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James didn’t think twice before marching into Sirius’ flat unannounced.
He never did. After all, Sirius frequently let himself into James’ flat to jump on his bed and wake him up just to be annoying.
It wasn’t like he was breaking in. After all, he had the keys.
Sure, Marlene had yelled at him once or twice because he had walked in on some private moments, but James had always covered his eyes and left. In fact, he thought he was rather respectful about it.
All of that was to say that, on that particular rainy Sunday afternoon, James thoughtlessly walked through the front door, wandered into the kitchen, and opened the fridge to look for snacks.
He hadn’t texted to see if Sirius would be home, but he was quite sure he would be, because if Sirius was out of the house, James was likely with him.
As he scanned through the fridge, he hummed tunelessly, and pulled out a plate of leftovers.
Then something meowed.
James froze. Sirius did not have any cats. In fact, Sirius was far more of a dog person than a cat person. Maybe he was imagining things.
There was another meow, and James slowly turned to find a sleek black cat sitting on the countertop, staring at him unnervingly with a singular, greenish gold eye.
He wasn’t sure how long he stared at the cat. Its one eye was disturbingly bright, and it didn’t move at all.
“Hello?” James said tentatively.
“Hello,” said a voice, and James nearly jumped out of his skin.
He would only ever admit it silently, to himself, that he had briefly believed it was the cat speaking.
Instead, after he jumped, he caught sight of a woman in the darkened doorway to his left.
She glared at him, and James couldn’t help but stare at her dark red lips, which curved down slightly as she gave him a displeased look.
“Who are you?” she asked, head tilted, lips pursed slightly.
James tried to make it less obvious that he couldn’t stop staring at her lips as she spoke, and failed miserably.
“Who are you ?” he countered, because really, she was the stranger in his best friend’s flat, not him. James couldn’t recall having ever seen her before. He was quite sure that he wasn’t mistaken, because he surely couldn’t have forgotten her.
She was possibly the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen. Her hair was a dark red, long and wavy, and she had a thick fluffy fringe, hovering just above her strikingly green eyes.
James looked between her and the cat, and frowned.
Their eyes, strangely enough, were quite similar in color.
“Circe, come here,” the woman said, and the cat jumped silently down from the countertop, and into the woman’s arms.
James was beginning to feel a little awkward, standing in the kitchen and holding leftovers. The woman stood with a kind of authority, which James would believe if she didn’t look so tense.
“Are you a thief? ” she asked, her voice quite calm for someone who seemed to believe she was in a room with a thief. “Because if you are, you’re really bad at it. And don’t even bother trying anything. I can fight. And there are a bunch of women in that other room who can come out and easily kick your ass.”
James put down the plate of leftovers and started to speak, but the woman cut him off.
“If you don’t leave now I’m feeding your liver to my cat,” she said, just uncertain enough that James realized it was possible he was actually scaring this woman. He tried to figure out if he’d somehow ended up in the wrong flat.
Before the woman could say anything else, the door she had come from, which James knew led into the living room, opened, and Marlene stuck her head out.
“What’s taking so long Lily?” she asked, then stopped when she saw James.
“There’s a strange man stealing your food,” said the woman, Lily, the relief plain on her face now that Marlene was here.
Marlene stared at James quizzically, and James shrugged and put his hands up.
“Oh my god, Lily,” Marlene said, a smile spreading across her face. “I’m so sorry, that strange man is just James. He’s my boyfriend’s boyfriend.” James rolled his eyes at Marlene, and Marlene rolled her eyes back at him before continuing. “James, this is my friend Lily.”
Lily exhaled slowly, her shoulders lowering slightly. James watched the strap of her silky purple top slip down her shoulder just slightly.
“I— Okay. I’m sorry for threatening to let my cat eat your liver,” Lily said. Even though Marlene had reassured her that James hadn’t broken in, she still seemed slightly suspicious of him.
James ran his hand through his hair and leaned back against the counter casually. Now that he knew Lily was also not breaking in, he wondered if she would go out with him. There was just something about her, the confident straightforwardness, the way she tilted her head and gave him that skeptical look, which tugged at his heartstrings and made him want her.
Marlene narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head. Damn her. She knew him too well.
“Go away James. This is a private gathering. Sirius is probably at your place right now.”
“What?” James asked, slightly offended that he was being kicked out. “What are you guys doing?”
“Performing human sacrifices,” said Marlene, heavy on the sarcasm.
“Drinking the blood of men,” said Lily, notably less sarcastic than Marlene.
James didn't have a vampire fetish, but if that was what Lily was into, he would be cool with it.
Marlene grinned wickedly. “See? Leave now, or Lily will set her cat on you and drink your blood.”
James frowned, disappointed that Marlene wasn’t giving him a chance with Lily.
