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“What time did you say that your symphony was, James?” Sirius asks. There’s some shuffling on his end of the phone, and James thinks they can hear Remus saying something.
“Thursday at 8.”
A hiss, “Shit… my brother is doing something at the same time…”
James hums, “Go to your brother’s thing.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, it’s no problem.” They shake their head, knowing that Sirius doesn’t see it -- but it’s also a reassurance for themself -- and hum, “You and your brother are still working on your relationship, it would mean more to him if you showed up to his thing. There will always be other nights you can attend my symphony.”
“And you’re sure that you’re alright with it?”
They’re not, this is something that they’ve been excited for their friends to see -- the first time that their friends will actually see them on stage performing. Of course they’ve heard James play once or twice, but that’s not the same. And this was the first time that James was performing in front of a large crowd in years. There’s no fault for them wanting their best friends to be there.
But Sirius needs to be there for his brother, especially since their relationship is still weak. So they swallow their pride and disappointment and hum, “Of course.”
The two of them don’t talk for much longer before they’re hanging up and James is breathing out a sigh in an attempt to not cry. Their face burns because of it. Their friend isn’t here, they can cry without feeling like they’re guilting Sirius. Or maybe it’s because they feel stupid that they’re crying over him not being able to make it to a fucking symphony of all things.
It shouldn’t affect them like it is.
Nonetheless, Thursday is coming and James is loading their violin into the car and driving off to the venue. They refuse to think of the lack of their best friends -- Pete should be there, which is nice -- and instead distract themself with settling their case in the room designated to them, talking to several of the others in the room joyfully, and pulling out and setting up their violin. They take extreme care in putting on the shoulder rest, tightening the bow, and putting rosin on the hairs.
This is their prized possession, their baby. This is the violin that they’ve owned for almost the entire time that they’ve been playing. An old one, given to them by their grandpa -- who had gotten it from his mother -- when they were finally big enough to have a full violin. It’s a nice lightly red stained wood with darker edges and a beautiful, gold embossed fingerboard. So they take good care of it, because they would rather die than lose this family heirloom.
They bring out their sheet music and take a deep breath. Once putting their violin out on their chair on stage, leaving it in the trust of their standmate, they head to the bathroom and go to put themself together.
Regulus is in the bathroom when they get there, standing in front of the mirror and brushing himself off, messing with his curls. James hums and silently walks up to him, gently leaning into his side, “What’s wrong Reg?”
He breathes, making eye contact with James in the mirror, “My brother’s coming tonight.”
“Yeah? I thought that was a good thing?”
Regulus is silent for a moment, leaning forward to brace his hands against the sink, “It is, but… this is the first big performance of mine that he’s ever gone to and I just-” he shakes his head, “I just don’t want to disappoint him. And,” He shakes his head, “I mean, he and I grew up being forced to play the violin and he refuses to even touch it, and here I am...”
“Playing the cello,” James finishes for him, “Making the shitty situation of your childhood your own by turning it into something that you can love. I don’t see how he would ever be upset about that.” They move around him just a bit so they can wrap their arms around his waist and lean their head on his shoulder, “And I don’t think there’s anything you can do to disappoint him, at least from what you’ve told me about him.”
Regulus nods after a couple seconds. He doesn’t say anything for a while, just watches James through the mirror. Then he nods again, “You’re right, sorry.”
“Never apologise for something like that.” They shake their head.
“What about you?”
“Hm?”
“Something’s wrong with you.”
“It’s stupid,” they shake their head.
Regulus finally turns around in their arms, “Do we have to go over this again?”
James smiles softly at them, “No… It’s just… my best mates aren’t able to make it.”
“Oh?”
“I told them not to worry about it, they have another event that was more important for them, so I told them to go.” They shrug with one shoulder, “I’m glad they’re going to the other thing, but it still hurts that they can’t make it, even if I was the one that encouraged them to go to it.”
“A good reason to be upset.” Regulus shakes his head, smiling softly at them now that their own smile has fallen, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, I’ll get over it, I’m sure there’s another one that they’ll be able to make it to.”
“There’s that positivity I know and love.” Regulus hums, pulling James into a gentle, quick kiss. They pull away when someone else enters the bathroom, heading towards the stall after letting them know that they’re being requested onto the stage in a couple minutes. James and Regulus nod and finish making themselves look presentable, heading out of the bathroom and onto the stage again, hand in hand.
They part ways and head to their own respective instruments, facing each other once they sit down. They’re led through their set up and are soon finished with their tuning, by now the auditorium is full and there’s the sounds of shuffling and settling down that manages to peek through the breaks in their consistent sound of bows on strings.
And eventually, the instruments are tuned and the conductor is speaking to the crowd and thanking them for coming, then he turns to the symphony and raises his baton. From then on, James has no time to focus on the fact that Sirius and Remus aren’t watching them, all they can focus on is their playing and making sure that they stay on track with the music.
Next thing James knows they’re finishing up and standing up and bowing, beloved violin in hand. And they’re following the rest of the first violins off of stage and into the room that their case is in. They put their violin away and quickly take it out to their car before heading back in to meet Regulus.
