next to Regulus on the lounge. He snaked his arm around Regulus’ torso and attempted to pull him closer. Regulus didn’t resist it, and let himself collapse against the warm body, resting his head on James’ shoulder.
“You’re right. The work arounds aren’t the same. But luckily for you, I’m a dare devil who would jump at the chance to get bragging rights of doing things in the dark.”
Regulus snorted, but James kept going.
“You went skydiving? I did that in the middle of the night. You can \mountain bike? I literally ride in the dark. Oh snowboarding? Yeh, I’ve done that, under the stars.”
“I have zero desire to do any of the things you just listed.”
“Well, I will be doing all of those things with Sirius at the next available opportunity, so if you want to join us then you can.”
“Of course you are,” Regulus grumbled, and James laughed.
“You don’t limit me, Reg. And if you really don’t want to come camping, then you don’t have to. I just thought you might have fun and wanted to give you the chance to say yes.”
Regulus sighed and opened his eyes, lifting his head so he could look James in the face.
“I want to go, with you. I just don’t want something to go wrong and there are so many things that could go wrong.”
James smiled softly and brushed a curl of hair behind Regulus’ ear.
“I wouldn’t make a suggestion that I didn’t think was safe. What if we have a test run?”
Regulus frowned, “A test run?”
James grinned.
“Yeh. We can set up the tent in the yard tonight and sleep in it today. If something goes wrong, you’ll easily make it to the house, and you could make suggestions and alterations to the set up if you think it needs them.”
Regulus pursed his lips. He supposed it wasn’t a terrible idea. Proper camping was still stupid, but maybe this wasn’t… and it would make James happy.
“Fine. We’ll set up in the yard and I’ll see.”
James’ face lit up instantly.
“No, promises though. This is just a test. I make no commitment to real camping.”
James shrugged and grinned, “I’ll wear you down.”
We’ll see.
James jumped to his feet and pulled Regulus with him, dragging him down to the garage as he started going through all the things they’d need to grab.
First was an apparently super expensive, block out tent they’d invested in. It was top of the range when they bought it, specifically designed to keep daylight out while keeping the interior a cool temperature. That later feature more for any humans inside.
Then a really, really weird looking sleeping bag.
What in the world…
“It’s basically an emergency tent,” James explained when he passed it to Regulus. “Sirius always keeps in in reach in case something goes wrong and needs to hide from the sun.”
“That’s more thought than I would have expected Sirius to put in,” he muttered as he examined it.
It was made of really thick, dark fabric, and he imagined a human would find it extremely unpleasant trying to breath inside of it.
“Wouldn’t he need one if we’re all going together though?”
“What? You don’t want to share?”
Regulus raised an eyebrow and James laughed.
“Don’t worry, he has another one he made a few years ago and said he’ll use if something happens. Which it won’t, but for peace of mind. It works perfectly fine, but he made it look like a body bag and it was awkward to get through airport security.”
Regulus smirked. That sounded much more like Sirius.
They made their way into the yard, James putting on a headlamp to help him see. Then they got to work, or at least Regulus did. Apparently, James thought it was a rite of passage that Regulus be in charge of putting the damn thing up his first time, and only did what he was told. He was stuck with an instruction manual that would probably make better fire kindling.
“I don’t see why this is necessary,” he grumbled as he tried to figure out which ‘small pole’ the instructions meant, considering there were six ‘small poles’, all of slightly different lengths and thicknesses it could be referring to.
“It’s character building?” James replied from where he was dutifully holding up would was eventually going to be a wall.
Regulus rolled his eyes and picked up what would hopefully be the correct pole and started sliding it into position. “My character doesn’t need building. The tent does.”
“Alright then, I’ll give you a hint.” James nodded down at the pole that Regulus was clipping into place, smiling as Regulus made the last clip which confirmed it was the right one. “You did that step correctly.”
Lord help me
Regulus opted not to answer and picked up the instructions again. James continued to offer extremely unhelpful advice, but the tent did take shape soon enough. It wasn’t huge but it had two separate ‘rooms’ and when the final peg was hammered into the ground Regulus audibly huffed with relief.
“Aren’t you glad you did it yourself?” James asked as he wrapped an arm around Regulus’ shoulders.
“I’m glad that its finished,” he muttered, which dragged out a laugh from James.
“Close enough,” he pulled Regulus in a little harder. “That’s what Remus said too.”
At least one other person in this house is sane.
Regulus yawned and leaned against James, letting him support his weight. The sky was starting to lighten and most of the stars were no longer visible. The eastern horizon was even starting to turn pink. He was ready for bed.
“Is it ready for the bed now?”
