A/N: This one was written for HPWritersNet again on tumblr! Rated teen and up for language, including lewd conversations rife with double entendres. A minor warning for a single racial slur.
Lily was admittedly already slightly tipsy. To be fair, she had been drinking since two in the afternoon and it was now seven. Really it was amazing she was only tipsy and not at the other end of the sobriety scale. She would have been proud of that fact had she not been trying to wing her eyeliner in the bathroom mirror for the last 15 minutes. As such, she was growing increasingly frustrated and her short temper was rearing it's ugly head. She heard footsteps growing closer down the hallway, and was relieved to see Emmeline poke her head through the bathroom door.
"Everything okay in here?" Emmeline asked her.
Lily glared at her reflection in the mirror. Emmeline's mouth was turned up in a smirk, a straw connecting her mouth to her vodka lime and soda. She was the last to arrive back at their shared apartment - her final exam had finished at four - and the only one who had the sense to get ready before consuming any alcohol. Lily's face scrunched up when she saw the perfection that was her best friend's own eyeliner.
"Clearly not," Lily grumbled.
Emmeline's laughter echoed off the walls of the bathroom. Lily turned to face her so she would receive the full power of her glare. Emmeline put her drink down on the sink and picked up the eyeliner Lily had thrown on the floor in anger. Emmeline maneuvered her body so she was standing under the right lighting and Lily closed her eyes in order to let her fix it.
"Stop fluttering your eyes," Emmeline muttered.
"You're poking a stick at my face, what am I s'posed to do?" Lily retorted.
"Alright I'm done, quit whining already," Emmeline laughed, and she spun Lily to face the mirror again.
Lily inspected the job her friend had done, though she already knew it would be perfect.
"Thanks Em, you're a lifesaver," Lily said with an apologetic smile and a kiss on the cheek.
The exchange between them was a regular one even when they were both sober, and Lily smiled back at Emmeline guiltily. Emmeline rolled her eyes and smiled as she turned to leave and Lily followed, eager to get out of the cramped bathroom so she could breathe again. They walked back down the hallway to the kitchen where their third best friend (and housemate) Marlene was munching on the last of the cheese cubes from earlier in the afternoon. Lily snatched the last one out of her hand and threw it into her own mouth with a grin.
"Oh good, you're finally ready," Marlene teased.
"Not all of us can pull off effortless chic like you do, Marls," Lily said with her mouth full.
"Ah, Lily my dear, you have no idea of the power you possess," Marlene responded.
All three girls burst into a fit of laughter. They stopped only when Marlene's phone began to ring from where it was plugged into the wall charging. She shushed the other two and answered the unknown number. The conversation only lasted a couple of seconds and Lily was completely baffled about what could have been said in such a short time.
"Uber's here," Marlene declared.
The three of them scrambled to grab their bags and down the last of the drinks. They made sure one of them had a key and then ran out the door of their flat and into the elevator. They only lived on the third floor of the building but they hadn't been able to work out where the stairs were since they moved in. It didn't bother them too much.
Their drive to the bar was short, a distance they probably could have walked but as Marlene had pointed out that would mean less time for celebration. The bar was busier than usual, even for a Friday night. Nevertheless, they were still able to get their favourite booth that was the perfect distance between the bar and the karaoke stage. Hestia, their favourite barmaid had put a makeshift reservation sign on the table for them. As her best friends slid around the booth, Lily went up to the bar to seek out the barmaid in question. She had to weave through a few groups of people, but one of the only positives about her short stature was that it was much easier to squeeze through to the front.
"Hestia!" Lily called over the music.
Hestia looked up from the other end of the bar where she had just finished pouring someone a pint. She spotted Lily in an instant, the flaming red of her hair hard to miss even in the dim lighting of the pub.
"Hi lady, how are you?" Hestia asked her with a smile.
"Forever grateful for your service and blatant favouritism of your patrons," Lily responded with a giggle.
"You're everyone's favourites," Hestia explained.
"Mmmhmm, sure. I see the way you look at Emmeline every time you come clear our table," Lily said with a wink.
It was hard to tell in the light, but Lily swore she saw a blush form on Hestia's cheeks. Hestia finished pouring their usual order and placed the last drink on the bar top. Lily gave her a tenner and told her to keep the change, carrying the three drinks carefully back to their table. She managed to arrive without spilling a drop and a breath of relief escaped her as she squished next to Marlene in the booth.
