West Coast

Shortly after Regulus got back to Remus, the jet landed. This time, Peter came in to grab Regulus and Remus.

“Hi, I’m Peter! It’s very nice to meet you guys! I’ve heard a lot about both of you.” He flashed a knowing smile to Regulus that made him feel vulnerable and exposed.

“Nice to meet you too!” Remus said happily.

“Well, Sirius sent me to get you guys. You can come with me.” Peter turned around and walked out the door. After a few seconds when Peter didn’t hear footsteps following him, he turned around and smiled, “You guys coming or what?”

They followed Peter out the door, and down the hallway. The rest of the group was no where to be found, so Regulus assumed they had already left. Peter opened the door and guided them down the steps of the jet to find the others.

“I got the goods.” Peter gave a thumbs up to Sirius and leaped off the stairs after Regulus and Remus.

All six of them got into a black van. Sirius, James and Marlene were sitting in the first row, and in the second row Peter, Remus and Regulus were seated there.

Everyone was kind of off in their own little worlds, on their phones or having side conversations. But, Regulus was just staring off into space. Someone whispering his name broke his focus.

“Hey, Regulus?” Peter spoke.

“Yes?” Regulus was a little confused. He did not want to have small talk with any one of Sirius’ friends, especially Peter. Peter seemed strangely happy and energetic all of the time.

“You’re from France, right?”

“Ummm, yes?” Regulus questioned.

“This is going to sound extremely weird, but do you know a Dorcas Meadows?”

Regulus was extremely caught off guard. How does Peter know one of his best friends in the entire world? “Uh, yeah. She’s one of my best friends.”

“What? Really! That’s crazy, what a small world!”

“How do you know her?”

“Growing up my parents used to travel a lot for work, and so I lived in France for a couple of months. I met Dorcas and we kinda clicked, I guess! We became friends fast, we exchanged numbers and then sooner or later I had to leave again. She must have changed her number or something because I’ve been recently trying to text her to catch up.” Peter smiled, awaiting an answer from Regulus.

“Um, yeah…she moved to America with me about a year ago!”

“Oh my gosh! I can’t believe it! Really?” Peter shook his head and laughed.

“Yeah,” Regulus laughed a little too.

“Wait, it all makes sense now! She used to talk to me a lot about her best friend! That she has a plan with him to kill his mother or something, by like setting her on fire! That was you wasn’t it?”

A loud laugh, pulled right from the bottom of Regulus’ stomach escaped his lips. “Yup! That was me.”

“This is all too crazy!” Peter yelled.

“What the hell is going on back there?” Sirius turned around to find Peter and Regulus clutching their stomachs and laughing till their faces were red. “God, Pete! How did you manage to make the sad emo boy laugh?” Sirius smiled.

“I’m just too funny, I guess!” Peter smiled.

“What happened?” James chimed in.

“All you need to know is you guys have been replaced. Reggie is my new best friend!” Peter wrapped his arm around Regulus’ shoulders and grinned.

Maybe this trip wasn’t so bad, Regulus thought.

——————————————————————

Once the van pulled into the hotel they were staying at, and the gang got their things out of the van, they headed into the hotel lobby.

Luckily, there wasn’t many people in the lobby, so they wouldn’t get recognized. James and Sirius checked everybody in, and got their key cards.

“Alright gang, we are all on the 4th floor.” Sirius said while looking at the key cards. “James, you can hand those out.”

James looked at the key cards that the hotel specially designed for their stay specifically. The hotel personalized their hotel key cards with their names, and their favorite colors. James handed Marlene hers first, then Peter’s, then Remus’ and then Sirius’. Finally he handed the dark green key card to Regulus.

They all walked up to the elevator, and rode it to the 4th floor.

“What room numbers are we again?” Marlene asked.

“Uhhh, look at your card. I think it’s on there.” Sirius spoke while flipping and examining his key card. “Yeah, it is. It’s right under your name. My room number is 433.”

Marlene squinted at hers, “Oh I see it. Mine is 435!”

“Mine is 434.” Peter said.

“Uh, mine is 436.” Remus spoke.

“Regulus, what’s yours?” Sirius asked.

“Um, let me see.” He took the card out from his pocket and glanced at it. “It says, 468.”

Sirius frowned, “Why are you so far away from the rest of us!” Sirius looked over James’ shoulder and asked, “What about you, Prongs?”

James looked at his card, a small smile displaying on his lips, “467.”

“Well at least you are next to somebody you know, Reg.” Sirius shrugged and didn’t think of the situation any longer. But, Regulus sure did.

He wanted to bang his head against the wall. Better yet, maybe tie a cement block to his chest, and jump in the ocean. He couldn’t stand the thought of being right next door to, James Potter. He knew he was probably overreacting, if he texted his friends they’d tell him that too, but still. He did not want to be stuck halfway down the hotel hallway with, James Potter.

Regulus considers himself a very self-disciplined man. But, if you expect him to be stuck all night, five feet from where James Potter lays with his stupidly beautiful face, and his stupidly beautiful glasses, and his stupidly beautiful dark skin. You’re truly mistaken.

“I don’t know about you guys but I’m taking a nap. I’m absolutely exhausted.” Marlene said while unlocking her door.

“Yeah, same. I need to rest up before the rehearsal later.” Sirius added.

All of the others unlocked their doors, and entered their rooms. “Well, I guess that just leaves you and me then.” James said with a smile.

“Lovely.” Regulus tried to bite back an aggravated sigh, but failed.

“Oh, don’t be so bitter! You know you love me, Baby Black!”

“I definitely do not love you, especially when you call me that. It provokes me to slap you, actually.”

