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A more usual couple might've gone out for a fancy dinner.
A more usual couple might've splurged on a whole trip, maybe to somewhere new and exotic.
Instead of doing any of that, Remus and Regulus are home, preparing dinner, like they have done nearly every night for the past decade.
It was their 5th wedding anniversary and they were simply: staying home.
The past couple months had them fielding all sorts of seemingly unnecessary questions and comments from their friends and family.
“Five years of marriage, wow.”
“Yep.”
“Has it really been ten years since you've moved in together?”
“Sure has.”
“Who would've thought fifteen years later you'd still be doing your little book club thing, only as husbands rather than boyfriends!”
“Mm-hm.”
They never know how to properly respond to those. Thankfully most of the people in their lives know not to expect too much from such oddly vague yet obvious lines. If you want to engage Remus or Regulus in conversation you need to give them something .
So yes, they were celebrating by staying home and cooking a new delicious meal. Well, that’s what they were supposed to be doing; Regulus has been staring at a tray of defrosted chicken breast for maybe five minutes now. It’s not the fact that it’s a new recipe that’s throwing him off, Remus and he have managed to branch out a fair bit in the last few years in terms of home cooking, but he can’t bring himself to touch the raw chicken today. He’s considered using utensils but the precise strips he wants to achieve need more dexterity than that would allow him. He even scoured their cabinets trying to find a miraculous box of gloves he could try using, but it’s not the bare skin to raw meat contact he can’t stand. Something in his brain has just decided to revolt against him today.
He really doesn’t want to deviate from their carefully planned evening, but he also knows there’s no going through with making crispy breaded chicken strips to go along the alfredo sauce Remus is currently working on at the stove behind Regulus.
He fights internally with himself for a few more minutes as a last stand before he caves in and takes his phone out. Their well-worked out system means Remus doesn’t cook without his noise cancelling headphones on, and if Regulus needs to get his attention he must do so without touching and startling him out of his safe bubble. That usually means sending a text that Remus’ watch will alert him to, but Regulus struggles to formulate a message to send to his busy husband, the shame of fucking up their anniversary looming heavy on his shoulders. His brain feels too empty and too full at the same time, sentence structure and vocabulary eludes him completely, until he gets so frustrated with himself he has to sit on the floor and squeeze his eyes shut. His fingers blindingly type ‘help ’, and he hopes he managed to hit the send button before his phone falls to the floor as his hands fight the urge to dig his fingernails onto any skin he can reach.
“Reg?” Remus’ deep voice says from across the kitchen, but Regulus’ eyes remain shut. He vaguely registers the sounds of what must be Remus turning off the stove and moving things about, and then his voice sounds much closer, much softer as he says, “Love, what’s happened?”
Regulus opens his mouth to try to answer but can’t parse through his foggy brain enough to find any words.
“Would you like to be held?”
At Regulus’ responding nod, Remus fully takes off his noise cancelling headphones and moves to encompass Regulus’ body with his own, fitting Regulus’ head at the crook of his neck. One of Remus’ hands settles firmly at the back of Regulus’ head, the other snaking soothingly down his husband’s arm to bring a tense hand to his face, allowing Regulus to feel the texture of his lightly stubbled jaw. It’s a position they’ve been in many times, and as Regulus breathes in the comforting smell of Remus, feels the familiar shape of him under his fingers and against his body, he feels safe even if not fully okay yet.
After a few shaky breaths, what comes out of his mouth is a pained, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright,” Remus whispers, rubbing his back patiently. Regulus’ body slowly sheds tension until his lungs start properly working again. He presses his body as much as he can into Remus’, a silent signal that he’s mostly back and will be ready to pull away soon. With one final deep breath, he opens his eyes and straightens his spine.
“Thank you,” Regulus whispers, eyes down but open. He very intentionally chose to express his gratitude rather than apologise again.
Even after all these years, his instinct is still the latter, but he’s constantly working on it — working on not feeling bad for needing support, especially from his loving partner. That’s what it means to be in a relationship, you help each other. You want to help each other. It’s not always easy or convenient, but you do it anyway, to the best of your ability.
Remus kisses his forehead delicately, knowing Regulus appreciates small moments of affection like that. “Are you ready to talk? You don’t have to.”
“No, it’s okay,” Regulus shakes himself a little. “It’s, um. The chicken. I can’t stand it.”
“Okay,” Remus nods. “Would you like to order in? We don’t have to make the chicken alfredo.”
