2
He walked as fast as he could off the stage, breathing heavily. Barty (his brother) ran up to him when they reached the backstage rooms. “You ok if I touch you?” Barty asked hovering his hands by Regulus’ face. Regulus nodded in response, he grabbed Barty’s shirt tightly. A frantic voice made Barty shiver and his eyes widen. “He was here,” Regulus whispered through panting breaths.
The rest of the band surrounded Regulus and Barty who had sunk to the floor. Regulus still gripping onto his shirt sobbing into his neck.
“Star? We need you to breathe.” Pandora said with her calming voice.
She loosened one of Regulus’ hands and placed it on her chest. “Copy my breathing ok?” She breathed slowly, her soothing voice and actions helped hugely.
Evan grabbed water and Dorcas shut and locked the door.
Regulus eventually calmed down, he was still shaking against Barty who started to stroke his back, it was rare to see Barty like this to the common eye but to his friends, The Valkaries this was often. Barty's voice broke through the silence, "What happened Reg?"
Regulus looked at him through puffy, wet eyes that just screamed "fucking help me".
"He was here," he said, before the group went to ask who Regulus said, "Sirius."
Regulus's voice was shaking and his overall gait was closed off, the friends had heard of Sirius and how he left Regulus that night,
That night in summer,
That night that made physical pain look small.
Regulus would occasionly wake up from nightmares with short breaths in bording school, he would never tell his friends what it was about even though he felt comfortable with Barty and Evan as roomates and friends for so long he suffered in silence. As The Valkaries got closer Regulus enjoyed being in the company of is new found family. They'd have sleepovers in eachothers dorm, having to sneak either Pandora and Dorcas into the boys or Evan, Barty and Regulus into the girls. Every time the boys stayed over in the girls dormitory, they'd be followed by stares, girls blushing if any of the boys looked at them. Everytime this happened Barty would wink, Evan would smile and Regulus would just roll his eyes, everytime.
One night whilst The Valkaries were staying in the boys dormitory, they were about 15 at this point, it was the term after Sirius had left. The friends had noticed something was wrong with Regulus, his eyes were dead, there was no emotion in his voice, his whole atmosphere was just meloncholy.
That night Regulus had a nightmare, to this day everyone didnt know what it was. When Regulus shot up straight into a panic attack, he was comforted by his four friends. That was enough for him, they had now seen him at his worst, "of course theyre going to leave you now" was the only thought in his mind. But they didn't. They stayed throughout the entire night cuddled around their friend, whispering soft nothings. It was until around four am that he said something that made everyone in the room heart tear, just a little.
a sniff,
a breath,
and then,
"my brother left me"