New experiences
- August 6th, 03.00pm
It was strange. When Regulus wrote to Sirius last night he had expected that they come visit him, and maybe he also expected that he would come home with them. But he hadn’t expected the big metal box that they apparently used to come here. A car. That’s what they had called it. Regulus had an idea of what it was, Grimmauld Place was in a muggle neighborhood after all, and Regulus had seen cars before. He wasn’t stupid. He just hadn't expected the Potters to use one, because, well, the floo was way faster. And free. And Regulus also didn’t like how sitting in one made him feel. Sirius had noticed something was off with Regulus after a few minutes. Regulus had insisted he was fine, until Mrs. Potter said motion sickness, it was awful. Regulus felt like his brain was mush, he really felt sick. Dizzy. On the verge of throwing up everything he had to eat that day. Which wasn’t much, mainly pudding.
It had started raining after about maybe 30 minutes. Regulus had rested his head against the cold window, he wasn’t sure how long the drive was, since he had fallen asleep shortly after the first sound of thunder. When he woke up he somehow felt worse than before, and looking out the window made him feel even worse. “How long until we’re hooomeee?” he heard his brother ask. Mr. Potter answered and Regulus sighed. An hour. He was about to try to fall asleep again, since he didn’t feel bad when he slept, but it was no use. He shot up in straight panic, “ Sirius-”, Regulus was feeling really bad. Sirius eyes looked at him with concern. “I think we need to stop, I think-” he couldn’t finish his sentence. Regulus put a hand over his mouth. He hated throwing up. He could handle feeling sick, but not actually being sick. With a hand still covering his mouth he stared at Sirius. And behind his brother sat James with his forehead pressed against the seat infront of him. Also feeling sick? Sirius understood Regulus' panic.
“Fleamont,” he spoke urgently. “I think Reg’s going to be sick.” his eyes never leaving his little brother. “Oh,” was all Mr. Potter answered before he quickly pulled over to the side of the road. Sirius reached across Regulus and opened his door for him. He quickly rushed out and let out the food of the day. It didn’t look like pudding anymore. Regulus got sick all over again purely from the look of it. Disgusting. Mrs. Potter had gotten out of the car and was slowly petting Regulus’ back. “There, there, let it out,” she comforted him, “oh poor you, James also get motion sick, he can usually hold it until we’re home though,” she petted his head. He wasn’t throwing up anymore, but he still didn’t move from where he was hunched over against a tree. “It’s okay, here, drink some water,” she handed him a bottle of water. As he took the first sip he heard another car door open. And then the sound of a person being sick. “ Oh, James didn’t make it home today,” she said in amusement. He could hear Sirius laughing loudly and unconsciously smiled at the sound.
-
The last bit home was unbearable. James and Regulus sat drenched from the rain holding a bag each, ‘ just in case’, his father had said for the second time that day. Sirius looked way too happy between his two brothers. “I just think it’s a little funny how you both are Quidditch players so you're used to moving but you both also get motion sickness,” he said when Regulus glared at him. James just grunted and hit his leg. James’ dad always insisted on taking the car whenever they weren’t in a rush. Even if it took hours to get there. James had ridden in a car many times, the first time was horrible, he had been nine and none of his parents had known about the supposed sickness you could get by riding in a car. James thought he was dying. But despite his experience in sitting in the backseat of a car, he always got sick. Even if it only were a 10 minute drive. James didn’t want to feel bad for Regulus since James felt just as bad as he did, but that was exactly why he felt bad for him. This was Regulus’ first time riding in a car, and James could only assume he felt just as bad as he did.
