Chapter Twelve;
The chaste kiss lasted a matter of seconds, but seemed so much longer in Severus' mind. He stared at Sirius' closed eyes, not responding at all to the kiss. When Sirius pulled back, opening his eyes and grey met black, Severus stared, and he was scared if he moved he'd fall over as everything, Sirius included, was spinning rapidly. Sirius frowned at the emotionless look Severus was giving, well emotionless or shocked; he wasn't sure which it was.
Sirius released Severus, one hand on his chin and the other seemed to have found its way to Severus' hip. He sucked in his bottom lip, trying to think of what to say. "Severus… I-" he was interrupted by Severus falling to the floor, quite hard and unconscious. Sirius jumped to his side, sighing, he lifted Severus' body into his arms and walked into the bedroom to lay him down.
After he laid him in bed, he debated on waking him up so they could talk, but quickly decided against it when he saw this as an opportunity to climb in bed next to Severus and go to sleep. He removed his shirt and pants, leaving only his silk boxers on and climb in, covering them both up and pulling the unconscious Severus into his arms.
The next morning, or really around 3 or 4AM Severus woke up. He opened his eyes and groaned, when he tried to lift his arms to rub the sleep from them, he found that someone was holding them down. He turned his body around to face the person. He couldn't see in the dark that well, but he sniffed and he could tell who the person was from the scent. The person smelled of Firewhiskey, grass, and… dog. He glared at Sirius' chest, wiggling his body to get out of his grip, but Sirius' arms just pulled him closer until Severus' face was pushed into Sirius' neck. "Black!" Severus boomed.
Sirius jumped up at the yell and rolled away, promptly hitting the floor hard. He groaned and pushed himself up, "What's your problem? I was sleeping!"
"Sleeping? In my bed! Get out!" Severus yelled as he looked over his bed to glare even more at Sirius, then widening his eyes when he saw that Sirius was only in boxers.
Sirius looked up about to retort when he saw Severus turn a very deep shade of crimson. He looked down at what he was staring at and noticed it was his chest. Sirius smirked, "Like it?"
Severus looked up at Sirius and hit his head, "Get out of my rooms!"
Sirius stood up and grabbed for his clothes, then a thought hit him. He smirked and threw them aside. "No."
Severus clenched his fists, "What do you mean /no/?"
Sirius curled his lips into a smirk, "I mean if I go, it won't be with clothes on."
Severus quirked his eyebrow "What do you mean without clothes?"
"I mean… I'll leave /your/ chambers in just boxers. That'll get the rumors flying when I accidently bump into Peeves and I accidently let it slip where I'm coming from," Sirius said in an innocent tone.
Severus gave him a glare, "And what does this have to do with me?"
"Welllll…. The rumors will be that I left your chambers almost naked. Everyone will assume we've… to put it bluntly, fucked," Sirius said, giving a coy smile.
"You wouldn't…" Severus hissed, gritting his teeth.
"I would, and you know it. So just give me 5 minutes without you interrupting to talk and then if you say no, I'll leave," Sirius explained, crossing his fingers behind his back in hopes that it would work.
Severus gave a loud sigh, rubbing his temples, "Fine… I need to get ready for the day anyway… you have five minutes, Black, and no touching me or getting within five feet of me. Got it?" he said as he stood up and walked over to his wardrobe to pick out his clothes for the day.
Sirius nodded his head, secretly grinning from ear to ear at his success. "Alright. Remus told me everything, and I'm sorry, I know that doesn't mean /anything/ to you, but I am! I didn't mean to get you hurt, I was just confused, you were always following us around and I was tired of it, I thought you were just trying to get us in trouble!" he paused in his rant to hold his finger up when he saw Severus about to retort, "No. You said 5 minutes, I said without you talking! Let me finish," he said, nodding his head when Severus backed down and walked into the bathroom to get dressed.
Sirius walked up to the bathroom door and decided to finish talking through the door. "Now, since term began, I've found out that I enjoy your company. The reason I approached you…" he paused, debating with himself on whether to tell Severus about that night at the bar or not, but quickly deciding it was best to tell him everything. "The reason is because the night before term, Harry, Remus and I went out for drinks, and I was a bit drunk when the conversation turned to our first time. So I joked and brought you up, saying 'I wonder if Snape is a virgin'. So then we began discussing it, and I said that I had never seen you around with anyone, or you never mentioned anyone. So… I came back to the castle, even after Remus told me to drop it, I asked the Headmaster about what you do over breaks that's when he let it drop… or hinted, whatever you want to say about you being gay," he paused in his story, waiting for Severus to start an uproar in the bathroom.
After about twenty seconds, he was convinced Severus would keep to the agreement and stay quiet, so he continued on. "Anyway, then I left the office, and something was telling me I wanted to get to know you better. Know why you stay at the castle year around and every summer, I wanted to be your friend. We could go get drinks every once in a while, go places in the summer. I thought it'd be good for us to mend broken bridges, yeah? Then I ran into you that night, and I decided to invite you to a drink in my chambers. Which I'm very glad you accepted, that night was special to me, because I found out that you're not much different than I am, see? And I was really hoping we could be friends, until… I started liking you, I guess. I ignored the signs unintentionally. Such as jealousy, like when Pince talks to you every night at dinner, I want to talk to you during dinner, not just when we're in private," he explained.
"Then I overheard you and Remus, and I heard him telling you to stay away from me. All I could think was how dare him, trying to make it so we can't be friends. I was selfish, so I lied when I said I just heard some commotion, I heard almost every word you two said, which confused me, but I didn't want to push the topic… then when you threw me out, I decided I needed to know. I know it wasn't my place nor Remus' to tell me, but I wanted to know, so I went to pry it out of Remus, and he told me. Everything. About the time you were in the bathroom, and the talk in the infirmary after I sent you to him…" he paused, biting his lip, he was now pacing in front of the door. "Severus, Remus asked if I liked you, and the more I thought about it… the more I think about it now, I'm sure I like you. And this isn't some pity thing, this is sincere, and I hope you see that…"
Sirius exhaled a sigh, sitting on Severus' bed and waiting for a response. He didn't get one for another five minutes when Severus finally emerged from the bathroom, fully clothed, shaved, and prepared for the day. His eyes showed no emotion, but he did seem to be in deep thought. He walked over and grabbed some papers off the desk on the side of the bed and walked to the door. He pushed it open and paused in the doorway. "I need..." he paused, pulling a stack papers under his arms, "I need time to think. I'll come to you when I decide how I feel on this matter, stay away from me until then," he said in a firm tone and Sirius could sense the anger in it.
Sirius nodded his head and listened as Severus opened the main door to his chambers then slammed it. He winced at the loud bang it made, and waited a few more minutes for Severus to be clear out of the area before he got up and went to his chambers to sleep until he had to be up.