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Sirius is on his bed, trying to levitate a paper bird, and it’s late, past ten o’clock, when the door to the dorm opens and James pokes his head in.
“Pads? Can I talk to you?” James looks nervous, most of his body still hidden behind the door.
“Yeah, ‘course, what d’you need?” Sirius stops trying to levitate the bird as James steps into the room followed by Regulus. He’s immediately confused.
“Reggie? Are you okay? What are you doing here?” He moves to sit on the end of his bed. James takes a deep breath, glances at Reggie and then looks back at Sirius.
“Okay, so, basically,” Another deep breath, “Regulus and I are dating.” He says, quickly, all in one breath. I blink at him, then look at Regulus who looks mildly scared, and when he sees me watching him he laces his fingers between James’.
“Okay, you’re not joking, this isn’t fake or a prank?” He asks, he desperately needs to make sure, because he isn’t angry, in fact, he loves it. He loves that his younger brother is dating James, the only person Sirius trusts to properly look after Reggie. Someone who would understand what he wants and needs and never pressure for more, or something Reg isn’t comfortable with.
“Definitely not fake, or he would already be dead.” Regulus speaks up, squeezing James’ hand and making eye contact with me.
Sirius’ face breaks into a grin and he flings himself forward, hugging both his brother and best friends at the same time.
“Oh my god, okay, first off I’m really happy for both of you for finding someone and second,” Sirius turns to James. “If you ever hurt him, I’ll end you. I don’t care if you had been my best friend's seconds before that, I will do it.”
“Wait, you’re not angry, at all?” Regulus asks, clearly confused.
“Angry? Why would I be angry? James is the only person in the world I trust with you, Reggie. I know he’ll look after you. And now that you’re dating, wanna have a sleepover?”
Regulus looks completely shocked at that and James looks elated.
“Yes! Come on Reg please have a sleepover! It’ll be fun.”
****
A few minutes later Sirius watches as James carefully unbuttons Reg’s shirt, taking it off of him and places it to the side. Then he takes off the binder Reg’s wearing. I can see the red marks that run across his back and over his shoulders from where the binder dug into his skin.
Regulus is sitting on James’ bed, his back to me, already wearing a pair of James’ shorts, because he was in school uniform when he came up to the dorm.
James is also shirtless, and Regulus has been lightly tracing patterns on the skin on his shoulders and upper arms, while James took his shirt off for him.
Then James leans forwards, Sirius can’t see what he’s doing, but his hands are on Reggie’s waist and his face is somewhere on his collarbones. Sirius doesn't interrupt, whatever they’re doing is clearly something they clearly do often, as there’s no talking.
James moves his head a bit, up to Reggie’s shoulder and Sirius can see what he’s doing. He’s kissing the red marks left by the tight binder, planting kisses over his shoulder, his collarbone and around his sides.
After several minutes of this James lifts his head and whispers something into Regulus’s ear, too quiet for me to hear.
Regulus turns over, lying on his front on James’ bed and James continues kissing over the marks on his back. Reg’s face is sideways on one of the pillows, his eyes closed and a small smile on his lips. Sirius smiles at that and then Reg opens his eyes, meeting his brother’s and he smiles back, before closing them again.
Several more minutes pass before James presses a final kiss to the base of Reg’s neck and sits up, picking up the Gryffindor quidditch team t-shirt he got out for Reggie. Regulus sits up, back to me again, and I watch as James slides the t-shirt over his head, then kisses him on the forehead and hugs him.
Sirius slides off his bed and moves into the bathroom, giving them a few minutes of privacy as he gets ready for bed. He gets changed into his pyjamas and brushes his teeth. Sirius ties his hair back into a bun as he always does to sleep before he exits the bathroom and goes back to his bed, crawling beneath the covers. Sirius looks over to James’ bed, where he and Reg are now kissing, but it’s gentle. Regulus’ hands cup James’ face and one of James’ hand is at the back of Reggie’s neck, the other one on the bed to support them both.
Sirius makes a little bit of noise while turning over in my bed to try and let them know that the bathroom is free. They both notice and stop kissing. James stands up first, and pulls Reg to his feet before leading him into the bathroom.
After a couple of minutes of quiet Sirius can hear Regulus complaining about something to do with a shower, then he appears in the doorframe. Jame’s far too big t-shirt on, so big it’s almost like a minidress on him. He decides not to point this out though.
“Sirius, do you have actual hair products? That one doesn’t and I need to shower tomorrow morning, if that’s okay.” He asks, looking a lot happier than when he entered the room.
“Yeah, I do. In the cupboard under the sink, use what you want.” Sirius replies, sitting up a bit for a moment.
“Thank you!” Regulus disappears back into the bathroom, but Sirius can hear him scold James about what shampoo he uses.
James does use atrocious shampoo. It’s a cheap, standard brand and he doesn’t use conditioner. There’s a sound that sounds like someone being hit with something, then an: “Ow! Reggie!”, So James probably did something stupid and Regulus probably hit him on the head with something because of it.
Sirius chuckles slightly, they really will have a great relationship, and it helps that Reg doesn't have to be completely introduced to our friends. Thinking of friends, Remus and Peter haven’t come up to the dorm yet and it’s getting late, it’s nearing eleven o’clock.
