Sweet and Short

Challenge: 10 out of 20, October
Prompt: bike

Title: but you're a dog
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Sirius Black/Severus Snape
Length: 664 (oops, I forgot the maximum, will make sure the next ones are under the limit 🙈)
Content notes: Rated Gen, Post-Hogwarts, Sirius Black's flying motorbike, First kiss
Summary:
Sirius has a falling out with James after Hogwarts when he realizes the one person he misses is the most unexpected of all and his best friend cannot wrap his head around why any more than Sirius can.

Of course, Severus doesn't know that when they run into each other at the pub around the corner one night.

Link: Here on AO3


The first time Severus sees him on the bike, he only remembers to sneer when Black gets close enough to see his face. He holds onto the expression even as the dreadful mutt winks at him and his traitorous stomach flips. Disgust, of course. 

He sees it again and again after that, parked around Hogsmeade and by the train's platform in their final year at Hogwarts. That Black chooses to ride it all the way down to London rather than take the train with the rest of his bully friends is surprising, but Severus has too much on his mind to wonder. 

He notices the shape and shine of it one night as he walks around the muggle neighborhood he has selected after school. It doesn't register until he enters the pub that has become his refuge against solitude even if he never speaks to anyone, until he sees a head of black curls at the counter, and the unmistakable shape of Sirius Black under the leather of a riding jacket. 

He contemplates turning on his heels and leaving, but he's just lonely enough, just desperate for noise for once, that he keeps going and sits two empty stools away from Black. That the man sees him immediately is not surprising, but that he smiles certainly is. 

Severus frowns, but nods in his direction. He can always be polite, after all, if it means he doesn't have to go back to his empty flat with no other company than his slowly bubbling cauldrons on mild stasis spells. 

“Snape.” 

“Black.” 

They don't really talk after that, but instead stare at each other. Black's blue eyes look more tired than Severus ever remembers seeing them. Their animated, manic light back at school seems tepid now, suppressed. That the bastard looks beautiful nonetheless, enough so that Severus admits it to himself for the first time, is frustrating enough to make him sigh. Black's gaze snaps to his mouth, something like curiosity flashing there. 

He drinks the last of his beer and tosses his hair back as he gets up from his seat, approaching. Severus tenses. 

“Wanna head out?” 

“With you?” He tries to snort, but it's too squeaky, almost like he's curious too. “What for?” 

“I'll show you,” Black whispers, dropping a note on the counter by Severus's half-finished drink before walking away towards the door. 

“I could have paid for myself,” Severus protests once he's outside, but Black waves him off, and that's when Severus notices he's leaning on the bike, his arms on the saddle behind him drawing his half-open shirt taut. The dark lines of tattoos that weren't there the last time Severus saw him peak out, altogether distracting. 

“I don't bite.”

“But you're a dog.”

“Was that a joke?” Black asks, and his laugh resounds in the empty alley, not unlike a bark. 

“No,” Severus responds, but he's closing the distance between them as if magnetically pulled toward Black. 

There are car horns in the distance, and music down the street, unintelligible conversations from back inside the pub, but all Severus hears is his own too-rapid breathing when Black gets up and walks the few short steps left to bring them chest to chest. 

“How many beers have you had?” Severus frowns again, but Black's breath doesn't smell overly intoxicated, nor does his demeanor seem like he doesn't know what he's doing. 

“Just the one,” Black confirms. 

He's standing so close, Severus wants to ask why here of all places. If he knew he would be coming, but that's ridiculous isn't it? And then Black's fingers slide into his hair and his mouth presses against his own and Severus can't think further than the fact that the kiss is much softer than he'd have thought—had he had such outlandish ideas.

The next time the bike is parked by the door of the pub, Black is sitting on the edge of the sidewalk next to it, and there's no question as to why.