Chapter Text
Regulus’ eyes fluttered open. He rubbed the sleep out of them and glanced at the clock next to him. 3:03am it read, James should be home by now. Regulus threw back the covers and shivered at the cool air that hit him. He slowly got out of bed and walked towards the door, down the hallway and into the kitchen where James stood. He was shirtless standing over the sink running a cloth under the water. The only thing illuminating the room was their Christmas tree that shone from the living room and the blue light that lit up their fish tank. Regulus let his socked feet glide over the tile of the kitchen floor as he made his way towards him. Ever so gently, he wrapped his arms around James’ waist and relaxed his forehead on his muscular back.
“Hi, estrella,” James mumbled as he lifted the cloth to his face.
Regulus groaned in response and got on his tiptoes to kiss James’ neck. James turned around in his arms and grabbed Regulus by his chin to make him look at him. The first thing Reg noticed was the dried blood on James’ bottom lip.
He furrowed his eyebrows and asked, “What happened?”
“Fight. I had to break it up. I got in the way and got elbowed, you know how it is,” he grinned at Regulus.
Regulus let out a small sigh with a smile, “Let me help you clean yourself up.”
“No Reg I got it, it's fine go back to bed. You go back to school tomorrow and I don't want you to be tired and–,” his rambling got cut off by Regulus.
“You’re rubbing your lip raw, mon amour, let me help you.”
“I don’t want to be the reason you are tired, though.”
“Stop it, James. I won't be tired tomorrow besides I usually sleep better with you next to me,” he said with a soft smile on his face taking the cloth from James’ hand and jumping to sit on the counter.
James stood between his legs, hands gently gripping his waist as he rubbed slow circles on his hips with his thumbs through the light fabric of Regulus’ big t-shirt.
“So tell me how many girls tried to hit on you today?” he smirked at James.
James rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out playfully, showing off his metal piercing. Regulus wanted to take it in his mouth. So he did. James sighed into the kiss, Regulus felt the grip on his hip tighten. Unfortunately, Regulus had to pull away to tend to the wound that the idiot in front of him got.
“You know how the girls get. They can’t resist my charm, practically drooling all over me,” James joked, wincing at the light sting on his lip when Regulus rubbed it a little too roughly.
“Haha, very funny,” he said, deadpanned.
James threw his head back and laughed out loud. It was the same laugh from when they were kids. Even after years of being together, younger Regulus would faint at the idea that he made the James Potter laugh like that.
All of a sudden James let out a gasp, “Oh my god darling, you would not believe what this girl said to me. Okay, so basically I asked her in my very best customer service voice, ‘What can I get you to drink?’ and I kid you not she said ‘I'd like a tall glass of whatever you have under those jeans.’ When I tell you I have never wanted to laugh more in my life, I almost dropped the glass I was holding. She was completely sober too,” James cackled. All Regulus could do was roll his eyes with a smile on his face.
“And then I said, ‘I beg your finest pardon.’ This lady went, ‘You heard me, honey’ and she fucking winked at me! I threw up a little in my mouth, I'm being so deadass right now.”
“That’s fucking disgusting, James,” Regulus spoke as he ran his fingers through James’ hair and kissed him on his cheek .
“Okay, so anyways I tried asking her again and she said the same thing and so I said ‘Ma'am, I’m taken so please just tell me what you would like to drink or you're out,’ and I swear to God this lady would not stop talking and she said, ‘Well she doesn’t have to know,’ like babe, this girl took one look at me and had the audacity to think I was straight.”
Now that sent Regulus into a fit of giggles which James followed in suit shortly after.
After they finished laughing James continued, “So I said, ‘He would find out immediately and I'd rather not risk my life’ and then she said–”
“There are a lot of he said, she said.”
“I'm almost done with the story, love, I promise. Anyways she said, ‘I don’t believe a pretty boy like you would have a boyfriend’ and the way she said boyfriend made it sound like the most vile thing on this planet. So anyways I obviously had to correct her so I said, ‘Actually, I have a husband,’ and waved my hand in front of her showing the most gorgeous ring she was to ever lay her eyes on,” James said with a smile as he demonstrated how he waved his hand in front of Regulus, the gold band engraved with the words In every universe, “and before she could say something else the fight broke out so yeah.”
James grinned at Regulus, his lip looked a lot better than before.
“You are an idiot, Potter.”
“You wounded me, baby. I can’t believe after two years of marriage and four years of being in love we are back to last names basis,” he pouted.
Regulus rolled his eyes as he threw the slightly bloody cloth in the sink, “I can’t believe I got married to a child.”
“How dare you?! My heart is broken! My heart!” James gasped, clutching his chest in a very dramatic way.
He made choking sounds as he ‘melted’ to the floor. Falling slowly, clawing at Regulus’ body and legs as he made his way to the tiled kitchen floor. A hoarse ‘help me’ made its way out of James’ throat, until he took his ‘final breath’ and lolled his head to the side.
Regulus raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. He literally couldn’t believe how fucking dramatic his husband was. But Regulus played along as he slid off the counter and began poking James in his side with his foot. After confirming that James was ‘dead’ Regulus let out a sigh of relief, “Oh, thank fuck! This man was becoming unbelievably unbearable. Now all I have to do is figure out how to hide the body.”
“Hey!” James said, eyes shot open as he looked at Regulus from where he laid on the ground.
“Fuck. He’s still alive,” Regulus muttered, as he tried to ward off any signs of a smile that began to appear on his face.
James grabbed Regulus’ ankle, while Regulus screeched, “Ah he’s got me!”
James laughed out loud as he got up, dramatically kissing Regulus on the cheek, “You love me don’t even start.”
