Human Touch
Tom woke to Regulus shifting slightly in his arms. He opened his eyes to see a long slender hand caressing Regulus’ thick dark hair. Tom stared for a moment, noted the distinctly feminine cut of those delicate fingers, then yelped and did the sensible thing. He levitated him and Regulus so quickly that he had to reach up and press his hand against the ceiling lest they smash against it.
Reg was wrapped around him, arms around his neck, legs curled up nearly to Regulus’s chest, more like a baby monkey than the more traditional Koala, sleepy eyes open suddenly in panic. “What…what the hell, Tom?”
“I…”
“Why do you flee?” A voice choked out. “Why do you loathe me, now? I am like you!”
They shifted slightly to peer down at the tall slender blond woman who stared at them, utter agony in her sea green eyes.
“Celeste, honey,” Tom muttered, heart softening in spite of himself, even as he cuddled Regulus closer to his chest. “Yeh can’t sneak up to somebody when they’re sleepin’ and start pettin’ they head. It’s just plain startlin’.”
“But…I woke from my long slumber to you, Harry, and Uncle Rion holding me. Is this incorrect? Inappropriate?” Celeste wept, kneeling in their armchair to watch them bob lightly against the ceiling.
“We were bringin’ yuh back to life, hon. Also, you were a snake.” Tom muttered.
“And that is significant? Only serpents can be held? You are holding sweet Regulus. Is there no way in the rules for one to be held in human form after being wrapped in scales for hundreds of years?” Celeste sighed.
“Tom, we can go back down.” Regulus gave Tom a slight squeeze. “It’s alright. I think Celeste could do with a bit of comforting.”
“But she’s…I…”
“You no longer love me?” Celeste was crying in earnest, now. “My body is different, and I am no longer special to you?”
Tom leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Celeste, honey, you and Hagrid were my best friends when I had nobody. You’re always gonna be special to me. But damn it, honey, I thought you were a snake. I feel like…I feel like yuh hid somethin’ really important and I nevuh really knew you. Then, I wake up and you’re pettin’ on Reg, who I love and has just agreed to be mine fuh keeps. So like…yeh. Now I’m floatin’ next to the ceilin’ because I’m hella confused. Shit happens.”
Celeste curled up in the armchair, continuing to cry. Regulus sighed and twisted around slightly, sitting up in the air beside Tom, wrapping his arm around his shoulders. “It’s okay, Tom.” Regulus said gently. “I’m sure it was meant in a friendly sort of way. Celeste is still figuring out the human rules, aren’t you dear?”
“You are mine.” Celeste said, her tone firm even though she was still sniffling. “I knew your souls even in the book. Mine. Forever.”
“Damn it, honey, that don’t sound platonic.” Tom muttered.
“I do not know all of your modern terms. You are the bonded of my soul. You are mine, but you despise this form. You will reject our bond and rend me in two.” Celeste sobbed. “And I do not know how to be the basilisk again!”
Regulus looked at Tom with dismay. Tom felt the same feeling twisting his own gut. Regulus pulled out his wand and summoned a patronus. “Siri,” Regulus said. “Celeste is awake. And I think we’re going to need…Cissa. And Hagrid. And Severus. And Grandad. And Remus. And Fleur. Just. Hell. Maybe everybody.”
Celeste gripped Uncle Rion’s strong hand on one side and Hagrid’s large rough hand in the other. And yes. This felt familiar. This felt peaceful. Skin to skin. It was what her soul bonded should have given her. Instead, they had floated to the ceiling. Even now, they were perched on the high back of the armchair, like she would pounce upon them the moment they were in reach. And yes, she might. Because they were hers, dammit. She had held them in her coils every day since her awakening. Why should it be any different now that she was in human form? Should it not be more familiar and pleasurable for her humans to hold her in this form? Why did they run from her?
Her darling boys. Her tiny bits of sanity between the long sleeps. The lights of their souls had given her hope in the long dark time. And now they ran from her? After she had remembered, at long last?
“Celeste, Sweet One, are you ready to tell your tale?” Uncle Rion asked her in his deep quiet way.
She clung to her uncle’s strong hand and closed her eyes. “Why should I tell it, Uncle? They care not for me or my life. They hover above and can scarcely look at me. They would leave me to die in loneliness and pain.”
