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“Christ, you're practically glowing.”
Ron smiled to himself as he stretched out naked on his sun lounger. They were completely secluded, with no chance of anybody spotting them unless it was from a plane very high up. And really, if someone was trying that hard they deserved a bit of skin as a reward, in his view.
He knew that Severus would not take the same view regarding his own body.
It had taken booking the incredibly expensive private villa with zero neighbours to even entice the older wizard to join him in the baked Tuscan hillside. He couldn't remember the last time he'd ever felt as free or relaxed as he did at that moment. Probably because you've never had your bollocks out in the sun before.
Despite his reservations, it hadn't taken Severus long at all to put in a request that Ron should be naked as much as possible. They had no intention of leaving, they had a pool, and food magically appeared in their fridge and kitchen each day. So it wasn't a surprise that Ron couldn't remember the last time he'd actually got dressed since they arrived.
“Come here?”
Grinning to himself, Ron hopped the short distance from his lounger in the sun to Severus’ in the shade, the roasting terracotta tiles burning his feet as he went.
He didn't wait for an invitation to swing his leg over and straddle Severus, he just did it anyway.
Long, gentle fingers came up to spread across his hips, thumbs sitting in the crease of his thighs.
“The new formulation seems to be working well… glowing in a tanned way, not the lobster way.” Severus' eyes closely examined his skin, where the freckles were multiplying at alarming speed. “You look… delicious.”
Ron’s breath caught in his throat as one of his nipples - the pierced one - was gently sucked on.
“I'm very lucky to have a boyfriend now who can make suncream potions that stop me from going straight to lobster. Not like the sunstroke horror of Malaga in 2001.” Ron shuddered remembering feeling like he was dying and missing out on a boys’ holiday whilst he lay in a darkened room sipping electrolytes and whimpering.
“Partner,” Severus corrected with a pointed look.
“Boyfriend.” Ron stuck his tongue out petulantly.
“Don't put that thing back in your mouth, filthy lout.”
“Hmm, where should I put it instead then?” Ron rocked his hips, causing his cock to grind into the barely covered mirroring counterpart beneath his legs.
He would have Severus naked on the sun loungers before they went home if he died trying. They had best part of two weeks left.
“I know that look,” Severus said wearily. “Some people just aren't comfortable with nudity. I am one of them.”
“That's because in your stupid, stubborn brain you don't think you're worth stripping your clothes off. That anyone wants to see it.” Ron rolled his hips again and leant forward, pressing his lips to an ear. “But I'm here to tell you that you're wrong, that you're hot and I desperately want to see you feeling relaxed enough to be naked around me.”
He captured a soft earlobe in between his teeth and waited.
"Easy for you to say, loping around with the body of a Grecian god. Mere mortals like myself are not so blessed with the confidence or the visual reality. Every freckle makes you look… like sunshine.”
Ron held his breath as clever fingers began to stroke him, a telltale Severus Snape move to shift the conversation on from something that made him feel uncomfortable.
“Stop.”
“But-”
Ron swallowed the protest whole by kissing Severus instead. He placed his palms flat on the wizard's chest and used a finger to open a few more buttons on the simple dark linen shirt he was wearing. There was a matching set of trousers. Light, comfortable, but ultimately still black and providing too much coverage for Ron's liking. The only concession to the heat was sleeves rolled up to the elbow.
That in itself was a victory because the man rarely allowed the scarred and blurred skin of his Dark Mark to see the light of day. Ron had never asked about the precise knife slices made across the skin. He'd wanted to, so many times, but it was really something that Severus had to be ready to share.
As if he knew what Ron was thinking (and he might well, being a skilled Occlumens with Ron apparently being a notoriously loud thinker), Severus instinctively turned his arm so the cursed skin was out of sight.
“You've never asked,” Severus said, sounding pensive. “But you'd have every right to.”
Ron let his forehead come to rest against Severus’ and reached out with a finger to undo a few more buttons of his shirt. He was basically down to his stomach by then.
“I'm waiting for you to tell me when you're ready. If you ever are. There's so much of ‘the before’ we don't know about each other.”
“The before?” Severus frowned.
“Before we accidentally got trapped in a Ministry lift together for eight hours.” Ron smiled and rolled his eyes.
That day was burned into his mind. Would be forever.
“You have history, I have history. We both have scars,” he continued.
Ron's arms began to tingle as they did whenever he thought about the curling tentacles that had sent him mad when he was sixteen. His shoulder gave an unhelpful ache too, shredded so thoroughly just a year after the brains. Fuck, you really did go through so much.
“And we hopefully have a lot of years to learn those things about one another. So what's the rush?” Ron kissed him again.
