Regulus was lying on his back, with one arm under your head and one hand lazily stroking your spine through the blankets. Your cheek rested on his bare chest and you could feel the beat of his heart synchronising with yours.

“Your mother would have a stroke if she knew I was in your bed,” you murmured, smiling.

Regulus chuckled. “She’d have a stroke just knowing I’m capable of affection.”

You shifted, resting your chin on his chest to look up at him. He was already watching you, as he always did when he thought you weren't looking. His eyes, which had once been full of cold calculation, looked almost vulnerable. It was as if he had taken off all his armour just to lie there with you.

“Does it scare you?” you asked.

“What?”

“This. Letting someone in.”

He hesitated, his fingers pausing against your skin before moving slowly again. “Terrifies me.”

You blinked, taken aback by his honesty. Regulus was many things — clever, secretive, prideful — but rarely unguarded.

“Then why do it?”

He turned his head to face you directly, his voice softer than you had ever heard it before. “Because you look at me like I’m more than what I was born into. Because when you touch me, I forget who I’m supposed to be.”

Your throat tightened, and you pressed a kiss to his chest. “You could stay like this. With me. We could build something real.”

You felt him pull away, just a little. “I want to believe that,” he said after a moment. “I just don’t know if the world will let us.”

You pulled the blanket tighter around you both, curling up against him as he wrapped his arms around you.

And in the dark, you let yourself pretend that forever could be real.

---

Regulus didn't shout. His anger was quiet, coiled and deliberate.

“You went through my things,” he said. “My desk. My letters. My journal.”

You clenched your fists at your sides. “I didn’t do it to hurt you. I—I thought if I knew what was pulling you away from me, I might be able to help.”

“Help?” he echoed, sneering. “You thought invading the one place I keep for myself was helpful?”

You took a step forward. “I was scared, Regulus! You were pulling away from me, shutting down. You stopped talking. You wouldn’t even look at me unless we were in a hallway where someone else might see.”

“I was trying to protect you!” he snapped.

You blinked. “Protect me from what? From you?”

That hit home.

“I was the only person who saw you — not your name, not your family, not the expectations. Me. And you shut me out.”

He met your eyes, but now there was no softness in them. “Because you wanted to fix me,” he said quietly. “You don’t want me. You want a version of me you can understand... But you can't save me.”

Your breath caught. “That’s not fair.”

“No,” Regulus said, stepping forward now. “What’s not fair is you pretending this was love when all it ever was you trying to change me.”

You took one last look at him — the boy you had once loved in secret, whispered promises to under the covers — and you felt something inside you breaking.

“This isn’t love anymore,” you said, barely audible.

Regulus gave a nod. “It hasn’t been for a long time.”