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“Good morning, handsome!” James beams as he walks up to the coffee kiosk and Regulus groans.
This is both the best and the worst part of Regulus’ day and James Potter is the reason for both.
“How are you this loud and obnoxious first thing in the morning?” Regulus mumbles.
“Reg, it’s 9:30, that’s hardly first thing in the morning.” James says as he leans against the counter.
“It’s first thing in my morning.”
Regulus’ shift has barely started but James has been here for hours; the Zookeepers come in around 6am to tend to the animals, but the coffee kiosk takes significant less time to open up. On one hand, seeing James’ beautiful smile first thing in the morning is a great way to start the day, but then he opens his mouth, and the most ridiculous nonsense spills out—
“Well, you could always come in early instead of having a lie in and I’ll let you play with my lions.” James wiggles his eyebrows, and Regulus gives him an unimpressed look. “What? You can. I’m not lion to you.”
“How do you not get tired of those horrible puns?” Regulus rolls his eyes and leans his hip on the counter, mirroring James on the other side of it.
“Eh, it’s like the Sirius joke, it’s funny every time.” James shrugs.
“I strongly disagree.”
“Hmm… You sure that’s not just your pride talking?” James smirks.
Regulus opens his mouth with a snarky response on the tip of his tongue, but he’s cut off when Pandora walks up behind him.
“Good morning, gorgeous!” James says to Pandora with another bright smile. A smile that makes Regulus weak in the knees even when it’s not directed at him.
“And a marvelous morning to you, my fine, flirty friend!” Pandora says dramatically.
“Well, at least someone appreciates my flirting.” James says as he winks at Pandora.
“Oh, trust me, it’s appreciated.” Pandora tells him then turns to the back counter ignoring Regulus hissing her name with a murderous glare. His glares have no effect on Pandora anyway, so he sighs and turns back to James whose smile has grown impossibly wider.
“What monstrosity do you want today, Potter?” Regulus grumbles.
Most of the Zookeepers have a break right before the Zoo opens and several of them make their way over to the kiosk for their morning—technically mid-morning for them—coffee. Everyone gets the same thing every morning, which is what Pandora is working on behind him, but James gets a different, cavity-inducing drink every day.
“Hmm…” James hums tapping his finger on his chin and Regulus rolls his eyes at the dramatics. “Can I get an iced caramel latte, extra caramel, extra whip, and white chocolate drizzle on top… oh, and can you add some of those chocolate shaving things on top also!” James says excitedly. “Please.” He adds with a sweet smile that Regulus tries not to react to. It is completely unfair how beautiful this man is when he smiles.
“God, let me just pour pure sugar directly in your mouth, that would be less sweet.” Regulus snarks, scrunching his nose in disgust. He doesn’t realize what he said until he sees James smirking.
“Where and when, Reggie?” James says in a low voice, lifting his eyebrows as he leans a little further over the counter.
Regulus does not dignify him with a response, he just grumbles under his breath and turns to start making James’ horrific drink.
“Sooo… speaking of where and when—” James starts, and his voice suddenly sounds a little shaky. Regulus keeps his back turned and sighs, planning to ignore whatever James says next. “Here. Tomorrow. 6pm.” That would have been a very easy thing to ignore if it weren’t for the small gasp he heard from Pandora.
Regulus looks over at her, furrowing his eyebrows and she’s looking at him with bright eyes and clearly trying to contain a smile. Regulus gives her a very confused look and she—not so subtly—nods her head towards James. Regulus narrows his eyes at her and she nods more firmly until he sighs and turns back to face James.
“What?” Regulus says as dryly as possible.
“I was wondering if you happen to be free tomorrow evening? There’s a wedding happing here and I would very much like to escort you as my date.” James says with complete sincerity, looking at Regulus so sweetly and so hopefully it takes him a moment to register what James actually said. Once the words sink in, Regulus looks at James with the same confusion he gave to Pandora a moment ago.