“Fine,” he said. “But Lily, can I—”
“Shoo,” Marlene cut him off, and started pushing him towards the door. “Leave her alone,” she hissed into his ear, “or I’ll make Sirius miss your next boys’ night.”
James turned to catch one more glimpse of Lily. She cradled her cat in her arms, and her face had softened as she gazed down, her lips curved in a slight smile as the cat purred.
James turned to go.
Lily had to be a witch, because she’d clearly cast some strange spell on him.
He fiddled with his keys on his way out, tossing them back and forth between his hands, mind filled with thoughts of Lily as he walked back home.
Predictably, he found Sirius lounging on his bed, and loudly crunching on a bag of sour cream and onion crisps.
“What took you so long?” asked Sirius, in his typical nonchalant way.
“Stop getting crumbs all over my bed,” James said as he snatched the bag of crisps from Sirius, then plopped himself down on his bed. “Why didn’t you tell me your girlfriend was hosting some secret meeting at your place today?”
“Secret meeting?” Sirius arched his eyebrows at James as he snatched the crisps back.
“Yeah! Or whatever it was. I showed up and this girl thought I was breaking in, then Marlene threatened to human sacrifice me or something.”
“You think they’re doing human sacrifices in there?” Sirius appeared unbothered by the thought of his girlfriend performing human sacrifices with his friends. Then his lips twitched slightly, and James knew he was being mocked.
“Oh shut up. What are they doing there?”
“Eh,” Sirius shrugged.
“ Eh ?”
“Eh,” Sirius repeated. He snatched his crossword book off of the bedside table and flipped to a dog-eared page. “Hey, what do you think two down is?”
“I can’t believe you don’t care that your girlfriend and her coven want to drink my blood,” James said, pushing the book away.
“Good for them,” Sirius replied. “What girl thought you were breaking in?”
“Lily,” he said, and couldn’t stop his wistful sigh.
Sirius stared at him blankly for a moment, and began laughing at him. When he finally caught his breath again, he spoke.
“Redhead, right? With the killer stare?”
“Yeah,” James said, just a little dejected.
“Yeah, that’s never going to happen,” Sirius said, eyes glittering with mirth. “You sure know how to pick them.”
“Whatever,” James said, and pulled a crisp from the bag Sirius held. He crunched down on it, then said, “I don’t even like her that much anyway. She’s just… cute.”
“You big liar. You don’t like cute. You like scary.”
“Fine!” James slouched deeper against his pillow. “She’s enchanting. She’s magical. She cast a spell on me and captured my heart. She threatened to let her cat eat my liver.”
“Well there you go mate,” Sirius clapped James on the back. “You’re fucked. And not in a fun way.”
“I can’t believe you found a long term girlfriend before me,” James grumbled.
Sirius did what he always did, and simply laughed even more.
Whenever everything felt too overwhelming, which happened far too often these days, Lily did her best to focus on her cats.
Taking care of living creatures gave her the will to take care of herself.
She wasn’t used to being single, and she’d maybe gone overboard with adopting cats, due to how lonely her flat had felt when she first moved in.
Despite being a vet, Lily hadn’t owned a single pet since she started dating her ex.
Sev hated animals, and was horribly allergic to fur. In turn, animals also hated him.
In retrospect, she probably should have listened to the animals. They usually seemed to know best.
Circe was the first cat she’d adopted after the breakup. Lily had sewn her up months ago, after a dog attack had taken her eye, and no one had adopted her since. The moment she’d broken up with Sev, she’d made a beeline to the shelter for Circe. Now, Circe had minor attachment issues, and often went with Lily wherever she could.
After she’d moved back to her hometown, Lily had managed to pick up three more cats.
Morgana was an elderly gray cat, who liked to place herself in the center of the sofa and cast her judgemental gaze upon everyone, despite her occasional incontinence issues.
Hecate and Medea were littermates, both unfriendly black cats who had a particular vitriol for men.
The four of them were the only thing keeping Lily afloat.
Well, and Marlene.
She supposed she had to give her best friend a little bit of credit, for helping her get back on her feet when she moved home, fresh out of a bad relationship.
Marlene had been spectacular. So was the book club which Marlene had invited her to her flat for.
It was so strange, being in a room full of laughing, supportive women. Lily hadn’t realized how much she’d missed having female friends.
To tell the truth, she hadn’t even realized that Sev had been cutting her off from her friends until the first time she realized that being with him made her unhappy, and she’d gone for her phone to text a friend, only to realize that she didn’t know who to reach out to.
Everything about the book club had been perfect, except for one thing.
James Potter.
She hoped he didn’t realize how anxious she’d been when she found him rummaging through the kitchen. It was stupid, that he had scared her so much, but she’d really thought he was breaking in.
