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James was pining. Hard.
Look, it was hard not to when Regulus Black had walked into class with a haircut (his usual trim that he’d get every first of the month that he’d noticed before he’d even met the man in person) and a shirt that must have shrunk a little when washed because it hugged tightly to his figure and fuck it made him look good.
The other teen was already flawless but he somehow topped the way he looked every day.
God, he could stare at Regulus for hours and endure Mr. Slughorn’s disapproving look when he messed up questions and missed his name in the register because he was too busy appreciating the work of art that was Regulus.
Smack.
“Ow?” James mumbled, glaring at the girl who just wacked his head with their thick arse Chemistry textbook.
“For fucks sake, James. Stop drooling over Black and help me set up for the practical.”
He smiled apologetically, “Sorry Lils.”
She rolled her eyes as they tied up their hair, handing him a pair of safety goggles, “I hate you sometimes, you know?”
“No you don’t” he smirked, putting the goggles over his glasses as he walked alongside her to the back of the class to collect a burette “You’re too in love with me to ever do so.”
“Keep up with the delusions, James, maybe Regulus likes you back in one of them.”
He pouted dramatically as he grabbed a conical flask, universal indicator and pipette, “Maybe he’ll look at me one day, do a 180 degree spin and ask for my hand in marriage.” He refuted dreamily, despite knowing the utter nonsense of what he just suggested.
“Excuse me, Potter.” an angelic voice spoke, touching James arms as he brushed past him to get to the equipment.
“Sorry, Reggie!” he replied happily.
“I told you to stop fucking calling me that. We’re not friends simply because you’re close with what used to be my brother. In fact, I wouldn’t dare to say that we are acquaintances.”
“Of course, Reggie! I mean, Reg!”
And then the angel left. Oh, how unfortunate. He had looked absolutely radiant in the sun’s beams through the windows but now he had walked back to where it couldn’t reach him all the way at the front of class.
“What did I say about drooling?”
James blinked, “Did you see the way he looked at me, Lils?”
“Yes I did. It was very much in distaste, James.” she replied as she led him back to their desk as they set down the equipment both of them had brought.
“He loved the way I called him Reg!”
“His face scrunched up further as soon as it left your love-struck mouth.”
James sighed, “Fine, you’re probably right but it’s only a matter of time before he accepts my love.”
“You mean the love declarations you write down but never work up the courage to say out loud?” Lily jabbed, before filling up the burette with some liquid (he was too busy admiring someone when sir had explained titrations).
“We’ll live happily ever after.”
“Right, and I’m in love with Headmaster Dumbledore.”
“Come on, don’t you think there’s at least a slim chance we could end up together?”
“No.”
Gasping dramatically, the brunette asked jokingly, “Why? Am I too ugly?”
“It’s not that, James. It’s…” they waved a hand towards Regulus, “Him.”
“I know, he’s well out of my league…” he sighed, putting a few drops of indicator in the acid.
She shook her head, “It’s not that, it’s the fact that he’s part of the Black family.”
“I’m not following…”
“Keep the conical flask moving, will you?” Lily asked before carrying on with their previous point, “You remember what happened when Sirius and Remus’ relationship was found out, right?”
James nodded, calling out for her to stop when the acid changed colour, “Sirius was disowned; everyone knows that, Lils. It was all over the news when it happened.”
“Right, but do you remember why Sirius was disowned?”
The boy looked at them quizzically as they crouched eye level to the meniscus and checked the value it was at, “Remus wasn’t up to ‘Black heir standard’?”
“Gay.”
“Yes, we know I’m gay. Lils. We’ve been past this.”
Lily put a hand to her forehead, after picking up her pencil, causing it to weave through her hair as she did so, “Oh for fucks sake, James. No. Well, yes, actually. We know you’re bi but that wasn’t my point.”
“You can’t just say the word gay and expect me to understand.”
“In context, I think it made sense.”
He shook his head, “It did not to me.”
“Sirius is gay. That’s the reason behind his disownment.” Lily explained, jotting down the value below the initial reading in her very neatly-drawn table causing him to gape understandingly. “He doesn’t talk about it but Rem and I talked a while back about… something and it came up and the topic was important enough that he had to mention it.”
“Oh.”
She smiled pityingly, “As much as I love you and support you James, I can’t see the new Black heir following in the footsteps of the last one.”
Lily was acting as if he was already filing away his crush but if there was one thing ng Potters were, it was optimistic, “I’ll just change his mind! We can live happily in a cottage in the woods with our cats and no kids and-“
Smack.
This time it was their hand that had hit him.
“James, I don’t want you all heartbroken with your hopes so high now.”
“Aw, you care!”
“Of course I care, stop changing the subject here!”
He sighed, Lily was right, of course. When was his friend not? One of the smartest people in school, and most definitely so for Chemistry. Regulus was incredibly sharp as well (both mentally and physically because that fucking jawline was defined enough to cut through paper well enough it was unfair).
