WARNING: This is a slash story, which means it contains male/male erotic content involving consenting adults. If you're not of legal age or are offended by such material, please go find something else to read.

TITLE: Impulse
AUTHOR: Seeker
E-MAIL: seeker@meowmail.com
RATING: NC17
DISCLAIMER: no harm, no foul
SUMMARY: Remus is stuck and Severus is stumped.
NOTES: Part of the Severus Snape Fuh-Q Fest 2nd wave. Scenario #6: Beauty and The Beast. A built-up tolerance of the Wolfsbane Potion sees Remus remain in animal form until true love's first kiss.

He knew something was wrong the first time he woke up with a hangover.

Remus Lupin had been a werewolf for over thirty years. He knew the Change in all its forms, from controlled as much as it could be with the Wolfsbane Potion to completely out of control and, being in the depths of despair, not giving a tinker's damn. But this ... was new.

Squinting through watering eyes at the sun, high enough over the horizon to tell him it was nearly mid-day, Remus pulled himself painfully to his feet and dragged himself over to his bed. Falling on it was a bad idea, as it made his head pound so strongly he thought it might actually explode, and the movement of the mattress beneath him caused his stomach to roll sharply. Yes, definitely a hangover.

If he'd had the strength, he would have contacted Severus and see if he'd been tinkering with the potion again. Since he felt like he'd have to get better to die, he decided it could wait. Instead, he breathed shallowly through his mouth, kept his eyes shut, lay as still as possible and attempted to think.

Emotionally, he was as stable as he'd ever been. No depression that might make the effects of the Change more profoundly affecting than usual; in fact, he was in relatively high spirits. His position at Hogwarts was secure, since the defeat of Voldemort and his prominent responsibility for same.

His students held him in relatively high regard (he refused to admit they adored him, as arrogance was not one of his personality traits). While he was often alone, he was seldom lonely, as his friends were around him again, Sirius being recently installed as an assistant Professor in Transfiguration, since Minerva had been named Headmistress. Harry was doing well in Auror training, Peter was a mindless pile of plasma in a cell deep in the bowels of Azkaban, and Dumbledore's ghost visited him several nights a month (he'd always been one of Albus' favorites).

If, deep in his private heart, he sometimes wished for a warm body to hold at night and a nice wake-up ride in the morning, he knew he'd never get it from the one person from whom he dearly wanted it, so he simply smiled his thanks at Severus every time he was handed a potion and kept his hopeless dreams to himself.

Physically, he was stronger and healthier than he'd been since he was a teen. Healthier, in fact, without the ravages of uncontrolled Changing every month. With his human mind still intact in the lupine form, he didn't resort to self-inflicted violence to sate the bloodlust, so he didn't have to spend a day or so every moon change in the infirmary, and his stamina was vastly improved from having a roof over his head, warm robes on his back and decent meals to eat.

Mentally, he was stimulated by his teaching, interested in his students and fellow faculty's lives, and felt challenged daily by the demands of his life. He was doing research, helping others with theirs, engaging in fascinating discussions on a variety of subjects with a number of different people, and generally having fun, so that wasn't the problem.

It must be the potion.

Not that he suspected Severus of poisoning him. No, quite the opposite. Since taking on the responsibility for creating the potion that kept Remus safe to be around humans during his Change, Severus had taken a positive delight in experimenting with the potion to make it safer, longer-lasting, more effective ... even better tasting. There was a reason the man held Master rank. He was incredible with a cauldron.

Remus paused in his thoughts and petted his incipient erection soothingly. Just the thought of Severus' pale fingers and broad palms made the back of his knees sweat. The look of concentration on that intense, beaky face, the thin line of the drawn-in lips, the ink black of the hair falling about his cheeks, combined to form the basis for the vast majority of his sexual fantasies. But he still had a splitting headache, a queasy stomach, and full-body lethargy to deal with, and one poor randy cock stood no chance against the rest of his body in that state. All too soon it wilted and he sighed. So, back to thinking.

Yes, there was no one Remus trusted more to brew a potion than Severus Snape. But since the problem didn't seem to lie in him, it had to be something to do with the potion. Raising his head off the pillow, he cautiously rolled to the side of the bed. When the threatened revolt in his stomach was quelled, he forced himself to his feet. He got three steps away from the door when his legs gave.

His skin began to crawl. His bones began to crack. His face was on fire, and his spine, his arms and legs were writhing cords of agony. It felt as though his very flesh were pushing through his skin, and his bones through his flesh, and he was being flayed alive. It felt all too familiar.

