Lily Evans' soulmate is a complete idiot.

She's never met him to confirm this, but she does know that he's stupid enough to keep getting himself hurt.

"Fuck," she hisses, dropping her clipboard and clutching at the phantom pain spreading across her ribcage.

"What'd your soulmate do this time?" Marlene laughs, picking up Lily's clipboard from the floor and handing it to her friend.

"Good bloody question," Lily gasps, but she's gradually becoming more accustomed to the pain, now that the initial shock has passed.

The sheer number of times that her soulmate has managed to injure himself has caused Lily to develop an impressive pain tolerance out of necessity. "Maybe a broken rib or two?" she muses.

Marlene laughs. "God, am I happy my soulmate works a desk job. Really, Lils, I can't wait to find out what this bloke does all the time."

Marlene really is incredibly lucky, Lily thinks to herself, as she slowly makes her way to an open chair in the break room. Marlene met Dorcas just a few months after her soulmate procedure, while sitting in Society Café revising for a biology tutorial. The two immediately connected.

If she thinks about it, Marlene and Dorcas' relationship is really one of the only reasons she still believes in this whole soulmate nonsense to begin with. Perhaps that's just Lily being bitter, but she's almost prepared to give up on the whole thing. After seven years, she really feels like she would've already met this 'soulmate' of hers, if it were truly meant to be.

And after all, Petunia declined the procedure, and she seems perfectly happy with Vernon. Even if they're not 'genetically calculated matches.'

On days like today, when her dumbarse of a soulmate managed to get himself injured yet again, Lily can't help but wish she'd declined the procedure as well.

"Hi Doctor Evans!" An eager medical intern pops into her line of sight.

"Hello, Daniel," Lily replies cordially. "How can I help you?"

The dark-haired boy grins. "Slughorn assigned me to you for the week, remember? And you've got a patient in A220."

Lily almost admires Daniel Abbott's eagerness. She definitely wasn't anywhere near that excited during her internship – the 20-hour shifts and constant criticism from senior doctors have a tendency to wear on one's patience.

The boy does, however, have a number of faults. He tends to make rash diagnoses, without thinking through the alternatives, and he could stand to be a little gentler when handling patients. Which is likely why he's been assigned to Lily for the week, anyways; Slughorn, the department head, has always favoured Lily's calculating and detailed nature.

"Alright then," she finally sighs. "Let's go."

On days like today, Lily wishes she'd chosen a department other than A&E. The fast-paced and constantly moving environment of emergency medicine was what drew her to it initially. While she still loves that rapid tempo and accompanying adrenaline rush of a busy shift, there are times like today where she'd love something slower, like general practise, particularly when her side is still throbbing.

Outside the door to room A220, Lily turns back to look at Daniel. "I'm going to let you take the lead on this patient," she tells him. "So you're going to be doing most of the interacting with the patient, and I'll be supervising."

"You got it, Doctor Evans!"

Lily feels immensely grateful for the existence of interns – the scenario she's just laid out for Daniel makes it sound like she's trying to give him more experience, but in reality, her primary motivation is that she could really use a break. Making her intern do the bulk of the work on this particular patient is an incredibly sly way to achieve that.

She grabs the file hanging on the door and walks into the room, immediately noting the man sitting on the examination table. He's got quite a bit of dirt caked to one side of his body – the mud has even managed to work its way into the mess of dark hair on top of his head.

He's dressed in what appears to be a rugby uniform, and – Lily immediately wants to smack herself for even thinking this – he looks incredibly fit.

"Hello, Mister…" she quickly checks the folder she's holding, "Potter. I'm Doctor Evans and this is Doctor Abbott, my assistant. He'll be examining you today."

The man on the table – James Potter, as it would appear – looks up at her with an expression of interest.

"I'd really prefer if you'd examine me instead."

