ticket - jegulus - @into-the-jeggyverse - word count: 539
James knew he should tidy his flat more often than he did. It’s not that it was ever dirty - he kept on top of his dishes and laundry, vacuumed regularly and never left actual rubbish lying around. It’s just that, well, he was messy. Always had been. He’d never been one to have ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’ like his mother had tried to instil in him. His thoughts barely managed to keep to one place inside his own head, so what if he had a few piles of books and discarded his shoes in a pile behind the sofa instead of lined neatly on a rack?
And besides, he’d had a rough go of it emotionally for the last few months and had nobody to talk through his breakdowns with. He couldn’t exactly go to his best friend and say ‘Sorry, Pads. I’m a bit miserable right now on account of the fact that your brother who you didn’t even know I was dating refused to leave your family and now he’s moved on with someone else and I still miss him’. The flat was looking more chaotic by the day but sue him, he was sad.
So it had been at least six months since the last time he picked up his doormat to clean underneath it, and he found an envelope hiding beneath that could very well have been there for half a year, sitting ignored.
There was no name or address on the envelope, so it must have been slipped beneath his door, hence why it was under the mat in the first place. Curious, he took it over to his sofa and sat down, and ran his nail under the glue to carefully open it.
Reaching inside, he found a note and a train ticket that he hadn’t purchased - London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord - dated 5 months prior. And the handwriting on the note, well that he would recognise anywhere. He’d received enough love letters over the years that he could trace the intricate calligraphy with his eyes closed. Well, until they’d stopped. Until James had tried to force him to choose.
I’m not sure if the news has reached you through the paper or Sirius yet, but just in case it has not. I am to be married.
This ticket will get you to Paris the day before the ceremony.
I am not inviting you to the wedding. You asked me once to choose you, and I didn’t. I made the wrong choice. I have never regretted anything more.
I am choosing you now. If you still love me - stop me. I am begging. There will be no way out for me once the marriage is signed. The contract is ironclad. Pandora would treat me well, but she is not you.
If you do not arrive, I will have my answer.
The ink began to run as James distantly noticed his own tears were staining the page, falling freely through silent sobs.
He’d seen the engagement announcement. He’d seen the marriage announcement. And with each announcement he'd wallowed in self-pity.
Regulus had asked for him to stop him, but he was too late.
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