FIC: Just Like That (Ron Weasley/Severus Snape)
Title: Just Like That
Author/Artist: starstruck1986
Characters: Ron Weasley/Severus Snape
Prompt number: 73
Word Count: ~1,883
Rating: R
Warnings: Mentions of past prostitution/rentboy situation, but not explicitly mentioned; language; cross-gen.
Summary: He has no right, but Severus has not felt so terribly put out for a long time...
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this fanwork, they belong to JKR.
Author’s Notes: I had lots of fun writing this, and the prompt was left by someone fabtabulastic ;) Thanks to S for the beta.
Just Like That
“I have some news.”
The announcement was delicately put. Severus continued dressing himself, methodically putting on his socks and then his boots. He laced them and waited for the man to continue.
“This will actually be our last meeting. I'm... 'retiring'... at the end of this week.”
Severus had thought he had known the sensation of the rug being pulled from under him many times in his life, but until those words truly sank in, he realised he had not known the stomach turning nausea at all.
“What?” he asked, his tone abrupt. He knew no other way to be. His life had been up and down for years and visiting the red-headed whore in the brothel had been his only constant.
He had long since buried his shame that the rent boy was one he used to teach, one he had harboured great hopes for at the end of the war. His disappointment in Ronald Weasley's failure to be anything other than a body to be used had slowly chipped away to nothing and he had stopped asking questions about why and how, and when it would be over.
There had been silence for such a long time that to hear an update was both startling and worrying, especially when it sounded like Ron had made a decision which would affect them both, without consenting him. Which was ridiculous, Severus knew, because other than their one night a week in the same room, they had no attachment and no commitment to one another.
“I've been saving money,” Ron said, his voice still quiet -he almost sounded nervous. “And I don't... I know that I never had to do this in the first place. You told me more than enough at the start and finally, after all these years, I started to believe you. So I saved. And saved. I've got so much money squirrelled away now I don't think I would have to work for a while... I can pay my rent and eat...”
“But... couldn't you have warned me that this was coming?”
“You've told me countless times that we aren't attached.” Ron's voice rose for the first time and Severus looked up at him.
He had grown into a fine man. It just couldn't be denied. His shoulders were broad and his chest was defined. His hips were slender and his buttocks beautifully rounded, coated in a soft, downy fuzz. His skin was as milky white as ever and covered in the freckles which had attracted Severus in the first place, when it had come to choosing his whore. The red hair had been the first beacon, the freckles the second.
Ron was perfect for him. The thought of losing that was simply galling.
“And so that's it, hmm?” Severus asked curtly, rising to his feet. He was glad he had dressed so quickly that he might make a hasty exit and not have to suffer a drawn out goodbye. “I'll pay you tonight and then no more, after five years?”
“Has it really been so long?” Ron asked, his eyebrows lifting in question. “Blimey. I didn't think... just excited to be changing. To change my life, Severus. Do you understand that?”
Severus did, but he was too stung to show the boy any compassion.
“When I wake up on Saturday morning... I won't have to show another person my body ever again unless I want to... or they're a Healer or something. Wouldn't you feel good knowing that?”
“Won't you miss it?” Severus asked coldly. “I always rather thought you enjoyed the attention.”
“You would think that.”
Ron turned away and wandered towards the window, folding his arms over his chest. He looked down into the alley beneath the window and chewed on his bottom lip. Even though fury was consuming him, Severus couldn't help but consider the boy's beauty as he stood there, face lit only by the lamps outside.
“I hoped you'd take it a bit... a bit better than this,” Ron confessed suddenly. “It hurts that you're so... angry.”
“You should have expected it. You know what you are to me.”
“Do I?” Ron asked airily.
“You should,” Severus insisted. “I've told you often enough, and I would have thought that the fact that I kept coming back -me, the most anti-social and cold man on the face of the earth, kept coming back to you.”
“For sex.” Ron laughed.
“I think we both know it's been about more than sex for a long, long time, Ron. Or at least... it has for me.”
It cost him a vast amount of energy to admit that and Severus lowered his eyes, desperate not to blush at his admission. He didn't want to go into the grisly details of just how attached he had become to his weekly visits and how devoid of contentment he felt when the dawn came knocking and he finally had to leave the bed for his office.
Every day through the week he would feel the caress of Ron's lips on his skin, the touch of his hand, the heat of his body against his own. He revelled in the memories, allowing them to carry him through until the next time, when he could hurry towards the brothel and then there would be nothing but warmth and passion until the next morning.
