Regulus woke with a gasp, his body covered in sweat and the sheets tangled around his limbs;
As was usually the case, these days. Dreams filled with inferi and water and not being able to breathe or, on the worst occasions, losing Barty to it all.
On those nights panic overtook him as he felt around for the boy (Because really, that's just what they were. Two boys lost in the world and each other.) and felt relief rush over him when he felt Barty's warm body.
Tonight was one of those nights. "I'm right here, Reg. I'm right here," he spoke soothingly as he stroked Regulus' back and rubbed circles onto his shoulders.
Regulus felt wetness on his cheeks. He still wondered where he got all the water and salt from, after all those tears. It's not like he drank or ate enough nowadays.
Barty stood up from the bed and wiped his face off with a cloth that lay on their bedside drawers. After that, he pulled him up in an embrace and led him out of the small rectangle bedroom.
When they arrived on the front porch and sat down on a comfortable bench under the roof. Dark clouds were drifting over the hills and casting shadows on everything. The downpour had started in the evening of the day before and had continued on through the night, a heavy pelting of water that thundered against the rooftop and drowned out most sounds. Regulus hunched his shoulders against the early morning damp and freezing air and Barty wrapped him in his surprisingly still warm arms.
They spent a while in this comfortable silence until Regulus turned to look at him. Barty smiled at him. Regulus liked Barty's smile. It made his nose scrunch and his eyes shine.
"I love you, Regulus"
It always caught him off guard when Barty said it. He never said it back. He never dared, because he was afraid it would be the same as with his brother who left him at 12 Grimmauld Place on his own. Or his mother.
She had told him she loved him countless times. When she cut his calves up time and time again. "I'm only doing it for you. Because I love you." And he had believed her.
He wasn't blind. He knew that wasn't the way mothers were supposed to be. But somehow he still believed it was all an act of love. Because he wanted to believe it was.
Until there was Barty, who didn't care when he got anxious over grades or presentations or exams or going back home for summer and christmas break. And was there for him when Sirius left. Regulus still remembered the time were Barty acted as if he didn't care about what his father did to him or thought about him. He remembered once he saw him crying because of his father, and Regulus usually wasn't very good at comforting people, especially if they were crying. But with Barty, it was easy. They had sat in comfortable silence until the sniffing had lessened and Barty told him what had happened. And Regulus had listened, and Barty wasn't cool or even fine about it after. But he knew that Regulus would be there for him in return.
Now, with Barty's arms wrapped around him, he felt it all over again. The thing that was love, that felt like flying and falling at the same time. And ironically, that's what happened. Barty made him feel like he was flying, and he fell for him.
"Whatever happens, you'll always have me.
You'll always have me, and my heart," Barty spoke again.
The corners of Regulus' mouth finally turned up in a smile as well. "I know. Love you too," he whispered back.