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.

Note: So this is my apology for taking so long to update before, as well as the fact that the last chapter would have been a truly cruel update if I left you hanging for long lol.

Love Gave Us

Making it clear that Harry had his full and absolute attention, the Regulus look alike marched right up to the Auror and was borderline up in his face as he spoke, his English perfect but with a definite French accent. "The healer and the woman I spoke to at that pub said that you are the one who brought Wren here. I wish to know exactly what happened. They said he had an allergic reaction, but Wren is not allergic to anything. I would know if he was. And he was with you. Did you give him any food from your plate?"

"From my plate?" Harry repeated, confusion in his voice.

"Yes. You are the Boy Who Lived. The Chosen One or whatever other ridiculous names they came up with for the sacrificial lamb the people decided to hide behind instead of fighting back themselves." The derision and disgust the younger man felt came out loud and clear before he was all business again. "You have many enemies because of what you did, perhaps someone tried to poison you and Wren was exposed instead. Is that possible?"

"No."

"And adults suddenly developing allergies to things that never set them off before is entirely possible, FYI." Lily piped up, before asking if she knew him. He looked familiar.

The Frenchman spared a glance in her direction before shaking his head. "No. We have not met. I don't forget faces." Dismissing Lily he turned his attention back to Harry. "What was he eating when he had the reaction?"

"How about you give me your name first."

Desperately grateful to his godfather for asking the question he had yet to find the ability to ask himself, Teddy continued to stare at the other man like an idiot, taking blatant advantage of the fact that he was being ignored.

"Prince. Regulus Prince. Now answering the question."

Harry recovered before Teddy could squeak out the next obvious question given the fucked up nature of this whole meeting. "Prince? Are you…are you related to Theodore Prince?"

Surprised puzzlement briefly crossed the most perfect face Teddy had ever seen. "Yes. That was my grandfather's name. How do you know him? He died when you were just a boy, and he never returned to England after the first war, the one you people had with that Voldemort person."

Finally Teddy found his voice. "You're Phillipe's son."

For the first time those black eyes Teddy would know anywhere, loved in a way he couldn't put into words, met his as all of Regulus's attention shifted over to him. And held. And continued to hold while any other noise or words that might have been banded around as they stared at each other dimmed down to intelligible background noise. Teddy didn't notice or give a damn either way. All that mattered was that he was looking into Regulus's eyes. For real.

"You…you resemble him, my grandfather. I have seen paintings and photographs of him. Are we related? I have never met my second cousins who live here, but Wren told me they are all still in school and you are no schoolboy. Who are you?"

"Teddy. Teddy Lupin. I'm a friend of Wren's."

"Ah, he has spoken of you. You are the godbrother of the boy Wren taught who chases after him. You are an…I don't know the English word for it. You can take other people's forms at will. An inherited magical gift, not by potions. Are you doing that now? You are making yourself look like him?"

"No. That's how he really looks. And Wren calls me the boy who chases after him?"

Regulus spared a glance in James's direction, a brief smirk answering James's question before the Frenchman was turning his attention back to Teddy, asking again if they were related somehow.

"The…err…inbreeding for lack of a better word among the pureblood families over here means that we probably have a few ancestors in common."

"I see. It is strange, given the girl's question before, but have you and I met before? You don't look so much like him that I'd mistake you for him, but there's something about-"

Halting in mid sentence Regulus suddenly jammed a hand into his trouser pocket to pull out a pocket watch, which looked as though it had been shoved into a furnace, the gold appearing to glow red hot. And yet Regulus showed no discomfort as he opened it and studied the inside, his face becoming that of a warrior's.

"I must go."

And just that quickly Regulus was whirling around and striding off in the direction of the door Wren had disappeared through earlier, the man holding his pocket watch in front of him like it was some sort of compass.

"He's not allowed-you all stay here."

Running after Regulus Harry followed after the man who'd just rocked Teddy's world off its axis again, Teddy unable to follow since both James and Lily had their hands wrapped around both his arms, demanding an explanation as to who that was in near perfect tandem while Ginny and Albus moved in too to hear his answer.

Dammit.

)

It was a testament to how rattled he was that Teddy proceeded to spill all the beans about the portrait and his investigation into the artist behind it. Which of course guaranteed that he couldn't run after the man with both Regulus Black's first name and face, since his godmother naturally flipped out over the idea and proceeded to sit him down and lay into him even though he'd consulted Hermione to make sure it wasn't dangerous. Her experience with a horcrux had left his godmother with some pretty big scars, and in between her comments and statements about what she'd have to say to Hermione when she saw the other woman next James wanted to know what this Regulus bloke had to do with Wren, which wasn't something Teddy could answer. But really, really wanted to know the answer to too.