Of course, it had all become embarrassing, when it turned out she threatened him for no reason.
It grated on her that he was so damn handsome. She didn’t want to find him handsome. That gave him power, and Lily never wanted a man to have power over her again.
Despite the fact that James appeared to be quite close with both Marlene and her boyfriend, Lily didn’t plan on seeing him again.
Then, Marlene texted her for help with the one thing Lily was weak to: Injured cats.
Apparently, James had found a stray kitten on his morning run. Marlene informed her that there were no visible wounds, but the cat was limping and crying.
Lily took her cat carrier, and some wet food, and apologized profusely to Circe.
As soon as she saw James, her heart sank. Due to the fact that he’d been on his morning run, he was shirtless, and glistening with sweat. He reached up and scrubbed his hand through his hair, and Lily watched his bicep flex.
Kitten , she reminded herself. She was here for the cat.
James turned to her, and the look of soft relief in his eyes made her chest feel all warm.
“Lily! Thank goodness Marlene sent you! I have no idea what to do, I just heard this really sad crying, and I looked behind the bush, and then there was this cat—this tiny little baby! And every time he tries to stand up he can’t, so I texted Sirius, and luckily he was with Marlene, and she knew that you—”
“You’re rambling,” Lily said, firmly cutting James off. “Where’s the cat?”
James pointed towards a bush. “Behind there.”
Lily made her way around and saw the kitten. It was clearly undersized and weak, and when she crouched down and looked closer, she could see a small open wound on its leg.
“Looks fairly fresh,” she said to James, her voice low so as to avoid startling the cat. “Which means it’s not infected yet, which is definitely good.
“Uh, should I do anything?” asked James, and she shushed him.
Then, she pulled on her gloves, and with slow movements, placed a towel over it to wrap it up and gently move it to the open carrier she’d brought with her. The kitten trembled in her hands, clearly terrified of her, although it was too weak to fight back.
“Alright, there you go,” she murmured. “That’s alright, you’re safe, okay? Poor baby.”
“What happens now?” asked James, who had apparently snuck up behind her to peek at the cat. She whipped her head around and glared at him, which was probably a little harsh, but she’d been startled.
He stepped back quickly.
“Well, now I need to take this little guy to the clinic, get him checked out,” she told James. “Thanks for letting me know about this.”
James messed with his hair as he spoke, and Lily wanted to yell at him to stop, although she refrained, only because it would startle the kitten.
“Of course, but… really, is there anything I can do to help? Like, vet bills or something?”
“You’d pay the vet bills?” Lily asked, eyebrows raised.
“Of course!”
“Well, depending on what we find, it could rack up.”
James shrugged carelessly. “I don’t mind, whatever it is, just let me know and I’ll cover it.”
Lily stared at him for a few moments, then finally nodded. “Okay. If you say so.”
“Whatever you need, I’m your man,” James said. “We should go out some time.”
Lily tilted her head. He reached up to mess with his hair once again as she stared.
“You’re… you’re asking me out?” she asked him.
She felt uncomfortable, standing there in the park, holding a cat carrier. Vulnerable and exposed, even though he was the one standing there shirtless.
Whenever guys had asked her out while she was dating Sev, it had always made Lily incredibly anxious, because she knew how upset he would be to find out. Now, she didn’t know how to respond. She hardly knew James, and it frankly scared her how much she could see herself really liking him.
She wasn’t ready.
Then James said, “no.”
“No?” Lily asked, a flash of relief preluding the creeping embarrassment of what she’d assumed.
“Just, that I think you’re cool and we should hang out,” James said.
“I mean, I’m sure we’ll see each other around,” she said. He surely thought she was presumptuous and full of herself for making such an assumption. “I’ve got to get to the clinic, have a good run.”
Then, Lily turned around, and walked away from James Potter and the lost potential of another nightmare relationship which would churn her out and wash her up on the shores to start over once again in a few years.
James didn’t know how it happened.
He was enthralled in her grasps.
Every time he hung out with Marlene, he asked her about Lily.
Every time he asked about Lily, Marlene promptly shut him down.
“I’m not that bad a boyfriend, am I?” he asked her sulkily during lunch.
“Well, you’re not a bad boyfriend. The problem is that you’re a boyfriend,” Marlene told him. She took a huge bite of her sandwich and chewed slowly before continuing to speak, as James glared at her impatiently. “She doesn’t need that in her life right now.”
“Okay, but I’m a good boyfriend, right?” James asked, not caring that he was clearly fishing for compliments.
Marlene kicked at his shins under the table. “Of course you’re a good boyfriend. But can you seriously just leave her alone?”
“Dude, I’m not harassing her or something. I just want to ask her out!”
“She told me that she thought you were trying to ask her out.”
