As Lovers Go

By: C.Q.

A/N: Hey! This is my first piece of FanFiction that I'm leaving up on this site and I hope you all enjoy this. It's kind of weird and I never thought my first story would be centered around James and Lily but here it is. My first one-shot story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter nor do I own the song "As Lovers Go" from the Shrek II soundtrack.

"Please! Please, please, please, please, please, please, please-"

Whoosh! SMASH! Thump.

"Oh my God!"

Remus Lupin was definitely use to seeing James and Lily banter. He was use to seeing James ask Lily over and over and over again to go out with him with no hope of Lily actually relenting. But it was a clear shock when the sixteen-year-old Gryffindor walked through to the portrait hole to see Lily Evans throw the nearest vase at James Potter and actually hit him in the head. Remus stood there in absolute shock as he saw James crumple to the floor unconscious and Sirius, who had previously been laughing on the floor away from the fighting, jump up from his place near the fire to where James had fell, cradling his head in his lap and looking like he wasn't quite sure what he was suppose to do in this situation.

Lily's hands had flown up to her mouth and Remus saw her give a frightened look towards Sirius and James before running in a flurry of tears and red curls past Remus and through the portrait hole.

When Remus came to himself he realized that Sirius still held James' head in his lap and was still trying to coax him out of his comatose state by murmuring odd things in his ear and smoothing his hair away from his eyes. Remus looked around and found James' glasses across from where he was, picked them up and sat next to Sirius, looking down at James and wondering whether he was suppose to be concerned or not. The whole thing was rather surreal. Usually James was so good at dodging the odd things that Lily threw at him, seeing as he was the star Chaser on the Quidditch team and was suppose to have such good reflexes.

And no matter how many times James and Lily fought with each other, even though it was rather one sided, no one ever got hurt. Not physically anyway.

But after two minutes of sitting with their unconscious best friend, wondering whether to call Madam Pomfrey or not, Remus and Sirius were quite relieved to hear their friend moan and twist a little in agony before opening his hazel eyes, which were somewhat clouded over in confusion.

Helping his friend to the sofa, Sirius sat next to him eyeing him with concern and anxiety. And the first words out of James' mouth were the last he would have expected.

"Did she cry?"

"Huh?" Both Remus and Sirius atoned at the same time.

"Did. She. Cry?" James said while rubbing the bump forming on his head and looking at his friends like they were juveniles.

"Um, yeah Prongs she did." Sirius said in confusion.

"Okay. I'll be right back." James got up a little unsteadily and walked through the portrait hole, still holding his head and looking somewhat grim.

After James had left, Remus and Sirius exchanged a look that spoke exactly what had happened. 'That git did it on purpose.'

She said, "I've got to be honest,
You're wasting your time if you're fishin' around here."
And I said, "You must be mistaken,
I'm not foolin', this feelin' is real."
She said, "You've gotta be crazy!
What do you take me for? Some kinda of easy mark?"

Lily was currently sobbing in the Astronomy Tower wondering when things had become so complicated. She hated James Potter! She wasn't supposed to feel any remorse for doing the one thing she had wanted to do since meeting him.

And yet she couldn't help the tears that streamed down her face and wracked her body with unsuppressed sobs. Nothing was right anymore.

"You shouldn't be crying you know." Lily gasped and whipped her head around to look at who she already knew would be standing there.

"Oh my God, you're okay." Lily said, realizing she was stating the obvious and wondering why she couldn't so eloquently state that she hated him like she did so often.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I figured that anytime I dodged your bullets nothing came out right so I figured I might as well try going down for once. But I didn't mean to make you cry. Someone as beautiful as you should never be sad. You should always smile. You're eyes light up like Emerald City when you smile."

Lily noticed that for once James was giving her a compliment without that cocky smile he always wore. Instead, his eyes were sad and his lips were set in a grim line. His eyes were no longer shining behind his glasses. She wondered why.

Then another thought struck her. "You come from a wizarding family." She managed to choke out while trying to wipe the tears away from her freckled cheeks.

James raised an eyebrow and replied, "I'm glad it's taken you six years to realize that." James had crossed the room and sat next to her by the highest window in the tower overlooking the Quidditch pitch.

Lily shook her head. "No. That's not what I meant. I mean you said Emerald City like in the Wizard of Oz. That's a muggle movie."

James finally allowed a ghost of a smile and said with slight humor, "Sirius, Remus, and I went to visit Peter last summer and he's part muggle so they had a television. We had to suffer through long hours of watching that movie over and over again at Sirius' insistence. I swear that Remus was about to shove the remote control down his throat if he said 'Let's watch the flying monkeys on the fellytission' one more time."

Lily laughed at the mental image of the ever calm and cool Remus Lupin trying to stuff a remote control down Sirius' ever open mouth.

James smiled and just sat there with Lily for a couple of minutes not wanting to break the spell that had fallen over them.

It was Lily who broke the silence first.

"James. I'm sorry for hurting you."

James could tell by the remorse in her voice that she was talking about something other than the vase.

"You know," James began in the most sincere voice he had ever used. "This is real for me. These feelings I have for you aren't going to go away no matter how hard I try to get rid of them." He could see that Lily was about to cry again. "Why can't you just accept that I want to be with you?" He said with a tinge of anger and desperation in his voice.

