Chapter Text
Regulus is just beginning to unpack when he hears a key jingle in the lock, and the door to the cottage creaks open. He considers continuing his task in an effort to appear nonchalant, but he quickly abandons the idea and pads out to the front door. He’s anxious to meet his new roommates, really. He had chatted a little with the elderly couple, Euphemia and Fleamont, over email, but he hasn’t really gotten a chance to know them over their short correspondences, and he will be sharing a home with them for the next 6 months, after all.
These sorts of meetings have always been Regulus’ favorite part of his job. Or maybe his least favorite. He can never decide.
As the couple walks through the front door, Regulus tries to decide if they look like what he was expecting. They’re old, but not very old (Regulus remembers Fleamont mentioning that they were both in their mid sixties in one of his emails). They don’t look frail, or sick, but wrinkles on their dark skin are prominent, and they have both gone almost completely grey.
Their faces light up when they see Regulus, and he wonders if anyone has ever looked so excited to see him before.
Well, anyone except for…
“Regulus, darling! I’m so happy that you’re already here, we’ve just been so excited to meet you!”
He’s caught off guard by this. “Oh! Well, I’ve been…excited to meet you, too!”
It isn’t that Regulus hasn’t lived with coworkers before. Many of his previous jobs offered him private housing, but he’s also lived in apartments with roommates, and has even been stuffed into close quarters with his whole team, but when he had been told that he would be sharing a two bedroom cottage with an older couple, he had been surprised, and intrigued. Fleamont and Euphemia seem nice enough, but it’s odd to think about working so closely with people who were so different from him.
Euphemia shoos Fleamont in so she can close the door and keep the cold out. She sets her bags down and immediately walks over to the corner of the room where Regulus is standing. She smiles warmly at him. “Would it be alright if I hugged you, Regulus? Do you like hugs?”
Regulus is taken aback by the question. “Uh..”
Fleamont, who is standing by the front door, trying to get a handle on both his and his wife’s bags, cuts in. “Don’t be afraid to tell her no, son. She certainly needs someone to do it for once.”
This is apparently enough for Regulus to get ahold of himself. Euphemia is standing right in front of him. She’s obviously waiting for him to answer, but she doesn’t seem impatient. Regulus wonders if she is a mother. She probably is. He feels a pang of jealousy worm its way into his chest. But, before he can get too caught up in wallowing, he remembers that he was asked a question.
“I like hugs.”
The second the words leave his mouth, Regulus is swept up into the older woman’s arms. She feels warm, and soft, and her hair smells wonderful, like pine and lavender. “It is just such an honor to finally meet you.”
Her voice is so soft, so comforting, that Regulus forgets, for the most part, to be confused by this statement, considering he only learned that he would be working with these people a month ago. He nearly feels himself tearing up when he finally forces himself to push away, because he can’t seem to remember any time in his life when an older adult has shown him such care. He thinks that’s probably quite pathetic, really, but he doesn’t linger on it for too long.
He steps back, and sees Fleamont struggling with their bags by the door. Despite his lack of connection with any sort of parental figure, Regulus is not so heartless as to let an elderly man carry several heavy bags on his own, and he rushes over to help. Euphemia chuckles as he carries their things into the larger bedroom.
“You’re a good boy, Regulus, You see, Monty, didn’t I tell you he’d be a good boy?”
Regulus blushes furiously and Fleamont smiles as he pats him on the back. They really are quite touchy.
“Yes you did, Effie, but you mustn't overwhelm the young man. Don’t mind her, Regulus, really. She just can’t miss an opportunity to mother.” Regulus’ voice seems to have fled him.
There is suddenly rustling and clinking coming from the kitchen, and Euphemia calls out to him. “How do you take your tea, Regulus? I’m going to make us all tea.”
“We need to unpack, darling!” Fleamont yells back at her. His wife seems undeterred.
“We can unpack any time, you silly man! We need to get to know our new roommate!”
She sounds absolutely giddy, and Regulus thinks it’s starting to rub off on him.
…………….
