A/N: Welcome to another installment of 'This is not what I should be writing but I wrote it anyways', a book by me.

But, you know what, it's a friend's birthday. And she's pretty cool. And she really wanted me to write her Jily fluff, and I may or may not really like it. So it's going to be published and that's how it's going to be.

So, Skylar, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope you like, fluff isn't really my thing (I honestly get too feely to write it like it's a problem), but I actually hardcore tried, just for you. I hope your day is amazing, and Don't Forget To Be Awesome!

Enjoy! ~xoDA

Tuck Me In Tightly

The first thing Lily thought when she spotted James in the common room, who was fast asleep with his tie around his forehead, shirt buttoned completely wrong, and shoe on his hand, was that he simply drank too much firewhiskey. She had seen Sirius bring in a case, but saw no bottles lying around this early morning. If she was going to credit them on anything, it would be on how well they hide their tracks.

There were no other 7th year boys sleeping in odd spots around the room, and that's when she started to wonder. Remus always dragged the poor kid to bed after he'd wasted away after a Quidditch victory, or failed exam, so why not this time? Why was he still asleep here, instead of the comfort of his four-poster?

As much as the curiosity was killing her, she would not ask him. No, he was sleeping, she was going to leave him be, as always, and go down to breakfast. She was already late, since she slept in and was thus the last one to use the shower, which was cold, and be left behind. She had no time for James Potter's antics, asleep or awake, and so she quietly crept past the couch, hoping not to wake him not because it'd be disturbing his sleep, but because she didn't want him to see her. You'd be surprised at the amount of care she took to avoid him these days. Which really must be a compliment to the amount of care he took to finding her.

Lily stepped out of the common room, sighing as the portrait closed behind her with some relief, and headed down the first flight of stairs, saying hello to several portraits, as she usually did, on her way.

"Hey! Wait, Lily!"

No. Oh no. She'd been so quiet, how had he heard her? What did he want now? 'Probably nothing new...' she thought bitterly, walking at a more brisk pace now that he was clamoring down the steps behind her, determined to catch up.

"Mind if I walk with you?" James came to a stop just in front of her on the fifth floor landing. He had a goofy grin on his face, but his shirt had been re-buttoned, and his shoes placed on his feet. But the tie was still around his head, and his hair was in a worse state of disarray than normal.

And even if she said yes, she did mind, he would ignore it. She learned that James really only asked out of courtesy, if that, not because he wanted an answer. She sighed and kept walking, to which he followed next to her, trying not to smirk. "Your tie goes around your neck, you know..." she pointed out, looking at the steps as they walked as opposed to her classmate.

"What? Oh, right, yea..." He reached a hand to his head, like he hadn't noticed the fabric hanging by his left eye, and tugged it off, running a hand through his hair as he did so. ...She'd never admit it, to anyone, ever, not even a diary, but she constantly wondered if his hair was as soft as it looked. "Where were you last night? I looked for ages after the match, but Mary said something about you'd gone to bed. 'At that time of night? 'Course not, it's much too early', I told her, but she seemed adamant—"

"No, I really went to bed. I was tired."

"From what? Exciting day?"

"No, I just... didn't sleep well the night before."

"Why?"

"I dunno, stressed I guess."

"About what? Can I help?"

"James!" She stamped her foot and stopped walking again, crossing her arms and giving him a glare. "It doesn't matter, stop asking so many questions."

"But I'm curious!" He pouted, and she rolled her eyes.

"Fascinating, but I'm not detailing why I couldn't sleep to you, you don't care—"

"I always care, when it comes to you, Lils."

Lils. What a stupid nickname... Though in all honesty she preferred it to 'Lilyflower'. But what s tupid nickname from such a stupid boy, right? She sighed and continued walking, and this time James stayed quiet for longer than four seconds.

"...Sorry." He mumbled, tugging at his tie like he was nervous. He did that every time he asked her out, and so she braced herself yet again, rehearsing her 'no' in her mind. But he didn't say more. He shook his head and stuffed his hands in his pockets as they walked onto the final flight of stairs to the ground floor.

When he wasn't going on and on, she thought that it was sort of nice, walking with him. Walking with anyone, really. Not that she didn't love her mates in the girls' dorm, but she wasn't as keen on gossip as they were, and tended to just walk silently next to them, muttering a 'uh-huh' or a 'no way' every once in a while.

They entered the Great Hall and perhaps Lily should've seen it coming. She never went anywhere within five feet of James Potter if she didn't have to, let alone with him to breakfast, and if she did, she always had this look on her face like she ate something vile. So when the two of them walked to the Gryffindor table looking calm, for Lily, and joyous, for James, Remus raised his eyebrows.

Sirius was always the one to jump in and comment on everything, always saying James would either a) get her one day, or b) never have a snowballs chance in hell. It varied. Remus on the other hand never quite believed James would stoop the gentlemanly level he needed to be on to win over Lily, and was thus surprised when she didn't seem horrified to be standing next to him.

"Alright, finally! Took you 7 years, mate, you'd think Evans would never lighten up!" Sirius beamed, clapping his hands together as James took a seat across from him and a plate of sausage.

The comment made Lily scowl and turn away, walking a few feet down to her own mates without another word.

Both James and Remus sighed at the same time, though James sounded annoyed and looked at Sirius pointedly, while Remus simply went back to his paper. "And so it goes..."

