"How do I save you from a fate so sweet
As being torn to pieces by a loving hand?"
-Emilie Autumn, "Save You"
.
Barty knows that things are different now, that he is different.
His hesitation is gone. All the doubts that had once clouded his mind have faded away, little more than blurred memories in the back of his mind, pieces of himself to be forgotten.
He is more sure now, bolder. The timid little Ravenclaw, the strange Ministry brat from Hogwarts, the boy forever stuck in his father's shadow is dead and gone, and someone new has taken his place.
A monster. Barty knows that there's no denying it. This path that he's chosen has left him twisted, a demented shell of his former self. He embraces this new identity, wearing it like a brand new skin.
But he knows that Regulus has seen the changes. How could he not notice that the innocent boy he'd fallen in love with is something darker, something wrong?
Barty can feel Regulus flinch whenever he kisses him. He can feel his lover pull away but hold him close, a war in his mind made physical.
Barty can only tear Regulus down. He will break him until the other boy is just a warped, just as damned.
But he doesn't want to.
Regulus, his precious Regulus, the only person on this bloody planet that Barty could ever love deserves a sweeter fate than an eternity chained to a monster, bound by their schoolyard whispers of forever and always.
But Regulus will never leave him. Truth be told, Barty doesn't want him to, even though he knows that his love is toxic.