A/N: Please review! This was my first Lily James fanfic and anything would be helpful

DISCLAIMER: Sadly I do not own these characters. Alas, I am not JK Rowling.

"What are you waiting for?"

The question was rhetorical—she already knew what he was waiting for.

And so, they waited. Well, he waited. She was debating how long she could get him to wait before losing his patience. How long until he finally just gave up? A part of her wanted to know, needed to know, but that part was petty and cruel and Lily was neither, so she broke the silence.

"What I meant was," James looked up expectantly, "why are you waiting for...well, erm, what you're waiting for?" Lily's voice died out with the question and her cheeks burned slightly. That didn't come out as eloquently as she had hoped.

James raised an eyebrow, looking somewhat amused.

"Why am I waiting for you, you mean?" They were no longer talking about why he was waiting outside her dormitory. Good. They were on the same page then.

Lily nodded and James laughed back hollowly.

"Wow, really? You need to ask?" She nodded again, this time more hesitantly. He stopped all pretenses of finding her confusion amusing and instead threw her a rather vicious scowl.

"Well, you'd better figure it out or I won't even remember why!" He must have seen Lily flinch, recoiling slightly from his tone, because he sighed and his face softened. "Listen, just find me, alright? Find me when you figure it out." She nodded again, and he was irritated to see she still looked hurt.

"Lily, I won't forget my answer. I can't forget it. I just can't answer it for you either. I've done the ground work already and...if you won't meet me 50/50 at least meet me 90/10, yeah?"

He let out another small sigh, this time of relief as she nodded again. At least she seemed to understand. Lily was still frowning though, and her brow was furrowed in a way that made him ache to hug her or at least answer for her. Just three words. That's all it would take.

Really, what was 10% in the long run? Who cared if he went through the finish-line as well as ran the marathon?

Besides mixing metaphors slightly, he had to admit that he knew who cared. He did. And Lily would... eventually. Even if he put away all of his pride and decided it didn't matter that he was the one taking all of the risks, she would regret it eventually. She would regret having had no part in their relationship except for passive acceptance. Or, at least, he hoped she would.

So, she had to. Lily had to do this. It wouldn't work otherwise. That's not how it was supposed to work. Love, that is.

And so they waited. Well, he waited.

He had only been waiting at her door to find out why she had skipped breakfast. He thought she might have been mad at him for "accidentally" brushing a loose stand of her hair behind her ear the other day. He would find out later that she had simply overslept.

Did that matter, though? Was he bothered that this confrontation may have never have happened-may have been delayed days, months, years had she not overslept? No. Hearing her break the silence had been worth it.

Three days after Lily had skipped breakfast, three days after James had asked her to take the last steps for him—no, for them—she had.

"You love me." He stared at her, his mouth agape, an odd bemused expression on his face. Remus quirked his eyebrows at her and Sirius, from beside him, simply laughed before returning to his food.

"Nice Evans. Right detective-y, you are. Cheers!"

"Yeah, you're a regular Sherlock!" Peter added helpfully, more aware of muggle phrases than his blue-blooded friend.

Sirius, missing the reference, still snorted appreciatively and nodded. James remained thoughtfully silent and Lily appeared to be quite flustered. Possibly her frustration stemmed from the small exchange but, most probably, it was caused by James' lack of reaction. Apparently, her acknowledgement was not all he wanted.

"Fine," He looked up to her, his hazel eyes hopeful. "What I meant to say is,we're in love. And you were... waiting for me to figure it out, yeah? And I did. Well, I suppose technically I had figured it out a lot earlier, but you were maybe waiting for me to admit it?"

James had gotten up as soon as she had said "we're in love" and was mere inches away from kissing her when he suddenly stopped.

"What did you say?" he finally managed to croak. Close enough now that his breath tickled across her lips. "You knew before all of this! You knew and you didn't bother to tell me? I didn't know you knew!"

She glared at him. The question had been rhetorical, but he was waiting. He was always waiting.

"Shut up! I love you, okay?"

What followed her confession was a kiss. Which would lead to something that was quite more than a kiss and would eventually result in a romantic proposal, an adorable son, and a happily ever after doomed to end prematurely.

But what it started with was a missed breakfast, a rhetorical question and three small words.

Well six words, but only Sirius likes to remember that part.

"Shut up! I love you, okay?"