Muse in Secret

Chapter Twelve

Six days past before James heard anything else. Lily had come to visit him on the third morning, but her visit was kept short and sweet. The lawyer did not come back, but then again, he had hardly expected that. Lily assured him that everything was being taken care of, and everything was alright, and then he was alone again, back in his cell with nothing to do but sleep and eat the cold food that they brought twice a day. He felt his health slipping from him day by day, and he was certain that if he was left here much longer, he would be quite susceptible of catching his death.
In the early hours of that sixth day however, two guards came in, roughly pushing him to his feet and binding his hands into cuffs behind him. It was painful, the splint digging into his still bruised back and angling his arm so that his shoulder groaned in protest. His injuries still were not healed, and the damp of this place did little to help with that.

"Where am I going?" James asked. They had descended a whole level, into the basement of the jail. There was no cells here, only storage.

"You're being released." One barked.

But this did not feel like release. We're they going to beat him? We're they going to kill him? Perhaps make a mockery of him in front of their colleagues, or worse yet...No, he would not let his mind go there. He attempted the best he could to hold his head up, to face whatever they were going to throw at him and then they were walking through a door, up a flight of steps, and the one who had spoke first was unbinding his hands.

"You're a dead man. James." The other officer said. "Legally speaking, you died today, in custody of Scotland Yard."
James massaged his wrists, blinking furiously as his eyes tried to adjust to the outside. Certainly a mistake had been made- and how was he dead, if he was here and his heart was still beating. Suddenly he felt like a rabbit in a trap. They must want him to run, want him to be charged with something, anything else.

And then, as the officers disappeared, there was a light tap on his shoulder.

"Hello James." Regulus said, as though they hadn't been a day apart.

Not caring where they were, not caring how he was here, James threw himself into Regulus' arms. He did not kiss him, simply let Regulus hold him in a tight embrace, even if it made his injuries strain.
Regulus pulled back from him, and fished a pair of glasses out of his coat. "Glad I brought these after all. I didn't know if they would have taken them from you."

James produced his broken pair. "They let me keep them, not much use though."

Regulus slid the glasses onto James' face, tenderly brushing his fingers across his cheekbones as he did so. Only then did he realize Lily and Sirius, standing sheepishly behind Regulus. Sirius looked mostly sober, but Lily had her eyes trained on the ground. There was anger there, he knew, but he hoped that perhaps in time that anger might soften. Maybe someday she could well and truly forgive him. The lawyer had been right in that regard- she was a special kind of woman. He hoped with all his heart that whoever had the absolute honor of loving her would be worthy of that love. He hadn't been, but then again, he hadn't been able to love her, not like she should have been loved.

"What is going on?" James asked.

"We can explain." Sirius offered from the back. "But first we need to get you off the streets. Technically, you're dead."
James nodded. They had brought a suite coat for him, although he did not fill it out as he would have a week ago. Regulus handed him a cane, and then linked his arm through James', as though he was just kindly helping him to walk. It was lovely, having him here, but there was a surreal feeling about it, as though he was not the real Regulus at all, and actual the Regulus plucked straight from James' dreams.

When they finally made it to the house on Arlington street and Sirius was shutting the door behind them, locking it firmly in place, Regulus kissed James. It was such a soft kiss, that it took James' a whole moment to register it was happening before he was kissing Regulus back, kissing his husband in England of all places.