A/N: Thanks to mew-tsubaki for betareading this!
Brighter
"What shall I get you, Lil?" Lysander asked after hanging his jacket on the chair. Lily glanced down at the menu that was placed on the little table with the red plaid tablecloth.
"Ehm…," she began while sitting down. "A coffee, and… We can have ice cream?" She looked up, with a grin.
"They have ice cream?" Lysander bent down to look at the menu. When he found the line where it said so, his eyes lit up. "I want to have that, at least!"
"Well, me too," Lily said, and she pushed a red lock of hair behind her ear. "Get me two scoops, chocolate, and… ehm…" She pulled the menu back to her and traced a finger down the list. "Vanilla."
"Oh, aren't you boring," Lysander smiled, still standing bent over the table. He leaned forward and pecked her on the cheek.
"I'm not boring!" Lily huffed. Lysander laughed and walked into the café. Lily looked at his back, and a flood of happiness came over her. There wasn't a trouble in the world, the sun was shining, they were in France, and "they" included her fantastic boyfriend, Lys. Everything was so bright, living, colourful. The street were the café's tables stood was filled with people: friends heading to the small vintage shops a little further down, kids and their parents coming from the port which this street had as a destination where they had been watching the boats, couples strolling by, holding hands and laughing.
Lily smiled when she saw one of the younger couples, probably around the same age as her and Lys, walking to the fountain at the end of the street. The man said to the woman to pose and then he snapped several photos. Then she asked to see them, and when they both stood leaning on the low edge of the fountain the man suddenly pushed his hand into the water and started splashing her. Her scream of indulgence was so filled with laughter that a lot of the people passing by smiled at them. Soon they were both soaking wet, and the woman pouted at the man, who pushed some dripping ringlets out of her face and kissed her. Lily thought they were the most adorable couple ever, when she noticed an old man and woman watching the same scene as her. They were sitting on one of the benches that surrounded the fountain in the shadow of a big tree. The man chuckled and put an arm around the woman. She leaned her head on his chest and he stroked her hair softly. Lily decided quickly that these two were ten times cuter than the younger couple.
"Here you go," Lysander said, walking very carefully between the chairs. He held a tray in his hands and was focusing very hard so he wouldn't lose his balance. He sat down and handed Lily her ice cream and a cup of coffee.
"What did you choose?" Lily asked and continued with a mischievous grin, "Don't answer - I'll see for myself." She took a spoon of his bright orange ice cream with pink and yellow streaks.
Lysander laughed. "Oh, so you regret choosing plain old chocolate and vanilla now?"
Lily held the ice cream in her mouth with a little frown before she swallowed it and said: "Nah, that was quite nasty actually. You're sure you like this?"
"Yup," Lysander said and took a huge spoon of the colourful ice cream. He then licked himself around his mouth. "Mango, orange, strawberry, and tutti-frutti sweets!"
Lily rolled her eyes. "No wonder it was sweeter than sugar then…"
"That's what makes it so delicious!" Lysander exclaimed with a wide grin. Lily shook her head and took a spoonful of her own ice cream. "But this," she said with a wave of her spoon, "this is classy."
"Just because you're all grown up," Lys pouted. "I'm trying to remain a child here, and you complain about it."
Lily laughed. "Not at all, that is very good, my little baby!" She patted him on his head, which, even if they were sitting down, was quite hard for her to reach due to his extreme length and her shortness. "But, I do think it is me who should be the kid and you the grown-up."
"Just trying to be on your level, that's all," Lysander shrugged. "I'm doing well, right?" he added teasingly.
"You know there's only a year between us?" Lily asked casually.
"But you're still in school," Lysander explained, putting emphasis on "you're" by pointing his spoon at her. "You're not even of age, my dear," he smirked.
"That doesn't change the fact that it's only a year, my love." Lily smirked even more. "Not to forget that you are eating kid's ice cream while I'm not!"
Lysander smiled and bit his lip, thinking really hard. Lily loved the way he narrowed his grey eyes, how you could literally see his brain working.
"All right then," he said, leaning back in his chair. "You can be older than me. I'll be your boy toy, fine?" He grinned.
Lily burst out laughing. "You mean I'm a cougar?" She asked, twirling one of her locks around a finger with an innocent look.
