Chapter 3
Regulus was late.
Again.
Of course, he had called in. And of course, Dorcas had just switched his spot with another dancer. And of course no one would really care that much. But he had to study and because he had been switched, he would have to stay longer, and then he would be home a lot later than anticipated and get less sleep.
And of course James bloody Potter had just decided to injure himself exactly on this day, and he was tasked with taking care of his case and so he would have to get some time off work next week to be able to monitor everything when the surgery was over. And Regulus really needed the money from his job. He knew that Barty would pay for everything he could ever need or want without even thinking about it twice, but Regulus was no charity case. So, he would have to suck up and work more the next week. He would have to check that with Dorcas and maybe just switch with some of the other dancers.
While he was rushing from the station to the club, he was making a mental list of all the tasks he would still have to complete and the errands he would have to run as soon as possible.
1) Change shifts at work, 2) Thank Lyle for switching last minute, 3) Review the anatomy of the lower body, 4) Catch up with Pandora for missing her birthday party last week, 5) Go grocery shopping, 6) Do ankis (Today!!!), 7) Maybe clean his room (optional)
That were only seven things to do, so it would actually be alright. He could do seven things.
When he entered the club through the back door, he was immediately surrounded by the familiar smell of sweat, deodorant and perfume that always lingered in the backrooms of his work place. His feet brought him without a lot of thought to his little nook. Every permanent dancer got their own station for preparations. The club had provided a dressing table with a mirror, drawers and a locker next to it, so the dancers could keep the clothes and accessories that they would need for their show at work and would not have to carry it around all the time. Dorcas had let all of them do with their own station whatever they had wanted. So, Regulus was always welcomed by a picture of him and his closest friends that Barty had tucked into the edge of the mirror after he had come with him for the first time a few years ago and had discovered that Regulus did not have any memorabilia at his station.
The picture showed them in their first year at uni in the tiny flat that Regulus had been able to rent while barely scraping by on his own. They had gotten drunk together - the five of them - for the first time ever in that combination. And it had been perfect. In the picture, Barty was in the process of trying to make Regulus do a lab dance on Evan, which only meant that he pushed Regulus down on Evan’s lab while Evan was laughing hysterically and Regulus did his best to look appalled. Behind them on the floor, Dorcas was lying with Pandora in her arms, and the both of them were also laughing. You could also see, that Pandora was still in the process of lying down because she had been the one to put the phone up and put on the self-timer. The picture was pure perfection, and he loved looking at it every time he came to work. And he would take that secret to his grave.
He started stripping and changed into tight Calvin Klein boxer briefs in black. Some of the other dancers preferred brighter colours or no branding, but he had always liked the look of the tight band with the letters around his waist - and judging by the amount of tips he got wearing it, the customers enjoyed the look, too. His hair always stayed the same for his dances. He had sometimes tried to do something special and at some moments he had enjoyed slicking his hair back or brading it, but mostly he wanted his curls to be flying around him while he danced. Depending on what crowd they catered to at the specific night, he would wear make-up or not. And on Saturdays they always hosted a queer positive show. So, today, he would wear make-up. He did not put it on too heavily, but he liked doing his eyeliner and some mascara.
“Reg”, Dorca’s voice sounded through the room. “You are on in five.”
“Sure,” he replied, turning to her and presenting his finished look. “How do I look?”
“So good that if I wasn’t a lesbian, I’d do you.” Dorcas chuckled at her own joke.
Regulus smiled at her, but suddenly his list came back to him. “Dorcas, I have to take some time off next week because of uni. Can you maybe see if I can switch with some dancers in the next days?”
“Reg, you are working practically every day already”, Dorcas returned. “Do you really want to spend more time here? I mean, I can see if I can find some dancers to switch and you stay here longer on those days, but then you would dance a lot of dances and you would have to dance with other dancers as well and we both know you don’t do that.”
Regulus let out a sigh. He really didn’t do that, usually. Dancing with other dancers was always too much physical contact for him. But what was he supposed to do? There were currently £12 in his bank account. “Doesn’t matter, Cas, I will do it.”
