A/N: This is a little oneshot dedicated to my friend Insearchofsunrise. I hope you like it, girl!

It features an AU in which Snape survived, married Hermione, and had a son with her. A son with a rather strong nature, as you shall see. In this story, our favorite couple deals with some of the more mundane aspects of parenting, and works on their relationship. There is a light hinting at a lemon at the very end (still rated M just to be safe).

All your base still are belong to J. K. Rowling. :(

"Severus!" His wife's voice was coming from the baby's room.

"What?"

There was no answer. Severus sighed. He was exhausted from a long day of freelance brewing for St. Mungo's, as well as for the various customers who frequented his apothecary shop. All he had wanted to do since getting home three hours ago was nap, but first he had had to deal with little Steven's rather spectacular spill in the kitchen. Then there was the poo incident an hour later. The cherry on top was Hermione's owl, stating that she had to pull a late night at work. The message had arrived just as Steven simultaneously hurled a sandwich at the wall, and drew on the table with his free hand. Severus wasn't even sure where he had gotten the crayon.

Hermione had finally gotten back from Hogwarts, where she taught Potions, just an hour ago. Severus had been hopeful that relief was in sight, but his optimism was dashed, for she had spent the majority of that time doing odd household chores. (He used to chip in around the house, but even when he wiped down kitchen counters and such, Hermione always went back over them, so he had given it up as a bad job.)

He walked down the hallway to Steven's room. He had put the boy down about half an hour ago, tucking him into his crib with a small bottle of milk. The boy had gone to sleep quickly for once, so Severus couldn't imagine what this was all about. As he got closer to the room, however, it became apparent that the eighteen-month-old was crying. The subdued tone of the raw screams told Severus that Steven had been at it for a while. The thought crossed his mind that they really should invest in one of those Muggle devices for monitoring babies.

No sooner had he opened the door than Hermione turned to him, her face red with a frustration that mirrored Steven's.

"Severus! I called you a million times!"

"I heard my name called once," Severus responded dryly.

Hermione ignored his little jibe at her exaggeration. "His milk, Severus! It's pink! You gave him pink milk?"

He looked down, only to see that Hermione was right. The remaining liquid in the bottle was indeed pink. Stymied, he stared at it. He knew for a fact that the bottle he had given Steven had contained regular old milk, but there was Steven, reaching angrily for the violently pink bottle in Hermione's right hand.

The crease between Severus' eyebrows deepened as he looked back at his wife. "I didn't give him pink milk. I don't even know what pink milk is!" His ears were ringing at this point. Even tired out, Steven had an excellent pair of lungs.

Hermione knew her husband well enough to know that he never lied, so she didn't insult him by challenging his assertion, but she did huff a bit.

"Pink milk is strawberry milk," she said. "It's loaded with sugar, and rots teeth very quickly."

"I'm telling you, I didn't give him pink milk."

This brought both of them up short, for what was Hermione going to say to that?

Steven had now tired enough to sit back in his crib, hiccoughing slightly, but he was still eying the desired bottle. At least he was no longer screaming the house down.

Hermione sniffed. "See, Severus? This is what I mean. Look how he's looking at it. It's so hard getting him to sleep without a bottle now that he's used to having it in the crib with him."

"But I didn't-"

"I believe you that you didn't actually give him strawberry milk. We'll have to figure out what's going on with that. But what I'm trying to say is that babies should never be put to bed with bottles at all. They just keep the nipple in their mouths all night, and the constant presence of liquid harms their teeth."

Sometimes Severus forgot that his wife came from a long line of dentists. "I didn't know, Hermione," he said reasonably. "I've been giving him bottles on and off at night for a long time. You never said anything, so I thought it was fine."

She stared. "No, I've always told you it wasn't a good idea."

He felt a momentary twinge of real annoyance. "Hermione, you've never once told me that!"

To her credit, her brow furrowed and her lower lip puckered.

He gathered her up in his arms and let her snuggle up into his chest.

