Day drinking
Sirius’ – pov.
A joint tour, delightful.
Just what Sirius wanted.
All a part of his plan really.
This is great.
Great.
G
r
E
A
T
Just perfect.
A tour with his ex-boyfriend and his little brother.
His little brother who hates him?
Who hasn’t spoken to him, since he broke up with Remus?
Who hasn’t spoken to him because he is Remus’ best friend ?
That can only mean he hates him,
Right?
Or not…
Sirius can go on this tour, act delusional it’ll all be fine.
Except Sirius cant do that, because he clings, he clings to everything. Pain, happiness, people, ideas. He cant let things go, he never learnt how.
Maybe its just who he is, maybe it’s because of how he grew up. Maybe its because he never had a chance to learn how to let things go.
It was self-preservation as a child, he couldn’t ignore things, he was always on a constant state of high alert. In a household, a household like the one Sirius grew up in.
You cling.
You cling to the good, you cling to your little baby brother, so sweet and innocent, a baby brother you can’t protect. A life that is in your hands, that should have never been placed there in the first place, should never have been your responsibility, but ended up there all the same.
You cant control what happens to you, as a child. What people tell you. You live in innocence and bliss, and it can come crashing down so quickly.
Sirius was born to be a fighter, to be good. But he has struggled with it his whole life, because Reggie took that fight out of him.
Because he couldn’t fight and protect in that house, it had to be one or the other.
So he clung.
He clung to his little brother, the good in his life. And he stopped lashing out.
He clung.
He clung to himself, as he faded away in an effort to protect his brother.
He clung.
He clung to every piece of information he ever heard, in case it was useful, in case it was a threat.
He clung.
He clung to his boyfriend, until he choked them both, strangled them. Let the air bleed out of the relationship.
Until it died.
Until he killed it.
Because he doesn’t know when to let things go, cant let things go.
Remus was so good, so very good. But he wasn’t ready for him. But he clung, because that’s all he knew how to do.
And the worst part is, if he had let go. Lessened his grip just a little, he might still have them both right now.
So no he cant be delusional on this trip. His every waking thought will be in tune with Regulus and Remus, like it has been the past three months.
Because Sirius Black does not let things go.
Can’t.
“How much are you guys packing?”
Peters voice cut through the fog in his brain, snapping him out of his thoughts, as he lifted his head up slightly to take in the two boys in front of him.
“Not sure, I mean- we can wash stuff when we’re there and buy new stuff too.” Evan points out, a second voice jolting him further back to reality, the others in the room.
“How much are you packing pads?” Peter brings Sirius’ attention back to him, he still feels in a slight daze.
When he doesn’t respond immediately, Evan cuts in, “His whole wardrobe probably.” He lets out a light laugh which Peter returns, and whilst Sirius takes a second to fully catch up to the conversation again, still slightly in his own head, Peter continues.
“I mean, its not like we have a bag limit, we have a whole private jet.”
“I know right its insane!”
“Sirius? ……………………Siriiuuus?”
“Hmm?”
“I said its insane isn’t it?” Evan has a slight frown on his face now as he watches Sirius re engage with the conversation.
“Mm, yeah insane.” Though his entire tone is dull and his face is still fallen flat, Evan seems to accept this response, though Peter doesn’t.
“What’s insane Sirius?” Peter asks, when Sirius looks back down to his bags again.
“You know,” Sirius mumbles, feeling caught but not 'with it' enough to fully care,“what Evan said..”
“Which is what?” Peter isn’t letting this go.
“The bag limit on the aeroplane..” Sirius asks confused, he knows he had cut off from the conversation but he didn’t think he was that far gone.
“Sirius what is up with you?” Evan asked, leaning forward slightly, as if he could reach out and touch Sirius and that would bring him all the answers he needed.
“I-“
But he couldn’t continue, he didn’t want to be the friend that blubbered everywhere and broke down crying, didn’t want to be the friend that couldn’t hold it together.
But he was never a very good liar.
He could lie about situations and observations and facts.
But when it came to his emotions and feelings they were crystal clear, shining the truth through the lies he tried to weild.
And this time was not any different, he opened his mouth to try again, try to deny, try to- he wasn’t sure.
But as the tears spilled over his cheeks, running tear tracks down them, staining them with his truth, he simply fell to the floor.
He doesn’t know if his knees buckled, or if he sank down slowly.
He doesn’t know if it was a mess or elegent.
