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“Please Reg,” Sirius begs over the phone, “We really need some more hands to help out. You can bring your friends and hang out.”
“Where will I be helping out?”
“That’s what we’ll talk about when we figure out how many people are going to help us.” Sirius groans, “We’ve got all of our guys doing events and several people helping us out, all the girls are, but that’s still not enough people.”
“Can I ask what everyone is doing?”
“Not until we know that you’re helping. Like I said, you can bring your friends.” Someone, it sounds like Remus, says something that Regulus can’t quite hear and Sirius goes, “Right! Dorcas is coming to help out since Marlene is doing an event.”
“Marlene is?”
“Marlene is a frat bro and a half.” Sirius says, almost incredulously, “She wanted to do it because, in her words, ‘it’s an excuse to strut around in a bra and flaunt how untouchable she is to men.’”
“Sounds just like Marlene.” Regulus nods, “I’ll ask my friends about it and get back to you.”
…
Unfortunately for Regulus, Barty and Evan will take any excuse to ogle Regulus’ brother and his friends’ bodies when they’re half naked -- as much as they have both admitted they would never date any of them, other than maybe James, they can both admit that they’re all incredibly attractive -- so they accept and Pandora claims that she was already going since Lily and Mary were helping out. Meaning that Regulus ends up going.
Which is how Regulus finds himself walking up to Sirius’ frat house with his friends -- sans Dorcas since she’s already there with Marlene. James is the one to open the door, smiling at the four of them easily, “Welcome, you guys. Come on in. Everyone’s in the living room, Remus has a whiteboard.” They raise their eyebrows at the last part, a teasing lilt in their tone. They move out of the way, allowing the four of them into the house and following behind them while they make their way to the living room.
It’s busy in there. The Prewett brothers are shoving at each other against the wall in the back of the room, and Frank and Alice are standing near them, rolling their eyes. Sirius is lounging on the couch, taking up most of it. Remus is standing in front of a rolling whiteboard with a marker in his hands, writing a couple things down. Peter is sitting in front of the couch not paying any attention to a thing that’s going on, Marlene and Dorcas are cuddling on the couch opposite Sirius. Lily and Mary are standing near Remus, talking to him while he’s writing.
“Our last friends have arrived!” James announces loudly once they walk into the room behind the group.
“Perfect, please find a place to sit.” Remus smiles, “Hello Reg, Pandora.” Regulus nods in acknowledgment and the four of them find places to sit, Regulus watching James perch on the arm of the couch near Sirius in the way that reminds him of a barbarian. “Alright, let’s go over who’s doing what and who needs help where.” He moves out of the way of the board so everyone can see it.
There’s a list of names and events that are being held written:
Car Wash - Gideon, Fabian
Kissing Booth - James, Marlene, Dorcas
Dunk Tank - Sirius, Pete, Remus
Bake Sale - Frank, Alice
Balloon Pop -
Ring Toss -
Raffle - Lily, Mary
“Here’s what we have now.” Remus explains, “Everything is self explanatory. We’ll talk actual prices for each thing when we’re setting up the sections but I think a good base price for everything is five. The bake sale will have varying prices, James and Marlene can do five for a kiss, ten for something more passionate, I don’t know.” He slams his marker against the word ‘raffle’, “We’ll hold several raffles. The main one will be for a prize, and we’ll run it three times over the course of the event. There will also be a raffle for each of our main events that will be run more often. A free ticket to the kissing booth, the dunk tank, or a baked treat of their choice. Lily and Mary know this and will explain it. Any questions. All of the money that we earn in each place is donated to a charity of the people’s choosing other than the raffle, that’s going back into the school and the frat.”
“How will the kissing booth work?” Barty asks, jerking his chin in the direction of the board.
“Marls and I are gonna get payed to kiss people,” James shrugs, throwing their head back, “We’ll also have little slips that Dorcas is gonna give out that people can pay and extra dollar to give us their number. Neither of us are probably going to call any of those people, but it’s money.”
Marlene laughs, “If people want to pay to give their number to a girl with a girlfriend, that’s their fault.”
“Exactly.” Remus nods, “Now, for you four. What you do is up to you and who needs help where. Does anyone need help with their station?”
“We might need help keeping our supplies refilled.” Gideon says, “So it would be nice there.”
“I can help with that.” Barty says, looking the twins up and down, “It’d be my pleasure.” Remus laughs and writes Barty’s name next to ‘Car Wash’.
“I can help with either the balloon pop or the ring toss.” Pandora smiles.