“I will see what I can do,” she shrugged, looking as if there was something she still wanted to add. Regulus knew that she wanted to tell him that all of his friends would be able and more than willing to help him out financially. She had told him before and would probably tell him again. But Regulus did not take charity and so he would just have to get over himself and let somebody else touch him next week. And it would be alright, because at least he would be able to do it on his own without being a burden on his friends.
Before Dorcas could say anything, the other dancers that had been on stage until then came back into the room, and that was Regulus cue to leave for the stage himself.
“Thank you, Cas.”
As soon as he stepped foot on the stage, all the stress that had accumulated throughout the day simply left his body. He was in his save place. Ever since he was a little boy, trying to please his parents in every way possible, he had turned to dancing as a way to forget. And it still worked wonders for him.
Today he had prepared a pole dance show. He loved dancing on the pole and it was also the closest to ballet dancing that he could do on stage in a strip club. Of course, it was a rather fancy strip club, but still most people wanted to see the men dance in a sexual way rather than in an elegant one. Only pole dancing seemed to be the exception to that rule. So, Regulus tried to get assigned the pole dancing jobs. Of course, being friends with the manager and also being the best at actually pole dancing, helped a lot in getting him on the pole as often as possible.
He moved his body to the music playing in the background and simply moved, twisting his body in ways that he had trained for years. He still remembered asking his parents for dancing lessons. The memory was so clear in his head, as if it had only happened yesterday and not 20 years ago.
Even though he was only three years old, he had been so scared to ask. Looking back, Regulus was aware that as a three-year-old, he could never have fully grasped how dangerous asking his parents this question actually was. However, he had still been terrified. Terrified that his parents would not let him dance. Because even though he had only seen a few ballet dances and had mostly fallen in love with the sport through watching the nutcracker one too many times with Kreacher, his small children heart had decided that dancing ballet was what he needed to do. And so, one day, he just walked up to his parents and asked them. The reaction had been surprisingly positive. He had used to think that his parents just wanted him to be happy. Yet, 23-year-old Regulus knew fully well that they had simply agreed since they knew that Pandora was dancing ballet as well and his parents had intended to make them marry each other one day and also, Ballet was apparently a perfectly suitable past-time for somebody belonging to a long line of aristocrats. Regulus had simply been lucky that he had coincidentally decided to go for a sport that his parents had approved of. His parents had not cared about him being happy.
Still, they had given him something that belonged only to him. They had turned the guest room across the hall from his childhood bedroom into a dance studio so that Regulus could practice and be the best dancer at the studio they sent him to. They could have never guessed that sending him to that studio had started the long process of him leaving the grasp that his parents had on him for the first 18 years of his life. Neither could have Regulus. But it did and now he was dancing on a pole, practically naked, in front of people that he was fully aware were watching him in order to satisfy their own sexual desires - and he loved it. The job had given him the opportunity to leave everything behind and he felt eternally grateful for that. He had to admit, it was also great to know how many people wanted to watch him. Who didn’t like being desired that way?
Exhausted, Regulus opened the door to his and Barty’s flat at a quarter past three in the morning. Every fibre of his being felt as if it were dragged down by an invisible weight. His eyelids had been dangerously close to falling shut on the tube way too many times and he knew that he needed to catch up on sleep.
Regulus’ feet brought him through the living area and into the bathroom. Luckily, he had been able to take a shower at work, so he only needed to brush his teeth before he could fall into bed. He stripped down to his boxers and deposited his nasty clothes in the hamper next to the door. While doing so he also picked up Barty’s clothes that were littered all around the hamper. An exhausted and annoyed sigh left him. He loved Barty, he really did, but the guy couldn’t pick up after himself even if his life depended on it. Regulus didn’t even understand why - the hamper was right there, so why not throw dirty stuff inside it? It wasn’t any harder than throwing the clothes next to it.
While brushing his teeth, he went through his mental list again.
