There were probably plenty of unspoken rules Sirius was breaking by going from one safe house to another but he knew this lot well enough that if anyone had noticed yet he’d have gotten an earful about it. At least it was easy for Sirius to travel inconspicuously. There were plenty of stray dogs in England that no one looked twice at, and with the way his hair was growing out it was easy to blend in.
As much as he hated to admit it, there was still a shyness he felt around Regulus that had prevented him from moving into his brother’s safe house for the long run. Pair that with the still stinging loss of Remus and James and Lily still trying to get into the swing of being part of a magic rebellion and new parents of a recently kidnapped son, Sirius felt torn in half. The icing on the cake was accidentally walking in on Regulus and Paulie performing some kind of historical reenactment and he had decided knocking would become a more ingrained habit and he would continue going back and forth rather than planting his roots.
At least Sirius knew Regulus was in good hands. Dorcas would look out for Regulus in a way other people wouldn’t know to. She had plenty of experience with the Prewetts and Paulie to keep her on her toes, and while Regulus might not have been spontaneous, there was a wild streak that made him illegally purchase dragon eggs when no one else but Sirius was looking. Cheeky bastard. No idea where he got that from. As his brother showed him around the makeshift hospital wing, Sirius found himself slinging an arm easily over Reg’s shoulder. Contact had never been the difficult part of relationships for Sirius - despite their mother trying desperately to eradicate it from their childhood, and it felt right somehow to hold onto his younger brother like he hadn’t been able to before, trying to press him close physically as if to make up for where they’d been separated emotionally for so long.
“It looks great,” Sirius said honestly, grinning down at him before returning to taking in the space. It had everything - neatly made cots pressed against the walls, a few shelves of the supplies they’d managed to gather and that Sirius would continue to gather on his outings. He’d been thinking of contacting their cousin Andromeda, to see if she could help them gather harder supplies that he couldn’t find on the outskirts of Wizarding London, but there was an anxious nagging that still stopped him from trying to contact her. She could easily turn them in for her own gain, and he wouldn’t put anything past anyone in their family - burned from the tree or not. “She’ll have you replacing legs in no time,” He said instead of voicing his thought of their cousin.
Sliding his arm away, Sirius stepped further into the room to investigate, picking things up and examining them while Dorcas wasn’t around to swat at his hands, peering into a jar he continued the conversation, focusing on what Regulus had been learning, “What has she taught you so far, anyway? Can you pop an eye back in a skull? Stitch anything up yet? Seen any bones?”
He had spent a lot of years angry with Sirius -- but now that he was out, now that he had find a way to take ahold of the sort of life his brother had long before Regulus had been brave enough to, he saw much more clearly how his own safety or happiness had never been Sirius’s responsibility. He had been a kid, and an impulsive one at that. It hadn’t been his brother’s job to save him too, when saving himself had taken so much -- and he didn’t use the word saving lightly. The years he spent alone in Grimmauld Place had nearly done him in. He had no doubt that Sirius wouldn’t have been able to manage the side of their parents that he saw in those later years. He wasn’t mad at Sirius anymore. He was glad he had run when he saw the opportunity to do so -- but he hoped that one day he’d be able to find the sort of relationship with his brother that he had always hoped for.
It was a miracle he was able to walk this calmly with Sirius after he had walked in on himself and Paulie and the colonel. His face had been a permanent shade of red for at least a week after, the only thing stopping him from melting straight into the floor was the absolute certainty that Sirius did some uh -- inventive -- things in the bedroom himself.
Despite all of that, and the uncertainty he still couldn’t fully get rid of about their relationship, he was glad to have Sirius here now. He knew he didn’t have anything to prove, knew that he had firmly chosen a side -- but all the same, Sirius had been there when he was less certain, had had a front row seat when he had desperately tried to please their parents and Bellatrix. He knew that this side of himself hadn’t been his first instinct, not like it had been for Sirius; so despite all that he had done, he knew that he’d have a hard time not feeling like he had to prove himself to his brother.
“I think she’ll hold onto the leg replacing for herself,” he laughed, scratching at the back of his neck. At least he hoped so. He could patch people up while Dorcas sawed off limbs. “That is a very specific concern, Sirius; have you seen any eyeballs pop out of skulls lately?” There was something about his brother that always had people smiling -- he wished he could be more like that, but he didn’t quite give up the funny energy. With him it was more nerves and obscure knowledge about light bulbs. “I did see a bone. It was not inside of anybody -- but Dorcas had this practice femur that you can use to work on spells for mending fractures. It was -- it was pretty cool.” He grinned, watching Sirius’s hands and making a mental note to make sure the potions were in order when he left. Dorcas would absolutely notice. “What have you been up to?”
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