When the Sun and Stars Unite (Jegulus Oneshots)

If You Stayed

After leaving his family for good, Regulus Black moves in with James Potter, who agrees to give him a place to stay as long as he looks after James's six-year-old son, Harry.
Even though they haven't talked about it, Regulus knows that he'll have to leave when Harry goes back to school, no matter how much he wishes this wasn't the case. Between spending time with Harry and Luna, the weird girl who lives up the street, and the more-than-friendly feelings he's starting to have for James, the summer can only end badly.
Right?

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"I'm home!" James calls, just like he does every day despite never failing to arrive exactly at 4:03.

He's soaked today, holding an umbrella at his side and shaking his hair out all over the newly cleaned countertop.

"Hey!" Regulus exclaims, shoving James off as he props his elbows up on the counter. "I just wiped that off." He glances at James's wet curls and makes a face. "Go dry off."

"Where's Haz?"

"Sleeping," Regulus replies, pushing James towards his bedroom at the end of the hall. "You can say hello once you're done dripping all over the floor."

James gives Regulus a sheepish smile but doesn't argue as he nods and heads for his room, ducking into the bathroom on the way to grab a towel. Regulus stays there a moment before he realizes he's staring at the closed door and shakes his head, forcing himself to turn around and head back to the kitchen.

He's been living with the Potters for two months now. He was in a bad place, just having cut off his family for good, and James was in need of someone to look after Harry while he was at work. It wasn't far, just a small bookstore a few blocks from the house, but Harry always seemed to cause trouble when he was left unattended. James couldn't afford a proper nanny, and Regulus didn't care about money if it meant a warm bed and decent food, so he was the best option. He knows it'll end at the end of the month when Harry starts school again, but with all he's been through, he thinks he can give himself a moment to pretend. Sometimes, at dinner or when Harry chooses to drape himself over Regulus while they watch a movie, he can almost forget he's an outsider. He can almost forget that they're a family, and he's just temporary.

Almost.

He moves into the kitchen to get a start on dinner. It's early, but Harry's still young, and Regulus knows he'll be out for the night by eight, dinner or not.

He pulls out a cutting board and a knife and begins cutting peppers for a stir-fry with the leftover rice from Sunday's takeout, thinking about where he'll take Harry on Thursday. It's supposed to be nice — nicer than today, anyway — and he's thinking that, maybe, they can walk down to the bakery before picking James up at the bookstore. But what would we do in the morning? James's shift is only from 12-4....

"Hello," someone says, and Regulus jumps, dropping the knife and slicing a thin line across his palm. He turns to see Luna Lovegood sitting at the counter.

Luna is, for lack of a better term, weird. She lives down the street with her dad, who runs some sort of weird propaganda newspaper (that's what Regulus thinks it is, anyway, even if James insists that's not true) out of their basement. Regulus can't help but be creeped out by her, but Harry likes her, and she's always around. Regulus could've sworn the door was locked half the times she's shown up.

"Harry's asleep," he says quickly, and he feels a bit rude doing so, but Luna doesn't seem to mind.

"I know," she replies, which is probably the worst thing she could reply, because it just creeps Regulus out more. He's already jumpy from her appearing behind him.