Chapter Text
It had been two weeks since he moved from New York to London to find his older brother and get an idea about where to go and what to do with his life, and all he had gained at this point was a severe chocolate addiction (ok but seriously who in their right mind made European chocolate this fucking good) and a fear of rats after one crawled over his feet one night when he was walking too his shitty hotel room. There had been rats in New York of course, but back then he wasn’t allowed in the neighbourhoods where creatures like that ran free.
The way his parents said it made it clear that they weren’t just talking about rats.
He didn’t talk too his parents nowadays, ever since he came to realise that he didn’t believe their harmful ways of thinking about rich and poor, different skin colours and ethnicities, and the lqbtq+ community anymore. His brother had figured it out way before him, and when he was caught with another boy he didn’t think twice before taking a plane to Europe to live with their uncle Alphard. Sirius was disowned, and all of the sudden it was Regulus job to take on all of the family responsibilities and keep the Black line going. This freaked him out a lot, but he couldn’t talk to anyone because according to everyone he knew this wasn’t bad thing, but a huge honour. At the time Regulus hadn’t understood why Sirius could leave him like this, but now he realised that if he had returned home he can’t imagen what his parents would have done to him.
When his brother left Sirius was 16, and Regulus 14. And in the time that he was gone he did a lot of stupid things. He became friends with Barty Crouch jr (he always hated it when someone added jr to his name, he didn’t want to be associated with his dad) and Evan Rosier, who were racist pieces of shit but also a couple of the only people he was allowed to talk too. 14 Year old regulus hadn’t minded, because he was angry at the world and everyone could die for his part because his brother, the only one who had ever supported and loved him, had left. He wanted to hit everything and everyone and ever so conveniently Barty and Evan were always up for violence.
Yes he had been very stupid, but present Regulus had made friends who taught him that out of negative feelings you can’t make positive happenings, so he tried not to be too angry at his past self.
The shift came when he was 17 and he had started at Harvard university. His parents had bought him in, but he likes to think he could’ve done it without their help. The plan was that he would share a dorm with Barty and finish college in 6 years to take over his father’s family business, Black Advocates. But right before the school year started Barty’s parents send him of to rehab to work on his alcohol consumption. He hadn’t bothered telling his parents, and they didn’t find out because the Crouch family did everything to cover up the scandal. So it had gone with all of their ‘adventures’ too, Regulus would come home with bloody knuckles and a bruise around his eye (on the occasion), his parents would get angry, his father would hit him, and then their biggest worry was how to not let the rumours spread.
But apparently this didn’t mean that he would live on his own, instead they assigned him a new dormmate. A girl, named Pandora Lovegood. She was a year older then him, and everything that Crouch and Rosier weren’t. She was bubbly, kind, incredibly smart and creative. She came in with rose quartz necklaces and a tie-dye peace sign t-shirt, all long wavy almost white-blond hair and smelling like incense. She walked up to him, gave him the absolute best hug he still had to this day, and completely turned his live upside down.
To his own surprise they became friends quite quickly. She had annoyed him in the beginning, but soon her everlasting kindness and fun ideas started to rub of on him. She helped him unlearn his parents life style, which turned out to be easier than you’d expect because love and acceptance make so much more sense than hate and judgement when you really think about it. She introduced him to new wonderful people, and he started going to anything from art galleries to concerts to small second hand bookshops, wearing clothes that made him feel comfortable and unique.
Meeting new people and expanding his horizon also gave him the space to start questioning his sexuality. At one of Pandora’s gatherings they were smoking weed, when a boy (a very pretty one) had asked if he could kiss him. Before he could form a coherent thought he had already nodded in agreement, and ended up snogging him for almost the entire night. They didn’t evolve past just kissing on the occasion, but this did open a gateway to a whole new world of possibility’s. He ended up snogging a lot more boys, and girls, and humans overall. He ended with the realisation that he is in fact pansexual. When the realisation hit he had cried, and Pandora had comforted him, but he hadn’t cried because he was ashamed. He had cried because he had oppressed this part of him for so many years, and because now he missed his older brother even more.
He supposes now that it had been strange that his parents hadn’t found out any sooner. Maybe it was because his classes were going great, amazing even, and they didn’t feel the need to check up on him. But when they did, everything went downhill really fast. They disinherited him, pulled him out of Harvard, and kicked him out of their household. They tried to talk to him in person, aka were planning to beat some sense into him, but he was wise enough to hide out at Pandora’s parents’ house. Pandora had helped him of course, but he always had the nagging feeling of being an intruder, and not belonging.