"Well, it looks like it, doesn't it?" Lysander answered just as innocently. He pointed at her side of the table. "Black coffee, cigarettes, chocolate and vanilla ice cream." Then he turned his finger downwards to his own side. "Soda, mango-orange-strawberry-tutti-frutti ice cream, and a bag of lollipops!"
"You know, you're just as addicted to your lollipops as I am to my cigs, which means they are as dangerous," Lily said with a smile.
Lysander ruffled his dirty blonde hair and shrugged. "Maybe, but it looks much more innocently being a lollipop junkie than a nicotine junkie."
Lily laughed. "Damn, you're right!" she gasped dramatically and put a hand over her mouth.
"'Course I am! You know what? Even your language is proof of you corrupting such a nice, young, sweet boy as me."
"My language? What the hell are you talking about?" Lily asked mockingly and added "Son?" in a voice attempting to be authoritative.
Lysander leaned over to her and looked deeply in her eyes. "You know it's quite a turn off calling your boy toy 'son'?"
Lily leaned closer to him, so their foreheads almost touched. "Sure, I'll just call you something else, then," Lily said in a low voice and batted her eyelashes. "How about… Lyssieswe-"
Lysander interrupted with a groan and put his head in his hands. "Don't even say it!"
Lily laughed and continued: "Lyssiesweetiecutiesandie. What's wrong with that, Lyssiesandie?" she asked with mock confusion.
Lysander was about to burst out laughing. "Nothing at all." They looked at each other for a while, and soon laughed so hard Lily was almost gasping for air and Lysander was clutching his stomach. It was the memory of James, Lily's brother, having drunk a little bit too much firewhiskey at her cousins Fred's and Molly's graduating party four years ago that had them cracking up.
James had been jumping around all night, first hugging Fred and Molly so hard that it was with difficulty they both had patted him on his shoulder awkwardly. His eyes had been tearful and he had cried out: "Oh, guys, I'll miss you so much at Hogwarts next year, I can't believe you are going to leave me!"
The next moment James had been found ushering their cousin Rose and her (now former) boyfriend Scorpius to the dance floor – wobbling just a bit. "You have to dance, now, now, now!" Scorpius had tried to convince him of his being a "crappy dancer," but James, being both stronger and having Rose on his side, had made Scorpius give in.
After a while James had turned away from them (he had been watching them proudly for several minutes) and spotted Lysander. James had skipped over to him and smiled almost manically.
"Lyssiesweetiecutiesandie!" He had pulled Lysander off his chair without trouble; Lysander had only been thirteen back then while James had been sixteen and it wasn't until Lysander's fifth year he had grown taller than James. Lysander had blushed a flaming red when he had heard the nickname James had come up with. "Hey, James," he had answered with an uncertain smile.
"Sandie, will you pretty please dance with me?" James had asked, trying to make puppy-dog eyes – but this lead him to screw up his eyes and become so dizzy that he had to use a chair to not fall.
"Ehm…," Lysander had said, looking at Lily, his twin Lorcan and Lily's cousin Hugo who sat next to him, all laughing. "Sure," he had decided. James had been really close to him, even though they weren't related. And, he had guessed James had been feeling lonely since his girlfriend Sophie Nott hadn't been there.
"Yay!" James had lit up, and they had started dancing some sort of jitterbug, which was more like jumping and spinning around because of James being hyper.
After the dance James had fallen asleep on a sofa and hadn't moved until the next morning. But the nickname of Lysander had been stored closely in everyone's memories (despite Lysander's desperate attempts to remove it from there) and was used every now and then in the following years. James hadn't –obviously- remembered using it but has just as quickly adopted it and became very proud of himself. "Even when I'm sloshed my mind comes up with the greatest of ideas!" They had all vowed never to forget it – and they hadn't.
"You'll call me that when I'm eighty, right?" Lysander asked, wiping away the tears that had erupted from laughing so long.
"Sure will." Lily leaned over and kissed Lysander softly. "My dear boy toy Lyssie."
He laughed and then they resumed eating their ice cream. It was late in the afternoon, but the sun still shone sharply and their ice cream had begun to melt a bit by now.
After a few minutes in comfortable silence Lily had finished her ice cream, so she took a sip of her coffee, which was now the perfect temperature.
"So, did you and Lorcan decide anything yesterday?" she asked, referring to the fact that her boyfriend and his twin were planning a trip to celebrate that they were done with school.
