This chapter does not contain sex. It's more of an emotional connection between the two. Their relationship can't be all about sex, can it? Enjoy!

Harry awoke the next morning with an oddly alluring ache in his backside and the most blissful feeling throughout the rust of his body. There was an arm wrapped around his waist and a body cuddled up against him touching every inch of him that he could. Harry smiled into the pillow, wiggling his hips into the hips of the man behind him just in time for the man to stir and press his groin into Harry -- Harry never wanted to move. The feeling of his lover pressed against him and the feeling of his breath on the back of his neck, was perfect.

Severus woke up o Harry wiggling into his groin and smiled into the mess of raven curls Harry some how passed off as hair. The Potions Master couldn't ever remember waking up holding anyone – other than Harry. It was a strange feeing to waking up with someone wrapped in your arms. And Severus found himself rapidly growing to love it. He felt complete with the younger man, like he was safe. Severus scrunched himself down an inch or two so he could kiss the young man's neck.

Harry smiled and rolled over to meet his lover's lips with his own. Instead of vying for dominance, and trying to make the other man moan first, the two simply found comfort in the connection of flesh as well as the nearness of the other. Severus was the one to break this kiss, and it delighted him to hear Harry groan as he was deprived of Severus's lips. The Potion Master moved so that he was propped up on his elbow and his free hand could pull Harry closer to him. With Harry's help, the two men found themselves chest to chest, abdomen to abdomen, groin to groin and so on.

Lifting his face to look into those onyx eyes that haunted him so strongly, Harry couldn't help but love them, he pressed his full, warm lips against his lover's. Smiling into Harry's kiss, Severus parted his thin lips at the tentative prodding of the younger man's hot tongue. Harry followed suit and propped himself up on his elbow to have a better reach at the lips he wanted so badly. Licking at his lover's slack tongue, the young man slid his fingers into the shoulder length silky locks of his Potions Master, where his fingers gripped and tugged rather forcefully.

Severus's teeth closed around Harry's tongue softly as he groaned from the delicious tension on his scalp, which – unbeknownst to him – was exactly what Harry was aiming for. Apparently they both had a love-hate relationship with pain, but neither new, for the positive, of the other position on it. Reluctantly, the two pulled away from their embrace, to find that they were panting slightly and severely turned on.

"You know, Severus, you were right."

Brushing his fingers through Harry's ruffled hair, "And this shocks you?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Not particularly."

Smiling a half smile, "What was I right about this time?"

Harry blushed softly, "I can still feel you."

That was enough to make Severus fall flat. His heart literally stopped beating. But when it did start over, something new pulsed through his body. Something he'd never felt before and it scared him. When onyx met emerald, that feeling pulsed stronger, more pronounced. Vaguely, Severus registered Harry was calling his name.

"Severus? Are you alright? Did you hear what I said?"

The Potions Master nodded and pulled himself from his thoughts, "Of course I heard you, Harry. I was deciding on how best to say, 'I told you so.'"

From the grin on Harry's face, Severus gathered he'd made the right move, "It would seem that simplicity is best."

"Don't go being smart now, Sir. I many have to resume the loathing I have for you in class…" The young man smiled and kissed his lover softly. Then, his stomach growled. He laughed as he pulled away and moved towards the edge of the bed, just in time to be pulled right back against his warm body of his lover, "Severus, I'm hungry…" Harry whined as the other man began kissing his neck and shoulders, offering nips every three kisses or so. TO his pleasure, Harry squirmed and twisted into Severus's arms, effectively getting the two closer together.

Between kisses, "Don't think," A bite, "that just because," another bite, "we're in a," kiss, "relationship, that I'm," bite, "going to go easy on you." And with that, Severus offered Harry's shoulder the hardest bite yet. The younger man whimpered and cried out in a pleasurably pained voice, "Merlin, Severus!"

Harry could feel a trickle of warm blood trail down his back, but before it could reach the sheets, Severus had positioned his tongue to meet it, and it licked back up to the source – a small, canine sapped puncture, "Whoops…"

Before Harry could stop himself, "Again," rolled from his sharp tongue.

Normally the Potions Master would have given in with no other persuasion necessary, but today he just wanted to tease Harry into a wicked frenzy. At least for the time being, Severus thought. "You said you were hungry…"

"Not anymore… Well, not for food."

Severus smiled, "Come on Harry, lets go eat. We have nine more weeks to play."

"Only nine? Why only nine?" Harry pouted.

"Because that's when Holiday is over? Am I wrong?" Severus furrowed his brows, thinking.

