Forgotten Words
Regulus
Remus walked over to the amp by Regulus and took a drink of his water he had left there. He took his guitar off and switched it out for his other one.
He nodded towards the crowd and whispered to Regulus, “Those guys are here again. They’ve been to the last three shows.” Remus was smiling. He had told Regulus about these boys after the last show. Reg had told Remus he should try to talk to ‘the gorgeous one’ after the set, but Remus gave a whole list of reasons on why that wasn’t a good idea. Remus often looked intimidating and as if nothing could deter him, but he really was quite skittish. It had taken Regulus years to get Remus to open up.
“Alright,” Regulus whispered back, “Point them out to me. They probably aren't that hot. Not as good looking as me.” Regulus was smirking too.
“Ha ha. Look- near the stage on the left. One has darker skin and glasses, and the other is pale and has long hair, tattoos and is gorgeous.” Remus smiled as he went back to his spot.
“Listen up fuckers,” Remus said as he grabbed the microphone as he pushed his hair out of his face. No wonder people found him intimidating. “We got one last song for you. Thanks for being a great crowd and come see us again soon!”
The crowd cheered. The show was going great. Regulus had higher energy than usual, and Remus' leg didn’t seem to be bothering him at all. Marlene hit her sticks together to count the band off, and Remus started in on the opening notes on guitar. This was the band's most popular song, and the crowd whooped and clapped in recognition.
“This is for the lions living in the wiry broke down frames of my friends bodies…” Remus started out singing.
Regulus had written the song, but they liked to sing it together. As Remus sang it looked like he owned the stage. Regulus felt a surge of affection. Not romantic- they had tried that and decided they loved each other, but more as friends: as brothers. But he did look good on stage, the lights lit up his olive skin and his hair fell in his face just right. That boy Remus has been fawning over in the crowd probably would fall in love with Remus too.
Regulus started out on his part.
“...It's no big surprise you turned out this way. When they closed their eyes and prayed you would change. And they cut your hair and sent you away. You stopped by my house the night you escaped. With tears in my eyes, I begged you to stay. You said, ‘Hey man I love you, but no fucking way.’”
Regulus didn't like thinking about the song he was singing, even after all these years, it still hurt him. So he kept himself distracted. He had begun skimming the crowd trying to see if he could spot the boy Reumus had been talking about. Sometimes he couldn't see anything if the lights were too bright, but these light wern't too much.
He saw a boy with curly dark hair and glasses bouncing along with the music, he must be the friend, Regulus thought. He was cute.
And fuck. Right next to the boy with glasses was a boy Regulus did recognize. He froze, his blood turning cold. Regulus realized a few notes too late that he had stopped playing. But he couldn't do anything. He couldn't think. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. And when Remus began singing, he realized that he wasn't singing his lines. Regulus looked over at Remus and he was continuing on, but glancing at Reulus every few seconds. He didn't want Remus to worry, and he didn't want to fuck up his song.
Shit, get it together, Regulus thought. He started playing again, picking back up where Remus was and started singing with Remus too. They never sang this part of the song together, it felt clunky, but he didn’t care.
Regulus just wanted the song to be over. He wanted the night to be over. He wished he hadn’t played tonight. But most of all, he wished he hadn’t seen his brother.