WHO: James Potter and Lily Evans
WHAT: She really did make it up to the dorm in two minutes. Actually. 1:45
WHEN: After James gets back!
WHERE: Lily's Dorm
With his feet on top of his trunk, James sat on the end of his bed, frowning at the mess in his room. Apparently, the Aurors had gone in here looking for evidence of some sort and had messed everything up. All of his books were out of order, his clothes were disheveled, and one of his Quidditch posters had been ripped, so now the players flying in the image were all ramming into each other in one corner. It was more than depressing, and James found he couldn’t start to unpack before he cleaned this up, and he really didn’t feel like making the effort.
A small knock at his door snapped him out of his annoyed reverie and James jumped to his feet, hoping it was Lily. He’d left a note in his journal about where he was, how he and Frank had decided to avoid the big welcome back gathering he knew the Great Hall had set up (or at least, the Gryffindors). There was no need for extra attention, and after peering through the peephole (yes, it was Lily, thank God), James opened the door a crack.
He grinned weakly, but his eyes shone bright at the sight of his girlfriend
Despite the grin on his face, Lily looked stern. Or, in other words, absolutely like her old self again. She was frowning, had her arms crossed in front of her chest, and there was an eyebrow raised in her boyfriend's general direction. Without a warning, she moved an arm from its place and opened the door all the way and then grabbed him by the wrist, pulling him insistently across the (thankfully empty) common room to where her room was.
Still without a word, she opened the door to her quarters and (while still being kind of gentle, she wasn't totally sure if he'd had a complete physical recovery yet) pushed him inside, closing said door behind her. Lily leaned up against the back of the door and crossed her arms again, looking immensely stubborn and annoyed with him. She gave him an expectant look that suggested he should obviously know why she had just done all that and waited for him to say something..
James couldn’t figure out for the life of him why Lily had dragged him out of his room and into hers, and the look he was giving her was telling her exactly that. Wha—she looked angry at him. Hrm. He’d only been back for…what, twenty minutes? What could he have possibly done wrong in twenty minutes? Oh…hm…he wracked his brain and wondered if she was annoyed that he hadn’t gone to the Great Hall, but she had to understand he didn’t want to be in the middle of a big crowd yet, right? Right, she’d understand.
Bugger, bugger, bugger. He was definitely supposed to know what was wrong, and when you didn’t, that’s when you got in more trouble. James tried to take the insanely confused look off his face as he continued to stare at her, and it wasn’t until out of the corner of the room that he spotted her bed that the small (not really small, but) comment she’d made back in the hospital. Oh.
“Oh,” he muttered quickly before stepping forward to pull her into a hug.
Yeah, oh, she thought, rolling her eyes at him despite the fact that she was hugging him probably just as tightly as she had back in the hospital. "You said you wouldn't leave me alone again.. or have you forgotten that already?" she reminded him softly. Wow, so she had really meant to say that a lot more chastisingly, but when you felt like you were going to cry again, that voice never seemed to work. "I wasn't kidding, alright? I don't care if you like it or not or if I have to force you to or tie you down or whatever, you're staying in here for the rest of the year and that's final."
She pulled back and looked away for a moment so that she could brush off the wetness forming in the corners of her eyes, before pursing her lips determinedly and looking back up at him. "So you'd better.. get your stuff, because if I have to do it for you, I'll be really mad and you know you don't want to see me miffed at you because then I'll..."
Lily realized she was just rambling and forced herself to stop talking for a minute, but it was useless because standing there in silence and looking at him just brought back that rush of relief and love and just made her want to choke up a whole lot worse and was it bad that she had just thrown herself at him without warning and started crying into his shirt? Wasn't he the one that was supposed to be all broken up and lonely and teary? Apparently not.
