Chapter Text
Sirius toed off his Doc Martins as he entered the apartment, being careful to support the bag of groceries he was carrying. It technically wasn’t his apartment, it was his girlfriend Mary's; he was just staying in it until she came back.
Mary had gone off on an extravagant trip all across Europe to “find herself” after her mom had died and it was unclear when she was due to return. They still talk of course, only the days between conversations got longer and longer to the point where Sirius hadn’t spoken to her in two weeks.
Sirius and Mary had met on call- or well more accurately through a call. Sirius was a Los Angeles firefighter at the 118 and Mary had been a 9-1-1 operator. She had reached out after Sirius’s first loss on the job, and the two immediately felt a spark between them. Mary had been the one who had helped Sirius through his “1.0 phase” as he liked to call it. Before, he had been a mess, sleeping with practically anything that moved just in an attempt to feel something.
But that was past him, that was Sirius 1.0 and he was now Sirius 2.0 the cooler more mature version of himself.
As he put the groceries down on the counter he was shaken out of his thoughts by a loud crash. “Who’s there!” came an all too familiar panicked voice. Sirius jumped, panicked for a moment, not expecting someone to be in his apartment, until he recognized the voice. From the other room emerged his panicked, slightly bedraggled little brother, Regulus Black.
“Reggie?!” Sirius exclaimed, Regulus visibly relaxed at the sight of his brother.
“Oh thank god, it’s just you,” he said, letting out a small sigh.
Sirius squawked at that “What you mean it’s just me! You’re the one who broke into my apartment!” he said, finally getting his heart to restart after the scare he just had. In doing so he also got his legs to restart and walked over to his brother, hugging him “What are you even doing here? And how did you get in?”
“Oh the doorman downstairs let me up, I told him I was your brother”
“And he just let you up here?”
Regulus flashed him a smile “Well it doesn’t hurt that I look like this”.
It was true, what Regulus had said, the brothers were considered quite attractive with their high cheekbones, pale eyes and faces that looked like they were sculpted from marble, the brothers were the picture of beauty.
Sirius huffed as he moved towards the bag he put on the counter, “I didn’t think you’d be his type”. He opened the fridge to put a carton of milk inside, “Seriously though Reg, what are you doing in town? Why didn’t you text, is everything alright?”. Sirius had always been protective over his younger brother, ready to kill anyone who so much as thought of hurting him.
At this Regulus shifted uncomfortably, “I just needed a place to stay for a bit, that's all. I promise I’ll find a hotel and be out of your hair soon”
“Oh no need there's plenty of room here” Sirius was quick to add, truth be told, he was lonely and desperate for some company. Mary’s apartment felt huge without anyone else here besides he rarely got to see his precious baby brother anymore thanks to his monster of a husband.
“But are you okay? You didn’t answer my question?” Sirius continued now standing in front of his brother, done with the groceries.
“Oh right yeah, I’m fine-” at this a look flashed through his brother's eyes, a quick blink and you miss it moment that Sirius just barely missed. “-and are you sure I can stay, really I don’t wanna be a bother I can-”. At this Sirius cut him off.
“Reg, relax, you're spiraling. Of course you can stay after all I have so much space with Mary gone-” Sirius trailed off, his brother did not need to hear about his relationship issues. “The point is of course you can stay, I’ll always have room for my little brother”
At those words Regulus visibly softened and he lunged at Sirius enveloping him in another hug.
“Thank you” he breathed, tightening his arms around Sirius’ neck.
Sirius' chest warmed at his brother's rare show of affection, his brother wasn’t also the most affectionate person in the world so he treasured any moment when Regulus was as soft as this. The brothers hadn’t always had such a close relationship; their shitty parents had done everything in their power to drive the two apart, fearing Sirius’ rebellious nature would rub off on the quiet and “submissive” Regulus. It wasn’t until Regulus had started his transition that they had been able to fully repair their relationship with Sirius fully standing by Regulus and helping to aid his transition even when their parents disapproved.
The brothers' relationship had taken a small hit when Regulus had gotten married to Rabastan Lestrange and Sirius ran away. However the two were able to eventually repair that damage despite Sirius’ deep hatred of Regulus’ husband.
“Here, want me to help with your bags? I can set you up in the spare room” Sirius offered. Regulus smiled “that would be great thank so so much for this Sirius”
“No problem, what are older brothers for?”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
After getting Regulus settled Sirius had decided to prepare one of the recipes his boss, Poppy, had given him to celebrate Regulus being here.
“So…” Regulus began, breaking the silence that had settled be
between the two “ how did you manage to afford this place? In L.A of all places as well?”
It was a fair question, Mary’s apartment was pretty big. Her mother had been living with her up until her death due to her alzhiemers so Mary had needed a bigger apartment to help care for her.
