Unexpected
This was unexpected. To be fair, most things at Camp were unexpected. Regulus and Sirius being children of the Big 3 though, that was exceptionally unexpected. Their sudden move to the Hades cabin was unexpected. The return of Nico di Angelo- who is apparently James’ best friend’s half-brother- was really fucking unexpected.
James was a bit confused. Actually, he was very confused. He was so incredibly confused that he was up at half-past midnight, unable to sleep, trying to sort through the chaotic thoughts jumping around in his head. He never ended up falling asleep.
James spent all day searching for Regulus. He sought him out at breakfast, where Nico told him to “fuck off, Potter”. He really was a lot like Regulus. He sought him out during training, where Sirius informed him that Regulus was unlikely to leave his room for a couple weeks. When James inquired about why, Sirius just shook his head. He sought him out at dinner, where he sat silently at the Hecate table with the troublemakers that Regulus had apparently befriended, and a girl from the Aphrodite cabin who apparently wanted to get away from her half-siblings.
James eventually found him on the beach, staring at the constellations.
“Hey, Reg,” he started, sitting down next to the other boy. Regulus glared at him coldly.
“Fuck off, Potter.” James did not fuck off. He never did.
“Not an easy adjustment?” he asked. Regulus snorted, his eyes still tracked on the stars.
“Oh no, finding out that dear old dad is the god of death and king of the underworld has been a breeze. A walk in the park, really.” Regulus said sarcastically, rolling his pretty blue-gray eyes. He really does have pretty eyes. James smiled at him.
“I actually meant the new cabin,” James joked. Regulus rolled his eyes again.
“That’s actually been the easiest part of this. The cabin is nice, and Nico is a great brother. Seems like a good person too. He told me he’s been forcing you to leave me alone all day, which wins him some points.
“What can I say? I wanted to see your shining face,” James grinned. Regulus rolled his eyes for a third time, but a smile tugged slightly at the edges of his lips.
“You’re an idiot,” Regulus replied, looking away from the stars, staring into James’s eyes intently. There was no edge in his voice. When did his voice start losing that edge?
“Oh, come on Reggie! I know you can do better than that!” James laughed out as Regulus shoved him away. James hadn’t even realized how much he was leaning in.
“Don’t call me Reggie. Only Sirius has the right to call me that and you’re even more annoying than he is.”
James pressed his hands to his heart and dramatically fell backwards into the sand. “You wound me, Regulus!” That actually got a laugh out of Regulus.
“Shut up you idiot,” Regulus replied, unable to hide the grin on his face. There was no heat to his words, instead something close to fondness. James sat up, sitting close to Regulus.
“Never!” James laughed, bumping his shoulder playfully into Regulus’s. Regulus stiffened from the contact, straightening his back and inhaling sharply. He didn’t move, and as far as James could tell, he wasn’t breathing. James placed his fingers on his wrist, feeling the fluttering pulse underneath his skin.
“Regulus, are you okay?” he asked, genuinely worried for the boy sitting next to him, his grin falling from his face. Regulus nodded sharply and stood up, effectively tearing his wrist away from James. Regulus walked off stiffly, and James just sat in the sand. Regulus didn’t come back all night. James kept waiting for him.
James met Sirius when he was eleven. It had been an instant connection, an immediate understanding that they were never going to separate. They met in detention at some posh boarding school they both went to at the time. They both got expelled for a badly done prank that they made together a few months later.
That was their thing; planning ridiculously complicated pranks until they got expelled, and replaying the cycle at their next school. And they were always close too, never fighting until James’s first summer at camp when Sirius got upset that he wouldn’t see James all summer. That was just after Sirius and Regulus moved in at the Potter’s. Regulus seemed so small, so young then.
He didn’t feel quite so young anymore.
Regulus seemed older the more James talked to him. He was mature and intelligent and clever, and he could be just as kind as he could be cruel. He had a certain confidence to him that made it clear to everyone just how dangerous it was to underestimate him. And yet, James saw more of the shy, socially awkward boy who held Sirius’s hand on the Potter’s doorstep. The quiet fourteen-year-old who didn’t leave his room for a week after he moved in. The boy who talked to James for the first time, in the backyard, under the stars that held his and his brother’s names. James had made him laugh that night. The next day Regulus went right back to ignoring him, but James started seeking to make Regulus laugh again, reveling in the small smiles he earned when he said something particularly funny, and celebrating every word Regulus said to him, no matter how mean it was.
He was still trying to make him smile.
James wandered around camp, not really sure what to do. Now that Nico was back, and by extension Will, he didn’t have to help out as much in Cabin 7 and he didn’t really feel like doing much except talking to his friends. And that’s how he found himself absent-mindedly wandering towards the Athena cabin.