Why in the name of god was he Changing ... in the middle of the day?

It was the last coherent thought he had until the door opened, whacking him on the muzzle, and sending him curling into as small a whimpering bundle as a full-grown wolf could make.

"Lupin? You missed two meals today, and that's not ... Lupin?"

Then Severus tripped over him, planting a boot-tip in his rib cage that had him scampering to all four paws and stumbling out of the way as fast as his spinning head could take him to crouch in the corner.

"Bloody hell!" Severus squeaked, voice shooting up three octaves over the course of the three syllables. "What ... what ... what ..."

Since he appeared to be stuck on the word, Remus lifted his front paws away from his eyes and stared hopelessly at him. Severus looked as if he might faint at any moment. Remus looked from Severus' terrified face to the sun, still shining brightly through the window, and back to Severus. The ashy color of his skin wasn't flattering, but he still looked edible.

In a human, I-want-to- lick-you-all- over-and- suck-your -prick-dry way, not a werewolf, I-want- to-crunch-your -bones-and-suck -out-the-marrow way. Still, hunger looked like hunger on a furry wolfish face, and Remus knew this, since his brain was more human than it had ever been in lupine form. So he damped down the need to pounce and pound, and tried to look as helpless and defenseless as he felt.

Severus wasn't sputtering any longer. His breathing appeared to be regulating the longer he cowered there and Remus didn't try to eat him. Remus lowered his head, whined softly, then whimpered for good measure. Severus inched toward him. Not far, but it was a start. Remus thumped the floor with his tail. Severus jumped, then cleared his throat and did his damnedest to pull his dignity back around him like a robe.

"Lupin?" he asked, his voice barely quivering.

Remus barked very, very softly, sounding as friendly as possible. Severus blanched even further, but he didn't actually faint or run.

"You ... didn't change back?"

Remus shook his head.

"You stayed a wolf?"

Another shake, with a whine this time.

"You ... did change back?" Severus sounded extremely confused. Remus knew the feeling.

"But if you changed, then why are you a wolf now?"

Humphing impatiently, hoping it didn't sound like a growl, Remus crept over to the bed and put one paw up on the covers, trying his damnedest to point to the pillow. Severus craned his neck but couldn't seem to uproot his feet from where they'd planted themselves in the floor. Still, he could see the fresh, man-shaped impression against the linens and on the pillow.

"You changed back to a human, then changed back to a wolf?" Severus tried again.

Remus nodded his head hard enough to make himself dizzy, and woofed encouragingly. Then stopped woofing immediately when Severus instinctively darted to the door.

Severus had one highly-shined black boot halfway into the corridor when Remus whimpered, sounding as desolate as possible. Severus stopped, looking over his shoulder. If Remus could have forced out a tear, he'd've done it. As it was, he rounded his eyes as much as he could, let his tongue hang out a little to the side, dipped his head and thumped his tail. He felt like the wolf-equivalent to the village idiot, but at least Severus decided he looked harmless, because he turned around and came back into the room.

"Is that you in there, Remus?" Severus asked softly, a hint of blush rising in his cheeks. He smelled absolutely wonderful, mint and moss and warm blood, salt and heat and confusion with a touch of fear. Not knowing how else to show it, he inched forward until the tip of his muzzle barely touched Severus' boot, and darted his tongue out to lick it. He didn't think Severus would stay still long enough for him to touch his hand.

The hint of blush turned to a rose flush all over his cheeks, and the heat-smell coming from him kicked up a notch. Remus felt aroused all over again but managed to disguise the want with another whine and another lick, a little higher this time, catching Severus' ankle-bone through the thin silk sock.

"This shouldn't be happening."

Watching Severus lower himself to the side of the bed, Remus shrugged his shoulders, stepped on the hem of Severus' robes so he couldn't run away and gave a tentative lick to Severus' right little fingertip. As expected, Severus jumped, but he didn't scream or run. Instead, he balled his finger into a fist and very slowly held it out toward Remus' nose, much as he would to a dog to sniff.

Remus licked his hand from knuckles to fist, enthusiastically, sloppily, and thoroughly.

Severus drew back his now dripping hand and stared at it with extreme distaste. He shook it, and slobber flew everywhere. "That is absolutely disgusting," he told Remus.

