Chapter 4
Spending the afternoon with Barty and Evan was probably the best thing Regulus has done since the day they both left. Of course meeting up with Dorcas and Pandora is also amazingly fun — he really does love them; but it isn’t the same.
After Evan’s aunt and uncle arrived, they welcomed Regulus with big tight hugs and kisses on the forehead since he hasn’t seen them in a long time as well. They had some snacks and talked more about life before heading up to Evan’s room, where they gossiped more. Regulus was so happy he had to pull out his phone to take a picture with them.
Barty had his arms around Regulus’ shoulders; both boys with big smiles on their faces. Evan had the same smile, on Barty’s side. However, their bodies weren’t touching and Rosier had two fingers up to the camera. The picture was perfect — you could feel the happiness, how much they all love and appreciate each other, it was really something magic and Black had to post it, captioning it:
Finally with my boys again ✌🏻❤️🩹
“Promise you’ll text once you get home,” Evan said with a serious expression.
“No. Let me drive you home, seriously.”
“He doesn’t want that.”
“But it’s raining!” Crouch exclaimed, snapping his head into Rosier’s direction.
“Guys,” Regulus tried to call as soon as they started arguing, “Guys,” he tried again, “GUYS!” both of them looked at the grey eyed one this time, “I’ll be okay. I just need an umbrella and that is it, okay?”
Barty was reluctant about the idea of letting Regulus walk home alone while it was raining, but he couldn’t fight back — he knew he wouldn’t win.
“You can take mine, wait a sec,” the buzzed pink haired boy gave a little hop before running up the stairs after his umbrella.
This caused Barty and Regulus to be alone, but it wasn’t as awkward as it would be. Regulus was now putting his scarf around his neck, and when he was ready to put on his coat, the taller one grabbed his arm.
“Won’t you need gloves?” his voice was soft, but his grip was strong. Something typical about Barty that Regulus always noticed and loved.
“No, actually. But thank you,” he smiled and the blue eyed boy freed the skinny wrist with a nod.
“I loved today,” Crouch confessed, “I really missed spending time with you and be–“ he shutted himself down, looking at his own feet in silence for a while, “and being with you, and evan,” he added, looking up again.
The shorter one danced back and forth on his own feet with an awkward smile. He didn’t know what to reply. He had already talked about how much he missed them during the whole afternoon, so adding it now would be quite unnecessary — at least he thinks so.
“Today was really fun,” he chose to reply.
“I hope today can be repeated more times.”
Regulus couldn’t stand to stare at Barty, not when his eyes were big, shiny and warm. The boy was glaring at him with a flick of something Regulus could not tell what it was — if it was hope, sadness or just happiness to see him again after almost three whole years.
“I do hope too,” he said with big slow pauses within the words he pronounced.
“It’s our job to make it happen then!”
The older man's voice rose a little as he patted his own thighs with a smile on his face, but Regulus knew it was forced. Barty didn’t seem as happy as he claimed to be, Regulus could notice it; however, he had no idea where the mood swing came from. What made him sad, maybe exhausted? Was he overwhelming?
Regulus hated knowing Barty better than anyone else but not knowing anything about him at the same time.
“Here,” Evan’s modulated voice broke the awkward moment between the ex-lovers.
Rosier handed the big orange umbrella to Regulus and his first thought was How much do you have to love orange to buy an orange umbrella instead of a regular black one? but he kept his mouth shut and smiled at his friend.
“Thank you,” he made himself heard, “for the umbrella and for the day in general, it was really amazing.”
“You don’t have to say thank you, Reg. We spent two years away but you’re still our best friend and that will never change, even if instead of two years, it was twenty six.”
His heart squeezed inside his chest and the smile he showed was the most sincere he could ever give to anyone. He loved those two.
“I’ll return the umbrella the next time,” he warned.
“No worries, mate,” Evan giggled.
“I’ll close the door for you,” Barty said and started walking towards the door. Regulus could only follow, “Text me once you get home, alright?”
“Sure, sir,” he said in a mocking tone which earned him a smirk from Barty.
Butterflies started flying through his stomach once again, so he immediately decided to step out of the house before he could do something stupid.
_____________________
After getting home and having a great, long, warm bath; Regulus texted Barty with a ‘I am home, mummy, no need to worry anymore’ just to receive a ‘i like daddy more.’ and Jesus, he hated Barty for that. They never really used the word daddy in bed, but Regulus wouldn’t mind trying it — maybe Barty enjoyed it now; a lot can change in two years.
He was already laying onto his bed when James texted him asking if he could sleep there and Black allowed it. They were almost dating, anyways, so why not? No, he wasn’t excited about it, but it was better than looking at the ceiling or watching a boring movie until 2am. This is one of the reasons why he dislikes holiday’s. If university was still open, he would be studying right now and then he would drink a warm glass of milk and sleep — now he just didn’t have a routine. All he did was get desperate over the fact he wasn’t over his ex boyfriend who was back in town and emotionally cheat on his almost boyfriend.
