Chapter 4
Those idiots . James thought, staring at Sirius and Moony. Sirius was beaming happily as he tucked into his breakfast, his hair pulled forwards to hide his neck. His neck, which was very obviously covered in hickies. Moony was steadfastly ignoring the looks James was shooting his way. He was also doing a very good job of ignoring Sirius who was sending him flirty looks and likely, seeing as only one hand was on the table, giving flirtatious touches. They were so obvious. It was almost laughable really. How did they expect it to remain a secret when they flaunted their relationship so clearly. Regulus was literally sitting across the table from them.
James shoveled another mouthful of eggs into his mouth. Remus abruptly jerked, knocking into the table. James looked straight to Sirius as Regulus shot them a concerned look. Remus cleared his throat as Sirius sent him a cocky look. Regulus stood, taking his plate to the sink and Remus took the opportunity to slap Sirius’s hand. James chuckled into his eggs.
“Cut it out,” Remus hissed,
Sirius smirked at him, “Cut what out?” he asked innocently,
James snorted, “He’s going to realize.” He nodded at Regulus whose back was still turned, cleaning his plate in the sink.
“He probably already has.” Remus commented,
Sirius’s head whipped around, “What?”
“You’re not exactly discreet Pads.” James snickered.
“Hey!” Sirius exclaimed, “I can totally be discreet.”
“You really can’t.” Regulus laughed, returning to the table. James stared at him.
He didn’t think he’d ever seen Regulus laugh. He was even more beautiful when he did. A true laugh as well, one where his eyes scrunched up a little and sparkled more than usual. He was looking better now as well. He hadn’t exactly been at the Potters for long, but he had a little more colour and had put on a little weight. Like Sirius, he still had pale, porcelain skin and like Sirius, would probably burn something nasty in the sun, but still, maybe a trip to the beach would help him lose the transparent quality he had arrived with. Regulus sat, shooting James an indecipherable look. He’d probably been staring too long.
“You don’t even know what we’re talking about,” Sirius protested.
“Doesn't matter,” Regulus stated, “You’re not discreet, never have been.”
Sirius tossed his head, “Whatever.” He muttered, his black curls bouncing with the movement.
Regulus scoffed, staring Sirius down, face entirely unimpressed. Sirius stared back. Remus smacked him under the table. Sirius yelped, turning accusatory eyes on him. James rolled his eyes.
“So what is it that I’m not supposed to know but probably already do?” Regulus asked,
“Nothing.” Sirius and Remus replied in unison.
James snorted, Merlin, they were bad at this.
“Ah.” Regulus nodded, “So I’m not supposed to know that you’re in a relationship?”
Sirius swore, dropping his head to his hands.
James couldn’t help but laugh, particularly as he caught the look on Remus’s face.
“Yeah. I’m out.” Sirius announced, shoving back his chair and flouncing out of the room.
Remus sighed, “I’ll talk to him.”
Left alone in the kitchen with just Regulus, James felt awkward and out of place. Which was strange as it was his home. But every-time he looked at Regulus, it was like his body froze up. Which he had only ever experienced with Lily before. The problem was, he had never gotten past the infatuation stage with Lily, so he wasn’t really sure what came next. She had told him, in no uncertain terms, that she wasn’t interested and was actually dating Mary. Having found out that he really had no chance with her, his feelings had slowly faded. So how exactly to act, flirt and date someone was very much beyond him. Regulus smiled awkwardly at him.
The two of them sat at the table in silence for a moment, before they both tried to talk at the same time.
“You first,” James offered,
“I was just saying, I’ll be upstairs.” Regulus stood quickly.
James watched him leave, dropping his head into his arms and groaning at the epic mess he was making. Never mind. There was still a chance to woo him. Assuming Sirius didn’t find out who he was crushing on and kill him first. The annual new years eve party at the Potters would be the perfect opportunity. He needed a plan. A proper plan. Normally he would find Sirius and scheme, but that wasn’t exactly an option. But throwing an absolutely awesome party seemed like a good place to start. Besides, he could always claim he needed help decorating and use that as an excuse to get some alone time with him… Maybe? God he needed help scheming. He was normally better than this. Maybe he should enlist Remus. He could serve as a distraction for Sirius, and having pulled a black brother maybe he would have some insight.
