'Cause I See Sparks Fly, Whenever You Smile
Regulus woke up that morning in pain. After the night of crying, reminiscing and dysphoria, he needed nothing more than a quiet and a media-less day. Well, he would try to make it media-less.
He couldn't resist. He needed to know what people though of him now. Did they hate him? Is everyone being homophobic? Did he really lose the only job that he loved?
He tried to find his phone, it was in the mess of bedsheets and at a dangerously low battery percentage. When he unlocked it, it was still in the audio-recording app. Lucky him. He did not want to listen to any nonsense that he was on about at 3am.
He checked Twitter first. Probably a bad idea, but he was prone to bad ideas by now. His notifications had been muted since last night, he didn't expect many loving tweets.
The tags however, he was trending?
#regulusblack
#luciusmalfoy
#youbelongwithme
#VMAs
#regulusblackreaction
Alicee @yourbfbelongswithme
YOO WTFF?? GOSH I ALWAYS HATED LUCIUS IDC WHAT ANYONE SAYS. greasy guy. REG WE LOVE YOU YOU DESERVED THE AWARD🧡🧡
Chad @chadsmith
Bruh that twink Regulus makes cringey music. Lucius is a real one for saying what everyone thinks. You can't shame a man for speaking his mind.
white horse stan #1🧡 @rabslut
Reply to -> Chad @chadsmith
What's your relationship with your father like?
romeo save me @ivebeenfeelingsoalone
i fucking hate lucius, narcissa babe pls turn back while you still can. He gives off such sus vibes idk
Sirius @padfoot ✓
Lucius Malfoy is the biggest peace of shit on earth. Quote me.
James Potter @prongs ✓
gonna beat a bitch up
Barty Crouch Jr. @bartycrouchjr ✓
no fucking way. some people need to get a grip
Pandora!! @panda ✓
I love putting curses on people!!💜💕🪼🦋✨🌝
Regulus, scrolls down, further and further, there seems to be no end. Most of the people are supporting him, why? He thought people would side with Lucius?
In the swarm of millions of comments, every 100th one was against Regulus. That was good, right?
No apology from Lucius or Narcissa. It kind of hurt. Mother hasn't called him. She must hate him even more now. He was definitely gonna have to do something he doesn't want to to save his reputation.
He was getting so much support, though. He couldn't complain, his DM's were full of long, thoughtful messages. Most of them were from fans, but there were some from Sirius, his friends and other celebrities. He felt so much better now that he was sure people liked what he did, after all. He didn't lose his job, more importantly.
He focused his eyes on the messages, the first one to pop up being from James. James! Oh.
James
James
nahh, you're totally gonna win this, theres noo way you wont
Regulus
are you spoiling it for me, Potter? don't want you losing your one-night job as presenter. You're too pretty for that
James
Pretty?!?!?! 🤭
Today 10:34 AM
James
Hey Reg! I tried calling you last night after you went home but you didn't answer. Just checking up! How r u doing? Ik that maybe you'd wanna like, stay home, but i wanted to ask if maybe we could hang out sometime? Yk get your mind off things. It's totally okay if not!!!!!
What? Why was James asking this now? Regulus couldn't resist. But he really didn't want to be seen by paparazzi today. Maybe James would ask to see him somewhere private? Maybe he could come to Regulus' house? The only thing he can do is ask.
Regulus
Hey, Potter. I'm fine,
my notifications were muted.
You know what? We can
hang out but I don't think i
wanna be seen today. How
about you come over?
James
Already asking me to come to your place? Atleast take me out to dinner first! Just kidding Reg, I'll come. When should i get there?
Regulus could pretend that he wasn't blushing all that he wanted, but Casper was sitting in his lap and looking at him with a tilted head, almost judging him.
Regulus
Shut up, Potter.
You can come over whenever.
James
omw, be there in 10.
What? Now, Regulus was freaking out. In 10? How was James so close? James lives at least 30 minutes away from Regulus?
Regulus shot up from the bed, causing Casper to jump up from his lap and earning a sharp pain in his chest. He couldn't breathe properly. He should probably take his binder off now, but James was coming over and Regulus didn't want him to feel uncomfortable.
He knows that James would be respectful about it, if he even noticed, but Regulus shoos that thought away from his head, starting to clean his room and leaving for the kitchen to make coffee.
Regulus finished making coffee for himself and James, black for himself and one with an ungodly amount of milk, he knew how James liked it. He sat on the counter, writing, for what seemed like an eternity when, true to his word, ten minutes later, he heard a knock on the door.
