In Plain Sight
by
Rating: NC-17, check warnings if you need to know more details than simply "explicit sexual content" is present in this fic.
Pairing: SS/NT
Word Count: 1,345
Disclaimer: All the characters are Rowling's. All the smutty scenarios are mine.
Summary: A blinded, deafened Snape recuperates after the Final Battle with the help of a kind and mysterious stranger.
Warnings: highlight between brackets if you prefer story warnings: [contains: some medical owie-ness, some h/c, two non-graphic wank sessions and one wet dream]
There was a flash of bright candyfloss the shade of a Muggle lipstick his father once gave his mother or like the inside of a conch shell, before his face burst into agony and all he could see was garish magenta.
On the second day they took the bandages off and he could not blink, even as the ointment was spread over his curse-flash burnt eyes. The ointment soothed the burning ache and he relaxed.
But it disturbed him that it made no difference to his perception when the bandages were replaced. He did not notice the cool, gentle hand that stroked his hand whilst he slept, nor did he notice when it retreated late that night. He also could not hear, but the silence did not bother him.
On the third day his bandages were taken off again and this time when he tried to blink, the pain was breathtaking and he screamed and cried as the ointment was spread over his eyes, and cried out harder when he realized he could not hear himself. Even after the burning ache died down and he'd been rebandaged, he continued to helplessly cry and whimper and it was only those cool, but gentle hands on his own that kept him from falling.
It wasn't until he slept that the hands tried to retreat and he would not let them, so one stayed in his hand as the other gently waved a wand over his cheeks and neck and chin.
On the fourth day, he realized someone had depilitated his cheeks and chin and neck overnight. This made him feel better - less itchy.
He tensed up later that morning as the bandages began to be removed, and that cool, gentle hand slipped into his and he grasped it gratefully.
This time he was able to blink, but he could not hear the healer saying his eyelids had successfully grown back while he was trying to bring the fuzzy, bleary images he could see into focus. Before he could make any more attempts, though, the ointment was reapplied and the bandages were being replaced.
He held that hand until he fell asleep.
On the fifth day, he woke up able to hear again; muted, but definite sounds. Neville Longbottom came to speak with him for some reason, just before breakfast, but he pretended to be asleep until the boy left. For the time being, having his eyes behind bandages helped him immensely with avoidance.
He waited patiently as the ointment residue was carefully washed from his eyes after breakfast and then looked around for the first time since his arrival.
The room was dim, in deference to his barely healed eyes, but he could see clearly and it made him sigh with relief. He thanked the smiling healer in a hoarse voice. She nodded and lifted the bed sheets to look at his legs, then told him he would be able to get up soon, now that his leg injuries were healing.
It was the first time he even realized he'd had leg injuries.
The healer soon left and he fretted slightly that the owner of the cool, gentle hands was not there.
On the sixth day, he woke up hard in the pre-dawn hours and tried to ignore it and sleep, but finally rubbed himself to an achingly intense orgasm, imagining those cool and gentle hands were the ones touching him, and biting his lip to keep from moaning.
The healer came by later that morning and told him he could start sitting up now and would soon be walking again. She also told him that thanks to the Incendio curse that had burnt his face, he'd be prone to headaches at times from now on. He nodded, but couldn't bring himself to really care.
He wanked himself to sleep that night, again imagining those cool and gentle hands on his hot flesh.
On the seventh day, he was eating breakfast when the annoying Auror Tonks came in and he waved her away. Remus Lupin, he knew, had run off during the war to be with a werewolf pack in Albania. He had wondered at the time how the girl had fared, but he was too weary at the moment to try and be compassionate.
She had apparently decided to become overly solicitous. Or perhaps she felt responsible somehow because she had been the one that had yanked him to safety during the Final Battle, so that all he'd done was get flashburns from the Incendio curse he took in the face.
She gave him a reproachful look, and pulling a parchment from her robes, informed him he had been pardoned. It was all thanks to Harry Potter and his bedside testimony to the Ministry of Magic himself.
Snape tried to nod, but his head was starting to feel heavy and achy just at the thought of bloody Potter, and he scarcely kept himself from mumbling just how much he did not care. He also did not notice her expression as she left the parchment by his bedside, although, he did startle when she gently squeezed his forearm with cool and gentle fingers. Apparently, she had also decided to become overly familiar.
After she left, he wondered if having these headaches for the rest of his life was worth his freedom. He decided it did not matter as he fell asleep.
On the eighth day, Severus had a dream of bright candyfloss hair and bubblegum lips and cool, gentle hands that stroked him to ecstasy, and he woke up mid-climax, crying out her name. He nearly did not manage to clean and cover himself in time to deal with the night nurse who came to check on the reason for his outburst.
After he'd assured her that he was quite well and that it had been a nightmare, he asked her if she knew if anyone had been sitting with him when he'd been blind and deaf and bandaged.
The nurse smiled and told him yes. She told him he was quite lucky to have such a pretty, young and talented girlfriend. She told him his young lady had sat holding his hand and changing her hair from pink to ebony and back, sometimes all night.
Nothing else happened that day, but then Snape would hardly have noticed. He thought so long and hard he gave himself a non-curse related headache well before tea time.
When he finally fell asleep it was to dream of pink candyfloss and the Dodge Em's at a Muggle fairground where his father had once taken his mother and him.
On the ninth day, Severus asked for parchment and a quill.
On the tenth day, Severus woke up to feel those cool, gentle fingers entwined with his own... and for the first time in his life, he arose with a smile for the start of a new day.
~ FIN ~
Posted: 5 December 2006