He scoffed, under his breath, watching her smile and flirt and feign confidence. Even with her pathetic excuse for a reason to be there, she was glaringly obvious in her intentions. Just like she always was.

Subtlety, maybe, wasn’t one of the useful tricks in any whore’s toolkit. 

     “Everyone knew Orion,” he said, his voice taking on a derisive edge. He wasn’t going to let a little sadness or mourning cloud his judgement; he’d spoken to Alecto before, seen what she wanted, seen what she’d tried to do to lesser men than him, men like Malfoy and Augustus, and he wouldn’t fall for it. Wouldn’t even give her the time of day. “Your father isn’t special. If everyone who’s father knew Orion was here, we’d have needed to find a bigger cemetery.” 

The Carrows were the kind of blue-blooded filth that called the Malfoys kin and kind, the kind of blue-blooded filth that Orion had despised when he founded the Syndicate and climbed his way to the top of the world. The kind Regulus still shuddered to acknowledge his own cousin had married into. And even then, Alecto was, what? The fallen child? The prodigal daughter, still yet to return to her family’s cold but bejeweled embrace?

     “Unfortunately for you, my rich friends have something you seem to lack: taste.” 

Alecto knew better, but she couldn’t keep the pitying look off of her face. She knew that it was just the way to rile Regulus up, but she felt a little of herself in him. He was ice where she was fire, but they lashed out in similar ways. She remembered what it was like to have the weight of the world on her shoulders, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as what Regulus faced. And she couldn’t imagine what he was going through with Orion’s death. 

It was hard to take any of his words seriously. She felt oddly protective of him, and she realized why-his sneering, cold words reminding her of Amycus when she had left. And then she had seen the pain and disappoint and confusion in her twin’s eyes. She wondered if Regulus felt the same way, having someone ripped away from him. Except, Orion hadn’t left by choice. But she had. 

“I’m a Carrow, babe, of course I fit in,” she said with a haughtiness of her own, though it was forced and fractured. Her eyes scanned over his face slowly, taking in whatever hint of expression she could. He was blank, impassive, but turbulent in his own way. The calm before the storm. “I just came to pay my respects. My father knew Orion.” 

Very, very distantly. The Carrows were much more in the Malfoys orbit than the Blacks, but with the Lucius and Narcissa’s marriage, Iapetus had reason to meet Orion once or twice. Not that her father was any excuse to be here, she hadn’t seen him in  years, and had no reason to represent him. In fact, the very notion of her showing her face in front of important people and mentioning him would likely incite rage, perhaps an angry phone call. 

If he would acknowledge that she existed. 

“Why, do you have any rich friends that need seducing?” She smiled slightly, and the action was brittle, a strained attempt at humor in an incredibly awkward situation. Alecto didn’t quite know how to deal with death, she’d never truly been confronted by it. She never really cared. 

He wasn’t sure whether to be frustrated of relieved that Rookwood seemed to be a step or two behind him in all this, just starting to catch up to everything Regulus had already thought of and thought through. Of course he’d be talking to Ava, already had an email drafted to her in his head and would’ve had it sent off before the conversation was over if he already had his tech. That was the obvious next step; he didn’t need Rookwood suggesting it to him or taking credit for the idea. 

But he was the one leading the charge here, not Rookwood. He was the one who knew everything there was to know about modtech, the one with the obligation to people like Snape who might be in danger. It didn’t matter how much Rookwood did or didn’t know, as long as he followed orders and got information. As long as he kept his eyes and ears open and told Regulus anything he found out, anything even remotely useful.

There had to be an answer, here. 

Regulus just needed to be the one to find it. Even if that meant spelling everything out for Augustus. 

     “I’ll talk to Ava and see if anyone at Lumos had heard anything suspicious, get a couple of my guys on the ground asking around. Rita might know something, too, maybe Emmeline. I’ll set up meetings for tonight and early tomorrow as soon as the funeral’s over. Just let me know what you find out, yeah?”

There was silence for a moment. As he looked at Regulus he could all but see the wheels turning in his head, obviously already a thousand miles away, thinking of anything and everything he could do to solve this problem. At the very least, he had to admire the kid’s determination, even if his reasoning for wanting to figure this out was completely different than Augustus’. And it made him feel a bit strange, that Regulus saw Sev’s disappearance as a way to prove himself, that he wanted to figure out who was behind it not for Sev’s safety, but to show he can lead the Syndicate. He didn’t know how he felt about that.