James sighed. “I did try. But then her face, you should have seen it. Her eyes got really tight and she froze. So, I kind of felt like shit for making her uncomfortable again and changed direction.”
Marlene pressed her lips together. “Hm. There you go. Just, stop flirting with her, and don’t you dare try and ask her out again.”
James scuffed the toe of his shoe against the floor.
“Yeah, fine. I promise I’ll be good.”
Marlene’s face brightened. “Well then, I can invite you to my birthday celebration!”
James glared. “No way. You weren’t going to not invite me, were you?”
Marlene shrugged cryptically. “It’s karaoke. Next weekend. I’ll text you the details.”
“You mean to say that you weren’t going to invite me, James Potter, the grandest of friends, to your birthday? All for Lily Evans?”
“Oh, don’t act like you wouldn’t do anything for her, even though you’ve only met her twice.”
James looked down at his lap, feeling sufficiently chastened.
And so, the following weekend, James made his way out with Sirius to the karaoke place, determined to not bother Lily.
“Marlene doesn’t really think I’ll creep on her, does she?” James asked as they climbed out of the car.
Sirius shrugged. “She’s just worried about Lily. And clearly you are too. You haven’t stopped talking about her all week.”
“What? That is absolutely untrue.”
Sirius raised his eyebrows, a challenging arch which he usually used when he had an ace up his sleeve.
James did not want to face a Sirius with an ace, but Sirius wasn’t stopping on his account.
Then, Sirius pointed at the car. “Take the paper out of the glove compartment.”
James opened the car door, and opened the glove compartment, to find a stack of work documents that he’d printed out and forgotten about.
“Hey! I was looking for those! How come you didn’t tell me they were here?”
Sirius ignored him. “Now turn them over and look at the back.”
James flipped the packet over, and was faced with the most damning of evidence.
Amongst his crowd of copious doodles were two letters, written multiple times in his spindly handwriting.
L.E.
“How on earth did you know that I had this?” James asked.
Sirius snatched the papers from his hand with a flourish. “And thus I rest my case. You are obsessed.”
James sighed, grabbed the papers back from Sirius, and tossed them in the car. “Just don’t tell Marlene, or she’ll feed my testicles to Lily’s cat or something.”
Sirius snorted. “Don’t do anything to Lily, or she’ll do that herself. Come on, we can’t be late or else Mar’s gonna have my balls.”
Marlene had booked a private karaoke room, complete with a big screen for the lyrics, microphones, and tacky Hollywood decor. When James and Sirius arrived, Marlene and a few of her friends were already there, including Lily.
James couldn’t stop staring the moment they got in. She was wearing some delicate black top which exposed a thin strip of her midriff, and a long lace white skirt. She tipped her head back and took a sip from a glass, partly filled with some deep golden liquid. When she put it back down, James noticed the dark red lip print she left behind.
Tendrils of longing wound their way through his chest as he watched her.
Someone stepped on his foot, and he turned to glare at Sirius.
“Stop staring, you freak.”
James didn’t even bother trying to protest. He was staring.
“If I leave you behind to talk to my girlfriend, you won’t keep staring, right?” Sirius asked.
Before James could reply, Sirius shrugged and left him.
Perhaps it was ill-advised, but James sat himself down next to Lily.
She turned to look at him, and frowned.
It was strangely charming.
“How’s the cat?” he asked.
“Alive,” Lily said.
“I sponsored it, don’t I get to know more about it?”
“Her,” Lily corrected. “She’s a girl. And she’s healed now. They’ve moved her to a local shelter.” She swirled her drink around in the glass, and James stared at the lip print on the rim.
“What are you looking at?” she asked, and James’ eyes flew up to meet hers.
“Uh. Nothing?”
Then Sirius squashed himself next to James on the seat which definitely did not have enough room, and said, “James, want a drink?”
James snatched the tall glass from Sirius’ hands and chugged it down. The taste of rum overpowered the fruity qualities of the drink, and James was grateful for it.
“Hey!” Sirius exclaimed. “That wasn’t for you!”
James looked down sheepishly at the glass he held, which now only held a mishmash of mint leaves, lime wedges, and crushed ice.
“Why did you hand this to me then? And why was it so strong?”
“I didn’t hand it to you! I asked for an extra shot of rum in it. I meant did you want me to order you a drink!”
“Hm.” James considered the cocktail he’d just had. “Another one of these please.”
Sirius glared at him. “You’re paying for dinner tomorrow.”
James shrugged. When he turned back to Lily, he realized with a jolt of pleasure that she’d been watching them, an amused smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
As soon as she realized he was looking, she frowned again.
James wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol he’d just consumed, or just Lily’s face, but his brain turned a little mushy, his thoughts fragmenting as he tried to find words. Both possibilities were equally plausible.
“What?” Lily asked, and James sighed. Light glinted off of the glittery gold smeared across her eyelids, and they made her green eyes look even brighter.
