@willowguarded
Everything’s fine.
Of course it’s fine; why wouldn’t it be? He’s got just what he’s always wanted. He’s free of his mother and the oppressive weight of Grimmauld Place, and he’s living with James and James’ parents, who are a real family, the kind that don’t hate each other. It’s the dream. Nirvana.
All right, so he’d asked James if they could not tell the others, just yet, but it wouldn’t be the first time he and James had held some secret between them, just because they can, because they’re capable of talking about things without ever opening their mouths. And yeah, he’d been terrified of seeing his parents dropping Regulus off on the platform, and there might have been some embarrassing hand-holding he’ll never admit to, the neat half-moons that his nails had pressed into James’ skin accepted without complaint.
So what? Everything’s fine. So fine. The most fine.
Which is what he’s saying when he catches sight of Remus’ face, recognises the expression on it, and grinds to a halt.
“What?” he demands, already keyed up into something defensive and tense. His fingers curl against his palm and there’s something hot at the base of his throat. He repeats himself for perhaps the eighth time. “I said I was fine, didn’t I?”