He’s waiting for them by the door that they enter through, and they reach out to grab his hand, “Ready?”
Regulus takes a couple deep breaths before nodding resolutely, “As I’ll ever be I guess.” James smiles gently at him and starts pulling him towards the door to exit backstage. Regulus tells them that his brother is going to be waiting for him by the top of the grand stairs so they head that direction. And James stops short when he sees whos standing there at the top because-
“What the fuck?” James whispers, their brows furrowing.
Regulus stops not far in front of them, “What’s wrong?”
“That’s my fucking best friends, including the ones that weren’t going to make it here.” They gesture to where the two are standing, unsure of what to think. Them being here for James means that they actively went against what James said and missed out on Sirius’ brother’s thing just to see them -- their heart swells at the thought, but they can’t help but be upset on the brother’s behalf. He must be fucking gutted to know that his brother skipped an event that he was invited to.
There’s a moment of silence between the two while Regulus casts his gaze to the top of the stairs, then he barks out a laugh, “Those two? That’s my fucking older brother and his boyfriend.”
“You’re kidding me.” James hums, feeling the edges of a smile come onto their face. Regulus shakes his head, watching as Pete, Sirius, and Remus venture down the stairs towards them.
“Okay, what the fuck,” Sirius says as soon as he’s in ear shot of them, “Why didn’t either of you tell me that you were going to be doing the same thing?”
“We didn’t know.” James shakes their head, accepting the hug that Remus pulls them into while Sirius and Regulus awkwardly embrace, “I don’t think Reg or I ever mentioned your names and you never told me your brother’s name.”
Remus hums, “I told Sirius that we should’ve put together that you two were likely performing together earlier. What sort of coincidence would it be if both of you have a symphony performance on the same night at the same time.” He shakes his head and pulls from James, leaving his hands on their arms and leveling him with a look, “I’m glad that we were able to make it to your performance after all.”
James smiles softly at him, nodding, “Yeah. Me too.” Their moment is broken by Sirius nearly bowling them over to pull James into a hug. Remus steps away from the two to clasp arms with Regulus.
When the five of them have finished with their initial greetings, they decide that they’ll go out for food and head into their respective cars. Regulus rides with James after bringing his cello out to their car. And when the two are settled together and James is starting towards the restaurant, “I’m glad Sirius was able to be there for you.”
James hums, “Yeah, but now I feel a bit more stupid…”
“Don’t be like that, James.”
“I know,” they sigh, “I’m trying not to. But- you were nervous about nothing before.”
Regulus huffs, “I’m still nervous, he could be lying to me and just trying to make it seem like he’s proud of me.”
James shakes their head, “He’s so fucking proud of you, Reg. Now that I know you’re the brother he’s been gushing about, I can tell you that for certain. He’s been constantly talking about how he was really happy to finally be invited to something by you and how he was so happy you were able to find something that made you happy.” They reach out to rest their hand on his hand where it’s sitting on his thigh, “We both know that Sirius wears his heart on his sleeve and isn’t capable of lying like that.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“You know I’m right, you just don’t like to admit it.”
“Fuck you.” James just laughs.
They’re at the restaurant not long after and meeting in the parking lot, getting seated soon after. James and Regulus sit on one side of the booth, across from Remus, Sirius, and Pete. It’s after a while of gushing about Regulus and James’ performance and how Sirius is beyond proud of them and when they get brought their drinks, does Sirius finally level the two of them with looks, “So… what’s going on here?”
Regulus furrows his brows, “What?”
“Don’t act like I didn’t see you two walking together and holding hands…” he shakes his head, “If you really didn’t know each other at all outside of being in the same symphony together, then you would’ve found us separately. But you came together, I only told Regulus where I was and Pete hadn’t texted James yet. And again you two were holding hands.”
James hums, feeling their face heat up just a bit, “We’re… dating?”
“Why’s there a question there?” Remus laughs.
Regulus shrugs, “It’s casual. We don’t really go on dates but we’re more than friends. So we’re… ‘dating?’ as James put it.”
“And how long has this been going on?” Sirius points his fork between the two of them.
James pauses to wait for the waitress to set their food down on the table before they finally answer, “We’ve been… flirting for almost the entire time that we’ve been working together in the company, but we didn’t start making it into more until a couple months ago.”
“And either of you cared to mention it to us?”
Regulus rolls his eyes, “Again, we didn’t know you knew the other. And because it wasn’t anything super big in the beginning, we didn’t think about it.”
James levels Regulus with a look before switching their gaze over to Sirius again, “And, even though he won’t admit it, you and him were still on weird terms so Reg was scared to bring it up with you.”
Sirius looks between them for a while before he huffs softly, “Fine… But for future reference, now that all of this is known, please don’t ever make me have to decide between my brother and my best friend again. I was tearing myself to pieces about not getting to see James until Remus pointed him out on stage.”
“We’ll try not to.” James huffs a laugh, reaching out to grab Regulus’ hand under the table. Regulus doesn’t say anything, but he’s got a gentle smile on his face for the rest of the night.