Sleepover
The next time he was singing was when his parents had to fly to a different country for a week because of his aunt.
"Be careful."
"I will be, Mum"
"Just call the cook if you want to eat a warm meal, don't try to cook yourself."
"Of course, Papa."
His mother scoffed "XXXXXXX cooking? What's this absurd idea?"
"Please don't worry about me, you're one call away and I can call for the cook, the maids and also the twins' parents."
Walburga looks satisfied enough to let go of Regulus' hand "We have to go, the plane will not wait."
"This is why I told you we should get a private jet." His father sighs.
"We have a face to save, people are starting to hate private jets." That was his mother's last words before they were forced to sit in the car and Regulus closed the door.
His phone beeped in five minutes "Sleepover?" Pandora asked, when Regulus looked out of his window he could see Pandora watch his parents driving away from her window.
"Sure, but no alcohol this time."
"Damnit."
In the next ten minutes Barty, Evan, Pandora, Pandora's partner and his platonic lover were all seated in front of their TV.
Regulus was trying to make popcorn and still watch the tv, Sybil leaned to him "So, how are you feeling?"
"Good, great even" he side eyed her "why?"
"I got a crazy idea?" She smirked at him, Barty standing up when he heard the word crazy, Evan after him.
Sybil threw her bag into the sink and took out box dyes.
"I got all kinds of pink, purple, blue, green..."
"Trelawney, did you rob a shop by any chance."
"Yeah, I did."
"Not surprised." Pandora shrugged.
"I would love to but my parents are back in a week and you know how they are with coloured hair." Regulus twisted his shirt while he talked.
"Reg, they don't even notice something is different with you if you don't warn them."
Regulus looks at himself in the mirror, his hair longer than before. His usual length was a bob length with fringe, now it grew under his shoulders, fridge nowhere.
His parents didn't notice he stopped going to the hairdresser. Didn't notice it's longer.
Would it be a really bad idea to dye it?
"Ok yeah but someone chop off like a quarter of it before dyeing it."
Xenophilius takes the scissors and makes Reg sit down, Sybil starts dyeing Evan's hair blue, sitting on the edge of the bathtub while Pandora is sitting in the bathtub.
"Not whole, just close to my roots." Evan panics.
Sybil rolls her eyes "Sure, don't panic. I'm a pro."
Barty's ends of hair are already wrapped in foil, a water flooding into his mouth from the shower head he pointed at himself.
"What are you exactly expecting?" Regulus asks, avoiding the mirror.
"Your parents getting big water bills this month." He winks.
Regulus laughs, rolling his eyes "oh no, what are we going to do, it's going to bankrupt us."
"Done." Xeno whispers, brushing his hair.
He glances at the mirror, this might be the shortest his hair has been since he was 8, Xeno didn't give him a fridge, he just cut the front hair enough for him to see through.
"Thank you."
"Okay, now that dye! What colour?"
"Get blue, match with us." Evan says pointing at himself and Xeno.
"No, get green like me." Barty whines.
"Get pink and purple like us! The cool ones here." Pandora says, hive fiving Sybil.
"Cmon I'm the only one who's not matching with anyone."
"Okay, green." Regulus said, still looking at himself in the mirror.
Barty jumped and released the shower head, the burst of water making it fly around and wet everyone.
"Barty!"
"Owh!"
"My eyes!"
"Sorry, sorry"
Regulus turns to Xeno, whispering "Do you think you could-"
Xeno smiled at him, whispering back "Don't worry."
Regulus watched as Xeno was parting his hair and smeared on the colour.
"Sooo any new songs already?" Evan asked, pretending to not be interested but his swirling legs gave him away.
"I got a full notebook of lyrics, they are just not finished."
"Awh" Barty sighs "I was already prepared to hear your 'heart bleeding on the pages'"
"Are you making fun of my poems?" Regulus swapped Barty.
"Nah, we're making fun of thirteen year old Leo." Evan smirked.
"Oh shut up!" Regulus says with no venom in his voice, just embarrassment.
It was that night in the dark, they all were watching the sky. The stars.
"I- I actually got one song. I would like to sing but- but don't make fun of me."
They stayed silent and Regulus took his guitar. He looked down at his notes, he was self taught how to play which wasn't the best. He still tried.
He was quiet for a while, not because he would forget the lyrics, but because of his friends.
Because of Pandora who grabbed his feet the minute she heard him sing.
Because of Evan who stopped recording and instead is now staring at him.
Because of Barty who's lazily laying on the floor and quietly cries.
Because of Sybil who had to know what date it is today and bought a hair dye to distract him.
Because of Xeno who tried to make him look masculine while still somewhat something that a woman would wear.
And still
Regulus can't feel happy.
"Fool me once, fool me twice, are you death or paradise?"
"Now you'll never see me cry"
Pandora is the one to take the guitar from him and lay it down.
"We'll record it later, yeah?" Evan says with a smile.
"Where's the pairs your Mum always plays. I wanna see what type of pairs that woman plays." Sybil says to distract Regulus.
"Living room, under the coffee table. There is a stack of different pairs."
"I bet it's the one with animals." Barty says.
"Ooo what if it's just colours?"
"Maybe she got her own customised ones."
They tried again in an hour. This time Regulus sang the whole song.
He looked at how it was uploaded on the app and noticed something.
"Oh shit."
"What?"