30 minutes later finds Regulus with a cup of tea in his hand, sitting on the couch in his tiny new living room across from Euphemia and Fleamont, who have insisted he call them Effie and Monty multiple times, despite his protests. He doesn’t think that meeting new coworkers has ever caused him such intense emotions before. He feels almost unbelievably comfortable around Effie and Monty, like his entire life story could come spilling out of his mouth at any given moment, and to be honest, he doesn’t even think the Potters would mind if it did. He won’t do that of course, but he’s not sure he’s ever felt so close to it in his life. He also feels wildly uncomfortable, he’s out of his depth and almost waiting for the other shoe to drop. The only people who he’s ever had a meaningful conversation with have been people his own age, and while the Potters are technically his coworkers, and therefore his peers, talking to people his parents’ age or older has always been an uncomfortable task, and Regulus feels like a fish out of water experiencing this much kindness.
He’s learned a lot about the Potters in the last half hour. They’re both recently retired, Euphemia from being a pediatric surgeon and Fleamont from being an oncology nurse (Jesus fucking Christ), but were feeling unfulfilled in their retirement, and so they decided to pull on some of their old knowledge from their nursing and medical school science classes and applied for jobs as seasonal park rangers. This position was especially appealing to them, because they were able to apply as a couple, so they would be able to work, but still spend more time together than they were ever able to when they were working in the medical field.
Considering this is his life’s work so far, Regulus finds it a little bit insane that they decided to take on this position as a relaxing retirement activity, but he chooses not to say anything. It’s not as if he would know what to do working in a hospital. He’s pulled out of his thoughts when he hears his name being called. Fleamont is looking at him expectantly, and he realizes, embarrassed, that he has no idea what he has just been asked, and will have to admit that he hasn’t been listening. The thought makes his chest tighten, but he takes a deep breath. Euphemia and Fleamont are not his parents. In fact, they seem very different. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
Nobody gets angry. In fact, they don’t even stop smiling. Fleamont repeats himself. “We just wanted to know more about you, son. We've just been talking about ourselves for who knows how long. What about you, Regulus? Tell us about yourself.”
This might be the first thing the Potters have said that truly makes Regulus feel uncomfortable. It’s not that they did anything wrong, or that Regulus hadn’t been expecting it, but this was always his least favorite part. He would talk about his work, his hobbies, his friends, topics that he didn’t really mind sharing about, but eventually his family would come up. Either the new person he was talking to would ask, or he would bring it up himself trying to get ahead of the topic before it swallowed him whole, and he was trying not to cry in front of someone he didn’t know at all.
Regulus cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Well, I’m 24, I’m from London, Islington to be precise. I’m a park ranger, obviously. I’ve been taking seasonal jobs and just traveling around since I was eighteen, though I guess I’d say London is my home base, since I usually just stay with friends there in between jobs. Don’t really have any family… ahem, who I talk to at least, I’m estranged from my parents.”
He pauses here, waiting for the questions, and the pity, and the prying that he always hates. The estranged parents thing always manages to come up, and people always want to know why, even if it should be obvious that he doesn’t want to talk about it. Euphemia hums, and Regulus braces himself for it.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Silly of them, to let go of a good boy like you.”
That seems to be all. Regulus is taken aback, and seemingly out of nowhere, he laughs.
“Yes, I suppose it was.”
Effie prompts him further. “Well, what else? I certainly know doctors who aren’t interested in anything but their work, but I thought that maybe people in this field would have hobbies!”
Regulus laughs again, “They do. I do. I really enjoy cooking, when I get the time. I like to read, which is…not a very interesting hobby, really. But I do really love it. I was set to study literature at Oxford, actually, but then I…decided to run away and work in the woods instead.”
“A smart lad, then,” says Fleamont.
Regulus’ stomach twists. “Yeah, I guess. Didn’t really use it though, did I?”
Euphemia seems offended by this insinuation. “Why, of course you did! This job isn’t an easy one! You need to be very clever, it requires a strong scientific background.”
Regulus knows this, in theory, but his mother’s voice nags at the back of his mind. “Yeah, suppose so. I don’t have a degree or anything, though, I just picked stuff up on the job.”
“What a wonderful way to learn,” Euphemia states, not a drop of insincerity in her tone.
