Chapter 2
“Hey, just breathe your ok” Pandora was saying to Regulus as the plane began its decent. The turbulence shook the plane harshly and Regulus squeezed his eyes shut tight. A million thoughts were flashing through his mind but only one stuck; what if he never saw Barty or Evan again? The familiar feeling of tears rolling down his face startled him, and he brought his hand up to wipe his face dry and looked over at Pandora, she was holding his hand and rubbing circles on the back of his wrist to calm him, it was working.
“Thanks” was all he could croak out without breaking down,
“It’s ok, my brother gets like this too when we fly so I’m pretty good at this” Pandora smiled at Regulus, which only reminded him of Evan even more.
“I think we’re about to land, so be ready” Pandora said breaking Regulus’ train of thought, he nodded at her gratefully and turned to look out the window, he could see the airport, the other runways and the city’s busy roads and buildings.
The plane rattled as it hit the runway and slammed on the breaks, Regulus watched the wing flaps fold and move to help slow the plane down. They came to a stop and the Captain announced over the intercom that the local time was 5:07 am, and that they could depart the aircraft in the following minutes.
“God I can’t wait to get out of this metal death tube” Regulus sighed slumping in his chair, Pandora laughed at him and leaned down to grab her carry-on from under the seat in front of them.
“You know, you were really brave, better than Evan thats for sure” Pandora laughed to herself,
“Evan? Your brother right” Regulus said his head snapping up at the sound of his best mates name,
“Oh yeah, he’s back in Paris still, didn’t want to come on a trip with his big sister to look at universities” she said shaking her head lightly, “though he did drop out the other year so I guess uni doesn’t matter to him”. Regulus looked at her and something seemed to just click,
“Pandora Rosier right, your brother is Evan Rosier right?”
Pandora looked at him in shock, “How’d you know?”,
“I’m mates with Evan, we went to school since year one together. I’m Regulus Black” he emphasised his last name hoping she’d catch on, she did.
“OH MY GOD! How on earth did I not realise, god I’m so stupid” she laughed loudly, “Jesus sorry Regulus”
“Nah your all good, took me a while to work out who you were too” Regulus said looking at her fondly, “to be fair I’ve never met you, only heard about you”,
“True I guess, still I feel I bit silly” Pandora chuckled to herself.
They got up once there was room in the aisle and grabbed their bags from the over head compartments, Sirius walked up to Regulus and gave him big hug from behind,
“Still scared?” He mocked, smirking,
“Nope, I’ve got Pandora now” Regulus smiled looking at Sirius,
“What? I’ve been replaced?!” Sirius faked a betrayed voice with his hand to his chest,
“Yup, come on slow poke lets get off this plane” Regulus grabbed Sirius’ arm and pulled him down the aisle after Pandora.
~
“Right, you’ve got all your stuff yes?” Sirius asked Regulus, they were standing off to the side in the baggage claim area with Pandora, who was on the phone to someone.
“Yes Sirius I’ve got all my stuff” Regulus rolled his eyes but held up his bags to show his brother,
“Good, oh and we’re catching the bus to our flat so try and look happy, yeah?” Sirius said looking at his brother like a protective mother, which he definitely was.
“Hey guys my rides here so I’ll see you around maybe” Pandora said grabbing all her stuff,
“Yeah, see ya have fun looking at uni’s” Regulus said as Pandora reached to hug him, which he gladly accepted. Pandora gave Sirius a short hug too before she wandered off to find her ride.
“Right, ready to go? The bus arrives in fifteen minutes so we need get going ok?” Sirius said grabbing Regulus’ arm to guide him towards the bus stop,
“Hey I’m not a little kid you know” Regulus said pulling out of Sirius’s grip but still following him. The bus ride was quiet, only Sirius, Regulus and four others were on the bus and all were keeping to themselves. The buildings flicking past the window, turned into trees, then farmland and finally small houses and shops.
“This is our stop Reggie” Sirius said nudging his brother to get his attention. They hopped off the bus to see a small bus shelter, it was light blue with the number 14 painted down the side.