But them being correct about this didn’t change the fact that he didn’t want to move on. He was fucking head over heels about Regulus and he’d be distraught if he let it sink in that the Black heir did not reciprocate in the slightest. Which was why he decidedly never thought too hard on the topic.
Deflection was one of James’ closest friends.
As well as Lily Evans. A fucking saviour in human form who had gotten him out of an embarrassing amount of bad situations single-handedly. They made a pretty great pair, might he say. Top student Lily Evans and best prankster James Potter.
That didn’t sound as good as he thought it would…
He was a mess, okay? But it was something to be embraced with open arms. Such as his hair, for example. Wait, no. Bad example. His hair was a controlled mess; himself, however, was a mess that was entirely uncontrollable.
Regulus Black, however, seemed so put together. So very opposite from James and the brunette wanted to ruin that. James wanted to ruin Regulus. Oh shit, that sounded overly sexual which wasn’t his intention whatsoever.
…But he wouldn’t be opposed to it either.
No, but he wanted to see the sides of the Black heir that no one else did. He wanted to make him laugh and blush and-
Fucking hell, he was in too deep. Regulus was like Taylor Swift. In the way of which Jake Peralta explained her, as Reg made him feel things just like Taylor did to Jake and, really, everyone (like Terry said). And-
Smack.
James rubbed the back of his head for what felt like the hundredth time within the past hour before - yet again - pouting at his friend.
“Stop doing that! I’m fragile, Lils!”
They scoffed lightheartedly before resuming the look of concern she held prior to his daydreaming, “That’s the problem, James. You’re going to get hurt.”
He sighed, opening his mouth to probably say something that would earn another hit on the head before Mr. Slughorn cleared her throat and announced that they needed to pack up and could go once they were done.
So he rushed ahead of his friend and started to do just that. Outright ignoring Lily’s attempts to get through to him about how bad of an idea crushing on Regulus was.
What? Potters were stubborn creatures.
Plus, it was time to go home and, uh, study. Sure. He totally did that in his free time. Golly, superheroing? What an absurd idea! What even was a ‘patrol’? What a foreign word.
…Who he trying to fool?
No, but genuinely, there was no one to lie to. It was just him and Pol in the general proximity and-
“SLAYYYYY!!!!” boomed a voice.
What was with the interrupting of his thoughts! And, oh, there were screams.
You know what? Not an awful time for a villain attack. He didn’t need some spotty excuse as to why he needed to leave somewhere since school was over and he wasn’t at any get-together nor had plans. Thank you ‘Slay’ villain for the impeccable timing today.
The more pressing matter was apprehending this villain and figuring them out because he sure has never had a villain bellowing out the word ‘slay’ before. He certainly never thought he ever would but here James was. What was his life?
He pressed thrice into his necklace after pulling it out from under his shirt before pulling himself on top of the building to get to the fight easier.
Being Helios was a very different ordeal from being James Potter. Heroism, unlike what Karkinos liked to think, was an extremely serious ordeal. Akumatised villains threatened innocent civilian’s lives if not dealt with carefully.
Kark’s jokes lightened the mood sometimes but most of the time they bordered on highly irritating. James Potter appreciated jokes, he loved them, actually. Helios, however, didn’t share the same sentiment as much.
James liked separating his hero persona from his civilian self as it made it easier to deal with both aspects of his life. Furthermore, being a hero was a lot more serious than being some A level student who only just started sixth form.
Sure, thanks to the fucking mystery known as kwami magic, no one could figure out a user’s identity unless they saw that person transform or if the person told them about it and they believed it but it didn’t hurt to be careful. James was a talker, making it harder to slip up by having Helios being a more serious person helped against that.
Plus, lying to all of his friends was hard. There weren’t that many excuses he could use against them before they would question his stupid lie. Which, for example, was why he never said he was studying if he had been busy. All of them refused to accept that excuse because they knew he did fuck all for school.
Wormy, Pads and Moony believed him a lot more easily with his flimsy excuses. It probably helped that he was the one to give them all silly names based on the shitty ‘What Animal Are You?’ quiz they had done one night which really upped his reputation of being slightly childish. Okay, very childish. Poor Pete didn’t appreciate being called a rat but he was a good sport about it. Now it was just good teasing material.
The quiz was fucking strange though. Why the hell was werewolf a possible animal to get in the results? It also was not subtle in any way, shape or form. ‘What is your favourite food?’ was a question only to be followed by options like ‘salad’, ‘leaves’, ‘grass’, ‘meat’, fucking ‘antelope’ or ‘all of the above’.
Him, Pete and Sirius had collapsed onto the floor from how hard they were laughing from the question that had options like ‘meep morp’, ‘rawr’ ‘meow’ ‘squeak’ ‘grrr’ ‘awooooo’ and shit like that. The entire quiz had been hilarious.
