Chapter 7
“Remus and your brother are finally dating?” Barty adjusts his posture to sit up a bit straighter, moving Evan, who was leaning on his shoulder, with him. Regulus scowls, looking down at his friends while he paces back and forth.
“What the fuck do you mean ‘finally,’ Barty? This isn’t a good thing,” Regulus scoffs, crossing his arms. “Sirius takes everything I enjoy away from me. I won’t be shocked if he snags you three next.”
“Well, they have been a thing for quite a while, haven’t they?” Pandora asks, playing with one of her blonde braids, the color of her hair always clashing beautifully against the dark color of her skin. “Since before he ran off, I mean.”
“Well, yes, but him making it official right after declaring me to not be his brother seems pretty fucked up,” Regulus huffs, subconsciously matching his steps to the beat of the song playing; R U Mine by the Arctic Monkeys. “It doesn’t help that I snogged his best mate.”
Barty jumps forward at that, Evan very loudly protesting as he’s forcefully pushed away from his boyfriend. It takes a second before Evan’s also gawking at the news, sitting up next to his sister, who’s smiling brightly. It’s in this moment that Regulus realizes that he hadn’t told Barty–his childhood best friend–about the events that occurred at the party.
The day after, Barty called Regulus and asked if he was okay because he had seen him walk out of the kitchen after Sirius and Remus, and Regulus wanted to drop dead when he was told that his crying had been noticed by more than just James. He didn’t give much information, just brushing him off and saying he was fine because he was not in the mood to talk about it at the time. He’s never in the mood to talk about Sirius in any capacity, but his wounds were fresh in that moment.
“You and James snogged?!” Barty stands from where he was sitting on his bed. His father was out on a business trip, so their usual group decided to spend their Saturday sitting here. Well, their usual group minus Remus, but that’s because he was currently on friendship probation in Regulus’ mind. “Why the fuck didn’t you say anything, Reg?! That’s a big fuckin’ deal!”
Regulus shrugs, suddenly hating that all the attention was on him. It made his stomach churn to feel so many eyes on him at once. “I didn’t really want to talk about it. That’s what caused Sirius to blow up on me, he walked in on us.”
They’re all silent for a few moments, most likely processing the information Regulus had just leaked. Evan never stopped gawking, and Pandora’s smile only grew wider. She looks up, her dark eyes wide as they make contact with Regulus’. “Is he a good kisser?”
“Christ, Pan, you can’t just ask that!” Evan shoves his sister but promptly breaks into laughter. “You might cause Reggie here to explode.”
“Evan, I will hit you if you call me that dumb nickname again,” Regulus threatens, but it’s empty. He had gotten used to his group of friends teasing him with the nickname Barty had given him when they were barely out of diapers.
“Well, Reg, is James a good kisser?” Barty asks, a teasing smirk pulling at his lips. “I’m dying to know.”
“This wasn’t supposed to be about me and James! This was supposed to be about Remus being a traitor and Sirius being a fucking thief!” Regulus changes the subject the best he can, but his friend’s knowing stares show that he failed miserably at his goal. “Yes, James Potter is the best kisser I’ve ever kissed and it was incredibly hot. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“Woah, woah, wait,” Barty sticks his hands out, signing for Regulus to stop. “The best kisser you’ve ever kissed? Does that mean–?”
“Someone’s beaten our drunken love affair, Bartemius,” Regulus stared, unimpressed as his friend gasps dramatically, placing a hand over his heart. “Honestly, Remus was better than you, too.”
“That’s because no one can compete with Remus John Lupin, so he doesn’t count,” Evan chimes in from his spot on the bed, now leaning sleepily against his sister. Barty and Pandora nod in agreement, because it’s true. Everyone in this room has had a drunken snog session with their eldest friend, and they all agreed on one thing. Until now.
“He might be in second place now,” Regulus bites his lip, staring at the floorboards of Barty’s bedroom. Genuine gasps filled the room, and Regulus had to hold back a laugh as he looked up to observe his friend’s faces. “I’m not joking!”
“Babe, we’ve got to snog Potter,” Barty turns to Evan, who nods vigorously in agreement. Regulus rolls his eyes.
