Brothers ~ A Regulus Black Story

Thursday Night

Regulus
At the lake, the guys were drinking when I found them. Sirius and Remus were making out in the grass, Peter was dangling his feet in the water and James is laying in the grass staring up at the sky.

"Hey, look who showed up!" James chants, still staring at the sky.

"Yeah, turns out Everything and Andromeda can handle themselves." I reply, sitting down beside James.

"Doesn't surprise me at all."

"Me either." I add. "So, what's going on here? What's the mission?"

"To get drunk and not get caught." James replies. He reaches beside him and grabs a beer and hands it to me.

"Thanks."

"Yo, Sirius. Stop kissing Moony for a minute and come say hi to your brother." James shouts to his brother who breaks apart from Remus for a moment just to look up at me.

"Oh, hey." Sirius says, nodding to me.

"Hey." I reply. He smiles and then goes back to kissing Remus... or Moony as James calls him. I laugh a little to myself thinking about their nicknames.

"He's a little busy." James mutters beside me.

"I see that." I laugh.

"I wasn't sure you were coming." James continues.

"I wanted to come but I had to make sure Evie was okay first."

"You're good to her." James says. "I wasn't sure about you when you two started but I was wrong."

"I don't deserve her." I say. "She's too good for me."

"Maybe." James replies. "But she loves you and you love her."

"I appreciate you saying that."

"I'm not just saying it though." James continues. "You two are good for each other."

I awkwardly smile at him. He's still laying down and staring up at the ceiling.

"Are you okay Regulus?" He asks me.

"Yeah, why?"

"I don't know, Sirius mentioned you seem off and he was worried."

"You guys worry too much." I say to him and he laughs.

"I never said I was worried about you."

"Fair point." I say. "But you did ask me if I'm okay."

"Okay, good point... but you are okay, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Regulus, that didn't sound very convincing."

"I guess it feels like everyone's waiting for me to mess up. Like you guys expect me to eventually. I don't want to mess up."

James sits up and looks at me for the first time since I got here.

"We're not waiting for you to mess up, we don't want to lose you."

"You don't want to lose me." I repeat. Not knowing what else to say. They're worried about losing me while I'm freaked out that I'll lost them.

"Regulus, you may be Sirius' younger brother but you're like a little brother to me too."

He thinks of me as a brother... I- I don't even know what to say.

He's drunk, so it could just be that. 

"I think of you the same way." I reply, not looking at him.

"Good." James says, laying back down and looking at the sky again. "Don't be a git then."