“No, I— I want to have the dinner we planned. I just— can’t touch the raw meat.”
Remus takes a moment to look over their separate workstations, the ingredients laid out for their respective halves of the recipe, his mind quietly working.
“Do you want to switch?” Remus asks when he looks back at Regulus. “I can do the chicken and you can do the sauce and pasta. Would that work?”
“I— I think so.”
“For the sauce you need to stir in the remaining ingredients I already measured, and don’t let it boil. The pasta is just our usual.”
“Alright,” Regulus nods. “I can do that.”
Thankfully dinner preparations go well from there. Remus works quickly and quietly on the cutting, breading and frying the chicken, headphones back on, while Regulus finishes up the sauce and cooks their pasta. It’s not a hugely extravagant meal, but with a rich and creamy sauce, and crispy, flavourful chicken strips, they’re more than happy to add it to their repertoire. They serve it with a side of their favourite vinegary salad and a couple bottles of fruity Italian soda as a special treat — a lovely anniversary dinner, indeed.
After dinner came gifts.
Celebratory gifts in their relationship have gone through different phases over the years. In the beginning of their relationship they aimed for extravagance, however misguided that endeavor was. Once they realized neither cared much for a meaningless high price tag, they switched over to experiential gifts: fun moments to share together, activities, trips. In recent years they’ve leaned into personalisation, gifts with story .
One such story is the one pertaining to how they came to know each other in the first place. Remus had been working as an assistant at the library, working on shelving the overnight returns when he had come upon a young man hiding in a corner, sitting on the floor with his knees pulled up as he silently cried reading one of their copies of Heartstopper.
Regulus had been new in town then, having finally managed to move away from his controlling parents, and he’d been looking for comfort so naturally he made his way to the library. Prominently displayed on a table of staff picks with a sticky note that just had hearts all over it, as well as a rainbow sticker, was a graphic novel series. Heart pounding but hopeful, Regulus had grabbed them and found himself a quiet corner to lose himself in a wholesome queer teen story, and next thing he knew, he had tears streaming down his face and a nice library assistant with pretty eyes crouching next to him asking him if he was okay.
It had been quite the emotionally turbulent day, but it led to them being here now, on their couch in their shared apartment.
They had each disappeared into a different room to retrieve their gifts after dinner, setting them on the coffee table, each simply labeled with a name and artfully wrapped in the reusable fabrics they keep for gift giving. As much as it might feel nice to tear up wrapping paper and make a mess in search of your gift, Remus and Regulus prefer reusable cloths and scarves. Makes the gift feel more one of a kind and it creates a lot less rubbish. Plus it’s fun to see the different fabrics be passed around their friend group over the various celebrations throughout the year.
“Can I go first?” Regulus asks, teetering between nervous and excited.
“Sure,” Remus smiles. “Would you like to be the gifter or the giftee?”
“Giftee, please.” Regulus makes grabby hands, which makes Remus chuckle fondly as he reaches to deposit the box labelled Regulus on his husband’s waiting hands.
“Oof,” Regulus breathes out as he lowers the wrapped box onto his lap. It’s a hefty little package, deceivingly so.
“It’s a bit heavy, sorry, should’ve warned you.”
The pretty wrapping sheds away to reveal a tall stack of books, which explains the weight. Both Regulus and Remus are avid readers and they have amassed quite the collection of books over the years, special editions included, but Regulus doesn’t recognize the first book on the stack at first. It takes a couple seconds for his brain to process the beautiful calligraphy of the single-word title, but when he does, his eyes widen and he gasps, immediately feeling the emotion rise in his chest.
“Remus?” He asks, voice thick with sentiment. “Is this…?”
Regulus lays out the books in order on the coffee table. They’re absolutely gorgeous editions of the Heartstopper graphic novels — editions Regulus has never seen before. The colour schemes follow the originals, but they’re abstract and shiny and so so beautiful they bring tears to Regulus’ eyes. Remus knows what these books mean to them, to Regulus . Everytime he reads one or watches an episode of the show, no matter how many times he’s done it, he still feels so strongly, his heart breaking and melting simultaneously. Not only that, but they’re the reason Remus first talked to him.
If he hadn’t cried over them at the library on that one fateful morning, he’s not sure he would have ever welcomed Remus into his life, perish the thought.
Remus patiently waits for Regulus to lovingly handle each book, running his fingers over the embossed front and back covers and spines, opening them up to admire the end papers, laying them back out and then stacking them up again, feasting on the visual, sensory and emotional experience.
