about you

It had been a week since Regulus had dragged James to Lily's apartment.

After what happened at Lily's apartment, it was an understatement to say that Regulus had spent the past week worrying and was filled to the brim with anxiety.

Regulus and James had practically ran to Lily's apartment and up the stairs. Once they were face-to-face with her door, the pair started pounding on the door.

"I'm coming!" Lily yelled from behind the door. "I swear if it's the police or even the fucking FBI-"

Lily swung the door and let out a sigh of relief but also annoyance upon the sight of James and Regulus, who were still trying to catch their breath from running.

"Hey Lily," James said, attempting to smile at her.

"We really need your help," Regulus admitted.

Lily gave them both a look, "Did you guys come here to ask me to run a marathon with you? If so, it looks like you two already ran one..."

Before Regulus could continue, someone approached the door from behind Lily.

"Who is it?" someone asked from behind Lily. The door was blocking Regulus' view of them. Regulus glanced over at James to see his jaw drop, which indicated it wasn't good. Regulus moved closer to James to get a good view of the person.

Uh oh.

"Oh, hey guys!" Peter greeted.

Regulus and James were frozen in place, trying to understand what had just happened. What were the odds that Peter had been at Lily's apartment at the same time the duo had come to tell Lily what Peter did?

"Are you guys okay? You're really worrying me," Lily said with a look of worry on her face.

"Yeah, we're good! Just shocked to see Peter here," James awkwardly laughed, trying to make up a lie on the spot.

"I was leaving, so I'll be out of your hair," Peter said with a smile. "Thanks for letting me come over, Lily! Do you mind if I talk to them before they come in?"

Regulus shot James a look of confusion to which James just shrugged. Peter walked over to them and waited for an answer from Lily

"Yeah, sure. I'll be here," Lily nodded before closing the door a little to give them privacy. Peter stared at the door for a few seconds to ensure Lily was a safe distance away before he began speaking.

"I promise you right now, you'll regret it if you tell her," Peter suddenly turned and said to James and Regulus.

"The hell does that mean?" Regulus asked bitterly.

"We're not scared of you Peter, you're the only one hiding secret around here," James pointed out.

Regulus grimaced at what James said, painfully aware of what Peter would do next.

"Really?" Peter said, amused. "You really haven't told him, Regulus?"

Regulus rolled his eyes, "I knew I shouldn't have told you, Evan was right."

James looked between the two, completely lost, "Regulus, what does he mean?"

Peter motioned his head towards Regulus, telling him to go ahead and tell him. Regulus scoffed before looking over at James.

"I may just so happen to be Sirius' sibling. You can connect the dots," Regulus mumbled out, bracing for James' reaction.

Peter patted Regulus, who had snapped his head around to give him a dirty look, on the shoulder and gave him a sly smile, "Remember this feeing before you go and snitch on me to Lily. I have Rita Skeeter and Sirius' phone numbers in my contacts."

"You wouldn't," Regulus whispered. Peter simply shrugged and quickly walked away.

Regulus looked at the empty space where Peter had been for a moment before turning back to look at James, who was just staring at him. Regulus was completely clueless as to how James would react to this information. In fact, Regulus thought he hd even had nightmares about this current situation.

"Look, if you're gonna be an ass about me being trans you might as well just leave-" Regulus began before being pulled into a bone crushing hug by James, who buried his head into Regulus' shoulder.

"Never in a million years would I do that to you," James whispered, his voice shaking. Regulus, who was instantly relieved, wrapped his arms around James' neck.

After a few moments of silence, Regulus heard a little sniffle from the head on his shoulder. Regulus gently urged James' head off his shoulder, and saw a few stray tears on his face.

"You know in this situation, I think I'm the one who is supposed to be crying," Regulus joked with a grin on his face, to which James let out a god honest giggle.

"I'm not sure if I'm crying because I'm happy you got away from your parents or because I never thought I would see you again," James admitted quietly.

Regulus felt his heart stop at the confession, "I'm right here now."

James nodded, wiping his tears away, "I'm also kind of embarrassed I confessed the undying love I had for you during our Hogwarts years at your listening party."

"That was definitely the highlight of my year. Oh my god, if only you had heard yourself-" Regulus began to laugh after recalling the memory from just a month prior.

"Hey!" James had said, acting offended. His act didn't last long before he also burst out laughing.

Someone cleared their throat in front of them. The two looked up, still tangled together in a hug, to see Lily standing at her door.

Regulus opened his mouth to speak, but was silence by Lily.

"Don't worry, I heard everything. I knew something was up with Peter," She smirked. "You two can continue, just come in whenever you're ready. Please don't have sex in my apartment building though."

