James
Regulus would need to stay in the hospital for a few more days. Naturally, and since he hated it, everyone had been babying him since his admission into the hospital,bringing him flowers and foods each time they'd visit, after the first couple days, James, who'd been visiting every single day, had to kindly ask everyone to not bring Regulus any more food, as their refrigerator couldn't hold any more of Dorcas or Sirius' cooking.
It was one of James' daily visits and he was laying on the bed next to Regulus, fiddling with his hand idly. "Darling?" Regulus asked, looking down at James lovingly.
"Hm?" James looked up at Regulus, still picking at and fiddling with his knuckles. "What'cha doing there?" Regulus asked, nodding towards James' hand fiddling with his own. James looked down at his and Regulus' hands, shrugging. "Dunno," Regulus took James' in his own and intertwined their fingers,
"tired?" Regulus asked, beginning to comb his fingers through James' hair, James, suddenly feeling very tired, allowed his head to rest against Regulus' chest, "A little bit, yeah."
Suddenly, as if on cue, the nurse entered the room, "Mr Black," She said evenly, looking at James, "Yes?" James responded, glaring at the nurse, "Visitation times end at five, it is currently nine o'clock. we have allowed you to stay this long, but you have stayed the last two nights, you should go home and wash up, get some rest, you can come back and visit him tomorrow," The nurse continued calmly, "But-" James started, before Regulus shushed him, "My love, you can come back tomorrow, plus the nurse is right, you look awful."
James wanted to argue, but one look at the mirror told him the same thing, his curls, which he normally took especially good care of, had fallen and become frizzy masses, barely distinguishable, his glasses were askew on his face, and his face was breaking out in dry spots, he looked awful. "Yeah..yeah, alright." He finally agreed, slowly sitting up in the bed, he looked over at Regulus and kissed his forehead, "See you tomorrow, Reg." James said, climbing out of the bed slowly and getting to his feet, "G'night, love." Regulus said, kissing his hand once more before allowing him to leave.
Now, although James' entire reason for going home was to rest, he hardly did, showering was easy enough, so was his entire routine, except the actual sleeping part, he had tried Melatonin, lying there for hours on end, nothing worked. Eventually, James settled for bringing his favorite shows, alternating between that and stress-rolling as many joints as he could, using up the last of he and Regulus' supply. 'hm, I'll have to pick up more later,' James thought idly as he stared blankly into the night sky from his porch.
James did, at some point, fall asleep, James did not stay asleep for very long, however, waking up a few hours later to his and Regulus' dog Styx nudging his legs with her snout, attempting to wake him up. Standing up, James stumbled his way into the house and upstairs to his bedroom, glancing at the alarm clock on the bedside table: 4:45 A.M.
James groaned, flopping down onto his bed limply, exhausted from the day he'd had and falling asleep almost instantly.
The next morning he woke up with a small heart attack. in his groggy state, he'd rolled over, apparently expecting to feel Regulus' warmth next to him, panicking and waking up suddenly when he didn't feel Regulus there, he couldn't fall asleep after that.
James, after waking up and calming down, made himself a smoothie and climbed up to his attic and out onto his first floor roof. He had just set a joint between his teeth and opened his lighter when Sirius called, scaring him and almost causing him to drop his lighter off of his roof.
"Morning, Jamie. What'cha doin'?" Sirius asked, sounding exhausted himself, "Smoking, you?" James responded, taking a long drag of the joint, setting his lighter and rolling tray tediously next to him.
"Desperately trying to clean the rest of these dishes, and I've got laundry next. how exciting." Sirius said, deadpan. James hummed a response, too busy zoning out on two seagulls to take any interest in Sirius' house work.
"Reggie comes home today," James said, fiddling with a piece of his hair idly, "Is he? good for him. how long 'till he goes back to the school?" Sirius asked, the dishes clinking in the background.
"The doctors said to give it a week or so, so i'd say tomorrow." James responded sarcastically as he finished the joint and tossed the roach into his ashtray. "Yeah, that sounds about right." Sirius responded, the sound of running water indicating that he'd moved onto rinsing the dishes, "Where's Remus? Shouldn't he be helping you?" James questioned, standing and walking inside from the roof.
"Nah, there was some sort of emergency, apparently. I think it was something about a last minute court case? In any case, it's our anniversary and I'm cleaning the house to surprise him." Sirius rambled, the dishes clinking and clanging softly in the background. "Oh? Happy anniversary, man." James responded, turning on the shower and stepping inside.
"Thanks, prongs." Sirius replied, turning on his Alexa and playing music. They stayed on the phone the whole time James was going through his daily routine with Sirius occasionally making a comment about how 'if only he didn't love Remus so much'. Eventually, James got a call from the hospital and hung up on Sirius, answering in a worried tone, "Hello?"
"Hello, Mr Black, your husband has been cleared for release." The nurse, who James had come to know as Alice Longbottom, said sweetly through the phone, "I'll be there to pick him up in a bit, Alice. Thanks." James hung up the phone and got in his car, backing out of his driveway.