A/N: I don't own any characters or the world of Harry Potter. Except for Sherman. This was written for the Big sis/Lil' sis Competition. I used the prompts: "Do you think anger is a sincere emotion or the timid motion of a fragile heart trying to beat away its pain?" -Andrea Gibson, red, and package.

Sirius stepped inside the Common Room to find Lily in the middle of it, lying down on the floor with her hair splayed out and tears in her eyes. Sirius walked over to her and laid down right beside her, turning her onto her side to face him and held her there with his hand on her waist.

"Hey."

"Hi," Lily's voice was full of tears. "I'm sad."

Sirius nodded. "I can tell." She gave him a weak smile.

"Someone called me a bad word today," Lily whispered. She took comfort in the closeness of Sirius's embrace.

"A bad word?" At Lily's nod, he asked, "Who?"

"I don't want to say, because you know him."

"Hmm... James?"

"Yeah."

"Don't worry, I'll straighten him out later."

"No... Don't make a big fuss about it."

"Whatever you want." Sirius paused. "What was the fight about?"

"I'm not completely sure myself. James saw me kiss Sherman after dinner and started being a complete sod. He insulted me, but then he looked hurt and started yelling, and then he called me the Word."

"The bad word?"

"Yeah."

"What was the bad word?"

Leaning forward, Lily mumbled it into Sirius's ear even though there was no one around. A few tears ran down Lily's face from the memory.

"Hey, stop that...," Sirius warned.

Not finding any tissues in his pockets, Sirius held out his sleeve instead. Gratefully, she took the sleeve to wipe at her eyes. "Besides," he continued. "It's not that bad. I know someone who called you an owl today."

"Who?" Right after she said it, she snorted lightly. "Worst. Joke. Ever."

Her eyes began to droop from the exhaustion caused by her crying.

"If it was so bad, why'd you laugh?" Lily responded by dropping her head down on his chest. Sirius went on. "If we're being serious here, James doesn't mean most of the things he says to you. He just says that because he's scared of being vulnerable."

Lily heard his words in her head, like how she felt when people started talking to her before she was fully awake. "Sometimes, he just doesn't like being vulnerable so he teases you or makes fun of you, or in this case, calls you a lousy word because he gets hurt and tries to disguise that by being angry at you. He actually really likes you."

Sirius waited for Lily to respond.

Lily, however, had fallen asleep before Sirius was even finished talking.

Hey, Lily. I thought now that we're dating, you might actually respond to my owls this summer. Nothing's happened yet because technically, we just left Hogwarts today.. How have the past four hours without me been?-JP

Dear James, you were right in assuming that I would write back this time. I suppose that it's one of the things I have to do now that we're together. And to answer your question, the last few hours have been great. Guess why? Kidding...you hope. And just saying, I might not send owls back to you half of the time because I'm too lazy to. So don't have your owl stay until I finish writing or else I'll just send you back parchments with only my name signed on it. Thanks for the stuffed red flobberworm. -Lily

LILY. I thought that maybe if I didn't send as many owls at once, you would respond better. That's why I waited two whole days to write back again. Fancy meeting up this weekend? What about my house? *hint, hint. In case you didn't know, that was a way for you to agree to meet my parents..-JP

James, I'm really sorry, but I just don't have time this week or the next to meet up with you or your parents. *unhint, unhint. I've joined this muggle youth group at my mum's church at her insistence, and surprisingly, I love it! We're doing a bunch of fundraisers for charity and I'm trying to get hired in Hogsmeade this summer to save for when we graduate Hogwarts next year. Thanks for the red lock of hair that I know is mine but you somehow acquired. -Lily

I guess I understand, but I'm not happy. If you were here, you would see me frowning. For once, I can't think of anything to tell you because I'm too upset for words. Maybe if you were here, I could be happy again. *hint, hint. -JP

Nice try, James. You know that I would if I could. BUT...it has been only a few days since summer started. Thanks for the red quill and inkwell. p.s. I'm getting lazy now. -Lily

...

Dear Lily, it's been a month and I'm not sure if you've been ignoring my last letter or if you just didn't get it. Seeing as my other letters have made it to you, I will just waste away here in my bedroom, dying because my girlfriend doesn't want to talk to me..-JP

James, I feel really bad for what I'm about to say in this letter. The truth is that I did ignore your last letter, not because I didn't want to talk to you or got lazy, but it was actually because-Merlin, this is so cliché-I was trying to think of ways to say that we should break up. And I'm going to be even more honest and say that I met someone and I think that I like him. I met him at my new job and we didn't kiss or anything but I'm developing feelings for him. It would be unfair to you if I kept dating you while I had feelings for someone else, even if it's only for the summer. I'm sorry. p.s. Thanks for the red ceramic heart...-Lily

"I hurt him, Sirius." The redhead said obviously.

"I know, but you have to try to get him back. I don't know...kiss him!"

"I'm not going to kiss him. He'd just push me away, and besides, kissing him will not make him forgive me."

Lily cornered James and they made up in the kitchens.

"I'm sorry," Lily said, her face hidden in James's grey sweater.

"I know," he replied.

"Do you?" She drew back slightly to catch James's eyes and made sure that he was listening seriously to her. "I love you. No, don't look away. It's true, and you might not believe that anymore but it is. Got it?"

Under the hands that were gripping the sides of his face, James nodded.

"Did Sirius ever tell you that we broke up?"

"..."

"Oh, I thought he wouldn't. Of course he would just let me tell everyone and if I didn't say anything, everyone would probably think that we were still dating!"

"..Um..."

"We broke up last week; it was a mutual decision. Well actually, to tell the truth, we broke up because of me. I started to like this other guy but Sirius was very nice about it and asked me if I wanted to break up with him. We're staying friends and I'm very grateful for that. I just hope that the other guy still likes me because I'm going to ask him out."

"Another guy?"

"Well, no. It turns out that I only really liked one guy all along. Hint, hint."

James's eyes widened before Lily dragged him down to her height and kissed him.