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Remus looked up from his book. James had just groaned, the first sound he'd made since he'd gone under for surgery two hours ago.
He was still lying on his back with his eyes closed, but his hands had come up to rub at his face.
Sirius seemed to wake up from his stupor; he, too, had fallen asleep on the bed, though his position was admittedly much less comfortable. He'd fallen asleep sitting in the chair by the side of the bed across from Remus with his head resting on his arms next to James' legs.
Sirius stretched out, and he and Remus both watched James.
"Where are you?" James asked. He turned his head without actually opening his eyes. "I can hear you but I can't see you!"
Sirius looked at James with remarkable fondness. It was a look Remus would always be jealous of. Remus may have been Sirius' boyfriend, but Sirius still never treated anyone as gently as he did James.
"James, mate, open your eyes."
"Oh," James said, blinking rapidly. He grinned and looked around. "There you are," he said warmly to Sirius. Then he turned to Remus. "And there you are!"
He looked pleased. Remus squeezed his hand.
"But where's Regulus?" James asked, suddenly seeming earnest. "Regulus should be here!"
Remus and Sirius looked at each other. Remus had absolutely no idea what he was on about, but he had heard stories of people being loopy when they came out from surgery.
"He's not here," Sirius said carefully.
"But where is he?" James whined playfully. Then he giggled. "He should come here, that would be nice." He smiled a dopey, loopy sort of smile.
"Why would he come here, exactly?" Remus asked slowly.
Sirius gave him a look, and made a "stop" motion with his hand.
James didn't seem to notice. "Because he's so cute and he makes me happy."
Sirius raised an eyebrow, his face showing the surprise that Remus felt.
James hiccup'd a laugh, then seemed to laugh at the sound he'd made. It took a moment for him to calm down, and then he tried to climb out of the bed.
"I'm going to go find him," he said confidently.
As one, Remus and Sirius pushed him back down onto the bed.
"Not now," Sirius said soothingly, "we'll find him later, alright?"
James, quite inexplicably, started to cry.
"But I want Regulus to be here now." He sniffled. "He can even be mean to me, that would be okay. I just want him to be here."
Sirius tsk'ed. "He can't be mean to you, alright? No one's allowed to be mean to you."
"No, it's good when he's mean to me," James said, unbothered by how ridiculous his words were, "I like it."
Remus looked over James to Sirius. "Maybe we should talk to him about this later."
Sirius gritted his teeth. "Yeah, probably."
Then he turned back to James and attempted to change the subject. "James, let me tell you about the Puddlemore match, so-"
"Do you think you could call him?" James asked, hiccup'ing another laugh.
"Regulus?" Sirius asked skeptically.
James nodded. "Maybe we could talk to him on the fellytone."
"The telephone?" Remus asked, biting back a laugh. He'd never heard anyone mispronounce that word before.
"Yes, call him."
"He won't want to," Sirius said, clearly trying to be delicate.
"Yes he will," James said confidently. "He will want to talk to me."
Sirius looked skeptical, but pulled out his phone and dialed a video call.
"I love him," James said dreamily, "I've got to talk to him."
"Sirius?" Regulus answered. "What do you-"
"Reg," Sirius said, voice clipped. "You know my friend James? He's been in surgery and high on laughing gas and said he wanted to talk to you. I said you wouldn't want to, but he-"
Regulus sighed. "Give him the phone."
Sirius looked surprised, but did as his brother had asked.
"Regulus!" James said gleefully when he had the phone in his hands.
"Hi James," Regulus said wearily. He sounded ready to continue, but he didn't get a chance to.
"I love you baby," James said, and then kissed Sirius' phone repeatedly.
Remus felt ready to grab the phone, but stopped when Regulus spoke up and didn't seem angry.
"James, stop," he said gently.
James pulled the phone away from his face and smiled at it dopily.
"I love you baby," he said.
Remus' eyebrows raised, not at James words so much as at Regulus reaction, or lack thereof. He was quiet for a moment, which didn't seem right.
"You're high, James, just relax."
James pouted. "Yeah but I love you. And you love me too. You should say that."
Regulus sighed, and there was another pause.
"I love you too, James," he said. It was so quiet Remus wouldn't have even heard it if there'd been any background noise. But as it was, in a silent hospital room, there was nothing to hear except Regulus Black telling James Potter that he loved him.
Remus had been avoiding Sirius' eyes during this conversation as much as possible, but he finally looked up at him to gauge his reaction
Sirius' jaw was dropped and his eyebrows were sky high. He didn't seem angry, only shocked. But the anger might come later.
"James," Regulus said gently, "you should probably stop talking."
James seemed content with what Regulus had said. "I'm just glad you're here now."
Regulus sighed once again. "Give Sirius the phone," he said.
Clearly he wanted to do a little damage control.
When Sirius was back in front of the screen, still looking shocked, Regulus spoke up. "He's high and doesn't know what he's saying, okay, don't be too harsh with him."
Sirius face clicked back to normal at once. "Oh I will wait until he is sober, and then I am going to have a very long conversation with both of you."
James reached for the phone with grabby hands like a baby. "Let me talk to him again."
Sirius narrowed his eyes at the phone. "You're going to talk to him now so he's comfortable, keep him happy, and then later we are going to talk."
Reg sounded weary. "Sure."
Sirius handed back the phone, and James broke out into a wide grin just to see Regulus' face again.
Remus chanced another glance at Sirius and was relieved to see that he just looked entertained.
So at least he wasn't too mad about it.