1) Change shifts at work
2) Thank Lyle for switching last minute
3) Review the anatomy of the lower body
4) Catch up with Pandora for missing her birthday party last week
5) Go grocery shopping
6) Do ankis (Today!!!)
7) Maybe clean his room (optional)
Well, at least he had been able to cross off two things. And if he was being honest with himself, he would skip cleaning his room until he had a few days off at least, so he could actually stop pretending that he would do it now in the middle of the night. Actually, it wasn’t even really the middle of the night any more, as it was closer to dawn than sunset by now.
There was really only one thing he would still do today, and that was point six, he had to review his ankis. Even though his eyelids felt heavier than they had ever felt before, he had to do his repetitions because if he did not do them there would only be more tomorrow and also, skipping once would make it so much easier to skip again tomorrow and he would not let himself fall into that. So, he had to do them.
Luckily, he could do them in his bed.
After he rinsed his mouth, Regulus tip toed through the flat to his room. Barty was just as much a med student as he was and even though he did not have to work, he had to fulfil a lot of family obligations and so he was simply as exhausted as Regulus was most of the time and thus he really did not want to wake him up. It had happened way too many times in the beginning when they moved in together that Regulus coming home after his shifts at the club led to Barty waking up and not being able to fall asleep again. Of course, that wasn’t really Regulus fault because he had always tried to be as quiet as humanly possible and Barty had always assured him that he simply was a lighter sleeper, but still it wasn’t really sustainable that way. With time, Barty was able to sleep through most of the small sounds in the flat when Regulus came back from work, however still not all the time. Today, however, Regulus was lucky.
In his room, he pulled on his extremely oversized sweat suit and grabbed his laptop from his desk. Falling into his bed, he snuggled up under his blankets and a thousand fluffy pillows. Between the comfort of his favoured place in the apartment, his exhaustion seemed so much more prominent, but he still tried to push through. He could do his stupid ankis. It was mainly anatomy repetition, so it would be really easy to get through, but still his body seemed not so keen on actually doing the 148 anki cards that were due that day.
Nevertheless, he pushed through and after losing focus way too often, he was finally able to close his eyes and succumb to the waves of exhaustion that had tried to pull him under the deep ocean of sleep.
Between the edge of sleep and wakefulness, there were criminal brown thighs and that stupid, stupid smile.
His alarm woke him up way too early the next day. Still, incredibly exhausted as if sleeping actually hadn’t really made a difference, Regulus turned around in his bed. His feet and hands were freezing under his blanket, but he tried to ignore it and thought about letting sleep take him for a few more minutes - or hours, because damn it, it was his day off from the hospital today. But just as the thought had come to his mind, he remembered all the things he had to do today. With a sigh, he decided to get up and start his day even through his bone deep exhaustion. Also, he had been exhausted for the past four years, so he couldn’t really use that as his excuse either way.
He followed the low voices that accompanied nearly all of his mornings. Just as expected, Barty and Evan were lounging in the kitchen. Evan behind the stove preparing eggs and Barty sitting opposite him at the kitchen island.
“Ah, our little prince is awake,” Evan chimed, way too energized for the time of day.
Barty turned to Regulus and mustered him: “Honestly, I will never understand how you can come home after three in the fucking morning and be awake before seven.”
Regulus just shrugged. What was he supposed to say to that? That is just how life is sometimes.
Evan laughed, “There is coffee in the pot, it should still be warm.”
Thankful he went to the coffee machine and poured himself a cup of coffee into a beautiful mug that Pandora had gotten him a few years back when she had realized that Regulus drank his “life elixir” - as his friends called it - out of blank, white cups. The one he now used had intricate flower designs on them and even though they had started to fade a little, it was still his favourite thing he owned.
After sitting down next to Barty and taking a huge gulp of the coffee, he registered both Barty’s and Evan’s eyes on him.
“What?”, he asked, annoyed.
“Is there something you want to share with the class?”, Evan chirped, an obnoxious grin spreading over his face.