"No, no, you're right. But," the younger man paused and bit his lip, "do you plan on ending our relationship once the next semester starts up?"

While they'd been talking, the two had started climbing and untangling themselves from the bed and its labyrinth of sheets. But at Harry's last question, Severus placed his fingers beneath Harry's chin and lifted his face so they were looking at each other eye to eye. "No, Harry. I told you. I don't plan to ever leave you. Please, believe me."

"I believe you, Severus. Sometimes, it's just hard to believe…"

The Potions Master furrowed his brows and looked right into Harry's face, those onyx hues studying the look on his lover. It was a look the older man couldn't place, "What do you mean, Harry?"

"I mean," he hesitated, and fidgeted looking everywhere but into those dark eyes, "that since you… Well, you know…" He stopped again and pulled himself from the others grip. Getting off of the bed, Harry covered himself with a pillow and blushed.

Getting a bit agitated, Severus pushed himself from the bed, not bothering to cover himself; he strode over to Harry and rounded the man so they stood at an arms lengths apart with his hands on Harry's shoulders. "No, Harry. I don't know. Enlighten me."

Biting his lip, chewing it actually, Harry's optical emeralds looked every which way, save straight ahead. "Since you have such an important…" He paused, looking for the right words, "Err… Reputation for…" Clearing his throat, emerald met onyx, "loathing me…" Harry spoke very hurriedly, "Thatyou'dwanttoenditsothatnoonewouldfindout." Harry bit his tongue.

Severus thought for a moment, "What?"

Harry took a deep breath, and exhaled again. "I thought you might want to end what we have, so that no one would find out. And you would be safe."

His hands dropped from Harry's shoulders, and looking the boy over, his onyx orbs lit on fire, "Don't for a minute that that I ever," he cringed at the upcoming word that he would be directing at his lover, "loathed you, Harry. I may think you're a completely egocentric child sometimes, but I do not loath you." Turning from Harry, Severus cleared his throat, "I have never anything more than mildly disliked you. But right now, Potter, you're trying my patients."

Harry cringed as Severus hissed his last name.

"I'm beginning to strongly dislike your attitude and confidence – or lack there of – in my intentions towards you." He looked at Harry over his shoulder, his brow arched high. "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. I do not plan to leave you, for any reason. Shall I repeat? I do not plan to leave you. I seem to remember you saying something bout trust." Pulling on a pair of loose jeans, and socks, Severus moved to the door. Glancing at Harry before he rounded the corner, "Try trusting me now."

The young man stood by the bed, still holding be pillow to cover himself, and still staring after Severus and at the door across the hall, completely at a loss for words. Harry was so used to his quick tempered, emotionally restrained, sharp tongued Potions Professor that this new even tempered, emotionally motivated, soft tongue lover had him very confused. It was nice to have the even tongue and the motion behind his actions; however it was hard to make an argument to a man whose eyes and voice held so many feelings directed to him, Harry really enjoyed the new Severus, but it would definitely take a lot of getting used to.

Dropping the pillow and tugging on his boxers as well as the dress shirt Severus wore the day before, Harry headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth and further mess up his mop. He figured Severus would be more inclined to forgive him if he looked sexy and disheveled. To his surprise and immense pleasure, the dress shirt came to his mid thigh so the need for boxers vanished. Harry took them off and admired himself in the mirror. His raven hair fell in his eyes, and gave him that "just woken up" sex appeal. His emerald eyes were glazed over with the remnants of sleep as well as lust. Where the shirt had hung loosely on Severus, it clung rather snugly to Harry's toned young form. After he brushed his teeth, he tried out smiles in the mirror, and eventually settled on an innocent, shy smile. One that made his eyes flicker with an uncensored lust that boarded on the insatiable. Tugging on a pair of socks, he headed towards the stairs to look for his angry lover, and tried desperately to figure out what to do to fix them.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Severus stood in the kitchen, leaning against the sink, his head bowed and his long hair hanging in his face. He felt a little guilty for the way he'd acted, but Harry had to learn that what he said about their relationship and regarding Harry was true. There was only one way to have a relationship and make it work. And that was to treat each other as equals. "How can he sit thee and tell me to trust him," Severus mused to a sealed bottle of Fire Whiskey, "and not give me the same respect?"

