Meteor Shower
Sirius was the first person Regulus told he was trans.
When he told his brother, Sirius dragged him out to the shops in Pottermore. They're nicer than the ones in Canis anyway, and so are the people.
Sirius brought him into a barber shop/salon thing with bright lights on both the inside and out the moment they got to Pottermore. There were neon blinking lights in one window.
MCKINNON CUTS
it read, blinking pink, off, blue, off, purple, off over and over again.
"Have you been getting your hair cut here?" Regulus asked in a moment of curiosity
"Yep! Once a month, Marlene's great at all this so we can get your hair cut, and then we can get you some new clothes." Sirius said proudly beaming at his great ideas.
They walked into the store and Regulus heard the chime the door made.
Then very suddenly, someone appeared in front of both of them.
"Sirius!" she said beaming at his brother.
"How are you gorgeous?" he said back to her
"I'm doing well. How about yourself, I didn't expect you in here for another three weeks."
She replied back to him with a bright smile and pushed back her shoulder-length black hair. She was quite beautiful with pale skin and thin eyes that complimented her round face.
"Ah, I know but Reg needs a haircut," Sirius said, shaking his, too-long, hair.
"Reg is it?" she asked looking at him and putting out a hand
"It's actually Regulus but Reg works" he responded cooly "Marlene I presume?" he said
"That's me!" she exclaimed happily "So what kind of cut were you hoping for today?"
"Uh I'm not really sure"
he didn't know he was getting a haircut so he never thought about it
"Definitely a lot shorter and definitely a men's haircut"
"Ok then we can work as we go," she said,
already walking to a cushion-y red chair, motioning for Regulus to follow.
He did
"Alright then, I'll leave you both to it," Sirius said walking out of the shop
Sirius POV:
Alright,
gift
gift
gift
gift
Sirius thought to himself as he left Marlene's shop.
Whilst stuck in his thoughts of what to get Regulus, he had just come out after all he needed a gift, he spotted the most genius idea he ever had.
DIAMOND DOGS ANIMAL SHELTER
in bold black letters on a wooden sign.
A Bowie reference,
a pet store,
how could he resist.
He bolted toward the door and opened it.
Behind the register was an unnecessarily tall man with ginger brown curls that fell in front of his forehead, almost touching his eyes.
They looked like milk chocolate, Sirius noted as he scanned the man's face.
Then noticing a book in his hands
"The Outsiders"
sounded interesting enough. Sirius was still inspecting the man when he heard:
"Ahem,"
the man had put his book down and was now looking at Sirius
"is there something you're looking for?"
His accent was really northern, like really northern oh my gods.
Did I just fall in love? Sirius thought before realizing he hadn’t talked in a while.
"Oh sorry, I was wondering if you had any cats, black cats preferably, Mr...."
he finished hoping to get the man's name
"Lupin, Remus Lupin. And yes I do, she's over here."
He moved from behind the register and motioned Sirius over.
As Sirius walked over he realized just how tall this man was. He had nearly a foot on Sirius.
"How tall are you?" he blurted out before he could stop himself.
Remus just smiled (oh my gods his smile) before saying
"six foot six"
"oh"
Sirius responded embarrassed. Remus had now opened a cage from the top, presumably the cat's cage, and reached his hand in.
Sirius found himself staring again but not because of his height, or how stunning this man was, but because of the silver slash marks that were very clearly running firm from one side of his face up to the other.
"It was a dog," Remus said startling Sirius after catching him staring.....again.
Maybe he could play it off
"What was?" Sirius asked cluelessly
"The scars that you were just very obviously staring at," Remus said.
So he couldn't play it off, good to know.
"One of the first dogs I had in the shelter, a Scottish Deerhound, she needed stitches and some grooming but when I went to get her prepped for her procedure she scratched me. Really hard, so it left these" he finished his story pointing to his scars with his free hand.
"oh, well I'm sorry for staring" Sirius responded shocked Remus told him
"don't worry about it everyone does. But here's the cat" Remus said holding out a black cat with blue eyes. Sirius picked it up and it snuggled into his chest.
"I'll take it," Sirius said, eyes wide and lighting up.
Remus pulled out adoption papers and a transport crate.
Sirius named the cat Karma, it felt right. After putting Karma in her crate and giving Remus the money for the adoption fee, he turned to walk out.
"Wait!"