“Celeste, honey, that ain’t true,” her Tom said with a mix of concern and exasperation. Exasperated. At her! As though she was the one being ridiculous! Tom was hoarding their Regulus, hoarding his own touch, his gaze, and even his words, sitting up on the back of a chair like some strange bird. “I fuckin’ care. Ain’t I been with you every day since we brought you here? Ain’t Regulus been takin’ care of you night and day? I helped heal you, dammit. Don’t you tell me I don’t care.”
“All of what you speak occurred when I lived as a basilisk. You would have preferred I never regained my human form. Well, would that I could reverse time. But as sad as it is for you, I have exhausted myself with this change. I know not when my magic will be restored enough to return to the form that you prefer. You have my deepest regrets for the inconvenience of my human presence.”
“Come on, Celeste honey, it ain’t fuckin’ like that…”
“Tom, let me down, please.” Regulus said. “It’s time to behave like civilized people.”
“But…Reg…”
“Excuse us, everybody.” Regulus said and hauled Tom off the chair and into the hallway. All Celeste could do was cry.
Regulus held Tom close and told him to breathe.
“Listen to me. It’s okay.”
“It’s not fuckin’ okay. I literally just promised it was you and me forevah. I ain’t goin’ back on that. I dunno what we’ll do, but somethin’. Celeste is…Celeste is…”
“Celeste is yours.” Regulus said slowly. “Hell, Celeste is ours. And I don’t understand it, either. But I…I feel it, Tom. Don’t you?” Tom said nothing, nearly growling. “And if she…if she has a soul bond with us…then we can’t reject her, Tom. You know that. She’s a magical creature. Severing a bond will kill her or worse.”
Tom continued to sigh and shudder and growl. “It…I…I can’t lose you, Reg. You just got through tellin’ me I can’t see anybody else if I want you. Well I fuckin’ want you. I can’t throw yuh ovuh. I can’t break your heart. I can't lose you.”
“Hey, hey,” Regulus said gently, holding Tom tightly. “This wouldn’t be cheating, Tom. Hell, this might not even be romantic with Celeste.”
Tom snorted softly and Regulus had to laugh a little. “Well, there’s a small chance we’ve misunderstood. But it. Either way. It’ll be fine. And if we’re all mates, it was meant to be anyway. But we can’t abandon her just because I happen to have issues. I’ll be right by your side, Tom. You and me, always. And maybe Celeste, too. And I’ll…I’ll be okay.”
Tom held him so close he could barely breathe. “I don’t want just okay fuh you.” Tom muttered. “I want you to be so fuckin’ happy, Reg. I want you to know in your fuckin bones that I love you and want you fuh keeps.”
“Okay, well,” Regulus breathed, shuddering in the warmth of Tom’s embrace. “This is a very good start.”
Tom gripped the back of his head and kissed the side of his head, his cheek, his neck. “You’re fuckin’ mine.” Tom muttered. “Do you undastand? We’ll figure out the stuff with Celeste, because she’s been my friend fuh forevah. But that’s fuckin’ it, got it? Tom and Reg are closed fuh business. We take care of our snake lady howeveh she needs, and it’s thuh three of us against thuh world. Nobahdy else fuh me. Nobahdy else fuh you. Hell, if Celeste wants to date men or ladies or snakes or whatever, we’ll figuh that out, but as far as the two of us go? It’s you and me and the snake lady. I need to hear you fuckin’ say it, Reg. If you don’t believe it, if you won’t stay, I’m runnin’ the hell away with you.”
Regulus had to laugh and hold his ridiculous man closer. “Okay. You and I and the snake lady. That’s it. The shop is closed.”
“Closed up tight,” Tom growled and pressed his face into Regulus’ shoulder.
Celeste was weeping into her pillows with Uncle Rion caressing her hair.
“All is going to be well, sweet Celeste.”
“You are not to lie to me, Uncle. You were always the wisest in the room, Rowena be damned. You cannot tell me that this is not disastrous. I’m healed and human, but…one look at me and my father and my mates flee for their lives. And I thought the basilisk was considered the monster.”
“Alright, that’s enough a that.”
Uncle Rion’s hand left her head. She couldn’t roll over fast enough to see the two men slide into the bed on either side of her. She tried to squirm away, but familiar arms wrapped around her. She was in Tom’s lap, legs draped over Regulus, who cupped one side of her face and kissed the other and then leaned back, covering her with the blankets and resting his arms on her legs. Tom kissed the side of her head.
“Gentlemen,” Regulus began. “Excuse us, please. We need to speak with our mate.”
