Chapter Text
Regulus is a person of extreme structure. He loves his schedules and he rigorously sticks to them. This is why at 4:35 each morning he turns up at the quidditch changing rooms in his joggers and old t-shirt, drops his bag off on the same bench, quickly stretches and slumps into the adjoining gym with his headphones on. And this routine is exactly the same every day, unaffected by brain dead idiots who are thankfully still asleep. So this is why after his usual work out with weights, he feels comfortable removing his disgustingly soaked t-shirt before moving onto the punching bag. At any other time he wouldn’t dare be so exposed, but the chance of anyone else coming in this early on a Friday morning is so low that Regulus thinks it would be more likely for him to start spontaneously duetting Queen with Sirius in the great hall. Despite this, he still triple checks that his spell bind around his chest is still intact.
He knows his scars aren’t pretty. Stable, clean and ordered but never pretty. Spiteful lashes cutting across his back, filled with such anger that even the strongest person would struggle not to wince.
He lets himself get lost in the rhythm and the cadence of his punches till he tires.
With his headphones still blasting in his ears as he walks back into the changing rooms, he feels every bone in his body tense up and his eyes widen comically as his gaze immediately falls onto a figure walking out of one of the cubicles.
A naked figure walking out of one of the shower cubicles.
Hard planes of muscle with soft brown skin like honey and Regulus feels dizzy. His mind goes to radio static and he's frozen in place. He watches a water droplet fall down to a trail of hair, lower and lower and lower. Suddenly, Regulus is faced with a sight that reminds him that this person is naked. Naked. In the middle of the public changing rooms.
He snaps his head up to see James Potter finish drying his messy, brown curls with a towel and they make eye contact before James yelps and hastily drops the towel to cover below his waist.
“Shit! Fuck my bad- Oh Reg it’s you.. Oh Reg it’s you! Fuck I’m sorry I-”
Regulus yanks his headphones off and has to rip his eyes away from the man’s abs once again before he deadpans. “Potter. Why. The. Fuck. Are you naked in here?”
“I-I didnt- It’s not even half five yet I didn’t think anyone came in this early-”, James scrambles before he is cut off. Regulus can see his cheeks getting darker and darker, which is confusing to Regulus especially from a man of such egotism.
“And so you decided to prance around naked?”
“I-I’m so sorry, I was just about to get changed.”
Regulus seems to consider this answer, but he is really just trying to clear his mind of the images of Potter’s naked body. However, the man standing shirtless in front of him definitely doesn’t seem help.
He is so easily distracted by the way the harsh artificial light still manages to hit James’ skin in the softest way; jumping and gliding over the taut muscles beneath his skin.
Dragging his eyes upwards, Regulus sees the subtle smirk resting on James’ lips and realises he’s been caught. He feels his cheeks immediately begin to heat and his stomach flutter with embarrassment. Annoyed and throat blocked by the mortifying situation of seeing James Potter naked, Regulus hurriedly shucks his shirt back on, grabs his bag and storms out of the rooms – ignoring the distressed calls of a nickname he never granted permission for.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
He repeats this back through his head over and over as he walks through the hallways that lead to the dungeons in his sweaty uncomfortable shirt. When he gets back to the Slytherin common room, where Dorcas is up and scribbling down some last minute homework.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”, He breathes as he runs his hands through his hair like a madman. Dorcas looks up at the sound and Regulus sees her face morph with concern.
“Regulus? Are you okay?”, she stands and goes to hold his forearms gently, the touch is grounding but it’s still not enough to distract him from his rampant thoughts.
“No, no. No, I am not okay. I will never be okay again actually. So I may as well just go and drown myself in the lake.”, He whispers.
Her expression deepens and Regulus can see as the worry forms lines on her skin.
“Regulus what happened?”
He takes a deep breath.
“I-... I saw Potter… naked.”
Silence.
Then Dorcas’ cackle fills the room as she tilts her head back. Most likely way too early for the quiet morning. This irks Regulus completely because what an earth is funny about this mortifying situation?
“It’s not funny, Dorcas! He was literally stark naked! And I saw him! All of him.”
This prompts Dorcas to laugh even louder and Regulus stares at her offendedly until she begins to calm down and catch her breath.
“Sorry, sorry.”, she looks at him with a grin. “Please explain how you saw Potter’s dick.”
He grimaces, “I had finished my workout, like I always do at that time in the morning, but when I walked into the changing rooms he was just there! Naked! Walking out the shower with water dripping down him and drying his fucking hair in a towel!”
