3 away from 23
Regulus glares at his phone.
It reads: 12:05am
It is officially 3 weeks until his 23rd birthday and he is dreading every second of it. He's wondering if everything good he has will be lost or if some or other catastrophic event is going to take place which will ruin the number three even more, if that's even possible. He mentally shakes the thoughts from his head.
He's not ready to be 23, its another entire year with the number 3 in. He wouldn't call himself superstitious in the way Pandora is though.
He doesn't throw salt over his shoulder, he has no problem with ravens, crows or magpies. And even less with black cats. He actually quite likes them.
Yet, he hates the number 3, which includes the number 13. You won't catch him underneath a ladder, but that's more because you won't catch him anywhere near a ladder.
As a child, Sirius once let him fall off a ladder in an unruly attempt to prove there's nothing to be scared of.
Regulus, being only 4, broke an arm, and went crying to his mother. It ended up with them being separated untill it healed because their mother didn't trust Sirius anywhere near her precious baby. The precious baby that was only ever precious leading up to, and around, her times of need. Otherwise he was simply neglected.
He drags himself out of bed, figuring theres no point in trying to fix his awful excuse of a sleep schedule now.
Maybe if he neglects his sleep enough, and time it just right, he'll sleep through his entire birthday. If he's lucky, the bad luck curse this year will be that he gets to die.
He wanders down the stairs, through his living room, and into the kitchen where he decidedly makes himself a cup of coffee. A single cup of coffee doesn't affect him anymore. If he needs to get up and running, he usually just drinks 3 energy drinks one after the other. Usually of the monster energy variety. Pandora always yells at him for it, but he doesn't do it every day. Just about twice a week. She says it'll give him heart problems.
He snaps back to reality, when he hears the front door open. His eyes widen at the sight.
Lily's back is to the door, Pandora having unlocked it.
Their faces? Busy being eaten off by the other. He doesn't know whether to clear his throat, awkwardly shuffle away or flick the light on.
He, unwillingly, goes for neither of those, as he darts out of the kitchen and up the stairs, silently thanking the fact that he long learned the house's layout and can do so effortlessly in the dark.
He's not sure if the girls heard him, and he sure hopes they didn't. His cup of coffee long forgotten in the kitchen, will now just have to stay there untill he knows the coast is clear.
Pandora better not have sex on their couch.
...
Later that morning, at a much more reasonable time, Regulus' attention is drawn away from his writing and into the bang of something falling on the floor.
He's up and out of bed within a second, his, unregistered might I add, dagger in his hand, and the rest if the set in his pocket.
He uses what Barty calls his ninja skills, to sneak down the stairs unnoticed, but drops from his defensive position once he sees the kitchen.
He might actually slit Lily's throat if she doesn't clean up this mess she made in his kitchen.
It's been over a month since he met Lily, and it's now 3 weeks till Christmas, noting his birthday falls on December 23rd.
Lily is currently standing in the middle of the chaos, baking what looks like sugar cookies. There's multiple somethings in various pots on the stove, and some sort of meat in the oven. She spins around laughing at something Pandora said, before letting out a yelp
"FUCK REGULUS. WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?" She's yelling, her eyes wide and her hands frozen mid air.
"And why do you have a knife in your hand?" but she relaxes when seeing the size of the knife. A long-ish blade but no bigger than a normal chefs knife.
Barty appears out of the living room, Evan trailing behind him. "I wouldn't calm down much Lils, that thing is sharp as fuck, and his aim is scary acurate" Barty informs her, lifting his shorts to show a small, but deep scar on his thigh. "Thew it at me once when I was visiting." he drops his pant leg again.
"Correction, you broke in to my house at 2am, drunk, through my balcony." Regulus addresses, pointing his dagger at him, leading him to take a step back, and hide behind his boyfriend.
Lily seems tense again, as Pandora starts lecturing Barty for wearing shorts when it's December.
Before anything else can happen, the house phone rings. No one calls the house phone besides Pandora and Evan's grandmother, who doesn't know how to use a cellphone, telemarketers, who barely call anymore because both Regulus and Pandora scare them in their own ways. And then Regulus'mother.
Everyone goes deadsilent, and Lily looks around confused. "Wha-" but Dorcas, who was sitting on a bar stool next to Pandora, jumps up and covers her mouth. Everyone stares at each other in silence so loud you could hear a pin drop. All of them seem to know it's Walburga. They stay quiet as if there's someone at the door and they're pretending not to be home.
Slowly Regulus makes his way over to the phone, taking a breath, and picks up.
"Black-Rosier house, this is Regulus Black, who am I speaking to?" he answers in his most formal tone. He's been avoiding his mother for the last 2 months and he wasn't planning to have a nice little chit chat today.
"Regulus."
"Hello Mother." he greets, but there's no warmth in his tone. There's no welcoming words or even polite small talk. If she calls, she calls to either yell at him, or complain that he's terrible. And sometimes, she even calls to just simply harass him, if she hasn't in a few days.
