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“Stop fucking following me,” Sirius swears as he stalks into the Gryffindor common room.
Regulus ignores him. “ I was going to Hogsmeade with Remus this weekend. You can’t just take him from me.”
Sirius spins on his heel. “Oh, but I can,” he grins, the smug bastard. “Because he’s my boyfriend.”
“And he’s my friend,” Regulus retorts. “And I asked him first. Where the hell is he anyway?”
Sirius lets out a sigh, the air hissing between his teeth. “In the room. What’s it to you?”
“So we can fucking ask him like reasonable people?” Regulus shakes his head in frustration. “Fuck it, I’m going up there.”
“You can’t just–” Sirius is cut off as Regulus turns away from him, walking up the stairs towards the Gryffindor dorm rooms.
“Watch me.” Regulus raps twice on the door that he knows to be Sirius’s and walks in, without waiting for a response.
“Oy–oh, hello Reg,” James is lounging on his bed, shirtless, for some fucking reason, which only infuriates Regulus further.
“Shut it, James.”
“Right, then, nice to see you too.”
Regulus stalks past him, towards where Remus has now sat up to attention at the armchair in the window.
“Oh dear,” he sighs. “You’re angry. What is it?”
“You said–” Regulus starts.
Sirius interrupts him. “No, don’t you–”
“Okay!” Remus says shortly, snapping the book in his hands shut. “One at a time.”
Regulus glares at Sirius. “You told me you were going to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend.”
Remus’s mouth opens in a small “o”. “Reg, shit, I am so sorry, I totally forgot–I didn’t–”
“See?” Sirius smirks. “He’s going with me. Told you he’d pick me.”
“Not so fast,” Remus’s mouth draws into a thin line. “You knew we were going together? And still asked me? That’s just shitty, Pads.”
Now it’s Regulus’s turn to grin. “Yeah Pads.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, I don’t have the time for you two,” Remus grumbles. “We’ll all go together, how’s that?”
“No! I’m not fucking tagging along with your stupid date.”
“Then ask someone to come with you!” Sirius groans.
“Like who?”
“Like fucking anyone, Reggie. People like you. When you’re not being awful to them, that is.”
“Oh fuck off, you don’t even–this is so stupid, I should have known you’d be like this–I’ll just go with Barty.”
James makes an inexplicable sound of discontent from behind them.
“Oh my God,” Sirius knots his hands in his hair. “You’re being so fucking dramatic about this, why do you even care?”
“Because!”
“Because why?”
“Oh don’t act so high and mighty, as if you wouldn’t freak the absolute fuck out if I asked one of your friends out. You’re so fucking possessive and you can’t even see that Remus has the right to have other fucking friends! ”
“Do it then!” Sirius waves a hand in anger.
“Do what?”
“Do it.” His voice is calmer now, but he has ice in his eyes. “Ask one of my friends on a date this weekend. Do it. I know you won’t.”
“I–” Fuck, Sirius has got him there.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Oh my– fine!” Regulus looks around the room, even though he already knows James is the only other person in there, still laying on his stomach, his chin in his hands, watching the argument with glee.
“James.” He pauses. This is incredibly fucking embarrassing. “Would you like to go on a date with me?” Regulus asks finally, his voice dripping in sarcasm.
“That sounds lovely,” James grins, and what?
He wasn’t supposed to agree. That wasn’t–he was supposed to say no.
Regulus’s breath catches despite himself. Sirius, apparently, faces no such problem.
“JAMES FLEAMONT POTTER!” Sirius’s face turns red as he shouts.
“Oh dear,” James chuckles.
“What are you–no, James, that is my baby brother that– no. Why–you can’t–why did you say yes?”
James, sitting now, shrugs. “I like him.” Regulus’s traitorous heart beats faster.
Being a bit of an idiot, Regulus decides to push further. “Right, so if that’s all–” he jokingly reaches a hand towards James.
Sirius’s eyes flash, and then everything is a blur, because James grabs Regulus’s hand and pulls him towards the door, shrieking and laughing as he goes.
“Come on, come on, come on,” they sprint through the common room, James dragging Regulus with him all the while.
As they step out through the painting, James finally releases his hand (he is most certainly not disappointed about this), and Regulus glances back to see Sirius still sprinting after them, tumbling through the frame of the portrait.
“Fuck, come on Reg!” James shouts, taking off again, his feet sliding on the stone floors of the castle.