“You should do the ring toss.” Lily says, leaning towards where the girl has settled, “It’s gonna be the closest to the raffle area so we can hang out with you while we’re not doing the raffle and so we can get out of the sun.” Pandora nods, seeming excited at the prospect of getting to hang out with her two crushes -- and excited that they seem just as willing to be around her as she is with them.
“I guess that leaves me and Reg to the balloon pop.” Evan says, throwing his arm around Regulus’ shoulders.
“Or,” Dorcas cuts in, her eyes leveling on Regulus, “I could always use some help sorting with the numbers. I think it would be easier for people to know who to go to for the numbers for James and ‘Lene. Y’know, go to the emo boy to give your number to James and the hottie to give your number to ‘Lene.”
“You should do it!” Pandora cheers, beaming at her best friend. And Regulus, despite knowing just what the girls are doing to him, can never say no to that look from Pandora so he ends up agreeing. Remus writes down the final roles for everyone and gets to explaining when it will happen and what needs to be done before the event itself takes place.
Luckily for Regulus and his classes, James and Marlene end up planning over the kissing booth area and Regulus and Dorcas can step back and focus on their school work, so weeks later, Regulus and Dorcas end up sitting in a small booth just behind where James and Marlene have settled themselves in chairs near the openings of the booth.
The booth itself is much more dramatic than it needs to be. It’s got two windows, one with James’ name over it and the other with Marlene’s. There’s a wooden plank that’s painted with ‘Kiss me’ in bright red right under the windows and a giant red kiss mark just under that. But it’s made into a nice little room with doorways that Regulus and Dorcas are leaning out of on either side with their slips of paper and buckets that they’re going to put the numbers in. Both of them have little bags that they’ll put the money in -- Marlene and James have decided to make it a competition for which of them is more attractive and therefore garnering more kisses. There’s a slip of paper between the two windows explaining the prices -- a fiver for a peck, ten for a longer kiss, and any more than that is negotiable -- and the number slips. It also talks about the charity that they’re donating the money to, a charity that’s fighting for LGBTQ children and against queer suicides and workplace discrimination as both Marlene and James insisted.
“You guys ready for this?” James asks, taking a swig of water and looking over the three of them.
“We’re not doing anything.” Dorcas smiles at them, “You’re the one doing all the work.”
“Yeah, oh my. How horrible it is to kiss people.” James laughs, putting the back of their hand to their forehead, “Such a horrible thing. At least I’m not being dunked in water over and over again.”
“Though I’m sure it would feel good in this heat.” Marlene smiles. She’s wearing a lacy bralette -- it’s the one that Regulus knows drives Dorcas crazy, which is fun -- and a pair of daisy dukes and her hair is tied up in a messy ponytail.
James themself is wearing a pair of cargo shorts and a lightly patterned button up that’s entirely unbuttoned and hanging loosely around their chest -- which is diving Regulus crazy, “Weren’t you going to do the dunk tank?”
“Yeah but my hair takes forever to dry and I have to put in effort to get it to fall in a way that I’m happy.” Marlene whines, “So I’m not doing it.”
James rolls their eyes, “For that reason, I’m surprised that Sirius is doing it.”
Marlene is going to respond, but she’s cut off with a person coming up to the booth and slamming a fiver down on the counter in front of her. Marlene stands and gives them a smirk and stands up, leaning in to kiss them. When they pull away, the person pays Dorcas for a slip and when they walk away, she grins at James, “I got the first kiss of the day~” James just rolls their eyes.
And the day goes on. James and Marlene kiss many people, Regulus and Dorcas chatting in the background when the lines get long enough that neither of them get much of a chance to sit down. At one point Alice comes around with some fresh cupcakes that she pulled out of the oven so they could all have a treat and Regulus goes to fetch them all some food quickly when they have a break.
“How’re you holding up?” Regulus asks Dorcas, “Watching your girlfriend kiss other people?”
Dorcas shrugs, “I know that at the end of the day, I’m getting her in my bed so I’m not too bothered. How’re you holding up watching your massive infatuation kiss other people?”
“I’m… holding.”
“If you really wanted to, you could always pay them to kiss you.” Dorcas winks, “Pay them enough and I’m sure they’ll close the booth just to take you away.”
“Quiet.” Regulus hisses, “They’re literally right fucking there.”
“With their tongue down that chick’s throat.” Dorcas snorts, “And would it even be that bad if they did hear us?”