Recently she's been not calling for a while, and when she does call, yells and pretends to cry because her son never calls and doesn't love her. Spot on mom, spot on.
"Is there a reason you've been avoiding me?" oh it's one of those calls. Before he can even gather an answer, she continues with her sob story.
"I haven't heard from my own boy, my only son, in months!" she let's out a cry, but he can see through it, not missing the anger in her voice.
He also doesn't miss how she said "only son"
"I've been left all alone, how dare you do that to your own mother."
"What about Father?" Regulus makes the mistake of asking.
"Oh him? Now you ask? Your father is probably sleeping around with some slag younger than you and has left me all alone too. I can not even begin to see how anyone would do that to their own family!"
Regulus rolls his eyes, but gives a sigh.
"Yes mother, I understand, I'm sorry" he doesn't say it insincerely, but it's definitely still a lie.
His mother knows no emotions beside anger, rage, indifference, disappointment and whatever narcism falls under.
"Now, you will join me for tea tomorrow at 12pm sharp. We have a lot to discuss."
Her supposed broken heart seemingly fixes itself
Before he can argue, the line goes dead, and he realizes he's been lightly banging his head on the wall.
"When?" Pandora asks, once again somehow knowing everything.
"Noon, tomorrow, tea, discussion." he answers back, still banging his head against the wall.
Evan moves his hand to the spot on the wall, allowing him to still hit his head, but with some form of cushioning.
"Want us to go with you?" Barty offers, all of them still disregarding Lily, who doesn't seem to mind.
He stops hitting his head, to shake it. "No, I'll deal with it. What's all this?" he changes the subject to Lily's cooking. Everyone follows his change.
"Oh right! We're having Lily's friends over for dinner and drinks tonight, an early Christmas of sorts." Pandora tells him.
He glares at her, no real heat present, for not giving him a warning earlier. She pays him no mind. "You don't have to be here if you don't want to?" Lily adds in, already having gotten used to him and his need to be prepared for everything.
He shakes his head again, "it's fine, I'll be here" he decides, figuring that his own friends will also be present. "Is Cas and those two coming?" he asks, already knowing the answer, but needing confirmation. He has to mentally prepare for the amount of people he'll have in his house, once again.
Pandora nods, "Yeah, all of us, Xeno, Lily, her best friend, Luna, Harry, her ex husband, James and a few of their close friends"
Dorcas, who is now sat on the counter, quips up "I'm bringing my girlfriend too!"
Everyone turns to her. Evan talks first "When did you start dating someone?"
"And weren't you just talking to someone?" Barty adds.
"It's the same someone you idiots, and it only happened yesterday. She was coming either way, we're just official now. It changes nothing."
"It changes everything!" Barty says, excitedly, "We get to threaten someone again! And this time you get to join us Lils!"
Lily grins, happy to not be on the receiving end of the death threats this time.
Dorcas gives a sigh, but doesn't bother with arguing.
"Uh, how many people in total?" Regulus asks, and this is one of the few things none of his friends tease him about.
"14" Barty tells him.
"16" Pandora corrects, "kids are people too, Bee."
Evan hits Barty upside his head muttering about him being dumb.
"And what time?" he looks towards Lily, who seems to be the only one, besides Pandora, to know what's actually going on at the moment. "Any time from 4."
Regulus nods. Between all of their houses, he and Pandora's are by far the biggest.
Barty and Evan, as well as Lily, live in 2 bedroom apartments and Dorcas lives in a 3 bedroom apartment, with her 2 roommates.
The combined fortune of the Rosiers and the Blacks, allow for the 2 of them to live comfortably, maybe a little lavishly, without it making so much as a small scrape in their bank accounts. Money really can buy you anything.
Barty and Evan could too, they just don't want to. In their defense, actually, in all their friends' defense, they're more at Regulus and Pandora's place than their own houses. Even Lily can be found here more often than not
Dorcas roommates with 2 of her friends who she shares some classes with, and Lily doesn't need much space.
"Oh! Reggie, can you please stop by the store and get me a few things? I'm baking milk bread and I forgot yeast. I also don't have milk, flour, butter, eggs, sweetened condensed milk or sugar" she pipes up happily, a smile on her face. She's baking bread but has no ingredients?
Regulus wants to complain but he'd do anything for the bread she bakes every so often.
Regulus stares at her. "Do you have anything for the bread?" he asks her, not at all surprised
"I have water! And salt! Oh I also forgot safflower oil, can you get that for me too? Any neutral oil will work though! We also need snacky foods and some drinks. Tequila, beer, Yada Yada Yada, you know, all that."
Regulus looks at the time, it's already 12, they've been in the kitchen longer than he thought.
"Yeah, I'll go." he grabs his keys, accepting that the sweatpants and black tank top he's wearing will simply have to be good enough. He puts his shoes on in the entry way, and closes the door behind him once he's out.
He goes over the list in his head again, thanking his suspiciously good memory for always having his back.