Torina Archelda (torina_archelda) wrote in severus_sighs, @ 2009-11-21 00:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | drabble, member: torina_archelda, pairing: severus/harry, rating: pg-13 |
Tribbles and Trilobites by Torina Archelda
Title: Tribbles and Trilobites
Author: torina_archelda
Pairing: Severus/Harry
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1.4k
Warnings: none
Summary: Severus should never be left to his own devices…especially with a computer at hand. Written for lovetoseverus for making us a new layout for the comm! Thanks, love! She asked for Severus with a laptop and internet access, a vacation to the U.S., and a Moonshadow cameo. Hope you like it!
A/N: *points at icon* That’s a trilobite. *nods* Thanks to lemondropseven for the beta!
“I’m sorry, Severus. I’ll make it up to you.”
“Damn straight you will,” Severus replied petulantly, glaring at Harry as he shrugged into his auror robes. “What in god’s name am I supposed to do while you’re gone?”
Harry’s lips twitched into a smile as he buckled his belt, and Severus’ glare intensified. “You’re forty-five years old, Severus,” he replied. “You can’t entertain yourself?”
“In a muggle hotel in the middle of California on a vacation you dragged me on?” he snarled. “No, I bloody well can’t.”
Harry sighed and tried to drag him down for a kiss, but Severus turned his head at the last moment and the kiss landed on his cheek. “I’m sorry, Severus,” he repeated. “Look, here,” he said, putting an arm around Severus’ waist and guiding him over to the desk in their suite. “The hotel’s got free wi-fi. You can use my laptop, all right?”
Severus pulled away from Harry’s grasp and crossed his arms. “And how do you suppose I manage to work the blasted thing? And what the hell do I do with it once I have?”
“It took you all of five minutes to figure out your cell phone, Severus,” Harry replied with a grin. “I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it. And failing that, I’ve yet to meet the muggle who can’t use a computer. The hotel staff will be more than willing to assist you, I’m sure. As for what you do with it, millions of people amuse themselves in front of the computer every day. I’m sure my brilliant, Potions Master husband can think of something.”
Harry tried for another kiss, and this time Severus grudgingly allowed it. “I’ll be back this evening,” he continued, slipping his wand into the holster on his belt. “Probably late. But tomorrow we can—”
“You can sleep on the couch, in that case,” Severus groused, and Harry stiffened.
“You don’t mean that?” he asked, the hand that had been reaching for Severus’ arm stilling in midair, and Severus could tell that he’d hurt him.
Severus sighed. “I wish I did,” he replied, turning and gathering Harry into his arms. “You’ll make this up to me,” he insisted, and Harry pressed a kiss to his neck.
“I’ll make this up to you,” Harry repeated, reluctantly pulling out of Severus’ embrace. “I’ll be back tonight, and you know where I am if you need me.” He kissed Severus one more time, and then took a step back. “I love you,” he said, and then he apparated away.
A Slytherin grin curved Severus’ lips as an idea struck him. Oh, yes. He knew exactly where Harry was if he needed him.
***
“A political investigation?” Harry asked incredulously, staring at his supervisor. “You pulled me away from my first vacation in three years, knowing Severus would give me hell for it, for a political investigation?”
“We’re drowning here, Harry,” Mike Robinson replied, sighing and rubbing at tired eyes. “If Carpenter actually stole those funds…”
“He could also have fudged the results of the election,” Harry said resignedly. “Which means your boss’s head is on the chopping block, which means your head is on the chopping block, which means I have an incredibly crabby lover thousands of miles away who’s probably thinking up hundreds of slow and painful ways to instrument my death.”
“That pretty much sums it up,” Robinson replied, stacking up a bunch of papers and holding them out to Harry. “This is the current status of the investigation—”
He was interrupted by Harry’s phone ringing, and Harry gave him an apologetic smile before answering it. “Hey, Severus,” he said, hoping Severus didn’t want to know what he’d been called away for. That wouldn’t be a pretty conversation. “The computer working out all right?”
“Very well, thank you. Did you know that trilobites’ exoskeletons were made of chitin?”
