Direct From The Hospital
When he comes back to himself, there's a hand firmly holding his arm. With blurry eyes, he vaguely saw the shape of a man in front of him. His ears finally let the rush of blood fall and tune in to reality again, he then realizes his headphone had fallen off.
"Hey, it's alright. You're alright... just breathe with me for a minute, okay?"
Regulus nods and closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, feeling the stranger's hand on his shoulder and soon enough, the panic begins to subside, replaced by a sense of exhaustion, he slumps himself over his knees, vaguely realizing that he's sat on the ground. He looks around confused.
"Where am I?"
The man speaks awkwardly, "Uhm, I'm part of the staff, kind of. This is the security room. I thought you'd be more comfortable coming back without everyone crowding over you."
Regulus nods sighing deeply. "Thank you. I have to go back now." He grumbles getting up from the floor, the man stumbles to get up.
"Uhm, the meet and greet was actually postponed?"
Regulus' head snaps up so fast he almost hits the guy in the face. His chest starts constricting again. "I— I have to meet Sirius. I came all the way from England to do this. I can't not go." Regulus retorts upset. His hands wringing with the front of his shirt. His displeasure makes the stranger wince.
"I'm really sorry, uh... I didn't catch your name." The stranger awkwardly rubs his nape, as if embarrassed.
Regulus was a blubbering mess on the floor not two minutes ago and this guy is the one embarrassed? He opens his mouth to answer but stumbles over his words as he eyes the man up and down and damn, this guy has pretty eyes.
"My name is Regulus." He responds pointedly looking away from expressive brown eyes as they lit up. His cheeks are uncomfortably warm. What the fuck.
"I'm James! Nice to meet you!" He bows, he bows. Like a 1900's gentleman. What the fuck is going on!? As his intendedly funny greeting is followed by a stretch of silence, James returns from his bow clearing his throat in embarrassment. "Hey, uh. Meeting Sirius is like, really important to you, obviously. So, uhm. Maybe you'd be interested in coming to his next show...? I have M&G tickets to the next one." The man— James, smiles brightly and Regulus is astounded.
"Are you offering me a ticket?" James nods enthusiastically, Regulus stares at him, eyes full of suspicion. "Why?" He demands, instinctivelly remembering his promise to Evan that he wasn't being kidnapped. Well, he's not so sure now. He slowly back away from James.
James' eyes widen, "I'm not a weirdo! I swear! It's just, I feel bad about you missing your chance. And the person who was going with me had a baby, so..."
Regulus stares.
"Ok." He ends up saying. Which was not at all what he wanted to say, but the way James' face lights up takes the air out of his lungs.
"Ah, I forgot to mention, but I'll be driving there, if you don't wanna waste money getting a plane ticket, you could go with me!"
Oh sure, yeah, let's drive for almost 47 hours with a stranger to see my estranged brother and tell him I'm trans. Why not?
"I'll pay for half the gas bill."
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"Are you sure you know how to drive?" Regulus nervously holds the arm rest.
There's music blasting on the radio, it's not loud, but it's a bit overwhelming, more so with James' driving abilities.
The car swerves to the right again.
"I'm just a bit rusty, okay? And I'm really not that bad of a driver!" He protests, a car honks at them and James winces.
"I'm gonna throw up if you keep making curves that don't exist James!" He warns, feeling nauseous.
James pulls over at a gas station. They're not even forty minutes into their road trip and they're already stopping... This was gonna be a long drive.
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"—gulus. Regulus, wake up. Let's eat something." He blinks awake, James smiles at him pointing forwards to the restaurant.
"Ugh." He whines getting out of the car, phone and wallet in hands. "I'm starving."
"I imagine, you almost slept through the morning." James snickered walking beside him to the building.
Sitting by a window, they look over the menu, soon there's a waitress by their table.
"Morning! What can I get you two?"
James makes his order. Bacon burger, french fries and a soda. The waitress smiles, writing it down and looking at Regulus.
He looks at the menu again. "Fish sticks with a side of french fries and a lemonade." He puts it down looking outside the window. The girl takes the menus back before disappearing to the back.
"You okay?" James asks nervously fidgeting with a paper napkin. Regulus hums, feeling too tired to answer properly. "Wanna watch something while waiting? I have a few streaming platforms on my phone." He offers his phone.
Regulus's head tilts forward, relatively paying attention as James slides his phone to him. He catches his brown eyes. They're warm, warmer so with the dimple showing with his soft smile.
This is a battle he's not going to win, and he's not talking about the phone.
His hands swipes the phone grumpily. He looks for his favorite show and happily settles to watch it, he pretends not to see James' satisfied smirk and pointedly ignores the blush on his own cheeks.
The waitress returns with their food a few minutes later and they go straight to eating. Regulus doesn't even notice that he's finished eating, he just blinks and looks at his empty plate. He's startled at not seeing James in front of him but easily settled as he saw him at the cashier, paying.
