for liza for your birthday! here's some james/regulus with a sprinkle of the found family trope. hope you like it! :) (also for a (very late) gge 2015 (oops lol))

tie dye: red - "I love the bones of you."

chess - james potter

triple threat: "that's so unethical" plus family

asoue: the reptile room - (phrase) "Bite me!"

writing club: actor appreciation - 24. Edward - Edward Scissorhands - write about someone different trying to fit in.; record collection - 7. This: Word: Beautiful; bingo - [3.c] Theme Acceptance; fabulous world of comics - (Pairing) James/Regulus (bonus); book club - Uriah: (dialogue) "Just act like you belong.", (trait) cheerful, (character) Regulus Black; showtime - Something Was Missing - (dialogue) "Who would need me for me?"; amber's attic - Snapchat: Write about something that doesn't last long.; elizabeth's empire - Syzygy - (character) Regulus Black; liza's loves - Coup - Write about bluffing; bex's basement - "Being a freak is the best. I'm a freak."; lizzy's loft - Mac n Cheese - (genre) Family; angel's archive - 15. Black Rose - (theme) new beginning; scamander's case - (trope) found family; film festival - (dialogue) "I don't know why I'm here."; marvel appreciation - (trope) found family; lyric alley - We're glad for what we've got

herbology club: plot 2 - "Is that what your parents told you?"

quidditch reserve league: season 3, round 1, chaser 2 - james/regulus

1537 words by gdocs

Regulus is immediately overwhelmed. He grew up in the pureblood world — he grew up having to go to stuffy dinner parties — but this feels different. Maybe it's the fact that he's spent years away from that world. Maybe it's the fact that he's meeting his boyfriend's parents for the first time.

Both thoughts make his stomach hurt.

"You okay?" James says, looking over at Regulus. Regulus isn't sure what he looks like, but his nausea must show on his face because James gives his hand a quick squeeze. "It'll be okay, promise," he says, giving a grin. Usually, James' grins get him to calm right down, but it doesn't work today. "Just act like you belong."

Regulus knows that James is joking — James is always joking — but it doesn't make him feel any better. It just solidifies his feeling like he doesn't belong here. Maybe he should just say he doesn't feel well and they should go home. It's not a stretch from the truth — his stomach is churning, and Regulus doesn't even know how he's supposed to keep any food down — and James would definitely buy into it and cancel their dinner.

Still, James walks on ahead, pulling Regulus' by the hand.

Regulus follows.

…

Regulus is terrible at making small talk. Sometimes, when he was younger, his parents would force him to talk to their dinner guests and ask questions about their careers or their lives. The answers were always horribly boring and Regulus had usually tuned them out. Unfortunately, it would always be obvious when he was tuning someone out — he's always been bad at bluffing, too — so he would be forced to listen to whatever boring conversation, and it was always clear that he'd rather be doing anything else.

"So, where do you work at?" Mrs. Potter asks, her hands cutting up a steak. Regulus looks down at his mostly untouched plate. "James failed to mention."

Regulus can see her give her son a sideways glance, but James is looking down at his food, cutting it up methodically.

"Flourish and Blotts," Regulus says, trying to sound proud of it. It's not like it's a fancy ministry job, but there aren't many places that want to hire someone who didn't even complete Hogwarts. Also, he doesn't exactly have the best reputation in the world of wizarding careers, seeing as his first employer was the darkest wizard of all time. It turns off most employers to see the Dark Mark on Regulus' arm, but no amount of concealer can cover up the tattoo and it simply gets too hot to wear longer sleeves in the summer.

"Flourish and Blotts?" James' father chimes in. "Like in Diagon Alley?"

Something about that question rubs Regulus in the wrong way. He doesn't feel like he's being outright judged — the Potters are very nice, just like their son — but he still has this urge to try and prove that he's good enough working at Flourish and Blotts.

"Yeah," Regulus says. He tries to lift his chin up a bit higher. "I'm the manager there," he says next, which isn't at all true.

He doesn't know where the lie comes from if he's being honest. He loves his job at the bookstore. It's something he had never considered doing before, but spending his time surrounded by books is calming. He's glad to do the job.

At the same time, there's a small part of him that sounds suspiciously like his parents that is telling him that working at a retail job for three galleons an hour and barely making ends meet isn't the best way to impress his boyfriend's parents. From besides him, James looks over at him, frowning. Regulus holds back a wince, sure that James is going to say something, but he's quiet.

