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Frank is tired, to put it simply. He’s been a camp counselor for seven years now, but he’s never had a camper as wild as Regulus Black. The three year old is a menace to his bunkmates and any counselor who dares cross his path—not to mention the ear plugs Frank has started carrying around just to drown out Regulus’ shrieking.
Where does all this energy come from? Frank wonders as Regulus bursts through the door at 8 a.m., already sounding like a tea-pot as he runs over to the toy bin and starts throwing trains.
“ Regulus —“ Frank begins, rushing over to scoop Regulus off the floor before he sends a bunkmate to the nurse.
“Noooo! Down! Down!” Regulus yells, wiggling out of Frank’s arms.
“Do you promise to stop throwing trains?” he asks.
“Yes,” Regulus says with a mischievous smile.
Frank sighs and puts him down, and Regulus immediately throws another toy.
Before he can interrupt, James Potter toddles over to Regulus and grabs his hand.
“Do you wanna play with me, Reglis?” he asks.
Regulus immediately pushes him over, and when James lands on his bottom he bursts into tears. Regulus giggles and runs away to terrorize the other half of the room.
“Oh, James, you’re okay, don’t cry.” Frank picks him up and sways James to calm him down.
Not that Frank has favorites, but he can’t help but melt every time James sticks his thumb in his mouth and nuzzles his face into his shoulder.
Yeah, he definitely has favorites.
“I wanna play with Reglis,” James whines into his neck.
“I know, but Regulus isn’t treating his friends very nice right now, so we have to give him space, okay? How about you go play with Marlene? She has the Lightning McQueen truck I know you love!”
James mopes a little longer, but he eventually wiggles until Frank puts him down and goes to join Marlene and Peter.
Regulus, on the other hand, is still shrieking and running around the classroom like a headless chicken. When he passes Barty and Evan coloring, he decides grabbing the bin of crayons and dumping them on the floor is a good idea.
“REG, NO!” Frank yells, but Regulus giggles and spills the crayons everywhere.
“HEY!” Evan shouts, and because he is three, he hits Regulus.
None of the other campers usually fight back, so Regulus is clearly started by Evan’s reaction.
He flinches and stumbles backwards when Evan strikes, a look of surprise on his face, and he stands still for a moment before throwing his head back and wailing.
“Evan, we don’t hit people,” Frank says as he hurries over to the scene.
“But he spilled my crayons!”
Frank sighs, feeling like a hypocrite for telling Evan not to hit after everything Regulus gets away with, and because he is so damn tired of starting the morning like this every day with Regulus.
“Okay, well, two wrongs don’t make a right,” he mumbles bending down to pick up Regulus, who is now in full-blown hysterics.
Regulus wraps his arms around Frank’s neck and buries his face in his shirt, and he has to admit that he’s probably the cutest child in this camp, even ig he’s a little ball of chaos. If only he’d stop screaming bloody murder in his ear, though.
Regulus does not calm down, and Frank tries everything. He pats him on the back and sways him, and carries him around the room to try and coax him into playing with the other children. He even offers the trains again despite knowing that Regulus will just throw them, but he doesn’t care.
Short of ideas, Frank pulls out his phone and calls Alice in the classroom around the corner.
“Frank?”
“Is Sirius here today?”
“Yeah, ‘course. He came in with Regulus—is that him crying?”
“Yes. I don’t know what to do. I’ve tried everything. Is Poppy with you?”
“Yeah. She’s doing director stuff right now—just taking attendance. Should I get her?”
“No, no, it’s fine. Just—Can you leave your kids with her and come watch mine for a second? And bring Sirius with you, please.”
“Sure. I’ll be there in a sec.” Alice hangs up and Frank continues to bounce and shush a sobbing Regulus as he walks over to the door.
He stands halfway in his classroom and the hallway to keep Regulus’ crying from rubbing off on the other children but still being able to keep an eye over everyone until he sees Alice turn the corner, holding Sirius’ hand.
