Chapter 5
“Yeah I’ll talk to you later, ok bye” Sirius was talking on the phone to Remus who was about to come over with James, “alright Reg, you’ve got twenty minutes to ring mother and then they’ll be here, so get your shit together”,
“Yeah yeah I'm getting there” Regulus rolled his eyes but got up and grabbed his phone, dialling their mothers number,
“Bonjour? Qui est-ce?” A sharp french voice echoed through the phones speaker, Regulus rolled his eyes, of course his mother wouldn’t save his number.
“C'est ton fils, Regulus” Regulus spoke slowly and deliberately,
“Ahhh ! Regulus mon cher fils, comment vas-tu ? Se faire des alliés” Walburga replied sounding lightly pleased,
“Oui maman ça va, j'ai trouvé des amis aussi, les cours sont bien aussi” Regulus replied rather shortly, “voudriez-vous parler à Sirius?”,
“Bien sûr, où est-il?” Wlaburga replied,
“Ici, maman” Sirius replied in a cold tone,
“Sirius! comment vas-tu?” Walburga replied in a strained tone,
“Bien, comment vas-tu?” Sirius replied, he was looking at Regulus with a flat expression, Regulus just shook his head slightly,
“Je vais bien, ton père me dit que le fils d'Abraxas va à ton école, comment s’appelle-t-il?” Walburga paused as if to think but Sirius jumped in,
“Lucius Malfoy” Sirius spoke through gritted teeth, his face was tense and so was Regulus.
“C'est vrai, et bien tu ferais mieux d'être gentil avec lui, son père nous rapporte beaucoup d’argent” Walburga spoke indifferently,
“Seulement s'il traite bien Regulus, ce qui n'est pas le cas” Sirius was angry and was about to explode at his mother, “maman, je dois y aller, j'ai beaucoup de devoirs à faire, au revoir”,
“Je vois, dis au revoir à Regulus comme-” Sirius hung up the phone and tossed it onto the bed,
“She’s a fucking prick! For fuck sake!” Sirius yelled in anger,
“Pads, she’s not worth it” Regulus tried to reason with him,
“I don’t fucking care! All she wants us to do is make good connections for them! I’m fucking done!” Sirius got up and grabbed his phone off the bed side table and dialled a number,
“Hello?” Remus’ voice crackled through the speakers and Sirius visible relaxed,
“Hey, can you guys come over now, we need to debrief” Sirius breathed into the phone, all tension had left his body now,
“Yup I’m on my way” Remus replied and you could hear him getting up, “James too?”,
“Yes” Sirius said glancing at Regulus who was nodding,
“I’ll see you in a bit” Remus finished and hung up after Sirius said thank you to him.
“You good if they come early?” Sirius asked looking after his brother who was on his way to his room,
“Oh yeah it’s fine, I’ve got some homework to do so I’ll be in my room?” Regulus replied looking back at Sirius,
“Cool, I’ll come get you if anything changes” Sirius said before turning into the kitchen to get some food and drinks out.
~
Regulus was half way through typing up his English text review when Sirius stuck his head into the room,
“Hey Reggie, me and Remus are going to the shops to grab some stuff, James is still here but he’s in the lounge, ring if you need me yeah?”,
“Ok cool, grab me some chocolate please?” Regulus said looking up from his laptop,
“Of course” Sirius smiled and gently closed the door behind him, Regulus could hear his muffled voice through the door, he must’ve been talking to Remus. Looking back at his screen Regulus checked his word count, only three hundred, he still had seven hundred to go and four hours until it was due. After a moment of contemplating Regulus decided to take a break for a bit and freshen up. He got up and pulled his shirt over his head, tossing it into the ever growing pile of dirty clothes. After a short shower regulus wandered around his room in search for a pair of clean enough pants. He finally landed on a pair of grey of joggers that only had a couple coffee stains he pulled them on wondering why on earth he owned white or grey clothes. A knock at the door startled Regulus from his thoughts and he heard James’ voice on the other side.
“Hey Reg?”
“Yes James?”
“You busy?”
“No why? Are you getting a bit lonely?” Regulus replied with a small smile and walked over to the door,
“Yeah kinda I guess, Remus said I should-” James stopped, Regulus had opened the door and James was met by his damp curly hair, a very toned torso,
“Like what you see?” Regulus said rolling his eyes and turning around to sit on his bed, “so your lonely?”
“I- I mean” James stopped and dropped his head, “yeah sorry to bother you”
“You're fine, its kind of lonely in here too” Regulus said which brought James’ attention back, and he was only just starting to notice that Regulus was indeed shirtless,
“What are those from?” James spoke softly, he was gesturing to the scars running across Regulus’ torso,
“Oh nothing just something my parents liked to give me” Regulus replied nonchalantly,
“You’ve got tattoos too”
“Yup, to piss said parents off” Regulus paused and looked down at his right arm, a large snake was wrapped around his forearm and wrist, though a large scar ran through it, leaving a odd ripple through the snakes tail.
