Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and all the situations said characters find themselves in. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy.

If You Don't Know

Still Dreaming

Years of dreaming, wanting, needing to the marrow of his bones and being denied came into play as Teddy yanked Regulus into his arms, the older Slytherin keeping one arm banded around the other Slytherin to keep him there while the other raised so that he could first dive then fist his fingers in the black silk of Regulus's hair as he locked their lips together in a bruising, hard kiss. And another and another kiss as he hungrily slated his lips over Regulus's, seeking every angle he could get with flicks of his tongue added in in the hopes that the teenager's mouth would open and let him in.

But Regulus was still and unmoving against him and then he wasn't, everything changing between one heartbeat and the next as the smaller boy suddenly surged up against him, Regulus going up on his tip toes to fit their bodies more completely against each other. The lips that had been submissively passive under his took complete control, Regulus's hands cupping his cheeks for a moment before sliding up to dig his fingers in to turn Teddy's head to his liking, and so that he could deepen the snogging that much more.

Submitting completely, Regulus could snog and touch him however he fancied to as far as Teddy was concerned, Teddy instead concentrated solely on commit this to his memory so that he would never, ever forget a moment of this.

Regulus's lips were surprisingly soft against his, so at odds with the other teenager's personality and the firm strength of the lithe body pressed against his own. But at the forefront of his mind was the fact that Regulus was snogging him like he owned him, like he belonged to him in every way and intended to keep him. And oh how Teddy wanted to be kept.

They stayed locked in each other's embrace for several minutes and then Regulus started moving forward, Teddy moving with him with Teddy's eyes widening a little when the back of his legs connected with the side of his bed. Oh.

Regulus's hands on his shoulders pressed down to make it clear what he wanted Teddy to do, Teddy hesitating only for a moment before sitting down, gasping in surprise when Regulus followed him down. Never had he imagined Regulus sitting on his lap like it was the most natural thing in the world to do, and then Regulus was leaning in to renew the snogging which made Teddy forget all the reasons he should be trying to think at all. Especially since this position made it clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Regulus was as physically aroused by what they were doing as he was. Thank you, Merlin!

Emboldened by it, as well as not thinking terribly clearly through the haze of lust currently blurring his vision, Teddy allowed his hands to come up to cup the most perfect sodding arse to ever cross his path, squeezing the cheeks lightly and loving the way Regulus jerked against him and actually moaned. Then Regulus broke off the kissing long enough for one curse word to cross his lips, which Teddy didn't like, but thankfully the younger teenager was soon snogging him again with increased heat and impatience, Teddy tangling his tongue with the other Slytherin's to encourage the contact that much more.

This round of snogging seemed to go on and on, Teddy daring to slide his hands up and tug Regulus's tucked in shirt out enough that he could slip his hands under the cotton to touch actual skin.

It was that move that had Regulus jerking back, staring at him with wide eyes and lips swollen and slightly bruised from the intensity of their snogging.

How long they stayed like that, the only sounds in the room their harsh, erratic breathing, Teddy couldn't have said. Try to guess, yes, but all thoughts left his head completely when Regulus dropped his head down so that his forehead rested on his shoulder, the other teenager's voice oddly subdued and…sad when he finally spoke.

"You can't miss what you've never had."

"Sorry?"

"I said you can't miss what you've never had." Regulus's voice was a little muffled, but louder this time, so Teddy could hear him well enough. "Whether it's good or bad one can't truly understand something until they're experienced it. The pain of the cruciatus curse, or the perfection of the vanilla trifle here at Hogwarts, you can describe them all you want but you have to know it to truly understand."

Lifting his head Regulus stared into Teddy's eyes with a fierceness that took Teddy's breath away. "I decided that I'd stay away from you because if I didn't take you up on what you were so blatantly offering I'd never know. And now I do, dammit."

"You've experienced the Cruciatus Curse?!"

"Focus." Regulus even snapped his fingers to break Teddy's concentration for a moment. "The point here is that you've ruined everything, Prince. Do you understand that?"

Grabbing Regulus by his upper arms Teddy had to focus quite a lot so as not to grip too hard as he repeated his early question.

Rolling his eyes Regulus stated that Bella was a bitch, brushing off the fact that his cousin had used one of the unforgivable curses on him like it was nothing. No, what Regulus wanted Teddy to focus on was the fact that Teddy had ruined all his plans by kissing him and now they were both going to spend considerable time rueing this day.

"What's snogging got to do with trifle or the fact that your cousin needs to be put in Azkaban now, before she fills St. Mungo's up with her victims?!"

"I'm talking about the fact that…do you really think you're going to be able to control yourself around me now, now that we know what it would be like? That I'll be able to…damn you." Regulus punched Teddy's shoulder, but not as hard as he could have before getting off Teddy's lap to start pacing in front of the bed in obvious frustration.