“Oh err- this isn’t actually my apartment technically speaking, it’s my girlfriend Mary's. I'm just staying here until she comes back from her trip to Europe. This is her” Sirius said, pulling up a photo of him and Mary they had taken on their second date, Mary’s arms were wrapped around his neck, her face split in a wide smile mid laugh while Sirius was kissing her cheek.
“You too are cute together” his brother replied “though I don’t know how you managed to pull her, smart and pretty you're 0 for 2 in this relationship” he continued - ever the prick.
“Hey!” Sirius exclaimed, offended by the dig at his looks.
Regulus laughed, “Much respect to her though, teaching you to cook must not have been an easy task, I mean you just cooked me food, actual food I think there's even a shallot in here?”.
“Um, that was actually my boss, Poppy, she’s like Guy Fieri,” Sirius chuckled. “But enough about me it feels like it's been forever since I’ve seen you, I swear Rabastan was just making up excuses for us to not see each other” he continued, rolling his eyes.
Regulus took a sip of his wine, placing it on the coffee table again, his previous relaxed attitude turning nervous. “Err, about that I’m leaving Rabastan” his voice wavering slightly as he nervously picked the skin around his nails.
Sirius’ brows shot up, surprised by this new information. Don’t get him wrong he absolutely hated Regulus’ pathetic slimy git of a (now ex) husband, but Regulus had always been defensive over his and Rabastan’s relationship. Sirius had always hated Rabastan, he had always given off an unsettling air and was always weirdly possessive over Reg but Regulus had always been quick to defend him saying Rabastan had always treated him great and always respected his identity as a trans-man.
“Oh ummm, that’s-” Sirius started unsure what to say in response as he was pretty sure cheering would be a pretty bad response to the current situation. Later he thought to himself.
“It’s fine, you can be happy. I know you never liked him in the first place” Regulus said, drawing his knees up to his chest, hiding his face slightly.
“Oh Reg” Sirius said, now slightly regretting his previous reaction, he crossed the space between the two on the couch, pulling his little brother into yet another hug. “I am so so sorry”, he whispered, placing a kiss at the top of his brother's head.
Regulus, now probably overwhelmed with the amount of physical affection pulled away. “I - it’s whatever now though it’s in the past”. He stood up and yawned, his sweater riding up slightly to reveal a bruise right below his rib cage.
Sirius’ eyes darken immediately, a bruise, a fucking bruise had that pathetic little rat hurt his brother?
“Well I’m gonna go to bed now, thank you again for this Sirius, it really means a lot” Regulus said, his voice now having a cheery tone plastered on it “Night”.
“Night Reg”
There was definitely something his brother wasn’t telling him and Sirius was gonna find out, no matter what.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
When Sirius entered the firehouse that morning for his shift, he was in a good mood, despite everything that had happened last night. He had a good morning and was excited for his shift. All in all he was having a very good day, a good day that was immediately ruined.
“Morning Cap, you seem cheery this morning, you and Minvera had a good morning?” he heard Lily ask, wagging her eyebrows suggestively at Poppy as he approached the two girls in front of the locker room.
Poppy laughed, a bright happy sound, “Maybe, maybe not” she said, shrugging her shoulders, still laughing.
“Well I for one have had a great morning” Sirius interrupted, his smugness palpable. “Just had another DXA scan and guess who dropped another half percent!”.
“A what” Lily asked, staring at him as if he had grown another head.
“A DXA scan, it measures the total amount of fat in your body” Sirius explained, showing her the scan result on his phone.
“Does it measure the amount of fat in your brain too, pads?”
Sirius barked a laugh and turned to look at the owner of the voice, his bestfriend James Potter. “Oh yeah? Well submissions are in a week for Hot Days, Smouldering Nights, Men of the LAFD wall calendar and I’m already at my goal weight, what about you Prongsy?”
Before James could reply Lily cut in rolling her eyes “do you really need to use the whole title? You could just say the idiot sexist calendar that further reinforces the stereotype that all firefighters are men”.
“Oh come on Red! It’s for charity” said Sirius “ey mate -” he continued turning towards James, only to find him staring with glazed over eyes at the locker room.
Snapping back to reality James said “okay, now that is a gorgeous man”.
Sirius turned to the locker room only to be met with the sight of the most handsome stranger that he had ever seen , who was currently shirtless (shirtless!), stuffing things into a locker. The stranger was tall, probably somewhere around 6 '3 - 6' 4, he had a warm olive coloured skin tone and a lanky yet still muscular build and all along his back and arms ran jagged scars that only helped to further this mysterious stranger's ruggish handsomeness. He looked as though he had just survived a wolf attack and yet it worked for him. It worked too well in Sirius’ opinion.
