Chapter 26
Evan was blinded by rage when he knocked on James’ door.
Once, twice, and would’ve been thrice if the door wasn’t opened up so quickly by a confused Sirius.
‘Hey? Evan? What’s-’ And Sirius was against the wall beside the door. His face hit the wall heavily and he grunted in pain. Evan hit and hit without realising exactly what he was doing, but he was mad.
The one time Regulus really needed Sirius. The one time he called. And the fucker didn’t even bother picking up his fucking phone.
‘Ow!’ Sirius yelled out. He tried to move his hands to grab Evan’s fists, but Evan grabbed one of them and pushed it against the wall with such force he was pretty sure he could hear the bones cracking. ‘Fuck!’ Sirius screamed out in pain, but Evan wasn’t stopping. Sirius’ nose started bleeding. Sirius’ eye was black and bruising. He stopped. Looked at Sirius with pure hatred in his eyes.
‘Regulus needed you. He never calls. Never. Yet the one time he does, you don’t bother to pick up. But you were online, weren’t you?’ Evan spat. Sirius’ not hurt arm grabbed one of Evan’s fists while he attempted to frown, but it just looked weird.
Sirius was crying, now. Evan must’ve hurt him a lot.
‘I wasn’t- I would never ignore Regulus,’ Sirius sputtered out, his eyes looking for anything besides apathy in Evan’s eyes, but finding nothing. ‘You clicked my call away. I know you pressed decline on my calls, Sirius,’ Evan said in a low voice, before he heard Remus ask ‘What’s happening?’ from behind him.
Before Evan knew it, Remus was harshly pulling Evan away from Sirius, only to be slammed in the wall opposite of him. His head hit the wall with a satisfying crack that hurt a little more than he’d like to admit.
He punched out a breath before Remus’ face got into his vision.
‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing? You think it’s normal to come here and fucking beat my fucking boyfriend without reason?!’ Remus hissed at him. Evan could vaguely hear Sirius mutter ‘boyfriend, that’s cute,’ but he didn’t even care to react to Sirius. ‘You think it’s something I would do without reason?!’ Evan shot back quickly, to which Remus raised his chin and then a brow, waiting for Evan’s explanation.
‘He promised something to his brother when he left him, yes? ‘I promise that I’ll come back for you the moment I’ve settled in at the Potters. I’d never leave you here alone, I love you. And know that if you ever need me, really need me, you can call. I’ll always pick up a call from you, Reggie.’ Well, guess who called and who didn’t pick up.’ Remus’ eyes fell on Sirius for a second. Sirius who was now crouched on the floor, sobbing into his hands.
‘Guess who left who in that rotten house even though he made a promise. Guess who promised he’d do it because of love? And guess who now doesn’t know how love works because of that? OH and take a guess who really needed his brother?’ Evan hissed, his voice raising and raising until he was screaming in Remus’ face, even though Remus had him locked into place.
‘Sirius is not Regulus’ father, Evan. He has a life, he can’t watch his phone 24/7, waiting for Regulus to call. He can’t sprint up and go to Regulus the moment he calls. Sirius is still a child, too. He has his own life and complications. Have you ever stopped to think about that?’ Remus asked, awfully calm. Evan wanted to hit him. He was supposed to be mad.
‘I have stopped to think about that too many times. I should’ve done this way earlier. Sirius had these punches coming for years. He’s not worthy of being Regulus’ brother, and you deserve the fucking skank.’
And then Evan’s jaw cracked.
He tried to scream, but finding the air to do so was suddenly very hard, so he gently lifted his hand to touch his jaw, but Remus pulled his hand away roughly.
‘What did you just call Sirius?’ Remus asked in a dangerously low tone, waiting for Evan to bite back again, and of course Evan did. ‘I called him a fucking skank. But he deserves a worse name, if I’m honest.’
Crack. Again his jaw.
Remus grabbed a fistful of Evan’s hair and pulled him away from the wall. He pushed his head back against the wall with enough force to make Evan’s vision blurry and Evan stumbled on his feet until he fell to the floor in a not so fashionable heap.
Remus had let go of him when he stumbled to the floor, and was now helping Sirius with standing up, speaking softly to him and trying to stop his crying.
