Green Eyes

Remus/Lily

[References Build Me Up Buttercup]

Honey you should know

That I could never go on without you

Green eyes...

"Why did I have to fall for her?" Prongs moaned for about the hundredth time that day.

He was lying facedown across the bed - Moony's bed, not his own - with his feet dangling off the edge. Moony leaned against Padfoot's bed and looked down at his friend pityingly. "Prongs," he said. "There'll be other girls. . . ."

"Don't want other girls." Prongs rolled over onto his back. "Want this girl."

"Well, this girl has rejected you, quite literally, one hundred times," Moony said. "Prongs, mate, look at yourself. You're a mess." He knelt beside the bed and fixed Prongs' glasses, which had gone askew. "Repeat after me: I can live without her."

"I can live without her. But," Prongs added, "without her I'll be miserable."

Moony sighed. "Well, it's a start." He stood.

"Where're you going?"

"To talk to Lily."

"What?" Prongs sat up. "I want to come!"

Moony rolled his eyes. "You're pathetic. It's about our Transfiguration homework. We're going to practice a bit."

"I'm good at Transfiguration!"

"Yes, but if I bring you, she'll only be annoyed, and then you'll be back to pouting on my bed." He reached out to dust off his comforter. "You've put your dirty shoes all over my clean sheets!"

Prongs very deliberately planted both feet on the comforter. "Talk me up at your study session, will you?" he called as Moony stormed out.

"So I'm feeling confident in Switching Spells, but I'm really not sure about - Remus?"

Moony blinked. "Yes?"

Lily looked at him oddly. "Are you okay? You seem a bit off."

"I'm fine." And he was. He was just tired, that's all. Just staring into space.

(Not staring at Lily.)

"Okay. Well, about these - "

"Why do you hate James so much?"

Lily sighed. "So I guess the studying is over for today?"

Moony grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."

She closed her book and put her wand down on the desk. "James Potter is cruel," she said. "He's mean to my friends. He laughs at the misfortune of others. And of all the times he's asked me out, he's never - not once - mentioned anything about me other than what I look like."

"So if he said you had a nice personality, you would - ?"

"No, I most certainly would not." Lily sank into a chair. "Because I don't have a nice personality, Remus. 'Nice personality' is something you say to people you haven't spent much time with. I'm more than just that. And if he bothered to get to know me, instead of asking me to Hogsmeade twice a day because he likes my arse, then maybe he'd have even the slightest chance of me saying yes."

"It's your eyes," Moony said.

"What?"

"It's your eyes he likes. And with good reason. They're quite striking."

She waved away the compliment. "Eyes, arse, whatever. It's all shallow and superficial. And as I told him yesterday, when he can prove to me he's grown up, I'll gladly accompany him to Hogsmeade. Now, are we going to practice Transfiguration or not?"

Moony looked at her for a long moment. "I've known you three years, Lily," he said, "and of all the people in our year - save maybe for James - you're the best in Transfiguration."

She blushed slightly. "Thanks."

"You're ahead of me, even."

"Oh, Remus, that's not - "

"So I don't quite understand why you've asked me every night this week to help you practice."

Lily stopped talking.

"I'm beginning to think you keep turning down James because there's someone else."

Lily's face matched her hair. "There's no one else," she said, flipping open her book and burying her head in the pages.

"Isn't there?" He gently took the book away from her. "Lily. You don't need to be ashamed."

She wouldn't look at him. "It started in first year, I suppose," she whispered. "When you found me crying in the common room in the middle of the night. Do you remember?"

He nodded. "You were homesick."

"And you gave me chocolate. Said it starves off depression. And then you stayed up with me - all night - and it was the nicest - it was the sweetest - "

"To be fair, I am pretty sweet," Moony said with a wink, and she laughed.

"It's only a crush," she said. "It's not an obsession. I swear. I'm not James."

He pulled her into a one-armed hug. "Believe me, you're ten times better than James," he said, thinking of the muddy shoe prints on his bed. "But Lily, nothing can happen between us."

"Because of James?"

He shook his head. "Because I'm not right for you. It's not personal," he added quickly. "I'm not right for anyone. I may not seem it, but I'm broken, Lily."

She bit her lip. "I don't mind," she whispered.

He smiled slightly and shook his head. "Listen. I'll make you a deal. If you agree to take James to Hogsmeade - only once, and then if you hate it you never have to go again - I'll coach him beforehand. I'll tell him exactly how to act, exactly what to say. He won't mention your arse," he said with a wink. "Or your eyes."

She blinked the eyes in question. "What's in this for you?"

He shrugged. "I get to see you happy, maybe? I'll definitely get to see James happy." And maybe he'll finally stop moping about on my bed.

Lily sighed. "If it were anyone else asking, I'd say no."

He smiled and squeezed her a little closer. "You've already said no. A hundred times. Try a yes, for once."

(And years later, when the officiant asked, "Do you take James Potter," that was exactly what Lily said.)

[Disney Character Competition: Simba - write about Remus Lupin. Prompt: Eyes]

[Interpretation Competition: Miserable At Best, Mayday Parade. "I can live without you/but without you I'll be miserable at best"]

[Het-Pairings Book Camp: #005 - crush]