“Well, what do you want me to say?” Ron asked finally. “Do you want me to say I'll stay here forever just so you can get your weekly fuck?”
“Of course not, you silly boy,” Severus snapped. “I told you for at least the first two years of this to leave, I begged you, even. I begged you to leave this work and just go anywhere to hide away from your family. There was no need to punish yourself like this but you insisted and so of course I desensitised myself to the situation. I learned to bear it because it gave me sexual gratification and Merlin knows I wanted it -needed it, for Merlin's sake. And now you tell me that you're stopping and I have to just cut my ties to you, just like that?”
“Not if you feel this strongly about it, no!” Ron threw back at him.
Severus blinked and waited for him to explain, but Ron said nothing further; he remained staring out of the window. The silence quickly became unbearable.
“What do you mean, no?” Severus tried again.
“Just because I've finally decided to stop selling myself doesn't mean that I have to stop giving myself to you... if that's what you want. I'd be happy to do this on a private basis if it makes you happy, Severus.”
“Would it make you happy to keep on seeing me?”
“I don't know what's going to make me happy.” Ron shrugged. “I mean... this could be a massive mistake. This has been my life for five years by accident, almost, and now this won't be an accident. I'm making an active decision to stop it, to better myself, to say that my life can't end here with quick showers between each man that I fuck.”
“Then why ever get into it?”
Ron's laugh grew louder and Severus noted his shoulders shaking.
“We've been over and over this,” Ron said finally. “Discussed it a hundred times. It wasn't something I planned. It was a way of getting money, I needed money, I needed to hide in the shadows, and it fit. And turns out I was pretty good at it.”
“When one gets past the fact that you weren't actually gay to begin with,” Severus commented snidely.
“Well I am now, doesn't that count?”
“Perhaps.”
They stared at one another.
Suddenly, Severus was tired, far too tired to be having the calibre of conversation that they were. He looked more closely at Ron's face and found very real weariness there, too.
“Look. I know that it's nearly morning, and that we both should go and get some rest... but...” Severus struggled searching for the right words. “Somewhere in this damned city will be open for breakfast at this time of the morning. Would you come with me?”
“For breakfast?” Ron asked uncertainly.
Severus nodded.
“Okay,” Ron agreed. “I'd like that.”
***
Fingers wrapped around a ridiculously shaped glass cup of Italian roasted coffee, Severus sipped at it and immediately felt better, more awake. Ron was sitting opposite him nursing a mug of sweet, strong tea. They both had food on the way. Severus had insistently paid for all of it and he had enjoyed the secretive smile that sparked on Ron's lips as he had done so.
It was a pleasant change to see the redhead out of the sultry setting of the brothel. The lighting of the coffee shop was still soft as the staff prepared to work for the day, the scent of the beans heavy in the air. Ron glowed in the ambience. He knew it would be hard to walk away from him when their coffees were drunk and their breakfasts were eaten.
“This is nice,” Ron offered warmly, a smile on his lips to match the kindly nature of his words.
“It is,” Severus agreed, giving him a curt nod of his head. “Very nice.”
“See, we don't need that room, Severus.” Ron's eyes had widened along with his smile. He looked somewhat mad, Severus decided; almost drugged, or permanently insane. The boy relaxed, however, and his smile faded. He looked down at his tea. “We can meet for coffee until we're blue in the face if you want.”
Severus sipped at his coffee again and looked at the approaching waitress, who carried with her their breakfast.
“Thank you,” Ron said, instantly reaching for his sausage sandwich. “And thank you, for paying.”
Dismissing him with a wave of his hand, Severus appraised his toast and the amount of free butter and jam.
“Do you have anywhere to be today?” Ron asked after a gulp of food.
“Nowhere that cannot be rearranged,” Severus answered truthfully. “I have plenty to keep me occupied.”
“Well... if you want... I was kind of hoping that you would come back to mine.”
“Why?” Severus asked, surprised.
“Severus...” the named rolled off Ron's tongue so beautifully it was almost mesmerising. “We've known each other for five years. We've been together every week for five years. I think we know each other better than we're pretending not to.”
“So what are you suggesting?” Severus asked.
Ron sighed and chucked down the half of his sandwich. “Come back to my flat, Severus. Let's sleep together, and I mean snooze sleep, and then when we wake up... well, we'll sort it out then, eh?”
“That sounds... just right,” Severus breathed.
“Good.” Ron sent him another soul-piercing smile. “Eat quick, eh?”