James and Regulus began scrambling for words but Lily shut the door before either could get a full sentence out.

"Well, we should probably go in," James said as he unwrapped his arms from Regulus, which caused Regulus to groan.

"Fine," Regulus let go of James but pulled him down for a kiss before he walked into Lily's apartment, leaving a shocked James in the hallway.

"Hey, that's not fair!" James called out as he followed Regulus into the apartment.

Despite Lily assuring both of them that Peter had been dealt with and swore he would never tell a soul, Regulus had a gut feeling that Peter wasn't scared to expose him to the world, or worse, Sirius.

While being busy with the Peter situation, both The Lovefools and The 1971 had made James and Regulus busy. The two bands unexpectedly decided to have a gig together at Hogsmeade, a popular concert venue, as a late Halloween party. That said gig was only a few hours away from happening and Regulus had only showered in preparation. However, James had planned to come over before so they could get ready together.

Never in a million years did Regulus think the bands and the members would get along. Especially when The Lovefools had started because all of the members had pent up anger towards members of The 1971.

Something even more shocking to Regulus was the fact that he and James were still together, even after James had found out that Regulus was actually Sirius' brother. Regulus knew that Sirius would flip his shit if he found out his best friend's boyfriend was actually his lost brother.

A sudden knock on his apartment's door pulled him out of his train of thought.

"Who is that?" Pandora had paused the TV and asked from next to Regulus

"Coming!" Regulus yelled while he made his way to the door from his spot on the couch. Regulus opened the door to see James.

Speak of the devil, Regulus thought to himself.

"Hey, sweetheart," James grinned and gave Regulus a quick peck before making his way into Regulus' apartment. Pandora made a fake gagging sound from the couch.

"Hi Pandora," James greeted, to which pandora just waved in response.

"Technically, you just broke into my apartment," Regulus joked as he shut the door behind himself with a smile on his face.

"Right, because if my apartment got broken into I would definitely be smiling as big as you are right now," James pointed out jokingly. "Nice costume by the way."

Regulus looked down at his outfit and realized he was wearing James' pajamas that James had forgotten at Regulus' apartment.

"Uh huh," Regulus rolled his eyes. "Speaking of which, where's your stuff to get ready and your costume? There's no way you're going to wear sweatpants to this gig."

"Someone's bringing it for me," James said with a smile.

Pandora whipped her head around from where she say on the couch to look at James in shock, "You actually invited them! Oh my god, this is gonna be great," She said while practically cackling. Not soon after, a knock came from the door.

"James, who did you invite?" Regulus asked, suspicious of what he was up to.

"Well, it's more than one person," James said nervously.

"Did you invite my parents or something? I'm scared now," Regulus admitted while opening the door.

None other than Sirius Black was standing outside his apartment with Remus Lupin, who looked a lot happier to see Regulus than Sirius was.

"I thought you said this was Pandora's apartment!" Sirius squawked at the sight of Regulus.

"It is," Remus affirmed.

"James, I take it back. This is worse than you inviting my parents," Regulus joked, but Sirius looked extremely offended.

"I'm not doing this today," Sirius said and immediately turned around to leave, but Remus stopped him.

"Come on, you guys are going to see each other all day either way," Remus pointed out, and Sirius visibly deflated.

"Fine, whatever," Sirius said, and Regulus let the pair in.

Sirius immediately went and found James, handing him his bags, "I cannot believe you would trap me like this. We can't be friends anymore."

"Oh no, how ever shall I go on!" James said dramatically, as he fake passed out onto Sirius. Both James and Sirius started giggling afterwards and began talking to each other passionately.

Regulus and Remus watched their boyfriends interact, extremely confused.

"They're so weird," Regulus said under his breath.

"I'm gonna have to agree with you on this one," Remus said, looking at Sirius like he had hung the moon.

"You really deserve an oscar for you fake dating skills, oh my god," Regulus commented while observing Remus.

"Hey! You should see the way you look at James," Remus pointed out.

"Remus, James and I are actually dating," Regulus stated, which left Remus with no comeback.

"It's okay to admit that you actually like him," Regulus tried to bring up, but he was quickly shut down by Remus.

"Not a chance," Remus said.

Dorcas' bedroom door open and Dorcas stepped out, "What's all the ruckus out here?"

Following closely behind was a disheveled Marlene, to everyone's surprise.

"No fucking way!" Sirius gasped.

Dorcas and Marlene looked at each other, embarrassed, then turned to everyone else.