“Yes, it would be.” Regulus shakes his head and looks away when one of the people James just kissed grabs his attention, handing him some cash. Regulus hands them one of the slips of paper and gestures to the cup of pencils on the counter. They make quick work of filling out the paper and Regulus throws it in the ‘shame bucket’ as the four of them have dubbed it.
Finally, after several minutes, James and Marlene are both free of their lines for the moment and the two of them collapse into their chairs almost simultaneously, “Who knew that being so hot would be so tiring.” Marlene teases, looking over at her girlfriend, “Kiss me?”
“You’re not gonna make me pay?” Dorcas smiles, leaning forward and pulling her girlfriend into a chaste kiss.
When they pull back, Marlene whines and almost moans, “God, your lips are by far the best.”
“And that, Reg,” Dorcas says, her gazing slowly straying from Marlene to Regulus, “Is why I have no issue watching my girlfriend kiss a bunch of other people.” Then she gestures to the bucket next to her, “What are you going to do with all these?”
Marlene shrugs, “Dunno. Make paper mache or something to remind me of just how wanted I am.”
James snorts at that, “Turn it into the shape of lips.”
“It’ll be my little trophy,” the girl smiles lazily, her head lolling back as she takes a moment to guzzle some water, “I’ll make it into the shape of a trophy and buy a little gold plaque for it.”
“What about you, James?” Dorcas asks, turning her gaze onto them.
They think for a second before shrugging themself, “I don’t know. I’m sure I’ll figure something out.”
“Oh? No particular number you want from here?”
James shakes their head, closing their eyes, and god are they fucking attractive. Sitting there splayed out on the chair, dark skin glistening with sweat contrasting beautifully from the dumb ass golden chain that they wear all the time that’s got a little ring on it and hair mussed -- a amalgamation of them running their hands through it, other people running their hands through it, and sweat beading at their hairline and wetting the strands -- into something untamable. Their thin shirt is soaked, both from sweat and from when Sirius went running at them on his break from the dunk tank, meaning the white fabric hides nothing where it sticks to their body, and drapes loosely over their body. Regulus almost considers painting the scene.
“The person that I really want the number of,” James starts, bringing Regulus out of his ogling, “I actually already have but we don’t text, and I sincerely doubt they’d want to kiss me. And even if he did, I don’t think he’d leave his number.”
“You think he’d just kiss and run?” Dorcas pushes, staring directly at Regulus when she says it.
Once again, they shake their head, “Nah. I sincerely doubt he’d kiss me at all in the first place.” They open their eyes and gaze at Regulus, looking his body up and down, before someone shows up at their window and puts down a ten. James meets Regulus’ eye and smiles before they stand up and go to talk to the person, and Regulus swears that he saw them wink as they were turning away but he blames it on the heat.
The person leaves their number and is quickly replaced by yet another person, bringing on another wave for both James and Marlene. Regulus, feeling the heat of James’ gaze on him lingering, stands up, “‘Cas, can you run both of the numbers for me while I grab us some water?” Dorcas nods and he waits until James and Marlene are finished with their people before asking them if they want water.
“Yes, please.” James smiles, reaching down and grabbing their water bottle, “Can you grab me a pastry from Alice, too?” Regulus nods, takes their water bottles, and heads off towards the frat house.
Pandora is in the kitchen when he gets in there, “Hello, Panda.” He takes the lid off his water bottle and starts filling it, “How’s it going at the ring toss?”
The girl smiles at him, “It’s going really good! Lily and Mary asked me out on a date.” At that, Regulus almost drops the almost full bottle in his hands with how fast he whips to look at the girl. She’s got a cute giddy grin on her face and Regulus takes a second to look over her expression before he’s pulled out of it by the water running over his hand where it flows out of the bottle. Regulus curses before emptying some of the water and putting the bottle to the side, immediately pulling the girl into a hug.
“That’s amazing Panda!” He says upon pulling away from the girl, smiling at her softly.
Pandora nods, biting her lip to try and contain her smile -- it doesn’t work, “I’m super happy about it. We’re going on a date on Wednesday.”
“You’ll need to tell me everything, including how they asked you, when we get the chance.” He quickly puts the lid on his water bottle before starting to fill up Dorcas’.
“Of course, how’s it going with James?”
“Excruciating.” Regulus groans, “You try watching the person you’ve been infatuated with since you were thirteen kissing everyone that we go to school with.”
Pandora smiles, “Not everyone, but I do have a massive crush on two girls who are dating and thought that I never had a chance, so I can understand it on some level.”
