Work Text:
James was not having a good day. He had been stuck in meetings all day at work, and then he missed the train, which caused him to be late for another meeting across town and probably cost him the promotion that they had claimed he was a shoo-in for. James didn't even know why he wanted it. He didn't particularly like his job, but he told his father that he would take it anyway. Now, five years later, he would rather jump off a building than spend another day in that office, if he only knew how to quit.
James groaned as he dragged his feet onto the train and threw his jacket down before plopping into one of the few open seats, ignoring all the dirty looks he was getting for his attitude. If any of them so much as said a single word to him, he would probably bite their heads off at this point. He pulled out his phone, hoping for a message from his boyfriend. There wasn't one and hadn't been all day, which only caused him to catastrophize why he was being ignored. Getting dumped would honestly be the icing on top of the shit cake that was his day. He was about to put his phone back in his pocket when there was a chime. James perked up a second until he looked at it to find a message from his roommate, Regulus, then deflated again.
Reg: I'm grabbing Chinese for dinner. Do you want anything special or just the usual?
James: The usual is fine. I'm not that hungry.
Reg: Okay. Are you gonna be home soon?
James: On the train now, should be there in half an hour as long as the train doesn't decide to explode on the way.
James waited a minute for Regulus to respond before figuring he scared him and went to put his phone away. But it chimed before the phone reached his pocket.
Reg: Are you okay? Wanna talk about it?
He had to laugh and shouldn't have been surprised. There wasn't really anything that James could say that would scare Regulus away. Honestly, Regulus was the only person aside from his boyfriend who could cheer him up after a shit day.
James: Not right now. See you when I get home.
Regulus sent a thumbs-up emoji, and James pocketed his phone before dropping his head back and closing his eyes. The train ride was noisy, but it made it to the station without blowing up. James would call that a small win. He got off with the rest of the passengers and made his way back home, dragging his feet the whole way despite wanting nothing more than to pass out on the couch and not wake up for the next three days. Sighing heavily when he walked in the door, he took off his boots and dropped his bag next to the wall.
"Reg, I'm back," James called out, but didn't receive an answer.
He must still be getting dinner. James walked into the living room and groaned happily when he was able to sink into their couch. He lay down and threw his arm over his face after tossing his glasses on the table to get some semblance of peace before he had to move again. James didn't know how long he had lain there, but he got a weird feeling and sat up. It shouldn't have taken this long to get Chinese, even if it was the busiest day of the year.
James grabbed his glasses, putting them back on his face, stood up and walked around the living room. It was too quiet, and he had an uncanny sense that there was somebody else in the house. He walked from room to room, checking in each one and found nothing out of the ordinary. Figuring it was his own imagination adding to his misery, he headed back to the couch. That was until he thought he heard muffled voices coming from his bedroom, which seemed odd since nobody ever went in there except for him. He slowly crept to his room, honestly expecting to get murdered with how his day had been, only to open the door and lose all thought in his head.
James stood there frozen as he stared at the two boys in his room. He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes before blinking and looking again. Regulus walked up to him with a small chuckle and patted him on the shoulder before leaving the room. His brain still couldn't process who else was there.
"Hey, baby," he said and kissed James on the lips, kickstarting his brain again.
"Barty? But... you... when... what... how?" James stammered, unable to get a single thought to form past the first word.
Barty laughed and pulled him into the room, shutting the door behind them.
"I missed you, Jamie."
It took James another few minutes of denying that he was seeing what he was seeing before he turned to his boyfriend and tackled him onto his bed. Barty laughed as he tried to get loose from James' grasp. James kissed him everywhere he could reach without letting go of his waist. He hadn't seen Barty in almost two weeks since he was on a business trip in a different country, and without hearing from him all day, James really thought he was going to break up with him, not show up at his house unexpectedly. He wasn't supposed to be back for another week.
"Oh, god, I missed you, Bee. You have no idea," James said breathlessly when he finally settled down and rested his head on Barty's chest, as tears started to prick his eyes.
Barty ran his fingers through his hair. It felt so good that James actually moaned low in his throat and melted into the feeling.
"I missed you, too, baby."
James looked up from underneath his lashes. "I thought you weren't supposed to be back until next week," he replied, trying to force his other thought out of his head, but it didn't work. "And when I didn't hear from you all day, I thought..."
He tried to choke back the tears, but with how frazzled his emotions were, there was no stopping the few that fell down his cheeks.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Jamie. I wanted to surprise you. I would have texted you, but I didn't have any reception on the plane," Barty whispered, wiping the tears away before he ran his hand up and down James' back. "I didn't mean to scare you."
James squeezed his waist harder, as if he would disappear if he let go and curled into his body.
"Do you want to talk about your day?" Barty offered.
James shook his head. "No, I just want to hold you and never let you go."
"Okay, baby. We can do that."
Barty took off James' glasses and scooted down farther so his head was on the pillow, and James readjusted himself until his head was right over his boyfriend's heart. The thumping and Barty's fingers gently scratching his head lulled him to a peaceful sleep for the first time in weeks.
~~
Barty sighed as he listened to James' quiet snores as they filled the room. He had missed him so much that Barty ended the trip early. They didn't really need him after the initial designs were finalised anyway. Barty hated being away from James, and it seemed he had made the right decision to come home early, given how James practically attacked him and based on what Regulus had told him while they were waiting for James to get home.