“A wedding?... Here?... At the zoo?... And you want me to be your date?” Regulus asks slowly, each question more incredulous than the last.
“Yes.” James answers with a nod.
“Whose wedding?” Regulus narrows his eyes skeptically at James.
“I would like for you to join me for the nuptials of Mr. Burton and Miss Taylor.” James crosses one arm in front of him and one arm behind his back and bows his head slightly.
Regulus’ jaw drops and he blinks at James several times. He turns his head to look back at Pandora, who turns around very quickly pretending she’s not listening to the conversation happening two feet away from her. Regulus turns back to face James, who still has the biggest smile on his face, and Regulus just stares at him for a moment.
“Bur… Burton and Taylor? As in… As in your lions, Burton and Taylor?” Regulus stumbles to get the question out through his shock and confusion. Of all the things he thought James was going to say, a lion’s wedding was nowhere on the list.
“Yes!” James says again, this time beaming with pride.
“James, are you honestly inviting me to a lion’s wedding? That’s… that’s not even a real thing.” Regulus says.
“It’s totally a real thing!” James defends himself. Regulus sighs and crosses his arms over his chest.
“So, you want our first date to be to an animal’s wedding?” Regulus confirms with haughty skepticism. James takes no offense as his smile slips into a bit of a smirk.
“Are you implying there’ll be a second date?” James puts both hands on the counter and leans closer to Regulus. Regulus wills his cheeks not to blush as he puts his hands on James’ shoulders and slowly pushes him to stand back up.
“I’m not implying anything.” Regulus says firmly. “I just think a wedding for an animal is a bit ridiculous. Even for you.” Regulus finally turns away from James and goes back to making his drink.
“Oh, c’mon! It’ll be fun!” James whines. “Pandora will be there.” He says like it’s a selling point.
Regulus turns to look at Pandora for confirmation, feeling slightly betrayed.
“I’m doing the decorations!” She tells him proudly as she wiggles her fingers a bit.
“And I’m doing the music!” He hears his brother’s voice and whips back around to see Sirius and Remus walking up to the kiosk. Of course, now is when everyone else starts showing up. “And, I’m obviously a best man. C’mon Reggie! It’ll be fun!” Sirius parrots James’ earlier statement and Regulus roll his eyes then looks to Remus for support in the midst of this insanity.
“I’m officiating.” Remus sighs.
“What?!” Somehow this is more shocking to Regulus than the actual wedding.
“Your brother can be very persuasive.” Remus tells him and Sirius wiggles his eyebrows. Regulus grimaces and groans, he did not need to know that. “Plus, the last time I left them alone for something like this their lions ended up being purple for a week.” Remus adds as he picks up the coffee Pandora made for him. He thanks her and leans against the other end of the counter.
“Purple?” Regulus raises both eyebrows, looking from Remus to Sirius then to James.
“We didn’t know the blueberries would stain!!” James tries to justify sounding like he’s said this several times before. Regulus rolls his eyes and looks back to Remus.
“Do I even want to know?” Regulus deadpans.
“Probably not.” Remus says, matching his tone.
“Anyway…” James draws Regulus’ attention back to him then lowers his voice like that will prevent the others from hearing him. “It doesn’t have to be a date if you don’t want. But it will be fun. You should come.” James whispers sincerely and lightly taps the back of Regulus’ hand that’s resting on the counter. Regulus glances down at their hands then back up to James. His eyes are filled with so many emotions that Regulus gets lost in his gaze for a moment and he almost forgets that the others are standing there. Almost—
“Yeah, Reggie! You should come!” Barty bellows as he and Evan walk up beside James. Regulus clears his throat and steps away from James, turning to the back counter to hide the blush he knows is coloring his cheeks.
“You guys are going to this thing?” Regulus asks Evan and Barty incredulously as they go to pick up their drinks.
“Uh, yeah... free booze.” Evan says like it’s obvious.
