Chapter Text
Regulus wasn't expecting anyone to be home. He was still a bit uncomfortable at living in the Potter's house, so he never really left his room when he knew anyone except Sirius was home. So understandably he was very surprised to enter the kitchen and find someone else there, their back to him, cooking.
Regulus considered turning around and going back to his room, before being noticed, but the other boy had turned around already.
"Oh, hi regulus, I wasn't expecting you to come down here if I'm being honest, do you want to try some of the food I'm cooking?"
Regulus wants to just walk back up to his room, but the smiling messy haired boy infront of him tells him otherwise.
"Sure, just as a warning I am bad at handling spice" the younger boy walked further into the kitchen and sat on a chair that was facing james
"Oh dont worry, I toned down on the spice this time, sirius was very clear on the fact I have to do that after last time" James Chuckled and passed Regulus a small bowl of food
"It's good." Regulus admitted. He still looked at the spoon, rather than James.
"I've never seen you eat." James observed, his tone almost teasing. He was standing in front of Regulus, leaning against the counter. James could see how tense he was, but he didn't mention it.
He turned his attention back to his cooking, finishing it up.
"I don't like to eat in front of others." Regulus admitted. He sounded almost awkward.
He saw James turn back to preparing the food. Regulus tried not to watch. He didn't want to appear to be staring, so he looked down at his own hands.
He felt oddly... nervous.
"Why not, Reg?" James asked, turning to look at him. "It's not like we're gonna judge you for eating your food. And, at least at Hogwarts, you have to eat in the Great Hall. There's no way to avoid it."
He turned away again, to finish his food, and then finally putting it on a plate and bringing the plate and a spoon over to Regulus. "Here."
James smiled at him. No matter how Regulus felt about James, no matter how mean he was, James was always nice in return.
"I just... don't like it." Regulus was annoyed with himself. This was something else that made him sound childish, he hated giving reasons for what he did. And he hated being questioned. Especially by James. He looked up at James, glaring slightly.
"Why did you make me food, Potter?"
Regulus looked down as he accepted the plate.
James shrugged. He wasn't bothered by Regulus's slight hostility.
"You live here, and you hadn't eaten. You always seemed so... tense. So I figured you hadn't had a chance to eat."
Regulus hadn't realized how bad his tension was, but he supposed James was right. He'd been trying to avoid him - and that meant avoiding the kitchen where James was most of the time.
"I thought you might be hungry."
There was something nice about that. James was thinking of him.
Despite the tension between the both of them, Regulus wanted to be angry, like he always was, but he couldn't. James had been nice. He couldn't be angry at someone being nice to him.
"I am... hungry." Regulus admitted. He was slightly ashamed of saying that, to need to admit it to him. "Thank you."
Regulus hesitated a moment, and he finally looked up at James. The way he was looking at him, the intensity of it... It all felt new and strange.
"You're welcome." James replied. He knew that was a big deal coming from Regulus, or at least it would've been in the past. He hoped that would change, as he was hoping Regulus would grow more comfortable around him.
Regulus's gaze was burning a hole through James. He felt the intensity of it and raised his eyebrows.
"Uh, Reg? You're staring."
James's curiosity about what Regulus was thinking was getting the best of him.
"I'm thinking." Regulus said, his gaze still on James. He didn't want to break away, didn't want to do anything. In fact, his whole body was tense, like he was thinking very hard about something. He didn't want to look James in the eyes because to look at James was almost like to acknowledge him as his... his... friend. No, he'd never admit that. He just didn't want to break his gaze. He was feeling...
He had stopped himself from speaking, before he could say something stupid.
This whole gaze thing was... off. Regulus had never looked at him like that. James decided, in his curiosity, to do something about it.
"What are you thinking about so hard?"
James didn't want to leave. The feeling of having Regulus so close, looking at him like that... it was almost... nice. Even if Regulus wasn't speaking. He was fine just being looked at. It felt... familiar.
"I'm just worried about going back to hogwarts this year, I mean the 2nd half of last year was bad enough" Regulus had never spoken to anyone other than a few of his friends and sirius about this stuff before, James was surprised that he got an answer from Regulus.
"Well, you know if anyone says something, sirius and me will hex them into the next millennium" James responded, his mouth half full of rice.
"Yeah, sirius made that very clear in may" regulus laughed before eating a mouthful of his food.