“What happened?” James asked, he had walked into the room a little ways and was watching Regulus,
“Whips, knives, spoons, sticks, you name it I was hit with it” Regulus shrugged, he pointed to a scar that ran from his belly button to the base of his pecs “this one hurt like a bitch, bread knife”
“A what?” James exclaimed looking horrified,
“Yeah a bread knife, you know how they say a sharp knife is better than a dull or serrated knife, thats why” Regulus seemed unfazed by it, the scar was ugly, it didn’t run in a straight line like the others did, it weaved up his chest and left a thick rough mark behind.
“The tattoos though? When did you get them?” James asked,
“Couple years back, the oldest I got when I was fifteen, Sirius signed the paperwork, and the newest I got last year, this one” Regulus paused and pointed to a pair of constellations, “me and Sirius’ constellations”
“Damn thats cool, I wish I could get tattoos” James said in awe, “are they smooth? like I saw something that sometimes tattoos heal rough”
“Oh I mean i guess not like normal skin, you can touch them” Regulus said standing up, he put his arm out for James to feel the snake tattoo.
“You cold?” James murmured, his hand was following the curves of the snake down Regulus’ arm,
“No why?”
“You’ve got goose bumps”
“Oh”
James gently reached out and brushed his hand against one of Regulus’ scars that curved around his ribs, and Regulus flinched at the touch.
“Shit sorry” James mumbled snatching his hand back,
“No your fine, I'm just flinchy” Regulus said quickly and reached out instinctively to grab James’ hand and pull it back,
“Ok, tell me when to stop though” James spoke, his voice seemed to soothe Regulus and he relaxed. James’ hands ran gently down each scar across Regulus’ chest and sides, even the smallest ones. As he did this Regulus started telling how he got each one and why, the little ones were mostly for things kids just do, but the bigger ones were for much worse things, sometimes things he didn’t even do. Regulus was rambling at this point, he’d told James about every scar, tattoo and even about things you couldn’t see, like his still broken ribs, the still healing burn on the back of his thighs which was done to make the trip to England even more painful, and even about the matching scars he and Sirius had on the back of their heads,
“Yeah they shaved our heads one day and that night we were both woken up to a hot letter being burned into the backs of our heads, I got a R and he got a S” Regulus was slightly out of breath from talking and dropped his head onto James’ shoulder,
“How come I can’t feel the scar?” James asked, his hand was in Regulus’ hair and gently pulling through it,
“They used a freeze banding tool, like the ones they use on animals, the hair grows back white and theres no scar” Regulus turned his head gently into James’ neck and exhaled slowly, “I dye my hair but Sirius just grew his out and cuts the white parts short”
“Ohh that makes sense” James said looking down at the now limp boy against him, Regulus hummed in agreement.
“You know Reg, if Sirius came home and saw us now he’d think we were something more than friends” James smirked looking down at Regulus, who was leaning against his shoulder.
“Oh shut it you’re warm” Regulus grumbled in defence, but moved himself off of James and grabbed his phone from the bed.
“We’ve got some food, did you want something?” Regulus asked as they walked out the room and down the hallway.
“Sure I could eat” James shrugged following Regulus into the kitchen and sitting himself down on a stool by the island. They chatted about anything and everything thing as Regulus made them a toasted sandwich each, and Sirius walked in a while later with Remus in tow.
“Regulus?” Sirius’ voice cut through James and Regulus’ conversation like a hot knife in butter, “what are you doing out here?”.
Regulus looked up and panicked, he was sitting on the counter in front of James, shirtless and eating a toasted sandwich.
“I’ll leave” Regulus said quickly as he turned to get off the counter,
“Wait no Reg?” James said looking up at Regulus, who just shook his head and walked off.
“Regulus wait I didn't mean you had to leave” Sirius tried to cover his tracks and went to follow his brother.
“Just leave it Sirius, I’ve got work to do anyway” Regulus said harshly he walked off to his room again.
Sirius dropped his head and groaned into his hands,
“It’s ok it’s not your fault, that’s just how Reg is don’t beat yourself up over it” Remus tried comforting Sirius,
“But I should know better, I just wish-” Sirius looked up sharply at the sound of a glass smashing and rushed towards Regulus’ door, he shook the handle but it was locked, “fuck no, Reg? Are you ok?”, all they could hear was a quiet whimper and Regulus’ shaky breathing.
“Reg its ok, can you open the door for me?” Sirius called through the door,
“I can’t… I can’t move… Padfoot help me” Regulus was crying and his voice was cracking,
“It’s ok, just breath, is there a window on your wall?” Sirius was trying hard to hide the fear and desperation in his voice,
“Yeah… yeah there is” Regulus’ voice sounded strained in fear.
