An Understanding Challenge #292: Snape and Cats Title: An Understanding Author:bluestocking79 Pairing: Implied Severus/Minerva Rating: PG Word Count: 100 x 2 Notes: I'm so rusty at writing that I'm sure you can hear my creaking all over the interwebs, but the combination of Azkatraz and this week's prompt seems to have reinvigorated the muse.
She came to Severus first in the long, colourless nights after war's end and Lily's death—a glowing-eyed guardian, a warm weight on his bed, allowing him the privilege of stroking her fur as the rumble of her contented purr lulled him to the sleep that otherwise rarely came.
Always, in the morning, she was gone. Always, he searched her face at the breakfast table, looking for some acknowledgment in those pale, pitiless eyes. There was none—no trace of the mockery he feared, nor of any other unnamed things that might frighten him more than her laughter ever could.
Yet she often returned, especially on the nights that seemed impenetrably dark. How did she know, Severus wondered.
He was only grateful that she did.
In return, he memorized the silkiness of her fur beneath his fingertips, marvelling as he learned precisely how and where to pet.
And this is how Severus knows, decades later, that when he slides his hand beneath her hair and down her neck and rubs just so between Minerva's stern shoulders, that she will melt at his touch, relaxing into his embrace.
In all her years of watchfulness, he has learned to make her purr.