Written for WolfWinks – I hope you like this. I kind of went a little crazy on this, sorry for the delay.
I'd recommend listening to 'So Alive' and 'Over and Over' by Goo Goo Dolls as they are the two songs I had on repeat while writing this.
you can make it on a wish (if you want to)
The coronation ceremony was boring. Honestly, Regulus wasn't sure why he had expected anything else – he had, after all, been through five repetitions in the last week only as his parents wanted to be sure he knew his role perfectly – but he thought that even if he hadn't, nothing could have prepared him for the mind-numbing waiting he had to do as his father talked about what a great day it was for their kingdom.
(he tried not to think about how, had this happened years earlier as it was supposed to, it wouldn't have been boring)
Finally it was time for Regulus to play his part. He let Narcissa, his favorite cousin, nudge him forward, and swam to his father's side.
They floated in front of the throne, the crowd of their subjects before them, and behind them stood their kingdom in all its glory. They were too deep in the ocean for any sunlight to truly reach them, and instead every street, every building or monument was lit with either luminescent algae or with the help of glowing orbs of light that were said to contain the souls of their departed.
Regulus bowed his head in front of his father, and recited the vows he now knew so well he dreamed them.
"By the Ocean and the Moon, by Poseidon's will and Medusa's soul, I swear my life and soul to this kingdom and its people, to protect and honor them, to make us greater than we were. In return, my people will follow were I lead, head my words and know I am their king."
Regulus rose again, and with a single swish of his tail, joined his father's side at the front of the balcony. There, in front of everyone, the crown would be lowered on his head by his father, and this would end the ceremony. From then on, Regulus knew, he would be the king.
It was honestly kind of terrifying, but also exhilarating. Regulus had been raised for this, and the Merpeople knew him just as he knew them. Their kingdom was at peace, and Regulus' father had even admitted that he thought that Regulus would make a good king.
Regulus kept his eyes on his subjects as his father took the crown off his head. There was something there, something weird… An odd ruffle going on at the far end of the crowd, a silver glint he knew he had seen somewhere else before that kept flashing at the corner of his eyes, but in the end Regulus dismissed it, drinking in his people's joy.
He shouldn't have.
The attack came from all sides. Someone – a Mermaid, no doubt, from the shrill quality of her voice – screamed, and the crowd parted, swimming chaotically away from the palace as some of them unveiled their true identity, others opening the gates of the city to a band of rough-looking Mermen. Their leader rode a white shark, its eyes red and enraged at the reins tied around its neck, and Regulus knew him.
Even from the distance, everyone could recognize him – this was Cygnus Black, the banished brother of the queen.
But his appearance wasn't the greatest surprise, nor the gravest.
No, that was reserved for the knife that found its way into King Orion's flesh, wielded by his own Queen.
Walburga wore a cruel smile as she twisted the knife in the wound, watching as the blood floated away, dissolving into the water until it was as if it had never been there. The shark's increasingly erratic behavior proved it wasn't so though.
"Walburga… Why?" Orion managed to gasp, his hands at his side as he futilely to keep the blood in.
"Oh you fool," she sneered. "Did you ever think I actually loved you? No, I only stayed by your side until I could take my place beside the rightful king: my brother, my own flesh and blood who you banished for wanting to show those pathetic crawling beasts Above just who they had to fear.
"Well I say no more," she snarled, and yanked the knife out, slicing through Orion's hands at the same time. "Today, you will die, and your pitiful Heir will either obey his mother or he will join you as your bones feed the Ocean."
She raised the knife again, and this was all that Regulus needed to snap out of his horror. With a determined scream, he slammed into his mother, managing to get her to drop the knife in her surprise as she tried to defend herself. The knife dropped to the ground and with a flick of his tail, Regulus made a current strong enough to push it far away from them.
This was far from over though. As part of the ceremony, Regulus had been forbidden to carry any weapon – a law his mother had clearly ignored, but which also meant that Regulus didn't have his usual means of defense. Besides, this was his mother – even with as horrible as she had always been, or how traitorous her actions were, Regulus wasn't sure he could fight her, and kill her.
Thankfully, he didn't have to.
In a flash of coral and yellow, Narcissa swam from behind the curtain where she had been hiding, and hit Walburga with a heavy-looking golden platter Regulus remembered had been carrying appetizers earlier.