Harry blinked. “Severus?”
“Fascinating creature, the trilobite. They’ve been extinct since the late Devonian period, of course. But the lenses of their eyes were pure calcite, which is a fascinating concept really, despite the lack of quick focusing they would have possessed. Some trilobites had thousands of lenses in a single eye—”
“Severus, what are you doing?” Harry asked, starting to fear for his lover’s sanity. “Do you need to lie down?”
Severus paused. “I got the computer working,” he said, hurt in his tone. “I thought I’d do some research. I just wanted to share it with you. But if you’re too busy working…”
Harry sighed internally. Severus wasn’t usually this needy, but then again, they weren’t usually five thousand plus miles apart at a time they’d specifically set aside to be together. And Severus was in unfamiliar territory, besides.
He gave Robinson an apologetic look and focused on Severus. “No, I’m sorry,” he replied. “What else have you learned?”
“Each trilobite had between two and sixty-one segments between the cephalon and the pygidium…”
***
“You go talk to the secretary again, all right?” Harry said. “I’m going to go speak to his wife.” Boot nodded, and Harry turned to Walton. “All right, run the transcript of the last interview by me again.”
“Linda Carpenter, been married to the suspect for ten years. They have two kids—”
Harry’s phone rang. “Hang on a second, Walton.” He took a few steps away and pulled his phone from his pocked, lifting it to his ear. “Hey, Severus.”
“I think Rose Weasley’s pygmy puff might actually be a tribble,” Severus said immediately.
Harry blinked. “Excuse me? A what?”
“A tribble,” Severus repeated. “They’re creatures that do nothing but eat, sleep, and reproduce. The thing certainly eats enough, and if the mass of offspring it’s produced lately are any indication, it’s likely my hypothesis is correct. I’m not sure how it would have traveled from Iota Geminorum IV to the Magical Menagerie, but I suppose that’s just one of life’s mysteries—”
Harry wondered if bursting into tears would lose him credibility with his coworkers.
***
“Mrs. Carpenter, on the night of the seventeenth of October—”
“You have: one new video message.”
Harry frowned. “Excuse me a moment,” he said, opening his phone.
Thought you might find this interesting, the message read. He opened the video and stared for a second at the blue screen in confusion before the title flashed across the screen. Harry stared agape at the phone in his hand. “The mating habits of—whales? The hell, Severus!”
***
Harry had just sat down with John Carpenter when his phone rang for the sixth time in as many hours. He didn’t even bother speaking as he answered it, knowing Severus could hear the sound of his breathing. Maybe Severus had actually called for a reason, this time. Maybe he wasn’t continuing his eternal mission to frustrate—
“You’ll never believe what I found on the internet, Harry,” he purred, and Harry let out a frustrated sigh. And maybe Hell was freezing over.
“Severus, I’m in the middle of an investigation. I really can’t do this right now.”
“Oh, you’ll want to hear this,” Severus hummed, and Harry got a sinking feeling in his stomach that quickly turned into something else entirely as Severus kept speaking. His jaw dropped slightly after the first thirty seconds, and a minute in he was sure that the blush heating his cheeks was going to become a permanent fixture there. He lasted another two minutes before standing abruptly and snapping the phone shut.
His mouth moved soundlessly for a few seconds before he managed, “I’ve got to go,” and apparated away. He marched over to the computer desk the moment he rematerialized, dragging a smirking Severus to his feet and letting out a startled groan at the image Severus had left open on the screen. “You. Me. Bed. Now,” he snapped, yanking Severus close and dragging them to the bedroom.
He pushed Severus down on the bed, hard, and aborted his attempt to crawl on top of him when he heard a startled “meow?” at the action. A pile of black fur darted out from under the covers, and Harry stared after Moonshadow bemusedly.
“Come on,” Severus groaned when Harry didn’t make any attempt to move.
Harry shook his head. “No, I think the cat in our bed definitely just broke the mood.”
“Harry,” Severus insisted, and Harry smirked.
“Well,” he said, climbing onto the bed, “I suppose I did promise to make it up to you.”