Chapter 1
Well he was definitely not getting any sleep tonight.
Fuck.
A dark figure swung between two skyscrapers, and if one looked closely, they could spot a flash of a brand new walkman hanging onto the person’s hip (not that anyone would focus on the device over a literal person in the sky). It almost fell off as he flew around the Big Ben, above the groups of people in various states of drunk — and, well, more drunk — coming back from their night outs.
He ended up sitting down on the very top, watching the starless sky, overpowered by thousands of lights across London, still deep in a Sunday night slumber. The feeling of peace was soon interrupted by a loud scream. Down on the ground, a drunk woman started yelling and then laughing about it to her friends who joined along.
Tourists just never have a rest, do they ? He rolled his eyes under the mask. All the yelling and screaming and laughing soon got into his head, forcing him to slowly stand up and get away from it. Upon looking at the time though, he cursed under his breath.
Ah putain c’est pas possible.
Nonetheless, the screen of his wristwatch was uncompromising, ticking close to 4:55am.
Commuting back home has never been that fast. He knew it was a horrendously stupid idea to go on a night stroll, if you could call swinging between buildings for hours a stroll.
A sky trip? No, not that either, he’s not a fucking butterfly. Swooping? Now that’s just stupid..
By the time he gave up on making up a new name for his mysterious night outings, he was back by the window of his apartment, left slightly open as always, so he could shoot a web on the bottom of it and lift it up as quietly as possible. Everyday he got more and more grateful that his room wasn’t facing the street, otherwise his neighbours would catch onto what was going on really damn quick.
He climbed inside, forgetting about the window for a split second, making it close with a ridiculously loud noise.
Even my window is unnecessarily dramatic with the volume, give me a break?
After a quick shower and a change of clothes, he didn’t have it in him to look at the clock again, letting himself live in a short delusion in which he’s getting 8 hours of sleep (That hasn’t happened in 2 years, but a boy can dream, right? Right? ).
He closed his eyes and fell into a strange state of peace. Maybe he actually fell asleep, he wasn’t sure, but the morning came way too fast and brutal, with sun piercing through the windowright at his face.
Of course he forgot to close the blinds. This is starting just great.
He tried to shut his eyes again, silence the thoughts running through his head and go back to sleep, with no avail. At least he could let his face get warm in the sun, seemingly less aggressive now that he got used to it, and eventually, he began to drift off.
“Regulus? Regulus! Get up , we’re gonna be late!” His short lived rest was interrupted yet again, this time by his best friend, standing by the door with a guitar slung over her shoulder and disappointment on her face.
“Geez, good morning to you too,” Regulus grunted and stretched like a cat after a nap. He already felt the effect of getting basically no sleep coming in, like he got hit on the head with a double decker bus. The state of his hair, he couldn’t even think about yet; that was a future Regulus problem.
Dorcas rolled her eyes with a sigh. “Listen you sleep deprived sunshine, if you’ll be ready to go and be presentable in, let’s see…9,5 minutes, I’ll try my best to forget the fact that you went for a stroll outside in your suit again, in the middle of the fucking night, hours before the start of your semester. Copy that Reg?”
He slowly blinked, confused: “How did you-”
“-know you did that? I had my suspicions and all, yeah, but mostly, unless you have some terribly innovative window that opens and closes by itself, it had to be you who made it close so loud. N'est-ce pas vrai? ” she smiled to herself and marched out of the room.
“Just to let you know, I regret every second of teaching you French right now-”
“—9 minutes honey! You better lift your handsome ass up and get ready!” Dorcas yelled from the kitchen.
He was running across every room, first looking for his bag, then dancing clothes and so on. He even got handed a box of food at one point, not realising it or thanking Dorcas until much later that day. Getting ready ended up taking him a record of eight and a half minutes.
“See? I’m ready! So not a word about any night adventures, please .”
She smirked. “You know that there’s another type of night adventures you could use more of Reg—”
“Oh shut it, will you? Your thoughts are completely revolting. And I hate when you’re right.” Regulus sighed and finished tying his shoelaces. It wasn’t like he was against what his friend was suggesting, but talking to new people was definitely not his favourite pastime. The handful of friends he had all came to him in such particular situations he barely initiated a thing. They just picked him up with all his mood swings like an emo baby duckling and basically adopted him as the time went on.
