Summary: Sirius has decided his brother will not be joining the Death Eaters, or doing anything else his parents want, and if he has to physically force Regulus to go along with his plan, he will.

Story Notes: This is another request from a friend of mine, who's probably at the very moment I post this opening a lovely e-mail from me containing the first chapter of this story. I'm so glad most everyone I know asks me to write them Regulus fics; it give me an excuse to continue fixating . although lately I have been delving into the Lestrange brothers and some Barty Crouch Jr. stuff oddly enough. I don't think Rodolphus and Rabastan will ever be able to usurp the Black brothers' place in my heart, though.

And it would probably take the almighty hand of god to make me write something focusing on characters from Harry's generation. Those little fuckers have too much canonical personality, just…too much.

Pairings: None? I'll probably continue my trend of turning James and Lily into best friends but nothing more…I alter that boy's character like no other and still I don't think he's good enough for her *laughs* Or maybe I just like the excuse to throw in a happy, single girl…Also I promise this story will not drift into Sirius/Regulus territory. Promise. I know my track record makes that difficult to believe but just trust me. Really.

Side notes: I promised myself I wouldn't start any more multi-chaptered…things until I was completely done (or at least had a better handle on) Audentes. Buuuut then this happened. No seriously, it just happened.

Onwards.

"What?" Sirius asked roughly. "Whatever it is just say it, Remus."

Remus smiled a little. "Don't get like that," he implored. "I was just wanting to warn you; this is a serious amount of responsibility you're going to take on now, and I want to make sure you know full well what it is you're getting into."

Sirius stopped walking and raised an eyebrow. Somewhere over his shoulder a shop's neon sign flickered on: a sign that night was creeping up. "You would have me leave him behind there? You honestly think I can't handle my own little brother?"

Remus, too, stopped walking. "No, not at all," he insisted. "I'm not trying to convince you not to do this, more so I just want to make sure you plan on…you know, giving this your all."

"Remus…"

Remus held up his hands in defense. "I'm not saying you're irresponsible, just that you may be biting off more than you can chew. Regulus is damaged, Sirius, and you're not so perfectly functional yourself, you know. I just don't want this to end badly."

"I'm going to go back and get him."

Remus nodded in agreement. The two started to walk again. It was minutes before Remus gathered his wits to speak again.

"We've still got a year of school left. You're going to be very busy."

"So will he, but we'll make do, Remus."

Remus tugged at his collar, regretting his choice to wear such a warm shirt when summer was clearly coming early. "Have you even considered how hard your parents are going to fight you on this, Sirius, not to mention Regulus?"

"I'm doing what is right," Sirius said to the pavement.

Remus also trained his eyes to the ground. Uncomfortable conversations like this, especially with Sirius of all people, had never been his forte.

"I've no doubt you could physically remove Regulus from that house, Sirius, but if your parents pursue you legally… not to mention your brother won't make it any easier on you if he's as far gone as you describe."

"My parents won't fight me, Remus. Trust me."

Remus absent mindedly scratched at his arm. His pace unconsciously slowed. "You seem so certain…"

Sirius smiled smugly. "If they start any commotion the authorities will get involved. All the time in the world wouldn't be enough for my parents to hide the myriad of illicit Dark materials they have in that house. They know if they make any legal moves they'll regret it."

Remus scoffed. "You're trying to convince me that the Blacks of all people couldn't stave off the Ministry with a little gold?"

They turned a corner. Sirius's apartment was just down the road.

"Believe me, there are limits to what even my family can do, especially against someone like me attacking from the inside out. Plus I think I have a chance of getting Regulus to tell them he only wants to visit me for some time this summer. Then school starts. Then after that he visits me again and I just never give him back. I'm his brother; it'd be hard to bring up charges against me."

"For kidnapping, maybe," Remus consented. "But I imagine it would be quite easy to haul you off to Azkaban for performing the Imperius Curse on your thirteen year old brother because that is the only way you are going to get him to say anything of the sort!"

Sirius laughed abruptly. "I can get ahold of Regulus, Remus. Have some faith in me."

