Picnic - Jegulus - @jeggyverses-jegulus-microfic - word count: 880
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Regulus popped back out of the water, coughing and spluttering, as James grabbed his arm and dragged him to the dock. He helped to push Regulus up and then clambered out after him.
As Regulus laid there trying to get his breath back, James was already scrambling to his feet and calling out to his son.
“Haz, mate, what are you doing here?” His tone was far too casual and Regulus knew Harry wouldn’t be buying it.
“What are you doing here?” The accusatory tone in Harry’s voice made Regulus want to curl up and be swallowed by the earth.
“Bud, go wait in the house. I’ll be up in a second.” Harry scowled in response. “Now, Harry.”
Regulus watched Harry stomp all the way back up to the house and he still hadn’t moved.
James turned back around to him quickly and helped him back onto his feet.
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart. Are you alright?” James was patting him down, presumably checking for any cuts or bruises.
“Other than being absolutely mortified that your son caught us behaving like a pair of horny teenagers and now being soaked, and not in a fun way, I’m just peachy.”
“Yeah, this isn’t exactly how I had pictured the two of you meeting.” James was rubbing at the back of his neck and throwing glances back to the house.
“Yeah, this is fucked.” Regulus tried to wring as much water out of his shirt as he could whilst still wearing it but decided it was a losing battle. “I’m just going to go home.”
“Reg,” James started.
“James,” Regulus interrupted as he put a hand on James’ chest. “It’s fine, really. But I’m sopping wet and you need to deal with your, correctly so, pissed off kid. So, I’m going to go home and get dry, whilst you deal with your son.”
They slowly trudged back up to the house and when Regulus tried to leave around the side, James stopped him.
“James, I’ll just end up dripping water on the carpet.”
“I don’t care.” James held his hand and pulled him lightly into the kitchen. “Reg. Regulus.” His full name said with such reverence caught him off guard and he blinked up at James. “I’m not hiding you from Harry. I’m not ashamed of being with you. Yes, I’m slightly horrified about the way he found out, but I don’t care that he did.”
“Oh.”
“I’m not sneaking you out of the house like you’re some sort of dirty secret.”
“Okay.” Regulus didn’t really know how to respond, but James still smiled at him.
They were interrupted by the sound of loud music coming from a room somewhere above them.
“Oh, bloody joy.” James sighed as his head fell forward onto Regulus’ shoulder.
Regulus patted him on the back. “I’ll leave you to that.”
James sighed heavily again and stood up straight so Regulus could grab his phone and keys from the kitchen side. Thank the gods he hadn’t had them in his pocket when they fell in the lake.
James walked him out to his car and held the door open for him to get in.
“I’m really sorry about all this.” James spoke as Regulus got into the car and looked up at his…what? Boyfriend? Too soon, too soon.
“Don’t worry about it. I mean, you did say you didn’t put out on the second date. I just didn’t expect you to go to such extreme measures.” Regulus smirked to let James see he really was only teasing.
James rolled his eyes and bent down so he was hovering over Regulus. “Menace.” He closed the gap and the kiss was short but full of a future promise.
Regulus closed the door and when the engine was on rolled the window down. “Call me later, if Harry doesn’t murder you.”
“Night, love.” James waved and Regulus started off on his way home.
Once he was back home, Regulus took a shower to warm up, put his wet clothes straight into the machine and then snuggled up on the sofa to call his brother.
The phone barely rang once before…
“How was it?” His brother’s excited voice asked.
“The food was incredible.” Regulus mourned the fact he had left without his leftovers. He hoped James would bring them in for him tomorrow and they could have a secret office picnic. He would need to remember to ask if James called him later. “The house is something else. He has his own small lake in the garden and the views are stunning.”
“There’s a but coming,” Remus said, clearly having decided this was a group call. “I can hear it in your voice.”
He was never going to live this down, but oh well.
“Well, we went out to the dock to watch the sunset and we may have gotten a tad carried away.”
“I don’t want to know!” Sirius protested.
“I do!” Remus cut in.
“Too bad. I’m not going into details. Besides, it doesn’t matter, nothing happened.”
“Why not?” Remus asked with disappointment.
“Because Harry came home, shouted at his dad, made us both jump and we ended up in the lake.”
Regulus spent the next five minutes listening to his brother and brother-in-law laughing raucously at him. Eugh. Families.
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