What would any "we destroyed Voldemort!" story be without a nice epilogue? Of course, it touches on the more serious aspects. And of course, as a bit of a Remus/Sirius shipper, and I do love some Regulus/Barty, if you squint, you can see the slash. If you don't, you'll just see sleep disorders.
Declarations of Loyalty
Epilogue: Six Years Later
"So, we have to live here why?" Barty asked irritably as Regulus unpacked his trunk.
"Well, it passes to the oldest Black son, and Sirius doesn't want it, I can't just let it sit here and collect dust. Besides, your flat was just too small for us," Regulus said reasonably, placing several framed pictures on the mantle.
The first picture was of his old Hogwarts Quidditch Team, the second was him, Barty, Sirius, his cousin Andromeda, and his little cousin Nymphadora, Barty kept trying to sneak out of the picture. The next picture showed Sirius laughing as a black haired toddler zoomed around on a toy broomstick; his godson Harry, Sirius didn't have any children.
"Master Barty, Master Regulus," Kreacher the house elf croaked, coming into view, and bowing. "Shall I put on dinner?"
"That would be wonderful, Kreacher," Regulus said, nodding as he sat down in a large emerald green armchair.
"We don't need a house this big," Barty muttered. "It's impractical. Unless you're planning to have children, or something."
"How exactly would we have children?" Regulus asked.
"Not us, you moron," Barty sneered. "I mean, if you found some bird and had some sprogs."
He laughed, wiping his dark hair out of his eyes. "We just have more room, and we have Kreacher, so we won't have to cook anymore. Things like that. What bedroom do you want?" he asked.
"What are the choices?"
"Sirius's old room, my parents' old room, or one of the guest rooms," he said.
"I'll take one of the guest rooms then," he said with a shrug. It seemed odd. Regulus was right in saying that his flat had been too small for both of them, it had barely been able to support him living there, let alone the pair of them. But they had made it work for five years, so he didn't see what the problem was. Maybe he just wants his own bedroom.
It took the majority of the day to get moved in and clean the house up so it looked presentable, so both of them agreed that going to bed early would be a wise choice.
Regulus found that lying in his old bedroom was distinctly creepy. He hadn't been in it since the night he had been rescued from the cave, he'd stayed with Sirius for a year or so after Voldemort's defeat, then Sirius moved in with Remus and Regulus stayed with Barty.
His bed felt much too large and much too empty. He had grown accustomed to having someone else in the bed with him, reassuringly warm and alive. When he had slept on the couch at Barty's flat, and in his own bedroom with Sirius, he had nightmares about corpses.
He sat up, looking around the dark room, and finally he gave in, he got out of bed and crept down the stairs. He peered into the guest room where Barty was sleeping; he had thrown the blankets off of himself and was flat on his back, arms and legs splayed out ridiculously. He walked over to the bed and shook Barty lightly.
"I thought I'd be seeing you," Barty muttered, rolling over onto his side to give Regulus room to crawl into bed.
"Sorry. It's just…" he started.
"Yeah, it's fine really," Barty said evasively, throwing the wayward blanket over Regulus. "I don't mind sha-" he starts, his sentence interrupted by a large yawn. "Sharing."
Regulus curled up under the blanket. "Thanks," he muttered, slightly embarrassed at his inability to sleep by himself, he was nearly twenty-four years old, what was wrong with him?
He mulled that over for the longest time, with nothing but Barty's snores to keep him company, until he fell asleep.
The next thing he was very aware of was the bedroom door opening, a loud bang and a slam, and muffled curses.
"Wassgoinon?" he muttered into his pillow.
"Your brother is here," Barty muttered, falling back against the headboard. "I suppose you should go talk to him."
"Dammit," Regulus muttered, rolling out of bed and walking to the door, he pulled it open and Sirius was standing there, quite annoyed.
"…What were you doing in there?" he asked immediately.
"Sleeping."
"With him?"
Regulus' face turned red. "Not like that, I mean, we were…just…sleeping."
Sirius very obviously didn't believe him.
"H-how's Remus?" Regulus asked, forcing Sirius out of the doorway and shutting the bedroom door behind him.
"Oh, he's fine. He's out job hunting," Sirius said, still glaring at the closed door as if it had wronged him. "How was the move in?"
"Not so bad."
"Back in this hellhole, I can't believe it," Sirius muttered, sitting down.
"It's a home," Regulus corrected.
"It's horrid," Sirius argued as Barty finally came out of the bedroom, dressed in a pair of worn in, old, dirty pants and nothing else, much to Regulus' embarrassment.
Sirius raised an eyebrow and Regulus groaned.
"What?" Barty asked loftily, sitting down heavily and propping his feet up on the table.
"How's Harry?" Regulus asked, hoping to divert any imminent battles.
"He's fine, his fifth birthday is coming up, James says you're welcome to come to the party," he said, smirking a little. "I can't wait until he's old enough to play real Quidditch with. Me, you, James, this git, Harry, and some of the Weasley boys, and we could have our own team," he added with a laugh.
"What position does Harry want to play?" Regulus asked.
"Seeker is his latest crazy."
Regulus smirked. "Then that's a job for me, no?"
"And I here was hoping he'd want to be a Beater like his godfather," Sirius said, smiling a little. "But from what Gideon and Fabian told me, the twins would train up quite nicely for a good strong pair of Beaters."
"Just like Gideon and Fabian then?"
"We can only hope not," Barty interjected, smirking a little.
Regulus sighed. "So how long are you planning on visiting today Sirius?" he asked.
"Until Moony gets done job hunting," he remarked. "And then I'll be here for lunch every Saturday."
"I hope you're kidding."