Happy Anniversary!
Regulus’ head shoots up when James comes bursting into his room. Sirius, who is sitting across from him with cards in his hand, speaks before he can.
“Are you trying to kill us both?” He questions, “Whatever you’re here to ask hopefully is worth taking a few years off my life.”
“It is, it is, it’s very important,” James assures him, “You know it’s Mum and Dad’s anniversary, right? Yeah?”
“No kidding,” Sirius laughs, “That’s why they’re out at dinner.”
“Yeah, well, while they’re out I was thinking,” He smiles, Regulus and Sirius sharing a mutually slightly nervous look, “We can make them a cake!” James excitedly suggests, “It would be fun, something to do together and for Mum and Dad. So, should we?”
Sirius looks at Regulus, the two of them shrugging. “Sure, I don’t see why not,” Sirius puts down the cards he was previously setting up and swings his legs over the side of the bed, getting up. Regulus elects to do the same, setting down his cards and following him. The three of them go down the stairs, James going right over to a drawer in the kitchen and pulling out a small box, flipping it open. Sirius and Regulus walk up beside him, seeing him card through the small notecards in the box.
“Hmm, Mum and Dad both like chocolate so maybe we should make chocolate cake,” He absently comments as he flicks through recipes before pulling one out, “Oh! I think this says chocolate, does it?”
James holds out a recipe, the top of it reading ‘Chocolate Lava Cake’ in French.
“That’s chocolate lava cake, but I think it’ll work,” Sirius shrugs, “Put Reg in charge of reading it, though, he’s better at reading French than I am.”
Regulus holds his hand out, James handing him the small card. Regulus scans through it, finding it to be much more challenging than just straight French instructions. It’s definitely written by Lucette because it’s written so much like how she talks, an indecipherable mess of French and English.
“I can certainly try to read it,” Regulus says as he continues scanning, “It’s French and English all mixed.”
“Aw, it’s mémé’s recipe, good luck Reg,” James says, “Well, I guess we can start with what we need for it, aren’t you supposed to set it all out before you start? I don’t normally do the setup part of baking.”
“That’s what your mum does and she bakes pretty well, it’s a start at least,” Sirius shrugs, “What’s on it, Reg?”
Regulus processes the French words on the card and translates them before he starts reading. “1 stick of unsalted butter, bittersweet chocolate, 4 eggs, sugar, salt, and flour,” Regulus looks up at James, “Do we have bittersweet chocolate?”
“Mhm, of course,” James crouches down and goes into one of the bottom cabinets and pulls out a bag of bittersweet chocolate, putting it up on the counter.
“Why the hell do we have that?” Sirius questions.
“Mum bakes, of course we have this,” James looks at him confused, “Is that not normal?”
“I mean I wouldn’t know but it is a strange thing to just have on hand,” Sirius shrugs, “Works for me, though, what else do we need?”
Regulus lists the rest of the ingredients again, Sirius and James going around the kitchen grabbing everything they’ll need first. They set it all by the corner of the counter in the kitchen. When they’re done, Regulus looks over at the stuff on the counter and compares what’s there to what he listed off, picking up the stick of butter and bringing it back to the refrigerator.
“What are you doing?” Sirius questions.
“You grabbed salted butter,” Regulus tells him, James humming in affirmation.
“Ok,” Sirius says, confused, “Why does it matter?”
“Because it’s not on the recipe,” Regulus curtly replies, putting back the other butter and pulling out an unsalted stick.
“But it’s just butter,” Sirius counters, “It’s all the same.”
James chimes in, “If you put salted butter in a chocolate cake it will taste disgusting. It’s not meant to have that much salt in it. Salted butter is meant more for cooking and putting on things, unsalted butter is more for baking because you’re making sweet things, not salty things.”
“Whatever you all say.” Sirius shrugs as Regulus puts the butter on the counter.
“It has salt in it, idiot, it’s in the name,” Regulus quips back at him, Sirius playfully pushing at his head.
“Ok, whatever, whatever, what’s next?” Sirius asks, peaking over Regulus’ shoulder as he reads the next line. “Nevermind, I can’t read that.”
