"Do you know where you are?" Chiron asked once they had settled down; Regulus on a sofa and Chiron in a special wheelchair in which he'd let his horse-like lower half of his body disappear. With a blue blanket covering his lap and most of the fake legs that were part of the wheelchair, he now looked like a regular disabled man with dark brown hair and a beard in the same colour.

"Camp Half-Blood, sir," the boy replied, trying to keep eye contact with the centaurus. Usually, Regulus calculated his flight ways in new surroundings in case of an emergency. This time, he'd already had enough time to look around the room he found himself in before they had sat down.

Nodding, Chiron confirmed, "That is right. What do you know about Camp Half-Blood?"

He was trying to find out how much Regulus knew, he noted in his mind as he tried to say as casually as possible, "It's a place for Greek demigods. I assume to protect and train them. Excuse me for being this direct, but what exactly did you want to talk about with me, sir? And please stop beating around the bush."

"Alright, I apologise. I wanted to ask you why you're here," Chiron admitted, his eyes wandering to Regulus' forearm – where the SPQR tattoo was burned into his skin – for a moment, then back up to his face. Of course the boy had picked up on the gesture and understood the unsaid words Chiron had hung into the air with a single glance.

Sighing, he replied, "I assure you, I have no ill intentions, sir. I didn't even know this place existed until I was already here. I don't know what went wrong, either. One moment I sit in the taxi on the way to the airport and the next moment the taxi is parked in the middle of a farm road and the driver has disappeared. And if that isn't already enough, a Minotaur attacks me. That's how I got the injuries I arrived with. But something- some force definitely wants me here. My guts told me to come here."

"I understand. I have another question. Who is your mortal parent?" Chiron looked at Regulus as if he already knew, as if he'd examined him from head to toe and only wanted confirmation.

"His name is Orion Black, sir," the boy muttered, a little less confident answering this question. Of course he knew the answer was right, but he didn't know why Chiron had asked him that- or if he even wanted to know why he did.

Recognition lit up in the centaurus' eyes as they slightly widened. "So it is you."

The curly-head's heart started pounding loudly against his chest, anxiety about what Chiron could mean with that bubbling up in his stomach. "It's me, yes?" he replied, sending the one across the table a questioning look.

But Chiron didn't even notice anymore; instead, he looked down at the table, stroking his tiny goatee as if he was thinking about something. "The brothers.."

An unpleasant theory unfolded in his mind, opening up wider and wider until it stretched out into all directions of his body. He was talking about him and... "Sir?"

Immediately, Chiron's head shot up. "Yes, Regulus?"

"Who are the brothers?"

Just as the centaurus started to reply, a look on his face that Reg couldn't quite read, the door burst open. "Chiron, it's Sirius!" James stumbled in, almost faceplanting himself on the hardwood floor. Worry was written all over his face, and he was wearing his shirt the right way this time.

Turning his head around to face the one that quite literally tumbled into their conversation, Chiron said, "It's okay, sit down for a moment, James. Regulus, I'm sorry to cut this short, maybe we can postpone this until tomorrow. Do you think you will be able to find your way to the campfire by yourself? Try to find Mary and tell her you're going to sleep in the Aphrodite cabin tonight. She'll know what to do."

A little startled about their conversation ending so abruptly, Regulus slowly stood. "Okay.." He was still unsure about what to do, but suddenly the exhaustion from the day – even after resting for a bit – caught up with him, so he decided to let it go.

As he stepped down the few steps that lead down the porch, Regulus tried not to think about what Chiron had mumbled to himself; what Regulus probably shouldn't even have heard in the first place. The brothers.

Doing his best to shove the thought away again, the curly-head opted to focus on finding this Mary instead. The chance of finding her without having to ask at least two of these campers that were singing and chattering happily was unlikely. To be honest, he was growing sick of all this socialising; his social battery already drained to the very bottom. When he arrived by the amphitheatre, he awkwardly walked up the stairs, trying to decide who to ask first.

