chasing fortune and fame

James went to both concerts that weekend. He could have gone to a thousand and not gotten bored of seeing Sirius perform. James remembered when Sirius was playing shows with only a few thousand people. James had been there for every song, every hardship, and every moment. He had seen the blood and the sweat and the tears that had gone into Sirius’ career, and it had all paid off. 

He ruminated on this as he sat on one of the uncomfortable seats at his gate at four in the evening. James had one layover and would arrive at Ithaca, where Cornell was, around three in the morning. He could get a few hours of rest in his hotel room, and then he would have to get to work. James tried not to think about this too much. He would just get some sleep on the plane and drink a lot of coffee in the morning. 

While rummaging through his bag for his headphones, James’ phone began to ring in his pocket. He glanced at the screen to find Effie calling and quickly picked up. “Hi, mom. What’s up?” he asked, abandoning his search for his headphones. 

“Monty, James answered.” Effie’s voice was slightly blurred, so James knew she was screaming over her shoulder to her husband on the other side of the house. “Sweetheart, how are you?” 

Smiling inwardly, James shook his head, fighting laughter. “I’m just sitting at my gate, waiting for my flight. How’s Dad?” he asked, hearing Monty’s loud footsteps as they came down the stairs. 

“I’m just fine, beta. There was this sale at the art store in town, and I got all these new paints. I can’t wait to show you,” Monty beamed, as excited as James remembered him being about his art every time he spoke about it. 

His dad had a career that James’ grandparents had approved of, which was that of a doctor. Monty had his own practice as a pediatrician, so James had never managed to get out of school by pretending to be sick. Throughout all of Monty’s life, even the million years of medical school he went through, his love for painting had never wavered. He very proudly made all of the artwork around their house, and Effie, a brilliant photographer, had taken every picture displayed. She had also had a “real” job. She had been a big-time lawyer at a very prestigious firm in a big city, but when she got pregnant with James in her mid-thirties, she and Monty decided to move into the suburbs. 

Effie had started her own firm, and Monty had begun his own practice in the town they moved to. Throughout James’ childhood, he saw how they balanced their jobs, their passions, and their roles as parents. They had done it so well. It was why they had insisted on James having a college education and a cushy job. They had wanted him to leave soccer as a hobby. Both of them had done it. They had gotten respectful jobs and kept their passions as hobbies, but James was an all-or-nothing type of person. It was either playing soccer fully or leaving it behind, and there was no world in which he would have chosen to leave it behind. However, he supposed, there was at least one where he was forced to. 

“That’s amazing, Dad. Do you have any new pieces yet?” James asked, moving his phone so that he could press it against his other ear to enable him to close his backpack and sling it over his shoulder. Groups one and two had already started boarding. He was in group three. 

“I’m working on one right now. I think you’ll like it,” his father answered, and James could hear the smile in his voice. 

“How did Sirius’ concert go?” Effie asked eagerly. 

James’ parents were coming with him to the three shows in New York. Unfortunately, as much as James wanted to, he couldn’t attend all of Sirius’ concerts. The next ones he’d attend would be the ones in New York. Effie and Monty were making a trip out of it. They would do all the touristy things, and James would show them around his favorite places. If Minerva would allow him, he would even bring them to set. His parents were overjoyed when James told them he had the role, and they wanted to hear everything and know everything happening with Chasing the Stars. 

“It was absolutely amazing. He was brilliant, and everyone else thought so, too. The crowd loved him, and the articles raving about how it’s the best tour of the year have been rolling out since yesterday,” James boosted in honor of his best friend. 

“Tell him congratulations from us then. We can’t wait to see him ourselves,” Monty said proudly. 

“Oh, he’s been telling everyone about how his son is on tour,” Effie chuckled. 

After laughing so hard he had to catch his breath, Monty spoke. “They’re all so confused or think Sirius is on some two-show tour around the city.” 

“Well, of course, they do; you never tell them his name,” Effie pointed out, and James couldn’t help but smile as he listened to his parents bicker in the way they had done since he could remember. 

“Perhaps that’s it,” Monty sighed. “So, James, how’s your big, flashy movie going?” 

On his weekly calls with his parents, James had told them about many of his cast members. He had told them how he joked around with Frank. He had told them how Alice forced him to promise that he would watch the Star Wars movies and how he had even spoken to her sister, who had practically fainted, over a video call. He may or may not have promised to coach her a bit if they were ever in the same city. He had told his parents about Barty’s flirting and the way Evan told stories, which he had heard on the first bus ride to set. However, he had failed to tell them about Regulus’ dislike of him. He didn’t know why, but it was a work in progress. He was sure by the time he told his parents about it, Regulus would no longer hate him because he had made Regulus at least tolerate him at that point. 

