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Chapter Text

It was June of 1976 when he saw the boy again. He'd not been around in a while, off at some boarding school. On scholarship, it must be, because he knew the family, and you get to know a lot about people's finances when you make food for them regularly and see how many portions they order. He'd ordered one portion of fish and chips. Jack expected it'd be shared out between two plates, with two mugs of tea and some of the white bread from the shop. It made sense, but he hoped the boy got a decent share. He was thin enough as it is. And he didn't think he'd got enough money to stretch to a second portion with the way he balked at the price.

"You're having me on." 

"I'm not, lad. It's bloody inflation."

Jack watched the boy as he stared at the updated prices on the wall behind the counter again, probably hoping they'd go back to the old cost. 

"Look, lad," Jack leaned over the counter, voice low. "I'll do you extra chips."

The sullen 16 year old thrust a hand into the pocket of what looked like a pair of his dad's old jeans, cinched tight around a too small waist. 

When his hand emerged long fingers, like his mother's, sorted through the coins and retrieved 50p, dumping it onto the counter with a resigned air. 

"Wibbits, too."

Jack stared at the money for a moment, then swept it into the register and started to scoop up far more than even a large portion of chips.  

"Salt and vinegar?"

"Aye."

One portion of fish went into the boiling lard and the chips were quickly wrapped in the newspaper. But with another glance at the boy and the way he was staring carefully at the prices, recognising the way he was probably calculating what he could afford, Jack felt pity. It was hard on everyone. £20 never seemed to last long anymore, but the boy was fit and able, even if he was a bit odd, and he always seemed sharp. Too sharp, really. So sharp he'd cut himself if he weren't careful. 

"You back for summer then? Could use a hand in here on Friday nights." 

He felt those serious black eyes on the back of his neck, but the boy hadn't said no yet. 

"Only for a couple hours, but I'd give you a quid for it, and you can take something home at the end of the day."

The silence was broken only by the bubbling of the fryer and the hum of the lights. 

"Alright." 

He handed the boy the bag of scraps from the side of the fryer and watched him pick at them while he waited.

Chapter Text

Two Fridays later, the back door snapped close. 

"Thought you weren't going to show," Jack called back as he heard the boy getting himself ready.

He didn't get an answer, but smiled at Mrs Thompson as he handed over the warm newspaper wrapped parcel. The bell tinkled and for a moment the shop was empty. There was normally a little lull in customers around this point, so it didn't worry him.

"Want me on 't till again?"

"Evening to you too," He laughed, as the teenager sidled in, hair tied back but sleeves low. 

"Here, you've got to roll them up." He wiped his fingers clean of grease on his apron and reached for one of the skinny wrists. "Can't have you dragging them through-"

The boy yanked his wrist away, then angrily started to roll the sleeves up himself. 

Livid bruises marked the pale skin, and when Jack lifted his shocked gaze to the boy's face, he was being watched with a defiant angry scowl. 

"Happy?"

"Not really." He was quiet, and the anger fizzled out as the boy looked away and started sorting the change. 

"Your dad?" 

"Stop putting 10ps in with the fives. I can't find them like that."

He didn't get the chance to push the issue, even if he'd had the courage, because the bell went and duty called. 

Chapter Text

It had been a busy evening, but as they finished wiping up and the lad scrawled the total on the pad, pocketing the agreed one pound pay, Jack slid a battered sausage over the counter and settled on a stool to eat his own leftovers. 

"Dad says you're bent."

He froze with one chip halfway to his mouth, but Severus wasn't looking at him, just rolling the sausage and picking at the batter. Maybe it hadnt been meant like that.

"Thinks I'm fiddling the numbers does he?" 

"Fiddling me, more like."

Jack put the chip down and stood up. 

"Toby said I'm a nonce?"

"Are you?" Too sharp. 

"I'm not." Jack stepped closer, giving Severus a serious look. "You believe everything Toby Snape says?"

Those black eyes were staring at him, calculating in the same way he used to work out what he could afford off the board in his head. 

"No." 

"Good." He reached over and wrapped the boy's meal roughly, pushing it into his chest. "You better get home before he starts thinking I'm buggering you."

Jack expected shock, or some of that usual mardiness that clung to the boy. He didn't expect him to brush fingertips against his wrist as he took the wrapped food gently and step back, still watching him far too closely. 

Chapter Text

He came back the next week, and didn't mention anything about his father or about what Jack might get up to in the privacy of his own home the whole shift. 

The last customers of the evening was a young couple they'd served a portion of chips to share and make eyes over as they fed each other. Afterwards, the two of them sat there eating leftovers, Severus perched on the counter, skinny legs dangling, the smell of hot fat and sharp vinegar overlayed the clinical smell of the soap. 

"I've never had a girlfriend."

"You're 16, lad."

"Don't call me that." The boy's tone was harsh but Jack wasn't sure what else to call him. He was 16. It was a fact. "Dad calls me lad," Severus muttered, by way of explanation and ate another chip. 

"Alright. I won't." The last thing Jack wanted was to remind the boy of Toby Snape. "What about that girl you used to come in with, Lisa?"

"Lily." And something in Severus' tone made Jack think he should have asked anything else. "No...she's not- we weren't."

"Alright." Jack found himself saying that to the boy more often these days. 

"I think she hates me."

Jack looked down at his half eaten saveloy, not at all equipped to help out with girl troubles. He knew Severus well enough though. Knew platitudes or attempts to convince him he was wrong would not be the answer.

"Why's that then?"

"Said something to her at school."

"Something rude?"

"Unforgivably."

"Did you say sorry?" The boy gave a short nod, his fringe loose of the tie and greasier than usual, clumping in strands. Jack's heart ached for him. Young love was as brutal as it was fleeting. 

"You're 16. You'll find someone. Be reyt, l- Severus."

"You don't have anyone."

Jack couldn't exactly explain that he had a few someones, all male and met in secret or at the battered station toilets. 

"Not found the right lass yet."

Severus was looking at him again, all sharp, knowing gaze, one hand under his apron, and one splayed on the counter. For one brief moment, Jack wondered if the boy was touching himself. 

And then strangely, as he met that sharp gaze, the image of the last man he'd buggered swam before his eyes. Bent over against a wall at the Cokeworth train station mens room, shirt rucked up, Jack's stomach pressed against his back as they both quietly panted and fucked. 

The image was gone in a moment - and why had he remembered that so clearly- and Severus hand moved under the apron, but only once, probably adjusting himself before he hopped off the counter. His cheeks were just flushed from the heat, Jack told himself. The chippy could get warm and Jack had more than once had to shake a leg to stop his balls sticking to his thigh. 

He frowned at himself and turned back to his food. 

"I should go home." There was something strained in Severus' tone.

"Alright. See you next week then."

Chapter Text

"I go back to school next month."

There hadn't been much left over tonight, and Jack had made sure that what there was ended up in front of Severus. The boy needed feeding more than he did. 

"September? Makes sense. Be sad to lose you. You're better at maths than me."

Severus had inclined his head, no interest in denying the praise, but after a few more chips, licked the salt off his fingertips and slid from the counter. He rested one slim hand against it, hip cocked to the side as he seemed to ponder which chip would be next to be eaten. Odd kid. 

"I'll be 17 next summer." 

"Alright." Jack wasn't sure why the boy was placing so much significance on that. He was just staring at him, as if Jack was supposed to understand some hidden meaning behind the words. Jack couldn't think of one, and even if he could, he wasn't going to entertain any ideas like that with anyone under 21. 

"Can I come back? Work here?" 

"Don't see why not."

"I-" Jack wasn't like Severus. Couldn't read into silences or unsaid words the way the boy seemed to. He waited patiently for Severus to decide what he wanted to tell him. 

"I only have two more years."

"Be doing your A levels will you? And then off to some University, I'll bet."

"Something like that." The lad sounded...nervous? Well that made sense. Weren't a lot of Cokeworth kids going off to Leeds or York or Durham. But Severus had already gotten into that fancy school in Scotland.

"You're sharp, you'll get there."

Chapter Text

On Sunday he closed up early and headed to the train station. There was no guarantee anyone would be there, since there weren't any trains, but it was warm and the light would last, and Jack had gotten a sense for when there would be men looking for something. 

He wasn't wrong, the end cubicle was occupied, clearly by two people. Jack leaned against the grimy sinks, listening to the muffled noises.  

After a moment he heard panting, coughing, and the click of the cubicle lock. Jack quickly stepped up to one of the urinals, prick in hand, stroking it slowly. 

But the man who left the cubicle only spared a glance at him as he turned to display himself, giving him a satisfied smirk and nodding towards the cubicle before he left. 

The second occupant of the lock up hadn't left, but Jack could hear the sound of spitting and the toilet roll spinning, and suspected some clean up was going on. 

Jack didn't mind a bit of mess, so without tucking himself away, he walked to the door, leaning gently against it and tapping his foot. There was a pause inside the stall, and then, after a moment, the lock clicked.

He nudged it open, stepped inside, and froze. 

Sitting on the closed toilet seat, eyes slightly red and thin lips redder, was Severus. 

"Wh-" they heard the noise of footsteps on the tile and Jack quickly turned to lock the door. Stupid. The worst choice he could have made. If they got caught now it was prison even though Jack had done nothing to the boy, and would not, no matter what Toby Snape said, Jack wasn't interested in boys.

Muttered conversation about the football filtered through the closed door, and Severus tucked his legs up onto the seat. Sharp. This way there would only be one pair of feet visible. 

Severus's eyes dropped to Jack's still exposed cock, but Jack quickly tucked himself away, hiding it beneath cotton and denim as he buttoned his flies.

There was a bark of laughter from the interlopers. Then footsteps. The door. Then silence.

Jack didn't know why he was so angry. He unlocked the door, leaned out to check they were alone, then grabbed the boy by the shoulder and marched him out past the sinks and the urinals and out onto the broken concrete by the bus stands. 

"You're a fucking idiot. Don't let me catch you there again."

"You were there." Severus looked down at Jack's chest, an embarrassed or angry flush on his cheeks. 

"You're 16." 

"I know what I'm doi-" Jack shook him by the shoulder, hard. 

"No, you don't. If you get caught you can say goodbye to University." 

Severus looked like he wanted to say something, but Jack didn't want to listen. He was trying to forget the fact that the boy in front of him was so heartbroken about someone who hadn't even been his girlfriend that he'd sucked a stranger's cock in a dirty bathroom.

He shook him again for good measure, then he left. 

Severus still showed up on Friday, but when they locked up he took his meal and left. Jack wouldn't have known what to say anyway. 

Chapter Text

"I go back to school next week."

"Right." They hadn't talked about the cottaging incident, but Jack hadn't seen him back there since.

"So this is the last time."

Of course...because next year, Severus would not want to work for a man like him. Not after what they both knew about each other. So why did the boy sound so full of regret?

"Well...you've been a help."

"Can I still come here?"

"Not going to turn down a customer in this economy, am I?"

"Right."

They ate in silence, but when Severus hopped off the counter and undid his apron, he seemed reluctant to let it go.

Jack sighed and reached out, taking it from him. "If you do need the cash. I'll probably want help next year."

At Christmas, Jack received a postcard from Scotland. The picture on the front was unusual, but he couldn't put his finger on exactly why. It was just an icy lake with people skating on it after all.

But the spidery handwriting on the back was familiar. He'd had to read it every Friday totting up the total in the till and helping him with inventory. The card didn't say much, just bland season's greetings and a reference to the lad's birthday coming up.

There wasn't a return address though, so he put it up on the shelf with the pickled onions, and sometimes out of the corner of his eye, thought he could see the skaters twirling. 

Chapter Text

1977 was warm. Business wasn't too bad, but with the Silver Jubilee everyone was readying up for street parties. The bank Holiday had been nice, and very welcome. The lad would be back from Scotland soon, and for a brief moment he wondered if he'd use the new airport. 

But the trains were probably more likely. The lad had written him last week to say he'd be back soon, and Jack found himself looking forward to Friday for more than just the uptick in customers. 

He didn't even have to wait for that. 

On Wednesday, a familiar face appeared with the tinkle of the bell, and he looked up from where he'd been doing the crossword. 

"Alright?" The lad looked better. Wearing his own clothes, not his Dad's, and he was taller, looking like he'd finally hit puberty proper. He was still a lanky rangy kid, and his hair was still in his eyes, but there was a faint shadow at the very end of his chin. Not quite stubble, but not peachfuzz. 

"You're two days early."

"Can't come and get myself some lunch?"He sounded different. A bit less Cokeworth in his voice these days. It was good, would help him fit in at University and the school, but Jack felt a little sad that the boy was becoming more like one of those posh lads.

"Just chips." More money too as he slid the one pound note into the tray. Funny that, because his Dad was still out of work. Maybe he'd kept some of his scholarship money then. Some kind of stipend.

"Got my own bank account now." Ah well that'd do it. Probably squirrelled away a tidy little bit of change. And the lad was still sharp enough to seem like he could read minds.

"Well you probably won't need the job then?" Jack asked , counting out the change. It was a shame, he wanted to know what the boy had gotten up to. And he'd forgotten last year to ask how his O levels had gone.

"Keeps me out of trouble." Severus shrugged and leaned over the counter on his elbows with a bit too much familiarity. Definitely taller. "You've put the fives in with the 10p pieces. There's one."

He handed the change over, then turned to start scooping the chips onto the paper. 

"You know, in some cultures I'm now considered an adult."

"Well you're not 21-" Jack's eyes shot up to catch Severus looking at him again. Staring with sharp black eyes. There was a long pause and the strangest thing happened. He'd only experienced it once before. His brain started to show him memories of last week. In his rooms above the chippy, kissing some uni student who'd come to Cokeworth to visit family. Before they could do much more than grind against each other, the bell above the door went and he was back in the shop. He blinked a few times as Severus gave the new customer a hard look of annoyance.

"So I'm not paying you an adult wage for a summer job. And stop glaring at Betty. Sorry, Betty."

"Yours?" The woman asked, looking between the pale youth and Jack, who aside from darkish hair had very little in common appearance wise with him. Broad shoulders, wide square hands, carrying a bit too much about the middle, brown eyes, round nose. They probably wouldn't even pass for cousins.

Jack laughed,"God no, lad helps me out over summer." 

And then Severus was storming out. 

"Oi! Forgot your chips." 

The lad marched back in, picked up the tray and stopped in the doorway, face like a thundercloud.

"See you Friday."

Chapter Text

On Friday the back door was propped open with a crate of potatoes. It didn't do much but the need for some kind of air had made the decision for him.
Jack heard the door thunk gently against the wood and glanced into the back room as he lowered fish into the fryer. 

"What's got you so mardy?"

Severus just glowered at him and continued tying the apron on and rolling back his sleeves with short sharp motions. 

"Right. Well. Don't have to talk to me, I'm not your-"

"I know." The lad snapped at him. "You said as much."

Jack did frown at that, because he wasn't sure what he'd said to annoy the teenager other than telling him not to be rude to other customers. 
Hormones. The lad was clearly addled with them. Still, as long as he wasn't arguing with his dad, Jack supposed he could deal with it. 

"Oh. It's you." Jack looked back to the couple who had just walked in. A leggy, long necked lass with a much larger man's hand on her waist. The man wasn't exactly unappealing. He had a short mustache and his hair was slicked back, and he looked a bit like he might play rugby. 

His missus did not sound happy though. She was eying Severus as though he was something soft and brown she'd accidentally trodden in. 

The man stepped towards the counter, gaze sweeping over the pies on the hot rack, then seemed to notice his date was not moving. When he spoke it was clear he was from down south, and probably one of the sorts that attended Old Boys clubs.
"What's the matter, petal? This establishment came highly recommended. Charles says-"

"I don't like greasy things, Vernon."

Jack had a pretty good idea about what 'Petal' didn't like, and it wasn't the food. He chanced a sidelong glance at the lad. He was standing stock-still, a muscle twitching under his eye and a faint pink on his cheeks as he glared straight back at the woman. 

"Come now, these pies look excellent." 

"I'm not going to be served by that sort of person." She hissed to the man, who followed her gaze to look at Severus. His little eyes seemed to take in the long hair, the skinny neck, the baggy shirt, and come to some kind of conclusion. 

"I see."

Jack didn't need their custom that much. 

"Is there a problem here?" 
Those eyes looked him over as well. But Jack had forearms big enough to match 'Vernon's, and a breadknife resting near his hand. 

Whatever the man saw, it didn't inspire the same revulsion, only apprehension. Good.  "Let's find somewhere with more elegance.This place lacks class."

Jack gritted his teeth as they turned for the door. How did that woman know about the lad's tastes?

"Good luck with that." Jack almost startled. The lad sounded just like those Oxbridge boys on the radio for a moment. "Though you'll find there's nothing elegant in Cokeworth."The lad was sneering at the girl who was looking furious and embarrassed. 
The bell tinkled as the door closed and he watched Severus sag slightly where he stood. 

He didn't believe that what the lad had said was right. There were some elegant things here. He looked at Severus' hands and his long thin fingers, the way he gracefully swept the paper he'd clenched and crumpled into the bin.

"Sorry about that."  The clipped tone was gone, but it still wasn't even close to the way the lad's father spoke."I just know his kind. From school."

But it hadn't been the man who'd caused the problem. Not really. 

Jack watched one of the lad's long fingers trace the edge of his mouth.

The thin lips quirked upwards for a moment and Jack saw a glimmer in the lad's eyes. "Did you see her face?" He murmured and there was something breathlessly triumphant in his tone. "She looked livid."

"Aye, she did at that...but try not to piss off any other customers for me, alright?"

Severus looked up at him and smiled. He looked better like that, but not exactly handsome. And definitely not pretty with that nasty streak he had. But he looked alright. Not as sharp.
Still. Lad had to know how to defend himself from queerbashers.

"For you? Alright."

Chapter Text

The rest of the shift passed easily, and he was surprised by the lad's improved mood and polite behaviour. He greeted customers, was quick with his sums and handing over change, and even bumped elbows with Jack a few times while helping him wrap. He'd been so focussed and hard working, and not made any inappropriate  or snarky remarks, so Jack forgave him for pressing a bit too close against his back while reaching for the pickled eggs.

When old Mrs Metcalfe had accidentally dropped her purse with the tremors as she entered, one of the young ne'er do wells that hung around the corner had snatched it up before running off and the lad had dashed out the back door. And despite the fact that there was no way he could have caught the thief with that kind of headstart, or won the fight if he had, he did reappear, sweaty and out of breath. But holding the purse, not a scratch on him. Lucky to have made it back, let alone got the woman's things.

He let Severus know it too, putting his hand like a dividing wall between the boy and the chips to make sure he listened.

"Bloody stupid stunt that was earlier. Happen he had a knife? Could have gotten yourself killed you daft bugger."

"As if. I can look after mysen." He gave a twitchy shrug, but held Jack's gaze, and seemed steady. Jack lifted his hand and slid the chips over.

"Hmph. Well next time leave it. Can't have been much in there." Not worth the lad getting injured or worse.

"Worried about me?" All the bravado of youth right there as the lad dusted the salt off his hands. "It's fine, I didn't even go near him."

"How's that?" The lad seemed to take a lot of time drizzling vinegar before he set the bottle down.

"He dropped it when he jumped the wall by Liptons," was the excuse Severus gave. He didn't look at Jack when he said it.

On Saturday when he went to the pub, the greengrocer over the way had asked after his Friday lad and whether he played sports. 

Severus didn't seem the sort for that but Blakey insisted he'd seen the boy catch the purse with one hand in his pocket. Apparently it had been a pretty accurate throw too; straight as an arrow, as if it'd been on rails, and the thief hadnt even turned around until after he'd thrown it. Blake had thought the boys were just practicing rugby until he'd spotted that it was a purse.

He'd forgotten that he wanted to ask if Severus knew the lad by next Friday.

Chapter Text

When they sat down for leftovers a week later, Severus chose to lean against the sink instead of the counter, and Jack had to move the stool so he wouldn't be sitting practically touching him. 

"Got your A levels picked out then?"

"Uh..yeah." 

"Come on then, tell us."

It took Severus a bit of time to remember his subjects, or he was especially hungry because he gnawed at a chip for almost a full 20 seconds. "Chemistry, Maths, Biology, uhm..I suppose Physics? And - uhm-" The lad cast him a strange glance, not exactly suspicious, sort of weighing him up frustratedly.