“I’d really rather you not,” Regulus huffs out a laugh through his nose. “Can I please have this one thing over you guys?”
“I could always ask Lily how he is at kissing,” Pandora says calmly, back to playing with the long strands of plaited hair. “They did have that small thing a couple of years ago.”
“Oh, I remember that,” Barty nods, taking back his place on the bed, much to Evan’s excitement. “Reg was miserable.”
“Yeah, please do not remind me,” Regulus moves to sit on a beanbag chair that he claimed to be his when Barty first got it five years ago. “That was before he even came out, so I was really just grabbing at air back then. It was really embarrassing.”
“But look at you now! Shoving your tongue down his throat and such!” Evan claps, a stupidly wide grin on his face. “Good on you, mate!”
“It’s not going to happen again,” Regulus dismisses, waving a hand in the air. “Potter was drunk, so he was looking for a quick fuck. He just got caught before he could go through with it.”
“Would you have let it go that far?” Pandora asks, shifting to cross one leg over the other. “I mean, from what I understand, you were also intoxicated, but surely you were sober enough to–”
“I wouldn’t have let him do anything like that,” Regulus shakes his head. “Just because I like him doesn’t mean I’d take advantage of him like that.”
“Well, if he ever wants to shag you while sober, let me know if he’s better at that, too,” Barty grumbles, crossing his arms.
“He won’t,” Regulus shakes his head, choosing to look down at his hands. “We haven’t talked about it, and I don’t want to talk about it. It won’t happen again, and that’s that.”
There’s silence from everyone around him, which makes him think that they all agree. It makes sense, though. How could someone as straightforward and perfect as James ever want to actually be with Regulus, who was the exact opposite. If he couldn’t make his own brother stay, how would be able to make his replacement actually like him?
“You should get a tattoo,” Barty blurts, causing Regulus to snap his eyes up at him, very confused.
“I’m not old enough,” Regulus states blankly. “We’ve been over this a million times.”
“Well, I got a tattoo gun with my emergency card, so I think we’re covered when it comes to age,” Barty smirks, scooting off of his bed to grab at something under his bed. Low and behold, inside a dingey shoebox, sat a tattoo gun and tons of other supplies.
“Do you know how to use that thing?” Regulus tilts his head, glancing to Evan who looks like he’s about to pounce as soon as Barty lifts his shirt, revealing many small tattoos, along with a freshly pierced belly button. “Okay, that’s actually the hottest thing you’ve ever done.”
“I know,” Barty smirks, looking over at Evan, then back at Regulus. “I say the four of us get matching tattoos, and then give one to Remus when he’s allowed back in.”
Regulus nods, running a hand over his clothes stomach. “One more thing, too.”
***
“He still hasn’t said a word to you?” James asks Remus, who shakes his head side to side as a response. James groans in annoyance, falling sideways to lay on Peter’s lap. “He hates me. That’s the only explanation for any of this.”
“Yeah, it has nothing to do with Black family members not being to express their emotions,” Peter rolled his eyes, then smirking after Sirius scoffs at him.
“I’ll let you know that I asked Remus to be my boyfriend,” Sirius stick his nose in the air.
“Yeah, and that took you how many years of hooking up?” Peter retorts and James can’t help but laugh. No matter how proud he was of his best friend for finally admitting to his feelings for Remus–which seemed ridiculous because they were clearly mutual–it would never not be funny to him how long they took to get together. The pining was ridiculous.
Remus was about to say something, presumably to defend his boyfriend, but then got distracted by a notification on his phone. It wasn’t a normal notification noise; it was Barty screaming for three seconds. Regulus and Evan have notification sounds like that too, and they never fail to make James smile. Remus claims to hate it, but his laugh betrays him every time.
As he opens the text, his smiling suddenly falls into a stunned gape, his jaw falling so fast James is convinced it could’ve hit the floor. Sirius, noticing his boyfriend’s change in demeanor, grabs the phone and is now, also, gaping. James’ eyebrows lace together in concern.
“Is everything okay?” James pushes himself up from Peter’s legs, sticking his hand out, showing that he wanted to see whatever was causing so much shock. When Sirius hands him the phone, James nearly drops it and he can feel his heartbeat quicken.