The person on the intercom told James that his group was beginning to board. “It’s going great, Dad. Listen, I’m boarding now, and it’ll be late when I land, so I’ll call you back tomorrow evening,” he promised, and after hurried goodbyes, hung up the phone. 

A man at the end of the line to boarding scanned James’ ticket and allowed him to continue forward. James walked through the tunnel that led to the plane’s door. He said hello to the flight attendant standing there and made his way to his business-class seat. The first-class seats had been beyond expensive, and just because James had money didn’t mean he was just going to waste it. Besides, he only got business class because there was more legroom, and James’ legs were long enough to warrant the extra cost. Especially with his injury, sitting in a cramped space wouldn’t do any good to him, and he was trying to sleep on this flight. 

His seat was in the last row of business class, so there was less space to lean his chair back, but he hoped the rolled-over sleep debt from the past few days would allow him to sleep anyway. Standing in the space in front of his seat, he pulled out his headphones and charger and set them on the chair. After helping an older woman put her bag up in the compartments, he did the same with his backpack. With a relieved sigh, he sat in his chair and put his headphones in. 

Thirty minutes later, they were finally taking off. James had only half listened to the safety instructions to make sure they hadn’t changed since the last time he had heard them. During his soccer days, he had been on many flights and traveled to many places. He knew the safety procedures on an aircraft like the back of his hand, but he checked where the exits were just in case of an emergency. 

Once the seat belt sign had turned off, James leaned his seat back as far as it would go and began attempting to sleep. It was best to try to get as much as he could because the quality would be very poor. He had forgotten to bring his noise-canceling headphones, so he was stuck using his old, wired headphones. 

Just as he was about to drift asleep, there was a wail, then another, and at the third one. He was forced to turn around to see through the small gap in curtains what would confirm his suspicions. A crying baby was in the row behind him, and that baby cried the entire flight. James couldn’t get one single second of sleep with the child crying behind him. 

His layover was only about an hour long, which only gave him enough time to find his gate and buy an overpriced sandwich. He thought he had caught a break on his second flight, but right behind him, there were two people engrossed in conversation that he couldn’t tune out for the life of him. James didn’t let himself fall asleep in his cab, so when he reached his hotel around three thirty in the morning, he didn’t even have enough energy to change into his pajamas. He forgot to brush his teeth, put his phone in the charger, and, worst of all, set his alarm. 

* * *

A knock on the door turned into thuds, assaulting the wood, fairly quickly. He rubbed at his eyes as he sat up on the white sheets that he was still lying on top of. He had never actually turned off the lights inthe room. The knocks at the door showed no sign of stopping, so he groaned and forced himself out of bed to open the door. 

Behind the wood stood what James assumed was a hallucination because there was no way on Earth that Regulus Black was behind that door. James dragged a hand down his face and opened his eyes to try to make the image of Regulus go away. However, when he opened his eyes again, Regulus still stood there, looking up at James in what he liked to think was disbelief before his expression turned into nonchalance once more. 

“Well, you look like Hell,” Regulus said simply as a form of greeting. 

James still had to blink a couple of times to make sure Regulus was actually in front of him, and he wasn’t dreaming. He figured that Regulus would have been nicer to him in James’ dreams. After all, they were his dreams.

“Thanks,” James responded slowly, glancing down the hotel’s hallway as if an answer was waiting for him there. “Sorry, but why are you here?” 

Regulus smirked in a way that told James he was either about to be embarrassed or panicked, and he didn’t know which one it would be. “Have you checked your phone yet?” he asked, not letting any emotion into his voice. 

His gaze narrowed in suspicion immediately. “What’s on my phone?” He was almost scared to hear the answer. 

“The time.” 

The words took only a second to settle upon James. He practically sprinted into the room, forgetting to close the door, and grabbed his phone from the couch where it read 7:14, which meant he was late. On his fourth day of filming, he was unbelievably late. Now, James had never been good at math, but if a=b, and b=c, then a=c. So if Regulus was there, and James was late, Regulus was late. 

Throwing his suitcase on the bed so he could get something to wear, James only paused for a second to look up at Regulus, who had let himself into James’ room and was sitting in the armchair that every hotel had in the corner. He was scrolling on his phone without a care in the world, and while, admittedly, James didn’t know much about Regulus, he knew he wasn’t the type to disregard being thirty minutes late somewhere. 

“You’re late, too. Why are you still here?” he asked on his way to the bathroom. He threw his clothes on the counter and turned the shower on so he could take the quickest shower of his life. James moved back into the room only to see Regulus still on his phone. “Hey?” 

Regulus looked up slowly with a dry expression. “What?” It was fairly obvious by everything about him that he could not care less about what James was saying. 

