Work Text:
James grits his teeth when he sees Harry's candy-sticky face, but he pulls up a smile for his son when he runs up to him, because it's not his fault. Kids like candy. They'll eat so much of it that it makes them sick and not learn the lesson to eat less candy, they'll just think they randomly got sick that day and do it again in the morning. It's not Harry's fault; he's not going to be upset with him.
He will however have to talk to Sirius about this, because it's a weekly occurrence that isn't seeing an end.
James knows that he's short over dinner. He tries not to be, but the situation is infuriating.
Harry goes down to bed-- not easily, but he does-- and Sirius turns to James. "What's wrong?"
He takes a deep breath. "I know that you love your brother and it's not easy to talk to him about shit, but this is getting ridiculous. Actually, we've passed ridiculous and we're into the territory of me wanting to throttle him."
"What happened?"
"As far as I can tell? He gave Harry unfettered access to a bag of candy."
"Again?" Sirius groans.
"Again. You saw how little he ate at dinner, it sodding ruined his appetite, and he's going to wake up starving."
Sirius sighs, rubbing at his temples. "I'll talk to him."
"Do you want me to come?"
"No, he'll just get defensive." He sounds exhausted. He was in a good mood before this and was hoping for a little 'adult time' for him and James, but he isn't going to get that and also get through to Regulus. He gives James a quick kiss and then heads upstairs.
Regulus can't live alone but likes his space. Two stories feels a ridiculous indulgence to Sirius, but it's a good compromise to the living situation with the four of them. Harry, James, and Sirius all have their bedrooms downstairs, with Regulus's on the second floor. There's no further separation of rooms after that, but what the future will bring as Harry grows is anyone's guess. For now, it works, and that's good enough for them.
Regulus opted to not eat dinner with them tonight, so Sirius hasn't seen him since he left for work this morning. He knocks on his door and hopes that he answers it, because if he has to put this conversation off for tomorrow, he's going to be in a sour mood. Luckily, Regulus does call for him to enter, so that's one part easily taken care of.
"Oh, Sirius." He's sitting atop his duvet with a book in hand, and when he sees his brother, he sticks a bookmark in the open page.
"Hey. You got a minute?"
Regulus nods and sets his book to the side.
"I'm tired, so I can't really think of a better way to say this, but you've got to stop giving Harry so many fucking sweets."
Regulus blinks at him. "Why?"
"It's ruining his appetite, for one. He didn't eat all of his dinner. He's either going to wake up in the middle of the night because he's so hungry, or he's going to be starving when he gets up at his normal time."
"You don't know that for sure; you're guessing."
"I'm bloody not, actually. This isn't the first time it's happened, Regulus. It's happened so many times I can't fucking count them all, and I never said anything to you before because I didn't want you to make it into something it's not, but you've got to stop. Why do you do it, anyways? You're not an idiot; surely you know that a kid can't survive on candy alone."
"I thought he'd eat both," Regulus says, shrugging one shoulder. He looks a little troubled about the situation, which helps. "Can't I give him less? I don't feel right about him going without any at all."
"We're not starving him of all desserts," Sirius replies, rolling his eyes. He wants to be nice and understanding about this, but right now, he's just frustrated. "I don't know why your mind went there."
"It's what our parents did."
Sirius's mouth twists. "Do you think I'm like them? Really? Or James?"
"No." Regulus sighs, knees drawing up. "Our parents were so... conditional."
It's obvious he needs a second to think, so Sirius stays quiet. He feels a little bad about it, but he's not in the mood for a heart to heart. He's sure he'll be happy for this come morning, and even sad that he's not giving this due attention.
"I don't want Harry to feel anything like we did, you know? I remember wanting so much. And it's- I don't even mean like, wanting a new toy every week or wanting to go to a friend's and they wouldn't let me, but sometimes I look back and it feels like I never got anything I wanted."
"Yeah."
"Like I was always yearning for something and asking for it and never got anything. You know what I mean?"