“I guess.” Regulus sighs, “Dorcas asked them what they were going to do with all the numbers and if there was a person in particular that they might want to keep the number of. This stupid motherfucker said that they had the number of the person that they wanted but that they doubted he would ever kiss him, then they looked directly at me.”
“That must be a good sign!” Pandora cheers while Regulus switches out the water bottles to Marlene’s.
“I wouldn’t be so sure. They’ve flirted with me for years, even while dating people. Who’s to say that they’re actually genuine about it.” He shakes his head and finally starts filling James’ water bottle. It’s a deep green colour absolutely covered in stickers, enough that Regulus is surprised he could even see the base colour of the metal. It’s mostly of jokes and quotes from shows but there’s also a sticker of their favourite band, some of the places that they’ve traveled with their family, and a custom sticker that’s a picture of them, Remus, Sirius, and Regulus from when they were 15, and 14 in Regulus’ case. It’s the only sticker that doesn’t have any other sticker overlaying any part of it.
Regulus refuses to acknowledge the warm feeling that puts in his chest.
When he finishes filling all the water bottles, he takes them and heads outside, calling a goodbye to Pandora. He drops by where Alice and Frank have stationed themselves and steals a couple strawberry pastries that James likes before heading back to the kissing booth and slipping into it. He hands out the waters and the pastries and James moans in delight when they take a bite into it -- which does things to both Regulus’ stomach and heart -- before thanking him.
The day continues on, James and Marlene take a couple breaks to go out and visit with their friends, other people come and visit them. Alice and Frank close up early when they run out of things to sell and Alice no longer wants to bake, then Sirius and Pete finish up with the dunk tank soon after because they’re sick of being submerged in water over and over again. Eventually people stop putting money into the raffles so Lily and Mary finish up as well, helping Pandora with the ring toss for a while.
Eventually, the lines dwindle and slow down to just a couple people every couple minutes instead of a constant stream of people so Marlene and James can finally fully relax.
“How much money did we raise?” James asks, gazing over at Regulus, their eyes flicking to the almost full bucket of numbers.
“We’ll count it when we close down.” Regulus hums, “There are still people walking around, and I imagine there will be a couple more stragglers until Remus kicks everyone from the lawn.”
“I can think of another straggler that might want to kiss James.” Dorcas stage whispers to Marlene, fully aware that she can be heard. James’ gaze snaps to the two of them, brows furrowed in confusion but Marlene waves them away.
“Well I want to close my side down early.” Marlene yawns, “I want to spend as much time with my beautiful beloved as I can tonight.” She grins at Dorcas, “So I’m going to put up a little sign saying so while Dorcas can count the money I raised.” Dorcas nods and breaks out the money that she collected, starting to count while Marlene starts writing something down on a piece of paper.
“Figure out what you’re going to do with your numbers?” James asks her, tilting their head back.
“I’m thinking of burning them in a bonfire while Dorcas and I dance around it naked.” Marlene says, though Regulus can’t tell if she’s joking or being dead serious. James nods seriously like they’re taking it literally, which doesn’t help his understanding.
James is pulled away from the two girls by a couple more people coming through -- a group of very giggly girls that are clearly drunk, if not on their way there -- so they say goodbye to them before paying attention to the girls. Dorcas and Marlene slip out, but before she fully walks away, Dorcas leans over to Regulus and hands him a twenty, “For charity.” Then she winks, and walks to where Marlene is waiting for her. Regulus watches the two of them talk to Remus before disappearing to where Dorcas parked while he’s waiting for the girls to finish drunkenly writing their numbers down before he tosses the slips of paper into the bucket and gives them a terse smile while they walk away.
“I know that you’re tired and done with people, love.” James says, obviously having seen his face, “I’m going to close up here in a couple minutes, right on the hour. So you can start counting the money and I’ll have you help me tear down the booth.” Regulus nods and tucks the twenty that Dorcas gave him under his thigh before pulling out all the money that they made from its little bag and starting to count while James finishes up with their last couple of people before officially closing down.
When Regulus finishes counting, he announces to James, “You win.” James hums so he clarifies, “The competition between you and Marlene. You win.”
“Do I?”
“Mhm, she made 870 while you made 903.”
“I’ll have to text her to let her know.” James grins at him, “So that’s what? 1,773 that we raised in total.”
Regulus pulls out his phone calculator, because he’s never been good at math, and does the math, “Mm, yeah actually. That’s… impressive.”
“I actually really liked math,” James smiles, “I’ve developed a talent for doing math in my head. That’s why all my maths teachers hated me, I never showed my work.”
