Chapter 1
It was green, it was golden, it was anything and everything. It was beautiful.
It was tall pillars of the house in france and it was sweet treats from india, it was french pastries and italian pasta. It was happiness and love and the promise of forever.
James entered the afterlife with only one thought in his head. Regulus. It was a mantra long forgotten as he walked through the gates into the land of anything he wanted.
James had waited for two years, 730 days, a slice of a lifetime.
There would be no more waiting, standing before him, with dark curls that absorbed the light and eyes of silver flames was Regulus. He did not dare to breathe, he tried to stay asleep. It had been too long, it had been an eternity since James had layed eyes on him.
He was the same, all pink cheeks and mischivous smiles. He was beautiful and for the first time since being hit with that curse James was breathless.
"James" he breathed and that was all it took, every memory, every feeling crashing into him all at once as he dropped to his knees.
His voice, the voice he had forgotten, the voice that had come to him in his final seconds. Pale skin and soft fingers touching his face, tears tracking and mixing with the gentle caress.
"Regulus" his voice was cracking, choaked with tears.
"Oh my love" Those same soft fingers tilted his face up, up and up until eyes the colour of mercury met the ones of a forrest.
They stayed there, looking at eachother, memorising the planes of the others face. Regulus was crying too James realised as moisture mingled with the hands that had moved on their own accord to touch him. He brushes the tears aside tangling his hands into that black hair and yanking gently so that the boy ended up in his lap. Chest to chest as James held on. Held on and on to the boy he had loved and lost too soon, to the boy who he would have gone to the ends of the universe for. He held on sobs shaking his frame, arms tangled around him.
He had forgotten he realises, forgotten the way that Regulus fit so perfectly in his arms. Forgotten how they slotted together like pieces of a puzzle. No, like two pieces of the same broken heart, two pieces of the same soul, the same person.
For the first time in two years James felt complete.
"I'm sorry, i should have listened to you, I should have stayed home and safe in your arms and none of this would have happened. I'm sorry, Im so sorry Jamie I didnt know, I didnt understand and he sent me to this cave and i tried so hard to be brave and i wanted to protect you. I didnt know, he sent me there knowing and I didnt get to tell you all the things in my soul. I didnt know and then I did and then Id left you. Im so sorry" It all came rushing out of Regulus, tearing from his throat in a gust of sorrow and joy.
James pulled back and stared, his eyes tracing the pattern of his freckles along his nose. Memorising the slope of his nose and the pinkness of his lips.
Regulus was crying in ernest, babbling but James didn't hear it.
Gently, so gently he pressed his lips against his loves. Effectively silencing him the same way it always used too. They felt the same, still just as soft, still just as eager as hands made their way into James hair. He held the kiss for longer than he needed too, reaquainting himself with the smell of Lavender and Broom polish and pine trees and smoke.
Atlast he pulls away wiping years that are spilling from Regulus's eyes, holding his face begween his hands.
"You're still just as beautiful, as the day i lost you" he whispers.
The tears flowed from Regulus like a torrent at James's words.
"Not a day has gone by where i havent hurt like half of me is missing. Not a second went by without me begging and pleading the stars to bring you back, or at the very least bring me to you. There has not been an instance where i didnt feel your abscense the way someone feels a broken heart or a shattered soul. All consuming, unadultered." James drags in a ragged breath before continuing.
"I never got to tell you, I thought we would have our whole lives. I love you, i have loved you since i first layed eyes on you, i have loved you quietly and i have loved you loudly and i have loved you in every way i know how. I have loved you not inspite of any flaw but regardless, i have loved you unconditonally, irrefutably and unbreakably since i was 14 years old." Regulus was silent, tears streaming over his cheeks as James poured his soul out to the love he had lost.
"I need you to know, that there has never been anyone else for me. It has always been you, My heart, my soul, the blood and bones my body holds has always been yours and it will be forever. There was never a doubt in my mind that it was you, only you, always you. I should have told you while we were still breathing, I should have screamed it from the rooftops. More importantly you should have known that there was not a line i wouldnt have crossed for you. There was never a price i wasnt willing to pay to ensure your safety - even before you loved me too. There was nothing in the universe or the next that i wouldnt do for you. There never will be Regulus."
When James finishes hes crying too, Reguluses eyes are red rimmed and sparkling as he beheld the man infront of him.
"and i need you to know above all else Regulus Black that there is no distance between us that i wouldnt cross. No desert, no sea, no time or space would keep you from me. There is no distance that i would not breach to get back to you"
Regulus breathed in shakily, his hands cupping James's cheeks.
"James Potter. My sweet love, my only love. I know, Ive always known. I love you too, i always have. We might not have had the time we deserved while we were alive but we have forever here." His smile is small and tentative as he presses his lips gently against James's.
"Forever" James echoes, moving Regulus, shifting him so his legs wrap around his waist, keeping him sheltered in his lap.
They had forever in the place of everythibg, all the time they were denied alive. Time to wait for their chosen family, time to do all the things they were never able too
Forever Together, never to be seporated from the other half of their souls again