Vamps

Promises and Vanilla Ice Cream

Regulus knew he was conscious, but it certainly didn't feel that way.

His limbs felt like they were floating, his head the weight of a bowling ball keeping him tethered to the earth. The world was still dark, a cool pressure pressing against his frustratingly sore eyes. Regulus could hear a faint beeping noise somewhere to his right, a quiet shuffling to his left. Someone was probably in the room with him then.

There was no way in hell his parents would have actually come to check on him, but other than Barty, who likely would've had no idea this incident had even occured, Regulus struggled to come up with anyone who'd actually visit him.

Regulus tried to lift his arms and bring them towards his face, but quickly found that something was keeping them touching the surface he was on. He pulled again, harder this time, growing increasingly frustrated as he realized how trapped he truly was. Legs seemingly in a similar situation, Regulus fought back the urge to cry again, nose sniffling.

"Whoa whoa whoa..." Regulus froze.

Oh that was Sirius again. Sirius had come to see Regulus? He'd been quite certain that his brother had left him permanently for James Potter, but there was no mistaking that voice.

Sirius continued to make shushing sounds, warm hands landing on Regulus's arms. All of a sudden the feeling slammed back into Regulus's entire body, crushing pressure landing on his chest, pressing the air out of it. He needed to move, but now that the feeling was all back it was horrifyingly clear that Regulus couldn't escape.

Oh fuck.

Oh fuck oh fuck.

Had he flipped out on someone? Is that why they had him tied down? The memory of why he was here was fuzzy, but Regulus was distinctly less thirsty than he should have been. Regulus froze as Sirius's fingers lightly touched the covering on his eyes, touch surprisingly gentle. A moment later a no less considerate hand lifted the back of his hand and then the bandages were gone.

For a moment all Regulus could see was blinding light, flooding his extremely sensitive retinas. Instantly he tried to roll over, to escape the sunlight that was so clearly about to Dust him. When he was sharply reminded that he could in fact not do that he tried to curl up into a ball, to at least protect his face from being melted, only to find out that he couldn't do that either. A high keening noise escaped his throat, one he tried to clamp down, Mother and Father never would have tolerated such childish whining, and then Sirius's warm hands were back on his face. They held tight, thumbs grasping just over Regulus's cheekbones.

"Hey." Sirius said insistently. "Don't do that." Of course Sirius wouldn't have noticed that the sun was flowing through the windows like a river of death coming to incinerate Regulus's being.

"The sun." Regulus managed to croak, voice scratchy and painful. "It burns. Please. Sirius please." Sirius's hands moved to cover Regulus's eyes, cupping like a protective shield.

"There's no sun in here Reg, it's just the lights. It's okay, you're not burning." Regulus continued to shake, the salty tears forming in his eyes only making the burning worse.

"Sirius please."

"Trust me."

Regulus tried to grit his teeth together, the fangs that had emerged during his fear scoring thin bloody lines down the inside of his cheeks. Hesitantly he cracked his eyes open slowly, the only light filtering through the gaps of Sirius's fingers.

"I'm trying." Regulus half whispered half sobbed. Sirius's hands moved deliberately and almost achingly slowly as light slowly filled Regulus's world. Everything was distinctly blurry, but his brother hadn't lied to him, even if the burning continued across his face and neck. Sirius's face was barely a foot from his own, warm breath gusting against Regulus's face, nothing more than a pale oval framed in black.