act II - VIII
James was the last person to get on stage for their gig which is unusual for him, being the center of the band and the lead performer makes him always want to start in the front. He doubts any of their crowd will notice that small detail, or he tries to assure himself that in order to prevent the panic attack he had backstage from escalating.
This was his first time performing without knowing that they had a manager to take care of the mechanics behind it, even though Peter never did any of that. But it's fine, no one even noticed.
Except Regulus, of course, his brother's big relationship announcement and the supportive reactions of their friends was making the comfort of keeping James and him separate less and less comforting. He immediately guessed James had been struggling backstage, for a man with such intense ADHD, he was one of routine. And breaking a routine, even as simple as going on stage first, wasn't the kind of thing he'd break for no reason.
"Hey-hey everybody!" Sirius called out, pulling the microphone off of the stand to step closer to the audience. "I wanted to talk super quickly about our upcoming music," he paused to wait for the crowd's cheers to die down. "We have an album being released in five days which will be immediately followed by a world tour. I'm not sure how much of that was truly known to you guys, there were a few... miscommunications with our manager, but it's all been worked out."
It was almost an hour later that their set had finished. A few scattered chuckles are louder claps still rung out before falling silent upon noticing James was waiting to speak. He cleared his throat, trying to decide on the spot if he wanted to only look at Regulus or look everywhere but at him. "This past month I have been working to write all twelve songs for this album. I have not done that yet, but I have a new one that should hopefully contrast with the sad ones recently."
He ended up opting to look directly at Regulus, who was hiding his blush as the song began.
When my time comes around
Lay me gently in the cold, dark earth
No grave can hold my body down
I'll crawl home to him
The song finished and Regulus didn't know whether to burst into tears or run up to James on stage and kiss him. He ended up choosing to stand still in utter shock. "Regulus, Reggie, come on." Someone was yelling out over the crowd's screams. Dorcas gave him a few shoves before he took the hint to start walking. He made it up the isle of the venue and stood at the corner of the stage and the door into the dressing room.
Sirius came out first, ready to greet everyone.
"Hey, you okay?" Sirius' question broke into Regulus' thoughts again. And the mere asking was enough to make his lower lip wobble. He wasn't upset, he knew that even through the strange mess of his emotions. He wasn't angry, he wasn't nervous, he wasn't overwhelmed. He went down the line of potential emotions that might make him cry, but he couldn't find the right one. "Reggie?"
He was almost... was he happy? Were these tears of joy? He had never cried for happiness before. This was so strange and although he had always prided himself on how articulate he is, he had no words to explain to his older brother why he was crying, he wasn't sure himself.
James had walked out a few minutes later and seemed to understand his reaction better than Regulus did. He swooped in between the brothers and pulled Regulus in for a hug. Regulus didn't cry any harder, he was moreso using James' shoulder as a tissue before wriggling himself free of James' famous bone-crushing hugs.
"The song..." was all Regulus got out.
"Is it time?" James asked in reply, the having the conversation in front of his bandmates though with just vagueness the two were still lost. A shit eating grin appeared across his face all of a sudden. "What about the song?"
Regulus tensed up very slightly at the recollection of what that meant. "...Let me talk to the band, I'll see what I can do."
He walked away after locating the Skittles in the crowd on their way into the dressing room for their follow-up gig. James avoided his friends' confused looks and walked over to the Valkyries, still in their same spot in crowd as they were for the Marauders.
He got caught up in a long and heated conversation with Lily and Marlene over which of the Skittles were gay, which were never going to marry, and which were going to have children. James had figured out the more casual he could talk about this, even adding a little bit of depth on some of the subjects, they wouldn't suspect his insight on the topic.
"Evan would be such a good father, what are you talking about?" Marlene declared loudly as she defended her statement.
"He may be good with kids but he's not going to have ones of his own." James replied easily. "He would make a great uncle to Pandora's children, I don't doubt that... but that would imply Barty as a father, too."
"Oh..." Marlene said.
"Exactly." Throughout this conversation, the music had started and songs were playing, but James was so distracted he hadn't even noticed. Not until Sirius elbowed him in the ribs and mumbled something about Regulus writing love songs that James became aware of what was playing- a new song.
