Chapter Text
“Regulus, what do I do?” Pandora whispers into the phone. Despite that, both James and Regulus hear her voice projected through the speaker, “Lily is coming over with her girlfriend.”
“So that you can watch your kids together.” Regulus sighs, acting like he doesn’t know exactly why his best friend is freaking out, “I don’t get why it’s so different, you’ve talked to both Lily and Mary before.”
“But I didn’t feel this way about both of them before!” Pandora basically shouts, then it sounds like she apologizes to Luna, likely for startling her.
“Can I give you some advice,” James asks, walking to where Regulus has his phone resting on the table in front of him, wiping his hands on a towel to free them of flour, “Coming from the person that was married to Lily?”
Pandora hums, “I guess.”
“If Lily likes someone romantically, they know.” James starts, “I was asking her out for years before she finally agreed to date me, and that’s when I calmed down. That’s when she got to see the human side of me, not the annoying asshole that was constantly asking her out against her wishes.” James doesn’t often talk about before his and Lily’s relationship when he talks about his past, usually focusing on his friendship from that time, so Regulus doesn’t know much about that time other than that James feels horrible about it, “But after she learned about me, she started to show me that she liked me back.”
“Okay, but that’s never been the case with me.”
“I’m getting to it,” James laughs lightly, “Lily is the type of person that, if she doesn’t like you -- no matter romantically or platonically -- you know. Likewise, if she likes you romantically, you know it. She gets all smiley and blushy, and she lets the person she likes help her. I knew that Lily and I were no longer in love with each other when she stopped letting me do things for her.”
“She’s a headstrong woman.” Regulus concludes from that.
“Like you.” James smiles, reaching forward to cup Regulus’ cheek and rubbing his thumb along his cheekbone, “You guys both like being independent, doing things yourself, proving yourselves. So when you actually like someone, you let that fall a bit and you let us help you. Even if it’s something as small as grabbing something from a shelf higher than you can reach.”
“Just because you’re being sweet doesn’t mean you get to call me short.”
Jams laughs and presses a kiss to Regulus’ forehead before moving to sit against the table next to the phone, “Pandora, I’ve known Lily for years. I’ve seen her fall in love and fall out of love, with both myself and other people. Again, I started to notice that she was falling out of love with me when I noticed the way that she looked at people that weren’t me -- women that weren’t me. I’ve seen the way that she looks at you. She looks at you like she looks at Mary. The way that you look at both of them.” He stands up again and heads back to the stove to check on the cookies he has in the oven, speaking a bit louder the next time that he talks, “I haven’t known Mary for as long so I can’t say that I know her tells the way that I know Lily’s but, I do know that you should try.”
“How can you be so confident?” Pandora asks, “You and Lily have both made it sound like you’ve never been the shy type. I am that type.”
“So is Lily.” James sighs, “Just give it a try.”
“I’ll think about it,” Pandora says after a couple seconds of silence, “Lily and Mary are almost here.”
“Alright, I’ll let you go then, Dora.” Regulus hums, “Have fun, think about what James said.”
“I hate you.”
“Love you too.” Then Regulus hangs up, sighing, “I can’t believe them.”
James laughs and sweeps towards Regulus to give him a kiss, “Neither can I. You wouldn’t believe the many nights Lily has been on call with me, complaining about how she doesn’t know what to do because she’s in love with both Mary and Pandora.”
“She actually told you that?”
James huffs, “She told me she loves Mary. She didn’t say love when talking about Pandora, but I know her.”
“Sometimes I hate how you talk about Lily so knowingly.” Regulus shakes his head, “It just reminds me that you’ve spent so much more time with her than with me.”
The soft smile that’s on James’ face drops, turning into an expression of concern. He pulls Regulus up from the chair he’s sitting on and pulls him into his arms, “I need you to know that you’re the only one I care about. Yes, I talk about Lily and my past relationship sometimes but I am so in love with you. Lily and I are just friends, we won’t ever feel like that towards each other again.”
“And I know that but, sometimes it gets to me.” Regulus shakes his head, “You know how I was raised.”
“I know, I’m sorry love. I’ll try to remember that in the future.”
“Thank you Jamie, I love you.”
“And I love you.” James smiles, “Come dance with me. We’ve still got about five minutes before the cookies are ready to come out of the oven. This is our date night, let’s spend it well.” He reaches over to Regulus’ phone and puts on one of his boyfriends’ playlists, “Let’s not worry about what a challenge it will be to get the girls together on their own date night.”
Regulus laughs, taking James’ hands in his own and allowing James to dance them stupidly around the kitchen, “You’re a challenge.”
“Oh I’m so hurt.”