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It hits Regulus like a brick that he's going to die if he isn't kissed for Merlin's sake. Regulus doesn't want to survive from a kiss. Why would anyone want that. That's such a boring way to survive, in his opinion. Even if a kiss from James would be the way to die, it is not the way to survive. Regulus can live off of James but he doesn't want to have to kiss him to stop his fucking heart from freezing solid. He'll wait. He'll wait for James to get here because he trusts that his partner can do so.
The cold is setting in on his fingers, it's aching. The ice is traveling slowly up to his palms, delicate patterns decorating the skin. Breathing is getting more difficult, more taxing to inhale with his lungs that are encased in snow. The iced over lake beneath his feet creaks lowly, and he tries to straighten up. He fails and tries again before he realizes that his spine has been woven still by the ice infiltrating his heart. Regulus can't move. He can't move and he doesn't think he'll be okay. Oh gods. He's dying. He's going to die before James can fix his heart. James isn't going to get here fast enough. James is going to get here and he's going to be dead. He's going to die.
His fingers are curling into his palms and he can feel the blood in his veins begin to freeze. With every breath he takes his lungs compress into themselves, shriveling at the dampening tissue around them. His hair is filling with snow and freezing to his stained cheeks. He's dying. It hurts. He wants James. He wants his sun, he wants his James now. But James isn't here so Regulus whimpers in horror.
And suddenly, there's a noise. It's high-pitched and anguished. It takes him a minute to realize it's his brothers scream that he hears over the snowstorm that's whipping around him. If he moves he leaves James. If he moves he leaves James. But if he doesn't, then he leaves his brother. And he can't do that. He doesn't have the strength.
His bones ache and groan as he turns, his muscles protest as they stretch out of the mold that has formed around them. Regulus stumbles, knees cracking and jolting, nearly giving out at his first step. The muscles in his thighs tremble as he moves forward again. There's someone towering over his big brother, but his eyes are filmy and glassy, he can't see.
A sob rips its way from his lips and suddenly he regrets standing there groaning about a kiss from his soulmate that would've saved him from this hell. He whispers that he's so, so sorry. He's sorry, James. For leaving, for never being enough. For everything. Regulus's throat is red and raw but he tries anyways to call for Sirius. The noise he makes is inhuman, it's raspy and deep and terrifying. Regulus sobs again when the bones in his lower calf snap from the frozone.
(James, he wants James.) He can't stop. He won't stop. He's so close to getting to Sirius, he can't let his brother die. Sirius doesn't deserve that. Neither does James. So he keeps going, keeps sobbing, keeps pushing forward, with aching bones and frozen veins. He shrieks loud enough to stop someone in their tracks when he sees a sword drawn back, aimed for Sirius's turned back and launches. He lands dead center in front of the sword and before he can scream again, before he can say "I love you," to James for the last time, his heart freezes over. His skin turns cold and solid and his eyes are covered in snow.
He's dead.
Sirius doesn't hear a thing when Regulus wails. He doesn't hear when he screams for his big brother. He does, however, feel the thudding of Regulus landing behind him. But instead of looking, he bows his head ready to die after his baby brother, because that is what he was told had happened. That Regulus had died and Sirius had killed him. That a star was dead, and that it was all his fault. What would Prongs think, would Jamie ever forgive him? Would James ever forgive him for killing Regulus? No, he can't won't think of that. Because he's waiting to die alongside his star.
When the sword doesn't touch his back, Sirius does turn to look. At first all he can see is a wall of ice. A wall of ice that's hunched, ragged and heart wrenching. Sirius stands, migrating around it, hands and knees and hair loose in the breeze. He claws his was up Regulus's frozen legs, and shuts his eyes as he stands up.
He takes a moment and then peers between his eyelashes at his baby brother. He stills. At least, he thinks he does. But he watches his hands move of their own accord, cupping the frozen features, fingers running over solid eyelids and punctured cheeks. His hands move quicker over the pale surface, it's gaunt. It's dead. Dead.
Regulus Arcturus Black is dead and it's all his fault. His fault. He doesn't want to live, but he can't stop himself from doing so. So Sirius wails, he dips forward, teeth gnashing and clings to Regulus's front. His forehead is shoved into the crook of his brothers neck and his shoulders hike to his ears in pain. Despair. That's the only word he can think of that would describe how he feels, desperate, heartbreaking despair.
He doesn't know if it's because he's in such desperation or because his brain works that way, but it doesn't matter anymore more because Regulus is dead. He wants James. He wants Prongs here to tell him everything will be okay and that it's not his fault. He wants James to whisper into his ear that he is perfectly beautiful the way he is and that Remus is lucky to have him.
