Disclaimer: Not mine.
Jet Skiing with James and Sirius
It was a sunny summer day on the lake, where Lily Evans had decided to spend the day with her sister, zipping around on their jet ski.
…That was the plan, anyway.
"I'll be back in an hour, Lily! Just an hour!" Petunia Evans reassured her sister.
"I can't believe your ditching me for a guy," said Lily sourly, splashing her feet in the water.
"C'mon, Lil—"
"Lily?" called an all-too-familiar voice from several yards away.
"James?" Lily called back confusedly. This was a muggle beach. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, soaking up the sun, you know the drill," said Sirius Black cheerfully, pulling off his sunglasses to reveal a rather developed raccoon tan line. Petunia snorted, holding back a laugh. James, on the other hand, was grinning widely.
"Fancy spending the day with us, Lily?"
"Sure she would!" Petunia volunteered at once. Lily turned to Petunia and raised her eyebrows. Ignoring her, Petunia said, "and your names are?"
"Sirius Black and James Potter," said Sirius, motioning to himself and James. "It's nice to meet you—"
"—Petunia," she said, shaking their hands. "James and Sirius, huh? I've heard a lot about you." Lily cast her a stern look.
"You have?" asked James excitedly.
"Oh, sure," said Petunia, waving a hand, "all about Lily's little cru—"
"You have fun now, Petunia!" Lily interrupted loudly. "Take your time."
"Erm—right," said Petunia, once again eyeing Sirius's strange tan line, "you guys have fun. See you at home," she added to Lily. She left the three of them standing there awkwardly, Sirius intently observing a bikini-clad muggle, while Lily and James observed their feet just as carefully. Tearing his gaze away from the tanned girl, Sirius clapped his hands together eagerly.
"So," he said, "let's get this jet-wee going!"
"Jet ski," Lily corrected him, laughing. James arched an eyebrow.
"'Jet-wee?'"
"Well, yeah, 'cos when you ride it you say 'wee'—"
"Anyway," said Lily loudly, "do either of you want to drive?"
"ME!"
"Alright, Sirius," Lily laughed. She gave the two boys a quick lesson on driving the jet ski. "So, Sirius will sit in the front, I'll go behind him and hold onto the strap, and James, you can sit behind me."
"Why in the back?" asked James uncertainly, noting the lack of handhold and the seemingly quick and easy route from the back of the jet ski into the lake.
"Because the back is the manly seat." When James raised an eyebrow, Lily elaborated, "Well, the back's the easiest place to fall off, so you have to have a firm, MANLY grip."
"And what exactly do I grip onto?" asked James, dreading the answer he knew would come. His face was slowly turning red.
Lily's face burned a matching crimson. "Er… the person in front of them."
"Come on, James! Be a manly man!" said Sirius brightly; not realizing why his best mate wouldn't want to sit in the back.
"Why can't I just be manly in the middle?" James asked. He did not want to be grabbing Lily like some coward, and with his luck, he'd probably accidentally put his hands in the wrong place, or grab something wrong in a desperate moment. His stomach squirmed uncomfortably at the thought.
"Oh, alright," said Lily finally. After Petunia's comment and the way she'd be hanging off James on the jet ski, there was no way James wouldn't figure out she fancied him. Resigning herself for the worst, she climbed onto the jet ski after James, wrapping her arms tentatively around his waist.
"Ready?" called Sirius excitedly. Casting a glance at the pretty muggle on the beach, Sirius floored the engine without waiting for a response. Lily grabbed desperately onto James as he let out a long stream of swearwords.
Not paying attention to his passenger's reaction in the slightest, Sirius zoomed over waves, made sharp turns, and thoroughly enjoyed his first experience on a "wet-wee" until…
"SIRIUS! SLOW DOWN!"
Sirius, smiling broadly, turned his head to look at James, but yelled as saw James desperately holding onto Lily as she hung off the side of the jet ski.
"SLOW DOWN!" James shouted again.
"HOW?!" Sirius called back, just as panicked.
"Just take the key out or something! Anything!"
The jet ski stopped immediately, as James and Lily were thrown into the water with a giant splash. They swam back over to the jet ski, James letting out a fountain of water as Lily tried to disentangle some seaweed from her long, red hair.
"Nice one, Padfoot," James spat as he climbed back onto the jet ski, helping Lily to do the same.
"I think it's James's turn to drive," said Lily, wringing out her shirt.
"But—no! I was just getting started!" said Sirius, glancing once again at the pretty girl on shore.
"Too bad," said James. "Get in the back."