Regulus looks up as Sirius walks away from over his shoulder, rolling his eyes jokingly before reading and translating the next line before telling the other two, “Preheat the oven to 230° and get out, uh, I don’t know that word.”
Sirius goes over to preheat the oven while James walks up beside Regulus, who holds his finger under the word to indicate what he’s talking about.
“Oh, ramequin, that’s this, hold on,” James goes over to the other side of the kitchen and into the cabinet over there, pulling out a small, circular, white dish.
“Wow, I didn’t know you had a French accent in you,” Sirius chuckles as James shuts the cabinet.
“That’s how you say it!” James exclaims, “What do you mean I have an accent?”
“You said it with an accent,” Sirius replies, “I’m just saying you never say anything with a French accent, I just found it funny.”
“You’re so mean to me,” James shakes his head, laughing as he sets down the dishes. He turns to Regulus, “I’m directly addressing you because someone is making fun of me for being French,” James glares over his shoulder at Sirius.
“Hey, I’m French too, asshole, I’m making fun of you for being the most English Frenchmen I’ve ever met and finally saying something with the smallest bit of accent,” Sirius playfully shoots back.
“You’ve clearly never heard me talk to my mémé because that’s how I talk,” James points out, looking back at Regulus, “Right, Reg?”
“Right,” Regulus agrees, “Now can we stop arguing and make this cake before they come back home?”
“Yes, ok, yes,” James nods, grabbing the card with one hand, Regulus keeping his hand on the other side. Sirius pokes his head between James and Regulus, the three of them looking at the next instruction. Regulus, however, doesn’t understand at all what it wants them to do.
“James, maybe you should read the instructions,” Regulus offers, fully handing over, “I cannot bake.”
“It’s not that bad,” James counters, reading before saying, “This just says we should melt the- the butter? I think that word is butter, with the chocolate in a double boiler.”
“In a what?” Sirius questions.
“Double boiler, you know, the pan over the water that you put on the stove, yeah?” James looks at him, confused, “Do you not know what that is?”
Regulus shakes his head, looking at his brother when Sirius replies, “We’ve never baked James.”
“I just thought it was a common thing! Maybe it’s just because I grew up cooking with Mum,” He shrugs, going into the cabinet under the sink and pulling out what looks like two pots on top of one another, putting it on the stove and taking off the top part. “Here, look, I’ll show you guys how to use it,” James says as he takes the bottom of the double boiler over to the sink, “So you fill this thing up with around 5 centimeters of water, there’s a little line in it that tell you how much,” He explains as he turns on the water and watches it fill up. He turns the water off after a minute and carries it back to the stove, putting it on the front burner and turning on the stove. “Then we let the water boil and once it does we cap it with the top part and it keeps the steam in there and applies indirect heat to the top part to melt stuff, you know?”
“Yeah, I just think it’s best that you handle setting that all up,” Sirius reasons, leaning against the counter. Regulus, however, walks up to stand beside James as he watches the water boil. James looks up at Regulus, smiling.
“Hi Reg!” He chirps.
“Hi,” Regulus replies, “Should we do something while this boils?”
“I don’t think we can,” James turns around and grabs the card, only starting to read it before he turns to Sirius, “We should put music on.”
“I like that idea, where’s the radio? Downstairs?” Sirius asks, starting to walk backward.
“It’s in the piano room,” Regulus tells him, Sirius nodding and heading off to grab it. James looks at Regulus confused for a moment before nodding.
“I was reading the recipe,” He says before going back to reading it, “We can, hm, wait, I know what it says, I know what it says.” James squints at it before very slowly reading, “We can beat together the other ingredients, which are eggs, egg yolks, sugar, and salt, I think.”
Regulus holds out his hand, James handing over the card. Regulus scans through it, nodding at James’ completely correct translation. “I thought you couldn’t read French,” Regulus asks, putting down the card on the counter and going into the cabinet and pulling out a medium-sized bowl. He doesn’t start to do anything with it, though, completely unsure of where he would start.
