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“Oh! Oh, this is unbelievable. Oh, this is going to be so good, James!” Sirius’ voice came crackling through the walkie talkie that they had both employed. It had been his idea, albeit, to have Sirius be the one with the pair of binoculars to scout the other team, but in hindsight, this had proven to be a terrible idea.
For one, Sirius absolutely did not know how to share any piece of information that was actually going to help them win this water fight (which Sirius was treating as optional, but James knew was an absolute necessity). For two, he sounded atrociously giddy about something that James had every desire to know, and no desire to actually know. It was a conundrum he found himself often a part of when interacting with Sirius.
Before he could question anything, Sirius started speaking again, “My dear prongsy boy,” then sounds of rustling, “You are in for such a treat.”
James shook his head and wondered for the millionth time what he had done to deserve this, and if Sirius had smoked something before he showed up for the activity. “What the fuck are you talking about? Did you see the other team?” Perhaps the better, and the more reasonable question was wondering if Sirius could see where James was located but it was not as relevant considering the circumstances.
He knew he may be taking this game just a tad bit too seriously, but this other team had been up his arse for the whole time he had been here. It was annoying, really, how they had come in tied with James’ little humans for almost every activity. It was not supposed to be a competitive camp, and really no other cabins were even competing but there was simply no need to introduce a star system if they didn’t want some healthy competition.
The real cherry on top was that the camp counsellor in charge of the opposing team, Evan or something in that fashion, had apparently been talking shit about James’ team. They had shown up late (one time, mind you!) for the introduction after a small disaster involving a pair of boat shoes and too-short-shorts and thus missed the entire introduction, and according to his very well trusted sources, this Evan had gone around speaking about how it was so childish and unbecoming of a camp counsellor to come in late and miss the ceremony.
This, obviously, instigated a small unspoken war between both the counsellors and their cabins to win. Not for the prize, or the little gold stars, but for the bragging rights. He wanted to prove to Evan, whom he hadn’t even met yet let alone seen, that he was the better counsellor. It was the principle of the matter.
And now, Sirius wasn’t taking this seriously, he couldn’t see most of his little humans, and he had no idea where he was exactly. It wasn’t a total disaster, but it could be better.
“Sirius? Sirius, hello?” He drawled out for as long as he could, but all he got in return was silence.
Well, then. A bigger disaster than he anticipated, but he could still handle it. It was slowly getting darker, nearly dusk, and he was definitely in the middle of a forest, and Sirius was no longer answering him, but it was all going to be okay. Evan had nothing on him if he couldn’t be found, and that was the point of the game.
He hauled up his water gun and started walking towards the direction he had come from. That was bound to be the way out. He was a good counsellor, of course, he could find his way out of a forest. Even if it was getting darker by the minute, the sunset (albeit, incredibly pretty) leading the way for the stars to slowly start peaking. The good news was that he could still see, the bad news was that he wasn’t sure for exactly how much longer that would last.
He continued walking, hoping that it was leading him out of this forest, but before he went on for too long he heard a twig snap. Logically, he knew it couldn’t be a bear. They were too… Heavy. For that to happen. Of course. This left the only other conclusion that someone from camp was finally looking for him. His first instinct was to shout so they could hopefully hear him, and find him, and then subsequently rescue him from the aforementioned bear, but then he thought about the competition they were having. It could be someone from the other team, hoping to get him while he was vulnerable.
He hoisted the water gun up properly and hid behind a tree as the footsteps got closer.
The next few moments happened too quickly for him to even fathom: he saw a flash of red, and sprayed the water gun right at them, while the person ( oh god ) yelled out a name, “James?” A pause, likely to take in the absurd amount of water she just got pelted with, “What the fuck?”
There is absolutely no way, was his first thought. And then, I must be dreaming. He whipped his head around the tree to see what must have been a hallucination induced by the forest. But there she was… “Lily?”
“Christ, yes, it’s me.”
“I—how—Huh?” He hadn’t seen her in over a year, and now she was here, standing in the middle of the forest, incredibly wet and incredibly shirtless. This was only just now registering in his brain, which felt like it was short-circuiting.
He stepped around the tree, finally, and then sputtered out a few more words that were bordering on incoherency. She seemed to be shaking her head, “Are you okay? Did you eat a mushroom or something?”
“Am I dreaming?” The words slipped out of his mouth without an actual conscious decision to say them out loud, as he was walking towards her.
He was close enough now, to see her quirk one eyebrow. “Is this how I would be in your dreams?” He opened his mouth to reply but then thought better of it. She seemed to understand what he was going to say (Yes), and blinked rapidly before looking away, and biting her lip as if to hide something. Someone cleared their throat, and he wasn’t sure if it was him or her, his brain was still catching up to this moment.
Lily Evans. Lily Evans. Lily Evans. Lily Evans. She was here, in front of him, wearing nothing but shorts (black ones) and a bikini (bright green) top, goosebumps all over her flesh likely from the water and the breeze. There is absolutely no way this could be real. She didn’t seem to notice the way he was probably ogling at her, thankfully, because he wasn’t sure how he could recover if she had.