It was surprisingly easy to get Remus on his own. Sirius had pulled Regulus aside for a ‘brother-to-brother’ talk and Remus had wandered outside for a smoke. James followed him quickly, unsure of how long he’d have.
“I need your help, but you can’t tell Sirius.” James blurted out,
Remus snorted, “Okay, I’m assuming this has something to do with the way you’ve been staring at Regulus’s ass for the past week.”
“I have not!” James exclaimed, “But yes.”
Remus shook his head, “And what exactly, do you want me to do?”
James paused, he hadn’t thought of a plan yet, “Well, for starters keep Sirius distracted.”
“Done.” Remus nodded,
“And secondly, any pointers?”
“For?”
“I don't know, asking him out, getting him to fall madly and wildly in love with me? I mean, how did you go about getting Sirius?”
Remus stubbed out his cigarette, “They’re very different people, Prongs.”
“Yeah but they’re brothers, how different can they really be?”
“Would you want to date Sirius?” Remus snorted,
James hesitated, “No, I mean, maybe? I don't know. Would you date Regulus?”
Remus shook his head, “I’m not falling for that one.”
“Falling for what?” Sirius asked, poking his head out of the door,
“It doesn’t matter,” Remus pulled out his cigarettes, “Want a ciggy, baby?”
“Always.” Sirius said, fluttering his eyelashes as he accepted the pack.
“You got a light?” Remus asked,
“Yeah, somewhere,” Sirius muttered, sticking the cigarette between his lips as he patted himself down.
“Don't let mum see you doing that.” James murmured, heading back in.
Regulus was curled in the corner of the couch, legs drawn up to his chest, book in hand. James joined him. He flopped on the couch, as close as he dared. Regulus didn’t acknowledge him.
“How’d the conversation go?” James asked,
“Fine.” Regulus replied shortly.
James nodded, sitting in silence. He could tell he didn’t want to talk about it. He twiddled his thumbs, chewing on his lip whilst he thought of something to say. Anything to say.
“Hey so, I don’t know if Sirius told you,” James began, “But I always host a new years eve party.” He paused, waiting for Regulus to reply, but he just nodded. “So if you want to invite anyone, just let me know, yeah?”
“Thank you.” Regulus kept his eyes on his book.
James left him in peace.
Getting Regulus alone wasn't hard. He seemed to spend most of his time alone. The problem was finding things to talk about. Occasionally, Regulus would be forthcoming and somewhat high spirited, or at least as high spirited as he seemed to get, but other times he was withdrawn and unresponsive. It reminded him how Sirius had been. And only cemented his decision to make him happy and comfortable. The new years eve party was looming, and with only a day to go, he had made almost no progress with the plan. Not that he had a plan. Still. Remus had been completely useless in that respect. Whilst he was doing an excellent job of keeping Sirius distracted, James suspected he would have been doing that anyway.
For maybe the fifth time that day, James called Regulus over to ‘help’ him hand a streamer. It was honestly getting ridiculous, but he had nothing else to do and no other plausible excuses. Although he wasn’t sure how many more times he could get away with pretending he couldn’t hang a streamer by himself. Fortunately, Remus had Sirius in the kitchen, distracting him with kisses. The real question was, had he made enough progress (Or any at all really), to kiss Regulus at midnight. He could try and pass it off as just a part of the tradition, and besides almost everyone else who was coming was in a couple… It might work. Or it could fail epically. Either way, it was the closest he had come to having an actual plan so far. He’d have to make sure Sirius didn’t see though. Hopefully, Remus could cover that though.
He stretched out, cracking his back delightfully. Regulus passed him another streamer, with a raised eyebrow.
“Do you really need help with this?” He asked,
James froze, “Yes.” He doubled down.
Regulus snorted, but didn’t argue, instead handing him another streamer.
“It's just quicker this way.” James defended himself. “Anyway, do you know what time Evan, Barty and Pandora are arriving tomorrow?”
Regulus shrugged, “They said sometime in the evening.”