"Hestia was checking you out again, Em," Lily said innocently.
Her facade broke as soon as she finished her sentence, and giggles erupted from both her and Marlene. Emmeline sipped on her drink quietly, and Lily was certain a blush was rising on her cheeks.
"When will you two bone already?" Marlene joked.
"Marls!" Emmeline said, whacking Marlene on the arm.
"Is it even boning when it's two girls? There's no bone," Lily pondered.
"An incredibly good point there Lils, although maybe if one of them had a strap on?"
All three of them burst into laughter at the question Marlene posed. Lily had managed to spit out half her drink onto the table which caused them all to laugh even more, and droplets of rum and coke were falling onto their laps.
"Eeew, Lily, I wasn't supposed to be sticky and wet until later tonight," Marlene joked.
Lily cackled beside her and almost choked on what was left of her drink. Marlene patted her on the back and Lily wiped a tear from her eye. She could already tell it was going to be a good night. Hestia brought over a basket of wedges and said they were on the house, and Lily almost inhaled half of them. It felt like hours since she'd last eaten, and her stomach was begging for something. Marlene whacked her hand away when she was on her tenth wedge in two minutes, reprimanding her for hogging them all.
Lily huffed but was soon distracted by the first karaoke singer of the night. The hook for Ice Ice Baby started to play and Lily rolled her eyes, turning back to her friends. When she turned back to the table, both sets of eyes of her friends were looking at her with identical knowing smiles.
"What?" she said slowly.
Marlene's eyes gave them away when she looked down at what was the basket of wedges.
"Hey!" Lily complained when she realised. "How did you even manage to finish them all so quick?"
Her best friends burst into fits of laughter and Lily couldn't help but join them. Emmeline offered to get the next round of drinks and Lily and Marlene both teased her about Hestia again. Emmeline walked off with a blush forming on her cheeks again, and Lily downed the dregs of her rum and coke. Marlene had pulled her phone out of her pocket and was messaging someone on Tinder, and Lily was left to people watch.
Most of the people in the bar were familiar faces from her university. Though she had no idea who any of them were, she'd seen them on campus multiple times, and some she even shared classes with. There were groups of people crowded around standing tables all throughout the small space in the bar. She couldn't lie to herself, she was scanning the crowd for someone in particular. She couldn't see him anywhere, and though she tried not to feel dejected Marlene could sense it without even looking at her.
"Who are you looking for?" she asked, without even looking up from her phone.
"How do you even know I'm looking for someone? I'm just looking," Lily tried to cover up.
Marlene locked her phone with a click and put it down on the table in front of her. She looked at Lily with an eyebrow raised. Lily was not an easily intimidated woman, but the look Marlene was giving her right now would have made anyone spill their guts on sight.
"Alright, alright! It's just this guy I sat next to in my exam today. I'd never met him before even though we both had the same class all semester and he - well we connected I guess," she confessed.
"Lily Evans! Are you saying there may be a suitor on the horizon?" Marlene questioned, dramatic as always, with a hand on her heart.
"This is why I didn't want to tell you," Lily pretended to grumble, but the smile on her face betrayed her.
Emmeline arrived back at the table with their second round (or seventh, if you counted all the ones back at their apartment).
"Lily has found herself a male suitor," Marlene shared.
"Our darling girl, all grown up!"
"I'm older than both of you!"
"Technicalities," Emmeline dismissed with a wave of her hand.
Lily looked at her shrewdly and noticed a napkin with something scribbled on it in her other hand.
"What's that you've got?" Lily asked, pointing at the napkin.
"Don't throw me under the bus just because you're getting grilled!"
Marlene leant over and yanked the napkin out of her hand. Emmeline shrieked in surprise and both Marlene and Lily cackled in response. They studied it together and both their jaws dropped when they read it.
"I can't believe you finally got her number," Marlene said in shock.
"Give it back," Emmeline whined.
Emmeline snatched the napkin back and pulled out her phone to store the number before it was lost again. Lily sipped her drink with a smile stretched across her face.
Marlene sighed. "I can't believe Em is out here getting numbers from real people, and I've resorted to the scum of the Earth on Tinder."
Lily snorted at her complaint. "You were just messaging someone on there."
"It wasn't really a stimulating conversation Lils."
"Oh you like to be stimulated do you Marls," Emmeline giggled.