“Ok, look, I can’t speak French but I grew up around it so to a point I can read it and guess, plus it’s a recipe so it’s kind of easy to guess the words” James puts a hand on the side of his mouth, “And don’t tell Sirius but I understand a lot of French.”
Regulus chuckles, “Why can’t I tell Sirius?”
“He’ll tease me!” James jokingly whines, Regulus laughing.
“He’s just an idiot for not realizing that you understand French, it’s very obvious when you’re with your family,” Regulus answers.
“Yeah, it sucks I can’t speak it, and if I think too hard I don’t know what the kids say. Plus they, you know, talk like kids, so it’s hard to understand what they’re saying in general, let alone if I don’t fully know the language,” James admits, Regulus nodding. They both look over as Sirius walks back into the room, radio blasting his favorite station, loudly singing along.
“That’s because I’m a good old-fashioned lover boy!” Sirius belts, putting down the radio on the counter and pointing at it, “This is the kind of music you should be listening to, Reg, culture yourself a bit.”
“I do listen to it, when you guys are blaring it throughout the house,” Regulus points out, “That’s more than enough.”
“No no, you need to familiarize yourself with Queen's entire discography, it’ll make you a better person,” Sirius smiles, “Starting with this, ‘Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy’, amazing song.”
“I’ll be sure not to remember that,” Regulus quips back.
“You will because the pajama shirt you stole from me has this album cover on it,” Sirius counters, Regulus just rolling his eyes. He looks back to James, who is happily humming along and bobbing his head as he looks at the water begin to bubble.
“You don’t like Queen, Reg?” James asks when Regulus looks over, Regulus shrugging.
“I have too many memories of Sirius blasting it in our house and getting us both screamed at,” Regulus looks over at his brother, “It’s not dislike, just indifference with some bad memories.”
Sirius holds his hands up, “That’s my fault, I’ll admit that.”
“Well, regardless, they’re a good band,” James shrugs, staring off into space a minute before commenting, “We should start mixing the other ingredients.”
“Be my guest,” Regulus steps back from in front of the bowl, James grabbing the ingredients he listed before and bringing them over to that counter. He starts to work on following the instructions, telling Regulus what he’s doing and why he’s doing it. Sirius sits up on the counter he put the radio down on, singing along to whatever is playing. Once all the ingredients are in the bowl, James walks off to the other side of the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” Regulus asks.
“To get the hand mixer,” James answers, holding up the hand mixer when he finds it, looking over at Sirius and Regulus, “I just need to find the things that go on it, the mixer things.”
“Aren’t they in here?” Sirius asks, hopping down from the counter and opening the drawer that his feet were hanging over. He pulls out two mixers, holding them behind his back out to James.
James grabs them, “Thank you Sirius!”
“You’re welcome,” Sirius says as he shuts the drawer and hops back up to sit on the counter. James walks up next to Regulus, reaching over the bowl and plugging in the mixer, handing it to Regulus.
“What do I do with this?” Regulus hesitantly questions.
“Mix! You just move the little blue lever up one and mix it a little, and then you move it up another, and another, gradually until it’s,” He leans over and looks at the card on the counter, “Something and pale, what’s that word Reg?”
He holds the card up for Regulus, who scans through until he finds where James is. “Thick,” Regulus tells him, “Like in consistency, thick.”
“Oh, oh, ok,” James nods, “Then until it’s thick, just mix it until then.”
“Sirius, do you want to do this?” Regulus asks, looking back at his brother singing on the counter. He stops singing and hops down.
“Sure, I don’t care,” He replies, Regulus stepping back so Sirius can replace him standing at the counter, Regulus leaning against where the radio is. He watches as James works at the stove, with the strange double boiler thing, putting in chocolate and butter. Regulus is content just watching, smiling as they both break out in a horrendous duet over the loud sound of the mixer and the clinking of the whisk in the double boiler. It’s a little loud but Regulus tolerates it.
Regulus looks over at the radio, looking back at Sirius and James not looking before turning the channel to the classical one he likes listening to.
“Aw, Reg!” Sirius exclaims, looking back at him, “Put it back!”
