Regulus POV
Regulus Black had a new bad habit. Well, maybe it wasn't new and maybe it wasn’t all that bad. A year isn't really new, but in the grand scheme of things it was new. He had been alive for nineteen years so that's roughly five percent of his life.
So for five percent of his life, he had been kissing James. Five incredible percent of his life. He had been doing it since that one party, that one party where Regulus had convinced himself that James was jealous of a guy flirting with him. But that was crazy, why would James be jealous of some guy? Regulus was almost certain that his feelings were unrequited.
They had been just kissing. Not making out kissing, but generally light pecks on the lips, sometimes when Regulus was drunk the kisses sometimes lingered a little longer. And for a year, neither of them has said a thing about their new habit. It was just a natural change in their relationship, they simply sometimes kissed. Like the French, Regulus’ father was French so it made sense that Regulus picked up this habit, right? That's probably what James thought, he had just picked up the habit of kissing people as a greeting. Except James had spent a lot of time with him and Regulus had never kissed anyone else.
Regulus had no idea why James hadn't said anything or tried to stop it. He clearly wasn't interested in Regulus since he had never made a move. Regulus probably should be the one to stop it, but James never seemed to mind the kisses. Every time they saw each other, Regulus kissed him. He just couldn't stop. He knew he should, it couldn’t be healthy. There was no reason Regulus should be kissing James, none whatsoever, but every time he actually thought about stopping, his stomach did some sort of knotty thing.
"Regulus!" Mrs. Potter greeted him as he opened the front door.
"Hi," He said leaning in to hug her. There was only one person who could compete against Mrs. Potter for quality of hugs, "Thanks for inviting me."
"Don't be silly, you've come since you were a little boy, Thanksgiving isn't right without you," Mrs. Potter said as he released their hug. They walked together into the living room where all James’ friends were sitting along with Sirius and James. Regulus plopped himself down next to James on the couch.
"Hey, Reg," James said as he turned to him with a small smile on his face.
"Hi." Regulus responded as he quickly pressed his lips against James’, then leaned back against the arm of the couch. Everyone in the room looked up and stared at them.
"What was that?" Marlene asked.
"What was what?" James asked as Regulus's cheeks reddened. He really hadn't meant to kiss him here in front of all of James’ friends.
"You two kissed," Peter said with wide eyes, his eyes flicked from James to Sirius warily.
"Oh," James replied, glancing at Regulus. James hadn’t even noticed that they had kissed. Regulus thought there was one clear way to check if a boy liked you, and that was kissing them and seeing if they even noticed that you kissed. There was no coming back from that
"Are you two together?" Mrs. Potter asked. She was clearly hopeful that the answer would be yes.
"Finally?" Remus added snarkily, earning him a glare from Regulus. His future brother-in-law was a fucking troublemaker.
"No, they aren't." Sirius groaned. When Sirius had first seen them kissing, he had been surprisingly excited. Regulus had always assumed that if Sirius found out that Regulus had a crush on James, he would be horrified. He assumed Sirius would make claims of incest and then forbid James from ever touching Regulus again. However, Sirius was pumped at the idea of James and Regulus dating. Then Regulus had to pull him into a separate room and explain that they just kissed sometimes. Which Sirius approved of way less.
"But they are kissing." Peter frowned.
"Yes, they kiss and Regulus spends half his nights sleeping in James's bed but that's all they do." Sirius sighed. “Not that I’m saying anyone should do it with my brother. But if you’re going to kiss him, you should at least have the decency to date him.” Sirius explained as he glared at James.
"You sleep in his bed?" Marlene asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I-" Regulus tried to answer but an explanation wasn't coming. This conversation was absolutely terrible and he would pay an exuberant amount of money for it to be over.
"He just crashes with me, we usually hang out at my place and my couch isn't comfortable enough for someone to sleep on." He explained glancing at Regulus again. Regulus would like to point out that James’ couch was plenty comfortable, he just would rather sleep in James’ bed because he has a problem.
"And neither of them are sleeping with other people," Sirius added, unhelpfully. James didn’t have a chance to sleep with other people, Regulus made sure of that. One of Regulus’ many talents was cockblocking.
"So you're in a relationship but not?" Peter asked.
Regulus shook his head. Why couldn’t this conversation just be over? "We aren't in a relationship, we-"
"Why aren't you?" James’ mother asked. Regulus could handle James’ stupid friends judging their decisions but when it came to Mrs. Potter, all he could do was hang his head in shame and think, ‘I would if I could.’
"Oh." James breathed. For the first time, Regulus noticed that James was just as stressed over this conversation as Regulus was.
Regulus looked at him quickly and in an attempt to save James said, "We don't feel that way about each other." As the words came out of his mouth he could almost see a hit of sadness in James's face. Immediately Regulus wanted to take it back.
"Sure," Sirius said as he rolled his eyes.
"Let's change the subject." Mrs. Potter said eying the two. Regulus hoped he hadn’t disappointed Mrs. Potter too badly.
Then Regulus caught Remus leaning into Marlene and whispering, "You win the bet again this year, but I’m doubling down next year."