James continued to hold onto her, running a hand through her hair; goodness knew how much he appreciated this. She’d said almost the exact same words his dreams had been shouting at him for all those weeks, except this Lily, the real Lily still wanted him and cared for him and loved him. Holy hell. He dropped his face down to the top of her head to press a kiss into her hair and let out a deep breath, trying not to get too riled up himself. James felt like he’d cried enough to last a lifetime, hopefully he’d never have another reason to get this upset and feel this bad, but, hell, if Lily was there he might be able to deal with it.
And, this all worked out. He didn’t feel like sleeping alone or in that mess of a room, so. This was perfectly fine in so many, many ways. James nodded against her head, not willing to let her go until she calmed down a bit; he didn’t think it was bad that she was acting like this, he sort of felt like doing it too, but had steeled himself to hold up better than he had been his first few days back.
“I’m not leaving, I’ll get my stuff,” he muttered into her hair.
Lily nodded tearfully, though her arms around him didn't loosen a bit and she made no move to indicate that she was letting him go to get his things. After all, she wasn't quite calm just yet, and she had been doing far too little holding him lately anyway--so there she decided to stay, hugging him, relishing the feel of him hugging her, and waiting for her tears to subside. Merlin, she didn't know if she was ever going to be able to look at him again and not cry, because oh--God, she was just so relieved he was alive and so glad to have him back. She had felt so completely lost while he had been gone, it was like she had ceased to function because he wasn't around her... Lily didn't think she could imagine a life without James anymore, not after all this. If this ordeal had been any indicator, she figured she would just cease to exist.
"I love you," she muttered quietly. "I love you, I love you, I love you."
His eyes shut at her muttering and James felt a wave of heat pass through him. He was quite sure that the feeling would never cease running its course for as long as Lily said those words to him, and while he felt like a bit of a sap for it, James was happy with the idea. He whispered the words back and held her close to him for a few more seconds before pulling away slightly, tilting his head to get a good look at her.
“Are you tired?” he asked, ignoring the fact that he was some strange mix of wide awake and exhausted. His mind was running around a mile a minute while his body was just longing to sit down, right there on the rug. James wasn’t looking forward to being spoken to quietly and calmly, or being avoided, or getting special treatment. He honestly just wanted people to go back on with their own lives and he wanted them to be happy while they did, so his main concern was Lily right now, she was all that mattered. “I---I can stay here now, I’ll be fine.”
It was true, he had an undershirt and boxers to sleep in, like always.
Lily shook her head this time, and dared herself to take her face out of his shirt, which she was obviously by now getting quite wet. "No, I'm not... not really, I'm just--I'm just--sorry, I'm just being a basketcase, you might have to--well, just be prepared to put up with it for a few days, okay?" she said, wiping furiously at her eyes and hoping to get the remainder of her tears to vanish. Merlin, she hoped he didn't get too annoyed with her being so teary over him, but she needed to be, at least for a little while, and she needed to be with him while she was doing it. When she was being teary and emotional she was getting in touch with a part of her that actually felt, a part of her that she had forced out of her life while he had been gone.
"I--I know you'll be fine, I know that, I'm--I just need you to be here, I need you because--just--I swear I'll stop acting insane and overprotective, I just need some time, please don't--try not to hate me for it--I'll--I'll stop in time, I swear."
“I couldn’t hate you, Lily,” James said with a small smile, pushing some hair out of her face adoringly. So her eyes got all blotchy when she cried and her nose was as red as a quaffle, but she was still amazingly beautiful to him, and the fact that she didn’t mind him seeing her like this and---and apologizing for being overprotective, something his family hadn’t exactly done, made his heart swell. “You’re probably going to drive me mad, but I love you for it.”
Ahhhhhaha, he could say that to her and not worry about her freezing up or running away in the middle of an amazing snog, which made him want to start up another amazing snog, but it was getting late, and…though…she wasn’t tired, and he could definitely build up some energy for a snog, seeing as it’d been almost a week since he’d seen her, and almost a month before that. He leaned forward slightly, touching her nose with his first before kissing her, hand going to her waist.
Surely she’d realize his needs, he thought with a inward laugh.