Dorcas’ eyes went wide as saucers when she looked at the time again. “Oh bollocks— We have to go if we want to eat something before classes, as in right now , you ready?” He nodded and they finally rushed out to the street and into a frankly disgusting crowd of people. By the time they arrived at the sandwich shop, they were both drenched in sweat, but also caught up with the time they missed before.
Regulus looked around, until he spotted a familiar face with a scar right across, a head above everyone else in the room. He awkwardly waved in his direction. “Remus!”
“Oh! Hi Reg, and..?”
“Dorcas. Nice to finally meet you!” She smiled wide and stretched out her hand to him.
“Oh— right.” Remus anxiously wiped nonexistent dirt from his hands on his apron and shook her hand. “You’re the singer right? Nice to meet you too!” The corner of his mouth lifted into a small side smile.
“And you’re the bassist. And…a cook?”
“That would be me, yeah,” he chuckled. “More of the second than the first at the moment. Shit, that reminds me- what will you two be ordering?”
“Great, so you two don’t hate each other. I ‘ve one less thing to worry about then. And the usual please. I remain truly boring in that, lucky you.” Regulus looked at Dorcas who seemed overwhelmed by the two wide panels displaying the menu. He decided to take her out of her misery, since he knew her indecisiveness way too well and didn’t really want to stand there till noon. “She’ll have the same, but no tomatoes. And add milk to the coffee please, thanks.”
Remus nodded and rushed to the back of the shop.
“Oh gosh thanks, that would’ve taken forever.” Dorcas smiled and followed him to a table where he always sat.
Regulus was beginning to suspect Remus of throwing death glares at people who wanted to sit there around the time Regulus usually came to eat. Somehow, it happened to be free every single time for the past year. Not that he minded it one bit - the uniformity was somewhat reassuring, especially compared to certain areas of his life, including a suit, webs and constant bruises everywhere .
“You alright?” Dorcas was staring at him, head tilted to the side. “ You look like a lunatic, staring into the void like that, Reggie.” He shook his head to wake himself up a bit more, and already saw his best friend breathing in to say something.
“Do not mention my lack of sleep, Meadowes, you promised me you won’t talk about it, you wench! Besides, you’ll see that after a coffee and a breakfast I’ll be a whole new man.” Nope , he still sucked at lying to her. She gave him a knowing look and raised her eyebrow in disappointment, but at least she stopped mentioning it.
Two and a half attempts not to fall asleep later, Remus was back, carrying two plates and three cups of coffee on a tray. He gave them their long awaited breakfasts and grabbed his own coffee cup.
Regulus looked up at the food in front of him like he hasn’t eaten in a week. “You know, Remus, I could marry you right now,”
He snorted. “Sure you would. Eat up though, didn’t you say you have classes today?”
Regulus nodded, mouth already full.
Dorcas watched their interaction, amused, and leaned a bit toward Remus. “He’s never this talkative unless he’s hungry and so tired his thoughts are asleep, poor lad.”
“I know right? It’s sort of funny but I do feel bad for him at the same time-”
“ Guys,” Regulus interrupted, “you do realise I can hear you talking about me in third person?”
They both just grinned at him and continued.
Wow . That’s what he got for introducing his favourite people to each other. Plotting . I created a monster just now . The only worse thing than this was when he saw Remus interacting with his brother for the first time. He never wanted to yell at someone to get a room that much, and he saw the entirety of Dorcas getting together with her girlfriend, which was hell on Earth in itself. Now that he thought about his brother…
“Sirius was asking about you,” he cut in, interrupting whatever conversation Dorcas and Remus were having.
Remus looked comically startled. “Oh — Um, really?”
“No,” Regulus said blankly and he rolled his eyes. “ Yes , really. Why wouldn’t he be? He got back from a trip two days ago and dropped off some things yesterday, told me to say hi. As much as he irritates me, I appreciate him giving me dance clothes from time to time. Mother still throws tantrums when she sees I bought anything not from the women’s dancewear store.”
Both of his friends scrunched their eyebrows at that.
Dorcas shook her head. “How is she still not grasping it? After the surgery and the hormones? No offence, but your mother is completely delusional.”
Remus nodded in agreement.
“Don’t worry, none taken, she is. Back to my brother though. He moved, apparently, with that best friend of his. Porter is the name, I think? And he said he’ll stop by later today to have a proper greeting with you, whatever the hell that means.” Regulus handed Remus a 20 quid bill, despite Dorcas’ protesting.
The taller boy got up from his seat, having to go back to work.“Well, thanks for giving me a heads up. And it’s Potter, not Porter. Quite a nice bloke, he came here a few times already.”
