Written for the Romance Awareness Challenge: You can take away some of your soulmate's pain for yourself and the OTP Prompt List Challenge (LilyRegulus, "Everyone gets a second chance.").

Word count: 850

we don't have to fall from grace

Lily finds out that they're soulmates by accident. There's a fight, you see, curses being hurled left and right, flashes of colored light splashing violently against white shields, leaving sparks in their wakes, but sometimes, sometimes those shields aren't enough.

Sometimes, someone gets hit, either by a curse or by something else, and in the end what hits them doesn't really matter. Sometimes, the who doesn't either, because in the chaos Lily's seen almost as much friendly fire as enemy one.

And maybe that's what makes her freeze when she ducks inside a half-collapsed house and comes upon that fallen Death Eater—or maybe it's his broken mask, revealing grey eyes she knows well, though not on this particular face.

His breath comes in short, desperate gasps, and his lips are pursed into a thin white line, eyes tight with pain. Still, he looks so defiant, daring her to attack him, that for a moment Lily almost wants to laugh, because Sirius always said his brother was nothing like him at all, but this? This was Sirius' stubborn pride on another's face.

She can't see what hurt him, but she knows something has, and yes, this is a Death Eater, yes he is the enemy, but it's also Regulus Black, Sirius' little brother and that alone makes him impossible to hate.

She sighs. Outside the fighting is still going on, but fight or no fight, she knows she could never forgive herself if she didn't help someone who needed it.

She kneels by him, trying to get a closer look.

"What are you doing?" Regulus hisses almost immediately, scuttling away from her.

"Stop moving, you idiot!" Lily hisses back. Her diagnostic spell washes over him painlessly, but he still doesn't relax—honestly, Lily can't blame him. She doesn't imagine she'd react any differently if their positions were reversed. "Do you want to get worse?"

"Might be easier than living through this," he snarks back, but his words have no real bite. He sounds tired, the bone-deep king of exhaustion Lily knows too well, and this time when he tries to move Lily can't help but stop him, her hands steady on his shoulders as she holds him in place.

And of course that's when she feels it. It's an odd thing to describe, and it's even odder to experience. It sorts of is like the world around them goes on mute, everything but the two of them pushed to the background.

Regulus exhales in relief, the tension lines around his eyes softening suddenly and Lily almost jerks back in shock.

She knows what this is, of course she does, but Merlin, it wasn't supposed to happen to her, not now, and certainly not like this.

"I…" She trails off, unsure of what to say. She feels like she's sixteen again, heart beating too fast as she begins to consider maybe allowing James to take her out on that one date.

James… Merlin, isn't it lucky that they didn't work out? She'd hate to consider what this could do to them, to any relationship they might have had.

Regulus' eyes narrow, lips pulling into a thin sneer. "No need to look so shocked, Evans—I can assure you I'm not about to tell anyone about this either." He gestures at the space between them, at the way Lily's hand are now clutching his robes tightly, the fabric bunching up between her fingers.

"It doesn't hurt," she says, a little lost. She'd always thought it would hurt more than this, to take part of your soulmate's pain into yourself. But instead it just feels like an old ache, like she's pulled a muscle or overstretched.

"It doesn't," Regulus echoes. Lily isn't sure if he's surprised or not, but she thinks she can detect some of the same wonder she's feeling in his voice.

"If I," Lily pauses, licking her dry lips. "If I let you go, will you be able to leave?"

Regulus cocks his head to the side. "You'd let me go? Just like that?"

"Everyone gets a second chance," Lily states. It's Dumbledore's motto, and though it's not the first time she uses it, it's the first Lily finds herself wishing she could truly believe it as he does. "Just make sure you actually take it."

Regulus remains silent, eyeing her contemplatively. "I'll think about it," he finally says. "And yes, you can let go now, I'll be fine."

Lily does, almost reluctantly, and is surprised to find that while the ache in her body recedes almost instantly, the pain doesn't seem to return to Regulus' face.

"What – how?" she cuts herself off, eyes falling on the thin, black wand clasped tightly in his hand. She takes a step back instinctively, and regrets it instantly when Regulus' face shutters close.

"I think I'll take my leave then," he says, tone oddly soft. A moment later, he's gone.

The cracking noise of his Apparition echoes in Lily's ears for a long time, but not for as long as his eyes linger in Lily's mind.