Barty had arrived not even an hour before James did. Although he was surprised that it took him a while to come to his bedroom. He looked down with a loving smile at the sleeping boy on his chest and continued to run his fingers through his hair, making sure not to pull on any of the tangles. It must have been a very stressful day if James' hair had that many tangles, which only occurred when he pulled on his hair. There was a soft knock on the door, and Barty looked up in time to see Regulus pushing it open.
"I'm going to grab dinner. Do you want anything?" Regulus asked quietly after looking at James' sleeping form with a sad smile.
"Sure. I'll just have whatever he usually gets," Barty replied, increasing his ministrations when James stirred a little.
"Okay." Regulus paused, looked back at James and crept to the bed. "Did he tell you what happened today?"
Barty shook his head. "No, after you left, he basically tackled me, kissed me a bunch, cried a little and fell asleep. There wasn't much talking. I think he was too shocked that I was really here to think about his day. I even asked him, but he just clung to me."
"Okay," Regulus nodded, heading back to the door. "Hopefully, he does when he wakes up. I'm worried about him."
"Yeah, me too," Barty nodded, looking back down at James.
He looked so peaceful at the moment. But he knew that didn't happen often.
"Well, I'm gonna go get dinner and I'll be back in like an hour or so, depending on how busy they are tonight."
"Sounds good. See you later, Reg."
Regulus left, closing the door softly behind him. Barty stopped scratching for a second to see if he could grab his phone from his pocket, but as soon as he did, James started squirming like he was having a nightmare and clung to Barty's waist harder as a quiet whimper fell from his lips.
"Shh. It's okay, baby," Barty whispered, bending down as much as he could to kiss James on the temple and started carding his fingers through his hair again. "I've got you. Jamie."
He resigned himself to that position until James woke up. Dropping his head back to the pillow, Barty closed his eyes and relished in the feeling of his boyfriend wrapped around him like a koala.
**
Another knock came on the door, waking Barty up. He hadn't realised that he had dozed off. Rubbing his eyes, he watched the door open just enough for Regulus to pop his head in to let him know he was back with the food. Barty nodded to say he heard him before looking down at James, who was still curled into his waist, but with a slightly less tight grip. Barty hated to wake him, but he knew if James didn't wake up soon and eat, he was going to be grumpy, and nobody wanted to deal with a grumpy James.
Barty scratched James' head a little harder than before, and James squirmed for a second before clinging to him again. He chuckled lightly before removing his hand altogether and bending down.
"Jamie, love," he whispered. "It's time to get up."
"No," James grumbled, tightening his grip and shaking his head.
It was a good thing Barty was used to his strength; otherwise, it would probably give him bruises and hurt a lot more.
"Come on, baby. You need to eat something."
"'ot, 'ungy."
"Oh, come on, Jamie," Barty chuckled at his boyfriend's child-like answers. "I want to see you, not just your messy hair."
"No." James shook his head again. "Dream too good."
Shaking his head, Barty tried again, putting his hand on James' back as he tried to shake him awake.
"What dream, my love?"
James gripped tighter and buried his head into Barty's chest before he mumbled, "Barty's home now. He'll leave if I wake up."
Barty's heart ached at the pain in his boyfriend's voice. He bent down and kissed James on the top of his head.
"I'm here, Jamie. I'm home," he whispered, trying to manoeuvre James so he could see his face. "Open your eyes for me." James shook his head again. Barty sighed before he grabbed one of James' hands to get him to release. "Come on, Jamie. It's time to get up."
James snapped his eyes open and glared at Barty. "I'm gonna fucking kill you. Now go away," he bit out, but still clung to Barty's waist.
Barty laughed lightly, scooting up the bed.
"You can try, James, but I don't think you'll make it very far," he replied, grabbing James' glasses and putting them back on his face.
James sat up and stared at him for a few seconds before it registered that he wasn't dreaming and Barty was really there.
"Barty?"
"Hello, again, Jamie."
"You're really here? It's not a dream?"
Barty shook his head. "Nope, not a dream. I'm really here, in your bed. And Regulus is in the other room with dinner, so let's go get some food and then you can tell me about your day."
James dropped his head for a second and picked at the comforter. "I don't want to talk about it," he muttered, refusing to look up.
Barty lifted his chin until their eyes met. "I know you don't want to, but given the text you sent to Regulus and the fact that you tried to bite my head off, you need to."
"Sorry."
"It's okay, James. You just can't keep everything bottled up. Now let's go and eat, I'm starving."
James sat on the bed and pouted for a few seconds as Barty crawled off until he held out his hand for him. James grabbed it eagerly and followed Barty from the room. Regulus was in the kitchen, setting out the plates around the takeaway containers on the table. Once everything was set up, the three of them sat around the table and chatted, mostly about Barty's trip to Italy, but also about what he missed in London while he was away.
After dinner, Barty and Regulus sat James down in the living room to figure out what had happened during the day. It took a while for him to tell them, but eventually he did. Barty decided that his job was destroying his mental health and helped him come up with a way to quit, and he prayed that Monty would understand. They also came up with a list of other jobs James could do if he really wanted to work.
James and Barty settled down on the couch to watch a movie after that, while Regulus went off to his room. Barty didn't care about the reason for him leaving the room; he was just grateful that he got to spend some much-needed time with his boyfriend, as he felt the weight of the box in his pocket.
Barty pulled James closer until he was resting his head in his lap. He ran his fingers through his hair, which was now free of tangles. James smiled up at him, and Barty's heart melted as he thought about how he wanted to spend the rest of his life with this wonderful man. One day, he'll get the courage to ask. But until then, Barty was just grateful to have him in his life and nothing and nobody was going to take that away from him.