Regulus silently reaches for Remus’ hand, bringing it up to brush his lips against Remus’ knuckles, causing the man to blush. Even after fifteen years, Regulus can still make Remus blush.
“I take it you like them?” Remus asks, smiling softly.
“I’m over the moon about them,” he squeezes the hand he’s still holding. “Thank you, darling.”
Regulus' heart absolutely could not be fuller when Remus leans over to kiss him tenderly.
“I’m so very happy,” Remus says as he pulls back. “They were a lot of work, you know?”
“Wait.” Regulus’ jaw drops. “Did— Did you make these? Like actually made them? Not just had them made?”
“I had help. But, yes. I did indeed make them.”
“What— How?”
“Well, I found this person who does custom book binding and runs binding workshops,” Remus explains. “I approached them about getting guidance on making binds myself and they highly encouraged me to do the workshop first to get a sense of how it works and if I even wanted to rebind the whole series myself. D’you remember that weekend I spent at Lily’s? We went to a class together, and good thing we did, my little notebook I made was pretty disastrous. But it gave me a chance to get familiar with the materials and basic techniques. Afterward, I chatted with the instructor and they agreed to oversee my work so I could use their tools and stuff. It’s a lot of measuring, precise cutting and gluing. They’re also a graphic designer and illustrator, so I commissioned them to make the custom covers and endpapers. I think it turned out pretty good.”
“Pretty good? Remus. They’re gorgeous. I mean it. Truly.”
“Thanks,” Remus mutters, sheepish and reaching for his gift to divert attention. “Umm, my turn?”
“Go ahead.”
Remus unwraps the cloth to reveal a meticulously folded button down shirt, the custom Made by R.A.B tag fully on display underneath the carefully pressed collar. Regulus has been sewing as a hobby for quite a few years at this point, and gotten quite good. Last year Pandora gifted him a whole bunch of custom tags so he could mark his work, and he’s still finding immense satisfaction in sewing them into his pieces — even if hand sewing might be his least favourite kind of sewing, the finished product is definitely worth the effort.
He’s made plenty of pieces for Remus over the years, from simple pouches to tailored trousers, and probably more button downs and vests than one person would ever need, but this one is special. He’d followed Remus’ very favourite pattern, a lucky vintage find at charity shop Regulus was able to scavenge a couple years ago. A very tricky pattern to get right, but he’d taken it upon himself to master it for this very purpose. And for the truly special touch, he’d pulled out his nearly-forgotten embroidery kit from the back of a closet, and found a chart of the exact position of the stars during a very specific date and at a very specific place, fifteen years ago.
Their first date.
After a drive and a picnic, they had ended up sprawled on the grass on a field on a brisk night in April, stargazing and showing off their knowledge of stars and constellations, as well as their accompanying stories — and making some up when they’d run out of real ones. Remus had been shy in his admission that he’d looked up how to find Leo in an effort to impress Regulus, but he needn’t have worried, as Regulus had also looked up information about Lupus, which unfortunately was not visible to them at such a northern location.
To commemorate the beginning of their story, Regulus had sprinkled embroidered constellations on a shirt made with the softest cotton fabric he was able to source, with shiny buttons to match. Twin constellations on each side of the collar: Leo on the left hand side, and Lupus on the right.
Remus immediately recognizes them, smiling as he caresses the careful metallic stitches.
“Reg, this is…” He trails off as he holds up the shirt, revealing a night sky’s worth of stars made tangible through thread and needle. “Wow.”
“It’s the sky we saw on our first date,” Regulus explains.
Remus turns to him with wide eyes. “Regulus. ”
“Um, yes?” Regulus asks, uncertain.
“Oh my god.” Remus looks back at the shirt, shaking his head in awe. “This is amazing.” Remus lays the shirt down on the coffee table beside the stack of books and looks at him, reaching for his hands. “ You’re amazing.”
“You like it?” Regulus asks, voice small under Remus’ adoring gaze.
“I love it. I love you. ”
Remus pulls him in for a kiss, but they’re both smiling too big for it to be a proper kiss.
“Happy anniversary, Reg,” Remus whispers sweetly when they pull back.
“To many more,” Regulus responds, letting Remus envelop him in a hug once again, only this time his body is buzzing with pure happiness, pure bliss that this lovely man has chosen him, and continues to do so, just as Regulus does he, every single day.