"Okay," Remus promised. "I'll try. But what I was alluding to before is still a concern, Sirius. Fixing Regulus is going to be difficult. You're going to have to give this one your all. You can't just get bored or frustrated halfway through and give up. It's going to be hard, and you've got to be committed, all right?"

Sirius pretended to be outraged. "You dare doubt my conviction, Moony?" he demanded while fishing his apartment keys from the pocket of his jeans.

"Har, har. I'm serious here, Sirius. I'm not a child psychologist, but even I can tell you that Regulus is going to need a lot of attention, and you've got your own life to worry about."

Sirius unlocked his front door and stepped inside, Remus close behind. "This is the first decently altruistic thing I've done with my life, don't try to talk me out of it."

Remus slapped Sirius lightly on the back and then made his way into the kitchen, flicking on lights as he went. "I wouldn't dream of it, but this whole situation is dependent on you, Sirius. Regulus is not going to give you a lot of help, you know."

"Yeah," Sirius sighed. "I know, but it will be worth it in the end."

"Sirius?" Remus asked cautiously a moment later as he started to sift through the copious amounts of alcohol in the cupboard.

"Mhm?" Sirius asked curiously. He had been hoping this particular conversation had ended, but apparently Remus wasn't finished yet.

"You are…okay, please don't take this the wrong way but…you are doing this for Regulus, right?"

"As opposed to what?" Sirius asked slowly.

"As opposed to…say, wanting to have a brother who's a carbon copy of you, wanting to have control over someone else, or even some pathological need to win against your parents by, I don't know, like stealing their prize possession from them: their Regulus." When he finished, Remus looked to Sirius with a bit of apprehension in his eyes, praying Sirius wouldn't explode on him.

Sirius was pouring himself a glass of wine. With a heavy sigh he sat down at the table. Tentatively, Remus joined him.

"Okay you wanted an answer, well, I'll give you one. You want to know why I want this so badly? Here, this is why." Sirius held up his hand to the light to illuminate the thin scar on the back of his wrist. Remus had seen it many times but had never asked how Sirius had gotten it. He had had it at least since Remus met him.

"This," Sirius explained carefully in between sips of purple wine, "is a scar I got from a particularly nasty curse that jettisoned out of my mother's old wand. It was the one she kept in the attic and never used. Regulus had been messing with it. He was eight; I was eleven."

"How'd you get hit? Did he point the wand at you?"

Sirius shook his head quickly. "No, no, you idiot, I found him and leaped forward just in time to get him out of the way. I got hit with the tail end of the curse instead. He scared me so badly. I was a while yelling at him before I remembered I was injured, but there was not much anyone could do anyway but stop the bleeding. The scar wouldn't fade because it was a curse and not a normal wound, but I didn't mind. I was just happy Reggie hadn't gotten hit."

"I'm waiting for you to tie this into what we were talking about."

"Getting to that, Remus," Sirius downed the rest of his glass. "I guess what I'm trying to get across is that, when I asked him why in the hell he'd been messing around alone up in the attic, where there were a hundred dangerous things, he said he'd been trying to get my attention."

"Your attention?"

Sirius looked his friend straight in the eye and nodded. "Yeah. I'd been pretty preoccupied packing for Hogwarts, you see, and I think I'd been ignoring him. He was wanting me to pay attention to him, and he didn't want me to leave. He even crawled into my bed that night. I didn't have the heart to kick him out."

"Oh," said Remus, sitting back. "I get it now, yeah."

Sirius smiled. "Sometimes I have trouble buying that that hate-filled little fucker who skulks around the school hallways sneering at Muggle-borns and cursing my name is really the same boy and not some hideously construed doppelganger."

"Well then, Sirius," said Remus raising his own wine glass to toast. "Then I wish you all the luck in the world. And believe me, you're going to need it to get Regulus to leave that mansion you call Grimmauld Place to come and live here."

"Hey! I'm young and on a bit of a fixed income, give me a break! It's not that small!"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Size isn't that much of an issue. Let's just hope your brother secretly adores cleaning."

"Next weekend I'm hanging out with James."