He also realised that New York was expensive as hell, way too expensive for a moneyless-now-18-year-old to afford. He had lived with Pandora’s parents for 6 months, and in that time he worked his ass of at a shitty underpaid waiters job in the hopes of at least building a small savings so he could continue college.
Then one morning after a night of way to much alcohol, he found his bank account almost completely empty. He had spent all his hard earned money on a one way ticket to London. The airline was ‘unable to refund his ticket’. After one or two panic attacks Regulus decided that he didn’t have much to lose to begin with, so he might as well go with the flow. He did want to see his brother again, and going to London was a great place to start. Maybe they could reconnect, he certainly hoped so. He just wanted to belong somewhere.
So, on the third of January, he had packed his sheer belongings, hugged Pandora and her parents goodbye, and stepped on the plane to Europe. Had he thought this thoroughly thru? No he didn’t. Was he going to find his long lost brother though? Of course! Well, maybe. He lives somewhere in London, that at least is something he knows for certain. Uncle Alphard had died about 2 years ago. He knew where his uncle had lived, but when he looked up the address it said that the house had been sold almost immediately after Alphard’s death. He had emailed with the current owners of the house, but they didn’t know anything about the people who had lived there before them. So that was a dead end.
He wasn’t going there completely aimless, because he realised that he might not find his brother in the 4 weeks that he had rented a room in the cheapest hotel London had to offer. So he was going to find a job, make enough money to rent a room, and then after maybe 2 years continue his education.
If he were lucky, but the chance that he would just end up homeless was also pretty high.
He really hoped that the homeless bit could wait, because right now it was January, and cold as fuck, so that just wouldn’t be convenient.
00000
Now he was walking outside in cold and icy streets of London, his cold fingers deeply burrowed in his pockets, his red nose and cheeks making a sharp contrast with his blue eyes and black hair. He had gone out because he was cold, and didn’t want to turn on the heater because that would be more expensive, and he had thought that if he could get his blood running again he would get warmer. He had been wrong.
He was pretty sure he was lost, because his plan had been to get back to his hotel and at least try to get a little sleep, but now he was walking past the same line of jewellery, plant and metal shops he had seen 3 times already. Or so he thought, his brain could also be messing around because he hadn’t had anything else to eat but instant ramen for 12 days. With chocolate as an exception.
Through the window above a coffee café he could hear the movie soundtrack of Howls Moving Castle, a movie he had watched with Pandora when they were still at Harvard and that he had grown to love. He had watched it 8 times since then, and the familiar tune made him feel warm inside. He had missed Sirius, but now he really missed pandora and their dorm, non-ramen-like foods, warmth, weed, you know, everything that makes life worth living.
Despite the cold he sank down on the pavement and closed his eyes listening to the faint music, feeling incredibly nostalgic, when he heard a loud crashing sounds somewhere near his left.
He scrunched his nose, annoyed, and opened his eyes to see who disturbed him.
On the ground lay a boy with without a jacket, which was the first thing that Regulus noticed because no sane person goes out in short sleeves (short sleeves?!) when there is actual ice forming on the sidewalk, looking like he just slipped on said ice. He lifted his head, which revealed his face with light brown skin and Indian looking features, and dark, messy hair. But not just messy hair, his hair was messy like he stuck his fingers in an electric outlet this morning.
He also looked very, very drunk.
He shot Regulus a sloppy but bright smile, and attempted to stand up with as much grace us he could scrape together. Which wasn’t a lot, but Regulus appreciated the effort. Also taken into consideration that his wrist was in very disturbing angle.
The man also seemed finally too take notice of this. Then he looked at Regulus like he knew what was going on, and Regulus raised his eyebrows at him.
Then out of nowhere, the man suddenly screamed: “FUCK” very loud and clear in the middle of London at 3 am in the morning, which surprised Regulus so much that he giggled. Actually giggled, not just snickering or snorting, no, giggling. As one does, the next option was suicide. He didn’t actually do it, but it was the first thing that crossed his mind and a couple of times after that when the not too bad looking stranger shot him a lopsided, extremely drunk grin. Maybe the effect would’ve been sexier if he wasn’t so intoxicated, but it put Regulus a bit more at ease since he wasn’t the only one making a fool of himself.