“You can’t possibly be drunk already, can you?” she asked.
“No!” James tried to defend himself, but he was pretty sure he was just drunk off of her.
Lily smirked. “Well then. Go ahead. Pick a song. I want to see how good you are.”
James gasped, mock dramatic. “Me? I’ll let you know that I am a fantastic singer.”
“Well then,” Lily shrugged, “let me pick a song for you.”
James blinked. “Uh. Okay then.”
He wondered if he had just made a mistake, but then Lily smiled at him, a full on real smile with teeth, and even though it was just slightly wicked, James thought that whatever embarrassment she would put him through was worth it.
She stood up to go put his name on the list, along with whatever song she chose, and James sank back into his seat with a sigh.
Sirius reappeared with two drinks in hand, and shoved one at James before sagging down where Lily had just been sitting.
“I put us down,” he said.
“For Africa ?” James asked, and Sirius grinned.
“Of course! What else?”
James rolled his eyes. “Are you singing anything special for Marlene?”
Sirius waggled his eyebrows. “You’ll have to find out later. Have you put yourself down for anything?”
James sighed and watched Lily, writing something down in the book across the room. “Lily is picking a song for me.”
Sirius barked out a laugh. “Idiot,” he said, elbowing James in the ribs, not very hard, but hard enough.
Up in the front of the room, a song started, and Marlene grabbed a mic.
“Pay attention! The birthday girl is here to perform!” she shouted, just the slightest slur telling James that she’d definitely pregamed.
Then she began singing, “ You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht…”
James started laughing. “Hey, this one’s about you,” he said to Sirius.
Marlene made her way up to them as she sang, “ And all the girls dreamed that they’d be your partner, they’d be your partner,” pointing towards Sirius as she advanced.
“ You’re so vain! ” she shouted into the microphone as she reached them. “ You probably think this song is about you, you’re so vain! ”
The rest of the song went on a little like that, Marlene screaming the lyrics passionately into the microphone, and by the end, everyone in the room was singing, directing all their vitriol towards Sirius, who lounged back on his seat nonchalantly.
After the raucous ending to Marlene’s performance, a few of her friends took their turns at the front, belting out Taylor Swift songs.
James found he couldn’t pay attention to the songs, just Lily, who had moved to sit next to Marlene. Her face was bright, as she wrapped her arm around Marlene’s shoulder and sang along, eyes crinkling and cheeks flushed.
When Sirius dragged him up to sing, he did his best to bless the rains down in Africa in a different direction from Lily, for fear that she would strike him dead with her beauty.
While Sirius could occasionally pull out the pipes, unlike James, their harmonizing through the chorus was tragically bad. At least it was covered by the rest of the room singing along with them, an overwhelmingly awful cacophony of drunk people.
James finally chanced a glance at Lily near the end of the song, and realized that she wasn’t singing along. She was only watching him.
It took a few songs for James to recover from that, as he sat in the corner with Sirius and sipped at his mojito, considering the implications of the fact that Lily had been watching him .
Lily herself broke him from his reverie when she shoved his shoulder.
“Up up up!” she said. “Your solo has arrived!”
As soon as James heard the first few notes of My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion piping out of the speakers, he laughed, and pointed at Lily.
“This one goes out to the lovely Miss Evans! She’s the one you all can thank for the privilege to hear me sing this beautiful song.”
Then, James clasped his hand to his heart, and proceeded to butcher the glorious work of Celine Dion at the top of his lungs for four minutes.
Really, it wasn’t on purpose.
All he wanted was to give it his all.
Unfortunately, James wasn’t known for being a particularly good singer.
As he sang the last line, he found himself on his knees in front of Lily, clutching the microphone in both hands, shouting, “ and my heart will go on and onnnnnn .”
He didn’t have the chance to thank his poor audience, because Lily was pulling the microphone away from him to formally apologize to everyone in the room for inflicting such horror on them.
James was just pleased to see how happy she looked, as though his performance had made her laugh.
He hoped it had.
As someone else stood up for their turn, Lily grabbed James’ hand and pulled him to his feet.
“Fantastic singer, you said?”
James shrugged unapologetically . “Did you not appreciate my passion?”
Lily scrunched her nose, and James’ insides melted into goo. “I give it a ten for passion and performance, and a negative one hundred for skill.”
“Are you drunk?” James asked, “because you must be if you think I did that bad.”
“I’m definitely drunk,” she giggled, “but clearly you are too if you think that was good.”
James looked down at the drink he’d left on the table, and noticed that it was empty.
“Pffffttttt,” he said incoherently.
“Lily!” Marlene shouted, and pointed up to the front of the room. “It’s you! Your solo performance.”
