'Arriving at Perfection' and 'Flawless Timing' are two drabbles by Pekeleke, which are used with her express permission. They are used in the order named and are between the (Peke)s.

Foundations

Severus looked at the closed door, the one that had just slammed back into its frame. He knew the meaning of that sound - of that slam, he had heard it one too many times before not to.

Sinking down onto his sofa, he closed his eyes and sighed. There were no tears, no tearing heartbreak. No, none of the usual trappings of someone leaving a relationship. That would require a relationship to have been formed.

No, this one was once again a one night stand. Severus had higher hopes for this one, far more than he normally did. The man who had just slammed out the door seemed to click with him over the last couple of day and especially last night. All the right words and chemistry were there up until this morning. One glare and grouse - both of them small for him- sent the man fleeing. Yes, it was fleeing. He had seen storming out in a temper from Potter enough to know the difference between fleeing and storming.

Raising his eyes up to the ceiling, he sighed. Potter. Who would have thought the man would end up teaching, and Muggle Studies at that? He wondered what theatrics they were going to see this year. Potter still had no trust in the Defense Against Dark Arts Professor and had been seen storming out of the staffroom on more than one occasion due to the newest one. Dismissing the Gryffindor from his mind, Severus pushed himself back to his feet. It was time to pack up and head back to Hogwarts.

-o-o-o-o-

The paperwork had arrived that morning. Severus had researched the Match Made in Heaven matchmaking service until he had no doubts left. They were quite capable of finding someone to be with him, who would be willing to stay with him. Lifting his quill, he started to fill out the questionnaire that had come with the paperwork before he could talk himself out of it.

'Why do they need to know if I liked school? I became a Potions Master and I still teach, shouldn't it be obvious that I did?'

Moving down the list, he wrote his favorite color – since they stipulated color not shade, he wrote dark brown. It was close enough to black. Then came his hobbies, that made sense. You could easily match someone up who enjoyed the same thing you did. Made dates easier. When they asked his favorite flower, he hesitated over the spot. He never had a favorite flower. There were too many of them that when he looked at them all he could think of was how there were used in potions. Eventually he wrote down lemon blossoms.

After he reached the end, he made sure that he had completely finished all the questions, inane and important, as honestly as he could.

Capping his inkpot, Severus blotted his quill before rolling up the parchments. He needed to send these off. It was already mid October, and he truly wanted to have someone to have a Winter Holidays date with.

Striding out his door, he was grateful that it was a Saturday and the halls were fairly empty.

(Peke)

Severus' determination crumbled on his way to the owlery. His fingers tighten around the match-making questionnaire that he's forced himself to fill as he struggled with unwelcome second thoughts.

His dark eyes widened with panic and he suddenly froze, certain that he's making a mistake. This can't be the right way to find himself a companion. He wants... No. Needs to find someone special. He'd been increasingly lonely these past years, first embroiled in a war that almost destroyed him and then recovering from his wounds, his guilt, the shock of his survival. It's been hell. All of it. And he'd endured it alone. Always alone. Always so terribly alone...

He'd decided to start playing the romantic game, only... he's absolute pants at it. Seducing men had never been his problem. It's keeping them past breakfast that defeats him. He knew he needed professional help, yet his inner Hufflepuff insisted that this isn't the right way to find a partner and the idea of sending out this questionnaire was making him feel pathetic.

'I don't want to be matched to some idiot with a six pack, a fake suntan and a bright smile. I want to fall in love all by myself. I want to look into a man's eyes and know that he's The One. I want to feel my heart pound a mile-a-minute while a thousand butterflies flutter wildly inside my tummy. I want to feel the magic of romance, not settle for someone... compatible.'

"Are you alright, Severus?" Potter's voice, coming from directly behind him, startled him and he turned towards his colleague without realizing how very close they are standing to one another.

His gaze clashed with concerned emerald eyes and time itself stood still as he gasped and stared at this man he'd known for years with incredulous disbelief.