“Mm, no thanks,” Regulus playfully smiles back, Sirius, turning off the mixer and leaving it in the bowl, walking over and snatching the radio off the counter. He put it beside him, changing it back to the previous station and turning it all the way up, yelling the lyrics as he continues mixing. Regulus steps back a bit from the noise, considering it’s really loud, although he doesn’t leave. The mixing ends in the next couple of minutes, the room thankfully quieting down.
“Does this look good, Prongs?” Sirius asks, James leaning over before nodding.
“Yeah, if Reg read the instructions right then that’s what it should look like,” James affirms, “This chocolate is done too, so I think we can read our next step.”
“Do you want to give it to Reg?” Sirius asks, Regulus stepping forward and taking the card from Sirius.
“It says to quickly dump, pour? Pour I think, pour and fold in the egg batter with the chocolate, then put it in the little bowl things and bake it for 12 minutes, or,” Regulus squints at the loopy words before hesitantly saying, “Then I think it says or until, until the sides are solid but the middle is, is, uh, not firm, she wrote here that ‘and the middle is comme liquide, a certain je ne sais quoi, you’ll know.” Like liquid.
“What on Earth does that mean?” James questions.
“Well, je ne sais quoi is a French saying that just means like it has a quality that you can’t describe, but that makes no sense for this sentence because she just described it as like a liquid,” Regulus reads it again, “Yeah, that doesn’t make any sense, just do 12 minutes and guess then.”
“We’ve been going strong so far so we’ll have to see,” James shrugs, playfully hitting Sirius out of the way, “Move move move, I have to make sure this doesn’t get messed up! This is the hard part.”
“Ok, ok,” Sirius holds his hands up, stepping back from the counter to stand next to Regulus. James starts carefully working, more careful than they’ve ever seen him be. Sirius leans over to Regulus, “What’s he doing?”
Regulus shrugs, “I don’t know, I’m just letting him do it.”
“He seems to think this is hard and he has to do it himself,” Sirius comments, “I don’t want to test it.”
“I’d trust him, he’s baked more than both of us combined,” Regulus replies.
“Are you two whispering about me?” James asks, not looking back at them.
“We’re trying to figure out what’s so hard about this part,” Sirius answers.
“We’re mixing the two sets of ingredients, if you do it too fast or too slow it won’t combine right sometimes, that’s happened before. It happens more often with wet and dry but this is the same thing I think, I don’t know,” James shrugs, “I don’t know, I just know Mum has always told me to be careful when combining bowls of ingredients.”
“Well is it going well?” Sirius asks.
“Mhm! It’s the right consistency and everything so far,” James happily tells them, “I’m so excited for Mum and Dad to come home, they’ll love it!”
All three of their head shoot over when the phone starts ringing, Sirius going over to answer it. He greets whoever is on the other line, Regulus hearing him tell them that ‘they’re not home right now’ before saying goodbye and hanging up.
“Who was it?” James asks, looking back at him.
“Léo, he called for your parents, probably to wish them a happy anniversary,” Sirius replies, walking up behind Regulus and resting an arm on his head. Regulus steps away from him.
“You are not tall enough to do that,” Regulus scolds him, “You’re reaching to do that, don’t even tell me I’m short.”
“Well, you are,” Sirius argues.
“You can’t talk Pads,” James chimes in, “You have to crane your neck to look at Moony.”
“He’s special, Moony is just really tall,” Sirius counters, pulling his arm back. “Are you done with whatever you’re doing, Prongs? How long does that take?”
“Almost, calm down,” James placates him, “I don’t want to mess it up now! We’re almost done.”
“What do we do after it?” Sirius asks.
“Just put this in the tin,” James indicates to the ramequin next to him, “Then we just put it in the oven and hope Mum and Dad don’t come back before it’s done.”
“And we should probably clean up too,” Regulus adds, “I think leaving the kitchen messy is not a good gift.”
“That’s a good point too,” James nods, stopping what he’s doing and stepping back a minute. “Reg, come here,” He requests, Regulus stepping forward and Sirius sticking his head between the two of them. “Does this look combined?”