“Booze?” Regulus looks to James again.
“It’s a wedding, Reg! There will obviously be champagne.” James tells him, also sounding like Regulus is the one being ridiculous in this conversation.
“How am I the only one who didn’t know about this thing?” Regulus asks to no one in particular and sees all of them share awkward glances.
“Well, it was sort of last minute.” Pandora starts.
“But James was supposed to invite you a week and a half ago.” Remus looks at James like a teacher scolding a student for not turning in their homework.
“And we were under strict orders not to tell you about it before James asked you.” Barty says as he hops up on the counter.
“But we didn’t think it would take him until the day before to work up the nerve to ask.” Sirius rolls his eyes at James.
“I think it’s cute that he was nervous.” Pandora chimes in.
“I think he’s a simp.” Evan says under his breath.
“Alright, I think he gets it.” James cuts them off and Regulus thinks he can see a bit of a blush on James’ cheeks now. Regulus tries not to find this incredibly adorable as he slides James’ drink across the counter to him. James leans in when he picks up his coffee, “Just think about it, yeah?” James says softly, and his fingers brush against Regulus’ as he takes his drink. Regulus looks up at James and gives him a small nod and can’t seem to help the way his lips tick up in a shy smile.
James gives Regulus one last smile as he walks off with Sirius and Remus in one direction, Barty and Evan head in the opposite direction and Regulus and Pandora are left with only minutes to tidy their kiosk before the zoo officially opens. This is a good thing because it means Regulus can avoid talking about this, at least for a little while.
“Not now.” Regulus tells Pandora when she gives him a knowing look out of the corner of her eye.
“Why are you so nervous all of a sudden?” Pandora asks him as they’re walking over to the Lion Camp. “I thought you told him it wasn’t a date?”
“I didn’t really tell him one way or the other. I said I would go, and he asked if he could come over and meet me so we could walk over together, and I said ‘no’ to that. But I’m not sure if that implies anything.” Regulus explains.
“Do you want it to be a date?”
“I… I don’t know, that’s why I didn’t specify. But I also didn’t specify that it wasn’t a date. So now I don’t know what it is, or what he thinks it is.” Regulus groans.
“Honestly, I don’t think it matters right now.” Pandora says simply and Regulus gives her a questioning look. “Right now, we’re all just hanging out together, which we’ve done a million times. If you end up not wanting it to be a date, you have us there as a buffer. Which I think he did on purpose, because he knows you and wants you to be comfortable.” Pandora pauses for a moment before continuing. “But I really don’t know why you don’t want it to be a date? He likes you, you’ve been pining for ages, just—”
“We don’t know that he likes me like that.” Regulus interrupts her and she stops walking so abruptly that Regulus has to turn and walk back to her a bit. “What?”
“You’re joking, right?” She looks at him quizzically. “You’re not joking? Hun, he likes you. He wouldn’t have asked you, specifically as a date, if he didn’t like you. He wouldn’t be the first one to come over every morning just to spend ten extra minutes with you if he didn’t like you. He wouldn’t stare at you like you hung the stars if he didn’t like you—”
“He does not stare at me like that.” Regulus can feel himself blushing.
“Do you know how you stare at him?” Regulus gives her a half-hearted glare but doesn’t answer. “He stares at you the same way.” Pandora links her arm in his and they start walking again.
“I just…” Regulus sighs. “I don’t know.” He mumbles.
“Let’s just play it by ear and you can figure it out as you go.” Pandora says positively.
“Yeah, because that sounds like something I’d be good at.” Regulus responds sarcastically.
They walk into the observation deck of the Lion Camp and Regulus stops in his tracks. The first thing he notices is the amount of people there; there’s probably at least fifty people mingling with each other in small groups or gathered around tables with food or hassling Barty and Evan who are—not surprisingly—monopolizing the drinks table. There are twinkle lights strung across the ceiling, a flower garland along the front banister of the overlook, and tasteful balloons surrounding a beautiful banner that reads “Congratulations Burton & Taylor.” There are classic rock love songs playing softly in the background and Regulus internally rolls his eyes at Sirius’ choice of music. This is… not what he was expecting at all.
