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James met Sirius Black after finishing Hogwarts and starting his auror training. Sirius grew up in France, attending Beauxbatons, and recently moved to England to pursue the same career (a dream he had given up by now and turned to other things.) They hit it off right away and became best mates.
James always feared that he wouldn’t have a best mate like that when he got older. He had moved around a lot as a child, only attending Hogwarts for his final two years, and as a result, had a lot of friends, but not a “we are both each other’s best friend” ride-or-die sort of person. He thought the chance to get one of those had passed him by, but then Sirius crashed into his life and was all he had ever wanted in a friend.
After a year, they decided to take a flat together.
Sirius knew everything about James, from his family to his childhood to random things like his favourite toy from when he was a toddler.
James knew… well, a lot about Sirius. While he was talkative and sometimes over-shared, he was somewhat secretive about his family. When they first met, he said, he didn’t like to talk about them – which was fair, as they were basically strangers – and James hadn’t asked a lot of questions ever since.
What he knew was that Sirius had a brother. His name was Regulus, he still lived in France and had a distaste for travel in general and England in particular. At any point in time Sirius was not talking to James or making out with his boyfriend, he was talking to his brother. They had a two-way mirror – a communication device that allowed two people to see and speak with each other while being physically apart. The enchantment was quite advanced, which made them rare and expensive. Sirius explained that they were all the rage in France and Regulus enchanted this particular pair.
Sometimes, James walked into the kitchen and found Sirius making dinner while showing off an ingredient or other to his mirror. Sometimes, the two were just carrying those things around for each other without interacting at all. James found it rather strange.
Despite this closeness, Sirius didn’t have a lot of pictures of him and James had never seen this ominous brother. He has tried to take a peek or two at the mirror when they were on a “call,” but has only been able to discern dark hair and pale hands thus far.
So, James was naturally excited when Sirius announced his brother would come for a visit.
The day Regulus was set to arrive, James had auror training until noon. Then, he wanted to pick up Sirius and go home to wait for Regulus there.
He didn’t need long to spot Sirius in front of the shop he was working at. He was a stunning young man, and every other boy and girl glanced at him twice when they walked by. He had gorgeous black hair, high cheekbones, hands that looked like they were made to play the piano, usually adorned by half a dozen rings, and stunning grey eyes. Sirius was a beautiful, beautiful man and James might have tried his luck with if it wasn’t for his personality.
James loved Sirius’s personality, of course! He was his best friend. But that was it: He was his best friend and James couldn’t imagine dating him. Also, Sirius was with Remus, and they were the perfect couple.
Sirius stood in front of the shop, holding his face up to the sky. The sun was hiding behind thick clouds, which didn’t seem to bother him.
“Hey!” James grinned at him.
Sirius glanced at him and frowned.
“Ready to go?”
“Go?” He asked confused.
“Yeah. Home? Waiting for Regulus? Your brother? Remember?”
Sirius looked him up and down. “Right. Yes. Of course, sorry. I was miles away.”
“Dreaming about Remus again?” James smirked and put his arm around his shoulders. “You are so ridiculous about him, mate. You’re lucky he’s feeling the same way.”
“Aren’t I just?”
They walked down a few streets to find a hidden spot from which to apparate safely.
“I’m so excited to finally meet your brother. Especially after the day I’ve had! You remember the cute redhead I took out last Saturday? She finally got back to me. She said, it was nice and all but she isn’t really interested in a second date.”
Sirius hummed.
“Do you think I should try again anyway? Maybe she wants me to try harder, you know? Instead of just texting like ‘hey, you up for a second date?’ Maybe something with flowers? Her name’s Lily, I could do something with that.”
“No.” Sirius quickly shook his head. “No, definitely not. If she says no, listen to her. Maybe you should look for someone new to date.”
James sighed deeply. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s the right and respectful thing to do. It sucks, though, she was really nice.”
“Hm. Yeah, well, nice is overrated. You should consider hooking up with a mean-spirited man. To cleanse your pallet, so to say.”
James chuckled. “Thinking of someone in particular?”
They finally found a spot void of muggles and their lingering glances – not an easy task when walking with someone as attractive as this man.
“Maybe. We’ll see how it goes.”
James frowned at him but laughed it off. Sirius was odd sometimes. There was no point in dwelling on it too much.
He apparated them back to the flat.
“How much time do we have until Regulus arrives?”
Sirius shrugged, taking off his shoes after watching James toss his jacket on the sofa. “Not long, I suppose.”
