When the Day met the Night

Best Friend's Brother

Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter often spend time in their dorm doing various things, and today happens to be one of those days. Sirius and Remus cuddling on Sirius' bed, James pretending to be dead on his own bed, and Peter scribbling something at his desk with some light music in the background before James' voice flows through the air.

"Hey guys?"

"Yeah, James?" Remus replies looking over at James with a hint of exhaustion on his face. Sirius hums but doesn't open his eyes to actually look at James. Pete doesn't answer, all too entranced in his own world.

"So," James starts. "Regulus said something to me the other day and it's not really my place to say anything, but I don't know what else to do."

An "Oh" escapes Sirius' mouth while Remus continues to run his hand through Sirius' hair and gestures for James to continue.

"He said that he got kicked out, but didn't tell me why and I wanted to invite him home with us but I thought it would be best if you would do it." James practically spits out like he couldn't hold it in any longer.

Sirius says absolutely nothing. He gets up, grabs his wand and the map, walks out of the dorm, and slams the door.

"He's not mad at you James," Remus speaks up, now standing to go sit next to James, "he's mad at a lot of people, but not you."

James sighs, "No, I know, I wish Reg had told him though."

"Yeah, he should have."

"Regulus," Sirius whisper shouts finding Regulus in the library, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what"

Sirius is close to Regulus now, close enough to recognize Regulus' slightly puffy and red eyes. "That you got kicked out"

"Who told you-" Regulus cuts himself off and sighs, "James."

"Yeah, Reggie do you think he wouldn't?"

Regulus looks almost ashamed as if he did something horrible. "Did he tell you why?"

"No, he said he didn't know why"

"Oh"

Regulus lowers his voice even further before speaking, "Sirius, they kicked me out because I told Mother that I'm gay."

Suddenly Regulus feels strong arms around him and can smell Sirius's cologne. He wraps his arms around Sirius in return, not too concerned if anyone sees as it is a sunny Saturday so not many people are in the library.

Regulus is the first to pull away, upset he let himself be seen as weak in front of his brother.

"Regulus, you know that being gay is not a bad thing, right?"

Regulus nods, not making eye contact with Sirius, "I knew you'd say that. I could tell you and Remus are a little more than friends."

"What," Sirius says eyes wide, "You can?"

"No, well kind of?" Regulus laughs. "James kind of told me but I had a suspicion before."

Sirius has a harsh look on his face, clearly displeased with James' actions. He contemplates walking away entirely but starts speaking instead. "Why did-"

Regulus cuts Sirius off, "I wanted to talk and he wanted to listen. I told him what was happening and why. He wanted to make me feel better I guess?"

Sirius opens his mouth to speak before Regulus once again quickly cuts him off. "I was going to tell you regardless if I had talked to James or not, I just needed my own time to process and I couldn't talk to any of my friends about it. I told them but- they don't know what it's like."

"I just would have liked to hear that my little brother got kicked out for being gay from him and not from my best friend."

"That's understandable, sorry."

Sirius sighs, "No, it's okay, James is easy to talk to, he has a way of getting people to open up to him."

Regulus laughs a little, "Yeah, I guess I proved that hunh."

"And speaking of which," Sirius adds before his small smile falters, "I know you don't need my help or anything, and you don't like it when people pity you, so I'm not going to. But you know that I live with James and he wanted me to tell you that him and his family extended that invitation towards you. I know you can handle everything on your own and you might already have a place to stay, but just think about it."

"Okay, I will think about it."

"Can we agree to start telling each other these things? Cause we are each other's only family now."

"Yeah, I can agree to that," Regulus says smiling, happy to be friends with his brother for the first time in a long time.

Sirius starts to walk back to his dorm before Regulus speaks up again, "How do you always know where I am?"

Sirius laughs loud and genuine, making Regulus smile. "You'll find out one day baby Black, and today is not that day. I will talk with you later."

Sirius bursts through the door, scaring the shit out of his roommates who are continuing their chill day.

"James" Sirius calls out in a sing-song tone before closing the door.

"Oh god, Moony hide me" James shrieks and runs across the room to try to get behind Remus.

"The fuck have you done in the time Sirius was gone, you didn't even leave the room?" Remus laughs moving out of the way so he is not blocking James. He's gotten tackled far too many times to try to block James from Sirius.

Unlike normal Sirius does not go to tackle James and instead sits on his bed, crosses his legs, and bats his eyelashes. "James my dearest have you been cheating on me with my brother?"

Remus almost falls over he's laughing so hard, unable to breathe. James however is flabbergasted and silent.

Sirius continues, "Well I had a chat with Reggie and it seems that you two have been quite close recently."

"Uh, no," James responds, Remus just starts laughing harder, finding this entire situation incredibly funny.

Sirius breaks his character, returning back to normal. "No but like you could have told me that you are Reg are friends"

"Sirius," James says, sounding much calmer than before, "we aren't really friends, he wanted to talk so I listened."

"He said the same thing. But he also said that you told him about Moony and I. And you could have told me why he got kicked out."

This peaks Remus' interest suddenly "You did what?"

"Oh yeah," Sirius starts, directing his attention towards Remus. "Reggie's gay and apparently to comfort him James told him that we are together. I don't mind 'cause it's Regulus," Sirius turns back to James, "but I would have liked to know."

"Sorry," James mumbles, looking down at his feet.

"I- It's okay James, Reggie isn't going to do anything with the information and you knew that, I don't mind," Remus replies very level-headedly.

"You guys aren't mad at me?" James speaks up looking ever so slightly worried.

"No James," Sirius starts, walking over to sit next to James. "We are not mad at you, I wish he had come to me but you are the next best option, so."

"Thank Merlin." James laughs while pushing Sirius over.