Timeless

James

When we arrived in Iceland I immediately recognised Alphard's house, we'd been here a couple of times with Sirius. He even took Remus to see the Northern lights to ask him to marry him. It never even crossed my mind that it might be Alphard, Sirius' very gay uncle, that my Reggie is betrothed to. There was no way this wedding would take place and with that relief, I had one more reason to hold onto him. So I didn't let go of him (until he pulled his hand away and stormed off towards the house, that is).

I followed him to the building, let him knock and wake up Alphard. Watched him freak out about his appearance and then I almost kissed him. Again.

This had to stop.

I had promised not to touch him unless he asked me to and I had every intention of keeping that promise, however hard that may be.

And then he left me outside. 

At first, I stood behind the door, considered listening in on the chat he kept me out of anyway, but it was Regulus and I wanted him to trust me, wanted him to tell me himself what was bothering him, and listening in on something he had specially asked me to stay out of would only accomplish the opposite.

So I walked around the lawn, started picking flowers and braiding them into a crown. I could give it to Regulus later, he'd look so handsome with it on. 

And then that damn bird stole it and ran off with his friends. I chased after them. This was Regulus' crown and I was going to get it back.

Or. Maybe Regulus would get it himself, for he stormed out the door just as the filthy beasts neared the front of the house. Reggie and the crown-stealing animal stumbled into each other, making the diricawl drop the flowers and chase away in another direction, his friends following after.

“Reggie, you okay?” I ran to him as he was patting dirt off his dress.

“Fine,” he grunted. Whoah. Something was definitely up, this was the most out of sorts I'd ever seen him and not in a good way. 

I picked the flower crown off the ground. It was broken in half, I was going to murder that prick little bird, I-

“What's that?” Regulus took the flowers from me. For just a moment his eyes softened aa they met mine. I could see so much pain in there, so much fear, and anger. “Nevermind,” he dropped the flowers, got up and went to pull out his wand.

I quickly grabbed ahold of his arm, I'd let him go once and wouldn't make the same mistake again, “Where are we going?”

“I'm going home,”

“Already? Sirius and Remus will be asleep for hours, we could-”

“No, James. Home. To my parents. London. And you're the one going back to Sirius' or wherever you call home.”

“Reggie we are not doing this again. You're angry. You have your reasons and one day, when you're ready, you'll tell me, I'm not going to poke. I have my own burdens too. But we are not running back home.” 

It was my turn now, to pull out my wand and pick our destination, and so a moment later I watched Reggie gasp as we found ourselves atop a frozen dead volcano not far from Alphard's. 

“What the fuck, James?!”

“Scream,” I ordered.

“What?!”

“On top of your lungs. Get it out. Be angry at the world. Make the mountains shake.”

“Why would I-”

I started screaming myself. He was not the only one who had anger and pain and all these other things that had been pushed inside and just waited to erupt. And where better to erupt than on top of a volcano that no longer needed to erupt itself.

I screamed at the world that had taken Regulus' trust, his freedom, his belief in love or anything good. I yelled at the fate that had taken my parents before I had a chance to meet Regulus because I could really use their advice right now, only it was not possible to get it. And I screamed for myself. For the pain all of this had caused me. For all the issues of my own I had cast aside whenever a friend needed help. 

A moment later Regulus' voice joined me. He was just as heated, just as infuriated as I was. If not more.

He was gorgeous. 

As my voice ran out tears started streaming down my face, prickling and cold as the air around us. In a while, I saw glistening on Reggie's cheeks as well. We were both crying now. And it wasn't pathetic because to get so angry that screaming just doesn't do it anymore is a new level of fury entirely. 

“Regulus,” I begged finally, “Please tell me. Tell me what the unsolvable puzzle is so that we could figure it out,”