Are you gonna marry, kiss, or kill me?
It's just a game, but really
No one's ever had me, not like you
James felt his face burn instantly and suddenly completely understood Regulus' immediate reaction to his new song, gnawing on his lip to keep from doing the same. He kept his eyes glued to the stage, partially in order to not miss anymore of the song and partially to make sure that he didn't end up making eye contact with all of his friends who were each taking turns between looking at the stage and looking at him.
Truth, dare, spin bottles
You know how to ball, I know Aristotle
Brand new, full-throttle
Touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto
The song faded out all too quickly for James' opinion, thinking of how this conversation was going to go over with everyone. He managed to make eye contact with Barty from across the venue and he gave a knowing look to James that told him he could count at least four people of their group would not be needing an explanation. Regulus passed the microphone over to Barty who stepped away from his drumset and over to the front of the stage beside where Regulus still stood.
"Hey everybody, thanks for coming out!" Barty called out, the crowd cheering in response. "Now speaking of coming out-ow!" Regulus, who had turned rather pink in the last few seconds, stomped on his foot with a lot of force in his heavy black boots. He gave him a pointed look to go with it and the crowd laughed with all of their attention still on Barty's word choice. "Alright, alright. Guess we aren't doing it this way. I hope you enjoyed our new song and here's a cover."
After the ten seconds it took for Barty to return the mic to Regulus and get back behind his drums, the song begun. James recongized it right away as he is sure many others did, just not for the same reason.
Scotty doesn't know that Fiona and me
Do it in my van every Sunday
She tells him she's in church but she doesn't go
Still she's on her knees and Scotty doesn't know
Everyone was cheering innocently. They all enjoyed the heavy metal style the Skittles did most of the time. James didn't think that his face could have gotten any redder. But it somehow found away after the song was supposed to be finished but the beginning chords became present again. The lyrics, however, were not familar to James.
Sirius doesn't know that James and me
Do it in my van every Sunday
He tells him he's at work but he doesn't go
Still he's on her knees and Sirius doesn't know
Before he could even process how to react to such a move, Sirius was shoving him, playfully but not. "Are you fucking with me right now?!" He called out over the crowd. Heads turned in hopes to catch the reaction. Sirius shook his head in disbelief. "You guys are joking."
James didn't say anything, unsure if his face was contorting into fear or a smirk. "Jamie Potter!" Lily called out, slapping him a little bit harder than what he would have considered a joke. "Only you would have a coming out declaration like this."
Regulus cleared his throat into the microphone, gradually settling the dispute across the audience. "Sorry Sirius, it was an accident, I promise." The crowd laughed at the reaction. Sirius was still standing with his mouth hanging out incredulously. "Surprise, Potter! I hope this is what you meant when you asked if it was time to tell our friends."
"I could always tell! Always!" Sirius yelled back.
-
There wasn't very much left of their show, a few more fan favorites before heading out the door to meet their friend group at the bar on the other side of the venue. The group of eleven slid into the three tables that had been pushed together into one long dining hall style table in the function room off the side.
"Where was Evan and I's crazy couples annoucement like you lot?" Barty asked jokingly.
"I'm not sure if there was ever a time you weren't dating to make the announcement." Regulus joked back.
Less than fifteen minutes into the dinner James left to take a call and returned ten minutes after with the similar happy expression he'd been using before, but he didn't say anything. Not a word for the rest of the time until their food came, and after as he busied himself with taking bites as slow as he could.
"James?" Regulus asked, a delicate hand on his thigh under the table. "Everything all right?"
James seemed to have snapped out of his thoughts and nodded mechanically, noting the way all of his friends were now noticing the lack of volume. Regulus just looked at him to imply he was not fooling anyone, but didn't say anything until James shifted and sighed, giving in on confessing.
"I just got off the phone with the tour agency... they approved our request and we're going on a world tour." James said it with growing excitement, but it didn't come across the way it should have for someone about to perform in close to fourty different places.
"What's wrong?" Mary asked delicately.
"They want us to leave next week."