The feeling of his lips was so unfamiliar after so little seeing him in the past month that when he kissed her, Lily almost felt surprised at how wonderful it was. She had nearly forgotten how he tasted, and the light, jumping feeling she got in her stomach when she caught his eyes for that brief moment before their lips met--ohh, and oh--also that part about what an amazing snog he was.
Of course she was determined to make herself recall thoroughly all these things.
But only because he wanted to, of course. Only because James had kissed first and she would be just completely cruel to deny him what he wanted.
Right. That was it exactly.
There was no hesitation period or building up; the deepening of the kiss was immediate, and her hands, before resting on his lower back, were already playfully fiddling with the hem of his shirt, just like they had when they had been snogging on top of her dresser, what seemed like so long ago... Except a lot less tentatively.
Funny, she didn't actually feel tentative at all with him, anymore.
Oh, was that the back of his knees hitting her bed? Funny, he hadn’t noticed them moving toward the bed, and he hadn’t noticed how both of their shirts had somehow both reached the floor, and he really wasn’t paying attention to pulling her down to the bed, because all James could think about was Lily, Lily, Lily, Lily, Lily and that’s all he really needed to think about, right?
Right, she calmed him down, she made him happy, she wanted to protect him and let him know that she was going to be annoying which was so fucking awesome of her and Merlin’s beard. She was the bloody reason, absolutely, that he’d made it out alive. His kisses were teetering on frantic, as if he had to kiss her as much as possible before they went to sleep, as if he wouldn’t be able to again, but James got the strangest feeling that Lily didn’t exactly mind this.
She didn't mind it at all, not in the least, because she was feeling the same exact way--he wasn't the only one that had gone without the other for the duration of his captivity and oh hell, she hadn't been this desperate to snog him since--
Well, no, she had never been this desperate to snog him. Desperate, yes, but this was a completely new level.
Lily hardly noticed that her shirt was off, or if she did notice, she didn't seem to care or be at all embarrassed about it. She landed on top of him on the bed and rose to a more comfortable position, where she was kneeling straddling either side of him, her arms on either side of his head as she kissed him. Of course it wasn't completely out of her mind the fact that this looked and felt like something that could very easily lead to something... ah, a bit more inappropriate... but--oh sweet Merlin, who cared right now what it looked like? She was living this one in the moment, for the first time she could remember not thinking and analyzing every move they were making... and hell, was it a better experience for it.
James had noticed how inappropriate this was beginning to look the second her knees had pressed into the mattress on either side of him, when his mind had decided to turn on and function as normally as one’s could when their amazingly sexy girlfriend was straddling you. Ah---gah…oh…kay, yesss—well---that was a complete brain freeze and James was quite sure his hands were going to get caught in her hair by the way he was pulling her closer to him to deepen their kisses and---
Somewhere, deep, deep in the fog that was his homoronally driven mind, James realized he’d be perfectly fine if this didn’t end up with sex. The rest of his body screamed quite loudly at this voice, telling it to shut up and go jump into a black hole, but James was going to listen. Lily deserved the best, and a wild, emotion-drive, oh-my-God-you-almost-died first time didn’t sound like the best. And…it wouldn’t be worth it to James, if it wasn’t the best, so with a very content sigh into her mouth, he resolved to let her figure out what she wanted, and they’d make sure it was for the best.
No, that was definitely not what Lily wanted in a first time, but there was also no way that she was going to stop this good a snog anytime soon, and guhh--the closer he pulled her to him, the less and less she found herself kneeling and the more and more she found herself laying on top of him. Her arms no longer supporting her weight, one grabbed onto the comforter quite forcefully and the other went through his hair, the touch of that hand surprisingly adoring in manner for what the rest of her was doing.
"Jesus, I love you," she gasped between kisses, putting across the sentiment for what was probably the trillioneth time since he had gotten back, still feeling like she hadn't emphasized that fact enough yet. It just felt so good to say, that if 'I love James Potter' were the only four words she was allowed to say for the rest of her life, she would be perfectly content to scream them from a mountaintop every second of every day.