It took him a good couple minutes, which he had since Regulus had remained to pace and mutter curses under his breath, but Teddy was finally able to make his brain process enough of what he'd just learned to realize something very important. Namely why the Slytherin had been protecting him from the shadows, had tolerated his feelings for him, and was so angry at him now.

"You want me too."

"I have the worst taste in men ever, I swear." Regulus pinched the bridge of his nose as he spoke, then abrupt he turned in the direction of the door, obviously intending to leave on that note.

"Wait!" Scrambling to his feet Teddy ran over to get between the other Slytherin and said door, using his body as a physical barrier. "You can't just leave now!"

"Oh can't I?" Dark eyes narrowing threateningly, Regulus pulled out his wand from his robe pocket and started to twirl it between his fingers a little in a not subtle reminder that in a duel he could have Teddy down and out without any serious effort on his part. And unlike Teddy, when Regulus Black cursed someone, he meant it.

But Teddy wasn't backing down, not now that he knew that he stood a chance with Regulus. A herd of stampeding hippogriffs and centaurs couldn't have moved him. And angry that the other teenager would leave, would continue to leave him hanging to suffer, Teddy pointed a somewhat threatening finger in Regulus' direction.

"You aren't leaving until we've talked this out, Black. If I have to use a full body binding curse to do it I will." Or try, at least. "You can't keep dropping bombs on me and then just walking away to leave me to deal with the sodding fallout."

"And exactly what do you think we have to talk about, Prince? The fact that you're basically engaged at this point, or the fact that while I'll impale myself on a broken broom before I'll marry Nottingham, I will marry an appropriate witch when the time comes and continue my family line, as you will with your future wife." Regulus's voice was so cold, icicles practically hung off every syllable. "The only thing that's changed is now we'll both be just that much more miserable because you just had to start something that can only end that much more badly for us, you stupid prat."

The words hitting him like physically blows, Teddy would have stumbled backward if his bedroom door hadn't been there to keep him where he was.

"The light dawns." Moving in close so that he was sandwiching Teddy against the door with his sheer presence, Regulus stared fiercely up at him. "Or were you thinking that what, you wouldn't have to marry your French girl and save your family from financial ruin? That I'd step in and use my family money to rescue you? And then what, you'd be my lover on the side? My kept boy?"

Instinctively Teddy wanted to lash out, both verbally and physically, but he hadn't spent the past years watching Regulus without learning some of the boy's very subtle tells. Or failed to notice Regulus's habit of using words designed to ignite someone's temper when they touched on a nerve Regulus didn't want touched. Usually it was the topic of Regulus's older brother or cousin Andromeda, but there was a particular gleam Regulus got in his eyes and Teddy was seeing it now.

So instead he reined in the anger and reached out to frame Regulus's face between his hands, the other teenager's eyes going wide in surprise and revealing more of the vulnerability Regulus so obviously wanted to hide.

"I was thinking I have a year left here, and I'd like to spend as much of that time as I can with you."

"If you like pain so much, you should tell Bella about your interest in me."

"You'd be worth it."

Another flash of emotion in those dark eyes and then Regulus locked it all down, the eyes becoming a starless sky that bore into Teddy's as the younger boy refused to continue the conversation or even acknowledge what Teddy had just implied.

Knowing that pushing more would end with him bleeding both physically and emotionally, Teddy had to mentally remind himself that if he pushed any further he'd lose what little ground he'd gained. So instead of arguing more Teddy moved off to the side, leaving the door unblocked. "Just think about it, you know where to find me."

Not speaking Regulus opened the door and closed it firmly behind him, leaving Teddy behind to lean against his bedroom wall as he slid down it to sit on the floor and lower his head to his knees, having no idea if he'd just fucked up his life exponentially and the price he'd pay regardless of Regulus's decision.

Damn. Just damn.

)

Present Day

To say that Teddy Lupin was not in the best of moods the next morning was pretty damn accurate, the Hufflepuff having woken up at the end of his memory dream feeling as conflicted, aroused, and tormented as the man whose life he was essentially inhabiting in those dreams. He hadn't been able to get back to sleep either, and had finally given up and had gotten out the paperwork he'd brought home with him on the off chance that he might get around to doing it at home instead of the office. And even knowing that he now didn't have to worry about said paperwork, and would actually be able to leave work early wasn't enough to lift his troubled mood.

If it hadn't been so close to the full moon Teddy would have called in sick and left the running of the office to Lilah and their part time staff so that he could just…absorb and compute so to speak, but such was his luck, and so Teddy forced himself to put his Black face on and got dressed for the day with the grim determination to get through it and hopefully do so without revealing to anyone how mentally distracted he currently was.