"I'm not going to laugh at you, you know. I haven't got any A levels, stupid bugger like me."

"You're not stupid." He'd said sharply, then licked salt off his finger. "I don't think so."

"Alright. Come on tell me the last one." 

"I suppose... Latin and History." 

Jack laughed and then remembered his earlier words. "Shit, sorry. I just mean...six A-levels?" 

"Six? Oh yeah. Six."

"And Latin, eh? Knew it was a fancy school."

Severus shrugged, but he looked secretly pleased. 

"Your name's Latin too eh?"

"Roman, yeah. My Mum chose it."

"And your dad didn't have anything to say?"

"Severus was a warrior emperor." The lad went quiet and plucked at a loose thread on the corner of his apron. "Maybe he thought I'd turn out more..." He shrugged. 

"Be reyt. Not everyone's after a big slab of muscle, you know. Look at how mad the girls go for those rock stars."He wasn't sure he'd convinced the lad, but after a moment of silence a toe tapped his shin lightly. 

"What... do you like?"

Jack put down his half eaten pie and instead of answering gave the lad a stern look. "Mind yoursen."

"Just curious." 

"Well don't be."

The lad didn't seem deterred and he seemed to be trying very hard to hold Jack's gaze. He wasn't going to let a 17 year old kid eyefuck him, so kept his eyes resolutely on his pie. 

After a few moments he heard the rustle of crumpled paper going into the bin. 

"Next week?"

"Next week."

Chapter Text

That Sunday he found himself walking towards the train station out of habit. He wasn't opposed to a quickie but he hadn't come looking for one. He hesitated a moment, and as he glanced at the mens room, caught the eye of someone leaning against the wall and smoking. They looked like one of the men who worked in the mill, well muscled arms, a little soft in the middle, chest hair poking out the top of their shirt.  

If they were stood outside, there mustn't have been much action going on inside. 

Good. The lad was keeping his head on straight at least. 

The smoker stubbed his cigarette out and gave him a long lingering glance, then headed into the gents. 

It was a clear come-on...

He didn't have much else to do anyway. And this way he could just check the cubicles. Jack cast a quick glance around as he crossed the road and ducked into the gents, aiming for casual as he undid his belt. The man was already at the end urinal. Jack stepped up to the one next to him, and as they stood there, pricks in hand, tugging themselves slowly, Jack glanced at the cubicles. 

A hand grazed his hip and smoky breath whispered in his ear. 

"Fancy it? You've got a crackin' arse."

Damn. 

It must have shown in his face, because the mill worker's hand withdrew and he looked down at his cock. "This convincin' you any?" 

It was a nice length, not too thick, all in all a good looking cock. It definitely was the sort that Jack liked, flushed and peeking out of the foreskin like that. But not convincing enough. "We'd just be bumping pussies." 

The man gave a short disappointed laugh. "Not even a nosh?"

Jack glanced back to the door and felt a hand on his. He let the man take over stroking him, rolling his hips once into the firm slightly rough touch then bent, nuzzling against the hair at the base of the man's cock for a moment. He smelled clean, probably had come from church if his clothes were anything to go off. Even in the warmth of summer the shaft was hot against Jack's lips. 

He took the man into his mouth, the salty taste of another man settling on his tongue, and sucked. 

Neither of them were there for a long session of touches and exploration, so he worked the man's cock back and forth as he slid his tongue under the foreskin and around the head.

The hand on him was pumping faster now, bringing him all the way hard. He could feel the other man's prick throb in his mouth, pulsing precum onto his tongue. 

The man gripped the pipe above the urinal with his free hand, and from the tension in his thighs, Jack knew it wouldn't take long. He felt the hand on him slide to the back of his trousers and reached back to drag it back to his cock. 

Taking the man deeper, spit slick now, he thrust into the firm grip of both their hands. 

With his nose pressed against the man, tongue pressing upwards, he could barely smell the stale piss that clung to the walls here. Just musk and arousal. 

This was why he knew he'd never settle down with some bird. They didn't do this to him. The stutter of the man's hip, a sudden grip to his shoulder, and he pulled off, stroking the other man through his release. Strands of spunk clung to the dented steel for a moment before they fell away to slip through the grate. 

The other man was panting, and Jack urged him on, curling his hand and working himself with the other man's palm. Skin slid back and forth, his balls ached, his blood was in his ears and most importantly in his cock. 

He stifled the moan against the collar of the man's Sunday best as he came. 

They didn't thank each other, Jack just tucked away sensitive flesh, heard the other man use the urinals for their intended purpose, and wiped the spit from his chin. He ran a little water from one of the sinks into a cupped hand and dipped his lips in it, to try and lessen some of the swelling. 

A hand tapped his shoulder and he saw in the cracked, graffittied mirror the mill worker was offering him a cigarette. 

He took it and followed the man outside where he leaned in to light it off the match. Got a good look at the hands that had brought him off. No ring, thank god. Although that didnt necessarily mean much. Most of the men here didnt wear rings. They could catch in machinery too easily. And they cost money. He watched the man take off his jacket and drape it over one shoulder, fingers hooked in the collar. They walked back past the bus stop, silent as the smoke that followed them. 

At the end of the road, the man took the cigarette out of his mouth, and gestured with it down Pickford Lane. Some artistic soul had inserted an R after the P and blacked out the Ford. 

Jack understood the offer was for more, in private where it was legal and they could do more than rush to their respective releases, but shook his head and nodded the other way, back towards his shop. 

The man shrugged. "Thought so, better get back to your boy yeah?"

Jack felt suddenly cold in the heat of summer. 

"Say what?"

"That lad in your shop. Didn't think I'd be your type to be honest."

"He's not my boy." 

The man surveyed him coolly, picking up the hard note in his voice and flicked the cigarette into the gutter with a shrug.

"Alright. Well, I'm off."

"Alright."

Chapter Text

"Can I tell you about something?"

Jack gave the lad a sidelong glance. "Depends. Should you be telling me?"

He received one of those sharp looks in return. He had kept his distance from the lad today, hoping it would stop anyone else making assumptions. Cokeworth wasn't getting a Gay Liberation Front chapter anytime soon. Not when the National Front only made brief forays into their backwater town to complain about losing what it meant to be British. Jack didn't pay them much mind. In Cokeworth there was a sort of closing of ranks around 'their' Asians. They worked, they bought food, they lived. The food might smell different, but it didn't smell bad. Most people just left them to it. He hoped that soon the same would be true for people like him, and maybe when the lad was his age he wouldn't have to hide it.

"It's just about history."

Jack relaxed. "Alright. Studying for your A levels?"

"Just something I read." The lad slid off the counter and rested a hand on it, long fingers tapping a rhythm only he knew.

"Go on then."

"You've heard of Hadrian's wall? Romans built it when they conquered Britain."

"I've walked some."

"Have you?" Severus gave him a quick once over, then returned to his chips, bending at the waist slightly. Jack got the sense he might be trying to show of his rear, but there wasn't much of it. 

"Well, the emperor who built it, Emperor Hadrian. They say he didn't have much interest in women."

"Severus-" A warning tone in his voice, Jack raised his eyebrows. 

"I'm just giving context."

Jack wasn't buying it, but the lad hadn't looked back at him, just waved a chip vaguely in a sort of swish. 

"It's said he slew a lion that was terrorising an area. He defeated it, saving the life of a...Young man who was there with him." The lad had quite a nice voice when he spoke more than a few terse words. "It threatened his companion, and he stepped forward and struck it down with a spear. Well-corroborated too."

Jack blinked in confusion at the last part. "Did what to it?"

"Killed it." 

"I got that, I mean what's corroboroe- y' ten pound word."

"Oh. There's lots of accounts of it." 

"Oh right." Jack turned to his chips, frowning, "Yeah. I did know that one."

"You don't have much cause to use words like that in this line of work." The lad didn't seem to be giving him cheek, he was gentle almost, looking down at his chips.  

"Yeah, not really."

The lad turned to look at him through his hair. "There's books about him in the Library..."

"Maybe I'll give em a look."

"You should." And there's something a bit too sharp in his black gaze. 

After he left, Jack realised what it was.

Not sharp.

Hungry.

Chapter Text

On Wednesday night he woke up in his flat above the shop at a sudden sound outside the window. It was probably a fox getting in at the bins again, so he got out of bed, yawned and padded over to poke his head out and look along the alley. 

He didn't see anything at first in the dark, but he suddenly heard the sound downstairs of the back-door opening. 

All thoughts of sleep gone, Jack hurried down the narrow stairs, shouldered out of the door to his flat and caught the shop's door as it started to close. He didn't care that he was in his underpants and vest. He wasn't about to have someone steal from his shop. 

Whoever it was turned their torch off as he stepped inside. Good. He knew this place inside out. Even without the faint light casting black shadows across the room, he could have found his way. 

"You've got ten seconds." He growled, "Get the fuck out of my-"

"Jack?" 

He knew that quiet voice. What was the lad doing here in the middle of the night? He flipped on the light and stared at the boy, who hurriedly shoved something long and thin into his pocket, though he didn't let go. He looked frantic. 

"Severus?" Jack moved towards the boy slowly, like approaching a shying horse. 

"You have to help me- hide me." The collar of the boy's shirt was ripped and there was a stream blood on it, the sort a nosebleed left, but the boy didnt look like it had come from his nose. And with one like that it would have been obvious.

"Shhh shh. " The lad wasn't a horse, he was 17 years old and he was shaking and gripping what ever it was like it could save his life. Jack crossed the tiled floor quickly and put his hands on the boy's arms, just contact, no pressure, no restraint. "Alright, You're alright."

"No...He'll really do it this time. He'll kill me."The boy had backed up against the table, still holding what was probably a screwdriver tight in his pocket and trying to shrink down beneath the table. 

"What happened?"

"One of my- my school friends sent me a letter and- and he saw it."

Oh. Oh no. The lad had got a love letter from a boyfriend and his dad had seen it. Maybe worse. Maybe a dirty picture.

He squeezed the lad's shoulders gently, trying to calm him.  

"He read it?"

"No he-" The lad made a strange sideways motion with his head, not a nod but not a shake, then looked twitchily between the light and the front of the shop. "Just saw it come." 

Jack was too busy trying to steady the young man and subtly check him for injury to wonder why things had come to a head now when the post must have been delivered much, much earlier in the day. 

"Here, come on. How'd you even get in here?" Probably the screwdriver. "You break the lock?" The lock was probably ruined, but he didn't find himself caring. The lad shook his head and even though he wasn't meeting Jack's eyes, he believed him. "Pick it?" A nod. Sharp lad. If he'd broken it and his dad had guessed where he'd gone there would be no hiding it. Speaking of which-

Sliding an arm around the lad's shoulders, he guided him towards the door. When Severus suddenly tried to escape, retreating from the door, he squeezed him tighter against his side. "I'm not kicking you out. Just somewhere safe." 

He flicked off the light and led the youth outside, two steps along to his door, and nudged him ahead on the stairs, half-closing his front door.

"Go on up, I have to lock the shop." 

Chapter Text

Severus hesitated a moment then ran up the stairs to Jack's flat. 

He retrieved the keys from the hook by the door and locked the shop by feel more than sight. 

When he locked his own front door and came up the stairs he didn't see Severus at first, mostly because the lights were still off. He put the corner lamp on and looked around at the scratched coffee table, half full sink of dishes, the chair and the sagging sofa. Then he caught sight of the lad, huddled into the space behind the sofa and the wall, fingers at his mouth and gnawing at the skin around his nails. 

Jack squatted down and nudged the sofa away from the wallpaper and black eyes found his. There was a little blood crusted in the crease of his nostril, but it didnt seem he'd been hit there. Maybe it had been the stress or hayfever or something.

He curled his fingers gently around the lad's thin wrist and pulled his hand from his mouth.

"Come on out. You're safe. " A gentle tug and Severus allowed himself to be pulled from behind the sofa and into a loose hug. He cradled the back of his head, long hair falling between his fingers, and set his other palm wide between the sharp juts of his shoulder blades. 

"None of that now. Just breathe for me, yeah?"

A nod.

"That's it. Good l-" No he couldn't call him lad now. Not even to soothe him. "Good job." 

He waited until the breath against his collarbone was coming more evenly, and started to stand, thighs aching from the crouch. Severus followed him up but stayed close. 

"If he throws me out, I can stay with you, cant I?"

Jack wanted to say yes, but he couldn't. It wasn't that he didn't trust himself around the boy, it was that the rumours would spiral far too rapidly if a 17 year old boy was sleeping in the one bedroom flat of an unrelated older man. 

"He's not going to throw you out." 

"You didn't see him, he was- he was fuming. Said he'd string me up."

He was going to regret this. He didn't want to lie to Severus but it was clear that if the boy was kicked out of his house he would be homeless. 

"Alright. If he does. And-" he hesitated, gently unhooking one of Severus' pale hands from where he'd woven his fingers into the string vest, "- if you need somewhere to lie low, you know, if he's in a mard, you can wait it out here." 

The lad's eyes had finally stopped flicking rapidly over his face and settled on his mouth. He nodded and leaned his forehead on Jack's chest, just where the top of the vest met his skin. 

"Yeah. Yeah. Thank you." 

Jack leaned back and eased the boy to arms length and settled him onto the sofa. 

"Want something to drink? Water?Cuppa? Beer?" 

"Tea, please." The pinched look had evened out and Severus seemed to be looking around the flat properly.

Jack headed to the sink and rinsed a mug so he'd have two and started on getting the water boiled. 

There was just the sound of the hob and foxes crying outside for a few minutes. Jack took the time to grab a pair of trousers and pull them on, then returned to his vigil by the burners and kettle. 

He chanced a glance back at Severus, and saw the lad was up off the sofa and standing, head tilted downwards like a crow inspecting a worm and squinting at the books on the table. The single lamp lit him softly, and in the glow he looked slightly ageless. Soot black hair falling around his face and casting it half into shadow, and pale neck seeming almost translucent but for the purple bruise he could see starting to form. Jack's stomach clenched and he turned back to the kettle. 

When he brought the boy his cup and the sugar bowl, he was back on the sofa, one of the books clasped in his hands. It reminded Jack of how one of his school teachers would sit, holding someone's composition book closed and steady before she asked why it had not been handed in. 

"You got the books." 

"Sugar?"

"About Hadrian."

"Suit yourself." He spooned two into his mug and stirred. 

"You took them out on Saturday." So the lad had snooped around and seen the library plate, then. "Have you read them?" 

Jack sipped his tea, far too hot and burning the back of his throat. He shifted, uncomfortable, but not because of the hot tea. He did manage to keep his voice calm though. 

"Yeah. Well, the first one. It's like you said. Built a wall. Killed a lion."

Black eyes looked up at him through dark lashes and the lad's voice was almost a purr, all the rich depth and heat of a man from the mouth of a lad. "Is that all?"

Jack looked down at the boy's mug and nudged it closer. "Drink your tea."

"It's not all, is it? You read it. About him."

Him. Antinous. 

Chapter Text

"Antinous. You read about him as well, didn't you?"

One of those thin hands was on his forearm, and Jack looked down, almost as if he was surprised to realise the boy had hands. He felt like he'd been caught in a trap. The lad had wanted him to read those books, not because they were about a roman emperor, but because they were about a man and his young lover.

"Severus-" he shook his arm to try and dislodge the hand, but it squeezed, massaging just below his elbow, thumb tracing across the delicate skin inside the crook. 

"I could be your-"

"No." He slid his chair back and pulled his arm free, pointing at the lad as he made his argument, ignoring the warmth spreading up his neck. "Romans and Greeks and Turks, they were all doing that." 

"I'm not a child. I'm of age." Severus was out of the chair now, the torn shirt showing the hollow of his collarbone as he leaned on the table, eyes fever-bright and dark and sharp and fixed on him unerringly.

"You need to understand-"Jack leaned back in the chair with a shaky sigh and ran a hand over his face, convincing himself as much as the youth before him. "I'm flattered, Severus. But the law says-"

In the space between the table that he'd just created, Severus had climbed into his lap, sinuous and lithe and quick as a whip. Narrow hips against his stomach, bony knees either side of his thighs, and hooked nose brushing his jaw. 

"I don't care about the law." Severus's breath was warm on his skin, and his slim fingers were cool on his shoulders. The contrast made Jack's head spin. All that ethereal strange not-beauty, but not not-beauty; intensity, fervour.

"Don't-"

Instinctively, Jack had gripped his slim hips, but the lad in his lap took this the wrong way, grinding against him.

"No-one has to know," Severus breathed against his stubble, and despite himself and his morals and the fucking law, when he felt the erection pressing into his stomach and the groan of "Please," against his skin, Jack gasped and glanced between them.

Severus clutched Jack's string vest with his elegant fingers and kissed him. 

Chapter Text

It wasn't graceful; the lad's hair got in their mouths, and his teeth scraped the skin outside Jack's lips. Might even have been the lad's first kiss.

As Severus pressed harder against him, back curving to rut his cock against Jack's stomach, the moment broke and Jack remembered who it was needy and eager on his lap.

He shoved the lad off and covered his mouth.

"FUCK!"

He thought the lad was sharp enough to cut himself, but he could see now he was sharp enough to slice his way into Jack's affections.

Even now he was leaning back over the coffee table Jack had pushed him towards and spreading his legs, dark eyes glittering in the single lamp. 

"Yeah? On the table?"

"N- You're seven bloody teen! We're not- No." Jack stood and put the armchair between them, gripping the back of it and ignoring the way his cock was stirring in response.

The lad leaned on his elbows, cock bulging his trousers obscenely, but the lit-coal glow in his eyes hadn't changed.

"You're not taking advantage. I want this- you." To prove his point, the lad sat up and framed his prick through the fabric with one of those delicate pale hands.

Jack made a noise in the back of his throat and looked away from the display, fixing the lad with a hard glare.

Attempt at seduction abandoned, Severus scrambled up, one knee on the empty chair, reaching for him again, but eyebrows drawn down in angry disappointment.

"For the love of- I'm old enough! This would be so much easier if you weren't a m-" Severus scrubbed his hand over his mouth, as if to wipe away a word. Jack knew what word it was.

"A man, Severus? Well I am, arent I?" He took a breath, calmed his voice from the jeering tone. "So whatever this was supposed to be, I could go to prison. We can't-" Jack couldn't even say it. He pushed the boy back with a hand on his chest when he leaned forward again.

"Not until you're 21."

Severus looked up at him through dark eyelashes, but it was not seductive when he glowered at the same time. "I could be dead by then."

"You won't be-"

The lad turned and sat in the chair, sulky. "I might. Some of the boys at school tried to kill me year before last." Jack almost didn't believe it. The lad said it so casually. But there was something about that matter of fact tone...Any road, the lad seemed to have given up on trying to kiss him. Jack rounded the chair and sat on the edge of the sofa.

"What? Does your dad know?" For all his faults, Jack was sure Toby Snape would have limped up the motorway to Scotland himself, factory-mangled foot or no.

"Ha! He wouldn't c- No...only you." 

Jack didn't know what to say to that. 

"Jack?" One of those elegant hand was sliding over his knee again. "If I die...Will you deify me?"

Before Jack could push the hand away, something crashed into the door downstairs. 

Chapter Text

Severus snatched back his hand and backed up towards the lamp, casting a long shadow across the coffee table. "It's him."

"Fuck. Just- not a sound, alright?"

Severus nodded as Jack got to his feet and headed to the top of the stairs. There was a dark shadow visible through the frosted pane of glass, and as he started down the steps the letterbox was pushed open by square fingers. 

"Fuckin' degenerate! Where's my lad?!" 

Jack took the last two stairs in one step and latched the door before he opened it. 

He immediately smelt the booze on the man's breath as a face was pushed against the gap, one hand groping the edge of the door and straining the small chain. 

"What're you doing at my door? Its 2 a-bloody-m, Snape. Decent folk're sleeping."

Blood shot eyes met his then slid to try and look up the stairs. "You're awake, Booth." There was a shove but the chain held, with Jack's weight backing it up. 

"And you're pissed! Go home."

"GIVE me my son back, you dirty- !"

