serpent

–

“Oh, shit. Should we add occulmency to your list of talents? How could you tell?”

— 🐍

"Oh, no need. I’m just that good.” The smirk on his lips was entirely too smug for the half-baked answer he presented. “Context clues? Are you going to tell me what has you so miffed or do you need me to deduct that as well?”

❋ –

“i guess it would be, wouldn’t it?” their families were both rather devastatingly sad. it was strange though that they had the exact -yet, completely opposite problem. his brother turned what she considered to be good, hers - bad. “how have you been, reg? really?” while she certainly thought it was a better world knowing that bellatrix was not out there roaming around any longer, she knew how much regulus cared for his cousin.

—🐍

Sometime after Marlene’s question, his smile turned into a grimace turned into just grinding his teeth. “I’m... fine.” But she asked really. How has he been really? “Except I haven’t really been. My cousin is dead, my other cousin is still recovering from being tortured, Narcissa and I haven’t spoken in a while, I constantly catch myself actively avoiding my brother, and beyond that, everything else is also slowly falling apart.” He imagined to feel different after saying that. Better, somehow. But he didn’t. So instead, he turned towards Marlene again. “How about you?”

♕ ✦ —•

“What if I did?” She asks, face now blank and voice unreadable. “What would that change?” Something in Arachne is stern that moment. Maybe it’s the knowledge that both of them meant their words exactly as they said them.

— 🐍

There was no answer to her question. Instead, he tried to explain. “He is a good person. My brother.” The words were heavy in his mouth, too rarely said. In his mind, saying them might help patch whatever he just broke with Arachne. “If there is a person that does not deserve any more tragedy it’s him. He’s had plenty.” 

closed starter: @scrpcntprince​ where: somewhere outside

“Take a fucking picture, it’ll last longer.” 

--- 🐍

“Well, someone’s in a mood.” 

closed starter: mathias + regulus. ( @scrpcntprince​ ) aeos library.

mathias only gets a brief glance at regulus, but it’s enough to make him fumble the books in his hands and clutch a hand to his heart. even though he’d presented the facade of normalcy, gone back to working in the absence of his cousin - his head hadn’t quite gotten the memo. most days since the explosions, mathias had spent in a fog. “sorry… it’s good to see you, regulus. i’d started to worry.”

---🐍

“Forgive me,” Regulus said reflexively, “I didn’t mean to startle you.” He bent down to pick the scattered books up for him, maybe to make up for it. He had quite enough people upset with him at the moment and he was never sure just how particular Mathias was with his precious inventory. “About me?”, he asked in puzzlement as he straightened up again. “That’s very sweet of you, but I do assure you that I’ve been fine.” The thing he was right about was that they hadn’t seen each other in quite a while. “How have you been?”

She nodded shortly. Her family had always been different from those she had seen around. People could say whatever they liked about them, but unless they were intimately involved, they knew very little of the day to day lives of the Blacks. Apologies were not something she was used to hearing. Given their upbringing, she did not need or expect apologies from her siblings or cousins, but the expression on his face told her enough that she dropped it. She let it be, hoping that it would bring him some peace.

“They sound very much like the sketchy sort, Regulus” she replied, a little breathlessly as he smiled smugly in her direction. She could not fault him. She had her own friends, who knew things that others didn’t, and she wouldn’t have revealed their secrets either. When he offered his arm, she clasped it gratefully. “I might have overestimated how much I could take” she murmured, “but that seems reasonable”.

--- 🐍

“What? No.” As much as he tried to remain stern, he couldn’t fight the smirk of his face. Better to lean into it then. Lying to Andromeda was a task fitting for a tragic Greek hero; all but impossible, so why bother with it? “Could you imagine? Me bothering with the sketchy sort of people? Whatever would my dear mother and father say?” He turned towards her to smile when they finally reached the door that promised freedom. Holding it open for his cousin, Regulus waited to slip out past her and made sure it was closed tight behind them as he did.