James arrived at the exact minute he said he would, like he always does and Regulus gets annoyed every single time. James is perfect. Why can’t he like James? Why?!
“Hey,” Potter kissed him as soon as Black closed the door.
“Hi, how was your day?”
He was scared James would be mad over the fact Regulus was with Barty and Evan and didn’t answer any of his messages. It wasn’t on purpose, he just didn’t remember.
“Mine was alright. I saw you had fun today,” Regulus didn’t know if that was sarcasm or not and that was freaking him out.
Black blinked at the brown-skinned boy for a long while with no expression on his face — or at least he thought so because James giggled after a few seconds, sending Regulus a warm, calm smile.
He gave three steps forward to cup Regulus’ right cheek with his big hand, kissing his lips again.
“I’m not mad, Reg. Actually, I’m glad you had fun, you were needing it.”
“You’re seriously not mad?” he searched for reassurance.
“Totally.”
“I didn’t answer you not because I didn’t want to, by the way. I was just so focused on my friends I forgot about everything,” he justified at a fast pace.
“Reg,” James called, holding the boy’s shoulders to make him stop moving desperately, “I am not upset.”
Black looked at the hazel eyes before relieving the air he didn’t realise were trapped in his lungs.
“Great,” he smiled.
“I have a movie for us to watch tonight.”
James looked more excited than Regulus had expected him to be. It was like all the chaos between them had disappeared and they'd gone back to when they first met — when they were just having fun. The almost 20 year old boy wasn’t happy with that, though. He wanted their relationship to be stable, he wanted to solve problems with talking not with ignoring it and pretend everything was fine. Although he wanted to call out James for it, he wasn’t seeking a fight tonight, so he just followed.
When they were sitting on the sofa with the lights off and legs covered by a white blanket, James pulled Regulus to a soft kiss, whispering how much he liked him moments before the chosen movie started.
Call Me by Your Name was the film Potter chose to watch and at first, Regulus was really reluctant about it.
“The main character looks like you, Reg, I swear.”
“No he doesn’t.”
“You haven’t watched the movie yet.”
“And have you?”
They stared at each other for a few seconds and when Black was about to flash a proud smile, James cut him off.
“I’ve seen edits.”
“Oh, so you basically know everything about it?” Regulus pretended to be offended by that and James nervously giggled.
“No. I know it’s gay and I know the main character looks like you but with green eyes. Think he has the French and all,” before the youngest could bat and continue the fake fight, James clicked on the play button and put his arm over Regulus' shoulders, who allowed himself to be pulled.
It wasn’t actually bad at all and by the end Regulus couldn’t deny the facial and body’s similarity between him and Elio. About personality… he couldn’t say they were the same.
After it ended, they spent at least one hour and a half talking about how problematic the relationship portrayed was and how it was basically romanticised pedophilia. Not the best movie ever, but if you interpret it as a criticism rather than a romance, it can actually be good — Regulus doesn’t believe the first option, though. To resume everything with total honesty, Regulus didn’t enjoy the story.
The cinematography is exceptionally great and beautifully, all the summer aesthetic was good, the soundtrack was amusing. However, the plot was problematic.
“Next time let’s watch a good gay movie, yeah?” Regulus lifted his head to look at James, since his head was still resting on his chest.
“We can make a good gay movie.”
He was flirting.
“Oh yeah?” he lifted one of his eyebrows and James smirked with a nod, “tell me the plot, then.”
“So,” Regulus felt his hands holding his waist, “there’s this boy, he’s around 5’10,” Regulus hummed for him to keep going. James’ hand travelling up and down the other boy’s skin, “and he has really, deep black hair–”
“You’re supposed to tell me the plot, not describe the character,” his voice was flirty.
“The script is about this poor guy who meets his best friend's brother. He automatically falls in love and after a while he realizes that maybe it's reciprocal. Their relationship has problems, but it's a love story that proves that when fate draws a line, nothing and no one can destroy it. It’s like an invisible string is tying them to each other.”
Black decided to ignore all mentions of love and fate, as James was lifting his shirt from under the blanket that now covered more than their legs. He hated the fact that Potter still thought they were going to actually end up dating, but he wasn't going to break the mood by telling him the truth right now either.
He was needy and they were flirting. Why would Regulus destroy the chance of fucking the problems out of himself?
“And can you tell me one of their scenes?” he asked in a sly voice, softly touching the taller man's biceps, “if you’ve already planned any, of course.”
“Hmmm” he pretended to be thinking, squinting at the TV that was now turned off, “I know one,” he stared at Regulus.
“Tell me,” Regulus crawled on top of his legs, still feeling James' hands roaming his body.