ﯕⱤﯕⱤﯕⱤ

Despite his earlier confidence when talking with Remus, Sirius still arrived at his former home carrying a little more anxiety than he would have liked. He could do this, God dammit. He knocked lightly on the door and heard an instant commotion behind it.

Kreacher, the unsightly little house elf, opened the door and fixed him with a scrutinizing stare. "Master Sirius," he said finally and after some consideration. "Back to apologize or wanting something?"

"I wish to speak with my brother, Kreacher," Sirius responded coolly. Kreacher, however, called for Sirius's parents, and Sirius immediately found himself grateful that he had dressed to the nines that day. His proper robes and combed hair should at least endear him to his parents somewhat, or else nothing would.

His mother arrived on the threshold.

"Mother," Sirius inclined his head a little.

She stared at him dully, her sunken eyes rife with judgment, and then folded her arms, unimpressed. "And what have we here?" Walburga Black asked coldly, pushing her dark hair behind her ear. "A blood traitor come crawling back to beg for forgiveness?"

Sirius took a deep breath. "No—" he began.

Ms. Black made to close the door in his face.

"Wait, Mum!" he called. She paused, glaring, as if to demand he explain himself quickly.

Sirius took the hint. "I wanted to talk with Reg, if I can. It's important," he said as fast as he could.

Walburga's brown eyes narrowed dangerously. "I don't know what business you think you have with my son, but I assure you that he is too busy to speak with the likes of you." She spun on her heel and marched off into the dining room, obviously expecting Kreacher to close to door behind her, but Sirius was too fast. He shouldered his way inside and followed his now irate mother.

"Please," he called. "Mother."

She whirled around indignantly. "I am not your mother," she whispered. "You are not my child, you are someone else's monstrosity, not get out of my house before I make you." Her words were venomous but with a tentative amount of optimism Sirius noted that there was not nearly as much effort behind it all as there had been the night he had stormed out—seemingly for good. Her voice was barely more than a whisper, and a tired one at that.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you so, Mother, but my blood does mean enough to me that I visit my younger brother on occasion."

"Get out," she repeated wearily, but made no move to access her wand. Sirius fidgeted. A part of him wished that his mother would start screaming again like he was so used to. He felt uncomfortable with theses subtle reminders that she did, somewhere, care about him at least a little. These signs that she was confused and tired, like a real human being might be. "I don't want you here."

"All right, I'll leave soon. Just let me see Regulus. I need to at least wish him a happy birthday."

"His birthday is not for another eight days, Sirius," Walburga said dryly.

"Honestly? I thought it would take a week of me coming to badger you just to get you or Father to let me in the house."

"You're lucky your father isn't here right now, you sorry Muggle-lover. He'd beat you if he could get his hands on you."

"Your husband is my father but you are not my mother? How could you not tell me, Ms. Black? After all these years! I must say though, that it is admirable of you to still try and make such an unfaithful marriage last!"

His mother reached forward and struck him hard on the arm. Then she stormed off in the general direction of the drawing room, yelling over her shoulder, "You have five minutes you ungrateful, shameful creature. Then I throw you out in pieces."

So, thought Sirius, this was one of her better days where those tiny rays of humanity shined through her horrible blackened heart. He imagined he probably did have only five minutes or so before that hideous Black monster took hold again and she really did come at him raving and firing hexes.

Quickly, he jogged up the stairs. He resisted all urges to step foot inside his old bedroom for fear that he'd find it dismantled and torn apart…or even worse; untouched and preserved. He wasn't sure he could take any more vague hints that his family didn't want him dead so much as he was comfortable believing, even if all semblances of decency and kindness were on a purely subconscious level.

He knocked on Regulus's bedroom door, hoping he was inside and at the same time oddly nervous. Nervous, to talk to a thirteen year old? Get a grip, he told himself.

A very confused Regulus Black opened the door a moment later. Who on earth would be knocking inside his own house? When he saw Sirius, however, he narrowed his eyes immediately and scowled. "Fuck off," he spat, turning around and slamming the door behind him. Sirius caught it, though, just before it closed and pushed his way into Regulus's room.

"Hold up there," he said, grabbing Regulus by the arm.

