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February 1979
The Forest of Dean
Little solider boy was early.
Thea had to sneak out in order to meet him, knowing how much Sirius disapproved. This also meant they had to go somewhere no one they knew would see them.
She clutched her coat closer to her chest as she walked through the broken branches in the woods. Her bag filled with warm food hit her leg and she trudged forward.
He didn't look up when she stood in front of him nor when she sat down next to him.
He looked thin, too thin. He wasn't eating.
Then, he did look up and Thea saw he wasn't sleeping either.
She reached into her bag and carefully unscrewed the lid and handed him a thermos filled with steaming liquid and a spoon.
"I don't need this," Regulus grumbled.
"I didn't ask," Thea retorted.
He carefully wrapped his shaking hands around the thermos and dipped the spoon in. He swirled the oil around and carefully raised the spoon to his cracked lips. He tasted chicken broth.
"Chicken noodle soup?" Regulus asked.
"It's your favorite," Thea said softly.
"I haven't had this in a long time," Regulus murmured as he looked at the swirling oil and chicken.
Thea knew he didn't just mean chicken soup.
She carefully pulled out a thermos of her own and unscrewed it to reveal the same soup. The only sound made from the two of them was the scraping of metal and the occasional slurp.
When Regulus had finished his soup: chicken and all, he screwed back on the top and handed it to her. She placed it in her bag.
He hesitantly laid his head on her shoulder. She turned slightly and kissed the top of it, not caring how cold his hair was.
"You need a haircut," she said, but it was muffled by his hair.
She felt him chuckle coldly.
"You know I'm one of them right?" Regulus asked bitterly as he pulled away, "I have been for a while."
"Yes," Thea replied.
"And you know that for a little bit, I believed in it," Regulus continued as he looked out.
"Yes," Thea replied.
Regulus nodded and continued to look at the snowy forest.
"Tell me something good," he spoke again, his voice raspy from sleepless nights.
"Um- I made really good banana bread," Thea said after some thought.
"I thought you could already make it well?" Regulus asked.
"That was my mother, but since she died, I've had to learn how to make it since Lily can't bake for shit," Thea said with a short, sad laugh.
"Right, sorry," Regulus said quietly.
"It's alright. It's not like you killed her," Thea said as she as looked over at him with kind eyes.
Regulus nodded curtly, but made no move to look at her. He would threaten breaking the dams.
"What made it so good?" Regulus asked after a moment.
"I got the right amount of chocolate chips in it," Thea revealed.
Regulus chuckled shortly as a small smile crept onto his face.
"The chocolate is important," Regulus said as the smile started to reach his eyes.
"It's how I get your brother to eat anything even remotely healthy," Thea revealed.
They both broke out into hysterical laughter. It wasn't particularly funny, but here they were.
