A/N: My first drabble or oneshot, whatever you call them :) Enjoy!
Disclaimer: JK Rowling's
Rainfall
Rain was pummeling the pavement in a splattering display, the drops hitting so hard they rebounded and flew up off the ground. It was after eight and the sky was a smoky black marred only by a few wispy gray clouds. From the warmth of Lily's living room she could see one poor man dashing down the street, his briefcase held above his head.
"Hmph."
Lily wrinkled her nose at the dank, musty smell seeping in through the cracks of her screen door. Peering through the door, all she could see was the dark lawn and her cracked garden pot overflowing with water.
Her stomach panged uncomfortably and her thoughts drifted - what was she supposed to be worrying about?
"Ah." She said softly, as memories from yesterday's argument with James graced her consciousness. Her auburn hair slid around her drawn face as she looked down at her slipper clad feet, remembering his stormy exit.
They were deciding whether they should have a child. Whether it was fair to bring a child into a world trembling of war with Voldemort prowling around with his rabid Death Eaters.
It wasn't a decision to be made lightly.
Lily's throat was dry and she licked her lips, smiling wanly. Regardless, it didn't matter anymore. That morning's revelation in the bathroom solved the dilemma.
I wonder how he'll take it, she thought as she slid into her oversized rain coat. A bitter taste filled her mouth and she hastily grabbed for a piece of spearmint gum.
James had wisely said that they couldn't live in fear and not have children because of the current situation. What if things changed and they wanted children? He'd even suggested that her womanly 'faculties' wouldn't always be where they were now, to which Lily smacked him on the arm and glared at him with her infamous emerald stare.
"Womanly faculties?" She had sputtered out, emerald eyes still flashing, "Have you ever thought we might have to worry about you? About not performing?"
To which James snorted, laughing so loudly that he leaned over his knees. He had looked up, his hazel eyes shrouded with desire. "I don't think you have to worry about that, love."
Lily shook her head, a sheepish smile now lifting the corners of her mouth. Slipping into her rain coat she pushed the screen door open. Chocolate was a necessity for a cold Saturday night! She planned to curl up with a good book. With that cozy image in mind she hurried down the cold street, shoving her stiff cold fingers in her jacket pocket.
"Blimey, why'd it have to start raining?" James peered out his curtainless window at the increasingly dark sky, rain skidding down the pane.
He knew Lily was probably braving the chilly precipitation for chocolate - he had been the one who had eaten the last bit of chocolate - and so this was the perfect time to apparate to her flat and get his apology in motion for yesterday's fight.
Glancing down at the chocolate-covered strawberries in his bag, he felt a surge of pride. He and Sirius had slaved over the strawberries.
"Just imagine how impressed she will be." Sirius smirked, flipping some of his dark hair behind his shoulder, "We're good looking, intelligent, and can bake! How many men can say that?"
James snorted. "Right, just don't mention the forty-nine trial runs."
Sirius merely sniffed and waggled an index finger at James disapprovingly. "I told you not to skimp and buy the cheap chocolate!"
To which James doubled over laughing when he saw that in fact, his friend was not kidding.
"Wow. Next time we'll make sure to pick the strawberries fresh too, Sirius." James said but his sarcasm was lost on his friend.
Sirius's face brightened. "Great idea, mate. It would make all the difference."
Smiling at the memory of his friend's commitment to the chocolate-covered strawberries, James slung his bag over his shoulder. With a pop apparated to Lily's apartment. Losing his footing, he stumbled in the dark apartment for a few blind moments.
"Lumos."
With the aid of glimmering light from his wand, James flicked on the kitchen and living room light. Affection warmed his insides from the chill outside as he glanced at Lily's peeling copy of Sense and Sensibility on the coffee table with a glass of half-drunk red wine next to it.
Her little kitchen was painted a pale green, a relaxing color Lily had explained to him. At the kitchen sink, her sponges had been meticulously squeezed out and placed on the rack to dry. Thinking about the state of his apartment he shared with Sirius, James grimaced. On a regular day their kitchen sink could be found over-flowing with dirty, stinking dishes with the sour stench of rotting food in the air.
Whenever Lily would come over to visit she would get after the two of them.
"You two live like pigs! How can you stand that putrid smell?"
Sirius would guffaw, his lips turning up into a crooked smile, and would say, "Haven't you figured it out? That's why James invites you over so much, so that you'll clean-up for us."
Lily, of course, would play it cool and then hex Sirius later when they went out to Huffler's Hodge, their favorite wizarding pub.
After piling the strawberries haphazardly on a plate, he took out her favorite bottle of vanilla lotion and wrapped it up in white paper tissue - somehow not managing to wrap it how Lily usually did - but pleased with it just the same.
Now the last part. Chocolate. His peace offering. He had eaten her last 'emergency' supply. And she would be furious when she got home, after trudging through the torrential downpour.