Regulus spun around indignantly and punched his brother as hard as he could in the stomach with his free hand. Sirius held on, though, and soon seized Regulus's other arm by the wrist. "Get off of me," his brother snapped.

"Calm down, I've just spoken to Mother, and she said I could come and talk to you," Sirius said quickly, trying to deter his brother from yelling for their parent.

"Mother must still be loopy on the drugs that had her recovering from that headcold she had. There is no other way she'd let a freak like you back into the house!" Regulus kicked at Sirius's legs.

"Well I'm here now, and you're going to listen to me."

Regulus jerked in his grip. "Get out of my room you Blood-Fucking-Traitor! Go back to your little Mudblood friends and never darken our doorstep again!"

"Regulus, calm down—"

"What?" he shrieked, still thrashing. "Was one dramatic departure not enough for the attention hungry Gryffindor? Need to come crawling back home just so you can triumphantly leave again?"

"Be quiet," Sirius yanked his brother towards him. Their age difference and Regulus's slighter body build let him overpower the younger easily, but Regulus was still yelling.

"I'll be leaving in just a moment," Sirius said after finally muffling Regulus's voice.

"Then why did you come back anyway? Get out of here, I don't want you in my room!" was Regulus's answer when Sirius allowed him to speak.

"You're going to be coming with me."

Regulus froze. Slowly, Sirius released him and stepped back a bit. Regulus was no longer seething; instead he looked almost violently incredulous. How many times had he heard that phrase you're NOT going to be coming with me uttered by the very same person who stood before him now? You're not going to be coming with me to school this year; I'm leaving for James's and you're not going to be coming with me. How unreal it was now to hear it phrased in the positive for once. Regulus's brain almost couldn't comprehend it entirely. He was silent for a long moment, and then:

"Go fuck yourself, Sirius."

Sirius wasn't sure if Regulus was just being his normal, hateful self or if his trust issues were starting to show through. Either way, his language was appalling.

"Don't you speak to me like that," Sirius took out his wand. "Now I don't have time to address your attitude fully right now because we really do need to go if we want dinner at any reasonable hour of the evening. So grab your bag and let's go."

"I'm not going anywhere with you, you cunting son of a bitch! I don't know what you're playing at, suddenly pretending like you want me around but you can just take this scheme of yours and shove it up your—" he cut off abruptly when Sirius's wandpoint connected sharply with his throat. Sirius murmured a series of spells under his breath.

"I said calm down," he repeated. "Now let's try this again. Grab your bag…"

Regulus glared daggers at him, unhappy with having his voice so surely silenced. Sirius pointed again to where Regulus's travel and book bag lay partway underneath his bed. "You're coming to stay with me for the summer, Regulus. I'll make sure you get back to school with me safely," he said calmly as Regulus finally leaned down and picked up his bag. Fuming, he placed it over his shoulder.

"Good. Now I'm going to give you your voice back, and you're going to go downstairs with me and tell Mother that you're visiting me for the summer. I'm sure she'll be glad to have you out of her hair for a while," Sirius said, waving his wand once.

"Why should I go anywhere with you?" Regulus demanded softly. Sirius thanked the gods he wasn't shouting again.

"Because you're bored out of your mind in this house with only Mum and Dad and Kreacher for company, you haven't been outside in days, and as much as you hate to admit it, Father scares you."

"I don't know what you're talking about. My parents love me. You were the one who fucked up too much."

Sirius said, laughing, "Lie all you want, but your long sleeved sweater you wear in this overheated house in the middle of June betrays you. Father hits hard."

"Just because you were always too much of a crybaby to handle a little discipline doesn't mean I am," Regulus said. He did seem a little unsure of himself, though.

"It's only discipline if it is implemented in some way to help you," Sirius regurgitated some of the last minute advice Remus had spewed at him the previous night. "Now let me give you the run down. You can either come home with me now, or I can go home alone and send my very own owl to the Ministry with details of just how well Daddy disciplined us both and then they will take you away. I guess that pretty much lays out your final set of options: a traumatizing trial and then a foster home, or me. But now is not the time to discuss this. Let's go."

