Chapter Text
Regulus Black stared blankly at his wrist.
This could not be possible. It just could not be. There was no way that this is what he got. In no world would he accept this. He wouldn’t accept it because it was completely unacceptable. It was so absurd.
He could already hear his brothers voice in the back of his head, laughing like there was no tomorrow, pointing at him and then laughing some more. Sirius loved to laugh—especially at his younger brother. Regulus scoffed. Lucky bastard… it had been easy for him. His one had been so damn specific it was unmistakeable. But this? This was really just ridiculous.
Yep
The word on his wrist was yep.
How was Regulus supposed to ever find his soulmate with that little information? He could only hope that his own sentence was a little more recognisable…. Perhaps he should start to only answer to people he first met with insanely abstract sentences, so that he would be sure to find his fit. But then he thought again, and his heart sank even further, because he would not answer his soulmate. He had the answer. No one ever started a conversation with yep.
Regulus plopped down on the closed toilet seat and stared at his wrist for a while longer. Carefully, he traced the word with his thumb. For so long had he been waiting. He had turned eighteen ages ago, hoping, praying that he would get his sentence on that day. But apparently, his soulmate was younger than him, because the word had not been there when he had woken up in the morning of his eighteenth birthday but had appeared randomly this morning. Regulus could still feel the pain of his rapidly thumping heart.
When he had seen it there, written on his wrist in black, he had jumped up from his bed and raced to the bathroom to take a better look. Half expecting it to be a prank from Sirius, he had washed his wrist for several minutes before concluding that it was in fact not sharpie, but actually and really engraved in his skin.
He almost fell off the toilet when he heard knocking on the bathroom door. “Reggie!! You’re gonna be late for your first lecture!”
Regulus groaned and got up. Before opening the door to greet his brother, he made sure that his sleeve covered the word on his wrist—the pathetic word on his wrist.
He was greeted by a large grin when he pushed the front door open.
“I didn’t think you were the type to skip classes, my little darling brother!”, Sirius said with a chuckle in his voice and took him in a headlock to ruffled through his hair. Only with a lot of effort and struggling did Regulus get free.
“Stop that! I am not skipping class! I just need to get dressed, wait outside…”
Sirius rolled his eyes and tried to ruffle through Regulus’ hair one last time, but he jumped away just in time and pushed him out the door. With an overly dramatic sigh, Sirius pulled the door shut behind him, and with a sigh that was actually coming from exhaustion, Regulus carried himself over to his closet.
He had gotten most of his clothes from Sirius, from back when they had been living with their parents. There, they had been forced to wear all kinds of ‘fancy posh-boy-clothes’ as Sirius liked to call them. But Regulus did not mind. So, when they had moved out, further into the city, closer to Sirius’ and Regulus’ university, Regulus had inherited all of Sirius’ old clothes. He picked out black, wide slacks, a white blouse and a black waist coat. Then he quickly grabbed his bag and rushed out the door. Sirius was standing next the door, his phone clammed between shoulder and cheek, and he was mumbling into it while lighting a cigarette with his hands.
“Ugh… don’t smoke in here…”, he complained and took down the corridor towards the lift without waiting for his brother. Soon after he had started walking, Sirius caught up with him, whispering sappy ‘love you’s, and ‘see you soon’s into his phone. The cigarette was lit between his lips, and occasionally, smoke curled around them. “I sure hope my soulmate doesn’t smoke…”, Regulus said without thinking. He immediately regretted bringing it up, but Sirius just smirked. “Well, I think smoking is hot. That’s why I do it, and that’s why Moony is my soulmate.”
Regulus rolled his eyes. “I still don’t get why you call him that… Next thing you know, you will have an embarrassing nickname too…”
Sirius shrugged and pressed the button to the elevator. “He likes the moon. Talks about it all the time. Sappy boy, love him.”, he grinned, “With me being named after a star and everything… he went mad when he found out my name.”, he giggled, “And I do have a nickname, just so you know!”
Regulus groaned and stepped into the elevator. He would have preferred to take the stairs when Sirius was smoking, but he would have whinged about it all day long, so Regulus would just have to deal with having the awful smell in his nose for the first quarter of the day.
“Oh god, please don’t tell me. I will die of second-hand embarrassment.”
Sirius snickered and actually held his mouth for once. Regulus was quite impressed.
The rest of their walk to university was fairly quiet, and they only stopped once to get themselves something for breakfast at a bakery. The girl behind the counter smiled at them politely, handed them their orders and brushed her bleach blonde hair behind her ear, revealing a ton of piercings. “Love the new corneal, Marls!”, Sirius grinned and pointed at her ear. Regulus of course had no idea what a corneal was, or how he knew the girl, but she laughed heartily and leaned on the counter. Her hair fell back in her face but this time she ignored it. “Well, Padfoot, I still think you get an eyebrow one. It would look hot.”
Regulus had to try very hard to not pull a horrified grimace. He had escaped learning his brothers so called nickname so well, and now some girl told him?! What kind of nickname was Padfoot anyway? It sounded even more stupid than Moony!
Sirius almost choked on his bread. “Yeah, try and convince Moony, not me! He is the one who keeps telling me not to! I think he is scared I will hurt myself—or something.”
Regulus was on the verge of leaving. He didn’t understand a word of what they were saying, and when Marlene, as the tag on her shirt read, told Sirius the name of a popular piercer she often went to, Barty Crouch Jr. or something, he actually turned to go.
Sadly, before he could sneak his way out of the door, he was grabbed by the shoulder and yanked back. Sirius’ arm fell down on his shoulder, and he flinched. “Marls, may I present to you my dear darling brother Regulus? He is new to my uni, only started a couple of months ago, and doing great so far! What are you studying again, Reggie?”
Regulus hated when Sirius introduced him to other people. If he didn’t do that himself, it should be obvious that he did not want to. But of course, stupid, extroverted Sirius never got the clue.
He sure hoped his soulmate would not be such an insufferably loud and obnoxious person.
“Creative writing and literary Production.”, he mumbled, his eyes turned down on the ground and he could feel his cheeks heat up.
“Yep, what he said!”, he heard Sirius laugh.
He hated telling strangers what he did and what he wanted to become. He was scared that they would tell him it was not a real job, and that he would never make it as an author.
But when he glanced up shyly at the blonde woman’s face, her eyes were beaming. “I’ve always wanted to become a writer!”, she laughed, “Sadly never made it, got no talent at all if I’m being serious… but aye, believe in yourself, man! Now, sorry to tell you, but I do have to keep working, or I’ll get yelled at… loved talking to you though, Regulus! Come by again!”
As soon as he could without being impolite, Regulus shooed his brother out of the bakery and risked one look at his wristwatch.
“Shit.”, he groaned and sped up his steps until lung-burned Sirius could hardly keep up and huffed with every step.