Chapter Text
James woke to the sound of morning birds, and the weight of a warm boy on his chest. Sunlight shined through his window, landing on Regulus' naked back. It illuminated each singular mark and freckle, of which Regulus had many. James liked Regulus’ freckles, he liked tracing lines between them, pretending they were stars, and Regulus was his galaxy.
James carefully lifted his hand from where it rested in Regulus' hair to trace the spine of the boy, slowly dipping down into each of the notches with one breath, then rising with another.
The two were in James’ Head Boy dorm; he didn’t use it much - instead opting to stay in the dorm with his friends - but it was nice to have somewhere to fall asleep next to Regulus, a feat that wasn’t entirely possible in the Astronomy Tower.
James reached his head down to place a light kiss on the top of Regulus’ head. Regulus - who to James’ knowledge, was still asleep - let out a quiet huff and pressed his face further into James' neck, nuzzling against him.
James felt a helpless smile stretch across his face as he watched Regulus. He squeezed him tighter in his arms, pressing another kiss to his boyfriend's head.
Regulus lifted his head off of James to look at him.
“Why are you smiling?” Regulus frowned. “It’s too early for smiling.”
“It’s not that early” James just continued to grin at him. “It’s 7:40.”
“What.” Regulus immediately shot up, sitting back on his heels. James made a small sound of sadness when Regulus broke out of his hold. “7:40?! James, class starts in twenty minutes. My dorm is on the other side of the castle, I’m half naked, have zero books on me, and haven’t even had breakfast.”
“Sorry, I thought you could do with the extra sleep,” James said sheepishly. “You know, considering that I kept you up most of the night.” He added with a wink.
Regulus stared at him, his jaw set firmly and his chest rising and falling in frustration. James could’ve swooned.
“James, the most you did last night was kiss my cheek and hold my hand. Check your ego and help me find my tie.”
Giggling, James stepped out of bed and reached both his arms up, letting his shirt ride up above his hips as he stretched. He didn’t miss the way Regulus gave him a quick look up-and-down before turning away pointedly with a small blush dusting his cheeks.
James reached down to where Regulus still sat on his bed, blankets pooled around him. James turned Regulus' head towards him gently, it was cold to the touch, as always. He placed a firm kiss (Sirius would’ve called it a smooch, were he there) (thank God he wasn’t) on Regulus’ lips, then jumped up, bouncing on his feet, before searching the room for Regulus' clothes.
Ten minutes later, once both the boys were dressed, they stood at James’ doorway, facing each other.
James reached into his bag, pulling out his Invisibility Cloak and offering it to Regulus, “Here, take the cloak, you’ll probably need it to get out of the Tower without causing a riot.”
Regulus eyebrows tugged down. He was confused. James loved when he was confused. He loved the puzzled look the feeling put on Regulus’ face, and how he was the one to make it leave, eventually.
“What about when you go back to your dorm?” Regulus asked.
“Ah, I’ll just make up some excuse. The only one who would second guess anything I say is Remus, and he’s smart enough not to go looking for answers he doesn’t want.”
Regulus nodded. “Yes, he does seem to be the only one of you four with any self-preservation instincts. I really should leave you for him.”
James barked out a laugh. “Ha, fat chance. Sirius would murder you before you even touched him.”
Regulus hummed.
“Speaking of my brother,” he started, “I think that, well, I mean, only if you feel this too, but I feel that we can… that we should…” Regulus trailed off uncertainly, his breath catching slightly.
This, James did not like. Regulus was always sure of himself, and when he wasn’t, it wasn’t because he was confused, it was because he was uncomfortable. Luckily, James had somewhat of an idea as to what Regulus was planning to say next.
“Tell him? About us?” He tried to keep the hope out of his voice, but he knew Regulus could hear it.
“Yes. Tell him about us. Now that he and I have been speaking for a while, and I’ll be living with you this summer anyway, I think it’s easiest we just tell him.”
James could feel the stupid smile on his face, caused by the mention of Regulus moving in with him this summer. He kept imagining how it would go - James would be the one to finally introduce Regulus to his mother, the three of them, James, Sirius, and Regulus, would spend the long hot days playing quidditch and traipsing about the village, then at night, Regulus and James would sneak onto the roof, pretending to look at the stars while sneaking glances at each other.
“James?” Regulus asked, pulling James out of his daze. “We don’t have to, if you really don’t want to.”
James just shook his head and pulled Regulus by the shoulder into a crushing hug. He held him against his chest, slightly rocking them side to side.
“Yes,” he answered. “Yes, please. Let’s tell him. I want him to know; I think he’d want to know, too.”
“Okay, James. Let’s tell him.” Regulus whispered, the sound almost lost in the fabric of James’ shirt.
“Okay.” James shut his eyes and breathed in the smell of Regulus’ hair. “I love you.”
James could feel Regulus’ small smile pull at his shirt.
“I love you, too.”
✩☆✩