“L-Evans, what’re you even doing here?” He truly thought he’d never see her again after school ended last year. Partly due to his own choices, and partly due to hearing that she had moved to a new city right after graduation.
“What do you mean what am I doing here? I’ve been here for the past three weeks?” She replied, sounding almost amused. That she was here in front of him was already taking too long to comprehend, but that she had been here for weeks? This had to be some cosmic joke.
“Here where? Here camp here?” James sounded like an utter idiot, sputtering out complete sentences as monosyllables, but he still couldn’t help it.
“Of course, here camp here.”
“Camp Hogwarts?”
“Is there any other camp in the vicinity, James?” This was now the second time she had said his name in their short meeting (he had been keeping track) and it was almost as disorienting as the rest of the encounter. Prior to today, he could count on two hands exactly how many times she had said his first name, moreover to his face.
“I mean, no, but why haven’t I seen you?”
She bit her lip again at this, and by god, James was almost tempted to tell her to stop doing that right to her face. He thought he was over his crush on her, having been slightly in love with her for almost the whole time he had been at school, but it seems that when faced with her directly (again, shirtless and soaked), the entire thing came back in full force.
“Because I didn’t want you to.”
“What?”
She glanced up, and then shrugged, before letting out a grin. She was really out to give him a heart attack, he was sure of it. “Listen, you showed up late the first day, and then I realized it was you,” she emphasized, gesturing at his frame with her hands, “and your friends and I wanted to have a little fun. My campers told me you thought it was some guy named Evan, so I just told everyone not to say a word.”
For a moment he didn’t even have anything to say to her, not shocked exactly, but pleasantly surprised. “I can’t believe they all managed to keep their mouths shut, honestly.”
“Me neither,” she snorted, “I thought your campers were more loyal to you.”
“Yeah,” he mockingly frowned, “I thought so too, but apparently the little shits are more loyal to a prank than to me. Woe is me,” he said, putting his hand to his forehead dramatically.
She giggled a little, and the 15-year-old inside of him was beaming with pride of making The Lily Evans laugh. “I really can’t believe I got away with it, honestly, I thought you would’ve figured it out by now. Or, maybe not you,” she added, slyly, “maybe Remus or Sirius.”
Sirius. Oh, oh. This explained why he had suddenly stopped replying to James, he had probably seen Lily Evans walking up to him and decided the best interference was to go radio silent. Pun entirely intended.
“They probably did, and just didn’t want to tell me,” He muttered.
He wanted to say more, ask more questions, but he could see her visibly shaking from the cold. He was close enough now, to see the drops of water he had sprayed upon her. And the minute rise and fall of her chest, and she had (as if to cause him personal suffering) crossed her arms right over her ribcage. She was looking around now, which meant that she couldn’t see him staring exactly where he shouldn’t be staring. Fuck, she was exactly as attractive as he had remembered her, maybe even more so now. He couldn’t attribute it to one single thing that had changed.
Unlike when he used to see her walking around in school, her hair was up, strands plastered to the nape of her neck, darker than the rest of her hair. It made the green straps of her top stand out against the pale skin of her shoulders. The exact shade of the top was different, he knew, from the shade of her eyes but it did little to distract him from the fact that he was still staring . At her shoulders, her neck, below what was appropriate.
Too late he realized this had been going on for far too long, and he looked up to see her looking directly at him. Yes, he thought, deliriously, those are the eyes. She raised her eyebrows, and this time it was him who looked away. He could feel his face getting hot. God, what a disaster. He wanted to tell her that he was not this kind of guy, but clearly, the evidence was proving otherwise.
Rather, unfortunately, he was that sort of guy when it came to her.
Still, she didn’t say anything. And when he looked back at her, her lips were twitching, as if they were amused.
“Listen—”
“We should head back, yeah? People are probably worried,” he said, quickly, before she could probably tell him off.
Another pause. “Yeah, all right.” And he started walking before he heard her voice, “James,” third time, “Do you know where you’re going?”
“Um.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” He turned back around and waited for her to lead the way.
Only to give him another view he definitely had no business staring at, so he walked a little faster to catch up to her.
She was less soaked now but still shivering, and he felt like an idiot not giving her something to at least dry her off. “Sorry, shit, do you want my shirt?” He was wearing
She turned her head to stare at him, “Oh, no it’s fine. It’s not that bad,” but the stuttering of her teeth gave her away. Before she could protest, he placed the gun on the ground and gave her the t-shirt he was wearing.
When he held it out to her, she only blinked at him. “Well,” she said, finally, “Now you’re going to be cold.”
James shrugged at her, “Nah, I don’t get cold. Plus, it’s my fault you’re, y’know?”
She took the shirt from him, almost hesitantly, before putting it on. “You don’t get cold?”
“Nope, never.”
“That’s… Just not possible.”
“You don’t know me.”
“No, I suppose I don’t,” She hummed, faintly, “But I think I should.”