Showstopper

After what feels like an eternity but was likely only an hour at most Peter arrives a bit confused and James still feels as if he's still unable to speak without his voice cracking or breaking so he looks to Sirius and Remus hoping they'll explain for him. But the look on their faces say they might still be confused, maybe even uncomfortable explaining so James looks to Peter and sighs quietly. He takes a few moments to gather himself as he tries to figure out where to start, which shouldn't be this hard seeing as he already explained it once.

James finally looks over at Peter from his spot on the couch and says "I've been dating Regulus, and uh recently those photos of Lily and I were circling the internet and there's been a misunderstanding. The Skittles' new song was uh dedicated to me and now Reg won't even talk to me. I've tried everything to get him to talk to me, to get him to at least listen to me and he won't. So, I've written a song.. that Rem and Siri said they'd help me get published so now we're here hoping to start the melodies and everything. I was in such a haze earlier and I didn't call you because I was in such a rush to get here and explain it all to Sirius, I'm sorry Pete. But uh I was hoping you'd be down to help with it all since we'd be letting it out into the world as like a single under our name, if that's okay with you too of course?" His heart feels like it's racing as he finishes speaking and waits for Peter's response.

Peter looks at James as if he has three heads, whichever part had him staring at James like that was unclear, but James knew he needed to let him think before expecting any response. James leans back into the couch as he waits for Peter to answer, his mind racing just as fast as his heartbeat. He started to pull at his jumpers' sleeves again as he waited, his nerves shot as he stared at Pete for what feels like a lifetime.

Eventually Peter tilts his head in the telltale sign of decision, and he begins to speak "I have so many questions that I expect you to answer someday I hope you realize that. But for now, I'm in. As long as it's a good song with amazing melodies that will keep our fans invested, then I'm in."

With this confirmation James grins over at Peter before looking back to Remus and Sirius and saying quietly "Perfect, so uh can we head over to the studio? Get started on the melodies and everything? I know it's very short notice and I'm truly hoping none of you have plans because I really am hoping to get started as soon as possible because... man I can't lose him forever. Like actually forever, I know you guys might not understand why right now but gods I truly can't I just please?" He knows he's rambling it's just as if he can't stop, it feels like word vomit that just keeps coming. He blushes slightly in complete embarrassment as he always does after he's gone of a ramble, but gods Regulus is truly so fucking important to him, and he just needs this to work. He needs for them to start like yesterday because for all he knows Regulus is done, done. As if James was never a part of his life, and that spiraling thought alone has him forgetting any embarrassment as he looks up at his three best friends with some of the most agonized eyes they have ever seen on James.

Sirius walks forward and places his hand on James' shoulder and give it a soft squeeze as he says softly "Yeah Prongs, we can go right now. I know this has to be extremely hard on you. You have a heart the side of a hundred quidditch fields. And this can't be easy for you, but we can work this out. We can make things better; I will make sure of it. I will march up to Reg myself and make him understand what happened. I would do it right this minute, but I know that isn't what you want, therefore we will do your plan first."

At Sirius' words James gives a small smile, not even remotely like his normal happy smile and says quietly "Thank you, thank you so much." That small speech allowed James to shake out of his spiraling thoughts.

The four of them look at each other before each of them walks off to grab their jackets, keys or shoes on at the same time as if all of them are small pieces in a well-oiled machine. Once each of them is fully read they head out of Remus and Sirius' flat, James watches as Peter goes over to his blue minivan. Which to this day none of them know why that's the car he chose. James then looks over at Sirius and Remus who look to be playfully arguing as they walk over to Sirius' black motorcycle which of course as always James has forgotten the name of. Finally, James walks over to his own red car sliding into the driver's seat and taking off after his best friends as they head off to the recording studio that they own together.

The drive didn't feel that long, but that's likely because of the fact that his nerves were still shot. It felt like acid was coursing through his veins, it made him feel unstable and itchy which in return caused the ride to feel like a two-minute ordeal and not an almost half hour drive. As James pulls up he feels this uneasy feeling settle in his stomach, and he knows it just because of his already fried nerves hitting him full force once again yet this time it's because he's starting to think about the fact that this might not actually work and there is a very high possibility that Regulus might actually just ignore the song and him. Regardless of the sinking feeling of doubt in his stomach he parks and get out of his car before walking towards the door where the other three are already waiting for him.