Regulus jumped down, when he realized he was still in his sleeping clothes and probably had smeared makeup from last night still on his face. Fuck.
He walked to the door in his big shirt and really short shorts, rubbing his eye and his fingertips turning black from last nights eyeliner.
As soon as Regulus opened the door, there was a camera flash in the distance and he froze. Had he just opened the dood to paparazzi's? He thought it was James, he hadn't even checked the window.
But no, it was James. Someone has obviously followed him. Amazing, just amazing! Now Regulus is seen with James, in his worst outfit.
James' head was turned, he had obviously also gotten startled by the flash. Regulus grabbed his wrist and sharply pulled him into the house,
closing the door and locking it.
Regulus just then notcied that it was raining outside. Which isn't really unusual for an average September day, but it was unusual how James was dripping wet standing on Regulus' expensive carpet.
"Come on, Potter. You're staining my carpet." Regulus pulled James' arm, having never taken it off after pulling him into the house.
"Sorry 'bout that Reggie. Wh-where are you going?" James said curiously.
"To the bathroom Potter, you'll get sick if you keep those wet clothes on." Regulus explained.
James pulled a very suggestive look, opening his mouth to say something stupid, probably something like 'so eager on taking my clothes off reggie!' before Regulus said: "Don't even dare Potter'.
James kept his mouth shut and when Regulus showed him to the bathroom, he went to his room to search for the biggest shirt he had, for the sake of James being as comfortable as possible.
He found an old shirt, which was actually James'. A few years ago, Sirius, James and Regulus went to a party and Regulus had stained his shirt with wine and borrowed one of James's. He kept it after that. It was one of the biggest shirts he had, so he hoped it could still fit James.
Regulus came back to the bathroon, knocking two times, before James opened the door.
The himbo was shirtless. Well, he was meant to be, but Regulus didn't expect him to open the door fully snd reveal his tan muscles. Regulus wanted to run his fingers down his chest, lower and low-
"See something you like, Reggie?"
Regulus' eyes widened and blood rushed to his face.
James smiles, bearing all his teeth and he looks so beautiful. Regulus is screwed.
He extended his hand, giving James the shirt and mumbling something about being in the kitchen.
When he's there, he writes down a little line in his notes,
'Cause I see sparks fly, whenever you smile
He continues drinking his somehow-still-cold coffee. He's scrolling on his phone, well, at least pretending too. In reality, he's watching carefully through his peripheral vision if James is walking in.
When he finally does, Regulus puts his phone next to where he's sitting on the counter, gesturing with his hand to the coffee he made for James.
James isn't too surprised, the few time they've seen eachother in someone's house, they always made coffee together.
However, to take the coffee, James had to get really close to Regulus. Like, very close.
Regulus was sitting on the counter, and James was basically standing in between his legs. Not that Regulus had a problem with it... Fuck. No. It was wrong. But it felt so good to have James close to him. He ached to touch him, bring him closer, even though it was wrong.
James took the coffee smirking, knowing what he does to Regulus.
To distract himself, Regulus grabbed his phone, writing down two more lines. By the end of the day, he might aswell have a full album done.
And you stood there in front of me just
Close enough to touch
Close enough to hope you couldn't see
What I was thinking of
"So what should we do, Reggie boy?" James asks, smiling over his cup of coffee. That smile that drives Regulus crazy.
"I don't know, you planned this James, aren't you the mastermind?" Regulus asked, trying ti hide his smile.
James didn't answer, a shocked expression on his face.
"What? What happened?" Regulus was confused.
"You- you called me James" James said excitedly.
Realising his mistake, Regulus instantly went with gaslighting. Gaslight, gatekeep, girboss. Well, maybe not the last one.
"No. I didn't. You're delusional, Potter."
"Nuh uh, I heard it! Loud and clear! James!"
Regulus rolled his eyes, trying to ignore the beam James is sending him and trying to resist smiling.
"Should we watch a movie, Reggie?" James asked.
"Sure, Potter. As long as you let me get off this counter'.
James must've realized how close they were, his eyes widening and hiding his amusement.
"What should we watch? Oh! I know! Let's watch a Halloween scary movie!"
"It's September, James?"
"There! There it is again! You keep calling me James! We might aswell get married now" James said excitedly.
"~Delusional" Regulus said in a sing-songy voice, ignoring the marriage comment.
"Whatever. Which movie should we watch? Also, where the hell is your living room? I almost got lost looking for the kitchen, might even get lost in it. Seriously, what do you even need it for?" James was ranting on and on, following Regulus to his living room.
