A/N This sappy story is for the amazing and talented Bridge, for her birthday! Have a good one, and I hope you like it!

Scattered parchment sprawled across the table, haphazardly, as if someone had thrown them there from across the room. Dozens of quills, broken and unbroken, were sprinkled throughout the mess. Books were stacked dangerously on the edge of the desk, ready to fall at the brush of a hand.

It was a bombsite.

And on top of it all, lay the torso of a teenage boy. His hair was jet black and messy, though for once the owner hadn't inflicted that himself. A pair of square spectacles sat, half on, half off his nose. The eyes beneath them were closed though, and it was thus concluded that James Potter was sleeping.

And so it was in this way that James Potter's best mate, Sirius Black, found his partner in mischief asleep in the library, to much disgust. In Sirius's opinion, being in a library for one moment was a crime against all he believed in. To find his beloved fellow havoc-wreaker asleep in such a place was even worse.

Much to the sleeper's misfortune, his friend was so utterly disappointed with his location, that he decided the best way to awaken him was with the worst thing he could think of.

After dozing off in the library of all places, the last thing James expected to wake to was a wet, doggy tongue licking his face. Blearily opening his eyes, he saw the familiar, black, shaggy dog's eyes staring at him innocently. Padfoot sure could be cute when he wanted to, thought James absent-mindedly, before yawning widely and lifting his head off the pillow of stacked parchment. Wait, what? James blinked rapidly and shook his head, his glasses clattering onto the desk. Shoving them on with one hand, he watched as the large dog before him changed into his true form, a laughing Sirius Black.

James groaned. "Padfoot!" With his sleeve, he wiped away the sloppy saliva left on his face. "That's disgusting!"

Sirius didn't seem to think so. The seventeen-year-old "mature" wizard guffawed like a first-year as James cleaned his glasses of puppy drool.

Sirius clapped a hand on his friend's back, and stopped his chuckling long enough to cast a stern look on James. "Well, it may be disgusting, but you have to expect things like this when you spend your nights in the library, mate."

James rolled his eyes. Rubbing his eyes tiredly, he started sweeping the mountains of parchment into piles, gathering up the odd nibs and quills and shoving the books randomly onto shelves. Luckily, it was too early for even Madam Pince to be awake, and James avoided any reprimands or death glares that would have come his way.

His mate, however, was staring at him oddly. James stopped and shot a questioning look. Acting as if his friend were a five-year-old, Sirius drew his wand out of his sleeve slowly and deliberately, and waved it so that the quills flew across the room into the rubbish, the parchment neatened itself into two even piles, and the book James was about to shove onto a shelf spun out of his hands and onto a shelf across the aisle.

The messy-haired teenager ran his hand through his hair sheepishly.

"I, er, might've picked that habit up from Lily…"

It was Sirius's turn to roll his eyes. "Seriously mate, Lily's a great witch and all, but one of these days your girlfriend is gonna turn you into a Muggle."

Although it had already been a few months, James still grinned at the words "Lily" and "girlfriend" being in the same sentence without a negative between them.

Choosing not to answer Sirius's comment, James gathered the parchment and shoved it into his already bulging school bag. "How did you know I was here?"

"Map," said Sirius casually.

James frowned. "I gave Moony the map for safe-keeping so you wouldn't find me! He promised not to show you!"

"You, my friend, have got to learn to seal those promises with Honeydukes Finest. Then our dear Remus won't be tempted to break those promises when he is offered the afore-mentioned by other dealers."

"You gave Remus a whole bar of Honeydukes Finest, just to see where I was?"

Sirius shrugged. "I was bored. Why were you napping in this infernal place anyway?" He looked around at the shelves of books with disdain.

"I was…" Suddenly James's face filled with panic. "Damn it!" He swore. Parchment went everywhere now as James pushed it into his bag as fast as possible.

His companion raised his eyebrows. "Erm…what's the rush exactly?"

"It's January thirty-first!" exclaimed James, he seemed to think that was an adequate enough explanation.

Sirius was more confused than ever. What did the date have to do with anything?

There was a creak behind them as someone opened the library doors. James looked up wildly and Sirius spun around.