Ugh, he's one of those, Lily thinks to herself. There's something about the words 'assistant' and 'intern' that make people automatically doubt the capabilities of the doctor in question. Even though they've already gotten a medical degree, and are therefore perfectly capable of examining a patient on their own.

Although, to be fair, Daniel does have a few weaknesses.

"I can assure you that Doctor Abbott is fully capable of performing his duties, and I'll be here supervising the entire time."

"I don't doubt Doctor Abbott's competence, Evans," James replies. "I just happen to have a thing for pretty redhead doctors."

He makes no effort to hide the up-and-down glance he gives Lily – although what he's looking at is a mystery to her, scrubs aren't exactly figure-flattering – and looks back up at her with a smirk on his face.

Lily has to take a deep breath to resist physically attacking this patient. Where on earth does he get off on being so forward?

She restrains herself, passing the file in her hand to a slightly-stunned Daniel.

"Doctor Abbott will be treating you. It's vital to his training."

She glares at her patient, daring him to challenge her. She can take on a rather intimidating nature when she wants to – something that earned her a bit of a nasty nickname among the previous class of interns.

"Er, right," Daniel says awkwardly, walking over to James. "So you're actually James Potter – star player for the Wasps?"

"One and the same. Although not really a star player at this point, given that I'm assuming I'll be out for a few games with this." He gestures vaguely to the side of him that's covered in mud, clearly trying not to move too much.

Daniel opens up the file – he should've started with that instead of the mildly star-struck reaction he initially went with, Lily notes.

"It says here that you suspect you've broken a rib?"

"Correct. Took a rather nasty hit towards the end of the match, and coach wouldn't let me stay in unless I promised to come straight here afterwards."

"You finished a match with a suspected broken rib?"

Daniel asks that question with a slight tone of wonderment, like he's impressed that this idiot of a man would continue to play with an injury. Lily, on the other hand, thinks it's absolutely foolish that he wouldn't get medical attention right away and would instead choose to risk making it worse by finishing out the game.

"Yeah," James replies, making it sound as if the alternative would be unthinkable.

"Alright, well let's check that out, shall we?" Daniel answers. "I'll need you to pull your shirt up so I can get a better look at the injured area."

"See, this is why I wanted Evans over there as my doctor." Lily's head snaps up at his words, so he addresses her directly. "I would've loved to hear you ask me to take my shirt off, love."

"Doctor Evans," Lily corrects.

James smirks at her again, before grabbing his shirt and pulling it off in one smooth motion. Lily, on the other hand, gasps in pain from the sudden electric sensation down her side.

The rugby player clearly interprets this as a gasp aimed at him. "Like what you see?"

Lily briefly glances at James, once the rush of pain has subsided slightly. If it weren't for the constant stream of suggestive comments coming out of his mouth, she'd have to admit that he does, in fact, have a very nice body.

"You wish." Lily is aware that she's definitely not behaving professionally right now, but when her patient is being such a git, she really can't help it.

She's also distinctly aware that the patient in front of her is experiencing the exact injury that she'd previously theorized her soulmate to be experiencing, but she doesn't want to believe the two instances could be connected. Surely, this infuriating, arrogant athlete isn't her soulmate.

If he is, that means that the genetic matching system must be much more flawed than it purports to be. This bloke – this James Potter – is the polar opposite of everything she's ever looked for in a mate.

She really should be paying more attention to Daniel, but she just can't find the energy to right now. Instead, she studies the posters hung on the walls of the examination room – a mismatched mess of motivational quotes about persistence and dedication.

Her distraction is rewarded with a shock of pain shooting across her ribcage, and she hears James suck in a breath through clenched teeth, before muttering, "Ow."

"Abbott!" Lily barks, white-hot spots flashing across her vision. "What have I told you about being more gentle with patients?"

"Right, sorry Doctor Evans," the intern answers meekly.

James looks over at Lily, connecting the dots in his head. Lily finds that the room suddenly feels much smaller, the temperature warmer, the air stiffer. The budding tension could be cut with a knife.

