nightingale

There was a sort of morbid lustful horror existing on many levels within him just now. It would be existing harder, no pun intended, if he was
not so sick just now. Very frustrating... in more ways than one. Severus Snape had never been truly ill a day in his life. Now he could barely
get himself out of bed without assistance. He'd caught some muggle bug right on the heels of his last summoning to the dark lord's side. His
weakened state from Voldemort's use of the cruciatus curse had left him ripe for the catching of this thing called the flu that the vampire
slayer had given him when she'd sneezed on him.

She'd apologized profusely as she tried to mop the snot she'd sprayed all over his black robes away. Severus knew it wasn't really her fault.
She had not meant to do it, but Severus liked to pretend he hated her for it. She suspected the truth, he knew that, but they played their
game. They both liked it. The slayer was the antithesis of him. Blonde, bubbly, full of color and brightness and life. Her verbal sparring was
one of the highlights of most of his days.

The other one was currently feeling his forehead for fever.

Lovely red hair, big green eyes, pale skin, a pixie face.... and a positively indecent medical uniform. She was Poppy Pomfrey's new
assistant. She had come this year to the Order with the slayer and the new Watcher's Council. Willow Rosenberg. She was to be one of the
first in the next generation of watchers.... but first she was going to aid them in the dissolution of Voldemort's rise. Rosenberg was the only
one of that little entourage employed at the school, her being the only true witch among them.

Oh the others did their dabbling, but Willow Rosenberg could do more with a look than most wizards could with some expert wand waving.
Severus even suspected there might be a few things in the little minx's bag of tricks that even Dumbledore would have some sweat beading
up over.

"Oh look who's all wakey-wakey."

He tried to tell her to bugger off, but all that came out was a pathetic croak. It was followed closely by his moan of pain. This flu business was
miserable. Just miserable.

"Don't try to talk. " She cooed as she sat on the edge of his bed and placed the back of her soft hand to his sweaty forehead.

He would have batted her away, but his arms didn't seem to want to function properly.

"Are you thirsty?"

He glared. At least he could still do that. Severus hated depending upon others.

"I'll bet you are. Here, let's prop you up."

The next thing Severus knew, she had pulled him to a sitting position and was ruffling the pillows around his body. He was so weakened that
he slumped against her. If he could smell anything at all right now, he knew he'd be able to catch a whiff of that vanilla soap she used. As it
was, his 'somewhat larger than most noses' nose was pressed to the material covering her tiny shoulder. Her red hair, though pulled off her
face, was hanging loose and long for the most part. It was silky as it rubbed his face from her movements.

All too suddenly his shoulders were grabbed and he was eased back against expertly propped pillows. Severus would NEVER say so, but
she was quite excellent at this nurse business.

"All righty. All sitting up now."

She rose and poured some water from the pitcher on his bedside table into a glass. Her face scrunched a bit. He could tell she was trying to
decide the best way to assist him. Severus couldn't stand it, and yet he never wanted it to end.

"Oh."

The redhead slid back into the bed next to him and wrapped one arm about his shoulders. She grabbed the glass in her other hand and held
it to his dry lips. Severus immediately started sucking at the water greedily. He had not realized how thirsty he was until then.

"Easy. Slow."

Some water dribbled down his chin.

"Ooops! Dammit. Hold on."

Hold on? What was he going to do? Get up and walk away? Not bloody likely.

She set the glass aside and grabbed a little towel. She wiped the droplets from his chin then began dabbing where it had gotten his
pajamas a bit.

"That's funny." She mumbled almost to herself.

Severus raised one brow.

"Your chest is a bit more toned than I would have thought."

He blinked. Her eyes went wide as she had realized what exactly she'd said.

"I... I mean I... oh goddess. Can open... worms.... oh everywhere."

She got up with jerky movements and started pacing.

"You know, it's sorta good that you're all incapacitated-like and can't talk. I can go ahead and babble on and just embarrass the HELL out of
myself, and you can't interrupt. I'm gay, you know. Gay. As in I like girls. As in I like the sex with the women. That girl Hermione, she's HOT. I'd
like to kiss her all over."

He was fairly certain horror was dancing on his sharp features.