"Can't say I'm surprised, I have to hear them through the wall," Regulus mumbled, which caused Dorcas to glare at him.

"Do not make me talk about you and James," Dorcas threatened.

"I'm quiet," Regulus said quickly.

An silence fell over the room, everyone unsure of what was happening

"Anyways... what is everyone doing here?" Marlene asked awkwardly.

"Getting ready for the gig tonight, unlike you two I guess," James joked.

"Haha, you're a comedy genius," Marlene said, unimpressed.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," James mumbled. "Since we're all here, what time should we leave? Lily and Mary said to be at the venue an hour or so before doors open at six."

Regulus looked at the time on his phone, "Well, it's 3:00 right now, so we should probably leave at 4:30 in case there's traffic."

Everyone nodded and went to get ready. Regulus began walking over to James, but was pulled to his room by Remus.

While Regulus had been looking forward to seeing and getting ready with James, it was still nice to spend time with Remus. Throughout the past week, Regulus had only spoken to Remus when Peter outed him to James.

"God, I forget how small your bathroom is," Remus said once they got into Regulus' bathroom.

"That's what I get for rooming with two people who insisted on taking the rooms with the biggest bathrooms," Regulus pointed out.

The pair scrambled to get ready in Regulus' small bathroom, but they made it work with what they had.

"What are you wearing?" Remus asked after Regulus had changed into his costume. Regulus eyed Remus's costume and was extremely confused. Remus' costume looked like a mixture of his regular clothes and then an alien headband.

"You know that tweet where someone said James was one of those slutty men who wear low rise wide leg jeans?" Regulus asked.

Remus burst out laughing, "Are you seriously dressing as your boyfriend?"

"Slutty boyfriend, and yeah," Regulus replied with a grin.

"God, he's gonna die," Remus added.

"Sirius might die if he sees how normal you look. I figured he would make you guys go all out and be extra," Regulus said.

"Nope. He said he just wanted me to wear the alien headband," Remus said. "I don't blame you for being confused, I'm a little confused and it's my own costume."

Regulus let out a little laugh before he opened his phone and saw that it was 4:26.

"Are you ready?" Regulus asked and Remus nodded. The pair gathered their thing and left Regulus' room.

Everyone had went all out for their costume party gig. Hell, Marlene was wearing a short dress that looked like a wedding dress along with a veil and Pandora's hair was suddenly blue.

"Regulus, did you dress as the slutty James tweet?" Pandora asked while grinning.

"Yep, I wasn't missing out on this opportunity," Regulus replied with a smirk.

On the other side of the room, James was shocked. Regulus was almost more stunned by James' costume than his reaction.

James was wearing an old green and silver sweater with converse. While most wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary, Regulus knew exactly what he was doing. James was wearing Regulus' old house colors and the same shoes Regulus used to wear at Hogwarts.

While everyone else was busy getting their stuff together for the show, Regulus made his way over to James and pulled him down so Regulus could whisper in his ear.

"You're something else, honestly. Let's just hope Sirius doesn't notice the colors," Regulus whispered and James smirked.

"No one will notice anything as long as you're wearing those jeans, Reg," James whispered. "You took the slutty thing to heart."

Regulus smiled at him before he turned around, "Are you guys ready to go?"

Everyone agreed and they split up in separate cars. Of course, James and Regulus were stuck with Sirius. At least Remus would be there for Regulus.

Regulus opened the car's back door and got in, followed by James.

"Don't try anything back there, you weirdos," Sirius said from the driver's seat.

"Aye, aye captain," James replied.

Other than friendly banter between James and Sirius, the ride to Hogsmeade contained a comfortable silence.

Regulus hadn't been to Hogsmeade since his school years. Since the concert venue was so close to Hogwarts, Regulus and the Rosier twins had many adventures that involved sneaking out to go see a concert at Hogsmeade.

The group had parked once they arrived. No one knew where the back entrance was, leaving them stuck.

"Could we call Lily?" Sirius suggested.

"I tried while you were freaking out. She didn't answer," Remus replied.

This left them with only one option, and that was to go into the venue through the front entrance where fans were swarming the place.

"Maybe we can just perform outside today," James said.

"Let's just get on with it. We're gonna be late if we keep procrastinating, and Lily will already be mad about us getting caught by paparazzi before the show," Regulus said as he started walking.

Remus, Sirius, and James quickly followed him. James caught up to Regulus and linked their hands together.

As expected, the front entrance had lines of fans every where. The group successfully made their way through, only being caught by a few fans.

Once inside, Lily, who was dressed as a cowgirl, immediately spotted them.