But Regulus was right. Pooling both of their resources would give them a better chance of finding whoever the fuck was after the modtech, whoever the fuck was after Severus, and he wasn’t going to refuse just because Regulus’ intentions were different than his.

How could he fault him for seeing it as a way to prove himself? Augustus had been in that very position five years ago. But he’d had an advantage; the people who he needed to trust him, his da’s associates had been just as fed up with his da as he had been, they had helped him get rid of the problem. Regulus had the challenge of following someone who had never been quite as hated. But this was all beside the point. There were other things to think about just now besides how difficult the next few months would be for Regulus.

“Right. I know Alecto’s been hanging around with him, but haven’t seen her in a few days; no clue where she’s off to. Maybe Ava? You’d have to handle that one, of course, but I know he’s mentioned her before. I dunno, bruv, he didn’t give me much to work with. Only that someone is after his tech. Don’t really know much about it, though, if I’m being honest. I just give ‘em the drugs to cope, yeah?”

He had to laugh at that; at least Rita seemed to feel the same way he did tonight. They usually did, he’d found, and this was no exception.

He grabbed two glasses, more for show than for actual use, and pulled a bottle of vodka and a bottle of whiskey out of the cabinet over the sink, balancing them in one hand before making his way over to the couch and dropping down in the seat next to her, passing her the bottle.

     “You practically read my mind,” he said, letting himself smile a little bit, more than he’d managed to smile all day. 

Orion may have been dead, but things hadn’t really changed all that much. 

Rita quickly shuffled in behind Regulus and took her shoes off. She made her way to his couch and flopped down. As she looked up at the ceiling she dimmed her eye screen. She wanted to give him her full attention. He had been right about her being hard to get a hold of at times. It was an unfortunate side effect of the work she did, she liked to make it easy to disappear if he needed to. And of course Regulus knew that. 

“Get me a glass of whatever you’re getting. Or maybe even bring the entire bottle.” they called out to Regulus and then flopped back to half lay on the couch. Rita had come to spend a lot of time in Regulus’ flat. She considered the  boy to be her best friend. Despite the age difference between the two. 

“Maybe even bring two bottles” they called out a few seconds later. 

He was already compiling a mental list of people who might know something, might’ve heard something -- Rita, with her all-hearing ears, Ava who might’ve seen anything suspicious happening at Lumos, maybe even some of the surgeons he knew... He almost wished he already had his modtech so that he could keep the list in order without pulling out his phone to type it up in the middle of a fucking funeral.

But something about having Augustus’ blessing, having Augustus agree that this was something that needed to be done, something that could be done, had kick-started his brain into high gear, all thoughts of the funeral and the people there forgotten as he started charting a plan of action. Could he arrange a meeting with Pandora? Maybe with Xeno? One of the might know something, and even if they didn’t, it wouldn’t hurt to have them keep an eye out...

     “Anyone with an ear to the ground might be able to help. Or even anyone who saw Severus around the same time we did. I doubt he said anything more to someone else than he did to you, but it’s possible he let something slip, or someone saw where he was coming from or going.”

Anyone with an ear to the ground... was it worth asking Emmeline?

He nodded, but the frown was still on his lips, if only slightly. Regulus seemed to be completely over all of this anyway, the funeral, the gathering of people crowded around the cemetery, half of which were probably just waiting for the day in which he’d fuck up what Orion had build. And it would have been a lie to say that he wasn’t at least partially one of those people. There were other options to think about.

But that wasn’t what mattered at the moment. He wasn’t going to separate himself from something that could work for a few weeks longer just because the chances of failure were all but certain. This was all selfish, and he wasn’t afraid to admit it to himself. Every choice he was making the past few days was a selfish one.

It hit him that Regulus’ reason for caring so much about Sev’s disappearance were probably selfish too. If he knew that this was about modtech, which it was pretty obvious he did, then he must’ve seen it as a way to prove his worth. A way to show all of the people who were already doubting him that he could do what his da had done, that he could take care of the people who worked under the Syndicate, and that he could fix their problems.