"That's very nice!" Mrs. Potter says, and something about the validation soothes Regulus. He picks up his fork.

"What did you do before working there?" Mr. Potter asks next. Regulus tenses up a little bit. He wonders if they know about his past 'job', but his fears, for the most part, are quenched when James' foot meets his beneath the table and rubs against his.

"I got the job straight out of Hogwarts," Regulus answers. He doesn't need to go into any details with that, he's assuming, and he thinks that a fine enough answer. Maybe it'll even leave room for the Potters to assume that he's going to get a 'real' career — even though he's not planning on leaving Flourish and Blotts any time soon. He just wants to come off as adequate enough for James in his parents' eyes.

"And James has told us that you didn't get to complete your time at Hogwarts?" Mrs. Potter asks. Her tone is very polite, not at all accusatory or questioning, just merely conversational, but it makes Regulus freeze. James knows very well why Regulus didn't complete his schooling. Slightly irritated, he wonders what else James told his parents about him.

"Oh, no, I finished Hogwarts," Regulus lies. His tone must fall flat, because none of the Potters say anything more. James makes a sound like he wants to talk, and Regulus can feel James' eyes on him, but Regulus just looks down at his plate. He tries to stab a piece of steak with his fork, but his hand is shaking so bad that he misses the food and just pokes the plate itself.

"Can I speak to you for a second, Reg?" James asks. Regulus looks over at James, whose eyes flick towards the kitchen.

"Sure," Regulus says, his tone clipped. He pushes his chair away from the table and follows James into the kitchen. Once they're alone, James rounds on him.

"What are you doing?" James asks, and he looks so genuinely confused and hurt that Regulus feels guilty.

"I just —" Regulus lets out a deep sigh and tries to look around the room instead of at his boyfriend, but his eyes end up on James anyway. "I don't know why I'm here."

"What do you mean?" James presses, his eyes pleading with Regulus. "I want you to know my parents and I want them to know you. The real you. Why are you lying about dumb things to them? I can understand about you being a Death Eater but they're not going to judge you for your job, or education, or —"

"Except," Regulus says, his stomach starting to churn again, "if I say that I didn't finish Hogwarts, they'll wonder why I didn't, and I don't particularly want to get into that." Without thinking about it, Regulus rubs his left arm, right where his Dark Mark is. James' eyes flicker to it.

"Okay," James says, but he doesn't look particularly happy about it. "What about your job? My parents won't care what sort of job you have. They just want to know about you."

Regulus sighs. "What parent wants their kid dating someone who can barely make ends meet? Anyone who can't get a real job is a freak, everyone knows that."

"Is that what your parents told you?" James asks. Regulus can see him start to get irritated. "Because mine told me to never judge someone based off of something like money. I don't care about your job as long as you're happy with it. And neither do they. And hey, even if that was true, being a freak is the best. I'm a freak."

Regulus lets out a laugh. He lets out another laugh, and then another, and the fourth one is more of a wet laugh and before he knows it, he's crying. James quickly pulls him in, and he only spends a few moments crying on James' shoulder before he can clear his throat enough to speak.

"I just keep thinking: who would need me for me?" Regulus chokes out. "I just feel so inadequate, meeting your parents. I hate it."

"Hey," James says, pulling away from Regulus and placing his hands on Regulus' shoulders. "I need you. I love the bones of you. I'll never not love you. You're beautiful, and gorgeous, and if my parents disagree with me, I'll smack them across the face and we'll run off together."

"Smacking your parents?" Regulus says, letting out another watery laugh. "That's so unethical."

"Ah, bite me," James says, and Regulus takes it as a literal challenge. Though, instead of actually biting James, he just leans his head up and kisses him, soft and deep.

It feels like home when James kisses him back.

"You ready to go back?" James asks, pulling away and wiping his thumbs underneath Regulus' eyes. Regulus nods. Hand in hand with James, they head back to the dinner table.

The rest of the meal, Regulus doesn't lie. He just has to take one look over at James and remember that, no matter what, James still loves him. It's okay.

At the end of the meal, when he and James are ready to leave, Mrs. Potter puts her hand on Regulus' shoulder and says, "Welcome to the family."

And, when she brings him in for a hug, Regulus really feels it.