"Yeah." Sirius has thought similar things, like he was always desperate for something that his parents withheld when they could've given it. It doesn't come up very often for him though. Now, he has James and Harry and Regulus as his family, so it's nothing like growing up was-- and Regulus as an adult is nothing like he was as a teenager or kid, so being around him doesn't feel the same as back then. He takes a deep breath and says, "I get it. Really, I do. When Harry asks for a biscuit right before dinner, I want to give it to him because I know he'll smile at me and be happy. But we're adults, Regulus. We know that you can't give a kid every single thing they want. The way our parents went about it was shit, but there has to be a happy medium in there, and that's what we're trying to do with Harry."
"Makes sense," Regulus says glumly, leaning his head into one hand. "I suppose I went a bit overboard with it anyways. You know, no grandparents, only me for an uncle, no aunts, no cousins and no chance for cousins, either. I'm the only extended family he has. I wanted to make up for it as much as I could."
"I don't mind you spoiling him. It's your duty as his uncle," Sirius says with a smirk, "but for now, no sweets. If you think you can learn to tone it down, maybe we can bring that back on Saturday's or summat. Deal?"
"Deal."
"Good." Sirius gives him a quick hug and bids him goodnight.
James is wary when he gets to their room, clearly not sure how well their conversation went.
"All sorted," Sirius tells him, following it with a lingering kiss.
James smiles but puts a pin in that for the moment because he needs to clarify 'all sorted' in this case. "He's going to stop giving Harry sweets?"
"Aye, he promised. I told him he can spoil him in other ways."
He bites back a groan at that. "Your brother has a tendency to go overboard. What're we going to do when the next thing gets out of control?"
"Talk to him, probably," Sirius says, a touch dryly. He's tired. He wanted to get laid tonight, but he's really not sure it's going to happen. He moves to change into sleep clothes.
James senses his change in mood immediately and follows after him, wrapping his arms around his waist from behind when he stops by their dresser. "Ignore me," he mutters, kissing Sirius's neck. "You're right, I know you're right." He kisses him again. "Thank you."
Sirius leans into him. "I don't need to be told I'm right about everything, you know."
"You do when you are," James counters.
He snickers. "Well, I do like how it sounds, so feel free to keep saying it."
"I think this can really work for us," James says later, after they've had a nice time in bed and Sirius told him exactly what him and Regulus talked about.
"How do you mean?"
"Regulus wants to be a little more involved-- make up for Harry only having one person as extended family. Why not ask him to babysit every now and then so we can have a date night?"
"Huh. There's an idea." They never considered asking him to babysit for them. Sirius had always assumed that Regulus wouldn't want to, but James has a point.
Regulus is happy to babysit for them "-but only once a month."
That's more often than Sirius or James thought to hope for, and they happily agree.
Harry owns more toys than any toddler rightly should after a few months of the new understanding, but so far, there's no real problems with him over it. There's wonder in Sirius's voice as he says this to James.
James laughs and replies, "I guess we'll see how long this will work in our favour."
"I think a while longer."
"Mm, for sure." He grabs Sirius and pulls him in for a kiss. They both love Harry more than anything, but ever since they reached this agreement with Regulus, they've had more time for each other. Less stress overall. It's wonderful.
Harry sniffles and looks up at Regulus. He doesn't say a word; he knows by now that he doesn't have to. Smart one, their son. He doesn't push when he knows he's won, and looking at Uncle Regulus with those big eyes of his is a win.
Regulus folds immediately and pats his nephew's head with a quiet-- so as to not be overheard by the parents-- promise to buy him a new toy to replace this one.
James and Sirius don't need to overhear the promise to know that it's happening, however. It's a commonplace exchange between uncle and nephew these days. Sirius thinks it's sweet; James agrees, but the novelty has worn off, leaving him to roll his eyes when he sees Harry with another addition to his army of stuffies-- really, if he took the care to count, he's sure there would be a battalion's worth.
"Should we start worrying yet?" Sirius asks James in an undertone as Regulus and Harry hug-- their son burying his face into his uncle's shoulder.
James glances over, then shakes his head. "I think we're still good."
"Good," he replies, sneaking a kiss.