It was a fuckin’ mighty task for a seventeen year old, but Augustus wasn’t going to stop him.

“Yeah, right. Suppose I’ll do the same. Don’t really have any other employees who’ve got modtech, but maybe some of my dealers have lost customers lately from these people… Maybe some of them will have a clue where Sev’s gone. Between us, surely there’s something.”

To watch the quiet rage that had been simmering behind her calm facade erupt was almost worth how reckless this entire conversation probably was. The closer she stepped, the further he had to crane his neck to look down at her. The taller he seemed in comparison to her slight frame. 

     “I’ve earned respect because of everything I’ve been doing since my father got sick, Narcissa. Don’t pretend you know what goes on in Knockturn while you’re keeping your heels and nails clean and pretty in Westminster. And if you want our family to keep what it’s earned, I’d suggest you throw your support behind the only shot our family has of keeping the Syndicate under control.”

His voice was calm. Even. No matter what she might have thought of him, might have thought of his ability to lead, at least their conversation had come right back to the root of the problem.

     “If you want to see the Syndicate in Black hands, I’d suggest you tell your husband that fucking Augustus Rookwood in Unspeakable’s backrooms and throwing money at him and his whores is undermining the foundation that keeps the Syndicate running. The only way we’re going to lose everything this family has worked for is if we don’t present a united front.”

The heat was rising across Narcissa’s temple. There was a pulse building from the base of her neck. Who the fuck did this kid think he was? Narcissa had spent two and a half decades building a world for herself, fighting and fighting for every ounce of respect she could get. Then before her was Regulus, a teenager who was being handed more power than anybody, all because he was born into it. As if somehow he was more deserving than Narcissa. Better trained? Better prepared? 

Absolutely not.

She had to force herself not to slap him. It was a nice feeling, one she’d experienced before. However, that wouldn’t help the situation. Not now at least. “First off,” Narcissa growled, attempting to hold her own against his taller frame, “don’t you dare call me that.”

It was a nickname for Bella and Andromeda, no one else. It was patronizing, and the way it slithered off his tongue bit at her. The way he said allowance. Whim. Like she was a child.

Who the fuck did this kid think he was?

“You think you’ve earned respect because of something other than money and a name?” Narcissa laughed, stepping even closer, “You’re even more naive than I thought. You’re just Orion’s son, nothing else. Anyone you think is loyal to you is just waiting to see you blow it all, then they’ll swoop in and take everything our family has worked for. If you think for one second that I’m going to let you lose this, you’re out of you mind.”

Regulus shrugged. Sure, it was the public funeral, but any true mourning that was going to happen on anyone’s part had taken place two days prior. Anyone left who was still genuinely close to Orion, still cared about him as anything more than a figurehead or a monster in the closet, had done their grieving and moved on.

The funeral was a business matter, a public showing of just how many people had feared Orion Black enough to still fear him in his grave, just how many people felt the need to come show their respect, pay homage to everything he’d done and, in some cases, to the son who would take his place. 

And finding the people who had been after Snape? That was business just as much as anything of the rest of it. He’d moved on, and now he would do his job. 

     “The longer we wait, the worse our chance of finding them is. Soon as the funeral’s over, I’m going to start digging, talking to people, see what I can find. See if anything adds up.”

He crossed his arms, not sure what to do with his posture without his leather jacket on, without the familiar pockets to hide his hands in.

      “It’ll go faster if we pool our resources.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said vaguely, a frown etching his face.

For a split second he paused, completely unsure of if Regulus was having a laugh or not. It only took a second of that hesitation for Augustus to realize that he was serious, which only made his frown deepen. Here they were, standing at Regulus’ da’s funeral, and Regulus was there reassuring him that they’d somehow find Sev. It was bizarre. Something completely and utterly out of character for Regulus, at least from what he’d seen from the bloke before now.

What kind of fucked up alternate universe was he in right now?

And, even more important question, why the hell could he feel the pressure in his chest letting up, his hands steadying, his breathing ease just hearing that someone, even Regulus, wanted to somehow help.

