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Regulus Black is not an early bird.
That much is evident from the dark eyebags, the exhaustion that slumps his frame and the cup of coffee always glued to his hand.
He remembers being a child, developing the habit of staying up late. The hours of the night, when everyone else was asleep, their soft snores, the only noise in the house, was the only time he truly felt alive. Something more than a moving corpse.
There was no one to nag at him after midnight, no one tiring him with small talk, no one he had to put up a facade for. It was just him. No Sirius, no mother, no father.
He used the time to breathe, as idiotic as it sounds. He just breathed and breathed and tried not to think about everything happening in his life. He wrote in his journal as well, stupid poems he swore would never be seen by anyone but him. He did everything he wished he could do that day but didn't because he had too many eyes on him.
Those days are well behind him now, he doesn't live in constant fear of his parents, no longer in the grips of that awful house. And still, some habits stay with him.
It's later than 10 in the morning when he says a word. James doesn't mind. Sometimes Regulus doesn't say anything the whole day, but James is happy enough to carry the weight of socializing for both of them.
He is blissfully free of the hold of trauma unlike Regulus and his brother. Regulus hopes he always stays that way, far from anything that could ever change him or cause him harm.
Because god forbid something something or someone so much as touched James Potter. Regulus would have to go to war.
In any case, James doesn't mind Regulus sleeping late. He's more of an early bird. A quidditch habit he never quite let go of. In the mornings they often wave silently to each other, James having just woken up and Regulus heading to bed.
"Baby" Regulus muses to himself as he plays with James' hair. He could never fathom how James slept so well. Honestly, an earthquake wouldn't be able to wake the man up.
"Try to sleep early, darling," James always says. "Go to bed before the sun's already rising"
But the sunrise is Regulus' favorite part of the night. He wants to show James the peacefulness of the night once. He wants to give James the experience, lost in a haze, smelling like a bonfire when he wakes up.
But until then, he just kisses James' hair, "You're too sweet for me"
They're different. Very different. Regulus knows. He has known since Hogwarts.
Regulus takes his whiskey neat, enjoying the way it burns. James usually orders a fruity drink with half the alcohol amount and teases Regulus for being a lightweight when they've had the same number of drinks.
Regulus takes his coffee black, no sugar, no milk. It helps him, even if it makes the beating of his heart a little too fast and loud, and makes his fingers shake because of overconsumption.
James takes his coffee with an ungodly amount of sweetener that makes Regulus gag everytime he sees his boyfriend preparing the drink. James always complains more coffee makes him sleepy, which never made much sense to Regulus. Neither did the fact that more sugar usually helped James balance out his frantic energy.
Regulus goes to bed well after three, mostly when the sun is already painting the sky lighter. He enjoys the burn of his eyes, the hurt in his temples from reading too much, he enjoys the hurt, something to remind him of home.
James goes to bed earlier than a child with a strict mother and a bedtime. He wakes just as early, before the sky lightens up. He likes the cool wind on his cheeks as he goes for a run, always trying to convince Regulus to join him. He's convinced Regulus will give in one day. (He won't)
James is too sweet for Regulus, too sweet for him to believe he deserves it.
James is as bright as the morning. He burns so bright he consumes every part of Regulus' mind. There's no hope trying to outrun his magnetic field. Regulus would know, he's tried it.
Even on his bad days, he could outshine Apollo.
He's soft as the rain, soothing after a hot day, a constant weather in their country.
And he's pretty. Regulus would be a fool to forget that.
It all makes Regulus feel inferior sometimes. He just wishes he could wait until the day he no longer feels that way. Like James deserves better than him. Like one day James will get up and decide he doesn't love Regulus any more.
They're all ugly thoughts, Regulus knows that. And James has his fair share of ugly habits and thoughts. He's not perfect by any means.
Still, sometimes Regulus thinks James is too sweet for him.
"You treat your mouth as if it's Heaven's gate" Regulus scrawls in his journal one night, watching the steady rise and fall of James' chest.