In response, Remus trotted over to the basin, grabbed a hand towel in his teeth and brought it back to present it to Severus. Who took it, carefully, and swabbed his hand.

"Right, so we've established it's you in there, because instead of eating me you've given me a tongue-bath."

There was more after that, but Remus was too distracted imagining actually giving Severus a tongue bath to hear it. His mind raced in little circles until he was dizzy with lust, as he mentally undressed Severus and ran his tongue all along that long neck, the slender chest, the nipples he knew would be standing up and begging, down along the ribs to his navel, then following the treasure trail of inky black hair to the prick that would be waving, rampant, ready for him to lick and nibble and suck all the way down to his --

"LUPIN!"

Brought back to the present by Severus' indignant squawk, Remus realized his body had been off acting on its own as his mind was in never-never land, and he had his nose buried in Severus' crotch, snuffling luxuriantly at the scent of musky male sex there. He pulled his snout out so fast he overbalanced and landed on his butt, tail bending painfully, legs going out from under him. He could feel himself blush even if Severus couldn't see it, and his fur stood up in pure humiliation as he scrabbled to catch himself and couldn't until he fell over onto his back. All four feet in the air. Tail swishing frantically. Penis making an appearance neither he nor Severus needed to see.

With a strangled whimper he thought came from himself but might have come from Severus, Remus pulled his legs in, curled into a ball, and hid his head under his front paws. His bloody tail, with a mind of its own, continued to thump hopefully on the floor behind him.

Waiting for Severus to storm out, he was shocked to hear a strange, rusty noise coming from Severus' throat. It sounded like he was choking! Remus' head popped up, ears going up, and he stared intently at Severus.

Who was ... laughing. So hard he'd fallen over on the bed and was holding his ribs. Remus felt his hackles rise and made a determined effort to lower them. Narrowing his eyes, he lowered his head and glared at Severus. Who eventually managed to control his hysteria, after an exceedingly long time, from Remus' perspective, and got his voice under control.

"Having a little difficulty with your animal impulses, there, Remus?" Severus wheezed.

Remus growled, but kept his jaw clamped shut to muffle it. Didn't want Severus thinking he couldn't get his other lupine instincts under control, and that Remus might eat him. Although from the fun the snarky bastard was having with it ...

The fun he was having with it. Remus felt himself grin, knew his tongue was lolling out, knew his ears were twitching, and couldn't do a damned thing about it. Severus was simply adorable when he was helpless with laughter, and Remus had never seen him that way before. Never actually seen Severus laugh at all, really, much less in such an uninhibited way.

With a happy yip of his own, Remus bounded over to the bed.

Severus stopped laughing so fast he did choke, then scooted back up against the headboard. Remus put on the brakes and slid to a stop beside the bed, tail thumping faster than ever. He gave a soft, interrogatory woof. Put one paw on the mattress. Waited for Severus to stop panicking.

"You need help," Severus said breathlessly. "I didn't make any changes to the formula, so it wasn't the potion."

He muttered some more things, about charms or hexes possibly left over from the final battle or sent in by an irate parent, but once again Remus wasn't listening. It wasn't the potion? If it wasn't the potion, and it wasn't himself, and none of his wards had been triggered ... what on earth could it be?

Over the next five weeks, that became the question on everyone's mind. While the particulars weren't noted, in that it never became common knowledge that Remus remained a wolf with a man's mind, the sudden absence of the DADA teacher in the middle of the term couldn't be hidden. Minerva made a verbose incomprehensible announcement to the school body at large that brought to mind Dumbledore at his finest, and the faculty were simply informed that Remus had been called away on personal business. Rumors flooded the castle, but the few who knew the truth -- Severus, Albus' ghost, Minerva, Sirius and Remus himself -- kept it strictly under wraps.

Severus and Sirius had an uneasy truce in place, as Sirius spent his days teaching and his nights keeping Remus company, while Severus spent his days teaching and his nights frantically researching a way to return Remus to human form. Not that he'd admit to it being frantic ... but after he fell asleep standing up with his eyes open in Sirius' room after delivering yet another fragrant failure of a potion to Remus, it was obvious he hadn't rested in days.

Sirius was inclined to laugh and poke him until he woke, to see if he'd shriek. Remus growled his disapproval at the plan, and Sirius, with a disappointed sigh, agreed to be good. Eyeing the nearly-comatose Potions Master, Remus trotted over to nudge at his knee.