“Bed? Singular? You want to share with me? And here I was thinking we were just roommates.”
“Just get the mattress before I change my mind about this entire thing, Potter.”
Technically, Regulus couldn’t see James smirking, but he knew it was there.
His human cane disappeared for a moment, and Regulus stood there, taking in the cool morning air and watching the pink become orange and red as the sunrise approached. He wished there was a way for him to watch it properly without being burnt. Having your skin feel like its being ripped off layer by layer sort of ruins the view.
James returned a few minutes later with a cylinder thing over one shoulder and a bicycle pump in his free hand. Which was… odd. Where was the mattress?
His confusion must’ve been written all over his face.
“It’s an air mattress,” James explained as he entered the open tent flaps. There was a loud thump, followed by James calling him in.
Regulus took one last look around. Up at the sky, back at the house, across at the garden. Then he took a deep breath, savouring the fresh morning air scent.
Here we go…
He stepped inside the tent and prayed to whoever would listen that this would go well and he wouldn’t end up writhing in pain over sunburn today.
The first thing Regulus noticed, was how well the light was being kept out so far. It was actually pretty impressive. It’d been too dark to guess how well it would work while setting it up, but now the sky was lightening, there was a very noticeable difference between in here and out there.
“Feel like helping?” James huffed from inside one of the other ‘rooms’, and Regulus followed the sound of his quick breath, racing heart and a very annoying air rushing noise. He was going to help, initially. But then he actually saw James and decided watching the muscles in his arms and back flex was a much better option.
“Not really,” he smirked, folding his arms across his chest. “I think I like this view much better.”
James snorted, “What am I to you? Just a piece eye candy?”
“I would’ve just left it at just candy considering the way you taste.”
James gasped mockingly, straightening up and putting a hand over his heart.
“You wound me, Black!” he cried, but Regulus merely grinned wider.
“No, that’ll be later when I’m in need of a midday snack.”
“Wow. Wowww.”
“Get back to work, Potter.”
The air grew a little sweeter as James flushed slightly and Regulus had to refrain from laughing as James did as he was told.
---
James
It was just past midday now, and the wind had picked up, a lot. Not the best thing to happen when you’re in a tent trying to convince your vampire boyfriend that going camping is a good idea. He was confident though. Even if the tent pegs blew out, which they wouldn’t, the tent would just collapse, not open up. Regulus had nothing to stress about.
“I can hear you thinking, Reg. It’s fine.”
“You’re not the one who gets fried if something goes wrong,” Regulus mumbled, flinching as the walls slapped and shook the tent.
“Will it help if I pinky swear things will smoothly?”
“Not a cha-”
Another gust of wind cut him off, shaking the tent even more than the last. Regulus curled into James a little tighter and James kept his arm firmly around him. He’d never seen Regulus this nervous before. He borderline wanted to call it afraid, but Regulus would have his head if that slipped out by mistake. Literally.
“Alright, maybe just try get to sleep. Best thing about being unconscious? You’ll sleep through it all.”
“James, if you don’t stop trying to remain positive, I’m going to make you unconscious in a very un-positive way.”
Alright, so definitely not having a good time then.
More wind rustled the tent and Regulus grumbled something about slashing Sirius’ curtains if this thing came down. Which James took as his sign to do a better job of helping. Was he partially self-motivated? Maybe. But having fresh blood in his system would help in the unlikely event something went wrong. So technically it wasn’t an entirely selfish offer.
Mostly…
James grinned and began letting his thoughts wander. It wasn’t difficult with Regulus curled up to him. Within seconds he could feel his chest fluttering, his heart rate was creeping up. He tensed his muscles, then relaxed. Tensed them again, then relaxed. Was it manipulative? Probably. It was also noticed.
“You’re doing that on purpose,” Regulus muttered.
“Doing what?” James asked innocently, not making any effort to stop.
Regulus propped himself on an elbow and glared down at James with an unimpressed look on his face. Not uninterested though, which James took as an invitation to keep up his efforts. His view helping the heartrate jump a few beats too.
When Regulus rolled his eyes, an amused smirk creeping onto his face, James felt his cheeks grow incredibly warm.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“No idea what you’re talking about. I’m just trying to pass the time and getting my heartrate up does that.”
James propped himself up to match Regulus’ height, grinning as they got closer. Regulus indulged himself with a breath in. Licking his lips. Dropping his eyes down to James’ neck, which James could just about feel the pulse in now. It wasn’t his fault that seeing Regulus’ eyes start taking on a red tinge did that.