Regulus smiled, absolutely smitten with the man in front of him, but pretended to think hard for a moment, “Hmm, you’re right. I do love you.”
James kissed him, wrapping his arms around Regulus' waist and picked him up with ease. Regulus yelped and wrapped his arms and legs around the other man’s body as James started walking to their room.
James pulled away slightly. Regulus whined, surprising himself with the desperate noise that he made. Not that he really cared though. He placed his hands on James’ cheeks, pulling his lips to exactly where Regulus wanted them to be.
James chuckled lightly, “Calm down, amor. I need to make sure you don’t bump into anything.”
When they got to the room, James gently lowered Regulus onto his side on the bed. Regulus, the stubborn little shit he is, tightened his arms around James, making him unable to get up.
“Regulus,” James muttered against his lips.
Regulus hummed in response, as James’ hands roamed along his sides.
“I need to shower, go to sleep, mi amor,” James murmured as he placed a kiss on Regulus’ forehead.
Reluctantly, Regulus eased his arms off of James and sighed softly as James stood up and walked into the bathroom.
A smile appeared on Regulus’ face as he watched James walk away. He couldn’t believe how fucking lucky he was. James Potter was his whole fucking world and Regulus would do anything for that man. He thanked his lucky stars every day that James was his and he was James’. Regulus Black, the boy who thought he was incapable of being loved by someone, felt like he was the most loved person on the planet. And it was all because of James. All because that kind, funny, happy, handsome, beautiful, precious, talented, sexy, intuitive, sweet, wonderful, perfect (Regulus could go on forever), sunshine personified, romantic lover boy, respectful, rich, reliable, … well you get the idea.
Regulus loved this man so fucking much that even the poets might say that Regulus was half of James’ soul. (What? It’s hard being romantic and original.)
Regulus’ thoughts were interrupted by his husband coming out of the bathroom. James got out with a towel wrapped around his waist, his glasses were fogged up a bit. Regulus watched the boy shamelessly, staring in absolute awe.
“Love, why aren’t you asleep yet?”
“I was waiting for you.”
As James walked over to the dresser and took out boxers and a pair of sweats not bothering to wear a shirt. Regulus’ eyes took in the man in front of him. His eyes traced over the tattoo on James’ V-line.
It was stag antlers.
Next his eyes gazed at the Leo constellation on his left bicep. James had gotten that one for him.
Right under that were Regulus’ initials. RAB
Regulus had a matching one of James’ initials on the same place. JFP
They had gotten those when they still lived in New York state.
Slowly James got into bed and pulled the covers up and turned to look at Reg.
“Good night, estrella,” he pulled Reg to his chest so he could place a light kiss on his forehead.
“Good night, mon soleil, I love you.”
His eyes fluttered shut and he went into a dreamless sleep.
~~~
Regulus woke up to the sound of his alarm. Groaning, he stretched his arms up and sat up, glancing at the sleeping boy next to him. James’ soft brown curls in a tangled mess. He would never not love waking up next to James. He knew James wouldn’t get up for another few hours but still whispered, “Good morning.”
Regulus got out of bed and started to get ready to go to school. After brushing his teeth and getting changed he walked into the kitchen and started writing on the magnetic whiteboard that stuck on to the fridge. Most of the time he wrote little messages or reminders for James because that man was just so forgetful. However, today it was a list of things James needed to do.
To-do list:
- Grocery shopping (ill text u the list)
- Take down Christmas decor (it’s already January you won’t convince me to leave it up longer)
- Laundry (Just fold and put away)
- Don’t forget to feed Artemis!!!
- Feed the fishies
- Don't forget to feed yourself pls
I love you♥️ - reg
After he finished, he walked out of the house passing a lump of black fur on the couch.
I bought her a bed, and she doesn’t even use it, he thought and shut the door.
~~~
The day went on as it usually does. Boring. Well it wasn’t that boring, he had just gotten used to being on break and his brain needed to catch up. Regulus absorbed all the information that he could but other than that, there wasn’t much occupying his brain. Except for James and his soft smiles and his lovely big brown eyes. Yeah, Regulus is very in love with that man.
So he, as one would be, was excited to go home when he finished his classes. He couldn’t wait to see James, probably curled up on the couch cuddled up with Artemis or maybe he was outside tending the garden.
Unfortunately, when Regulus got home James was doing none of those things. He was sitting at the kitchen table hands folded in front of him, his eyes lacked all the spark they usually had.
Regulus walked up to him like a zookeeper would, trying to calm down an aggravated animal and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, “Jamie.”
James turned his head to look at Regulus, his eyes were like that of a ghost.
No thoughts. Just regrets.
“James, what’s wrong? What happened?”
Tears formed in James’ eye as he surged forward to wrap his arms around Regulus’ waist and bury his face in his chest from where he was sitting down.
“Love, talk to me please, what can I do?”
Worry was starting to settle into him as James let out muffled sobs. He was crying so fucking hard.
“Please James. I need you to talk to me,” he said pleadingly, placing both of his hands on either side of his face and lifted it up to make James look at him. His sobbing did not cease.
“James, please,” he gasped. He couldn’t take much more of this, his tears threatened to spill. It was always so difficult to watch James cry. Like the sun itself dimmed.
“I’m begging you James, please I can’t– I need to call someone,” he said as he reached over to grab his phone from his bag. He didn’t know who he was going to call. Maybe their neighbors, Alice and Frank.
A hand reached out and stopped him from clicking on any contacts.
“No,” James gasped as he slapped the phone from Regulus’ hands.
“James please,” he said for what felt like this fiftieth time, “What’s going on, you’re scaring me.”
“I saw him,” James choked out.
Regulus looked at his husband who hadn't stopped sobbing, “Who did you see?”
“Sirius,” James said, hoarsely, “I saw him.”