#The Taj Mahal is my favorite monument and you all deserve to know as much

[immortalbutterflycos]

"Taj Mahal" (a jegulus microfic; 710 words)

"I'm going to love you forever. Just as much as I always have, possibly even more." James murmurs against the shell of Regulus's ear.

The golden glow of sunrise traces the contours of where their bodies have become nothing but a tangled mess of limbs and sheets, pressed so close together it's hard to differentiate where one begins and the other ends.

Regulus shudders as the gentle warmth of James's breath glides across his skin, leaning into it like an embrace even as he tries to conceal his reaction with a scoff.

"There's no such thing as forever James." He says, his voice embarrassingly breathy, "Everything comes to an end one way or another."

"Not this. Never this." James whispers resolutely, his lips traveling and trailing gentle kisses down the length of Regulus's throat.

"It will," Regulus continues, hoping James doesn't catch the way he practically sighs the words. "Inevitably we're going to die and our love, like all other things, will come to its natural conclusion."

James pulls back to meet his eyes and Regulus regrets not just going along with whatever he had to say about "forever".

"You're wrong."

"James-"

"No. Our love is eternal. Even long after our bodies become nothing but dust on the wind, our love will remain." Regulus can only shake his head in disbelief and James smiles, tucking a stray curl behind his ear. "You don't believe me."

The words aren't posed as a question or even draped with an air of disappointment. They're simply a fact; already known yet spoken between them. Yet guilt settles in Regulus's chest and his brows tug together.

"I want to. I really do..." James hums thoughtfully, continuing to card his fingers through Regulus's hair.

"Do you suppose Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal ever had a similar conversation to this before she died? I wonder if that was partially why he chose to build the Taj Mahal. A relic; a monument built to immortalize her and the love they shared. Proof that it still remains far longer than they themselves had the chance to."

Regulus smiles at him and puts a hand on James's cheek, pulling him closer again to press their foreheads together.

"Are you saying that you'd have built the Taj Mahal for me?"

"My love," James says on a wistful sigh, "I'd pluck the very stars from the sky if it meant the world would always know my love for you."

"Well, now that's just impractical." James laughs, burying his face into the curve of Regulus's neck.

"Must you undermine my genuine and very logical profession of love?" He bites into his shoulder earning a laugh from Regulus.

"Perhaps if it really had been logical, it wouldn't have been undermined." He replies lightly, accepting his fate as James's chew toy.

"You're a right menace, you know that?" James says, speaking around the meat of his shoulder. Regulus laughs and detatches James, holding him firmly by his cheeks so he wouldn't be inclined to dive back in again.

"I do. I do know that." Regulus says, grinning up at the way James's cheeks are squished together. "Do you know what else I know?" He asks.

"What?" James says through squished lips. And really, Regulus just has to kiss them. It's the only logical thing to do. He cranes his neck upward to meet James in the middle, earning a squished smile that Regulus just had to kiss again. And again. And again. Until inevitably James's cheeks are released and their kisses devolve into something less chaste and full of meeting tongues and fingers tangled in hair and squeezing into hips.

And Regulus has to force himself to pull back because he still has a point to make. James lets out a whine in complaint that Regulus soothes with another chaste press of lips before pulling back again and murmuring in the space between them.

"I don't need you to build me a monument," He presses a hand to James's chest, resting his palm over his heart. "This is my Taj Mahal." James inhales sharply and Regulus is more than prepared for the kiss that comes soon after, smiling into it. After all, a love like this, like theirs, perhaps forever can exist just for them.

#taj mahal #jegulus #james potter #regulus black #marauders era #the marauders #starchaser #sunseeker #jegulus microfic #The Taj Mahal is my favorite monument and you all deserve to know as much