Dinner
Sirius is laughing when James enters their room after his odd interaction with that girl holding Regulus’ hand. He’s trying very hard to stop thinking about that. He has been for the entire hour he spent stalking the halls angrily. He’s, thankfully, less agitated, but now he’s confused as to why he was agitated in the first place. He’s held Regulus’ hand before.
Never in public but he has done it, that night in the forest. He wonders who that girl must be to get to hold Regulus Blacks hand in front of the whole school, and wonders how she earned the ability to do that.
He shakes the thoughts out of his head as he closes the door behind him.
Sirius is sprawled upside down off his bed, legs on his mattress and hands above his head on the floor. His hair is dangling, the ends of his long black waves brushing the wooden floor. He’s laughing loudly, the sound waves ricocheting off the walls and out the open windows as he howls and wheezes.
Remus appears to be the culprit, smiling softly at Sirius from above him. Sirius’ extended legs are long on the mattress, his sock clad feet resting in Remus’ lap which is crossed at the head of his bed. Remus is laughing softly to himself, leaning against Sirius’ headboard and stroking Sirius’ pale exposed legs with the side of his thumb as he holds him still.
Peter is on his own bed, seeming to be waking from a good nap. His face is red and creased from his sheets and pillows, and his sweatshirt is twisted all the way around him. He seems rather confused as he rises from his precariously folded position on his blankets, head swiveling in every direction as he tries to locate the source of his alarm. He finds Sirius quickly and tosses a plush pillow directly at his laughing face.
“Piss off, Pads, I’m trying to sleep!” He grumbles, flopping flat on his back and closing his eyes as Sirius tosses the pillow right back.
“Oh shush Wormy,” Sirius says as the pillow lands right on top of Peter's red face, “maybe you wouldn’t be so tired if you started going to bed before 2am.”
Peter just groans loud through the white pillow atop his face and flips Sirius off blindly.
Sirius laughs again at this, using Remus’ arms to pull himself up to a seated position. His blood filled face slowly loses vibrancy as he straightens out, but doesn’t lose its redness as he continues to laugh. Remus looks obnoxiously fond of him, James can’t help but smile to himself as he watches them.
He starts walking towards his bed, tossing his robes down on his trunk and plopping down on top of them, facing Sirius and Remus as Peter just up and leaves the room, grumbling something about needing to do a paper anyway.
“See, Wormy,” Sirius shouts out the door at him, “you should be thanking me for waking you!”
Peter just tosses a rude finger over his shoulder and closes the door. The three remaining boys exchange smiles and laughs as the door clicks closed.
“I’m going to the kitchens later, do you guys want me to bring anything back?” He asks, leaning against the foot of his bed as Sirius spins around to face him, using Moony as a chair, leaning against his sweater covered torso as he responds.
“I can just come with, been needing to catch up on the gossip anyway,” Sirius responds, smiling wide as Remus starts absentmindedly braiding the back of his hair.
James feels his face falter. He feels his smile lower, he feels how he blinks a little slower. He really needs to learn to control how he displays his emotions because-
“Or not, that’s fine too. Didn’t want to hang out with you anyway,” Sirius immediately starts scowling, folding his arms petulantly across his chest as he pouts down at the mattress.
“No, Pads, I do want to hang out with you, it's just that,” he fights hard to find an excuse, any excuse that makes any sense, “uhm…” his brain is not working fast enough.
“Oh,” Sirius says, suddenly intrigued as James feels his face heat and his hands fiddle with one another in his lap, “oh, you’re going with someone else.”
James is on fire. He has quite literally no idea what to do in this situation. He can’t even tell if Sirius is upset right now, he seems either entirely pissed off or exceptionally curious. Neither of which are particularly good in this scenario.
“Well,” James will never lie to Sirius, “I might be, yeah.”
Sirius crawls forward on his bed, coming to perch on the edge of it as he eyes James curiously.
“Is this the same person you’d been sneaking off to see last week?” Sirius asks, eyebrow raised above his left eye, perfectly arched and dark black against his pale skin.
“It might be,” James says, looking down at his restless hands, always twisting and tangling in his lap. He knows he can’t tell SIrius who it is, but he feels that he has a right to know that James has a new friend. James just isn't sure how to navigate the fact that they can’t be friends with each other; that he can’t introduce them to one another. James is treading as carefully as he can in this moment, noticing that Remus, too, seems silently intrigued,
Remus has moved to sit slightly behind Sirius, but mostly just next to him, arm tossed over Sirius’ slender shoulders. He’s looking at James too now, eyes curious but subtle.
“Are you, like, romancing this person?” Sirius asks, now clearly enjoying this conversation, abandoning his anger as James gets more and more flushed.
“What?! No. No, we’re friends,” James responds quickly, looking up rapidly at Sirius’ gloating face.
“Mhm,” Sirius hums, leaning his elbows onto his knees as he tilts himself towards James with a smirk on his face.
“Yup,” James says, nodding quickly and smiling a little despite himself as he remembers when Regulus told him they could be friends. He gets momentarily caught up then, picturing the stars and Regulus and whispers. “We’re friends,” he says, his voice sounding different even to his own ears, softer somehow.
Shit. He really needs to work on his subtlety.
“Oh, James,” Sirius coos, stepping up from the bed to pinch at James’ hot cheeks, “you like them. You have a crush.”
“I so genuinely do not,” James says, swatting at Sirius’ small hands as he continues to attempt to bop his nose.
“Yes, you do. I can tell Prongsie-pooh, I know ur mind,” Sirius argues, poking at James’ cheeks as he sits down beside him.
“I do not like him! Not like that at least,” James exclaims, swinging his arms down onto his legs dramatically, “he’s my friend.”
“He?” Sirius says. He immediately breaks into a straight-toothed smile, “so it’s a boy?”
James’ head falls into his hands as soon as he realizes he let that detail slip. His glasses dig into his face a little bit as his sweaty palms press into his face. He simply sighs.
“Okay, yes, he’s a boy. And he’s my friend,” James says as he raises his head from his hands to look at Sirius. He attempts to copy Regulus in the way he can void his face of emotion in the blink of an eye. James is not nearly as good at that, and he can still feel a blush in his cheeks as he watches Sirius’ reaction.
“Can’t we meet him?” Sirius says, “we always share friends.”
Oh, and now James feels like shit. Because Sirius is right, they always share friends. They live with their friends and they always come together once a month for game night with their friends. James has never had his own friend, just one on one, without every single other one of his friends at least knowing them too. He’s met everyone he knows beside Sirius, it has always been them together and their friends.
“I don’t know, Pads, I’m sorry,” James says, placing a hand on Sirius' knee softly, “he’s very shy, he doesn’t really like being too social, I think we’ll have to wait a little before he can meet everyone.”
“What about just me, can I meet him?”
Sirius is so open right now, James can see it in his eyes, the curtain is down. James has to be so careful here to not hurt Sirius. He knows he can’t say yes, but he doesn’t really want to say no either.
“I can ask him, okay? Is that okay?” James asks, watching Sirius nod with a small smile as he continues, “But if he says no, you have to be okay with that too.”
Sirius’ smile falls a little, just enough for James to notice how his eyes dim ever so slightly.
“Okay,” he says, nodding at James, “I want to meet him though. Especially since he’s got you crushing so hard, I need to meet my future brother-in-law.”
James has to fight not to laugh at the end of Sirius’ sentence, coughing into his elbow as his best friend talks unknowingly about his baby brother.
“Not crushing, Pads. Not getting married,” James says, looking at Peter’s closed curtains and getting the feeling he is absolutely not sleeping in there.
“Sure, Mr. cant-stop-blushing,” Sirius jokes, poking James' mauve cheeks, “I’ll be sure to include that in my best man speech.”
James just rolls his eyes and shoves at Sirius. As they start casually tussling with one another James thinks to himself that that went rather well, actually. Sirius seems okay with it, more so than James’ thought he would be. He feels himself start hoping, a gentle glowing feeling in his chest that maybe one day he can say his name and Sirius will smile like he is now and tease.
Remus is still on Sirius' bed when James looks back to him. He’s watching them fondly, and he winks at James when he looks up at him. There’s a knowing, though, in Remus’ eyes that scares James a little. Like he knows James’ secret. But there's no way he possibly could, so James winks back and promptly hoists Sirius up over his shoulder to toss right at a smiling Moony.
Remus catches him as he falls back onto his bed, a loud laughing Sirius draped all over him. Sirius is a tangle of wheezes and limbs limp on a warm Remus, who starts playing with his hair as he lays atop him.