And he doesn’t know how long he stayed down there, but he does know that he wasn’t there for long before Evan and Peter were crowding him in on either side, their arms wrapped tightly around him, as if they could hold him together.
They couldn’t, no one could.
But he appreciated the effort.
He appreciated that they weren’t trying to get him to calm down, or talk him through it, or strategize, or fill him with empty words of care and compassion that did nothing to dull the ache that is currently running a course through his body, the pain steady and strong despite the fact that it had been lingering for months.
No that was Lily and James’ job, they thought logic, support and talking was the best way to deal.
And annoyingly it is, it is probably the most productive coping mechanism, the most healthy.
But he has friends that do that for him, and every so often he just wants to wallow.
To break down crying, a mess on the floor without people disturbing him by trying to pick him back up.
He is going to be stuck in close, unavoidable quarters for the next two months with his ex and his brother, he is going to have to try keep it together for the next two months.
Surely he can break down for one evrning?
Surely his friends can grant him that?
His friends, the ones who never force him, never push him, simply walk to his side, following him as he chooses what to do.
The friends that let him wallow.
Surely they will understand this?
And clearly they do, because the next thing he hears one of them saying is…
“Let's get drunk.”
*******
By the time Pandora and Barty arrive Sirius is well on his way to being drunk, he has 12 hours till he needs to be on his flight, he is going to use that time wisely.
Then by the time he is on the plane, he will either be too drunk to care, or dealing with such a raging and painful hangover especially after so little sleep, that it’ll dull the pain of the existence of the other people on the plane.
He’s sat at their table, eyes fuzzy, beer in hand, as Pandora and Barty arrive at the same time as the next round of shots.
They each take one- Sirius had ordered enough for the whole table minus Evan, but that’s fine because he’s not drinking.
Before any proper greetings can be made, everyone is quickly grabbing a shot each and downing it, as the burn finishes making it's way down his throat, he opens his eyes back up again to see Barty grabbing Pandora by the wrist and dragging her over to the bar to order.
When they get back, they both have two glasses of.. something, one in each hand and when they get back to the table, before anyone has a chance to give any proper greetings, Barty is yelling “CHUG!” and they are both lifting one of their glasses to their lips and downing it as fast as they can.
Pandora gets it down in 10 seconds, a slight smile hidden on her lips as she waits for Barty to finish, which he does another 10 seconds later.
He pulls the glass down from his face with a smirk, before shifting his gaze to look at Pandora and beginning to scowl.
“You beat me again!” he rolls his eyes, looking frustrated at what appears to be a common occurrence, “Right, rematch.”
And just as they both go to lift their second glasses to their mouths, two hands dart out grabbing each of their wrists, as they lower their glasses and their gaze to look at Evan all he says is,
“Slow down, you don’t want to choke.”
“Oh?” Barty says, a smirk appearing across his face, “Don’t worry I never choke.”
Behind them, Sirius hears a splutter, and he turns around quickly to see Peter start choking on his drink, and Evan moves back around the table to pound on his boyfriends back, before sitting down next to him, so Peter can swing his legs over his lap, clearly both choosing to ignore the innuendo Barty had just decided to make.
“You know,” Sirius begins, his words slurring slightly as he leans forward and out of his chair towards Pandora and Barty in order to stay in their conversation, nearly falling off it in the process and only staying on it because of Evans hand had gripped firmly around his wrist, “Evan has a boyfriennnnndddd” He says in a somewhat sing song voice, despite the alcohol in his system threatening to make the words incomprehensible.
“Oh I know.” Barty says smirking over Sirius’ shoulder, seemingly trying to regain eye contact with the other two boys, “I wouldn’t choke on him either.”
“Scandalous.” Pandora says in mock chastation, but there is a slight twinkle of mishchief in her eye that seems to match Bartys.
“Well what about me?” Sirius pouts.
“What about you, Black?”
"Would you choke on me?” Sirius asks, attempting to bat his eyelashes, but he is so drunk at this point, that he can’t tell if they’re moving at all or ridiculously fast, and he squints looking upwards, as if he would be able to see them clearly and tell.
“Oh I wouldn’t choke on anyone,” Barty says, a slight laugh bubbling up in his tone, “but I wouldn’t even try on you.”
“What, why not?!” Sirius demands, feeling completely affronted and still confused as to whether his eyelashes are moving, surely they are, eyelashes have to move don’t they?