Severus didn't so much as budge. Or blink. Remus whined, then glanced over at Sirius, wishing for the eleven thousandth time since he'd been stuck on four paws that he'd gotten telepathy along with a natural fur coat. With a sigh of his own that left his tongue hanging slightly out over his teeth, he trotted quickly back and forth between Severus and the bed, whining lightly.

"In my bed? Are you out of your tree?"

The whine took on a huffy edge. Sirius chuckled and shrugged, then came over and took Severus' arm, walking the sleeper to the bed and shoving him over, gently for Sirius, atop the mattress.

"Never thought I'd see the day Severus Snape would end up in my bed. Wrong shape, wrong gender, wrong coloring, and good lord, it's Snape!"

Severus rolled over, stuck his head under Sirius' pillow and began to snore, without ever waking up. Remus, on impulse, jumped up on the bed beside him and stretched out back-to-thigh with Severus' unconscious body.

"I'll be in the Tower if you need me," Sirius told Remus, still staring in rampant disbelief at Snape, now sprawled over most of the surface of his bed, which was impressive given that it was king-sized. He shook his head at Remus' sleepy expression and comfortable position. "Don't think I can stand to look at that all night, not without waking him up with a fire-rocket to the toes."

Remus, whose eyes had begun to drift closed, opened one at that and gave a soft snarl.

"Oh, don't worry, I won't. Leaving, now, aren't I? Only way I can avoid temptation!" Sirius gave him an evil grin and escaped out the door.

Shaking his head at Sirius' antics, Remus snuggled up against Severus and dropped off to sleep. The potion had tasted slightly better than the last, with a hint of raspberries and raw beef to it, but he'd felt not the slightest hint of the Change. He had the lowering thought he might spend the rest of his days stuck in lupine form, and felt a well of depression rise in him. Before it could overtake him completely, he was asleep.

Dawn was barely breaking over the windowsill when Remus was wakened by Severus stirring against him. Sometime in the hours between collapsing together and waking together, they'd both moved. Severus now lay on his side, Remus tucked up against his belly, one hand buried in the thick fur of Remus' scruff, the other trapped between one pale cheek and the pillow. His hair fell across his face like ink trails. His lashes looked ridiculously long against his cheeks.

Remus, curled into a ball, enjoying the heat coming from Severus, looked over his shoulder at the peaceful face and wished, not for the first time, that magic could be willed. If it were so, then he would be a man, not a wolf, and Severus would be in his bed by choice, not in Sirius' by convenience with need created by exhaustion. Remus was a strong man, and a strong wolf, but he had the nearly unbearable urge to lift his muzzle to the sky and howl, long and loud, or cry until his eyes washed out of his head.

Dark eyes underlain with shadows opened suddenly, catching his glance, and he stayed staring at Severus for the longest moment, oddly certain that his thoughts were written in his eyes. Severus' hard glance softened, and the hand that had been cradling his own cheek came out and patted Remus gently, stroking his ears.

"Sorry, old man, I wish there was something more I could do to help," he whispered, his voice liquid silver, burning and transfixing at once.

Unable to stop himself, Remus gave the smallest whimper. Unthinking, Severus bent his head and dropped a soft kiss atop Remus' head, right between his furry, pointed ears.

The world exploded around him.

With a scream of agony, blessedly familiar, Remus threw himself out of the bed and onto the floor, leaving tufts of fur behind as Severus' hand had still been entwined in his ruff. In moments, the Change was upon him. Fur melted away to the light dusting of hair covering soft human skin. Bones elongated and pushed muscle and flesh along with them. Blood raced through extended veins and pulsed in his small round ears. Paws expanded into fingers and toes, his jaw extended and his nose sank, his eyes rounded and his cheekbones stretched the skin of his face once more.

Exhilaration rushed through Remus. It wasn't the potion, it was the potion maker. His wolf nature was his curse, and Severus was the curse-breaker. Emotion cascading through him prompted him to instinctive action. Rising unsteadily to his feet, he turned to Severus, sitting on the bed, gawking at him.

"You're magnificent!" Remus cried. Then jumped on top of him.

Severus was so startled he could do little more than squawk and fall back under the determined assault of ten stone of exceptionally happy non-lupine Lupin. Remus rained kisses all over Severus' face, managing to refrain from licking through sheer force of will. Severus tasted as good to his human tongue as he had to the wolf's tongue, without the disconcerting subliminal urge to bite through to the bone. Remus gave an excited little whine that sounded much like his wolf-self, and let his body follow his mouth's lead.

