Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/ works/10740735. Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Underage Category: M/M Fandom: Harry_Potter_-_J._K._Rowling Relationship: Regulus_Black/Sirius_Black Character: Sirius_Black, Regulus_Black Additional Tags: Drabble_Collection, Sibling_Incest, Angst Stats: Published: 2003-09-17 Words: 598 ****** Night Inexorable ****** by GMTH Summary One night to live over again. Notes Six drabbles of 100 words each that form a short story. AU, in that Sirius doesn't leave home at 16 in this one. Regulus had nightmares nearly every night after their father died. The child's frightened mumbles would quickly escalate into anguished screams, and Sirius always awoke with his heart in his mouth. Stepping carefully in the darkness of their bedroom, he would sit beside Regulus and rub his back, whispering words of comfort until he fell back to sleep. And then one night Sirius awoke in his own bed to the warmth of his brother sleeping next to him, moonlight playing over his relaxed features. Sirius puffed the pillow up beneath them and leaned into the sweet, fresh scent of Regulus's hair. *** The first kiss took them both by surprise. Sirius whispered a joke in the darkness and Regulus's giggles were humid against his cheek. They smelled of mint, and Sirius captured them in his mouth, dipping his head to drink of them from the source. The laughter dissolved into a clumsy tango of tongues, timid, wet, exhilarating. Regulus clutched Sirius's pyjama top in his fist and tugged him closer, and the kiss deepened of its own accord. Sirius's lips tingled long after they broke apart. "That was weird," Regulus breathed. "Yeah. We better not do that again." "Yeah." But they did. *** "Star light, star bright..." "Don't go making some stupid wish on my star, mate." Regulus smiled against the hollow of Sirius's collarbone, darting his tongue out to taste the salty skin. "How do you know I was going to wish for something stupid?" Sirius squirmed and scooted away so his brother would never know the wicked effect those wet caresses had on him. But when Regulus rolled closer, the evidence strained against his thigh. They froze. Sirius held his breath. "What were you going to wish for, then?" he whispered. "This," Regulus whispered back, his small hand cupping Sirius's erection. *** After a while, they stopped looking at the stars. They couldn't even if they'd wanted to. Not with their eyes closed against the sweat slipping down their foreheads, drenching the pillowcase below. Regulus's screams had a different flavor now. Sirius loved the vibrations echoing through his chest as he drew them from his brother's throat. He soon learned that a twist of his hips, a deeper angle, could change their pitch or make them fade into the whimper signaling Regulus was close to release. "Still having nightmares, Regulus?" their mother asked one morning. Sirius studied his eggs. "Yes," Regulus lied. *** They never touched each other at Hogwarts. There were too many prying eyes, too much inter-house rivalry to make it possible. They treated each other with the familiar contempt so common among siblings, but beneath it all the want still remained. Sirius often looked at the stars from the privacy of his bed, imagining it was Regulus's warm hand stroking him, and wondering if his brother was doing the same. When the holidays came, they very rarely left their bedroom. Mother didn't notice - or didn't care - not even when Kreacher mumbled about the dirty sheets under his breath. *** The night Regulus got his Dark Mark, Sirius turned him away. He was cold and shaking from the initiation, but Sirius recoiled as though the Mark would burn his flesh, too. "Never again," he hissed, and Regulus limped away and dropped like a stone to his bed. He didn't know then that it was his last chance to be with his brother, to prove the love that had never really died. Alone in his cell in Azkaban, it was Regulus's face he saw most often, and he wished more than anything he had that one night to live over again. Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!