“Cuz you're off limits.” Pandora states simply, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
“What?” Sirius asks at the same time Barty elbows her in the side, whispering something Sirius either can't hear, or can't comprehend, he really is very drunk.
“Oh please,” Pandora continues at her normal volume despite Barty glaring daggers into her head, “I don’t care about that, I told you im not doing this whole picking sides business its completely juvenile.”
“Hey!” Peter yells over all their shoulders, as they turn to direct their attention back to the other boy, “You’re using your fancy words, you’re not nearly drunk enough, more shots!”
But Sirius is still stuck on the fact that he is supposedly off limits? Whatever that means, and he leans forward again, about to ask, to figure out what they’re on about, but the mention of shots seems to completely rid Barty of his previous annoyance towards Pandora at the idea of more alcohol and he turns back to Pandora, who is raising the second glass she had bought over with her earlier. Barty quickly following suit.
Peter, who is completely caught up by now, yells “CHUG!” and they start the whole process all over again.
****
Later in the evening, because it's still evening as their flight is at 3am, so they couldn’t exactly go out drinking at night and therefore went out during the day instead, they are all caught up and distracted in making different levels of drinking games, their chaos seemingly unmatched.
There was a point where Pandora started teaching them all about Flamethrowers made out of hairspray and lighters, that nearly took a bad turn when Sirius pulled hairspray out of his bag, and Pandora a lighter, which Barty started reaching for immediately, with Peter egging him on the whole time.
However, luckily (or at least sober Sirius will consider it lucky) Evan their sober sponsor was there. Proving he is not entirely uselsess at wrangling the drunks, as he confiscated both items out of their hands easily.
Though that might just be because he moved 3 steps away from them, the confiscated lighter outstretched in his arm away from them, and with none of them being able to effectively walk in a straight line any more, it made it quite easy for him to play keep away.
Regardeless as the evening goes on, Sirius realises he has found his people.
Or at least his drinking people.
Peter has always been his drinking buddy, he loves James endlessly, but him and Peter are just pure matching levels of chaos when drunk, and James- no matter how drunk you get him- still seems to retain some semblance of mother hen.
And seemingly, based off this evening, Barty and Pandora are the exact same- as him and Peter that is.
Evan, knowing all four of them, clearly decided to stay sober for a reason, and Sirius (when he isn’t mourning the loss of a potential flamethrower) is very grateful someone is there to keep them out of jail before the big tour they are leaving for tomorrow.
“THE TOUR!!!!” Sirius yells out coming to a sudden drunken realisation, grasping at Pandoras arm as if to gather her attention, as if his yelling didn’t do that well enough.
“What about the tour?” Peter asks, his confusion evident on his face, as he has clearly gotten to the level of drunk where everything manages to confuse him.
“We have to leave on the flight sooooooon, we need to goooo,” Sirius whispers, like its some big secret, not something that had been promoted across the globe for the past month.
He starts trying to lift himself up and out of his chair, so he can lead the way out of the pub to head to the flight, to pack? His brain is a bit fuzzy, but he knows he’s meant to be somewhere- when a hand darts out and pulls him back down and into his seat.
“Evannn, ” Sirius slurs, “we need to go,”
But Evan merely smiles at him slightly, “We have time, I’ve booked a cab for 2 hours from now, and then you are all gonna crash at your place, whilst I finish packing our bags.”
“Awe you're packing for him Evy, so sweet.” Pandora smiles, leaning over to pat her brother gently on the arm, but her aim seems off and she just whacks him across the face instead.
Sirius just smiles at his friends, before flagging down a waiter for another beer, happy they have time.
Happy for the mere hours his brain can just turn off, and he can cope.
Pandoras pov-
They’ve got another hour until the cab turns up, and currently Evan is trying to drag Sirius down from climbing up the table as he yells out whatever song is on the speakers.
Peter looks like he’s about to fall asleep, before he jerks awake and runs over to help Sirius climb onto the table away from Evan, and Pandora laughs at the entire scene whilst waiting for Barty to finish chugging his beer, which she has once again beat him at.
“Right, get down off the table, you all need to get out now- no- no off the table, off now all of you out, stay out!”
A bouncer appears to be assisting Evan in removing Sirius from the table tops, before grabbing him and Peter by the arm and dragging them out of the pub, a scowl on his face the whole time.
