Christmas song
When Regulus had, very reluctantly, agreed to go out with his friends tonight he hadn’t intended to get drunk. He was going to drink a little bit, listen to his friends make fools of themselves with the karaoke, chat with Dorcas about her rather confusing love-hate relationship with Marlene and let Pandora tell him all about her newest hobby.
This idea had completely fled the second Dorcas had given him the puppy-dog eyes and asked him to do shots with them. He would kill anyone who even dared to suggest this but he was a massive softie when it came to his friends, he would quite literally burn the world to the ground, so throwing back a few shots was really not that big of a deal.
This had quickly backfired.
“Reggggg,” Evan dragged out the word, throwing an arm over Regulus’ shoulders and swinging off of him, he was yelling over the loud music, some muggle song Regulus didn’t recognise, “Come dance with me.”
Regulus shook his head, he was not going to throw himself into a crowd of sweaty, messy drunk people who were dancing in a way that would make his mother resurrect herself just to curse them. He spent his childhood learning steps to dances he could utilise in a ballroom, but he isn’t sure how to do… whatever it is they’re doing.
“Please, I want you to enjoy yourself too, join us!” Evan leans into Regulus’ ear, slurring his words.
“I’m fine over here, you can go back to Barty, it’s all good.” Evan frowns, poking Regulus between the eyebrows, trying to smooth out the crease from his furrowed eyebrows.
“We want to hang out with you though.” Regulus doesn’t think his friends realise how much things like this mean to him, a lifetime of hatred and suffering makes him vulnerable to this stuff.
“I don’t want to be in the crowd, but you should go,” Regulus reassures, trying to swallow the guilty feeling that he’s ruining this night. This is why he shouldn’t drink, he can normally bottle up his emotions but right now it feels like they’re attacking him.
Evan just waves their friends back over, Pandora attaches herself to Regulus’ spare arm while Dorcas and Barty collapse onto each other on the other side of the table, both covered in a sheen of sweat and breathing heavily.
“We should do karaoke!” Barty exclaims, causing Dorcas to start slapping his leg excitedly, both of them so drunk it’s like watching toddlers interact.
“You, you are a genius!” She turns to the others, a pleading look on her face that in normal circumstances would make anyone agree. Regulus, however, is already at his wit’s end and the idea of singing in this overcrowded room so drunk people can scream and bellow at them, leering and spilling drinks, well he is not nearly drunk enough for that.
“No. I am not singing, you can but I’m not.” Dorcas just laughs, fully believing she’ll be victorious
“I will get you singing Reg if it’s the last thing I do.” She darts off, returning less than five minutes later holding a tray with an absurd amount of drink balancing on it, placing it on the table and joining back in with their idle conversation.
“Drink up, come on,” she pushes a drink to Regulus, who takes it with an eye roll, knowing exactly what she’s doing, this is all a part of her plan to get him to sing.
“It’s fine if you don’t want to drink,” Pandora whispers in his ear, barely audible over the noise, an unnecessary but pleasant reassurance. Pandora’s good at this sort of stuff, making sure everyone’s comfortable, reminding them that they don’t need to change for others to accept them, they are loved as they are.
A few songs pass as they sit there, talking about everything that’s happened in the last few weeks even though they all live close and see each other most days, frankly, it’s hard to follow and barely coherent. They watch two groups go up to the small stage and attempt to recreate their holiday favourites and it feels Regulus with dread.
“Are you ready to sing yet?” Dorcas asks again, pushing the tray towards him in case he’s still refusing. Regulus shakes his head, not even meeting Dorcas’ eye as he can feel him wearing her down. “That’s okay, we have all night.”
If Regulus eventually gives in and sings his heart out alongside some of the only people in the world he can tolerate to a cheesy Christmas song, well, he’s never going to admit that, so don’t even try it.