"You're a manipulative bastard," said Regulus, hanging his head. "And I hate you. I wish you had just gone for good."

What was he supposed to do now? Regulus seemed to be switching gears and a small amount of the resentment and loneliness he hid under his mask of anger was attempting to shine through. Gently Sirius led Regulus out of the room, down the hall, and then down the stairs. He pushed all of the calming magic he could onto his little brother as they walked, in an effort to keep things going so smoothly.

In part Sirius felt vindicated. He had always suspected, a little guiltily, actually, that a large part of Regulus had wanted nothing more than to run away with him earlier that year, but that copious amounts of pride and confusion had stopped him from asking. Regulus could act like he was being forced and blackmailed all he wanted, but in truth he was still coming with Sirius, and that, at least, was a positive sign. He could fix his Regulus, he could.

Their mother was waiting in the kitchen again. Dazedly, she looked up at her two sons as they approached.

Sirius prayed.

"Mother," said Regulus politely. "I—I wish to go for a while with Sirius. To visit…him. At his apartment in East London. …For the summer. So you and Father can relax and—and..."

"And what of school?"

Sirius's heart leaped. "I will make sure he gets there. I am going back, too, after all."

"Ah, yes, your final year."

Sirius nodded.

From her seat at the kitchen table Walburga studied the two of them intently. Sirius was sure she was weighing her hatred of Sirius against her love of Regulus and how much she hated to see her husband behave towards him in the awful manner he did.

"I will inform your father," she said. She looked sharply at Sirius. "The Blood Traitor's money is as good as anyone's these days, I suppose; he will buy you your school supplies at the end of August."

"Th—thank you, Mother," Regulus stammered. "I will write you often."

"Get out. Orion was due home ten minutes ago."

ﯕⱤﯕⱤﯕⱤ

When they arrived at Sirius's home, he half expected Regulus to try and bolt, or at least to resume his yelling. Sirius kept a tight grip on his brother's upper arm and held his breath as he led him inside.

The interior of the apartment was dark, and against his better judgment, Sirius left Regulus's side in order to switch on some lights. With the entryway illuminated, he turned back around to look at the youngest Black.

"All right, I think—" he began, but with a huff and a glare, Regulus stormed past him and down the hall. Obviously looking for which room would be his, he started to visibly shake when he only encountered one option. Sirius's bedroom was very large given that it was situated in a ground level flat, but it was still only one bedroom.

Sirius came up behind Regulus. "Reg…" he said.

"Where am I supposed to stay exactly?" demanded Regulus, turning around to glare at Sirius.

Sirius was silent.

"I am not sharing a room with you!" No way in hell would he give up his privacy like this. It was annoying enough that Sirius had come barging back in on his life like he had, and now he expected them to just cuddle up together like Regulus was still six years old?

"Regulus—"

"I like my privacy. I'm not…this—no!"

Again Regulus stomped off, this time into the living room. He threw his bag onto the coffee table and flung himself down onto the couch.

"Are you really going to do this?" Sirius asked him quietly. "You'd rather sleep on the sofa than with me? It's not like we can't fit a second bed into my room sometime this week, you know."

"It doesn't matter," Regulus griped. "One bed or two…you're still there."

Sirius couldn't help but feel stung. For a while he'd tried to convince himself that he didn't care what anyone in his family thought of him, but he'd lost that battle. He did care what Regulus thought. Something had changed between them since the days when Regulus had followed him everywhere and called him his Nii-san, and it couldn't all be blamed on the younger. Sirius had some responsibility for their decayed relationship as well, and he couldn't remember ever wanting something so badly in his life as he wanted right now to mend the bridge between him and his brother.

And perhaps there was a bit of pride involved there as well. His parents, his cousins…he felt no burden to save them. He hardly knew most of them anyway and his parents were not his responsibility. Regulus, on the other hand, Regulus was his and he was just as great an influence on his brother as were Walburga and Orion. Leaving him behind, that just screamed of cowardice, and would kindly inform Regulus that he was not worth Sirius's time.

No, Sirius would not fail in this venture.

"Well that's something you'll probably need to get over, Regulus," Sirius said. "As you live with me now, you're probably going to be seeing me around a lot."