Remus softly yelled at Sirius. Sirius turned around and made eye contact with Remus
"Did I forget something?" Sirius asked nonchalantly
"You didn't give me your name," Remus said sounding helpless
"Black, Sirius Black," Sirius said mimicking what Remus had said earlier, before turning on his heel and walking back toward Marlene's
Regulus POV:
It was perfect,
it was amazing oh my god.
His first real haircut.
His first boy haircut.
It was
amazing,
incredible.
Marlene stepped back and handed him a mirror so he could see every side.
"What do you think?" she asked
"I-" he couldn't put it into words so he turned around and hugged her. "Thank you," he said "Thank you so much".
"Of course, sweetheart. You don't have to thank me I'm just doing my job"
At that moment, Sirius walked in with a crate.
Why does he have a crate?
What did he do?
"Marlene, I think I just fell in love,"
he said putting the crate down
"Oh lord here we go again," she says "Who is it this time?"
The annoyance was clear in her voice but so was the admiration.
"Remus Lupin, he runs the animal shelter next door. And he's so tall, he's so so so tall Marlene you don't understand. And he seems sweet, and his store is called Diamond dogs. DIAMOND DOGS, that's a Bowie reference, because if it isn't I'm suing for copyright."
"Before you keep going on a damn tangent would you look at your brother's haircut?"
Sirius shifted his eyes over to Regulus and his jaw dropped ever the dramatic Regulus thought
"Reg! oh my goodness it looks amazing. Marlene, you are a goddess amongst men. "
"Just doing my job," Marlene said again
Sirius very clearly didn't know what to say next, Regulus never thought he'd see the day when Sirius Black was rendered speechless. Ever.
"What's in the crate," he asked absolutely burning to know
"A gift" Sirius responded now suddenly having his words back "Don't get mad she's really cute and really sweet."
"I won't get mad," Regulus said, not fully convinced myself, and genuinely nervous.
Sirius proceeded to put the crate down and reach into it. Regulus was staring at his brother out of nervousness. If this man got me a snake or lizard I will never forgive him I swear Regulus thought to himself.
"Close your eyes," Sirius said frustratingly waving his younger brother off with his freehand
He grumbled slightly but did what Sirius asked.
Once his eyes were closed, Marlene softly gasped, and the fear that his brother had once again done something stupid fully cemented in Regulus' bones. His panicky thought process was quickly interrupted by Sirius saying
"Reg open your eyes"
When he did possibly the cutest cat he had ever seen was in front of him. Sirius gave him the cat and started to tell me
"Her name is Karma........."
He kept talking but Regulus tuned him out because Karma was snuggling her head into my chest. A cat had her head in my chest. Oh my god, a cat!
"Thank you Sirius oh my god she's so cute thank you," he had said not sure how to say exactly what I meant
"It's your coming out gift," Sirius said and smiled.
This was gonna be so much fun to explain to their parents.
And it was, at the time.
Now though they're doing what they do best: ruining it all.
It's been four years since Regulus came out. He was 14 at the time.
His brother still lived with him at the time. Now Regulus turned 18 in less than an 1 hour, and in classic Black family tradition, his parents were yelling at him.
"YOU MUST MARRY" his mother was screaming for the nth time that day
"She's right" his father murmured
"You are a beautiful young woman ... you need to marry a man that can help you to carry out this kingdom's legacy"
"I'm not a woman and my name is Regulus," was the only exhausted response he could muster.
"Don't talk back to me ... the only reason your brother is not here and marrying a nice young woman is because-"
"Is because he's gay" Regulus cut his mother off in a sudden moment of bravery "Sirius is gay and has had a crush on a man in Pottermore for years now"
Regulus had lost any care of his parents' opinion long ago, so he continued "That's why he left, not because he didn't care, not because he just felt like leaving. Because you two had to-"
His mother suddenly appeared in front of him and slapped him, hard, across the face
"Watch your tone" she said "Just because you are nearly 18 gives you no power over us ... . Your brother left because he was to weak to handle running a kingdom. Your brother"
she always said that word with so much venom in her voice "is derelict and I never want to hear his name come out of your mouth again."
Regulus was too tired for this, so he went to his room. As he was walking up he heard:
KNOCK KNOCK
He checked his watch, 11:50, who in their right mind is knocking the door at this time Regulus thought to himself.
But he did make his way back downstairs and gripped the metal circular handle. As he opened it, he realized why the knock came so late at night:
it wasn't someone in their right mind.