“Mhm,” Regulus affirms, looking into a bowl that looks pretty uniformly chocolate brown, “It looks good to me.”
“Alright, good enough for me,” James shrugs, thinking a moment before opening the drawer to the left of him and pulling out a spatula. “Excuse me, Reg,” James says, Regulus stepping back and letting James pour the batter into the small ceramic cake tin he has next to him. It fills pretty quickly and they still have extra batter left.
“Are we going to make one for us too?” Sirius excitedly asks, “We have extra.”
“Yeah, I think this recipe makes two,” James leans over to look at the recipe card before shaking his head, “Nevermind, I can’t read that, I’m just going to guess that it makes two and make another one.”
James leans down and opens the cabinet to take out another ramequin and dumps the rest of the batter into it. When he finishes he turns around and beams at Regulus and Sirius.
“We did it!” He cheers.
“We still have to bake them, we’re not done yet,” Regulus stops him, “Should we put them on a tray or something before putting them into the oven?”
“Yeah, yeah,” James nods, going back into the cabinet and pulling out a tray, putting tin foil over it before putting the two tins separated on top of the tray.
“It’s like an instinct for you, James, you just know how to do everything,” Sirius comments, “It’s almost impressive.”
“I’ve been watching it all the time since I was a baby, of course I know how to do it all,” James remarks as he puts the tray carefully into the oven. He shuts it when he’s done, grabbing the kitchen timer to set it before turning around and dusting off his hands, “Well that wasn’t too bad, right?”
Regulus nods, looking over at his brother, who just shrugs. “I liked watching you and Reg do everything, that was nice,” He chuckles, starting to walk backward, “And now I’m going to watch you both clean.”
“No no, I think you should have to clean by yourself,” Regulus counters, “Because James and I did all the work.”
“Mmm, thanks for the offer but-” Sirius doesn’t even finish his sentence before James shoves a rag in his hand and runs off, Sirius spinning around and dramatically throwing his arms out, “Hey, I didn’t agree to this!”
“Sorry!” James says from where he’s standing on top of the couch, cut off when Sirius throws the rag at Regulus.
“Bye!” He yells, Regulus grabbing his arm and shoving the rag in his hands, holding his own behind his back. James laughs in the other room, although it only makes Sirius target him next, running at him as James screams and vaults off the back of the couch. The two chase each other back and forth a couple of times before James trips and falls, Sirius tumbling down on top of him. The two of them are laughing hysterically, Regulus peaking around the corner of the counter in the kitchen to see the two of them on the floor.
“Does this mean you’re cleaning the kitchen, Sirius?” Regulus asks, James laughing and wiggling his way out from under Sirius. Sirius groans.
“Fine, fine,” He rolls his eyes, getting up and ruffling Regulus’ hair when he walks by.
“I hate you so much,” Regulus comments, turning around to look at Sirius, who starts to put stuff away and wet down the rag.
“Aw, I love you too, Reg,” Sirius jokingly gushes.
“Reg,” James says before walking up beside Regulus, who looks over. “Do you think Mum and Dad are going to like it?”
“Mhm,” Regulus nods, “They’ll probably like that we got along long enough to make it too.”
“That’s a good point, that too,” James nods, smiling, “We get along well, though, at least I think so.”
“Well, you do, Sirius and I certainly don’t,” Regulus counters, “We can’t stand one another.”
“No, that’s a lie, you guys were literally playing a game together when I walked into the room,” James argues, “You guys love one another, you just don’t like to admit it.”
“Love is a strong word James,” Sirius counters, not looking back from where he’s cleaning the counter, “Tolerate is more fitting, Reg and I spend obligatory time together only because we have to.”
“What do you mean you have to? Who is making you?”
“No one, we just have to,” Sirius replies, “It’s just enough to maintain our relationship.”
“I think you guys like each other and just hide it,” James declares, “Because I don’t tolerate spending time with people.”
“That’s a lie,” Regulus looks at him, James looking at him confused for a minute before realizing what he’s talking about.
“No, that doesn’t count, that’s different,” James argues, Sirius looking back at the two of them, eyebrows knitted in confusion.