Remus looks up from his cover of Sirius’ fanned out hair to ask James, “when are you heading down? I’d go for some hot chocolate when you come back, if you don't mind.”
James nods as he moves his robes to open his trunk, rooting around for the map as he answers, “heading down a little before eleven, I’ll have your cocoa up here by 1 at the latest.”
“Thanks, mate,” Remus responds, shoving Sirius off his chest so he can sit back up by the head board, adjusting Sirius into his folded lap, “Pads, you want some grapes, sweetheart?”
James smiles at the endearment almost wider than Sirius himself. James is a self proclaimed hopeless romantic, though, any glimpse he gets of love makes his chest tight and warm with a ting of jealousy and an overwhelming feeling of awe.
Love is one of those things James knows. He met it through his parents, and how they so valiantly loved each other, inviting it warmly into their home for James to befriend. He knows it’s a choice, to act on it. He knows it’s not a choice to feel it. He knows he’s never been all that good at not acting on it, but he knows that’s how love prefers it anyway.
He loves seeing Sirius hide his blush in Remus’ thigh, loves getting a glimpse at that old friend of his coming to pinken his two best friends' cheeks. Sirius seems so besotted, so sickeningly happy as he nods up at Moony through batting lashes.
“Alright, love,” Remus says, smiling in a way James has never seen him before, “Prongs, grab some green grapes for Pads too, please.”
James smiles, warm and cozy in the love radiating off the two boys in the bed across from him.
“Will do,” he says, tossing the map from his trunk onto his bed and following it quickly as he climbs into his bed. “I’ll even put a little sugar on them just for you,” he says, tossing Sirius a wink before rolling onto his stomach to inspect the map.
“Looking for your secret lover?” Sirius asks from across the room, voice slightly muffled through Remus’ thigh.
James rolls his eyes despite Sirius being incapable of seeing him because-
“I know you didn't just roll your eyes at me,” Sirius scoffs.
“You literally do not know. You cannot even see my face,” James says, face flopping onto the open map.
“I can feel the energy from across the room, Prongs,” Sirius says, slightly louder which James assumes means he’s rolled over so he can look up at Remus.
James’ suspicions are confirmed when he turns to say, “I’m just seeing where everyone is,” and sees Sirius laying face up in Remus’ lap, staring up at his scarred chin.
“Mhm,” Sirius hums, lifting his head slightly just to raise an eyebrow at James, “sure.”
James just turns back to the map, locating Regulus’ name quickly, seemingly already in the kitchen.
“Yup. Peter and someone named Skylar Monthrop are currently in a broom closet,” James says, turning to Sirius with a wide grin, finding an identical one on his best mate’s face.
“Good for Wormy, he’s always been the boldest of us,” Sirius says, poking up at Remus’ chin with skinny fingers.
“Wasn’t he dating some sort of Rebecca last week?” Remus asks, looking down at Sirius to poke his chin back.
“Not sure,” James says, “think he’s kind of in his exploratory phase.”
Sirius sits up to applaud as he beams, “as he should be. Bet he’s having more fun than our pining roommate.”
“Who are you talking about?” James asks as Sirius places a pitying hand over his heart and looks out the window.
He turns to smile at James as he says, “you.”
“Oh piss off!” James says flipping Sirius off as he flips back onto his back, “I have so much fun.”
James just glares at a much-too happy Sirius.
“Oh, and I’m not pining.”
Sirius just laughs before laying back down saying, “whatever you say lover boy, why don’t you go clean up before your dinner date? Shower would probably be smart, make you smell all yummy for him to eat up.”
James wonders how Sirius would feel if he knew he was encouraging his best mate to make himself seductive to ‘have fun’ with his little brother. James almost tells him as a joke, just to wipe that teasing grin off his face.
“One day, Pads, I’m going to strangle you in your sleep,” James says, standing to head into the bathroom, “but I do need a shower. Not for sex purposes. Because I need to be a clean human.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, mate,” Sirius calls after him as he closes the door.
James turns the water on as he starts hearing some… sounds from the other room. He catches his own eye in the mirror as he starts to strip off the shirt he’d been wearing all day.
His hair is a little greasy, shining dark on his head. His skin is dark against the white of his t-shirt, a bit of brown stomach poking out as he starts to shrug it off. The shirt finds its way to the hamper in the corner with the flick of James’ wrist and he begins to trace the shape of his reflection.
The boy in the mirror looks happy. His cheeks are dusted with a sort of dark purpley pink blush under the warm brown skin. His eyes are shining in the lights, greens and browns in his irises brighter in the bathroom lights than normal. His teeth are white against dark lips, his tongue a soft pink behind them, poking at the edges of his slowly fading smile.
James thinks for a moment, he’s not one hundred percent convinced this reflection is what he actually looks like. He just looks away and gets into the shower.
He uses bar soap, something with little bits in it that exfoliate his skin, or so Mary said when she got it for him. It smells like the forest, to James. It’s called ‘wizards wood’ which James and Sirius had thought was objectively fucking hilarious, but Mary had called them toddlers when they joked about it. She had sworn to never do a nice thing for them again. She has since also bought them matching scented deodorant and lotion.
He rubs the bar in his hands, letting the foam grow and leak through the cracks in his fingers like sand in a fist. The scent permeates in the steam of the shower, filling the small glass walled room with an earthy scent as James starts to lather his body with soap.
He lets the water wash it off as he goes to shampoo his dripping hair. It gets in his eyes a little, which causes him to curse loudly and he hears Sirius laugh from the other side of the door as he wildly scrubs at his burning irises.
After he lathers the conditioner into his hair and rinses he turns the water off. He stands in the steam for a moment, letting the water drop down him and through the drain as he stares at a rather blurry wall.
He grabs a towel from over top of the shower door and wraps it around his waist as he exits, grabbing another to dry off his hair as he approaches the mirror again. He flips his head upside down to rub the towel at it, scrunching and messing it as the towel absorbs water slowly. He wraps his hair in a towel hat his mother taught him to do, and starts to go about washing his face with Sirius’ fancy smelling bottles of face soap.
He spends a while sampling scents, testing colognes on his wrist and charming them away when they’re not quite right. He ends up dousing himself in the cologne that matches his body soap and using the matching deodorant as well. He brushes teeth for a reason even he doesn’t know.
He’s starting to think he might be a little nervous. He’s not sure why, it’s just Regulus. But he’s sweating through two layers of deodorant and he keeps moving the part in his hair. He doesn't even ever part his hair at all. He realizes why after a few attempts at different styles.
He ends up leaving the bathroom about half an hour after he had entered, towel still around his waist as he smiles at a napping Sirius in Remus’ lap. Remus is reading a hardcover book without a dust cover, and he looks up when James reenters the room.
“You smell very, uhm, earthy,” Remus says, not even sniffing at the air.
“Is it that strong?! Should I change it?” James asks, suddenly in a panic. He starts running his hands through his hair and sniffing at his wrists.
“No, James, it’s nice,” Remus says, “and it’s not that strong it's just,” he uses his left hand to motions at his nose, “heightened senses and all.”
James stops smelling his wrists to nod at Remus and offer him a shaky smile, “so it’s good?”
“Yes, James, you smell lovely,” Remus says, returning to his book, “he’ll love it.”
“I hope so,” James says nonchalantly as he turns to his dresser, “or, I mean, no. This is just a me-thing, I just like smelling good.”
“I’m so much smarter than you James do not lie to me,” Remus says, not even looking up from his book as James’ mouth opens in surprise.
“What do you mean?” James asks, attempting to model Remus’ casual air, rooting through his top drawer to find that one sweater Sirius always said made his arms look good.
“I mean you are clearly trying to impress this person, and I don't see any reason to pretend you aren't,” Remus responds gently.
James finds the sweater and tugs it on over his wet hair as he turns to face a still reading Remus, “well, I guess maybe you’re right.”
“Always am, Prongs,” Remus says, finally looking up from his book, “you sure you’re just friends with this lad?”
James nods, straightening the neckline of the sweater in the mirror across from him as he responds, “I’m sure. I swear. I think I just really want him to trust me.”
“So cologne and your sex sweater are your ways of managing that?”
“No, this is for confidence,” James responds, “I need to make sure I feel good so I can y'know, do good.”
“James you only ever do good, no matter how you smell or what you’re wearing,” Remus says kindly from his position, stroking Sirius face as he sleeps.
James is struck with the urge to cry at that comment. He has to turn around and face his drawers again to avoid walking over and quite literally picking Remus up and hugging him.