“Dora, what is this?” He whispers.
“It’s a lion’s wedding, Reg!” She says excitedly.
“But it’s… I mean… There are so many people… And there’s…” He trails off gesturing to everything around them. “Why are they doing all this?” He asks.
“The Zookeepers do random get-togethers every few months. I think they normally just go to a bar or something, but James and Sirius were in charge this month, so it turned into this.” Pandora also gestures to everything. “And because it’s here, they invited other departments to come also. So, here we are! What do you think?” She asks him.
“It’s…” Regulus looks around again and just shakes his head a little. “It’s definitely something. But the decorations are beautiful, you did a lovely job.” He tells her honestly.
“Wait until you see the flower arch where B&T will stand!” Pandora says proudly, but Regulus gives her a questioning look when she says ‘B&T.’ “Burton and Taylor, Reg.” She rolls her eyes and starts pulling him towards the front banister.
The observation deck looks out over the entire Lion Camp—which is massive—but right below them is a resting area with several large rocks that the lions like to lounge on. Pandora is pointing between two of the rocks where Regulus assumes her flower arch is, but that is not what Regulus is looking at.
How could Regulus look anywhere else when James is running his hand through a lion’s mane wearing a fitted black suit. Regulus’ jaw drops as his eyes follow the line of James’ hand, up the length of his arm, over his bicep and along his shoulders. The suit jacket stretches across his back just the right amount to accentuate his broad shoulders every time he reaches his arm to pet the lion. The jacket hangs open in the front and James is wearing a burgundy button down with the top three buttons undone showing just a bit of chest hair. James sits down on his haunches in front of the lion and his trousers hug his thighs so tightly Regulus has to pulls his bottom lip between his teeth to stop what would probably be a very embarrassing sound from escaping.
“You alright there?” Regulus startles when Barty appears beside him.
“Yes. Fine.” Regulus says but his voice comes out a little too high and he has to clear his throat. “Fine.” Regulus says again and Barty chuckles as he leans on the banister in front of them.
“Oh, I get it. All three of them clean up pretty good.” Barty hums and earns an elbow in his side from Evan. “What? Am I wrong?” Barty gestures in front of them and Evan glares at him but doesn’t deny it.
Regulus notices for the first time that Sirius, Remus and another lion are also down there. Regulus was so distracted by James and the lion he’s with, there could have been twenty other lions, and he wouldn’t have noticed. Regulus has seen James with these lions countless times, but he’s never seen James in a suit with these lions. Not only does James look jaw droppingly gorgeous in his suit, there’s also something different about how he’s interacting with the lion. He’s smoother, sleeker, calm yet still commanding in all his movements. The way his hand glides over the lion’s mane, the way he gracefully kneels in from of him, the way he… clips a bow tie under his chin? Okay, there may be something different about today, but he’s still James, and Regulus can’t help but smile at that.
And of course, this is the moment James stands up and turns to look up at them. He catches Regulus’s eye. Catches Regulus watching. Catches Regulus smiling. And Regulus almost feels embarrassed, but then James smiles and it’s one of the best smiles Regulus has ever seen from him—and that’s saying something. His smile is big and bright but it’s also so saccharine and affectionate with a little extra sparkle behind his eyes. And he's smiling at Regulus. Smiling because of Regulus. Smiling because Regulus smiled at him first. And Regulus has to actively work to keep his own smile under control. Which is becoming increasingly difficult the longer they stare at each other, but Regulus can’t seem to tear his eyes away.
They don’t break eye contact until Sirius walks over and slaps James on the shoulder. He follows James’ line of sight, and when he sees Regulus, he dramatically rolls his eyes putting his entire head into the movement. He slaps James one more time then stomps off behind one of the large rocks. James looks back and gives Regulus one more small, amused smile before leading the lion and following Sirius.