“That… explains a lot, actually.” Regulus hums, grabbing the bag that Dorcas put all her money in and putting it into his messenger bag so he can keep them safe while they’re cleaning up. He also goes to tuck the twenty in his bag -- he’s not giving it back to Dorcas, even if he doesn’t use it on James. She chose to give him money, he’s taking it -- but he apparently doesn’t do it sneakily enough because James catches it.
“Stealing money from a charity, Reg? That’s low.”
Regulus rolls his eyes, “Cas gave it to me before she and Marlene left.”
“For what? If you don’t mind me asking.”
And Regulus debates on lying to James but then he remembers the way that James looked at him earlier and the jealousy that’s settled itself deep in his chest from the entire day, “So I could give it to you. Be your last customer, y’know.”
“No, I don’t know, Reg.” James smiles, and Regulus just knows that they’re teasing him now, “Could you explain?”
“Maybe I will if you actually fucking kiss me.” Regulus rolls his eyes. James gives him a sly smile before they lean forward and pull the twenty from his hands, their other hand going to his cheek as they pull him into a kiss.
It’s…
It’s awkward since James is standing while Regulus is sitting, the older awkwardly hunched over him, but it’s everything that he’s ever wanted. James is smiling slightly into the kiss, which makes it even more awkward but Regulus doesn’t mind because, truthfully, he can feel himself fighting a smile as well.
James pulls away after a couple seconds, handing the twenty back to Regulus so he can put it in the bag of money, “Make that 923, would you like to pay an extra dollar to give me your number.”
“You already have it, dumbass.” Regulus rolls his eyes, “You do have the ability to text me.”
“And yet you usually ignore me when I do.” James smiles fully, licking their lips before biting their bottom one, “I know that you gave me twenty, and that’s one of my negotiable prices, but I’d like to pack everything up then you can have your way with me.”
“Have my way with you?” Regulus asks, incredulous, “I didn’t think you were that cheap.”
James pushes his shoulder, “For you, you can have your way with me for free. But since you chose to buy my kiss.” They shrug before standing up properly, “Now, help me pack everything up. If you want to carry the chairs and my bucket of numbers in while I break the stand down, that would be lovely.” Regulus nods and starts to haul things into the house while James meticulously breaks down the stand that they hung out in all day, carrying the things off to who knows where.
When they finish up with their cleaning, Regulus takes the two bags of money out of his bag, puts a slip of paper marking who it’s from and the amounts in them before James is walking him towards their room with the bucket of numbers and a grin on their face.
“Can I ask why you’re bringing that with you?” Regulus asks, gesturing to the bucket that they put in the corner of their room.
James just grins at him, “I have an idea for what I want to do with it, it’ll just take me some time.” Before they reach out and pull Regulus to their body, pressing their chests together. All of a sudden, Regulus is incredibly grateful for the outfit that he decided to wear, a cropped tank top and a pair of shorts, because James slots their hands on his waist just where the crop top exposes his skin and his bare stomach is against James’ bare skin. Regulus opens his mouth to respond but is cut off by James pulling him into yet another kiss.
“Fuck me, I’ve wanted to do this for so long,” They nearly whine, pulling back enough to say only that before kissing him again.
Regulus laughs, pulling away then laughing harder when James follows him with their lips, “I doubt you’ve wanted it for any longer than I have.”
“Do we need to make it a competition?” And they finally connect their lips once more.
It’s searing, and James is leaning into Regulus’ space with enough ferocity that it almost knocks Regulus over, their arms coming to properly wrap around his waist and arch him into their body. Regulus melts into them and James guides them back to their bed so Regulus can collapse onto it.
The falling back separates their lips and Regulus hums, “You’re doing a lot more for me for that twenty than you did with any of your customers.”
“You’re special.” James smiles, starting to get on the bed alongside him.
“Don’t let any of your fawning fangirls hear that.” The younger smiles.
James rolls their eyes, “At least they got to kiss me once in their life, because you’re mine now, Reggie.”
“Don’t call me that.” Then he pulls them into a kiss, both of them smiling into it.
And if months later, when they’ve officially gone on dates and gotten together -- much to Sirius’ feigned chagrin -- James comes up to Regulus with a leather bound notebook made with handmade pages, explaining that they turned all the number papers into the notebook to give to Regulus, that’s between the two of them. Even more so when Regulus opens it and finds that James wrote ‘The only number that matters, thanks for letting me kiss you. Your Jamie’ with their number underneath it.