James knows he’s nice, he tries really hard to male sure he is, but that’s different than being good. He feels a little proud of himself, and very grateful that he has the type of friends that aren't afraid to compliment one another.
“Thank you, Moony,” he says, turning to smile shyly at his friend as he roots through his pants.
“You’re welcome, Prongs,” Remus says, picking his book back up and opening it as he says, “and wear the ripped jeans Sirius bought you, they make your thighs look absolutely insane.”
James smiles widely at Remus as he locates those exact jeans in his drawer, wide legged and ripped at the knees and a little on the thigh. Nothing too explicit, but enough that James doesn’t overheat in them in the summer and enough that little pieces of his bronze brown skin peek through.
“You like my thighs, Moony?” James teases, slipping the pants on over a pair of red underwear.
“They’re objectively nice, I’m not going to lie and say they’re displeasing to look at.”
“Don't worry, I won't tell Sirius,” James winks at Remus.
“Oh he agrees,” Remus says, poking at Sirus to wake him up and ask, “babe, what do you think about James’ thighs in those jeans you got him this summer?”
Sirius seems still asleep as he answers, “bloody stunning, insane.”
He promptly plops his head back into Remus lap and is out within seconds as Moony smiles up at a laughing James.
“Hey,” Remus says as James straightens out and starts to sit back down on his bed, “It’s 10:30, you heading to the kitchens now?”
James nods as he slides his socks up over his feet, jumping a little in place as he balances on one foot at a time. “Yep, I’ll have your hot cocoa here warm and just how you like it in a few hours.”
He sits on his bed to slip into the converse (white, high tops) Lily got him when he got quidditch captain. She said they’re very popular among muggle athletes.
“Well,” Remus says as James laces his shoes, “I hope you smell good enough for him to trust. You look good.”
“Thanks, mate,”James says as he stands, straightening the jeans on his hips and bruhing air off his shoulders, “I’ll see you in a bit.”
Remus simply nods and smiles at him as he turns towards the door, map tucked safely into his back pocket and cloak draped over his arm.
He puts the cloak on as soon as he exits the room, not wanting anyone in the common room asking him questions. He sneaks out successfully, heading down the stairs as he pulls out the map to check Regulus’ location.
He’s still in the kitchens, James wonders what he’s been doing there so long and regrets not leaving sooner. He skips down the stairs and makes it to the kitchens by 10:40pm.
–
Regulus turns slowly when he hears the portrait swing open, already feeling James’ presence as he stumbles into the kitchens. The elves are gone, Regulus just finished doing the dishes from dinner for them, exceptionally thankful for cleaning spells as he cleaned quite literally hundreds of plates and forks.
James is absolutely out to get Regulus.
He’s wearing a light sweater, thin fabric stretched over his wide biceps and unbuttoned at his sternum. It looks slightly green, but so dark Regulus is sure it’s just the lighting, and it’s got dark blue around the neck at the bottoms of the sleeves. There are three buttons at the neck, two of which are unbuttoned showing off his broad chest underneath.
He’s got these jeans on too, that’s where Regulus’ attention really is. They’re a dark blue, matching the cuffs of his sweater. There are wide rips on his thighs, which Regulus has half the mind to judge because who would pay for tattered clothes? But then he gets distracted by the dark skin peeking through the holes, through the white strands of pulled apart denim and warming Regulus’ face.
He realizes he’s staring and snaps his eyes back up to James’ smiling face as he steps further into the room.
“Hi,” James says cheerily as the portrait closes behind him, “where are the elves?”
Regulus steps out from behind the counter to meet James by the entrance, grabbing the cloak from him to fold onto a table beside them, “they’re in the quarters now, I did the dinner dishes for them so we could have the room to ourselves.”
James looks like he’s having some sort of realization as he listens to Regulus, his face warming with a smile as his eyes widen. “That’s very nice of you,” James says.
“No, it’s not,” Regulus responds, “in fact it’s rather selfish.”
“What? No it isn't. You literally did their jobs for them, I’m surprised they even let you.”
“I had to order them, actually, to leave,” Regulus says as he starts to walk back to the main prep area, using his wand to spell the drying dishes away.
James follows him with a smile, “you’re nice, Regulus. As much as you try to hide it, you care.”
“Okay, so I don’t think maybe they shouldn't have to do all this work alone and without magic, that’s just like the bare minimum of human decency,” he sighs, motioning James around the counter so he can access the massive fridge.
“So you admit you’re a decent human?” James asks, briefly placing his hands on Regulus’ hips to step around him towards the fridge.
“Decent, sure. Not nice, though,” Regulus responds, hips burning with the lingering shapes of James’ strong hands on them.
James seems rather unphased from the contact, opening the fridge to take out a rather overwhelming amount of ingredients as he laughs and says, “sure, Reg. Whatever helps your evil little soul sleep at night.”
Regulus ust rolls his eyes and starts sorting through the ingredients James is carelessly tossing onto the counter as he removes them from the fridge.
“What are you making?” Regulus asks James as he closes the refrigerator door and faces Regulus with a soft smile. Regulus notices that James smells very good. Familiar, even. Regulus is distracted from placing the scent when James stands shoulder to shoulder with him to look at the ingredients.
“I’m shocked they had all this stuff in there, honestly, starting to think that fridge might be charmed to always have what you need, can’t quite imagine Dumbledore grocery shopping for it.”
James’ breath is hitting Regulus’ cheek with every word, hot and making far-too visible blush to rush into Regulus’ pale skin.
“Maybe,” Regulus says, “are you going to answer my question?”
“Hmm,” James hums, tilting his head and tapping his chin as he thinks, “you wouldn’t recognize the name of it, and I’d kind of like to make it a surprise.”
Regulus smiles a little at James, warm all up the side of him James is pressed against.
“How am I supposed to help you if you won’t tell me what we’re making?” Regulus asks, watching as James starts to grab ingredients and move them into separate spots on the counter top.
James shakes his head lightly as he shoves slightly into Regulus’ side, “I’m making you dinner, Reg, all you have to do is sit over there,” he points a surprisingly large finger over at the stools they sat on this morning, “and look pretty.”
Regulus is pink all over, he’s sure of it. Hot pink in his face, burning fuschia on his ears and down his neck.
Did James Potter just call you pretty? His brain asks him as he blinks startled at James’ smirking face.
Bloody James Flirty Potter.
He didn’t mean it. He answers his brain, shaking the pink out of his face and using all his energy to force the smile off his face and scowl at James.
“I want to help, though,” Regulus says, reaching to grab one of the many spices James has laid out on the counter.
James swats his arm away and forcibly starts moving him to the stools. Shoving him with his chest, walking him right over to the first stool with his sheer broadness. “Nope, I am cooking for you. You just get to wait and then enjoy, okay? You can help next time, but tonight I’m doing this for you.”
Regulus is melting. James is up against him, pressed into the counter. James is flush 6with him, front to front, still pressing against him as if he wants Regulus to actually fuse with the counter to watch him cook. Regulus is finding pieces of himself he wasn’t even aware of before, like the sharp bit of his hip bone which is currently pushing into James’ plush hips. It’s hot, it’s stifling and Regulus almost thinks James might feel it too.
James is serious about this, also, which is hot. His face is steel, smirk still in contact but somehow harsher as he raises an eyebrow at Regulus. His hair is damp and Regulus can smell the musky soap on his skin, suddenly very distracted by the idea of James in the shower. Then he remembers James is currently pressed up against him and stops thinking at all.
“Okay,” Regulus squeaks out, face tilted up at James' higher head.
James nods as he backs away, his nose almost brushing Regulus’ before he takes his first step back.
Regulus swears he dies for a moment. Swears his heart stops in his chest. He tries to count its beat like he normally does when he feels he might die, but it just isn't beating. He shivers as he hoists himself to sit on the counter, attempting to shake the emotion off his face as he watches James grab what appears to be chicken and push it out of his work station.
James starts with chopping. He grabs a sharp, silver knife out of the block behind him, carelessly flipping it in his hand when he pulls it out and catching it flawlessly by the handle. He chops onions which makes Regulus’ eyes water sharply, stinging from the sliced up vegetable. He moves on to garlic, crushing and dicing the cloves quickly with excellent precision. Regulus is embarrassingly impressed.
He seems to remember something as he stops chopping a tomato, turning around to find a bag of white rice and dropping some into magically boiling water on the stove. He covers it as it cooks and turns back to the counter.
James sets the chopped vegetables to the side and pulls the chicken back to the center of the counter. He watches James sprinkle salt onto chicken breasts on the wooden counter, his fingers rubbing together to cause a small shower of salt to rain onto the uncooked chicken.
