Chapter 1
A slight breeze blows through Regulus' curls as he opens the small, red mailbox and sticks his hand inside. He sifts through the various envelopes, mostly bills and random magazines Peter's parents are subscribed too, nothing insanely interesting. Occasionally, he would find one of the excerpts on the cover of a magazine ridiculous, and spend the next hour flipping through it with Peter's father. Life is easy with the Pettigrew's. Calm, gentle, safe. No one shouts and no one feels unloved. Unlike his own mother and father, Edwina and Martin are the kindest people he has ever met. When Regulus was thirteen, Peter brought him home and he was instantly welcomed with open arms, no questions asked. The past four years living with Peter and his family taught him things about life and love that he never knew existed. Love isn't supposed to hurt. Love isn't screaming and hitting and bruises that wont go away for weeks. Love is soft and golden, like a warm fireplace on a cool night, curling up on a big couch and sharing a blanket with your loved ones. Peter's family showed him more love in three years than his own family showed him in thirteen. At first, Regulus felt like he owed them something, and offered up everything he could to try and pay them back. He offered to cook and clean and work as hard as physically possible, but Edwina always declined. The only thing she required of him is helping her tend to the garden. A year into his stay with them, Regulus considered himself a professional gardener.
Regulus shuts the front door and strolls to the kitchen counter, gently laying down the pile of mail. Peter glances up from his place on the bay window facing the garden when he notices Regulus' presence.
"More gossip magazines?" Peter asks with an amused sigh, standing up and stretching.
Regulus nods as Peter makes his way towards him. "Nothing too interesting. Lots of pop culture shit I don't care about."
Peter nods, fanning through one of the large booklets. "Did James' invitation come?"
"What invitation?" Regulus questions.
"Spain trip," Peter supplies, spreading the mail out across the wood. "He said it would be here by now."
Regulus shrugs casually. "I didn't see it."
James Potter, the golden boy of Ilvermony boarding school, and the biggest pain in Regulus' ass. James had committed his entire life to annoying Regulus as much as possible, and it doesn't take a lot for him to succeed. Of course, there's nothing actually wrong with James. He's polite, charming, smart, annoyingly perfect. Regulus tried to hate James when he was an angsty twelve year old, but that hatred soon melted into fondness when he left his parent's and stopped pretending to be someone he wasn't. It helps that James was Sirius' best friend, so he really had no choice but to get along with him from the start. Still, Regulus has never felt like James only speaks to him because he's his best friend's brother. James regularly goes out of his way to walk him to his classes and sits beside him during lunch. Regulus is usually quiet, but James always knows what topics make him giddy with excitement, and always manages to have a full conversation with him.
Under a stack of white envelopes lays a red piece of paper. Regulus reaches forward and grabs it, and is immediately assaulted with the worst drawing he has ever seen in his life.
"Is that...supposed to be us?" Regulus asks, eyebrows quirked in surprise. On the front of the card is a drawing of twelve horribly drawn stick figures all holding hands. The only way he can tell who is who is by the blobs of color atop their circle heads. The stick man that Regulus assumes is himself is standing in between James and Sirius with an angry expression.
Peter laughs and takes the card out of his hands. "Yeah, drawing isn't really his strong suit."
"What is?"
Peter just scoffs and opens the invitation. Inside is a smaller, white piece of paper glued onto the red, James' strange handwriting sticking out in dark ink.
-
Dear Peter Oliver Pettigrew & Regulus Arcturus Black, you are invited to James Potter's Summer Extravaganza!!!!!!!!
Location: My hometown of Sitges, Spain
Duration: As long as we want ;) (jokes, June 25-September 3)
Itinerary: No clue! We'll figure it out as we go
RSVP To: my face before school ends :p
-
A drawing of a group of people (supposedly them) by the beach closes off the message, and Peter smiles to himself as he closes the invite. Regulus rolls his eyes at James' idiocy. James has a charming sort of stupidity to him that Regulus can't help but admire. Regulus notices Peter staring at him with an unreadable expression.
"What?" He asks, raising an eyebrow at Peter.
Peter stays quiet for a moment. Then- "you should come with us."