“Why are you here? You’re late.” 

“That’s rich coming from the reason we’re late,” Regulus responded, and James really didn’t have time for his games. After a second of James’ silence, Regulus continued. “We’re driving ourselves. Minerva agreed to lend her car, but she only trusted me to drive it. So, unfortunately, here I am with you.” 

Rolling his eyes, James went back into the bathroom, took a two-minute shower, and put on his clothes. He would change into his costume once he got to set, and he hoped that Ben wouldn’t be too mad at how his hair was looking. He usually put more effort into maintaining his waves and making sure they didn’t look as wild as they did now. James made sure his hair looked messy and effortless, but only in the way that effort could achieve.

He practically fell out of the bathroom, out of breath from sprinting only the necessary parts of his morning routine. “Let’s go,” he breathed, but Regulus didn’t look even the slightest amount in a hurry. 

“You still look like Hell,” Regulus pointed out as he stood up, looking James up and down in a way that made him think perhaps he should have taken more than a second’s thought on choosing his clothing. 

James sputtered through the beginning of a sentence he didn’t even know how to start and gave up trying to say anything. Instead, he pushed Regulus out the door, and, surprisingly, he went along with it and moved into the hallway. James tapped his pockets to make sure he had his hotel key card, phone, and wallet as they moved into the elevator. Leaning to press the button to the ground floor, James caught a peak of Regulus’ expression. 

“What?” James asked, his eyebrows raised, not knowing what to expect. 

When it came to Regulus, James rarely knew what to expect. Actually, he had never known. It was difficult getting Regulus to at least tolerate him when Regulus seemed not to like any part of him. He had tried to be approachable. He had tried to be charismatic. He had tried to joke. He had tried to ask Regulus questions about himself because people loved to talk about themselves; James knew this. But every rule and its exception, and Regulus was the exception to every rule James lived by. He was the exception to every rule James knew to be fact. 

Regulus laughed, and James couldn’t decide whether it was amused in a friendly or detrimental way. “It’s just funny how you would be every pickpocket's dream target,” Regulus explained, leaving James stunned. 

“I’m sorry?” he chuckled, unsure if he should have been offended or on his knees laughing. 

The elevator doors opened, and Regulus walked out of them without giving James an answer, which he should have realized would have happened. Regulus didn’t look back to make sure James was following, so it was up to him to make sure he was keeping up. James nodded hello to the lady at the front desk and blindly followed him to Minerva’s car. 

James had no idea which car was hers until Regulus unlocked it with the keys, and the lights flashed. Regulus got into the driver’s seat, and James was only a little surprised when he didn’t have to ask Regulus to unlock the passenger’s side doors. Minerva’s car was neat, and James couldn’t find a speck of dust anywhere. He wondered if it was always this neat or if she had just gotten it recently cleaned. There was a discarded cardigan with sewn poppies on the sleeve that James could make out, and a small, plushie, grey tabby cat was hanging from the rearview mirror. 

As Regulus pulled out of the parking lot, James recalled their previous conversation and figured this was as good a time as any to try to get Regulus to talk to him. “So Minerva trusted you to drive,” he trailed off, signaling that Regulus should give him an explanation as to why she had chosen him. But he either missed or ignored that signal because he stayed silent. “Do you know why she picked you?” 

“Because I’m one of the few of us who have licenses, she’s known me the longest, and I’ve never been in an accident,” Regulus replied quickly and fell silent again. 

Most of the cast lived in New York, so they rarely needed licenses, but James couldn’t figure out why Regulus had his license. He was successful enough that he could have had a personal driver, and, as internet stalking had informed him, Regulus had moved straight to New York, specifically to Columbia, from France. James might have asked about this had he not fallen asleep by the second red light. 

James jolted awake at the car stopping abruptly. He opened his eyes to find Regulus already getting out of the car. James hastily got out of his seat and hurried behind Regulus, who was walking toward the set at a normal pace. While James knew he really shouldn’t have been running with his injury, as Regulus had pointed out before, he still jogged behind Regulus until he had caught up with him. 

“Why aren’t we running?” James questioned, knowing they were only a little under an hour late now. 

It was enough for everyone to get mad at them. They both had scenes to shoot from the beginning of the morning into the evening, many of which were together. By the time they got out of hair and makeup, they would be over an hour and a half late. Honestly, James was disappointed in himself for being late, perhaps even angry. He couldn’t imagine how angry everyone else would be at him for holding them up. 

“Because you can’t run,” Regulus said, matter of fact, without even looking at James. 

“But we’re late,” James pointed out. “We should be shooting by now. Why don’t you care more?” 

