Swimming Lessons

Get It Off Me

REGULUS

Sirius sat with a cigarette between his lips, staring at the sea as the sun was preparing to set far off over the curve of the island's shore, where the sea stretched off to infinity beyond the edge of where the land came to an end. His hair hung stringy and clumped up by the salt water in strands down his back, a towel flung over his shoulders. He was straddling the end of Remus's lounge chair, his hands rubbing Remus's feet.

James sat in the sand, hugging his knees, a cigarette between his finger tips, smoldering. He'd dried his hair with his wand the moment they'd gotten out of the water and Sirius had laughed and called James a prick because he was obsessed with keeping his hair perfectly windblown at all times. James had only grinned - a wide and crooked thing, broken in all the right ways - and run his hands through his perfectly fluffy mane with an air of the arrogance he was known for. Now, he plunged his toes under the sand and wiggled them, watching the granules slide over the tops of his feet, carefully not watching my brother massage Remus's own feet.

"So where's the old ball and chain anyway?" the cigarette bounced as Sirius spoke, the tip glowing with embers he hadn't shaken off yet.

James answered without looking up. "How am I to know? We're on a break, aren't we?"

I looked over at him. "You broke up with Lily?"

James didn't answer, didn't look at me. After a few moments, Sirius said, "They're on a break." A muscle tightened in James's jaw and he raised the cigarette to his mouth. Sirius looked over at me and met my eyes, a clear warning not to ask for more information until it was proffered by the source.

James lowered the cigarette, "I reckon she probably went on that stupid holiday with her folks... the one she invited me on. Got pissed I didn't want to spend a month at sea with Pigtunia and her reproductive hormones." He tapped the cigarette so that ash fell from the end and blew away in the breeze, little red sparks that smoldered out the moment they hit the sand. "For a muggle, that woman is the witchiest person I've ever met... and where she goes that fucking walrus is never too far behind." He shook his head.

"I still can't get over the fact her sister thinks you're Snivellus half the bleeding time," Remus said quietly. His eyes were closed, enjoying the work Sirius was doing to his feet. Sirius grinned and pressed his thumbs all the harder against Remus's arches and he inhaled sharply, letting out a grunt of appreciation.

"You have hygiene, it really shouldn't be that hard to tell you apart," Sirius snickered.

James shrugged. "She just doesn't care to pay attention. Which is fine. I don't really want her caring." He took another drag from the cigarette. I couldn't help but stare at the way his lips closed around it, the way his cheeks hollowed as he inhaled, and the smoke streamed out through his nostrils as they flared. He squinted, his nose pinched, glasses off so they wouldn't be lost in the water, and I wondered how blurry things looked to him when he wasn't wearing them. "There was no way I was spending so much time with Piggy and the Walrus at any rate."

Remus murmured, "If you didn't call them Piggy and the Walrus might help your relationship with them a wee bit."

"If she wasn't a bitch to Lily and I would help the relationship, rather," James snorted. "It isn't as though I call them Piggy and the Walrus to their face, though if she keeps being so horrid to Evans I might do."

"I will pay premium prices for tickets to that event," Sirius hooted, pausing the massage to knock the ash off his cigarette.

"Can I have a smoke?" I asked him.

"No, fuck off," he answered.

"Why?"

"Because you're an actual child and children don't fucking smoke," he answered.