"Oh James! I just can't! You'll just do with me what you've done to all those other girls you've gone out with! You'll break my heart!" Lily cried, moving away from him and trying to make her way to the opposite side of the room.

"No, you've got wits,
You've got looks,
You've got passion,
But I swear that you've got me all wrong."
All wrong
All wrong
But you've got me

Catching her wrist and spinning her around to face him, James gave her a smoldering look and allowed angry tears to dance behind his eyes.

"I could never break your heart. I would rather die first."

Lily whimpered unintentionally at the force he used to hold onto her wrist and James let go of her like he had been burned.

James continued in a quiet, remorseful voice. "You may be the cleverest witch in our year but you sure have my intentions all wrong." He averted his eyes with the confession he was about to make. "All of those girls I went out with were only to make you jealous. And before that I use to go out with girls so that I could forget the only girl that ever refused my advances. But I think this might be my last venture, Lily. If you refuse me this time then I know no matter how many bullets I take for you and from you, you will never be mine."

I'll be true, I'll be useful, I'll be cavalier,
I'll be yours my dear
I'll belong to you
If you just let me through

This is easy as lovers go.
So don't complicate it by hesitating.
This is wonderful as loving goes.
This is tailor-made,
What's the sense in waiting?

"How can I take you seriously when, in all the time I've known you, you never once showed me who you really are? All you do is play games and act like all you have to do is smile to get what you want. How can I trust that?"

He bowed his head so that his bangs dipped in front of his glasses and he lowered his face towards hers so that he could speak in a soft voice. "Things are different Tiger Lily." He felt her shudder when he used Sirius' nickname for her. What did that mean? "This is easy. Stop complicating something that I've known to be true since the day I met you. You might think this is a line but it's something more than that. What's the sense in holding off something that was written in the stars? All you have to do," James fingered a loose strand of her hair and swept it away from her eyes so he could gaze into those emerald pools with all the desire he felt. "All you have to do is let me through and I'll be yours forever, my dear."

I said, "I've got to be honest,
I've been waiting for you all of my life."
For so long I thought I was asylum bound,
But just seeing you makes me think twice.
And being with you here makes me sane.
I fear I'll go crazy if you leave my side.

Lily released another sob and allowed herself to sink further into James' arms as he wrapped them around her slim form.

"Nothing could ever be this easy. We might fall in love today, James, but nothing this simple could ever last forever." She paused again and then said softly, "What if I say no? What if I turn you down, James?"

James chuckled a little in his tenor voice and nuzzled her hair with his nose, inhaling the way she smelled like flowers. "Lily, I've been waiting for you all my life. I think I could wait a little longer if you just need time. But," James exhaled with the weight of his feelings, "I might go crazy if I let you go and you leave my side forever."

"You've got wits,
You've got looks,
You've got passion,
But are you brave enough to leave with me tonight?"
Tonight
Tonight
You've got me

James pulled back from her enough to meet her eyes again and said, "I always thought you were a brave person, Lily. Not only because you were willing to be a Gryffindor beater with Sirius as your partner, " Lily smiled faintly, "but because you were always willing to stand up to the Marauders no matter what occasion, even if it was for Snivillus." He paused again. "But what I'm asking of you is to be brave right now and say you'll be mine. Maybe not for an eternity but for as long as you'll give this relationship. Then I have faith that you'll see exactly what I have seen since fourth year."

I'll be true, I'll be useful, I'll be cavalier,
I'll be yours my dear
I'll belong to you
If you just let me through

Lily looked at him quizzically and asked, "And what exactly did you see?"

Smiling shyly for the first time in his life, James replied, "That I love you in ways that I will never be able to explain but in ways that make complete sense to someone who has never had to fight for anything so hard in his entire life."

This is easy as lovers go. So don't complicate it by hesitating.
This is wonderful as loving goes.
This is tailor-made, what's the sense in waiting?

With a slightly dazed look on her face, Lily's stubborn side asked him, "Are you in it for the chase, Potter?"

This is easy as lovers go. So don't complicate it by hesitating.
This is wonderful as loving goes.
This is tailor-made, what's the sense in waiting?

"Huh uh. Just you."

And then he dipped his head low and kissed her with all the passion he had for her, slipping his tongue into her mouth when she gasped in surprise, and pressing her up against the wall as she entangled her hands in his hair and kissed him back.

This is easy as lovers go. So don't complicate it by hesitating.
This is wonderful as loving goes.
This is tailor-made, what's the sense in waiting?

Breaking apart and breathing just as hard as James, Lily breathed against his cheek, "That wasn't very cavalier of you."

Stepping back and seeing the smile in her eyes, James leaned his forehead against hers and said in a throaty whisper, "Give me the rest of our lives and after a while I don't think you'll care."

And not even bothering to ask whether she loved him too, because he was still absolutely sure she did, he kissed her again knowing full well that her actions were speaking just as eloquently as his previous words.

A/N: Hey! I hope you liked this story. Please send me reviews (no flames! Please! I don't think I could handle it) and helpful criticism if you would like. (Be gentle.) Also, if you want me to post the story behind Sirius' nickname for Lily (Tiger Lily) then there is a story behind that so just R&R and I'll post that soon.