“James go around to Regulus’ window and help him please, I’ll stay here” Sirius spoke to James who nodded and rushed off to go around the house, “it’s ok Reg, James is coming around to the window but I’m right here”.
“O..ok” Regulus murmured, barely audible through the door.
James rounded the corner and walked quickly down the side of the house looking for Regulus’ window, it was the only open one.
“Hey Regulus, it’s me James” James spoke as he turned to look into the room, his heart caught in his throat. On the floor was Regulus, it looked like he’d fallen off the bed while carrying a glass of water and dropped it, glass was everywhere and Regulus was bleeding from his arm and shoulder. James quickly got his pocket knife out and sliced the fly mesh open to get inside the room, he landed smoothly on the floor by the window and scooted over to Regulus.
“Hey Reg it’s ok, you’re okay, I’m here” James said pulling him into his arms, Regulus was shaking and looked pale,
“James?” Was all Regulus could make out before he passed out, James got up with Regulus in his arms and set him down on the bed. James turned and quickly opened the door letting Sirius and Remus in.
“Watch the glass” James said turning to Sirius, “why’d that happen to him?”,
“Oh it happens sometimes, Regulus was, well beat a lot as a kid, and smashing glass is a trigger, normally we have plastic cups for him but I haven’t got any for him yet” Sirius explained as he knelt next to Regulus, “can you grab me some gauze and stuff?”,
“Yup sure” Remus turned out the room quickly and into the bathroom.
“Was he awake when you came in?” Sirius asked James as he lent over his brother to look at the cuts,
“Yeah he was, he passed out as I got a hold of him, lucky I was there, he would’ve fallen into the glass face first” James explained looking at Regulus’s pale face sadly,
“He was sitting up when you came in?” Sirius looked up at James, his eyes were lit with worry,
“Yeah why?” James said looking confused,
“Normally he just” Sirius paused and took a deep breath, “normally he just flops over like a rag doll”,
“Oh, maybe cause he could hear your voice so he tried to stay up?” James murmured looking at Regulus again and reaching out to touch his right arm. The moment James’ hand grazed against Regulus he sat bolt upright with a gasp, Regulus looked around quickly until he found James’ face which he locked onto.
“James” Regulus whispered quietly looking scared,
“Its ok Reg, Sirius is here and so is Remus, just breath” James reassured him,
“You’re here too, right?” Regulus said looking even more worried, like he thought he was imagining it,
“Yes Reg I’m here too, take a deep breath okay?” James smiled gently as he watched Regulus breathe deeply and then fold forwards on to his chest.
“You’re warm” Regulus mumbled into James chest,
“I know I am but you need to let Sirius clean up your arm” James said gently and pushed Regulus off of him a little. Looking up at Sirius, James was met with a glare that could kill, he flushed bright red and looked away.
“I got the first aid kit Siri” Remus said as he walked back into the room with a white box in his arms.
“Thanks, can you pass me some cream and bandaids?” Sirius spoke sharply and thrust his arm out expectantly, Remus looked taken aback but complied and passed over a tube of anti-septic cream and a couple large bandaids. Sirius quickly took to wiping Regulus’ arm clean of blood and rubbing the cream over his cuts before laying the bandaids across the worst ones.
“There all better” Sirius’ tone had changed and he gently rubbed Regulus’ back to soothe him,
“Thanks Pads” Regulus murmured quietly and looked up at his brother fondly. Sirius smiled back at him gently,
“Reg, we’ll give you some space for a bit ok? Don’t lock the door though, I’ll come check on you in a bit”,
“Ok, thank you” Regulus replied earnestly.
James followed Sirius and Remus out the room but not without rubbing Regulus’ shoulder gently. The door shut and Regulus was left alone with his thoughts again, he looked around for a moment trying to take in his room again without freaking out, he’d only dropped the glass because something had reminded him of home, not that he thought of the house in France as a home, though he didn’t know what it was that sent him into a panic. Regulus sat back down on his bed and laid backwards hoping to rest for a minute, his phone buzzed.
“No rest for me then” Regulus sighed and reached over to his bedside table to grab the phone, it was James that had messaged him.
{James (crackhead) Potter} Me and Remus are heading off, Sirius told me not to text you but I thought you’d want to know when we left. Hope you feel better :)
{Regulus the muppet} remus and i*
{Regulus the muppet} and thanks for telling me see you at school tomorrow
{James (crackhead) Potter} Grammarly
Regulus smirked and flipped his phone over and laid back down resting his head onto his pillow to try and sleep.
*Knock Knock*
“Fuck off I’m trying to sleep” Regulus grumbled and he heard Sirius laugh on the other side of the door,
“Night sleeping beauty” came a snarky reply and Regulus dozed off into the sweet feeling of sleep after a long day.