Death by a thousand cuts
Remus walked with Regulus stiffly. His fingers hurt today. He had worn his braces the physical therapist had told him to, but they weren’t helping very much. He was in his green volleyball jersey. Regulus, who walked beside him, was wearing a white jersey. They walked so close they were almost constantly bumping into each other. It didn’t matter though. It was comforting to be so close to each other. Especially with the game in a few weeks.
“What are they doing there?” Regulus asked Remus. He was looking towards the court they had gotten that night for practice. Their rival team, the Lions, were practicing. They were running some kind of drill Remus had never seen before.
“I don’t know.” Remus said bitterly. Their team, the Snakes, was supposed to practice there that night. “Barty and Evan are over there. Maybe they know why.”
They headed over to Barty and Evan, who were speaking in furious whispers. “Why are they there?” Remus asked them.
Barty turned to him. “I don’t bloody know. Those bastards were here when we came in.” He said. His teeth were grating against each other in thought.
Remus stalked over to the captain, James Potter. “Hey man, we had the court tonight. We paid for it.”
James furrowed his eyebrows. “What?” He asked. “Sirius said we got it tonight.”
Remus felt himself grimace at the name. He knew Regulus’s brother. He also knew how they hated each other since Sirius ran away from home. He didn’t even ask Regulus if he had wanted to come.Remus remembered Regulus telling the story as he ran away the same night to his house. “He just left me. They hit him. I helped him up the stairs he was- he was bleeding a lot Rem. He told me to pack him some stuff so I did. I-I packed my own stuff too. I thought he would bring me with him.” He didn’t. But, Hope took Regulus in as one of her own.
“Well he lied.” Remus said dully.
“Sirius!” James called, walking to him. “You said we had the court tonight.”
Remus saw how confused Sirius looked. “We did.” he said.
“Which court?” James asked exasperated.
“6!” Sirius said, defending himself.
“This is 5, you dingbat.” James sighed. He waved everyone over to the next court, stopping by Remus on the way. “Sorry about that, he can lack common sense sometimes.”
Remus shrugged. “It’s whatever.”
They got to practicing. It took a while to get warmed up, as Remus was particularly achy today. His joints were cracking constantly, and he was just getting done with being sick from a gluten reaction. Once they had gotten done with warming up, they served. Remus figured today was not the day to practice his jump serves, but just normal float serves. Once he was done, he went around to help the others who were struggling with their jump serves specifically. Regulus was one of Remus’s star servers. He played Libero, so he didn’t serve very often, but when he did, it was hard. It knocked people off their feet. Today he was off.he was missing every serve he tried, hitting it in the net or hitting it too far and having it hit the back wall. “Regulus, whats up?” Remus asked, concerned.
“Nothing.” Regulus grumbled.
Remus rolled his eyes and took the ball away from Regulus, who was about to serve. He ignored Regulus’s annoyed whine. “I know you better than that.” Remus told him. “Whats going on?”
“It's just- Sirius. He really just had to be on our court, huh?” Regulus said hoarsely.
“Yeah, well hes a bit stupid, so I wouldn’t think too much about it.” Remus told him, giving him a quick hug.
Regulus nodded and Remus gave him his ball back. He served it over and in. “Good job, Regulus.”
“Thanks Rem.”
“Anytime, Reg.”
They continued practice the same as they would any practice. Drills, serving, and a 4 on 4 scrimmage. As soon as practice ended, Remus and Regulus packed their stuff up together and got into Remus’s car. They drove back to their shared apartment.
“Remus!” Regulus called from his room after his shower.
“What?” Remus yelled back. He was making them some frozen pizza with french fries.
“After dinner will you pass with me?” Regulus asked. He was clearly doing something, as his voice was pretty muffled.
“Yep!” Remus told him, continuing to check on the pizza.
A few minutes later, they were both seated at their tiny two person table. “We're going to win, right?” Regulus asked softly.
Regulus was a year younger than Remus. In school it didn’t matter very much as Regulus had gotten moved up a grade in Remus’s last year. Before that though, they only saw each other during lunch periods. And volleyball. Sirius, Remus, and Regulus had all been on the same volleyball team in their last year. Regulus and Remus artfully avoided talking to Sirius. They passed to him, because they had too, and only talked if necessary. James had technically been apart of that team too, varsity, but James was friendly with everyone, including Remus and Regulus. Regulus never liked james and Remus couldn’t understand why until Regulus told him that Sirius had ran away to James’s house.
“Yeah, ‘course.” Remus said after he was done chewing.
Regulus nodded, deep in thought. “What if we don’t though? What would happen to our spot in playoffs?” Regulus asked.
Remus searched his scattered brain for an answer. “I suppose we would have to play them again.” Remus finally said. “Then if we beat them we could move on to championships.” Remus told him.
“So let’s just win.” Regulus said defiantly.
Remus smiled fondly. “That’s the spirit.”
Regulus smiled back at him. Regulus smiling was a rare sight these days. He always had something going on at university. Remus savored it. Regulus being happy made him happy, as they had spent most of their years as best friends.
“Do you want to talk about Sirius?” Remus asked.
Regulus let out a sigh. “Not really. I just wish that he wasn’t so…him.” Regulus told Remus. Remus nodded along, happy to just listen to the problems Regulus was facing. “He’s always been like this, you know? He’s always been so effortlessly smart but so effortlessly dumb too. I wanted to be like him when I was young.” Regulus said, his voice sad.
“He was too fast to keep up with.” Regulus finished.
“Well, I like how you are. I don’t need a Sirius. I’m perfectly happy with a Regulus. Even when he’s a jackass to me.” He said, picking up his plate and putting in the dishwasher. When Regulus pushed his plate away, Remus gathered that as well. He dumped the remains into the trashcan and placed that in the sink too.
Regulus stuck out his tongue at him and grabbed the volleyball. “You said you would pass with me.” Regulus said.
Remus groaned. “I was hoping you would forget.”