"Severus." It was a cool acknowledgement, but more than he'd really expected from her. Or perhaps more accurately, it was more than he would have expected, had Willow not obviously had something to do with it. Severus did not believe in coincidence, and he did not believe that Willow had the 'Sight' as Sybill was so fond of claiming to have.

"Autumn," he answered, his voice steady as though he hadn't just walked away from her not four hours ago.

"Hrm, do I detect a bit of tension here?" Willow was frowning at the two of them, and Severus' head swiveled back to her.

"Do not try to convince me you didn't know…"

"I still don't know," Willow replied. "But there is enough conflict here to touch it, so why don't I take my coke and go over to another table so you two can work it out, whatever it is."

"There is nothing to work out," Autumn said, her voice tight.

For a long moment, Willow looked at Autumn, then at Severus. "I think there's a great deal to work out. Or, barring that, to talk about. Severus, why don't you tell her about the Dali exhibit? I'm sure she'd be thrilled."

Willow walked away, leaving Autumn standing and Severus sitting and neither of them entirely sure if they wanted to talk or not. The waitress, with her impeccable timing, returned just then to ask if Autumn was joining them.

"I'll just have a cup of tea," Autumn replied, and finally sat in the booth across from Severus, her hands folded in her lap.

He stared at her, but it wasn't Autumn he was seeing. It was a woman sitting on a seashore with a hole where her stomach should have been, a crutch supporting her, a night table with a bottle atop it sitting to one side. "Can you possibly forgive me?" he asked softly, still staring past her, as though the hole was in her body.

She sighed softly. "Of course I can forgive you, Severus," she replied softly. "I can even understand. But it doesn't make it any easier to accept it."

He shook his head and blinked, bringing her face into focus. "And if I ask you not to accept it?" he asked softly.

"What do you mean?"

He frowned slightly, and the setting seemed to shift. He wasn't in a small café in Muggle London anymore, but in his rooms. It wasn't Autumn who was sitting in front of him, it was Aislinn.

"I suppose," his words rang in his own ears, "that I'm unsure what you want from me…"

"God help me, Severus," Aislinn whispered into the air, staring at the fire, "I'm not sure I know what I want from you either."

Autumn was back again and he lowered his head into his hand. "I don't know what I'm saying," he replied softly. "I don't know what I was saying this morning, and I don't know if I meant any of it. But it's too soon, Autumn. It's too soon. Half the time I can't differentiate between my memories of her and what is real, and…" He looked up at her, his eyes full of pain. "I don't want to drive you away," he said softly. "I don't want to lose you. But I don't want…"

"You don't want me to replace Aislinn."

He nodded mutely. For a long minute, Autumn was quiet as well, and then she spoke again, her voice low. "I don't want to replace her," she whispered. "I don't want to be a poor imitation of someone who isn't there anymore. I want…" she swallowed hard. "I want you to want me for who I am. Is that even possible?"

"Quite," he answered promptly. "But I don't know if it's possible today. Or tomorrow."

She scooted out from her seat and moved around the table, giving him a tiny shove. He obligingly scooted, and she settled in beside him. "Can we still be friends while you heal?" she asked.

He closed his eyes. "I'd be heartbroken if we couldn't," he replied softly.

"Can we be friends who are intimate enough that it's excusable if I hug you?"

He opened his eyes and looked at her, his gaze grazing the top of her head. "Of course," he murmured, lifting his arm so she could settle against him. He leaned his cheek against the top of her head, and she cuddled closer, and he felt a peace drifting over him.

"Ah, yes, I'm so sorry to interrupt, but I think our lunch will be here soon so I'm just going to…" Willow was back, sitting again, and Severus started to straighten, but the red-head waved her hands at him. "No, no, no, don't move on my account. You two just look too comfy for words right now. See, you just needed a few minutes to talk it out, and since it didn't take long, there was nothing really wrong, just a misunderstanding. Right? And look, that's our lunch."

Severus glanced towards the kitchen, and the door was just opening, and sure enough, it was their waitress who was emerging, three plates and a cup of tea on her tray. Willow took charge of directing the food around, and Autumn just shook her head as a plate of something spicy-smelling was placed in front of her. "Some day, you're going to have to explain to me just how you do that, Willow," Autumn said, her voice carrying a bit of a laugh.

"What's to explain? It's just like breathing. You know," she was talking with her mouth full, which normally irritated Severus to no end, but somehow it didn't seem to matter to him just then, "this is really good."

Severus spent a moment digging around on his plate, trying to identify what was there. Rice, certainly, and tomatoes. And… he looked carefully at something and decided it was chicken. And raisins?