For some reason, it made him laugh, only stopping because as soon as it started the tickle in his throat caught him again, another rather violent coughing fit ensuing. It took a second before he could talk again. “Shite, sorry. And here I am, worrying you about Sev when we’re at your da’s funeral. All of this, it can wait for at least a few hours. We’re not gonna get anything done now,” he said before taking another drag of his cigarette despite the previous coughing fit.

He felt himself sigh. Felt himself let out a deep breath of-- of what? Relief? The tension had broken, the air between them had settled back into the familiar comfort, the easy softness he was used to. Her hands reaching for him, taking the mug -- things were back to normal, as normal as they could be anymore.

And yet.

This was the second time in as many weeks, practically, that they two of them had fought and ignore each other and, begrudgingly, with neither side quite fully satisfied with the resolution, made up. They’d fought more times in the past month than they’d ever fought, in all the years Regulus had known her. 

Nothing was worth pushing far enough to risk upsetting the tenuous peace they’d only just reached. 

     “That might be for the best.”

Tea in hand, he leaned over the counter, resting his elbows on the granite and hanging his head a little, the only sign that he was just as tired as he’d been when she snuck silently through his unlocked door. The only sign of just how taxing the day had been for him, running back and forth between his father’s sickbed and the office at Kingfisher’s, his mind bouncing again and again from one task to another. 

     “Did you need something else?” he asked, after a minute, not because he wanted her to go if she didn’t, but just because he wouldn’t be useful for very long, needed to act now if there was something else he was needed to do.

She had to purse her lips at that. 

She didn’t need to know whether he’d made it lightly, not when she was inclined to disagree. Now wasn’t the time, though. Even she knew better than to pick another fight only moments after getting an apology for the last one. 

An apology she hadn’t expected him to have the maturity to give, at that. 

Instead Ava moved forward, bare feet padding across the cold kitchen tiles as she took one of the mugs from his hand. Briefly, she considered giving a small nudge, or even a hand on his arm, to show that things were headed towards normalcy, but decided against it. The moment was enough. Comfortable and almost domestic, it was a quiet side to her that others didn’t see. If Regulus didn’t know that, it was his loss. 

She wasn’t about to spell it out, even with affection. 

Ava glanced up at him, eyebrows arching. It was as close to a white flag as anyone had ever gotten. 

   “We could just drop it.” 

So he must’ve known it was about modtech. Severus must have told him at least that much before he up and left. 

So he had to know how potentially dangerous this could be for Regulus, what this could mean for the Syndicate if things got out of hand. If the problem wasn’t dealt with. If he took a second to think through the consequences, it would be obvious. 

But did he want Rookwood to know how bad this could be? Or, if he handled it, how potentially good it could be? How it would be the perfect opportunity to prove himself, to show anyone who doubted him that he was just as capable as anyone else, more capable of doing his job, of keeping the people who paid him safe, of protecting those who had earned his protection. How it would cement his place not just as heir but as leader, not just Orion’s son, but his replacement, not just because he was his son but because he had earned it.

Regulus wasn’t quite sure where he wanted Rookwood to fall in all of this. But either way, he needed to know everything Snape had told him.

     “We’re going to find them,” he said, after a moment. “We’re going to find him, and if we don’t, there’s going to be hell to pay.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, but maybe there was something I could’ve done this time. Fuckin’ tied him to the bed if I had to,” he said running a hand through his hair. 

For some reason, everything was actually hitting him now that he was talking about it out loud, which was ridiculous considering the circumstances of this whole interaction. It was a funeral. Whatever had or had not happened to Sev wasn’t necessarily the most important thing in the world, but honestly Augustus cared more about if something had happened to Sev than Orion Black kicking the bucket.

But it also didn’t help the stress that seemed to be taking his body over and beating it down. It just gave him one more thing to worry about. And this felt even more important since there was actually something he could have done about it to prevent it. In a small way, if something had happened to Sev, if those people, whoever they were, had gotten to him, it was at least partially his fault.

Augustus felt at the inside pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a nearly crushed pack of cigarettes and his lighter. He realized that his hands were shaking only once he had put the cigarette in his mouth and had to try several times before lighting the cigarette successfully. He took a long slow drag before going on again.

“Shite, it’s been a week, they’ve probably sawed his bloody head in half by now, gutted the whole thing. Fuck.”