“Where’s the lie? And I like girls” come Lily’s unappreciated response. Couldn’t these people see that Sirius was freaking out!
“God pads close your mouth, you look like a damn dog drooling over him like that” muttered James, elbowing him in the ribs slightly.
Sirius' mouth shut abruptly after that “Who even is that!” he said, offended that the absolutely gorgeous man had dared to come into his firehouse and look that hot. He was supposed to be on the job for fucks sake he couldn’t be distracted by this god of a man!
“That-” Poppy said finally butting into the conversation “is Remus Lupin, a new recruit, graduated top of his class from the academy just this week. The guys over at 6th were dying to have him but I convinced him to join us instead”.
“And what do we need him for?” asked Sirius, scowling.
“He’s a former army medic and served two tours in Afghanistan, he’ll be an invaluable asset to the team”, Poppy explained, trying to hide a small smile at Sirius’ dramatic antics.
Remus, who was now fully clothed, started walking towards them “Hey Cap” he said in a gruff voice, Sirius was about ready to swoon (“cut it out!” his brain reminded him “you’ve got a girlfriend pull it together!”).
“Remus my dear boy! I hope you’re settling in okay so far? Let me introduce you to the team” she replied cheerfully. Pointing to each one of them that had now gathered in a circle just outside the locker room “That’s James Potter, Sirius Black and Lily Evans”.
Just as Remus was about to say something the bell rang, alerting them to an emergency.
“Well looks like you’ll have to get acquainted in the truck. Everybody gear up!” Yelled Poppy already moving to her gear station.
The four wasted no time in moving to their respective stations and loading into the truck.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
The tension in the truck was palpable, or atleast for Sirius the others seemed to actually like Remus, for some reason that was completely inexplicable to him.
“So Remus” Sirius started wanting to learn more about this (gorgeous) stranger that dared to invade his home “Anyone call you Lupin?”
“Not if they want me to reply” said Remus, which earned him a snort from James.
“Do you have any nicknames? I mean we can’t just call you Remus, you need a nickname everyone has one!” replied Sirius indignantly.
“Yeah I’m Prongs and he’s Padfoot!” James chimed in, diffusing some of the tension that had been simmering between the two men. “And obviously that’s Cap, and well Lily doesn’t have a nickname per say but you can just call her Evans”.
“Or Red” Sirius interjected arms crossed over his chest feeling a bit like a kicked Puppy.
“Um, nope, no nicknames” Remus replied, giving them an awkward smile.
The truck settled into an uncomfortable silence as they watch Los Angeles fly by through their windows
Eventually it was Lily who decided to break the awkward silence as she said “So Remus have you heard of the Hot Firefighters calendar?”
The rest of the truck (minus Sirius of course) broke out into a laugh.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
When they arrived at the scene they very quickly learned the details of the incident.
“Impaled himself on a gas hose” said Poppy in the same calm voice she took on even in the most stressful situations. The man had somehow managed to impale himself on the gas hose to a tire, it was his brother who had called 9-1-1
“Wow he looks like a balloon” added Sirius unhelpfully which got him many glares from his colleagues.
Poppy continued “Okay let’s get him on his side, make sure to keep pressure on the wound” she added directed at James and Lily, the resident paramedics.
Lily took her stethoscope and started feeling around the man's chest “Breathings shallow, hearts racing, air has filled his chest, stomach and even behind his eyes, we need to hurry so it doesn’t suffocate his lungs or damage his heart”.
“Remus I need you to start a nasal cannula, James let’s get him some morphine” ordered Poppy hovering over top Lily and the man.
“On it Cap” came the replies
James took the man's hand and pushed in the needle, but it didn’t go in“I can’t even inject the morphine, it's like trying to inject the needle into stone!”
“The pressure’s pushing everything out” came Remus’ calm reply despite him struggling to give the man a nasal cannula “I can’t even give him air through a nostril”.
Lily, who was still probing the man with her stethoscope, said “Jugular venous distension, tachycardia, hypertension, diminished breath, I think we’re looking at tension pneumothorax here cap”.
“Air pressures are collapsing his organs, we need to get in there and drain the fluid, Sirius I need you to get a 14-gauge angiocath we need to start decompressing the pleural cavity! James, prepare to deliver the morphine once decompression starts, Lily, make sure there won’t be any blood clots!” came the rapid orders as everyone started scrambling.
“Got it” yelled Sirius as he found the angiocath in one of the bags James and Lily brought.
He ran over to the man and started unbuttoning his shirt to access the mans chest
“Need any help?” asked Remus, who was not given a task.
“I got it.”
Sirius lined up the angiocath ready to puncture when Remus said “I’d go lower”
“What? no, second intercostal space, midclavicular line” replied Sirius, exasperated, honestly, does this man think he doesn’t know how to do his job?