Evan appears to be apologising profusely, whilst trying to get Pandoras attention so Barty and Pandora will leave them, but Barty is oblivious to the whole situation as he goes to the bar to order more shots, for the group- half of which aren’t there, and Pandora simply makes eye contact with her brother as she wiggles her fingers in a mocking wave goodbye, watching her friends be escorted out of the pub.
What can she say? It’s funny, and there are shots on the way, why would she leave right now.
She has her priorities perfectly organised.
Still when Barty gets back he seems perfectly disappointed with the lack of the others.
“Where did they all go?” he asks, a slight frown managing to make its way onto his features despite the level of drunkenness he is surely at.
“Got kicked out, Sirius was trying to climb onto the table,” Pandora laughs at that, the visual still perfectly hilarious in her head, but Bartys frown only seems to deepen, “Ehat why you pouting?” she asks arching one eyebrow perfectly.
“I dunno they’re fun,” his eyes are darting everywhere now except at Pandoras face, and she scoffs,
“What more fun than me?” she asks, humor in her tone, curiosity seeping further into her eyes.
When Barty still doesn’t respond immediately, she takes it as a personal insult and one she decides to rectify immediately.
“Come on.” and with that, despite his protests, Pandora proceeds to grab his arm, downing her final shot, and dragging him from the bar out into the cool evening air.
She looks around the street for a second, before she can see two people stumbling down at the end of the street, one person walking steady seemingly trying to keep the other two under control.
Evan-
He has Peter linked up under one arm, seemingly struggling to keep him upright, and his other arm is outstretched, seemingly trying to prevent Sirius from accidentally walking into the street, without being able to bring himself to let go off Peter.
Sop.
“OI, BOYS!!” she yells down the street, causing the three of them to whip their heads around to see who is yelling, causing Sirius to promptly fall over, Peter nearly following suit, only managing to stay up because of Evans continuous grip on his arm.
However, when Evan finally manages to let go of Peters arm to help Sirius up, Peter then manages to fall over from his own continuous laughter, landing in a heap on top of the other boy Evan is now trying to help up.
It’s all a mess honestly and only barely managing to compute in her drunken brain.
“Oh this is hilarious,” Pandora attempts to mutter under her breath, but her drunken volume control has never been particularly great.
She turns to look at Barty, to scoff with him over her brothers antics, when she seems him with a slight smile on his face, walking purposefully over towards the other three boys, or- as purposefully as he can when he cant even manage a straight line.
“Oh you’re smitten.” She tries to make the last word louder, to embarrass him, because it’s funny, or whatever, but for Bartys luck her volume control once again fails her, as she manages to shout the whole sentence but the last word.
Her mind has never made sense to her.
“Come on,” and for once her voice manages to work the way she wants it, as she yells out for the boys at the end of the street to hear her, “lets go to Sirius’ Evan needs to pack and we have not nearly had enough fun yet.”
****
Later, when they had all made it to Sirius’, a bottle of whiskey being passed around, the posh kind, the kind that suggests Sirius had rich roots, but clearly left it behind when you see the cartoon doggy lampshade in his living room, they all decide to go for a round of truth or dare whilst Evan finishes packing Sirius’ bag in the other room.
He gave them another hour to mess around, and then says they all need to sleep it off, and get some coffee before they get on the plane.
And Pandora would love to make that hour as chaotic as possible.
If Barty doesn’t think she’s fun enough, she’ll just have to prove it.
After all, her and Barty are the crazy ones in their band/group.
And she knows from before both bands split in half due to the breakup, that Sirius and Peter were a pretty risky combo too.
She wanted to show they were better.
So truth or dare, that will be….. fun.
Especially drunk fun.
“So Peter truth or dare?”
“Truth”
“Boring”
“Lame”
“Hey,” Barty cuts in here- of course defending the boy he has been drooling over, “truth is only boring if you ask the bad question
“Ok, ok fine.” Pandora conceded, as Sirius rolls his eyes in response, “If you’re the expert then you can ask the question.
“Gladly, have you….” a pause, a glint of mischief in his eye- not the normal one, but the kind you have to really know him to see, like Pandora does, “Have you ever had a threesome?”
“No.” Sirius supplies for the other boy,
at the same time as,
“Yes.”
“WHAT?!” Sirius yells, his voice reaching such a pitch Pandora is sure only dogs can hear it, “You didn’t tell me that, when Peter, when when when?!” Sirius all but continues to squeal like a child, a mixture of betrayal and excitement crossing his features, like a child with a new toy.
