Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling's, of course, or else Severus would be a hero and neither Sirius nor Dumbledore would be dead.

THE CAVE

Chapter 1:Never Say Never

"How the hell did I get stuck in here? Huh?" Sirius shook his head in exasperation. "And with you of all people? Well? WELL?" he yelled for what seemed like the tenth time in the last twenty minutes. "Do you have any, but any reasonable explanation for what happened?"

At this Snape sighed. He was leaning against the wall and he decided he'd had enough both of Black's racket and standing. So he just sat on the stone floor without a word and closed his eyes. He was wet and tired and he wanted nothing more than sleep, even if it meant that he had to use the cold, unwelcoming stone as bed.

"Snivellus? Hello, earth to Snape?" but his arch nemesis seemed to have drifted to peaceful sleep already. Well, at least this provided Sirius with a strong dilemma: should he wake him up just for the fun of it, or should he seize the opportunity of not having to yell at his enemy to rethink how he had gotten himself into this mess. Unfortunately for Snape, Sirius was not the thinking type so the first matter seemed to exercise an unbearable attraction upon him. However, before he got the chance to come up with some ingenious, terrifying and totally humiliating way of awakening his best enemy, said enemy started trashing, taking Sirius out of his musings.

"Snivellus?"

His answer was a faint moan of pain. Soon enough Snape started screaming and tossed even harder. He was mumbling and sweating and, from what Sirius figured when he touched his forehead, probably also developing a fever.

"Snape!" he tried more forcefully this time.

However, the authority his voice had held didn't have the desired effect, for all Snape did was trash even harder - if possible – and utter a pitifully "I'm sorry, father. It will never happen again." After that the nightmare became lauder, marked by screams and heartbreaking moans of pain. Sirius was overwhelmed and watched helplessly as the slimy slytherin he had hated for more than five years was trashing in front of him, trapped in his own dark nightmare, muttering pleading words to a non-existent father, praying to the heavens for the end of his torture. Then, to Sirius' puzzlement, he stopped tossing and screeming and started crying. Silently, like an obedient child would do after being unjustly punished. Sirius was at a loss for what to do. He knew that cry all too well himself, but he knew not what to do about it, since nobody never bothered to show him. Then, in a rare surge of inspiration, he knelt down and shook him gently while whispering "Severus". Unused to the simple act of caring, Snape bolted up, his eyes snapped opened. For a moment they stared at each other, until Sirius finally broke the heavy silence.

"Well? Care to explain what has just happened?"

At this Snape rolled his eyes. "I told you at least one hundred times so far. I was searching for some peace and quiet away from that blasted study camp we were forced to attend. You thought I was planning Merlin knows what and followed me. We started fighting as usual and then we run while dwelling. From what I remember we fell over the edge of a cliff strait into quite furious a river which took us to this cave. Fortunately, we lost our wands during the fall, or we would have killed each other by now. The unfortunate thing is that we lost those very wands during the fall, because now we're stuck here with no way of announcing our location to the camp. Which, by the way, could be more than two miles away? Did it finally pass though that thick head of yours, Black, or in five minutes time you'll go back to asking me 'what has just happened'?" he asked totally unfazed, sneering.

Sirius blinked once, twice, then shook his head.

"That is not what I had in mind when asking!"

"Good," Snape sneered, "very good. So you did get it in the end. Maybe there's still hope for you yet. And maybe next time you find yourself in such a predicament you'll even get it after the first ten explanations."

Sirius blushed furiously. "It was just the shock of it." He muttered more to himself. "Still! What I meant was your… ummm… your nightmare. The trashing, screaming…" he trailed of at Snape's dark glare

"That is none of your business!"

"It is when it's my ears you're screaming in."

But Snape said nothing more.

"Does it hurt?" Sirius finally gave into the temptation and asked.

"What?" Snape stopped massaging his shoulder.

"Your shoulder. You seem to have got a scratch or two when you got out of the river." he stated.

For a minute he considered not answering. But fat good that would do. Black would only ask again and again and again, until he had his question satisfyingly answered. So …

"Just a little. It's no big deal." he had been through worse, not that he would ever let Black know it. No, sir! Not even under Veritaserum.

"Let me have a look at it." Now that was unexpected.

"Mind your our business!"

"Come on, maybe I can fix it!" Sirius insisted. He felt somewhat guilty. Snape had injured himself while trying to get him out of the water. But he was never going to admit that out laud. Not in a million years.

"Just leave me alone. Merlin knows what you'll do! It's bad enough right now so I want no more injuries due to your lack of competence, Black." Snape was still trying to keep his cool, but a throbbing vein at his temple was sign of the irritation that was starting to get to him.

"I'm no incompetent and it's not my fault you weren't paying attention when we got out of water!" Sirius retaliated.

That was it. Severus Snape was not a patient teenager, more than anything he could be accused of lacking completely and irreversibly said quality. Therefore he simply snapped.

"When WE got out of water?" he asked in utter disbelief. "More like when I had to drag YOU outside! You were hardly conscious, remember? As for being an incompetent, well, that's a smooth way of putting it. Actually, you lack any common sense and surviving techniques without your wand. If it hadn't been for Lupin's brains I strongly doubt you and your pathetic little gang would have ever passed any class." He finished with a smirk.

"Well, you wouldn't have passed either, but for staying with your slimy nose almost glued to books." Black yelled in frustration.