Regulus actually giggles, and takes off after the taller boy, following him as he races down the tower stairs, Sirius still shouting profanities at them from behind. James lets out a shout of glee as they reach the bottom, taking off down the hallway past a group of first-years talking by a bench. Their eyes follow him as he goes.
He darts down a hallway, gesturing for Regulus to follow them, the latter quite out of breath as he rounds the corner, James grabbing his hand once again to tug him along.
“Where the,” Regulus gasps, “hell are we going?”
“You’ll see,” James grins, his voice unfairly even.
They round yet another corner, drawing ahead of Sirius, when James slows to a stop in front of a large wooden door. “Here.”
He opens it, pulling Regulus inside the room and shutting the door behind them. The room is small, just larger than the closets in their dorms. It’s not, however, so tight that James needs to be standing right in front of Regulus. He is though, still fucking shirtless, a fact that Regulus has been trying desperately to ignore, but as his chest rises and falls, it’s… difficult.
James grins, looking around the room. “Now isn’t this interesting?”
Regulus pulls away from the taller boy, placing his back obstinately on one wall of the room. “Where are we?”
“The Room of Requirement,” James announces with wide eyes, gesturing around the cramped space. “Although, it’s usually not this small.” He leans back himself, before standing straight with a wince. “Shit, that’s cold.”
“You should have put a shirt on,” Regulus says dryly.
“Well, we had to leave rather quickly there,” James smirks, a sparkle in his eye. “Are we going to talk about that, by the way?”
“Talk about?” Regulus averts his eyes.
“Right then,” James sighs.
They lapse into silence, James once again leaning into the wall, hissing through his teeth as his skin hits the cold stone, before relaxing into it slowly. Regulus does not find this attractive. Not at all.
“Why’d you say yes?” he asks finally, looking at James hesitantly.
The other boy pouts, knitting his brow. “Um. Because I like you?”
Regulus’s heart does not beat faster and he does not get butterflies and his breath most certainly does not hitch in his lungs.
“Is that a question or a statement?”
James isn’t on the opposite wall anymore. No, he’s… close. Too close. “Why don’t I show you?”
“James,” Regulus warns, weakly.
An arm comes up to rest next to his head, James tilting his head to smirk down at Regulus. His lips… God those lips. Regulus wants… oh how he wants.
“Can I–” James trails off, eyes flitting from Regulus’s eyes to his lips and back again.
Oh God, Regulus is really and truly fucked.
His breath hitches, and he tilts his head up ever so slightly with permission, and then.
Oh and then.
James’s lips meet his ever so softly, just a mere brush, really, but it’s enough to make Regulus inhale deeply against James’s mouth. The taller boy smiles against his mouth, leaning in even more until his body presses Regulus against the wall, one hand coming to his waist, their chests flush.
Their foreheads touch, but James leans away slightly. “Is this?”
“Yes. Yes.”
“Yeah?” James laughs, his voice low in his throat, a dangerous grin taking Regulus captive.
“Fuck off.” Regulus is not proud of the way that his voice wavers, but he just can’t help it, can he?
“Do you want that?”
“No.”
“And what is it that you want?”
Regulus is going to–oh fuck, he’s going to fall in stupid fucking love with James Potter, isn’t he?
“I want…” he grows bold. “Kiss me. For real this time.”
“Well I think we can manage that.”
James is pure electricity as he leans back in, nipping at Regulus’s bottom lip, teasing with his tongue in a way that draws embarrassing sounds out of the younger boy. His hands wander, on the small of Regulus’s back, his hips, his jaw.
He whines as James pulls away, chasing the other boy’s lips. James chuckles, granting him one last soft touch of his lips.
“We should–God, as much as I’m enjoying this, we should talk,” he insists, ruefully.
“Right.” Regulus wasn’t looking forward to this part. “You’re sure we can’t just keep,” he waves a hand in a vague gesture.
James inhales sharply. “Oh, you’re going to be the death of me, Reg.”
“Say it,” Regulus prompts.
“Okay,” James nods slowly. “Well. I like you. Have for a bit, if I’m being honest. I meant it when I said yes. I–I would very much like to do more of… this.”
“This?”
“This.”
“Okay.”
“Okay? Is that all,” James smiles, drawing Regulus’s eyes to his lips once again.
“I… suppose we can keep doing… this.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake, Reg, would you like to date me?”
“Alright.”
“Alright? You–oh,” James laughs again, leaning in to kiss his cheek.
Regulus turns his head, capturing James’s lips with his own instead, drawing them back into… this. Whatever this is.
And to think. He was supposed to say no.