When the Sun and Stars Unite (Jegulus Oneshots)

i'd give anything to balance your conviction with certainty

His first rational thought was that James went back to sleep, which in on itself would've been unlikely, because tomorrow was his day off, and knowing James, he was going to spend half the night making up for his lost time during the week, which implied wasting more time by endlessly scrolling on social media or pausing a movie every five minutes until Regulus joined him and he could finally glue his eyes to the screen, fingers tracing aimless patterns on his lover's arm.

But James always tells him when he's sleepy. Always whines When are you coming home? I'm about to fall asleep over here and have nightmares just because you haven't kissed me goodnight.

He was a needy bastard and Regulus fucking loved him.

But his inbox was utterly empty.

Coming to a halt at the living room doorway, Regulus almost stumbled over with the realisation that there were no texts. Throughout the whole day. He would've realised usually, he would've texted something, but with such a busy schedule, he didn't even pay attention, the hours passed by so fast for him.

His eyes slid over the furniture in the room.

There was a faint glow coming in from the kitchen, a white light bulb that he should've changed a long time ago, because right now, it made everything look too cold. None of the lamps were on, the candles weren't burning, the TV wasn't displaying some rerun of a show nobody cared for but left on just for the background sound.

It was nothing.

Regulus tried to keep the gap in his chest at bay, he still had two more rooms to check and maybe he was wrong. Maybe James was just sleeping, blissfully dreaming with his phone battery on low or even dead, lost somewhere in the sheets.

Maybe.

Despite the turned on light, the kitchen was empty and untouched. Regulus had quite a good memory even when it came to useless details, and he knew the dishes he washed that morning were left in the exact same position, with no additions to them or in the sink.

Something sunk deeper into his abdomen at the thought that James hadn't eaten the whole day.

Maybe there was takeout. Somewhere...

Bedroom.

Maybe on their bed there was also a mess of empty food containers.

Maybe.

The walk over to the bedroom seemed impossibly long, even if it was just one hallway over. It may have been just Regulus' racing thoughts that seemed to make time stand still. He kept replaying the scenes from that morning in his head; James comfortably cuddling with the pillows after Regulus got out of bed, kissing him sweetly as ever when he brought him breakfast, wiping at his eyes a couple of times before sliding on his glasses and smiling sheepishly at Regulus, who by that point was running a bit late, but it was nothing he wouldn't pay for one more kiss.

He seemed fine.

But, fuck, Regulus knew better than to assume things could stay fine.

"James?" He called out almost too quietly as he opened the bedroom door with a light push. He didn't want to disturb him if he was sleeping– Empty. An empty unmade bade, a half eaten toast on the bedside table.

He didn't know if all the blood drained from him or if it all rushed to his head, everything suddenly so tingly and dizzying.

A faint sound made him turn back, having him whip his head around so fast that something in his spine let out a faint crack. For a moment he didn't know if it was just his imagination, so he urged his heart to calm down, trying to focus.