Crayfish
Regulus Black is an excellent employee. He is always on time, he is a hard worker and he does what his boss asks for. But he is tired of always doing the same thing time and time again. That’s why he is going to lead the next big campaign. Well his boss doesn't know yet but Regulus will get what he wants. Regulus wears an all black suit as he takes determined steps into his office.
In his office Barty and Evan are playing some kind of card game.
"You're not trying to cheat at poker, right?” Regulus say with a quirked eyebrow. Regulus and his friends always have a poker night once a week, Barty and Evan have never won.
“No, that would be stupid as you see everything.” Barty answers before scrambling the deck and dealing everyone a new hand. Regulus sits down and plays.
He can’t help it. He’s kind of addicted. Something to put his mind to instead of thinking about everything. He probably won’t get the lead to rise higher in this strange anarchy of a workplace.
They play a couple of rounds and Regulus wins every time, well except the time when Barty somehow cheated. Regulus suspects he has good cards hidden on his person but Regulus will not body search him, that’s Evan’s job.
Somewhere around lunch they have accomplished nothing and they head out for lunch. Evan and Barty take a taxi and Regulus takes his bike.
The bike is really a motorcycle, it’s loud and beautiful when cruising on the roads. Regulus is emotionally attached to it. It was his brother's dream to have a motorcycle and Regulus doesn’t know if he ever got it.
Regulus doesn’t know that much about his brother. His brother, Sirius left home when he was sixteen. He didn’t even bother to take Regulus with him. He didn’t even bother to tell him where he was going. Regulus doesn’t even know if he’s alive. Sure he can search up Sirius’s name and get an answer, but then it would all be real. Sirius left him and didn’t even look back.
But before he left, he would sneak into Regulus’s room at night to tell stories of them both together and how Sirius would buy a bike. It had to be a loud one and it sure as hell (Sirius’s words not his) would be the most pretty of them all.
So that’s how Regulus ended up with a bike.
The lunch was very boring, Regulus’s mind still stuck on Sirius. But Barty and Evan seemed to have the time of their lives. They made jokes and laughed together. Snickered at each other and Regulus was just tired of everything. Especially love. Everyone around him had someone to keep them busy. Evan and Barty. Pandora and Mary. Dorcas and whatever her name was. Even his cousin Narcissa had Lucius fucking Malfoy.
Lucius Malfoy was actually one of his coworkers and Regulus couldn’t hate him more. Stuck up, nosy and homophobic is all Malfoy really is. He tries to put up a strong front of confidence but Regulus can see through the cracks. Maybe Regulus was too well trained in how to hide away and that made it easy for him to see others hiding too. Well not in that big sense of how much Regulus had to hide.
Another one of his very annoying coworkers is Severus Snape. A very greasy haired man who is pissed off all the time. Regulus reckons it’s the influence of their boss, Albus Dumbledore.
Dumbledore is not a bad person per say. He’s just annoyingly kind and sometimes a very angry person. His personality can be kept in a shoebox and there would still be more room. All in all, Regulus hates everyone he works with except Barty and Evan.
…
The day drags on and it’s just before they are able to go home that Albus Dumbledore aprotches.
“Hey, you up for a drink?” That’s very unusual, Regulus is known to not socialize with anyone except for his two best friends, who are almost running out of the office together. How nice.
“Okay? A special occasion,sir?” Regulus is very suspicious.
“Well kind of. Lucius and Severus have been in contact with Gilderoy Lockhart, you know of him?”
Regulus sure knows who Gilderoy Lockhart is. He’s very unusual and purely relies on his looks, which he hasn't got.
“I do know of him, but this is quite boring. Shouldn’t we find somewhere more interesting to talk about this.” Regulus knows he’s unkind but he doesn’t care. Dumbledore continues talking about Lockhart before telling Regulus to meet him, Malfoy, and Snape at a nice pub around the corner.
When Regulus gets to the pub everyone is already there. He sits down and they start talking business. As it turns out the big marketing campaign that Regulus is trying to lead is in 10 days. Maybe it’s now that he is going to shoot his shot.
“So, I was thinking that this campaign needs a front face or something different”
“How do you suppose we do that?” Dumbledore asks with a slight twinkle of his mouth.
“I thought, I could help with that” Regulus decides to be brave.
“How are you going to make people like you, Regulus. You’re not very social.” Malfoy decides to say before Dumbledore can even process Regulus’s request.
“I can make anyone like me” Regulus is frowning slightly but he has a harsh tone when speaking to Malfoy.
“I’m not so sure, you don’t radiate joy” Dumbledore cuts into the conversation.
“I bet no one even has fallen in love with him” Snape says gleefully. Regulus somehow lets his anger show.
“I can make anyone fall in love with me, you’ll see” He wasn’t meant to say that. He regrets it very much.
“Is that so?” Malfoy looks somewhere behind Regulus. A slight smirk playing on his lips.
“You can prove it, make someone fall in love with you and you get to be the front face” Malfoy continues. Dumbledore seems to have something to say but nods slowly.
“I can do that” Regulus answers halfheartedly. Malfoy and Snape smiles. They look around and point to someone.
“The guy over there. The one that’s laughing so much.” Malfoy sounds very gleeful and it seems like he isn’t sharing something. Snape is about to say something but Malfoy just smiles at him.
Regulus turns around and looks at the guy. It’s true he’s laughing at something presumably whatever the blonde said to him and Regulus can’t keep his eyes off the man.
He has wild, untamed black hair that looks like he runs his fingers through a lot. Square shaped glasses and he’s tall and lean. When Regulus looks really close at his face and oh is it pretty, Regulus is sure he’s blushing.
Regulus turns away from the very attractive man and shakes Malfoy's hand. Before he can leave the table, Dumbledore speaks up.
“At the gala, in 10 days, I want you to bring him—“ Dumbledore doesn't get to finish before Malfoy speaks.
“He needs to be in love with you, otherwise it doesn’t count.” It’s the finality in his tone that makes Regulus walk to the pretty man.
…
Regulus takes James to a crayfish restaurant, on his bike. James thought that the car next to the bike was Regulus’s. He got quite shocked when he found out they were going to take the bike. Apparently James’s friend has a motorcycle but he never gets to drive it, not that Regulus would let James drive his bike either but he could let him hope.
The crayfish was amazing and it turns out that James is a very happy person. Not that Regulus minds, he was never surrounded by happy people when he grew up.
James talks and talks and talks. It seems like it never stops but Regulus is going to see through this. He is going to make it 10 days.