stolen
After he heard the bang at the doors of the castle, he knew what was coming. He remembered what it sounded like when he was fifteen. He remembered it all, so he ran.
Even though it only took a few minutes of running to find a safe room, his lungs felt dead, his legs felt like they could fall off at any given moment, and his brain felt like it was rushing through thoughts a million miles a second.
Regulus can’t believe this. He cannot fucking believe this.
Of course this happens today of all the days in the year. He runs down the hall, quiet, but quick.
The Black family’s Royal and “very safe, very secure” Castle is being raided by pirates… again, and on the ten year anniversary of Sirius Black no being taken by pirates when he was sixteen.
Regulus heard the pirates storm the castle and hid in the nearest room he could find that wasn’t locked, which was slim pickings. His breaths were quick and heavy but he did his best to slow them and breathe like a normal person and not someone who’s horrified for their life.
He looks around the room he ran into. shit the realization set in that he ran into a room that is filled with all the treasures a pirate could drool over, from gold coins to jewelry and weapons.
He hears the same things he heard when he was fifteen, except this time he doesn’t have his older brother ushering him into a closet, he doesn’t hear the muffled screams of Sirius as he is being dragged away by the Pirates, he doesn’t hear guards rushing into the room to find Regulus crying in the closet and Sirius’ favorite necklace on the floor.
He remembers what happened after Sirius was taken.
✧~✧~✧~✧~✧
Regulus was crying in the corner of the room. Walburga was screaming at him from the other side of the room, and Orion had just finished hitting him. He felt the hand marks on his body, and the tears dripping down his cheeks. He couldn’t make out what his mother was saying, everything was a blur.
He couldn’t tell what Walburga was yelling at him for, everything was a blur. His brother was gone, and it was all his fault, every last bit. He heard the door slam when Walburga left.
He tried to piece together what she might’ve said. He remembered hearing something about him now being the next heir. He remembered hearing something about how he was selfish for letting his brother sacrifice himself for him. I mean someone saving you of all people? she said with a vile humor in her voice Who would sacrifice themselves for you? You’re useless.
Walburga was right, Regulus was useless. He let Sirius be kidnapped and killed for him. Regulus never did an important thing in his entire life and he knew it. He knew how useless he was.
He looked at the floor where he had last saw Sirius. There was a small gold necklace with a moon charm on it. Sirius never went anywhere without it. Regulus shuffled over to the necklace and picked it up with shaky hands.
He put his shaky finger on the clasp, opened it, and clasped it around his neck. He twiddled it between his fingers and sat on the floor. He didn’t move for hours. He sat there with his thoughts, memories. He wished Sirius was there with him.
✧~✧~✧~✧~✧
Regulus was twirling that very necklace between his fingers. He had been wearing it everyday since Sirius was taken. Walburga would yell at him to take it off the same way she would yell at Sirius to take it off but he always refused.
A bang at the door brought Regulus back to earth from his flashback of a trance as he crawls quietly behind the couch in the room. He hears a voice from behind the door.
“Hello? Anyone in here,” The voice pauses and then opens the door, walking in and being bedazzled by the treasures on the table.
“Damn!” He says excitedly. The man has short, black hair, pale skin, and tattoos. Regulus stays silent from behind the couch. The man begins picking up treasures from the table and is about to leave when he sees Regulus. He puts down the jewels and trinkets to look over at Regulus
“Hey Ev, get in here!” A dark skinned, blond boy walks into the room. “What is it Barty? We don’t have a long time at these kinds of big ass castles- holy shit. Is that the prince?”
Regulus felt like a lion in a zoo, on display. He should’ve been used to it, but in this case it felt new, strange, unsettling. The blond pirate closed the door and the black haired one, which Regulus guessed was Barty, spoke.
“Hey there. Why don’t you get out of there, nothing to be scared of, yet.” Barty grabbed Regulus’ arm and brought him out from behind the couch and put him onto the couch. “So why don’t you let us know your name, make sure we got the right guy.”
As reluctant as he was to speak, he didn’t feel like dying so he did they only think he felt he could do, he complied. “Regulus” The blond haired boy looked at Barty. “Should we bring him on the ship? He knows what we look like, maybe we could get a fortune from him”
Regulus mouth went dry. He didn’t want to be taken the same way his brother was. He didn’t want to die the same way his brother did. While the two were discussing, Regulus stood up and tried to run for the door. For a second he thought he had made it. He thought it was all over, then he felt a cold sensation against his neck. It was a knife, courtesy of Barty. Damn his reflexes are fast.
“I don’t think you’re gonna be going anywhere.” The blond boy handed Barty a bandana and he tied it around Regulus’ mouth “Don’t try to scream, it won’t end well.” Barty tied his hands behind his back and lead him out to front of the castle, down to the — usually empty — dock.
The ship was massive and there were pirates running on and off of it loading as much treasure as possible. Barty lead him onto the deck of the ship and then to an area under the ship.
Barty spoke while tying Regulus’ legs together, “We’ll come get you later, once we’ve set sail.” Regulus tried to scream but he couldn’t. The bandana muffled his screams. All he could do was sit there.
✧~✧~✧~✧~✧
It felt like hours had passed when Regulus felt the ship rock. He heard waves crashing against the walls of the ship from the orlop where he was sitting.
After waiting for a bit, he heard footsteps and faint words coming down stairs. “So, Captain, I brought something from the castle.” He was met with Barty holding a vase, similar to some other ones in the orlop, and a new pirate, and Captain as Barty had said. As much as Regulus hated to admit it, the new pirate was extremely handsome.
He was tall, his hair was dark brown and curly which complimented his caramel skin perfectly. His glasses were a bit banged up and looked like he’d been wearing them his whole life. His shirt was unbuttoned by about three buttons and his pants were black and looked like leather.
“Goddamnit Barty, AGAIN?” The new pirate said. Barty spoke up. “We can get a fortune for him. Heir to the throne, this time without a replacement heir. They’ll need him back, we can get thousands!”
“Oh my god Barty! This is bad! We’re gonna have the entire world after us…” The two bickered about the situation. Regulus had two things going through his mind. The first being Im right here because all he was doing was watch them yell and argue as they occasionally would gesture towards him or say his name
The second was wow. That Captain is really pretty Regulus knew he was gay. The only person other than himself to know was Sirius, and Sirius was dead so Regulus was the only one who knew, but he had never felt this gay. He was admiring every detail of the mans face. Every color of his outfit. Every curl in his hair.
Regulus did his best to make himself be seen, and the Captain did. It felt like bliss when the Captain walked up to him and gently untied him, letting his hands linger on Regulus’ cheek, after taking off the bandana from his mouth, for a second too long.
“Hi. I’m James,” James helped him stand “this lovely gentleman who kidnapped you is Barty.” His tone had sarcasm attached to it. Regulus spoke up the best as he could “I’m Regulus.“ All the life drained from James’ face “Regulus… Black?”
As confused as Regulus was, he answered “Yes?” Regulus looked over at Barty and he had a similar expression as James, horrified.
Barty dropped the vase and it broke on the ground, making a loud, crash sound. Footsteps rushed down the stairs and a very familiar voice spoke. A voice that made Regulus’ heart fall to his feet.
“Are you guys alright-“ He stopped at the sight of Regulus. Regulus stopped looking at James and Barty with a confused expression. He stopped thinking of how gorgeous James was. He only thought about the person who just rushed down the stairs. It was Sirius.
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