The “ceremony” itself is short and sweet; James walks down a path leading Burton then Sirius follows leading Taylor, and they meet under a beautiful flower arch in front of Remus. Remus reads note cards clearly written by James and Sirius and manages to only roll his eyes six times and only laughs out loud once. At the end, James has Burton reach a paw in front of him and Sirius has Taylor put her paw on top of his and Regulus has to admit, it is kind of adorable. Remus then pronounces them, “Burton and Taylor… because they don’t have last names… because they’re lions.” And he rolls his eyes one more time. And that’s it.
“Is that it?” Barty asks.
“Thank you all for coming! Eat, drink, cake in thirty minutes!” Sirius yells, then pulls a small remote from his pocket and turns the music up before he and James lead the lions back to their indoor habitat.
“I guess that’s it.” Evan answers.
“Drinks?” Barty and Evan say at the same time and walk back over to the drinks table.
“So, that’s a lion wedding?” Regulus ask Pandora.
“That’s a lion wedding.” She nods.
It’s about half an hour later when James, Sirius and Remus join them in the observation deck. Sirius walks in first carrying a large cake and Regulus watches him walk over to place it on one of the tables. When Regulus turns back to the doors his breath hitches and he feels his knees go a little weak. James in standing in the doorway and sadly he’s changed out of his suit, but now he’s wearing dark jeans that are just tight enough to accentuate those perfect thighs. He’s still wearing the burgundy button down with three buttons undone, but now the sleeves are rolled up exposing his forearms that he puts on full display as he runs his hand through his hair.
James scans the crowd and smiles when he makes eye contact with Regulus. He stays where he is but nods his head gesturing for Regulus to come over. Regulus’ feet seem to move on their own and before he even realizes it, he’s making his way through the crowd over to James.
“Hey.” James says softly once Regulus is in front of him.
“Hey.” Regulus responds just as soft. “Are you coming in?” Regulus asks a little awkwardly when James makes no move to join the party.
“I… Do you maybe want to go for a walk? Get out of the crowd for a bit?” James asks him after a beat of silence.
“Uh… Sure.” Regulus says with a hesitant nod.
The pathway around the Lion Camp is lined with trees and flowers on either side. The sun is just starting to set, casting a golden hue between the trees and creating shadow patters on the path. It’s actually quite lovely when it’s not filled with excited, screaming children and stressed parents.
Regulus is focusing on the shadows in front of him and trying to calm all the racing thoughts in his head. He still doesn’t know if this is a date. Or if he wants it to be a date. Or what James thinks it is. Or what Regulus thinks of James. Regulus thinks a lot of things about James, and he has for a very long time. He wouldn’t exactly say he’s been pining, as Pandora puts it. He would just say he’s… hopelessly in love but he doesn’t know how James feels about him, so Regulus keeps all his feelings to himself, choosing to love James from a distance so he doesn’t get hurt… Okay, so maybe he’s been pining. There’s a part of Regulus that knows—or thinks he knows—that James does like him. He’s not blind, he sees what Pandora keeps talking about. But he also knows that James flirts with everyone and is a generally charming person. Yes, James flirts with Regulus almost every day, but this is the first time he’s specifically asked him on a date. He's hinted at it, joked about it, but never officially asked until yesterday. And even then, what does that mean? Is it just a one-off date? Does he want more than—
“Anything I can help with?” James interrupts his spiraling thoughts.
“What?” Regulus asks without looking at James.
“I can see your mind working over there and I just didn’t know if it was anything I could help with.” James says.
“Oh… uh… no, just thinking… Sorry.” Regulus apologizes when he looks around and realizes how far they’ve walked and how long he must have been quiet.
“No need to apologize, I like watching you think.” Regulus can see James smiling out of the corner of his eye and he finally turns to look at him.