“Well it’s not really your buisine-“
“Of course its my business!” at that Sirius tries to stand up throwing his arms in the air to emphasise his betrayal, and Pandora doesn’t bother to stifle her laugh, “You’re meant to tell me everything, what happened to us? Pete my love, my one and only, my-“
But Sirius gets cut off by Peter pushing him away and yelling out “Shove off,” but there’s laughter in his smile, and entertainment in his eyes, and a blush riding steadily on his cheeks, and everyone knows that’s just how Sirius is.
He pushes, and pushes, and pushes, and he does break a lot of boundaries, which would be bad, is bad, except for the fact that he never realises he does until its pointed out, and then he rears back, falls back into himself hiding away- so ashamed of himself, that no one can ever find it in them to stay mad, especially when he is so obviously lacking the malice alongside his actions.
But even with boundaries, he doesn’t seem to have them at all with James, and hardly any with Peter, and well- it used to be similar with Remus, but everyone knows how that went.
Everyone knows how that went- the bands have almost gone estranged, with Lily almost being the tether between them.
Pandora thinks it's all ridiculous.
They’re all friends, she believes in talking things through, resolving things, even if the resolution is to part ways, they should at least make it amicable, at least bring about an understanding.
Don’t just drift, losing your tethers, because that’s what this group is to each other, tethers to reality.
They are moving forward to a place where they will be put in the spotlight, every single thing they do under observation, nit-picked, examined under a microscope.
They need people to hold them together, to keep them whole, to keep them sane to keep them alive.
Drifting apart isn’t a thing in Pandoras books, it’s a clean break, or it’s a strengthened friendship.
Drifting leaves you aimless, unsure, it’s not healthy.
Ok maybe it is healthy, but not in this instance.
The lack of communication, the sides, the ignoring each other, the hurting and the pain, it’s not ok, it’s not healthy.
Yes Pandora hasn’t picked a side, but she is in the band with Remus, so she sees him more, sees how his defences have grown back tenfold, shutting himself away, she can only partly get in because she was there, when they were pealed back, lowered, the gates opened.
And she was there when they were shattered to pieces, she watched as he built them back stronger than ever, impenetrable, and she tried to keep her foot in the door, make a peephole, wedge it open a crack to let the light in.
But she’s pretty sure the only person who manages to hide behind the door with him was Regulus, almost as if they burrowed away together into hiding.
Strength in numbers, 2 in the same, both hurt in different ways by the same person.
Pandora doesn’t know what to do with that.
Their friend group all deals with people in different ways, different tricks.
She gives advice only when asked, picks up the pieces only when prompted, speaks only when needed.
Not in general- in general she is quite a strong presence, her voice is never dependent on other people allowing it.
But when people are hurting, she highlights boundaries, watches them with a wary eye, and waits for a hesitant hand to reach out and grab hers, pulling her into their space.
And then, then she fixes.
The only person she really pushes boundaries with is Reg, although so many in the group are emotionally constipated, and probably need a push here and there, Regulus is the one she can push, the one who will push back, because he wont pull he never pulls.
So she can't assist him without getting in his space, but she doesn’t fix, she never fixes.
Not unless asked.
She knows about being independent, sometimes things need to be sorted yourself, sometimes things need to be learnt.
She is always there when needed, never earlier, never later.
She is always on time.
Its also why she works so well with Lily, Lily wraps herself up in work and the others, that she sometime subconsciously cries for help, because she is distracted.
Or she watched others tear themselves apart, and doesn’t want to add to the chaos, so she reaches out early, she nips problems in the bud, kills them at the route.
And Pandora is so thankful, giddy almost- though she’d never say the word- that she is Lilys’ confidant, in this (quite frankly) mess of a world.
But eventually the liquor takes over her thoughts, everything becomes a quiet sort of fuzzy again and she focuses back in on the game.
“Pandora truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Hmmm… have you had any spicy dreams about anyone across the two bands?”
“Lame.”
“That’s boring, the answers obviously yes.”
“No.”
“What?!” Sirius again, except this time he is joined by Barty who whips his head around in unison with Sirius exclaiming, “Liar.”
“Oh please you two are so egotistical.” Even in her drunken state, Pandora thinks her insults still remain pretty eloquent, it’s a side effect of being friends/ drinking buddies with Reg.