Only then Reg noticed a girl – at least fifteen years old – with a wild pixie cut illuminated by the campfire to look like flames dancing atop her head slumping over as if she was trying to hide herself behind the eight year old boy that was sitting in front of her. For a moment, he was confused at her posture, thinking she might just have awful posture (just like Leo and Kai behind the fourth wall, for real) but then he spotted the chocolate bar she was nibbling on and his stomach grumbled as if on command. He'd forgotten he hadn't had any food since lunch, he was starving.

She turned her head, seemingly making sure no one was catching her eating until she spotted him, eyes widening. Quickly, she waved him over to her to sit next to him, to which he looked around a little lost at first, until he couldn't find an excuse why he shouldn't, so he walked down a few steps to sit next to her. "You're not gonna snitch on me, are you?"

Having barely understood her through the noise of people singing and talking, and being too focused on her hair actually being blonde and not ginger, Regulus just stared at her. Maybe he should hurry up to find Mary so he could go to sleep. "Is your name Mary?"

A laugh escaped the girl next to him as she shook her head. "Nah. S'Marlene. You're the newcomer, right? If you're looking for Mary, that must mean you're a son of Aphrodite, right?"

"I guess you could say so," Regulus mumbled, trying not to drool over the thought of getting a bite off that chocolate bar she was holding in her hand.

Marlene followed his gaze, the corners of her lips twitching up a little. "Did you have dinner yet?" When he shook his head, she shoved her free hand into her waist bag – that Reg hadn't noticed until now – and held out a fully packed chocolate bar out to him. "It's all I have, but better than nothing, eh? Just don't tell anyone, I like snacking at the campfire and it's actually not allowed, besides marshmallows, of course."

"Thanks," Regulus managed to get past his lips just before he bit off his own little chocolate bar. Sweets have never tasted better.

Whilst the boy happily ate his chocolate bar, savouring every bit, Marlene finished her own. "I can bring you to the Aphrodite cabin later and tell you who Mary is. She's really nice, so no need to worry. What's your name, by the way?"

Too caught up in eating, Regulus just mumbled, "Thanks. Regulus."

"You're welcome." After that, the conversation came to an end; it was almost like Marlene knew Regulus wanted a little peace now, so she gave it to him. They stayed at the campfire as long as everyone else did, only getting up when the sky was dark and thousands of stars were sprinkled across the dark canvas. That's what he always missed when he was in New York: Being able to see the stars.

Marlene led him back towards the cabins where he first woke up, which is where all the other campers went to, as well. This time though, he didn't go to the one that looked like an ordinary cabin. Instead, he was brought to the one that looked like a pink Barbie house with pink lace curtains and a pink door. Was this his worst nightmare?

Before Regulus could comment on the looks of the house, Marlene yelled out, "Babe!" She waved at a girl with syrup brown skin and dark blue dyed hair braided to a beautiful french braid.

Without hesitation, the girl jogged toward them, sending Regulus a friendly smile before she kissed Marlene's cheek as a greeting. "Hey love, who'd you bring with you there?"

"My name is Regulus. We're looking for Mary, that's not coincidentally you?"

"Actually, that's exactly me. Mary Macdonald, head of the Aphrodite cabin. Are you the newbie?" the girl asked, smiling widely at him.

Sighing at the nickname, Reg nodded. "The newbie, yeah. Chiron said I'd spend the night in your cabin."

"Awesome, then your mum must be Aphrodite! Come inside, there's a free bed right next to Sirius'," Mary said, motioning to the pink house, before turning to Marlene. "We'll be going now. Good night, princesa. Sweet dreams." They exchanged a soft kiss, murmuring a few more words to each other that Regulus couldn't hear, then the blonde raised her hand in a goodbye as she jogged away.

The blue-haired girl led him inside, holding the door open for him. Regulus stepped inside, taking in the room as a whole. A baby pink colour covered the walls and the smell of fragrance lingered in the air. Bunk beds had been moved to stand directly next to the wall, just like in the Apollo cabin. In most of the beds, girls and boys had already sat down, ready to sleep or getting ready to do so.

"Guys!" Mary clapped loudly, drawing everyone's attention to her. "This is Regulus, he's moving into our cabin. Everyone must treat him with respect, or I'll make use of my infamous right hook."