Like James Teddy was aware of the fact that after Wren's parents had been murdered by Death Eaters Wren had gone to live in France with his father's sister's family. Wren had attended Hogwarts because he'd been on their list since birth and because he wanted to go to his father's school, but his summers and holidays had been spent in Paris. And Wren regularly went back there to visit. Was Regulus a friend from France or…or something more? Was that why Wren resisted James's advances? Did he already have someone and just hadn't wanted to hurt James by telling him about him?

The two would make a stunning couple, Teddy thought with growing panic, picturing both men in his mind's eye while he silently freaked himself out. This Regulus was actually a little taller than him, which made him a good height for the uncommonly tall Wren. And Wren with his white hair and gold eyes would contrast so strikingly in comparison to Regulus's dark good looks. The two were both stunningly beautiful in their ways, and the thought of them together...

Teddy could feel his dinner rebelling in his stomach, threatening to make a reappearance at the idea of anyone else touching Regulus. Touching the love of his life. His Regulus. He'd kill Wren first.

And it was reality of the fact that that wasn't an idle thought, but something he could actually see himself doing to keep Regulus to himself, that had Teddy remaining in his seat, his fingers digging into the armrests while Albus massaged his shoulders in a comforting gesture as Lily and Ginny worked together to get it through James's thick head that no, he couldn't go after that Regulus bloke to find out how he knew Wren.

Nor did it help that about ten minutes later Harry came back through the doors alone and wearing a peeved and frustrated expression.

"I don't know much." Holding up his hands to prevent his children from bombarding him with questions, Harry got straight to the point. "I'd hardly gotten anything out of him before we ran into Victoire. Apparently they know each other somehow, and I can't tell you what they said, just that it was in French. She dragged him off and ignored my questions except to tell me she'd be back later to update us."

He knew Victoire? Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Teddy honestly couldn't decide.

"What did you learn?" James wanted to know.

"Other than the fact that he has something similar to your Gran's clock, nothing really. He wasn't in the mood to answer my questions and was very…Black."

Teddy's grandmother had spent years training them as to just how a traditional Black behaved, particularly when she didn't want to deal with you, so Harry didn't have to say more about that. Nothing he could have done would have made Regulus more talkative about what Harry had wanted to talk to him about.

"The pocket watch he had is like Mum's clock?"

"Sort of. It looks like a normal pocket watch usually, apparently, but it's been bespelled so that he can ask after the health or position of anyone he's connected to the watch somehow, and the left side of the watch's case will tell him. It also goes warm in his pocket when one of those people is sick or in mortal danger, and the watch becomes a compass, and tells him the person's location. That's how he knew to go to the Leaky Caldron and then to here and which door to go through to find Wren. Victoire came as I was asking him what his connection to Wren was."

"We'll have to ask him what he knows about his history when we see him next. Which we definite will cause he's got some s'plaining to do." Lily drawled out, Teddy not doubting for a moment that his little godsister was already plotting how to break Wren and Regulus up if they were a couple so that the men would end up with her brothers instead.

Best godsister EVER.

And that reminded Teddy, "I told them about the portrait and everything while you were gone."

"Which reminds me, you should have told me about the bloody thing as soon as you left his office." Ginny all but drilled a finger into her husband's chest.

"Ow. I was going to tell you tonight, after I'd seen it."

The sound Ginny made in the back of her throat made it clear she wasn't impressed with that answer. Not one little bit.

"I knew I should have gone after you. I'd have understood what they were talking about." Grumbling off to the side James's arms were crossed grumpily in front of him as he pouted.

All of Fleur Weasley's children, nieces, and nephews had been taught French when they were children, with the results being very mixed depending on the child and how well Fleur managed to browbeat and bribe them into listening to her. Both Teddy and James were fluent, Teddy because he'd wanted to impress Victoire when they were teenagers, and James had started actually trying to learn more than swear words and insults in the language once he'd set his cap on Wren and learned that Wren's remaining family were largely French speaking.

"Wait! If the whole watch heating up thing means Wren's in trouble, then he was just in trouble again! He's either really sick or dying in there!"

Both Ginny and Harry had to move to grab their son to keep him from running off.

"He's fine. The watch had gone back to normal before I had even caught up with Prince. The healers must have found what Wren was allergic to, and tested the theory. He's fine and will probably be out soon, since they figured it out so fast."

"And he'll need someone to stay with him tonight, right?"

"Most likely, yes." Harry's voice was careful and soft as he gave James's shoulder a squeeze of sympathy. "But I have a feeling Regulus intends to stick with him until he's back on his feet. It will be up to Wren who he wants with him. Or he might even stay here."

It went without saying that Wren hated the hospital and wouldn't stay willingly, so no, what it was going to come down to was who Wren wanted to have stay with him.

James went back to looking depressed, and Teddy sorta couldn't help but join him as his hair and eyes went blue. And not a happy blue.

