Chapter Text
Once Regulus was finally released from Sirius’ death-grip, he took a step back to look joyfully at his brother. Two years, he hadn’t seen him for two years. Not in person at least. He seemed larger now. Not in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense. More willing to take up space and be true. His hair was longer and had a few red streaks dyed in the front, and some strands were pulled back into a loose bun behind his head. His outfit was ridiculously Sirius. He wore a cropped David Bowie shirt, and ripped jean shorts.
“You’re really here,” Regulus said smiling up at his brother, who was still a few inches taller than him.
“Well where else would I be,” Sirius said cheerfully.
Regulus’s focus shifted to the two figures standing a little behind his brother. One of them he was able to recognize as James Potter. His hair was just as unruly as it was at thirteen, and we wore the same unpractically happy grin. In the back of his mind, Regulus recognized his heart do a little flutter. James Potter had grown up into quite an attractive man. Regulus internally sighed remembering James’ talent for rugby and unintentionally assumed the boy was straight.
Then there was the other figure behind Sirius who must be Remus, Sirius’s boyfriend. He was tall and lanky, taller than his brother, with tight auburn curls and olive skin smattered with freckles. He held back a bit more than James did, seeming more unsure of the whole situation. Regulus’ eyes shifted for a moment, at the anarchic scarring on the boy’s arms, before he chastised himself from staring.
“Reggie,” James said after a moment, breaking Regulus out of his haze, “can I call you that, Reggie?”
“Really you can call me anything other than my deadname,” Regulus said with an awkward smile.
“Reggie it is then,” James said before offering him a hand and cornering it into a ridiculous cartoonish shake. Regulus looked at their hands shaking awkwardly before he was distracted with an awkward wave from Remus.
“Hi Regulus, I’m Remus,” he said, voice coated with uncertainty.
“James stop distracting the poor boy,” Sirius said dramatically, “let him admire my stunning boyfriend.” Remus blushed at this.
“Piss off,” Remus said, kicking Sirius fondly in the shin.
“So,” James said abruptly, finally releasing Regulus’s hand to rub his own hands together vigorously, “what’s on the a-gen-da,” he began goofily, coating the last word with a terribly spanish accent.
“Well,” Sirius said, “I was thinking we could drop Reggie-boy’s things at the house, then go out for some food seeing as it is nearing the evening.”
Regulus relaxed slightly as his brother took the lead, taking his suitcase from him and putting it into the boot of the taxi they were taking to the beach house. Then he was crammed in the taxi with Sirius, Remus, and James on either side of him; Sirius was on Remus’ lap because apparently, that was the only way to fit.
The beach house was quaint and practical. It had greying wooden shingles and cheerful blue shutters that matched the colour of the marish sky above. The boys hauled Regulus’ things to one of the two bedrooms, this one with matching twin beds and bedside tables.
“You’ll be sleeping in here with Jamesie,” Sirius said putting his hands on his hips and shifting into an assertive stance. “I hope you don’t mind,” he added, “but Remus and I will of course be sharing the other room.” Regulus blushed slightly.
“It’s fine,” he said smiling, “I like sharing a room actually, I’m all alone in my dorm at Uni.” He paused for a moment. “And, sharing a room reminds me of when you and I were younger,” he said to Sirius. Sirius attacked his brother with another hug.
“Awwww, my baby brother,” he cooed into Regulus’s shoulder.
“Get off me,” Regulus chirped, trying to escape from Sirius’s hold. He could see Remus and James smiling.
- - - -
The restaurant they were going to was only a short walk from the house, following a dirt road into a quaint seaside town. Regulus didn’t talk much on the way. Neither did Remus for that matter. James and Sirius seemed to be locked in some sort of duel over whether or not James’ spirit animal was a stag or a moose.
“I’m not saying you’re not graceful,” Sirius said grinning.
“Then what are you saying? Why do I have to be a moose? Mooses are the himbos of the animal kingdom!” James interjected.
“Jamesie,” Sirius said, stopping his pace to the restaurant for a moment and looking his friend in the eye. “You. Are a himbo.” James’ mouth opened in shock, and his reddish blush fell over his brown skin. He crossed his arms and started walking forward again.
“Reggie,” he said faux betrayal dripping from his voice, “tell your brother I’m not talking to him anymore.” Regulus smiled and turned to Remus.
“Are they always like this,” he asked genuinely. Remus sighed and rolled his eyes playfully.
“Always and forever,” he replied, voice lilting with a soothing Welsh accent.
- - - -
The restaurant Sirius promised to take Regulus to turned out to be a run-down shack called “the Friendly Fisherman.” After ordering fish and chips and lemonade from the crabby woman working the counter, they sat at a grimy wooden picnic table to wait for their food. Immediately after they sat down, their buzzer for the meal buzzed.