Regulus just frowned. “What do you want from me?” Nothing had happened that justified this line of questioning.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Barty smiled. “Maybe you want to tell us how the football player that you have had a crush on for years happened to be your responsibility in the hospital.”
Exasperated, Regulus hid his face in his hand while he felt a blush sneak up his neck. He should have really tried to hide his little infatuation more over the past years. But how should he have known that there would ever be a real possibility that the very same football player whose career he had followed religiously ever since that fateful night four years ago would ever show up in his life again?
And crush was really a big word for it, it was more a sort of fascination with him and his persona. Because even though he had tried to forget most of what had happened back then, he could not get Potter’s devastation - that sure, he tried embarrassingly and unsuccessfully to hide - out of his mind, he could not come to terms with the fact that he seemed so horribly two-dimensional in all his interviews. He played right into the golden retriever, sunshine boy image that was pushed his way ever since his career started to push off the ground. And Regulus was sure there was more behind him.
Well, and Potter was hot. There was no way around that. Even a dead, blind man that insisted being gay was a disease couldn’t deny the fact. It was just simply that - a fact.
The earth was round. Life was hard. James Potter was hot.
All undisputed facts.
And Regulus had behaved that way. When Evan insisted on watching one too many football games while cheering on Tottenham and they just so happened to be playing Arsenal - apparently their arch rival, according to Evan and also the innocent google search Regulus had done - it might have slipped a few times that he believed in that fact. So did all his friends, but they had started making fun of him for it and he had indulged it because for the hell of it he couldn’t see the problem with it.
Well, now he could see the problem smirking at him in his kitchen at 6:30 in the morning.
“Oh, shut up. He is treated on the ward that I am on rotations on, there is not really anything behind that.”
Now it was Evan’s turn to smile in that unbearable smug way of his: “So, you want to tell us that it was a simple coincidence that you had to stay way longer than should be expected from a med student and you now are responsible for all of his care in the next weeks?”
The blush now crept up Regulus’ cheeks. He hated his friends.
“Well, maybe I offered my help when Dr. Iqbal was preoccupied in surgery, which is something I would have done for every V.I.P. case that would have come in at the time.” That made both Evan and Barty chuckle, and they exchanged a knowing glance.
“Sure, if you say so,” Evan laughed while putting the scrambled eggs he had prepared on three different plates. “What is much more interesting, Barty tells me, is that it wasn’t you flirting with Potter, which - don’t mind me - but I would have bet my money on. It was Potter flirting with you.”
“He wasn’t flirting with me,” Regulus sighed. With that one, he actually knew it was true - at least somewhat. Yeah, Potter had been maybe, potentially a little flirty, really nice and fun, but he was that way with everyone. Every interview he had done, every press conference, every paparazzi shot, James was captured waving his charm around. And he had done the same yesterday. So, Regulus was really not in the mood to have his friends make a bigger deal out of it than it actually was. Especially considering that James could have flirted back when they met the first time around and he really, really didn’t, so there was no point letting something so simple as James sticking to his public image get to his head.
Now Barty was laughing at his expense again. “You keep telling yourself that, little Prince.”
“You two should really just shut up, if you know what is good for you,” Regulus grumbled, trying to focus on eating his food.
Evan let out another laugh, but surprisingly did not seem to want to keep torturing Regulus that early in the morning. “What is your plan for the day, Reg?”
“Library Day,” Regulus sighed. He loved his course and doing what he did, but that would never take away the pain of the degree and the unsurmountable amount of stress it put on the students, especially the ones that had to work in order to be able to afford eating and living.
“Yeah, count us in, I guess,” Evan smiled. “Are we going to meet Pandora there?”
“Yes, she is going to start at seven, I think, so she will already be there.”
Barty sighed: “Why the fuck did I befriend the annoying workaholics?”
When they walked into the library a little after 8 on a sunday morning, Pandora had already been there since 6:40 and had occupied their usual table.