Jack took great pleasure when he shoved the door back and the man's knuckles scraped the frame as he belatedly wrenched them free. "I've not seen your lad since Friday!" 

"He's here, I know it! If you've hurt him-" Jack remembered the bruises on Severus's wrists last year and his neck tonight. He unhooked the chain and threw open the door.

"You do a good enough job yoursen, Toby Snape!"

Large nostrils flaring, eyes staring unfocussedly at him, Snape took a step forward to try and muscle his way past into the flat, but Jack was sober and they were evenly matched for strength. He shouldered the man backwards and watched his gammy leg give out as he staggered back against the opposite wall of the alley. Jack pushed the advantage before the man could right himself, holding him against the wall. 

"Do you even care where he is, huh? Probably hiding away from his own father." The wild swing that came for his head missed when he stepped back quicker than the man could adjust. And angry as Jack was, it was telling that those words were what made Snape really try to hit him.

"The lad's not here. You can't even see straight."

Snape swore and tried to stagger up from the wall, where he swayed. "Show me. Show me tha's no got my lad in that-" Snape lost the rest of it to a wordless noise of pure rage.

"You're not coming in my fuckin house like that. Get thee gone." 

Snape snarled in his face, grabbed his vest and tried to shake him, then lurched away. 

"You don't scare me, Snape." Jack called after him. 

"If he's no there I'll kick y'r teeth in, pansy." He staggered off, shoulder scraping the wall, and head swinging side to side as he crossed the road.

Jack waited until he'd disappeared behind the corner of the road across, then hurried back up the stairs.

"Did he hit you?" 

"No, tried though." 

Severus was gripping that screwdriver again teeth worrying the skin of his thumb.

"I said you weren't here, but he's on the warpath. He might call the police, I dont know." Jack could feel the panic he was trying not to feel for Severus' sake start to rise.

"I can get back before him." Jack gave the lad a glance. His father wasn't the quickest but he had a head start and it wasn't far to go. 

"Sure?"

The lad nodded, and it wasn't childish confidence in his eyes but sure solid fact. Happen Severus had a back way over fences and the like.

"Go. Say you were hiding at home, you have somewhere right?" 

"Yeah." 

"Fuckin' run then. If he gets back before you-"

"Can I come on Friday?"

"Alright! Go."

The lad hesitated, glanced at Jack's lips, then ran down the alley.

He closed the front door and got three steps up the stairway, wondering if he should try and slow Snape down. Just as he decided it would be too obvious Jack heard a crack like a firework or a backfiring car. He shook his head and returned to his empty bed. 

Chapter Text

On Thursday evening, Tobias Snape was back, standing there under the sickly yellow glow of a lamppost. Hooked nose casting harsh shadows in the sunset, brown close cropped hair, hands like hams, slight limp to his step as he approached the chippy. He didn't seem drunk, but he didn't look like he wanted chips either. Jack watched him break eye contact only to look at the opening times. After he served another customer the man was gone.

After the last customer left, Jack walked slowly to the front, turned the sign to closed. There was no sign of him. Maybe he just wanted to check why his son was out late and try to intimidate Jack a bit. 

He took the left over pie, planning to stick it in the fridge and have it tomorrow for lunch, when there came a thumping at the back door. 

Jack put the plate down, stripped off his apron and walked to where the pounding noise had come. He picked up the short length of pipe as he went, because he knew well enough that Toby Snape was not averse to using his fists when words failed, and yanked open the door. "Alright, Toby."

"Fuck're you doin' with my boy?"

"It's a summer job." 

"Oh aye? You pay him and he does what?"

"Works the counter, mostly. You've got the wrong idea."

"That so?" Snape put a hand on the door, so Jack couldn't slam it shut. "I know what you are, Booth."

He lifted the pipe onto his shoulder. "What's that then, Snape?"

He got a snarl in response, but Snape didn't seem fazed by the implicit threat, stepping up close enough to shove him back a step. "You touch him an' I'll have your guts."

Jack wasn't entirely sure the man wouldn't do it. He knew the other man was trained for it, to kill Germans in the war. "I'm n-"

Snape didn't let him finish, spittle flying between his lips as he bellowed."He's my son! Not yours! I know he were there!"

Jack didn't answer, but gripped the cudgel tighter, wondering if the other man had brought home a weapon from the front lines. Someone told him they thought they heard gunshots in Spinner's End that night and he's sure, now he thinks about it, that he did too. 

"I'm warnin' you.The lad's not right. You can't fix him."

He wanted to say that Severus didn't need fixing. That he was fine as he was, all sharp edges and thin wrists and elegant hands, but he wasn't brave enough. He pushed the broad finger away from his face.

Snape spat on the floor, curled his lip again and limped away.

Jack let the pipe fall against the wall with a hollow clatter. 

Chapter Text

Friday came and Jack worried the lad wouldn't show. He was a grown man, he could handle accusations and threats, but Severus was 17 and he suspected the lad was more sensitive than he let anyone see. 

It was almost a relief when he heard a muttered curse and the clang of metal on tile. "Next to the door? Bloody stupid place for it..."

The lad appeared, tying back his hair, with the apron over one shoulder. "It was already broken when I got there." 

"Yeah I know. Wash your hands."

Severus stopped, seemingly thinking about something and Jack watched his back, hoping he wasn't going to bring up Emperor Hadrian again, or the visit from Tobias. Oddly he saw him touch something in his pocket for a thoughtful moment, then tie the apron, "If you show me where it came from I might be able to fix it?"

"It's just a spare. In case." 

Mid-roll of his sleeves, he caught the look of disbelief shot his way and the way the boy's sharp mind seemed to decipher the real reason for the pipe.  

"Alright." He watched him wash his hands, the way the fingers twisted together and slid around his delicate wrists, gliding past each other with the soap. 

"Some time this evenin' would be nice, Jackie boy." The fond irritation in the customer's voice had him starting, guilty at being caught watching. "He's old enough to scrub his own hands, in't he?"

"Plenty old enough, Mr Talbot," called the lad over his shoulder and Jack sensed that he was deliberately not looking in his direction but at the elderly man behind the counter. 

"Old enough to give me cheek, leastwise. There's your peas, give my love to Penny." 

"Will do."

A steady stream of customers kept them both busy, and Jack had to admit that he dealt with the rush a lot better with the lad there sorting change and doing the sums. 
Eventually they were alone, the front door locked, and eating their meal. 

"I wanted to thank you, for that night."

Jack almost wanted to ask which part, but decided for the both of them that they weren't going to mention the kissing or the boy offering himself to Jack on the coffee table. "You don't need to. I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"I did get home before him. Told him I'd been under the sofa." 

Jack just nodded, remembering the loud bangs that night. "Your dad..."

"What about him?"

"He hasn't got a gun or something has he?" 

Severus looked baffled at the thought. "A gun?!"

"Well, he was in the army."

"Yeah but he doesn't even touch his medals. Threw them out when my mum died. I've got them stashed in my school trunk." The lad seemed convinced, and Jack had to assume that whatever the loud cracking had been, it hadn't been some relic of a pistol. 

"Anyway, I wanted to do something for you, because you did something for me." Before his warning bells could go off, Severus had pulled his hand back out from under his apron, holding a small glass jar towards him. 

"Oh. Ta very much. What's this then?"

"I noticed you get a lot of burns on your hands. This should help with that." Touched that the lad had noticed, and thought of him, and let him see this side that he normally kept buried under sullenness, Jack unscrewed the lid and looked at its contents.
The salve was thick and viscous, bright orange and smelled like mothballs and citrus. 

"You shouldn't need much, just put it on right away and don't wash it off until the burn stops feeling hot."

"Run it under water first?"

"N-no straight onto the burn. It- draws the heat out, so you might not even get a blister."

Screwing the top back on, Jack saw a piece of paper stuck to the lid with a cramped spidery scrawl 'For burns. DO NOT EAT'. He tucked it under the counter with the spare wooden forks. "You made it yourself?"

"I did. It works, I swear."

Jack didn't normally trust home remedies over medicine, but the lad was taking sciencey A levels. He thought about the combination he'd talked about, the rumours that his mum had known how to help girls who got in the family way, and looked at the lad's hands again. Delicate, but they had strength to them, and he was always sure either his movements, picking coins one after another out of the till with no hesitation. And Latin would help with all the diseases and body parts.

"That what you want to do at Uni then? Medicine?"

Severus seemed to mull the question over for a moment. "Something like that, yeah."

Maybe the lad had had his fill of being hurt, wanted to make sure no one else did. He smiled at him and leaned forward on the stool to pat one slim thigh. 

"You'd make a fine doctor."

Chapter Text

"So. You'll be off week after next." Jack watched the lad wiping the last drops of water off his usual seat on the counter.

"I'll come back after my exams." 

"You'll be getting ready for University then, won't you?"

The cloth paused for a moment before resuming."Yes...University." 

"Severus?"

The lad twisted the cloth between his hands."I might- work a year first. Get some experience."

"I've heard of folk doing that. But don't-" Jack gave him a smile he hoped was encouraging more than it was sad. "Don't get stuck here in Cokeworth, alright?"

"I won't. I mean it, I won't." The lad must have misread his surprise, because with the same fierce tone he turned to face Jack, but his face softened as Jack handed him the chips. "I will come back though. To visit you."

"I'd like that. See how you're getting on."

Severus leaned forward, face hidden behind the curtains of his long fringe, but the tip of his ear was red as he looked at his chips."I've- actually already got a job next year... but I could come back on Fridays?"

"Already?"

"Lucius- one of the old boys - his family has a- a pharmacy, a chemist's. In London. He offered me a job there."

London, well he might find some other gay lads there. Jack should have been happy, probably, but he felt a little crestfallen. He channeled it into pointing his saveloy at the lad."Don't you go racing back up here from bloody London of a Friday just to stand behind my counter."

"No it's fine, it doesn't take that long."

"3 hours not long?" Jack teased.

"I just mean that I'd be here at the weekend anyway."

"If and its not a special trip...then yeah, I'd be glad of someone to argue about where I put the change."

Severus nudged a strand of his long hair back behind his ear, and Jack realised he was staring at the lad's high cheekbones and knowing some bloke in London would snap him up in a heartbeat. Maybe this Lucius already had. Severus hadn't been shy about pursuing him.

"So," Jack said, aiming for cheerful and casual, and cheeks aching at the strain. "Your friend, you two bonded over Roman names then?" 

"Oh, if you like...we were in the same House. He helped me fit in."

"Good of him." Jack really was trying to be happy for the lad. This Lucius maybe would be better for him. Same school, so the other lad would be smart. They'd be the same age too. And Lucius was clearly kind if he'd helped Severus and was offering him a job. Sounded middle class, and it would probably help Severus get into medicine. Yes, Lucius was much better for the lad.

"He was a 6th year prefect when I started, so he knew everything already."

6th form...Jack didn't like Lucius anymore. That sounded...not right. Probably just as not right as Severus trying to kiss him. Was that why the lad liked older men? Had Lucius given him the idea about Hadrian and Antinous? And was that why Severus was so vague about him?

"He the one that sent the letter then?" Jack took an aggressive bite of saveloy as he fought to sound casual.

"Oh...yes..yes. I told him not to, because of dad, but..I think he thought he wouldn't notice."

No bloody wonder Toby Snape had flipped his lid. No wonder he said the school wasn't right when people asked in the pub.

"Here, Severus. This job, he's paying you properly right?"

"Of course. Above the going rate actually. He says I'm talented at - uh - at Chemistry." 

The uneasy feeling didn't fade at all and Jack was pretty sure it showed on his face. "He ever touch you?" 

"What? No, Lucius is married." The lad was in full blush now, 

"There's a lot of married men in those station toilets." Jack warned. Severus turned to look at him. Jack held his gaze because Jack knew. 

He remembered - pretty vividly, actually - how some older men would give gifts, or money in exchange for sex. Then he recalled seeing men about town, arm in arm with a wife, and knowing them better by the back of their head or the taste of their prick. It was such a vivid recollection that he had to take a moment to remember he was in the shop, and not on his knees with a cock between his lips. 

Jack set the saveloy down suspiciously. He'd better stick to less phallic food around Severus. 

"Lucius isn't like that. He's helping me because I'm valuable to him. Having a clever half- a clever- having someone like me owe him will help him politically."

Jack pulled a face. "Plenty of MPs who prefer blokes too." 

Severus pulled his hand out of his pocket and wiped salt off his lips. "You don't get it. Lucius is my friend. Nothing else. And-" the lad seemed like he wanted to say something else for a moment, but looked away and went back to his chips. 

"Just be careful, alright?"

"I will." Severus's tone was cold and firm as he glared down at the food. Jack hadn't meant to upset the lad. He'd come to be far too fond of him.

"I don't want to see you get hurt, Severus." 

Black eyes met his again, searching his face, and softer now. "I know, Jack. You're...nice." Somehow, 'nice' sounded like 'lovely' sounded like 'special' in that low, rich voice. 

"Alright." It was Jack's turn to blush and stare at his meal. 

Chapter Text

The last shift had a strange air about it. Severus hadn't sulked, which Jack had been prepared for. He had just done his sums, taken orders and payment, wrapped fish up in newspaper and everything Jack could have wanted from an assistant. 

When the lad took his pound payment, Jack caught the till tray before it could close and pulled another two out. 

"Here. Take 'em. Call it a passing-your-exams present in advance."

As he said it he wondered if that was going to jinx the lad, since he sometimes seemed to be into that spiritual sort of thing, collecting odd things from the moor or the churchyard when Jack saw him during the week. It seemed a bit odd to think he would be superstitious when he was so keen on science and maths, but there was nowt so queer as folk, as the saying went. 

Happily, Severus just took the extra pay and tucked it carefully into his pocket. "I'll give it you back if I fail."

"You won't. Fail, I mean."

"I know." 

They ate their supper quietly, a strange feeling hanging in the air. Jack thought it might have been because he'd 'accidentally' fried one too many pieces of fish and given the 'extra' one to Severus. 

The lad was sharp after all. 

They finished up, and washed the grease off their fingers. 

"Since...since I'll not see you for a while...perhaps we could..." 

Jack recognised the tone in Severus' voice and sighed."Don't start this again. You're not 21 are you? Let's just have a nice evening."

"...Alright." Severus went back to washing his elegant hands in the sink, and dried them off on the little hand towel. 

Normally a warning like that would have made the young man skulk away.

"What-" The lad cut himself off, flushed and awkward looking. When he turned, those dark eyes were fixed on Jack's chest, not looking him in the face. Odd. 

"Y'alright there, Severus?" Jack asked warily.

"What if I convinced you I was 21?"

"After you've been saying how you're 17 all summer? Not likely." Jack tried to be gentle, but there was something a little wild in his eyes, like the coal there was glowing.

Severus was still staring at the top button of his shirt, and his mouth must have been dry because he licked his lips twice. "But if I could- hypothetically- make you believe it?"

"Severus, you're young, you don't need to throw yourself at the first homo you meet."

He could see tension in the lad's jaw, a muscle twitching. "You're not listening to me. If I could, and if I did, would you?" 

"I am listening, but this talk won't help either of us none."

Severus' eyes raised, only to glare at him Intensely. "Just answer me, will you?!" Quieter then, he broke off the brief eye-contact. "Please. I just want to know."

Jack didn't think it was a good idea to humour the lad. There was something not right about his fixation on the hypothetical. Like he was really convinced he could change Jack's mind. And he was sharp, and knew all sorts of odd things, and could argue with the best of them, but making Jack think he was 21 when he still had his slim neck and lean boxy body? "Look-"

"I could do it, you know. Convince you." One of Severus' hands was clutching at his hip over the apron and he looked like a fryer about to boil over, a little dangerous. "I could even make you kiss me."

Oh no. He wasn't having that. No matter how fond he was of Severus, Jack was not going to stand for that kind of talk. Jack stood up and grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to look up. "You'd force me would you?" Gave him a shake. "Would you, Severus?"

The wild look vanished and Severus cringed, twisting under his hands as he backtracked, hands raised and empty. Which of course they would be.

"No! No, I wouldn't. I dont know why I said- Fuck...Bloody Mulce and his- "

Jack didn't know who Mulce was, and if he'd put this sort of idea into the lad's head, he didn't care to know him. "Wanting another man's not wrong, but that is, hear? I'm not having that sort of talk in my shop. Ever. Y'ken? "

Thin hands gripped his wrists and those dark eyes were wide, staring up into Jack's face with nervous energy, frantic almost. "I know. I'm sorry. Forgive me. I say things- don't think before-"

"Easy. I know. You're just frustrated, but you're a good lad."

Coal-tar eyes slid away from his. 

"You are. I know you wouldn't hurt someone. You gave me that cream, remember?" 

Severus looked back at him and nodded slowly. "I just-"

Jack squeezed his shoulders and let go, but the lad kept holding his wrists and his gaze. 

"I like you. I wanted to say before I go back. To know if I had a chance."

Damn.

"You've just got a fancy. Once you're in London-" Jack tried to shake his hands loose.

"No, Jack." The lad's Adam's apple bobbed, and he was so quiet that if they'd been frying, Jack might not have heard it. "I think about you. When I touch myself."

Jack froze, the image of the lad stretched out on his bed, surgeon's fingers wrapped around-

"Don't be saying that."

"I think about it all the time, your cock and kissing you. I can't stop it."

Jack could see the little flush on the lad's cheekbones, and the way his fingers twitched on his wrist. "You're 17. When I was your age I was forever getting randy."

"I'm hard now."

Jack stepped back, and the lad didn't stop him, both of them looking down at the apron where it stood a little prouder than it had before. 

Severus' hands dropped to his legs and he gripped his thighs, drawing in a small breath when it pulled the apron tighter across his groin. 

Jack tore his gaze away from the sight, and found soot black eyes on him, peering through inky lashes. 

"Jack..."

Jack shook his head and turned away, as if embarrassed. No, he was embarassed. Definitely. From the corner of his eye he could see Severus' lips were parted, shining slightly. 

"I know you won't touch me- dont want to touch me."

"I-" He couldn't lie and he absolutely couldn't tell the truth. "I can't, Severus. You should go."

Very slowly, Jack watched Severus' hands unclench and undo the apron. It draped over the counter where Severus normally sat. Severus' trousers bulged. Neither of them moved. 

"You don't have to touch me," Severus began. "Just–

"Severus–"

"Watch me."

Chapter Text

Jack turned his head in surprise, and saw one of those elegant, spidery hands was now pressed to the bulge of Severus' jeans. He couldn't speak at all, his throat had completely closed up, because there, partially hidden by the counter from the street outside, but in full view of Jack, Severus squeezed and made a quiet little noise in the back of his throat. 

"I wish I'd– had someone else's face, that day, in the men's room."

Jack didn't know whether to meet the eyes he was sure were looking straight into his, or to keep watching the flex of those elegant fingers as they stroked and squeezed. He wanted to tell Severus that his own face was enough, long and thin, a little feminine but his dark brows and eyes and the strong nose gave him enough masculinity back to be maddening.

"I wonder h– how you would have tasted." 

An answering throb in his own trousers as Severus clearly tugged his cock through the jeans finally broke the spell and Jack pushed the lad into the back room. "Stop it! You'll get us seen." 

Severus took a step back, leaning against the wall near the door, pressing his thighs close together and dropping his hands to his belt, breath shaky. 

"Severus." 

He looked up, face flushed, motions halting and stilted. Jack tried to keep his own voice level. 

"We can't do this. Not yet." 

"I'm not asking you to touch me..."

The younger man's sharp eyes were pleading as his gaze trailed down Jack's body to where the apron was doing a passable job at hiding the swell of his cock and then lower, all the way to the tiles. His spidery hands were curling and uncurling on his belt and Jack realised that Severus was nervous. 

Maybe it was different to do this with someone he knew, he hadn't seemed so nervous in the mens sat on the toilet seat and bringing off strangers in his mouth. 

Which didn't matter anyway because he shouldn't be watching Severus fumble open his belt and nervously push the jeans to mid thigh, revealing his tented y fronts.

But he couldn't not watch. 

"It's my choice."

Jack realised Severus was talking more to himself than Jack quietly, as he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of the yfronts. 

"I want this. I'm letting you. It's- I want you to see."