James ran into the hallway a few seconds after. ‘Remus, what is happening? Dad and I heard screaming from- oh my god.’ His mouth was open, and he was joined by Fleamont, who had followed his son inside.
He’d hate Evan now.
Both of them would.
Maybe it was for the better.
‘Evan, did you do this? Why? I- I don’t get it?’ James asked, perplexed. He slowly moved to crouch down in front of Evan’s face, but he kept a distance between the two of them.
Evan met his eyes with tears rolling over his cheeks and a bitter smile on his face.
‘Someone wasn’t keeping his word to his brother.’
Remus huffed, but Sirius muttered ‘no, he’s right’, which made Remus frown. ‘Doesn’t mean you deserve this. This could land him in jail, for fucks’ sake,’ Remus said, giving Evan a glare before focussing back on Sirius.
‘Fine. Throw me in jail. I’ll get out within a month anyway. I won’t regret this, no matter what you do,’ Evan said, crossing his arms. His voice sounded weird. He was almost slurring his words as if his mouth wasn’t quite right. It hurt to talk, but he guessed that was obvious. ‘Ev, please don’t talk. We have to relocate your jaw first,’ James muttered softly, touching Evan’s jaw delicately, which made Evan wince and move away from his hands.
‘James, let go of him. Let me do it, I have better hands for something like this,’ Fleamont’s low voice spoke. James started talking back to him in Spanish, but one look of Fleamont shut him up.
He scooted over to make place for his father, who sat down and put his firm hands on both sides of Evan’s jaw. Evan wanted to complain about the pain, but he just bit his lip against it. ‘I need you to relax your mouth, Evan. I know it hurts, but it’ll be better if you let me fix this,’ Fleamont said calmly, and Evan found himself listening to him.
His mouth went slack and Fleamont softly counted to three before he snapped Evan’s jaw back in place and Evan screamed out from the pain. His scream broke halfway through and he started sobbing uncontrollably without really knowing why.
He felt James’ steady arms hugging him, but he didn’t feel like he deserved to get a hug now. He didn’t regret what he had done, but he knew it was a terrible thing to do. He knew that if Remus wouldn’t have interfered, Evan probably wouldn’t have stopped until he did enough damage to regret his actions. He also knew that he would regret it when his head was cleared.
‘Why are you hugging me?’ Evan whispered softly for only James to hear, but he could hear Sirius’ breath hitch and Remus making a sound in the back of his throat as if to swallow his words. James was silent for a little bit more before he reacted. ‘Because you were crying. And no one should cry without having warm arms to cry into,’ James muttered into his hair, burying his nose in Evan’s hair. ‘I-’ Evan’s breath hitched.
‘I’m sorry,’ Evan managed to mutter out. He looked over to Sirius, who was gazing at him from over Remus’ shoulder. Sirius managed the barest of a nod and he closed his eyes, leaning on Remus. ‘At least you had a valid reason,’ Sirius croaked, to which Remus huffed in disapproval again. ‘I don’t think that accounts for a valid reason, Sirius. He was ready to pound you so hard into the wall that we’d have a permanent mark of your head there. That is never okay to do,’ Remus hissed, now turning his head to glare at Evan.
Evan looked down at his bloody hands. ‘I know. I’m sorry,’ Evan muttered again. ‘Yeah, you better be. If you were wondering why you’re better off single, here’s your proof.’
‘Remus! What the fuck, dude?’ James reacted to his friend, but he was stopped by saying anything more by his father. ‘I know, okay? I’m stupid, I’m useless. I ruin my own life and I shouldn’t even be allowed near the people I love,’ Evan started sincerely, looking up at Remus. ‘That doesn’t give me an excuse to pound someone into the wall after they continuously hurt my best friend and that doesn’t give me permission to fall in love with people and end up happy with said people.’ The last part was less sincere, and Remus seemed to catch it quickly, because he was already halfway on his way to Evan’s face by the time Fleamont got ahold of him.
‘James, help him clean up. I think it’s best if you leave after, Evan. Sirius, I’m taking you to a hospital just to be sure,’ Fleamont said, pinning Remus down with an angry glare. Remus glared back at Fleamont, but after minutes of cold silence, he relented.