It wasn’t much of a view. The hospital gardens weren’t illuminated this late at night, so all there was in front of them was a thick blanket of darkest night spread across what Regulus knew to be acres of land. Not far from the door was a small wooden bench. That was where he led Andromeda, only taking a seat after she did. Digging into his pocket, he produces a small pack of tobacco that he loosely waves around for her to see. “Would you mind if I-? If you’d rather not put your lungs through the second hand smoke, I understand, of course.” 

-

regulus had always been a well-mannered boy in her experience. he was decidedly unlike his rather unruly brother, but regan knew better than to judge anyone by the antics of their family. it would make her quite the hypocrite to do so. regulus had a pleasant melancholia about him that regan found agreeable. “I’ve been away from my position for an extended leave of absence. it feels almost foreign to be coming back into work now.”

--- 🐍

“Please, forgive me. I hadn’t even noticed you were gone.” Regulus was visibly embarrassed about it. Somehow life just seemed to pass him by these days. “I do my best to stay out of all ministry gossip, but if there is anything I can fill you in on to aid your transition back into the shark tank, please do not hesitate to say the word.” 

♕ ✦ —•

There is tears pricking her eyes, but if there is one thing her upbringing was good for, it’s that perfect porcelain face she manages to pull up whenever she has feelings to hide. “You’re a cruel man, Mr. Black,” she says shortly, unusually unaffectionate. For all the love she has for Regulus, his grief in her eyes is no excuse to be so vile. “Is that why you are so nonchalant about your brother? So that the tragedy he will inevitably face won’t pull you under alongside him?”

---🐍

Regulus winced at her sharp words, only then realizing how much more his must have hurt Arachne. “I know you didn’t mean that.” He said, voice soft, hoping for the same recognition in her. 

“It is arrogant of you to assume that I only know your cousins in passing. Perhaps you ought to pay attention more, or at the very least, not make assumptions on their lives without knowing the facts. I did not make a judgement call on Bella’s death. As usual, you believe you are smart to take my words, twist them out of context and make it look like I am the one who is insensitive” she snapped, narrowing her eyes at him, “I just hope that neither of your remaining cousins hear your words. I would imagine they would have something to say about it, as I would, if you had told me my brothers were supposed to get hurt, or worse” she spat, furiously. She and Regulus were used to sparring regularly, and in most cases she could shake his comments off and walk away, but tensions were high. He looked drained and she was in pain still from her injuries. “Then at least I tired! I didn’t sit back, wait for some twisted version of fate to take them and go ‘oh well, never mind, it was their time to die’“.

---🐍

“What is it with you always trying to fight me on any minute detail? So now you can’t even accept that I know my own family better than you do?” His voice wasn’t even raised anymore. He hardly even seemed angry anymore. Just tired. Tired of it all. Usually this was fun. No matter how vicious their fighting, there was always at least some thrill to it that made it all worth it. Not now. “But you are insensitive. And you’re a bitch for insinuating that I haven’t always been and am still doing whatever I can to keep my family safe.” The dark mark on his arm is a constant reminder of it. Like his whole person isn’t built around fixing others’ mistakes and keeping the family out of the line of fire as best as he could. “What’s the harm in trying to make sense of it? Of assuming that if someone gets hurt despite everything, it was inevitable?” It was beat out the alternative by a long shot. Assuming that it was his fault instead. That there was more he could have done that he didn’t. That his cousin’s blood was on his hands just as much as on Calantha’s. “If you want me to blame myself for it so desperately, please do safe your breath, because I already do that quite enough.” 

❋ –

marlene smirked, “i do know that, though i thought you would start to get used to it with how often i am right.” she gently nudged him with her shoulder, “you know, we could write a book on complicated families and unlikely friendships.”

---🐍

“Oh, no. I’m actively refusing to get used to that, actually.” He nudged her back, if a little less gentle when he couldn’t help but chuckle at her idea. “That would be a very long, very sad book. I doubt many people would want to read it.” 

