A/N: Just a oneshot I couldn't get rid of. Yes, I am still working on The Ideas of Marriage, but I thought I'd give you this first.
Wars can be distracting. This one certainly was.
Have I told you lately that I love you
Have I told you lately that there's no one else above you
Lily missed the number of times James said he loved her. Every day, every week, every month - a constant and all-consuming love. She missed when James said it with hope and wonderment and praise.
Lily mistrusts those words now, when they are hastily shouted before rushing into the heat of battle. Or screamed as the last words of the now deceased. She mistrusts the weight and severity and horrid nature that those words contain.
Lily hated that James didn't say those words as often anymore.
Fill my heat with gladness
Take away my sadness
Ease my troubles that's what you do
James loved Lily, he did and he wanted her to know every minute of every day. He thought of her as a guiding light, a fighting source during this war. He knew she was his and he was hers and every day he had with her, he couldn't be happier. Perhaps he could have been more vocal about this.
James knew that Lily removed or at least soften the blows the war, that he now faced on a daily basis, had awarded him. He wouldn't know what to do otherwise. He was aware of how depressed he would be if he didn't have Lily to keep him completely sane.
James was utterly in love and in debt to Lily and tried to convey this in any way possible.
There's a love that's divine
And it's yours and it's mine like the sun
At the end of the day
We should give thanks and pray
Suddenly, something shifts. Perhaps the death of one too many friends and colleagues. Maybe too many drinks. Whatever it was, James and Lily fought - a huge screaming match at home.
James saw that Lily couldn't always soften the blow and shouldn't be expected to. Lily realized that James didn't have to say I love you for it to be completely true.
There was tears and horse throats and a wonderful, angry, forgiving shag at the end of the night where those words were whispered like prayers.
James and Lily learned to not complain about the war or expect anything of the war but to live and just to live and be thankful to be alive. They learned that love is something not necessarily said but felt and it should be felt every day.
Have I told you lately that I love you