“What are you two talking about?” He questions, “Are you sharing secrets?”
“No, no,” James shakes his head.
“None of your business,” Regulus quips back, Sirius continuing to stare at the two of them. James nods in affirmation with what Regulus said, Sirius just shrugging and turning back.
“Whatever you two say,” He laughs, “I didn’t know you two talked enough to have secrets.”
“I love Reg! I talk to him all the time,” James crosses his arms, “I’ll have you know Reg and I have lots of secrets because we’re friends.”
Regulus looks over at James skeptically because that’s definitely a lie. James looks at Regulus and laughs.
“Maybe that was a slight exaggeration,” James admits.
“Definitely exaggerating,” Regulus nods.
“Well we are friends, that’s not exaggerating,” James doubles back again, “But we don’t have a ton of secrets, that’s kind of a lie.”
Sirius tosses the rag at James, who catches it. “One, you two stop arguing semantics, two, can you put that in the laundry basket for me please?”
“Mhm,” James hums, going off into the laundry room to throw the rag in there. Sirius walks over to Regulus and unwelcomingly draws him into a hug, Regulus just letting his arms hang there.
“What are you doing?” Regulus asks.
“Giving you a hug,” Sirius replies, “I thought that was obvious.”
Regulus just rolls his eyes, hearing James walk out of the room down the hallway before the footsteps pick up, Regulus expecting it when arms are thrown around him from the back.
“Can I join?” James asks despite already having his arms around Regulus and Sirius, and the two have very conflicting answers.
“No.”
“Yes,” Sirius says as he moves to wrap his arms around James instead, squishing Regulus in between the two of them. Regulus groans, both Sirius and James laughing.
“I hate you both,” Regulus mumbles.
“We love you too, Reg,” Sirius answers, squeezing a little bit harder. Regulus lets it sit for a second before it becomes too much for him.
“Ok, ok, stop it, let me out,” He demands, both James and Sirius immediately stepping back and letting him free, which he greatly appreciates. He steps back towards the counter a bit, watching as Sirius and James open their arms to one another and give each other a hug, patting the other’s back like Mr. Potter does sometimes. Regulus is happy he is not in between that. When the two of them step back James looks over at Regulus, who doesn’t need to hear anything from him to know he’s going to ask for a hug. “No,” Regulus shakes his head, “You’ve reached your hourly quota squeezing me before.”
“Ok, I’ll wait on it,” James concedes, pausing a second before walking over to the oven and turning on the oven light, crouching down to look at the two cakes inside.
“It’s been maybe 3 minutes, I don’t they’ve done anything yet, Prongs,” Sirius says to him, who is just staring into the oven.
“No, I just wanted to look,” James replies, “I like watching things bake,” He looks back at Sirius and Regulus, “Have you ever done it? It’s fun, to watch it rise and everything.”
“We’ve never baked anything before,” Sirius reminds him, “We certainly were not allowed to do that, either.”
“Come here then, come here,” James encourages, Sirius and Regulus sharing mutually confused looks but both walking up to sit on either side of James looking in at the cakes in the oven. “Just watch them, just watch.”
The three of them sit in silence for a couple of minutes, just watching the cakes sit in the oven, almost completely still. Regulus finds it oddly fascinating, although Sirius looks over at both him and James staring into the oven.
“What the hell is so interesting about this?” Sirius questions, “They’re not doing anything.”
“That’s the fun part, they don’t do anything but all of a sudden they’ve risen up, it’s so cool,” James enthuses, Sirius shaking his head.
“You two are so weird,” Sirius laughs, standing up and walking over to the counter, jumping up on it and grabbing the radio, turning it up really high and belting out the lyrics. James sings along with him, Regulus tuning the two of them out as he watches the cakes in the oven. It’s similar to staring at the ceiling, although the background of Sirius and James’ atrocious singing makes it a little less enjoyable.
James stays sitting on the ground until the next song comes on, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, one even Regulus recognizes. James jumps up and Sirius jumps off the counter, Regulus looking back to the two of them grabbing one another’s arms, dramatically singing to one another.
