Tension and tough talks.
3rd POV
The next morning Aurora woke up and almost immediately ran down the stairs to breakfast, something her mother yelled at her for. She went to sit in her usual spot, next to Regulus but then paused when she saw it was Sirius in the spot next to her instead of Regulus. She stood there for a moment, looking at the table like it was something other worldly. Although Walburga got predicably upset about this, "hurry up and sit-down child, it is not a big deal. You are causing a scene." Aurora's mother said harshly, Aurora quickly nodded and sat down. It was a big deal to Aurora, Walburga would never understand that though, nor would she care to try. Aurora spent the rest of breakfast barely touching her food, which did not escape her family's attention. She didn't talk either, even despite Sirius trying to get her to. The seating change was huge to her, especially after last night. Her and Regulus always sat together for meals, he never let Sirius switch spots. So why did he now? Unless Aurora seriously messed up with her twin. She tried to catch Regulus' eye many times during the breakfast but he refused, each refusal was another stab in the heart to Aurora.
Breakfast came to an end quicker than usual, Walburga walked off out of the dining room with a short angry snide remark, "if she doesn't want to eat any of the breakfast, I paid our cooks for, we'll see how much food she gets for the remainder of the day." Walburga always took it as a huge offense when anyone didn't eat the food, she had the cooks prepare. Her punishment for this was the starve anyone who didn't eat an appropriate for the remainder of the day if she was feeling nice, if she was feeling spiteful it could be up until a week. Orion grumbled about how much work he was going to do after that horrid ball, and failed engagement. Regulus walked out quickly, and without a glance at anyone. Then Aurora left, as she tried to catch up to her twin, but Regulus was more determined to avoid her. Sirius just sighed dramatically and left as well. There was definitely a lot of tension during that breakfast, and Sirius couldn't tell if he was glad or upset that it didn't involve him.
Aurora was exhausted, she had spent the better part of the afternoon trying to follow Regulus around and talk to him. But obviously Regulus, the master at running away from his problems, evaded her each time. She ended up giving up for the time being and instead found herself going into her older brother's room. She sat down next to Sirius, who was messing with the eyeliner that he obviously stole from her. "what's up little sis?" Sirius mumbled as he focused closely on his eyeliner, putting it on almost perfectly. Aurora took a moment to gawk at it, how he did it she could never find out. Aurora was horrible with eyeliner, or anything close to her eyes. Her hands shook, and she was always scared she would get it in her eyes. She shook her head and then decided to talk about why she was really here. "I wanted to talk about something...but mother and father cannot know we talked about this." Aurora explained, and it finally gained her older brother's attention enough to where he finally put down the stolen eyeliner.
"Oh?" Sirius asked with a lot of curiosity heard in his tone, Aurora sighed and laid her head on her older brothers shoulder. "Have you ever like, actually thought about running away? I know you use it as a way to get mother and father to be less harsh, but like...have you ever thought, don't make the pun, but to seriously run away?" Aurora sucked in a breath of air after she finished saying all of that in a quick pace. Sirius looked down at his little sister like she was an alien, he knew that this house sucked, severely. But for his sister to contemplate doing something...so like him was weird. While both Sirius and Regulus got parts of their parents, namely the urge to hit and ask questions later for Sirius, and the ability to ruin someone with just words for Regulus, their sister has always been different. Aurora has always been kind, and no number of beatings could take that away from her. Walburga and Orion had both tried, but they would find her treating those 'beneath' them with the same gentle touch and kind eyes as always. It was something Sirius envied and swore to protect at the same time. Sirius wanted to say he had nothing from his parents, like his sister could, but truthfully there were ugly parts to Sirius that he wished to hide. These ugly parts always found a way to come out though, although unlike Walburga and Orion they didn't come out so Sirius could harm anyone into listening. No, they came out so he could protect those he loved, but it still made him ugly and like his parents, it would always put a bad taste in his mouth and make himself go to sleep with the familiar feeling of self-loathing.
