Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter or his associated universe. But it's only a matter of time...
AN - ONESHOT!
Lily is pregnant, emotional and a bit rude. James is tired, thoughtful and gorgeous. Canon, post-Hogwarts/marriage bit of fluff inspired from one time when I was in a lecture craving pizza, and then I thought to myself 'I want to write a fic involving pizza'. So I did - and here it is. Although please note, I do not like pineapple on pizza... and pickles probably aren't a great idea either.
ENJOY! and Review if you have time :)
Making Pizza
If you were to look through the frosted glass window into the Potter's small kitchen that Friday the 24th of July, you would have seen what can only be described as a catastrophic mess.
Amid the dirty pots and pans sitting in the sink, empty egg cartons on the bench and bags of groceries on the floor were the assorted ingredients essential to pizza making… not to mention a heavily pregnant Lily Potter.
She was perched precariously on a stool, surveying the mess before her with a disbelieving expression. It was still a fortnight until she was booked into St Mungo's for the big day and she could not wait to see her feet again.
While she was contemplating the fact that a) she was so huge she'd forgotten what her feet look like, b) she'd only had an appetite for pizza, pickles and pineapple in the last week and c) her formerly clean kitchen looked as though a greengrocers had exploded in its' centre, a dishevelled looking James Potter burst through the doorway.
"Lily, what are you doing in here? I thought you were upstairs asleep?" he said, looking panicked.
Lily just continued to stare blankly at the bench.
"Err, Lils? Are- are you okay?" he asked meekly.
"James," Lily said in an eerily calm voice that greatly disconcerted her husband, "Could you please explain to me what has happened to my kitchen?"
"To your kitchen?" he asked, expecting an explosion of hormonal proportions at any moment.
"Yes, James. To my kitchen," Lily repeated, turning to face him with a now-annoyed face.
"Well, you see… the thing is…"
"JAMES! You KNOW I like my kitchen to be CLEAN at ALL TIMES! What in the name of MERLIN'S ARSE possessed you to make such a BLOODY MESS? I'm PREGNANT! I cannot go around cleaning up YOUR mess that you've made because you're BORED or EXPERIMENTING or WHATEVER!" she roared, letting her tired mind run away with her mouth. "So PLEASE explain to me why this room is so messy and why you haven't cleaned it up yet!"
James just stood there, head hung in shame with an expression resembling that of a puppy that had just been kicked.
"I was just trying to make you some pizza," he said apologetically.
"YOU.. Wait, what?" Lily said, halting her ranting tirade.
"I just know how much you like pizza these days and I thought it'd be a nice surprise if you woke up to some fresh pizza."
"Oh." Lily said, thoroughly embarrassed and feeling more than a little horrible.
"Yeah," James said quietly, avoiding her eyes as he rubbed the back of his neck anxiously.
"I'm sorry," Lily whispered, before bursting into tears.
James, knowing that it was just her crazy pregnancy hormones and thanking Merlin that he only had to deal with an emotionally unstable Lily for a little longer, immediately rushed to her side, pulling his wife into a warm embrace.
"It's okay, Lils, shush…" he soothed, rubbing circles on her back.
"No, i-it's n-not," she sobbed. "I was aw-awful. And a-all you were t-trying to do-" she hiccupped - "was make me a pizza."
Although he had suffered enough experience with Lily's mood swings, James was still at a loss as to what to do… so he offered her a pickle.
"A pickle? It's that easy, is it? I'm such a glutton that I'll be okay if you just stuff me with pickles?!" Lily shrieked, horrified that her husband thought she could be bought with a vegetable!
"No, Lils, I didn't mean it like that, I just thought-"
"Oh, I get it. You already think I'm so repulsive that it doesn't matter how much I eat now. I'm too far gone to save. Is that it!?" she demanded.
"For Pete's sake, Lily. You know I think you're gorgeous!" James cried in exasperation.
"Oh, so now you think I'm fishing for compliments! That's rich coming from Gryffindor's most egotistical captain in the history of quidditch!" Lily screeched.
And James had had it. Had enough of hormones and late night snacks and foot-rubs and baby names and crying. So he did what any man pushed to the brink of sanity would do.
