It goes like this.
James is in love. His love is sweet and gentle.
Regulus is in love. His love is thorns and daggers.
They try.
For years, they try.
There are some days where it is easier. Some days where Regulus is able to hide his edges long enough for James to cover him in sweetness, and these moments are rare but they exist.
Then, there are some days when James cannot bear to look at Regulus, because his heart is bleeding and Regulus is stepping on it and neither of them can stop it.
They get along.
They just can’t get the timing right.
James tries to move on, and he can’t. Regulus tries to love him back, love him better, and he can’t.
It’s not their fault, but it tears and drags along their bones like jagged edges, and still they hold on.
They never stop holding on.
Because they love, they love, they love.
But love doesn’t love them back.
It’s more pain than joy, most of the time.
There is no moving on. No moving forward.
There are nights where it’s harder than anything else. It all clicks, and it’s all right, and James goes to sleep thinking that they finally, finally got this right.
They never do.
There is something no one tells you about love.
There isn’t always a solution. Sometimes it hurts, and that’s all it will ever do.
James never meets someone new. He doesn’t want to. He has Regulus, though he doesn’t have him, not really.
Regulus never looks for anyone else. There is James, and that is all.
But time does not always equal success.
This is not a life where James and Regulus get it right.
But there are others.
There are others.