“Shit.”, she laughs. “That’s awkward, especially for you and your gigantic crush.”
“I do not have a- ugh!”, he groans and storms off up into the dorms to go and finally take a shower.
Emotions bubble up in a way that Regulus hates. They’re not clean, or orderly but Regulus always struggles to box them in anyway. Mother always told him how pathetic he is whenever he overreacted or complained. That’s why Regulus tried to be a quiet child, grew up attempting to be unbothered. Tried to be unphased and not stoop so low that simple things like seeing James Potter naked affected him. It hasn’t seemed to work though. Because Regulus is currently debating touching himself in the shower before the clock has even struck 6am.
Oh God how mortifying. Regulus could never face him again.
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Regulus was sat idly on his bed, Pandora opposite him talking about this new book she was obsessed with, even though it had topics so odd that it went way over his head. She knew something had happened, this was her strange way of trying to comfort him, but she never pried. Pandora knew Regulus better than that. Barty and Evan sit across the room, probably up to something but Regulus could never be bothered to prevent it anymore. Barty and Evan were this unstoppable force when they put their mind to something.
Dorcas burst into the room, disrupting the quiet, “Guess where we’re going tomorrow!”, red lipstick covering her lips that obviously wasn't hers originally. This wasn't new though.
Barty’s head whipped up from where it rested in Evan’s lap as they lay on Barty’s bed. Regulus wondered every day when they were going to finally admit that they were hopelessly in love with one another. Or at least fuck.
“An orgy!”, he cried with a grin as Evan snorted, pushing himself up on the bed with his arms.
Regulus could never tell when Barty was being sarcastic.
Dorcas makes a face of disgust at Barty’s remarks. “No you idiot, Marlene asked me to come to a party in the Gryffindor common room and she said I could bring all of you.”
Regulus’ heart rose to his throat. No, no, no. He couldn’t imagine facing Potter after what had happened that morning. He could barely breathe the whole way back to his dorm and the only reason he had mildly calmed down now was because at least it was Saturday tomorrow meaning he could hole himself up in the dorm and not risk seeing Potter in the corridors, which would subsequently be reminding both of them of the mortifying interaction that Regulus wanted to bury deep where no one could ever find it.
“Oh so Barty was right.”, Evan laughed.
“Huh?”, Pandora questioned from the edge of Regulus’ bed, where she had just finished painting Regulus’ nails with a shiny coat of black after an hour of relentless asking. It had been a nice distraction from his own horrible life.
“Have you not heard about them? Gryffindor parties always end up with at least half the people drunk snogging in the corners.”
“Sounds like my kinda party.”, Barty smirked.
Dorcas huffed, seemingly fed up with his antics, “Well either way we’re all going, no buts, no ifs, may-”
“No.”
Dorcas’ face dropped, “Reg come on… I thought you had made up with Sirius.”
“Oh he has, he’s just scared of seeing Potter and swooning immediately.”, Barty snorted and Regulus sent him a glare but he was afraid it did not hold his usual power due to the panic that was coursing through his body.
“I have no interest in going. It’s stupid you even thought I would.”, Regulus replied, turning back to Dorcas, his walls hardening.
“Reg don’t be ridiculous, he's probably forgo-”, Dorcas was interrupted by Regulus throwing his remaining pillow at her.
“It’s okay I can stay with Regulus, I don't mind. I’ve been meaning to read this book to research some stuff for something me and Xeno are working on and I haven’t gotten round to it yet.”, Pandora interjected, smiling softly and holding up a white book covered in a language Regulus couldn’t identify. He dreads to think about whatever she and Xeno were working on but he felt relief wash over him and a deep gratitude for his friend. He sent Pandora a silent look and she nodded back without missing a beat.
Dorcas sighed, “Fine.”
“Hey you still got us!”, Barty chirps, wearing a shit-eating grin as he grabs Evan’s hand to raise their arms up. Regulus isn’t oblivious to the way Evan’s cheeks flushed.
“Yeah, yeah I’m stuck with the clinically insane ones.”
Barty turned to face Evan with a grin and a look of extreme pride, “You hear that Rosie? She called us clinically insane.”
Evan seemed flustered by the proximity and the nickname, despite the fact they’re always cuddling anyway, but still managed to reply with a smirk.
“Yeah Bat, I heard.”
Regulus still doesn't understand their dynamic, doesn't think anyone ever could, even them.