Fall in Love With Me.

The way James saw it, he is about the worst person to go to for comfort, especially in such a genuinely heartbreaking way that was apparently a Black family trait. He always felt awkward and out of place if someone wasn’t okay. When Sirius broke down, his mother always knew how to handle it while he hung back awkwardly. Now, his mother is nowhere to help him so James decides to at least try to do what she would do.

He yanks off the invisible cloak from his head and walks over to Regulus, kneeling down beside him and putting a gentle hand on his shaking back. Regulus immediately startles and all in one quick motion, he looks at James and stumbles back in such an ungraceful way that James can’t help but to question whether or not this is actually Regulus. His head is hung low and James can’t see his face from behind his pitch black curls. 

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Regulus says with a crack in his voice, not coming off as intimidating as James is sure he wanted to; it was incredibly out of character.

“I just- I was curious and then I saw you- are you okay?” James sputters. 

“Fuck you,” Regulus utters, his head never once lifting to look at James, “get out.”

“Regulus,” James says so softly it’s nearly a whisper, “I don’t know if I can, in good conscience, leave you when you’re so very clearly not okay.”

“Leave, get the fuck out.” 

“I-” James sighs, “okay, but even though you don’t like me, I’m here.”

 James restlessness never leaves and soon enough, the glow of the sunrise is shining on his face through the room's curtain. He tried distracting himself with books but he just isn’t as easily entertained by them as Remus is, and there was about nothing else he could do quietly by himself, so he just stared at the map. Above all else, he was concerned for Regulus and he seriously started to doubt how he saw the boy that night; so, the second the others are all awake, he tells them what happened.

“It was just weird- I mean, I guess I just never realized that he could have emotions, at least not like that.”

“Merlin.” Peter says once James has told the story, and it’s all anyone says for a while.

Sirius just sits on Remus’ bed – which James is now realizing is a force of habit for Sirius – and he’s silently staring at the floor. Remus puts a hand on Sirius’ knee before he speaks up,

“You did the best you could, James.”

Peter nods his head, “yeah, I mean, if he doesn’t want help, there shouldn’t be any forcing it, right mate?” 

With incredibly sad eyes, Sirius looks up at Remus, then to Peter and finally to James.

“I think I should talk to him.” he says solemnly.

“Are you sure? If you’re not comfortable-” 

“He’s my brother, Moony. If I get stabbed in the back for taking a chance on him, it’ll be worth it.” 

Peter lets out a small chuckle, “Pads, if you get stabbed in the back for any reason, I don’t think you’ll act as calmly as you’re leading us to believe.”

Peter’s comment works wonders in lightning the mood in the room, and they head down to breakfast, all picking on Sirius’ nasty temper.

About a week goes by and James is feeling a bit on edge, he hasn’t seen Regulus and ever since Peter made a joke about Regulus planning out his death, he hasn’t gotten the thought out of his head.

“Mate, you’re overthinking it, I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that he’s nowhere to be found, count your blessings- oh no…” Peter trails off.

James turns to where Peters is staring nervously and yeah, James also lets out an ‘oh no’ at the sight. Regulus is walking right towards him as he stares him down and he doesn’t look particularly happy. Though in retrospect, he never looks happy.

When he arrives he stops right in front of poor Peter Pettigrew.
“I need to speak to Potter. Alone.” He says in his normal icy tone, looking down at him.

James’ eyes practically bulge out of his head more than Peter, who looks absolutely petrified.

“Don’t you dare go.” James demands earning an arched brow from Regulus, who is still looking down on Peter.

“Rest in peace, Prongs.” he pats his shoulder and scurries away.

“Traitor,” James mutters.

Now, Regulus turns to James, “let’s go somewhere else.”

Now of all times, James is remembering a muggle book that Remus explained to him. A beyond horrifying book about a real murder case in which whenever the killer managed to get the victims to a second location from where they initially met, always get murdered gruesomely. Not a very comforting thing for him to remember the moment.

“Um, sure.” is all he manages to say before they’re walking silently to an empty classroom. Regulus stands straight as James leans against the wall with his hands in his pocket, feeling his wand. Just in case.

“So, uh, what’s up?” James says because he quite frankly doesn’t know how to exist in this situation.

“You saw me in, er, a rather… vulnerable position recently.” Regulus begins, his normal statue-like demeanour faltering as he plays with the hem of his sleeve, but that doesn’t make his stance any less straighter or his gaze any less piercing.

“Do you want to talk about what happened?” James suggests softly, shoulders dropping as he accepts the fact that he’s not going to be murdered.

Regulus shakes his head, his lip twitching, “I'd rather we pretend that never happened, actually, but that’s not what I’m trying to say here…”

James can’t help but smile a bit, he doesn’t even know why Regulus is prompting that out of him at the moment.

“And what you’re trying to say is…?” James prompts with a light chuckle.

Regulus nods and sighs, “I guess what I'm trying to say is… I'm sorry… uhm, I shouldn’t have lashed out at you.”

James’ eyebrows raise immediately and he leans off of the wall, incredibly confused.

“You’re… sorry?” he asks, receiving a curt nod, “are you being controlled by imperius or something?”

“What? Is the concept of me apologizing really that unbelievable?” Regulus perplexes. 

James laughs, “yeah, only a bit.”

Regulus nearly pouts before composing himself again and James is beyond intrigued by this demeanour. He wants to see Regulus with his walls down more, to be completely honest. Maybe not when he’s crying, though.

“I need to speak to Sirius because I plan on leaving my home.” Regulus says, shocking James.

“That’s- what?” is all James can manage to say.

Regulus sighs and crosses his arms, “yes, Potter, evil Regulus Black is running away, Sirius isn’t the only one sick of the Noble House of Black. Shocker.”

“No,” James shakes his head as he speaks, walking up to Regulus and putting his hands on his shoulder before shining a bright smile, “I think that’s incredible of you.”

Regulus just stares at him with raised eyebrows before he lowers his head so his hair covers his face.
“Sure, Potter.”