“Yeah not everyone wants to suck your cocks.” Peter chimes in, which Sirius ignores, but the mere suggestion of the fact, makes Barty choke on his drink and Pandora laugh again.
“Thought you didn’t choke Barty?” Peter says, smirking as he raises one eyebrow, and oh Pandora likes him, she’s known him and they’ve been friends for years, but her true appreciation for him comes out as she watches Barty sputter all over his words again.
Watching Barty loose control so easily, when he hardly ever does, well it’s a sight, a very entertaining sight to see.
Drunk Pandora finds this peak comedy.
Sober Pandora would agree.
Its not subjective, its hysterical… hyper, independent, crazed Barty stumbling over his words at the mention of Peters cock.
Its definitively funny.
If only Reg and Remus were here to see it.
They would both tease him about it relentlessly, they will even without being here if Pandora merely mentions the fact it happened.
But it would be nice to see Remus laugh, both of them if Reg is properly drunk.
She loves seeinh her friends without their inhibitions, she likes seeing who they are, the hidden person she knows is there that she loves.
But she is once again bought out of her own head by Sirius, coughing on his own drink ( clearly faked for the dramatics) and spluttering out an offended, “What do you mean you don’t dream of my cock Panda, I thought you were pan?”
“Oh I am,” she says merely smirking back and raising her eyebrows.
“Even I cant believe you’ve never been interested in at least one of us.” Peter finally chimes in, apparently done making Barty squirm- shame.
But she wasn’t lying, not technically, they asked across the two bands, technically Lily isn’t IN either band.
“Not my fault you phrase things badly.”
They all squint at that, apparently in simultaneous confusion, which just makes Pandora laugh again.
“Don’t worry, anyway its Bartys turn.”
And the game goes on.
Bartys POV-
It's Bartys round of the game when things go wrong.
Obviously.
That tends to be a staple of his life.
He chose dare, because he’s not a coward.
No matter what his stupid crush obsessed subconscious said earlier, truth is the cowards choice.
And Barty is many things, a coward is not one of them.
So naturally he picks dare.
He should’ve known it was a bad decision when Pandora opened his mouth.
He did know.
But he didn’t back down, he’s not a coward.
“I dare you-“ Sirius starts but Pandora cuts him off quickly,
“Finish that demonstration of the flamethrower I showed you in the pub,”
Sirius’ eyes light up, and Pandora has that manic smile he knows and loves, but he looks to Evan who is out of the room, and would most likely object, and he does want to get on his good side.
Then he looks to Peter, who looks just as thrilled at the prospect as the other two.
And why not, yeah he wants to get on their good sides.
But this is as good a warning as any of what Barty is like, trust Pandora to bring it out of him, the one singular moment in his life he tries to make a good impression, not that he could- they’ve all known him for years.
So yeah, Barty always completes his dares.
He looks again quickly to the bedroom to see if Evan is still well hidden away and unaware of what’s happening, even as Peter assures him Sirius’ room is such a mess, that Evan will be in there forever trying to pack.
Barty scoffs at that, “I don’t need permission.” What he doesn’t need however, is the one person who is fully in control of both their body and their mind right now to catch a glimpse of what they’re doing and rush out to stop them, because if the hairspray gets confiscated again, he knows he is not in a good enough state to successfully retrieve it back.
He won't be able to complete his dare.
And he needs to prove he’s not a coward.
Because he’s not.
He’s not.
So he turns to Sirius, “you still have your hairspray?”
And Sirius just grins, and pulls a hairspray out of his bag.
“That’s not the one you had earlier?” Pandora frowns, as if unaware whether her senses are deceiving her or if she is actually noticing a difference.
“It's probably his back up hairspray,” Peter adds, which, Barty can remember him constantly carrying around hairspray in school.
He’s not surprised he has a back up honestly, but he does think its stupid with the never ending complaints he used to hear from him, about how he needed hairspray but it made his hair crispy, but the humidity and the rain, and blah, blah, blah.
Its honestly good he’s in the band with Remus and not Sirius.
He didn’t have to deal with a mopy Sirius after the break-up.
Admittedly Remus was mopy too, but at least he had the self-respect to try and hide it.
And although they are friends, most of the time Remus’ ‘feelings’, did ended up being Regulus’ problem, sometimes Pandora.
Barty did have enough heart to help though, when neither of the others where available.
And hey, he is here for Sirius now.