He swallowed, watching Severus clearly battling with something more than just arousal, the flush bright and hot on his sallow cheeks.

"Se-"

The word cut itself short as the waistband dragged downwards, revealing dark hair and the root of the young man's prick. The only sound in the room was them both breathing heavily, Severus shakily as the crisp white elastic –the pants must have been fairly new – finally cleared his cock and it sprang forward in the low light, bouncing gently in time with his heart. 

"I know it's not–"

Whatever he had been going to say Jack only shook his head. He didn't know anymore if it was to try and stop Severus going ahead, or to deny that there was anything 'not' about his lovely prick.

It was darker than the pale thighs below, flushed already, the tip hidden by shadows and foreskin. 

Not a bad length and it looked larger on his too narrow frame. 

Long fingers and pale thumb drew back the skin gently and Jack's focus narrowed down the swollen head that peeked forth before being hidden again. The rest of those surgeon's fingers, narrow and gentle and delicate and sure, curled around the shaft, and Jack's mouth watered.

His eyes trailed up the baggy shirt, each exhale and inhale visible from the flex of Severus' chest. His wiry arm moved slowly, rhythmically, and the flush extended down beyond the collar. Jack wondered how far. Wondered if Severus' nipples were sensitive, if there was any hair on his chest to match the thatch around his cock or if he was smooth. His own trousers weren't hiding that for all his words, Jack was still a man, still wanted to see.

Severus was quiet as he wanked, thin lips parted slightly to let out almost inaudible little gasps, until they pressed tight and he sucked the lower one into his mouth, the very tips of his teeth just visible. He didn't bite the middle, but off to one side, shaky exhales flaring the nostrils of his hooked nose. He looked tantalising.

And his eyes...half-closed but they shone in the uneven lighting, black so dark Jack felt like he was being drawn into them. They were fixed on his face, and when he met that gaze head-on, he saw Severus' shoulder move faster, and his body hunch forward. 

His dark brows were low, drawn down in what could have been sadness or pain but what those echoing shuddering breaths told him was pleasure. 

Jack's cock ached. 

Severus wasn't trying to seduce him with the lip-biting and burning gaze, because when he gave a small whimper, he clenched his teeth and turned his face to the side. 

Jack wanted to hear that whimper underneath him. Wanted to be the one to draw sound after sweet sound with every thrust of his hips. 

His chest burned hot at the thought of those long legs wrapped around his middle or splayed wide as he fitted between them and kissed the back of his slender neck. 

A tendon in Severus' neck stood out, shadows playing across the pale of his throat and Jack's gaze dropped again. 

Each rapid pass of that thin hand brought the deeply flushed head into view again, shining with precum, the faintest slick sound beneath gasping breaths. Severus' palm twisted, drawing out a choked groan and the wet trace it left on his skin seemed to shimmer with the interplay of light. 

Severus' other hand dipped lower between his legs for a moment and freed his sack from the elastic. His balls were already tight and drawn up, and each stroke made them shift. 

And now Jack could smell him. Over the chip fat and cleaning products, there was an earthy musky smell that Jack was all too familiar with. Severus smelled like a man.

Jack's cock twitched in its confines and unthinking he reached down to squeeze it. 

There was another whimper from Severus, shoulders now leaning back against the wall and hips arched forwards, presenting his cock like a gift. Like Jack was an emperor and Severus one of his subjects. 

Jack felt a bead of sweat run down his spine when he realised Severus had turned his face towards him again, coal-dark gaze locked onto his hand and the tenting of his trousers. 

Jack couldn't explain later why he'd done it, but he squeezed his cock again, outlining the shape of it for the other man's view. 

Severus' eyes widened a little and his mouth fell open as he bucked forward into his own slim hand, empty hand clutching at the flat wall beside him. It felt to have only just started and from the look of Severus, it wouldn't be much longer.

Jack told himself it was the silence and the tiles and the smell and that he'd conditioned himself accidentally to think of such things in relation to sex. He stroked himself again through his trousers and let out only the tiniest of low groans, feeling the rumble of it low in his throat. 

Severus' breath caught, his thighs tensed, and Jack saw his balls were so close to the base of his cock they were almost back inside his body. 

He caught only the briefest glance of unfocussed eyes before they squeezed tightly shut and Severus curled forwards, silent as if he was holding his breath and his noises behind his thin lips. His free hand flew forward to cup in front of the other as it worked. 

Jack drank in the sight of pearl-white spunk jetting from the slit of Severus' pretty cock into his cupped hand and then running over the knuckles of the other as he stroked and shuddered his way through his release. 

His own prick twitched in sympathy under his fingers as he imagined delving his tongue under the hood of his cock and cleaning Severus up. The sharp smell of him was so strong now Jack could almost taste him.

Severus gasped in a breath suddenly and swayed against the wall, shirt rucking up to show more of that pale skin. 

He was staring down at his cock as it tried to pulse yet more come that his body didn't have. He was slack jawed, more relaxed than Jack had ever seen him, panting slightly and his cock hung heavily, appealingly, over the top of the underwear. 

Jack watched him wipe his right hand clean on his stomach and then go towards his pocket before hesitating. 

The pink flush still high on his cheeks, Severus looked up at him, still not exactly handsome like all those film stars and pop heartthrobs, but stunningly lovely to Jack's eyes. 

Holding his gaze, Severus slowly lifted his cupped hand and Jack had to grip the table as he watched him lap the spunk from his thumb and tip the rest into his mouth in a long sticky strand, sucking down his own load with a lewd slurp before his throat worked and he swallowed. 

Severus tugged his softening prick a few times then eyed Jack's hand where it still rested on the swell of his trousers, looking up again through his lashes with a silent question. 

Whatever had possessed Jack left him long enough for him to let go of his erection and he managed with great effort to shake his head. 

Severus looked away again, and neither of them spoke as the younger man tucked his pretty prick away again and bent to haul his trousers back up. 

Jack knew he had crossed a line that night. He hadn't touched Severus inappropriately, hadn't even kissed him again since the night he'd showed up at the shop, but standing there, watching the younger man wank himself off in the back room was definitely too far. 

And afterwards, locking the shop going up to his flat, dropping his trousers two steps into the cramped living room-cum-kitchen and fucking his fist to thoughts of those breathy keening noises and black hair fanned out on his pillows like an ink stain and how the curve of Severus' cock would feel in his palm ...Well that had definitely been so far over the line it had crossed continents. 

Chapter Text

The end of May and the start of June had been nice and hot. The station toilets had seen a flurry of activity most evenings, before the thunderstorms had finally broke, making it far too wet to even bother. Especially since the rain had revealed a leak in the ceiling and the Railway had been forced to nail a board over the door. 

It meant it was harder than ever to find a little company. Jack had to rely a lot more on making meaningful eyecontact in public with past flings and hoping they got the message. 

But with more and more folk out of work and the radio and papers full of depressing news, it was hard to muster up any real interest. 

Jack spent most nights alone, closing up the shop, traipsing up the stairs to his flat and eating less too. He couldn't afford to waste things before, but now it was even more important to balance what he bought in with what he sold. 

He'd acquired a few new scalds but once he'd remembered the little pot, he'd tried it on the next one. He'd bumped the heating element in the pie cupboard with the back of his wrist by accident and instantly knew it would be a nasty burn. 

He had only hesitated a moment before unscrewing the lid and rubbing a generous smear onto his skin. The cream had tingled, and Jack had worried he might be allergic, but the heat seemed to dissipate faster, and when the thick paste had crusted up and flaked off, his skin had barely even been red. The hair had still been crinkled up or missing, but even when he touched the burn, it felt mostly normal.

Now it was almost impossible to see, especially compared to the older scars from before.

He couldn't wait to tell the lad when he returned and give him a bit of confidence, keep him on track for that University degree.

July rolled around and Jack pretended he didn't know why he was so interested in every customer who made the door chime, or every sound from the alleyway late at night. 

And it was at night that the lad came back. 

There was a muffled knock at his door, and Jack was on his way down the stairs, leaving a half-eaten pie on the kitchen counter, before he even assessed it. 

The silhouette through the glass was hard to make out, and when he pulled open the door, Severus was standing a good 6 feet away, smoking and taller again. 

His brows had thickened impossibly further and if the faint shadow on his upper lip was any indication, the lad probably had to shave on a fairly consistent basis. 

He'd filled out a little in the shoulders too, or he was standing straighter. Still had elegant hands, taking the cigarette from between his lips and stubbing it out against the wall. 

"Are you going to invite me inside, or would you like to stare at me for a few more minutes?"

Still sharp enough to cut them both then. And here had that confidence come from? Maybe it had just been hiding. 

Jack gave Severus a fond jerk of the head towards the stairs and stepped back to let him inside.

"Go on then. Doubt you've forgotten how to break in if I don't."

Chapter Text

Severus moved differently now too. Not as twitchy or slouched as he made his way up the stairs ahead of him. Still a bit ungainly, but maybe he'd come to terms with his long legs.

"Go on, take a load off. Excuse the mess."

Long fingers curled around the arm of the sofa as he lowered himself down with only the smallest of groans from the worn springs.

"Tea?"

"Please."

Jack had got a new mug to replace the one that had finally given up the ghost. Just plain stoneware from the second-hand place, but new to him. He let Severus have that one, and spooned sugar into his tea. 

"How'd your A levels go then?"

"Oh, my exams? Well. I think. The practical of– of Botany was a little hairy but I think I managed."

Jack frowned for a moment. 

"Botany? You took another course on top?"

"Ah, no, it all falls under Biology." Severus took a long sip of tea, elegant fingers wrapped around the mug. 

"Well, how about the rest of them?"

"I'm not going to give you your two pound back until results come out."

"You'll not give them back at all. Bet you've got top marks."

There was a small curl to Severus' lips. Jack took a longer look, just to note the changes. Longer sideburns, although Severus' chin didn't have that darker look that suggested he'd be able to grow a beard like his father could yet. 

His face was still thin, but he'd grown into it. 

"Jack."

"Hm?" He gulped a mouthful of tea, aware he'd been caught. Black eyes were watching him as Severus set the new mug down and eyed Jack's lips and chin and the undone top button of his shirt.

"I'm 18, if I were a woman–"

"You aren't." Jack set his cup down. He knew this would have happened at some point, the lad was nothing if not persistent. He'd just hoped–

But that wasn't true, he knew. He'd invited Severus up. And there hadn't even been a wink towards the excuse of Tobias Snape in one of his moods again. 

Because Jack did like the lad. Just to be around him a little. A little bit of elegance and spark in the dull ordinary of Cokeworth. 

"You should be chasing after boys your own age. Not grown men."

"I am a grown man."

Jack's eyes flicked down to the broader shoulders, the smart shirt. 

"That why you came here then?"

Severus looked down into his mug. Answer enough. Might not have been the only reason, but it was definitely one of them. 

"I just wanted to let you know I was back in town."

Well, now it was a lie. And they both knew it. 

Severus' hand had gone to his mouth, but he didn't chew at his fingers, just slowly traced the line of his thin lips. He spoke very slowly to the mug.

"You're scared of Gross Indecency charges..." 

Even hearing the words made the skin between Jack's shoulder blades prickle. 

"I don't want to ruin your life either."

"Last time–"

Jack stood, and walked to the kitchenette, leaning against the counter. 

"I shouldn't have done that. Shouldn't have invited you in neither. You're sharp, Severus. You know why we–"

"You would though, wouldn't you?"

Jack closed his eyes and exhaled heavily, sagging where he stood. 

"I–" 

Severus just waited, sitting there at the coffee table, holding the new mug. 

"Yeah," Jack sighed. It felt like a moral failing to admit it. "I probably would. Happy?"

There was a hollow click from the coffee table, and then the soft sound of springs creaking and cloth against cloth. 

He looked up, and saw that Severus had moved to stand in front of him, stopped at arms length. 

"Do you– Would you like me to make you think I'm 21?"

There he went again, saying worrying things. At least he didn't have that wild look about him. And that was better wasn't it? Less manic, just ...off. A little touched in the head perhaps. 

"Severus, listen to me. If you were actually 21, physically, not just...making some clever argument about calendars and leap years and bloody Chinese zodiacs it would be different."

The coal-dark eyes searched his face for a long moment, then Severus nodded, once, briskly. 

"Right...right. I understand. I'll still try to come by Friday evening." The lad seemed to be thinking hard, the way he used to look at the prices on the board and compare them to what meagre coins he had jangling in his pockets. 

Jack was a bit surprised at how well he'd taken it. Maybe the lad really had done some growing up last year, not just physically. 

"Alright. Be glad to see you."

Chapter Text

Seeing less of Severus was a shame. Expected, after the conversation, and of course the lad had got a proper job now. Not just a quid and some food for a Friday shift.

Jack's mood was low. The news was depressing. Unemployment high. Strikes all over. But mostly he missed the sharp looks, the way Severus never talked down to him, expected him to keep up, be it with counting the takings, frying up orders, or conversations about something he'd read. 

He'd explain those long –polysyllabic– words he liked, especially if they were specific, or scientific, but only once, and then he'd keep right on using them. 

And in a way, maybe he missed seeing a lad go through what he had, but easier, with someone to keep an eye out for him. 

Not that he had that in London. 

Jack's forearms strained as he hefted a sack of spuds in through the back door. They weren't really the ideal sort for chips, but he had to do what he could with what he had. 

Setting to with peeling and chipping the potatoes, Jack yawned and pulled the large bucket full of water closer. 

The back door rattled and he looked up in time for a polite knock. 

He wiped starchy water onto his trousers and stood, unlocked the door and pulled it open. 

"Sorry, I've been busy with– well." Severus peered past him, a satchel over one shoulder, some kind of thin, soft-looking black fabric stuffed inside it. Probably the pharmacist's coat, though he'd not seen a black one before. "Would you like a hand? Or some company?"

Jack looked back at the mountain of potatoes yet to be processed, hesitating. Because the answer to both questions was yes, but Severus' eyes had dark circles under them, and it wasn't a Friday, so he suspected the lad had a train to catch tomorrow morning early.

"You don't have to pay me."

"It's not about the money. Haven't you got to get back to London tomorrow?"

"Oh...No. I've a day off." 

Jack gave him a hard look. "Should have spent your time in London. Gone to the Museums." Or the bars. 

"It's too busy; I can't relax. Look, if you'd rather I didn't come in, you can say." A sour tone had snuck into Severus' voice, his brows drawn down, and his thin hands clutched the satchel's strap. From the wear it looked like he always gripped the same spot. 

"I didn't say that."

"I'm not going to do anything. Not until I'm physically 21."

Bit of a weird way to phrase it, but Jack appreciated the sentiment at least. He stepped back and Severus stepped in. 

The satchel went straight on top of an empty crate of beer for the batter, and Severus moved to the sink to wash his hands. 

"How's your work going?"

Severus gave a shrug and didn't answer. 

"Busy?"

"It just..some of the medicine takes a while."

"Here, that reminds me, that cream you gave me worked a treat." Jack started to set up a second bucket as Severus dried his hands and settled himself on the other side of the table.  

"That's good." 

They worked in silence for a little while, and every time Jack looked up, Severus seemed to be looking at him. His hands were moving quickly, whether his eyes were on the potatoes or not.

"Here, mind what you're doing. Knife's sharp."

Severus paused and ran his thumb across the knife blade. It made Jack smile, to see the young man so self-assured when he'd likely never held a knife so sharp before. Still, his movements were sure and he hadn't cut himself yet.

"Why did you lock the back door? You never used to."

Sharp lad. Jack cleared his throat and pulled a few more potatoes towards himself. 

"Not as safe in Cokeworth these days. Fair few shops have had a bit of trouble."

"Have you?" Severus's hands had stopped moving and he was staring across the table.

"Not yet. S'why I lock the door."

"You must be lonely these days."

Jack shrugged. "Still got my customers, its not so bad."

"They closed the station toilets." 

The surprise made Jack look up. 

He met black eyes, and thought of walking along the river edge under the bridge and stolen moments with strangers in the shadows. The knife slipped.

He swore, looking down at the deep cut on his thumb and sucked it, the bright taste of copper filling his mouth. The lad was so bloody sharp he'd managed to cut someone else.

As he turned to look for the first aid kit, Severus had already rounded the table and reached for his hand. 

"Let me see–" Severus pulled Jack's hand towards himself and looked at the cut that was still dripping blood onto the tile. 

"I thought you weren't going to go there any sodding more! Let me get a plaster on this, Severus."

"I can help–" Severus held his wrist fast and turned, trying to hide it from Jack's view. He wasn't squeamish, and he knew the cut wasn't too bad, wouldn't even need more than a few days to close up. 

"What are you–Leave go of my hand!" Severus's back was against his front, his free hand was doing something, he was muttering something singsong and Jack's hand was throbbing and everything was just a little bit off. 

He wrenched his hand free, giving Severus a hard look. The lad looked offended and disappointed.

"I can deal with a cut. What the hell was that?!"

"I–" Severus flexed his hands and looked down at the one that was smeared with blood. "I just wanted to help."

Jack realised why. The lad wanted to be a doctor. Of course he'd tried to step in. As he rinsed his hand under the sink, he glanced back. Severus was still hovering around him, watching him with his dark eyes. 

"Fine. You put the plaster on, then." He pulled the box over and handed it to Severus. 

In contrast to his quick, easy motions with the knife and the potatoes, the elegant fingers were a little unsure, and the plaster felt a bit too tight. 

"Sorry. I wasn't going to go in there. I just... I don't know."

Jack turned his hand to survey the wonky sticking plaster. 

"You just concern yourself with University, alright?" He patted Severus on the arm. "And its probably time you got to bed. Come by the shop on Friday if you want."

Severus picked at the dried blood on his palm and grabbed the satchel, twisting the strap again.

"I–Alright."

Chapter Text

Friday saw a heavy rain come pelting down, and aside from his regulars, the shop wasn't too busy.

A hooded figure jogged across the road and ducked inside, wiping rain off his face.

Jack glanced back over his shoulder and gave Severus a smile in welcome.

"Who's that under there? Ah Toby's lad, in't ya? How's he doing these days?" Nigel, the only customer in at the moment, probably the last of the day, peered past him.

"He's fine." Severus sounded like fine was a new way of saying 'irrelevant'–which was one of the words he liked anyway.

"Been helping him out, eh? Earning your keep?"

Severus shed his coat which had done a surprisingly good job keeping the rain off and rolled his sleeves up. He didn't answer, just glared at his hands as they worked.

"Severus here's got a job in London most days. Proper wages."

Normally eloquent, Severus just gave a shrug. He seemed to have had another growth spurt. He was at least an inch or two taller than he had been earlier in the week. But that didn't make sense. Jack probably hadn't noticed or he was wearing different shoes.

"Good. Lad your age–you're a man now, can't be relying on your parents for everything."

"Or anything," came the mutter from Severus.

Jack glanced over at the sink where Severus had started to wash his hands, scrubbing with a little too much vigour.

"Hm? Say what?" Nigel rested an arm on the counter, smiling absently.

Jack saw Severus turn slowly, saw the look on his face go suddenly smooth, and knew if he didn't step in the young man was likely to say something politely brutal.

"Er, no need, Severus, I don't think there'll be many more after Nigel here. Can you cash up?"

There was a pause as Severus turned his dark eyes on Jack and then seemed to relax his shoulders, life flooding back into his expression. Nigel rapped his knuckles on the counter and looked out the window.

"It's the weather, lads, keeps folk indoors when it's this poor. When I were a lad we'd be out in vests and short trousers not a care in the world." Oblivious to the danger, Nigel gave them both a nostalgic grin and took his wrapped parcel of fish and chips.

Severus sidled over to the till and started to absently pick through the change. There were a lot of coins in the drawer and less notes than usual.

"Well, best get back to the girls. See thee. And you let your old man know I'm expecting to see him down the Marquis tomorrow."

Jack watched Nigel set his hat back on and turn the collar of his coat up. There was no answer from Severus, just a grunt and the sound of coins sliding against each other as he sorted through them.

Alone in the shop, Jack turned to take a look at Severus.

"You been to the barbers?"

Severus' attention was immediately all focussed on him. It was a bit flattering to be honest.

"No. But you notice something different?"

Jack tried to place what it was about him that was new. Same nose, same eyes, same sharp expression, but almost eager now.

