Half-dead
Regulus awakens and is immediately blinded by light. Was this the afterlife? No. Where is he than? When he realizes he's in a hospital, he begins to wonder if he's being reincarnated. He rules that out after realizing he remembers his life and he's not a baby. So did he survive? Why did he survive? This wasn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to die. This wasn't one of the options.
His eyes adjusted to the light, and he glanced around the room. There was lots of beeping and some doctors standing in the room. They didn't seem to notice he was awake.
Regulus started to sit up some, propping himself up on his elbows, but none of the doctors noticed. What is going on?
He stretched and stood up from the bed, only to notice his body was still in it, looking peacefully asleep. He looked down at his awake self in confusion, and he looked a little bit translucent. His skin was giving off an eerie glow and he could almost see through it. Okay. This is weird.
Why did he not die? He was supposed to die. That was supposed to be the end. Who even found him? He tried pulling off one of the tubes attached to his body, but he couldn't. It was like trying to pull apart a statue. He walked over to the counter and tried picking up one of the needles. Again, it was as if the needle and tray were fused together.
After giving up on trying to speed up the whole coma process, he turned to leave the room. Surely it wouldn't take long for him to die naturally.
Regulus had never liked hospitals or nurses offices. The smell of cleaning spray always burned his nose and he hated how busy hospitals were.
He began exploring, peeking into some of the rooms. They all looked too similar for his liking.
He turned down a hallway, trying to find somewhere that wasn't just copy and pasted rooms. He walked until he found a set of double doors. He went to push them open, but they stayed put. He tries shoving his elbow into them, only to fall right through. There was no way he would ever get used to that.
He found himself standing in a mostly empty waiting room. There were lots of chairs and two small couches. There was a big window in the corner, but it was pitch black outside. He glanced at the clock on the wall. 2:33. He must have gotten here recently. There were only three other people, a young women holding a sleeping child, and an old man sitting in a chair to the far right.
The main door flew open, and Sirius walked in looking frantic. He ran over to the front desk.
"Where is he? Where is my brother? Regulus. I need to see him. "
Remus followed in closely behind. Placing a comforting hand on Sirius' shoulder.
"I'm sorry sir, he can't have any visitors at the moment. Feel free to sit in the waiting room."
Regulus watched as Sirius opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but Remus carefully guided him towards the waiting room and a pained look crossed Sirius' face. They sat on one of the couches, Sirius easily curling into Remus' side.
It was clear Sirius was trying not to cry. Remus wrapped his arm around him and pulled him closer, and Sirius crumbled. Regulus had never seen him cry so much. He didn't understand why he was so upset. Sirius hated him. Why is he crying? Why is he here?
He didn't get to ponder long before the doors opened once again. Pandora walked in, looking the least put together Regulus had ever seen her. Her hair was a mess, she had probably been sleeping before this. Regulus hadn't meant to disturb anyone's sleep.
Pandora noticed Remus and Sirius and went to sit in a chair. Regulus couldn't bare to look at Pandora, but he also couldn't seem to pull his eyes away. She was crying messily and hiccuping every now and then. She had pulled her knees up to her chin and was leaning against the arm rest. Regulus hated it. Why we're they so upset?
He cautiously walked towards Pandora as though she might glance up and notice him and start screaming. He gave her a hug. He knew she couldn't really feel it, but it seemed to lighten the sobs a bit at least. He sat on the chair with her and leaned onto her. He just wanted to be gone. He didn't want to see all this grief. they weren't supposed to be sad. They were supposed to be happy. They wouldn't have to deal with him anymore. Regulus had finally found a way to solve his own problems.
He began to drift off to sleep, hoping he wouldn't be waking back up again, though he couldn't help but feel a little guilty for it.
When Regulus awoke, the first thing he noticed is that he was awake. He had not succumbed to his coma yet. Lovely.
He sat up from the chair and leaned against the arm rest Pandora's head wasn't resting on. He noticed more people had shown up. Barty and Evan were sitting in the other couch, Barty glancing around the room looking very stressed. Evan was asleep next to him, dark circles below his eyes. Dorcas was sitting in the chair next to him and Pandora's. She was holding a tissue and had streaks of dried tears and mascara under her eyes.
Last was James, squeezed on the couch next to Sirius. Regulus still had very mixed feelings about him, even though he had come to realize he was at least a little bit grateful for him.
Now that he was half-dead, he felt he should be mature and admit it's childish to hate James for saving his brother out of that house. It wasn't Sirius' job to care for Regulus, but it had still hurt.
Everyone looked so stressed. So tired. So upset. Regulus hated that. Why are they so upset? This was good. He stood up, needing to get away from this room.
A doctor walked in and Sirius stood up, walking towards him to ask if everything was okay. The doctor was holding Regulus' notes. He handed the stack of papers to Sirius and said something about how nobody had read them, but Sirius didn't seem to care. he was studying the drawing. The doctor also handed Sirius' the teddy bear. Sirius tried to keep his face blank, but he was clearly struggling, so he just thanked the doctor and turned around. Sirius passed out the notes and told anyone who woke up what they were and that they didn't have to read it right then. Sirius gently folded the drawing and his note up and put them into his pocket. He curled back up against Remus' side and started crying again. Regulus groaned.
He hated all the sadness. He decided to just walk away
He walked through the winding hallways until the number began to look familiar. He walked back into his hospital room. It was empty, other than his lifeless looking body. It was kind of creepy to look at. Regulus sat on the edge of the bed, his legs criss-crossed. He began counting the tiles on the ceiling, reaching 32 after loosing track twice before he heard his door creek open.
It was Sirius. Of course it was Sirius.
Sirius took a deep breath before walking into the room and sitting in one of the 2 blue chairs by the bed. He was holding the bear. He looked mad, but his expression shifted to sad as soon as he looked at Regulus' body. It made Regulus a bit annoyed. Couldn't he just be mad?
"Reggie... "
He would've told Sirius not to call him that just then. He had never really minded the nickname he just liked being annoyed at Sirius.
"You should have said something. Why didn't you tell anyone?"
Clearly he hadn't read the letter. So why was Sirius even here? He hadn't even gotten and explanation for Regulus being such a dick.
"People care about you. Pandora cares about you, that creepy friend of yours I never liked cares about you, "
Barty.
"Heck, even James cares about you."
Sure.
"And- and I care about you Reg. Your my little brother. You mean a lot to me. "
Oh.
Sirius let's out a small laugh. It was sad, no humor in it at all.
"Why would you do this? You can't just leave, Reggie. You can't do this to me. How am I supposed to go on knowing you died and I barely knew who you were? I want to know you. You can't leave. You can't. "
His voice cracked in the last line. Regulus didn't want to look at Sirius. He just didn't get it. This was how it was supposed to be. Couldn't he see that?
Regulus watched as tears filled Sirius eyes. He couldn't watch this. Sirius wasn't supposed to be upset. He was supposed to be glad he didn't have to worry about him anymore. He looked away again.
"Je t'aime." Sirius whispered. It sounded almost painful. He placed the teddy bear next to Regulus, then got up and left the room. Regulus didn't follow.
"Je t'aime. " Regulus whispered back to nothing. He reached out and found he was able to pick up the bear. Maybe it was because it was given to him. He wished he could smell it, but he found his senses were different in this state. He hugged the bear before setting it back where it was. He wished he'd gotten the chance to tell Sirius he loved him in person.