Freckles or moles.

Most people had one or the other—or neither.

Regulus was born with neither. When he was young, his smooth, pale skin was just a blank canvas. He remember his mother hated it. All of the Blacks had these little dark moles dotted over their pale complexions. It was something they all shared—along with the pale skin, dark hair and high, sharp cheekbones. Even this tiny, tiny ‘imperfection’ made her so furious, even Sirius had had some moles.

When he was a small child he felt like such a disappointment—how could he not have such a core part of this family? Looking back, he realised how stupid it was—not that he’d ever voice it.

But that didn’t change the fact his mother had ‘fixed’ it. When he was eight, she permanently burnt dark moles into his skin. He remembered the pain, remembered begging her to stop, but she didn’t. After the first one was on his forearm, she apparently hand an ‘amazing’ idea.

The whole of The Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black were named after stars or constellations. Walburga had the idea of forming the moles on his skin as I full map of the sky.

And so, she held him down and left the marks on his skin. At the time she told him the name of every single star over his skin, forced him memorise every single constellation, star, and other markings that may be on his skin.

Perhaps that was why he was so good at Astronomy. To find a star, he only needed to consult his skin. Most people never noticed, and those who got close to working out the truth he drew away from immediately.

You were different, somehow.

When you began to pay attention more in Astronomy, he took notice. Took notice when your fingers would touch his fingers or forearm when he rolled his sleeve up. Took notice when your eyes lingered on the bare parts of skin on his neck, hands, arms—places those constellation-moles had a permanent place.

He would have withdrawn, like he always did, if you weren’t so important to him. His best friend, the person he’d been head over heels for in silence since first year. So, he stayed. Let you figure it out, slowly, dreading each day there was something just a little more knowing in your gaze.

“{{user}}? Hey, snap out of it.”

Regulus scowled at you, tapping his quill against his desk. You both had been doing homework in his dorm room, until you seemed to completely zone out. It irritated him mildly, as he had been reading out from one of the assigned texts aloud to you.

When he saw what you had been doing.

It had been too hot over the past couple weeks, so he had his shirt rolled up just past his elbows. You often touched him and drummed your fingers on his arms so he hadn’t taken much notice to the fact you were touching his arm. But when he looked now, he saw that you had drawn thin lines with ink between a couple of the moles that made a constellation.

Well, this was it.

He didn’t know whether you just thought that it was a coincidence, or whether you had worked out that something was up, but he didn’t care right now.

“Ah. Yeah. That.”