"There's also Ginny Weasley. Just amazing. Sure got that intense personality going for her. Luna, also not bad if you like the skinny ones.
Not really for me, but she has a quiet dignity to her weirdness that's beautiful. Tonks, great girl too. She's actually probably perfect for me.
Then I had to go and meet you. You're mean, and nasty, and severe, and I can't get enough of being around you. If you were a woman, you'd
be perfect. Though Ron Weasley did mention something about a boggart and a dress. Or maybe it was a boggart in a dress. Or with a
dress. I dunno. I'm not too sure about that. All I know is you were wearing the dress. Well, not YOU you, but you know."

Severus scowled at that. He'd have to get Weasley for mentioning Lupin's little boggart experiment and how it had manifested for
Longbottom.

"Anyway, so not the point."

And what was the point?

"I like you."

What?

"I think about you a lot and what it might be like to kiss your big meanie mouth for like hours and hours."

Again... WHAT?

"Which isn't right. I don't like boys. I haven't liked boys since Oz. I thought he was the last boy with his werewolf and cheating and running
away and coming back when I'm falling for my everything.... but... but here you all. All tall, dark, and scary, and I just can't stop thinking about
you. Is that crazy?"

He just stared at her.

"Don't answer that."

Severus raised an eyebrow.

"Oh right. So I was figuring I'd just get it out in the open. Get it out of my system so to speak, but here it is... all still there. There's only one
thing left, so please don't be offended. I just have to get over this thing with you. I can't have a crush on you. You're not a nice boy. You were
evil once, I mean, not EVIL evil. But you did bad things. Yeah, so did I, but you do the spy thing. You get awfully close to it. I can't handle the
bad boy being redeemed thing."

Severus was completely confused and a bit offended anyway. He wasn't a boy at all. He was an adult. Couldn't this nurse-child recognize
that? He was old enough to have fathered her.

She stared at him for a long time just worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. "So... I'm going to just kiss you now. Don't try to stop me."

His eyes went wide. It wasn't as if he COULD stop her even if he wanted to do so. He was too weak to put up any sort of resistance.

Her lips settled on his as she sat on the edge of the bed. Her hands grabbed his shoulders to steady herself. It was shocking, yes, but
beyond nice. She pulled back slowly with half-lidded eyes.

"Oh."

Oh?

"That so did not work."

What? It seemed like it worked fine to him.

"I still like you. Not over it yet."

Oh. That.

"Might have to do it again."

So she did. This time she leaned into his chest. One of her hands smoothed his hair away from his face. When she pulled away this time,
she was breathing just as heavily as he was.

"Damn. It's not working. I think I want you even more now."

He was staring a hole in her head. He was trying desperately to convey with just his eyes that he was beginning to suspect he wanted her as
well, despite her many annoying habits.

"I'm not supposed to like men anymore."

He managed with much effort to put one hand on her thigh just below the skirt of her still indecent nurse's uniform. Though after his most
recent snogging adventure, he was no longer complaining about the indecency of the ensemble.

Rosenberg was staring down at that hand of his. "But you aren't supposed to like anyone at all, right, cranky boy?"

He glared. Again with the boy.

"So what do we do about this?"

His eyes flickered to her mouth.

"Oh?"

She kissed him again.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Severus heard the coughing before he even got to the portion of the infirmary she was in. He pulled back the curtains and took in her sickly
appearance. She still made his heart flutter like he was a fifth year with his first crush. The slight girl had caught the flu from him. Might have
been all that snogging they did while he was getting better. She'd played nurse for him in ways that would have made Poppy screech.

Now his little red was the one who was ill.

He swooped into the curtained area of her bed and sat on the edge of it. He took her pale hand in his own equally un-tanned one and
caressed the back of it with his thumb. She made a very pitiful face at him.

"It's your own fault. You are the one who insisted you could get yourself over me by sticking your tongue in my mouth at every turn."

She glared.

"Now stop that." He leaned close to whisper. "If you're a good little girl, I'll give you a sponge bath later."

She blushed then... or it might have been fever. Either way, Severus could not wait until the redhead was back at full Willow strength, so they
could further explore her trying to 'get over' him.

He'd like for her to be over him... and under... and next to... and on top of...

*~*~*

end ficlet

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