When the other children of Aphrodite choired back, "Hello Regulus," the girl next to him nodded satisfied.

"Good. Regulus, this is your bed and this is where you can put your stuff. Make yourself at home."

The curly-head climbed up the ladder to the bed Mary had shown him, settling for leaning back for a moment while the inaudible hushed whispers slowly drowned out to become background noise he could ignore just fine. Memories of the day swam by blurrily, but Regulus didn't bother with them. All he wanted to do was lay down and sleep. First he had to rest his eyes though, then he'd have enough strength to move again.

When he reopened his eyes, lazily blinking, the cabin was dark and quiet – except for the occasional snore coming from the other beds. Had he fallen asleep already? As Reg's vision accustomed to the darkness, he carefully sat up straight, making sure not to be too loud. His back hurt, making him realise he'd still been wearing his rucksack. Did Mary mention where he could place his things? He really couldn't remember. Maybe he should just go see where he found some empty space to store his bag and shoes in, that'd be enough. But now that he thought about it, taking a shower would be nice, too.

The next second, Regulus dismissed the thought again, considering it would probably be too loud and he didn't even know this place well enough to be sure about where the showers would be. Just the storage, then.

Quietly climbing back down the ladder, he noticed a chest standing next to his bunk bed, remembering how Mary had told him that that was where he could put his things. Taking his shoes and the rucksack off, Regulus silently opened the chest only to find the right side of it already full to the brim. The other half was empty, parted from the stranger's things with a small wooden partition. Not bothering since the space had obviously been held free on purpose, Regulus put his shoes and bag into it.

It was only when he meant to close the chest again, that he noticed something about the stuff on the right side. There was something stuffed to the side, as if someone had looked at it recently and then shoved it back into the chest clumsily before anyone could see it. For some reason, it looked familiar and Regulus couldn't help but reach for the small pillow-looking thing. His fingers wrapped around the soft fabric, making him realise it might be a stuffie that someone had hidden. The boy pulled out the stuffie fully, looking at it for a moment, only to drop it in the next.

The plushie was a lion, with yellow felt-like fabric around its whole body except for the paws and the nose, which were white. Its long mane and the end piece of the tail consisted of brushed-out red wool, though a small piece at the top of the mane was missing, making it look a little uneven. The plushie looked like Regulus' childhood stuffie. He'd slept with it since he was a baby, having gotten it as a gift from some relative because his name was from the Leo constellation or some reason like that.

Sirius, his brother, cut off a part of the mane when he was little and wanted to experiment with doing someone's hair, to which Regulus had happily offered his second best friend (first being his brother). – Of course little Reggie had immediately started crying when he realised that his stuffie's hair would not grow back, which was approximately two seconds after Sirius had put a pair of scissors to use.

Pressing his lips together tightly at the memory; still refusing to believe that his brother was alive, Regulus picked the lion back up, slowly turning it around in his hands. His eyes were burning, tears threatening to spill over despite the countless times the curly-head had been trying to blink them away. In the end, he held the plushie upside down, the rolled-in tag in between his right thumb and pointer finger.

For a moment, everything seemed to be still; as if the world was holding its breath just for him to look at that worn-out tag. No noise of any crickets chirping outside, no snoring from his roommates. Just the moonlight shining in through the windows on the door and roof. Slowly, like time had been put on slow-motion, he started rolling open the tag, automatically pressing his eyes closed as if that would shield him from the truth, the truth that...

Cracking his eyes open, Regulus looked down at the tag. In clumsy letters, a child had written on it with a black fibre-tip pen. The three letters were a little faded, but it was very clear what they were supposed to say.

R.A.B.

Not able to hold back the tears anymore, they rolled over his cheeks as he pressed the stuffie to his chest. The stuffie he'd started calling Snuffles sometime after he learned how to talk. The stuffie his brother had had on him the last day he was seen.

"I don't wanna go to school tomorrow," little Sirius whispered. He was snuggled up against his brother, holding him close to him. "I'm scared I'll fail my test and father gets mad at me. Plus the school-caretaker-ladies have been acting weird lately. They're creepy."

