Title: New World, New Men
Author: chiralove
Based On/Inspired By: Wizard Seeking Wizard by torino10154
Characters/Pairings: Albus/Severus
Rating: R
Content/Warnings: canon character death
Word Count: 1000ish
Summary/Description: There was only one man Albus would have waited for, and for him he will wait as long as it takes.
Author's Notes: I know nothing about how King's Cross looked in the nineteenth century, or the clothing that people might have worn then, but I can cheerfully blame all of my errors on Wikipedia.



People make decisions at train stations – where to go, when to leave. Some people go home, while others go on to the next adventure. Albus had always thought that would be him, going on to discover new things.

He waits, instead, slumped against the wall. King's Cross is familiar to him – it looks as it had looked when he was a boy, when every trip by train was a grand adventure. Albus wonders idly if this is how Harry had seen it – the high vault ceilings and bright windows are the same – the men in their three-piece suits and tall hats, the women with their ruffled skirts sweeping the floor.

The strangers passing here are blank-faced and intent on their own destinations. Albus has no destination – it will be a while before he goes on. He conjures a trunk and settles on it, prepared to wait.

It was the last time they spent together, the first time in their own bodies, and the only chance Albus had to learn the shape of Severus, the sounds he made, the taste and smell of him. He'd touched him before, tasted him and known him in another body, in a stranger's body – but this was different. They'd known it was the end, and that made it sweeter and more urgent at the same time, a heady rush going through them both.

Severus underneath him, spread for him, with his head thrown back onto the pillow and his lips parted – he begged for more, and Albus denied him.

Albus had always remembered that when Severus came to him, he'd known less than kindness. He'd tried to be good to him, to erase some of those past hurts, but he wasn't interested in being kind just then. He made Severus beg for more, taunted him, tormented him, did anything to hear him say it.

"My name," Albus said, poised over him. He held himself up, his cock rubbing against Severus's, his wand pressed against Severus's entrance making him ready. He had brought Severus to this point, brought him to the point of begging, and now was refusing to fuck him. He saw a hint of rebellion in Severus's dark eyes, and pressed the wand harder against him. "Say it. I won't fuck you until you say it."

He'd seen Severus standing there, bare before him – standing before him as his self, without the benefit of Polyjuice, and Severus had called him Headmaster. That wouldn't do. That wouldn't do at all.

"Albus."

He kissed Severus, kissed the lips that had said his name at last. That was it, that was what he needed. It was enough to make Albus move, and he took Severus, marked him with a bite to his shoulder as he fucked him. As their bodies moved together, Albus looked Severus in the eye and let their minds touch, let his defenses drop and his overwhelming affection for Severus come through. This was more than it had ever been – all of the encounters over the years, all of the times he'd been with this man and never known him, never truly known him–

"Albus."

When Albus opens his eyes, Severus is standing there in front of him, with his black robes neatly pressed. He looks as he always has done, sallow and severe, but Albus fancies that the haunted look is gone from his eyes. He stands and clasps Severus's arms, pulling him closer. "I thought that I might be seeing you here sometime soon."

There's no need for words. They both know what happened. Albus is sorry to think of Severus's body, left somewhere, lifeless – but he has Severus here and now.

Severus shakes his head, a faint hint of a smile teasing the corners of his mouth. "You'll not be able to make mysterious pronouncements that have us all wondering about the source of your wisdom – not anymore, old man. This is a new world."

"A new world, and I'm not an old man." Albus kisses him, just a quick brush of lips, but he's half-tempted to pull Severus into the nearest broom closet to prove it. He could ravish him here, in front of the staid strangers in their buttoned-up shirts and tight corsets. He could take him into the nearest train and find an empty compartment, use the space to make their bodies better acquainted again. He has known this man, and loved him without knowing him, and loved him–

"As you say."

There's nothing more, but Albus has the sense that Severus is pleased. He isn't as omniscient as he used to be – Severus is right, it's a new world and his old tricks will do little good here. He won't use Legilimency on Severus, not again, but there's still a sense of … something. "You're happy," he says, testing it out. "Aren't you?"

"You waited for me."

It's simple enough, but perhaps it's enough. Albus has a feeling that there haven't been very many people who cared enough to wait for Severus. He was always a better man than Albus gave him credit for, though. He had come through in the end. He was the only man Albus had asked to come back to him, after all those years, and he was the only man Albus would have waited for.

"Of course I did. There are adventures waiting for us," is all that Albus says, but he takes Severus's hand and squeezes it. This is real and solid, not ephemeral. This is something Severus can trust, and Albus will spend the rest of his days here proving it if he must, if that is what it takes for Severus to believe in him. He looks at Severus, willing for him to believe.

Severus's robes billow around him in the rush of wind made by the passing trains, and he keeps a firm grasp on Albus's hand, using his free hand to gesture to the platforms that are laid out before them – the world, and all the decisions that they will make, and all of the tomorrows waiting for them. "Where shall we go?"