"Why? are you?" Sirius asked softly, testing the waters. Aurora sighed and then nodded, "I think... Maybe I could if you and Regulus came with..." Aurora admitted meekly and looked at Sirius to see his reaction. Sirius blinked in surprise and then softened immediately, of course his sweet sister was holding back for them. It made him want to hug her and throw up at the same time. He wanted to throw up because he knew that he had his own selfish thoughts of running away, but these were worse than hers as usual because he would have done it without his two younger siblings if he was presented with the right chance during the moments he thought of it. Sirius swallowed the immense amount of self-hatred at that moment and nodded slowly. "Have you talked to Regulus about this?" Sirius asked quietly, as much as he would love to say he has a special bond with either of his siblings, he knew that truthfully the set of twins had a special bond with each other. Sirius was delusional, but not enough to think for a moment that Aurora would tell her thoughts to him before Regulus. Actually, the set of twins practically shared their thoughts through mind reading twin powers. Regulus and Aurora were as close as two pieces of plastic melted together, so surly Regulus had to have known. Aurora shrugged half-heartedly and looked a bit dejected now, "I tried, but... he ignored me." Aurora frowned and Sirius looked surprised. Regulus ignoring Aurora? Regulus practically hanged onto every word Aurora said, in fact that has been used against him many times. Both by Sirius and their parents. "Ignored you? how did he ignore you?" Sirius asked softly.
Aurora shrugged again and then sighed before saying, "I asked and he just... didn't respond to me at all." Sirius frowned even more as Aurora explained. That truly didn't sound like something Regulus would do to Aurora, to Sirius? Sure all the time, but Aurora? No, never. Maybe that's why it's so bizarre. "are you sure he heard you?" Sirius asked slowly, he knew that his sister was probably right about the situation, but he had to ask just to make sure he was hearing this correctly. Aurora nodded and then got a bit huffy, "there's no way he didn't, he was right next to me and he responded to me earlier. but I ask that one question and suddenly he's deaf? there's no way." She complained and Sirius cracked a smile at that despite the situation. He then saw the glare Aurora gave him and got all serious again, (even though he was always Sirius) "okay, sorry, I get it, it's important." Sirius sighed and then shrugged. "maybe he got spooked, you know how he is with our parents, he's their golden child while we are just.. there. they tolerate us, but they love Regulus, if anything, he probably hates the idea of running away because of that." Sirius explained but Aurora didn't look so convinced, she knew that Sirius had a lot of feelings about they way that they were treated compared to Regulus, and that it often made him over look certain parts of their brother and how he was fully treated. She knew that Regulus hated their parents too, but she also knew that unlike Sirius, he wouldn't act out because of the hatred he felt for them, no that wasn't Regulus. He would act perfect because of it, because he didn't want those punishments that Sirius got.
So with that realization she quickly stood up and smiled at Sirius, "Thanks Sirius!" She called and then quickly turned around and left. She understood why Regulus did what he did. So she quickly ran the halls trying to find him, she figured that out of this entire, ridiculously huge house, he would probably be in the library. On her way to the library she had to think of all the things she would say to him. Once she made it too the doors she pushed them open and waltzed in. She made her way over to the table that Regulus wat sitting at. She sat down and once Regulus looked up from his book and then tried to quickly get up she stopped him with a quick glare and an even quicker response. "sit down now, Regulus we need to talk." Regulus hesitated but then sat down with a reluctant expression. "about last night, the question that I asked," Regulus narrowed his eyes at her and cut her off. "I don't want to speak about this Aurora." He said firmly but Aurora shook her head, "that's too bad, but we're speaking about it." Regulus huffed but stayed, he knew he only had so long before she would force him to hear her out, and he quite frankly didn't want to deal with how stubborn she could be. "About the question, I didn't mean it that way Regulus, I wasn't suggesting that we should, I mean.. we're not Sirius. I was just curious because of something unrelated. I know you would never do something like that." She explained earnestly and then Regulus slowly nodded, feeling a lot more relieved. He dreaded making his sister upset, but he dreaded doing anything his parents would punish them all severely for a little more.
With that situation settled between the twins, they went back to normal. So, Aurora moved from her sit across from Regulus to next to him and together they both started to read the book that Regulus had. Unbeknownst to the two of them, Sirius was looking in on them, watching his two younger siblings. His heart heavy with what he was about to do, But his mind made up. How he wished he could tell them he loved them, but alas, his plan couldn't be risked.