Chapter Text
Regulus, as much as he wanted to blend in, stood out. It wasn’t that obvious, but just enough for Pandora to notice. How couldn’t she notice when he wandered the halls like a ghost, or looked away when anyone caught his eye?
The majority of the time, he sat under a tree during lunch near the lake, occasionally looking up from his journal to look into the lake. It wasn’t on purpose, but she also found herself at the lake in her spare time, running her hands along the tree bark, or whistling out in tune to the birds overhead. One day she heard a boy behind her cough, she jumped at the sound and turned before relaxing that it was just regulus.
They looked at each other for a moment, in silent agreement neither would dob on the other. They weren’t supposed to be out after dark, but it was silently agreed that they didn’t care. She sat down beside him, glancing over his shoulder at the open book. Which he abruptly shut. With a glare that formed the words Back off. She raised her hands in surrender and looked off into the distance. He returned to his book, and they sat there like that for a while till Regulus leapt off the branch and trudged back to the castle, before they exchanged a smile.
The second night they ran into each other was two days later. Classes became more intense as the week progressed, and Pandora made a habit of visiting the lake at the same time. Regulus, with his journal in hand and quill in pocket, silently sat on the tree branch, picking up from where he’d left off. They stayed quiet as they minded their own business. She had a journal of her own, though she’d left it back at the dorms; she preferred keeping notes of the sounds and atmosphere to reflect on later rather than miss what she could’ve seen if she hadn't got her head stuck down in a book. She’d go back later and spill the words on the page of what she’d noticed, how birds chatted and how trees whispered to each other. She’d write and find the words to express in short extracts or poems that kept her mind off the nightmares. Before she left, she turned to Regulus, who was in deep thought as he looked into nothingness.
“Goodnight, Regulus”, she said, before carefully walking off.
“Night”, was all he said before she left it at that.
The third time she saw him at the lake was a week later, he hadn’t been there for a while, according to her, though she’d been there each night harmonising with the owls, or thinking up new spells. The crunch of leaves behind her, followed by the gentle glow of light, marked his presence before he spoke.
His words were coated in a choking sound. Was he crying?
“Long time no see”, he said before sitting on the designated branch. She watched as he opened his book and cleared his throat, getting comfortable on the tree so he could rest his book in his lap and hold on to the sturdy branch.
“What do you write?” she said slowly, making her words soft and curious.
“Poetry”, he said flatly, not looking up, but keeping himself small as he usually did. She watched him over his shoulder, and he closed the book with a short huff. “I usually write poetry about nature”, he gave her a glance above the book. With a small smile under his usual frown, “What about you?” he said expectantly.
She thought about it before realising she came here for the same reason as him.
“To write poems, about the birds, stars, water, the trees whispering to one another”
they let that sit between them for a bit, the idea that they both found comfort in writing instead of speaking. how they both felt the world around them in such smaller details than most, that they both knew how overwhelming that could be for one person to digest by themself. It went without saying that they both knew what it was like to not find the words come out of your head but be easily written down.
their silence stretched on not in an awkward way but it was peaceful and the wind blew which made the world feel simultaneously loud and quiet. The trees rocking and grass writing about as the minutes ticked by, they remained still and silent while the rest of the night filled their silence.
Pandora doesn’t always remember how others find silence uncomfortable, there are those like Evan who must keep moving to stay alive. Others simply never run out of things to say.
She likes the fact that she can find Regulus' presence a calming one, one that is completely content with just benign another body existing in the same place, both in their own minds but in the same room.