Lily stood up, using James’ shoulder for support, and he felt all warm and fuzzy where she touched him.
“I’ll be back,” she said seriously, stabbing her finger in the direction of James’ face, then made her way up to grab the microphone.
Standing up there, holding the microphone up to her face and already swaying although the song hadn’t started yet, it was like Lily was the only one in the room. She reached up and pulled the hair tie from her hair, letting it fall and gather around her shoulders in bundles of red gold.
“Woohoo, Lil-ayyyy,” shouted Marlene, like she was at a rock concert rather than in a small private karaoke room.
A familiar guitar riff began blaring out of the speakers, and Lily’s serious expression didn't shift at all as she closed her eyes and began to sing.
“ Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night, and wouldn’t you love to love her …”
She wasn’t a remarkable singer by any means. But her voice was low and smoky, giving way to a slight breathiness as she reached the higher notes.
It was like a moment of tunnel vision. James had no idea how long Lily was up there singing, all he knew was that he couldn’t take her eyes off her.
“James, why are you staring?”
And there she was. Standing in front of him, like she hadn’t just reshaped his life with one song. Frowning at him, arms crossed, as someone else began singing.
It was all background noise.
“I’m just looking at you,” he said.
“Me?” she asked. “Why on earth would you be doing that?”
“Because you’re beautiful,” James said, the belated thought of Marlene’s warnings slipping away into oblivion.
Lily paused for a few seconds, her head tilted, face thoughtful.
Then, she grabbed James’ arm and dragged him out of the room.
The hallway outside the private karaoke room was dark, and it was disorienting to go from the colorful lights of the room to darkness.
James didn’t feel particularly coherent until Lily pushed him against the wall and kissed him.
Everything became clear once again as he responded to her lips, pulling her close and letting her reach up and sink her hands into his hair, her fingers gripping tight as she pressed in closer and closer.
All of his sensations seemed sharpened, from the tug of her fingers in his hair, to the bite of her teeth. The woodsy caramel of the bourbon Lily had been drinking made the kiss particularly sweet.
Lily kissed assertively, and James was happy to let her do whatever she wanted to him. She pressed herself flush against him, and James’ hands found themselves at her hips, thumbs stroking the exposed skin between her shirt and skirt. Her waist was soft and hot and smooth, and he melted against her.
Then, she pulled away abruptly, lifting his hands off her hips, and the loss was monumentally chilling.
Her face was still close to his, but instead she stared at his face, wide eyed.
“Lily—” he started, but she turned, and walked away.
James’ head was spinning from the abrupt shock of it all. He was quite sure his heart rate was unhealthily rapid, as though someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over his head, but he didn’t care, because he had just received the best kiss of his life from Lily Evans.
He stumbled back towards the karaoke room, and sat himself down on one of the couches unsteadily.
“What on earth went on out there,” Sirius asked. James hadn’t even noticed that his friend had sat down next to him. “Did Evans maul you?”
“Maul me?” James frowned at Sirius. “What are you talking about?”
“Your face. ” Sirius reached out and straightened James’ glasses. “Your new lipstick.”
James rubbed a hand at his mouth and saw that he’d left deep red stains behind.
“Now you’ve gone and smudged it up even more,” said Sirius, more amused than anything. He took out his phone, and took a flash photo, which made James squint and shield himself from the sudden light.
Sirius cackled when he looked at his phone, and James had a feeling he would see the unfortunate picture tomorrow, when Sirius inevitably made it his lockscreen for the next few months.
Really, he couldn’t bring himself to care at that moment, intoxicated on alcohol and Lily Evans.
“She’s magic,” he said.
Sirius laughed. “Yeah mate, sure. Maybe it’s time to switch to water, alright?”
Lily woke up to a picture of James on her phone, sent by Marlene.
His eyes were wide behind the glasses, pupils red in the flash, and he stared at the camera like a deer in headlights, his general mouth region covered in Lily’s dark red lipstick.
A dart of desire hit her out of nowhere, followed by a flood of embarrassment. She tried to piece together all her memories of James from last night. How he’d called her beautiful and looked at her in a way that truly made her feel it. Not possessive but adoring.
It made Lily nervous, how easily he had swayed her.
Unfortunately, or fortunately—depending on the kind of person you were—Lily had developed a bad habit of stymying her negative feelings by adopting new cats.
So off to the local shelter she went to adopt James’ cat.
James’ cat.
She really needed to stop calling the cat that. She was not James’ cat. She was just a cat. Found by James.
Lily named the kitten Rhiannon.
Rhiannon had huge dark eyes, and an emaciated little body, which Lily was sure would change after a few weeks of good food. Her coat was a silvery-gray, and Lily ran the back of her index finger across her head.