"I wouldn't mind it, yeah, but I don't think any stimulation whatsoever can come from a Tinder hook up," she complained again.
Lily spun to face her friend, her mouth forming a small 'o'. "When did you hook up with someone from Tinder?"
"Oh Lils, it was dreadful! I went over to his house after my statistics exam on Wednesday, I thought it would be a good stress release."
Emmeline snorted at that and Marlene glared at her.
"Anyway, we were kissing and he was so good at that but when we actually started to have sex it was like - like a rabbit trying to procreate."
Lily and Emmeline screeched with laughter at her description. Marlene couldn't help but join in, and they laughed for a good five minutes at least. Lily felt abs forming in her stomach it hurt so much from laughing and she saw tears rolling down Emmeline's cheek. Lily tried to pull herself together to ask how Marlene had managed to get away, but every time she tried she saw the rabbit man again and a wave of laughter bubbled through her body.
"How can someone be so good at kissing and so - not at the dirty deed?" Marlene finished.
"The dirty deed, what are we, 40?" Lily teased.
Marlene whacked her on the arm in retaliation. She was about to get her revenge when the song playing over the speakers caught her attention. The start of a very familiar song, her go to karaoke song, had begun to play and she spun around in the booth again to see who was up on stage. Stealing her song. Her eyes bulged out of her head.
"Lily? What's going on?" Emmeline's voice was was tinged with concern at seeing the look on her face.
"Is someone singing your song?" Marlene said in confusion.
Marlene climbed over her to get a look at who was on stage, then looked back at Lily's face. Lily blushed slightly, giving herself away.
"Shut up!" Marlene cried.
"What? What did I miss?" Emmeline asked, looking between them both.
"Lily he's singing your song! You're meant to be, I just know it!" Marlene cried.
"Is that the guy you were talking about?" Emmeline was still lost.
Lily's face was burning by now. She swatted Marlene from off her lap so she could try and breathe again.
"Lily you have to go talk to him once he's done murdering this song," Marlene pleaded. "Even if it's only to tell him never to sing again. For the good of the people."
"Fine! Fine. I'll go."
Lily got up from the booth and her head spun a little, that way it always did when you drank sitting down and were more drunk than you thought. She heard her friends snicker behind her and turned to glare at them for what had to be the 18th time that night. Marlene nudged her forward encouragingly, and Lily tripped over her feet slightly. A blush formed on her cheeks against her will, but she managed to get to the side of the staged without further incident. She stood by the side and waited for him to finish.
"Once upon a time I was falling in love, now I'm only falling apart…" he was whispering into the microphone at this point. "There's nothing I can say, total eclipse of the heart."
He was on his knees, and Lily had to admit if he didn't sound like a dying cat he might have been better than her. Might being the operative word. She watched him bow to raucous applause from a table near the back of the room, presumably his friends. He put the microphone back on it's stand and turned to walk off stage, and the look on his face when he saw her was comical. Probably the same look she had on her face when she saw him earlier.
"Lily?" he questioned.
She waved, and he smiled so big and so beautifully she felt a weakness in her knees that wasn't caused by the alcohol.
"What did you think?"
"You want my honest opinion?"
"Erm…" His right arm stretched up to mess up the already untameable mop on his head. "Do I want to hear it?"
Lily laughed at that, a proper cackle. She noticed he was still waiting for her answer, and she pondered how to put it nicely, a finger tapping her chin.
"I appreciated the dramatic flair you performed it with."
"Thank you! No one ever appreciates the theatrics," he said exasperated.
"My friend Marlene said we're meant to be because that's my go to karaoke song as well," Lily said conversationally.
Only she realised too late what she said, and felt her cheeks warming up, certain they were now the same deep red as her hair. The man in front of her tried to hide his grin, but he was failing miserably.
"I just meant - I - oh, shut up, James," she said, whacking him on his arm.
"Ow," he said, absentmindedly rubbing the spot on his arm where she'd made contact. "That's going to bruise. I think I'll have to call security to escort you out for starting a brawl."
"A brawl? I think I'm beginning to understand why your friends don't appreciate your flair for the dramatics," Lily teased.
"You wound me, Lily," he said, a hand on his heart.
She rolled her eyes, but her smile was still there.
"What say I buy you a drink to make up for it?" she suggested.
"My love can't be bought," he declared.