Their little group of friends had been coming to the library together ever since their first year of uni. Regulus had actually been incredibly lucky to have met Barty on the first day in the welcome lecture. He had been really out of his depth at that point, because he had been struggling so much with money back then. Of course, he wasn’t stupid and he had taken some from his parents before fleeing that place, but it had not been enough of course and even though he tried to be as meticulous with his spending as possible, he had needed to start working. The problem was that for someone without an ounce of experience in anything useful, he wasn’t able to find a job that paid well - actually, he hadn’t been able to find a job at all in the beginning. Only after he had been desperate enough to do literally anything simply in order to survive, he had walked into a McDonald’s of all places and they had actually needed someone so they hired him on the spot. It was one of the most humiliating things he had done in his life. He was only working for a barely liveable wage, mostly nights, in order to even be able to attend med school.
So, the first day, he had been exhausted and had been late to the first ever lecture of med school, because he had worked the night shift and the guy for the day shift came in late and he could not go to uni smelling like fucking hamburgers and old chip fat. Thus, he had to go home first in order to take a shower and he had missed the tube and arrived fucking late leading to him slipping in the back and sitting down next to this guy that looked so out of place with his tatted sleeves and mesh undershirt, dressed more for a punk concert than a med school welcome lecture.
The guy had then turned to Regulus and just asked, without any preamble: “Do you think all these overeager suck ups are trying to sit that straight or did daddy just forgot to take the stick out of their asses before sending them to med school to take over his precious practice?”
Regulus had tried to suppress the laugh that started to build inside his chest. His last few weeks had been horrible and he had not really had a lot of reasons to laugh since leaving and the first time that he felt like he could not even push the urge to laugh down - which he really should do because let’s be honest, the location was really not appropriate for an uncontrollable laughing fit - this guy was responsible for it.
And well, that guy would turn his whole life around in the next few weeks,
but what was much more important:
That guy actually gave him hope that his life did not have to look like it had the last few weeks.
And that guy was Barty.
After the lecture, Barty had told him to come with him because he apparently had decided that they would be friends and he would have to introduce him to his other friends.
His other friends meaning the twins that had sat much more in the front because, as it turned out, they were two of the overeager suck ups that were because their father wanted them to take over his practice. A fact that Barty had to point out in the first minute after introducing Pandora and Evan, for which the latter hit the back of his head and pointed out that they apparently did not have much of a choice in the matter.
The three of them had attended the same preppy boarding school in Scotland and so they already knew each other. That is also where they had met Dorcas who Regulus was introduced to after only a few days and who ended up offering him a job after talking to him for only ten minutes. So, after only a week of med school Regulus had managed to get a much better paying job and had somehow been adopted into a friend group with the most incredible people he had ever met - which he would probably never tell them, but still. All in all, that first week was the best of Regulus’ life and he had actually found a place that he was happy to call home.
Ever since, they had been coming to the same library building and to the exact same table to study. It was not one of the medical libraries, because they had decided sometime after a few weeks that the majority of med students were actually insufferable pricks. So, they came to the history library, which had an amazing view of the Thames through incredible windows and was directly next to a small park in which they had spent countless hours of breaks and study group.
At that table they were sitting now, since way too early hunched over their laptops and notes, and Regulus had spent the better part of the last hour trying to remember the differences between the antibiotics and bacteria they were intended for. And frankly, he could not get it into his head. The same anki sat in front of him for the millionth time, asking him about the difference between Penicillin and Amoxicillin. He was very aware of having stared at that exact card over and over again, and yet his brain remained blank. Frustrated, he clicked on the screen, revealing the answer once more. There it was again, taunting him it seemed: Ampicillin had a wider spectrum of effect and could be used against more gram-negative bacteria. It was so simple, so little information, and yet his brain came up empty every time he looked at the card. A small sigh escaped Regulus, which earned him a compassionate, encouraging smile from Pandora next to him. She, as every med student probably, knew the frustration of doing fucking anki cards.