The descriptions used were stupid. ‘Emo black’? And the fact that ‘weirdo’ was down under emotions? Huh, perhaps their humour was broken.
He was getting off topic and now that he was approaching the villain attack, it was easy to get back to his initial point who was right here actually.
“Bonjour, mon amour. Do you know what we’re fighting today, mon chérie?” Kark practically purred. If a cat miraculous existed, there was no universe in which Karkinos wasn’t its holder.
French was supposed to be a romantic language. And it was! Just not when Kark spoke it. When Regulus did, however? God, James could just melt. How could a man make words sound so hot?
…No one repeat those thoughts to Sirius. …Who also spoke French. But it wasn’t as attractive when it came to his friend. Perhaps James just had a thing for Regulus, and not a thing for the language as a whole.
He was surprised Kark’s name wasn’t whatever stars was in French. But it likely would’ve been less original if he had done that.
Look, James’ original hero name was shit, he got that, but at least it was easier to say because it was an English word. Helios felt so over the top and he would never like the name.
“No, I don’t. And haven’t we talked about just saying each other’s names. The nicknames are extremely unprofessional.”
Kark smirked, “You want to tell me your name, sunshine? I didn’t realise you trusted me so much. I’m touched.”
God, what an insufferable prick. James would never understand why Minnie chose this guy of all people to be his superhero partner but he trusted her. And, personality aside, Kark was a good fighter and was smart enough to figure out how to win. If Hogsmeade stopped having villain attack risks, the brunette would more than happily never see the stars-themed hero again but that was never going to happen.
Fuck you Speculunae.
This was going to be a long day…
—
Regulus loved being Karkinos.
As Regulus Arcturus Black, he had to be the epitome of the Black name. As the heir (fuck Sirius for leaving that to him, though he respected Sirius for managing to get out of the hellhole that is the Black family), he had to keep up an entire stiff and emotionless persona. Of someone who was everything he didn’t want to be. Other than being rich, of course.
Living in luxury was one of the few major reasons Regulus didn’t up and leave like Sirius. He didn’t trust himself to get by without the aid of his parents. Furthermore, his friends would likely be forced to stop interacting with him and that certainly wasn’t something the teen wanted.
He had been close to just booking it and living with Andy up in Edinburgh. But then Professor Mcgonagall had given him the miraculous. He was rather grateful that it was just a simple ring. An accessory Walburga wouldn’t throw a fit over him wearing. Plus, it blended in with the other silver and black rings he would wear on a day to day basis so no one ever noticed the miniscule jewellery change.
He doubted he would have gotten away with having the miraculous of the sun. Wal burger would have likely thrown a fit if he wore a necklace of any kind (being too alike to Sirius); he was already pushing it with the rings. Or, she would have insinuated that. The woman refused to utter Sirius’ nowadays and didn’t permit others to either.
She was very clearly not the most pleasant person to be around. Regulus would live with Speculunae if it meant he never had to have Sunday roast with Wall burger (when she was actually free to do so). At least the villain had a chance of not being a prejudiced. That was a plus of secret identities.
Maybe her limit was bigotry. Perhaps Speculunae attempted to destroy the city and steal his and Hel’s miraculous but still had some form of moral standards.
Maybe.
“SLAYYYYY!!!!” boomed a voice.
Right, she was at it again. Reflecting powers to make some poor civilian to say… ‘slay’. Well, perhaps that insinuated she supported the gays.
He was unfortunately with Panda, Barty and Ev at the moment so he’d have to come up with an excuse, which wasn’t hard when his mother was the one and only House burger.
“Shit, the Brick needs me at home in like ten minutes so I do need to head back now.”
“When did she start being called ‘Brick’?” Ev had asked, Barty laughing too hard to question the new nickname.
“Since now, actually. I have been going through different alterations of her name today, Brick burger was the latest.”
Panda smiled, “It’s a nice bit of alliteration there, Reg. Brick burger Black. It works.”
“I didn’t even notice that.” He heard a scream and that wasn’t good, “I have really got to go though, see you all tomorrow!”
Excuse made and it was a good one at that. Even if it was the same as the one he used almost every damn time, it was rather effective. He just had to get to somewhere private to transform, and that dark corner would work perfectly well.
“I just wanted to sleep, today. Can’t we tell Speculunae to take the day off?” his kwami asked.
“What the fuck? No. Come on, we’re saving Hogsmeade.” he replied as he pressed into the star on his finger three consecutive times to transform.
The sight of navy and black (what exactly was the material they wore? It most certainly wasn’t a material he recognised and he had been dressed in too many fabrics to count) adorning his skin never failed to make Regulus grin. It felt right to be Karkinos.