When they finally arrived home James practically ran to the bathroom to empty the rest of his stomach, it was always like this. After a few minutes hovering over the toilet he sat down on the cold tiles. Resting his head against the wall. ‘Regulus is going to be living with us until school starts.’ that’s what his mother had said. Almost four weeks. James was going to be sharing a wall with Regulus Black for four weeks. ‘ And after that?’ James had asked. Because really, where was Regulus going to be living after that. ‘We will figure something out, but he will always be welcome here’ . This could end with Regulus living with them until he’s of age. James wasn’t sure why he wasn’t appalled at the idea. Sure, he didn’t hate the boy, he had barely had even one conversation with him. But he still wasn’t that fond of him, sure, James maybe thought he was attractive and had for the past year, and maybe he had been staring at Regulus any chance he got last year at school, but he thought many people were attractive, Regulus was just more attractive. But that wasn't the reason he was nervous about the whole situation, no, it was absolutely because he had practically been trained to hate him because of Sirius. Until now. Now, James was pretty sure that Sirius would strangle him if he were mean to Regulus. And it hadn’t even been 24 hours. A soft knock was heard on the door, then Sirius barged in loudly. “Dinner!” then he ran out again. It’ll be fine. James told himself. Perfectly fine.
- August 9th
It wasn't fine. It had only been three days and Sirius didn't leave Regulus alone. He didn't get any alone time except for when he was sleeping. But even then he could hear James through the wall so it wasn't exactly like he could be alone with his own thoughts. Regulus had learned that James didn't snore a lot, and he was grateful for that. But James spoke in his sleep. And when he says spoke, he means full on conversations. The first night he thought that James had been speaking to Sirius since Mr. and Mrs. Potter was sleeping on the first floor. But when Sirius entered Regulus room and James continued talking he was more than confused. His roommate at Hogwarts, Evan Rosier, was also a sleeptalker, but he only mumbled words or short sentences. Sirius had informed Regulus upon seeing his mortified face that night, that James was in fact sleeping, and that James definitely wasn't crazy. At least not because of the sleeptalking.
At first Regulus tried to ignore the sleeping boy on the other side of the wall. But when James had barely spared even one word with Regulus since he arrived here five days ago, he started trying to hear what the boy was saying. It wasn't easy, there was a whole wall between them. But Regulus often picked up words like 'Quidditch', 'Padfoot', 'Minnie', 'No, I can't get detention', 'It will be fine', 'Evans', that one wasn't that surprising.
- August 14th, a little after midnight
But what was surprising was what he heard on night eight in the Potter household. James still barely looked at Regulus, but he spoke sometimes. Not a lot, he never initiated conversation. And he never looked in Regulus' eyes, as if they were poison. Regulus was weirdly hurt by this. He had been sitting in his bed reading, it was a little after midnight but Regulus wasn't feeling tired. He had tried to ignore James, really he had, but his talking this night didn't sound like it used to. No, James sounded panicky. So Regulus did what he did best, he listened. The talking was quieter than usual, also muffled by the sounds of his steps, so he had to sit up and put his ear against the wall. It sounded like James was walking in circles in his room. He heard muffled 'why's. Huh? Then there was a bang on the wall, and a quiet 'shit'. James mostly likely jumped into the bed causing it to slam into the wall. Regulus had had enough. He quickly stomped his way over to James' door. But quietly to not wake the others. Not that it was really a possibility, since Mr. and Mrs. Potter slept on the other side of the house one floor down, and Sirius was practically impossible to wake. It obviously wasn't a long walk, only a few seconds. But when Regulus stood outside of James' closed door, already lifted his hand and knocked three times, he realized his mistake. It's fine, just pretend it isn't what it is.
-
Knock, knock, knock. James' eyes shot to the door. Oh no. He had feared this. Getting out of bed and slowly walking to the door he thought 'Please don't be Regulus, please don't be Regulus'. But with his extreme luck it wasn't only Regulus. It was Regulus standing there with red cheeks and wearing only a too big t-shirt that stopped midthigh. James prayed to merlin that he was wearing underwear. But the bare legs weren't James' biggest problem, no, it was the fact that the shirt he was wearing wasn't Regulus'. And it also wasn't Sirius'. Regulus stood outside James' bedroom with a blushing face, in (hopefully) underwear and James' Quidditch t-shirt. James could feel the heat rising to his own face, and down. And James definitely didn't want the heat to travel down when Regulus was looking at him like that. More importantly his eyes were glued to his torso, which was bare. Why hadn't he realized he wasn't wearing a shirt before opening the door, fucking idiot!?
