Of Kisses and Bets

Yes, I decided it would be fun to write the "Tom and Severus's First Kiss" scene from the seventh chapter of A Familiar's Intuition. I was bored, okay?!

It was a quiet, lazy Saturday afternoon and a Death Eater meeting had just adjourned. The Outer Circle had already left, but like always, the Inner Circle remained, simply to spend time with each other and Tom.

It had been a fairly uneventful, even boring meeting. Thankfully, Tom's spies, Lily, James, Sirius, and Remus had reported that there was no word of any "Death Eater raids,"(In other words, Dumbledore's mercenaries pretending to be Death Eaters) from the order of the Phoenix. It had mostly been about political jargon, which had put Nagini straight to sleep on Tom's lap.

Tom carried his sleeping familiar back to his private quarters so she could rest without being disturbed. He laid her gently on his bed, giving her one last stroke before slipping out into the hallway, leaving the door open a crack, which wasn't really necessary since her master escape artist skills enabled her to open doors and get out of even a securely locked room. But unlike SOME people(cough, Sirius, cough) he wasn't one to give his beloved Nagini a hard time just so he could see how long it took her to escape.

He strode down the hallway, finding his Inner Circle relaxing in his living room. Bella, Lily, and Narcissa were sitting on the couch discussing plans for Lily's upcoming wedding. Lucius was working on a statement for the Wizengamot, while James was studying for an upcoming Auror exam. Augustus Rookwood was carefully carving runes into a small, flat stone, occasionally checking a runes book in front of him. Barty was studying the same book, offering suggestions on the runic mind shield they were working on together. All looked up and smiled when they heard Tom enter the room, greeting him.

On the other side of the room, Remus had his head buried in a book, as usual, while Sirius, Rodolphus, and Rabastan were looking over a large piece of parchment, which Sirius hid under his robes as soon as he noticed Tom.

"That prank better not be pulled on myself, Nagini, or Severus, got that?" Tom firmly informed Sirius.

Sirius nodded nervously. "G-Got it."

"Good. Speaking of Severus, where is he?" Tom asked, noticing his favorite Death Eater was absent.

"Potions Lab." Bella told him. "Remus was running low on Wolfsbane Potion, so Sev went to go brew him some more." Remus stiffened a little behind his book. He still had not come to terms with his lycanthropy, especially since the person he had so nearly hurt was the one brewing the life-saving potions for him. He had apologized many times for the "werewolf incident" and Severus had forgiven him and told him it wasn't his fault, but still…

"I'll go see how he's doing." Tom announced.

"I'm sure he'd love that." Bella said, sharing a smile with Lily. Tom had no clue what they were grinning about, but dismissed it as a woman thing. Shrugging, he headed down the hall to the Potions Lab.

Tom reached the door to the Potions Lab and was about to knock when a wave of what suspiciously felt like nervousness hit him. Okay, why the hell am I nervous? I always go to the Lab to spend time with Severus while he's brewing!

Maybe it's because you're secretly in love with him, a small part of Tom's mind taunted him. Tom growled inwardly, but it was true; he had had feelings for the younger Death Eater for almost a year. He had tried to push them away before he ended up doing something stupid and ruining his friendship with Severus, but they only got stronger as time went on, and it was getting harder and harder not to pull the younger man into his arms and kiss him.

Get a grip, Tom! Tom scolded himself. Even though he wanted to act on these feelings, he couldn't. For one, he was several years older than Severus, and two, if Severus didn't feel the same way, it might destroy their friendship and Tom couldn't take that. Nagini knew about Tom's feelings for Severus and told him to go for it, that she thought Severus felt the same way, but Tom just couldn't take the chance. Better to not have Sev for a lover than to completely lose him as a friend. But you'll never know if you don't try, that traitorous part of his mind protested. You can't hide from these feelings forever.

Telling that part of his mind to shut up, Tom knocked on the door. "Come in!" Severus called from inside.

"Hello, Severus. How's the potion coming?" Tom asked, walking inside.

Severus looked up from the aconite he was carefully dicing and gave Tom one of his rare smiles. "It's going well. Just need to add the rest of the aconite, stir it, then let it brew for a few hours. What are the others up to?"

"Well, Bella, Lily, and Narcissa are working on wedding preparations, James is actually studying for a test, Lucius is working on a statement for the Wizengamot, Remus is reading, and Sirius, Rabastan, and Rodolphus are planning a prank, I'm assuming." Severus grimaced. "I told them in no uncertain terms that if that prank ended up being pulled on you, Nagini, or myself that there'd be problems." Tom reassured. Severus smiled again and nodded as he carefully placed the aconite in the cauldron, stirring it counter-clockwise ten times before tapping it with his wand and leaving it to brew. Like a work of art in progress. I love watching Sev brew potions.

"Thanks Tom." Severus told him.

"No problem." Tom assured him. He noticed a piece of parchment next to Severus. "What's that?"

Severus handed it over. "It's my final test for my Potions Master's degree. I have until January first to get it done."

Tom read over the parchment. The requirements read that to pass the test, Severus had to brew several extremely difficult potions, including Felix Felicis, Polyjuice, the Draught of Peace, and Veritaserum perfectly. "Sounds difficult. But you can do it, Severus."

