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It was a chilly October day.
Regulus was walking through the forest near the lake, not properly picking up his feet so he could hear the amber autumn leaves rustle. It was one of his favorite sounds.
He was deeply lost in thought, his mind at an argument with itself.
Regulus had been having secret meetings with James Potter, his brother's best friend, in the astronomy tower for a couple months now. It started in July. It was a warm night and Regulus couldn't sleep. Too many thoughts kept him up. At about 3am he gave up trying to sleep, snuck out of his room and went to the astronomy tower to watch the stars, and eventually the sunrise. If he couldn't sleep he may as well have a nice view. Only when he got there, he wasn't greeted with the lonely silence that crept in the tower in the small hours as usual. Instead he was met with a faint snoring and steady breathing. He carefully stept into the tower, making sure to be as quiet as he could, and saw a shadow of a boy, laying on the floor, sleeping. He crept up to the figure and saw that it was James. Slowly and gently Regulus woke James, expecting him to get up and leave. But to his surprise, then a not so pleasant one, now one of his favorite memories, Jame decided to stay and talk to the taller, yet younger boy.
They quickly became friends, and their meet-ups were both of the boy's favorite thing. They decided to keep their friendship a secret, not sure of how Sirius would react. But they didn't mind keeping it a secret, they enjoyed the thrill of it.
However sometime early September, on one of their regular meet-ups Regulus realised he had started developing feelings for James.
He decided to keep quiet of it, knowing that James has a massive crush on Lily.
In August, at the beginning of term, Regulus had been put in a group with Lily Evans and some other people he didn't care to remember the names of to help tidy up the library every Friday before the weekend. Regulus joined because he got on well with the librarian and he loved helping out where he could. He didn't expect to befriend Lily, not did he expect her to be so open about their friendship.
They started hanging out on a regular basis, outside of their library clean up group, and occasionally Lily would even sit with Regulus and his Slytherin friends for lunch or dinner.
Of course Sirius found out about that friendship, and he wasn't too happy about it at first. But after Remus, his boyfriend, had had a word with him, he learned to accept it, however still trying his best to avoid Regulus as much as he could.
Lily was a sweet girl. Regulus quickly took a strong liking to her. They'd go out for walks, or sit and have tea. They'd even sit in the library and read and annotate their favorite books for the other. And soon enough, Regulus noticed feelings growing for the sweet ginger girl.
But once the feelings for James grew too, Regulus got confused. How could he have feelings for two people at the same time?
He didn't dare talk to his friends about it. He had quite a few, more than he could count on his hands, but none that he trusted with things like feelings or emotions in general.
So here he was, in October, waking through the forest, after trying to ignore his feelings for both of his friends, and wrestling with his brain trying to find the answer.
He thought about which of his friends he could possibly talk to about it, but no matter how close he was with them he couldn't get himself to open up to them like that. The only person Regulus had ever been able to be honest about his emotions, without fearing it'd be used against him was Sirius.
Regulus sighed. He knew Sirius was the only person who could help him figure it out.
He stopped dead in his tracks, sat down and got his wand out. He quickly, without too much thought, sent Sirius a message with a spell they had invited as kids to talk to each other when they were locked in separate rooms, and asked him to come talk to him.
He didn't think Sirius would actually come, but he could hope.
Sirius did come. He was so taken back by seeing that his little Reggie had used their spell again, after all those years, they hadn't used it since Sirius ran away, that he just couldn't help to go see him.
Regulus greeted him with a tight hug.
"I missed you too little bother." Sirius chuckled. They hugged a while longer, and then sat down in an awkward silence. They both attempted to start a conversation occasionally but failed. Eventually Sirius spoke up.
"Reggie, I know somethings bothering you. So let's just talk about the problem you have as if we never fell out. Maybe it'll help us break this awkwardness and we can figure things out from there?" Regulus stared at him. "You actually want to figure things out?" "Of course I do! I've missed you so much. I just had no idea how to approach you after I left you behind to go to James'." Sirius said quickly. "Besides, you're my little brother and my best friend in the whole world. And the person I know I can always count on and trust. I need you Reggie. I've been a mess without you." He added.