“Imagine this. They’re both on a sofa, watching an awful movie,” Regulus nodded, “When they lock their eyes and realise they’re totally and crazy in love with each other,” Regulus didn’t nod, “and how they’re so attracted to each other and miss having some time for their things.”
“Will they have time now?”
As soon as he said that, his phone rang with a notification. Black automatically tried to reach for it, but James held his wrist.
“We don’t have to worry about anything else now,” he said.
“What if it’s import–” the boy with round glasses let go of the youngest’ waist to hold his face, pulling him into a desperate kiss.
One of Regulus’ side wanted to pick up his phone and see what the notification meant, but he was too horny to make a conscious decision, so he chose to ignore it.
After that there wasn't much conversation, in a tangle of tongues touching, clothes being thrown in the air and kisses everywhere, mouths and fingers reaching places that sent both of them to heaven — his phone didn’t stop with the notifications, though.
At some point, when Regulus was moving his body up and down onto James’ lap, the brown skinned boy reached the pale skinned boy’s phone in a clumsy way. He stared at the screen for a while and Regulus started moving slowly as he noticed James was taking a while reading whatever the hell was there.
“No,” James held Black’s hips with strength before turning off the sound of the phone, “don’t stop,” he basically asked.
“What was it?”
“Nothing, just Google news,” he tirelessly smiled at the younger, grabbing his face before pulling him down, hungrily kissing him.
Regulus just accepted, too busy caring about his own pleasure than about what James had to say.
_________________________
Regulus could tell he had slept like a baby. Sex with James wasn't and never had been the best, but it was enough to make him come and that was good enough for him to give him at least a 6 out of 10.
The next morning it was always difficult to get up as the body begged for rest due to energy discharge before falling asleep, but Regulus learnt how to fight it. He got up not bothering looking behind his shoulders since he knew James would be there and — still naked — walked up to the bathroom, taking a hot shower to relax his muscles. He didn’t have plans for the day, so he would probably chill and watch a movie. Potter would definitely not stay for the day, him and Sirius always have things to do every single day. Sometimes Regulus thinks about the fact James looks to be dating Sirius instead of him.
When he came out in his towel, the room was empty. Regulus took a few steps back, checking to see if James was anywhere in the house — because the doors were always open — but he wasn’t. For a few seconds, the boy was surprised by how quickly and silently James left.
Searching for an answer, he remembered he didn’t even know what time it was — maybe James was late for an appointment or something like that.
To confirm it, he went to the living room, where the fucking session started as he remembered leaving his phone there. He also thought about how noisy and active the notifications were last night and decided to check the supposedly Google news.
12:23pm
Monday, December 20th 2017
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: i can’t sleep lmao fml
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: did you know that only female mosquitoes bite???????????
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: maybe that’s why mosquitoes are always biting me its bc im a man
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: theyre definitely feminists
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: as they should
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: or maybe they’re biphobic
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: [Message was deleted]
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: [Message was deleted]
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: [Message was deleted]
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: sorry HAHAHAH
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: kinda miss talking to you
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: think imma try to sleep then,,, night xx
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: [Message was deleted]
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: [Message was deleted]
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: ok gn reggie
All of those messages were from the night before so it didn’t take long for Regulus to come to the conclusion the “google notifications” were actually Barty. He was nervous, scared. Did James know it was Barty? Did he got upset and that’s why he left without saying anything? What did Barty delete?
After realising he had been staring at those texts for a longer time than he is supposed to, Regulus decided to do what he hated to do: lie to Barty.
Regulus: Morning ❤️ I’m sorry, I was asleep :( Yesterday was so good I slept like a baby XD
It took him long seconds to breathe in and send the text. It was impossible to lie to Barty when face-to-face but he hoped he could trick him with a message.
James text’s popped up the second he was ready to drop the phone.
James: Sorry I left without saying shit
James: Didn’t want to interrupt your shower 😅
James: If you want we can hang out today xx
Before Regulus could answer, Barty replied.
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: its okay!!!! i fell asleep right after LMAO BUT ANYWAYS do you want to have lunch together?
Regulus felt like a teenage girl in the middle of a love triangle — maybe he was. It didn’t take him long to decide to reply to Barty.
Regulus: Yes please.
Regulus: Where?
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: Sev’s? haven’t seen him yet
Regulus: You’re still friends with Severus?
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: he’s a cool guy reggie and his food is great
Regulus: Agreed with the food part
Regulus: Also, go learn some grammar
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: I, put, commas, wherever, i, feel, like, putting,
Regulus: You should’ve put a period at the end of that sentence (that didn’t need commas, by the way)
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: you’re the only one 19yo that actually cares about periods and commas
Regulus: I like to be unique
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: you are
Regulus: When are we having lunch? Need hours
Homme de ma vie 🙄❤️: now. get ready i’m picking you up w marci’s car
Regulus texted James saying he was going to stay home right after.