pre-jegulus jegulus | muggle au | 717 words
james was pointing at something. a quince tree growing just outside the classroom window, slightly forlorn looking next to the concrete car park, although not entirely out of place. regulus turned his attention away from the conversation around him to look out the window, bumping against james’ shoulder in the attempt to turn around in the small space they had squished themselves into, sprawled in between two rows of desks.
in the background he could feel pandora and marlene starting to butt heads over some trivial matter, and really he should try to calm them down, but right now his only priority was the small point of connection between his shoulder and james’ arm as they attempted to stand side by side. they could sort it out themselves.
but still the voices were ever raising in volume, getting less passive and more aggressive, and he began to tense up. he wasn’t in the mood to hear the conflict, but could probably keep a straight face if he tried. until he felt the lightest tug on his shirt sleeve.
looking up, he found himself staring into the warm brown gaze which could only belong to james, perfectly framed by the gold which mirrored the highlights found creating galaxies in those eyes. and suddenly all regulus could think was how that must be how james saw the world. seeing it through the stars, everything at its most beautiful, everything with a silver lining.
another tug on his sleeve and he was brought back down to earth, left only with the hope of one day being more than a guest amongst the solar system that orbited james potter, the centre of it all, the sun.
they snuck out of the classroom, giggling as conversation erupted now that they were free from the situation starting to unfold behind them. it would resolve itself quickly, no need to get involved.
‘we should conduct an experiment,’ declared james as a look of mischief crossed his smile, ‘i need to see what that brain of yours can really do.’
regulus’ mind raced. he wanted to do something with him? and only him? something he cared about? but what? it had to be something james would like.
‘let’s investigate how absorbent sand is of gladiator blood.’ what. the. fuck. what on earth made him say that? that wasn’t what james meant! that wasn’t what he wanted to hear, or what anyone wanted to hear for that matter. somewhere in his mind ritualistic chanting struck up so that all he could hear was ‘we fucked up we fucked up we fucked up we fucked u-‘
‘i’m not sure we could get a hold of gladiator blood, would pigs' blood do?’
‘what?’ regulus stopped. and they were both laughing. thank the lord.
they were heading to the quince tree, of course they were, but still he smiled to himself at the choice. because only james would take him to just stand and look up at a tree, just like he knew regulus would love to.
‘you know how a quince fell on darwin’s head when he discovered gravity-‘ began james, without taking his eyes off the tree,
‘what?’ regulus cut him off
‘you confuse me a lot, and anyway, that’s the biggest problem here. not anything else about your statement.’
‘i- fuck. no one needs to hear i said that. i have a reputation to uphold. i was gonna say something profound and interesting too.’
regulus just stared at him. how is this the one that made his heart join an amateur acrobatics group. and so they laughed, harder and louder than normal because they could. for the first time they felt so purely comfortable, that they could just laugh.
that’s why he’s the one that made his heart join an amateur acrobatics group.
and as they began to make their way back, james wheezed out a final plea for regulus not to mention it. not that anything much had even happened, but in those moments where james was leaning on him, unable to keep himself up from laughter, glasses dangerously close to falling off as his head rolled forward, he couldn’t help but agree. and he kept that promise. no matter what happened, he always did.