Sirius is pulled out of his thoughts by Regulus suddenly shrieking;
“James! For fucks sake James put me down!” Then James walks back into the dorm, grinning from ear to ear, carrying Reg bridal-style. Regulus, for all his shrieking, looks perfectly happy to be carried by James, who deposits him on his bed, pulling the covers over him. Then gets in next to Regulus.
“Wait, Sirius, can you come here? I still want to talk to you.” Reg asks, a bit of anxiousness creeping back into his voice. I nod and immediately scoot out of my bed and sit down on James’.
“What’s up? Is it about your relationship? You don’t need to tell me anything, even if I would like to know, I hope you know that.”
Regulus shakes his head, grabs James’s hand, then turns back to me, takes a deep breath and says:
“James knows. About,” Another breath, “everything.”
I still, there's so much he could tell him, so much he could have opened up about to him.
“Everything?” I ask, my voice slightly choked. Regulus nods.
“You may have noticed that when James disappears, he looks a little like he’s been with someone, but it’s not obvious. We only do what I’m comfortable with, which is not a lot.”
“It's plenty enough. I just like being with you.” James cuts in, speaking firmly, his eyes trained on Regulus’. “Don’t pressure yourself just because you’re convinced it’s not enough, when it is. It’s more than enough because it's you.” James finishes his sentence with a kiss on Reggie’s forehead. Regulus nods, then takes a deep breath again.
“No, I hadn’t really noticed.” I replied to Regulus’ statement after James was finished talking.
“He knows about the punishments, the t-trauma of it.” He looks down, blinking fast, his eyes slightly red.
“Okay, when did you tell him? When did this start? How long have you been together?” I ask, just out of curiosity, but very gently.
“Well, he saw me in the astronomy tower on the map one night near the end of September and came to see me and then after that every few nights I’d go and he’d always come up too. He also made the first move, but I panicked and ducked out of the way. He tried to leave but I stopped him and managed to explain some of it to him, then I kissed him. I explained everything to do with touch and how I had to initiate it to be comfortable with it, he understood and at first he would just let me know he wanted to hug or kiss me and he would let me decide if and when I wanted to, so I would always feel comfortable.”
“But you’re okay now, you’re touching without communicating it, has the relationship helped?”
“Yes, James has helped a lot. A few weeks after we started seeing each other pretty much every night I told him that I thought I would be able to have contact if he was slow about it or warned me first. It worked. It was only earlier this week we’ve been able to have contact without warnings or me panicking so I thought we should tell you, as it’s now official.”
Sirius can feel tears gathering in his eyes at that. Regulus decided to tell him, not James.
“You decided? You wanted to tell me?” His voice is shaking slightly, and the tears are threatening to spill.
“Yeah I did, and I could tell James wanted to as well.” That was it, the floodgates broke and the tears spilled out of Sirius’ eyes, rolling down my cheeks.
“Sirius? You okay?” Reg’s worried face fills Sirius’ vision, then his arms hesitantly wrap around him, Sirius clings to him back and his grip tightens. The tears drip onto his shoulder, dampening James’ t-shirt. Regulus and him are still holding each other when the door opens and Remus and Peter enter the room.
“Hey guys,” Remus says through a yawn. Regulus lets go of me. I take my arms off him as well, he curls back into James. “Regulus? What’re you doing here?” His eyes flick between me, Regulus and James, whose arms and around Regulus, holding him to his chest.
“He’s having a sleepover Moony!” Sirius bounces out of bed, throwing his arms around Remus. He stumbles a bit but doesn’t fall, bringing his arms around the shorter boy. Sirius tucks his face into the tall boy’s shoulder, standing on his toes because Remus is so tall. He rests his cheek on the top of Sirius’ head, picking him up slightly. Sirius feels my face heat up and he pulls away, but keeps his hands on Remus’ arms, his rest on Sirius’ shoulders. Sirius’ eyes flit over his face, studying it.
He’s breathtakingly handsome, tanned skin and messy sandy curls, soft amber eyes and a sharp jawline. There is a scar under his left eye that runs diagonally down his cheek, another running in the same direction just above his eyebrow, and a third going through his right eyebrow and over his eye. That one had nearly blinded him, and he is left with damage and blurriness sometime in his right eye. He’s perfect and Sirius can imagine kissing down each individual scar, like James was doing with Reggie earlier.
Remus is smiling down at him, with soft eyes, his eyes that turn the colour of honey in the sun, eyes that Sirius could drown in. A curl has fallen across his forehead so he reaches his hand up and brushes it back into place, as he does this Remus’ breath catches and he goes still. The shorter one pretends not to notice. Grinning up at him just before he steps away and Remus is smiling back, looking for all the world like the moon is shining from within him.
Just then Peter leaves the bathroom. I blush slightly, how long was he standing there staring at Moony? Sirius steps away from the man in question.
“G’night guys, see you tomorrow.” Peter waves to us as he crosses to his bed, yawning and rubbing his eyes. Remus grabs his pyjamas from his bed and goes into the bathroom, leaving Sirius standing in the middle of the room, cheeks heated and very confused by the swooping feeling in his stomach.
Behind me I hear curtains shutting and I turn to see the curtains around James' bed are closed.
“Goodnight guys!” Sirius calls to them.
“Goodnight Sirius!” Four voices chorus back at him. Including his brother.