“Potter, Porter,” Regulus deadpanned. “Whatever. It’s not like I care about the guy.”
“Oh right, you hate him despite never having met him, I almost forgot.” Remus smirked at Dorcas, who grinned back at him. “You better go, it’s getting late. It was nice meeting you, Dorcas!” He waved at them and rushed to get new orders.
They managed to arrive at campus with a whole 5 minutes to spare, quickly said their goodbyes and rushed in opposite directions to find their classes.
Finding room C406 turned out to be a way more difficult task than it first seemed. He never had classes in here before and the room numbers made zero sense to him.
I will never not read the pamphlet about a new building again, this is a bloody nightmare. Regulus almost ran through the long corridors, frustrated and probably already late, when he was stopped in his tracks by loud, rhythmic music coming from a slightly opened door on his right. Curiosity took over and he snook closer to it as quietly as possible, opening the door a tiny bit more.
His eyes landed on a tall bloke in a sleeveless t-shirt, a pair of outrageously wide trousers and a baseball cap, who was jumping around to the music. He went from sharp to fluid movements, even doing tricks, spinning around on the floor and ending one sequence with a backflip.
Quite fascinating to watch. But maybe it was the combination of the dance and exposed golden brown skin that left Regulus in a trance. He didn’t even know for how long he was standing there, but then he caught a glimpse of the bloke’s face as well and oh.
I’m dead. I died and this is gay heaven.
James
There had to be someone staring at his back.
At first, he just thought he imagined it, but seeing a short figure standing by the door in the mirror stretched out across one wall, James for sure didn’t. He swiftly turned towards the mystery person and was met with a somewhat familiar dark-haired boy, staring at him with a pair of piercing blue eyes.
“Uh,” he muttered. “Can I…help you? I mean, I was sure I had this room for another 45 minutes but maybe it was a scheduling mishap and—”
“ No , for god’s sake, I have no idea how the system works,” the boy hissed, annoyed. “I just got lost, alright?”
James smirked. He was feeling flirty and the boy was too pretty not to try to fluster. “That makes the two of us.”
“What?”
“I think I just got lost in your eyes, darling, that’s what.”
“Oh piss off. ”
Despite the snarky answer, James could see him blushing. Perfect.
“You don’t have to be shy. I saw you staring at me just a minute ago, you know?” He winked and fixed his glasses. “And while we’re standing here, what’s your name, sohneyo ?” The Punjabi word slipped out without him even noticing.
“What —” The boy shook his head. “I was just looking at how stupid you look in that hat. What are you, five? And why should I tell you my name, anyway?”
“Ouch, I like the hat! And you don’t have to tell me. You do seem familiar for some reason so that’s why I’m asking. And, because I’m a gentleman, I’ll introduce myself first. I’m James!”
“ Fine. Hello James, I’m Regulus. I’d say it’s nice to meet you but I’m not a liar.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes. Doubt my words already? How daring. I’ve known you for five minutes.”
“Maybe. You didn’t lie about the hat, but you did seem to enjoy staring at my amazing dance moves. Or was it my arms? Either way, it can’t be that unpleasant to meet me, no?”
James couldn’t stop himself from grinning.
“Shut it, you prick!” Regulus was frowning, glaring up at him with angry eyes, but the blush on his cheeks only got stronger. He quickly took a few steps back.
James didn’t even realise how close they’d gotten to each other. They both took steps toward the other while talking, which only made James smile more.
“Well, as lovely as this is, I’m assuming you were looking for something before this ” he said — and vaguely gestured with his hands.
Regulus went pale. “ Shit, I’m gonna be so late.” He backed up to the door. “Do you, by any chance, know where room C406 is?”
“Yeah, it’s one floor up from here, to the right from the stairs. You should see it right away!”
“Okay, thank you! I — I really have to go, so…” He pursed his lips as if he wanted to say something more and looked down
“It’s Potter, by the way.”
Regulus’ head perked up. “What?”
“My last name. If you ever wanted to see me again.” James smiled. “But you better go to your class now.”
The shorter boy didn’t even try to argue with it and ran out of the door.
Regulus .
This semester was going to be interesting.
James didn’t feel like doing the choreography again. He was too distracted to properly focus on it. Instead, he put different music on. The beat of a loud reggaeton song filled the room, he exhaled and let the music move him. He wasn’t thinking about the steps, nor the time, nothing . There were just these moments when his head stayed blissfully empty and calm, at least for a little bit.
