A/N: I know, I know, I haven't updated Kinky in over a month, but this is the last grading period I have before my grades lock and I've been soo busy, so I ask my followers to forgive me. I have been writing the next chapter, and it will be up in no time.

In the meantime, this is a little Jily AU I wrote for my friend, and I figure since it's already written I might as well put it up and hope I'm not yelled at? Idk. I'll be posting it to my Tumblr too: madness-and-brilliance, because the inspiration came from list of AU's I found on my dash.

I'll stop now so y'all can read.

Some people were really lucky they were covered by good medical insurance.

That was Lily's thought as she flipped through her patient's report on her way to the proper room. Twenty-seven year-old male, she read. Had a broken arm, bruised rib, and minor concussion from- she flipped a page- jumping off a roof into a basketball backboard after missing a trampoline. Of course it was a guy. They never got girls coming in here for stupid rubbish like that.

'Hey Lily, are you busy?' Her fellow resident, Marlene, asked, popping her head out of a room. Lily paused. 'I could use some help with a diagnosis.'

'Sorry, Mar. Dr. Slughorn just gave me this patient to check up on.' She waved the report half-heartedly while Marlene perked up, easing out of the room a bit more.

'Hey, really? That's great Lil!'

Lily frowned slightly. It was great news that Slughorn, one of the physicians training the residents and who saw her as his personal protege, was giving her more responsibility. That didn't mean Lily was excited about dealing with an idiot patient. 'It's some guy who jumped off a roof trying to do a stupid stunt. Nothing really challenging. I just have to check his vitals and prescribe him pain medicine.'

Marlene rolled her eyes. 'Only you would complain about an easy patient opportunity.' She cocked her hip. 'I've been trying to figure out if this guy is hitting all the Rome III criteria for IBS, but his stool sample is just way too inconclusive.'

With a wrinkle of her nose, Lily shuddered delicately. 'Yeah, well, good luck with that.' She yawned deeply- her hours were really starting to get to her- and Marlene looked at her with concern. 'You look terrible, Lil.'

She wasn't wrong. Lily had woken up late that morning after a long night of overtime, and she had just barely managed to brush her teeth and run a brush through her hair before she's made it to the hospital in time. Her green scrubs were covered in long, grey cat hair (thanks Calliope), and she was pretty sure her dark circles made her look like she'd been punched in the face. But it's not like Marlene had to call her out on it. 'Thanks so much, Mar. That's really 're such a good and useful friend.' Lily deadpanned.

Marlene shrugged. 'I tell it like it is,' she responded unapologetically. 'But really, you should consider getting out early tonight. You could use some sleep before it starts affecting your work.'

'We can sleep when we're dead.' Lily blew a strand of hair from her face pseudo-cheerfully then sighed and looked back down at the report in her hands. 'I have to get back to this. Good luck with the...' she gesticulated aimlessly in the direction of the door Marlene was standing in. 'Thing.'

Marlene sighed back, glanced woefully into the room, then waved as Lily departed.

Lily swerved around several patients and doctors alike as she approached her destination, smiling to an equally frazzled looking Alice Longbottom who was wheeling an old lady by in a wheelchair. She paused at the door to room 713 and gave a brief knock before gently pushing the door open. 'Hi there,' she said as she swept one last look over the report. 'How are you feeling today?'

'I've definitely been better,' responded a deep, pleasant voice. She glanced up.

In her two years are a medical resident, Lily Evans had seen quite a few patients- grouchy old men accompanied by their doting wives, frightened, pregnant teenage girls, gay couples, homeless men- once Dr. Slughorn had allowed Lily to be present while he treated a male model for priapism. She had always managed to keep a professional sense of detachment with each patient: it was part of her job, after all. (Granted, there had been something a little unappealing about a model with priapism, but as Lily liked to keep her confidence up, she gave herself the credit).

But now? Lily swallowed, casting a lingering look over messy black hair, strong nose, and hazel eyes that twinkled behind a set of round metal spectacles. Bloody hell. Maybe she needed to spend more time around the opposite sex, because she was feeling rather warm right now.

He had a red cast on one arm, and he was leaning gingerly against the wall on the exam table; when she made eye contact with him he sat up a little, winced, and then feel back with a disarmingly charming smile that held an easy confidence she had never been able to possess.

After a few moments of silence, the smile faltered- probably because Lily was still looking at him silently, seemingly without any plan to move from her spot in the doorway. 'Er...'

Lily realised what she was doing, cleared her throat and bent over the report, holding it up slightly to hide her face as she struggled to fight back a blush that threatened to match the shade of her hair. 'Sorry,' she said, mind working rapidly to come up with an excuse for her extremely unprofessional behaviour. He wasn't that cute; that had been entirely unjustified. 'I just thought you were someone I knew. My… cousin. On my sister's husband's side of the family. So, I guess my cousin-in-law, if you will. But you're not, so...' she trailed off, turning an even deeper shade of red. What was wrong with her?