{[-]}

A week later, Lily had the strangest sense of déjà vu when James was, once again, asleep on the common room couch. This time, Sirius was on the couch too, feet in one another's faces, arms splayed, a bottle in Sirius' loose grip. Remus was in the armchair next to it, reading, when Lily came back into the common room that night.

Remus looked up over his book at her. "You don't usually stay out so late, Ms. Evans, what were you up to?"

Lily cracked a smile and, with a gingerly look at James, stood next to the fireplace. "Reading. Avoiding... erm, all this."

"And how did you know about 'all this'? No Quidditch match, simply two... ahem, idiots, celebrating themselves."

"Peter told me, as he was coming back from the kitchens with a plate full of whatever seemed to be available. He asked me if I was coming, and I promptly told him 'no'."

"Hm, shame, James seemed concerned, you should tell him tomorrow where—"

"You can tell him, if he asks, I will be hiding away as best I can."

She turned to take her leave up the dormitory steps, when Sirius stirred, shifting and kicking James in the head. The latter boy groaned and sat up, stretched, rubbed his head, then promptly fell onto the floor, his legs still tangled on the bed. Lily stifled a laugh and gave Remus a look as if to say 'these are your friends?' He shook his head. "You don't judge me, I won't judge you."

"Judge me for what? My mates don't go drinking themselves to death when they're bored." She put her hands on her hips, stopping at the bottom of the stairs.

"Nothing Lily, it doesn't matter..." Remus returned to his book, but he could hear Lily huff, returning to her spot by the fireplace. This time, she sat down, crossing her legs like a child ready for story time.

"Oh, but it does. What would you judge me for, Remus? What has poor Lily Evans done to you?" she batted her eyes and folded her hands in front of her.

With a glance at the boys, he stood. "Alright, alright..." she grinned, she loved to win these sort of things, and Remus always caved easy. "Sirius, let's go."

What?

Sirius' eyes sprang open with a sigh. "Finally, this couch isn't very comfortable..." He sat up and stretched, then carefully detangled himself from James as he went to stand. With a hand in his hair he grinned at Lily, making her reel back in her spot on the ground. Why was he looking at her like that? It was one of those 'I know something you don't know' smiles. "You kids have fun now. But, not too much fun, we don't want any scandals—"

"That's enough, come on." Remus grabbed the boys arm and dragged him up the stairs to the boys' dorm, leaving a very confused Lily with a very asleep James.

When the door to the dorm clicked shut, James rolled off the couch, his legs hitting the ground with a small thud as he sat upright and leaned against the back of the couch, grinning at Lily, who looked like a deer in the headlights.

"Remus! What on Earth—"

"Hey, sh sh, you'll wake the others now, they're sleepin'. That'd be rude, Lils."

"What did you have them do?!" she shouted in a whisper at him.

"I just asked them for some time with you, that's all, nothing special. C'mon Lily, you're not mad."

"I'm not mad! I'm... I'm going to bed, is what I'm doing." She stood up decidedly and made for the stairs, but James was faster. She blamed his Quidditch instincts when he stood up to block her path, putting his hands on her shoulders. She attempted to go around him, both ways, but he mirrored her movements. "James, get out of the way, please? I'm tired, I just want to sleep..." she pouted, looking him in the eye with a signature puppy-dog look.

James pursed his lips, and it looked like he might break into a sweat. "No, nope, we're talking, sit down, it's not going to work." He closed his eyes and shook his head.

She leaned her head back and groaned inwardly. Then she sighed, steeled herself, and put her hands on his cheeks, forcing his eyes to open with a surprised look to them, putting her own face mere inches from his own. Now James looked like he might have a stroke.

"I'm really tired, and I'd really like to go to bed. So can I pretty please with whipped cream go to my beautiful four-poster?" Lily told him, biting her lip and even managing a smile at the end just to seal the deal. At first she felt a little bad, but after all these years of him pestering her, she had to learn some way out of all his schemes. Lip biting was really what did it.

James blinked out of his trance-like state. "I, uh...You're eyes are so green... Wow..."

This kid was hopeless. Hopeless romantic, some may say, but Lily just went with hopeless. ...Though he sort of looked like a little kid, in this moment, and it was... sort of cute... 'No, nope, you swore this wouldn't happen, Lily Evans, stay off', she told herself, forcing her eyes back to James' as he cleared his throat.

"Uh, yea, sure, uh..." He shook his head, and stood up straight, putting a hand to his hair and running through it wildly, his cheeks flushed. "Of course, Lily...um..." He stepped aside and her smile grew; success.

She made a grand display of bowing at him. "Thank you, James." She said, laughing to herself as she walked to the stairs triumphantly.

As she reached the first step though, she heard him shuffling, quickly making his way back to her. "Wait, Lily?"

'Ugh, I was this close...' she thought to herself.

But as she turned back to him, he was standing as close to her as she had been a few moments ago, which startled her, but she had nowhere to back up to as he put his own hands on her cheeks and pulled her face close. He hesitated a moment, and her heart pounded against her rib cage. It was the same situation she'd put him in, but in reverse she now understood his look of minor panic; eyes wide, mouth slightly open, not knowing what to do with her hands.'What on Earth is he doing n—"

That's when he kissed her.

She short-circuited, her mind going blank as his lips lingered on hers for a few moments, before he pulled away completely, letting go of her face, taking a step back, and scratching the back of his neck, and instead of looking victorious, he looked rather sheepish.

"Uh, goodnight... Lily..."