A few hours later, Regulus and Pandora left the library together, leaving Evan and Barty behind, who wanted to get in one or two more hours of studying. Well, it was more like Evan wanted to get in a few more hours, but where Evan was Barty was, so he had stayed as well.
The two of them walked towards a bench at the riverside, where they sat down next to each other, letting the sun rays bathe them in the warmth of the September sun.
“Here,” Regulus handed Pandora a small rectangular package. “I am sorry I had to miss your birthday.”
“Oh, petit prince,” Pandora smiled at him. “You know I would never have held that against you. I was just lucky to not be on rotation this month.”
He returned her gaze and a small smile found its way onto his lips.
“However, I will never say no to a good present,” Pandora continued and started unwrapping the small box. Regulus watched her opening the small box in which a gold necklace with a small, green stone lay.
“Oh, it is amazing, Reg. You have to put it on me.” He did exactly that, and the necklace complemented the rest of Pandora’s white and flowy outfit perfectly.
“Thank you so much,” she beamed at him.
“You are very welcome, Panda.”
“Do you want to come with me to Rem? Haven’t seen him in forever because, well, you know, I am not on rotation right now.”
“Don’t make me jealous,” he laughed. Not being on rotation between the terms at uni was really something to be jealous about. Usually, because you had to plan your rotations between the months spend at uni, that left only one or two weeks to recharge before starting the next term and so not being on rotation was the only way to actually get some time off. However, if you wanted to do all rotations on time and also finish your dissertation before finishing your degree - for which in most cases you had to spend your time off from uni at the lab - you would not have a break without being on rotation. Pandora just had decided that she did not need the dissertation before finishing university, so she could take time off.
“Of course I will come to Remus with you. But we should stop by the bookshop because I kind of put him into a very uncomfortable situation yesterday and, well, I think I have to get him something as an apology.”
“What did you do?” Pandora eyed him suspiciously while getting up from the bench.
Regulus did the same, stretching his exhausted limbs in the process and yawning. Walking around yesterday in the hospital, dancing for hours in the club and sitting at a library desk for hours today was bound to make his body stiff and achy.
“Well, I kind of left him with another patient and told the other guy that he could talk to Remus and, yeah, you know how Remus hates when I do that,” he laughed, already starting the five-minute walk to their favourite bookshop just down the street.
“What book are we getting him?” Pandora asked. “I have seen that new Sally Rooney book, it is supposed to be good, but I think he did not like Normal People that much, so I am not sure if he would like it.”
“Yeah, I have thought about that book as well, but I know for a fact that he did not like normal people. He went off on me for saying that the TV show was really good and I also kind of liked the book. He said I just had a crush on Paul Mescal.”
“Well, who doesn’t have a crush on Paul Mescal?”
“That’s what I said to him as well.” They both started laughing.
“So, no Intermezzo?” Pandora asked.
“No Intermezzo.”
Forty minutes later, Pandora and Regulus walked into Remus’ hospital room where they found him sitting on his bed, book in hand, an IV drip connected to his central line, body drowning in one of his grandpa jumpers and eating chocolate. So just like always.
“Regulus, fuck off,” Remus started, which resulted in Pandora laughing at Regulus’ expense again.
“Well, he brought you an apology gift, so maybe bear with him,” Pandora explained, pushing off her shoes and sitting down on the end of Remus’ bed, her feet tucked underneath her chins.
“What gift?” Remus eyes went up and down Regulus’ body, stopping at the book in his hand and squinting his eyes a little to decipher which one it was. “Is that If we were villains?”
“Yeah,” Regulus held it out to him. “You are nearly finished with The Secret History and, if you are getting into dark academia, you should really do it with the best book of the genre.”
That comment made both of them laugh. Regulus had tried to get Remus to start with If we were villains for months.
“I accept your truce,” Remus relented and took the book in his hand. “But only because the Potter lad was actually not so bad.”
At that, Pandora let out an undecipherable squeak, attracting the attention of both boys. “Potter as in James Potter?”
