devotion | @jegulus-microfic | words: 488
omega!Regulus/alpha!James
Regulus’s heat was imminent.
James knew so because his Omega had become progressively shorter with him over the past few hours, hissing at James for both attempting to approach him as well as getting too nearer the exit of their flat.
This left him with a very narrow window of what was allowed, so James just decided to kill time by rechecking the wards on the bedroom windows.
The tension just before the haze of a heat or rut commenced was awful; edgeplay that brought them both so close to the edge of confrontation that James almost—almost—got off on it, but not quite.
James paused. He was midway through fiddling with the wards when Regulus spoke, his tone intent.
James looked over at him.
Regulus was huddled naked down in his nest arranged with surgical precision on the floor by the foot of their bed. The lining was composed of clean sheets, dirty laundry, and his scarlet Gryffindor scarf that Regulus always squirreled away under their bed until his next heat.
“Your shirt,” Regulus clarified when nothing happened.
James decided not to argue. Stepping back from the blocked window, the Alpha yanked his tank top off over his head. It was so hot in their flat by now that the fabric clung slightly to his skin as he did so. He tossed the shirt wordlessly into the nest he’d soon be fucking Sirius’s little brother into.
From the corner of his eye, James watched with amusement as Regulus contemplated how best to incorporate his newest treasure into the wall of his nest.
This went on for a few minutes and James was just starting to think better of his state of dress—he’d gone out briefly that morning to fetch more Pepper Up Potions and still had the undergarments and jeans to prove it—when a sudden keening noise from Regulus’s direction attracted his notice like a shark to blood.
“James,” Regulus groaned—an abrupt switch from the borderline scathing tone he’d used earlier to tell him the room was too cold and was James going to do something useful about that or what?
James was on him in less than two seconds, crossing the room in four strides, growling low in his throat and clutching Regulus to him with unwavering possessiveness. The Alpha kissed him over and over again as Regulus trembled finely in his arms, inhaling the scent at James’s neck as he buried his face there.
“It’s alright,” James managed to get out with the last strings of coherence available to him. Every ounce of devotion and love poured into the series of kisses he pressed to Regulus’s sweaty forehead as his Alpha mind began to crowd him out. Soon he’d have nothing left to say but obscene orders. “Let go, pretty thing. It’s alright.”
But Regulus was already gone.