Severus snorted into his plate and wondered where on earth his life planned on taking him next.
Author/Artist: starstruck1986
Characters: Ron Weasley/Severus Snape
Prompt number: 73
Word Count: ~1,883
Rating: R
Warnings: Mentions of past prostitution/rentboy situation, but not explicitly mentioned; language; cross-gen.
Summary: He has no right, but Severus has not felt so terribly put out for a long time...
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this fanwork, they belong to JKR.
Author’s Notes: I had lots of fun writing this, and the prompt was left by someone fabtabulastic ;) Thanks to S for the beta.
Just Like That
“I have some news.”
The announcement was delicately put. Severus continued dressing himself, methodically putting on his socks and then his boots. He laced them and waited for the man to continue.
“This will actually be our last meeting. I'm... 'retiring'... at the end of this week.”
Severus had thought he had known the sensation of the rug being pulled from under him many times in his life, but until those words truly sank in, he realised he had not known the stomach turning nausea at all.
“What?” he asked, his tone abrupt. He knew no other way to be. His life had been up and down for years and visiting the red-headed whore in the brothel had been his only constant.
He had long since buried his shame that the rent boy was one he used to teach, one he had harboured great hopes for at the end of the war. His disappointment in Ronald Weasley's failure to be anything other than a body to be used had slowly chipped away to nothing and he had stopped asking questions about why and how, and when it would be over.
There had been silence for such a long time that to hear an update was both startling and worrying, especially when it sounded like Ron had made a decision which would affect them both, without consenting him. Which was ridiculous, Severus knew, because other than their one night a week in the same room, they had no attachment and no commitment to one another.
“I've been saving money,” Ron said, his voice still quiet -he almost sounded nervous. “And I don't... I know that I never had to do this in the first place. You told me more than enough at the start and finally, after all these years, I started to believe you. So I saved. And saved. I've got so much money squirrelled away now I don't think I would have to work for a while... I can pay my rent and eat...”
“But... couldn't you have warned me that this was coming?”
“You've told me countless times that we aren't attached.” Ron's voice rose for the first time and Severus looked up at him.
He had grown into a fine man. It just couldn't be denied. His shoulders were broad and his chest was defined. His hips were slender and his buttocks beautifully rounded, coated in a soft, downy fuzz. His skin was as milky white as ever and covered in the freckles which had attracted Severus in the first place, when it had come to choosing his whore. The red hair had been the first beacon, the freckles the second.
Ron was perfect for him. The thought of losing that was simply galling.
“And so that's it, hmm?” Severus asked curtly, rising to his feet. He was glad he had dressed so quickly that he might make a hasty exit and not have to suffer a drawn out goodbye. “I'll pay you tonight and then no more, after five years?”
“Has it really been so long?” Ron asked, his eyebrows lifting in question. “Blimey. I didn't think... just excited to be changing. To change my life, Severus. Do you understand that?”
Severus did, but he was too stung to show the boy any compassion.
“When I wake up on Saturday morning... I won't have to show another person my body ever again unless I want to... or they're a Healer or something. Wouldn't you feel good knowing that?”
“Won't you miss it?” Severus asked coldly. “I always rather thought you enjoyed the attention.”
“You would think that.”
Ron turned away and wandered towards the window, folding his arms over his chest. He looked down into the alley beneath the window and chewed on his bottom lip. Even though fury was consuming him, Severus couldn't help but consider the boy's beauty as he stood there, face lit only by the lamps outside.
“I hoped you'd take it a bit... a bit better than this,” Ron confessed suddenly. “It hurts that you're so... angry.”
“You should have expected it. You know what you are to me.”
“Do I?” Ron asked airily.
“You should,” Severus insisted. “I've told you often enough, and I would have thought that the fact that I kept coming back -me, the most anti-social and cold man on the face of the earth, kept coming back to you.”
“For sex.” Ron laughed.
“I think we both know it's been about more than sex for a long, long time, Ron. Or at least... it has for me.”
It cost him a vast amount of energy to admit that and Severus lowered his eyes, desperate not to blush at his admission. He didn't want to go into the grisly details of just how attached he had become to his weekly visits and how devoid of contentment he felt when the dawn came knocking and he finally had to leave the bed for his office.
Every day through the week he would feel the caress of Ron's lips on his skin, the touch of his hand, the heat of his body against his own. He revelled in the memories, allowing them to carry him through until the next time, when he could hurry towards the brothel and then there would be nothing but warmth and passion until the next morning.