"Oh my god, did you guys come in through there?" Lily asked. "I should've told you that they moved the back entrance, I'm sorry guys."

Sirius patted her on the shoulder, "It's fine, don't sweat it."

Lily nodded, then turned to Regulus and Remus, "You two need to go to your warmup, it's in one of the other stage rooms."

"What about us?" James asked.

"Don't worry, you'll only be separated from your loverboy for thirty minutes. You and Sirius are on main stage because Peter needed to go over stuff for your set apparently," Lily answered before guiding Regulus and Remus away from James and Sirius.

"Peter might start shit tonight, so be careful, That's for the both of you," Lily warned. "Anyways, here you guys are. Remember that doors open at six."

With that, Lily went back to organizing things for The 1971. Her warning had set Regulus off, and his forgotten anxiety had come back full swing.

"Hey you two, what's up?" Mary greeted them with a smile. She was also dressed as a cowgirl.

"Not much, are you and Lily matching?" Remus asked.

Mary nodded, "I'm not telling you anything until after this gig. Go get ready for the show."

Remus grumbled while Regulus laughed at him. The two greeted Dorcas, who was dressed as Marlene, and Pandora, Regulus had no clue what she was aiming for with her costume.

The group flew through their warmup, which was a good sign especially before a gig. Regulus was worried his anxiety would distract him, but he was doing good so far.

The group got so distracted by their playing and trying to arrange the music that it was now 7:00, meaning the show started in thirty minutes.

"Holy hell, we must have been super into it," Pandora said as they all scrambled to get their instruments and music before heading back to main stage.

They met up with everyone else just chilling backstage, despite the loud sounds coming from their seemingly large crowd in front of the curtain.

"I was worried you guys got eaten by a monster or something," James joked from where he sat a couch while Regulus came over to sit next to him.

"Thought I was about to," Regulus replied.

"Hey, don't let anything worry you tonight. Everything is gonna be okay, I can see your anxiety eating you alive," James said in a low voice that was filled with care.

"I'm alright right now. I'll let you know if it gets worse, I promise," Regulus assured him and James nodded.

Lily came into the main backstage area and looked at everyone, "Alright, 1971. You're in five, so go get in your places and make sure you have everything."

"Break a leg and have fun, J," Regulus said before kissing James. The couple broke apart quickly due to the lack of time, and James went on stage.

Regulus made his way to the wings, accompanied by Remus.

"I think I love Sirius, Regulus," Remus whispered.

Regulus looked over at Remus, "You're saying that like it's a bad thing. You two were made for each other."

"I know, but he also cheated," Remus pointed out.

"Just follow your heart, Remus. You know I'll support you no matter what," Regulus assured him.

Before Remus could continue, the houselights went off and the curtain opened. The fans erupted in screams and then the familiar music started.

Regulus had never watched James preform before now, but he was nearly hypnotized by it. Regulus had seen hundreds of people play guitar, including himself, but James was different than any other guitarist he knew. Regulus was as mesmerized as the fans were by James' playing.

The first few song went by, and Regulus had spent them watching James playing instead of focusing on the whole band. What could he say? James was truly amazing.

There was a break between songs and Sirius began speaking.

"How are we feeling?" Sirius asked and the fans cheered loudly. "I'm glad! This next song is extremely special to everyone on this stage. This song from our newest album basically wrote itself, according to James who wrote it."

James waved and walked over to Sirius. Regulus was extremely curious as to what they were plotting.

"Since this song is so special to me, I'd like to dedicate this to the light of my life, Regulus," James said with a huge smile on his face.

The fans went absolutely crazy at the mention of Regulus.

Regulus felt his jaw hit the floor, "Did he really just-"

Remus nodded excitedly from next to him and grabbed onto his arm.

The beginning cords to About You began playing and Regulus thought he was about to burst into tears of happiness.

Do you think I have forgotten?
Do you think I have forgotten?
Do you think I have forgotten
About you?

During the entire song, James kept eye contact with Regulus in the wings, barely even looking down at his guitar.

By the end of the song, Regulus felt so whole that he could explode at that very moment and be satisfied for the rest of eternity. He wiped the few tears that managed to escape his eyes throughout.

However, Regulus' happiness was cut short when all of the screens in the venue sudden changed to a tweet. The crowd's simultaneous gasp of shock wasn't a good indicator of good news to Regulus

"Hang on everyone," Sirius mumbled, trying to read the tweet.

@EXPOSING.REG: REGULUS BLACK IS SIRIUS BLACK'S LOST SIBLING

"Fuck," Regulus said.

It turns out that Peter Pettigrew isn't afraid of revenge.