Glimpse Of Us | JEGULUS

5 | as the atom bomb locks in

James's eyes fluttered open to come face to face with nothing. The bed was empty and had he not been completely naked, he would have been convinced that it was some weirdly vivid dream. A very vivid dream.

It was safe to say that Regulus Black knew exactly what he was doing.

James wasn't even sure as to why he had done that. He had never been attracted to a man in the way before, at least not that he could remember. But for whatever reason, Regulus just compelled something inside of him that was new. New but good.

Why did it have to be his best friend's brother?

Good but complicated was maybe more accurate. Or maybe not good at all. Regulus had left the bed and went Merlin knows where and James sat alone in his bed, the previous nights events running through his mind. He could hear his name, over and over in Regulus's voice, like a prayer. James, James, James. No, that was definitely not a dream.

And then there was the fact that Regulus wasn't in the bed anymore. Or in his own bed. James sat up, slipping his sweatpants on. He looked around for his jumper but frowned when he couldn't find it. He stood up, fixing the sheets on his bed when the bathroom door opened.

James looked over to see that Regulus had emerged. At least he knows where his sweater went. "You're awake," Regulus concluded as he entered the room. James felt his heart immediately pick up in speed, banging rapidly against his chest. "I thought you were going to sleep all day."

"All day?" James asked and he glanced out the window to see that it was bright outside. Had he really been asleep that long. "Oh."

"I must of worn you out, huh?" he inquired and James's head shot in his direction. Regulus grinned which only caught James even more off guard. "We should probably talk."

"Probably," James muttered as he looked around the room. The bottle of firewhiskey had been cleaned up and he presumed that it was Regulus. "About, what, exactly?"

Regulus tilted his head to the side as he watched the boy. It was like watching an animal being hunted by prey. "Relax, Potter," he suggested. "It's really not that big of a deal."

Not that big of a deal, James repeated in his head. That was the understatement of the century because it most certainly was a big deal. But he somehow kept a straight face as he looked up at the boy, "No, of course not."

"It really shouldn't leave this cabin, though," he suggested.

"Sorry?" James asked, not entirely sure as to what Regulus was saying. He was still a bit flustered, coming to terms with what had happened.

Regulus rolled his eyes, pushing himself off the wall, "I mean, we have another week here, right? So whatever happens, happens. And when we get back to Hogwarts, nothing happened." He stopped a few feet away from the boy, "Unless of course you don't want to."

"I didn't say that," James countered. "It's just-"

"My brother?" he concluded. James sucked in a breath, confirming that that's the case, "What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

"He'll find out."

"How?" he inquired, "We're the only two that know, remember?"

James stared at Regulus for longer than he probably should have. Maybe he was still tired from just having woken up but he wasn't sure he was understanding this conversation very well. Because what it sounded like was that Regulus was suggesting they keep doing what they had done until they left. And that couldn't be true. Right?

And on top of all of that, why was he remaining so unbelievably calm? Because he was freaking out. Yes, Regulus was always calm in any crisis but this surpassed any sort of situation that James had ever been in.