He then turns on his heel, swaying slightly to music in his head as he finds a skillet on the wall and fills it with oil on the stove top. He’s humming something softly as he goes about cooking the chicken in the oil, and his eyebrows furrow cutely as he watches the chicken cook.
He looks briefly up at Regulus, a small smile on his perfect dark lips as he bites at his bottom lip. Regulus almost falls off the counter.
After James sets the mostly cooked chicken to the side he starts to reduce the heat on the stove and add chopped onions, garlic, and ginger to the oil. He stirs it for a while with a potion perfect circular motion, his wrist strong as he directs the vegetables in circles around the skillet. He starts adding a wide array of spices Regulus has never seen or heard of, stirring each in one at a time.
He looks up at Regulus again, between each stir or so. His gaze is light, soft, subtle. He hums his little tune, one Regulus can’t quite place, as he smiles at Regulus’ attentiveness.
He slides his previously chopped tomatoes in after a minute or so, Regulus watches how his arms flex when he grabs each item, how his hands hold everything at once in his broad palms. He’s not even trying to figure out what he’s making, pleased just to watch him work.
He watches him stir something green and leafy in and dump in what Regulus is quite sure is yogurt into the mixture. Regulus is rather confused as to why this brilliant boy is mixing yogurt with oil, but he’s deciding to trust the process.
James dumps the chicken back in after the mixture is well mixed, dumping it and all the juice on its plate right back into the skillet and mixing again. He adds water and turns each piece of chicken over repetitively to coat them in the sauce in the skillet. He sprinkles some sort of brown-orange powder on top of it all alongside that leafy green thing again. He turns and Regulus watches the muscles move under that far-too tight sweater he’s got on.
He places a lid on the skillet and turns the temperature down ever so slightly before setting a small timer beside it set to 20 minutes.
He turns off the stove top the rice was cooking on, taking the lid off of the pan and placing it by the sink.
He starts putting the unchopped ingredients back where he got them, returning the pieces all to the racks they call home and then casting a cleaning charm over the countertop he’d been working on.
He’s humming when he starts to casually stroll back to Regulus, leaning languidly on his hip against the counter Regulus is perched on. The fabric of his sweater, which Regulus is actually now very sure is green, bunches up on the hip against the counter. It rides up ever so slightly beside Regulus’ hand which is gripping the counter, keeping him up on it. The waist of his jeans is exposed, and Regulus can even see a small peek of something red underneath.
Regulus looks away quickly.
“Can you tell me what you just made now?” He asks through a clearing of his throat, fighting valiantly not to look back at that little something red.
“It’s called Murgh Kari,” James responds, smiling up at Regulus through his round glasses, “it’s a curry my mom used to always make, it’s the first real meal she taught me to make.”
Regulus smiles at James, fighting back thoughts about his own mother, and the things she’s taught him. He must have been betrayed by his face because as he blinks back visions of green spells and cruel words he sees James’ eyes change.
He looks at him softer then, his smile less aggressive and his eyes somehow imploring. Regulus just smiles at him, trying to get that weird pity look off of his pretty face.
“What exactly is it?” Regulus asks, looking over at the simmering skillet.
“It’s chicken and spices basically,” James says, leaning an elbow onto the counter that gets rather close to touching Regulus’ gravity flattened thigh.
“It smells really good,” Regulus praises as the aroma of spice and something inexplicably delicious permeates the room with the steam from the skillet, “and you have that recipe memorized?”
James just nods, wiping a spot of orange spice off his sweater, “thank you, and yeah. I’ve known how to make that for years now, it’s the easiest thing I know I can make taste good.”
“So you’re ensuring me it will taste good?” Regulus asks, finding the bravery in himself to knock James’ shoulder with his higher-up elbow.
“Oh, absolutely. I promise you,” James says, offering his pinky to Regulus, “and I never break my promises.”
Regulus hooks his pinky in James’ and bathes in the small warmth that spreads from where their two smallest pieces meet. James squeezes Regulus’ pinky in his, tugging slightly before dropping it to smile widely at him.
“Better be good then, Potter, or that would mean you lied, and I don’t like liars,” Regulus says mildly teasing, mildly serious. Regulus does really hate lying, no reason to say one thing and do another. Just do what you say, and nothing wrong can really happen. At least everything will always go according to plan that way.
“Well you could ask any of my friends and they will surely assure you I am a terrible liar,” James says honestly, laughing a bit at himself as he blinks up at Regulus.
“I don’t really think I am going to ask your friends,” Regulus says, “oh, uhm, about that…”
“Peter’s good. I swear. He won’t say anything,” James says quickly, standing straight up and stepping quickly in front of Regulus. Regulus fights demons to keep his legs closed, James about an inch away from his knees.
“I know, I heard you two talking, I just wanted to tell you that Pandora, the girl I was with earlier,” he watches James frown slightly at the mention of that earlier interaction, “she knows too. Figured we could each get one confidante.”
James’ frown shifts quickly, a tiny smile breaking his fang teeth out above his bottom lip.
“Oh,” he mumbles, blinking quickly through what Regulus assumes are jealous memories of meeting Pandora, “she’s not your, uhm, girlfriend?”
“No,” Regulus says through a laugh he couldn't quite keep down, “she is not my girlfriend. She’s my best friend.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?” James asks, unabashed as Regulus holds back from gaping at him.
He wonders if James is curious as a friend, if he wants to give love life advice and swap sex stories. Then he wonders if James is curious through whatever that sense of more Regulus keeps feeling.
“No, I don’t,” Regulus says, feeling more honesty peeling at his lips as he continues to say, “not really my thing.”
James looks mildly startled at this confession before quickly fixing his face and looking at Regulus with far too much softness for Regulus to handle after sort of pseudo coming out to him.
“Okay, that’s okay too,” James says, so sincere and so careful as he steps closer to Regulus, stomach pressing against his knees, “a boyfriend then?”
And Regulus has never had someone tell him that before. Yeah, Pandora was obviously accepting and in fact quite gay herself, but nobody has ever looked him in the eyes and told him it was okay. He was okay. He feels quite warm for a second, letting himself feel a little bit comforted for just a moment.
Then he remembers James also asked him a question, one he should probably answer before James thinks he’s gone mute.
“Why is it you want to know?” Regulus asks as his response, eyebrow raised familiarly above his softening eyes.
James sputters a little at the question, which is actually the exact reaction Regulus had wanted. He chokes on his answer a couple times before settling on saying, “we’re friends. Of course I want to hear about your love life, that’s a friendly thing.”
Regulus bites back a laugh. Clueless boy.
And Regulus knows James really is oblivious. He has no idea why he’s choking on his words or why he’s so helplessly curious about whether or not Regulus is single. James really can’t lie, Regulus has seen him try from afar before, he gets all sweaty and laughy and weird. He’s perfectly honest when he says that, that they’re friends and he’s being friendly.
Sweet boy.
“Well then, in the name of friendship and bonding, I’ll tell you no again. No boyfriend,” Regulus responds, very aware of James’ warm sweater clad stomach against his knees. His knees which, unlike some peoples, are covered by simple black fabric. Two layers. Two layers and then it’s skin on skin. Regulus is really trying not to think about it.
“Any possible interests?” James asks, waggling his perfect dark eyebrows at Regulus and slowly turning to walk back towards the simmering food.
He keeps his eyes on Regulus as he turns the timer off just before it rings and shuts off the stove.
Regulus watches for a while to avoid answering. He lets himself enjoy the view of rolled up sleeves on dark forearms. He indulges in the sliver of chest between the buttons he can see, and the curve of steam up and around James’ strong jaw.
James is expecting an answer though, and Regulus can’t stall much longer without making it rather obvious just who he’s interested in.
“Maybe,” he says with a shrug as James squeezes a sliced lemon over the rather pleasant looking curry, “maybe not.”
“Oh, that is not an answer,” James says, spooning some curry out for each of them onto separate plates already covered in a bed of rice James must have scooped on while Regulus was thinking.
“That is an answer in fact, since it was a response to a question,” Regulus says, sliding off the counter to grab a plate from James and sit at one of the tables closer to the entrance. The clock on the wall says it’s midnight now.
James sets his plate down and steps away again to grab them both a glass of water. He sets the waters down gently and offers a fork and napkin to Regulus as he finally sits down opposite him.
The food smells amazing. The sauce is orange on the chicken, and all of it is steaming right up into Regulus’ nostrils. It looks so unlike anything Regulus has ever had before, and he can hardly wait for it to cool down before he takes a bite.