“Yeah but the chest wall is thinner at the fifth intercostal at the anterior axillary line. There’s a decreased chance of injuring any vital organs” he turned to Poppy “I’ve treated guys with collapsed lungs in combat” he said urgently.
“Do it” came her firm reply.
Remus held out his hand “Please” he asked, gesturing to the angiocath. Sirius handed it over reluctantly, well aware that this was not the time or the place to be petty.
“Thanks” came the muttered response as he hurriedly lined up the tool, cut the shirt open slightly and jabbed it into his chest. A soft hissing sound was released as the air began to exit his body.
The man was now slowly starting to regain consciousness and Sirius risked a glance over to Remus, who instead of looking smug, as one would expect, he just looked relieved.
A little while later Lily and James were rolling the man, who’s name had turned out to be Gideon, into the ambulance to take him to the hospital.
“How you doing, Gideon?” asked James, to which he received a thumb in response. Then to everyone’s great amusement the man let out the loudest burp anyone in the room had heard.
“Well there’s got to come out somewhere” Lily joked climbing into the back of the ambulance ready to pull the patient in.
“That was a good call Remus” said Poppy, patting him on the shoulder before climbing into the captain's seat in the firetruck and Sirius absolutely seethed.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Regulus had his laptop open, a glass of wine next to him on the counter as he browsed through job listings. Don’t get him wrong he loved being a nurse and helping to help people was his true purpose in life. Ever since he was a kid and constantly had to patch Sirius up after fights with their parents he had been good at it.
But with Rabastan out there he didn’t think he could do it again, not as long as he had to keep looking over his shoulder anytime someone walked through the doors, and in an ER that was a lot of people.
He didn’t want to freeload off Sirius for longer than he had to, he didn’t want to be a burden on him. No matter how much he insisted Regulus knew he was a burden, that much Rabastan had made clear.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by his phone ringing, he made sure to check caller I.D before answering. “Hey Sarah” he said, she was his old boss at his old hospital. “Where are you Regulus?” the voice demanded, the very male voice, the voice that did not belong to Sarah. A shiver ran down Regulus’ spine, he knew that voice, he knew it very well. “Rabastan” he gasped clutching his phone terrified.
“Where are you!” Rabastan yelled, “you don’t need to know that, I left, we’re done!” he yelled back to the phone, trembling.
“You don’t get to decide that I do! I am going to find you and drag you home Regulus! And you better hope I'm in a better mood when I find you!”
Regulus whirled around and threw his phone at the wall yelling. No, no, no, he was so stupid what if Rabastan came here and hurt Sirius too, oh god he was so stupid. A sob escaped his mouth, he covered it with his hand “ weak”, Rabastan had said “A real man wouldn’t have cried” he had sneered.
He had hit Regulus for the first time after that.
Regulus crumpled to the ground sobbing, his phone now shattered in a million pieces beside him.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
When Sirius arrived home he immediately knew something was wrong, that suspicion was proven to be correct the moment he saw Regulus’ bags by the door.
He quietly entered the living room and saw his little brother with his head in his hands looking smaller than he had ever seen him before.
“Reg” he asked quietly, his brother jumping at the noise “leaving already?” he continued moving to sit on the coffee table in front of Regulus.
“Yeah I’ve got places I need to be, I don’t want to be anymore of a burden then I’ve already been”
“Has-” Sirius started cautiously unsure of how to continue “does this have anything to do with Rabastan?”
A pause.
“No, I - I can’t drag my brother into this mess too” he said firmly, his voice only wavering slightly.
Sirius tensed “Standing between you and anyone who wants to hurt you is exactly where I want to be” he said quietly but still firmly. Rabastan better count his fucking days cause when Sirius get his hands on him-
“The things you picked up on,-” his voice broke “They ah they got worse”
Sirius fist clenched Rabastan was a dead man walking.
“You know” Regulus said laughing a wet broken sound “I always used to think that he’d never hurt me, that he meant it when he said he loved me, that he wasn’t like mom and dad but god Siri was I wrong, I was so so wrong”
“Siri ” Reg hadn’t called him that since he was a little kid the last time he had called Sirius that was when his paren- Walburga and Orion had beat Reg so badly he had broken several bones and had nearly punctured a lung.
There was nothing on earth that could protect that son of a bitch from Sirius’ fury, he was gonna tear that piece of shit limb from limb.
Sirius wrapped the now sobbing Regulus in a hug “He won’t hurt you again Reg I promise”
“J'ai promesse ma petite étoile, j'ai promesse.” he continued to whisper. “Ma petite étoile” a name he had not called Regulus in many years. A name he had not uttered since that evil wretched man had come between the two brothers.
Rabastan Lestrange would fucking pay.