passed out
At some point, Regulus had passed out. When he woke up, he was sitting on the floor of the bathroom with a boy- one he didn’t recognize at first, but as he slowly came to he recognized the face.
Fuck he was so incredibly screwed.
“Hey, Regulus. You’re up- err.. This is awkward, sorry.”
Regulus was confused, this wasn’t awkward. But then he looked down- oh. Oh no.
“Sorry, your- your clothes were soaked in blood. I had to change you because of your arm- you got splinted really bad, mate.” The boy had a concerned look on his face.
Regulus started shaking. No, no no no no no. This can’t happen. He couldn’t he couldn’t.
“James, listen-” Regulus started.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell Sirius. I saw… I saw. It’s okay. I understand. “James hesitated, choosing all his words very carefully. “I just- err- okay, just- you can trust me.” He raised his sleeve to show Regulus his heavily scarred arm. “You can trust me.”
Regulus swallowed and nodded, tears pricking his eyes. “Yeah, okay.”
“So- all I did was clean the wound- well, wounds. And I bandaged them. And your back- man, they were some bad bruises. And you’re- er, I dressed you in some of my clothes because i didn't want to go through your bag. I wasn’t sure if you had private stuff in there, like medications or a diary or whatever.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “Sirius passed out too. He’s with Remus. I don’t think he’s woken up yet.” He paused, then glanced up at Regulus. “Hey.. how did the bruises on your back get there? Like.. what happened?”
Regulus looked down. James had dressed him in some red and black plaid pajama pants and a grey Van Halen tee shirt that was just his size. James was tall and a bit bulkier than Regulus was, but Regulus was almost just as tall. “Oh right, the bruises…” He didn’t want to respond, but he didn't want James to bring it up to Sirius either. “Listen- our parents, they’re not good people. They're great, but not good. Me and Sirius- we’re very different from them. Their favorite form of punishment was whipping. That and- and, well, there are other things but that’s the main thing.” He was shaking slightly, a few tears hanging from his lashes.
“Regulus.. I'm sorry. That must be really difficult, I-” The older one was cut off by a pounding on the door. “Here, put this on.” He passed a faded black hoodie that had angel wings on the back. Regulus chuckled, thinking about how similar James’ clothes were to some Americans had in zines that Sirius had brought home for him.
He slipped on the hoodie just as James opened the door.