The Sun & The Stars - Jegulus Oneshots

I wish I were Lily [part2/2]

Summary: Regulus absolutely refuses to talk to James, but he just won't tell him why.
James has a lot of problems: Somehow his relationship with Lily just isn't as great as he dreamed it to be, his best friends are the dictionary entry for a perfect relationship, his new friend doesn't want to talk to him anymore, and he gets those weird feelings whenever he sees Regulus talking to another person.

In which Regulus tries to move on and James realises a few things.

Inspired by Memories by Conan Gray and Movies by Conan Gray.

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Sirius had led Regulus to a hidden corridor behind a tapestry. They sat next to each other on the ground. Regulus was staring at the wall across from him. His eyes and cheeks were red and wet, he had pulled up his knees to his chest and leaned against Sirius' shoulder.

"You are in love with James," Sirius said quietly after a while.

Regulus inhaled a shaky breath.

"I'm so stupid," he whispered.
"No, you're not," Sirius said, "You have a questionable taste in men, but you're not stupid. Sometimes it happens... we fall in love with people, and they don't fall for us, and we have to accept this and move on."

"How would you know? You have always been in love with Remus, and you are dating now."
"Yes, point taken. But it's still true. I was just lucky. And I won't be able to ever find someone better than Mooney, they will have to lock me up in Azkaban before I ever let go of him... but you will find someone so much better than James, Reggie."

"I never wanted anyone. I would have been okay with staying alone all my life and then he had to come in and... be like that."
"Like what?"

Regulus shrugged. He couldn't explain it. And something in him – the last slither of Pride, probably – refused to bare his soul any further.

"Do you want me to be mad at him? I can be mad at him, for you. I can hex Lily's hair green or something."

"No," he said quietly, "It's not their fault. I get over this on my own. I made it all up in my head anyways."

"You don't have to get over it on your own. I'm here for you."
Regulus looked up at his brother, "Thank you... I missed you."
"I missed you, too."

They sat there for a few minutes in silence.

"Is she nice?" Regulus asked eventually.
"Lily? Yes. James has had a crush on her since 1st year, you know? This has been so long in the making; it was honestly pathetic to watch."
"So, I never had a chance. It was really just in my head."

"I don't know what happened between you, Reggie. James always insisted he can't tell me what you talk about with him."

That's exactly what I mean: Why does he have to be so trustworthy and honest and kind? Who does that?

"Look, you deserve someone way better than James. He's my best friend in the world, and I consider him my brother – but really, he can be kind of dick sometimes. He isn't worth all of those tears. Also, you hate pranks, and you always say, we're pathetic and silly."

"You gave yourself a gang name and call each other by it unironically; You are silly."
"And you want to date the head of this silly, stupid, pranking group? Your reputation wouldn't survive it, you know? And you spent such a long time crafting that."
"It was easy to gain that reputation with a name like ours and the contrast between us."  
"Imagine throwing all that away for a silly teenage boy, who spent 6 years pining after the same girl. You can do so much better."

Regulus smiled lightly. He appreciated, what his brother was trying to do.

"Hey, we're late for next period anyways, do you just want to stay here and talk until supper?"