Regulus had tears in his eyes. He never thought he might resolve things with his brother. "But you got upset when Lily and I became friends." He spoke quietly, scared that this would change Sirius' attitude. Sirius frowned. "Oh, that. I'm so sorry about that. I was scared our parents had set you up to get to me by befriending my friends. Moony quickly put me in my place tho. I just felt too embarrassed to talk to you after that about it tho. And i thought you hate me." He glanced up at Regulus guiltily. Regulus sighed. "It's okay. I thought you hate me too. I didn't think we'd ever be talking like this again, I honestly didn't even think you'd come today, I just didn't know who else to talk to. Besides you were never the smart one and I never held you accountable for that, I won't start now."
"I'm gonna ignore that last statement. But only because I'm worried and I wanna know what's up, so what's up?"
Regulus took a deep breath and started to explain how he befriended James and Lily and about his mix of emotions and many other things that he couldn't quite recall due to his ranting.
Sirius took it surprisingly well. He understood why James and Regulus decided to not tell him about their friendship and he didn't even make any jokes about Regulus liking two of his best friends.
"I mean I totally see why you like both Prongs and Lily. They're amazing. And you totally can like them both at the same time Regs! You know what polyamory is?" Reg nodded. And suddenly it all made sense to him. He mentally kicked himself for not coming to that conclusion by himself, but at the same time he was glad he didn't, cause if he did, he wouldn't be here now, reconnecting with his brother. And reconnect they did. They talked for hours, apologizing and explaining. They hugged a lot, and cried, and promised each other to never fall out again.
They even started to plan how Sirius could help Regulus escape their parents home before they realized how dark it had gotten. They decided to postpone the planning and head back inside. It was nearly dinner time after all.
Once they got to the great hall, Sirius invited Regulus to sit with him and his friends at the gryffindor table. Regulus afreed, and seemingly the whole hall stared as the two brothers walked in, laughing and sitting down next to each other.
At the table, James and Lily were ecstatic to see Regulus, and the whole group was happy to see the brothers getting along.
Halfway through the meal James slipped Regulus a note. It read: Well we know now why we couldn't find you. But Lils and I wanna talk to you. Got time after the meal?
Regulus looked up at James and nodded. James grinned.
After dinner James, Lily and Regulus walked up to the astronomy tower. They locked the room off with some spells so that they couldn't get distributed and sat down in a little circle.
"So?" Regulus asked.
"Uh yeah, Lils?" James said, nervously. Regulus looked at him questioningly.
"Right. Okay. So, Reg, James and I talked today, and we both confessed that we really like each other, but we both also said we both like someone else too. We're both polyamorous, you see. You know what that is right?" Lily said. Regulus smiled tightly. Lily gestured to James to continue. He did. "Uh yeah, so, we both kinda figured out that the other person we both like is you. And we just wanted to ask where you stand. If you like any of us, or both of us. And if you did, if you'd want to be in a relationship with us. Because we'd love to do that and it just wouldn't feel right to just date each other without even ourselves the chance to know how you may feel about us. Of course if you don't like us, or only one of us that way that's perfectly okay and don't worry, it won't change our friendship or anything we just wanted to ask bec-" James rambled, until he got cut off. Regulus had leaned forward and gently kissed James. "James, no need to over explain." He said with a soft voice, and a wide smile. He then looked at Lily and continued to talk. "I do have a crush on you both, it's actually what I talked to Sirius about. I was confused and he helped me figure it out." Both James and Lily's face lit up. "So you'd be willing to be in a thrupple with us?" Lily asked shyly. "I'd love to be." Regulus said smiling.
James jumped up and pulled both Regulus and Lily into a hug. They all laughed.
After a long hug they all sat down again, turning their attention to the stars, continuing their conversation and sharing sweet kisses with each other as evening faded into night, and night faded into morning.