As Remus and Sirius started out of the door, Remus turned around to face Evan. ‘If you ever so much as lay a finger on Sirius or James again, I will even out your face like a freshly printed piece of paper, you scumbag.’ And then he turned around and slammed the door shut.
More enemies.
Because that was exactly what Evan needed right now.
He groaned internally and looked at James, who was still staring at the door.
‘All punched out?’ James asked, the tiniest hint of a smile forming on his face. ‘Yeah. James, this isn’t funny. It’s really not appropriate to laugh about stuff like this,’ Evan said, frowning at James.
‘I know, sorry. Can’t help it. I know you’ve been bottling your anger towards him up for a while now. So, I guess I don’t think you had no reason to assault him like you did. It doesn’t make it right, at all. Because it wasn’t right. But Remus just misses a piece of the bigger picture in his mind right now. A piece that I do see. So I think I get it a little better,’ James explained calmly. Evan only nodded limply before heaving a deep sigh.
‘Let’s clean you up, yeah?’ James said. Evan agreed with him and he stood up. What Evan didn’t account for though, was that he had hit his head quite hard against the wall. Twice. And he was actually very dizzy now that he stood up. He swayed on his feet, and smiled at James, who was giving him a concerned look. ‘Evy going up,’ he muttered before he swayed again and closed his eyes, his head getting heavy. ‘And Evy going down,’ he managed to get out before he passed out and probably hit the floor.
Or James had killer reflexes and caught him.
The fucker probably did. He was a true storybook prince, after all.
When Evan’s vision returned, he was on the couch in James’ living room. He moved his hands in front of his face and saw them slowly blur and then sharpen into his vision. They were, surprisingly enough, clean.
How fast had James cleaned his hands? Was he out for long?
‘Oh, you’re back. How are you feeling? I have some lemonade for you right here, if you want.’ James’ voice sounded from far away for Evan, but James quickly came into vision when he bent forward to look at Evan and smile at him. ‘Hi,’ Evan croaked, his voice raw and his throat hurting. He motioned for the lemonade while he carefully moved to sit upright.
When James handed him the lemonade he softly whispered ‘thanks’ and took a big gulp. Surprisingly enough, it immediately helped and Evan sighed in relief. ‘Better?’ James asked, to which Evan responded with a way better sounding ‘Yeah, thank you,’ which in turn made James smile.
‘So while you were out, I cleaned your hands. I think you were out for like, three minutes? It wasn’t that long, luckily, but I guessed it would’ve been better to wake up with clean hands and on the couch,’ James explained, a little rushed. He smiled when he was done with talking and Evan couldn’t help but smile back.
‘You’re too sweet for me, James. I broke up with you and still you’re taking such good care of me,’ Evan muttered, carefully swinging his legs off of the couch to fully sit upright. James smiled at him and sat down beside him. ‘Well, I hope we can still be friends, after all. I get it if there’s a ‘weird period’ that we have to go through first, but you really are a good person, and I’d like to be a friend of yours.’
‘You can’t honestly call me a good person after I just pounded the shit out of your best friend,’ Evan said incredulously, chuckling when James shrugged and smiled at him cheekily. ‘You’re absurd,’ Evan said, closing his eyes and shaking his head.
‘That’s rich coming from you, Evy,’ James muttered softly. Evan processed the insult for a second before his smile broke wider on his face. ‘James, that was such a good insult, Mon Dieu. I’m proud at you,’ Evan said, smiling at James. ‘Well, it wasn’t really an insult, rather an observation. And I hate to be mean, but it’s proud of you, not at,’ James said, smiling guiltily at the end.
Evan waved it away. ‘Yeah yeah, stupid English grammar,’ he muttered.
James laughed softly again, before standing up and clasping his hands together. ‘Okay, let’s get you up. Carefully.’ He accentuated carefully, just so Evan could know he was in good hands. ‘Yeah, okay.’ Evan grabbed both of James’ outstretched hands and tried to find the strength in his legs to stand up. Unfortunately for him, his legs had decided that because he passed out, they weren’t supposed to work anymore for some stupid reason, so Evan barely even moved.