Because if anyone asked him, what was he supposed to say, Teddy mused as he locked up after leaving the house, having decided to walk at least part of the way to work in the hopes that it would clear his head a little. Telling anyone that he was currently in love with an ancestor of his, one he'd never met physically but was dreaming about at night thanks to a portrait he'd recently acquired... Yeah, that would go over well. His family would be at his door to get the painting out of his place so fast his head would spin.

He was in love with Regulus Black.

It didn't make a lick of sense, just thinking it was ridiculous, but Teddy couldn't deny the fact either. He felt what Teddy Price had felt for Regulus, and it didn't end when the dreams did. As weird and realistically false as that love had to be, this morning he'd woken up wanting and loving a man who'd been dead for over forty years.

People with Black blood really did have the worst luck when it came to romance and love, seriously. The ones that found the good ones lost them too soon, and the ones that loved arseholes paid for it dearly and often ended up as horrible as their partners.

But at least now he was pretty sure what the answer to his main question now. Regulus and Prince had been, at the very least, romantically involved, Teddy was sure of it. Right now they were at odds in his dreams, kinda, but Teddy couldn't believe that the other Teddy could have painted that picture of Regulus if the expression of love the man had worn in the portrait hadn't been real. To paint what he'd imagine Regulus would look like, without ever seeing it for himself…no, Teddy wouldn't do that. He believed that in his gut and Teddy was a man who trusted his instincts, especially when it came to people.

And really doing the math in his head for the first time, things had been depressing enough before, Teddy finally acknowledged the fact that at most Regulus would have had a little less than two years with Teddy before dying, and that Regulus's Teddy had died at the age of thirty four or thereabouts, which was only seven years older than he was now. A heart attack…a broken heart.

That depressing thought, as well as serious concerns about his own heart staying with Teddy all the way to the Ministry. And he'd barely gotten inside and started towards the elevators when Rosie came out of nowhere, his younger cousin wrapping her arms tightly around him, cuddling him close as she stated that he looked like he needed a hug.

"Yeah." Hugging her back just as tightly Teddy had a weak but real smile for her when she pulled away to give him a questioning look. "Just a little depressed for the painter. I did the mental math this morning and realized how young he was…I feel miserable for him."

"A broken heart." Rosie agreed with a sigh, having drawn the same conclusion while looking into the painter of Teddy's mysterious painting. On the one hand it was terribly romantic, but on the other it was terribly depressing too. She'd forgive Sev for being a bit of an arse the last time they'd spoken just because one of them could be dead tomorrow, no one knew that sort of thing, and she'd hate for the last words she spoke to him to be really harsh over something minor.

She'd still verbally and possibly kick his arse from here to Australia, but she'd try to reserve that for when he really deserved it. Or made PMS jokes. At least for the foreseeable future.

And feeling sorry for Teddy, it had to be more than a little traumatizing to have romantic dreams about someone you were related to on top of everything else, Rosie turned him loose but slipped her hand through his to keep some contact. And leaning her head against his shoulder, she was in a show the love sort of mood, Rosie suggested that they started walking again since neither wanted to be late for their respective jobs. She might be a summer intern for her own mother, but genetics wouldn't keep her mum from lecturing her ear off if she was late reporting in.

Checking his watch Teddy commented that he was surprised she wasn't already at her desk. She was her mother's daughter after all, and Aunt Hermione was all about being punctual.

"I was waiting for you, actually. I asked Sev about him, Teddy Prince, to see if he knew anything seeing as they're related and all. He didn't know much, but I figured you'd want to know ASAP that you can talk to his grandmother if you want to without worrying about giving her a heart attack. She knew that he was gay. Apparently she told the whole family when Alexei came out as gay, and his mother flipped out at the news. The whole 'it came from their side of the family' was not information Alexei's mum appreciated, apparently."

"Really? Did he say how she knew?"

"No, he didn't care enough to ask because he's just that much a guy." Rosie rolled her eyes. "She might have told Alexei more, but I haven't talked to him yet. Would rather not, if it's all the same to you unless we have to."

Chuckling, Teddy assured her that if need be he'd talk to Alexei himself. His next question was what Sev had said when she'd told him why she was asking. Sev wasn't remotely a romantic, but the Slytherin did have some interest in history, and could be a valuable source of information if his interest was piqued.

"I didn't tell him about your-whatever Regulus was to you. I figured I shouldn't without your permission, so I just told him someone I knew had mentioned Teddy Prince, and I was curious about him. He volunteered the gay part without any prompting from me."

"Good to know, thanks."

"No problem. So do you want me to set up a meeting with her for you? Sev only wants a couple dozen chocolate brownies to make it happen."

Like most people Teddy often wondered how Sev Daimon had a tooth left in his head given his love of chocolate, but rather than commenting on that Teddy smiled as he asked her to set it up for him, sometime on the weekend being best for him schedule wise.

"You got it."