“You know what, I take it back,” Regulus teased, leaning a little closer and lifting his free hand to James’ chest. He pushed, hard enough to knock James onto his back, chuckling as James tried and failed to try sit back up. Chuckling harder when said failure brought about a stronger blush. “No, you’re not ridiculous. You’re just a masochist.”
“Does that make you a sadist?”
Regulus smirked, pressing a little harder on James’ chest as he leaned down. James shivered as cool breath brushed his neck. Gasping as cold lips made contact.
The tent walls shook as another gust knocked them about. Regulus stilled for a second and James let his hands wander up his torso, gripping his waist firmly.
“Don’t stop…” he whispered, rubbing his thumb across Regulus’ skin. “Please…”
Please always worked.
Regulus let his lips keep working, kissing across James’ throat like it was the last time he’d ever get the chance. Which James figured in his mind was a possibility. Not that he was complaining.
The hand on his chest slipped off, sliding down from his torso to his upper arm, holding down firmly. Regulus followed it. One second, he was next to James, the next he was straddling his hips. Turning the flutter in James’ chest into a beat so strong he could just about hear it.
Oh god…
James let the arm he could still move snake around the small of Regulus back, pulling his down and holding him as close as possible. Preparing.
“Was this your plan all along?” Regulus breathed, grazing his teeth up the skin of James’ neck. “Trap me in here and have your way?”
James shuddered and tightened his arm.
“Pretty sure you have all the power here…”
Regulus smirked against him and hummed in agreement. Then, as if to simply prove his point, Regulus slipped his hand out of James’ hair and up his arm, the one James had around his waist. He pushed and James could do nothing as his arm uncoiled from Regulus as it was forced down and pinned to the mattress.
“You may have a point,” Regulus chuckled, and James allowed himself a smirk too.
James tilted his head, giving Regulus even more room, closing his eyes and revelling in the sensation.
“Come on…” he begged.
“I thought I had all the power?”
You do. God, you do. You have it all.
James tried to sit up. It was a pointless exercise, and he knew that. But he was weak, and every bit the masochist Regulus had accused him of being. The fingers around his biceps dug into his skin, pinching a little as they kept him in place. He didn’t mind.
Oh fuck it…
James did have one power card to play.
“Reg… Please…”
Please always worked.
Regulus’ cold tongue slid up the side of his throat. His teeth came next.
“Jesus…”
Two sharp points sunk into his next. Pain followed, but only for a second as he was overwhelmed with everything Regulus was doing. Drinking. Holding him down. Drinking. Mostly the drinking.
“How do you taste so perfect…” Regulus mumbled between sips. “So sweet and happy…”
James’ lips curled up and he drew in a slow shallow breath. He never wanted to be anything but perfect for Regulus. Maybe it was the venom talking, but he’d rather die than be second best. He was all his.
The lips at his neck were like a drug. James never wanted them there forever. Never wanted to stop hearing Regulus swallow the blood he was losing. He could have it all if he wanted. James wouldn’t protest.
He let his eyes flick open and trace every part of Regulus’ body he could see. Feeling and seeing the way it shuddered and shifted every time he sipped. The way his skin was warming against his and gaining a slightly rosier tint.
When James felt Regulus swiping his tongue over the wounds he’d created, he groaned. It wasn’t fair. He didn’t want it to end.
“I have to,” Regulus said as if reading his mind. Then again, it wasn’t like he was subtle. He reacted this way every time. “I’d rather not be the reason you end up in hospital.”
“Hmm…” was all James had to say as Regulus licked up any remaining blood.
There was another gust of wind as he did.
James felt of spark of satisfaction.
Regulus barely flinched.
“Feeling better?”
Regulus hummed and relaxed against James’ chest, releasing his arms. With his newfound freedom, James immediately pulled Regulus into tight hug. Leaning his head to the side. Letting his cheek brush against his hair.
“Try get some sleep,” he whispered, rubbing his thumb across Regulus back as he worked one up into his hear. Tangling his fingers through the strands.
“You so planned this…” Regulus murmured, curling up and gently holding James back.
He hadn’t. Mostly. Technically. Hoping was different to planning. Maybe.
“Guess you’ll never know.”
“Hmm… I rescind my previous correction…”
James smirked, softly running his fingers across Regulus.
“Yeh? What was that again?”
Regulus let out a long, cold breath against the nape of James’ neck. Pressing his face into it.
“You are ridiculous…”
James chuckled.
“Does that mean you’re still firmly against this camping idea? Me being ridiculous and all?”
“Hmm… we’ll see…” Regulus replied sleepily.
As another gust of wind battered the tent and Regulus just continued to relax into unconsciousness, James started planning what they’d need to pack on the trip.
I’ve so got him convinced