Regulus A. Black

“O-Obligations?” He scrunches up his face in mock confusion. “Am I saying that right? Obligations?”

“No, you’re right. I’ve no idea what obligations are. I’m only an entrepreneur of my own means with a massive clientele. But sure, keep waving that big cock around because you are so, so, so much better than me, aren’t you, Black?”

He steps close enough to Regulus that his cigarette smoke wafts into the other man’s face.

Reg coughed a few times when the smoke got in his face.  He tried smoking once and it didn’t sit well with him.  He turned and glared at Cass.  “Fuck off, Avery,” he snapped.  He came out here to get away from people, not be bullied and berated by this asshole.

Narcissa was quite for a few moments whilst she thought. Silence didn’t feel weird for them. Not from her point of view anyway. They’d grown up together. They knew each other so well. She sighed, running her fingers through her hair. “If you believe that, how do you expect anyone else to think you could be happy” She murmured with a sad smile. She wasn’t sure what to think really. She couldn’t change what he thought, however much she tried. And she wasn’t going to try and change his opinion. She wasn’t going to waste her time. 

She bit her lip as she thought, looking at her cousin. “You…. need to find someone you can trust Reg” She murmured, shaking her head. “Not that I don’t love how close we are…. but you have to trust more than one person”

Silence with Narcissa never bothered Regulus.  He felt comfortable around her in silence most of the time.  However, after the confession he just made, the silence felt more awkward to him.  “I know you’re right.  I’m not stupid.  I.... wish I could change the way I think.  But there’s this little voice in the back of my head that whispers horrible and nasty things.”

“Hmm but you could…if you really wanted it badly enough.”

“A man of your means can disappear wherever he wants.” Cass smirks at Regulus’ backside before taking another puff. “But it’s cute how you play up the tortured soul schtick. Almost to the point of endearing.”

Regulus rolled his eyes and took another drink.  “I have obligations,” he replied easily.  “Not that you would understand what that word means.”  There was a bite to his words.  

Cass turns to check out the patios in question but doesn’t otherwise move. His cheeks hollow as he takes a deep inhale from the cigarette between his lips.

“Believe it or not, Black, I didn’t notice that you had slipped out here before ducking out myself.”

This was at least half a lie. Cass was almost always very aware of the comings and goings of people at the Vial, particularly when he was working. He had seen Regulus slip out from across the bar but had forgotten by the time he went to get some air between clients. He just wasn’t that memorable nor did he carry consider himself as such. Frankly, reading Regulus sometimes threatened to drain away at his own self-esteem.

“Besides, darling, for once, I don’t believe I’m the one with the ego problem here. You don’t want to talk, that’s fine. Stare into the dark and divine life’s mysteries. Pretend I’m not here.”

He tilts his head to the side and holds his cigarette aloft between his long fingers. “But riddle me this just once. You don’t want to talk. Your prerogative, of course. But why come to the Vial at all then? All people do here is talk, drink, yell…frankly, it’s all rather nauseating when it comes down to it.”

Regulus turned away from Cassiel, ignoring him for a few moments.  “I can do that,” he replied, wishing that the other man would disappear.  There were very few people that Regulus could tolerate, and Avery surely wasn’t one of them.  The other man made his skin crawl.  There was simply something about him that Regulus neither liked nor trusted.

“I’m sorry, Black, do you own this patio?” Cass drawls, glancing over at the shorter man extremely unaffected as he lights his cigarette.

Originally posted by cxdyfxrge

“Far be it from me to actively seek your company.”

“Then why are you here, Avery?” he asked slowly.  “There’s three other patios just on this side of the building.  Plenty of room for your ego.”

Cassiel made Reg very uncomfortable.

Narcissa sat herself down on a chair, curling her legs up under herself. At home Cissa was truly herself. When she left those doors she put on a mask, hide who she truly was. But here in Malfoy Manor, and around those she truly cared about, Cissa was truly herself. There weren’t a lot of people it this world she trusted, but Regulus was one of those people. She hated to see her cousin like this. She just wanted him to be happy, like she was. But part of her was unsure it would ever happen.

“Because we are humans. And unfortunately not everyone likes to be nice” She knew that she could be pretty mean when she wanted to be. She just sighed, biting on her lip. “I don’t know how they can do it. How they can grow up with us, but think we deserve to be miserable because we chose a different path to them. People suck.”

Reg fell silent for a few long moments, his mind processing (then overthinking) everything that Cissa just said.  “Sometimes, I agree with them, Cissa,” he finally managed. “Sometimes, I truly believe that I deserve to be absolutely miserable.” There were days when he wasn’t that bad, but he hadn’t actually felt truly happy in months.  He would even out at feeling nothing, then swing down into a pit of despair.

There were nights when his thoughts kept him up all night, drowning and strangling him as he tried to sleep.  Regulus couldn’t look at her.  “It’s scary, but who can I tell?  I have you.  That’s it.”

Reg stared at him. He thought that he had stronger wards on his flat. “How…”

He forgot that he had told Sirius his address one night when he had gotten too drunk.

Originally posted by vilainous

“How what?” Sirius asked confused. He then pointed to the candy, and said, “I was at the store and saw ‘em, so I figured “why not?”  since you used to eat it and all. If that’s what you mean…”

He forgot that he had told Sirius his address one night when he had gotten too drunk.

It had taken her years of practice, but Narcissa was pretty confident in her ability to talk to Regulus. She had worked hard in being able to know exactly what to say to him. It was something she was a pretty proud of. “Shush. You’ll make my ego grow” Cissa teased with a little grin. And they did not need that. Narcissa was already a pretty vain person, her name clearly suited her. 

The blonde sighed, biting her lip, as she motioned for Regulus to follow her into the parlour. She sat down, and shrugged. “They deserve happiness too. We can’t want or demand it…. and not expect them to be happ too. Surely everyone deserves a chance to be happy”

Regulus followed her slowly into the parlor, his shoulders a bit hunched as he stared at the floor.  He let all his walls down around Narcissa.  There were no fake emotions when it came to her.  Everything was as it truly was.  In some ways, he knew that wasn’t fair of him to put all of that on his cousin, but he had no one else he could turn to.

“That’s not what I meant, Cissa.  I... there’s people that know us that think we deserve to be miserable.  How can they know us and think that?”  His thoughts went to his last exchange with Andromeda and how much it hurt him.  It left him a mess for the longest time.  

“One day though.  I’ve been saving.”