Lysander averted his eyes from hers. "Nah, not really."
"You haven't?" Lily asked, confused. They had said they had to decide yesterday, or they wouldn't have enough time to fix everything before leaving.
"No", Lysander said, keeping his eyes focused on the table.
"Lys, what's wrong?" Lily asked, perhaps a tiny bit irritated. "What's going on with you and Lorcan?"
"Nothing," Lysander answered lightly.
"As if I should believe that, yeah." Lily frowned. She really had no idea what was going on with Lysander. Yesterday she had been at his place, together with Lorcan, and everything had been perfectly normal between them.
"Yes, you should, Lily," Lysander said coldly. Lily felt anger swelling up in her.
"So I'm not allowed to question your behavior at all? Am I just going to sit here like some sort of puppet, obeying everything you say?" She knew she had a short temper, but this moment he did deserve it. She was not to be told what she should do.
"I didn't say that, I only said you should believe me," Lysander said with raised voice.
"Well, I'm not going to believe you when you aren't telling the truth, Lysander." She rose from the chair and took her things. "I do know you well enough to notice that." She turned away from the table and began walking down the street. All the people that she had watched earlier now made her irritated. She had thought of the place and people as bright and colourful – and so it was, but now it was too much. It was almost hurting her eyes, the way everyone shone: the couple who still was by the fountain, now sitting on the ground leaning against it, and the old couple on the bench.
So Lily put her sunglasses on – since the light had made her eyes tear up. Well, maybe it was her damn boyfriend's behavior which had caused her eyes to water, she admitted, and she looked back at the café. Lysander hadn't moved she realized with a pang in her chest. He wouldn't go after her; he wasn't about to fix this. But she wasn't either.
Lily continued walking, determined, stubborn, and with her head held high. She had done nothing wrong, so it was him and him only who should mend things between them.
When she came to the port she sat down with her legs dangling from the bridge, seeing their reflection in the dirty water. She lit a cigarette and sighed. It wasn't even a fight they had had, because they had been in fights before and those had been a lot fiercer and a lot more violent. Now it had only been her walking away, which she never had done before.
Never before. That struck her like lightning. What if he thought it was more serious this time? That this meant more than she had intended? That she had left him?
Lily rose quickly; she had to get back to him right now. They could - should - solve this. They had to. When she left the wood bridge and returned to the cobblestones of the street, she dropped her finished cigarette and put it out. Then she started running. It wasn't far to the café, but what if he wasn't there anymore? What if he had left and walked up the street instead of down it?
While increasing her speed, Lily tried at the same time to carefully look at the crowds of people she passed, but she didn't notice Lysander anywhere. Suddenly she was at the café again – and he wasn't there anymore. Lily swore. What had she done?
She saw that the bench which had been occupied earlier by the old woman and man now was free, so she started walking there. She wanted to sit down, think, and remove her high heeled shoes which had made her feet ache terribly after the run.
When she was by the fountain she felt a hand on her shoulder. She swirled around and saw Lysander, in his purple-T-shirt-green-shorts-glory, with his hair tousled, and an honestly ashamed look in his eyes.
"Lil, I'm so sor-" he started to say but was interrupted by Lily throwing her arms around him and silencing him rather successfully with a long kiss. Well, he did help achieve that kiss, because Lily would never have reached his lips if he hadn't bent down a bit.
When they broke free, Lily started laughing.
"What?" Lysander asked, his eyes shining with happiness.
"Why do we have to be so cliché? You know, fight, then kiss and makeup?" Lily smiled.
Lysander laughed, too. "Because we like it. No, but seriously, we have to make up, too."
"Another kiss?" Lily asked sweetly.
Lysander smiled back at her. "Yeah, but I first have to say this. I'm so sorry, Lily." He looked serenely at her. "It was as you said, you were right. I argued with Lorc yesterday, so I was really frustrated about it. I'm so, so, so sorry I took it out on you, you didn't deserve that." He bit his lip. "Please forgive me?"
"Of course I do, my Sandiesweetie," Lily said with a grin. She had forgiven him as soon as she had left him, she realized. "Let's get to the fun part in kiss-and-make-up now," she said and kissed him once more.
And then they walked down the street, hand-in-hand, one of them barefoot, and there was nothing shining too brightly anymore.