James nodded, “sure, sure,” He hung another streamer, “So the others should be coming around 8pm. I think Pete is coming first, maybe around half seven. Then Lily is bringing everyone else.”
“Who, exactly, is coming?” Regulus asked,
“Pete, Lily, Mary and Marlene, who I think is bringing Dorcas.”
“Oh.” Regulus said, “I invited Dorcas too.”
James nodded, “Ah. Cool.” God he was awkward. The silence stretched on. “Hey, you know you’re always welcome here right?”
Regulus offered him a small smile, not a proper one, but it felt like a win nonetheless, “Your mother said the same thing to me.”
“Well she's right. I know we don’t really hang out at school and stuff, but this is your home too. And hey maybe we could start?”
“Start?”
“Yah, hanging out at school?”
Regulus hummed non-committedly.
But it wasn’t a no.
Predictably, Sirius spent the entire day getting ready for the party, which at least meant James could spend more time with Regulus alone. They mainly lounged on the couch, Regulus reading quietly whilst James practically bounced around the room, talking almost non-stop. Eventually Regulus left to change and James followed suit. A nice red shirt and jeans. He fluffed up his hair and added a small necklace, watch and a thumb ring. He purposely left the top two buttons undone.
No-one else seemed to be ready so he risked wandering into Sirius’s room, and hoped that he and Remus weren’t up to anything. Fortunately, Sirius was perched in front of his mirror, adding eyeliner whilst Remus perched on his windowsill, smoking out of the open window. He was dressed nicely, a plain light grey suit and dark tie. But the star (literally) of the show, was and always will be, Sirius. He was in tight black pants with a matching jacket but underneath, underneath he was wearing a corset. It had a keyhole cutout over his chest, was made of lace and hugged him nicely, extenuating his waist. He had his hair pulled back into a loose bun, with tendrils falling free and framing his face. His fingers were decorated with copious rings and he had a single silver, star-shaped, barrette in his hair. At some point he’d also painted his nails black.
He whistled lowly, “Damn Pads, looking fine!”
Sirius laughed, chucking his head back, “Not looking too bad yourself, Prongs.”
“Back off, Potter, this one’s mine.” Remus chuckled,
“Damn right I am.” Sirius said, shooting Remus a cocky look. “You seen Reg?” He asked James,
“Uh, no. Nope. Not at all. Well I mean not, not at all, but not recently-”
“Okay James,” Sirius interrupted, “That was a yes or no question.”
A small knock sounded, just as James opened his mouth. “I’ll get it.” He announced, thanking whatever God was watching over him and stopping him from making a fool of himself, again.
He wrenched open the door and immediately froze. Regulus stood there, looking stunning. James’s mouth went dry and he briefly forgot how to think, eyes catching on Regulus’s waist and staying there. He wore a plain white shirt with black pinstripe pants and a matching vest. And fuck . That vest. Regulus cleared his throat and James yanked his eyes up. A soft blush covered Regulus’s cheeks. James managed to re-focus. Unfortunately, only on Regulus’s arms. Arms which had blank bands wrapped around his biceps, contrasting nicely with the long whist sleeves of his shirt. He managed to drag his eyes away, only to be distracted by the tie-pin he wore. A small silver star. It matched Sirius’s barrette.
“Yeah, it does.” Regulus said and James realized with a jolt that he’d spoken allowed. Which begged the question, had he said anything else aloud?
“Well, are you going to let him in, James?” Sirius prompted,
James stepped aside dumbly. Regulus breezed past him, leaving behind a scent of mint and… was that eucalyptus? Regulus perched on the edge of Sirius’s bed. His dark curls fell in face a little and James was struck with the urge to swipe them aside. To see those beautiful grey eyes a bit better. The flush was still clearly on his face. James winced a little.
“You nearly ready, baby?” Remus asked, breaking the awkward silence,
“Nearly.” Sirius agreed, fussing over his eyeliner one last time before he stood, “Ta-da!” He spun in a circle, “What do you think?”
“Stunning.” Remus smiled,
Sirius beamed at him, bouncing over to place a kiss on his lips, and nick his cigarette for a quick draw.