Being Regulus Black, however? That was an entirely different can of beans. Being the Black heir was more of a chore than a life. Look the part. Act the part. Be the part. You never received a break.
His vocabulary was still substantially more fucked and posher than that of his friends and he hates that so much. It made him feel different.
That was still the case for being a superhero because no superhero was like a civilian. But this was in more of a freeing manner. He was so different but so utterly normal.
He didn’t need to be that uptight teenage boy that didn’t have a friend other than Barty until he was finally allowed to fucking go to a public school. And that was only due to him convincing her of the positive influence a state school could have on him over the last several months to be able to. The Shoe of burgers was just a massive bitch in general.
But he could forget about her in his costume.
If anyone had told Regulus a year ago that he’d prance around Hogsmeade willingly in a skintight costume, and calling his partner pet names, he would have scoffed and likely made some snide comment at them. Yet here he was, doing exactly that.
He followed the source of the voice, spotting his white, yellow and blue costumed hero along the way. He immediately went to catch up to Helios, humming the tune of a song he didn’t really know along the way.
“Bonjour, mon amour. Do you know what we’re fighting today, mon chérie?” he asked, adding a touch of flair (also known as, being overly affectionate - and in today’s case, purring - to see that annoyed face on Hel).
“No, I don’t.“ the other hero snarked, which was very attractive, Regulus might add, “And haven’t we talked about just saying each other’s names. The nicknames are extremely unprofessional.”
“You want to tell me your name, sunshine? I didn’t realise you trusted me so much. I’m touched.”
He could see his partner rolling his eyes as the sun-themed hero turned away and started running off (a bit rude but the Black was into that so it was fine).
He followed the yellow blur of the hero as they headed towards the sound of destruction. Would Speculunae ever give them a fucking break? She was so obsessed with getting their miraculous that they had to fight some villain more days a week than not.
It - at the very least - gave him an excuse to not be the Regulus that everyone knew and, well, not loved but certainly knew .
He would never be able to comprehend just why Professor Mcgonagall had chosen him of all people to wield the cat miraculous, but she did and he’d never be more grateful to her for it. She likely didn’t know the extent to which how reprieving the power was to him and that was something he preferred.
He didn’t want to seem weak. And he wasn’t. At the very least least, he didn’t think he was. The shoe would likely say otherwise, yet most of her words towards him were either passive agressive or berating comments. Due to that, he didn’t exactly include her in that regards.
“SLAYYYY!”
Oh for fucks sake, why did the villain have to say the most incredulous thing ever. At the top of their lungs too- …Were they in a sparkling silver one piece suit?
Right, well, this was one of the strangest villains Regulus has ever faced and he had to fight a clone of himself in the past. Hel was already swinging in and flying past the villain in circles so his cape wrapped around those sparkly ankles so the crater would be easier to find.
And it was… not. Because the ‘slay’ villain could flick their wrist and shoot rainbow beams of some sort. They were rather destructive for something so colourful and made his day a lot more interesting, which (whilst they might be a villain) was appreciated since he had some event tonight the Kreacher had informed him about a week prior.
After a plentiful of dodging - in which he spent the time complimenting the other hero as much as he could without getting hit (he needed to brush up on his pickup lines after today, he was running out and only had 56 original ones left) - he ended up spotting that the beams were shooting out from a bracelet of some sort and notified his incredible partner of it so Hel could patch up the crater (no, Regulus didn’t understand it much, either).
The entire ordeal was over a great deal faster than Regulus would have liked. Yet, that was how he felt every time he had to detransform and, nevertheless, the feeling of dread never lessened. Curiously, it grew.
Dread was an emotion Regulus was familiar with. Dreading speaking with his mother. Dreading going to some fancy event where he’d have to only act even more than he already did. Dreading seeing headlines of his brother’s disownment with their twisted stories. Dreading taking up the role of the heir. Dreading.
And then he truly learned what it was like to be free.
And he hated that.
The dread worsened when he knew just how good life could be. His life could be. The monotonous days that consisted only of studying, practising piano, eating, and the incidental occasions were boring, yes. But that was before he gained a miraculous.
They became unbearable after he had realised he didn’t need to put on a mask as Kark. Of course, he wore a physical mask but the metaphorical one was unneeded and putting it back on became more difficult.
It was like an article of clothing. A tailored shirt, perhaps. The longer you spent away from it, the longer you grew without it and, therefore, the greater the difficulty to wear it when you found you no longer fit perfectly into it like you used to.
Kark was that tailored shirt to him. The more often he spent out, the worse having to try and fit back into his regular life felt. Yes, he was could at acting under the pretence that it was fine but that couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
He could only feel that dread for when he grew too much and tried to force himself into that shirt and find himself suffocating.
Dread was an old friend but it had grown more malicious behind the scenes of what the teenager had been living in.
Perchance he would defeat dread, one day.
Or maybe, dread would defeat him.