Chapter Text
Flashing lights in his rear view mirror made Regulus sigh as he pulled over. Leaning back in his seat, he reached for his licence and kept his hands firmly on top of the steering wheel as a very tall man wearing a police uniform knocked on his window. He lowered the window and kept his eyes facing forward.
“Do you know why I’ve pulled you over today?”
Regulus’ heart pounded at those words. He heard that exact phrase more times than he cared to admit, and every single time he couldn’t help but hope that this time would be the last. This time would be it.
“Well, I’ll tell you. You were going well over the speed limit. Luckily, this is a secluded road but there’s a lot of blind bends around these parts. At the speed you were going you could have seriously injured yourself or someone else.”
Regulus glanced to the side and couldn’t stop staring. The officer was stupidly handsome, it made his palms sweaty and he rubbed them against his trousers awkwardly.
The officer raised an eyebrow. “Not going to say anything? I’m not surprised. You’re in a lot of trouble. Don’t think looking at me like that will help you.”
Regulus peered up at the devastatingly gorgeous policeman with innocent eyes. After a moment, he swallowed. “Please, don’t spank me, officer, I could have sworn the limit was sixty.”
There was a very loaded pause.
After a second, the officer slumped. Forearms rested against the open window by Regulus’ head. “Oh, thank fuck. Finally. Do you know how bloody boring it is to be a police officer? Do you know how shit it is being surrounded every day by a bunch of narcissistic twats on a power trip? I hate being a police officer. Hate it! Matter of fact—” The man dug into his vest and pulled out a sleek mobile phone. After tapping around on the screen for a minute or so, he held it out for Regulus to take. “Your number please, lovely.”
Regulus blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Oh, right.” The man straightened. Regulus may have been imagining it but he was sure he flexed his arms. “Name’s James Fleamont Potter. I’m twenty-five. Currently a police officer but I’ve just texted my best mate and told him we can finally resign. I’m an Aries. I’m an only child. My mama is from Mexico which is where I was born and my Papa is from the Dominican Republic. I speak fluent Spanish and I’ve tried to learn some French with the help of my best friend but I’m not very good at it. I have a degree in biochemistry so I’d like to think I'm of reasonable intelligence. I enjoy being with my friends and visiting my parents but I most enjoy having a quiet night in with the people I care about. My favourite food is jam on toast—usually blueberry or apricot but strawberry will do in a pinch, although I hate actual strawberries unless they’re smothered in chocolate. I’m not much of a reader but I love movies and comic books so I suppose that counts as reading. I don’t drink or smoke. I’m aware of all the laws and I try my best not to break them but some are antiquated and honestly just silly—”
“I’m sorry.” Regulus forced himself to interrupt. “What is this—a job interview?”
The officer, James, stared at him for a moment before beaming. “Right! Sorry, Mama always says I get ahead of myself but can you blame me? I’ve waited for you forever and even took a job I fucking hate purely because I knew it would increase my chances of meeting you. You know, I dress up as a police officer every year for Halloween. Even on my days off, I still wear that bloody uniform because I didn’t know whether it would be—”
“Waiting…for me…” Regulus’ brain felt heavy.
James sent him a dazzling grin. “You haven’t pieced it together yet, love? We’re soulmates.” He straightened and tore off the vest and shirt to expose his torso. Regulus’ pulse quickened at the sight of his well-built body, the smooth dark brown skin and rippling muscle had his stomach and thighs clenching.
Then he saw it.
On James’ ribs, there was a fairly lengthy sentence in a flowing golden script he recognised as his own.
Please, don’t spank me, officer, I could have sworn the limit was sixty.
”You should have seen my best friend’s reaction he first saw my mark. Laughed himself hoarse, then he looked a little sick, actually.”
Mortified by his own words, Regulus unbuttoned his own shirt. He felt a little self-conscious exposing his far less impressive body. With his scars from top surgery and other things he didn’t like to think about, his distinct lack of muscle, his pale skin which was almost sickly, he was nowhere near as impressive as his soulmate. But James kept smiling. His eyes trailed the much shorter mark in what must have been his own silver scrawl.
“Do you know why I pulled you over today?” James read aloud. “Please don’t tell me you’ve been speeding up and down the country.”
“Only a little,” Regulus admitted. Barty always tried to convince him to speed to increase his chances of meeting his soulmate but he knew how fate worked. He trusted he would meet his mate eventually. Unlike James, who apparently went out of his way to choose a career he hated purely for Regulus. That certainly put some pressure on him. “Your mark is rather…”
James smirked. “They’re your words, beautiful.”