"Potter..." He croaks shakily, feeling uncharacteristically tongue-tied in the presence of... The One.

"What is it? You look awfully pale, Severus..." Potter frowned, grabbing his elbow with obvious concern and Severus' shocked gaze widens as he felt that small touch burn him clear to the bone.

"It's you, Potter." He whispers dazedly. "It has always been you..."

"You're not making any sense... Is everything alright? You are not hurt, are you?" Potter looked frantic with worry and Severus suddenly realized that he isn't the only one feeling... attraction.

"I'm fine, Po...-Harry. Everything is finally... perfect."

(Peke)

Harry watched as Severus walked back down the stairwell, obviously deciding that he didn't need to mail off whatever had drawn him to the owlery. Lifting his hand, he looked at his fingers. They still felt warm, pulsing just a touch with the speed of his heart, from where he had touched Severus.

Something had just happened, that he was sure of, but if it was good or bad was still up for consideration. 'But he called me Harry. On his own, he decided not to continue calling me by Potter. That has to be good, doesn't it?'

-o-o-o-o-

Severus listened as the door closed, meeting its frame with a quiet click. Staring at it for a long moment, he tried to interpret the sound. He hadn't heard the quiet noise enough to automatically know what it meant, but each time he had heard it this summer, it had always ended up with Harry coming back.

Walking to the kitchen, he cleaned up the breakfast dishes before heading out to tend the garden. Harry had said over breakfast that he liked it. He also seemed to like the little house that was Severus' home.

Smiling softly, Severus pulled another weed out and set into the compost bucket while his mind took him back into time.

After that fateful meeting on the owlery stairs, and nothing could convince him that it wasn't fate, they had headed off to their own separate tasks, but Severus made sure to sit next to Harry at the head table during lunch. It soon became his permanent seat. He also made a point to stop and talk to Harry in the hall when they passed each other, and the staffroom when they ended up there at the same time. Before long they were meeting for walks in the Forest or anywhere else Severus needed to collect ingredients from, or Harry felt like seeing something.

They took the time to discuss what the students really needed to know about the Muggle world, and what were Harry's ideas on how the Potions class could be adjusted. Yes, tempers flared, yelling happened, and on rare occasions, hexes were thrown. Those hexes were never aimed at the other though. No, desks, chairs, walls and sometime the ground took the brunt of their aggravation then.

Severus had been worried the first time his temper had flared, and had worried the entire evening. The next morning Harry had stopped him in the hall and that had been that. That was when he accepted that Harry wasn't going to be ran off by an unkind word, or a glare.

Their first kiss didn't happen until April. Severus' smile warmed up at the memory of that sweet kiss with buried passion. One would have thought that they would have sped up their relationship, but no - both of them were taking this slow, learning what they could about each other, what were their limits, what boundaries were drawn in sand and which were carved in stone.

Sitting back on his heels, Severus let the sunlight fall on his face. This is what he had craved. Acceptance, a long term commitment, and effort being put into it from both sides. They didn't need to rush, they had years to enjoy what they were building. For now, they were just working on the foundations - making them as strong as they could so that they could weather anything.

-o-o-o-o-

Harry paced the living room, his route taking him from the sofa to the kitchen door and back again. Severus had left not long after breakfast, citing the need for some more fennel - not for the kitchen but for his lab - wild bluebells and wood sorrel. That should take him a while to find, giving Harry a little while to figure out how to do this.

He pushed his hair out of his face as the summer breeze that slipped in through the window tried to blow it back. There had to be a way to practice. He was horrible at asking for anything for himself. 'Severus is as well. One of us needs to step forward. We are stuck in a rut now.'

At first the slow pace was just what they needed. Their first summer as a couple had been full of dates and long talks with walks. Severus refused to call those dates. It wasn't until the Winter Holidays of the following school year did they move in with each other.