Severus deepened it, his hands creeping round to grab a bum cheek a piece. Those hands pulled at Ron, urging him up properly onto his knees. Severus broke the kiss to slide down in the sun lounger, taking his face to crotch level.
“Oh, shit,” Ron gasped as he was suckled into wet heat, hips bucking forward, burying him deeper.
He nearly shot his load then and there when fingers started massaging over his arsehole and pressed inward.
“Severus… god! Shit. Oh my god. Fuck, yes-”
It wasn't slow; it was to the point, needy - even desperate.
Ron reached down and slipped his fingers into dark hair, finding it silky and still somewhat fluffy from air drying after their morning shower.
He was very glad there was nobody else around to witness his wanton whimper as Severus’ fingers found their target. Or as he lost control without grace or an iota of demurity, swearing through to the very last drip that left him. He shivered as Severus held him gently in his mouth through the aftershocks, fingers stilling inside him but remaining where they were.
Severus Snape dearly loved making Ronald Weasley feel full. Gently but persistently. Every single time. What a fucking blessing.
Eventually Ron pulled back and looked down. Dark eyes glinted up at him, set off by flushed cheeks, sinfully reddened lips and the quick rise and fall of Severus’ chest beyond.
“Give a man some warning,” Ron begged, unsurprised that there was a wheeze in his voice.
“Mm, much more fun my way,” Severus murmured. “Come here.”
Ron didn't complain when Severus gently pushed him so that he turned around and slipped down to sit between his legs. They were long enough that they came up and wrapped over Ron’s own. Warm arms snuck round his torso and finally Severus settled, his chin on Ron’s shoulder, nose pressing just behind his ear.
Silence settled over them and for a good while, all Ron could hear was the breeze rustling the trees beyond the boundaries of their secluded little courtyard. He started to feel sleepy and closed his eyes, nuzzling back slightly to ensure maximum contact.
He was so happy. Nauseatingly, fetch-me-a-bucket content. Above all, he felt so safe in the arms of the wizard behind him that he felt emotional whenever he considered it.
“I love you so much,” he whispered dreamily.
“Was it the expertly delivered fellatio?” Severus murmured into his ear, and Ron’s clap of laughter startled a bird out of a tree beyond the courtyard wall.
“The Dark Mark. Those scars. I put them there.” Ron waited, reaching up to tuck his own hands over Severus’. “You could say I didn't take the news that my life had been saved particularly well… almost like an attempt on my life that I had made having been foiled. And in many ways, it seemed that way. I knew somewhere along the line I'd be dispensable. I just wasn't quite prepared for it to be at that point, or to come back from it.”
Ron bit down the words that sprang to his tongue.
“I woke up and responded to my third chance at life with all the bullish viciousness of my heritage. And that… mark. It represented everything in my life that I had done wrong so I tried to remove it. Magically at first, but when that failed I turned to plain old butchery. But that didn't work either and now it looks worse than ever.”
Ron looked at it as Severus turned his forearm out. “They're so deep. It must have been agony.” He dared to trace one fingertip over one of the biggest scars.
“If I'd not been found I think I would have just kept going, I wasn't in my right mind. The only way to remove it fully is to remove the limb. It's as faded now as it will ever be. As permanent as your freckles with none of the beautiful benefits. I did extensive research into curse marks like this. It's going nowhere.”
“So it's just an ugly tattoo from a horrific tattoo artist that you deeply regret,” Ron said firmly, covering the entire thing with his hand. “And nothing more.”
“Do you know what I fear the most?”
Ron held his breath. This was probably the deepest conversation they'd ever had. Severus never talked about fear.
“I fear that one day, the skin will wake up again, the ink will reactivate, and I will fall apart knowing that this time I have so much more to lose should he find his way back again.”
Chest immediately tight, Ron reached back with one hand and placed it on the side of Severus' face not hiding in his red hair.
“You. I would lose you.”
“I’m not going anywhere and he's not coming back. He will never come near you again.” Ron was glad he sounded stronger than he felt.
“Even now, every noise unnerves me. It's been ten years, Ron. I can never truly relax. Never feel at ease… but here. Here with you, I can tell that I want to be. But I don't know how.”
“We're going to bed,” Ron said suddenly. “No arguments. We're going to swap, and I'm going to hold onto you, and stay awake for every second you sleep if it helps you to just… let go. Even just for a little bit. Are you up for that?”
“Will you still be naked?”
“If you want me to be.”
“Oh I very much would.”
“Deal.”
Severus kissed his shoulder and squeezed him so tightly that Ron gasped.
-fin