“Must be for the drinks,” Sirius said, getting up and walking over towards the counter, leaving Regulus alone with two people who he barely knew. Remus looked over at James, expecting him to break the awkward silence that accumulated at their table. James, in response, furrowed his brow and took off his round glasses to polish them with his shirt.
“So, he said,” looking up at Regulus, “what are you studying at Uni?”
“Comp-sci,” Regulus replied, awkwardly meeting the other boy’s eye. “What about you,” he continued on, not wanting to get muddled in another state of awkward silence with Remus pitifully nudging James to talk to him.
“Psych!” James said excitedly. “I’d like to be a therapist or psychiatrist or something like that when I get older. I love the idea of helping people. I’m also really interested in being like a school counselor or sports psychiatrist maybe? As a queer athlete, I feel like it’s sort of my responsibility to help people younger than me in sports or academics who might feel singled out because of their queerness.”
Regulus paused. Queer athlete. Was he hearing this right?
“Wait, James,” Regulus began, brow furrowed, “you’re queer?” James blushed and smiled slightly.
“You didn’t know that?” he questioned, “Regulus, me and your brother had a One Direction phase as teenagers.” Now it was Regulus’ turn to blush. He’d always assumed that anyone who played rugby was aggressively heterosexual.
“Right, right,” Regulus said, finding a cautious smile. Sirius approached with the drinks they ordered.
“I heard someone say ‘One Direction,’” he said putting the drinks down on the table.
“Ah yes,” James began mischievously, “Regulus here was questioning my sexuality, probably because I’m a rugby lad, and so I had to remind him of my teenage infatuation with Louis Tomlinson.”
“You were a Louis fan?!” Remus started looking up from his drink, obviously shocked at this development.
“Well it wasn’t like I had many options,” James stated chirpily, “Sirius, the narcissistic bastard, nabbed Harry from day one so I had to choose someone.”
“How is me being a Harry fan narcissistic,” Sirius said cunningly, obviously ready for an immature argument to have to waste time before their food was ready. And so the two men began bickering again, this time over Sirius’ infatuation with Harry Styles.
“I need to piss,” Remus said out of nowhere, standing up and momentarily pausing the argument between the boys.
“Well, go do that then,” Sirius said waving his boyfriend off, obviously annoyed that his argument had been interrupted. Before Remus left the table, Regulus stood up as well.
“I think I’ll go with you,” he said awkwardly, “I hate going to the bathroom alone.” He blushed, embarrassed when he said that last part, even though it was absolutely true. The mens room terrified him. But Remus seemed unbothered.
“Sure,” he said, heading towards the grimy ‘men's room’ sign on the side of the fish shack.
The bathroom was empty. Of course, it was empty, Regulus thought to himself nervously, we’re the only people in the whole bloody restaurant. He entered the handy-cap stall, leaving Remus at the urinals. When he pulled down his pants to piss, he heard Remus say to himself:
“Aw fuck, I left my dick at home again.” Regulus would have pissed himself if he wasn’t sitting pantless on a toilet.
“You’re trans too?” he said a bit stupified from his stall.
“Well yeah,” Remus replied nonchalantly, “did you not know that?”
“You never told me!” Regulus said aghast from his stall, confused as to how he would know his brother’s boyfriend was trans.
“Oh, well that’s true,” Remus said, again sounding unbearably casual. Which was probably a good thing. Being trans should be casual.
He left the stall to wash his hands and waited for Remus to use the stall he was just in to do his business. Once he left the stall and began washing his hands next to Regulus, he turned to say:
“I’m also queer, Welsh, Jewish, a quarter Haitian and autistic, my mum’s American, and am studying the Greek classics at Uni if you wanted to know any more of my fun facts.” Regulus reddened, initially thinking that Remus was making fun of him, but then remembering what he did about Remus’s dry disposition, figured the other man was just trying to be practical.
Once the two got back to their table, the food had arrived, and Sirius and James had shifted their topic of debate
“You need to get over her mate,” Sirius said to James, a rare flash of concern in his eyes. Regulus glanced over to Remus, wondering if he might know what was going on, and saw him pinch the bridge of his nose in annoyance.
“Can we please not talk about Lily Evans right now. She’s like a sister to me, and it feels very weird when we talk about her like this.” Once he sat down, attacked his fish and chips like a man who had never eaten in his life. Sirius glanced over at his boyfriend, then back over at James.
“Let’s just eat the meal and have a good time mate,” he said.
And so the four of them ate and talked and everything felt okay. They were a bit tipsy on the walk home from the beers they’d drunk but were able to find their way down the dirt path back to the cottage. Remus and Sirius went to their bedroom, and Regulus to the one he shared with James. He tiredly changed into a loose shirt and boxers and lay down in the small twin bed looking up at the ceiling. It was nice to have the other boy next to him.
He was too tired to think and after a moment fell into a much-needed sleep.