NOTES: Written for the Slash_Challenge community on livejournal.com.
Queen of the Fairies
The dimly-lit room had the most peculiar scent of damp clothes, old sweat, and something almost sickeningly sweet that hung like an old memory around the heavy drapes that decorated its walls. One of the two figures in the room held his nose high up in the air, as if the whole scene was far beneath him, while the other sat on a stool, flushing furiously, wishing he were anywhere, anywhere else.
A soft puff gave way to a cloud of powder, which was soon followed by coughing, cursing, and in the end, whining: "Sniv-el-lus!"
"Hold still," a frail and lithe looking young man with short black hair commanded.
"I don't wanna hold still!" shouted the figure on the chair, slightly taller and burlier than his companion but with matching black hair that had been tied on his head in an intricate and complicated hair-do. "I want you to get this ruddy thing over with, already."
"You'll tear your wings if you keep fidgeting like a virgin preparing for her first date, you insufferable git," said the smaller boy while the other's cheeks shone crimson even through the coat of powder now covering his skin. "Now, Hold. Still."
The boy growled, but seemed to obey. A few more puffs were followed by a wet kind of a smack, as the other boy had just thrown the powder sponge to his face. "You're done."
"You son of a--" the boy started, lunging to his feet, but thinking better of it a wicked smile soon curved the corners of his painted lips.
"Snivellus, help me tie my shoes."
"You're out of your mind, Black," the boy folded his arms.
"Sniv-el-lus," he stomped his foot. "I can't tie all these ruddy laces on my own!"
Bending down, the other boy muttered something about someone called Regulus REALLY having to pay for it while the boy who sat back down smirked and wiggled his foot in the air. "Hold. Still." he hissed through his ground teeth.
"I don't understand why your boots have to have so many bloody laces," he said, making his way up the other boy's ankles to his leather-clad thighs, slowly, as if to show him how it was properly done.
"Because I'm Titania, Queen of the Fairies!"
The other boy hid his head between two leather-covered knees and snorted. His shoulders began to shake. Soon he was curled up on the floor, holding his stomach and roaring with laughter. The boy on the stool clenched his fists in indignation. "S-severus?"
"Never mind," he managed through hiccoughs, grasping the other boy's thighs to help him get up, still sniggering. He ran his long, pale fingers up and down the other's leg absentmindedly.
"S-severus?" Sirius hiccoughed, bewildered by the strange new sensations the delicate hands were kindling in his body.
"Yes?"
Sirius shifted uncomfortably on the stool. "Stop that."
"Stop what?"
"That," he nudged his head. Their eyes met. Flinching, the boy gripped the other one's jaw, pulling him up for a hesitant kiss which grew steadily more urgent, more needy, until both were shy of breath. His gaze hazy, Severus traced Sirius's cheekbone with his thumb, smiling weakly for the first time the entire day.
"You certainly are..."