"Felt that too, did you, Evans?"

And the moment is gone. Lily is transported back into reality, into the fact that she's currently facing an extremely annoying patient who also appears to be her genetically-matched soulmate.

"Perhaps," she responds, through gritted teeth.

James breaks into a bright smile – an expression that Lily finds suits him better than his arrogant smirk. "Soulmates, huh?"

"The science behind it is questionable at best."

If this man, who has been nothing but overtly flirtatious and frustrating from the moment she entered the room, is supposed to be the person that her genes suggest she'll be most compatible with, then the science must be worse than just questionable.

Lily ignores the fact that it's been proven correct at about a 98% rate.

"Doctor Abbott, please order an X-ray. Assuming it's a minor fracture, no further testing needs to be done."

Lily snaps back into doctor mode, back into the place she feels safest.

"The X-ray technician will be in to get you shortly," she addresses James.

"I'll miss you," he calls out in response, and Lily takes that as her cue to leave the room.

She hurries down the hall, away from her obnoxious (but admittedly rather attractive) soulmate, and to the next patient who requires her attention – a 12-year-old boy whose mum suspects that he accidentally consumed laundry detergent.

It's a busy afternoon, so Lily almost forgets about the annoying rugby player for a little bit. Until she has to go discharge him, that is.

When she walks back into the room, Daniel in tow – because she wasn't about to face him on her own – James instantly reaches up to ruffle his hair in a way that she's sure he thinks is supposed to be attractive.

"Just couldn't get enough of me, eh?"

She rolls her eyes. She's determined to not lose her professional demeanor this time around.

"I just need you to sign these discharge papers for me," she explains, handing him the clipboard she's been holding.

"Anything for you, love," he replies, taking it from her and scanning the page.

"You'll need to allow six weeks for those two broken ribs to fully heal. There's a prescription for painkillers waiting for you at the chemist's – take those every so often for the first few weeks or so, until the pain subsides."

He looks up at her. "Fancy going on a date with me, Evans? We are soulmates, after all."

"I'm your doctor, Mr. Potter, and you're my patient. That crosses professional boundaries," Lily reasons.

James scribbles across the bottom of the page, before thrusting the clipboard back at her. "Not anymore, I'm not. Now you have no reason to not go out on a date with me tonight."

"I have a number of reasons, actually. You're arrogant, reckless, and I don't think you've said a single word to me today that wasn't some form of a suggestive comment," Lily seethes. As James so helpfully pointed out, he's technically no longer her patient anymore, so she's letting the rules of professionalism slide a little. "So forgive me if I'd rather go on a date with the Loch Ness Monster than you."

James' smirk falters for a moment, and it strikes Lily that he looks almost… upset?

It's the first flash of emotion she's seen on him that wasn't dripping in arrogance.

James recovers quick enough though. "It's okay, Evans, you'll succumb to my charm eventually. Give me a ring when that happens."

Lily's puzzled by that. "I don't have your – "

"You do now." James taps on the clipboard that she's holding, and sure enough, he's written his phone number next to his signature on the discharge papers.

He gingerly lowers himself off the examination table and heads for the door, leaving Lily standing there and watching him go.

God, the man has a nice arse.

Lily is entirely unsure what comes over her – if it's delirium from lack of sleep, or the fact that it's been ages since she's flirted with a guy, or something else entirely – but she finds herself calling after him before he leaves the room.

"Potter?"

James turns back to look at her, his hand hovering on the door handle.

"Don't forget to take that pain medication – I'll know it if you don't." She mimics his arrogant smirk right back at him, before leaving the room through the staff exit.

Daniel follows after her – Lily had completely forgotten that she had an audience until this point. She rounds on him as soon as the door shuts behind him.

"Don't you dare repeat a word of any of that to anyone," she warns him, before heading down the hallway.

It's the second person she's left completely gobsmacked in the past minute.