"I'm sorry!" she said between muffled sobs. "I honestly don't know why I thought I had. I didn't mean–"

His annoyance fading as quickly as it had come, he shushed her. "Sweet, it's not the end of the world. We simply have to work on our communication, that's all." He rubbed her shoulder soothingly. "Now that I know not to give him bottles at night, we're on the same page, and we can work him out of this bad habit together."

She nodded in agreement, the movement somewhat hampered by the fact that her face was buried in his frock coat.

"I'm sorry, Sev. I know I've been touchy lately, but I've just been so tired. Work has been insane, Steve's been fussy, I feel like I've been neglecting you, and I've felt guilty..."

"Nonsense," he said stoutly. "There are going to be periods like this, sweet. We are both going to go through rough patches, but we're going to go through them together."

She tightened her grip around his waist till he found it a bit hard to breathe, but he didn't pull away.

A giggle emanated somewhat unexpectedly from his wife, and Severus tilted her head back to look down at her questioningly. There were tear tracks on her cheeks, but she was smiling.

"What is it?"

"Look." He followed her gaze to Steven. The little imp, apparently happy now that he had both his parents in his room, was gurgling and babbling. Severus smiled.

"Maybe he'll go to sleep now."

"No, look at the bottle," she pointed out.

At some point before or during their impromptu hug, Hermione had dropped the bottle back into the crib, and Steven had retrieved it. As they watched, the liquid in the bottle changed back to the white color of regular milk, then promptly reverted back to pink, just before switching inexplicably to a rather festive shade of purple.

They stared. Steven giggled.

And then Severus swept Hermione up in an even bigger hug, peppering her face with kisses, before reaching down to scoop up his son and toss him in the air. The black-haired tot squealed with delight, snorting a small amount of purple milk out of his nose as his father airplaned him across the room.

"Manifesting magic before your second birthday!" crowed Severus. "That's my boy!"

Hermione laughed, tickling Steven's feet every time Severus swooped him back down.

As Steven shrieked happily, Severus turned to his wife.

"Well, now he's really not going to go to sleep."

"It's fine," she said, smiling indulgently. "It won't hurt him to stay up a bit longer just this once. He needs to calm down and get sleepy again anyway."

And with that, the little family migrated to their cozy sitting room. As Steven climbed in and out of each parent's lap, deliriously happy at all the attention, Severus and Hermione discussed the little things that each had recently been letting build up inside them.

It turned out that Hermione hadn't realized Severus had been making an effort to clean up areas of the house. Her additional cleaning hadn't been meant as an insult at all. Severus, on the other hand, hadn't realized that Hermione was currently in the middle of quarterly professor evaluations at Hogwarts, which had her completely stressed out and frazzled.

By the time they finished talking, Steven was fast asleep, sprawled full-length across his father's lap. Gathering him up carefully, Severus walked as softly as he could down the hall to put him in his crib. That done, and the fateful bottle placed in the kitchen sink, he returned to his wife.

She was looking up at him from the sofa with what Severus liked to think of as her bedroom eyes, and he felt a tingle of excitement rush up his spine.

"Talking like we just did has made me feel so much closer to you," she said softly, smiling at him.

In an instant, he was hovering over her, drawing her to her feet. Their bodies were flush, and he could feel the heat coming off of her.

"I can bring us even closer," he purred suggestively.

She bit her lip, giggling girlishly, and allowed him to lead her to their bedroom, where he proceeded to do just that.

As they lay in a sweaty heap amidst rumpled sheets, Severus kissed her languidly, running his hands over her body.

"It seems it runs in the family, sweet."

"What's that?" She looked puzzled.

"Steven isn't the only male in this family who likes having nipples in his mouth at night."

At that, Hermione's peal of laughter could be heard throughout the house, only to fade into peaceful quiet as every member of the Snape family fell fast asleep at last.

A/N: I do hope you liked this little piece. Feel free to drop me a review!