"I hope so." Severus murmured. Looking down, he confided to Tom, "I hope I don't fail."

"You're not going to." Tom told him fiercely. "You're one of the best potions makers I've ever seen. I mean, you're brewing Wolfsbane, one of the most difficult potions around! I can't even do that! You're not only going to pass that test, you're going to ace it and become the youngest Potions Master in history!"

Severus looked at Tom. "You really think so?"

"I do." Tom said, taking the younger man's hand. "You're the best, Severus." And then, without thinking, Tom did what he had so longed to do for the past few months. He leaned over and kissed Severus.

…...

Severus was in shock. The man he had secretly loved for almost a year was kissing him. And he was just sitting there like a stone with his eyes wide open. Once he got his brain into gear, Severus closed his eyes and eagerly returned the kiss, wrapping his arms around Tom. If this was a dream, he never wanted to wake up.

Tom suddenly pulled away, realizing what he had just done. "Merlin, Severus! I'm sorry!" He couldn't believe he had just done that! He wouldn't blame Severus for hating him…

"I'm not!" Severus blurted out. When Tom looked at him in shock, Severus blushed crimson and whispered. "I've kind of wanted that to happen for a while now."

"You have?" Tom asked softly. "How long?"

"For almost a year now. Since the day you visited me in your Potions Lab after…well, what my father did to me and told me about your past and that you'd never abandon me. I never saw you show that side of you to anyone before. I think that's when I started to fall in love with you." Severus hoped he hadn't made a mistake with that last line, using the word "love" too soon.

But Tom just smiled, hugging Severus tightly. "The day I started to realize I had feelings for you, that I was beginning to love you, was the day I came so close to losing you forever. I was so scared, sitting in that waiting room wondering whether you'd be okay. That's when I realized how much you meant to me. Lucius told me afterwards that me, Bella, and Lily nearly took out a nurse's cart running back there to see you when they told us you were awake." Severus chuckled a little at this.

"I've wanted to tell you how I've felt for a while, but I was scared you wouldn't feel the same way and that it would completely ruin our friendship." Severus admitted.

"That's the reason I never told you before!" Tom exclaimed. "Wow, I feel like such an oblivious fool!"

"If you are, I am too." Severus said, sighing. "How'd we manage to dance around each other for a year, neither of us realizing the other's feelings?"

"I think I can answer that." Tom told him. "Neither of us are the best at admitting our feelings, and neither of us have been in a real relationship before. This kind of thing is new to both of us."

"I know." Severus murmured. "So where do we go from here?"

"Well," Tom said, "We've established that I have feelings for you, and you have feelings for me back." Severus nodded. "And it would be silly to go back to the way we were before." Severus nodded again and Tom smiled. "Then I think I know where to start."

He leaned in, capturing Severus's lips for the second time that day. They kissed eagerly, not even noticing when the door to the Potions Lab began to open.

"Severus, are you in here? I wanted to know if…Oh my!" They broke apart, startled, but it was too late to keep the person at the door, one Bellatrix Lestrange, from seeing them.

Bella looked shocked at first, then grinned. She shouted out the door, "LILY, RODDY, I WON THE BET! THEY WERE KISSING! YOU EACH OWE ME TEN GALLEONS!"

"DON'T CALL ME RODDY, BELLA!" Rodolphus yelled back.

Tom glared at Bellatrix while Severus just sat there in shock. "Bet? What bet?" Tom demanded in what Sirius had dubbed his "Voldemort voice. A sane person would have shrank away from that tone.

But Bellatrix was not a sane person. Not missing a beat, she replied. "The bet a few of us made on when you two would finally wise up and get together. It's about time. A few more weeks and I would have owed Rodolphus money."

"You made a bet on my love life?!" Tom growled, still using his Voldemort Voice.

Unfazed, Bella nodded. "I bet either June or July. I figured it'd be easier for you to admit your feelings once Sev here became of age. Rodolphus guessed August through October, and Lily guessed November or December around the holidays."

"How did you even know we…" Severus was more shocked than angry right now.

"Have you two seen yourselves?" Bella chuckled. "Tom, you're super protective of Severus, and you're always spending time alone with him. You two are always giving each other those special looks when you can actually meet each other eyes and those simple little touches like a hand on the shoulder linger just a little bit longer with you two than they do with anyone else. You always sit next to each other when we're eating together and don't seem to like being apart for more than a few minutes." She grinned at them. "Both of you are good at hiding your feelings and you're both stubborn as a bull, but the people who know you well enough can see straight through your masks."

She suddenly became serious. "We, the entire Inner Circle, want you both to be happy, and you two are happiest when together. Severus, you've been through a living hell, and Tom, though I can't presume to know your past, I know you've had it rough as well. I'm glad you're a couple now."

Then she grinned, all seriousness over. "You two have fun. I'm going to go collect my winnings."

As she headed out the door, Tom shot a powerful stinging hex at her, smirking when he heard a yelp and a crash! He then slammed the door shut, locking it this time. "Well, the entire Inner Circle will probably know in a few seconds if they didn't hear Bella screaming it from here."

"Does it matter?" Severus asked.

Tom shook his head. "Not really. They probably would have found out soon anyway." He sat down and wrapped his arms around Severus once more. "Now, where were we?"