Regulus smiles, in spite of himself. “Yeah, I suppose it is.”
………………..
The meeting room where the whole team is getting together for the first time is bleak looking and poorly lit, but the people inside it seem nice enough. Alice and Frank, Regulus’ new bosses, have brought over boxes of sandwiches and chips on the ferry from the closest town over. Regulus takes a bit of the sandwich he’s placed on a paper plate in front of him, and chews it for a long time. The bread is stale. Euphemia sits down next to him, and Fleamont next to her, and he smiles at them a little awkwardly.
Suddenly, Alice speaks up, and the quiet chatter of the room halts. “Alright, team! Happy first day! My name is Alice, this is Frank, and we’ll be bossing you around for the next six months!” This gets a small chuckle from the group.
“Now, there won’t be too much work talk at this meeting, I want to keep it light, and let you all get to know each other a little. The real work will start tomorrow, sound good?” Everyone nodded.
Introductions were made, small talk was had. Regulus spends a while chatting with two of his new coworkers, Caradoc and Benjy, who are rooming together in one of the other cottages on the island. Apparently they met for the first time today, but the heated glances that they keep sending each other make Regulus think that they won’t be strangers for very long, especially when they’re in such close quarters for several months. Alice and Frank approach him, and they make stilted conversation while Regulus tries to talk around the sandwich he’s stuffed in his mouth. Apparently, they’re married, and have been working on the island for several years. They own a home in Scourie, the village nearest to the island in the off season, and occupy one of the small small cottages on the island when other rangers are hired for the season. He learns that the last cottage on the island is occupied by Dorcas and Marlene, a pair of young women who seem to already know each other very well, based on the short but heated kisses they keep giving each other when they think nobody is watching.
They’re all perfectly nice, but Regulus feels terribly lonely. That is, until Fleamont puts a hand on his shoulder and sends him a knowing look. “You know, this has been lovely, but it’s getting late and I am an old man. How would you like to walk back home with Effie and I?”
Home.
What an unusual word.
As Regulus, Euphemia and Fleamont walk away from the Visitors’ Center and into the silent, dark night, Regulus shivers. He could chalk it up to the fact that it’s March in Scotland, it is pretty freezing outside, but really what causes it is the stars. Regulus has never really gotten used to being able to see them so clearly, even after years of working in remote locations. He grew up in the hustle and bustle of London, and despite having astronomy drilled into him through lessons, he thinks he appreciates the stars here more than he ever could in Grimmauld. He looks up at the sky, and he takes a deep breath, inhaling the frigid sea air and letting the wind wash over his body. He can see the stars, but he doesn’t feel suffocated by them anymore.
Euphemia and Fleamont have paused behind him, but he doesn’t care to explain anything to them.
Sirius is visible in the sky tonight, though that won’t be true for very much longer. Soon, the winter months where his brother rules over the sky will end, and Regulus will appear for the springtime. Regulus and his brother do not appear in the sky at the same time, every year they just barely miss each other. He thinks it’s appropriate.
He looks back at the older couple behind him, who appear to be just as content as he is to be here. “Beautiful night, isn’t it?” he asks.
Euphemia chuckles. “Very beautiful. I love the stars.”
Regulus grins at her, which is entirely unlike him. “I do, too.”
When they finally get back to the cottage, Regulus goes right to his bedroom and shuts the door behind him. He needs to unpack, and he really doesn’t feel like talking anymore. He’s digging through his suitcase looking for his phone charger when his hand brushes against a piece of paper. That piece of paper. He picks it up and sighs, sitting down on his bed. He stares at the little scrap that’s been trailing along with him everywhere he goes for the past 15 years. He reads the numbers, but it doesn’t matter. He memorized them a long time ago.
He runs his thumb over the piece of paper, and takes out his phone. He opens his phone app and types in the digits. His finger hovers over the call button.
He quickly presses the delete button and turns off his phone. He stands up and opens the first drawer he can find. The scrap of paper gets placed in the very back of it. He throws himself onto his bed, exhausted.
Regulus does not need his brother, regardless of how desperately he might want him.