Walburga crumpled, her form floating down to the ground.
Torn between wanting to swim back to his father and his duty to see his mother bound, Regulus clenched his fists and hesitated.
"Go," Narcissa gestured at him, her eyes kind as she rearranged her hair behind her ears and started ripping strips from the curtain that she then used with the ease of practiced use to tie his mother's hands behind her back, and her tail in a way that restricted movement. "Your father needs you."
With a thankful nod, Regulus propelled himself hurriedly to his father's side. The man didn't look good, and the plaza outside had been deserted. Cyrus and his men were nearly at the castle, and Regulus didn't know what to do.
His tears were mixing with the water around them, and still he tried to wrap his hands around his father's, hopping that maybe it would help.
It didn't.
"Regulus," Orion started, before a fit of coughing interrupted him.
"Save your strength, father, you will be fine," Regulus whispered, clenching his hands tighter around the wound. Why wasn't there anyone to help them? The king had been stabbed, why hadn't a medic already come?
The coughing eased, and Orion took a rasping breath. The water filtered out of his fins was tinged red, and Regulus knew that no matter what he did it was already too late.
"You and I both know that I won't be," Orion said, his eyes pained but still alert. "Even if I were to survive, I fear that your mother put many under her thrall, and now that her brother is back… Even if I were to survive her, I wouldn't survive him." He coughed again, but managed to find the strength for a few more words.
"I'm sorry, my son, but the future of our kingdom rests on your shoulders now. You cannot let Cyrus win-"
"I will fight him, father, with everything I have… But how can that do any good when the guard didn't even rise to defend you?"
"Your mother's spells must be stronger than I thought, if she managed to ensnare so many of our people," Orion said sadly. His tail twitched and he winced in pain. "I fear there is only one way to defeat that evil sorcery."
And then he stared at their joined hands with such a look that Regulus got it immediately.
"Father, no," Regulus said, unable to quite stop the flinch backward.
"I know you didn't get on with your brother, Regulus-"
"Didn't get on? He abandoned us! For the mortals!"
"Yes," Orion replied, nodding his head regally. "But in doing so he took something valuable out of our vaults, and you will need that something if you ever hope to free our people."
"What was it?"
"Come closer," Orion said, and Regulus bent down until his father could whisper in his ear. "This isn't something we can ever let our enemy know about."
What his father told him was horrifying – how could have Sirius been so foolish as to take this out of their vaults? (but then again it was Sirius they were talking about) – but it was also strangely reassuring too, as it gave Regulus hope for the future.
"Go now," Orion told him. "You must leave before Cyrus can find you."
"I don't want to," Regulus protested. "Father, I can't leave you here alone." Who knows what they'll do to your remains? He didn't say, but from his father's sad smile, it was clear that he understood the sentiment all the same.
"It's too late for me," Orion admitted, "but not for you. Go, my son, and save our people. Make me proud." His words were soft, but his tone wasn't. There was still steel in those eyes, and Regulus didn't have the heart to deny his father's last request, doubly so when doing it would probably mean a darker future for their people.
"As you wish."
Regretfully, Regulus swam back inside. Narcissa stood above his mother, and she nodded at him. Her eyes were red, but she wasn't crying and she looked determined.
Still, Regulus had to be sure – his mother had stayed at his father's side for decades, he had to know that Narcissa wouldn't betray him to her own father. Some bonds were stronger than fealty, he knew that only too well.
"How can I trust you?" He asked, his tone cold and harsh.
"I would never purposely hurt you," she swore, her eyes as hard as his.
"Never?"
"Never," she confirmed, and something in Regulus' chest eased. At least he wasn't alone in this quest.
"Come on then. We need to leave," he said, and together they swam down and down, through empty rooms and emptier corridors, until they reached the golden doors that held the treasures amassed by the royal family over the centuries.
"What are we doing here?" Narcissa asked curious, already positioning herself to guard his back.
"There is something in there we need," Regulus confessed, and then he steeled himself. He unclenched his hand and took out the key his father had handed him in those last moments, pushed it in the keyhole, and turned. For a moment nothing happened, and Regulus' heart beat faster. Were those cries of his name he could hear, coming from above them? Were there people already looking for them?