The message reads: missed you today, sexy. we all got blasted and decided to have some fun with needles. show glasses if you’re with him ;)
Below the message is seven pictures; the first three are tattoos done on Pandora, Evan, and Barty. It was all the same design–just a small heart with an ‘S’ in the center. The last four pictures, though, made James’ brain melt into goop, and he was sure said goop would be falling out of his ears at any point. He was gone.
The first picture was the same little heart as everyone else. It was placed on the inside of his upper arm, so it would be easy to hide unless you were looking for it. James assumes that this is so Walburga doesn’t see it, which is smart. One can only imagine what would happen if she saw something like that on her son.
The second picture was of one right above his hipbone, a sight that could kill James in a heartbeat by itself. The ink there, though, was a sloppily done cat’s face, angry eyebrows above the dots that were its eyes, and a tongue sticking out of the mouth. It was adorable and a perfect representation of Regulus.
The third picture was of a small star behind his ear, which was another easy one to hide from his mother since he had decided to grow his hair out the slightest bit this year. It was very cute, and Regulus’ side profile was visible in the picture, along with the bright grin painted on his face. James’ heart melted right then and there. He had never seen a smile so genuine on Regulus’ lips, and he stared at Regulus’ lips a lot more than the average person.
Then, when he scrolls to the last picture, he nearly faints. Regulus stands completely shirtless next to Barty, who's holding Regulus’ face in his hands and posing like he’s going to lick the side of it. The pose itself would make James laugh if it weren’t for the piece of silver jewelry hanging from Regulus’ navel. The top part of the ring was just a silver ball, but the bottom part was a silver Playboy bunny. James should have a reward for not passing out right then and there.
“Stop ogling at my baby brother!” Sirius snatches the phone from James’ hands.
“Tell your baby brother to stop being so hot!” James protested, aiming a hand at the phone, then instantly regretting his words as Sirius launched a pillow at his face. He caught it easily but wasn’t able to even dodge the second one that came flying at him.
“I can’t believe they did that without me there,” Remus frowns a little, zooming in on the matching tattoos in another picture James hadn’t seen where they’re all lined up to show the ink off together.
“What’s the ‘S’ for?” Sirius asks, cocking an eyebrow while rubbing a hand up and down Remus’ arm to comfort him.
“Skittles,” Remus answers quickly with a small smile. “That’s, like, our thing. We’re a group of raging gay people.”
“That’s actually hilarious,” Peter smiles widely, now wanting to see the pictures. Remus hands him the phone, then goes back to frowning.
“It’s okay, Moony, they just knew you were busy today. I’m sure if you ask Barty about it, they’ll give you a matching one, too,” James sent him a reassuring smile. Remus gives a small smile back and nods.
“Except yours can stand for me,” Sirius smiles widely before leaning in and planting a quick kiss on Remus’ lips. This seems to fully cheer the taller boy up because his grin lights up the room afterward. Sirius leans his head on the brunette’s shoulder. “I can’t believe Reggie got ink done before me! That’s not fair.”
“I bet you could pay Barty to give you one, too,” Remus nudged his shoulder and Sirius just shrugged.
“Rem, you got another message,” Peter says with a smug smirk as he hands the phone to its owner. Remus tilts his head bringing the phone a bit closer to his face in order to read the text. Then, he bursts into laughter.
“What?” Sirius sits up, leaning in a certain way, attempting to read whatever was on the screen. “What is it?”
Remus tilts the screen toward Sirius, letting him read it, and his eyebrows shoot up. He looks between James and Remus rather pointedly and James prepares to catch another pillow. It never comes, though, and Sirius snatches the phone from Remus’ hand to show it to James and Peter.
-also, reg says that someone’s finally beat you at snogging. i can only imagine who he may be talking about *cough* GLASSES *cough*
James’s eyes widen at yet another one of Barty’s messages to Remus. This one feels like it shouldn’t have been shared, but if Remus showed them, then it must’ve been fine. James is too busy focusing on the fact that Regulus liked his ‘snogging skills’ for a few moments before the other part of that message processes in his brain.
“You’ve snogged Regulus?!” James and Sirius blurt out at the same time, and suddenly Pete is laughing and James is helping his best friend chase Remus around the living room of his home.