“Is this the real life?” James starts.
“Is this just fantasy?” Sirius continues, the two bouncing the lyrics back and forth a couple of times before they both start singing. Regulus can’t help but laugh as the two really lean into the dramatics, screaming ‘Mama’ as loud as they can each time it comes up. They dance around one another, swinging the other around, and at one point James spins and dips Sirius, Regulus happily swaying to the song as he watches the two of them dance around like idiots. Although the moment the song speeds up, the piano begins to play even and staccato, the two of them start jumping up and down, letting go of one another. James walks over to Regulus and extends a hand.
“Come on, Reg!” James excitedly says, Regulus completely unable to deny someone so excited. He rolls his eyes but grabs James’ hand, letting him help him up and shake him around as he and Sirius belt the lyrics.
“You know the lyrics, Reg, I know you do,” Sirius nudges him, Regulus rolling his eyes but begrudgingly beginning to sing the lyrics that he knows a little too well for not listening to this song at all. He lets himself get dragged around the kitchen by James, singing along to a song he barely knows while Sirius and James jump around like maniacs to it.
Regulus gets a little more into it than he’d like to admit, leaning into some of the dramatics. When the song slows down at the end, the three of them in a circle, Sirius falls to the ground, pulling both James and Regulus with him. They end up in a heap on the kitchen floor, all laughing. Sirius looks over at Regulus.
“‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, best song of the decade,” Sirius tells him, “This one is not on the shirt you stole from me.”
“Wow, I never knew,” Regulus sarcastically replies, although it’s barely effective because it’s said through laughter.
“What shirt does Reg have?” James questions, sitting up. Sirius stays laying down, although Regulus sits up and moves back a bit so he can see both of them.
“A Day at the Races, I kept my A Night at the Opera one, he wasn’t stealing that.”
“I didn’t steal your shirt, you gave it to me,” Regulus argues.
“No, I gave it to you to sleep in once and you never gave it back,” Sirius sits up, “That’s not giving to you, that’s lending it to you.”
“Whatever, you act as if you care,” Regulus dismisses him, “You love when I wear that shirt.”
“You look like a little mini-me when you do it,” Sirius smiles.
“Why would you ever say that, the worst thing I’ve ever heard,” Regulus jokingly shakes his head, “Never wearing that shirt again.”
“Mhm, tell me that when you come walking out of the bathroom with it on,” Sirius quips back, all three of them looking over when the kitchen timer goes off. They all get up but James goes over to the oven, turning off the timer and opening the oven. He looks in at the two cakes, looking back at Regulus.
“Reg, come here, does this look like it has the, the uh, what was the phrase?”
Regulus steps up, telling him, “Je ne sais quoi.” He looks in at the cakes, looking at James and shrugging, “I don’t know, she just said the edges should be solid.”
“Let me try it with a toothpick, hold on,” James says, going into a cabinet and pulling out a box of toothpicks, taking one out, poking the toothpick into the edge of the cake, and pulling it out, the toothpick having some chocolate batter on it. “Ok, it’s not done yet,” He declares, “I’ll give it another couple of minutes and-”
James is cut off by the front door opening, all three of them looking over as Mr. and Mrs. Potter walk into the house. James quickly shuts the oven, suspiciously smiling at the two of them. Regulus is sure they can smell it regardless, though.
“Hello boys,” Mrs. Potter chuckles, “Care to explain why it smells like chocolate in here?”
“No reason at all,” James unconvincingly lies, “Just a coincidence, you’re definitely not home earlier than we thought you’d be.”
Mr. Potter, when he finishes taking off his shoes, grabs Mrs. Potter’s arm, “How about Mum and I go in our room and then you can come get us when whatever you’re done doing something for not us.”
“Mhm!” James enthusiastically nods, Mrs. Potter and Mr. Potter walking off into their room. James looks back to Sirius and Regulus, “Ok, now we really can’t burn it.”
“Like we could before?” Sirius questions.
“No, we couldn’t then either, but now we really can’t because they’re expecting it!” James points out.
