Taking care
James is sitting in the living room. On the table in front of him is a plant that used to be green and had beautiful flowers. Now it’s brown, bearly holding up with no trace of those purple petals. He can’t even look at it anymore. He really tried to keep it alive this time. But sometimes he forgets to water it because he gets too busy and then he couldn’t remember when he watered it the last time. He tried to correct it and probably overdid it. So maybe the sun would help, or was it too much sun? It didn’t matter in the end. Because going by the colour of the plant it was way past saving now.
The thing is, he always loved flowers so much. He wanted to have the whole flat full of them, green everywhere. But he couldn’t keep alive not even a single one.
He can hear the door open, and he doesn’t need to look up to know it’s Regulus coming to pick up Sirius to go for a coffee as they always do on Wednesdays. He just continues to sit there trying desperately to find any sign of life in the plant, still hoping that maybe he can somehow save it.
“Killing plants, Potter?” Regulus snorts. “What did you do to the poor one? Tortured it?” Regulus expects James to look up with a grin on his face and a sarcastic answer on his lips. Instead, James abruptly stands up and picks up the flowerpot with his head down.
“Obviously.” He mutters and disappears to his room without another word. He puts the plant in the corner of the room, so he doesn’t have to look at it.
~.~.~.~.~
It’s the next day after James comes back from school lectures when he finds three new plants on the table in his room. Next to them is a simple note:
I’m sorry.
- R.A.B.
Ps.: I can come over from time to time to check on them if you want to.
James picks up the plants and puts them in different parts of the room so he can always see at least one no matter what he’s doing. He takes his phone out and searches for Regulus’ name. He types a short message with a smile on his lips: Thank you. I would like that. Maybe this time, it will be different.