He had almost forgotten, since he’d last seen them, how much he really missed Rita. Their easy company, the way they always had something to say, some new piece of interesting information that was exactly what Regulus wanted to hear, the softness of them that not even Knockturn or the modtech could ever quite beat out. A friend who not only understood him in terms of his life in Knockturn, his relationship with his father, but who understood his technobabble and paid it back in kind.

     “Of course I don’t mind,” he said, trying for a smile and bumping her shoulder with his. The rage had cooled, finally, completely; now, he was tired, needed a drink, needed to sit on his couch with someone whose company he enjoyed and that was exactly who Rita was -- easy to talk to, no pressure to be around.

He unlocked the door, finally, pushing it open and stepping in to let them through before tugging his jacket off his shoulders, sore from spending much of the day hunched over the boxes of stuff in Orion’s office. One tap on the wall panel turned the lights on, enough to see but dim enough still that it didn’t hurt his tired eyes, and he made his way into the kitchen to dig up some alcohol, whatever he had on hand.

“I would actually like this…if you don’t mind. I don’t want to intrude…well I sort of do but I won’t if you don’t want me to.” Rita smiled at Regulus sort of sheepishly. It had been a while since the two of them had much of a chance to just sit down and talk. Or really interact. Before Orion had gotten really sick Rita had felt that she was closer to Regulus than anyone else. They felt almost like a normal person around them, nothing she talked about ever seemed like it bored Regulus. Regulus made Rita feel calm and happy. 

“I know things are…weird and they are going to be weird but…I just want  you to know that I’m…I’m here for you. I’m not going to go anywhere.” Rita shrugged her shoulders up shyly and gave Regulus a small sad smile. 

Even if she had no idea what exactly was coming she knew that she wanted to be there for Regulus in any way she could. Rita felt a protectiveness over him. She had known him since he was young. He had met her when she had been in the most trouble in her life. In a way she was just a kid herself when hey had first met. He had helped them branch out, be more confident in herself not just in her skills. And he might not even know that. 

     “I can offer you a fair audience.”

The words came out of his mouth before he’d even fully processed them in his mind, even fully decided what they meant, like some desperate bid for a last attempt at salvaging this; but once they were out in the open, they made sense. 

     “Orion doesn’t want to believe a word you say. He’ll take any chance he can get to ignore your demands, dismiss you because you’re young and inexperienced and not your father. It’s a stupid way of doing business, sometimes, but he’s a proud man with high standards. But I don’t have that bias. Maybe I can’t offer you anything tangible today, but whatever you may say about me, Orion listens when I talk. It’s part of my-- training, or whatever. He listens to what I have to say and he considers it with fair and full attention. You tell me what you want, I bring it to his attention; he’ll take more kindly to that than if you go to him directly.”

He shrugged a little, like he knew he was only offering the barest of possibilities.

     “And if I talk him up a little, tell him you want more than you actually do, he’ll feel good about compromising when he barters me down to what you actually wanted in the first place. Win win, yeah?”

“You know the answer to that already,” he said raising an eyebrow, not even giving him a chance to act like he didn’t have that shite memorized too.

This was maybe the slightest bit interesting, just because he wanted to see what Regulus would do, but mostly it was just a waste of time. It was a waste of both of their time. Augustus wasn’t going to get anything concrete from the kid, and Regulus wasn’t going to get anything concrete out of Augustus. This whole meeting was like being stuck.

Despite himself, he glanced backward out the front windows, locking eyes with one of his associates who was milling about outside. He gave the man a bit of a shrug, as if to say I also don’t know what the fuck the point of this is.

The game wasn’t as fun when you knew that there was nothing you could get out of it. The fact that this whole thing was obviously now just meant to be a test for Regulus as much as it was for him just made him want to play along even less.

“Alright, bruv, what can you offer me if not what I want? Did your dear da tell you what you could actually give me before leaving you with an impossible task or not?” he asked frankly. “Because we’re not gonna get very far if there’s nothing on the table.”

You’re not a kid anymore. You have the right to choose your own life. You can start again.

Haruki Murakami, The wind-up bird chronicle (via bookaddictiion)

He probably should have expected Rookwood to take it this personally. 

He knew Rookwood was closer to Snape than he’d been, an actual friend more than one of convenience, a relationship of trust and caring more than one built on a shared (shared?) interest and an occasional bummed cigarette. 