But finally, the doors opened, and Regulus quickly swam inside, Narcissa following him closely.
"What are we looking for?" Narcissa asked, her tone even and calm.
"Bracelets," Regulus replied absentmindedly, his eyes already scanning over the room. "They're about the width of my hand, and made of brass. You'll know them when you see them," he added.
"What do they do?"
"They'll help us get out of here and find my brother," Regulus explained with a wince.
"Your brother?"
In any other circumstances, Regulus would have smiled. Narcissa had rarely ever sounded as taken-aback as she did now, especially in the last few years.
"Yes," Regulus said. "He stole something we will need to free our people from my mother's control."
"Wouldn't death work?" Narcissa asked, her tone solemn.
Regulus swallowed heavily, trying to push past the lump in his throat. He didn't want to answer her question, but she deserved the truth.
"It might. But it also could make the enchantment worse. My mother was always good at those," he stated almost wistfully, his eyes lost in the distance as he remembered how in their childhood years, she had used those same enchantments to play with him and Sirius.
He also couldn't kill his mother in cold blood, and he saw from the flash in Narcissa's eyes that she understood that too.
He turned away from her, and spotted a flash of metal in the far right corner of the room.
"There!" He shouted, and swam above the piles of artefacts to his destination. Seconds later, Narcissa joined him.
"They're not very pretty," she pointed out, and despite the seriousness of the situation, Regulus' lips pulled upward in a quick smile.
"They're not," he agreed, "but they're very useful. With those on, we will be able to leave this world for Above, and walk among the mortals as one of them."
"And how do you know this?" Narcissa asked, a quicksilver flash of something in her eyes.
Regulus smiled ruefully, allowing his fingers to caress the metal softly. "Sirius and I used to sneak out with them sometimes. I haven't used them in years-" since he left "-but I still remember how they work."
Narcissa hummed, but nodded.
They left after that, taking the servants' way out of the place, their features shrouded by the algae capes the servants sometimes wore, doing their best to ignore the frustrated shouts coming from the rooms now occupied by Walburga and her brother as they ordered the two fugitives found.
By the time they left the city, it was night, and the only light that remained in the streets came from the slight glow of their capes. Even though they might draw attention to them, Regulus was loath to part with them. They might be the only piece of his home he could get his hands on for a long time.
"Where to now?" Narcissa finally asked once even the outline of the city had faded from view.
"Now we rest," Regulus said solemnly. "And tomorrow we swim up, until we find land."
.x.
Living among the humans wasn't easy, but they made do. The bracelets worked perfectly, giving Regulus and Narcissa legs instead of tails. Surprisingly – or perhaps not, the blonde had always been very good at adapting – Narcissa took to them even faster than Regulus did, even though the prince-in-exile had more experience.
The hardest part had been finding work, which they needed if they wanted money to live. They had grabbed some gold from the royal vault on their way out, but that wouldn't last forever, especially with how much they had already needed to spend to even find a trail that might lead them to Sirius.
But finally, they had reached a place where Regulus was confident they would actually find something.
Caracrass was a little port town by the western coast of the land they had swam to, and rumor had it that someone matching Sirius' description came by every now and then to enjoy the taverns.
The town was lovely, though it had been almost completely hidden from outsiders. Finding it had been quite hard, but then again Regulus supposed that what really mattered was that it was easier to get to by sea than it was by land.
He should have known that it was nothing quite so simple.
They both found work in the local tavern, mostly because it was the only place that would hire them, but also because it was very convenient. Regulus worked in the kitchen, washing and helping the cook (if someone had told him a year ago that he would be doing menial work for humans he would have had them sent to a medic), while Narcissa had just the right temperament to hand out drinks to drunk sailors.
The 'right temperament' may or may not involve nearly breaking a man's harm if he got too handsy, but Regulus didn't exactly care as long as she stayed safe, which she did.
They spent two weeks there before they finally found Sirius. Or well, before Sirius found them.
It all started when a ship with black sails arrived a few hours before sunset.
"Be careful tonight," Regulus told Narcissa, his voice uncharacteristically worried. They both knew exactly what pirates where capable of after all – every Merperson was raised to know that if there were any kind of human they should avoid, it was pirates.
"I will," she replied in the same tone.