"Just eat it," Autumn advised. "It's probably a combination that will sound excessively strange to you if you're not used to Indian food, but I guarantee that it tastes as wonderful as it smells."

He raised an eyebrow, but took her advice, plunging his fork into the mess on his plate and then taking a bite, unmindful of what was in it. "Mmm. That is good."

hr

"Mrowr?"

Severus opened his eyes as something small landed suddenly on his chest, poking a cold, wet nose against his chin.

"What?" he asked, mockingly irritated but really quite enamoured of his newfound friend. It had taken a fair bit of convincing from Autumn to get him to take the cat, and, in the end, it hadn't even been Autumn who convinced him. It had been Kitty (which Severus had decided was as good a name as any for the feline. He couldn't imagine the kitten with a more serious name, somehow) who finally convinced him. Severus had been sitting on Autumn's sofa, and suddenly the feline was in his lap, standing on his hind legs, paws braced on either side of Severus' chest. Autumn had said he was hugging him.

Kitty had been steadily growing on him for the last several hours, it seemed, and Severus was slowly warming to the idea of the tiny black monster forever curling up against him. The kitten couldn't seem to get close enough half the time, and, after several hours of fighting with the thing for possession of his lap, Severus had given in and allowed him to curl up into a purring bundle of sleek black fur. He found that the feline was content to be petted absently while Severus was absorbed in a book. He was really quite affectionate, and demanding of affection, but lazily content with minimal effort on Severus' part.

Provided Severus acknowledged him. Which, obviously, he wasn't at the moment.

"Mrowr."

"Won't you let me sleep for just a couple of hours?" he asked softly, and the kitten blinked at him, then settled onto his chest, washing his face and staring. It was rather unnerving, the way a cat stared. Severus yawned and closed his eyes again, and a moment later had a cold, wet nose on his chin once more. "What?" he repeated, opening his eyes.

"Mrowr."

"Are you hungry?" Severus asked, not even thinking about what it said about his sanity that he was having a conversation with a cat in the middle of the afternoon. He picked up the kitten, moving him to the mattress beside him, and turned over, looking at the food bowl. "No, you have food. You have water. Your litter box can't possibly be dirty yet. What do you want?"

Kitty sat on the mattress, tail flicking occasionally, blinking at him. "Mrowr."

"I know. You just don't want me to go to sleep. That's it, isn't it? Well, too bad." Severus turned onto his stomach and settled his head into the pillow, and closed his eyes again. A moment later, he felt the kitten climbing onto his back and begin kneading at his shoulders. Yawning, Severus murmured, "You just keep doing that." Slowly, he drifted to sleep amidst the sound of the kitten's purring and the soft massage.

hr

"A kitten? Somehow, I don't see you taking care of a kitten."

Severus shook his head. "I didn't either," he replied. "But Autumn and Kitty seemed to have other ideas."

"Kitty. You actually named it Kitty?"

His face beginning to darken into a half-embarrassed, half-defensive scowl, Severus sighed. "I had nothing to do with the name. That's what Autumn has been calling him, and… well…" he shrugged, a little uncomfortable. "I had thought to rename him, but nothing I could think of seemed to suit him. He's… he's too small and… cuddly… for any name I'd choose, and Kitty is as ridiculous as anything else."

Lupin laughed softly. "Do you like him?"

Severus looked down at his lap and the purring mass of fur curled up against his stomach. "I think he's growing on me," he said softly, scratching the kitten's ear. He'd been back at headquarters less than an hour, and had really intended to spend what remained of the evening upstairs, packing up his belongings. He was returning to Hogwarts tomorrow, after all, and he hadn't so much as folded a sock yet.

He really hadn't intended to be gone so long this afternoon, but somehow the late lunch had been followed by a meandering walk through a park, followed by a dance to the music of street musicians, then a couple of hours browsing through a market, and finally watching the sun set from a hillside, the brilliant orange sphere sinking below the tops of the buildings. He hadn't intended to spend all day with Autumn, and certainly not alone, but Willow had excused herself from them shortly after lunch, and he'd been reluctant to leave the petite woman's company.

She'd also talked him into taking the cat. Or, rather, the cat had convinced him. It was extraordinarily difficult to ignore the soft purring and playful scampering of the kitten, and, when Severus had seated himself on the sofa at Autumn's flat and the kitten had stood on his hind legs in his lap, forepaws resting on Severus' shoulders, that had been the end of his arguments. The kitten had claimed him, it seemed, and Severus had no real desire to protest.

"Maybe he'll be good for you," Remus suggested.

Severus snorted softly. "Now you're beginning to sound like Autumn."

A/N: I'm really not happy with this chapter at all, and it is on my list for major revision at a later date. For now, though, it was just holding up progress

Thank you all for your reviews!