Marlene was right. The lack of sleep was really starting to get to her.

The patient stared at her with a slight grin on his face. She stared determinedly at the sheet in her hands. 'Right. Well. Back to work.'

'Of course.' He said solemnly. Lily felt a twinge of irritation at his obvious amusement, and that was enough to spur her into action.

She pulled out her small penlight. 'Look here please.' He obeyed her, shuffling to the end of the exam table until his knees were brushing her legs. She turned slightly pink and casually stepped back, then began examining his pupils 'So-' she glanced at his name, '-James, are you feeling any dizziness? Headaches? Nausea?'

'No, no, and nope, Dr...' He trailed off, waiting.

'Lily. I mean, Evans. Dr. Evans.'

'Dr. Lily it is.' He said cheerfully. She flushed. 'My chest hurts like hell, though.'

Satisfied, Lily clicked off the light. 'That'd be the bruised rib, I expect.' She nodded understandingly. 'A little ice and rest and you should be okay.' He was looking at her, and for some reason it made her lean back a little more. She tugged her stethoscope from around her neck and placed the eartips in her ears, then hesitated.

'I need to you breathe in deep for me, okay? It might hurt.' She placed the diaphragm on his chest- embarrassingly careful not to touch him- and nodded at him to breathe. He inhaled deeply and groaned. 'Shit.'

'Easy,' She said concentrating her attention on the sound of his heart, listening for irregularities. It was beating quickly, but no skipping, which was good. 'Now let it out.' He did.

She repeated the process on the other side and his back, focusing so deeply on her work that she forgot how nervous she had been when she had first seen him. She wasn't Lily, foot-in-mouth, 'can't-see-a-cute-lad-without-turning-into-a-tomato', anymore: she was Dr. Evans. In fact, she was so enraptured, she didn't even notice the captivated look she was receiving from James, who had yet to take his eyes off her since she'd entered the room.

When she was one she removed the headset and draped it around her neck again. 'Everything sounds fine. I'll just take your blood pressure now.'

As she wrapped the arm cuff around his bicep (and what a nice bicep it was, dear God), Lily remembered what she had read in the report. 'So all of this from jumping off a roof, eh?' The band secured, she instinctively patted it and turned away to turn on the sphygmomanometer.

James grimaced, watching her as she set up the machine. 'It was a dare from my best mate. You must think I'm an idiot. That, or just mad.'

Lily grinned as she faced him again. 'That was my original thought, yeah.'

He smirked. 'The idiot part of the mad part?'

Lily shrugged. 'Either or.'

He shrugged back, sinking against the wall cautiously, then cursed when he realised he should be staying still. 'Whoops. Well, yeah, but I've been in here for worse.' He admitted matter-of-factly, running his good hand through his deliciously tousled hair.

Lily's eyes followed the motion and her hand twitched involuntarily. She wondered what it would be like to run her own hands through that hair. Wait, what? 'Like what?' She asked- partly in an attempt to bring herself back into the conversation, partly out of real interest.

'Oh, you'll love this!' James said enthusiastically. 'One time, my mates and I were out camping, and we found this little cliff overlooking a river, right? And on the other side we could see this hole with little steps down it, like a tunnel, and Sirius bet that I wouldn't be able to make the jump, so I said...'

He was gesturing wildly as he told the story, and Lily felt herself smile at his childlike energy. His eyes shone with mirth and she noticed how the blue of his shirt brought out the flecks of green and blue in them. He really was fit, she decided, looking at how his shirt clung to his body in all the wrong (right) places. Maybe it was her lack of sleep making her unusually observant of his rather nice qualities, or her shortage of male-to-female interactions causing her inexplicable attraction to him, but she really couldn't deny that this James fellow was definitely a attractive.

'... and after we finally got rescued, Peter lost a finger and I had pneumonia for two weeks.' James finished. Lily started, having just noticed that the sphygmomanometer was off and blinking little red numbers for her to write down.

Lily scribbled on her clipboard the surprisingly moderate numbers (considering his excitement, it was surprising) as she responded. 'That's ridiculous. Why would you lot jump into a river in December? You really are mad. Or idiots.'

James leaned forward conspiratorially, motioning at her to do the same. She leaned in despite herself, her heart rate increasing tremendously as she got close enough to smell his scent: a tantalising mixture of leather, grass, and mint. 'Let me tell you a secret, love.' Their eyes met. 'I'm both.' He winked at her and leaned back, and all Lily could do was chuckle rather breathlessly, because good heavens, he had winked at her and called her 'love' and she truly couldn't decide which one was more of a turn on.

'I suppose I have to put that in my report then,' she teased, biting her lip slightly to keep herself from giggling girlishly and tossing her self-respect out along with her pride.

