Notes: Apparently, I can't write anything other than angst anymore. This was originally for LJ's rarepair_shorts' Summer Wishlist Event 2014. I hope you enjoy it! For warnings: mentions of sex, swearing.

"Wait… no, Regulus, stop," James pulled away from Regulus, moving his lips away from his.

"What?" Regulus blinked, dazed from kisses. He could barely see James in the dark of the cupboard that he had pulled them both into. It was after midnight, far past curfew, and hardly anyone was about in the castle. This was one of the rare times that the two of them could get away.

"I… I just hate being your dirty little secret, Regulus," James said, running a hand through his messy black hair. He was anxious, Regulus could tell.

"James, listen… we've been through this," he bit his well-kissed lower lip, watched James follow the movement. "You know no one can find out, at least not until we're both out of school. Sirius would flip…"

"Sirius would come around," James pointed out. "He loves you, misses you. He might not like the fact that I'm fucking his little brother, but he'd get over it."

"The rest of my family wouldn't," Regulus pointed out. "They'd never forgive me. It'd just about kill my mother. A second deviant son, this one a pouf… she really would just keel over."

"Fuck her," James shot back. "The way your family has treated you and Sirius, I say just fuck the lot of them."

Regulus' eyes narrowed. "James, I know you don't like them, but that's my mother you're talking about… my entire family, really."

James moved backwards, out of Regulus' arms. "It doesn't make it any less true."

Regulus sighed, "I'm not Sirius, James. I can't just up and leave like he did. I don't have it in me."

There was a long silence, as James studied Regulus. He really couldn't see him at all. "Maybe you don't," James said slowly. "But you're not even willing to try."

"James," Regulus said, but James didn't listen.

"No… I think you were never going to come clean. We were never going to be open about us, were we?"

Regulus didn't say anything. He had never been optimistic enough to believe in a happy future. He figured that he would die before he turned 20, the way things were going with the Dark Lord. Even if he didn't, he would have to marry some woman he didn't love or lose everything. He would be disowned and the Black fortune would go to Bellatrix, if he didn't. There would never be happiness for Regulus Black. He wasn't Sirius… there was no hope.

To James, however, the silence was telling of more than just Regulus' attitude. "Fuck… I knew it. I should've known all along!"

Regulus could hear the hitch in James' voice; he was about to cry. Yet, he still couldn't say a word. He was frozen, arms outstretched. He wanted to go back in time 15 minutes, so they could go back to the way things had been.

"Okay, then," James said. He sniffled before continuing. "Okay… we're through, Regulus. I can't do this anymore... I can't be entangled with you anymore," James lingered for a moment, as if waiting for Regulus to say something. Then, he slammed the cupboard door open and ran down the abandoned corridor, the torchlight seeming almost blinding.

Meanwhile, in the cupboard, Regulus turned to face the open door and watched James leave him behind. He melted onto the floor, collapsing into a mess, chest heaving as if he had run a marathon. He had seen it coming, hadn't he? Then, why was he so upset? That was when the tears finally came.

He must have sat there for an hour before he regained the control that had been trained into him since he was a child. He stood, straightening his robes before casting a glamour spell to make it look like he hadn't been crying.

There was no doubt in Regulus' mind that the best of his life had just left him… but, no matter, really. If he knew how to do anything, it was how to carry on after abandonment. He walked into the corridor, leaving the cupboard behind.