"But I don't like the back—"
"Come on, Sirius, be manly," said Lily, ignoring the strap and holding onto James instead. Grumbling under his breath, Sirius took his spot in the back, holding onto Lily's waist, but loosening his grip as he saw the look James gave him.
James was also a rather rambunctious driver, though slightly less violent that Sirius. The ride was going smoothly, and Lily had even rested her chin on James's shoulder, when…
"Look! A floaty!"
"Sweet Merlin," murmured Lily, turning just in time to see Sirius leaning off the side of the jet ski. Quickly grabbing his shirt in attempt to pull Sirius back on, Lily found herself sliding off the jet ski as well.
"Argh!" she screeched, throwing out her other arm and grabbing the back of James's shorts, the only thing in reach. If I'm going down, he's going with me, she thought.
Sirius let out a girly shriek as he hit the water, Lily and James both swearing as the tumble in seconds later. Lily surface to find Sirius in a state of panic.
"IT'S GOT ME!" he cried. "THE LAKE MONSTER!"
Lily clapped a hand to her forehead as Sirius yanked his foot out of the water, pulling off—the float. Aka, the cause of their doom. "Oh," said Sirius sheepishly.
Rolling her eyes, Lily turned to find James attempting to hid behind the jet ski, his face a bright red. But that can't be right, thought Lily, I'm still holding onto his—
"Oh shit," she said, cringing as she lifted her hand to find… James's shorts. Including, with further inspection, his boxers. Which meant… "Oh shit," she said again.
"Erm… I'll take those back," said James embarrassedly.
"Right," Lily squeaked, swimming over to him. No, wait. She didn't want to do that. Because if she did, she would find herself in close proximity to a very exposed James Potter. She thrust James's clothing at Sirius, who was now enjoying his floaty, and seemed to have missed Lily and James's awkward conversation.
Sirius wrinkled his nose. "Lily, I didn't know you wore boxers."
"Those would be mine," said James shrilly from behind the jet ski.
Sirius looked very confused for a moment, looking from James, to the boxers, to Lily, and to James…
"Oh!" said Sirius, comprehension dawning on his face. "I didn't know you wore boxers either, James," he said suggestively.
"Just bring them here!" said James impatiently.
Paddling his floaty over to James, Sirius disappeared from Lily's view.
There was a pause.
"You can leave now, Sirius."
"Oh! Right," said Sirius, slowly padding his way back to Lily.
"So," he said, resting his chin on the floaty and attempting to observe James's struggle to get his shorts on, "this is nice." Lily gave him an incredulous look that seemed to go unnoticed
"Anyway," said James, reappearing from behind the jet ski with a slightly red face, "what's next? Something on land, maybe?" he suggested with a smile.
"Sounds good to me," said Sirius, his attention back on the girl on shore. Lily nodded in agreement, and the three climbed back onto the jet ski. After the jet ski was successfully docked, Lily pulled out three towels from a front compartment, handed one each to Sirius and James, and led them to a free patch of sand to lay the towels down.
After stripping down to their swimsuits, Lily and James had engaged in a flirty conversation about when they planned to go school shopping, while Sirius discreetly observed the pretty muggle in the bikini. After the two exchanged a smile and a wave, Sirius turned his attention back to Lily and James.
"Lily, truth or dare?" said Sirius abruptly.
"Uhm—truth, I guess," she said, shrugging.
"Do you fancy James?"
Three seconds of awkward silence passed before—
"Sirius, I dare you to go talk to that girl you've been eyeing all day," said James.
"Will do, Prongs!"
They watched Sirius strut confidently up to the girl, who immediately invited him to sit down. Avoiding James's eyes, Lily fiddled with the corner of her beach towel.
"Lily?"
"Yes, James?" she said, still not looking at him.
"I'm not sure what changed today," he whispered into her ear, "but I like it."
Forcing her green eyes to meet James's hazel ones, Lily gave a shy smile. "Me too." James smiled shyly back. Lily's shy smile widened. So did James's. Much shy smiling occurred, then—
"Just kiss already!"
Lily and James turned to see Sirius, smiling brightly as the girl he was sitting with giggled.
And for reasons she didn't quite understand, Lily took the advice of a boy who had thrown himself off a moving jet ski for a water floaty.
And as she felt James smile into her lips, she knew she had made the right decision.
A/N:
Not re-read and not really edited… if I had to type the word "jet
ski" one more time… The inspiration hit me… okay, not
really. I was cleaning out my closet and I found the notebook I wrote
Review, yeah?
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