The mere thought of going on summer vacation with James' and all of his friends makes him shudder. Sure, he's friends with all of them too, and he appreciates their company individually, but being stuck in a house with that many people for over two months makes him feel sick to his stomach.
"Absolutely not," Regulus denies, shaking his head. "You go have fun without me, I heavily encourage it."
Peter sighs and perches onto a wooden stool tucked underneath the counter. "Why not?"
"I've never gone," Regulus says, pulling out the second stool, pulling his legs up and folding one over the other. "why would I start now?"
"Because half of us are going to University next year, and who knows when we'll all be able to all be together again," Peter replies, looking slightly sad.
Regulus frowns. "That's depressing."
"It's true," he shrugs. "And you're really missing out. Spain is beautiful. You could add a lot to your art portfolio if you went, you know."
As always, Peter is right. Regulus desperately yearns to attend an art school, but he doesn't exact have a dazzling portfolio. He barely has a portfolio to begin with. During his years of Hell living in his house, he created many, many, many, incredibly depressing pieces of art that accurately represent how he felt being trapped in that house. Those pieces are beautiful, he knows they are, but they don't show who he is as a person, or what he's really capable of. Somehow, escaping his abusive environment made him lose motivation for art, although he expected escaping to have the opposite affect. Art wasn't a distraction anymore, and he stopped feeling trapped in his mind. So, he no longer had ideas for art, art that was based around how miserable he was. All he has now are countless drawing of Peter and his parents.
"I can admire its beauty from the many, many postcards you all send me," Regulus replies. Yes, he has denied the invitation to James' summer vacation every year he's been invited, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want to go. Actually, he wants to go more than anything, but he fears he would somehow ruin the trip for everyone with his depressing energy.
"We send you all of those postcards because we all want you there," Peter argues, leaning forward. "I know you don't believe it, but we all love you, Reg."
Leave it to Peter to make the most normal conversation sappy. "I know," Regulus says quietly. "I just don't want to ruin things."
"How would you ruin anything?" Peter asks curiously, genuinely not understanding how he could possibly ruin something..
"You've all just gone together for so many years, what if me going ruins the fun?" Regulus admits. His fears sound ridiculous, and he knows it. "I just don't want to mess up the way you all do things."
Peter lets out another sigh. "Reg, we all really want you to be there with us. We always have. Especially Sirius, he talks about how much you would love the ocean every time we go."
The mention of his brother warms his heart, and he feels a twinge of guilt for declining the invite for so long.
"But," Peter starts, popping his lips. "If you don't want to go, I understand completely. It can be...overwhelming...sometimes," he says, looking into the distance like he got flashbacks to something traumatizing.
"How so?" Regulus questions. He doesn't doubt that it's overwhelming, but there are different kinds of overwhelming.
"Well, most of us are eighteen," he says. "And there's alcohol. Lots of alcohol. Even before we turned eighteen there was a lot of alcohol."
"And James' parents just let you all get shit-faced?"
Peter smiles. "Sometimes they get shit-faced with us."
"Wow." Is all Regulus can say. He's not surprised by any means, James' parents are the kind of cool, hip parents who let their kids drink and cause trouble as long as they get home safe and don't kill anyone. Regulus is honestly envious of James for having parents like that. They sit in silence for a moment, Regulus making a mental list of the pros and cons of going on the trip. The pros outweigh the cons heavily, and he has to come up with elaborate insane scenarios to make it seem more dangerous than it actually is. Half of his friends are graduating and moving onto University or working, which means the group will become significantly smaller. Which means that all of the times Regulus has dreamed of actually being involved with them all will remain dreams, and he probably won't see them all at the same time ever again. Plus, Regulus hasn't left their town in years, and he's itching for things to do other than walking around the same ten stores he's been to his entire life.
Eventually, Regulus sighs and looks at Peter. "Maybe."
Peter's face lights up and Regulus can't help but smile with him. "Your life is going to be forever changed, Reg," he says with a grin.
"I said maybe, not yes," he corrects. The grin doesn't leave Peter's face even as he skips upstairs to his bedroom.
They both know he means yes, and in a month they'll pack their bags and go to Spain, and Regulus' life really will change forever.