Title: Set Aside Personal Differences

Summary: S. Snape has been tortured into madness and has now "realized" that Sirius is his brother. He also "knows" that he is not dead, but has secretly decided to move to the Bahamas.

Condition! - It has to have pointless and detailed description of Sev's and Siri's nursery. Bollocks.

Slash pairing S. Snape/ K. Shacklebolt

Genre: AU. Humor/Drama.

"Wake up…wake up…Severus! Wake up!" - I felt somebody gently prodding me. I tried to open my eyes, I really did, but with little success.

"Unngh…" - I couldn't help it when a moan emitted through my throat.

"He's waking up!" - I heard a deep rumble from somebody. Uhh, that voice was so good to hear. I wondered who was the owner of it.

The realization sprang through me: I was still alive! I thought that the Dark Lord was surely killing me this time.

Oh no. I'm still alive. Isn't this ever going to end??

Ok, Severus, calm down, and open your eyes, so that you could be sent to ANOTHER deadly mission, and FINALLY die.

I forced my eyes to open up. What I saw was, at least at first, a whirl of robes and pointy hats.

And then it came clearly. I was at Grimmauld Place No. 12. Albus Dumbledore was standing above me, smiling.

"He opened his eyes!" - again that deep, deep voice.

"Yes, thank you Kingsley, we have noticed that." - Dumbledore said politely. Ah, Shacklebolt, of course, I have noticed him, a rather handsome young man.

Without warning my head started to fill up with memories…I suddenly understood. Of course, how could I be so stupid? My dear, dear brother… But, we have to keep it to ourselves for now, yes, yes…

I sat up straight. And started talking. About everything I could remember about my last encounter with the Dark Lord, but nothing of my realization.

Days passed at Grimmauld Place, slowly dragging. I wasn't allowed to move outside of the bed, and there weren't many visitors for me, as I, and everybody else had expected. So I focused on the sounds surrounding me. There was a lot of Mrs. Black's screaming, some crying, yelping, talking, cheering, laughing, and some muttering. Nothing recognizable. But now, it seemed like everybody's gone. The house was silent.

So I started writing. To my dear brother. After I finished the letter, I practically had to shoo the stupid, quizzically looking owl to the Bahamas, where my dear, dear brother is living.

And then, I felt obligated to note down my memories, in case something happens to me, or if I, Gods forbid, even, though it's entirely impossible, forget about them.

The Nursery

First thing I remember about my life with my dear, dear brother, was our nursery. There were two tiny beds, for me, and of course, my brother. Their colors were blue, but while his covers were soft, cozy blue, mine were deep, dark blue. That didn't really bother me, because the two of us spent most of the time on his bed playing with our toys. And the toys, they were amazing! Our room was painted in warm and bright peach color; it had big windows that were never dirty. Curtains were slightly beige, but almost transparent, with blue and peach colored flowers on them. A blue carpet was a picture of ocean, with big blue whales popping up now and then. My brother used to stare at the waves and the foam colliding together on the painted, peach colored cliffs on the carpet. While he was staring at our beautiful carpet, I was busy drawing. And, all, but I really mean all of our drawings were at the walls, with the best on the top. The drawing I drew was so high above every other drawing, that I couldn't reach it even when I was standing on my brothers' shoulders.

Ah, the picture was really pretty. I drew it for hours, and when I was finally finished, I called it: "Severus's pretty pink pony world"

Our room also had a picture of a big lion at the ceiling. He was peach colored, of course, but with a blue mane. The lion was very polite, and incredibly patient with us. My brother and I used to have so much fun coming up with impossible, and even engrossing names for the lion. Eedaa, Deeana and Neeveas were his names. My brothers toys were always scattered around, and I had fun clearing his mess up, especially when we would play with these toys, like clearing soldiers from the desk by making them walk over the edge into a box, pretending that they were a bunch of lemmings. My brother had really brilliant ideas, when it came to having a good time. We would play muggle healers on our stuffed animals, sometimes we would climb onto cupboards, pretending we were hikers on big mountain peeks, and we played many roles from Mary Poppins.

Uh. It was such a wonderful time.

