And Suddenly, I cannot Breathe
"What do you mean you're not coming to work tomorrow? Are you sick!?" Lucius screeches through the phone. Regulus winces, he looks at his packed bag and airplane ticket, regretting leaving with such a hurry.
He feels genuinely bad for bailing on Lucius, knowing the man will have to cover for some of his shifts until he comes back, and he also feels bad for sneaking around his cousin, Cissa, who's very emotional during her pregnancy and has to be physically glued to her husband or else, she cries and feels nauseous all the time.
His cousin and her husband were the ones who welcomed him in their home after his parents kicked him out. He was a scared fifteen year old who had never had a glimpse of loving parents before but they had tried their best to help him. He had lived with them for three years, working on part time jobs before he could afford his own apartment, which was two buildings down from theirs which made easy to check on each other and have frequent sleepovers.
"Uhm, I'm traveling. Today. And, uhm— I won't be back for a few days." Regulus bounces on heels and ignoring the odd stares he's getting. He hates phone calls so much, goddamn.
"I-- Fine. Okay, but just because I trust you to come back in one piece. You hear me? I also want you to check in with me or Cissa, you don't usually do things like this. Are you okay? Do you need money?" He can hear the man's worry in his voice and smiles warmly.
"No, Lucy. I am fine, just..." He sighs uncertain how to put it into words. "I'm just going to visit some people in America and be back in like, a week."
Lucius sighs stressed. "Okay, kid. Have a nice trip. Text me when you land, okay?"
"Will do! Bye, Lucy!" He smiles hanging up and picking up his bag, sliding the strip over his shoulder and preparing himself mentally.
The flight goes well enough. Thankfully, as it was a quite late flight, so it was mostly empty. He arrived in Los Angeles at lunch time and almost cried in relief when he realized that his hotel had a restaurant jointed in. At the table, he finally built enough courage to power up his phone again. Immediately he saw the notifications pop in.
Not Pandora
Where are youuuuuu
Malfoy told me u up and left!?!
3 more messages - click to see more
Cissy Flower
Lucy told me you're acting irrational
WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE STATES
REGULUS WHATS HAPPENING
8 more messages - click to see more
Lucious Hair
I told Cissa.
Sorry but she came over and you weren't here and she thought you were sick and started crying and I told her.
Have you arrived yet?
I did.
I'm at the hotel right now.
Regulus finished eating before picking up his phone again. He reads Narcissa and Evan's messages sending back a few replies about how he was doing and that No, Evan, I am not getting kidnapped. and Yes, Cissa. I'll be back before you give birth, that's not happening for another three months..? And I'm back next week?
He goes back to his hotel room wanting to sleep for a few more hours to shake off the jet lag.
"..."
"Ugh, fine. A few quick searches and then sleeping." He mutters taking his phone to his bed and plugging it in before clicking open a new tab. He taps in Sirius name and immediately the information shows up.
"Damn." He breathes out clicking aimlessly through the links, there is so much information but at the same time, not enough. Learning about how he released two albums and won a few awards doesn't make up the past five years of not knowing each other.
Anxious and somehow, even more nervous, Regulus puts his phone down and sighs. He falls asleep a few minutes later.
━━━━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━━━━
The arena is packed full. Regulus tugs his blue ear protector to cover his ears as soon as he reaches his seat. He notices a few girls giving him a double take before whispering to each other. He ignores the looks, his eyes fixed on the stage as the lights dim out and suddenly, his heart is at his throat, pounding, bleeding, doing fucking summer saults because a few meters from him is his brother.
He's smiling. It's bigger than the ones he remembers from back at Grim Old.
He's happier.
Freedom looks good on him.
There's deafening screams that make Regulus look around scared before he realizes the fans are yelling out of excitement and he relaxes his hold on his ears. He watches curiously as Sirius jokes with the crowd before starting his setlist.
He enjoys most of the songs. Some he recognizes from his search back at the hotel, some he doesn't know what they're about. He hold his breath at Family Line. His eyes water at the emotion in Sirius' voice and how the fans sing along their own hurt. There's a sense of comfort inside him as he sees this many people express their anguish through the lyrics. He finds himself screaming along at some point, a huge grin in his face as the show ends. He's nervous but excited at the same time, butterflies and all that. He doesn't take his ear protectors off as he finds the corridor as noise as the outside with the huge line of fans who paid for a meet and greet.
He takes his phone out and aimlessly scrolls through twitter on the show's hashtag. He sees himself in a few blurry photos and his smile is wiped out as he sees the thread.
SIRIUS STOLE MY HEART🖤 @mammalikit34
Is this Sirius lost twin???? Didnt he have a sister?
10:21 PM • Mar 23, 2024
467 Replies 9.2K Retweets 24.2K Likes
⇀StresssedOutch @dandel1on_wish98 replying to @mammalikit34
He def had a sister but this person looks very similar to Sirius so maybe its a cousin Imma do some more search abt it
11:34 PM • Mar 23, 2024
15 Replies 2 Retweets 223 Likes
⇀sUFFERING ZOE @fairykisses23 replying to @mammalikit34 @dandel1on_wish98
Nah fam thats just some guy yall crazy
11:51 PM • Mar 23, 2024
17 Replies 354 Retweets 2.6k Likes
He feels light headed for a moment.
If these people dig even a little bit about Sirius's family— about their family— they'll find out about him. And he can't deal with that again.
He can't skip town and start all over again hoping no one will find out. He can't leave Narcissa and Lucius right when they're about to have their baby. He can't loose the only family he still has. He can't- He can't breathe.
He can't breathe.