“Ahh,” he exclaims, mouth open around a massive forkful of chicken and rice as steam emits from his mouth, burning his tongue, boiling his saliva, “hot, hot.”
James quite literally blows into Regulus’ mouth. He leans right over the table with laughing eyes and blows directly onto the food inside Regulus’ mouth. He puckers his perfect lips and hovers his beautiful face about an inch from Regulus’, propping himself up on his elbows to reach.
“Agh,” Regulus groans as James continues to blow his oddly sweet breath into Regulus’ burning mouth, “stahp,” Regulus gasps out, although James actually is cooling his mouth down rather effectively. He feels his face heating up though.
James leans back down into his previous spot a rather comfortable table width away from Regulus and laughs as Regulus chews and swallows.
It’s so good. The flavors melt and mingle on his tongue, dancing across his unfamiliar taste buds in spices and heat. He almost moans.
“Is it good?” James asks, genuinely curious.
“James,” Regulus says as he finishes swallowing, “this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten. Even though it tried to burn me alive.”
James laughs a little and seems slightly relieved at Regulus’ praise, a proud smile creeping onto his face.
“Thank you,” James says, cutting into his own food with his fork as Regulus takes more bites of his, “I’ll tell my mum you said so, this is her favorite dish to make.”
Regulus swallows harshly, “you’re planning on telling your mom about me?”
“Oh, well, no I guess not,” James says, eyebrows furrowing on his forehead, creasing the skin above them.
“I mean, James, you can’t,” Regulus says, though he’s sure James knows that and was probably just kidding.
“I tell her everything,” is what James says, though. He seems so genuinely distraught at his realization he won’t be able to tell his mother that Regulus Black likes her curry. Regulus wonders what it’s like to feel hurt in regard to your mother from a thing like that, instead of from a curse or a slice. Regulus is a little jealous, and a little sad. Just for a moment.
“Well, maybe you can just tell her you made some for a friend and they happened to like it a lot,” Regulus suggests, taking another bite and smiling as he attempts to comfort James. Regulus has no idea how to comfort people, all of his friends are the suffer in silence type of people. He figures this is working though, when James smiles bigger and swallows another piece of his food.
“True, I’ll tell her at Christmas,” James says, nodding as he takes another bite.
“You go home for Christmas?” Regulus asks James, trying to sound less curious than he actually is.
“Yeah, always do,” James replies as he dabs a bit of orange sauce off his chin, “typically all four of us, Moony, Pads, Wormy, and I go to my place for holidays.”
Regulus tries not to wince at the mention of Sirius. Even hearing that stupid nick name makes his body tense. He tries very hard not to think about Christmas a couple years ago, when everything went wrong and his big brother never came back.
“I go home too,” Regulus says, hearing the waver in his voice and clearing his throat quickly, pretending a piece of rice got stuck going down.
James looks rather stricken by this simple sentence. His face gets longer somehow and his eyes get rather harsh. He looks almost angry.
“Home as in Grimmauld place?” James asks, clearly trying to keep himself calm as what Regulus is sure are years worth of Sirius’ complaints running through his head.
“Yes, that is indeed my home,” Regulus says, nodding as he starts playing with the food on his plate, “Evan asked if I’d stay here with him this Christmas but my parents always have us- I mean me- come home.”
James frowns a little, ever so slightly, the corners of his mouth turning down minutely towards his chin.
“Would you rather stay here, though?” James asks, scooping up some chicken and rice to chew on as he waits for a response.
Regulus thinks for a moment. Lets himself really actually think about it. He’s never been given an opportunity to question it before, it’s a requirement for him. He has to go home. Why would he entertain something else?
But then he thinks of a mostly empty castle and James. James who inherently reminds him of Christmas, of the movies Sirius used to sneak Regulus to in town where two pretty people always end up kissing under mistletoe. James reminds him of fireplaces and messily wrapped gifts, of warmth and mittens and morning sun on the snow.
So, Regulus wonders for the first time if he really wants to go home.
“I don’t know,” ends up being his proclaimed conclusion, “we don’t celebrate Christmas at home, never do gifts or anything since it’s a muggle holiday so my parents hate it. I kind of want to know what it’s like, I guess.”
James’ face is soft, creaseless and gentle with understanding. Regulus wonders if he had this exact conversation with Sirius those few years ago. Regulus wonders if Sirius gets Christmas gifts now, if he gets to put lights on a tree at James’ house and wrap presents with his new found family.
“That’s terrible, Reg, that you don’t get to have Christmas,” James says through the shake of his head, “have you never gotten a Christmas gift?”
Regulus shakes his head, as he swallows the last of his food, “no.”
James out right frowns at that, scowling and swallowing harshly as he finishes his plate.
“Terrible,” he declares, “just horrid.”
“It isn’t all bad,” Regulus says then, something in him desperate to defend his family in the face of scrutiny, “my family does have dinner, a big one with all our cousins and uncles and such. The food is the best of all year that day, everyone brings something different and we compile it all on the table. I think I eat more on Christmas than I do all year there.”
James doesn’t smile, but he doesn't frown either. He just looks at Regulus.
“Your parents,” he starts, “do they still work in the ministry?”
Regulus nods, not quite sure what his parents' jobs have to do with Christmas dinner.
“What exactly is it they do?”
Regulus analyzes James’ tone, the lilt of his words and the twist of his tongue as he forms them.
“Mother is one of the ministry authorities, I’m not quite sure what she does. My dad works in the department of magical law enforcement. He basically just decides who's guilty of what and who isn’t and what happens either way.”
James nods as he reaches across the table to grab Regulus’ empty plate and stack it on his own before charming them clean and waving them back to where he got them with his wand.
“Do they want you to join after school?” James asks, voice clearly careful.
Regulus honestly doesn’t mind talking about his parents, so James’ guarded voice is putting him a little on edge as opposed to comforting him. He assumes Sirius must hate talking about their parents, meaning James inadvertently probably hates it too. Or he’s not used to it. Either way Regulus isn’t quite sure how to keep the conversation light anymore.
“Yes,” he says, carefully watching James’ eyes for a reaction, “I’m supposed to help my mother campaign for a higher spot in the ministry next year, and she wants me to become the youngest administrative authority after I graduate.”
James just nods, plain and simple. He’s quieter than normal.
“Do you want to do that?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Regulus answers, because it really doesn’t.
“Yes it does,” James says, nudging Regulus’ foot under the table with his own, “you get to decide.”
Regulus just shakes his head and promptly decides maye he also hates talking about his parents with James Potter. One thing he and Sirius have in common still, then.
“Dinner was really good,” he says, standing to toss his and James’ napkins into the nearest bin, “thank you.”
James looks like he might proceed with whatever other sappy motivational shit he wanted to say, but seems to wisley think better of it.
“You’re welcome,” he says, voice small as he stands as well, looking at the clock above them, which Regulus glances at to see it’s now about 12:50.
James immediately turns on his heel and starts rummaging around the kitchen again.
“What are you doing?” Regulus asks, following a seemingly very rushed James around the room as he makes what seems to be a cup of hot cocoa with a speed that would indicate this cup of hot cocoa may determine if he lives or dies.
“I promised Remus I’d bring him hot cocoa by 1,” James says in a single breath, stirring chocolate and hot milk together in a mug rapidly.
“Okay,” Regulus says, keeping his small disappointment at the closing of their night to himself, “do you need help?”
James pauses then, taking time to give Regulus an appreciative smile before asking, “can you get me a bowl of green grapes with a little bit of sugar on them?”
And Regulus knows who that’s for.
He doesn’t let James see his face as he turns to the fridge for grapes, just nods and pivots. He can feel it; the way his face crumples up whenever anybody else mentions Sirius.
Regulus can think about him. He can think, to himself, about his older brother. He despises it when he remembers he can’t talk to him. He can’t see him, not really. He can’t be the one to bring him grapes late at night when mother wouldn’t let him eat and it was the only food they kept in their fridge. He can’t be the one anymore who knows sugar on fruit tastes amazing.
James talks about Sirius. To Sirius. He brings him grapes with sugar and he probably doesn't even know why he has to.
Regulus smiles when he hands the bowl to James, a small precarious smile tearing at the seams.
“Thank you,” James says genuinely, taking the bowl from Regulus and setting it beside the cocoa and his cloak on the table closest to the portrait.
“You’re welcome,” Regulus says, trying so hard to maintain that smile.
“You wouldn’t happen to want some desert?” James asks, rather unexpectedly as he picks up the bowl of grapes and starts to pick up the cocoa.