Earlier in the day he'd woken up alone in a cool bed, depressed and heartbroken over that fact. Paying some of that price Regulus had mentioned in the dream, Teddy thought with wryly. The price of loving someone you couldn't have no matter how much you loved them. Even more so in his case, he'd thought, because the man he was in love with had been dead for decades.

But now that might not be the case…and yet how could it be otherwise?

What the hell was going on here?

)

Nearly twenty minutes of depression passed, and then Victoire was walking through the door and then held it open as a very pouty looking Wren was wheeled out in a wheelchair, Regulus pushing it from behind while the two argued as to whether or not Wren was up to wheeling the chair himself while Victoire nicely scolded Wren about trying to overdo it already.

"Wren!" Ignoring the order to hush from the witch behind the information desk, James ran over to the trio with the rest of his family close behind him, though the majority of Teddy's attention was selfishly on Regulus, who was busy watching James with faint, Black like amusement.

"Calm down, James." There was affection for James in Wren's voice, though it was buried under a heaping pile of gruffness as he waved off the redhead's concern. "I'm fine."

"But his watch thingie went all red and shit. Are you okay? What are you allergic to? Is it because I made you try some of my rainbow sherbet?"

"No. It looks like walnuts are permanently off my menu. You showed him the watch?" Wren asked, tilting his head back to meet Regulus's gaze, the other man shaking his head before explaining that he'd shown it to Potter to explain why he'd rushed out rather than waiting in the waiting room the way he was supposed to.

"Worrywart." There was a world of affection in Wren's voice as he said it, a very out of character smile on his face for Regulus before he looked ahead to meet James's gaze again. "I'm to come back tomorrow after I've got some rest and they'll check out my reactions to other nuts, just in case."

Lily, meanwhile, was asking Victoire how she knew Regulus, Teddy's ears perking up as his attention shifted away from James interrogating Wren about everything the healers had said.

It appeared that Regulus knew Victoire's maman as they were both alumni of Beauxbatons, with an interest in supporting the school. Victoire's Aunt Gabrielle's husband's family also owned one of the galleries Regulus occasionally displayed his work in. He was a very well-known portrait artist in French circles.

And then all questioning came to an immediate halt when Regulus calmly spoke up for the first time since he'd returned to the waiting room. "Wren, put your little boy out of his misery so I can take you home, please."

"I don't know what you're–"

"I am not a little boy!"

Looking at each other, both James and Wren's cheeks had heated up, their pale complexions making it quite obvious to everyone.

"Oh please." Rolling his eyes expressively, Regulus looked at James and Wren for a moment like he was seriously considering knocking their heads together. "You British."

And then letting go of the chair Regulus walked around it until he was facing James, who glared back at him defiantly, much to the former's amusement.

"I am Regulus Prince, Wren's cousin. Though we are more like brothers. And no, we French are not so obsessed with 'pure blood' that we would ever be interested in each other even if we could have children. So the road is, as they say, clear. To the best of my knowledge."

"You thought Regulus and I…" The look on Wren's face suggested that he'd just been informed he was to attend a four hour concert consisting of young Mandrakes screaming their lungs out. After spending the day bathing in Stinksap and being interviewed by Rita Skeeter.

Rather than look insulted Regulus sent his cousin an amused look.

Meanwhile off to the side Teddy was fighting the urge to either shoot both fists up in the air with a victory yell, or drop to his knees to thank the Fates or any deities that might be listening for making the two related and therefore Regulus was, quite possibly, on the market.

Oh hell, what if he wasn't on the market? What if he had some gorgeous, rich, and perfect Frenchman back home? A guy who looked like that, single? Not bloody likely. Toadstools.

A hard poke to his side, Teddy turning his head as Albus's lips almost brushed the shell of his ear as he whispered into it. "Make a move now or fucking regret it for life, Bro. Get your Black on."

Snorting in amusement, Teddy turned his head to grin back at his little brother before nodding in agreement. Cause yeah, fuck standing here imagining all this crap. He was going to go big and then…probably go home and lick his wounds when he got turned down flat.

Taking a deep breath for courage, Teddy ignored the fact that James and Wren were apparently squabbling over something and approached Regulus instead, the other man standing slightly off to the side as he silently enjoyed the show the other two were putting on.

"Excuse me. I was wondering, if you were planning to still be in London tomorrow, if you'd be interested in getting dinner with me."

A single, perfect eyebrow rose in surprise. Are you asking me out on a date, Mr. Lupin?"

Hoping to get some brownie points Teddy answered smoothly in French that yes, he was asking him out.

Gaze holding Teddy's, Regulus moved in closer, that small little smile still shaping his lips as he looked Teddy over from head to toe before answering. "That could be arranged."

"Wait, what?! Lupin, did you just ask him out?! And you said yes?!"

"Hush, Wren."