One of Us | Jegulus

Forty-Six

Sorry for this little break, I was pretty busy. But this chapter is lowkey longer than usual, so maybe it makes up a bit for my absence.

I'm happy to announce that there is now a Portuguese translation of my story available, so if you speak Portuguese, feel free to also check out BI_SLYTHERING !!

. . .

"Reg?"

Regulus blinked a couple of times before he opened his eyes.
"Hey, sorry, are you awake?"
"James?" he muttered and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness in his room.
"Yeah, it's me. I'm sorry for waking you up... can you move over?"

Regulus yawned and rolled to the side. James climbed next to him and pulled a part of the blanket to himself.
"Why the hell are you up, isn't it like super late?" Regulus asked and suppressed another yawn.
"I can't sleep without you," James sighed and lay down on his back.

"What—so you stayed awake until now?"
"No, no, I did sleep, it's just..." He exhaled heavily. "I keep having these nightmares and then when I wake up and you're actually not there and I can't tell if you're just in the next room or—" He broke off.
"You have nightmares because of me?" Regulus whispered.
"You have absolutely no idea how scared I am of losing you again," James admitted.
"But I already said I'll stay!"
"I know it's probably unjustified," James sighed. "I didn't even want to bother you with it but... well, I need you."
"I'm so sorry... And I promise you I'm here now and I'm okay, I'm fine, I don't have any reason to leave again, okay?"
"I really hope so."

Regulus smiled sadly and nudged closer. James rolled onto his side and looked at him with tired but loving eyes.
Slowly he reached for Regulus and placed his palm on his chest, right where he could feel his heartbeat.
Tingling sensations shot through Regulus' upper body from the touching skin and made him calm down until he felt utterly at peace.

"Sirius is gonna be so disappointed," James chuckled. "Not one night I can leave my hands off you."
"Yeah you're a terrible best friend. But don't stop."
"Never ever ever gonna do that," James promised.
"Good," Regulus smiled. "Now let me sleep, you idiot. It's like the middle of the night."
"If you insist—wait." He rolled over and made himself comfortable on top of Regulus' body, readjusting the blanket on top of them. "Now."
He placed a kiss on Regulus' chest. "Good night, handsome."
Regulus bit his lip not to grin like an idiot at this nickname. "You too."

...

The next morning they woke up at around the same time. James had moved in the night, he now lay sprawled out on the bed. Regulus looked at him and sighed, unsure if he felt like smiling or stressing out; what he found amusing last night, occurred to him as an unsolvable problem again today.

"Sirius is gonna kill us," he muttered and slowly sat up.
"Nah, he won't," James said casually and pulled Regulus back down to him. "He already handles it so much better."
"Excuse me, what?" Regulus asked. "You call this handling it well?!"
"Not well but better. When I told them, he was furious. He blamed me for you leaving and endangering all of us and he said... well, that if you died, it would have been completely on me."

Regulus stared at him. "He said the same thing to me but... I never thought he would ever speak like that to you..."
"Yeah, me neither. But I don't think he meant it, he rarely means what he's saying when he's upset like that. And he was out of his mind, because of us, because you left, because we didn't know what would happen... it was just too much. In fact, after I told them about us, he didn't speak to me for a whole week."
"Really?!"
"Yeah," James shrugged. "That's what I mean when I say it's much better already."