Nearly five years.

Five years since this.. this sick started spreading.

Regulus saw his parents get infected first. Sirius had shot both in the head. Without hesitation.

Then it'd been Evan. Regulus will never get over the look on Barty's face as he had to kill his boyfriend.

Now.. they had their group. Remus and Sirius were married, two months before the outbreak, Regulus and James, he hated the other for taking his brother, but it's been.. it has been slowly going away. Everything mattered.

It mattered that they stared at him during his workout, it mattered that Regulus goes to him first for heat, it matter that James made Regulus see stars every night, that the other tasted Regulus skin and savored it like it was salvation from the plague. It mattered that they loved him.

But.. Really? It didn't matter.

Not in this world. Not now. They had bigger problems.

They had to take care of each other, watch each other's back.

He'd lost enough friends. Too many. All of them. And he wasn't the only one.

Sirius had lost Marlene and Dorcas, one had gotten infected, and the other had gotten bit. Both were put in a hole in a ground and burned. They'd lost Peter, too. ReguIus had lost Evan, Pandora, Barty, the last one hadn't been able to handle the fact he had killed his boyfriend and drowned himself in ways to dull the pain, he'd lost Dorcas, too.

Now, all who was left was: Regulus, Sirius and Remus, James, Mary and Lily. They all had their own roles in everything.

It went something like this.

Mary, Lily and James: foraging and medical (aka: they were the closest thing they'd get to real doctors). Sirius and Regulus: Trap-making duty. Remus and Regulus: Fire duty. And everyone was each other's brawler, they all had to watch each other's backs.

They'd found a safe space.. Well, they had built it. From the ground down (underground. damn James for making that joke stick in his head), finally being able to live safely, for a while. They were able to take in new population, and The Reserve was every growing, hell, they had just built a new maternity ward (courtesy of Lily).

It was.. quieting down, slowing, it was turning out okay. But they still had to go out, had to fight nail and tooth for each scrap they got.

Today, he was out in their garden (aka a fourteen acre land filled to the brim with all sorts of seasonal veggies and year alongs), a bit on the edge of The Reserve, tending the plants, he was the (un)official gardener, he loved it, he could spend hours with soil in his hands, and no one bothered him. It was peaceful.

He had dirt on his cheek, his shirt was wrinkled. His knee high boots were dirty. It was a bad day for his hair, and somehow he had gotten basil seeds stuck in his curls.

He was picking strawberries, not having a care in the world.

Well.. No. He was aware enough.

Aware enough to hear the small crunch of dry leaves behind him, and he turned his head, reaching for the hunting knife on the holster around his thigh, fingers closing around it.

It wasn't unusual for a Walker or two to venture too close to The Reserve, they were always dealt with immediately. And this sounded like only one footstep.

Regulus turned around, still gripping the hunting knife and nearly stumbled.

Because in front of him was not a zombie.

Just one James. He sighed softly and walked over to his boyfriend.

The wind rustled in the trees, a distant, faint sound of voices carried by the breeze. He was on edge, the adrenaline from the sudden presence of someone there was rushing through his veins, his heart rate spiked.

“I could have killed you, you know that, right?”

His voice was quiet, slightly hoarse, tired. The garden was his space, his safe place and the other was intruding on it.

Despite that the only thing Regulus could focus on was the other's face. The freckles on his skin, the glasses, the warm brown eyes.