A/N: This is for mew-tsubaki. Merry Christmas, friend!

I don't own Harry Potter, nor do I own this pairing. It was founded by Morghen, and is oart of M&MWP.

Slash.

This can be read as a sort of sequel to my other fic, 'The Red Streak', but it's not necessary.

I don't care.

Scabior stumbled into the Slytherin Common Room. He'd just received word that Regulus was dead. Or not gone, but missing.

But to Scabior he was dead. Reg was gone, meaning he was out of Scab's life for good. They say he ran away, killed himself.

Didn't Reg know how utterly selfish he was being?

People asked Scabior if he was okay. If he was fine. But he lied and said yes. That was all he did. He lied.

. . .

He tried to make his way through his life, but Regulus always stood in his way. Whenever he tried to have a romance, something stopped him. It was Reg.

I don't care if you're dead or alive, Reg! I try to make it through my daily lies, it's all I seem to do! Where the hell are you, Reg? I can never go on until I know where you are!

Are you alive, Reg? Why won't you come to me if you are?

Nights were spent tossing and turning. Scabior was no longer Scab, he was Scabior. Even Narcissa was afraid to approach him. And she had been one of his best friends whilst at school. He always stole her green eyeliner, and she always yelled at him. Reg would step in, calming them both down.

He remembered the day he got his red streak. It was Reg's blood. At least he had some part of Reg with him, but he didn't want a reminder, he wanted the real Reg. To hug him, to tell him it'll be okay, to hold him close and smell the smell of sweat as Reg had just finished a Quidditch match – and won. He'd always hugged Reg, it seemed only right. Hugging ones best mate was allowed… but was falling for your best mate?

Had he fallen? He didn't know. All he knew was that ever since Reg went missing, he didn't care about anything. Not life, or people, or money. .. just Reg, and where he was.

. . .

Later Scabior joined the Snatchers in hopes of finding his Reg. He put up with Fenrir and his baggage, he listened, but stayed the voice of reason. Reg was perhaps out there, and Fenrir going ballistic wasn't going to help his chances of survival.

After the war Harry Potter mentioned that Reg was, indeed, dead. He'd sacrificed himself for a greater cause.

And Scabior realized that he did care. He did care that his friend was dead, that he'd been drowned by a mass of dead bodies in a lake, only to join the other dead bodies.

That's why he was here. Years later, at the lake. He'd gotten Potter to tell him the exact location.

He'd search through all of these bodies, he'd find Reg, and give him a proper burial.

Hours later he'd found his old friend. He was still preserved as a boy, having been young when he passed away, and being in water for so long.

He lifted the body onto the stone. How would he get it out of here?

As it turned out, he didn't need to worry about that, as Reg's eyes flew open, yet no life twinkled in the sockets.

He didn't fight when Reg drew him under. He didn't fight the mass of inferi as they drew him under. Because he could never harm Reg, even if it was just his body. He did care.

Silently, Scabior joined Regulus in his watery grave. And no one was the wiser.