“Then check the cakes again, James,” Regulus reminds him, James going back over and opening the oven again, doing the same trick with the toothpick. He does it to both this time before standing back up and showing Regulus the toothpick, that this time doesn’t really have a lot on it.
“I think they’re done, right?” James asks.
Regulus shrugs, “I have no idea.”
“Ok, then it’s done,” James nods, grabbing an oven mitt off of the rack on the wall and taking out the tray, putting it on the stove as he asks Regulus, “How long did the recipe say to let them sit?”
“Uh,” Regulus grabs it off the counter, reading through the last instruction, “It says a minute, and then flip them onto a plate and let them sit for 10 seconds, then serve them hot.”
“Ok, that’s easy enough,” James answers, taking out two plates and 5 forks. Once he gets everything out, Sirius steps up behind Regulus to watch James carefully transfer the cakes onto the plates, somehow doing both of them carefully enough that neither one breaks. When he does it, he looks back at Regulus and Sirius and smiles. “Look!”
“Wow, they look surprisingly good,” Sirius marvels, “Should we try it first before we serve it to your parents?”
“Maybe, I’ll put this one on the table but you can try that one,” James nods to the one still on the counter and not in his hand. Sirius grabs a fork and cuts out a little piece of it, chocolate pouring from the middle of the cake. Sirius hums when he puts it in his mouth.
“This is really good,” He says with his mouth full, “Try a bite.”
James grabs a fork and tries a piece of it, humming in agreement with Sirius. Regulus decides he might as well try it too, considering he helped, surprised when it’s actually really good.
“You should get your parents,” Sirius says, “Especially considering it tastes good.”
“Mhm, let me get them!” James excitedly runs off and down to his parents’ room, coming back with the two of them behind him. He gestures to the table with the small cake on it, exclaiming, “Happy anniversary! We made you a cake!”
“Aw, thank you, boys,” Mrs. Potter smiles at them, giving James a hug and a kiss before walking over to sit down. Mr. Potter does the same thing, both giving James a kiss and sitting down. James bounces on his toes excitedly as his parents take a bite, both of them happily humming. When she finishes the bite she took, Mrs. Potter looks at James. “Very well done, dear, it tastes perfect.”
The smile on his face widens tenfold, looking happily over Regulus and Sirius. He looks back to his mother, “I got Reg and Sirius’ help too, we did it together.”
Mrs. Potter turns to look at the two of them, “Very good job boys, and the kitchen is clean too.”
“I cleaned it myself,” Sirius says pridefully.
“We had to force you to clean it,” James corrects, “You weren’t going to!”
“Well, when you phrase it like that,” Sirius playfully concedes, Mr. and Mrs. Potter laughing. Mrs. Potter turns to Sirius again.
“As long as it’s clean, dear, I don’t care how it happened,” She tells him, Sirius gesturing to her and looking at James.
“See? It doesn’t matter,” Sirius emphasizes, “It’s clean, it works.”
“Alright, alright,” James concedes, “Whatever you say, Pads.”
“Mhm,” Sirius happily hums, looking over at Regulus, “Can we go finish our speed game? I still need to break our tie and win.”
“You’re not winning,” Regulus shakes his head, following his brother towards the stairs, stopping and looking back when James calls after them.
“Wait! Where are you guys going?” He questions, “Can I come with you?”
“You’re welcome to,” Sirius answers, “We’re just finishing our game, we’re tied right now.”
“Ooo, I’ll referee you!” James excitedly answers, following after Sirius. Regulus lets him go up before him, following the two of them up as James excitedly talks to Sirius. Being at the back, Regulus gets to hear what Mr. Potter says to Mrs. Potter.
“Our boys are something else, Mia,” He says, eliciting a laugh from Mrs. Potter. Regulus doesn’t catch the rest of the conversation, following James and Sirius into Regulus’ room, where the half-set-up game is still sitting on his bed. Regulus sits across from Sirius, James sitting on the other half of the bed they’re not using. Sirius and Regulus finish setting up, Regulus and Sirius setting up their two piles, holding the card on top. They hold a cold, competitive stare at one another as Sirius counts down.
“3, 2, 1, flip!”