James sits down far away enough from Auguste so that his obnoxious cologne wouldn't give him a headache but not far enough to seem like he wanted to get away. Even if that's actually exactly what James wants. Not that Auguste needs to know, though. 

"I... Can I just say that I don't hate you first?" 

Auguste raises an eyebrow. 

"I mean," James cringes, "Not like that, you know. It's true I don't... I didn't like you, but..."

"But we made out twice and now everything's different?"

"No," James says quickly. "Well, yes, things are different, but... I just... Oh, Merlin, I don't know. Do we have to do this right now?"

"We do," Auguste says, surprisingly gently. He leans forward a bit, but doesn't make an effort to touch James. "You do. Is it really so difficult to talk about things?"

"I thought you hated me for talking too much,"

"Oh I do," Auguste flashes a dazzling smile, "But for a guy who talks so much, you really don't say much, Potter,"

"Stop calling me that," James grumbles.

"I won't, Potter," Auguste smiles again, and James, once again, can't tell if he's being playful or not. 

"Fine," James rolls his eyes. "Fine..." He takes a deep breath. What the fuck is he even meant to say now? "Like I said... It's not that I hate you, okay? I never did... It's just that, in my head, you were always..." James stops, trying to find the words he needs.

"Bad for Sirius?" Auguste kindly helps out.

James winces. "I... yes. That's how I saw you,"

"Why?"

"Because..." James bites his lip.

"James?"

"Because you reminded me of... of his boyfriend," James says quietly. He doesn't look up, but he can picture Auguste's face perfectly well.

"I don't understand... Is that a bad thing?"

James sighs. "I wouldn't have to answer that if you'd ever known him,"

Auguste stays silent, probably waiting for James to elaborate.

"I never liked him... I couldn't. Knowing what he was doing to Sirius..." James takes his glasses off and tucks them into the collar of his t-shirt. 

"He hurt Sirius? I thought... I thought they were..."

"He did hurt Sirius," James sighs, "Just not in the way you're probably thinking of right now,"

"Then how?"

"Drugs," James shudders to even thinks of it. "Nine months in hospital weren't just because he heard voices in his head, you know. And the drinking... He would sneak out of Hogwarts at night and sometimes I wouldn't see him for days." James wants to keep it cool, he really does. But the shakiness of the sigh that leaves his lips betrays him. "We fought a lot, those days," his voice goes even quieter.

"It wasn't my place," James resumes, "I know it wasn't. And maybe he was happy. Maybe they really did love each other... But it was so fucked up. The way he treated Sirius was so fucked up, and I..." James manages to catch himself before his voice can crack. He drags in a deep breath, trying to get the lump in his throat to disappear, but it's no use. "...I'm sorry. I took all of that out on you. I shouldn't have, but we both know that I'm an idiot—"

"James," Auguste places a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to talk anymore, just take a deep breath. You're alright,"

"No," James shakes his head. "You were right. I need to say this. It's not that I thought you were like... like him, but... I used to hate it so much when Sirius would get drunk. I still would, if I saw him that way. And I should've realized before that you weren't trying to get him drunk... because knowing Sirius, he'd get drunk with you or without... But I'm a blind fucking idiot, so I never—"

"Stop it," Auguste frowns, "Really, James. Stop talking." 

James complies, but only because he's going to cry if he keeps talking. 

The two sit like that for a while, Auguste's hand on James' shoulder like a dam holding all of his tears back. "I'm going to do something," Auguste mutters, "Just let me, okay?"

James braces himself for making out. It's not like he doesn't want to. When Auguste said that he usually fucked his feelings away, James thought it was the most ludicrous idea. But now...

Except Auguste doesn't grab his face and kiss him till he's dizzy with it. He just pulls James into a hug, circling James' shoulders with his arms and pressing the sides of their heads together. For a moment, James sits there. Numb and thoughtless, like he's floating in a dream. When he does eventually come out of it, he hugs Auguste back, scrambling to pull his glasses out and put them away next to him so that they wouldn't get crushed.