Another week passed, and I almost wrote all of my memories. It came to my understanding that I have to find my brother; I really needed him to know that I remember it all now.

So I, slowly, but surely, slipped outside the bed, and peeked outside the room. Everything was quiet. I began walking down the stairs.

"Howdy, pal!" - I almost had a heart attack. I widened my eyes. There was Lupin, hanging upside-down, holding himself to the upper stairs with his feet. He then let himself, and fell on his head. He didn't move. I didn't dwell on it; I just skipped over him and went to kitchen.

I knew Lupin lost his crackers when my brother was assumed dead, he really cared for him.

Hmm. If I would bring Lupin with me to Bahamas, maybe the sight of my brother alive would cure him? I wondered.

"Oh, Severus, I didn't know you were awake!" - a surprised, melodious rumble crept from inside the kitchen. Kingsley was there. Man, what a man! Just exactly what I needed.

Young, well built, and handsome. But I bet he's straight.

Kingsley blushed, and I realized that I was staring at him, moving my gaze up and down his body.

"Uh, sorry." - it was all I could mutter.

"No, it's…um, okay. I was watching you for a while, too." - this statement shocked me. Then I remembered that Kingsley was also skilled at Legilimens…

I woke up thoroughly wasted. My muscles ached. I wanted to sleep more, but bed was empty beside me, and outside I heard Lupin playing pirates, jumping all over the place. I rolled out of the bed, got dressed, and went to the kitchen dodging Lupin's monkey business.

"Good morning, Severus. I trust you slept well." - Kingsleys' voice greeted me.

"You would know" - I replied. He just smiled.

Potter entered the room. Last time I saw him, he wasn't talking at all. Now he was talking to himself, acting like Kreacher, when he lost his beloved Mrs. Black. Ah well.

"And those two animals, couldn't even put a silencing charm on their room…" I heard Potter mutter to himself while passing. And, of course, Kingsley and I blushed beat red. How many people did exactly hear our, um, savaging, last night?

Lupin ran into the room and jumped on the table. He saw us, and started panting like a dog, and even barked few times. If that was possible, I blushed even more, when I realized he was mimicking the sounds…Lupin just started laughing like a madman, and then jumped on his head.

It was a weekend, and the house was packed. I was planning to say to everyone - everything. About my brother, our life, and his sudden decision to move to Bahamas.

And I stood up, at the dinner, clinging my fork to the glass, and when Dumbledore set his twinkling eyes on me, I just couldn't find the strength to do it. But I was already up, and everybody was looking at me. I found myself at a loss of words.

And then I knew. I knew what to say, I knew that they won't be glad about it, and I knew that Kingsley won't be too happy with it too, but, then again, a week already passed, it was time for us to stop keeping our relationship to ourselves.

And I told them. And they weren't happy. That irritating Weasly twins looked in disbelief to Kingsley and questioned: "Man, you, uh…queer?"

Kingsley gave them, and everybody else for that matter, a slight nod. Then one of them said:

"Gee, we knew that Snape was a sunshine, but we would never guess…"

That didn't come as much a shock to me. Mostly because they were 'sunshine' too.

The twins were looking at Kingsley with a different look now. It was…lust.

When the dinner was over, I went over to them, and growled:

"Back of. He's mine." The twins just nodded miserably, and I almost felt sorry for them. Almost.

This summer was passing dully. Granger came, and made everything even duller. I had a little fun watching Lupin excitedly stomping cockroaches and spiders. Potter was moving around the house aimlessly, murmuring to himself. Kingsley was out, so I couldn't kill time doing 'the dirty'.

Lupin stopped stomping, and started sniffing the air. I threw a curious glance at him. He looked at me, and started approaching.

"Hello." - he said politely, almost normally, and I looked at him in wonder.

"You know where Sirius is." - he continued.

Maybe it was just a madman's babbling, maybe not. Maybe I was supposed to ignore him, maybe I shouldn't listen to him, or maybe if I hexed him…Well, I didn't. I told him everything, about my brother, about his current residence, about our life...

We are in, what a muggle would call it, a plane. With a one-way ticket to the Bahamas. Remus is gorging himself with peanuts, and we are on our way to my brother….

Sirius.