His cheeks burned. “Oh, no. You’re an incorrigible flirt.”
“Guilty.”
“You should be.”
“I’ll make it up to you.”
“How?”
“Well…” James picked up his notebook and tore the page out. “Firstly, I’ll pretend I didn’t just catch you speeding. Good thing I didn’t activate my body camera. Spilled coffee on myself when I saw you fly past.”
Regulus glared. “I was barely breaching the limit—”
“We’re on a country road. You were twenty miles over the limit.”
“I thought the limit was sixty.”
“There was a sign at the start of the bend.” James pointed in the direction they came from. “New limit is forty on this road.”
Regulus huffed. “I’ve been on this road plenty of times. It is not forty.”
“It is as of this morning.” James grinned cheekily. “Why do you think they planted me here? I’ve already warned four other drivers.”
“Did you give them tickets?”
“Nah. If it’s the first time, I always give warnings.”
“This isn’t my first time speeding.”
“But I bet it’s the first time you’ve been caught.”
Regulus smirked. “You know me so well.”
“Soulmates.” James winked. “Now, come on, lovely. I’m going to drop my resignation in and I need your phone number in my contacts list as proof I didn’t make you up.”
“If you say so, officer,” he said as he tapped his number into James’ phone.
James snatched the phone. “Regulus. Gorgeous name.”
“Thank you, I chose it.”
James’ expression softened. “You chose a good one.”
Regulus looked him up and down pointedly. “I’d like to think so.”
The startled laugh he gained as a response had him inwardly preening. James looked exquisite, but more so when he smiled. His plump lips stretched into a charming grin as he ducked his head, shoulders shaking.
“Oh, you’re going to be the death of me, love. I can feel it.”
“Hopefully not. Speaking of, though, I should warn you not to eat anything with strawberries around me.”
“Hate them?”
“Allergic.”
James’ expression turned severe. “I’ll never eat another strawberry again. Should be easy, my best friend hates them too, won’t so much as look at one. If I end up buying a jar of strawberry jam, I have to hide it in my bedroom or he’ll throw it away.”
Regulus raised an eyebrow. “Even though you purchased it? Are you sure he isn’t allergic?”
“Well, he does carry around an epi-pen but I think that’s an old habit—he isn’t the type to be shy. He would tell me if he were allergic.”
“If you say so. I always have an epi-pen on me too but I’m careful with what I eat. Thankfully, strawberries are fairly easy to avoid.”
“Good. I’ll tell my parents. Papa will need to uproot his strawberry patch.”
Cheeks flaming, Regulus shook his head. “No, that’s ridiculous. There is no need to—”
“Already sent the message.”
Regulus stared at where James’ phone was. James turned the screen and sure enough there was a message to a group chat named ‘Pottery’. The message was full of typos but Regulus deciphered the meaning to be something like: ‘Met my soulmate, he’s perfect, allergy to strawberries, he’s so pretty’.
There were already several replies. ‘Mama’ responded in a series of exclamation points and a mixture of Spanish and English congratulating James. ‘Papa’ replied with nothing but emojis—the last two being the large red ‘x’ emoji and the strawberry. Last to respond was ‘Padfoot’ who was spamming the chat with messages asking for more information with a dozen or so exclamations and question marks.
Regulus watched James type out ‘he’s called Regulus’ before he slipped his phone in his pocket.
“So, you know quite a lot about me. Care to tell me about yourself—maybe over dinner?”
A grin tugged at Regulus’ lips. James was still leaning against his car, their faces tilted close together. Inhaling carefully, he caught a hint of something rich and heady on his tongue. Whether it was cologne or James’ natural scent, Regulus wanted to lick it off his skin.
“I think dinner can be arranged.” Regulus laid a hand over James’ forearm, fingers teasingly trailing along his arm. “For now, I’ll tell you that my name is Regulus. I’m twenty-four. I’m a Leo. I own an independent veterinary practice in which I work full-time as a veterinary surgeon. My parents were both born in Korea as was I although we moved to this country when I was nine. I was raised speaking many languages, mostly Korean, English, French, and Mandarin. Luckily, my best friends all know many languages too so we can all practice with each other. Except Korean, I suppose, but I need not practice my mother tongue.” Sirius still appeared in his dreams (or were they nightmares?) and he only ever spoke Korean. “Unlike you, I am an avid reader although I do enjoy movies and television. I do not drink or smoke either. My favourite food is either japchae or blueberry muffins. My best friends all work at my practice so we all spend pretty much all our time together which is good for us as we are quite codependent. Be warned, you will likely be interrogated by them when you meet.”
