I've been wanting to write Barty/Regulus again for a while. I just love this pairing.

This was written for:

The "One and One Challenge" with character - Barty Crouch Jr - and prompt 'shade'.

The "Ultimate Patronus Quest Challenge" - write a gift fic for another participant featuring his/her OTP. Bex, this is for you!


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Regulus was sitting on a chair in the Room of Requirement leaned over a desk with the left side of his face resting on his arms. He tapped his foot impatiently.

"Are you done?" he whined.

"Shh," Barty said from another chair. "Stop doing that face or it'll be stuck on my drawing forever."

"Why do you always have to draw me?" Regulus whined again.

"Who else would I draw?" Barty asked, adding some shading to his drawing. "You're the most… never mind."

Regulus raised his head up from the table a little bit and glanced at Barty. "I'm the most…?"

"Never mind," Barty repeated, flushing and trying to focus on his drawing.

Regulus smirked and sat up, leaning back in his chair with his arms folded. "Tell me."

"Get back into position!" Barty scolded. "You've moved completely! Are you trying to ruin my drawing?"

Regulus only continued smiling. Barty wanted to be angry at him but he just couldn't—he looked too damned adorable. Barty looked down at his drawing which was pretty much finished and then up at Regulus.

"Do you think you're funny?" Barty asked, standing up and walking towards him.

"Not really."

"Good, because you're not funny," Barty whispered, grabbing Regulus by the front of his robes and pulling him up from his chair. Regulus raised his eyebrows. "You're pretty sexy though."

"Am I now?" Regulus murmured. "You're not so bad yourself."

Barty was about to reply when he caught glimpse of something in the shadows of the room. He squinted into the darkness and realised that a large bed had appeared. He shook his head and smiled.

"What're you looking at?" Regulus asked, turning around to look at the bed. "Oh. Guess we know what you're thinking about."

"It wasn't me!" Barty said quickly, flushing. "Must've been you!"

Regulus pursed his lips. "Well yeah, could've been me. I was thinking along those lines…"

"Reg!" Barty exclaimed. "All this is, is me trying—and failing—to draw you. There's no time for beds."

Regulus sighed and took hold of Barty's hand. He slowly started dragging him towards the bed that had appeared. As much as Barty knew he shouldn't follow Regulus to the bed, his feet didn't stop moving.

"I have to get back to my shading…"

"No you don't," Regulus said quietly. They reached the bed and Barty was shoved down onto his back.

"Reg, come on," Barty whispered. "We shouldn't…"

Regulus got onto the bed and straddled him. Barty suddenly couldn't remember why he was fighting against it. He stared up at Regulus and breathed out slowly. How was he so lucky?

"You know what I want to do to you?" Regulus whispered, slowly reaching down and starting to unbutton Barty's shirt.

"Mmm."

"So many bad things could be done in this bed."

Barty was just in awe of the boy above him. He loved everything about Regulus. He loved that Regulus's straight black hair was always perfect except for times like this when he looked like a mess but still managed to look perfect. He loved the way Regulus's grey eyes shone when he had an idea or when he was excited about something. He loved how smart Regulus was and how kind and loving he could be.

"I love you so much," Barty murmured, leaning up and planting a kiss on Regulus's slightly parted lips.

Regulus stopped whatever he was doing to Barty and laughed, shaking his head.

"You're laughing," Barty stated, smiling at Regulus's laugh. It was the most amazing sound in the world.

"Because you're—you're just—I'm trying to seduce you and you come out with something sweet like that," Regulus said fondly, leaning down so that their foreheads were touching. "God, I love you so much."

Barty smiled and closed the gap between them. The kiss started off gentle, but soon enough it started to get heated. They wanted each other. Their hands moved frantically all over each other's bodies and they were both moaning loudly. Finally, they broke apart and Regulus sat up, breathing heavily.

"You want to get back to your shading?" he asked, nodding towards Barty's abandoned drawing on the other side of the room.

Barty shook his head. "You want to know a secret?"

"Go on."

"I conjured up the bed," Barty murmured. "So give me what I want."

Regulus bit his lip and smirked down at Barty. "Thought you'd never ask."


Barty sighed contently and pressed himself closer to Regulus's chest. Regulus tightened his grip around Barty's body and kissed the top of his head.

"Do you want to know why I draw you so much?" Barty asked.

"Because I'm just so irresistible?" Regulus joked.

"Of course," Barty whispered. "You really are. But also it's because you're just… well, you're too perfect for me."

Regulus leaned back a little so he could look at Barty. "What do you mean?"

"You're out of my league… I mean come on, look at you. And then look at me," Barty said. "But somehow you like me. Which is amazing, and I'm the happiest person in the world. But I'm scared that one day you'll realise that I'm not that great."

"You're completely crazy," Regulus said softly. "I'm pretty mediocre."

"Did you really just say you're 'pretty mediocre'?" Barty asked, trying to laugh at his choice of words.

"Well, I am!" Regulus said. "You're the one who's out of my league. And I don't like you—I love you. I'll never stop loving you, Barty. I promise you that."

Barty sighed. "You say that now. You're such a good person, Reg. There's a war. The good people—people like you—they always die. The bad people always die, too. And then who will be left? People like me—the weak people. I'm scared that I'll lose you, Reg. I want pictures of you as a placeholder in case I ever lose you."

Barty glanced up at Regulus too see that he was smiling. "Thanks," Regulus said. "For having so much faith in me. I'm going to die, am I?"

"Probably," Barty moaned.

Regulus laughed. "You're so morbid. If you're so scared I'm going to die in the war, we'll leave. We'll move to—I don't know—France or something and forget about the war. If that's what you want?"

Barty smiled. "You'd do that?"

"I'd run away with you any day," Regulus said softly. "You're everything to me."

"And you're everything to me."

Regulus pulled Barty closer and kissed him on the forehead. "Go to sleep."

Barty closed his eyes and let himself fall asleep in Regulus's arms. For the first time in weeks, instead of darkness and death and shadows, Barty dreamt of light and happiness.

~The End~


A/N - Disclaimer: the quote about the good and the bad dying etc was inspired by Morgan's line in The Walking Dead season 3 (Clear). I didn't make it up unfortunately!