Lily snapped a picture to send to Marlene, who had no pets, and got an immediate text back.
ik you’re not totally chill with james, but if you would be cool with it, he’d probably love to meet your new kitten, especially if it’s the one he saved
The memory of James’ hands, hot and strong on her hips, flashed through her mind, and she pulled her hands away from Rhiannon and glared.
Rhiannon just purred, and Lily sighed.
“Are you purposefully trying to remind me of James?” she said out loud to the kitten, and questioned her sanity. She really was becoming a crazy cat lady. “Are you doing this?”
Rhiannon meowed back at her, and she frowned. Her eyes were wide and alert, almost like she really did understand.
“You’re smart, aren’t you?” she asked Rhiannon. “What do I do? Can I ever talk to James again?”
Rhiannon licked Lily’s hand, her tiny pink tongue scraping across her skin.
“Was that a yes?” Lily asked, and she could swear Rhiannon’s head moved up and down just slightly, like a nod.
There was a light thump on her couch, and Lily looked over to see Circe had jumped from a shelf onto the cushion next to her.
“What about you Circe?” Lily asked. “You met James too, what do you think of him?”
Circe lifted her head high and looked around, clearly disinterested.
“You don’t like him?” Lily decided to interpret Circe’s actions for herself. “So you’re team not-James, and Rhiannon is team James.”
Rhiannon meowed, and batted a paw lightly at Circe’s tail.
Circe hissed at Rhiannon.
“Be nice girls,” Lily said. “You’re sisters now. You have to learn to agree with one another, because mummy needs help from you.”
Circe licked her paw, and Rhiannon settled into Lily’s lap.
“So?” she asked them. “Do you think James should come over and meet you? Am I even brave enough?”
Neither cat moved for a few moments, then Circe meowed plaintively at her.
“Is that a yes?” Lily asked. “You think he should come over? I drunkenly made out with him, and turned him down when he wasn’t even asking me out. He probably doesn’t think very highly of me. I should just avoid him now.”
Circe hissed at her.
“What? You don’t think I should?” Lily absently scratched behind Rhiannon’s ear, and the little kitten purred, kneading her paw against her thigh. “But I’m just so—”
Circe cut her off with another hiss.
Lily tilted her head and looked at Circe. Circe stared right back, her singular green eye unblinking and intelligent.
“Okay, fine,” Lily said, picking up her phone. “If I let myself be too scared to do anything around James, then I’m giving him the power. And that’s the entire reason why I was too afraid to go out with him in the first place. But, planning my life out to avoid him is still giving him control over me. I need to take control of myself.”
She texted Marlene back.
Send me his number. I’ll have him over for dinner.
James wasn’t sure what this was.
Lily was having him for dinner at her place. Alone.
It was possible that he was reading too much into this all, but also, to have him over and make dinner was far more effort than just inviting him to play with her cats for thirty minutes in the afternoon.
Part of him hoped that she really did want to see him. That it wasn’t just his request to meet the cats that had encouraged her to invite him over.
Really, he didn’t know how she felt about him. He was seriously getting mixed signals.
On his way to her place, James had stopped by a florist to pick up flowers. He’d immediately been drawn to a giant bundle of red roses, but he reminded himself that he didn’t want to make her think he was some kind of creep, and instead went with a small bouquet of pink and yellow tulips.
At her door, he adjusted his glasses then ran his hand through his hair, before knocking twice.
When Lily opened the door, James had to put a hand on the door frame to keep himself from swooning.
She cradled the black cat with the one eye in her arms, the one James had met at Sirius’ flat, and long tendrils of her red hair hung down around her face, falling out from whatever clip she’d put it up in.
His eyes darted between hers and the cat’s, the bright intelligent green in both strikingly unnerving.
“Lily,” he said dumbly. “I brought these for you.” He thrust the bouquet of flowers towards her.
Lily frowned. She really did seem to like frowning, but James didn’t mind. The little furrow between her eyes was honestly quite endearing. When he looked down at the cat, he was surprised to see that it too looked a little like it was frowning.
“Do you want to come in?” she asked, stepping back and letting Circe jump out of her arms, before taking the flowers from him. “Thank you for the flowers. You really didn’t have to.”
Inside, Lily’s home was full of bookshelves covered in trinkets and cat hair. She laid the tulips on the dining table, and Circe trailed her every step of the way. James stood next to the door, taking in her flat, and trying to catalogue all the cats.
“Didn’t you want to meet Rhianon?” Lily asked, and beckoned him to the kitchen floor, where she had scooped up a familiar kitten.
James was eager as he settled down and held out his hands. Lily was so gentle with Rhiannon as she laid the kitten in his palms.
This was an incredibly cute kitten. She rubbed her face against him, and purred loudly when he scratched around her ears. James couldn’t stop petting her.She was so tiny, and her entire body rumbled with her purrs. Her fur was the softest that he’d ever felt, and soon, she was climbing into his lap, squirming around.