He took a step back to take in the whole picture, certain that something had changed.

"Sure it's not the hair?"

"I'm sure. How would you say I look?"

Jack didn't think he should say tired, or mention that it looked like Severus could possibly do with a shave, since his upper lip and even the edge of his jaw was a lot darker than it had been a few days ago.

He realised there was something off about his skin too. It didn't look like he'd seen much sun at all.

"You look–"

"Older?"

Jack frowned at that. Had Severus put makeup on to try and look older? If he had it was a poor match for his normal skin tone. He looked a bit washed out, almost sickly. Maybe that explained the way his cheekbones looked sharper than they could possibly have gotten in the last few days.

"I wouldn't say older, Severus." Jack was careful with his tone, because he knew well enough what Severus was like.

He wasn't wrong. Severus frowned, a line creasing his brow.

"What do you mean? I am older. Physically."

Maybe he hadn't been eating properly with his work being busy. He slid the left over pie towards Severus and scooted his stool back a bit before settling carefully onto it.

"I suppose you are. But a few days doesn't–"

"No, Jack, look."

And before he could stop him, Severus had tugged his shirt free of his trousers and lifted it to show a pale stomach with a wispy trail of dark hairs.

"See?"

"I– what– put your shirt down!"

Severus dropped the shirt with a frustrated noise and stepped forward, from the look of it having another one of his funny turns.

"This is me at 21, Jack."

"Sev–"

"There's more, just wait."

Jack leapt off the stool and grabbed Severus by the wrists when he started to undo his belt.

"Stop this, Severus. You're– you're overworked or something, fuck. You know what day it is?"

"I'm just showing you! There's hair on my thighs now!"

Jack felt like Severus was trying to drag him off the edge into whatever episode he was having, mind sticking on the image of Severus' thighs when he'd last seen them, and what had been between them, and the new idea of dark hairs dusting the inside of those long, pale legs.

He tried to calm his voice, not really having much experience with hysteria, but knowing how to deal with drunks at least.

"Listen, Severus–no shhh listen to me." He relaxed his grip slightly and rubbed his thumbs over the prominent wrist bones. "We spoke a couple of days ago. You remember? The potatoes? Look, I've still got the plaster on."

Severus didn't look down at it but opened his mouth again, and Jack hurried to cut him off.

"You're confused–"

Severus's face twisted up at that and his arms relaxed.

"If I tell you, you'll think I'm– you won't believe me."

Probably not, no.

"I'm worried about you, alright? You're not making sense..."

Severus' eyes closed and he gritted his teeth. "This is because you've seen me too much. You can't see the changes, can you?"

Jack unfurled his fingers, careful, just in case Severus started taking more clothes off.

"You need some sleep, and a square meal. Did...something happen with your dad?"

"What's he got to do with it?"

Jack's eyes flicked between Severus'. He couldn't read him but he seemed a bit calmer, even if whatever was going on in his head was beyond Jack's comprehension.

"You said," Severus spoke very slowly and quietly, but his jaw was tight, "that if I was physically 21–"

"You're 18, Severus." Jack gently held him by the arms, trying to get that sharp mind of his to see the logic, the truth.

Severus looked stricken, thin lips downturned, eyebrows tilted sadly, his eyes even looked like some of that spark had faded out.

They ate in silence, but when Severus went to leave, Jack almost bumped into him as he stopped in the doorway. The rain had eased up a bit, but it was still wet, and there was a dirty stream of water running along the side of the alley.

Severus turned, looking at Jack, who realised he'd ended up a little too close.

"Can– can I at least have a kiss?"

Jack closed his eyes, head falling forward. He worried if he was the cause of whatever the stress that had lead to this breakdown was.

Before he could give Severus an answer, lips pressed against his, gentle, soft, just the faintest brush of tongue as thin arms wound around his neck.

Jack turned his head away, and there was a huff of breath, smelling strangely of herbs and spices he hadn't smelled before. When he unconsciously licked his lips there was something there too under the salt from the chips. Maybe aniseed? That wasn't how Severus had tasted last time.

He eased back, slipping Severus' arms from his neck and took another long look at his eyes. It was hard to tell but his pupils might have been a bit blown. Hopefully he had just got into his Dad's liquor.

"Severus, just wait a few years."

Chapter Text

He didn't see Severus for a few weeks. It worried him. Especially hearing that there'd been more shouting matches than usual going on from his neighbours, and that Tobias Snape had showed up to the pub one evening with split knuckles and a worse limp than normal. 

Jack got the sense Severus was avoiding him. And it wasn't hard to tell why. He'd gotten high or drunk and tried to claim that some makeup and a lack of shaving made him older. It was all a bit worrying really. 

Then August rolled around and Jack realised that he didn't need to be so anxious anymore. Severus wouldn't be disappearing off to school, and since he was taking a year off to work, no university yet either. He'd have to make sure that it wasn't an indefinite break from education somehow. Maybe it was an economic thing, or needing to get experience in a way that was easy for well-off folks, but probably impossible for someone like Severus. But he'd a bank account all his own, and was probably saving up, and maybe between scholarships and grants it wouldn't be too hard on him. And maybe he could use some of his time to get his head on straight. They probably wouldnt take a student if he was disturbed mentally, and Severus didnt deserve to be kept from a bright future because of some temporary condition brought on by being stuck with his gay-hating Dad. And Jack probably shouldnt have let him wank himself off in front of him. He shouldn't have admitted that he would take him to bed if he were 21. And he shouldnt have let Severus kiss him again.

The last few nights he'd been thinking too much about Severus and those books he'd read last year. He was having odd dreams where Severus was carved out of marble like those Greek statues they had only leaning back, cock out mid-stroke and never moved, or worse, came to life and did exactly the kinds of things those Greeks used to do. 

Jack supposed it was because he had been making do with his hand and some dirty magazines instead of a real human connection. 

So, after another Friday where he'd closed up alone, he spent Sunday afternoon walking along the river around the old spots. 

There were a few old faces, already partnered off and not interested in a third, or else fellow tops seeking a nice arse. Jack leaned against the overhang of the bridge, hoping he wouldn't be out here too long, as it was threatening rain again. 

  He didn't have to wait too long.

He straightened up as a young man, maybe 25, walked long the path at the river bank, looking furtive and twitchy. The shirt and jeans fit a bit snug across the chest and arse and were slightly too short, which showed off the man's physique. If nothing else he was eye-candy. 

But the nervous way he looked around before vaulting the low wall and jogging down the bank meant he was probably here for company too. 

He must have been very nervous, because towards the bottom of the bank he tripped over his own feet slightly and Jack flung out a hand to stop the stranger falling. 

"Evening." Jack thought he might as well use the chance to make some introductions at least.

"Oh...I–" The man had a very intense look in his brown eyes. Sharp. 

Jack liked sharp and intense.

And the stranger was beautiful in a pedestrian, masculine way. Definitely better looking than Jack, but he was a...a pretty boy. Picture-perfect, strong jaw, dark hair short and barely styled. Forgettable, except for that hungry look. 

"I'm erm– Evan." Well, that sounded...untrue. Especially considering the man, Evan, had a bit of a posh accent, Jack suspected 'Evan' had come for a bit of rough. fair enough, Jack didn't often give his name to quick shags, but he never bothered with a fake one either.

"Nice to meet you, Evan." Jack stepped back under the bridge, and Evan followed, closing into his personal space, hand still on his arm. His eyes kept darting from Jack's eyes in turn to his mouth, then the buttons of his shirt.

"Can I touch you? I'm 23."

Jack frowned a little, but kept his smile. He didn't think they got pretty police around here, but Evan was...not exactly sending off signs, aside from the too small shirt, and the eagerness. It was just odd. Something was niggling away at the back of Jack's head. But it was only illegal if they were caught doing something.

"You live around here, Evan?"

"I– You can call me Ev." Evan pressed closer, and Jack felt his hips against his thigh. Evan was either packing, or already half-hard. "We can't go to mine. Can I touch you?"

That wasn't helping to calm his uncertainty, but so far, Jack had only said hello, stopped him falling over, and asked him where he lived. He leaned forward to look along the river bank, and saw a tangle of legs in a bush. If they'd wanted to catch someone, they'd already have got one pair. 

"23, you said?" 

"Legal." Something about this dark haired young man...the quickness with his words, the intensity, it reminded him of–

Well, someone else. 

He brought his hand up to thumb the square jaw, and felt hands on his waist, sneaking their way to his belt. 

"Mm, not here, come on."

Evan caught his arm and the nervous, guilty expression was back. 

"I only have 45 minutes. I've...I've somewhere to be after that."

"If you're not sure..." Jack straightened up, but Evan clung closer to him. 

"I am! I just– I want you." It was flattering, really, to have this handsome stranger so keen. Maybe there was something he'd missed in the cinema where burly brunettes with kind eyes and strong forearms(Jack knew what his best features were) had suddenly become popular with the younger crowd. He certainly wasn't old enough to be a Daddy to Evan or to Severus. 

Evan leaned in and tentatively brushed lips against his and Jack gave in. 

"Come on, it's not far."

Jack was too focused on keeping his head down as he lead Evan to the alleyway to notice that the stranger who didn't sound like he was from Cokeworth, and who he'd never seen before, followed him without any confusion, or direction, even though he was walking next to him. 

"Is–Am I your type?"

The question took Jack by surprise. Evan was clearly confident enough in his body to show it off in the tight shirt, but he had that intense stare going again. 

Jack let his eyes trail down Evan's body and glanced along the alleyway, seeing that they were unobserved, and leaned in to kiss him, sliding a hand under the back of his shirt, feeling the warm firm muscles of his back. 

"You're gorgeous, come on."

He unlocked his door and saw Evan hesitate before making his way up the stairs, catching the toe of his boot on one of the steps and only just managing not to stumble. 

The bloke was nervous, and Jack wasn't really looking to be someone's exploration of their sexuality, but he was lonely, and he needed human touch or he was likely to give in to Severus and destroy his chance at becoming a doctor. 

Evan didn't seem interested in the inside of his flat, keeping those brown eyes on him and stepping close again, something overly familiar about the way he ran his hands up Jack's arms even for what they were both planning.

Evan seemed eager, hesitant, and strangely delicate despite his well-built frame. He struggled a little to get his fingers to cooperate when he tried to unbutton Jack's shirt, so Jack took over, making short work of them and letting Evan push it from his shoulders. 

The other man's breath was catching, and he had a faint flush across his cheeks. When Jack pulled him close and ran a hand down to cup him through the jeans he could feel how hard he was already. 

"Fuck–" The shaky exhalation as strong smooth hands rubbed over his chest and wound into the string vest. "Please, I want to–"

"Yeah?" Jack pressed harder, rubbing him through the jeans and grinding his own cock against Evan's hip."You done this before?"

Eyes flew to his, pupils so blown they almost looked black, and Jack smiled, kissing the full lips. Evan was clearly inexperienced, but he was eager, wrapping his arms tight around Jack and squeezing as his lips parted and tongue slid against Jack's. 

Normally Jack liked his partners to know what they were doing, but something about the charmingly awkward fumbling, the desperate hunger Evan had...he wasn't averse.

Evan moaned quietly into his mouth and broke the kiss. "Let me see you, please." Jack didn't have time to answer before Evan was tugging at his belt and shoving his trousers down, staring between them and almost hyperventilating. 

He almost told the man there was no rush, but Evan had said he had somewhere to be, so instead he stripped off his vest and let it fall onto the worn carpet and reached for Evan's shirt. 

"No–I mean. It's fine. Can I suck you–" His fingers curled around the base of Jack's cock.

They didn't have to rush that much, but Jack definitely wasn't going to say no to that.

"Bed?"

Evan looked up but only nodded, and Jack stepped out of his dropped trousers as Evan hurriedly toed off his boots and practically ran the few steps to join him. 

Jack sat down on the edge of the bed, and pulled Evan close between his legs, cock leaking a wet patch on his underwear. Evan was clearly no better, fondling himself and rutting against his hand. 

The shirt came free with a tug and Jack had to undo some of the buttons to reveal the kind of stomach he only saw in magazines, pale, perfectly symmetrical abs, and a thin line of hair above and below the tempting hollow of his navel. 

Jack leaned forward and mouthed at the skin, trailing his tongue between the valleys and dipping into his belly button as Evan clutched his shoulders and shivered, hips jerking when Jack's hands squeezed his arse.

"Wait let me–" Evan nudged his head away and undid the last of the buttons, unbuckling his belt. The jeans took him some time, probably because they were straining so hard between the firm rounded bum and clearly steel-hard cock. 

Jack leaned back on his elbows to take in the sight. The shirt hung open, still tight on Evan's shoulders, and his cock had sprung free the moment the flies were open, thick and heavy and weeping into the y-fronts that seemed too small for him. 

Evan slid the jeans down to mid-thigh, hesitated a moment, then shed them completely leaving his underwear on, even though Jack could see where the elastic was digging into his hips, and then reached for Jack's underwear, fingers curling under the waistband. Jack lifted his hips as Evan slid them down, dropping to his knees beside the bed. 

Jack had just enough view to see Evan's hand was crammed into the y-fronts, stroking himself as he lapped at the head of his cock, breath hot and moist. 

Evan might have been nervous, but he knew what he was doing with a prick in his mouth. His lips curled over his teeth, making them look thinner, and his cheeks hollowed, and Jack groaned. Not just from the feel of that warm, wet mouth wrapped around him, or the tongue exploring under his foreskin. The image of black hair, shorter than in his dreams, thin lips and slightly sunken cheeks was a bit too close for comfort. He tried to focus on just the feeling of a mouth bobbing back and forth, the quiet moans and sounds of sucking. Like Evan had been starved for years and only Jack's cock would sate his hunger.

Evan glanced up through his lashes when Jack stroked his fringe back, and the sight of brown eyes surprised him. The loss of the brief flight of fancy shocked Jack enough that he must have frowned or shown it on his face somehow.

Evan pulled off with a wet pop and licked his red lips. "Is it– bad?"

Jack shook his head and ran his fingers through the thick hair, cupping Evan's cheek. "No. No it's good. I just-" I'm thinking about someone else. An awful think to think, and even worse to say.

Evan looked so worried, one hand still wrapped around the base of Jack's cock, that Jack reached for him, growling a gentle, "Gerrup here and give me another kiss, Ev."

Evan gave Jack's cock a last look, tongue darting out again, then pulled his hand free of his underwear and crawled over him.

Jack pulled him down into the kiss, grinding their hips together as they sucked at each other's lips and tongue. Evan had his legs spread over Jack's, so Jack at least had an idea that if time was on their side they'd be compatible. But this, Evan pressed chest to chest with him, hands roaming everywhere they could reach, rubbing his cotton-clad cock against Jack's, this was good too. The body contact he craved more than anything, the feeling of wanting and being wanted in turn.

He mouthed at Evan's neck, thrusting up against him, and heard a quiet whimper. 

"Jack, please."

Chapter Text

Jack rolled them, keeping Evan's thigh tight around his hip, and propping himself above him on one elbow. Evan was biting his lip and had his eyes shut half-closed, looking straight out of a porn mag. 

Gripping Evan's leg, Jack reached down to slide his cock lower, smearing his precum over the cotton that covered the cleft of Evan's arse. Evan let out another shaky breath and pressed his hips upwards. 

"You want this, Ev? Want me to fuck you?" 

Evan stilled and seemed uncertain, maybe afraid, maybe even a little disgusted, it was hard to tell with a stranger, especially one that seemed to struggle with something about the whole situation, or maybe his identity as a gay man. 

Jack's tone softened and he rocked his hips again. "Only if you want, I'll be gentle." He tucked a finger into the waistband and Evan grabbed his wrist suddenly with both of his, eyes wide. 

"I don't–I don't want you to see this." 

"See what?" Jack leaned down to kiss his jaw, the dip of his collarbone. 

"This– my cock."

Maybe there was something weird about it. Tight foreskin or an odd shape. It couldnt be the size, Jack could already tell it was a hefty, thick sort. But there had to be some reason this textbook, generically attractive bloke, who was as gay as the day is long had been so eager and clumsy and almost virginal.

"Alright, I won't look." He rubbed his cock between his cheeks again, nuzzling against his neck, "could do you from behind, if you want?"

Evan seemed to consider this for a moment, as Jack's finger teased the edge of the waistband and then withdrew and slid lower into the y-front opening, feeling coarse trimmed pubes and then the thrumming heatbeat from Evan's shaft.

"I– Like this is good. I like this."

"Yeah?" Jack let his hand drop again to slide his cock between the cotton bulge and Evan's thigh. He wasn't interested in taking from a lover. He wanted to share pleasure. And if Evan liked this, well frankly, Jack liked it too. 

They moved against each other, and soon Evan was back to clutching at him, desperately straining his neck to kiss him and then pulling back to whimper. Evan had such intensity about him, Jack supposed that was what he really liked, it was like exhibitionism for two. 

Evan was quiet when he came, breathing hard against Jack's neck and pressing his hips hard upwards into Jack's, before his head fell back and his eyes screwed shut. Jack sucked at his throat, and slid a hand down the back of his pants, rubbing against the tightly furled entrance as it clenched in time with the pulse of wet come between them.

Evan gasped and pushed against the finger for a moment, then relaxed under him. Jack didn't know him well enough to tell if that was permission to go for more or just the aftermath of his orgasm, so he withdrew and swiped his fingers through the sticky spunk that had shot with enough force to make it through the underwear. 

With Evan's spunk as makeshift lube, he stroked himself above him. He wouldn't be far off, watching Evan fall apart beneath him had turned the heat in his stomach up to furnace temperatures, and his balls were already tight. 

A warm hand cupped his balls and slid up to take over the stroking, "Do you want my mouth again?" 

Jack shook his head, running his free hand up Evan's washboard stomach to grab a handful of muscled pectoral.

"Like this, Ev."  Something had changed in Evan's demeanour. Not just because he was relaxed, because he wasn't, not really. He looked increasingly tense and guilty and Jack expected it was Post Climax Regret. 

Evan wouldn't meet his eyes anymore, only occasionally glancing up at him and then looking back between them, and his touches were lackluster. As if they were only there as a sense of fair play. 

But Jack didn't need long to get close, and an idea hit him as he felt his thighs start to tense. Just a strange fancy, the kind of wild thought that entered your brain when it was rattling around bathed in whatever chemicals your body made when you were drunk on sex and the scent of another man's cum. Severus probably knew all the names of those chemicals. 

Severus whose intensity didn't waver after he came in his hand and licked his own spunk out of it with hair like crows feathers, eyes like tar, black and clinging to him, sticking to his bones and pulling him deeper and deeper.

He gripped his cock and slipped it through the opening of the y-fronts, feeling Evan's cock against his and the stickiness of the underwear. 

It was just what he needed, and with eyes closed and a groan he added his own spunk to the inside of Evan's pants, pulling a gasp out of him. 

He rested his sweaty forehead against Evan's chest for a moment, catching his breath, then moved for another kiss. "Thanks, Ev. That was great."

Evan turned his head, presenting his jaw, and Jack drew back. Evan's eyes were fixed on the cracked window. Disappointed but not entirely surprised, he rolled off the younger man, who sat up on the end of the bed, presenting his hunched back.

Jack reached out to run a hand down the hollow of his spine over the tight waistband to the firm rounded arse. "You want me to get you a wet flannel?" 

"No, thank you." Evan said quietly.

Jack sat up on his elbows, looking down at his softening cock, giving it a tug. "You alright?"

With a sudden burst of speed, Evan grabbed his jeans and started to pull them on, still not looking back. "I'm sorry, I have to- I have to leave. I shouldn't have -"

Jack sighed and lay back on the bed. "Right."

"It's not - I promise it wasn't you. It's me, I shouldn't - I - Fuck." He seemed to be struggling with the jeans buttons, and eventually gave up, buttoning the shirt haphazardly and leaving the top button of the jeans undone, soaked underwear leaking into the front and sounding pathetically quiet as he paused in the doorway to the rest of the flat. "I'm really sorry, Jack."

And then Evan grabbed his boots in one hand and ran down the stairs. Jack heard the latch and stared at the top of the stairs. A sudden thought struck him as he heard the door to the alley slam shut.

