MY POTIONS MASTER

Severus gasped, his body trembled and his back arched as Harry suckled on the soft skin behind his knee.

When he returned to his senses, he shoved a few pillows behind his back so he was at a better angle to watch his lover devour him.

Harry's hand trailed up his thigh, dangerously close to the center of his aching need.

The young torturer smiled at the feel of the coarse hair beneath his fingers. With a last nip to the sensitive underside of the man's knee, Harry moved further down. His smiled broadened as he came to the only remaining article of clothing. Thin, almost thread-bare, grey socks. He pulled them down slowly, admiring the long and distinctly masculine foot. He kissed the top of one big toe as he absently pulled down the other calf-high sock. His nose barely winkled at the slight acidic smell of stale sweat. He fingered the soft skin where the short hairs ended and smooth skin began. He grinned when Severus' toes curled.

Harry focused his attention on the little toes. He was about to mock the perfectly manicured nails, when something grey caught his eye. He started and moved back, sitting on his behind, his legs wide. He ignored Severus' admiring gaze directed at his crotch.

Harry met Severus' gaze, his own eyes wide. "You have toe fuzz."

The older man frowned. "What are you rambling about now?"

"Your socks... toe fuzz," Harry stuttered, looking back down at the long feet.

Severus sighed. "Is this going to be a problem?" he asked, as he leaned forward with a soft grunt and unceremoniously used his index fingers and thumbs to pick out said fuzz. He muttered a cleansing spell on his hands and feet and moved back to his earlier position.

"I just... I didn't think you got toe fuzz..."

The other man rolled his eyes again. "Just like you presumed I would have no armpit hair, or smell of sweat and potions, that my chest would be completely hairless, and your basic, overall assumption, was that I was hairless everywhere but on my head and arms, and even the latter was a surprise."

Harry blushed and looked away. "It's not that I assumed... I just never thought about it. --I mean, I thought about you, plenty of times. But I never really thought of you with hair, or smelling of sweat and potions. It just makes you... more human, I guess."

Severus let out another sigh. "And this is exactly why I chose not to let you undress me, incase the mood was ruined -as it is now- by you discovering something else that makes me human. Tell me, if not a man, then what exactly do you see me as?"

Harry frowned, watching his lover take away the pillows from his back and shifting to get comfortable on his side. The hot summer day permitted the lack of bed covers. If it was anyone else, Harry would say Severus was pouting - sulking, even.

Biting his bottom lip, Harry moved to lie down behind the man. He wrapped his arms and legs around his lover's loosely, burying his face in the back of Severus' neck. He pressed an apologetic kiss to the man's tense back. "I think of you as Severus; my Potions master, my lover, my partner, my significant other, and, of course, as my better half," Harry smiled as his prickly ex-professor relaxed in his embrace. "And I think of you as a man, in the most life-affirming way," he added, pressing his hips against Severus' flat behind. "A man, who I love, who is always surprising me and who is the only one who makes me look forward to tomorrow." Harry trailed off as Severus turned to face him, a small smirk curving those thin lips.

"You forgot to mention I am also the only one who can save your pert behind from trouble."

Harry smiled broadly. "Too true." Severus leaned in and covered the younger man's mouth with is, effectively silencing the sentimental youth. He firmly put out of his mind the fact that he was smiling into his young love's mouth at the sappy rot that had poured out of Harry's (delicious) mouth.

- end -