“Do you mean tonight?” Regulus asks, taking the cocoa from James’ hand just before it spills, “Are you not retiring to your dorm with these?”
James shakes his head, “no, I just promised I’d bring them by 1, but I didn’t say I’d stay.”
Regulus really smiles now, nodding as he says, “okay, dessert would be nice. Should I stay here?”
James shakes his head as that familiar mischievous smile dances at his lips, glinting in his eyes as he says, “no, you’ll need to come with me. Carry the cocoa if you don’t mind. I’m taking you somewhere new for dessert.”
–
Regulus has insanely impressive balancing skills.
They’ve made it almost all the way to the Gryffindor tower under the robe, Regulus ending up carrying both the grapes and the cocoa as James serves as their guide, using his wand to ensure they’re alone.
“Okay, I’ll go in with the cloak and you can wait right here, okay?” James whispers at Regulus, who currently looks rather upset at this suggestion.
“Are you ill? Why do you keep the cloak you’re going into your own common room, I’ll be out here in the forbidden corridors after curfew all exposed and susceptible to capture!” Regulus whines in a whisper, hot breath distracting James as it hits the back of his neck while he walks.
“If anyone is up they’ll see me and I’ll never make it out, Reg,” James sighs, very aware that Lily and Mary are most likely still up in the common room (they always have been, no matter how late James gets back) and that they will interrogate him if they see him getting back so late. Or leaving so late.
Regulus must sense the serious tone in his voice because he sighs and seems to give in.
“I’ll just have to go in with you,” he says then, causing James to come to a harsh stop and almost spilling the cocoa over as Regulus collides with his back.
“Pardon?” James whispers back at Regulus, who he can literally feel roll his eyes.
“I can’t stay out here, and I don’t want you to get trapped in there,” he whispers back, still flush against James’ back, causing James’ mind to think all the things iit thought earlier when they were against that counter and something in James wouldn't let him back up, “so we’ll just have to go in like this.”
“What if they see you?” James asks, still frozen in place.
“James, it’s an invisibility cloak. They won’t see me.”
James supposes he is right. And he’s got the map so nobody else will even know he’s there so long as he can stay quiet.
“Fine,” James says, hushed and harsh, “but I expect silence and stealth beyond measure, Reg. They cannot see you.”
“Duh,” Regulus says, nudging James with his shoulder to get them moving again, only a few paces now from the fat lady, “This is not ideal for either of us James.”
James just sighs and whispers up at the fat lady, “gillyweeds.”
Regulus stifles a laugh at that, having to use James’ back to do the stifling which causes James to freeze again as the portrait swings open. He’s not sure why he keeps doing that, Regulus has to push him again to get them through the portrait.
They climb through smoothly, James first followed shortly by Regulus who still maintains perfect balance of the stolen kitchen goods.
James’ previous suspicions are confirmed when he spots a head of wild red hair peeking out from the top of the couch, and sees Mary in the armchair closest to that edge of the couch. James turns his head to see Regulus, placing his index finger over his lips to indicate the need for silence. Regulus rolls his eyes. James almost laughs.
They shuffle quietly past the two girls, making their way quickly to the staircase they first spoke by just a few weeks ago. James glances at that corner now, as he does almost every time he passes it, and he feels Regulus look too. They pause for a barely noticeable second, looking, remembering. Then Regulus nudges James again and they’re off up the stairs.
“Be so bloody silent even I forget you’re there.” James whispers at Regulus as he takes the cocoa and grapes from his pale hands and steps out of the cloak. He ducks out of the fabric quickly, immediately disoriented at the loss of Regulus in his sight.
“I’m going to open the door and you’re going to walk in first, my bed is directly to your left, go there and stand by my dresser. Be quick to get in so they don’t get suspicious.”
“On it, captain,” Regulus whispers, voice dripping with sarcasm but relaying his honest commitment nonetheless.
“Alright,” James says, stepping towards the door and motioning for Regulus to open it and go inside.
James is so close behind Regulus he can feel the invisibility cloak against his ankles as he steps through the door.
He closes the door behind him with his foot as he watches Remus and Sirius turn to face him from up in the window by Sirius’ bed.
“Oh, Prongs!” Sirius exclaims, hopping down to run and grab the bowl of grapes from James’ mildly shaky hand. He is very aware of Regulus’ presence to his left. He realizes this might be one of the first times Regulus and Sirius have been this close to one another in years. That makes him a little sad, actually. He smiles back at Sirius nonetheless.
Sirius steps back to allow James to hand Moony his cocoa. Sirius sits down on his bed as he speaks through a mouthful of grape, “how’d you secret dinner date go over?”
James is far too aware of Regulus.
“Not a date, and not over yet,” he responds, nodding at Remus as he thanks him for the cocoa.
“What do you mean?” Sirius asks, looking up at James with pure curiosity on his open face.
“I’m going back, just had to bring you guys the promised treasure,” James responds, stepping over to mess up the hair on the top of Sirius's head.
Sirius smiles at that, winking boldly at James as he says, “ahh, I see. You shoulda brought him back here for us to meet.”
James is so painfully aware that he did. That his secret dinner date is standing invisible in the corner of their room. That the secret dinner date is the estranged little brother of the man currently making rather obscene gestures with his hands right up at James.
“Told you, Pads, we haven't been friends that long,” he swats at the back of Sirius’ head when he raises his eyebrows at James’ choice of title, “you gotta practice patience.”
“I just want to know what boys got you coming in here all flustered and in a rush to get back, is all,” Sirius says, popping another grape into his mouth as he smiles up at James.
James can feel Regulus’ eyes on him. He can feel them under his skin, on the back of his head.
“Oh, shush Pads,” Remus says, smoke exhaling through his words as he drags on a cigarette between sips of his cocoa, “let our boy live a little. We can’t be the only ones that get to have fun around here.”
Sirius blushes profusely at that, cheeks red in an instant as soon as Remus so much as looks at him.
“He’s right, I suppose,” Sirius sighs up at James, “you go have your fun, be irresponsible, yada yada.”
James smiles, real and happy in a way only Sirius tends to manage, a smile open with a breath of laughter that catches in his stomach and makes him bend over slightly.
“Thank you, Padfoot,” James says, already turning back towards the door, looking briefly in the spot where he assumes Regulus is currently standing, “and I plan on being perfectly responsible, thanks very much.”
“Oh yeah, of course,” Sirius says, voice mockly posh as he says, “I’d never assume you forget to use a condom.”
“Leaving,” James declares happily, “I am leaving now.”
“Love you, darling,” a laughing Sirius calls out after him, moving back to his window with Moony.
“Love you more, baby,” James calls back without turning around, flipping Sirius off as he opens the door.
He feels Regulus behind him now, warm and close against his back.
“Have fun, James,” Remus calls from his perch, hands in Sirius’ lap, “thanks for the cocoa.”
“Anything for our Moony,” he says, turning now just to shoot his friend a smile before backing out the door and waiting for Regulus to close it behind them.
As soon as the door is shut James lets out a rather intense sigh of relief, feeling tension seep out of his very bones as he bathes in the success of a secret well kept.
“James,” Regulus whispers at him, “we should go now.”
James finds Regulus using his voice, and doesn't have to try all that hard since he turns out to be about two single inches away from him. He slips under the cloak and is rather pleased to be seeing Regulus again. Especially Regulus like this, all pink cheeks and cloak-messed hair.
“Good job,” James whispers at him, squeezing Regulus’ skinny bicep as a release of adrenaline and appreciation, “they had no idea.”
Regulus smiles at him, and James really wishes they had better lighting in these damn staircases. James finds himself getting closer to Regulus’ face, just to better see the smile. Lowers himself inch by inch until their faces are almost touching and he can feel the sharp gasp of breath Regulus takes in when James’ smile and his almost touch.
James is not quite sure when he stopped being in control of his own body, but he’s really going to need to work on it. He has to very forcibly tell his legs to move away, he has to mentally overpower his muscles to make his body turn back around and lead them down the stairs.
They move easier without the drink and bowl, both of them moving quicker without fear of spilling or dropping their stolen goods. They make it out of the common room quickly, glad to see Mary and Lily yet again don’t notice the portrait opening. They appear to both be on the couch now, though James can only see Lily’s head. He can hear Mary though, she’s laughing loudly about something as the portrait closes.
“Where is it you’re taking me?” Regulus whispers from behind James as he begins to move them quickly through the halls.
“It’s a surprise,” James says through a smile, turning his head slightly to whisper back at Regulus.
