Motion Sickness

Oh Brother

"You better have a fucking good explanation for this Reg!" Regulus and Sirius were in the middle of another fight, something Regulus had dreaded ever since the start of the year, Sirius has been more or less stalking Regulus and overheard a conversation between him and Barty, "My best friend?" Regulus still didn't speak, he was focused on his potions homework, today was a nice enough morning for November and he wanted to take advantage of it by doing his homework next to the lake, but of course Sirius had other plans. "For Merlin's sake Regulus look at me!" He took the quil right out of his hand, Regulus finally looked up at him.

"What I do in my free time is nobody's business Sirius." He said making sure his parchment was dry before stowing it into his bag and screwing the top onto his ink pot, he held out his hand and Sirius reluctantly handed him back the quil, "Besides, James had every opportunity to tell you, so instead of being mad at me why aren't you yelling at him right now?" He asked standing up.

"Oh believe me, James has a thing or two coming his way, I want to know why? Why him! You could have had any bloke, but you had to pick my best friend, you don't see me hooking up with Pandora do you?" He asked.

"First of all, Pandora would never go for you. Second, you are with Remus last time I checked. And third, James was there for me when you weren't, things were never meant to go as far as it did, but you should know better than anyone that you can't choose who you love." The words escaped his mouth before he could stop it, again! At this rate he was going to place a silencing charm on himself because he's been way too honest recently. Sirius's expression softened. Regulus hated that look, he'd never seen it before. "Stop doing that with your face, you're going to scare away the giant squid."

"You love him?" Sirius asked, a smirk grew on his face, Regulus hated that more. "My baby brother and my best friend!" Sirius did something neither one of them had anticipated, he hugged Regulus. Regulus pushed him off immediately and straightened out his clothes.

"Shut up!" He looked around making sure no one could see them, "Whatever there was between us is over, alright." Sirius didn't seem convinced.

"Come on." He grabbed Regulus's arm and led him towards the Quidditch pitch, Regulus knew fighting would be pointless so he just stayed quiet. Right now he was just thankful Sirius grabbed his right arm. The brothers got the pitch and James was flying around, shooting quaffles through the hoops, Sirius whistled and somehow James heard him because he started descending towards them and by now Regulus was ready to leave, but Sirius's grip tightened around his arm. He glared at his older brother but nothing happened.

"Sirius? Re-" Sirius cut him off before he could finish.

"My little brother James?" Regulus could scream. Sirius sure did know how to make things about him, he had thought they sorted all this out already, James looked down at Regulus with a questioning look, "No don't look at him, look at me."

"Mate I didn't give you this much grief when you started shagging Moony, so spare me the dramatics." James said as he leaned against his broom. Regulus avoided eye contact, he would much rather sink into the floor right now, "Besides I'm sure he's told you there's no longer anything going on."

"He has, but I didn't believe him." Sirius said, Regulus looked up at him annoyed, "Still not happy that you kept it from me, how long have you been going behind my back?" He asked, Regulus looked at James and shrugged, there was no point in lying anymore.

"About this time last year." He said, Sirius let go of his arm, as if he suddenly remembered something.

"You- you were waiting, and you?" He looked between them, "Valentine's day!" He exclaimed, "You told me your date stood you up!" He turned towards Regulus then James, "And you said you were waiting for Evans, all this time I had thought you were still pining after her, I need to sit down." And he did, right in the middle of the pitch, Regulus and James exchanged a look. Regulus instinctively reached to cover his arm, James looked down and saw the remnants of a tattoo, but he clearly didn't think much of it at the time. Regulus turned back to Sirius who was still trying to piece things together.

"That's who you were writing letters to this summer!" He said no longer muttering, Regulus hadn't received a single letter that summer. Though he knew he wouldn't, his mother doubled up on the protections around the house, any owl not belonging to them would not find the house, they'd just be redirected back to their senders. James shrugged. "And you never wrote back?" Sirius asked his brother.

"I never got any letters." He confessed, James looked up, clearly he had thought Regulus just sent them back without reading them. He looked down at his watch, "I need to go." He said, leaving without saying anything else, he only had a small window of time every day that he could break into the restricted section and if he didn't leave now he would miss it.

****

"Come with me!" James pretty much demanded, dinner had just ended and Regulus was on his way to the dungeons when James cornered him. He knew he didn't have much of a choice, James led them to an empty classroom, locking the door behind him and placing a silencing charm on the door, Regulus knew there was only two ways this could go, he just hoped it wasn't the latter. "Show me your arm." And that's why hopes and dreams are for children. When he didn't move James walked over to him, "I'm going to ask you this one more time Reg, show me your arm."

Regulus reluctantly stretched out his left arm, he couldn't bring himself to move up his sleeve, James didn't have a problem with it, and when he did he just nodded, he didn't yell, didn't try assuring him it was all going to be fine, he just stared at the mark covering half of Regulus's arm. Regulus didn't know why, but he wanted James to yell, he needed him to be mad, because if he was mad it would be easier for him to do what was necessary.

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A/N: I completely forgot that today was Friday lmao.

Enjoy, because next week's chapter is either going to rip your heart out or make you want to scream your lungs out ;)