It was a lazy Sunday and they were still in bed, bodies curled in on each other and silent, save for rustle of sheets.
When Al emerged again from the near-drowning state of his own head, it was thanks to Severus that he came to. That he wriggled up to half-sit, with a rustle of rumpled sheets and leviosa-ed the coffee mug over to gulp down the cooling black liquid which soothed his dry throat.
The bitter smell of it awoke him and kept him sane but more than the smell, it was the sight and the stare which Al's gaze inevitably drifted to out of necessity and need. Severus: long limbs and shadowed face, and solid body always there to hold him when he needed it most, a solid mind to rest his thoughts against.
He sipped and looked at Severus and inhaled dry air again, when he felt he could breathe in fully.
She knew. Dad's gone. Severus is here.
It's the simple things that could hurt most. But it's the simple things that also kept you going.