It sounded like Snape had only gotten worse between when he saw Regulus and when he showed up at Augustus’ door, and maybe that was part of it, too, maybe Rookwood was more scared of what might have happened to him than Regulus was. But if Regulus was being honest, Snape wasn’t exactly what he was worried about; no, he was worried about the way Snape kept running his hands over the scar on his scalp, kept shaking like someone was going to rip the metal right out of his fucking head.

Regulus was worried about what this meant for modtech.

     “You know Sev,” he said gently, a half-assed attempt at placating him or comforting him or something. He knew if wouldn’t help much. “He wouldn’t have listened. Once he set his mind on running...”

Regulus’s reply was much calmer, his voice quiet, his words steady and clear, but it couldn’t cut through the panic that had now full on gripped Augustus.

“Yeah, yeah, last week. Fuck,” he breathed, looking around the cemetery as if Severus would suddenly appear out of nowhere from behind a tomb or out of one of the groups of people gathered around. It seemed like the sort of thing Sev would get a kick out of doing. Definitely something he’d do if he wasn’t… if he was still…

Fuck.

“Sev was well fucked when he came round to mine. Paranoid, and jumpy, barely even let me touch him, which is, like, odd. He wouldn’t even pick Ambrose up. But I’d be fucked up too if someone had fuckin’ taken me. That’s what he said, someone, or someones, had gotten to him? Beaten him bloody trying to get what he’s got. He’d only just gotten away. And now…” he said, words coming out too quickly, voice strained as he remembered everything that Sev had said to him before disappearing again. He was starting to feel light-headed now and he wasn’t sure if it was from the panic or something else. 

“Said that to me too, that they’d find him again, that even I couldn’t help him hide this time. And… now he’s gone? Fuck, fuck. I should’ve made him stay. I told him to stay with me for a few days to get whoever the hell it is off his trail. I could’ve kept him safe. I should’ve realized. They probably found him as soon as he left my flat.”

He listened to them talk for a moment, half-interested, half still trying to shake the strange feeling he’d gotten when they first walked in, swaying slightly, eyes unfocused like they were seeing something other than what was actually there. That familiar feeling, that tightening in his chest, like they’d reminded him of something he would have rather forgotten, some anxious, worrying thing that had, at one point in time, eaten away at the back of his mind and then disappeared until just now.

     “I worked here a few years ago, for a while, but I hated it,” he explained, purposefully leaving his answer a little vague. “Just recently came back when they needed a little extra help here and there.”

He shrugged, leaning back in his chair a little.

     “Usually I stick to the back, supervising and everything.” 

There were many kind of shops and restaurant that were open late a night. The Grim was one of those places but Sybill had been ready to leave the business to get something to eat. It was astounding to see other places open at such a late hour, though Sybill knew it was because other things happened at night. 

Taking another sip of their water, Sybill chuckled before shrugging at Regulus. “Yes and no. I do get to leave whenever I want but I also have to leave my dear shop in capable hands. I once had a worker try to steal from the register when I left early.” They shook their head at the thought. “Real shame. I made my hiring policy a  lot stricter after that.” Sybill wasn’t a very aggressive person, and when you own an establishment sometimes you need an iron fist. Sybill’s hand was a bit more watery and similar to jello. They actually had to get one of their managers to fire the worker after that since they cried at the thought of it. 

“How long have you been working here?” Sybill smiled, changing the subject. The Kingfisher’s was established a long time ago and while Sybill wasn’t a regular, they don’t ever remembering seeing Regulus’s face around here. (Perhaps they forgot, but that was unlikely since they never forget a face. Unless they were drunk.) 

He leaned into their touch, just a little, closing his eyes, the comforting contact threatening to break apart some dam in his chest, the anger and exhausting fading, a wave of grief flooding in in its place, but just for a moment, just until Rita pulled away.

And then the numbness set in, a bone-deep feeling of emptiness; he didn’t have the energy to feel, right now, not with all of the things he should be feeling. 

    “Was just going in, actually,” he said, pulling the key back out of his pocket. “Haven’t been home all day.”