James tore his eyes away from her mouth and feigned seriousness. 'It would only be proper, although you'd be betraying my trust. I did, after all, confide in you the truth about my condition.'

'Would this fall under doctor-patient confidentiality?'

'I haven't checked, "Ways-to-Deal-With-Reckless-and-Dangerously-Inclined-Patients-While-Still-Making-Money-Off-of-Their-Injuries', but I'll look it up and let you know.'

'Sounds lovely. In the meantime I'll be reading up on my copy of 'How-to-Seem-Like-a-Decent-Doctor-When-Your-Patient-Continues-to-Spend-More-Time-in-the-Hospital-Than-in-his-Own-Bed'.

'Ah. That's where you're wrong, you see. A proper challenge would be spending more time in the hospital than my kitchen.'

'That's not at all surprising.'

'Are you calling me fat?'

'Are you confirming it?'

'You're rather mean.'

'You're rather predictable.'

'Go out with me.'

The last statement was so wholly unexpected, that all Lily could do was stare blankly and gape like a fish. James seemed to be just as surprised as she was, judging by the flush of pink that dusted his cheeks, but he refused to back down, staring directly into her eyes.

'I-you-but-' she stammered, looking down at her clipboard. 'I'm your doctor.'

Except she really wasn't, she was just a resident, and his doctor was really down in the lunchroom trying to sneak out some crystallised pineapple. James' adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed nervously.

'Right- well.' He put a sheepish hand on the back of his neck and slid off the exam table, standing next to Lily for the first time. She noticed his height, and the six inch difference, with newfound longing. She'd always liked tall guys. 'I didn't exactly mean to blurt that out like I did, but since it's already out there, would you maybe be up for it?' He looked down at her with hopeful eyes and she pretty much felt her heart melt down to her stomach.

'I… I'm your doctor, though.' She said, sounding not very convincing even to herself, and despite the nagging voice in the back of her mind that said, No, stupid! You're not! 'I don't think that'd be very appropriate.'

James smiled weakly. 'Right. Well.' She realised he thought she was rejecting him, and for some reason that upset her more than it should. She wasn't, she just… well, she didn't really know the rules about this sort of situation. And Lily liked to abide by the rules.

Lily stared at him. 'I'm not-' She began, but the door opened and they were interrupted by a jovial, 'What do we have here!'

Lily and James jumped apart, even though they hadn't really been doing anything and their proximity hadn't been all that close, and Lily turned to greet Dr. Slughorn. 'Hello sir,' she stammered. 'We were just finishing up.'

Slughorn clapped his hands happily. 'Excellent! And how are you, m'boy?'

'Much better, sir. Dr. Evans was great.' Lily blushed as he spoke without taking his eyes off of her.

'I'm glad, m'boy, very glad!' Slughorn took the clipboard Lily was holding and examined it. 'Very good, Miss Evans. Looks like you're all done, Mr. Potter. Here's your prescription, just set up a check up appointment at the desk.'

James hesitated, glancing between Lily and Slughorn. He seemed to be torn between saying something and walking out: he opened his mouth, closed it, then gave Lily a crooked smile. 'Bye Dr. Evans,' he said softly. 'I'll probably see you around in no time.'

Lily watched him go, frowning slightly. She didn't notice Slughorn whistling calmly and eyeing her, then the shut door, suspiciously.

'Are you alright, Miss Evans?' He finally asked, a knowing glint in his eye.

Lily jumped. 'Oh. Yes sir. I'm fine.' She didn't say anything for a moment and Slughorn waited expectantly. 'It's just… sir?'

'Yes?'

'What exactly is the policy on residents going on a date with their mentor's patient?'

'A date?'

'Hypothetically, of course.'

Slughorn pretended to think about it, though internally he was beaming. He knew from the minute he walked in the room that there had been chemistry between the two. James was a good lad, he'd had him in there before several time. A good lad, if a reckless one: if anyone deserved his Lily, it was that boy. 'Well, Miss Evans, hypothetically, it doesn't violate any sort of law or moral code, so there really shouldn't be any problem.'

'Really?' Lily asked. She paused. 'And, also hypothetically, is it dumb to go on a date with a guy you met in a hospital after one meeting?'

Slughorn smiled. 'I believe Miss Evans, that romance makes us do very foolish things- and that is certainly not the dumbest thing you could do.'

'Right.' Another pause. 'I'm sorry, sir, I have to go. I'll be right back.'

She barely waited for his acknowledging nod before she tugged open the door and darted out.

Slughorn couldn't hold back his chortle. 'You'll find him on the second floor, Miss Evans, and do try not to run into anyone- I don't need two walking safety hazards to take care of!'

So, that was it. I hope you guys liked it, it's nothing spectacular: just a short fic for a good friend. Please read and review, and maybe I'll write another Jily AU, if this one is well liked?

Wish me luck during hell week,

-VolleyballGoddess