Attention

Regulus feels that things have been a little weird between him and Evan. He seems to be avoiding him. He has also noticed the glares Evan sends to Regulus when he thinks he is not looking. 

At first, Regulus was confused. Why is Evan acting so hostile towards him all of sudden? 

Then he thought about when this behavior started, which was when the thing started between him and Barty. 

Look, Regulus didn’t mean to start a thing with Barty.

It began with Barty complaining about being bored. Regulus was trying to focus on his book, while the idiot was laying on his bed, complaining about no girls wanting to talk to him anymore after figuring out he has been with almost half the girls in their year. 

Regulus doesn’t blame them. Or he does, since Barty decided to complain to him about it.

When he couldn’t take it anymore, he slammed the book shut and threw it on the ground.

Barty shut up at the sound. His expression seems to freeze, finally realizing he has maybe gone too far. 

“Barty, what the fuck do you want me to do?” Regulus gritted out, sounding frustrated.

Barty swallows, scared to answer him.

 “I- I don’t know,” he tries to shrug.

Regulus sighs, “What is your real problem?”

“Really, I don’t know,” Barty scratched his chin, “probably just horny.”

Regulus looks at him then. Barty was lying down in his bed, arms folded behind his head. His face wore a relaxed expression. His eyes were closed, allowing Regulus’ eyes to roam freely over his face without him noticing. Or maybe he did since his lips lifted up to form a smirk. 

“Like what you see?” he croaks out. Regulus decided on being honest.

“Yes,” he answered, waiting for the other’s response. He didn’t have to wait long. 

Barty struggled to raise himself up. He was perplexed, not expecting Regulus to actually say ‘yes’.

“W-what?” he stammers out, still a little alarmed.

Regulus crossed his legs where he sat, and pushed a piece of hair behind his ear.

“Yes,” he repeated, and looked Barty dead in the eye, “I like what I see.”

He sees Barty swallowing hard, and slowly stands up. He walks towards Barty’s bed and sits beside him. Their eyes never leave each other. 

Regulus has never allowed himself to be this bold. He has known a long time that he is attracted to men, but he didn’t dare act on those feelings. This is Barty, however. This is someone he trusts.

He won’t call it ‘being brave’. He is not a gryffindor, for merlin’s sake. However, he is a slytherin. He takes what he wants.

And right now, he wants Barty.

He doesn’t know who moved first, but they clashed in the middle. Hands were gripping the sides of his face as teeth were biting his lips. Regulus had never kissed anyone, but he seemed to be going on autopilot. Barty has experience, so he’ll just follow him, yes…

Their mouths moved against each other, pulling and biting. It was getting hard to breathe, so Regulus pulled away. They were still within a close distance of each other, their foreheads touching. 

Regulus was breathing heavily, and so was Barty. His lips were really red, Regulus noticed, slowly moving towards it. The lips were on him again. This time, hands gripped under his thighs, lifting him up and placing him on Barty’s lap. The hands were then placed on his waist, squeezing hard.

Regulus couldn’t think about anything other than ‘this felt really good’. It felt really, really good.

They made out for a good couple of minutes, until Barty stopped it this time. He pulled away, both now taking deep breaths.

“Wait-” he tried to get out, stopping Regulus from pulling them in again. He holds his shoulders to keep him in place. Regulus frowns.

“What-” Barty pulls a deep breath again, “What is happening?”

Regulus looks away. He doesn’t know.

“Because Regulus,” he licks his lips, “this means something to me.”

Regulus' head snaps up, now looking at him clearly. 

Barty continued, “I have liked you for a long time.”

What.

He looked embarrassed now, “That’s why I was messing around with all those girls. I never thought you would be interested in me.”

Barty looked at him now, with a scared look, waiting for a response.

Regulus couldn’t look at him while saying this, so he turned away, focusing on his book that laid on the floor. “Obviously, I am interested in you.”

Fingers grasped his chin, turning his face towards the other boy who was wearing a big smile. “Really?”

He nodded sharply. 

Instead of a verbal response, he got a kiss. He was then pushed to his back, legs spreading open. Barty made his place between them and continued kissing him.

Regulus was ready to let this go far. He took out his wand and spelled the drapes around the bed shut. 

Regulus gave a lot of his firsts to Barty that day.

They never said anything to Evan. They thought it might be awkward if he knew the two of them were dating. Regulus still has a feeling that Evan knows and that is why he is giving him the cold shoulder.

Regulus has a tiny inkling that the behavior stems from jealousy. 

He doesn’t know what to do about that. On one hand, he doesn’t want to hurt Evan, but on the other hand, he cares a lot about Barty and is not interested in giving him up for anyone else. 

As horrible as it sounds, all Regulus can hope for is that Evan begins to accept it and they can all be friends again.