James smiled wider, biting his bottom lip, face turning a little red.

Oh God, Regulus thought. Stop that.

James licked his lips a little, and continued to bite his lip.

This is it for me. This is the day I die. I am about to go down to the front desk and switch my room number! Regulus thought.

As they continued to walk down the hallway, Regulus continued to question his ability to function properly. Was he even functioning? It was too hard to tell.

Once they got to their rooms, they both took out their key cards and unlocked the doors. “Oh yeah, and Regulus,” James said, “You know where to find me.” He winked and walked into his room.

It’s safe to say, Regulus wasn’t surviving the night.

——————————————————————

For the rest of the evening, they did not do much. They all went into Marlene’s hotel room to hang out after they were done resting, until about 3:00. After this, Marlene, Peter, James and Sirius had to go to the venue to rehearse for tomorrow’s show. So, Remus and Regulus sat in each others rooms until they called it quits, and went to bed.

It was about 1:00 in the morning when Regulus heard a rustling noise outside of his door. Regulus was lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling unable to sleep for a number of reasons. When he heard the sound outside, he jolted up, and looked into the distance of the pitch black room. He assumed it was someone on his floor entering their hotel room loudly. So, he lied back down and ignored it.

After a brief moment, there was complete and utter silence. Then, a small gentle knock followed. The knock was so quiet, that if you weren’t intentionally listening, you wouldn’t of heard it, and so Regulus thought he was imagining it. He didn’t get up. After another minute or two, another knock rings in Regulus’ ears, this time a little louder.

What the fuck? Regulus thought. Who is up bothering people at one in the morning?

Regulus being very tired, and very annoyed, walked over to his backpack and unzipped the front pocket. He pulled out his dagger and walked to the hotel room door to open it.

“What the fuck do you-“ He dug the point of the dagger into the chest of the man. Once his tired eyes settled, and the man came into view, he realized he knew the person who he was looking at, “James?”

“Uh, yeah. Hi.” James breathed with a weak smile.

“What are you doing?” Regulus asked, still absentmindedly prodding the point of the knife into the middle of James’ chest.

James swallowed hard, eyes wandering down to where the tip of the knife was stinging in between his chest. His eyes were fixated on it, chest pulsing up and down. James’ breathing got a little louder and unsteadier the longer he gazed at the dagger.

Regulus peered at where James’ eyes were fixed, and immediately ripped his hand away. “Oh, yeah sorry.”

“No, don’t be.” James breathed.

They stared a each other for a second or two until Regulus broke the silence, “So, um. Why are you here, again?”

“Oh, yeah!” James replied, a smile plastered back onto his face. “Wanna get food with me?”

“What?”

“I said, do you want to get food with me? I’m hungry.”

“James, it is one in the morning.”

“I know, but I’m hungry!” James whined. “I haven’t eaten in hours!”

“Why don’t you ask your friends?”

“Well because they’re going to sleep soon.” He paused for a minute and smiled wide, “and I wanna go with you instead.”

And, how could Regulus say no to that?

“Ok,” Regulus said slowly. “I’ll go.”

“Yes, okay! Well you can get your stuff, if you need anything, and meet me in my room in five minutes!” James happily walked away to his room.

Regulus was sitting on his bed when he looked at the clock, seeing that it had been exactly five minutes since James left the room. Yes, he was staring at the clock, timing himself, because what else was he supposed to do?

He got up, grabbed his hotel key card, and left his room. He walked up to James’ room door, and gave a hard knock. It was almost like James had been waiting for him because the second he knocked, James had the door flung open.

“Hey, Reggie!” James said.

“Hi.”

“Come in, come in. We’ll leave in a second. I just need to change my shirt.”

Regulus nodded following James.

James reached to grab a gray shirt off his bed, and proceeded to take the sweatshirt he was currently wearing off to change. Regulus was startled by this action. Does he just willing change in front of everyone?

Regulus then saw it. He looked down at James and saw his arms. He knew that James worked out a lot, Sirius would occasionally mention it when he would talk about James. He was always training or going to the gym. Plus, Sirius has told him that James really likes to play hockey in his spare time, so he possibly had gained muscle from that as well. But honestly, Regulus wasn’t expecting this.

James was speaking, but Regulus wasn’t listening, he was rather focused on something else. His eyes traced the defined curves and lines in James’ arms. Every inch of his arms were absolutely magnificent and beautiful. The veins that ran from his hands to his forearms were gorgeous. Regulus could imagine tracing them up and down.

His eyes then moved down to James’ stomach where he had very prominent abs. He worked out, there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind about it, and he definitely had something to show for it. His body was downright sinful.

Regulus moved his eyes back up to James’ arms. He just couldn’t get enough of them. He wanted to feel them, and run his hands all over them. He wanted to feel his arms pulse from underneath him. James looked so unbelievably strong.

What would it feel like if James-

“Reg!”

“Hm?” Regulus looked up from where he was staring, the sudden sound of yelling breaking his focus.

“Were you even listening to me?” James pouted.

“Um, no sorry. Can you repeat what you said?”

James quirked an eyebrow in confusion, and then went back to talking, clearly oblivious to what was going on.

“I said, what do you want to get to eat?”

“Oh, um I don’t care. You’re the one that’s hungry.”

“Why? You’re not hungry?” James frowned.

“I mean, I could eat something but I’m not starving.”

“Alright.” James said looking up, like he was thinking. “I guess we could just walk and see what’s around here since I’ve never really been to Arizona.”

“Ok.” Regulus shrugged, and followed James out still thinking of the way his arms looked. Regulus thanked God James was wearing a semi-covering shirt, or he wouldn’t be able to control himself.