He was met with the warm welcome of a fiery redhead launching into him, wrapping her arms around his neck. He stumbled back a little bit, wrapping his arms around his friend.
“Hey, Lils,” he said, out of breath. He lowered her gently onto the floor.
“Hey, James! How have you been?” she asked, grinning wildly, her red hair falling into her face. Her bright green eyes sparkled.
“Good! How have you been?” he said, sitting down on a bunk he was seventy per cent sure was Lily’s.
“Incredible! I’ve been working on something with Pandora from the Hecate cabin to create fiendfyre enchanted weapons!” Lily rambled, grinning. “She’s absolutely crazy and it’s incredible!”
“Sounds like you have a crush on her,” James said, raising an eyebrow with a grin. Lily’s smile faltered.
“She’s just a friend, James. I don’t want to be pressured into dating anyone again. You saw what happened last time.”
James did. He remembered it very vividly. His first kiss had been with Lily, just because their friends thought they’d be cute. James didn’t mind it, but Lily despised it. That same night she came out to James as a lesbian. They had laughed over it quite a bit.
“Fair enough,” James laughed, noticing the lanky boy walking in, his nose buried in a book. “Remus!” he called, waving wildly at the other boy, who was constantly wearing a sweater despite the warm weather. The boy lifted his head out of the book to smile warmly at James.
“Hi, James. How have you been?” Remus said, sitting down next to James.
“Good! What about you? Found a book on this planet you haven’t read yet?” James joked, slipping Remus’s book out of his hands, careful to keep Remus’s place.
“Yes, James, I have found pieces of literature I have not read. It’s a long list spanning from things I don’t own to things I just don’t want to read,” Remus deadpanned, snatching his book back. “I also do things other than reading.”
“Really? I had no idea!” James laughed. Lily was covering her mouth, stifling a friendly laugh. This was nice. This was home. This was perfect. He had Remus and Lily, and he had his friends in the Hermes, Demeter, and Aphrodite cabins. He had his siblings in Cabin 7, and Sirius and Regulus. All of his friends were here. This was where he shined the brightest.
James talked with Remus and Lily for hours, until dinner. James took his familiar seat, in the familiar pavilion, and tried not to think about the unfamiliar staring from the Hades table. He sat next to Will, hoping to catch up with his older brother, but of course, that was when Nico appeared behind Will. He always seemed to just… appear, silent and sudden.
“Move, James,” Nico said, not nearly as cold as he usually was. James simply got up with a sigh, and walked towards the Hades table, watching Regulus’s eyes quickly flit away from him. It was weird knowing that Regulus was watching him.
He sat down next to Sirius, placing his plate on the table.
“Hello, Pads, Reggie. How is camp treating you?” James asked, despite having gotten the answer from Regulus the previous night.
“Not too bad if I stay away from the cabin,” Sirius said, taking a drink of lemonade from his glass. “Living with Nico is like having a second Regulus, and one is enough for me.” Regulus snorted.
“I like Nico. We have quite a bit in common,” Regulus said. His food was untouched.
“Aren’t you eating?” James blurted out. Regulus looked almost amused.
“I have a small appetite, Potter. I never ate much at home, and I don’t feel like eating now,” he explained. James felt almost ashamed for missing how little he ate at home. He also felt oddly warm at the thought that Regulus viewed the Potter household as ‘home’.
“Oh,” was all he could get out.
Sirius started up a conversation, but James wasn’t listening. He was too busy taking in every detail of the pretty boy on the other side of the table. James hadn’t realized how loose the camp t-shirt was on his small, lithe frame, or how he kept twisting the snake-shaped ring on his left middle finger. How strands of his hair fell into his face and how every time he pushed it back, as if he couldn’t stand to look like anything except perfection. How his blue-gray eyes shimmered with unheard laughter every time Sirius made a funny joke, even if he didn’t actually laugh.
He was also finding things about himself that didn’t quite make sense to him, like how when Regulus laughed, James’s heart fluttered a little bit. Like how when Regulus smiled, James felt unreasonably happy and how when Regulus frowned, James wanted nothing more than to make him smile again. Like how his eyes continued to flit down to Regulus’s lips, and his cheeks felt warm whenever Regulus bit his lip, holding in a laugh. James didn’t know what to make of it. James had felt like this before, but never for a guy. Certainly never for Regulus. Certainly never for the little brother of his best friend.
James excused himself to bed early. He needed some time to think about whatever this weird little crush was. Maybe he would understand in the morning, and one of those stupid demigod dreams would actually help him figure it out.
Of course, because being a demigod is incredibly inconvenient, that night he didn’t dream at all.