It lasts a lot less longer than James would've preferred. And Auguste's cologne is a lot less obnoxious than he would ever admit aloud. 

"You're alright," Auguste says once more before releasing him. And after that hug, James actually kind of believes him. 

"Thanks," James sighs, wrapping his arms around himself to make up for the sudden feeling of coldness that washes over him.

"No problem," Auguste says, "You don't have to stay here anymore," he adds.

James looks at him. He's close enough not to be a complete blur of colours thanks to James' unaided eyes. "I want to."

A small pause later, Auguste gives him a questioning look. "Oh?"

"There's something else I'd like to talk to you about," James replies.

"If it's about making out, don't worry. Anytime you want to, I'm down."

James blinks. "Auguste, no,"

"You don't want to make out?"

"No," James chokes out. "I mean, yes, but... Stop laughing at me!"

Auguste, unfortunately, can't do that. Laughing at James is probably when he's laughing the hardest anyway. James waits for him. It's the least he can do, after everything. 

"I mean... I really like kissing you," he says once Auguste stops laughing. This prompts another eyebrow-raise. "But it's not enough,"

"You want to—"

"Don't even think about finishing that sentence," James says quickly. "I want... if we're going to make out, I want to do it properly," 

"Always the gentleman, James Potter," Auguste huffs. 

"I'm serious," James says, "I'm not... Look, I'll be honest with you, I don't think I'm still over Lily. Sometimes I feel like I'll never be—"

"Quite an irresistible deal you're making," Auguste says dryly.

"For the sake of Morgana, will you listen to me? I'm trying... to... This shouldn't be this hard," James slaps his forehead. It can't be too late to back out of this without making himself look like a clown. 

He drops his hand when he feels Auguste grab it by the wrist. "You're doing alright, Potter. Shall I tell you something?"

James nods.

"I really like kissing you, too," Auguste smiles, "But I think what we need right now is to... figure things out. Right?"

"Yeah," James breathes out, "And I... I'd like to figure them out together. With you, I mean. If that's okay..."

Auguste smiles a bit wider. He's still holding James' wrist. "I think that's okay ," he says, "But we'll do it differently this time,"

"Different how?"

"More communication," Auguste replies, "And maybe we should take things slower,"

"You sound like a couple's counsellor..."

"Have you been to one?"

"No..."

"And that's clearly worked in your favour," 

"I'm going to let that slide because we just made up," James pouts. "But yeah. We can... take it slow and see how it goes from there,"

"I'll try to build up my tolerance for gossip in the meantime," 

"And I'll try and learn how to brush my hair," James laughs. He reaches up to try and flatten it.

"What are you doing?" 

"Uh..." James trails off, "Trying to tame my hair? Which you've always hated the look of?"

"Are you kidding?" Auguste frowns, pulling James forward and running his fingers through his hair, messing it up even further. "Has no one told you how hot it looks?"

"Uhm..."

"Oh, just come here," Auguste rolls his eyes before grabbing his face and pulling him into a kiss. James is quite passive at first, mostly because he's not being given enough time to process anything, but the feel of Auguste's long fingers tangling themselves in his hair makes him understand everything he needs to.

"I thought we needed more communication," James pants as they part, trying not to stare too much at how pink Auguste's lips have become. "And that we were going to go slow,"

"Kissing is communication," Auguste smirks. "And what did you think we were going to do while going slow? Hold hands?"

"Yes?" James grins.

"You're an idiot, Potter," Auguste grins back. 

They end up kissing again, but this time, it doesn't last much long.

"Oh my heavens," it's Regulus, standing at the door with a hand over his mouth. "Oh my Salazar, I'm actually going to pass out. Please go back to... to whatever you were doing, I'm out of here." Auguste looks at James briefly, eyes sparkling as he fights to hide his smile. Regulus turns to leave, but stops himself for some final words. "Oh, and... You two can come for dinner whenever. If you're not too full from eating each other's faces off."

***

Author's Note

Hi, a lot of you were worried about me throwing up blood so I updated today as well. I'm doing alright, guys. No need to worry xx

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P.S. Just saw that we passed 100K reads. Thank you for that as well.