And everything would have gone perfectly well, if it hadn't been for the fight that started in the tavern that night, once all the sailors – pirates too, Regulus realized with a kind of horrified wonder – had imbibed enough alcohol to loosen their, well, everything.
Regulus was too busy trying not to get clobbered by the dirty giant of a man who had thrown a knife at him earlier while also keeping an eye on his cousin, who was having way too much fun hitting anyone who dared approach her with whatever she had at hand, to notice the man's friend creeping up on him.
Thankfully, someone else did.
The shot ran out clear as day in the middle of the busy tavern, and Regulus saw the knife drop by his side, bloody fingers still clenched around them as their owner moaned loudly behind him.
However, when he turned around, the stranger on the ground wasn't the one who captured his attention. No, that particular honor was reserved for his savior, a man who wore a rakish kind of smile and swept-away hair as dark as the night.
He spoke, and something in Regulus' chest twinged. Oh no, he thought, mildly horrified, as he recognized the beginning of attraction.
"Are you alright? I'm James, and you are…?" He offered his hand in greeting, but before Regulus could take it or answer, a too familiar voice rang out in the room.
"Regulus?" Sirius said, bewildered, stepping from whatever shadows he had been hiding in.
"Sirius," Regulus greeted back, his voice far calmer than he was feeling. In all the years he had been gone, his brother had barely changed – he was somewhat taller now, Regulus thought, but he also looked more at ease somehow, like he weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Abandoning his duties probably did that to someone, Regulus thought viciously, and for a moment he really wanted to hit him.
Taking a deep breath, Regulus allowed himself to relax and let go of the thought.
"I take it you two know each other then?" James asked with smile, though his eyes were more guarded now.
"He's my brother," Sirius and Regulus replied at the same time.
"I see," James said, though it was clear that he didn't. He had relaxed again though. "Well then, I guess you should come with us. Something tells me you have one hell of a story to tell."
"Of course," Regulus nodded just as Sirius started, "James, I don't think this is a good idea-".
Regulus shot his brother a withering glare, and stepped toward James to follow him.
"We'll need to pick up someone else though," Regulus said as they started walking. "She shouldn't be far, though."
"She?"
"Our cousin, Narcissa, came with me," Regulus explained, though he wasn't exactly sure why he felt the need to justify himself so.
"You brought Narcissa?!" Sirius cried out a few step behind them. "Are you mad? What if she-" Sirius cut himself off, looking like he had swallowed a lemon.
Ahead of them, Narcissa swatted at another man – the last one standing around her. There was a pile of downed bodies – Regulus hoped they weren't corpses, but at this point he hardly cared – all around her, and James whistled beside him.
"That's some kind of woman," he said.
Regulus bristled. "She's the best."
"Damn, she grew up bloodthirsty," Sirius said, sounding impressed. Despite himself, Regulus had to smile at that – last Sirius had seen their cousin, she had still been one for hiding behind her sisters. Or well, sister. Bellatrix had been exiled along with her father for her part in the first uprising the man had led, and Regulus had no doubt that the Mermaid was wreaking havoc in his kingdom at this very moment.
"You should have seen her knock out mother," Regulus stated wistfully.
Sirius missed a step. "She what?"
"You missed a lot of things, leaving the way you did," Regulus simply replied, but he knew he'd have to explain at some point.
"I can see that," Sirius sighed, and for the first time since they had met up again he looked regretful.
By then, Narcissa had rejoined them, and introduced herself to James, simply nodding at Sirius while sending him a glare that, had such a thing been possible, might have killed him from the rage alone.
"Shall we retreat to my ship then?" James asked in a light tone once the silence had grown tense.
"Yes, that sounds like a good idea," Regulus agreed, and followed the other man to the pirate ship they had spotted pulling into the harbor a few hours earlier.
Regulus wasn't even surprised, but he whirled around to face his brother all the same, seething.
"A pirate, Sirius? Really? This is what you gave up the throne for?"
"What can I say? I guess adventure runs in my blood far more than stuffy politics," Sirius shrugged non-apologetically.
"Wait, throne?" James interjected, his eyes widening in surprise.
"Not now!" The two brothers yelled before returning to their glaring.
"Maybe we should move this somewhere more… private," Narcissa offered, nudging Regulus toward the cabins.