He was soon snapped out of his headspace.
“Aye Potter! Your time is up!”
It was nice while it lasted. He sighed to himself and turned to the door.“Marlene, hey! You alright?”
The tall, blonde girl leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest. “Not too terrible, would be doing better if someone wasn’t constantly staying overtime in the studio, leaving me as his personal alarm for classes.” She lifted one eyebrow in mock disappointment. “And don’t you dare hug me before you take a shower.”
“ Yeah yeah, I’m already gone,” he replied while changing from dance shoes to normal ones. “I hope Sirius woke up on time though, he was still asleep when I was leaving.” He slung the gym bag over his shoulder. “Let’s go? I need to tell you what happened just now.”
Although he was annoyed about the interruption at first, he was happy to see Marlene again and catch up on everything that had happened during the summer. James was lucky enough that his parents had a computer at home, but Marlene’s family had nothing but a landline phone and she spent most of her summer with her girlfriend, anyway, so, besides a few calls, they barely heard from each other for two months.
As he was filling her out on his interaction with ‘ the most gorgeous guy he has ever seen, oh my god’ she unsurprisingly laughed at him and that only stopped when they reached their music theory class. James wasn’t required to take it, but both Sirius and Marlene were and it was available to him, so here he was, not quite sure what he was even gonna do there. Too late to back out now.
Upon entering the room, they saw Sirius, already there and asleep on his desk.
James snorted. “Guess the extra sleep wasn’t enough, I swear this man is a toddler in an adult body with that sleeping routine.”
They both sat down on each side of him when the sleeping man sighed “ Moony” and shifted around, still completely gone, sending James and Marlene into a violent laughing fit. They were both aware of Sirius’ nickname for the lanky boy from the sandwich shop, just as they were well aware of their friendship. A particularly loud cackle from Marlene finally stirred Sirius awake and he slowly and confusedly blinked at the world around him.
“Hey guys, what— what is going on? What’s so funny?
“Nothing, just —” James had to pause to try and compose himself. “You had an interesting dream I think.” And with that remark, he sent Marlene back to a new fit of giggles.
Sirius, probably too sleepy to properly think about it, shook his head and started getting ready for the class, just as the teacher, a middle aged and strict looking woman arrived.
She immediately started listing all the requirements for the semester, and at a midpoint in the list, James caught Marlene and Sirius exchanging glances of despair already, and he let his head drop down into his hands. That’s not what I meant by an interesting semester, he lamented. Me cago en la puta, I want the mean pretty boy back.
The rest of his lessons passed by in a blur, the first one having exhausted his brain too much to enjoy the other two, although he had and actually liked them. Before he knew it, he was already walking back home next to his similarly zombified best friend. They picked up their favourite Indian takeout food on the way and crashed down on the couch the moment they arrived. They just laid down for a while before they sat normally to eat. Any other day, James would cook but he didn’t have any energy left to trust himself with a pan and a knife.
Halfway through his chicken makhani, James was a bit more alert and aware of the world around him and decided to turn on the telly, which immediately tuned to the news anchor.
What on Earth has happened again?
“Breaking news! There was an attack near Aldgate East by an unknown perpetrator. The recently emerged hero Spider-Man appeared on the scene soon after the attack started. As far as we know he hasn’t caught the culprit yet, but thanks to his involvement, there were only 4 minor injuries to civilians due to the attack. We’ll continue with the weather report…”
***
The room was dark, the blinds halfway closed, drowning most of it in shadows. A man burst through the door, short of breath, his face covered in sweat as he tried to catch his breath.
“Can I—” He hastily exhaled and inhaled slowly in an attempt to calm down. “I came to deliver an update on the operation, boss.”
A hand rose from the shadow behind a table in the corner, signalling him to continue.
“The tryout was interrupted by the self-proclaimed hero, so we had to stop it. If we didn't he would have caught our guy, but we already worked on rescheduling for tomorrow. Elsewhere, with different means of attack, so it doesn’t link together.” He stepped from one foot to the other, still sweating, only now from anxiety.
Silence lingered through the room. Only the clock ticked on the wall.
The dark figure behind the table leaned forward. “ I already know. I didn’t become the owner of this company by being stupid, you idiot. Now do something about the boy. He’s complicating everything, not only this, so I expect him to be dealt with if you want to keep working here, alive. You’re dismissed.”