Little Regulus turned around to his nine year-old brother, smiling at him widely as he held out his stuffie for Sirius to grab. "Just take Snuffles with you! He'll make sure you're going to be alright and keep you safe!"

A quiet, choked sob escaped Reg's lips, making him hold Snuffles in front of his mouth to muffle the sounds. "Thank you for keeping him safe," he whimpered silently, pressing the plushie on his face to hide his tears from no one but himself. Seven years and his brother was still alive. Seven years and his plushie from baby-days still caught his tears when he cried to himself silently at night.

For a while, Regulus just sat there, kneeling by the open chest with his stuffie held to his face while letting the tears roll. When they finally stopped, he felt exhausted. So exhausted, all he wanted to do was curl up with Sirius next to him and pretend nothing ever changed. Pretend, he never disappeared and got declared dead. Pretend that no time flew by; pretend that they were still eight and nine years old and not fifteen and sixteen.

Though, he knew that would never happen. So much had changed, Regulus couldn't just pretend it didn't. He knew he couldn't. But the thought of being able to was nice. It brought him comfort.

Finally, he moved again, carefully shutting the chest in front of him. Only now he noticed the golden ornate writing on top of the chest, a little further to the right side, reading "Sirius".

Sirius. His big brother. Always his big brother.

Taking a deep breath in, Regulus got back on his feet. The world kept turning, the sounds of snoring and crickets chirping found their way back to his ears. Slowly climbing up to his assigned bed, he slid underneath the blanket and snuggled into the plushie, even if it was tiny in comparison to him. It was still Snuffles. His Snuffles.

Sleep crept up on him in no time, letting him fall down the deep hole of slumber until he landed at the bottom, right at Camp Jupiter. Underneath the night's dome of the sky, Barty, Evan and Pandora had laid down on the dry grass, staring up at the diamonds shining down at them brightly. Next to them, a tall – like, really tall – guy about their age was doing the same, arms crossed behind his head to support it. He was a little lanky and a big scar reached diagonally from the beginning of his left eyebrow over the nose down to his jawbone. On his lower lip, near his right corner of the mouth, another small scar had formed and there was another faint line across his left cheekbone, also a little diagonally into the same direction as the big scar.

"Okay, so. Your name's Remus," Barty stated, turning his head to look at the stranger. "And you come from what you say is a camp for Greek demigods. Did I understand that right?"

The guy, apparently Remus, nodded. "Yeah, like I said."

"Your dad is Hephaestos. The Greek version of Vulcan," Barty continued, his dark hair flowing a little because of the slight breeze going on. "But your name is Remus. What's your last name? Romulus? Remus Romulus? Or is it Lupa? Remus Lupa?"

Sighing deeply, Remus closed his eyes. He used his right hand to fix his mouse brown hair after the summer breeze had messed it up. "Actually-"

Another voice joined in on the conversation, one that didn't come from Evan or Pandora. "His name is Remus John Lupin," a girl said, sitting down next to the three. Her fiery red curls had been tied to a messy bun atop her head and she was wearing a loose green tank top, as well as some comfortable looking shorts in the same colour. Freckles spread across her face, down her neck and shoulders. It took a moment, but then Regulus recognized her as Lily Evans, daughter of Vulcan. She was a year older than him and was part of the Fifth Cohort. When Regulus first arrived at Camp Jupiter, she'd already been there for four years. Regulus was nine.

At the girl's words, Evan and Barty immediately started cackling. Pandora tried to hold back, but she struggled and finally gave in to the laughter after a moment. "Remus Lupin?! You're the son of a Greek god and have the most Roman name ever!" Evan managed to say in between laughs, hardly able to catch his breath.

"The J should stand for joke, 'cause your entire existence is one!" Barty howled from laughter.

Remus muttered some words, sounding like curses in ancient Greek. Maybe he was cursing his mother for giving him that name. Then Lily turned to him, Regulus, and yelled, "Get up!" It was weird though, because she sounded exactly like Mary from the Aphrodite cabin. In the next second, he was back at Camp Half-Blood.

The line "The J should stand for joke" was an idea from my lovely betareader Sri