The boy walking towards them had sandy hair and a worn-out appearance, and he was carrying a large, gold-foil wrapped chocolate bar.

Seeing who it was, James quickly went back to hastily scanning random bits of parchment and cramming them into his bag.

Remus surveyed his behaviour with amusement, while biting into his treat. Sirius still didn't get what was funny though.

"Prongs, you still haven't answered my damn question. Why did you do a prefect and spend your night in here?"

"Hey, prefects aren't the only ones who sleep over in the library." Remus said indignantly.

"Well the only people I know who spend their nights in here are you, Lily, Snivellus and now this berk," he jerked his toward James.

"I'm Head Boy, not a prefect," said James automatically.

His friends rolled their eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, same thing," said Sirius, shaking his head. "Now hurry up, what are you even doing?"

"Something," James mumbled.

Remus laughed. "He's looking up recipes."

Now that Remus mentioned it, there were an awful lot of cooking books around the area, including Mrs Hudgepot's Beginner's Cooking Guide, and Cakes and Cauldrons – a Treasury of Recipes.

Sirius's mouth dropped open. Had Lily really gotten to him that much?

"Why are you looking at how to…" he leant over and read the title of a recipe. "…make Chocolate Triple Fudge cakes?"

Remus looked at him strangely. "Didn't you know? It's why Prongs has been in such madness. It's Lily's b…"

The library doors had swung open to interrupt, and in walked a girl with long red hair and sparkling green eyes. She was looking around confusedly, but upon spotting them, yelled, "James!"

The named looked up in panic at the sight of his girlfriend half-running towards them.

"James," started Lily, almost breathless. "I've been trying to find you all morning! Were you here all this time?"

Her boyfriend overcame his harried state and walked to meet her, surprising her by picking her up and kissing her. Sirius looked away pointedly.

After an excruciating thirty seconds for Remus and Sirius, Lily repeated her question.

"Um, I was, um…" Never had Sirius seen James so red or embarrassed. Mystified, he turned to Remus, who whispered, "A bit slow are you? James has spent all this time trying to work out how to make from scratch a cake for Lily's…"

"Happy birthday, Lils." James again picked up and spun Lily around in the air, and she smacked his hands. "Put me down!" she laughed.

Oh. Her birthday. January thirty-first. Of course James would have gotten into a tizzy about impressing Lily, when did he not? And he would have wanted to go all out too, by making her something Muggle and obscure. But being James Potter, he had procrastinated until the night before, so that he had fallen asleep in the library desperately trying to work out how to bake a cake.

"You still haven't really answered my question, James. Why were you down here all night?" Lily asked. Her boyfriend just turned red in reply, so Lily grabbed one of the parchment pieces. "Chocolate Triple Fudge cake…oh, James. You were trying to make one for me, weren't you? After I said how much I loved them at Christmas."

James made no answer, but his hand said it all as it ran agitatedly through his wild hair.

"James, you know you don't have to get me anything, or prove to me you're a good boyfriend, right? Just being here is the real gift to me."

Remus and Sirius exchanged exasperated looks as the couple made gooey-eyes at each other and kissed.

"I know, but I just wanted to do something special for you. I know eighteen is special in the Muggle world." He then produced from his pocket a box, which he gave to Lily.

Lily tenderly opened the lid, to reveal a necklace with a deer pendant.

This was too much for Sirius who groaned.

James frowned. "What?"

"You two are the sappiest couple ever! Seriously? A deer?"

"Well I love it!" declared Lily, "Thank you, James." She hugged him again.

Sirius just sighed and sat down a spare seat. He supposed he was being unfair. They were still only just beginning their relationship; he should expect them to be sappy and romantic at first. He only hoped that they would tone it down a bit in the future.

But for now, he watched as James fastened the necklace around Lily's neck, who was smiling brilliantly. James was grinning himself as he once again whirled her around. It was as happy as he'd ever seen them, and Merlin knew they needed some happiness in the world right about now.

Yeah, it's sappy, I know. I can't seem to write anything else. Anyway, Happy Birthday Bridge and I hope you have an amazing day :)

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