He wants James but James isn't here. So Sirius balls himself at Regulus's feet, tears still seeping through his matted curls. His heart is caked in frost, because in the death of his brother, he had frozen his own heart. So the same aching cold Regulus had to go through, was forced to go through, Sirius welcomes it. He welcomes the sweetness of his own ice and let himself lie there in the snow.
James isn't going to make it. He's not. He knows he's not but he's pushing himself through the hell that he whipped around him anyways. His bones are aching, and his feet are slipping on the iced over lake. He won't make it. He can't see Regulus, his star, his beautiful boy. He can't see him and he knows that he should be able to by now. He knows. But he doesn't believe it. He refuses to believe that Regulus's heart is frozen, he refuses to believe that Sirius let that happen. That he let that happen. So he won't. He'll keep running and keep praying to a god he doesn't believe in that Regulus and Sirius are okay.
He halts when he hears a shriek. The shriek that he knows, just knows is one of his stars. And James sobs, he knows it's weak to be crying already, but he doesn't care. He's so far away from his stars that the shriek he heard sounds an eternity away. But James keeps going. His knees are getting weak now and his muscles are slow and tight. He can't breathe and he can't see, his glasses broke hours ago. But he can't bring himself to care about them right now.
He's so close he can feel it. And then, there's another shriek, it's full of agony and terror and it's so much closer that James has to stop himself from screaming back. He runs even faster, if that was possible, he sprints toward the shout and then his knees lock and he goes flying. James skids across the ice, forehead bloody now, but he doesn't care. Not yet. He can't. So he shoves himself back up and limps forward
He's blinded by the lack of his glasses and bloodied eyes. He stops when he reaches something, feet hitting something cold and solid. He kneels, pushing his hair away from his eyes and straining them to see what it was. He is a blind man walking.
So he puts his hands out and he feels, brushing them over frozen waves of something and up what feels like a tree. He reaches the rumpled edge of a satchel and stumbles back. No. No. He refuses. He grapples for the frozen bag and moves up the side of what it's hanging from. When he reaches a face he lets out a heartbreaking wail. The curves and edges, the little dent in his nose, it's all Regulus.
James' hands move more frantically trying to find warmth, hands moving to Regulus's chest, trying for a heartbeat. But it's still. James collapses, he has to. His knee hits something else frozen and his heart catches, it can't be worse. It can't. He tries to push the muck out of his eyes again and it only results in hurting them more. So he goes blindly into feeling again, curls, and a face.
James is already sobbing but a wretched wail tears from his lungs as the cheekbones and big ears of Sirius Black are made clear. James shifts, head leaning against Regulus's legs so he can feel them both. He still wails, he still aches. But he's not physically dead, not yet. He keeps his eyes shut and wishes he could die. But he won't. He can't do it himself and his heart is too bright to freeze over so he lays there in the snow, in the dark.
He lays there and waits for someone to find him because if he can't die, he wants to lay here forever for as long as that ever can last. Because his stars have dimmed and the sun doesn't want to shine anymore, but their moon isn't here to take over so he'll keep going.
Alternate Ending;
As Sirius's tears warm the earthy ground, Regulus's ice thaws. It sinks away from his heart and re-mends his limbs, it uncurls from his eyes and rewarms his veins. It lets him breathe softly, clothing still caked in frost but spine untethered, Regulus breathes.
He breathes, in, and out, the sweet spice of his throat and the restoral of his thoughts. He feels Sirius's tears sink into his skin and slowly unwinds himself from his position. He cracks his joints as he retracts his arms from the sky, pops his back as his spine bends toward his brother. He cradles the older person, whispering that he is alive.
Sirius may have killed him, but he brought him back too. With the power of adoration that they each had for the other, Sirius had revived the only living hope of their brotherhood. Regulus weeps with Sirius, and Sirius weeps with Regulus. The Black brothers, for the first time since childhood, clung to each other like lost children finding their wayward home.
Regulus wailed, and Sirius sobbed, they hiccup of their joy that the other was living. Regulus moves slowly, his throat may be whole but his words are still quiet. He wants James. Sirius mumbles that he does too. So they get up, leaning on each other and nearly falling over. They have to find James. They have to. They have to find their sun. So they try, their bones are aching and cold but they try.
And when James comes into sight they scream for him, they shout his name and he nearly falls over to redirect where he's going. James can't breathe anymore but he sees his stars and he sees that they're okay and he runs. He runs dead straight into Regulus, his boy, he runs into him and they go bowling into the icy ground. They drag Sirius down too and James spends many minutes hugging them both and thanking them for being alive. And they sit there as the summer warms their skin, as it thaws the earth beneath them.
For Sirius's ice has finally dissipated, and the world around them is whole again.