How had Evan known his name?

Jack frowned. Perhaps it was a lucky guess from the name on the chip shop. But that didn't make sense, because they'd come up the other end of the alley...

Jack sat up and looked around his room, to see if he'd left anything with his name on around. 

He fell back onto the bed and sighed up at the ceiling. There was a spider web stretching from the curtain rail to the corner of the shelf. He'd have to get the duster out again and give the place a proper tidy. 

Chapter Text

Something was still bothering him about the Evan bloke. It was nothing new to encounter someone not at home in their own skin, guilty that they weren't like they thought a man should be. That wasn't what bothered Jack.

It was the name. Jack was sure he hadn't given it to him, and yet somehow, Evan had known it.

And there'd been something else. Something about the way Evan spoke and stared and moved. Something he couldn't put his finger on, but just sat at the back of his mind, quietly unnerving him all through the week.

Thankfully Friday was busy enough when he was on his own, that he didn't have time to worry about the whole thing.

"Give me a sec, be yours out next, Betty."

The door swung open.

"–if he gives you any more lip, tell him where he can shove it. They don't pay us enough to fix his mistakes."

A couple of men ducked into the shop and as Jack scooped Betty's chips quickly onto the paper, salted and wrapped them, he overheard them talking, one voice was familiar, and he glanced over.

"Too right. 'Ere, you're up."

The first speaker turned to eye the boards with the prices and counted out his coins. "Two fish, 3 chips, mate. Oh, peas too."

Jack took longer than Severus would have to find the five pence, hidden among the tens, but handed the change over, then turned to the second speaker, the familiar one he'd encountered in less public spaces.

Their eyes met then slid past each other, into the safe, normal, humdrum.

"Just the one, fish and chips."

"Be a bit, got these three still to do." Jack nodded at the other customers milling around inside and catching up.

"No rush, missus'll tan my hide if I don't get the food one night a week."

Jack nodded and turned back to the oil, but heard the stranger from Pickford Lane clearly.

"Just me, so no hurry."

It wasn't exactly an offer, not this public, but the man hadn't been forced to say it.

Juggling orders, Jack thought for a moment about the slightly disappointing encounter with Evan, and the loneliness of another night alone in his flat. He did miss company, even when it was just Severus complaining about his coin sorting.

Just as he finally caught up and handed over the wrapped food to the man, he checked outside, to see if he needed to put another lot of chips in. It looked to have quietened down for the moment, inside and out, and the man brushed his fingers as he took his fish and chips, and turned to his workmate. "Might eat it here. See thee at 't Marquis on Saturday?"

"Aye, Still owe us a round, don't you?"

The man leaned against one of the tables, picking chips out of his paper and waiting for the shop to empty out.

The door snicked shut. "So, what d'you think?"

Jack hesitated, but the offer was tempting, it was just...dull. There wasnt any real passion in it. "What're you asking after?"

The stranger checked the street outside again, still casual, calm and boring. "Seeing as your boy– lad who helps out isn't here anymore…you and me, bit of action?" He said it like they might as well, since neither of them had anything else to do. Not a drop of passion, not a whit of intensity.

Jack watched the man slowly licking salt off his finger, sliding it back and forth between his lips. It was tempting, but it wouldn't last. This man'd be out the door just like Evan, but probably with a little more grace, and less panic, probably, at least. But Jack would still end up on his mattress, staring at the ceiling, alone. And he didn't like how the man had talked about Severus, or connected it to Jack being alone.

He turned away and sifted through the chips. "Can't tonight, too busy with it being Friday."

The man nodded, and went back to his chips. "Well, if you change your mind, let me know."

"Alright."

The man took his meal and gave a last wave then headed out the door.

Jack let the scoop rest on the tray and eyed the clock. There'd be a train in at the station in ten minutes, maybe Severus would drop by.

The rest of Friday evening passed, but Severus didn't show. Jack went up to his flat, stared at the ceiling and as the dark closed in, fell asleep to dreams of dark eyes burning with ancient fire and thin, elegant hands tracing his jaw.

Chapter Text

He didn't see Severus at the shop for over a month and it was well into October of '78 when he spotted him while on his way back from the Doctor's. Jack had had to close the shop for a day when he'd had a pig of a cough, but the doctor had told him it was probably the changing seasons and there was nothing much to worry about, just to take fluids, rest, and come back if it didn't go. The man had scared him at first, looking grim, but he'd relaxed when Jack had said he didn't work the factory floor, but ran a fish and chip shop.

Severus was sitting on a swing at a child's park on a Tuesday morning at 11am. He wasn't swinging, just gripping and releasing the swing and staring down at his boots, a wispy little string of smoke winding up.

Jack checked both ways and crossed the road, since there were more cars on this side of town, and then leaned against the fence, keeping his eyes on the sad little ink blot Severus made.

11 am on a Tuesday. In Cokeworth, and not London. With a sudden crushing awareness, Jack coughed as he understood. Jack felt for Severus; losing your job was never easy. Especially when it was something he clearly had worked hard at, and cared about. Maybe he'd had one of his funny turns at work. Or maybe something had happened with this Lucius.

He tucked his hands into his jacket and nudged the gate open, walking slowly up the hill.

The creak and slam as it closed behind him seemed to wake Severus from his stupor, and his head snapped around.

Jack lifted a hand in greeting, trying to seem friendly and casual and as if he didn't know that Severus was unemployed.

"Ay up."

"Mh." No spark, no intensity, and that sharp edge was blunted, like someone had scraped a knife against a rock. The cigarette just flared brighter and then Severus averted his gaze.

He neared the swings and leaned against the frame as Severus shoved a newspaper into his coat. Probably looking for job ads. "Bit out of your usual stomping grounds, here." He kept his tone gentle, not wanting to set anything off, but wanting to try and give some comfort.

"I used to come here when I was a child." Severus took the cigarette out of his mouth for only long enough to speak. His voice sounded rough, and he kept his eyes fixed on the ground.

"Alright." Jack nodded and looked around at the scraped earth beneath the swings, counting four or five cigarette ends, then at the old tree, the bushes. "Nice on this side of the river, eh?"

"I suppose." Severus still kept his eyes away from Jack's, and Jack missed seeing how fierce and striking and dark they were. 

Jack pushed himself off the frame and walked over to the other swing, sitting down on it and staring across the grass. "Do you–"

"Why are you here?"

"I was just passing. Do you want to talk about it?"

Severus frowned at the ground and gripped the swing tighter, pale knuckles going completely white. "No," he spat, eyebrows drawn down. He looked…not upset in the normal way, but angry, betrayed maybe. Made sense, he'd said this Lucius mate of his had got him the job.

And Lucius had been a lot older than him, too. Jack had his suspicions, but he didn't voice them.

"Alright." Jack stifled a cough into the collar of his coat.

Severus looked sharply at him, then swiftly stubbed the cigarette out, but didn't throw the remaining half away, just held it. He blew the last of the smoke, turning his head away from Jack. It wasn't the expression he'd have chosen to see his coal-black eyes in, but he'd put his fag out. That was Severus through and through. All his medical knowledge and well-hidden care. 

They sat there quietly, Jack rocking himself slightly and Severus nudging the butts on the floor closer together. The wind picked up, rippling along the grass and making Severus' long hair wrap around his face. He brushed it out of his eyes and Jack saw just for a moment, his mouth twist up in the same disappointment he'd seen before.

"I wish I was someone's choice," Severus murmured, sounding miserable.

Jack's heels scraped the earth slightly as he came to a stop, "hm? What's that?" 

When Severus spoke again, it was vicious enough to make Jack lean back; he never wanted Severus to feel that way around him. "I wish just one person would choose me over…"

"Come on, now. Be reyt–"

"And you're just as bad as she is! All o' them!" His voice had risen and Jack heard the crack of emotion. He didn't know who this woman was, but Severus was clearly not doing well. Might even have been having one of his attacks.

"I don't deserve that. You know why I–You're lashing out. I want to help." Jack tried to give him something steady and stable to hold onto in whatever internal storm was threatening to whirl him away, but Severus leapt to his feet.

"My mum chose him over me. Lily chose Potter. Potter! And you–" The spitting rage seemed to waver for a moment as Severus gave him a wild look. "I – I don't know why I bother, you're never going to understand."

Jack wasn't sure, but for a moment he'd looked guilty, and he tried to cling to that: the knowledge that deep down, Severus knew it was unfair.

"Tell me what's going on and maybe I will."

Severus just shook his head. Jack eased himself up out of the swing and took a step towards him.

"This Lucius, he went back to his missus?"

"What?! No!" Severus looked genuinely confused for a second. "No, Lucius is the only person who did choose me."

Severus' shoulders suddenly lowered, and he lifted his head, still intense, but his eyes were like ice on the roads in winter. Cold, black things.

"You should leave." His tone was totally flat, and the sudden whiplash made Jack more worried than before.

"I don't–"Jack stifled another cough, one eye watering slightly in response. "– think so, Severus. Let me walk back with you."

"No." Severus exhaled and looked down at his half burned cigarette end, voice tinged with something gentle, warming only fractionally. "You're unwell. You should go home."

Jack tried to deny it, but the tickle in his throat that he'd kept back was struggling for freedom. He turned away to cough, and when he looked back, Severus had buried his hands into his pockets, staring at the large tree.

"Will you come by on Friday?"

Severus' face twitched, and his hands in his pockets moved, probably flexing, if Jack was any judge."I don't know." 

"Come by on Friday." It was the only thing Jack could think of. The sudden downward plunge from the heights of Severus' anger scared him more than the outburst.

Severus glared at him.

"If you don't, I'll think something's happened and I'll come 'round your dad's house."

"Maybe."

"Friday." Jack held Severus' gaze, firm with his tone, and eventually the coal-black gaze slid down his face, to stare at his chin. 

"…Alright." 

Jack hesitated a moment longer, another cough threatening to wrack his chest, but Severus looked away and crouched to pick up his cigarette ends. "I don't blame you. For choosing– sorry, I shouldn't've said that about you."

There was something in the way Severus apologised. Something familiar. But then, Severus had apologised for letting his emotions get the better of him before, hadn't he? 

That was probably all it was. 

Chapter Text

His cough eased up, Friday came, and Jack was nervous all through opening up. He'd been so distracted worrying about Severus that he'd almost mixed up two orders. 

He was too busy double checking he had enough fish in, and peeking at the street outside whenever he turned around, that he almost missed the thin dark shape across the road under the lamppost. 

"Arright on your own?" The millworker from Pickford Lane was there again, though there were a few more of his coworkers, so when Jack firmly but politely said he'd cope, he didn't do much more than make eye contact when he could.

Until Jack heard a sweep of fabric and the man's eyes flicked over his shoulder, a disappointed smirk crossed his face and he turned back to his conversation. 

"Who was next?" Jack recognised this voice in an instant and turned his head to see pale fingers grip the counter by the till. 

"Ugh. The silver's all mixed together." Black eyes slid across to give him a warning look and Jack found himself smiling apologetically before he could stop it. "Let me find your change."

He had mixed feelings about Severus being here this early; it meant he was probably still out of work, but Jack did need the extra set of hands, and the young man looked ...well, not exactly fine, but better than Tuesday. 

Severus worked hard, keeping track of who was waiting on what and who had yet to be served, and when at last the final customer sidled out with a tray of chips, Severus bent over the takings and started to add them up with swift little pencil strokes. 

Jack wiped out the inside of the cabinet, did his usual clean up routine, repeatedly looking over at Severus. 

"I'm not going to steal any of it." Severus had an eyebrow raised, but he didn't sound as peeved as he might have. He was still looking at the till though.

"I didn't think you would. You're owed your wages though." Jack countered, reaching towards the cash drawer.

Severus shook his head, batting away Jack's hand and kept looking over the coins, occasionally checking the tally."Just the food's fine."

"Come on." Jack took a step closer and gently put a hand on a bony, rounded shoulder. "You're owed it, and...well, considering."

Severus stepped back, turning to face him, dark brows low and his intense black eyes wary. "Considering what, exactly?" 

Jack gave him a sympathetic smile, commiserating with him. "What happened with your job in London."

"My–" Severus frowned at him, and Jack met his eyes, trying to express his understanding, and gratitude that the young man was alright and had come. He could clearly remember how forlorn he'd looked in the park on Tuesday. And, strangely, just as clearly, he remembered the exact moment he'd read the news about unemployment rates, overhearing conversations about the layoffs at the factory. 

"I wasn't let go, Jack." Severus gripped his own arms, hunching forward and stared at the paper full of his scratchy sums.

"Oh. Alright." 

Severus eyed him critically through his hair, And Jack turned to the chip tray, the last place needing a clean.

He nervously spun the chip scoop in his hand. This was a different kind of intensity he hadn't had levelled at him before. 

Voice low and quiet, Severus spoke, "You remember my friend? With the red hair? Lily?"

"I...not very well." Jack admitted, pulling up his usual stool.

"Well she's engaged." Severus continued in clipped tones before Jack could work out if he was supposed to offer congratulations or not. "To one of the boys who made my life hell. Who tried to kill me." 

Jack dropped his gaze as he sat on the stool, nodding slowly. "I see... Was she the friend who..." He trailed off staring at Severus' boots. 

They were the same boots as Evan had worn. Not just normal leather safety boots, but ones with unusual stitching on the tongue and the laces were even the same colour. 

Jack's mind started to race. The shirt Evan had worn was too small. The jeans too tight. Like they would have better fit someone more lithe with narrower shoulders. And Evan's accent too, that was why it had been bothering him. It was like Severus' after he'd been at that school.

"Jack? The friend who what?" 

Jack looked up, confused, frowning at Severus but not quite meeting his eyes. Why would– it didn't make sense. Had Severus given Evan his clothes to wear? Why? Had Severus been the person Evan had needed to meet that evening? And was that why Evan had run away? Because he'd been cheating on his boyfriend with strangers along the river? 

And was that why Severus had been so upset with Jack? Because he'd found out what his boyfriend had done and who he'd done it with? 

Jack's heart plummeted as he remembered what Severus had said. He wanted just one person to choose him, and Jack and his bloody boyfriend had climbed into bed together. 

"Oh, Severus..." Jack stood and stepped closer. Severus withdrew slightly, stepping away from the till and now almost tall enough to bang his head on the shelves that held the pickled eggs. He looked panicked, and Jack softened his tone. "You shouldn't settle for that. You deserve someone who'll treat you..." Jack shook his head and reached for Severus who shrank away from his hand. Jack didn't push the contact, but stopped, eyes full of sympathy. 

"There's men out there who'll treasure you. If I'd known Evan was–" Jack sighed, heavily, and wondered, not for the first time, if Severus wouldn't be better off with him. He was clearly keen on older men, this Lucius –who still seemed suspect– Evan, the lying tosspot, who'd been 5 years older, and then there was Jack himself. But Jack would have at least taken care of him and not cracked Severus open. Had it been his refusal to take advantage, and fear of breaking the law, that had driven Severus into the arms of less scrupulous men?

Severus was almost completely under the shelf now, head bowed so his dark hair hid his face. He shook his head twitchily, and Jack very carefully held one of his hands out, steady and insistent. 

"–'m sorry." Severus turned his face away and Jack had to let out a shaky breath. 

Without lowering his hand, he shook his head, "it wasn't your fault, Severus, you didn't make him–"

A pained keening noise cut him off, and Severus clutched himself tightly, choking out another series of apologies before trying to sidle towards the back door. "–should leave, before– you don't want to be," he heard Severus suck in a breath, "I ruin everything." 

Jack had moved with him, standing in the doorway beside him, not fully preventing his exit, but making it difficult. 

"What's ruined? Hm?" He lifted a hand and even as Severus twitched away, persisted, brushing his hair aside to get a look at his face, still long and thin and lovely and so in pain it hurt Jack too. 

"Severus. You can always come here, to me. I want to..." He almost balked at admitting it, but in the face of Severus' clear distress he couldn't, and found his strength. "I want to be there for you." Then quieter, as Severus clutched his wrist and trembled like a startled deer, "I wish everyone could see what I see in you."

Those black eyes finally met his, full of hurt and Jack forced himself to smile, pulling the dark head into the crook of his shoulder and giving him a firm rub up and down the too proud jut of his spine. "You'll show 'em. I know you will. Those posh bastards won't know what hit 'em." 

Severus rested against him, and he felt his breaths even out before a light pressure on his chest made him reluctantly release his hold. 

"I have to get home. My dad– Dad will– I have to go." 

Jack looked his fill for a moment longer, hoping those dark eyes would meet his for just a second, then let go, "Alright. Take something?"

As Jack pressed the parcel into his hands, Severus still looked miserable and guilty, but the cool brush of his fingers against Jack's was welcome all the same. 

"I'm sorry about...about 'Evan'." And Severus left, hurrying out into the night. 

Jack watched him go. He'd known Evan couldn't be the man's name. He wondered what it had really been, and hoped Severus steered clear of him in future. 

Chapter Text

He didnt see much of Severus, but sporadically –another of his long words– he'd drop in of a friday. He seemed to be throwing himself into his work, if what he overheard at the pub was any indication.

Tobias Snape had been complaining about backchat and that 'his lad' didn't eat on Sunday with him anymore, and hadn't since October. And it sounded like sometimes, Severus was getting out of the house to avoid his dad. Jack couldn't blame him, and it was a smart move.

Winter was difficult as it began to set in. 

The baker's strike was a nightmare, and there was talk of a factory walk-out too. Everyone was being squeezed, and the sudden cold snap didn't help anyone's mood. 

The river froze over, the banks became icy and dangerous. Even if Jack had wanted to seek out company, he doubted anyone would be there, or that they'd be able to get up to much with the temperature the way it was. The factory worker from Pickford Lane hadn't made anymore offers either, apparently drawing some kind of conclusion from Severus's arrival last time. 

So when Jack needed it, he sat up against the rickety headboard, flicked through the magazines, and sorted himself out. And sometimes he lingered on the slimmer, dark haired models, imagining them with less rounded faces, longer hair and dark eyes full of secrets and spark. It was getting to be a bit too much to ignore how often he turned to those fantasies of long fingers running over his chest and thin lips on his skin. 

Severus knocked at his door one Sunday morning, though Jack had thought it was someone else. The knock had been a harsh rapid banging, the kind angry men made when you gave their son a place to stay that didn't make them tremble with fear. 

"What is it this time– Severus." His sleepy frown broke into a smile, and he stepped back, leaning the pipe back against its place. "Come on, no use freezing your arse off out here."

Severus' brows were drawn down, and his ears and nose were pink, and he was bundled up in a scarf for some football team perhaps, green and grey. Or maybe his old school colours, he'd never seen Severus in his uniform so didn't know, but he knew that Snape had complained about him needing a new one often enough.  

In the cramped entryway at the bottom of the stairs, Jack shut the door and waited, though he didn't strictly need to, for Severus to knock his boots of the grey sludge that winter had brought to most of the Cokeworth roads.

"Everything alright?" Jack asked as Severus unwound his scarf. Crammed together like this with the whiter winter light through the frosted glass in the door, Jack let himself picture Severus coming home to him. Maybe after work, he'd walk in just like that, have his own hook for his coat, and Jack would listen to how his day had been. 

"I can't stand him." Severus was quiet, but the venom in his soft voice was unmistakable, as was the posher vowel. Jack focussed on the here and now and not vague fantasies.

"Mhm?" Unfortunately, this didn't really help Jack, because there were a fair few people Jack imagined that Severus couldn't stand. "What's he done now then?"

"He keeps talking about–" Severus made a noise in his throat and squeezed his hands together, probably trying to warm them. "Keeps saying it'll be nice to have a proper family Christmas now I'm not at school." 

"Oh...and you want to spend it somewhere else?"Jack asked carefully, as he began to make his way up the stairs. 

"Wouldn't you? I nearly broke my neck in the outhouse. It was all frozen up." Bitterness leaked out of Severus as he followed Jack.

"Going to spend it in London then?" Jack kept his tone politely curious as he grabbed the cups, automatically starting to make tea. 

"Maybe. I might– my friend, Lucius, he lives in Wiltshire. If they invite me..." A sour expression crossed Severus' face. "If anyone does, to be honest."

Anyone...Jack stared at the two cups for a little too long, and he knew that his voice was too light, too casual. "Your dad that bad?"