The stranger sighed dramatically and brought the not broken hand to his face. ‘O its fine, laugh at my misery why don’t you.’ His voice sounded like blur because was dragging his hand over his lips while stating this.
‘O I will.’ Regulus replied. The man didn’t seem to be in much pain anyways.
‘Oi! That’s not verwy nice,’ the man said with the biggest pout that regulus had ever seen, showing of his doe eyes.
Regulus shrugged, Pandora had always been the nicer one. She would have made a call to the ER immediately. Which was kind of a good idea no that he thinks about it.
‘Does it hurt?’ he said, aiming with his head at the man’s wrist. The man looked down again, looking just as surprised seeing his broken wrist as the first time. ‘Nahhh, I’m a bad bitch you can’t *hiccup* kill mE,’ the man slurred, his voice cracking on the E.
Regulus snorted at this, and actually made an effort to get up and make his way over to him. The man took a few steps back yelling, ‘NO mean man from the side walk, I don’t need yourrr *hiccup* help.’
Yeah right.
‘Suite yourself,’ Regulus said rolling his eyes and walking in the opposite direction, not really caring if it was immoral to leave the stranger behind, and the fact that Pandora would definitely scold him. Who knows, he might even call an ambulance for him.
Very soon he heard shuffling behind him, and turned around to see the stranger following him, with utter concentration this time, at least trying to place his feet with grace so he wouldn’t fall again.
The man looked up from the ground, not hearing regulus footsteps anymore, looking very caught.
‘I’m James,’ he blurted out.
‘Well, James, correct me if I’m wrong but I was under the impression you did not need my help.’ Regulus said crossing his arms and feeling amused.
‘I’ve lost my phone, don’t know where I am, and is my wrist broken??’ James said completely ignoring Regulus statement, looking very panicked all of the sudden, and Regulus maybe felt a little bad for him.
‘I’ll call an ambulance for you,’ he said while pulling out his phone, and typed in the emergency number.
‘Waiiit you haven’t even told me YoUr name yet,’ James said while swinging an arm around Regulus shoulders. He tensed for a second, but then realised that James probably was just doing to keep his balance.
‘It’s Regulus.’ James made an aha sound and continued to try saying Regulus name in all the different ways he could come up with, while Regulus looking him with great annoyance. When he looked down at his phone again, the battery had died. Jesus CHRIST-
‘Oooh nooooooooo,’ James added to Regulus line of thoughts.
Regulus tried keeping his shit together, and breathed in real deep a couple of times. James patted him on the back.
‘Is there an address I can take you too? Is there anyone you know in the neighbourhood maybe??’
James put on a thoughtful frown, ‘Uhmm welllll..’ the ‘well’ extremely high pitched, ‘I do, uh, there was…’ he put his forehead on Regulus shoulder, but not even that worked because he gave up saying: ‘I have not a clue.’ Looking Regulus directly into his eyes from very close. Objectively speaking, James really did have nice eyes. Objectively speaking of course.
Regulus looked away, contemplating all of his live choices and groaning deeply. He sat down on the sidewalk again, James almost face planting because he had slowly put all his weight onto Regulus. They sat there awhile, James completely at ease humming an unrecognisable song, Regulus just needing some time to think. The sad thing is, the short part that he and James had walked together led him to a street which he recognised and he knew the way back to his hotel. But now, he also had some tall, drunk, broken-wristed Indian guy to take care of too.
Regulus groaned again, putting his face into his hands.
He felt James lean into him more into him as a way of comforting him. It worked a little too, given the fact that he had been alone for two weeks in a city of strangers, and missing out on all physical contact. Pandora had been a hugging kind of person, which had taken some getting used to in the beginning, but now he found he had grown somewhat depending on it. The fact that James wasn’t a terrible person to look at also added a bonus.
‘James you can’t fall asleep on the sidewalk, you’ll freeze to death.’
James hummed sleepily, now leaning with almost all his weight on Regulus.
‘Alright get up,’ Regulus dragged James to his feet, who immediately put his arm around him again, and they started walking.
‘Where are we goooing?’ James wined, too which Regulus responded, ‘my place.’ James punced the air triumphantly, murmured ‘knew you were into me,’ and then passed out.