"At least I have the necessary wits to survive without a wand and a fan club." He said stressing the last word. From the look on Black's face he knew he had struck a nerve. Black hated fan clubs with almost the same passion he used to put in hating the Dark Arts.

Sirius narrowed his eyes menacingly. That greasy git had indeed struck a nerve. Maybe James was a seeking-attention-fanclubs-lover, but he was not. In fact it might have been the only thing they had ever disagreed on.

"You slimy bastard!" he yelled and launched himself onto Snape, the offer of help long forgotten.

Snape dodged out of the way of Black's fist.

"Hit a nerve, Black? I'd advise you to leave me alone." He said in an unnerving calm voice, the sneer never leaving his face.

"Or what?" asked his attacker.

"Or nothing. You'll just need me around to give you some tips in survival."

Just then Sirius' fist connected with Snape's shoulder and the latter let out a yelp and stumbled to the ground, clenching his shoulder. Sirius was still for a second. He should have felt pride in getting his enemy down, but he felt just shame. Snape had already been injured because of him. So instead of gloating as Snape expected him to, he knelt and gripped Snape's shoulder.

"Stay still." He ordered. Snape's robe and T-shirt had already been ripped by the sharp hard rock he had hit his shoulder on. He discarded them carefully, but what he saw made him suck in a breath.

"Why the heck didn't you say anything? This must hurt like hell!"

The rock had cut through the material and into the flesh. Blood was currently dripping from the wound, which was pretty deep and ugly. It started from the back of his neck and had some sort of an L form, covering part of his shoulder and sliding down his back till his shoulder blade. Said wound had been added a new one, judging by the bruise that was forming where Sirius's fist had hit him. Now, Sirius was no expert, but from the dark look of it, it was highly likely that the wound was infected. He felt a new prang of guilt.

"Thousands of thunders! We have to clean this and soon!"

"Now really! And here I was, thinking it was nothing but a scratch or two!" he said, sarcasm dripping from his voice, while reminding Sirius of his previous observation related to the wound.

"Shut up, Snape! You don't happen to own any alcohol right now, do you? Well, never mind, I'll use water."

He was in mid-movement of watering his handkerchief, when Snape drawled:

"As a matter of fact I do."

Sirius stopped dead in his tracks. Surely he must have misunderstood that.

"What?"

"I said 'as a matter of fact I do' and I still wonder how the bottle's still here after all the commotion we've been through. It's muggle whisky, but I suppose it's good enough."

He couldn't help but smirk at Black's look of absolute disbelief. Then a wave of understanding seemed to have washed over Sirius' face and his lips curved into a smile.

"So this was why you were searching for …mmm… how did you put it? – ah, 'some peace and quite', huh? Well, don't just stay there, give it to me."

Snape reached inside his robe and got out a metal bottle, which by the looks of it could contain about a quart of whisky. Sirius cleaned the wound with water first, then used some of the bottle's content to disinfect it. He knew it hurt and was quite surprised when Snape made no sign to acknowledge the existence of pain. Then Sirius did something totally unexpected. He ripped a piece of his short-sleeved shirt and started dressing Snape's wound with it, careful not to produce more pain. It was the gentleness of the gesture that shocked Snape. He stared at his enemy for a couple of minutes. Black's eyes were focused on what he did and he was frowning in concentration.

"Here!" he said in triumph. "This would do!"

Snape gazed at his bandaged wound for a few seconds.

"Thank you." He said softly. Black smirked at him.

"I'm not gonna say 'any time', you know!" Both he and Snape started laughing at this.

"You know, you should have let me take care of it from the beginning. It would have been much easier for both." He stated.

Snape shook his head.

"It was no big deal."

"You must be kidding me!" Sirius exclaimed. "If that was no big deal than I'd hate to see what it was. I'm surprised you were able to move your shoulder without hissing in pain."

"Well, believe me, I've been though worse." It seemed there had been no need for Veritaserum to spit that out. Damn that promise of not letting Black know. However, all his enemy did was seize him up and down, but fortunately he did not push the issue.

"If you say so." He said uncertainly.

This caused Snape to desperately want to change the subject.

"Why were you so interested in helping me, anyway? It's not as if you ever did anything else to me, except maybe humiliate me."

"Well, I … it was my duty." Sirius said lamely.

"Your duty? Since when?" Snape asked sarcastically.

"Since it was my fault you got hurt!"Well, it seemed that a milion years could very well pass in a couple of seconds. Maybe Einstein had some reason to his theory of relativity after all. Here goes the promise of not letting Snape know that. Sirius thought. His enemy watched him closely and smirked.

"You know what?"

"What?"

"I thing we should make ourselves busy with making a fire." And with that, Snape turned on his heels and went outside the cave to gather some dry woods. Sirius shook his head but hurried after him nonetheless. Leave it to Snape to change the subject like that. Not that he wasn't grateful; the conversation had become too uncomfortable for his liking anyway.

AN: friends & readers I feel obliged to tell you that this is AU. Marauders era in case you have not figured it out already.. .. for the fans of slash, I'm sorry, but this was not thought as a slash story. anyway, if you find any of the characters a bit OOC sometimes, please do not forget that this is fan fiction. I'll do my best to keep them IC, but my own perspective of them may alter things. Anyway, just tell me what you think!

Thanks for reading.