"It's not that...It's..." The sofa creaked as Severus sat and Jack could guess he was scowling, from the way he spoke. "Never had a Christmas wi'out mum."

"Oh." The gas roared loudly in the silence as Jack waited for the kettle to boil. "But that was–"

"I was at school. I didn't have to..." Severus trailed off before his lips twisted like he'd licked a battery. "He's desperate, I think." That cruel, sharp edge slid into Severus' voice again."It's embarassing. It's been 5 years. She's not coming back. She's dead."

It wasnt fair really, to judge a man for his grief –not Snape or Severus, so Jack kept his mouth shut and nodded. Besides, despite what Severus said, he had been the one to point out it'd be his first one with his mother gone. 

He poured the tea, added his sugar, and set their cups down. Jack was a little restless and nervous all of a sudden, wondering if he should invite Severus to spend Christmas with him, then wondering if that was a bit bold, then worrying about what people would say. It wouldn't be much of a Christmas as they went, but it would be somewhere for Severus to escape his own house. At least for a day or two. And the company would be welcome...

"I bet he expects me to do the cooking, too." Severus stared at his tea, fingers curled around the cup.

"Look, if you don't want to spend it with him, you don't have to, although...he hasnt kicked you out even though he knows. You're an adult, got your own money. He should respect that."

"Not enough of an adult for you though." Sullen, Severus' voice cut him off. Times like that, when he got all petulant, reminded Jack of just how young he was. "Sorry."

The apology was more mature though, and Jack decided to let it go. "You're in a bit of a mard yourself, hm?"

"There's...a lot of pressure on me at the moment." Severus swirled his cup, looking down at the murky tea as if it could answer him.

"At work?"

"Sort of. There's an...application for a position. Someone important thinks I have potential." Severus was being vague, as he often did, but it sounded much more deliberate this time. 

"How's your boss feel about losing you?" Jack asked carefully

Severus looked up, a quick tilt of his head nudging his fringe away from his eyes. Jack met them and pretended not to admire the way they seemed to glimmer like the frozen river. "Oh, Lucius is the one that recommended me."

Jack looked away at that. He didn't like Lucius, but even more, he didn't like that Lucius seemed to be a real friend for Severus, helping him get ahead, giving him chances, seeing that sharp, cleverness that people overlooked in working class lads. But if he was honest with himself, he cared about Severus, and caring about him meant doing what was best for him, not what kept him here in Cokeworth. "Well, I think you should go for it," he said, giving a supportive smile.

Severus lowered his teacup and seemed to look Jack over, searching for something in his words maybe. He always seemed to look for more than was just on the surface. "It's a big commitment." Despite his words, Severus sounded like he'd already decided. 

"How big?" Jack took a sip and leaned back in the chair. "Going to stop you going to uni?"

"Oh no, it'll advance my learning exponentially." 

Jack smiled into the cup,  because that sounded just like Severus, the words, the ambition, that drive and hunger. Maybe something like that, being pushed to learn and do more and be more, was just what Severus needed.

The faint click as Severus' cup hit the coffee table brought his attention back. "If I do though, I might not be able to come around as much..."

Ah. Right. Jack could feel the way his smile had shifted, slipped more into customer service than genuine joy. And that was unfair. He had said he didn't want to hold Severus back. Draining g the last of his cup, he set it next to Severus's. "You want to do this." It wasn't a question.

Severus stared at the cups for a few seconds, eyebrows flickering between a frown and a strange smoothness. "It will make them respect me–everyone else– and..." He looked up, that familiar intensity burning in his eyes, drawing Jack in. Like there was a light deep in a mine, guuding him to somewhere mystical and bright and beautiful. "I feel like I belong there. And this ...acquaintance of Lucius'...apparently he really thinks I could do great things."

Jack nodded again, holding that dark gaze. "You're sharp. It's time people saw it."

Severus looked away, nostrils flaring as he inhaled. "I don't know if I'll be around much after Christmas." He stood, and wiped his hands on his trousers, then looked down at his right palm before awkwardly holding it out.

With a soft laugh, Jack stood, and grasped his hand, giving it a shake and resisting the urge to pull him into a hug. He settled for a squeeze of his lean bicep. 

"Stay in touch."

Chapter Text

This side of Cokeworth was too interwoven for anything to stay hidden for long. And Jack's was too much of a focal point for people, for him not to hear about whatever the latest happening was. 

He was busy setting a new batch of chips in when he heard his customers talking.

"Y'hear about Toby Snape?" 

Jack's ears sharpened, trying to tune out the bubbling fryer and listen to the conversation. If something concerned Tobias Snape it would likely also affect Severus. He wondered if theyd had another row. Maybe the police had been called. He hoped Severus was alright.

"Hm? Oh...Aye. Shame, he were a good man. Hard worker."

Jack chanced a glance back and saw the way both men had grim conciliatory expressions for each other. Despite the heat of the fryer before him, he felt suddenly cold.

"Aye, bit of a temper, mind, but a good man."

A good man? Jack could have laughed, but all he could think about was Severus. Did he know yet? Was he still in London applying for that position? 

"Aye, he were. Hear what happened?"

"Heart attack weren't it?" 

"Aye."

18, and now all alone. Jack fancied he'd been handling much of the house management since his mother's death, but still. He shouldn't be left alone. 

"Happen it were his blood pressure."

"Could be."

And now Severus really would be alone on Christmas. He wished he'd offered a seat at his rickety little coffee table to him a fortnight ago.

"Sad day."

"Well, we all have to go some time."

"True enough." 

Because that seemed to be the extent of their conversation, Jack turned around, matching their subdued but not overly grieving tone. It wasn't lack of sympathy, he knew, it was just a fact of life, and the folk here were practical about it. "What's this then?"

"Oh aye, Toby Snape's died."

"Sorry to hear it." Fishing for information as he pointlessly adjusted a few things in the cabinet, Jack continued, "Heart attack you said?" 

"Mm, keeled over in 't street on his way to town as I hear it." 

At least Severus hadn't had to find him. Jack was sure that he would blame himself for not being able to do whatever doctors did for people in that situation. 

Jack would make sure to be ready for when Severus came to find him, to give him some comfort and support, and he'd find out if there was anything he could do for him. He thought of the second hand medical textbook he'd bought him, a few years old, maybe out of date with how science moved, but it would probably still be interesting to Severus. 

Was it still appropriate to give him a Christmas present with his father freshly buried? Or maybe not even buried yet.

He served their men their food and retreated into the back as soon as he could to lean heavily against the table. He hoped Severus was alright, hoped this latest shock didn't trigger one of his episodes. 

The bell for the door rang and he straightened up, stepping back out into the front with a smile he didn't really feel. 

"Evening, Betty. Same as usual?"

Chapter Text

When Severus didn't get back in contact, Jack took to walking along the estate Toby Snape had lived in. 

Jack almost didn't recognise Severus at first, in a strange long black coat, almost down to his ankles. It looked more like a dress or a cassock than anything else. 

And then he'd called out, and the weak winter evening sun had hit him a bit funny, all bright yellow flash, and when he opened his eyes, Severus was looking at him nervously and putting something away in his pocket, and he wasn't wearing anything strange at all, just a suit. Jack had the strangest feeling that there should have been someone else standing in the alleyway Severus had left, but it was empty, and he didn't remember seeing anyone there. 

"Sorry, didn't mean to run up on you like that." He blinked a few times, trying to get the fuzziness out of his brain.

"It's alright." Sharp eyes watched him with a hint of concern, searching his face. Severus' hair was longer, and he was just shy of his father's height now. 

"I– you know...Sorry about your dad."

"Oh."

Jack didn't know if he should have said he was sorry. Severus threw a look over his shoulder at the empty alley with a suddenly panicked look and started chewing at the skin on his thumb. It was very at odds with the confidence he'd seemed to be building. 

"I think– I think I did it."

"No. You didn't." Jack reached forward as he pulled away, "here, listen. It was a heart attack."

"So his heart just stopped? Apropos of nothing?!"

"He wasn't the healthiest bloke, was he? It wasn't you. You know that. All your medical–"

"What if it was?"

"What, you killed him with your mind?"

That seemed to make the young man more frantic, and Jack could see the rest of his nails were already bitten to the quick, the skin around them pink and angry looking. 

"Severus. It was probably his blood pressure or the drinking. You can't just make someone drop dead, you know that."

"I can. If it was me– they'll lock me up and leave me to rot. But I didn't mean to. I wasn't there. I wasnt even holding it. I didnt say the words, but maybe somehow...."

Jack didn't think it was fair to say that if he kept muttering things like that, they would lock him up, but not in a prison. He started to wonder if some of the other, crueler rumours about Snape's wife– Severus' mum –were true. He'd only seen her a few times and she'd been...odd. Sort of off. A bit like her son. She'd had a real struggle when the decimal money had come in too. 

Then he wondered how Severus was going to afford the rates and the bills all by himself. He didn't expect there'd been a lot to inherit from Tobias Snape and even with his work for this Lucius mate of his, the train prices alone... 

And how was he supposed to go back to University now? Maybe they'd defer him a year. Compassionate circumstances or something. Or this new position? Would he still be able to apply? 

"I don't think it was you, alright? Even if you hated-" 

Severus recoiled from him at once, a harsh glare in his black eyes. "I didn't hate him." But after a moment he returned to his slump. "He was a shit dad."

Jack wasn't about to deny it. His own relationship with his parents hadn't survived his first boyfriend, although Jack did sometimes wish he'd seen his grandparents before they'd passed away.

"Be reyt."

"You always say that, Jack, but sometimes it won't. Some things stay wrong."

Jack's throat went dry, stomach lurching. He'd never been so worried about the boy before. Maybe he should have tried to get him help when he'd seen the signs, maybe it was only going to get worse. Head stuff like that, illness of the mind...it could be just as dangerous as factory lung."Severus, come by the shop on Christmas. Or I'll visit you. Some company, a friendly face over the holidays, aye?" 

Severus looked deep into his eyes, the black had that endless feel to it, and Jack was sure Severus could tell he was worried about him. But he blinked once and looked away towards the river. "I'll be down south. Perhaps in the new year." He was so calm, despite the fact his fingers were still chewed up, and Jack felt almost as though he was missing something important when Severus turned and began to head away.

"Wait!" He fumbled in his pocket for a pen and something to write on. An old receipt, a pencil. He closed his eyes, remembering the jingle. When he opened them, Severus had stopped moving, head still downturned.

"Here. It's a number for the Gay Switchboard in London. You can call them. No names, they'll listen. You're not wrong, they'll tell you."

Severus reached out and took the crumpled paper lightly between two fingers, staring at the number. "I thought– I thought that he was the lion, you know. That you'd save me." He barely caught the murmur, before the young man in his dark suit turned and walked away. 

Chapter Text

Christmas came and went, and everything was still just bad. There'd even been a threat that the programmes would be disrupted by a strike. Jack had overpurchased, and ended up handing a few of his regulars extra fish and potatoes to have at home. It had already drained his money, but at least they'd come back in the new year, and he could make it through if he was frugal. And unlike most, Christmas and the new year didn't really come with much extra outlay of funds when you were a sad 30-something year old bachelor with no family to speak of. 

He'd ended up going to church on Christmas just to be around other people. 

The man from Pickford Lane had been there and afterwards, shaking hands and exchanging seasons greetings, he'd found out the man's name. Simon was friendly, but seemed to think Jack was taken, and Jack still didn't entirely like the way he seemed to think someone like Severus wouldn't have gotten the care and attention and smiles without offering up his body. 

Of course, nowadays Jack wasn't being entirely honest when he said that Severus was just a Friday employee, but Simon didn't have to know that. 

He posted the Christmas card himself after the service, but there were no lights on or decorations at the house. When he returned to his flat, a small box was waiting just inside the door, labelled from the butcher's. He certainly hadn't ordered it, and when he unpacked the ice he saw the bird had been paid for in installments over the year by T. Snape. 

He'd hesitated at first, over the idea of eating a dead man's Christmas meal, but he had too many potatoes anyway, and that it had been delivered to him and not Severus suggested the lad had dropped it off himself. Especially since it hadn't been left on the stoop. He'd checked his locks but Severus had clearly not forgotten how to pick one, since they'd been fine. In the end, he'd tried to see it as a present from Severus.

It had been too big to fit in his flat's small oven, so he'd had to take the legs off and freeze those in the shop. The remaining meat had kept him going almost until New Year's eve, with sandwiches, a stew, then soup from the carcass. He hoped Severus had had something nice to eat over Christmas, with his friend Lucius or even if he'd gone back to that lying prick, Evan. 

As the new year came, Jack's thoughts turned ever more frequently to Severus. He'd be 19 now or soon, maybe with his new job. And it wasn't like he had any real reasons to stay in Cokeworth, after all, so Jack didn't begrudge him staying away. 

Obviously he'd still have liked to give him the book, now as a birthday present, and to have caught up and seen what he'd made of himself. Jack knew well enough that he was biased, but he did think Severus had the smarts and drive to do a hell of a lot of good in the world. 

He still missed seeing him around, making sure he was alright. Every week that he was gone, 5 now, ratcheted his worries higher. Spinner's End, where Severus had lived, had been hit hard by the economic issues and Jack expected Severus, with his London job, or the new position, was earning more than all his neighbours combined. 

He wrote him a Birthday card, including thanks for the christmas meal, and slid it through the letter box, but there was greyish brown snow and slush piled up against the bottom of the door. It didn't look like Severus had been home.

 He stared at the dark house for a few moments, then went back to his flat, alone, worries still gnawing at him, and taped up the cracked window when it started to leak cold air. As he smoothed his fingers along the tape, he wished he could fettle up whatever was wrong eith his young friend just as easily.

Chapter Text

He didn't see Severus again until early Spring of 1979. Or rather, he saw Severus a few times, but he didn't visit the chippy, and always seemed to be walking fast on his way somewhere, always ducking into alleys and snickets. Jack got the feeling Severus was avoiding him, though he couldn't think why. 

It gave him a slightly heavy, uncomfortable feeling. 

But come March, Severus wandered into the greengrocers over the way looking haggard. Jack was down his stairs and across the road in seconds, trying to act like he was just after some of the exotic vegetables they had. He spent some time turning the ladysfingers and peering at peppers, watching Severus out of the corner of his eye. 

He was holding a bunch of herbs up to his face and inhaling, inspecting the leaves, giving them all the sharp focus of his dark eyes. They weren't especially familiar to him, but he still sidled over. 

"Ay up, there's a face I haven't seen in a while."

Severus span, a strange expression flickering across his face. There were dark circles under his eyes and a slight darkening on his upper lip and chin. 

"Oh, it's you."

Jack smiled, "how's the new work going?"

Severus frowned, looking nervous, and hurriedly put the herbs in a basket. "It...I just started. Sort of probationary role." 

"Taking another year off then?"

"Off?"

"From university," Jack prompted.

"Ah. I suppose, yes." Severus sidestepped towards another pile of roots. 

Jack followed. "Alright. So What're you making? Curry?" He didn't know a lot about cooking with these things, but Severus clearly did. Probably something he'd picked up in London. Or maybe he'd got a new boyfriend who was ethnic somehow. Actually, now Jack thought about it, he'd always had the feeling his mum had been foreign. 

"A stew." Severus tried to move away again, sliding what seemed to Jack like quite a few of the roots into his basket. Probably not cooking for one then.

"Been meaning to try some new food myself." Smiling, Jack stayed nearby.

"Jack, I'm actually quite busy, do you–"

Jack's face fell. "Right. Well. Nice to see you, anyroad." He remembered the book and put a hand out, lightly touching Severus' shoulder. It was warm and while lean, the muscle there was wiry and strong. Maybe he'd taken up swimming or something. He'd always had the body for it. "Here, can you hold on a moment, I've got something for you."

Severus looked down at his basket and the spices nearer the till. "I can't really– I have to get back soon." 

"It'll just be a moment, promise."

Though his face was hidden by his hair, Jack could see a fair pinkness at the tip of his ear, and he hadn't shrugged his hand off, only twitched. He gave a shrug of his shoulder under Jack's hand. "I've got a few more ingredients to buy. But then I really do have to get back."

Jack gave the shoulder a squeeze and then with a nod to the grocer, jogged back across the road and up to his flat, searching for the book he'd bought, still wrapped up in the paper from Christmas.

Severus was just paying when he made it back, slightly out of breath. 

"Here." He held it out, smiling despite himself and the cool reception he'd been given. "Late birthday present."

Severus's long fingers froze in the act of reaching out for the book, and he didn't manage to keep the surprise off his face. "It's a book."

Jack laughed, "aye, open it up, have a look." 

Severus quickly took his change and the bag, and stepped outside onto the street. 

"Here–" Jack took the bag to give Severus two free hands, and watched eagerly as Severus just stared at the present. "Go on."

Jack watched as one of those long fingers slid under the paper and unstuck the tape, then slid the book free. 

"Oh." Severus' wary tense expression had smoothed out, his black eyes widening slightly as he turned the book in those long elegant fingers.

"It's a bit old but...thought you'd like it."

"It–...you didn't have to." Severus looked a little surprised, maybe even a little guilty.

Jack beamed and squeezed Severus' shoulder again, "wanted to, didn't I? Don't worry, wasn't too dear." And even if it had been, Jack didn't have a lot of people to spend money on, and Severus, even if he was being a little distant these days, deserved it. 

"Thank you." Severus' fingers tightened on the cover, and even tired as he looked, and with that nervousness, his coal-dark gaze was piercing. Jack's stomach gave a little flip of happiness when Severus pulled the book close to his chest.

"You can let me know what's out-dated next time you come for chips?"

The black in Severus' eyes seemed to dull a little and he reached for his bag of ingredients. "Perhaps."

Jack tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice. "Best be getting back to your stew, eh?"

Severus gave a brief nod and shouldered the bag. 

Jack watched him go, and when Severus paused at the end of the street to look back, he raised a hand fondly. It was good to know he was alright, and getting on with things even if he was alone in his home. Or maybe not so alone, that had been a lot of ginger root. 

Jack quashed the little flicker of jealous curiosity, shoved his hands into his pockets, and headed back to his flat.

Chapter Text

He was on one of his wanders again when he found himself in Spinner's End by some twist of fate. 

Maybe he'd been thinking about Severus, since he hadn't seen him in some time, and that had lead his feet unconsciously –or subconsciously, perhaps – Severus would know which.

Summer was not an ideal time to be on this side of town, so close to the river, the smell that rose up seemed to get everywhere and the air was too still to really disperse it. As the days got warmer it was only going to get worse.

But it must really have been fate guiding his steps, because as he neared the back row of Severus's terrace, he saw smoke coming up from the small back yard. 

He didn't think twice, didn't even think once, just ducked into the alley, sending a mangy looking cat scarpering off along the fences. The smoke was still trailing up in thin whisps and the occasional puff as he neared the rickety wooden gate door and gripped the iron ring. 

A jolt of something went through him, like touching one of the electrified cattle fences, and Jack realised he couldn't uncurl his fingers. It was as though the messages to his hand weren't reaching the muscles. And what's more, his feet weren't responding either. He opened his mouth to call out in alarm, but no sound came. Jack didn't understand what was happening. Was he ill? Was this a stroke? Why couldn't he move or speak?!

Behind him he heard a loud cracking like a whip, and suddenly smelled cigarette smoke and heard a familiar voice say, "Shit...why are you here?!"

Jack turned his head, feet and hand still locked in place, and voice still stolen. Severus was standing there in a loose shirt and trousers, sleeves rolled up to show long pale forearms, smelling of smoke and holding a stick in his right hand. 

"Shit! Shit. You can't be here!"

Jack should have worried more about himself, probably, since he was the one partially paralysed, but Severus looked frantic, choking on the lingering smoke from his cigarette and casting the alleyway frantic looks. 

Suddenly, he stepped forward and Jack's fingers released the ring, his legs feeling tingly and wobbly but back under his control just in time for Severus to shove him through the door into the small yard. 

"Don't – you can't just come here like that!" Severus had the stick, (or maybe it was a handle off of something, since it seemed to have a grip and was carved and turned neatly) pointed at Jack's chest and he was trembling slightly, black eyes wide. 