“Stop 14, route 3” Sirius said reading off his phone, “remember that Reg ok?”
“Yup got it. Which way is our flat?”
“Right, I think its half a block that way” Sirius said pointing to his left,
“Ok lets go then” Regulus said, and he started walking the way Sirius pointed,
“Wait no other way, I got my lefts and rights mixed up sorry” Sirius said grabbing Regulus’ arm and looking at him sheepishly, Regulus only shook his head and then started walking the right way with Sirius, who was messaging James to tell him they had landed and were on their way to the flat.
After a minute of Sirius fumbling with the keys he managed to unlock the front door, the door opened to a small mud room which was neat and tidy, past that was a short hall with two doors on either side, those lead to the bedrooms, one for Regulus and one for Sirius. The hallway ended in the lounge/dining room, nicely set out with a small couch and a circle table with four chairs around it.
“Hey Reg I’m going to go for a nap ok? Come get me if you need” Sirius said, Regulus nodded to Sirius as he walked past, on his way to the smaller of the two bedrooms. Regulus walked out to the back of the house to see what the yard looked like, it was simple with a square of grass and a small planter for vegetables that had nice blue edging, a tree hung over the fence into their yard from the neighbours yard, it was a old oak tree that had birds flying all around the branches gracefully. Regulus was watching a little finch dive for bugs when his phone buzzed, a message from Sirius;
Where r you?
outside, theres birds
dont eat them
A laugh could be heard from inside, Sirius, and then another voice joined in. Curious to who it was Regulus wandered back inside, a tall, tanned boy was standing in the hall with Sirius, he was leaning on the door frame into Regulus’ room and glanced up as Regulus walked in the lounge.
“This is James” Sirius motioned to the boy who smiled kindly at Regulus, “James this is my brother Regulus”,
“Hi” James’ smooth voice echoed across the room, he seemed so effortless, his dark brown hair, that looked very similar to Regulus’, was a mess atop his head and he had the brightest green eyes Regulus had ever seen, they seemed to just gleam with happiness, even through his glasses.
“Hello” Regulus replied, he looked at Sirius “Est-ce le James?”
“Tu penses que j'en apporterais au hasard dans notre appartement? oui c'est James” Sirius replied, rolling his eyes, “anyway, James is about to go over to Remus’ house to hang out and invited us to come with and meet all his mates and see who we’ll have classes with tomorrow, sound good”
“Remus?” Regulus asked looking confused,
“Oh, yeah he’s my mate since kindy. He’s the only one in our group with a big enough house to meet up at, so we all hang out there” James said quickly explaining it to Regulus,
“Right, how far away is it?” Regulus glanced at the clock on the wall in the kitchen and then back at James,
“Only a few blocks, we’ll catch the bus though” James replied and got his phone out to check bus times, “if we go now we’ll catch the next bus”.
“Alright lets go then” Sirius replied grabbing his phone from the bench in the mud room and dragging Regulus after him and James out the door and down the street.
~
It didn’t take them long to get there, James had been right they caught the next bus and arrived at Remus’ block only five minutes later, the wind had picked up and Regulus was shivering a bit, his teeth chattered and he hugged himself tighter. A warm jacket was shoved over his shoulders seconds later, it smelt of a woody almost musky cologne. Regulus glanced back to see James no longer wearing a jacket and smiling at him. Regulus would have shrugged it off but it was really warm and smelt nice too, so he just pulled it tighter around himself. They had walked in the door and been introduced by James to all his friends, there was probably twelve or so there. Regulus had been chatting with Lily and Mary for a while and learnt that James had a slight reputation of having a new girlfriend or boyfriend every few months,
“James, mate he hasn’t even been on English soil for twenty four hours, and you’ve already picked him out as next” was the first thing Regulus heard when he walked through the door with Sirius. A red headed girl, who he now knew as Lily, had noticed he was wearing James’ jacket and made the comment, and now that was all people wanted to talk to him about, until he went and gave the jacket back and stole his brother’s instead, it wasn’t as warm but would do if it got the attention off him.
