Hearts are Blind (Severus Snape X OC)

Touch Me

A/n: Forgive any grammatical errors, please, and enjoy.

Touch Me

After a troublesome night, the man gave up on rest. He checked the woman (still asleep) and headed downstairs into the muddled light of not-quite-dawn. A peer out of the dingy kitchen window gave a sad view of the soggy, uneven street outside. The temperature had obviously risen, because the snow from the day before had all but melted. What was left were small lumps of gray blobs and murky puddles. The air was thick with fog beyond the window.

Severus rubbed his forehead, as he filled the kettle at the sink. He could feel a migraine starting. It could have been the weather, but he had a feeling this had more to do with everything on his mind. Before he let it overwhelm him, he mentally sorted it out: the things that needed to be dealt with first and so on...

He had just finished making two cups of tea when she entered the sitting room where he was. He was bending down to set her cup beside the chair in which she had resided the day before. He'd cleaned up the mess that Rudolpho had made, and thankfully the bird was out at that moment, or his migraine might have got worse.

"Did you sleep well?" Severus asked and then glanced away from the woman. She was still in his nightshirt. He was right about it coming to her knees. He thought her naked feet looked cold, as he kept his gaze away from her face. However, when she didn't answer him, he looked up again.

She was holding her arms across her midsection, in an uncomfortable sort of stance. Or perhaps she really was cold.

"Lucinda—"

"I'm sorry about last night," she said quietly. She didn't look at him, but he was somewhat glad she didn't. Her face stared blankly towards the empty hearth. She didn't look sorry. She didn't sound sorry.

Snape let a breath out and with it he swatted his hand through the air, as if shooing a fly. The hearth erupted in a crackling fire and he finished situating their cups next to the two chairs that sat in front of it. "It's fine," he responded evenly. Some gentle light now came through the window and you could see splatters of rain on the glass. "You should get dressed first," he added, when she stepped up to the chair. She did look at him then. Their eyes locked and he was surprised to see she looked somewhat offended. His head tilted in an almost shrug, as he said, "It's cold."

Lucinda's face softened a miniscule amount and then her eyes left his again to stare at the hearth. "I left my things..." she trailed off. She seemed to want to say more, but it caused her forehead to crinkle slightly and her throat to move in a tight swallow.

Severus dipped his head down momentarily, as he mumbled a "right" to himself. "I brought your things last night," he said to her and motioned with a hand toward the door. "By the front entrance. It's dark out there, so you might not have seen—"

"Thanks," Lucinda responded quickly and turned around.

Her hair was long now and flowed down her back. He watched it cascade behind her as she disappeared back out of the room. The man let a fast breath out and put a hand to his forehead again. He sunk heavily down into his chair and awaited her return. He sipped his tea and didn't taste it. The smell of it seemed to make his head worse.

When the young woman came back in, she was dressed in blue jeans and a gray jumper. Her hair was still a bit messy, but still beautiful. Severus looked away from her as she sat in the chair opposite of his. She pulled her feet up and tucked them under her, as they were still bare, and picked up her cup that he left there for her. She put it to her lips, but she didn't drink. She just held it there, resting her mouth against the rim and staring at the flames in the fireplace.