47. Can't Take My Eyes off You

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It was the first quidditch match of the season, and arguably the most exciting one - Gryffindor versus Slytherin. James was ecstatic, so giddy that he could barely sit still. He stood on a bench in the dressing room, hyping up his team in the time approaching the match. 

"Let's kick their slimy, slithery asses!" Sirius shouted, waving his beater bat through the air haphazardly, nearly hitting one of his teammates. The whole room cheered enthusiastically and headed out to the pitch where they were met with the opposing team. James grinned when he made eye contact with Regulus, and he knew it might not have been fair to the match, but when it came time for the captains to shake hands, James leaned close to Regulus and whispered in his ear, then took off on his broom, watching as Regulus stared at him, face flushed red. 

The teams got into position and began to play. James, as usual, was a huge show off to the crowd, taking the quaffle from his opponents, following with some fancy flips and tricks he taught himself over the summer. It felt like home, the wind in his hair, the sun heating up his skin. He missed being on the quidditch pitch, being the center of attention for something he worked hard at, instead of for the other dumb stuff he did that made girls swoon over him. He would rather feel accomplished than wanted by the masses. 

He threw the quaffle into one of the hoops, then turned his gaze to his teammates. Sirius was chasing down a bludger quite unsuccessfully. James looked further up and made eye contact with Regulus, whose face flushed, and quickly turned away, sort of like an angry toddler stomping away, but James knew he wasn't really angry. James smirked and kept his head in the game. 

"What did you say to Regulus? He hasn't even gotten close to the snitch yet." Sirius asked, keeping pace with James, who just shrugged, "Whatever you said seemed to work." Sirius raced off to go get a bludger off of the tail of a smaller teammate, who was dodging for his poor life.

Fir the first time since Regulus had been seeker, Gryffindor beat them. The second the Gryffindor seeker caught the snitch, all the way across the pitch from Regulus, the entire crowd gasped. Regulus never missed the sight of the snitch, or the opponent seeker seeing the snitch. The only people who caught the snitch before Regulus usually had him on their tail. This time was completely different. Regulus looked livid.

James didn't think that one sentence would completely derail Regulus' game, but he thought wrong.

After the match ended, James was swept up by his team, all shouting and cheering, celebrating all the way to the dressing room. James watched his team happily shower and dress, shouting and cheering the whole time. James was the last person in the dressing room, hanging his clothes in his locker when from behind, a familiar presence slammed him against the locker.

"What the bloody hell was that James!?"Regulus sneered, pushing James' face into the cool metal.

"I didn't expect to distract you from the match I swear!" James surrendered.

Regulus let him go, James rubbed the side of his face where he hit the locker. It stung, but not enough to leave a mark. "You knew what you were doing." Regulus frowned.

"Okay, I admit, yes I did; but I didn't think I'd throw off your whole match, just the beginning. I wanted to make you flustered." He admitted.

"you do realize there's going to be rumors now. Everyone saw you whisper something to me, and then it was the first game I just completely bombed. People are going to speculate." Regulus crossed his arms.

"Let them talk then. To them It's only rumors. I could have said anything to you, I even could have threatened you. They don't know what I said unless we tell them, "James smirked, "This is our little secret." He reached for Regulus' hand.

"Oh you're so stupid," Regulus leaned in and kissed him.

"Is this what we do now?" James smiled, "Because I like it." He kissed Regulus again, but Regulus pushed him away, covering James' mouth with his hand.

"Don't push it, Potter" He rubbed a thumb over James' lip before backing away. "Oh look at the time. The Gryffindor house is throwing a party that I need to break into and convince their extremely hot captain to sneak away from." He smirked and sauntered away, leaving James breathless and without words.

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Just as promised, James saw Regulus in the shadows during the party. James and Sirius were being stupid as always, screaming songs at the top of their lungs and messing with the people around them. James waited until he saw regulus leave before he decided to slip out, hoping to go undetected, but it wasn't that easy this time.

"James, where are you going?" Sirius asked over the booming music.

I'm gonna go get some fresh air. I'll be back before the party ends." James shouted back.

"Not so fast, you've ditched every party  we've had," Sirius persisted, crossing his arms like a strict mother, James had half a mind to start whining like a child, but treated the situation seriously.

"We have a lot of parties. I don't want to get overwhelmed," James argued.

"Okay, fair enough," Sirius huffed.

"Have fun with Remus you idiot." You two should be making out right now, not worrying about me." James shoved his shoulder, "I'll see you later." He said. Sirius nodded, and the two went their separate ways.

On the way to the portrait, he ran into Peter, who smirked at him, "why are you in such a hurry to leave, prongs?"

"Just going to get some fresh air, Pete. Don't worry your little head about it." James brushed it off, "I'll see you later." He ran past peter without another word, and once he was in the palace, he practically sprinted to the astronomy tower.

When passing the room of requirements, though, he was pulled to the side into the open door.

"Oh hey love," James grinned and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend. Boyfriend, James loved hearing that word.

"What took you so long?" Regulus buried his head into James' shoulder. James looked around the room and was shocked to see thousands of shelves spreading so far that James couldn't see the end. It was a maze of miscellaneous items.

"Sirius and Peter were being nosy. What is this room?" James asked.

"I'm not sure. Might be all the lost items from everyone that has attended Hogwarts in the past. That's my theory." Regulus pondered, "I think we should take a look around. We might find something."

They decided to wander around the room, scouring the shelves. At some point, they came up to a large, and very strange looking mirror. Engraved into the wood were words that James couldn't decipher, 'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi'

"I show not your face, but your heart's desire." Regulus muttered. James looked over at him, confused, "That's what it says on the mirror. It's in reverse."

James looked at the mirror. It showed him and Regulus - older than they were now. Regulus held a baby in his arms. All of their friends surrounded hiem, Sirius and Remus with a little one of their own, Pandora with one as well. Everyone looked happy.

James looked over to see what Regulus thought, but he was crying. "Reggie? What's wrong?"

Regulus broke down into tears, collapsing into James' arms. James caught him and tried to soothe him, but was unsure of what to do. Now that he thought about it, he was sure Regulus did not see the same thing as him. 'I show not your face, but your heart's desire.'

"What did you see?" James asked.

"Sirius." Regulus sniffed.

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Guys I'm uploading too often I need to slow down. I hate to tell you this, but enjoy the happy fluff scenes while you can, because we are hurdling into absolute chaos btw. You're all going to hate me. 

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