“Well, what do you want me to say?” Ron asked finally. “Do you want me to say I'll stay here forever just so you can get your weekly fuck?”
“Of course not, you silly boy,” Severus snapped. “I told you for at least the first two years of this to leave, I begged you, even. I begged you to leave this work and just go anywhere to hide away from your family. There was no need to punish yourself like this but you insisted and so of course I desensitised myself to the situation. I learned to bear it because it gave me sexual gratification and Merlin knows I wanted it -needed it, for Merlin's sake. And now you tell me that you're stopping and I have to just cut my ties to you, just like that?”
“Not if you feel this strongly about it, no!” Ron threw back at him.
Severus blinked and waited for him to explain, but Ron said nothing further; he remained staring out of the window. The silence quickly became unbearable.
“What do you mean, no?” Severus tried again.
“Just because I've finally decided to stop selling myself doesn't mean that I have to stop giving myself to you... if that's what you want. I'd be happy to do this on a private basis if it makes you happy, Severus.”
“Would it make you happy to keep on seeing me?”
“I don't know what's going to make me happy.” Ron shrugged. “I mean... this could be a massive mistake. This has been my life for five years by accident, almost, and now this won't be an accident. I'm making an active decision to stop it, to better myself, to say that my life can't end here with quick showers between each man that I fuck.”
“Then why ever get into it?”
Ron's laugh grew louder and Severus noted his shoulders shaking.
“We've been over and over this,” Ron said finally. “Discussed it a hundred times. It wasn't something I planned. It was a way of getting money, I needed money, I needed to hide in the shadows, and it fit. And turns out I was pretty good at it.”
“When one gets past the fact that you weren't actually gay to begin with,” Severus commented snidely.
“Well I am now, doesn't that count?”
“Perhaps.”
They stared at one another.
Suddenly, Severus was tired, far too tired to be having the calibre of conversation that they were. He looked more closely at Ron's face and found very real weariness there, too.
“Look. I know that it's nearly morning, and that we both should go and get some rest... but...” Severus struggled searching for the right words. “Somewhere in this damned city will be open for breakfast at this time of the morning. Would you come with me?”
“For breakfast?” Ron asked uncertainly.
Severus nodded.
“Okay,” Ron agreed. “I'd like that.”
***
Fingers wrapped around a ridiculously shaped glass cup of Italian roasted coffee, Severus sipped at it and immediately felt better, more awake. Ron was sitting opposite him nursing a mug of sweet, strong tea. They both had food on the way. Severus had insistently paid for all of it and he had enjoyed the secretive smile that sparked on Ron's lips as he had done so.
It was a pleasant change to see the redhead out of the sultry setting of the brothel. The lighting of the coffee shop was still soft as the staff prepared to work for the day, the scent of the beans heavy in the air. Ron glowed in the ambience. He knew it would be hard to walk away from him when their coffees were drunk and their breakfasts were eaten.
“This is nice,” Ron offered warmly, a smile on his lips to match the kindly nature of his words.
“It is,” Severus agreed, giving him a curt nod of his head. “Very nice.”
“See, we don't need that room, Severus.” Ron's eyes had widened along with his smile. He looked somewhat mad, Severus decided; almost drugged, or permanently insane. The boy relaxed, however, and his smile faded. He looked down at his tea. “We can meet for coffee until we're blue in the face if you want.”
Severus sipped at his coffee again and looked at the approaching waitress, who carried with her their breakfast.
“Thank you,” Ron said, instantly reaching for his sausage sandwich. “And thank you, for paying.”
Dismissing him with a wave of his hand, Severus appraised his toast and the amount of free butter and jam.
“Do you have anywhere to be today?” Ron asked after a gulp of food.
“Nowhere that cannot be rearranged,” Severus answered truthfully. “I have plenty to keep me occupied.”
“Well... if you want... I was kind of hoping that you would come back to mine.”
“Why?” Severus asked, surprised.
“Severus...” the named rolled off Ron's tongue so beautifully it was almost mesmerising. “We've known each other for five years. We've been together every week for five years. I think we know each other better than we're pretending not to.”
“So what are you suggesting?” Severus asked.
Ron sighed and chucked down the half of his sandwich. “Come back to my flat, Severus. Let's sleep together, and I mean snooze sleep, and then when we wake up... well, we'll sort it out then, eh?”
“That sounds... just right,” Severus breathed.
“Good.” Ron sent him another soul-piercing smile. “Eat quick, eh?”
Severus snorted into his plate and wondered where on earth his life planned on taking him next.