It wasn’t until Orion was dead that Regulus realized maybe there were people other than him that saw Orion as a father, people other than him who were going to be hit hard by his death. People like Rita, like Ava, who may not have grown up with Orion but who saw more of him than Regulus had until just recently, who he’d taken under his wing, protected, defended. Who he’d mattered to.

Maybe Rita had as much right to be upset as Regulus did. 

     “I, uh... d’you want to come in for a drink or something?”

They listened to Regulus quietly. Despite their own hurt feelings they knew that it would be nothing compared to what the younger was feeling. Nothing compared to the immense pressure that had just bore down onto him. Rita would never be able to understand that. When he own father had died he hadn’t left he an entire legacy to protect. Rita simply had herself to protect, which up to that point she had thought was the worst thing of all. 

“It’s…it’s alright. I understand Reg.” finally Rita stood and moved herself closer to Regulus. They put their hand on his back and kissed his cheek. 

“Were you going somewhere. I realize I caught you leaving. I could go with you, help you if you need. Or…you can come to mine and I can cook you something to eat. I’m sure you’ve forgotten to do that with everything that is going on.” Rita back off again and stood just past the door frame. She looked Regulus over and frowned. The boy looked pretty worse for wear. 

Rita had known him for so long at this point that her protective instincts kicked in. Rita considered him to be her first friend, even if he was rather younger than her. They had bonded over their mutual love of technology and Rita had always appreciated his kindness to her. They just wanted to return that kindness in any way they could.

Regulus nodded as he spoke. None of what Rookwood was saying was a surprise; he’d assumed that Augustus would be the first person Severus would willingly go to after his unintentional run-in with Regulus, after he left Kingfisher’s poorly feigning an excuse to get out, to escape. And it didn’t sound like he’d said much more to Augustus than the little he’d said to Regulus: someone’s after me, I’m better off dead, I have nowhere to go, there’s nothing you can do to help...

     “He said the same to me,” Regulus replied, lowering his voice in response to Rookwood’s reaction. Coughing wasn’t exactly what he’d expected when he asked the question, but he did look a little under the weather, under that green suit.

 He wasn’t sure if Severus had mentioned that whoever was after him, whoever he’d escaped from, was after his modtech in his conversation with Augustus, but he figured he wouldn’t mention it until he was sure Rookwood knew, just in case. If his suspicious were right, he had bigger things than just Snape to worry about, and he didn’t want to draw Rookwood too far into it unless he had to. 

     “Last week, right? The... 21st? I ran into him trying to shave all of his hair off, hiding under a bridge, gave him something to eat and he disappeared. He was talking about having to hide, someone following him, kept saying getting out of the country wouldn’t be enough... Haven’t seen him since.”

If Regulus was surprised that he was offering to help him out, even now, then Augustus was even more surprised by the fact that he actually had something to ask him for; more shocked still about what it was he asked.

“Sev? Yeah, I mean, sort of depends what you mean by lately. Saw him ‘bout a week ago. He, like, showed up at my flat at like four in the morning, looking a complete mess. He crashed in one of the guest rooms, like he does, but he was gone when I got up for yoga like three hours later. Haven’t seen him since…” he trailed off at the end, even though he was about to go on. 

Augustus was about to shrug and say, typical Sev, though, disappearing for weeks at a time and showing up high off his arse. But he stopped himself. Because this was different.

It was like saying it out loud is what actually made him realize that Sev’s normal disappearances could’ve meant trouble this time around, given what he said had happened when he saw him last. Somehow he had been so caught up in his own shite that he hadn’t even considered the fact that maybe this time it wasn’t him going off for some wild adventure, or locking himself up in his flat to do experiments with imperix for him, that this time his absence was very likely related to the people he’d been going on about a week ago. The people who wanted his modtech, the people who had kidnapped him.

He could feel the panic suddenly rising, his chest tightening, his head spinning. He tried to speak, but instead that fuckin’ hacking cough took over again, this time so strong, it forced him to grab Regulus by the shoulder out of nowhere to keep himself standing. Even once the cough stopped, though, he kept a tight grip on his shoulder, the feeling of something tangible keeping him from panicking any more than he already was.

“He said someone was after him..”

The offer should have been a trick. It should have been the exact opposite of what it was, Rookwood asking for something instead of offering it. That’s what Regulus was expecting, now; not just from him, but from everyone. Orion hadn’t had a conversation in the last twenty years of his life that didn’t end in someone asking him for something.

