The Day the Music Died | Jegulus, Wolfstar

Wet Dog Stench

You ever love someone so much you thought your little heart was gonna break in two?
I didn't think so.
You ever tried with all your heart and soul to get your lover back to you?
I want to hope so.
You ever pray with all your heart and soul just to watch her walk away?

Sirius furrowed his eyebrows, tears streaming down his cheeks in somewhat calm gasps, he whispered; "I'm sorry."

Regulus nodded, but he stood still. "That's not enough. Not nearly," he blinked, and since his older brother hadn't opened his mouth, he kept talking. "I love him, James. I think he does too, and you will not, be the one standing between us. He's accepted you and Remus, I have too. James' been nothing but kind to you, and I think it's time for you to repay him, you hear me?"

James almost fell to his knees in adoration, he sounded so wise... it was almost funny, giving his age. No one had ever managed to shut Sirius up this successfully; it was quite the spectacle.

  "You hear me, Sirius?" He repeated, louder, ripping James out of his thoughts like an anchor being pulled up from the bottom of the sea. The older Black nodded, it took him a few minutes to answer clearly.

  "Loud and clear..." he mumbled as he swallowed grimly. "But it's gonna take a while, it's like... two of my brothers got together. It feels like bloody incest." They looked at each other, Regulus unexpectedly smirked, tilting his head.

  "Like our family hasn't done that before, eh?" They both smiled, and laughed softly, James felt like he was intruding a very intimate moment between the Blacks.

  "Yeah, I guess you're right," Sirius grinned, shrugging. Immediately after, he brought Regulus close to him, and embraced him with his long, pale arms. "I'm sorry," he mouthed in the boy's ear, Regulus nodded knowingly.

  "I'm sorry too."

James decided it was the perfect time to finally leave them alone; he turned to his stag form, and prepared to trot away, but, oh; he hadn't calculated just right. As he gave a jump forward, his antlers stuck in between two branches. He shock his head to try and set himself free, but they wouldn't come out; he closed his eyes and pushed back, again, and again.

Crack!

He fell straight on his fuzzy butt, his antlers had ripped the branches right off, making an absolute fool out of himself, and producing an unignorable loud snap, echoing into the deepness of the forest.

  "James?" A reluctant voice called, Regulus was stepping near. James panicked, that's the only way to put it. He stood up, almost knocking the boy, and started acting like a wild animal, deliberately not meeting his eyes.

Regulus snickered — covering his mouth with his hand — as he watched him 'eat' grass.

"A real stag would've ran away ages ago, I know it's you, James. You have a white spot, right here." He touched James' neck with infinite gentleness, and smiled.

James blinked, sniffing through his humid, dark nose. Regulus shook his head. "Let me help you get these off," he pointed to the branches; James bowed his head, and waited till Regulus carefully removed the dry branches off his antlers. "That's it, then."

James incorporated and cluelessly stared at him, blinking several times. The jet black haired boy grinned, while patting his muzzle. "You can change, now."

And so he did —even as himself, he was still a head taller than Regulus. His hand was still on James' cheek; he slowly removed it. "Grass is disgusting," James laughed, wiping his mouth with his sleeve, which consequently got stained of a dull green. Regulus smiled, but he didn't share his chuckle, instead inspecting him with his cautious eyes.

  "What are you doing here?" He asked, his voice mellow, not a trace of recrimination staining his tone.

  "I was looking for him," he said, shifting his gaze to Sirius, who stood puzzled just behind his younger brother.

Regulus got the hint; he nodded and kissed James' cheek, who grinned, and watched him scurry off in his cat shape. Now it was just the two of them.

He walked over to Sirius, who nodded his head to acknowledge him, James did the same. "You heard everything?" He asked, James hummed in response.

  "I'm glad you and Regulus talked things over. Glad you were interested in listening to him for a change," James spat, Sirius slightly flinched back, stuffing his icy hands inside his robes' pockets.

  "You can't blame me... what you did, was low, so low."

  "What? Falling for your little brother?" Sirius threw a dagger with his steel blue eyes in response, as if warning James to not step in the line, but the other returned his harsh stare. "I don't fancy, him. I love him, as much as you probably love Remus. If you're expecting an apology for me, then you can sit down, 'cause that's not happening anytime soon."

Damn, that felt horrible to say out loud, James thought with pride. Serves him right.

The older brother narrowed his eyes, he peeked guilty at James through the shadow of his long hair. "You don't understand what it's like to imagine you with my little brother... the thought alone makes me want to smash your head," he grumbled, but James could see a little smirk coming to surface.

  "The thought of you doing stuff with Remus makes me want to rip my head off. Specially when I hear you. Yuck," James laughed, his voice echoing far, far away into the dark forest.

  "I guess it's pretty freaky for both of us."

  "Yeah," he hummed, individually picking the leaves stuck to his jumper off.

The cold, humid breath shock their hair, the sound of the leaves and bushes brushing together made James sleepy. "We've got classes tomorrow." He left his words travel through the air, till it was silent once again. "We better crack on, eh?"

  "Yeah, guess so," he shrugged, stepping closer. They walked together, slowly, till Sirius grabbed James' sleeve. "Listen..."

  "I know," he smiled, "I know."

  "Wanna...?"

  "Yeah," answered James, reading his mind. Sirius lunged at him and embraced him back in a tight hug. "You're one of a kind, mate," James smiled, though Sirius couldn't see him.

"About that thing... friends don't lie? Yeah, we can have some secrets. There are some things either of us need to know," he blissfully chuckled, James joined him.

  "Absolutely right," nodded the tan boy, as they resumed their long way back to the sleeping castle. "And, next time. Don't sulk inside the forest, eh? Took forever to find ya."

Sirius shock his head, smiling to the ground.

  "Though your nasty wet dog stench made it easier," James teased, and he suddenly felt something pulling his hand back, gnawing his sleeve; he looked back, and found a black dog moving its tail, his eyes playful. "Oh, come on!" He laughed, as Padfoot ran away.

James gave him a good five seconds of advantage, and turned into a stag, confident of his speed. They both ran away from the forest they knew so thoroughly, just at dawn, the orange light rimming the castle as brightly as their path back home.

You ever close your eyes you're making believe you're holding the one you're dreaming of?
Well, if you say so,
I hurts so bad when you finally know just how low, low, low, low, low, she'll go

***

We're just a few chapters away from the ending, I'm afraid.