“What is with you and surprises?” Regulus sighs quietly, shaking his head and rustling the cloak as his curls bounce.
“I like surprises,” James responds, turning a corner and beginning to descend a small staircase, “they’re so much more fun than just, yknow, knowing what’s gonna happen. Every year my mates throw me a surprise birthday party. I love it.”
“Not exactly a surprise if you know it’s happening every year,” Regulus rebuttals as they turn off the staircase and pass through another hall.
“Well, party fucking pooper, they never tell me, so it does count as a surprise since I am uninformed,” James whispers back, slowing down as they approach the familiar statie of a hump backed witch down closer to the ravenclaw common room.
“Are you ever actually surprised, though?” Regulus asks him, raising an eyebrow as he steps up beside James’ stilled body.
“Yes, because even though it’s the same day every year, one still doesn't always expect to enter their common room to a room full of drunk people yelling happy birthday.”
Regulus looks unconvinced, eyebrow still raised as he says, “the fact that you just described what happens reveals to me that you know what is going to happen every year, soit really cannot be a surprise.”
James just shakes his head, “you are just a joyless person. You cannot zap all my joy out too. I will have my joy and surprise parties, thank you very much.”
Regulus rolls his eyes but smiles, shaking his head slightly as if he’s surprised by his own smile.
“Now,” James says, “go tap on the statues back with your wand and use an unlocking spell.”
“What?!” Regulus whisper-yells at James, eyes open with confusion and surprise as James starts to nudge him up to the back of the humpbacked witch.
“Just do it,” James encourages, stepping to the side to let Regulus in front.
Regulus looks at him skeptically, but does as told, casting a “alohomora” on the back of the statue, and releasing a muffle yelp when her back opens to reveal a generously wide passage down beneath the castle.
“Do you want me to go in there?” Regulus asks, turning to face James with such genuine horror on his face James cant even stifle his laugh at seeing it.
“Reg, I’ll go first. It’s safe, I promise,” James says.
“You don’t break your promises,” Regulus says as James passes him to crawl down into the familiar passage.
“I don’t,” James says, nodding as he extends a hand towards Regulus’ now invisible figure. James is fully in the passage, out of the cloak and hunched at the entrance with his hand open in offering.
Regulus takes it. He takes it and sheds the cloak as James pulls him inside, the statue closing again once they’re both safely standing in the wide and long stone passage.
“Where does this go?” Regulus asks, voice young with curiosity and light with a little bit of wonder. James basks in it, and in the softness of the smile playing at the pale boy's pink lips.
“Follow me,” James responds, still holding on to Regulus’ hand as he directs them down the long passage.
Regulus runs his free hand along the cold stone walls as they walk, using James’ hand as his guide so he can look around the tunnel freely.
“How did you know this was here?” Regulus asks as they walk further down, the end coming into sight as they follow a curve in the passage.
“Remus found it forever ago,” James says, reminiscing on the beginning of the map, when Remus had just wanted to map the moving staircases and ended up becoming a amature cartographer.
“He used to kind of just wander Hogwarts during the day, said he found this on accident, he’d thought it was the statue that guarded Dumbledore’s office and tried to open it to find this,” James retells, motioning at the passage around them and squeezing Regulus’ hand in his as they approach the small light at the end.
“That’s actually a little funny,” Regulus admits, smiling softly when James looks over his shoulder at him.
“Oh, it’s quite funny,” James confirms, huffing out a laugh at Regulus’ own and stopping under a small trap door.
Regulus looks up at the light. James notices he hasn’t let go of his hand. James is frozen again, staring at this boy and helpless to do anything other than be near him.
“We gotta go through that,” James says through a wide smile as Regulus’ eyes widen once again.
“How?” Regulus asks, looking back and forth between James and the high door.
“I’ll lift you through it, then you pull me up,” James says.
“There is no way I am going to pull you up,” Regulus exclaims, using his free hand to motion at James’ broad body. James thinks he looks rather cute flustered.
“Yeah, no I know,” James says with a laugh, “there’s a ladder on the door that will fall once we open it.”
Regulus smacks the side of James' arm through a relieved laugh, “you’re not funny for that.”
“You’re literally laughing,” James says, feeling rather warm and soft and gooey all over from the way Regulus is still holding onto his hand.
“No I’m not,” Regulus says, immediately cutting himself off and returning to his regular stoic self, “anyway, what’s up there?”
James just smiles and begrudgingly lets go of Regulus’ hand to grab his wand. He flicks it at the door and it falls open silently, a short wooden ladder extending from atop it and reaching to about James’ hips.
James just motions for Regulus to climb on up, moving out of the way so the smaller boy can get up onto the ladder.
“You first,” James says as Regulus stands blinking at him, unmoving.
“Is there anybody else up there?” Regulus asks, staring wildly at the open bit of light above them. All they can see is the ceiling directly above their peephole, whiter and smooth.
“No, I promise, anyone who would be here leaves by midnight,” James says, tugging at Regulus’ hand again to get him over to the ladder.
“I’m not all that good at climbing,” he says to James, seeming a little afraid and terribly excited, like a kid on Halloween.
“I’ll catch you if you fall,” James says cheesily, but also sincerely, emphasizing the honesty in his tone as Regulus looks at him with wide eyes. James realizes Regulus has a perfect nose, sloped and buttony like a bunny.
James is robbed of his Regulus nose admiration time, the possessor of said nose turns around and starts to climb. He does so quickly, and a little shakily, but as soon as his head makes it through the hole and he sees where he is James hears him gasp.
“Is this bloody Honeydukes?” Regulus exclaims in a whisper, pulling himself all the way up and through the trap door as James starts ascending the ladder, “did that passage just take us all the way to Hogsmeade?!”
James just grins as he plops himself on the floor next to Regulus, watching as the younger boy stares at all the shelves and stocks of candy in genuine awe.
“Surprise!” James says happily as Regulus grins that beautiful rare smile wide, wide, wider at him.
Regulus looks so small, so young and boyish as he slowly starts walking through and over the overflowing boxes of candy. He stops at a shelf of Bertie Botts' every flavored beans, grabbing a box and making his way back to James with them in his pale hands.
“Do you want to play the flavor game?” James asks him as Regulus sits down across from James, crossing his legs in his lap and placing the box down between them.
“As in, eat one and try to guess the flavor?” Regulus specifies, picking the box back up to open it.
“Yes, Reg, there is no other flavor game,” James says through a smile as Regulus pulls out two beans.
Regulus just rolls his eyes claiming, “never hurts to specify, James.”
“Okay well then allow me to specify the rules for you,” James says, snatching the box from Regulus’ hands and turning it around so Regulus can see the list of flavors on the back of it, “you take a bean out, guess the flavor based on its color, then you chew and swallow it in its entirety to determine if your initial hypothesis was correct.”
Regulus seems to be smiling against his better judgment, the raised corners of his lips twitching as he tries to make them fall. He just shakes his head lightly, the smile unmoving as his curls bounce above his forehead. James gets a little caught up for a moment, just watching the boy's soft hair move and his smile twitch. James stares at the smile for a while, realizing Regulus’ lips have a sort of heart shape to them.
Regulus’ perfect lips start moving, and James has half the mind to tune in to hear what words they form but he can’t seem to hear anything over his own mind as it obsesses over the dip at the top of Regulus’ lips.
“James?” he hears Regulus say, only looking back up to Regulus’ eyes at the sound of his name.
“Right, sorry, must be a little tired,” James says, shaking his head as if he can shake the sleepiness and distractedness right out of his ears.
“Okay,” Regulus says, face slightly pink under the soft lights of the honeydukes basement, “well I was just suggesting you go first.”
“Why? Are you scared?” James says, cocking an eyebrow at Regulus as he offers the bean in his hand towards James.
Regulus rolls his eyes, “no, James, just want to see if you get the vomit one.”
James laughs, he feels it deep in his diaphragm as it shakes through his body and up out of his smiling lips. James can’t seem to stop smiling around Regulus.
He nods then and grabs the bean from Regulus, both a sort of beige pink color. The options here are vomit or fruity, neither of which are really James’ favorite but he doesn’t mind the fruity one at all, really. He inspects the bean intently, raising it to the light and sniffing at it as Regulus giggles in front of him.
“James, you are not going to be able to tell from how transparent the bean is in light, just guess already,” Regulus encourages, nudging James’ hand up to his mouth for him.
“You wouldn’t understand my expert process,” James says with a mock pout, frowning at Regulus’ annoyed face, “it’s vomit.”
“You sure? You tell that through the density and volume of it?” Regulus teases, joking smirk on his perfect heart shaped lips.