"Right, right," James replied, still looking out of his depth. "This way." Together, they led the two brothers toward the cabin James and Sirius shared as Captain and First Mate. It was sparsely decorated, but it looked well-lived in all the same.
Regulus and James sat on the bed, and across from them, Sirius and Narcissa took place on two chairs.
"So, what's this about a throne?" James started, his eyes darting between Sirius and Regulus.
"You haven't told him? Does he even know that you're a, you know?" Regulus asked his brother disbelievingly.
"If you're talking about the Mermaid thing, I do know about that," James interjected.
"Merman," Regulus and Sirius corrected simultaneously.
"Well, at least you told him that," Regulus sighed, twisting the brass bracelet that gave him his legs around his wrist.
"Of course I did!" Sirius replied, offended. "I wasn't about to keep it a secret from James!"
"But you saw no problem with not telling him about you running away from the throne," Narcissa said drily.
"She's got a point there, mate," James added, smiling somewhat apologetically.
Sirius growled. "It never came up."
Regulus scoffed. "You mean you never let it come up."
"It's not like it's an easy thing to announce," Sirius protested. "What was I supposed to say, 'oh and by the way I was supposed to be king but my mother banished me from the kingdom when I was fifteen?"
Had he been drinking something, Regulus would have spat it out. From Narcissa's surprised gasp, he wasn't the only one.
"What do you mean, 'banished'?" He asked, dreading the answer.
Sirius blinked owlishly, and then frowned. "Just that," he replied. "Mother banished me, for, err, I believe she said something about how I spent too much time consorting with those Above."
"That's ridiculous," Regulus said.
"That's what I said!" Sirius replied, sounding unnerved. "But she wouldn't hear it. So I was banished."
"But mother can't banish any of us," Regulus said, a cold sweat running down his back. "Only father can."
"Well either father agreed, like she told me, or she found a way," Sirius replied, smiling bitterly as he pointed at his legs. "I thought she might have done the same to you, but she didn't, did she?" He asked, pointing at Regulus' bracelet.
"No, she didn't," Regulus said, feeling the building of a hysterical laughter in his chest. He tasted bile in the back of his throat, and pushed it back through sheer force of will. He opened his mouth to explain, but his voice locked in his throat as his father's face flashed in front of his eyes.
Narcissa took over. "Your mother murdered your father, and together with her brother they took over the kingdom. Had we stayed, they would have killed him-"
"-us," Regulus managed to croak out.
"-us," she corrected with an eye roll, "so we ran. Apparently the king told Regulus here to find you before he died, because you took something with you when you run that could help us retake the kingdom..."
She trailed out, her voice dying out as she realized what Regulus just had. They exchanged horrified looks.
"But if you didn't run away, you can't have stolen anything."
Sirius grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Actually… I might have nicked a couple of things on my way out. Come on," he said, scandalized at Regulus' and Narcissa's unimpressed looks, "you could hardly expect me to leave empty-handed!"
"I guess it does explain the piracy," Narcissa pointed out with a teasing glint in her eyes.
"Exactly!" Sirius cried out, a bright smile on his face that faded as soon as he realized what he had just agreed to. "Wait, no, that's not it," he tried to protest, but it fell flat as James laughed and his brother and cousin shared amused looks.
"You got to admit that they kind of got you there," James chuckled.
It took one look from Regulus to douse the pleasant mood though.
"What did you take anyway?" James asked curiously once he stopped laughing.
"Mostly some money," Sirius shrugged. "I figured I'd need it. Some jewelry too, one of those bracelets too," he added, gesturing at Regulus'.
"That's all?" Regulus asked, disappointed.
"Did I say that was all?" Sirius replied, rolling his eyes. "No, I also took this," he said, taking out a necklace from beneath his shirt.
It was a pearl, white and luminescent. It clearly wasn't natural.
"Is that?" Narcissa asked, her tone reverent as her hands itched toward the necklace.
"Yes," Regulus confirmed, and Sirius tucked back the necklace in its hiding place.
"And for those of us who aren't familiar with Mermaid culture?" James prompted. "I mean, it's pretty, sure, but how is that going to help you save an entire kingdom?"
This time, even Sirius looked at him like he was particularly stupid.