It had happened naturally. Harry had fallen asleep on the couch, once again, and woke up Christmas morning tucked in Severus' bed. Up until that moment, it had been a place he had longed to be, but had not had the guts to push for. Severus had almost apologized, but the words that had been about to come out of those thin lips had been silenced by a kiss. Kissing Severus had proved to be an effective way of stopping a conversation, at least most of the time.

Harry smiled as he remembered their first time that morning. They had wanted to wait until their second summer to move that far, but he had rushed it. As Severus told him later, denying himself the man he wanted when the said man was in his bed, was impossible. Neither regretted the change in their plans though.

Shaking the memory from his head, Harry frowned again. He was slightly worried that he was rushing once again, but this was now the middle of their third summer, and he felt in his bones that it was time.

"I need to practice, that is all there is to it." On his turn, he caught sight of the pillow that had been jammed into the corner of the sofa. He had left it there last night after he put his book down and headed for bed. It was white with a fancy black trim. Nodding once to himself, he cast a levitation spell on it.

He was going to make it his practice dummy.

-o-o-o-o-

(Peke)

Severus did a double-take when he found Harry circling a floating pillow while muttering to himself:

"You're too flat-faced. I can't concentrate when you look so... noseless." A wand-wave stuck an Accioed carrot to the pillow and Severus' eyes widened when Harry knelt before it only to sigh with frustration.

"You need a pair of annoyed dark eyes. Let's use Sev's extra-buttons... That's better. So...-Er... I love you. I think we should..."

"That's the strangest 'pillow talk' I've ever seen." Severus drawled, trying not to laugh.

"Severus! You're home early."

"On the contrary. I believe my timing is... flawless, Harry."

(Peke)

Severus banished the plants to his workroom. He knew that the preservation charm would hold and if it didn't, this conversation was going to be far more important. He could go collect them again later.

"Would you like to restart this, but talking to me this time?" Severus watched as Harry sent the pillow to the sofa, its face falling apart as the younger man focused on him.

"I really wanted to practice first." Harry gave Severus a wary look. Neither had said out loud that they loved the other, it was implied in all that they did, but this was the first time the words had filled the air.

Severus smiled gently and pulled Harry to his feet. "No kneeling, my Love. Neither of us kneels to the other in any form of supplication. What we wish to ask, we ask to an equal, to a partner."

Harry's heart skipped a beat at the term of endearment, and knew that Severus was doing his best to put them on equal footing. Harry had just confessed his love unintentionally, so Severus was doing so in a sideways manner as well. The rest of the sentence struck a cord in him. They were partners, just as Severus had said.

Stepping back a bit, Harry chewed on his lower lip as he searched for the right words. "Well, you now know I love you..." His voice trailed off as he searched Severus' face, hoping that those dark eyes weren't annoyed just yet.

Severus folded his hands behind his back, deliberately making his body language show that he was open to anything. "And you should know by now I love you."

The warmth that radiated from Harry's face made Severus consider that he should say that more often.

Harry nodded as he twisted his hands together. "So, I was thinking - since we love each other - I was thinking that we should - we've been together for almost three years now - So I think that we should - make us an official Us." The last part was rattled off as fast as Harry could.

Severus tried his best not to laugh. He knew how much courage Harry had to use to say what he did, but the way he did it had been so funny. It was the wariness on his Beloved's face that stopped the chuckles from coming out. "Are you asking me to marry you, Harry?"

Severus was fairly sure that he was, but it was always best to seek clarification.

Harry blew out an exasperated huff of air. "This is the reason I wanted to practice! I muddled it all up. It is the most important question I think I will ever ask, and I messed it up." At Severus' raised eyebrow, he stopped his rant. "Yes, I was asking you to marry me."

Severus let a happy smile fill his face. "I will be happy to marry you, Harry."

The hug and kiss after Severus' answer was all he could hope for. It was a promise of forever.