Admittedly he was just saying yes to the drinking, but he could have drunk anywhere with anyone.
He chose to be here with the idiot,
They weren’t properly close, before the friend group split.
But they were close enough that Barty cant help but smile a bit at having to spend the next few months with him.
He just wants everything back to normal.
And then he can joke about the utter twats everyone has been.
So really, all this sympathy, is for his own selfish reasons.
Regardless, Sirius hands over the hairspray, and Pandora hands over another lighter, the last one having disappeared, or still being confiscated by Evan, who knows.
He hold the lighter out in front of him, his hand steady.
He’s not a coward.
Raises the hairspray up with his other hand and pushes down the hairspray opening a few times.
Nothing happens?
Nothing happens.
The other three gather around the hairspray wondering what’s going on and why it won’t work.
He shakes the can slightly, full.
Tilts the lighter slightly, it still has its liquid rolling around.
He pushes the hairspray down at the opening a few more times and still nothing happens.
At this point he’s just holding down the hairspray, trying to get something to happen, when Peter starts choking on the hairspray he’s accidentally been spraying into the other boys face this entire time, and he quickly turns the hairspray away from the other boy, his finger cramped and locked on the button.
“Shit Peter- you ok?” he asks quickly, as Pandora shouts out behind him- her volume control still an utter mess,
“Shit Barty you haven’t been flicking on the lighter,” she announces voice airy.
And Barty scoffs, quickly spinning around going to push down at the lighter button, to show its already down, when it finally flicks to life.
Peter laughs for a split second, most likely at the groups joint idiocy, when he quickly gets cut off by a scream, and Barty looks in the direction of the hairspray which he still hasn’t taken his finger off of, and, instead of seeing a cloudy stream of air wafting out of it, he sees almost a jet of fire, rushing towards Sirius’ face, who is frantically falling backwards, bringing his hands up to cover his face.
“Shit.”
Peter screams, darting forward to grab at Sirius, seemingly ignoring the line of fire that he is pushing into to get to Sirius, and Barty quickly drops the lighter, the flame flicking off as it falls to the ground.
Pandora is next to him, laughing hysterically, tears forming in her eyes, as she just laughs and laughs and laughs.
Barty starts to join her, as he hears another scream, but this time from to his right.
Evan is stood in the doorway of Sirius room, one of Sirius’ shirts falling from his hand as he takes in the scene in front of him.
He only pauses a split second before running towards them.
And slightly bitterly, all Barty can see is Evan and Peter both throwing themselves into the fray of chaos and trouble.
He rolls his eyes, annoyed at their mere relationship, as he notices the sound of crying and Pandoras laughter has abruptly cut off.
He looks back down to where Sirius is still shielding his face from them all, and his heart drops slightly as he watches the shake of the other boys shoulders, hearing muffled sobs he is so clearly trying to hide but can’t help.
And Bartys heart aches, it’s the same way Regulus cries.
Trying not to, trying to hide himself from view.
Shrinking in on himself, and he just knows the sound of their parents voice must be whirling around his head.
And he’s still not showing his face, is he actually hurt?
Did Barty hurt him, Reg will kill him.
Legitimate murder and a prison sentence.
Regulus will kill him.
Without hesitation.
Barty doesn’t care really if he’s hurt Sirius, it’s a part of life. It’s a part of living, as awkward as it sounds, life is really about being wild and free.
He knows Sirius of all people understands that, but if he’s actually, properly, badly hurt.
Reg will kill him.
His best friend will kill him.
Because he is tiny and he’s deadly.
He’s an injection of air between the toes.
A subtle, silent and deadly killer.
He is someone with rage so loud you hear him coming from a mile away.
He’s canon fire.
But he also an assassin.
He’s also a poison, slow acting or quick, ready to cut you out or watch you suffer.
He’s deadly and stealthy, and he gets his satisfaction off of watching you tremble in fear knowing he’s coming, hearing it from miles away. Whilst also being so quiet, you cant see where he’s gone.
You just know you will be gone too, soon.
So yeah, Barty just got a tour deal, he doesn’t want to die this quickly.
And not for something as stupid as a flamethrower, if Regulus is going to kill him, he is going to go out for doing something a lot more impressive.
Maybe an actual murder.
A murderer killing a murderer.
A much more interesting death.
Regardless, he is stripped away from his spiral/ fantasy, whatever you want to call it, as Sirius finally lets his hands fall away from his face, and they all seem to instinctually lean in towards him.