Buttons flew everywhere. Severus' hands were up in the air, then down pushing along Remus' back, when Remus latched onto the side of Severus' throat and began to suck. Funnily enough, Severus' whine was altogether wolfish as well. The hands that had been pushing at him reversed direction, homing in to the thick hair at the back of Remus' head and clutching it tightly.

Taking this for encouragement, Remus delved through multiple layers of black wool, black cotton, and black silk -- the last of which brought a louder whine than ever from Remus' throat -- to get to creamy pale skin covered in black curls. Lowering his head from Severus' neck to his chest, Remus took his time playing, discovering cinnamon nipples that were indeed peaking, a trickle of salt sweat running along ribs raising with each harsh panting breath, the bare beginning of softness along a slender belly that begged to be licked. So he did.

Garbled noises greeted his movements, but the hands buried in his hair only urged him on, so Remus didn't bother trying to make sense of the random syllables. Instead he concentrated on the sound, washing over him like a river of fine whisky, making his skin prickle. The taste, as he followed the thin trail of fine black hair down to the cock that tapped at his chin, then burst salt-sweet on his tongue as he pushed the foreskin back and lapped at the tip.

The sheer heat of Severus rose all around him, from the cock in his mouth to the thighs clenching around his torso to the arsehole tightening around his questing fingers, melting Remus against him like butter on a hot knife.

Then the fingers woven through his hair clenched, trying to pull him back, and he distinctly heard the word 'coming!' in the midst of the torrent of gibberish. Not that he needed the warning; he could taste it on his tongue, feel it in the balls drawing up under his palm, in the way the moss-soft skin of the hole clenched around the fingers of his other hand. Lowering his head, he took Severus in as deeply as his throat would allow and swallowed.

The words mutated into a scream, as Severus arched and bucked beneath Remus, nearly throwing him off as he came. Remus closed his eyes and tried not to drown, working his hand deeper in Severus' arse, loosening the muscle even as it spasmed around him. Only when Severus was completely limp, his cock twitching and shrinking, did Remus pull off.

Severus tugged weakly and Remus followed, sliding his hand out of its resting place in Severus' arse in order to be able to reach his mouth up for a kiss. Maintaining his position between Severus' thighs, it was the work of a moment, still kissing, to tilt Severus' hips up, shift his own weight, and thrust home.

If Severus had any breath left after screaming out his orgasm, he lost it then, and Remus swallowed the cry that carried it as he flexed his hips, driving deeply into Severus' arse. The final aftershocks of climax still quivered through the muscle, taxing Remus' nearly spent stamina to its limits. It took very little time before he was pushed to his balls in Severus, rotating his hips, humping desperately as he emptied himself.

Through it, Severus kissed him. Held him. Encouraged him with tiny movements of his hips, clenching his arse around him, tightening his legs. The last of Remus' energy left him as he came down from his orgasm, his arms giving as he collapsed against Severus' chest. His spent cock slipped free, nestling happily between Severus' thighs, and Severus unwound his hands from Remus' hair and wrapped them around his shoulders.

Comfortably settled, feeling rather as if he'd just lost a match with a full Giant, Remus nestled his head under Severus' chin and felt himself drifting off to sleep. Severus was mumbling above him, 'figure this out when I'm conscious' the only phrase that came through. Dimly, on the edge of unconscious, he felt Albus' ghost drift over the bed.

"Oh, my," murmured the late, lamented Headmaster. "It was bound to happen."

"What?" Severus grumbled, his voice a comforting rumble in his chest beneath Remus' ear.

"That Beauty and the Beast should find their way to one another."

"Which is which?" Severus asked dryly.

"I think you know," Albus' ghost answered merrily.

Remus growled softly, the sound muffled against Severus' skin. He knew, but he didn't want to say, as he wanted Severus to hush and go to sleep, so that he could. The only thing that mattered was the fact that Severus was the cure to his affliction. He smiled and allowed himself to fall asleep, ignoring the coze Albus' ghost and Severus seemed determined to continue.

He hadn't allowed himself to act on impulse in years. Mainly because most of his impulses involved the immediate death, dismemberment of and gorging upon whomever happened to be closest. But this particular impulse was the answer to a prayer he'd never expected to have answered. He wasn't going to question it, and would never regret it.

He did wonder, however, how long he could keep Severus in bed before anyone (living) noticed they were missing... and how long he could keep Sirius locked out of his bedroom.