under the mistletoe || jegulus

three

Regulus scoffed, "Barty, just shut up,"

"I'm just saying!" He exclaimed indignantly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Right," Regulus drawled. "Why don't you go complain to Evan about all of this instead? I'm not in the mood,"

Barty's eyes brightened, "Great idea! I'll see you later for Hogsmeade,"

"Mhm," Regulus watched Barty bounce away and then went back to his pile of homework, stared at it for a couple of seconds, then started to stuff it away into his bag.

As he left the library, clutching a book to his chest, he saw Evan standing in the middle of the corridor with a blank expression on his face.

"What the-" Regulus cut himself off, bewildered.

He pushed his way through the crowd, muttering 'excuse me', and went up to Evan. The boy seemed to be in some sort of trance.

"Hi,"

And he was met with silence. Regulus raised an eyebrow and then poked his friends eye.

"You there?" Now Regulus was starting to get concerned.

"Barty just kissed me," Evan whispered, looking down at Regulus, who clapped a hand to his mouth.

Regulus' mind worked quickly, "Hold on, but you-you're both guys?"

Evan nodded, fidgeting with his fingers. "Exactly my point, and then he ran off without letting me talk,"

Regulus stood there silently, thousands of thoughts entering his mind at once. 'Barty's gay?' 'Does Evan like him back?' 'I'm hungry,' 'Is Evan gay, too?'

"Did you kiss him back, at least?" Regulus blurted out. Color suddenly flooded to Evan's face at the question.

"I-um, yeah,"

"Oh." Regulus didn't know what to say. He hadn't stepped a foot into this relationship area, and plus, they were both guys! That was foreign to him.

"We're both guys! That's, weird, isn't it?" Evan asked suddenly, leaning against the wall. He looked at though he was looking for Regulus' opinion.

"I-well, yes, I think only guys and girls should be together," Regulus responded, shrinking under Evan's look of disappointment. It reminded him of when Sirius looked at him like that when he called someone a mudblood.

"I'd better get to class," Evan said abruptly, and then walked off, not waiting for Regulus to say anything.

"But it's Saturday,"

When it became night again, the two boys snuck out so they could have their session. Neither knew what to call them; it was just Regulus helping James with piles of homework.

That night, James said that he didn't need help so far, but if he needed any, he'd ask Regulus. The younger nodded in reply and they sat in comfortable silence for the next twenty minutes.

"Can I tell you something, Potter?" Regulus asked into the Room of Requirement; last night, the Bloody Baron caught them both up there and they had to run off to the Room of Requirement instead.

They didn't want to risk it again, especially since both houses were tied for the House Cup.

"Hm?" James looked up from his books and parchment, which he had laid out messily in front of him.

"My best mate kissed my other best mate," Regulus looked around and lowered his voice to a whisper, as though someone was there to listen in on them.

"Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?" James turned away and continued to pore over his books as Regulus thought about it.