Taking him in.
Watching him.
And then,
Barty bursts out laugjing.
“Oh this is fucking hilarious!”
Evan shoots him a glare out of the corner of his eye, but he can see one side of his mouth twitch before he carefully schools it back under his control.
He looks to Peter who is wearing a similar expression.
Pandora, who has resumed her hysterical laughter, but more stifled as she rubs soothing patterns into Sirius arm.
Before his eyes dart back to Sirius’ stricken face,
His stricken face,
His stricken eye browless face.
And Sirius bursts back into hysterics, sobbing seemingly uncontrollably as Evan and Peter try to sooth him, Pandoras arm never leaving his side, as she stifles her laughs more and more until they’re almost completely stopped.
But Barty doesn’t stop laughing this time.
Because this isn’t Sirius hurt.
Well he is hurt, but just his ego.
And Reg wont kill him for that, in fact, he'd probably praise him.
Buy him anything he wants,
Maybe a yacht,
Barty would suit a yacht.
He could probably buy one himself.
But things are so much nicer when their free,
Ah, he’ll name it the eyebrow yacht, or something smarter, Reg will probably have an idea or two.
He could invite Evan and Peter abord…
But Sirius would come aboard first, he could get a nice statue of Sirius with no eyebrows on the front deck.
He thinks it’s a great idea, until he realises that once Sirius gets his eyebrows back he’d probably just like a statue of himself full stop.
It ruins his train of thought, and he zones back in on the conversation.
Sirius’ incessant sobs have slowed mostly now, and he has asked Evan to get the mirror, Barty is sure it will be hilarious when Sirius actually SEES his face, and not just feels his missing eyebrows, probably causing another bout of hysterics to be inevitable.
But Barty is tired, and it is now only 5 hours until they are getting on their flight, and as hilarious as watching Sirius break down over his eyebrows is, he doesn’t want to deal with a flight whilst having a hangover that could potentially be mixed with motion sickness.
So he gets up to go for a nap and to try and sober up, it’s either that or he solidifies his drunkenness with a bottle of whiskey before getting on the plane.
But Regulus will kill him if he’s drunk for his nightmare flight.
He hasn’t said it, but he knows Regulus wants a buffer between him and his brother, and Barty is more than happy to oblige,
He also hasn’t told Regulus, but he is aware of his situation with James.
He accidentally walked in on them once, and in a completely un- Barty like reaction.
He didn’t immediately make his presence known and ruin the moment.
He saw Regulus, saw him happy, his best friend happy.
And he froze, because as much as he likes to tease, seeing Regulus so genuinely happy, just purely comfortable and ok, it scared Barty, because seeing it, watching it, made him realise its not a thing he really sees on Regulus.
And as much as he likes to tease and mess around, and cause chaos he had saw his friend happy, and was so shocked at the combination of a smile, a true proper, happy smile on Regulus’ face and decided he couldn’t ruin this.
Couldn’t, Regulus has had a shitty life, he hides it and he lies, and he brushes off concern, and he shut down the questions from his friends when his brothers song came out.
He shut it all down, and then he shut down.
But that song, it changed their group, no one believed his lies any more.
And it made the absence of his smiles so much more noticeable, that Barty couldn’t bring himself to ruin it.
He was there when Regulus was crying on the floor of the their bathroom at school.
Curled up in a ball and sobbing.
He had jammed the door, and had a hand pressed so firmly over his face that his fingers went white, as he tried to muffle his sobs.
Barty watched as he hastily pulled down his shirt, a mangled mix of scars littered across his side.
And the worst part, the absolute worst part.
Is that Barty doesn’t know if they were placed there by Regulus’ hand or his parents.
That he still doesn’t know.
That part of him doesn’t want to know.
So yeah, Barty didn’t tell Regulus and James he was there when he caught them.
And yes, he hasn’t said anything.
Hadn’t said anything as Regulus drew back in on himself after Remus and Sirius’ breakup.
Refusing to acknowledge the problem, and if he did only brushing it off and blaming his brother.
But Barty knew.
So he will be sober on that plane, he will be a buffer.
And despite all the darkness that forms around him in a never-ending cloud, he will break and bend and push himself to find just the slightest bit of light to shine on his friend.
That’s what love is.
And if someone found out he loves Regulus he would kill them.
That’s what their love is.