‘I uh, can’t really feel my legs yet, James,’ Evan muttered, which made a concerned frown appear on James’ face. ‘That’s.. Uh… Okay let’s get some more sugar inside you first then,’ James said, while he started rummaging through some cabinets in search of something.
‘While I’m looking for sweets, tell me what happened. Why did you get so angry at Sirius?’ James asked, emerging with a bag of toffee candies and throwing them to Evan, who caught them and took one out of the bag. He put the bag down in between him and the empty spot where James sat down.
‘Okay so, I went out to get my head clear right? Because last night was a whole lot. Then I come back and Barty is storming out of the door with his headphones on so loud that he could’ve been wearing a speaker, and Regulus just flings himself into my arms in a hug the moment I close the door.’ Evan knew James got how weird the situation was from James’ deep frown. ‘Yeah, I know, right? Since when does Regulus just randomly hug people? But anyways, he hugged me and then he just full on broke down. So I sat him down, and comforted him as best as I could. And then he asked me to call him.’
‘He asked you to call Sirius?’ James asked, but Evan shook his head. ‘No, he specifically asked me to call him. So at first I thought he meant you, because you’re obviously really good at comforting people and stuff. So he asks me if I have his number and I’m like, duh, we only just broke up and he gets all huffy and mad and is like ‘wow you really are a terrible friend, also dating my brother’. And I’m like, huh? Because you and I both know that Sirius and Regulus aren’t really talking to each other and Regulus made it that way, you know? So I’m all confused and ask him if he’s sure that I should call Sirius, and he nods so I do.’
‘He doesn’t pick up the first time I call him, but I’m like okay, he doesn’t have my number saved, so that’s fair. So Regulus gives me his phone to call him and I call him. First time, he doesn’t pick up. Second time, he declines the call. Third time, he declines again. So Regulus is crying uncontrollably in my arms, which is fucking weird because most times it’s the other way around, and I don’t fucking know what to do. And Barty had been away for like, an hour, then so I was also getting concerned about what he was doing, because when he’s emotional he always makes rash decisions.’
James nodded for Evan to continue with his story, confirming that he was still following.
‘And then Regulus just pushes me away and runs off to his bedroom, where he locked himself up in. So I’m really frustrated, yeah? And I don’t know what to do, so I try talking to him, but he is convinced that his brother doesn’t care about him, which was just the drop I guess, so I try to get his door open, but fail. I tell him that I’ll be back in a minute, because I couldn’t do anything anyways, and I thought, well if Sirius doesn’t answer, maybe he’ll come along when I ask him face to face.’
James frowned at him, but didn’t say a word.
‘But on the way here, I just started to get so mad at Sirius. For everything he promised Regulus, but never gave him. For every insult he threw at my face and for how many things he made both me and Regulus insecure about. And then the fucker opened the door to your house like nothing was wrong, but in my mind everything was just wrong and I was so incredibly mad, so I… I pulled a Barty, I guess,’ he finished his story. Evan took a deep breath in and out before he grabbed another candy and looked at James, who was still staring intently at him.
‘...Okay. That’s… A lot. I think I get it. But Regulus is still alone? And Barty is still not home?’ James asked, sounding concerned. ‘Uh… Yeah. Shit, what time is it?’ Evan asked, standing up, but swaying and falling down again. ‘Yeah, you’ve been here for longer than an hour, Ev. Is it okay to unpack your story sometime later? When we know Barty and Regulus are safe?’ James asked, to which Evan agreed.
‘Are you okay to walk on your own?’ James asked, holding out a hand for Evan to grab onto if he needed. Evan stood up slowly, and luckily didn’t sway as bad. He smiled softly at James. ‘I think I am, thanks.’
Together they walked towards the door and out of the house, locking it up after them.
‘Hey, James? I know you’re also not really speaking with Regulus right now, but I think he’d really benefit from it if you went to him. And I’ll go looking for Barty, because I think I know where he is,’ Evan told him. James agreed and they hugged once, before each going their separate ways to find their respective people.
It felt right, somehow.
James and Evan caring for Barty and Regulus together like this.
Maybe the psychic had been wrong after all.