“You’re a lifesaver. I owe you,” he says.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m glad to help,” Alice replies with a warm smile. She places a supportive hand on his arm before heading into the room, and if he wasn’t so preoccupied with the situation at hand, he’d be swooning like an idiot.
God, he has the biggest crush on her.
Anyway, he takes Regulus into the hall and kneels down to put him at Sirius’ level.
“Look whose here, Regulus. It’s your big brother!”
Regulus lifts his head and looks around, and when his eyes fall on Sirius, he slips out of Frank’s arms and throws himself at his brother.
“You’re okay, Reggie. You’re fine,” Sirius soothes, literally calming him down with the same patting on the back and rocking that he was doing, but whatever. It’s different when it’s your brother.
When Regulus’ wailing turns to sniffles, Sirius asks, “Why are you crying? What’s wrong?”
“I got hit,” Regulus whispers.
“Now or from this morning?”
Frank is a highly educated twenty-one year old boy, but the only word that passes through his mind when Sirius says this is “ ayo???”
“Now, but—but it was scary for me. Scary like when it was scary this morning,” Regulus says.
“I know. But you’re safe here, okay?”
“Okay.” Regulus hiccups.
“You don’t need to worry here.”
Regulus nods, and Sirius kisses his forehead before pulling back. Regulus wipes his eyes and turns to Frank, and he suddenly realizes that he’s on the verge of tears himself. Jesus Christ, the puzzle pieces just clicked into place.
“Now, go play with James and Marlene and Peter and Lily and Barty and Evan and—“ Sirius lists out the names of his bunkmates like he’s forgotten the word friends and has to count each individual person instead.
Regulus reaches for Frank’s hand and walks with him back to the classroom, and Frank lightly taps his back to signal that he can run off and play.
“Everything alright? I know we say they look sickly victorian children but you really look like you just saw a ghost.”
Frank swallows the lump in his throat and pulls his lips into a weak smile. “Funny. Uhm—Are we still having that meeting after camp today? I have something I need to talk about with Poppy.”
“Yeah, yeah, we are… Is everything alright?” Alice asks skeptically.
“No, it’s really not, but I’ll talk to Poppy tonight and figure it out,” Frank replies. He doesn’t want to invade the Black brother’s privacy by publicizing this discovery so he refrains from spilling everything he wants to tell Alice.
“Okay, well, Sirius is trying to stuff himself in a locker again, so I better get him and head back to my own room. I’ll see you later?”
Alice places a hand around his arm again in the way that sends butterflies straight to his stomach and he can’t help the blush spreading across his cheeks.
“Yeah. Thanks a mil for everything. You’re, um, you’re really the best cousnelor a kid could ask for.”
Frank swears Alice blushes just as deeply as him at the compliment, and she seems to bite back a smile as she thanks him and heads off with Sirius.
He watches her go with the stupidest grin on his face, but he’s shaken out of his daydreams by Regulus’ gleeful shrieking again.
He turns to find Regulus standing and jumping on the table James is trying to build a race car track on, but he’s not bothered this time when he scoops him up—he’s only a bit sad.
“WHEEE!” Regulus screams and giggles as Frank lifts him in the air.
He places Regulus on his hip for a while to make sure he feels safe and included while ensuring that he won’t tear the classroom apart anymore.
At the end of the day, with only a few minutes before Frank plans to talk to Poppy, Regulus’ mother comes to pick him and Sirius up from aftercare.
When she enters the classroom, Frank watches carefully as Regulus’ eyes land on her and he immediately stops running around and curls in on himself.
As if the energy he was bursting with a second ago is completely sapped, Regulus quietly grabs his backpack.
“Come along,” Walburga says, rather aloof for a mother who hasn’t seen her children all day.
Sirius takes Regulus’ hand and they shuffle out of the room together, and Walburga doesn’t even acknowledge Frank when she goes.