He picked up a fistful of tomato paste and smeared it across Lily's face.
She just looked at him in shock for a moment, and James wondered if he was about to become the victim of marital homicide. Then her face split into an evil grin.
"You are so going to regret that, Potter," she said, grabbing a handful of grated cheese and flinging it at her husband.
James grabbed a nearby frying pan and used it to deflect the barrage of dairy product.
Within minutes, the fray had devolved into flinging whatever ingredients they could find at one another, including the tin of drinking cocoa that ended up giving everything in the room a powdered, chocolaty layer.
By this stage, Lily had moved around to the fridge and James stood between her and the sink.
"I swear, you use any of my tinned pineapple as ammo and I will pour all your butterbeer down the drain," she warned with a grin.
"I'll take you at your word, Mrs Potter. What say you to a truce?" James said, sticking out his hand.
Lily raised an eyebrow. "What have you got behind your back?"
"Nothing, I promise," James grinned, honestly showing her his empty palm.
"Then, truce," Lily agreed, touching her hand to James' before he pulled her in for a bizarre, cocoa/tomato-flavoured kiss.
"Mmm, interesting flavour combination," James wrinkled his nose.
"Careful, it might become a new favourite of mine," his wife joked. Then she took a look around her at the mess that had been amplified about twenty fold and sighed. "This is even worse than it was before!"
"You're not going to cry again, are you?" James asked warily, holding her at arms length.
Lily couldn't help but snort daintily. "No, I'm not. And I'm sorry I was so awful before. I can't wait for this baby to get out so I can go back to my normal self."
"What are you talking about, Lils? You're always like this," James chuckled.
"Oh, very funny, but untrue," she disagreed.
"Really? Do you remember how we made up after our first big fight as a couple? In detention?? We had a water fight, if I recall correctly."
A happy look spread across the redhead's face as she reminisced. "Oh, yeah. We did, too."
"One of the best days of my life, that," James noted, before shaking himself back into the present. "But I agree. I can't wait for my little man-"
"Or girl-"
"-To be born. For one thing, we'll be able to-"
"Oh no we won't! Give me some time to recover, you sadistic man," Lily smirked, guessing what her sex-deprived husband had been about to say.
"Fair enough," James conceded. "But it will be nice to get back to normal."
"Yeah, I agree." There was a pause. "I really am sorry about before. I was completely out of line."
"That's okay, I still love you," James grinned, leaning in for another kiss.
"So, what were you making that created such a mess?" Lily asked after they broke apart.
"Well, I wanted to start from scratch with the dough and everything."
"How very thorough."
"And then, well. I know you tell me not to experiment in the kitchen without proper supervision, but…"
"What did you do?" she sighed.
"I just wanted to make you a pineapple and pickle pizza, that's all," James said, turning his adorable hazel eyes to hers. "Sorry about the mess."
"I really love you," Lily said passionately before kissing him again (this time tasting less like a chocolate tomato).
"I love you, too, Lils," James said happily, hugging his wife close to him.
They stayed in that position - wrapped in one another's arms - for several long, comfortable moments until…
"Oh!" Lily exclaimed, "Did you feel that?"
"Feel what?" James asked, looking in concern at his wife. She just grabbed his hands and placed them on her rounded stomach. Then he felt it.
"It's kicking!" He exclaimed, eyes wide with excitement. "Are you okay?"
"Great. Amazing," Lily said, her eyes shining.
"Hello, little person," James called out in the direction of Lily's baby-bulge. "It's your daddy and mummy here."
Lily giggled as she felt the baby kick again.
"He heard me!" James cried, "And he kicked!"
"You know what that means?" Lily grinned.
"He likes the sound of my voice?" James said confidently.
"No," Lily chuckled. "It means he likes making pizza."
AN - Strange ending but I have to get up in 4 hours for work so I'm going to bed.
I really hope you liked it :) so please leave a review if you have a spare moment! A new chapter of Scribblings will be up soon. This was just to help clear the writers block - and, guess what? it worked! SO STAY TUNED!
HAPPY FANFICCING :)