The room emptied, except for Hagrid, who lingered in the doorway.
“Nobody’s fled,” Tom whispered, his breath warm in her hair. “Nobody’s a monsta. Least of all you, honey. I've been a bunch of versions of me, some of them were monstas. You? Nah. You’re perfect.”
“I do not wish your pity.” Celeste said defiantly but had no strength to move away from the embrace.
“This ain’t pity. This is necessity. We can’t lose you, Celeste. We gocha back and we gotta take care uh you. Hagrid would kill me, fuh one thing.”
“Too right,” Hagrid said and sniffled a little, waving as he moved away.
“But you find me hideously unappealing as a human.”
“Honey, you’re the prettiest lady I evuh saw.” Tom said sincerely, holding her so closely that she let the idea sink a little into her soul. “You look like uh angel or a fairy a somethin’. There’s nothin’ wrong with yuh looks. It’s just breakin’ my poor brain that my pretty snake Celeste can also be a pretty lady Celeste. Please be patient with my poor human brain. I thought you was my snake.”
“I was your snake. I forgot I could be human.” Celeste said softly. “I have not been for centuries. I did not fool you deliberately.”
Tom sighed a little. “That does make me feel betta, honey. Not gonna lie.”
“And you?” Celeste looked forward into Regulus’s eyes. “You cannot pretend to want me.”
“So I won’t pretend,” Regulus leaned in and kissed both of her cheeks again, lips soft and warm against her skin. “You say we’re mates, Celeste, love? Then how could I possibly not want to be with you? Of course I want your happiness. Of course, I want to be the mate that you need. You caught me at a strange time, but don’t count me out, beautiful lady. I’m the kind of person to whom a soul mate sounds like a dream come true.”
“But not two,” Celeste was trying desperately not to weep but not succeeding. “One soulmate seems perfect to you. You had already chosen Tom. But me? I am the leavings after the feast.”
“Musta been a helluva feast,” Tom muttered, and kissed the side of her head again.
“I just don’t know you the way I do Tom, Celeste, love. I never really expected to find one soul mate, let alone two. But Tom and I have talked it over and we’re in, okay? We’ll be the best mates to you that we possibly can. Just try to believe us and be patient with us, okay? You’ve been stuck in the Chamber; we’ve been stuck in a diary. Our social skills are still recuperating. But we want to be what you need.”
Celeste couldn’t resist leaning forward again, wordlessly begging. Regulus’ eyes narrowed with confusion and then lit with warm understanding that she could drown in. He leaned and kissed each of her cheeks, then her jaw, then her neck. Tom was caressing her back, kissing her hair. And if Celeste had died in that moment, it would have been as a very happy being.
“Lotsa touchin’ for a start, huh?” Tom murmured, lips grazing her temple as he spoke. “Lot of lonely dark times to make up for, huh?”
“Tom…please…do not toy with me. If I am not what you want…” Celeste choked.
“Let’s calm ourselves, a little.” Tom murmured, pulling her and Regulus close. “We’re mates, alright? We’re stickin’ close. There’s no fuckin’ hurry. You’re mine,” he kissed Regulus’ cheek. “And you’re mine.” A shiver of pure pleasure raced down her spine as his lips pressed into her cheek. “We can take this one step at a time. And the first step is to be calm and trust that we’re all here, we all want to be, and we’re all stayin’. Okay?”
Celeste tried not to weep, but she was sobbing uncontrollably as she leaned into Tom. “I…I wish I could trust. But…I fear you will leave. Everyone always leaves.”
“I relate to that very deeply, Lady Celeste.” Regulus said and kissed the inside of her wrist. “You have been abandoned many times, haven’t you?”
“Tom left me bodily when he was consumed by the diary, though I could still sense his soul. Hagrid left me. The evil mirror left me. Your souls left me. Of course, the two other Slytherin Heirs through the ages. They only summoned me and fled. And all of that was when I was only the basilisk. That is not to speak of…before.”
Tom was caressing her hair, and she wanted to curl up into that feeling and die in happiness. “You can talk about b’fore. If yuh want. But keep it tuh yeself until you’re ready. We ain’t here t’ pry. We’re here to look aftah you.”
Celeste had no desire to speak of Before. But wrapped up with her mates, no matter how long the blissful situation might last, she forced herself to think of the past. And to speak.
“I need Orion, too.” She said softly.
And then the man came and wrapped himself around them all and Celeste began to speak.