Jack realised there was only the one door in the fence and it was too far to have run around. "Hang on, Severus. How did you get–"

"You don't know anything! If someone saw you..." 

Ah. So there was a boyfriend. A jealous one, it seemed, maybe someone Severus had told about his fancy for Jack. Swallowing the disappointment, which he had no reason to feel, since he'd told Severus 'no' so many times it was a wonder the young man had put up with his company for so long, Jack nodded and put a hand on Severus' where he was holding the stick. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to cause any trouble for you and–"

"For me?!" Severus shook his head and shoved Jack's hand away roughly, shakily taking a few deep deep breaths before walking a small circle towards a bucket where a small pile of cigarette butts sat. The last one was still faintly sending up a trail of smoke. "Y'should worry over yoursen, Jack!"

That didn't make much sense to Jack, unless Severus' new man was a violent sort, and he'd have though that would have turned Severus off completely. Then again, he took after his mother in a lot of ways, and they said things like that went in cycles. 

"You're safe, though, and happy?" Ducking past the hanging laundry, Jack reached for Severus' shoulder, but Severus twisted away again, putting distance and a long black dress on the washing line between them.

"Just. You cant come here with no warning. I'm expecting some–" Severus' eyes widened and he turned to look at his back door into the house. "Fuck!" His voice dropped into a low hiss and he gripped the stick tighter, seeming scared, and not at all as angry as his words implied. He seemed determined, pronouncing each word carefully. "Fuck off. And don't come back." 

Jack stared, mouth slightly agape, offering no resistance when Severus shoved him towards the gate and back out into the alley.

Severus hesitated, one hand on the gate, then glanced back at the house and a flicker of something crossed his face, pinching his dark eyebrows together and turning his mouth down at the corners. 

Despite the harsh words, Jack had a sudden urge to make sure the young man was alright, and got as far as lifting a foot to approach, before Severus' dark eyes shut tight and his arm moved. 

As the door slammed, he stared at the fence in shock. What had happened to Severus? Why would he be so– 

In a daze, Jack turned back towards his flat, the river's stench barely registering as he trailed around the edge of the row of houses. He glanced back at the front of the house once. There was a light on in the front room, though not the main lamp, more like candles, and through the grimy windows and threadbare curtains, he could see a suggestion of movement. To Jack's befuddled mind it looked like more than two people. 

Angry and confused, Jack stopped on the pavement, staring at the house front. As he watched, a silhouette approached the window, and drew back the curtain. 

His stomach dropped and Jack felt all his anger sharpen. Evan was there, looking at him coolly, tilting his head as Jack glared and tried to mentally convey that he'd better take bloody good care of Severus this time. 

Evan just smirked, at odds with his demeanour last time, and he almost didn't seem to recognise Jack. He turned his head over his shoulder, and a second silhouette drew closer, a blond man, taller than Evan, and a little older perhaps. The blond raised an eyebrow at Jack and made a shooing motion. Jack thrust his jaw forward and folded his arms, leaning against a lamppost. He didn't know who they were, but he wasn't going to let them get off putting the fear of God into Severus like that. Because it must have been that. His Severus, the lad who'd hidden behind his hair and given him the burn cream, and who was annoyed at Jack's mixing of coins and who kissed sweetly and clumsily, would never have been so callous to him. Not without outside influence. 

Severus' pale face appeared behind Evan's, and even at distance, Jack could see his dark eyes flick quickly between Jack and Evan, before he shook his head and shrugged at the blond, pulling the curtain shut sharply.

After a few minutes, Jack gave up. He slept poorly that night, plagued by a dream of Severus on a boat, slightly too far for him to call out to when a sea monster with Evan's face and long claws dragged him backwards off the boat and down under the water. 

He had the doctor check him out, but whatever had happened hadn't been anything he could find, and had diagnosed it in the end as a twinged muscle and recommended Jack take a few days rest. 

He didn't have anyone else to run the shop, so he hadn't, but the symptoms hadn't showed up again.

Chapter Text

The next time he saw Severus was months later in the tail end of summer. Jack had done as he'd asked, and not come to his house, not bothered him, tried to move on with his life. 

But Severus was at the river's edge and Jack happened to be there too, talking to Simon about Thatcher and unions and the unrest over in Ireland. They'd moved onto Sebastian Coe, and Simon of course had said he'd like to break a few records of his own with the young athlete, and not for running. Jack had just rolled his eyes.

Since the last meeting with Severus, he'd given in twice to Simon, but Simon and he would never work out, both wanting to be on top, and Simon sometimes saying off things about their 'shameful' interests and how it would be better if they both found a nice oblivious young lass and just met occasionally to work out their urges. 

They'd stayed...sort of friends, after a fashion, sharing a smoke now and then when they met, or a drink at the Marquis, when Simon's work mates were around. Never alone together in places people might see them though. 

Simon was the one to spot Severus first. "Here, Jackie, that your old Friday lad?" 

Jack had turned at once, and seen Severus crouched low by a fallen tree trunk no one had bothered to push completely into the river or pull out of it.

"Mh. Looks like it."

"Well, if you aren't going to–" 

"He's too young for you, Si." Jack said, with a warning tone. 

"Wasn't too young for you last–"

"Yes, he fucking was."

"Alright, alright. Go say hello then, there's nobbut four folks along here, and you don't want owt to do with Pauline, daft queen gave me the clap. She's a lousy shag too." Simon narrowed his eyes at the man in question, who gave Simon the stink-eye right back. Paul had never been Jack's type, a bit too fussy and clean and soft, so it was a bit of a surprise to find out about the clap. Jack was glad he'd never slept with him, but then made a note to get himself checked, since Simon could well have passed it on.

Jack hesitated a moment too long, because Severus' head turned and Jack found himself pinned by sharp black eyes. He flicked away the cigarette, shoved his hands into his pockets and ambled over. 

"Alright?"

Severus looked away and bent further over the log, cutting small mushrooms and growths away with his knife. "Alright."

"How've you been, then?"

"Fine." Severus turned as he reached a little further, and winced as his sleeve rode up, long despite the heat. Jack's eyes slid to the flash of wrist exposed there and saw the edge of some kind of bandage, but Severus very quickly straightened his sleeve, tugging it down. 

Evan's nasty smirk rose up in his mind and Jack's hand shot out to grab Severus' shoulder when he stood. "Who's done that then?"

"No-one. Drop it."

Jack didnt care if Severus wanted him gone, because it was more important to him that Severus didnt let himself be taken advantage of again. "I bloody won't. Who's hurt you?"

"No-one!" Severus twisted, but Jack kept a hand tightly fisted in his shirt.

"Then let's have a look." 

"I told you it's nothing. Just a burn. No-one's hurting me."

"Not your man, Evan?"

Severus stilled and his eyes narrowed. "He didn't do it." And then, for no reason Jack could see, Severus leaned in towards him, a little of the old light back in the depths of his dark eyes, "Anyway he's just a ...coworker. He and I aren't anything more."

"None of my business is it?"

The light dimmed and Severus frowned down at the bag he was gripping tightly. "Is your shop still...is everything fine with the Chippy?"

Despite himself, Jack loosened his grip and smoothed the fabric back into place. "Yeah, it's fine. Someone smashed the sign last month but they replaced it a week later."

Severus nodded, "I... saw." He twisted the bag in his hands. "I'm sorry about what I said. Last time."

Jack hadnt been expecting that. "Oh."

"The people at my house– you saw them– they're...opinionated."

Understanding began to bloom, and Jack felt himself starting to relax. "About queers."

"No. Well...I don't think so...but, I didn't want you to get mixed up in things." 

Jack had a strange uncomfortable feeling again. Like seeing bruises on Severus' wrists or neck, or the edge of the bandage. He was starting to get the idea that the opinions Severus' friends had might be dangerous. 

"Did they–"

"Are you doing anything for the bank holiday?" Dark eyes slid along the riverbank to Simon, who was offering a cigarette to another man, curling a too-friendly arm around his shoulders. Jack felt the urge to make sure Severus knew that he had Simon weren't anything either.

"Dont mind him, just a friend." He pondered the question Severus had asked. "Probably not. Might go to the Market in Bradford." 

"Don't." Severus said suddenly, gripping Jack's sleeve. "Don't go to Bradford for a while. Or Leeds."

"Why?" Jack couldn't see why Severus was so urgent and earnest.

"It's not safe."

Jack gave a confused smile, "London's worse, isn't it? Been seeing it on the news; all the bombings and that building coming down, the sinkhole in Charing Cross." 

Severus shook his head, "No, it's fine. They warn people, they aren't trying to kill anyone, it's just...to make the authorities take notice."

Jack gave Severus a wary, sidelong glance. Was he harbouring some sympathies? Were his dangerous friends involved somehow? Where was it his mum had come from? Eileen wasnt an exclusively Irish name, but...

Severus' hand gripped his wrist, long fingers clutching st him and dark eyes earnest. "Just promise me you won't go to Leeds or Bradford until next month?"

Glancing back to see Simon disappear off with his new friend, Jack sighed, "Alright. And you stay safe in London. They can warn you about the bombs, but that building..."

"I'll be fine. I'm not in London as much these days. I do some...commission work here. If you want to visit? Just let me know beforehand."

Jack hesitated, then nodded towards the direction of his flat. "Come by one evening and we'll have a brew?"

Intense dark eyes locked onto his, and Severus nodded once.

They parted, and Jack couldn't imagine anyone would catch his attention after that. He went home and tidied up, just in case Severus decided to drop by.

Chapter Text

A week passed, and Jack had begun to think he'd imagined the meeting by the river. He would have convinced himself too, if the Sunday edition of the paper hadn't contained an article about a fire in Leeds. It hadn't been investigated yet, but seeing the gutted shell of a warehouse and the blackened buildings next to it had given Jack more uncomfortable feelings. 

Was that why Severus had told him to stay away from Leeds? Surely it had just been an accident. 

But with the news the way it was, he couldn't help his mind dredging things up. 

Severus' dangerous friends, the way he'd tried to scare Jack off...and his secretive new position that had him doing something at home, and not in London. His not-defence-but-not-condemnation of the bombings in London...and he was good at chemistry, wasn't he? And he'd gotten a burn all up his arm even though he knew how to treat burns. Jack eyed the depleted jar of orange paste and tried not to think about Severus bent over a pile of chemicals, concocting some kind of explosive.

Late one Sunday, there was a knock at his door. He came down the steps and when he opened the door, of course, saw Severus, looking uncertain of the welcome he might receive, but healthy. 

"In you come then." Jack held the door for Severus, but as he squeezed past into the cramped space at the bottom of the stairs he carried a strange smell. Smoke but not cigarettes, and not dope either, maybe some kind of patchouli oil? It was hard to tell. It didn't smell like the cleaning chemicals Jack used in the shop, or the things they used in the factory but he didn't know what chemicals smelled like as a rule. 

Once they'd settled in with their teacups, the awkward small talk had all been exhausted: Severus hadn't been following the football, hadn't seen Moonraker, and agreed the price of milk was a travesty.

"So, your commissions...must leave you some free time. You going to University soon?"

Severus tilted his head. "I've been applying. A place in Scotland." 

"You liked it there then?" Jack prompted, hoping that maybe that would get Severus away from his nasty mates.

Severus stared at the coffee table. Clearly there was something he wasn't saying.

Jack sighed and reached past him for the paper, folding it to the article about the blaze in Leeds and letting it slap down onto the wood.

Severus' eyes widened slightly, but he looked at his cup.

"Severus? Summat's going on, in't it? I can tell. You've been hiding it from me for a while now." Jack asked softly, coaxing.

Severus's lips thinned and he scrubbed his hand across his mouth.

Jack reached out to squeeze his knee gently, "I'm worried." 

Even if he was involved, Severus wasn't heartless, or unreasonable. There had to be something Jack could do to get him out of whatever he was mixed up in.

Severus' eyes skimmed the coffee table, the two cups, the paper, the lamp in the corner, then lifted to Jack's face. 

"I...I can't. I can't hear it from you too." His voice had always tended soft, unless he was out of sorts or having one of his episodes, but now it dropped to barely a whisper, tinged with something desperate. "You'll think I'm...a freak."

Jack watched Severus gripping his thighs, and tried to think back to what it could be. This wasn't what he'd expected. No-one was calling bombers freaks. 

Maybe the dresses? He'd seen Severus in them a few times now, and even though the style was changing, he kept his hair long. And he'd worn makeup that time, hadn't he? 

And his dad had said there was something wrong with him that couldn't be fixed.

He lifted his hand and settled it on one of Severus', trying to reassure him. "I won't, Severus. I promise you that."

Severus' throat worked, the swallow audible as his fingers twitched beneath Jack's. "I'm..."

Jack did his best to calm his expression. He wanted to let Severus tell him in his own words. It was clear he'd had plenty of ridicule in the past, maybe even nasty comments, and Jack refused to let himself add to them. Whatever Severus was, he was still the same sharp, caring lad who'd made him the burn salve, and helped him out on Fridays, and worked his way into Jack's thoughts and dreams.

"I'm a wizard." 

Chapter Text

Jack realised he'd misheard, or misunderstood, or something, continuing to look at Severus and wait for him to say it again. For him to clarify.

"Jack?" Severus was quiet, dark eyes wide.

"Hm? Sorry, I...you're...?"

Severus' hand flew to his mouth and his nail clicked against his teeth a few times. "I can do magic."

Jack blinked once, slowly, and shifted on the sofa, turning to better face Severus. "Come again?" Oh no no no

"Magic."

"Magic?" A sinking feeling starting in his stomach, Jack knew he was missing something here. He hoped he was missing something. Hoped Severus wasn't about to have one of his funny turns. "Can you erm...like what?"

With a steady exhale, Severus lowered his hand from his mouth and tugged something free from the back of his trousers. It was the stick he'd had a few months ago, dark wood and polished. 

He lifted it, looked at Jack, eyes almost mournful, then turned to the coffee cups on the table and squinted slightly. 

Stomach still sinking, Jack looked over as well, and started, unable to believe what he was seeing and gripping the sofa cushion so tight his hand cramped.

The coffee cups were gone, and two crows stood in their place. One gave a harsh caw and they leapt into the air and flew around the room in a wide arc. It wasn't dangling or swinging, the wings actually flapped and Jack could feel the little down gusts as he stared open-mouthed.

"Like... that."

Jack's mouth stayed open as right before his eyes, they flew as if trained towards Severus, and settled themselves back down on his bony knees. The crows nuzzled each other, clacking their beaks then hopped back onto the table. Their feathers seemed to swirl and smooth until two cups sat by side, not a drop of tea spilled. 

Jack reached out slowly for the cup that had been a crow that had been his cup before, but it was solid and felt real against his fingers. The tea swirled when he moved it, and there were no feathers or eyes or beaks anywhere on the cup.

"How in the bloody–" 

"Magic." Severus said guardedly, watching him as Jack peered at the bottom of the cup and smoothed his hand over the surface of the table. There were two small scratches where the birds had leapt from. Real scratches.

"It's a branch of wit– magic known as Transfiguration. Changing the form or nature of one thing into another."

Jack was still looking between his cups and the table, now lifting Severus' to check it for any lingering trace of the bird it had been. 

"Well I'll go to 't foot of our stairs..." Jack breathed, lowering the cup and turning to Severus.

His pale face was almost rigid, still holding the stick, his other hand balled onto his thigh. "Do you believe me now?"

Jack hesitated. It must have been too long, because Severus gritted his teeth and flicked his stick. The cup flew upwards and span, floating a foot above the table and spinning in a lazy circle. It was just rotating, as if someone had it on an invisible turntable.

Slowly, Jack reached up and plucked it from the air, a little tea sloshing over the edge onto the table. 

Jack stared at it. 

"Well?" When he looked up he saw Severus had moved along the sofa, putting distance between them. 

"I believe you." Jack liked to think of himself as a modern man. He trusted science, or as much of it as he understood. He had to face reality. What Severus had just done was not possible. But he'd done it. And Jack had seen it with his own eyes. Which meant it was either a very very clever trick or real. 

And Severus didn't look like he was joking. If anything he looked even more anxious, black eyes locked onto Jack's every movement, flicking to his hands whenever they moved. 

They sat silently in the tension. Jack leaned forward to wipe the spilled tea with his sleeve, trying to rejig his thoughts. It felt like someone had turned a jigsaw puzzle of Severus upside down onto the floor. 

But pieces started to slot into place. "Is that why the lads at your school went after you?"

Severus looked up from where he'd been retreating into his fringe. "Is what why?"

"Because you're special? You've got a gift?"

Even through the fringe and shadows, Jack saw Severus' eyes widen. "A...gift...?"

"Your uhm. Y'r..." Jack gestured at the stick. "The magic."

Severus looked down, resting his long fingers on the tip of the magic wand. He didn't seem as nervous, but he was still tense. "No. No, that wasn't why."

"Oh." Jack chewed his lip slightly. "You uh...you don't summon demons or owt, do you?" 

Severus shook his head, leaning away, tension returning to his thin shoulders. "No."

Jack tried for a smile, but it felt like a strain to force his lips to curl. "And you've not been out on 't moor dancing naked?"

Severus let out a short burst of laughter, almost a squawk, as awkward as Jack felt. "No. It's nothing like that." He looked down at what must have been his magic wand again. "I was born like this. It's in my blood."

More jigsaw pieces started to fall into place. "Did your dad know?"

Severus glanced his way and exhaled. 

"Was he–"

The answer was quick and verbal this time, and Severus' lip curled up, the spitting image of his father. "No."

"Right. No, s'pose he weren't. That makes sense."

"He didn't like magic. At all." Severus's eyes had gone flat, like staring into a mineshaft. "He'd have denied me my birthright."

Jack could understand why Severus being told not to use his gifts would have lead to that bitter tone. "Well, it's part of you, isnt it? He shouldn't've –"

Severus didnt seem to have heard him, barrelling on, now staring at the cups. "He was the same with my mother. As if we should be ashamed. Should hide like–what?" 

"No, I interrupted you." Jack nodded for Severus to continue, but Severus' eyes were on his face again, dark brows drawn low in confusion. 

"You're not afraid? You don't think he was right?"

Jack took a breath to try and figure it out, how he felt. He sat forward, elbows on his knees and stared at the scratches in the wood. "It's part of you, like you said. Can't change your hair colou– well, you could, poor example. But you can't change who you are. You were just born special, I s'pose."

The tension in Severus' jaw had gone and he was looking at Jack very intensely. "Special."

Jack shifted, settling more into the slight sag of the cushions. "Aye. Special. You've got all these magic things you can work–"

"Spells."

"Spells. And its–" He didn't want to say strange or weird, or unbelievable. "Different to what I thought, but there's nowt wrong with it. Don't hide your light under a bushel. You're still sharp enough to cut yourself, mind."

Severus listened, sipping the tea and watching through his dark lashes as Jack spoke. Jack had the feeling he was trying to hide his expression with the cup. 

"But these spells and all...that can help you if folk're hurt, can't it."

Severus looked away and lowered the cup, dangling it from the elegant fingers of his left hand. He was holding the rim of the cup, ignoring the handle completely, fingers splayed out like a pale spider. "That's true....I'm not studying to be a doctor though, Jack."

Jack waited for the shock to hit, but somewhere in his chest he must have already known it to be true. "Yeah. So what'll you do at univers–" 

Severus' fingers slipped from the cup as his hand clenched and he snatched it back with a grimace. It clipped the table, smashed and leaked the remaining tea into his rug. 

Jack was already reaching for Severus. "You alright? Burn yourself?"

"No. It–" Severus had his hand held tight against his chest as he got to his feet. The bandage poked out of his sleeve. "I have to go."

"Well first let's–"

"No. It's urgent. It's nothing you said." Severus started to back away toward the top of the stairs. "I'll come by again."

His toe nudged a shard of pottery and he glanced down, pulled a face and turned, rushing down the stairs before Jack could round the table. 

The door closed with a louder bang than usual, and Jack had half a mind to race down after him and tell Severus not to slam his door.

He sighed, since he'd need to buy another cup, and turned back to the table, bending to start gathering the smashed mug. 

It was lying on its side without even a scratch. He picked it up, gently cradling in his hand, but it didn't fall apart, and even the hairline cracks of the old glaze were gone.