"Pretty? Pretty?" Regulus choked out. "This isn't one of your treasures, pirate – this is the soul of our goddess, able to grant us our deepest wish."
"Why haven't you used it?" Narcissa asked Sirius.
"I don't know," Sirius answered honestly. "I guess I knew it had a greater purpose," he mused, before lifting the necklace from his neck and handing it, somewhat regretfully, to his brother. "Take it. If father meant for you to have it… I guess it's best you have it."
Regulus' hands closed reverently around the pearl for a moment. It seemed to pulse in rhythm with his heart, and it carried a warmth that couldn't come simply from its stay against his brother's chest.
"Thank you," he whispered, before letting the pearl fall against his heart, hidden beneath his own shirt this time.
They sat in silence for a little while, taking in everything that had just happened, before James suddenly stood and started rubbing his hands together.
"Well, that was very interesting, but I still don't get how exactly we're going to take back your kingdom," he announced.
"There's no we," Narcissa frowned.
"She's right James, or had you forgotten that as Merpeople we live underwater?" Sirius added, his eyebrows rising in surprise.
"Actually," Regulus corrected, tugging at his bracelet, "there is a way he could help…"
"See? Regulus clearly got all the smarts in the family!" James exclaimed, winking at Regulus.
Regulus blushed. "Thank you."
he was about to say more, but Sirius interrupted him. "But how?"
Instead of answering, Regulus lifted his wrist, letting the bracelet he wore catch the light.
"Oh," Sirius breathed.
"I didn't know they could do that," Narcissa said, her tone curious.
"Why couldn't they?" Regulus asked. "After all, they give us legs – it makes sense that the reverse would be true too."
"I guess," Narcissa replied, and appeared to lose herself in her mind as her hand started tracing the intricate symbols engraved on the metal.
"So I can come with?" James asked, nearly vibrating in his excitement.
"Yes," Regulus asked, amused despite himself. "You can."
"Awesome!" James replied, and his smile put the sun to shame.
.x.
In the end, the battle was kind of anticlimactic. Sneaking underwater was easy – James made a ridiculously pretty Merman, and he took to his tail even more quickly than Narcissa had taken to her legs.
"This is kind of cool, actually," James mused, using his newly acquired tail to experiment with maneuvers that made even Regulus ironclad stomach twist with sympathy. "Never thought I'd have so much fun with a tail," he added.
"It's also very dangerous," Regulus couldn't help but repeat. "On us, the bracelet coming off above ground doesn't hurt us as much as it inconveniences us, unless we are very far away from the water, but if yours comes off while you're underwater, you'll drown."
I don't want to see you drown, Regulus swallowed back.
"I get it – don't worry, I'll be careful," James replied, waving him off like it was no trouble.
They reached the city in a little under five days, three of those having been spent getting James used to his tail and fins, and the last scouting around to find what had changed.
Outwardly, it seemed like not much had. It was only when they sneaked inside that Regulus noticed the changes.
The streets were darker, and quieter. They had used to ring out with children's laughter the last time they had been there, and they had never been truly empty the way they were now. The atmosphere was oppressing, and it made Regulus' heart hurt to even think as to what his people might have endured while he was gone.
But still, with the pearl in their possession, the actual fight went quickly.
Regulus crumpled it in his palm and let the dust disperse in the water, regretfully hoping that no one else would ever need it, as once the wish was used no other could come true, and wished that his mother's control of his people ceased.
It didn't take long, after that, for everyone to rebel and chase Cyrus and Walburga out of the palace, where Regulus waited for them.
It wasn't them they should have feared though.
No, Bellatrix, the only loyal daughter Cyrus would ever have, was the one they should have been watching.
With the quick swish of tail that had once made her the Black princes' favorite partner in a race, she grabbed James and yanked the bracelet off his wrist, using another swish of her tail to send it far away.
It didn't get that far, but by the time anyone got to it, Regulus knew it would be too late.
Already, James' hands clawed at his throat as he tried to spit out the water in his lungs, only to swallow more of it. His eyes were panicked, and with one hand he tried to reach for Regulus.
It took him two seconds longer than he would have wished to reach him, this man Regulus had grown stupidly attached to in their short time together.
"I'm sorry," he said, not knowing what else to do. "I wish I could help you."