“You like watching me think?” Regulus questions, raising a curious eyebrow at James.
“Yeah.” James smiles. “Your eyebrows pinch together sometimes, and you get these cute little lines, right here.” James lightly brushes his finger between Regulus eyebrows. Regulus inadvertently pinches his eyebrows together making James’ smile grow. “Yeah, like that.” Regulus glares at him but James just chuckles fondly.
They fall into a comfortable silence and walk for a few more minutes until the trees stop and the path opens up to a beautiful view of the entire Lion Camp below them. James nods slightly towards the low wall that surrounds the camp, and they walk over and find a spot to lean against it.
“Sooo…” James says slowly, and it’s a mix between casual and awkward that only James could make seem utterly endearing.
“So.” Regulus answers, biting the inside of his cheek to hide his smile.
“What did you think of your first lion wedding?” James asks.
“First?” Regulus turns and leans his hip against the wall and looks at James incredulously.
“Well, who knows—” James also turns to face Regulus. “We’ve got a few more lions. Plus, a whole zoo full of animals. Word spreads fast around here, soon they’ll all be wanting weddings.”
“Is that what all our dates are going to be? Just a bunch of animal weddings?” Regulus snarks without thinking and doesn’t realize what he said until he sees James’ face break out into a wide grin. Regulus did not mean to say that, and he can instantly feel his cheeks heating up.
“Does that mean this is a date then?” James smirks.
Regulus tries his best to glare at James, but he knows it won’t be very effective with how red his cheeks must be. So, he pinches his eyebrows together, trying to think of the best way to respond. James continues to smile as he steps forward and uses his thumb to smooth the lines between Regulus’ eyebrows. Regulus tries to bat his hand away, but James catches Regulus’ wrist and uses it to pull him closer. James’ other hand lands on his hip to steady the movement and Regulus makes no attempt to back away.
James’ smile shifts into something softer as they gaze into each other’s eyes and James lifts his hand to tuck a loose curl behind Regulus’ ear. He lets his hand linger on Regulus’ cheek and Regulus can’t help but lean into the touch. James smiles at the small movement, and Regulus’ eyes flick down to his smile. James licks his lips before taking a slow, steady breath.
“I really like you, Reg.” James whispers as he brushes his thumb on Regulus’ cheek. “And I know this was sort of a ridiculous first date. But I was thinking maybe this could be a pre-first date.”
“A pre-first date?” Regulus raises his eyebrows.
“Yeah, like a warm up.” James shrugs and Regulus chuckles softly under his breath before James continues. “But if you’d want to, if you’d let me, I’d really love to take you on a real first date.” James smiles softly.
As he thinks about what he wants to say, Regulus suppresses the urge to pinch his eyebrows together so James doesn’t try to smooth out the lines again. But in this moment, he realizes—he kind of wants him to. And he wants James’ thumb to keep brushing his cheek. He wants James to keep holding him. He wants James to keep looking at him and Regulus never wants to stop looking back. And, yeah, he wants this to be a date—or a pre-date, whatever that is.
“I guess this can be a pre-first date.” Regulus tells him, biting his bottom lip to hide his smile while James’ smile gets impossibly wider.
“Yeah?” James asks.
“Yeah…” Regulus nods. “…And I’d love to go on a real first date also.” He adds, and this time he doesn’t try to hide his smile.
Regulus continues to smile as the hand on his hip moves to the small of his back and James pulls him in to close the distance between them. Regulus goes willingly and starts to lean in but pauses when they’re only inches apart and leans back just a bit.
“No. Animals.” Regulus says firmly while pointing a stern finger at James.
“No animals.” James chuckles and shakes his head.
Regulus nods once and lets his hand fall to James’ shoulder then slides it to the back of his neck. They close the distance between them again and this time Regulus doesn’t pause when he leans in for a soft, slow kiss.
"Home is where you are, and I want to come home.”
- Richard Burton to Elizabeth Taylor