James couldn’t stop the incomprehensible baby talk that came out of him.
“Oh you little little baby, oh you,” he cooed. “You’re so silly, oh… you’re so silly .”
He looked up at Lily, and felt a grin splitting his face.
“She’s so friendly!”
Lily smiled right back at him, and James could have melted from joy. He had a sweet kitten in his lap, and a beautiful Lily Evans bestowing a smile upon him, like a boon. What else could he ask for?
“She likes you,” she said.
“You think?” he asked.
Lily rolled her eyes. “Well, of course she does. Look at her, that smitten kitten.”
James looked down at Rhiannon, and thought that she did indeed look like a smitten kitten.
“Do you think I can pet Circe?” he asked.
The aforementioned cat had tentatively made her way over, doing her best to stay away from James and close to Lily.
Lily shrugged, but her eyes were narrowed as she watched him, so James was careful when he reached out a hand, just close enough so the cat could sniff him if she wanted.
When his hand was a centimeter from Circe’s face, she pulled back and tensed slightly. James immediately hid his hand behind his back.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to scare you,” he said, his voice as low and calming as he could make it.
Lily nodded at him approvingly, and James felt as though he’d just passed a test.
“She doesn’t like me very much,” he said thoughtfully. “Is there anything I can do which will make her less frightened?”
“Just give her time.” Lily said. “Come on girl,” she beckoned Circe, and James shifted away from Lily to try and make the cat more comfortable.
Circe’s stiff tail softened slightly, and she padded over to sit in Lily’s lap.
“I can do that,” James said.
“She’s been hurt before, you know. That’s why it takes a little while for her to open up. But if you take your time, if you’re gentle with her… you’ll really see how lovely she is.”
“I can be patient,” James said.
“You know my ex hated cats,” Lily said, changing the subject.
“Really?” James asked. “Who hates cats? I mean, Sirius doesn’t love them, but that’s because he’s a dog supremacist.”
Lily shrugged. “I have no idea why. He just did. That’s why I adopted so many when we broke up.”
She gestured, and James spotted two black cats sitting on a shelf, their piercing yellow eyes on him.
“Oh my god, do they always just watch like that?” he asked, and Lily laughed.
“You get used to it.”
It was strange seeing Lily so comfortable. Her shoulders were relaxed, and she scratched easily at Circe, leaning back against the kitchen counter as she talked. James decided to broach a somewhat uncomfortable topic.
“At Marlene’s birthday, at karaoke,” he began, and Lily’s face immediately started to flush.
“Oh my gosh,” she cringed. “I’m so embarrassed. Marlene sent me that picture the night after and… ugh you must think I’m insane.”
James was taken aback. “Insane? No, I thought you were ridiculously hot.”
“What? I turned you down when you weren’t even asking me out, and then dragged you off to make out when I got drunk. That’s so embarrassing.”
“Honestly, I was asking you out,” James said, and Lily’s eyebrows shot up. “But then you looked so uncomfortable, I thought I should just change gears. I didn’t want to make you feel any more uncomfortable than you already did.”
“Really? You didn’t want to make me uncomfortable?” Lily’s green eyes were almost sparkling. “So… you would go on a date with me.”
“Is that not obvious?” James asked.
“I mean, I guess not. Not to me,” she said. “Can I kiss you?”
It was an abrupt question, but who was James to deny her.
He leaned in, and she held his face in her hands and drew him closer, before pressing her lips to his.
Their second kiss was soft. Tender and chaste, but perfectly charming.
They only drew apart when there came a yowl and hiss from the two cats on their laps. Rhiannon and Circe had seemingly gotten into a tangle, as they batted at each other, and James pulled Rhiannon from the mess, holding her up in kitten air jail.
Lily was laughing as she bundled an unhappy Circe in her arms. Her round cheeks were now flushed with joy rather than embarrassment, and her eyes crinkled at James.
“James, will you go on a date with me right now?” she asked, and James rolled his eyes playfully at her.
“Obviously.”
“Even though I have too many weird cats?” she asked.
“Even though you have too many weird cats,” he agreed. “And despite the fact you’re in a coven with Marlene that performs human sacrifices.”
Lily stared at him blankly for a moment, then burst into laughter. “I can’t believe I told you that we were drinking the blood of men at book club, that was so stupid.”
It was James’ turn to pause. “That was a book club?”
Lily’s expression was incredulous. “Yes? You didn’t really think it was a coven where we drank the blood of men and performed human sacrifices, did you?”
James opened his mouth, and closed it. “Well. No. But… you had a one eyed cat! That was pretty witchy!”
“Oh James,” Lily sighed, humor dancing across her face as she pushed him against the kitchen cabinet and leaned in for another kiss.