Lily ignored him and instead started walking towards the bar. She turned to make sure he was following her, and was relieved to see him right behind her.
"I thought you couldn't be bought?" She asked, as he fell into step beside her.
"It can't hurt your chances," he winked.
Lily turned away to try and hide the blush that was involuntarily creeping across her cheeks again. She weaved between the crowds again, though this time with more alcohol affecting her stability. She tripped on something and fell into someone at a nearby table. James reached out to steady her, his hands strong and warm around her shoulders. She thanked him for saving her life.
"And I'm dramatic," he muttered.
He meant her to hear it though, and she knew that. What he didn't mean for, was the person she bumped into to turn around at the sound of his voice and sneer.
"Watch where you're fucking going, curry muncher," the person jeered.
James chuckled uncomfortably next to her. She stood in front of James as tall as she could (which was still almost a foot shorter than him).
"Oi, wanker, it was me that walked into you," she shouted.
Not giving him a chance to respond, she pulled her right fist back and punched him squarely in the jaw. Her dad had taught her how to punch properly when she was younger in an attempt at self defence. Thumb on the outside, between your first and second knuckle; fist tight and follow through. She had never actually thrown a proper punch before though, and her hand ached where it made contact with the stranger's jaw.
"Holy fuck," James whispered from behind her.
The stranger was in shock, and it gave Lily enough of a head start to drag James with her the other side of the bar and into the bathrooms. She tugged him inside a cubicle with her and locked it. The adrenaline bubbled up inside her and released itself as laughter, infectious, and James joined her. This laugh was so much better than the awkward chuckle from earlier; it was warm, and full and felt like sunshine dancing on her skin and she didn't care in the slightest that she waxed poetic about it because it felt so damn good.
"You didn't have to do that, you know," James said so softly, she wasn't even sure he had actually said it. "It was fucking wicked though."
"I'd do it again," Lily admitted.
Somehow she only just realised how much of a tight squeeze it was to have both their bodies in the one cubicle. She could feel heat radiating from James's body. Something in the air changed, charged it with electricity. She looked up at his face to see he was already looking down at hers. She leant back against the wall of the stall as he leant forward. One of his arms was to her right, the other fiddling with the ends of her hair. The wait for him to lean in was agonising but when his lips finally met hers it was well worth it. Her lips burned where he had touched her. Maybe it was the alcohol, but maybe it was something a bit more than that as well.
It was definitely the alcohol that gave her the courage to deepen the kiss. Her hands had made their way up to cup his jaw. She felt his right hand move down around her waist and she smiled at the attempt to be gentlemanly while they snogged in a toilet. She bit down on his bottom lip and he gasped, but he got the message. His hands travelled further down her body, over the curve of her bum and hoisted her up. Her back leant against the wall of the stall and she wrapped her legs around his waist. His lips chased her pulse down her throat, and he found a sweet spot just behind her ear. A small moan slipped past her slips, and though she willed them not to her cheeks burned red. She felt him smile against her throat; it seemed the heat from her cheeks and made its way down her body as well. She opened her eyes reluctantly.
"Shut up," she mumbled.
"I didn't say anything," he teased.
She rolled her eyes, and it was then she noticed the toilet paper stuck to the bottom of her shoe. The poorly lit bathroom was filthy, and she didn't want to think what could be seen with properly functioning lighting. She felt slightly queasy over it. James's mouth was still at her throat, but she couldn't continue this, not here.
"James. James, stop," she urged.
He looked back at her in confusion.
"We can't do this here, it's not-"
"-Romantic, of course," he finished
"I was going to say hygienic but… I suppose you're right as well," she said with a smile on her lips.
"Erm. Right, that too," and this time it was his turn to blush.
Lily kissed him quickly before hopping down from where he had held her up. For the third time that night, she grabbed his hand and lead him out to the booth where Marlene and Emmeline were still sitting. Upon her return they both wiggled their eyebrows at her.
"I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?" Lily said to them.
"Bit presumptive of you, Lils," Marlene chided her.
Emmeline snorted beside her, and Lily was glad she had worn her hair down so that her blush blended into it. She dared to glance at James to her left and thought she could see a faint pink on his cheeks as well. Lily pulled the key to their apartment out of her back pocket and threw it at Marlene as a retort. She was following James out the door when Marlene called out to her again.
"Remember Lily: before you tap it, cap it!"