He tries to push his doubts down and ignore them completely, but they linger like a never-ending storm, slowly eating away as his slowly dimming hope. Remus opens the door and holds it open allowing everyone to walk in before him. As James walks past Remus, he feels Remus squeeze his shoulder reassuringly, which causes James to smile
slightly back at him as he continues to walk with Remus now beside him with Sirius and Peter just a few steps in front of them. Having his three best friends around him and there to support his decision did help with the doubts still racing through his mind, and the sinking felt sort of dissolve into a small pinching feel instant which he was happy about.

The four of them slowly made their way down the corridors towards their favorite studio, as they walked in James looked around at the instruments, they had left there the following night. As he looked at them, he tried to think about what instruments would match the lyrics best, because this song needed to be perfect. Perfect for his Regulus, his starlight. Because if this was his last shot to make Regulus listen then he would make sure it was worth it all, make it matter, make him seen by Regulus again. Because James didn't know if he could exist in a world where Regulus didn't see him in some way, that sounded like his own personal hell, and he wasn't willing to live that way. Not when he had an idea that might help him be heard.

As James stared at the instruments trying to think he absentmindedly started to sing the song softly under his breath as he thought, honestly, he didn't even notice he was doing it and the others didn't bother to tell him because it was actually helpful.

Sirius walked over to the instruments and decided on using the piano for it a moment to see if that might fit the sound of the song whereas Remus walked over to the guitar that was actually Sirius' and he picked it up beginning to slowly strum the strings as he listened to James' soft voice, as he played Remus realized that James was completely lost in his head again and most likely unable to even heard what they were doing around him. That in itself helped because they could play around with a few melodies to see what kind possibly fit and what would just sound downright awful. While Sirius sat at the piano and slowly started to follow Remus' lead, Peter walked over and watched the two of them for a moment. Peter looked around at the instruments before picking up his own guitar to add to what Remus was doing trying to make it work in a soft yet strong manner as to bring something to the plate. As the three of them played eventually James snaps out of whatever thoughts that had him trapped and he smiles distractedly over at them.

"It's perfect, almost just a few things need to be changed and I think that this could be it. The song, the perfect song to get him to see.." James says in just above a whisper as he moves forward and begins to explain his image for this song.

Hours pass by as the four of them work in that studio, none of them seems to even realize how much time has passed as they work. All too determined to make this work, for James. The raw emotion in James' vocals as he sang pushed them all to work as hard as possible to make this happen for him. For the sunshine of their group.

Eventually the four of them move to sit and James hits the play button back and Beautiful Things begins to play over the speakers around them, it's soft yet strong. The lyrics are perfect and James knows that this is it. Without much thought to it James downloads the song to each of their phones before saying softly "Thank you guys so much.. You have no clue how much this means to me truly. And I think after we post it and everything that maybe we could all go out for food or order in and go back to Moony and Pads flat? Seeing as it's the closest.. Only if you want to of course, I mean I've taken up a lot of your time already."

As he rambles on, the other three marauders look over at each other with the same knowing look as they realize James just doesn't want to be alone right now, so they all silently agree that this was the best idea. Each of them nodded slightly before Remus says, "Of course Prongs we'll all go back to the flat, we can decide on food before we leave but let's post your song before we go."

With those few words James gives his best smile even with his nerves running rampage in his veins, he grabs his phone from the table and before he posted the song, he sends it to Regulus with the small message that read "I know you don't want to talk to me right now, maybe never again. But everything isn't how it seems. I love you. Please listen to this, it should help explain how much.. it should just explain." He sits there for a bit after sending it trying to convince Regulus to respond to his text with pure determination of mind but of course it doesn't work so after some time he moves on to post the song on his social platforms just like the others had.

After everything was posted, they cleaned up the studio putting their instruments away in their rightful places before they all slowly left climbing into their cars having decided to get Thai, Peter had agreed to pick up their orders and meet them all back at Remus and Sirius' flat. The rest of the night seems to move slowly yet in a way that even James is happy for a bit. They all sit gathered in the living room, Sirius sitting cross-legged on the floor with his back against the couch, Remus and James sitting stretched out on the couch with Pete in the chair as they watch whatever show Sirius had put on. The night stays like that, happy-ish, relaxed just with each other.