“Okay,” Sirius declared, returning Remus’s cigarette to him, “I’m ready.”
Remus snorted, stubbing out his cigarette, “Only took you, what, seven hours?”
“Closer to eight.” Regulus corrected,
Sirius smirked, “It takes a lot of work to look this good.”
“I feel like I could've done that in an hour.” Regulus shook his head,
“Uh, no.” Sirius argued, “I had to pick an outfit which took me ages, because I couldn’t decide between 3 pairs of pants and 2 tops and Moony was no help. And then I wasn't sure about the eyeliner so I took it off and reapplied it a couple times. And then there was my hair…” He trailed off.
“Whatever, let's just head down? Its gone half seven, so Pete should be arriving at literally any moment now.” James chuckled,
Sirius shrugged nonchalantly.
Pete, as it turned out, had already arrived and was sitting on the couch, with a drink in hand. James leapt on him, nearly knocking the drink flying. Sirius joined in, actually knocking the drink over. Pete laughed loudly, patting him on the back.
It didn’t take long for the girls to arrive. As predicted Lily, Mary, Marlene and Dorcas arrived together. Dorcas greeted Regulus with a fond smile and a hug and James couldn’t help the spike of jealousy he felt at their embrace, brief though it was. The living room quickly filled, people milling and loud music playing. He danced with Sirius for a while, quickly necking a few drinks. But eventually Marlene took his place. He flopped next to Lily and Mary. Lily perched on Mary’s lap despite the rest of the couch being empty.
Lily sighed, “What's wrong James?” she asked with knowing smile,
“If I were in love with someone not so good, and by not so good I mean totally, very good, but unfortunate, except not, would that be bad?” He asked, voice a touch slurred,
Lily laughed, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“He in loooove.” Mary snickered, “C’mon Lils, how could you not get that!”
“I got that, but the rest?” She shook her head, “I’ve no idea.”
“Who is it?” Mary asked,
“Wha?” James asked,
“Who are you in love with?” Lily prompted,
James pulled a face. Mary laughed. He beckoned them in closer, faux whispering, “Regulus.”
Lily pulled back with a small gasp. Mary covered her mouth with her hand, trying to stifle her giggles, “Your best friend's brother?” Mary asked,
James nodded, “It's bad.”
Mary and Lily shared a look and then burst out laughing.
James groaned, “You’re no help.” He complained, getting up and leaving them to giggle together.
Sirius, it seemed, had somehow convinced Remus to dance with him. If it could be called dancing, it seemed more like Sirius was just grinding on him. Remus was a very lucky man. God he wished Regulus would dance with him like that. Or just at all. Loud yelling caught his attention and he turned to the side to see Barty, Evan and Pandora on their way in. Barty was whooping loudly and taking a shot with Evan clapping him on.
The night passed far too quickly and before long the timer he had set was going off, marking the 5 minutes to go before midnight struck. He rushed around the room, quickly looking for Regulus. Two minutes to go. Fuck . Where was he? Movement outside the window caught his attention, and he turned to peer out. Regulus was sitting on the wall outside, staring up at the stars. James hopped out of the open window.
“Hey Reg,” He waved,
Regulus turned to face him, offering a small smile.
“It's nearly midnight.” James said,
Regulus nodded, “yeah.”
“Why are you out here?”
Regulus shrugged.
“It's uh, it's quite cold.” James commented,
“A bit.” Regulus agreed.
James joined him on the wall, sitting close enough their thighs brushed.
“You’re going to miss the countdown.” Regulus murmured,
“S’okay.” James shrugged, “I’d rather be out here with you.”
Regulus turned to face him, brows scrunched in confusion, “You would?”
“Can’t think of a better way to start the year, then with you, under the stars.”
Regulus stared at him as though he’d grown an extra head. Maybe he had. In the background he could hear everyone inside counting down. Midnight had arrived. And he didn’t have an excuse to kiss Regulus.
They stared at each other as the count down reached 5 and then 4, 3, 2 and as it turned out, he needn't have worried about having an excuse because as midnight came, Regulus was the one to lean in first.