There was nothing he wished for more, but Regulus couldn't see James' bracelet, and Narcissa's, Sirius' and his rested far outside of the city, hidden in case this plan hadn't worked and they had need to swim away again.
From the corner of his eyes, he saw the palace's guards take hold of Bellatrix, heavy ropes binding her as they dragged her away. A few of them were even looking for the bracelet, but with the sand Bellatrix had stirred up as she was getting dragged away, there was no way to spot it even if they knew exactly where to look, which they didn't.
He grabbed hold of James' arms in an effort to steady him, and then he remembered the old stories, the ones he had used to love hearing before bed.
The stories of a love that could save a drowning man. It had bene a Mermaid in the story, but well, Regulus had very little to lose by trying and everything to gain.
He lowered his lips to James', his fingers caressing his face, unknowingly leaving tiny specks of the same dust he had used to take back his kingdom behind to seep into James' skin.
Breathe, he ordered in his mind, deepening the kiss eve as James answered weakly. Live, he begged, praying that this would work.
He closed his eyes, and wished.
And somehow, something answered.
.x.
The place in his mind was glowing golden. It was not the glow of molten metal though, or even the glow of the jewelry when the light hit it just right. It was warm instead, and pulsing.
A shadow stepped out of the glow. Regulus couldn't see their features, but he thought they looked female. And then the figure split in three, and spoke, their tone echoing as they spoke in unison.
"You breathed for him," the figures stated.
"Yes," Regulus replied, compelled somehow to be truthful.
"You wish for him to be yours," they continued.
"I do," Regulus replied, unblinking and somehow not blushing.
"And so does he," they added.
"I do not know," he confessed.
The music he hadn't realized was playing in the background stopped, leaving an eery silence behind. The figure stepped forward, their fingers grasping Regulus' chin tightly until he looked into their eyes. Somehow, Regulus had the feeling they saw through him, and into something – someone? – else.
Even this close, Regulus couldn't discern their features. He wasn't scared though, even who how quickly their grip on his chin could turn hurtful.
"He does," they finally said, retreating.
Regulus' heart jumped in his chest.
"Then he is yours as you are his, and we shall leave him to you," they continued, already retreating into the glow, the warmth that had come with it slowly fading.
"Thank you," he managed to whisper, before he opened his eyes to find himself staring into James' hazel eyes. For a moment he feared he had imagined everything, but the golden glow that still stuck to James' skin proved him wrong.
"I'm not dead," James stated, surprised.
"No, you're not," Regulus replied, a pleased smile on his lips.
James laughed. "You know, if you wanted to kiss me, you just had to ask – there was no need for you to play hero like this."
Regulus swatted at him playfully, but he truly was too relieved to really say anything about it.
Instead, he tugged James into another kiss. It was a far better one now that James was no longer dying.
Regretfully, they pulled apart. Regulus still had to decide what to do with his mother and her brother, after all.
"To be continued?" James whispered against his lips, his eyes twinkling merrily.
"To be continued," Regulus agreed, and together they swam to the guards who were alternating between sending them open-mouthed looks and glaring at their bound and gagged prisoners.
epilogue
"So, anyway, am I a Mermaid too now? Not that I'm complaining, because it sure beats being dead, but I also quite liked being human, you know," James asked.
"It's Merman," Regulus corrected. "And I don't know. This doesn't exactly happen often, as you might have guessed," he stated drily.
"How 'not often' is 'not often' exactly?" James enquired, sounding not quite worried , but also not just curious.
Regulus hummed, thinking about it for a moment. "Well, 'not often' as in, I only ever heard of this in our fairytales."
"Wow. So just so we're clear, you had no idea this would work? And you basically made us into a real(life version of one of your fairytales?"
"I guess you could see it that way…"
"You know, I've said it before, but I'll say it again – if you wanted me to kiss you, there were easier ways to go about it."
"Like asking, right?" Regulus replied teasingly, arching an eyebrow and swimming closer to James, until they were plastered against each other.
"Mmh, just like asking," James said, his eyes dropping to Regulus' mouth.
"I guess it might work…" Regulus mused, an amused glint in his eyes.
They stayed close enough to share their water for a few moments, before James finally blurted it out.
"Well, aren't you going to ask?"
Regulus laughed, warm and happy against the man he loved. "James, kiss me."
"Anything for you, my king."