Roof
James loves his studies abroad. He is halfway through his Erasmus, and he did enjoy every single second of it. Was it hard to leave his hometown? Of course. He hasn’t seen his friends in months. He misses them. But he is also discovering the thrill of meeting new people, getting to know different cultures and overcoming obstacles.
Right now, he is at the party and Dorcas’ place. He met them at some party when he accidentally spilt their drink and offered to buy a new one and a shot as an apology. James loves to be around them. With Dorcas, something is always happening. He met their friends, Barty and Evan who were walking chaos. Barty is the light of every party.
Dorcas’ place is packed with people. They played some drinking games and talked about everything and nothing. About half an hour ago, someone put music on, and they started dancing. That’s when James made his exit. It got too loud, too hot and too many people brushing against him. He needed a break. He made his way to Dorcas’ room (with their permission) and climbed out of the window to a small flat space on the roof.
The moment he closes the window everything falls into silence. The night in Budapest is breathtaking and James is immediately jealous of the view Dorcas has. He breathes out letting his head rest on the cold wall and lets himself just be.
His relaxation is interrupted by the sound of the window opening. James reckons it’s Dorcas so he doesn’t turn to look.
“What the fuck are you doing here?!” A cold voice snaps James from his relaxation.
He comes face to face with an absolutely beautiful but also angry boy. He hasn’t seen him at the party, he would have noticed.
Ignoring the angry expression James says. “Hi, sorry…” He moves so the boy can sit next to him and reaches his hand towards him. “I’m James. I haven’t seen you yet.”
The boy glares at him absolutely offended that he should share this place with someone. Even with the scowl on his face, James has never seen someone as beautiful. How come someone looks elegant while climbing out of the window. “I asked you something.” The boy snaps not taking James’ hand.
“Sorry, what?”
The boy rolls his eyes. “This is Dorcas’ room. What are you doing here?”
“Dorcas said I can be here. What are you doing here?”
“I fucking live here.”
“Oh, so you are Regulus.” James beams. Regulus is not pleased he knows his name.
“What are you doing and can you go away? I want to have a smoke.”
James pounts because he doesn’t want to make Dorcas’ flatmate mad, and this is after all his flat. But he doesn’t want to go back. He can’t. Not yet. He runs his fingers trough his hair. “I’m sorry but is it alright if I stay?”
“Why? Don’t you have a party to be at?”
“It got too loud and hot. And I was uncomfortable. Not their fault, it’s just me. I don’t do well in a space like this for a long time. I needed a break to calm down.” James explains. He highly doubts Regulus will care about his problems, but maybe he will take pity on him.
When James looks up he can see Regulus watching him with a searching gaze. His eyes fall to James' lap where he is fidgeting with his hands, his thumb swiping over the side of his index finger in a repetitive motion. He forces himself to stop because he doesn’t want to look weird in from of a stranger.
To his surprise, Regulus looks up with an understanding expression. “You can stay.”
James smiles gratefully and offers his hand to Regulus to help him climb through the window.