But Augustus was offering, and no matter how genuine -- or, not genuine -- the offer was, Regulus was more than a little surprised to hear it.

And even more surprised that he actually did have something that he needed from him. Something that had been on his mind, temporarily shoved to the back when he’d gotten the news about his father but coming back into focus now that he’d had time to clear his mind a little bit.

     “Actually, yeah,” he said slowly, his voice measured and even as he put the question together in his head, tried to figure out the best way to approach it. “Have you, er... have you seen Severus, lately?”

He couldn’t help but smile ever so slightly at that, despite the fact that it felt wrong to be smiling given the circumstances of the encounter. But it was just such a human moment. It was also a moment that reminded him how young Regulus was. He’d probably grown a few inches just in the past year, hell, Augustus knew he was taller than he had been when he’d had his first real meeting with him nearly two years ago. Now he was taller than him. But he was still so young. He was still just a kid at his da’s funeral.

And now he was at the head of an empire, ill-fitting suit or not. 

“Cheers, bruv. You don’t look too bad yourself, despite the ankles,” he said raising an eyebrow, a hint of playfulness in the words. Any other time, he would have known where he was going with something like that, and it would have been a complete lie to say he wasn’t entertaining the thought. But for now a moment of honesty, for once, was all that was needed. And before he could stop himself he was speaking again.

“If you need any help with anything… let me know, yeah?”

He actually, genuinely laughed at that. She may have been a Black by birth but she was already thinking like a Malfoy. Money makes the world go round and all that nonsense, like it was the only thing that mattered, like it put some invisible barrier around them that kept out the stench of the real world. 

      “You think this is about money, Cissy?” he asked, his voice taking on a steely, derisive edge. Mocking her. Matching her grin with one of his own, the dog facing off against the snake. “My allowance could buy out enough Malfoy Towers stock to crash the market if I decided to sell on a  whim. I don’t want your husband’s money.”

He crossed into the room, finally, making his way to the opposite side of the bar as her; even with her in her heels, he was a few inches taller, enough that he seemed to tower over her for a moment. Young, maybe, but no less physically powerful for it. He felt, for a moment, like they were two wrestlers in a ring, two prey animals circling up to fight to the death, and in a battle like this, Regulus was sure he could win.

     “If my father had been shot in an alley, I’d be concerned, but the nice thing about cancer is that it gives you plenty of time to prepare. Orion could drop dead tomorrow and nothing would change. I’ve built loyalties, Narcissa; I’ve earned the respect of those below me by working for it, not just because I have money and a name like you or Lucius. You think this is a threat? This is a warning. You stay in your lane, you do what you’re meant to do, and you don’t mess around with things you don’t understand. You want to see a threat? Just fucking wait.” 

“What do you want then Regulus?” Narcissa asked, her voice biting as she stood and paraded past him. He was playing with her, and that sent a flash of red across her vision. Who was he to come to her and make vague threats? To question her? Yes, perhaps Lucius’s games in Knockturn were foolish or dangerous, but what gave this child the right to question her? In her own home for that matter. Her long fingers had to clench together to stop from shaking.

Crossing to the bar again, Narcissa turned to look at her cousin. “Money? Please tell me you aren’t here for money Regulus. That would be exceptionally classless,” Narcissa said, forcing herself to giggle as she poured a glass of chardonnay. She flicked the rim at him in a mock toast before taking a sip and returning the bottle. “Though I suppose I wouldn’t entirely be surprised. You’re- what- seventeen? Have you turned eighteen yet? You’re still waiting on daddy to give you your allowance. But guess what?” her lips curled into a grin as she circled the bar like a shark, “Daddy’s dying, and soon you’re going to be nothing but a little boy wearing a coat that’s too big for him. Soon you’ll be the one who need to be protected- so I wouldn’t be so quick to come and make threats Regulus.”

Through her speech Narcissa had inched closer and closer to her cousin, her wedding band digging into her finger as it pressed against the cold wine glass. There was something scary about being this angry. It was almost like giving up power, and while Narcissa knew that she needed to reign herself in she didn’t want to. She wanted him to be scared. She wanted him to know how small he was.