Embarrassed, he quickly gathers their things and speed walks to James' side. The man smiles at him again. Why does he smile so much!?
"Sorry, I'll pay you my half back." He grumbles as they're getting it off the restaurant.
"Nah, it's fine. You were pretty focused, and didn't wanna bother you." James shrugs getting into the car. Regulus sighs deeply, a slight smile played on his lips as he circled the car.
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"I'm bored." James whines loudly. They've been out of reach to any radio station and James had not been coping well without music.
"Well, we could play some games." Regulus offers with uncertainty.
James hums, fingers tapping on the wheel. He gasps excited. "Let's play 20 questions!" Regulus shrugs.
"Okay. What's your favorite number?"
"Four!" James answers, almost bouncing out of his seat. "Who'd you pick to eat your favorite food with?"
Regulus snorts. "Cissa. She hates macaroni."
James goodness at him confused. "Then why'd you invite her?"
Regulus ignores him. "If you were famous, what would you be famous for?" He asks.
James expression falters, a flash of something passing through his face. He laughs nervously. "Probably dancing. What would be a perfect day for you?"
The game lasted for about fifteen more minutes before it was forgotten. Regulus felt his throat drying up, he never felt so comfortable talking to anyone else, excluding Cissa and Lucius-
"Oh, shit!" he cursed loudly startling James who screamed in fright swerving back on the road.
"What!? What happened!?" He screamed frightened as he watched Regulus diving through his bag and pulling out a phone.
"I forgot to text Cissa!" He explains frantically tapping a message for her and one for Lucius as well. "Damn, they're never gonna let me travel by myself again." He mourns as he receives a few instant and strongly worded texts back.
"You call your parents by their names?" James asks bemused. Regulus quirks an eyebrow.
"I don't have parents. They're my cousins. I mean, Narcissa is my cousin, and Lucius is married to her." He explains shrugging and texting Lucius of the new developments of his trip. "They took me in when I was 15 or 16, I think."
"Oh, sorry about your parents." He answers apologetic.
Regulus backtracks quickly. "Oh, no! They're not dead. Just... Not around."
"Oh." There's a few seconds of silence before James quirks up. "You never told me your age."
Regulus glances at him, carefully to not let a smirk show as he innocently says: "I'm seventeen."
James whips his head at him in terror.
Regulus' belly hurts from laughing so hard. "I'm sorry! Im sorry but I couldn't resist!"
"Mate, Don't joke about that, oh my god!" James yelled annoyed. Regulus snickered.
"Worried for a second there, huh? Don't worry, I'm fully 19." He jokes, James glares at him for a second before rolling his eyes. "Maybe next time, ask someone's age before inviting them to cross borders."
"You're so annoying." He whimpers pouting.
Regulus giggles and checks back in his texts, immediately cringing.
Lucius Hair
YOU WHAT?
REG
STRANGER DANGER!?!!!?!!!
I SWEAR I TAUGHT YOU BETTER
dw, he's a good guy
HAVE YOU WATCHED ANY TRUE CRIME?!
you're gonna mAKE ME BALD BEFORE DRACO IS EVEN BORN
I don't deserve this
Stop that, he's nice
Regulus bites his lips thinking, a playful smirk spreads on his face as he hits record and points the phone towards James' face who flinches looking startled.
"Uhm, what?" He awkwardly glances between the phone, Regulus and the road.
"I'm recording a video to show Lucius that I'm not gonna be murdered. Say hi, James." James blushes stuttering before nodding at the camera as awkward as he could possibly can.
"Hi, Mr. Lucius."
Regulus snorts, and stops recording.
"Hi, Mr. Lucius" Regulus imitates him in a high pitch voice.
"Well, I don't know his last name, do I?" James moans embarrassed.
"It's Malfoy."
"Malfoy, huh? Sounds very posh of you." James smirks but Regulus only laughs it off.
"Pfff, it's french. Anyways, what about you? Any family?"
"Oh, yeah! I'vo got a lot of family in India." He starts excitedly. "I, myself, was born in Brazil while my parents were on vacation. Then they decided to not go back home after that. My mom wanted me to have a simple name while my dad wanted to name me after his gradfather. They fought about it for days until they decided to compromise." He snickers to himself, Regulus' attention completely on him. Fondness erupts throught James as he remembers his parents laughing as they told him this story. "James Raidev, sounds kinda strange at first, I know." His smile falters for a bit.
"I think it sounds nice. Better than Regulus Arcturus." James huffs a laugh. The silence stretches confortably, but Regulus feels addicted, he wants to hear more of James' voice. He wants to know everything he can about him. "Does your mother know you run around inviting strangers to road trips often?"
It's apparently the right thing to ask as James whole face lights up and he begins waxing poetry about his mother. Wanting to hear more about James' family felt like rubbing salt on his own wounds, but Regulus could not stop smiling.