Tolerate - Jegulus - @jeggyverses-jegulus-microfic - word count: 700
“How do you do it?” Sirius asked.
“Oi!” James’ head popped up from where it had been bent over his Potions essay and he rubbed at the top of his head where something relatively solid had bounced off of it.
“I asked you a question.”
“Soz, Pads, but I still need another foot on this essay before tomorrow morning.” James pulled his textbook towards him. “Give me an hour.”
Barely five minutes had passed before James was distracted again. Sirius had started sighing heavily and dramatically. James rolled his eyes and tried to block him out.
After another five minutes of progressively louder sighing and whimpers and fingers drumming on the table, James took a deep breath and looked up.
“What’s up, Pads?” James gritted out.
“Don’t worry about me, finish your homework.”
James knew the morose tone was put on, but he also knew he’d never get his essay finished if he didn’t give Sirius his attention now.
“You’ve got three minutes and then I’m going back to my essay.”
“Okay!” Sirius scooted closer to James side and leaned in conspiratorially. “I asked, how do you stand it?”
“That.” Sirius pointed discreetly to the opposite side of the common room.
James looked over and saw Lily looking at Pandora with what Moony would call heart eyes. Lily and Pandora had been openly seeing each other for a couple of weeks now and of all people to have a problem with it, James would never have thought it would be Sirius.
“Mate,” James looked at Sirius with some concern. “Are you not okay with Lil being gay? Cause, that’s pretty fucked up.”
“What? Of course I don’t give a shit about her being gay.” Sirius scrunched his face up in confusion.
“Then why would you think I wouldn’t be okay with it? Do you think I’m some kind of bigoted arsehole? Cause honestly, fuck you if you think that poorly of me.” James started gathering all his stuff together to go finish studying somewhere away from Sirius.
“Prongs, mate, fuck sake, no.” Sirius grabbed his papers to stop him from leaving. “I meeeeean, seeing Lily with someone who isn’t you?”
“Well, er, not really, mate.” James rubbed the back of his neck and tried to avoid making eye contact with Sirius.
“Why did you ask me how I can stand it? You had a weird tone about it.” James fired back, avoiding the question and trying to keep Sirius distracted enough to stop prying open that box just yet.
“Oh, well, erm, no reason.” James watched as Sirius’ eyes flickered around the room, clearly avoiding looking at one person in particular.
James watched as Remus sat chatting away to Gideon Prewett, a man who James knew was not in any way interested in Remus and also that Remus was in no way interested in Gid, because he was too besotted with a certain curly haired lunatic sat way too close to James. James had to fight every instinct in him not to just shout at the pair of them most days.
“Mate, is there something in particular you are struggling to be able to tolerate right now?” James hedged gently.
“Me? No!” Sirius blustered. “Let’s get this essay finished, shall we?”
Before James could stop him, Sirius started riffling through his notes.
“It’s alright, I’ve got it.” James made to grab the notes back, but Sirius had already stopped and was staring at something in one of the margins. “Sirius, mate…” James tried again to snatch the paper, but Sirius pulled them out of his reach.
“James,” Sirius took a deep breath before he looked up and squinted at James. “Why is my brother leaving you messages and kisses on your notes?”
James’ eyes blew wide. “Erm…” James started looking around for a quick exit.
“Run.” Sirius warned one more time as he got to his feet.
James did not need to be told a third time.
He snatched his bag, his papers and bolted out of the portrait hole. Deciding to hide out in his boyfriends dorm until Sirius, eventually, calmed down…