The sun was just beginning to set but most people were still at dinner, so the library was pretty much empty. Regulus only passed one or two students on the way through, and they seemed relatively absorbed in their work, meaning they didn't pay him any notice.
When he reached the large window at the very end of the library, tucked away on the left, it was open, and Remus was sitting on the right side of the thick windowsill, leaning against the wall slightly with his legs dangling off the edge and the low sunlight shining through his hair, outlining it and making it appear almost golden. He walked up to him silently, stepping up and sitting down next to him without a word, looking out over the horizon. When Remus didn't say anything for a few minutes, he looked over and saw his absent expression.
“Are you okay?”
Remus looked up and smiled weakly. “Yeah, just thinking.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” Regulus wasn't great at the whole comforting thing but he had to try.
“No, it's okay. Just things with my mum.”
A feeling of dread washed over Regulus. “Is she getting worse?”
“No, she's staying the same. Has been for a few weeks. Kind of feels worse like that. Like it's only a matter of time before she plummets. It sort of feels like an axe hanging over our heads, Dad’s not taking it very well.” He paused, then shook his head and readjusted his book in his lap. “Sorry, I shouldn't have piled everything on you like that, I keep doing it recently.”
“It's okay, I don't mind. I like that you're trusting me more. And I'm sorry about your mum, from what you've told me, she seems like a great woman.” Remus nodded sadly.
He didn't exactly know what to do, but Regulus felt the strong urge to help, so he cleared his throat and took his hands out of his pockets.
“You remember when we told our friends we were together and Sirius asked me to prove how much I loved you before he accepted our relationship?”
Remus placed his book down gently. “Yeah, you told him he was being pedantic and should fuck off and calm down.” His sad eyes were now paired with a slightly wistful smile. “What about it?”
Without responding, Regulus shuffled to the left a little so he was leaning against the other side of the window, leaving a small gap between the two of them. Then, slowly, he started to remove the silver rings on each of his fingers, softly laying them in a cluster in the middle of the windowsill. When he had removed them all, he scraped them into one hand, placed them all in his pocket, and moved back to where he was sitting before, taking one of Remus’ calloused hands away from the torn leather of the book in both of his hands and holding it in his lap silently. He looked down at their hands with a smile and hoped it was helping.
They'd been working on physical affection for a while. They both enjoyed it but had too many bad memories associated with it to be able to act on it all the time. Recently they'd been getting pretty good at it.
“Oh, wow,” Remus smiled, already looking less melancholy than before. “I'm special enough for Regulus Black to take off his anti-werewolf wards in public.”
“Shut up or I'll throw them all at you. You know I wear them because it makes me look rich and threatening.”
Remus uses his free hand to pick his book back up from the floor and hold it between them, watching Regulus let go with one of his hands and open the book back up to the page he left off on for him, before returning to sandwiching Remus’ left hand in a very non ‘rich and threatening way.’
“Rich, maybe. But threatening? I'd leave that one to Evan.”
Petulantly, Regulus narrowed his eyes, debating pulling his hand away in protest but deciding he liked the feeling too much. “You find it threatening.”
“That's only because they would melt my skin, love.”
“Please never call me that again.” He mumbled, loosening his grip slightly.
“Yep,” Remus agreed, sounding equally as disgusted. “I regretted it before I'd even said it.”
Regulus hummed. “Sounded like something my brother would say.”
“I noticed.”
They fell into a weirdly comfortable silence, which Remus broke with a small sigh, resting his head against his partner’s shoulder, feeling his hair brush across his face gently.
He watched a flock of birds fly over the mountains outside and felt Regulus pull away one of his hands to trace a scar on the back of Remus’ wrist. He probably didn't even notice he was doing it, which made it even better.
It was Remus who spoke first a few seconds later. “Two more months and I'll never be in this castle again.”
“You say that as though you don't plan to come back and teach here as soon as you possibly can.”
Remus laughed softly. “You know me so well. When I do, you're coming with me. Keep me sane amongst the hundreds of hormonal demons they call teenagers.”
“What would we teach?” Regulus whispered, slipping his other hand free and resorting to tracing Remus' palm with one hand, using the other one to hold it still. “You'd be good at transfiguration.”
“Nah, I don't think Minnie will be gone for a while. Wouldn't want to replace her,” Regulus smiled at his use of the nickname, it was something Remus had locked up after 7 years of sharing a dorm with James, Peter, and Sirius and was strangely sweet. “I think I'd go for Defence. I'd be a great Defence professor. You should do potions.”
Regulus huffed a laugh. “Stereotyping the Slytherins, are we, Lupin?” His voice had that small hint of humour that he only used around his brother and closest friends. And Remus, of course.
“Oh, be quiet. You're good at potions. Besides, then I get to teach the kids all the werewolf lessons, and you can teach the lessons on gender affirming potions. Wouldn't it be funny when we can perfectly answer every last one of their questions on those topics for no known reason?” He smiled to himself.
“I suppose I'll consider it.” He mused.
They fell silent again.
They did that a lot, it was nice.
Neither of them ever really had quiet moments with their other friends, they were all either too energised or too anxious to let there be more than a moment of peace.
The moment lasted a while longer this time.
“Pete and I are gonna have to deal with James and Sirius alone for a year.”
Regulus let himself smile a little, tilting his head a little to rest it against Remus’. “I'm sure you'll survive.”
“I don't think I will. I'll figure out your Hogsmeade schedule for the year and show up each time so I can scream to you about them for a while. It'll be like you've never been apart from them.”
Regulus rested their palms against each other, lining up their fingers for a moment and then moving them just enough to intertwine their hands together again, holding their clasped hands out in front of them for them both to see. For both of them, it was an extremely intimate gesture, especially for a public place. Usually they would've made an awkward joke and toned it down by now, but neither wanted to, and so they kept going.
“Barty won't like you stealing me away like that every month.” He teased.
“Well Barty doesn't have to deal with your brother burning water every time he enters the kitchen.”
“How do you burn water?” He paused. “Actually, I don't want to know, this is Sirius we're talking about.” He thought for a moment. “I'm going to miss you. Six years I've been on the same castle as you and your band of miscreants and you're just going to be gone.”
Remus let go of their hands and tried to lift his head, making Regulus move away and turn to face him in a silent question. Instead of answering, Remus just reached out to cup his jaw with one hand and press their lips together in a short, sweet kiss. Smiling into it, Regulus moved his hand to rest on Remus’ shoulder and hold him in place for a few seconds longer. When they moved away, Remus sighed and looked back down at his book, which had gone forgotten in his right hand for a while.
Speaking partly to Regulus, and partly to himself, Remus snorted and pinched the bridge of his nose. “We're turning into one of those disgusting PDA couples we always complain about.”
Regulus grimaced and let his hand drop back to his side. “Don't even joke about that, if we ever did end up like that, I’d have to kill myself.”
“Well let's not do that, we're fine for now. Nobody's here.”
Regulus nodded absently, fiddling with one of his rings in his pocket. “That's because everyone else is scared of the library, save it turn them into 'embarrassing nerds’ who know what a school is meant for.”
“Fucking hell, Reg, you sound like Lily.”
“I'll take that as a compliment.” Regulus replied.
"It absolutely was."