“Oh dear, did I hurt your feelings? Good” she nodded, narrowing her eyes. “Whether you like it or not, your cousins are friends with my brothers. They are friends to our family. I will keep their names off my lips when you show them the proper respect they deserve” she snapped, shaking her head in defiance. She was quite certain that is he told Andromeda or Narcissa that it was Bella’s time to get hurt, worse than hurt, they would be outraged. “Then act like it” she answered, “that doesn’t mean I should give up trying altogether. When you love your family, you protect them, even to the detriment of yourself, even if it changes nothing, that’s just what you do. I was wrong before to think anything different”.

🐍

Regulus set his jaw. This was a lesson he had to quickly become acquainted with. People did not care if he was a young man suffering. They would look at his grief and take it apart and when they found parts of it they didn’t like, they’d be sure to lament about how much more virtues than him they are. No surprise Melinda had caught on to that tired little game. “So knowing them in passing means you get to make a judgement call on my cousin’s death? How impious.” Usually remaining calm around Melinda was a nearly herculean task. But today, he was drained. “So you do all that. You play all your cards right. You do everything you are supposed to. And they still die. Then what?” 

♕ ✦ —•  

Arachne’s jaw drops quite literally. She knows better than most people that Regulus has a tendency to get mean when angry, but this sort of vicious was new even to her. “Lucky?” She knows he’s trying to provoke a reaction, to get her angry. And despite not wanting to play along, she feels her cheeks heat. “My mother is a spider in our greenhouse, my father tends to forget that I exist and I haven’t said a word to my brother in months. How exactly does that make me lucky, Regulus?”

🐍

Something about Arachne’s expression scratched an itch deep inside of him. He was hurt and miserable, so his darker parts thought it only fair other people suffer with him. “Because at least them not bothering with caring about you means you don’t have to bother with caring about them. You’ll learn to appreciate it when loss strikes.” 

“You don’t need to apologise to me Regulus. I don’t hold anything against you. Life’s too short” she whispered, the last part feeling like a weight wrapped around her heart. She had never really appreciated the expression until she had lost her sister; it made more sense after a loss of someone so young, at such a young age. Grudges and resentments seemed ultimately pointless, and would only cause regret similar to the gnawing sensation she felt in her stomach. Bella had sacrificed herself for her but Andromeda had never made up with her. They had been in a fight before she had died. They had never made up. “That’s nice to hear”.

Her expression briefly flashed to something softer and less filled with pain as she raised an eyebrow doubtfully, but it was fleeting. “If you like” she murmured, before following slowly, finding that her back and her legs ached terribly as she moved, but she refused to let them stop her. She needed to see beyond the white walls of the hospital, for her sanity if nothing else. “Who is your friend?” she asked quietly, placing her fingers along the wall as she moved. “That’s useful to know”.

🐍

Regulus shuddered. He was well aware that his cousin had plenty to hold against him, so it felt more like politely harboured resentment more than it did forgiveness. Like not having expected more of him in the first place. “I still want to.” 

“They are the kind of person who won’t keep trusting me with this sort of secret if I tell people who they are.” He looked at Andromeda with a smug smile, quite proud of evading her question. When he did, he couldn’t help but observe her laboured walking and hold out his arm for her to steady herself. “The exit is a little ways away. Down that flight of stairs and then another hallway.” 

regan glanced up again at the face of the man in the lift and blinked. it hadn’t been the one that she’d seen a moment ago. “oh, regulus. I did not realize that it was you.” she closed her eyes and inhaled with purposeful precision. “of course not. I trust you will forgive my impatience. it would seem my nerves are quite frayed this morning.”

🐍

Regan’s gentle response worked wonders to calm the ripples of guilt. “Understandable. During these times, one can hardly help but remain on edge.” He smiled, understanding and polite. “Please, do share what’s on your mind.” 

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