DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.

AN: This fic is dedicated to theresnomeaning for the HPFC Monthly Oneshot Exhange (July)

prompts: Severus/Regulus, "You should have listened to their/her/his warnings about me." (dialogue), angst

Also written for the Caesar's Place forum's Music to Words Contest, using the song "Bad Apple".

~ If I Step Into The Light ~

Severus Snape had never entertained the notion that he might fall in love with someone other than Lily Evans. Even after she broke his heart, driving him further and faster into the dark, he never would have thought it possible that he could ever fall in love with anyone else. Even as he purposely threw himself into a cause he did not believe in, distancing himself from his past as much as he could, attempting to stamp out the lingering feelings of love he held for her... she was always there in the back of his mind - always tearing him apart with her rejection, when the man she'd chosen over him was just as bad as he was, only in a different way.

So it came as a complete shock to him when he realized he'd allowed someone else to worm their way into his heart. Even more of a shock was the identity of the person who had taken up residence in the cracks and other small apertures of his heart that were not already filled with Lily, for said person was none other than the younger brother of one of Severus's most despised tormentors.

Yes, he found himself battling a most unwanted and unwarranted affection toward Regulus Black. For some reason which Severus could not even begin to fathom, it seemed that Regulus carried a torch for him as well. Regulus however, was more honest with himself than Severus was, and attempted to pursue rather than suppress his feelings.

After gently rebuffing the younger man's advances several times, Severus gave up on letting him down gently and hexed Regulus the next time he tried to approach him in a social setting.

Once his initial shock at being attacked by the object of his affection had worn off, the pureblood's expression hardened into a cold mask. He wiped blood from the corner of his mouth and spat venomously, "Bellatrix warned me not to get involved with half-blood filth, and I see she was right after all!"

"You should have listened to her warning about me," Severus replied. "I've told you time and again that I have no interest in becoming involved with you, anyway." He paused for a moment to let that sink in before delivering the final cut. "Now, why don't you go back to your dear cousin and let her lick your wounds? That's what goes on in your family, isn't it? Or maybe your mother-"

Regulus spat blood into his face before Severus could finish the insult.

"I don't know what I ever thought I saw in you!" the younger man snapped, disapparating before his interlocutor had a chance to reply.

Severus never saw him again. Not long after this confrontation, news came of Regulus's death. The Dark Lord claimed that Regulus Black had been killed in the line of duty, doing his part for the Noble Cause.

Severus choked his emotions, strangled them, shattered them, hid the ashes of his second love behind the smoke of his first.

I shouldn't be allowed to love anyone. Look what happens to them when I do.

It would be many years later, as his own death was nearly upon him, that Severus learned Regulus had not truly supported the dark side at all and had actually died in the course of betraying the Dark Lord.

~end~