Black Brothers
Regulus
Regulus bolts upright in the bed, his heart pounding and his eye darting around the room in a state of blind panic. Where the fuck is he? A soft light filters through the closed curtains as he rubs the palms of his hands against his eyes, trying to shake off the grogginess. Slowly he regains focusing and the memories of last night’s events gradually return to him. The rumble of voices come through the thin walls of the tiny camper. It all sounds cheerful, a way it didn’t sound back from where Regulus came from.
Curiously he gets up, a jolt of pain shooting through his left leg. “Fuck.” He mutters under his breath as he carefully rises again, this time testing out how much weight he can put on his leg before fully standing up. Hesitantly he takes a step toward the door of the camper.
He cracks the door open and glances around. A handful of people are scattered around the camp. One man with the same light hair and dark skin as Pandora is talking to a shorter man with dark hair and a remarkable arm tattoo. They appear to be bickering about something, or more accurately the shorter man is going off about something while the other man has a soft smile on his face and nods along, looking happy, that’s something Regulus hasn’t seen in a long time and he catches himself staring for longer than necessary.
The new environment captivates Regulus, making him take more time than necessary to observe everything and remember all the faces around him. This gives a certain black haired man the chance to spot him first, when their eyes meet, Regulus feels himself frozen in place.
Sirius Orion Black.
Regulus feels like he’s trapped in a nightmare.
He throws the door shut, he can hear his heart pounding in his head, he is having trouble breathing as he sinks down against the door.
What is happening?
Six months ago, Sirius Black had run away from their family camp. He had taken off because of a fight with their parents. His parents were convinced he would get scared and come back but he didn’t. He didn’t come back and the next day when the hunters came home, they delivered the news. Regulus his brother was dead, his body was found in the forest, feasted on by the dead. The whole camp claimed that Sirius had always been their weakest asset and that this was bound to happen at some point in time. Regulus was crushed, his brother, the one who took care of him from the beginning, dead. He wouldn’t even get a funeral. He wanted his brother back but Sirius his name had turned into a curse, something no one dared to mention. For the past six months, Regulus had been living with the idea that he truly was alone now, his brother wiped from existence, and now that brother was standing right outside this door.
Regulus is pulled out of his thoughts when there’s a loud knock on the door.
“Regulus.” Sirius his voice ringed in his head.
“Regulus, please open the door, I want to talk.” His voice was filled with desperation.
“Regulus please.”
“Sirius, what is going on?” A girl asks, muffled, she must be further from the door than Sirius.
“I-” Sirius his voice trembles, he sounds like he’s on the verge of tears.
Regulus struggles to stand up, the world around him is spinning. He opens the door and sees his brother turn around so fast that it makes Regulus himself dizzy.
“Regul-.” Sirius begins.
“Sirius, what the hell?” Regulus hears himself say before he gives his mouth permission to speak. “Where the hell have you been, I thought you were fuckinf dead.” Anger surges through him, he can’t remember the last time he had been this angry.
“I-” Sirius stammers. “What?” The shock on his face shifts into confusion. “Dead?”
“I thought you were dead! They told me they found your damn body!” Regulus has tears in his eyes as he screams at his brother, all the suppressed emotions from the past six months came rushing out of him.
“They lied to you, Regulus.” Sirius replies, trying to keep his voice steady.
“No, this isn’t happening, I’m going to wake up any minute and you’ll be gone, this is some sick reaction to the antibiotics!!” Regulus exclaims, panic and anger flooding his voice.
In that moment Sirius takes Regulus into his arms and everything else fades away. He’s safe and his brother is still alive.
“I’m really glad you found where you belong, Sirius.” Regulus smiles as they sit side by side watching the flames in front of them.
Sirius had just wrapped up the story about how James and Remus had found him when he was on the run six months ago. How they had to cram into a small tent with three people and now he was telling Regulus all about all the other people they had met on their journey.
“Well there’s Remus,” A faint blush spread over Sirius' face when talking about Remus. “We’re kind of in a relationship. He is also sort of the leader of our group, even if we don’t officially call him that. Then there’s James who brought you here,he’s really good at supply runs. So, who else have you met?” Sirius asks, turning his head to look at Regulus.
“Pandora, the medic I assume.” Regulus replies.
“Yeah, that’s her! We met her and her brother Evan about a month after James and Remus found me. Evan is that guy over there with the light hair. Him and Pandora look like each other a lot, they both studied medicine before everything went downhill. The guy next to him with the tattoo is Barty. Honestly, he’s batshit crazy, like he will run off in the middle of nowhere without a second thought. But he’s a great shot with that crossbow, and once you get to know him, he’s pretty nice.” Sirius grins as he introduces his friends to Regulus, wishing that he could share this life with his little brother. “Then there’s Mary over there, the girl with the curls. She is a scavenger and usually goes on supply runs with Dorcas, the girl with the braids next to her. They make a solid team.” Sirius says, eyes shining with pride. “And over there is Marlene, the blonde next to Dorcas. She’s our only hunter, she’s so incredibly skilled. One time she came home with a deer she had dragged across the forest for miles.” Sirius chuckles at the memory. “And then finally there’s Lily, the redhead with her arm around Mary, she’s an amazing cook! Back at our family’s camp we had to eat canned food, here we have three course meals.”
Before Sirius can ramble one about his friends, Remus comes up behind them.
“Hey, I’m Remus.” He reaches a hand out to Regulus.
“Regulus, but we met last night didn’t we?” Regulus questions.
“Yeah we did,” Remus says, scratching the back of his head. “I hate to ask, but Regulus, are you planning on sticking around?”
Regulus pauses, he hadn’t thought about this. He didn’t know what he was going to do next.
“Is it possible for me to stay?” He asks, sounding uncertain on if he was overstaying his welcome.
“There’s space in James' tent.” Remus answers. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind you crashing with him, he’s always had a hard time sleeping alone.”
James.
James with the warm eyes and the beautiful hair.
He shakes the thought off.
“I mean if everyone is okay with it, then yeah, i’d like to stay.” Regulus replied