“Hey, sorry about them. I guess I’ve got more of a reputation than I thought” James said walking up to Regulus,
“It’s fine” came Regulus’ short reply, James went to answer him but got distracted by someone else turning up. Regulus glanced up at the sound of a familiar voice,
“Pandora!” He called over the noise of everyone talking,
“Reggie! OMG hi. I didn’t know you knew these guys to?” She said looking shocked,
“Haha neither did I, Sirius is, well was, pen pals with James and it just went from there” Regulus chuckled feeling relived,
“I know you” Sirius’ voice called, he was pointing at Pandora like a child while getting a piggyback ride from James, who was laughing and trying not to fall over, which he didn’t succeed at, they hit the floor seconds later in a pile of laughter and grunts. Remus came over and helped Sirius up, who really couldn’t hold it together at all and was bent over laughing and wheezing. Remus was smiling gently, his brown eyes seemed nearly golden in the light and his hair was mildly tousled thanks to Sirius.
“Wait hang on, how to your three know each other?” Lily asked, she was tying her long red hair up into a pony tail and looked confused.
“Oh, yeah me and Regulus sat next to each other on the plane ride here, and we worked out that he’s good friends with my brother Evan and his boyfriend Barty” Pandora laughed,
“Oh shit, small world I guess” James laughed,
“No James you’re just small minded” someone laughed loudly and a few others joined in. James just rolled his eyes and moved towards the door into the yard.
~
Regulus wandered outside on the look for Sirius to ask if the could go home because he was getting tired. James and Sirius were laying side by side on the grass chatting and looking up at the stars.
“Well aren’t you two romantic” Regulus teased and sat down next to Sirius,
“Just enjoying the view, although it just got a-” Sirius slapped his hand across James’ mouth and glared at him. James laughed, though it was muffled through Sirius’ hand much to Regulus’ disappointment.
“What was it you wanted Reg?” Sirius asked, his hand still on James’ face, who was pretending he was innocent.
“Can we go back to the flat I’m tired, and I think people are starting to get drunk” Regulus replied his voice getting smaller as he spoke, Sirius sat up quick at that and started to get up, he helped James and Regulus up as well,
“Alright lets go then, James catches the same bus as us so he’s coming with” Sirius glanced at Regulus looking worried, “I’ll just go say bye ok, you wait at the door yeah?”
“Ok see you in a minute” Regulus said, he walked towards the door to stand and wait.
“You going?” The slightly drunk voice of Lily echoed down the hall, Regulus flinched.
“Yup just waiting for Sirius to come back”
“Aww your leaving so soon, I’ll see you next time though?” Lily spoke her words slurring a little after she took another sip of her drink.
“Yeah maybe” Regulus said, suddenly feeling hot and taking Sirius’ jacket off. Just as Regulus was about to find his brother to give the jacket back, Sirius wandered over and started saying bye to Lily as he walked past, encouraging her to go chat with the others, which she did.
“All good?” Sirius asked quietly as they walked out the door,
“Yeah all good, can we just go?” Regulus replied handing the jacket back and walking after James down the steps.
The bus was quiet when they got on, no one was out this late. James sat in front of Regulus and Sirius, so he was down lower than them because they were at the back of the bus. James looked up at Regulus after a little while,
“You all good?”,
“Yeah, just don’t like it when people get drunk” Regulus said quietly,
“Fair enough, I don’t drink so maybe we can be party buddies” James smiled gently up at Regulus, his eyes lit up in amusement,
“Maybe, or maybe I just won’t go” Regulus chuckled.
“Aww come on Reggie don’t be a party pooper” James joked. Something about James calling Regulus ‘Reggie’ made his heart flutter in a weird way, he frowned a little and touched his chest as though to check his heart was beating normally.
“Guys lets go its our stop” Sirius’ voice broke Regulus’ musings and brought him back to reality. They hopped off and said bye to each other before they started the walk home, it was only short and by the time they were home Regulus was exhausted. He changed, showered and climbed into bed hoping for a good night sleep.