They settles on the big cream couch, scrolling through the list of movies. It was pretty cold for a September night, even though Regulus' heater was on.
Regulus got up, bending down to get a blanket he hid on a shelf. It was a dark, cherry red colour. He felt James' eyes boring into him, but he ignored it and brushed it off as being delusional.
He sat down next to James, soreading the blanket over themselves. However, they were too far away from eachother, so James scooted closer, maybe even more than necessary.
They ended up picking Nightmare on Elm Street, for whatever reason. James had been pretty excited, explaining that it was his favourite movie, how had Regulus known that?
Not that Regulus stalked his Instagram and saw that he loved it, no absolutely not. Just pure coincidence.
It was going pretty good, until the rain outside turned into a full-on rainstorm. It was raining really hard and Regulus just hoped that the man who took a picture of them earlier wasn't standing outside anymore.
They got to the scene where Nancy is taking a bath, drifting off and not noticing the horrifying fucking hand appearing inbetween her fucking legs? Seriously, Regulus could never.
The hand reached down and suddenly, the power in Regulus' house went off, the room going dark and the only light coming from the gross scene on the TV.
Regulus grips James' biceo hard, like, leaving marks hard. He gasps and James chuckles sweetly.
"It's fine Reg! The power just went off, I'm sure it'll be back soon. We can stop the movie if you want?" James said, rubbing circles onto Regulus' back.
"Please" Regulus says quietly, which seems to get some kind of reaction from James.
James stops the movie and turns on his phone for additional light. Regulus finally looks up and James is looking right back at him, the phone and TV being the only source of light, lightning James' face perfectly.
James brings his hand up to Regulus' cheeck, holding him so dearly. He's so close. Just, almost close enough to-
Then Regulus starts wheezing. He's gasping for air, the sharp pain in his ribs now being constant.
James looked worried, hurriedly asking Regulus what was wrong and what was hurting him.
Regulus couldn't speak, couldn't breathe properly, just gestured to his chest, wheezing out "binder' but he's not sure if James understood.
James is shocked, but worriedly asks: 'Your binder, Reggie? It's hurting you?"
Regulus nods the best he can, grasping at James's arm, trying to signal he wants it off.
"Can I touch you Reg? I need to get it off" Regulus hesitatea, but he feels like he's going to die so he wheezes out a "yes".
James doesn't take his shirt off, not even lifting it, just reaches underneath it and his warm hands linger on Regulus' waist, then crossing his torso and wrapping around it, pulling the clothing as best as he can.
Relief washes over Regulus, being able to breathe again. He feels embarrassed, but there's not really any room for that right now.
"Are you alright, darling? Feel better now?" James asks sweetly.
"Yes. Thank you, Jamie" Regulus says, not registering anything that he's saying.
James smiles smugly, but doesn't comment on the funky nickname. He looks around, trying to find something to distract Regulus with, then notices the piano in the corner of the living room.
"Can you play something for me, Regulus?'' James asks and oh. The one time he says Regulus' name right, ut sends shivers down his spine.
And how can he say no when he's asking so sweetly? Regulus slowly gets up, slipping the binder off and walking towards the piano.
He decides on a piano version of one of his most popular songs, Love Story.
When he's done, he looks up at James and James is staring at him like he's just hanged all the stars up onto the sky.
"You're even better live than i imagined you'd be" James says softly, Regulus could barely hear over the sound of rain falling outside.
"Thanks, James."
The lights come back on, and Regulus feels even more insecure than he did just a few seconds ago.
James seems to notice, quickly turning away: "You wanna change into something comfier?"
"Um, er, I'll be right back." Regulus runs to his room and picks up the first hoodie that was in his closet, deciding to stay in the shorts. James seemed to like it for some reason, keeping his hand close to Regulus' thigh while they were watching the movie.
When he comes back down, James is scrolling on his phone, his hair all ruffled up like last night. James looks up and smiles instantly
"Reg! I should get going now, it's getting pretty late-"
"What? No!" Regulus said. "Sorry. That soundsd demanding, but there's no way im letting you go home without an umbrella in a rainstorm? Stay the night"
Regulus is impressed by his own confidence and annoyed at himself because now he's gonna have to explain to Barty tomorrow why James Potter is in his house.
Barty tends to come every day and the only reason that didn't happen today is be
cause Regulus had said he wanted peace snd quiet. Barty's gonna be so mad that he blew him off for James.
"Don't worry, i like it when you're demanding" James winked with a smirk
It left Regulus speechless.
Well, now James is staying the night.