Frank suddenly feels like a terrible person for never noticing how Regulus’ demeanor changed whenever he’s picked up. He’s always just so tired and done with the day that he doesn’t even think about it, but now ?
Now he surreptitiously watches the Blacks as they leave.
Frank thought Regulus was always big and loud in his being, but he’s small and silent in his mother’s presence.
Frank always wondered why Regulus acts out so much and is overflowing with mischief every day, and he realizes now that it must be because this is his only outlet to let out his energy and be a kid for once. These eight hours must be a dream to him, and Frank not only feels like a bad cousnelor for not realizing what was going on earlier, but he also feels bad for every time he tried to limit Regulus’ energy and halt his mischief making.
He always assumed his kids get the worst of their pent up energy out at home, but Regulus doesn’t have a place besdies camp to let out that energy. That’s why he’s such a little menace! Oh, Frank will make it rain hell on Walburga Black if it’s the last thing he does…
When Frank enters the meeting, he’s thankful none of the other counselors are there yet. “Poppy, I have to report a possible case of a child abuse with my campers—you know the Black brothers, right—?”
One Summer Later
“Hi.” Alice stands on her tiptoes to kiss him in the cheek by the doorway of his classroom. Frank doesn’t think he’ll ever get over how lucky he is. “I have James and Sirius left, but they’re not going to aftercare. Is Regulus with you?”
“Yeah. He’s just coloring with Barty and Evan—he’s sooo peaceful, I don’t want to disrupt him yet. Can you keep the boys until their families get here?”
“Yeah, ‘course. You’re so sweet.”
They’ve been dating for almost a year now yet Frank still blushes like a schoolboy at any compliment from Alice.
“Hello?” Someone slices into the moment, and Frank blinks and looks up at Alphard Black grinning at him in the hallway. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to ruin your moment, but I’m here for my boys.”
“Oh, yeah, of course.” Frank sheepishly runs a hand through his hair as Alice laughs and turns to the classroom. “Regulus! Your uncle’s here!”
Regulus’ head snaps up from his drawing, and he breaks into a wide smile at the sight of Alphard.
“Uncle Alphard!” he exclaims, getting up to run into his uncles arms.
Alphard wraps Regulus in a bear hug and kisses the side of his head. “Hi, my little star. Let’s get your backpack and go find your brother.”
“Okay!” Regulus runs to his cubby and grabs his belongings before dashing back over to the door with his drawings. “Look what I made! It’s for you!”
“Oho!” Alphard says, taking the paper from him. Regulus drew a big stick figure holding the hands of two smaller ones on each side, which Frank can only assume is Regulus, Sirius, and Alphard. All of them wear smiles, and he recognizes the hearts Barty learned how to draw and likes to show off to everyone decorating the edges. “This is marvelous, Reg! Let’s get home so we can put this on the fridge, yeah?”
“Yeah!” Regulus cheers.
Alphard chuckles and picks his nephew up before turning to him. “Thanks, mate. Regulus, say thank you.”
“Thank you, Frank.”
“No problem.” Frank smiles. “See you tomorrow.”
“Bye bye!” Regulus waves as Alphard carries him to Sirius’ classroom.
“Do you ever think about how crazy it is how much can change in a year?” Frank asks his girlfriend.
Alice laces her fingers with his and leans her head on his shoulder. “Always.”
“I’m just so happy for them. Regulus is really such a good kid.”
“Awh, you’re so sweet when you’re in cousnelor mode.”
Frank feels his face heat up and looks down at his feet to hide his blush. “I’m just so glad it all worked out in the end.”
Alice lifts his chin and rests her hand on his cheek. “Me too. You changed their lives, you know?”
“Me? You think so?”
“I know so.” Alice presses a kiss to his cheek and nods her head towards his last two campers. “C’mon, I promised Barty he could draw me some hearts to color in.”
“He’s turning into a right little menace that one.”
“Oh, but he’s just so cute, can you blame him for using his charm to his advantage?”
Frank laughs and shakes his head but follows Alice into the room nonetheless.