‘’By now I’m thinking I shouldn’t have told you that this was impossible,’’ Regulus hesitates and looks around the potions storeroom. Shelves stacked with a thousand various, mostly illegal, potions and ingredients neatly stacked in alphabetical order. Professor Slughorn was mental, he was now sure of it. ‘’Even for you this goes far, Barty.’’
‘’If you’d just let me search in peace,’’ he glares down, high on the rolling ladder that Regulus was holding for him. ‘’If we find this Wilkes will never bug you, or any of us, again.’’ The shorter one wasn’t exactly sure what his friend was looking for but trusted him blindly, he had for a while.
‘’What are you looking for anyways?’’ Regulus asks before grimacing at a jar filled with animal eyes, or so he hoped they were. The ladder started to move slightly when he lost focus, making him snap his eyes up to Barty immediately, who didn’t seem bothered by the movement, on the contrary, his eyes sparkled as he gingerly reached through the potions on the shelf to grab a small vial. He descended the ladder carelessly and held it up for Regulus to see. ‘’Water?’’
‘’No you moron, this,’’ he held the vial in front of his face, looking fascinated at the colourless potion. ‘’This, is veritaserum. Completely untraceable due to the lack of both colour and scent, the victim has no clue what’s happening to him until it’s too late. Basically, it’s perfect for prank pulling.’’ Barty palmed the vial again and beamed at Regulus.
‘’And you are sure that will be enough for whatever crazed plan you have in mind?’’ Regulus says, leaning against one of the shelves whilst crossing his arms and shifting his look at Barty.
He had a large tattoo covering most of his neck, one that Regulus loved to trace when it was just the two of them, along with some other tattoos that were well hidden. His fingernails were painted black and chipped at the sides, he never minded redoing them until Pandora compelled him to let her. Dressed in his muggle clothes, jeans that rested low on his hips with a black sweater, that was a little too short, showing a strip of lower stomach, he drove Regulus crazy. He knew this.
‘’Oh my dear Regulus,’’ he smirked. ‘’One drop of this is enough to have somebody spill all their secrets.’’ He opened the vial and jokingly angled it towards Regulus’s mouth, who just turned away with a small grin.
‘’You ought to try it, on yourself, I mean.’’ The shorter one joked, a sliver of honesty in his tone which Barty picked up. He moved closer and angled his lips close to Regulus’s ear. He was completely maddening.
‘’Are you so curious about my most profound and filthiest secrets, love?’’ He could hear Regulus gulping, his smirk growing ever so more annoying as the other stood mortified. The vial burned in his hand, it was a stupid idea, one that Barty fancied truly. Slightly moving back, he put his hand on the wall behind the shorter one’s head and used his finger to get a single droplet out of the ampule.
Regulus gawked at him as he licked the liquid off his finger, in a way only Barty could make attractive, their eyes fixed on each other during the entirety of it. Subconsciously Reg moved his bottom lip under his teeth, biting down on it ever so slightly, Barty could make the mood shift so swiftly.
‘’I don’t feel anything,’’ He frowned after a while. Never did he move away from Regulus. His hand steady where it rested behind the other’s head, slowly driving him heated. ‘’Will you ask me a question, an intimate one, something you don’t know.’’
‘’And you are confident you want me to ask a personal question when it is probable you say something you don’t want me to know?’’ Regulus traced the veins on his arm with his eyes, trying his best to ignore his favourite tattoo. Barty nodded at him, using his free hand to angle the raven-haired’s head his way by his jaw. ‘’What is your favourite thing about me?’’
Instant regret followed.
‘’The freckles on your thighs,’’ Barty answered in a heartbeat, no hesitation or tease in his tone. ‘’I love to trace them like constellations and count them, while you sleep peacefully next to me, making sure none have vanished because truly, that would be a shame.’’ Regulus actively tried to ignore the lump in his throat and was failing miserably.
‘’Yeah,’’ Regulus coughed after a long stretch of silence, ‘’I think it works.’’ He tried to move past Barty, seized by the intensity of the thick air between them. He gets stopped at the waist, his eyes moving to scan over the taller one’s face who is looking down at where his hand made contact. Invisible sparks radiate from both of them. Barty turns to face him and with the accidental brush of their lips, he moves his head away.
‘’Barty?’’ Regulus tests, simultaneously reaching for his face, but he simply pushes away more, turning his back. ‘’Talk to me, what’s going on?’’ He doesn’t dare move closer to him, seeing him tense up with every motion. He shakes his head, a hand coming up to pull at his hair, the veritaserum is still working its effects on him strongly.
‘’I can’t–’’ His voice fails, making him scoff and look out the small window next to them, the panels of them crossing with thin white lines. Barty tries his absolute hardest to stay quiet. ‘’Reg, I don’t think I can do this–’’ he motions his hands between them rapidly, ‘’–anymore.’’
‘’What are you talking about?’’ Regulus knows. He knows exactly what this is about, he’s been dreading this since the day they arranged their relationship; solely for sexual pleasure.
‘’I think–, fuck this, I think I’m starting to get greedy. I can’t keep lying to myself that I don’t want more with you, because it’s fucking me up so badly.” He cries at full tilt, his eyes gleaming with both guilt and relief. ‘’I’m sorry,’’ he finishes, leaving Regulus at a loss for proper words. Barty started as a rebound, nothing more, they made promises, they both were aware.
‘’But we– we fucking promised each other we would stop this the moment either of us caught feelings, didn’t we, so why didn’t you tell me and let it get this bad?” Was all he could answer, solace wasn’t his strong suit, even when he tried his hardest to get his emotions out at his very point, logic pushed through.
‘’It was the only way you would have me, Reg,’’ Barty muttered as he sinks down against the wall, resting his arms over his knees as his head falls back against one of the shelves. ‘’Even if it meant nothing more than the arrangement to you, I needed you to have me.’’
‘’Oh, love–’’ Regulus says, moving down to embrace Barty. He doesn’t move away this time and drowns himself in the touch, softly sniffling as the effects of the potion begin to wear off slightly, he’s coming to his senses. Regulus kisses the top of his head, softly, scared to scare him away. ‘’I’ll have you in any way you want.’’
Barty’s hands move under Regulus’s sweater, hugging him skin to skin, the contact blazing. ‘’Don’t bullshit me,’’ a muffled sound comes from his sweatshirt. ‘’If you’re fucking with me, Black, now isn’t the time.’’
When he finally moves to look at Regulus he rests their foreheads together. He tries to stabilise his breathing, but it hitches still. Barty had always been more gregarious and empathic than Reg had been, he envied him for it. The way of letting yourself feel emotions, especially others’, was hard to conceptualise for the Black Heir.
‘’Look, Barty, the more we do this, the more I realise that I don’t want to just fool around with you,’’ Regulus whispers, becoming conscious of his own feelings. ‘’I want to— I want to hold your hand and kiss you and appreciate you in every way possible and to just… To just be with you.’’ They both sit with their eyes closed, Regulus’s thumb stroking over a piece of material on Barty’s thigh.
‘’So, where does this leave us?’’ Barty says after taking in his words carefully. A small smile on his lips as he bumps his nose with Regulus’s.
‘’We’ll find out gradually.’’
‘’Can you kiss me?’’
And so he does.