Chapter 3
James Potter is in love. Don’t get the man wrong, he loves his friends and his family but he’s never loved anyone like he loves Regulus.
He loves the way he says his words in that slightly french accent, he loves the way his hair curls into a ringlet just above his left ear, he loves the way he tastes when they kiss up in the astronomy tower. There is only one thing James does not love about Regulus and that is the fact that he is Sirius’ brother.
In most cases this wouldn’t matter but James knows that Sirius hates his brother for a lot of things, mainly because of his family. That is why they’ve been hiding it, not only because Sirius will go ballistic but also because James doesn’t want to choose between the two of them. He can not and will not do this he loves them both and being the dumbass Remus says he is he will continue to love both of them no matter what.
That's why he gets Remus to cover for him when he goes to see Regulus. Even if Remus can't see it, everyone else can. Everyone else can see the loving looks Remus and Sirius send each other from across rooms. He feels like Remus will thank him later on in life for giving them all this alone time for them to sort out the shit they are quite clearly going through. But it had been literal weeks of the two of them getting to spend time by themselves and nothing seemed to change. Then the summer happened and they didn’t see each other for two months.
James could see the way Remus got when they talked about Sirius, it reminded him of the way Remus said he looked when they talked about Regulus, which is why James has decided to take drastic measures. He knows what's happening between them. Remus is too smart, he’d definitely make a move if he had the emotional capacity to figure it out (he does not indeed have the emotional capacity to do such a thing), but Sirius on the other hand is more of a dumbass than James but a very self aware dumbass. Sirius is the biggest sap James knows, he tries to hide it but James knows. Anyone that has looked under Sirius’ bed will find the extensive amounts of romance novels that he thinks are well hidden but to someone like James who is constantly losing things, the dorm was never going to be safe enough for his hidden soft side.
James thinks it's cute, really he does. He’s always known from the way Sirius would talk about people when they were alone. The tough guy look was as the name says, just a look. So if his best friend needs a push in the right direction, to find the kind of love James has for Regulus, then a slight push might not hurt.
“Hey Sirius”, James says as he makes his way over to him about a week after school started.
Sirius immediately looked up from the book he was reading. Clearly he hadn’t heard James come in because he has one of his many romances open on his lap. It doesn't stay there for long as he quickly slips it under his blanket.
“Hey James” he replies trying not to sound flustered.
" Do you know where Moony is?"
"Yeah," Sirius had finally gotten the book under his blanket which seemed to have put him at ease." He went to the library but he said he'll be back soon."
“Good, how's the potion coming along”.
James, Sirius and Peter had spent the best part of the last two years secretly researching and brewing a potion to make them animagi, they had left the potion at school all summer and were nearly finished. This was mainly thanks to Regulus’ secret help in correcting their mistakes in secret when the rest of the marauders weren’t looking.
“Yeah, I’d say give it another week or so but we’re nearly done” Just as Sirius finished the sentence he looked up at James with a blank face. It took him about two seconds to go from blank to laughing so much that he nearly fell off the bed.
“What?” What was so funny? Was there something wrong with his hair? He turned to the mirror to check and….. Shit. Well he’s lived a nice enough life and if Sirius doesn’t kill him for shagging his brother, Regulus will surely kill him for letting Sirius find out like this, so yeah. Shit.
“Never knew you were a Slytherin Jamesy boy” Sirius says, still laughing and he had in fact fallin off the bed while doing so.
“Fuck off Sirius” James muttered while trying to get out of the room but Sirius had just grabbed onto his leg and was trying to get up and reach for the tie.
“You been shagging Snape?”
“What?! Ew, no!”
“Then where's the tie from? Get resorted?”
“How dare you, I am a Gryffindor just as much as I was in first year”
With this Sirius let go of his leg and turned to him barely getting the words out with how much laughing he’s doing, “then who’ve you been slithering into”
“Clearly more people than you!”
Sirius didn’t even try to contradict James, not that he could with the way he was wheezing on the floor. James made to leave but was once again caught by the leg. Fuck this plan, fuck Sirius and fuck this stupid tie that could so easily have gotten him caught if it weren’t for the fact that Sirius had the mental capacity of a four year old!
As James dragged a dying Sirius across the floor to his dresser to get a new tie the door opened and Remus walked in. If James was standing were he was it may have shocked him too so Remus’ reaction is quite predictable.
“What the fuck is happening here?”
With that Sirius let out a snort so loud it made the other two jump. This STILL did not stop Sirius from laughing nor did it stop him from pointing to the tie that was now in James’ hand. And what's more annoying than one laughing asshole? Two laughing assholes, one of which had grabbed the tie out of James’ hand and was now swaying it just out of reach thanks to the other laughing asshole that was still holding onto his leg.
Sirius had finally stopped his wheezing and was apparently ready to go back to teasing James.
“Are you fucking serious, James?” Sirius said while getting to his feet.
“No, but I know who would like to fuck you”
Remus, who had now ran to his own bed to get away from James, joined in. “Who’ve you been slithering into Jamie?” Fucker knows exactly who he’s been ‘slithering’ into.
“Hey, I already used that joke!”
“Then who was he slithering into?”
With this the pair decide to run over to James’ bed, jump on and look at him with massive grins on each of their faces, while Remus was still holding out the tie.
“I personally ship Snames”
“Sirius, what the fuck is Snames?”
“James and his boyfriend Snape's couple name”
Remus looked over at Sirius before starting to laugh hysterically, well at least they were spending time together? Maybe it would be better if they were left alone. James made his way out the door but not before catching Sirius staring dreamily at Remus, well at least something good came out of their so called ‘chat’.
***
Seeing as Remus is otherwise occupied with Sirius’ little explosion, James makes his way to their potion lab (the second floor bathroom, which no one would go near because of the ghost that lived there).
The first thing he saw when he walked through the door was the beautiful boy that stood on the other side. Merlin, he loves him so much.
Regulus doesn’t even need to turn around to somehow guess who just came in the door but he does reach out his hand to make a grab for James as he walks by. It makes him feel so special each and every time he does that, it's like they don’t even need to see each other to know that they are safe and comforted, even if they’re only holding hands.
“Potion nearly done?”
“It is done” James doesn’t need to see him to know that he’s smirking away to himself.
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah, you should be able to drink it today if you want”
With this James twirls Regulus around and dips in for a kiss. For someone so refined it shocked James to find that Regulus is actually rather clingy when he can latch onto you, this only added onto the already mile long list of things that James loved about Regulus but this was definitely one of his favourite things.
When they break apart Regulus is smiling up at him before going back to the potion. “Are you going to tell me why you feel the need to turn into an animal?”
“Nah, you’ll figure it out anyway with that big brain of yours”
“Will you tell me what animal you get at least?”
“Of course Reggie, darling”
The look that Regulus shoots at him shows that this is not a nickname worth trying for, so hard to please yet so easily lovable.
The smile comes back to Regulus’ face as he says, “I bet Sirius is going to be a slug”
“A slug?”
“A slug”
“I think I’m gonna be a lion, for Gryffindor of course”.
“Of course”
“I think you’d be a cat”
“Why a cat?”
“Cause I love cats”
With that Regulus all but melts into James, before bringing him in for another, long deliberate kiss. Reg must clearly love cats too, what a thing to bond over.
Hopefully Remus has at least kissed Sirius by now as well but until then James will stay blissfully preoccupied with Regulus. This may be the first and only time that James feels smarter than Remus. He was smart enough to recognize his feelings and in return, gets to spend his time with the boy he loves wrapped up in his embrace. Maybe if Remus was as smart as James he would be able to do the same with his own Black brother.