Lily was half-running, half-walking as she made her way down the dimly lit street, trying to be careful not to fall. It was quite slippery out and the earth was wet enough that now there were mushy piles of mud to be reckoned with.
But not careful enough.
"Oomph."
To Lily's horror, she felt herself sliding, her foot slipping from beneath her and she ended up on her back in the squishy dark mud. Her red hair was splayed on the ground with chunks of earth and she sighed as she looked up at the midnight sky, water droplets bouncing off her dirty face.
"This is not happening." muttered Lily.
She sat up and saw pale flesh peeking behind a severed threads of her favorite sweatpants. Of course. She struggled to get up and couldn't help it, a hysterical giggle escaped from her. All this for the sake of chocolate!
A lumbering van drove past and didn't manage to -she liked to think this was what had happened- avoid the large pool of filthy water. Sputtering from the mouthful of water, she began to cackle even harder.
"I'm going loony." Lily muttered to herself as she made her way home.
Walking up the pathway she stopped a moment. The living room was illuminated and you couldn't see directly inside, but the new white lacy curtains looked awfully pretty from outside she decided.
Warmth was beckoning her forwards to her safe little home so she ran the last few steps up to the porch door, ringing her cold hair out with her hands and stomping her feet, trying to kick off the chunks of mud.
She knew that James was inside. Her anger had evaporated long ago. Her good humor was restored with the fall in the mud and the prospect of eating the creamy, milky chocolate soon.
But it couldn't hurt to make him sweat a bit, she thought with a wicked grin.
Everything was in place: the chocolate covered strawberries on the coffee table, wine glasses refilled, the unskillfully wrapped gift next to her book. James placed the bar of dark chocolate next to Lily's glass of wine then sat back on the couch, his arms coming up behind his head.
At the sound of a key being rattled through the door, James sat up, the first bit of apprehension trickling into his stomach. His previous confidence evaporated suddenly and he swallowed the egg-sized lump in his throat.
The door flung open - the soft sound of rain droplets filled his ears - and then was slammed shut. Inwardly gulping, he stood up and pattered over to the hall to where she had entered.
Her emerald eyes were unreadable as their eyes connected. James quickly took in the smeared mud on her cheek, the rip at her thigh, her sopping hair.
"Erm, hello love."
She merely shook her head and bent forward, dropping the plastic grocery bag and kicking off her soaked trainers. Lily didn't look up at him as she fell down to her knees. For a moment James thought she must be slipping her socks off but then her shoulders began to shake silently.
Alarm shot through him in hot sparks. "Lily? Are you okay? I-I'm so sorry about our fight earlier. I really didn't mean anything by what I'd said about your - erm - faculties. I trust you and your judgment more than mine."
Remarkably, what sounded like a choked laugh escaped from Lily's mouth as she remained crunched into a forward bend to her knees. James looked down at her curiously, questioning in his hazel eyes.
More hiccupped laughs followed. Lily looked up at James's worried expression and her head fell forward again, laughing hysterically at his perplexed expression.
"Oh James, everything's okay. Yeuch, I need to get these off!"
Standing up Lily began to peel off each article of wet clothing until she was in nothing but her sports bra and shorts, shivering - not from the cold - when she saw James watching her closely, his hazel eyes hooded with desire.
Lily decided to stall. "You won't believe what happened. Once I realized I was out of chocolate I decided to go out to the store to buy some. And then it started doing this," Lily waved a hand at the window where gray rain was still splattering. "But I wanted the chocolate badly enough so I went out."
Lily continued to talk as she pulled her fingers through her muddy, wet hair. "And so I got the chocolate. Then on my way home I slipped and fell into the mud, a car drove by - the wanker - and splashed water all over me. But then I just started laughing. Sometimes you just need to let go."
"About that chocolate..." James began hesitantly.
Emerald eyes sharpened and bored through James.
James gulped. Uh oh. She's going to obliterate me. She's been practicing that charm for the past few weeks. Why did I think it was a good idea to tell her the truth, especially when she-
"YOU ate it?" Lily snarled, first peeling one of her wet socks and then flinging it at him. He ducked but barely dodged it, the wet sock made a resounding smack behind him.
"That's my emergency stock! Haven't you learned anything in life? When you open a door, close it. When you dirty a dish, wash it. Actually, that lesson is clearly wasted on you." Lily contended, an image of his filthy sink crossing through her mind's eye. "Regardless, for Merlin's sake, when you eat your girlfriend's last bit of chocolate, replace it, with double the amount!"
Laughing, still hesitantly, he beckoned her forward. "Come to the living room first, love. Then if you're still mad, have a go at it."
"You ate all my chocolate, wanker."
Somehow she still managed to look irresistibly sexy, even with mud smudged on her cheekbones, hair wet and scraggly, her emerald eyes sparkled as she sauntered past him in her wet under-clothes.