“Good! I have practice tonight and I want to have enough time to meet that enigmatic brother of yours.”
“Practice?”
Typical Sirius. He never remembered when James had practice and wouldn’t be home in the evening. He claimed that Quidditch “just wasn’t big in France” – which was obviously a lie. He simply disliked it and was the kind of man to ignore everything he disliked. Though, as a good friend, he attended each of his matches.
“Yes, practice, Sirius. I told you it’s today.”
Sirius looked around the flat for a moment, humming. “My brother used to play Quidditch, do you know that? He was a fantastic seeker.”
“Really? No, you never said. That’s cool. Maybe he and I can have a little match.”
“Hm. Maybe. He could take you.”
James laughed but Sirius just looked at him with a secretive little smirk he had never seen on him before.
“He could definitely take you.”
“We’ll see. I’m far more interested to see if he can handle proper food better than you.” He pushed open the door to his bedroom. “I should probably change, huh? Do you think he’ll be very judgy of my clothes?”
He pulled up his shirt and tossed it on his bed. He and Sirius were shirtless in front of each other all the time. They lived together and shared a bathroom, and in the summer, when the heat got too oppressive to muster the strength to cast a cooling spell, there was no point in covering up either.
Sirius lingered by the door. “Very judgy,” he confirmed. “Maybe you should just be naked to be safe.”
James laughed and pulled a fresh shirt out of his dresser. “Right! I’ll just walk around completely naked for as long as he’s here. That’s what I want his first impression of me to be: rubbing my dick into his face.”
“He wouldn’t mind.” Sirius shrugged.
“Oh?”
“He may ask you to fuck him on the kitchen floor, but he wouldn’t mind.”
“As if you’d allow me to do as much as touch your brother.” Sirius barely allowed him to look at him through the mirror. James shook his head to himself and chose one of the shirts. It had an ordinary tree pattern on it and was thus one of his least embarrassing tees.
“I’d have to live with it,” Sirius mumbled.
Behind him, the front door opened and closed. James looked past his friend in confusion. No one had a key but them.
He heard voices and then… Sirius walked in?
James stared from him to the other Sirius by his door. His brain gave out.
He was seeing double. Maybe he had to get his glasses checked because it looked like two identical Sirius Blacks were standing in his bedroom right now.
The new Sirius grinned and went to hug the other. “Reggie! There you are! I thought you wanted to wait for me until I got Remus.”
“It appears I was kidnapped,” the other one said, the French accent increasing with every syllable, nodding toward James. “Though I don’t think he noticed.”
Sirius frowned at James, then he grinned widely. “Ha! Did you really confuse us? That’s so offensive, mate!”
“It appears I have won a bet.”
“Ah, fuck off, you weren’t serious about that.”
“No, but you are Sirius.” The other smirked, which earned him a slap on the back of his head.
“Look what you’ve done, James: I lost money and you made my brother make a pun.”
“You’re twins,” James said, more so his own brain could catch up. He assumed the brothers knew already.
“Yeah. So, this is my brother Regulus. Reggie, this is James.”
Regulus smirked at him. “I’m aware. Sirius, why don’t you show me your kitchen floor? I need to check something.”
James felt his face heating up. If this was Regulus… and he was talking about himself earlier…
Sirius had left the room already, but Regulus lingered for a moment, watching him.
“Keep me updated about that girl-date-situation you’ve got going on, yes?” He said and followed his brother to inspect the kitchen floor.
James needed to hold on to his dresser, so he wouldn’t collapse, as his blood was rushing anywhere but his head or feet.
His attractive roommate had an absolutely gorgeous, identical twin brother with an even cuter accent, who played Quidditch and who wanted him. Badly. And by Merlin, that feeling was mutual.
James took another moment to steady himself before joining the twins in the kitchen.
“I don’t get what’s so interesting about the floor,” Sirius said as he handed his brother a glass of water.
“Nothing,” Regulus said, glancing at James. “I do prefer your counters. They’re nice counters. Don’t you think so, James?”
His name sounded different out of his mouth than Sirius’s. He should sit down with Regulus and take a couple of hours to study him and find all the differences between the brothers until he knew every inch of Regulus by heart and wouldn’t ever confuse them again.
Sirius was telling some story about Remus. James didn’t have the energy to listen.
“So, for how long are you staying?” he interrupted him, enthralled by Regulus’s eyes. They were slightly darker than Sirius’s if he wasn’t mistaken.
“Four days.”
That should just be enough hours to memorise half of his body, and how his skin looked against the counters, floor, sofa, shower and James’s blanket.