"Hello", he whispered. Regulus' eyes snapped up and his face grew even redder. Then he looked confused. "Potter," was all he answered. James swung his arm motioning the younger Black to enter the room. He looked conflicted but eventually stepped foot inside James' bedroom. James stared at his pale neck that he suddenly had the urge to kiss while Regulus looked around, specifically on the posters covering his walls, they were Quidditch. James grew hot when he read his name on Regulus' back. Potter. James swallowed his nervousness, "was there anything you wanted?". Did that sound rude? Oh no, what if Regulus thinks he James doesn't like him! Regulus took a breath and went to sit on James' bed. James flushed once again. The shirt slightly moved up, revealing more thigh.
"Why don't you like me?" it was practically a whisper, "I mean I get I haven't been the most kind person ever but we've never even had a proper conversation and you never speak to me and I never get the chance to have a proper conversation with you, and you won't even look at me. And Sirius won't leave me alone and when I am alone I'm not. Because you fucking talk in your sleep. So I have to listen to Sirius talk all day and all night I get to hear you talk, the only time I don't have to listen to someone talking is when I'm using the loo! AND then tonight I hear you stomping around your room talking to yourself not sleeping and then banging into the wall! I mean-" Oh no, James was right. Regulus thought he didn't like him and now he was really angry. Or was he angry? He looked almost hurt. James hadn't even noticed he'd been avoiding Regulus. He was just nervous, seeing Regulus up close made him nervous. Especially his eyes, he'd looked into his eyes once and he thought he was melting through the floor. Not literally. But James thought his heart was going to beat out of his chest any second, from fear, and because Regulus looked absolutely stunning right now. "-and are you even listening to me? Honestly James I get that you hate me but you can at least acknowledge that I'm speaking to you!" Oh,'James'. James loved how that sounded. And OH! James hadn't been listening! "I'm sorry," was what he said.
Regulus didn't look impressed. So he messly continued "I don't hate you, I really don't, I mean I really, really don't. It's quite the opposite really. I really like you. I haven't been ignoring you or whatever, I didn't even realize I was acting like an arsehole, I'm just really confused because, I'm not sure, I've heard all this shit about you that I didn't like, from other people and also from Sirius but you aren't really how people paint you as, at all, and I really like how you are. And you also have gorgeous eyes and I can't handle looking into them because I feel like I might do something stupid if I do and I think I might do something stupid right now because I love how you look in my shirt and I don't know what I'm saying..." James stopped his ranting and realized he had been walking around his room while saying all that. Now he stood on the other side of the bed looking at a shocked Regulus.
James was panicking, he was definitely panicking. He quickly walked to the door and said "I'm so tired I should probably go to sleep, it was nice speaking to you Regulus, good sleep, talk well," James made no sense and he knew that but really he wasn't in the right headspace to have good ideas at the moment. All he could think about was how Regulus looked in his shirt and messy hair while he quickly walked to bathroom on the other side of the house. He should probably stay in there the rest of the night. He quickly locked the door and sat down against the wall furthest from the door. James groaned and looked down. Regulus in James' shirt. Regulus with messy curls. Regulus blushing. Regulus' eyes. Regulus' lips. Regulus' neck. Regulus' legs. Regulus. Regulus. Regulus. The heat in his body was moving, down, and James did what he had avoided for days now. Only thing on his mind was his best friends brother. And oh the shame James felt but could only ignore. Bloody Regulus Arcturus Black. Regulus fucking Black. Who knew? James definitely didn't.