“Yeah, the very one,” Remus said. “Why? What is up with him?”
Pandora giggled and then eyed Regulus, which in turn made Remus turn towards him in utter confusion. Both of their stares bore into him, making his cheeks heat up again. A long sigh left him again and he hid his face in his hands, letting his body fall down into the armchair next to Remus’ bed.
“What is up with him?” Remus repeated his question, turning to Pandora again.
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said, conspiratorially looking at Remus again. “Just that ever since I have known that one, he has had an unhealthy obsession with the guy.”
An embarrassed groan left Regulus’ throat. “My god, unhealthy obsession is a little extreme, don’t you think?”
Dora just giggled again. “Well, call it what you want, but do you want to know what is way more interesting?” Her eyes went back to Remus who returned her gaze, seemingly too invested in this.
“Regulus here,” Pandora laughed, gesturing towards him. “Might have admitted on a drunken night at my place that if he could enjoy - if you get my gist - any celebrity, he would choose James Potter.”
Remus started in hysterical laughter now turning his head towards Regulus again. He would rather disappear in the depth of hell to play cards with Hades than endure this conversation.
“That was supposed to stay between you and me,” Regulus sighed defeated, which only made Remus laugh harder.
“No,” Pandora started justifying. “I do not betray trust. You merely made me promise not to tell Barty and Evan. I did not tell Barty and Evan. I told Remus.”
“To me, that seems fair,” Remus pressed out through his bursts of laughter. “But really, Reg, that guy?”
“Well, he is hot,” he tried shrugging it off. Potter was hot. “That is just a fact.”
“Yeah okay, but of all celebrities, he is the one you would go for? Out of all? I know more attractive football players, let alone celebrities.”
Pandora laughed at that as well. “So do I.”
Regulus just sighed at that. “Yeah, sure, keep making fun of me.”
“But wait,” Remus let out. “He was flirting with you yesterday. That is good then, right?”
Pandora squealed: “He was flirting with you?”
“He was not flirting with me and honestly, I had the same conversation with Evan and Barty, so please don’t make me relive that one.” Regulus said. “He was not flirting with me, he is straight - and even if he weren’t, there has never been an openly gay football player and he would not be the first.”
“Yeah, well, you are probably right about that,” Remus accepted.
Pandora just shrugged. “I mean, I did not come here to talk about Reg, so Remus, how is treatment going?”
Now it was Remus’ turn to sigh. “What do you think?”
“That bad?” Regulus’ asked.
“Yeah,” Remus sighed again. “I am starting my third round of chemo tomorrow and apparently the doctors are happy with the results until now and the next three rounds of chemo are apparently less extreme than the first two rounds. But, well, chemo is shit, so I do not really want to do that three more times.”
“But the results are good until now, so that is great.” Pandora smiled at Remus, here hand resting comforting on his leg.
“And after the next three rounds you can go back to your pretentious degree,” Regulus added.
“Pretentious? I am studying history and you lot are studying medicine, I don’t think there is anything more pretentious than that.”
“Touché,” Regulus smiled. Remus was incredibly passionate about his degree. Whenever possible, he would go on and on about different time periods and their significance on the modern time and how all of them influenced each other and how history apparently repeated itself and so on and on.
Regulus had only found out that Remus studied history after spending one too many breaks during his oncology rotation last winter in his room. They had started out talking about books and somehow they had ended up talking about favourite study spots in the city. So, Regulus naturally showed him a picture of their usual hang out in the history library, only to have Remus’ eyes lightning up looking at him.
You are studying there, he had asked. And Regulus had just shrugged. Yeah, they were. He did not really get the significance. Then Remus had started telling him about his degree and how he used to study in the library until he was diagnosed with leukaemia and had to pause his studies. And with a smirk, he also told him about overhearing some of his fellow students talking about a really pretentious group of med students who had the audacity to use the history library for their studies.
That day, they had made the pact that when Remus’ treatment was done, he would join them to study there one day.
And neither of them could wait for the day that one day would finally come for Remus.