Severus awoke in his bed at Snape Manor. The last thing he remembered was...
...Lupin!
He groaned and sat up.
Nothing seemed unusual as he dressed and made his way out of his room. He chose to push last night's events to the back of his mind for the time being and concentrated on the anomaly of ending up in his own bed – how had Lupin managed to get past the wards?
-----------------------------
Remus Lupin howled. The only time in his entire life, including childhood, that he had ever howled whilst in human form. He continued howling until Snape's house elves came rushing down to the gate armed with flaming torches and Snapish scowls – how long exactly had they worked for the Snape family?
They could have argued, but as the werewolf was carrying an emotionally and physically exhausted and obviously unconscious "Master Severus" there really was little they could do. They let him in.
Severus had no idea that Remus was the one who cleaned the blood from him. No idea that Remus was the one who undressed him and "tucked him in". No idea that Remus refused the offer of one of the dozens of spare beds and slept outside Severus' door all night on a chaise lounge.
That was until Severus opened his bedroom door in the morning to see the sleeping werewolf clinging to the chair and snoring.
Severus hissed in his breath and prepared to ball out his one time enemy. Then he remembered how Lupin had been last night. No fight, but then there never was was there, he had made the fight himself with his barriers and defences. Remus was a kind man; Severus envied him that – though he was nowhere near being able to say so.
He knelt beside the sleeping form and indulged the temptation to run the back of his hand along the sleeping man's jaw. Severus was far from reviled by the stubbly growth on the man's face; he was never one to want his sensations "smoothed". He allowed himself a smile.
"I thought you might hit me" Remus murmured. Severus edged back a little. Remus grabbed his hand.
"Don't" he said, "don't back away from me now." There was a pleading yet commanding tone to his voice. Severus looked at the floor.
"Lupin..."
Remus swung his legs down to the floor and grasped Severus' face between his hands.
"I stayed up most of the night thinking about this Severus."
Severus refused to meet his eyes. Remus cupped his chin and made him look at him. He had been about to expound on his thinking but instead he leant forward and kissed Severus, first tentatively and gently, then more firmly and passionately. Severus resisted but Remus held him firm, it was not force, just not allowing Severus to run away. Severus struggled with this turn of events internally. It was unexpected, but didn't entirely feel that way. What was the choice here? Rejection or acceptance? His mind told him to flee, to smack up the barriers, but to reject Remus would be a big choice. There was no lucid thought behind the final decision and that itself said something about how far Severus had come, even if he didn't realise how far that was himself. He leant into the kiss. Remus parted Severus' resisting lips with his tongue and after a moment Severus began returning his kiss. Severus found he had passion that no-one had ever known was there.
As they broke away from the kiss, for air if for anything else, Severus' gaze immediately reverted to the floor. Remus again lifted his chin and sought his eyes until Severus could no longer deny the connection.
"Severus, what you promised last night..."
"I don't want to discuss it!" Severus rose and began to make his way down the staircase.
"Severus!" Remus called after him, a little indignantly. "For Gods' sake Severus! Have you thought about this at all?"
Severus swung round on Remus as he reached the bottom of the staircase.
"I made a deal. It cannot be reneged upon. I regret that you overheard but..."
"But what Severus? It isn't as if you can do this alone, is it?"
Severus froze. He really hadn't given the technicalities of this deal much thought. He had committed himself to resurrecting Dumbledore and that had been the promise that was demanded, he had agreed. Remus' observation was a new consideration. What did he intend anyway? Was he offering to father this child? If so, why?
"I don't understand!"
Remus sighed. He hadn't actually gotten any sleep. When Severus had found him, he had been asleep for maybe half an hour. The rest of the night he had sat up, first watching Severus sleep and then outside the door contemplating the "technicalities" of Severus' deal. Severus would go through with this; he would get pregnant by whatever means it took, he would have a baby and by the terms of the agreement he would keep and raise that baby. By doing this he would also bring Dumbledore back to life. Remus' mind boggled at the magnitude of what Severus was doing, but it wasn't a plan to be contested – the deal was made, Severus had accepted. Severus had to become a mother. That necessitated a father. Remus thought about the options that Severus had to achieve that and all of them, bar one, ended up with Severus getting fucked in a variety of seedy to plush locations – once, probably roughly and definitely by a stranger. No-one deserved that, least of all Severus Snape. All the options were empty valueless one night stands orchestrated purely for the purposes of getting Severus pregnant, but there would be repercussions on his emotions - which were evidently now in play. And of course, this wasn't merely a pregnancy; this would be a life, a child, a person. This would be Severus' child.
There were options, but Remus knew what he wanted now. If Severus was to have a child, if there was truly to be a life growing inside Severus Snape – then Remus wanted it to be his.
"Let me help." It was feeble and it didn't encompass anything that he wanted to tell Severus, but it was simple and the meaning was plain. Remus held out his hand and refused to break eye contact.
Another choice. Severus haltingly took the offered hand.