Regulus swung his feet up onto the couch, shoes and all, and laid back. He was far from relaxed, however; his muscles were still tense and his arms folded. "What?" he scoffed. "I don't live with you. I'm just here for the summer. I'm visiting. So Mother and Father can have some time alone."

Sirius sat down on the coffee table and tried to make eye contact with his brother.

"Now you know that's not true. You're not ever going back to Grimmauld Place, Regulus. Not for any length of time. I can't let you stay in that environment, and so you live with me now."

Regulus didn't answer, though he seemed to be thinking frantically of something crushing to say.

Sirius continued calmly, "and somewhere in that head of yours, I know you're glad I came to get you. You can deny it all you want, but I know you've missed me as much as I've missed you these past few months." But that was wrong. Sirius and Regulus had been separated now for several years, even before Sirius had left.

"Don't give me any of that shit," Regulus snapped. "You don't miss anything. You're just a control freak; you just want to make me miserable. You can't leave me alone because you just have to be the center of attention…always."

Sirius leaned forward. "Regulus, please, this isn't about me. I got a little caught up in discovering myself these past few years and our relationship suffered because of that. I never wanted it to get this way, I just didn't know what to say. And I absolutely did not want to leave you behind when I left for James's, I just couldn't go dragging you off like that when I wasn't stable myself. I had to wait, don't you see? Until I had a place of my own like this, and…" he paused, wondering what on earth he could say. Part of Regulus wanted to be with his brother, why couldn't he just admit that? "I never wanted you to feel like you'd been replaced, you know. Not ever."

His words certainly got to Regulus, but not in the way he had hoped. Regulus rolled over to face away from Sirius. In an absolutely dead voice he said only, "Leave me alone, you traitor."

Sirius blinked. He started to reach for Regulus's shoulder, but stopped himself. Maybe he shouldn't push too hard just yet. There was nothing physically or magically stopping Regulus from leaving right now. If Sirius didn't want him to go rushing off into the streets in the middle of the night, then perhaps he should lay off a bit.

He went into the kitchen to fix himself a quick dinner, half hoping that this would awaken Regulus's hunger and entice him to get off the couch, but for the rest of the evening, Regulus didn't move. With a defeated sigh, Sirius washed his dishes and then filled a glass of ice water. He left it on the table for his brother and then, after locking the doors, crawled into bed himself, dejected.

Sleep came surprisingly swiftly that night, but it did not last long. By two o'clock he was awake again. Out of compulsion, he got up to check on Regulus. He found him spread eagle on the sofa, his arm dangling off the side and his head bent uncomfortably against the armrest.

"You're going to fuck up your neck, Regulus," Sirius whispered. He couldn't help himself. First he reached slowly to undo Regulus's shoes, cautiously in case the latter woke up. Regulus shifted a little but otherwise did not stir. Sirius shook his head softly, then he tugged off Regulus's pants and jacket, leaving him in his shirt and boxers.

"Jesus, you're going to kill me if you wake up right now," he muttered to himself. Regulus turned out to be very light and easy to carry. Had Sirius been this small when he was thirteen? Certainly not. Regulus was just made that way: light. Regulus's head lolled against Sirius's shoulder as he carried him down the hall.

Sirius remembered quite well from his childhood that Regulus preferred the wallside of the bed, liking the secure feeling it provided, and so Sirius let him have it. Perhaps when Regulus awoke he would be less angry if he saw Sirius remembered his phobia about falling off the bed? No, of course not, did Regulus even have that particular fear anymore? …But maybe…

Sirius climbed in next to his brother and pulled him close for an instant. Unconscious and therefore uninhibited, Regulus latched onto his brother like a lifeline and mumbled a vague string of nonsense words into his chest. Sirius forced himself to stay awake for several more hours of the night, just to be sure and enjoy this closeness which he knew he was unlikely to be seeing for a very long time.

Next chapter's actually done. I'll post it later sometime. As usual, review if you feel like it, but feel no pressure.

And in case I don't post anything else before the holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Feliz Navidad, Happy New Year's…etc. etc. you get the point.

-tenkuroi