James's eyes fluttered open to come face to face with nothing. The bed was empty and had he not been completely naked, he would have been convinced that it was some weirdly vivid dream. A very vivid dream.

It was safe to say that Regulus Black knew exactly what he was doing.

James wasn't even sure as to why he had done that. He had never been attracted to a man in the way before, at least not that he could remember. But for whatever reason, Regulus just compelled something inside of him that was new. New but good.

Why did it have to be his best friend's brother?

Good but complicated was maybe more accurate. Or maybe not good at all. Regulus had left the bed and went Merlin knows where and James sat alone in his bed, the previous nights events running through his mind. He could hear his name, over and over in Regulus's voice, like a prayer. James, James, James. No, that was definitely not a dream.

And then there was the fact that Regulus wasn't in the bed anymore. Or in his own bed. James sat up, slipping his sweatpants on. He looked around for his jumper but frowned when he couldn't find it. He stood up, fixing the sheets on his bed when the bathroom door opened.

James looked over to see that Regulus had emerged. At least he knows where his sweater went. "You're awake," Regulus concluded as he entered the room. James felt his heart immediately pick up in speed, banging rapidly against his chest. "I thought you were going to sleep all day."

"All day?" James asked and he glanced out the window to see that it was bright outside. Had he really been asleep that long. "Oh."

"I must of worn you out, huh?" he inquired and James's head shot in his direction. Regulus grinned which only caught James even more off guard. "We should probably talk."

"Probably," James muttered as he looked around the room. The bottle of firewhiskey had been cleaned up and he presumed that it was Regulus. "About, what, exactly?"

Regulus tilted his head to the side as he watched the boy. It was like watching an animal being hunted by prey. "Relax, Potter," he suggested. "It's really not that big of a deal."

Not that big of a deal, James repeated in his head. That was the understatement of the century because it most certainly was a big deal. But he somehow kept a straight face as he looked up at the boy, "No, of course not."

"It really shouldn't leave this cabin, though," he suggested.

"Sorry?" James asked, not entirely sure as to what Regulus was saying. He was still a bit flustered, coming to terms with what had happened.

Regulus rolled his eyes, pushing himself off the wall, "I mean, we have another week here, right? So whatever happens, happens. And when we get back to Hogwarts, nothing happened." He stopped a few feet away from the boy, "Unless of course you don't want to."

"I didn't say that," James countered. "It's just-"

"My brother?" he concluded. James sucked in a breath, confirming that that's the case, "What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

"He'll find out."

"How?" he inquired, "We're the only two that know, remember?"

James stared at Regulus for longer than he probably should have. Maybe he was still tired from just having woken up but he wasn't sure he was understanding this conversation very well. Because what it sounded like was that Regulus was suggesting they keep doing what they had done until they left. And that couldn't be true. Right?

And on top of all of that, why was he remaining so unbelievably calm? Because he was freaking out. Yes, Regulus was always calm in any crisis but this surpassed any sort of situation that James had ever been in.

Unless this was normal for him. Did he do stuff like this all of the time? Was James just another name to check off his list? He wasn't sure why the thought bothered him so much but it did.

Regulus moved closer to him and raised his hand, pushing the boy's mouth shut. "Relax, James," he said. "We can just start pretending this never happened starting now, if you'd like."

Okay. This had to be the most insane that would ever happen to James Potter. Regulus Black was propositioning him with...with, what, exactly? A week of doing...anything? Because that seemed completely insane. This had to be a dream.

"I'm dreaming, aren't I?" James inquired and Regulus raised an amused eyebrow. "This is some weird dream that I don't really have an explanation for but it has to be a dream."

"You dream about me often, Potter?" he mused and James turned his attention back to the boy. "They sent out a message a short while ago that we'd be resuming training tomorrow. The field is flooded but they'll have it fixed up by then."

"So it's done raining?"

"I'd assume so," he shrugged. At this, James turned and walked right out of the cabin. Regulus shook his head slightly but did nothing as the door shut behind him. James was the most confusing boy Regulus had ever met and he didn't know how to feel about it.

While Regulus managed to remain calm and seemingly cool and collected, he was freaking out as well. Maybe not on the same scale as James, who was probably having an identity crisis over the fact that he's probably gay and on top of that, he had sex with his best friend's brother. But he was still freaking out because he had sex with his brother's best friend. His estranged brother's best friend.

And he fucking liked it.

Now, had he told this to himself five years ago, young Regulus would have been freaking out, being the boy he was practically in love with seemed to be attracted to him as well. But that was five years ago.

Now he was freaking out because if anyone found out about this, he was so beyond screwed. More so than he was last night.

Regulus sat back on the bed with a heavy sigh, reaching for his book. A few hours had passed by and the boy hadn't returned. Regulus stood and walked toward the window but he wasn't there.

"Stupid Potter," he muttered to himself before he went after him.

James found that walking through the woods in stag form was incredibly therapeutic for him. He was still himself, only different. It was a lot easier to process things because animals' emotions were far less complicated than humans.

He had started his way back to camp when he felt as though something was watching. Or someone.

He turned around to see if they were behind them but they weren't. He looked up to find a black cat perched on the branch of a tree. He felt a strange sense of familiarity when it hit him. He turned back into human form and placed his hands on his hips as he watched the cat.

The cat transformed as well, revealing Regulus who was now sitting on the branch. "You know, the woods out here are dangerous at night."

"You're an Animagus?" James asked in disbelief.

"I am going to choose not to be offended by the tone in which you said that," Regulus said with narrowed eyes. He hopped down from the tree and walked over to the boy. "But yes, I am. I may have found Sirius's notes from last year."

"Does he know?"

"Doubt it, and if you knew better, you wouldn't tell him," he pointed out. "My brother doesn't exactly handle big pieces of information in the best manner. Even something seemingly insignificant."

"I wouldn't call this insignificant," he countered. "Do you know how dangerous it is? You could've gotten hurt."

He snorted at this, "You do realize you did it, right? I'm not sure you have much room to talk."

"I had a good reason to do it. I wasn't just doing it for fun."

"Neither was I."

"Oh, please," he scoffed, "What could you have possibly needed to become an Animagus for?"

Regulus hesitated. Now, James hadn't actually been expecting a response. It was more of a question that he asked to be annoying but Regulus answered anyway, catching him off guard, "It's nice to hide sometimes. They can't find me when I'm a cat."

James was about to ask who 'they' were but then stopped. They were his parents. He was hiding from his parents. James searched his mind for words of comfort but none seemed to come to mind that would be good enough so all he managed was, "Oh."

"Let's just get back to the cabin before they find us," Regulus suggested before he turned around and stalked off.

James followed behind, stuffing his hands into his pockets. Oh? he thought to himself. 'Oh' was all you could say, you daft idiot. He stood at the bottom of the stairs for a moment before he eventually made his way up, not at all ready to deal with whatever was coming his way.