“I’m sure.” James confirms, noting the pink dots on the beans body, sniffing at it one last time before tossing it into his mouth and wincing as soon as he bites down.
He gags profusely as the flavor of vomit fills his mouth, naseauting him as he chews and swallows as quickly as he can. Regulus offers him a chocolate frog he must have grabbed while James was gagging, and James graciously bites the head off and savors the sweet flavor as it melts on his tongue.
“You were right,” Regulus remarks, slightly surprised, blinking up at James with a subtle wiggle of his nose.
“Don’t sound so impressed,” James jokes sarcastically. He grabs the box out of Regulus’ hands and grabs an orange bean out of the cardboard.
Regulus takes it hesitantly, asking, “what are the options for this one?”
James smiles as he checks the back of the box to say, “so you’ve got either rotted pumpkin or orange,” James pauses with a smile as he declares, “which is my favorite, by the way.”
Regulus seems to be realizing something, James can see his eyes open slightly wider as he gnaws on the inside of his cheek, making one side of his face seem more hollow than the other.
“Your favorite is the orange one?” Regulus asks, face slowly clicking back into a mask of neutrality.
“Yes,” James says, feeling rather confused at Regulus’ avid interest in his preferred flavor of candy bean, “I used to go through whole boxes just to pick them out and make little boxes just of the orange ones. Carried them around on me for an entire year, smelled like orange bean for months.”
Regulus chokes on air. He literally inhales and then doubles over in a loud cough as his body scrunches up and heaves. James reaches to help him, arms extended awkwardly without anywhere to really go. He starts patting Regulus gently on the back, and the coughing boy quickly straightens up and shoves James’ hand off.
“Uhm,” James starts, watching as Regulus straightens out and situates his face into a rather red flat picture, “are you okay?”
Regulus nods slowly, looking down at the bright orange bean in his small hands, “yes. Lovely, indeed.”
Regulus is still just staring at the bean.
“You sure?” James asks as Regulus slowly looks back up to him, something reserved and shy in the color of his eyes.
“Yes, James, I apologize,” he says, clearing his throat and beginning to mock James as he inspects the orange bean.
James laughs as Regulus sniffs violently at the bean before bringing it with a centimeter of his eye to squint at it intently.
“Orange,” he declares as he pulls it down from his eye.
“Alright,” James says, motioning for Regulus to eat the candy, “let’s see.”
Regulus promptly pops the bean into his mouth, smiling as he bites down and nodding happily as he chews. James claps his hands and congratulates Regulus’ success as he swallows, tongue stained slightly orange as he smiles.
“I was right!” Regulus says happily, “and that’s a good favorite flavor, I liked it.”
“Thank you, it’s quite lovely I think,” James says, handing the box back to Regulus for him to pick his next bean, “what’s your favorite?”
“You’re going to laugh,” Regulus says as he picks through the beans and pulls out a creamy white bean, rolling it in his palm as he looks back up at James’ inquisitive face.
“Why would I laugh at your bean preferences?” James asks as Regulus hands the white bean over to him.
“My favorite is the envelope glue flavor,” Regulus mumbles under his breath as James begins inspecting the bean in his grasp.
He looks up from the candy at Regulus’ muffled words, “did you just say envelope glue?”
Regulus nods quickly, short little tilts of his chin up and down as he looks at James hesitantly.
“Yes,” he says through his nodding, “I’m not sure why, but I really enjoyed it as a kid.”
“Were you one of those kids that wanted to eat household items?” James asks as Regulus’ face slowly relaxes.
“I may have been a bit of a biter,” Regulus says shyly, ducking his face down and twiddling his thumbs in his crossed lap.
James laughs at this, loud and short, a warm guffaw echoing in the underground room. Regulus looks up at him then, eyebrow raised above a very pink face. James is picturing a tiny little Regulus running around Grimmauld place gnawing on stair railings and licking all his parents envelopes. He feels his smile soften on his face as he imagines small Reggie Black chewing the cuffs of his sleeves and biting at his toys.
“That is precious,” James says as he watches Regulus frown.
“No it’s not, it’s actually rather disgusting,” Regulus declares through his tight lips.
“I don’t know what part of you refuses to acknowledge anything you do can be good, Reg, but that is so blatantly adorable.”
Regulus’ frown straightens, lips folding up into a softly open gap above his chin. He blinks at James and his eyebrows unfurrow as his face brightens slowly.
“I just don’t really think a child chewing on stairs is all that endearing,” Regulus says, setting the box of beans down in front of him.
“It is. It’s adorable,” James says with a vigorous nod of his head, feeling his hair bounce as he shakes his head up and down. Regulus just smiles, ever so discreet, just a small tilt of the left corner of his lip. James bathes in the softness of it.
“Eat your bean, James,” Regulus says with the shake of his head, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at James expectantly.
“It’s envelope glue,” James says with a wide smile, “your favorite.”
Regulus just smiles, less subtle, both corners of his pretty pink lips twisting up towards his soft eyes.
James pops the white bean between his lips, sucking it in and biting down into a rather bland flavor. The envelope glue flavor honestly doesn't really taste like anything, just a little bit of paper and sticky gum. James isn’t displeased, necessarily, but it’s nothing special.
“Hmm,” he hums, rubbing his stomach as he swallows, “absolutely scrumptious.”
Regulus laughs softly, his shoulders bouncing with it as it bounds out of his mouth. He seems so much lighter than he normally does, like maybe he’s letting himself let go of whatever it is that fills the tension he typically carries between his shoulders.
“Oh, shut up,” Regulus says through his huffs of soft laughter, “was it actually glue?”
“Yes, it tasted like sticky paper,” James says with a curt nod.
“Delicious, indeed,” Regulus agrees as he hands the box back over to James.
They spend about another hour guessing flavors as they walk around the storage room, grabbing random things off the shelves for themselves and their friends, pockets stuffed full by the time they leave. Regulus has performed several shrinking spells on boxes and bags of candy for Barty and Evan, stuffing the pockets of his slacks with pounds of candy.
When they finally leave, Regulus has been smiling for an hour. His face looks so soft, pink and stretched around his perfect teeth. He steps down the ladder after James does, using James’ shoulders as leverage to hop down when he reaches the bottom.
James’ hands linger briefly on Regulus’ slim waist, feeling how small and cold his back is as he helps him down. James’ fingers can almost touch behind Regulus’ back with his palms on his sides. He tries to stop noticing that.
Regulus moves out of his hands, turning to wave his wand at the trap door to close it.
“Let’s go,” Regulus says, reaching for James’ hand behind him as he starts walking.
James lets himself be dragged by Regulus through the tunnel, catching up with him quickly as he stalks through the passage. Regulus’ hand is so small in James’, it’s cold and soft and covered in silver rings that dig into the skin of James’ wider fingers. James scoffs at that Pandora girl in his head, see, he thinks, I hold his hand too.
James feels like maybe this might really mean Regulus is his friend. James has never seen him hold anyone else's hand, not even Barty or Evan’s, except the girl he claimed was his best friend. He starts to feel rather good about himself as he realizes maybe Regulus might consider him a best friend too.
Obviously, James’ best mate is Sirius. Always will be. But maybe he can have two, he thinks. Sirius calls Remus his best friend too, so maybe James can have Regulus like Sirius has Remus. Well, not in all the ways Sirius has Remus. Sirius and Remus were best friends before they were together anyway, so James figures he can have that too. Sirius would understand, James is sure, as long as he didn’t know it was Regulus.
James and Regulus make their way out of the statue’s back again swiftly and silently, slipping back under the cloak as the hump closes again. They make their way down to the dungeons silently, only speaking to bicker when one of them unavoidably steps on the other.
James lets Regulus slip out of the cloak as they reach the slytherin common room, lifting it up so Regulus can duck out quickly.
Regulus turns to James’ invisible figure and smiles, “goodnight, James.”
“Goodnight, Regulus,” James responds quietly, turning back up the stairs as he watches Regulus disappear through the wall.
He climbs up to the Gryffindor tower quickly, quietly, thinking about Regulus and the soft light of a candy-filled basement.
His friends are sleeping when he gets in, Peter back and tucked under his covers tightly. Sirius and Remus both appear to be in Remus’ bed, seeing as Sirius’ bed is empty and untouched and Remus’ curtains are charmed shut.
James changes and stows away all his stolen candy quietly before clambering into his bed, heavy with sleep and warmth. He falls asleep fast, all at once as soon as he closes his eyes.
He sleeps well, dreaming of silver rings and pale hands as he drools on his pillow.