James looked stunned. Suddenly, he grinned. “When? High hopes for our date, I see.”
“Oh, is it a date?” Regulus asked boredly. “I thought this was merely a meeting to discuss your sudden lack of job prospects.”
“Ouch, that stings, love.” James pretended to rub his chest.
Regulus rolled his eyes. “Either get in my car or go away. My friends will be waiting to hear about another failed interview.”
James raised an eyebrow. “Interview?”
“My practice has expanded. I need another veterinarian. Currently, I have Dorcas, Barty, Pandora, and I as veterinary surgeons, then Evan and Remus are my head veterinary nurses as well as several others, and I have some non-clinical staff. Ideally, I need at least another vet surgeon and nurse but for now I am searching for one or the other.”
James’ eyebrows rose. “We really are fated, sweetheart. My best friend happens to be sitting on a degree in veterinary medicine.”
“I thought he worked with you.”
“We just quit, remember? I have a degree in biochemistry but it’s not like I’m using it. Neither is he.”
“Why on Earth would he study for years to be a vet only to follow you into a career neither of you want?”
James shrugged. “He’s a good best friend.”
“Clearly.”
James’ expression wavered. “To tell you the truth, he only got the degree because… Well, it’s a personal thing. He loves animals though and he graduated with top marks.”
Regulus pursed his lips. A lack of experience could be rectified. So long as the man was qualified and willing to work alongside them…
“Send me his CV. I’ll look it over and get back to you later. Perhaps at dinner.”
“Guess this dinner really will be a job interview, hm? Just not for me.”
“It can be a date if you wish.”
“Oh, only if I wish?”
“I already know what I want.”
James’ eyes darkened as he leaned in closer. “And what do you want, beautiful?”
Regulus moved closer, lips brushing against James’ earlobe as he inhaled James’ alluring scent. James shivered, and Regulus grinned as he said, “A blueberry muffin.”
James dropped his head to lean against his forearm. “You are going to be the death of me.”
“My training is in the small and fuzzy. I am not qualified to patch you up if you fall over.”
“Can you blame me?”
Regulus hummed. “I really do need to be going.”
“I don’t want you to go.” James’ whining should not have been so endearing. Damnable soulmate bond.
“If you would like, you can follow me in your car.”
“Police escort…” James looked over at his car. “Shit. I can’t. I’ll have to go formally resign and take the car back. Text me an address. I’ll be over as soon as I’m free.”
“What happened to dinner?”
“We can get dinner. I’ll make a reservation. Any other allergies I need to know about? Foods you don’t like?”
Regulus shook his head.
“Fantastic. I’ll text you. See you soon, gorgeous.”
Unashamedly, Regulus ogled James’ toned legs and firm backside as he walked over to his car. When James was out of sight, Regulus mourned the beautiful view.
What a man.
Buzzing distracted Regulus from watching James drive away. He snatched up his phone, seeing several messages from an unknown number.
Unknown: Hello, Regulus.
Unknown: This is James.
Unknown: Your soulmate.
Unknown: Do you know any other James’? Would it be weird if I ask them to go away?
Unknown: That’s probably weird.
Unknown: But do you know any others?
Snorting, Regulus tapped out a response after saving James’ contact information.
Regulus: Not personally, no. I hope I am the only Regulus in your phone. If there are any others I will be personally visiting them.
James: Hot.
James: Fuck. I’m already going crazy over you.
James: Made a reservation.
Regulus: Don’t text and drive.
James: Using text-to-speech but anything for you, my lovely.
Regulus shook his head. He sent a final message of a single smiling emoji before locking his phone. Squeezing the steering wheel in both hands, he resisted the urge to scream or giggle madly. No doubt his friends would all be wondering where he was but Regulus couldn’t move. His heart hammered in his chest so forcefully Regulus feared it would leap free and soar across the sky in search of James.
Shaking his head, Regulus started his car and slowly drove back to his practice.
His soulmate. He finally found him. And he was handsome, clever, funny, and sweet. He was brilliant. He was everything Regulus ever dreamed of.
And how fortuitous that his soulmate had the answer to his problems. A good best friend indeed, to throw away such a rewarding career for James. The selflessness of the act reminded him of someone he scarcely thought about. Someone who habitually discarded his own health and happiness for Regulus, at least for a time.
Regulus forced those thoughts from his mind, focusing instead on James and his sparkling brown eyes.
A delirious laugh fell from his lips as he continued to drive.
What an insane day.