Reaching for a glass, the older man continued his rant, "I will not allow it to keep up. He can't think that he's going to wall all over me." He filled the high ball glass wit a few pieces of ice and looked longingly, yet apprehensive, at the unopened bottle. "We will be equals in this, or there will not be an us." Placing a hand on the sealed cap of the bottle, he heard the swinging door open and a meek voice say, "Don't say that, Severus… Please…"

The Potion Master huffed and stood still, the muscles of his back tensing and relaxing as he fought to remain looking away from the other man.

"Severus, I'm sorry…" Harry began, "I know it's not fair for me to ask of you and not give in return. It will not happen again. Believe me?"

Still, the ma kept his back turned while Harry spoke, and all the while, Severus's nimble fingers picked at the thin plastic covering the mouth of his freedom bottle.

"Won't you even look at me? Please?" The young man begged doing his best to stand still though his muscles itched to go to his lover and embrace him. "If you're going to be stubborn, just listen to me then?" When he got no response, Harry continued, "I'm sorry. It's just hard to imagine you hissing, 'What did you expect, Potter? To cuddle?' after our very first night," Harry broke off and watched Severus shrink at the repetition of the cruel words he'd spat, "Oh, yes, sir. I remember."

Severus turned his head, his onyx eyes closed, but his profile was clear. He opened his mouth to speak, but he was silenced by a horrible crack of thunder. Apparently, it had been storming and the two of them had never known.

"Yes, Professor, I remember. You see, it's very confusing to go to bed wrapped in your bare arms and cradled by your nude body, only to have night mares of you murdering people and hissing your dislike at me for years. It's only natural that I question your loyalties to me. Don't you agree?" Though his words were fierce, his voice was soft and remarkably even. "It's hard for me to trust people, Ron and Hermione, oh and Hargrid of course, were the first people in eleven years that I ever trusted. Eleven years!" He was becoming a little wobbly now, "Then, I'm swept away to his school where some kind old man with sparkling blue eyes tells me I'm safe, and I can trust everyone at the school – the Professors especially. And then, I meet you. Every said that you were evil, and in our first ever encounter, you proved it to me!" Harry took a few steps closer to Severus, "You embarrassed me to no end! Made me out for a fool! And you enjoyed it." He now stood only a few feet from the man, "Oh. I almost forgot! But, how could I!? It is, after all, my destiny. I'm supposed to defeat the strongest wizard there's ever been! Save Dumbledore. And I'm being shagged by the Dark Lord's right hand man! To top it all off! Tell me, how I am supposed to function!?" Harry sighed, and his fingers fidgeted with the hem of the shirt, "All I know, Severus, is that I love you. And that I'm trying," Harry whimpered, "I'm trying."

"Do you trust yourself, Harry?" The older man managed to choke out.

Harry teetered back and forth, switching the weight between his left and right foot, considering his thoughts, "Sometimes… I mean, yes. I think. I don't know."

"That's not what I asked you, Mr. Potter. Do you trust yourself?" Severus's voice shook.

"I… I don't…"

"Yes, or No, Mr. Potter."

"On some things, yes I do. On others, no I don't…"

"What do you not trust yourself on?"

"The final battle," Harry did not hesitate.

Severus trembled, and nodded, "What do you trust yourself on?"

Harry swallowed, and placed his hands gently on his trembling lovers back. Slowly, he turned Severus to face him, "In loving you."

Those dark eyes flashed something brilliant, and softened dramatically, "Harry, let me clear something up. For once, and for all: I am not the Dark Lord's "right hand man" by my own accord, at least not anymore. I haven't been for a long time; I am now on special assignment to spy on him. Do you understand?"

Harry shrugged, and nodded.

"Let me also say that I never disliked you. I disliked your reputation of being "The Chosen One." Not to mention you reminded me so much of your father. It was him that I loathed. But, I have learned, in the years I've known you, you are not James. I was wrong to treat you as I did." The older man cupped the younger man's cheek softly, holding the eye contact between them. "And about you first eleven years, I am honestly sorry. However, I don't believe that it is fair you hold it against me." A gentle smile pulled at the corner of his lips, "Harry, I love you…"

That smiled Harry practiced in the mirror found its way to Harry's face as he felt the burning of those obsidian coals burning into his flesh.

"My, my, my…" Severus growled, "Look at you. Trying to make me forgive and forget?" Those orbs having finally seen how Harry was dressed, Severus licked his lips.

Harry laughed jumped up on the counter, and offered Severus the most wickedly intoxicating smiled Harry could pull together. Apparently it worked, because before he knew it, they were kissing, laughing, and melded together.

Hope you enjoyed. Please review. I'm hoping to make the next chapter at least twice this long. Forgive me for taking so long to post; I've had a rough week.