regulus has lived with sirius in that little apartment once, both of them trying so hard to make it work, to be a family in a place that didn’t already know their names, buying mismatched mugs and cheap curtains and pretending the world outside couldn’t reach them, sirius cooking badly on purpose just to make regulus laugh and regulus leaving his keys in the same bowl every night like it meant he was staying, but in the end regulus packed his bag while the sun was still rising and walked back into that wretched house willingly because what even is regulus if he can’t be a black, the name sitting heavier than any love he tried to choose, and it still hurts though that when he walks past sirius’s apartment, his phone automatically connects to the wifi. “our home”. he never changed it. maybe sirius forgot, maybe he couldn’t bring himself to, but regulus always notices. for a few seconds, his phone thinks he’s home again, and regulus has to keep walking trying to ignore the stinging in the quiet place behind his ribs where the word family used to live