James watched her head into the living room, his eyes traveling the course of her body, noticing how her shorts clung to her.
Inhaling deeply and trying to distract himself, he walked in to see Lily looking at the lumpy, wrapped lotion bottle, amusement sparkling in her eyes. She was biting her bottom lip making it flush red causing James to inwardly groan.
"Remind me not to let you wrap our Christmas presents when we're married." Lily smirked and James reached out, unable to control himself, his thumb wiping the smudge away from her cheek.
"Go on love, open it."
Lily pulled at the ribbon and ripped the tissue paper off, the thin paper crinkling in her fingers. Impressed, she said, "Wow, my favorite kind. You do pay attention."
She went to squeeze the top of the bottle in the palm of her hand but then paused.
"On second thought, I'm going to hop in the shower before I put some on."
Standing on her tiptoes she kissed him on the lips, her hands squeezing his hip bones. "Thank you, James."
His hands came up to cup her face. "You're welcome. Forgive me?"
Lily sighed contently, her emerald eyes bright now with unshed tears. "Umhm. Now let me shower."
"You smell fine to me."
She rolled her eyes at him. "You're so impatient. It's going to take me five minutes to shower up."
James chuckled deeply. He kissed her softly on her neck, trailing his lips down her neck, past her chest and to her taut belly. Lily's chest heaved at the sensation of his warm lips on her cool skin. Slipping out of embrace she winked at him, emerald eyes flashing.
"You can always join me you know." She called enticingly, without looking back at him.
"Eager aren't you?"
A tinkling laugh echoed from the hallway. The bathroom door closed and James heard water running.
Sighing, he leaned back with his glass of oaky red wine and waited for her to finish showering. He had to admit that it was an incredibly romantic night with the sound of the soft melodic pattering of rain on the roof.
James shifted on the couch, his face stretching into a crooked smile as Lily stepped out of the bathroom with nothing but a turquoise towel wrapped around her pale body.
"Did you actually make those chocolate-covered strawberries yourself?" An impish smile was playing across her lips.
James nodded his head, his hazel eyes sparkling. "If you'll believe it, Sirius and I did."
"Full of surprises, you two."
A few moments later Lily was clad in a fresh pair of sweatpants and an olive green tank top. Moseying over to the couch, she stopped briefly to take a bite of a strawberry, her emerald eyes locked with his.
Lily slid into his lap and straddled him, kissing him deeply, her mouth still tasting of chocolate. James bit her bottom lip gently then captured her lips with his again, his hands traveling down her arms, resting at her exposed cool skin above her pelvis.
"James." She murmured, "I-"
He interrupted whatever she was about to say and continued to kiss her, beginning to venture away from her lips, down to her neck: her weak spot.
Lily let out a delighted gasp and disentangled herself from him, settling herself down on the opposite side of the couch, her emerald eyes watching him carefully.
James pretended to be crestfallen. "What are you doing all the way over there?"
Giggling, she waved a hand at the gift laden coffee table. "You're distracting me! Thank you by the way."
James shook his head, a playful look in his eyes. "For what?"
"Don't make me spell it out, mister." Her eyes had a faraway look.
James expression started to shift, his hazel eyes softening and he squeezed her foot warmly. "Go on, tell me."
Lily looked at him sharply, her emerald eyes searching his. "Tell you what?"
"What you need to tell me."
They regarded each other quietly, the only sound filling the room was the rain hitting the roof, and then Lily whispered, "How did you know?"
James shrugged, his arms coming up and his fingers interlacing behind his head. "Dunno. I just had this feeling."
"Who are you, Hogwart's new Divination Prof?" Lily quipped, her face breaking out into a smile, but her eyes still bright with unshed tears.
James gathered her small hand into his larger scarred one. "I'm so excited, Lily."
"Me too." She whispered, hot tears now slipping from her eyes.
Pushing herself from the corner she slipped into his open arms and nestled herself beneath his chin. They stayed like that, intertwined for the evening. They took occasional sips from the wine, broke into the chocolate bar and took tentative bites from the chocolate-covered strawberries. Once they confirmed they were edible and in fact delicious, they devoured them within the hour.
It rained all evening and all evening they stayed up, talking and musing about the pregnancy. How it would change their lives, how excited they were, and who the godfather would be.
"Sirius." James said immediately.
"I agree." Lily nodded, taking another bite from the strawberry. "I have to say, I'm impressed. Clearly you and Sirius have been holding out on me with your culinary skills. Now that this is out, I am not cooking another meal."
At James affronted look, Lily giggled. "I'm kidding. But you can't let those skills go to waste, hm?"
James hazel eyes glittered. "I can think of other ways that my skills can be put to use."
Lily let out her signature tinkling laugh. "THOSE skills were put to good use, considering I'm pregnant now!"
A/N: D'awhhhhhh cute. Please review and let me know what you think :)
Lioness Amythest xo