“Do you always ask this many questions?” Regulus sighed, rolled his eyes, then continued. “We wouldn’t have been shooting by now, even if we weren’t late.” 

James stopped dead in his tracks and fully considered that perhaps he was just that tired and had forgotten what time they started filming. Yes, they were due at set by seven most days, but they started filming around eight. It was already past eight in the morning, so they should have started filming. 

“No, we would be,” James denied because he knew he was right. “It’s after eight.”

“I see you’ve forgotten about the breakfast they insist on having at the beginning of every week to promote the cast getting to know each other,” Regulus said as if he couldn’t think of one place he wanted to be less. 

“Wait.” James grabbed Regulus’ shoulder, forcing him to turn back and stand in place. This was the first time Regulus met James’ eye since the hotel room. “You’re telling me you let me run around like a goose with its head chopped off while it really didn’t matter if we got here in ten minutes or forty?” 

“It’s chicken.”

“What?” 

“The expression is a chicken with its head chopped off, not a goose,” Regulus corrected, only fierceness in his eyes. James only continued to stare at Regulus. “Fine, I did. Now, get your hand off of me,” he ordered, and the words came out so intimidating that James couldn’t help but let go. 

Without another word, Regulus turned around and began walking to one of the white tents set up on the lawn. James didn’t even bother catching up with him this time. He was just too tired. He needed to find a cup of coffee, or perhaps three, just to live through the day. Inside the tent were heaters in every corner, a table of food that was only half filled, and a long table in the middle filled with cast members James had gotten along with well by now. Minerva sat at the head of the table, where Regulus already was, tossing her the keys. 

Frank was the first person to approach James, clapping a hand on his shoulder with a wide smile. “Now, where have you been, Jedi?” Frank asked, leading James to the food table, for which he was eternally grateful. 

Piling food onto his plate, James lowered his voice. “I was in Houston. A friend of mine was playing a show there,” he explained. “I got to the hotel around three in the morning and forgot to set my alarm.” 

It wasn’t that James was in any way ashamed of Sirius or that people didn’t know that they were best friends, but he tried not to advertise it in situations like these. While James knew that Frank wouldn’t use him to get concert tickets or get close to Sirius, he couldn’t be too reckless about it. There had been moments when James found people only wanting to get close to him because of his connections. He supposed much of life was networking, but that wasn’t networking, that was using people. James would never outright lie about if he had been with Sirius or if he knew him, but he wouldn’t mention it either. This was his place of work now, and as much as he loved Sirius, Sirius had nothing to do with his work. 

Grabbing a piece of watermelon from a bowl, Frank looked over his shoulder to where Regulus was standing. “So that’s why you showed up with Regulus.”

“Yeah, he woke me up by almost bashing in my door,” James laughed, setting his plate down at an empty seat at the long table to get a large cup of coffee. 

“Not a particularly friendly face to wake up to, I bet,” Frank chuckled, and James knew he didn’t intend it in a mean way. He had never actually heard anyone on the cast say anything bad about Regulus or Regulus say anything bad about them, which made him wonder if Regulus’ dislike for him was unique to James. 

“I don’t know. I just get the sense that he doesn’t like me very much,” James spoke quietly as Frank sat beside him in a vacant chair. 

Frank leaned in closer to James so he could talk quietly. Everyone around them was deeply engrossed in their own conversations, but you could never be too careful. “Between you and me, I don’t think he really likes anyone, save for Evan and Barty,” Frank whispered. 

James shook his head because there was obviously something else going on other than the fact that Regulus had an aversion to people. “Still, he definitely dislikes me more than anyone else here,” James pressed on, taking a large sip of his coffee. 

“Did you do anything to him?” 

Shaking his head again, James took a bite of the sandwich he had made. “I don’t think so. The first moment we met, he already hated me.” 

Looking back to where Regulus was now talking with Barty and Evan, Frank tilted his head as if trying to think of a reason why but couldn’t find one. “Well, I wouldn’t stress about it too much. If it’s important, it’ll come out at some point. Besides, there’s not much more you can do than to show him you’re not too bad of a person,” Frank advised as James ate the breakfast he thanked his lucky stars for. He didn’t know how he thought he would have made it until midday when they served lunch without food. 

“Thanks. I always appreciate it when someone thinks I’m not too bad,” James laughed, but he decided to take Frank’s words to heart. 

All James could come up with as a reason why Regulus had automatically not liked him was because of his lack of experience, but they were working with college students, and Regulus seemed just fine with them. Even if it wasn’t that, James was going to bust his ass off making this movie the best he could. After all, this was his life now. He wanted to make a name for himself as an actor and to do that, he needed to work for it. Making Regulus like him was just a bonus, but only one he could get if he accomplished what seemed impossible.