The Demerits of Having Best Friends
Sirius Black knew James Potter from the inside out, from the surface in, from wherever you wanted to start to wherever you wanted to end. He knew all his darkest secrets and all his pet peeves. He knew all his loves and all his hates. He knew what he was planning before he did. But most of all, he knew how to interpret his best friend's behavior.
So when James stumbled through the portrait hole with a glazed-over look on his face, Sirius knew immediately that he had been doing Merlin-knows-what with one Miss Lily Evans. Figuratively speaking, of course. James had a terrible case of the shys about telling Lily how he felt.
"Now what did you do to the poor girl?" called out Sirius, a smirk making its way across his face. "Well? What did you do?" For the aforementioned Lily Evans was not in the room, and the aforementioned Lily Evans was the only one who was not aware that James Potter was head over heels for her.
"I kissed her…" trailed off James. He held up three fingers. "Three times. Ugh…" The lanky Chaser collapsed onto the nearest couch, holding a hand to his head.
"Ooh, did she beat you senseless?" Sirius asked, leaning forward in his seat.
"No… but I have a suspicion she's about to."
All eyes turned towards the portrait hole with these words. Nothing happened.
"I mean, after she decides what hexes to use," explained James. There was a resounding "aah!" and everyone relaxed.
"Maybe," Sirius said wisely, "she likes you just as much as you like her."
"My arse," muttered James.
"Well, you never know."
For not only did Sirius know how James felt about Lily, Sirius also knew how Lily felt about James…
Which was why he had started thinking up names for their future children two years ago.
Annabelle was his favorite so far.
*
Lily wasn't really sure how long she had been sitting there, but she did know that James' kisses still burnt like fire on her lips, even though it had to have been at least an hour. The skin he had touched tingled hotly, and her entire body felt like a passion-filled inferno.
Within reason, of course. It had only been a few kisses…
…Which had felt like wholeness to Lily, but she wasn't sure what wholeness was, anyway.
But even with all her confusion and tingling and kiss-induced fire, she really had been thinking about how this changed the relationship between her and James. How accepting this would mean a whole new step with him she might not be willing to take. How a breakup would complicate their friendship so entirely that she might not ever be able to look him in the eye again. How he would probably find a new girl in a week and dump her for a leggy blonde with a bust that compensated for whatever she was lacking in the brain department.
But most of all, how utterly helpless she felt when he was around. Even before that had happened. Even before she had even suspected that she liked him. There was something he gave to her that made her stronger, and da Vinci would have been proven right—two weaks put together make one strong.
Oh yeah, and he was really good at kissing.
With all those consequences and benefits in mind, Lily rose and entered the portrait hole.
*
"James Potter, I want to talk to you," Lily announced as she entered the common room. The room fell eerily silent. "I said James, not all of you," snapped Lily. They shrugged and pretended they had been talking the whole time. Lily glanced around for her rather… conspicuous best friend. "James?"
"Ugh, Lily, do we really have to talk now?" a voice moaned from a couch in the corner. "I'm not up for heartbreak right this minute, actually."
Lily raised her eyebrows and stalked over to the loveseat where James was sprawled, face-down, in apparent agony.
"Yes, we have to talk now," she informed him, voice annoyed. "Right this minute."
"But Lily," whined James, still face-down, "I really think that it would be best if we saved the 'kill James' heart with a rock like a savage' routine for later."
"Well, we're not. So sit up right this minute and look me in the eye."
James obeyed. Everyone obeyed when Lily used that tone of voice.
"Oh, fuck you, James, you've been crying!" Lily plopped down next to him and slid her hands to his temples, holding his head and making him look at her. "Ooh. You look sick, sweetie."
"It's called heartsickness," James informed her testily, "and I don't suppose you've ever experienced it."
"You'd be surprised," replied Lily, her tone level. "Look, let's talk."
"Ugggh." James flopped back onto the couch like a dead fish. Lily's eyes rolled.
"James, sit up," she said impatiently. "I need to tell you something."
James sat up, but he didn't say anything, instead sliding his hands under her chin, making her meet his gaze this time around.
"No," he told her, "I need to tell you something. I have snogged more girls than I can count, and I have stuck my tongue down the throats of more girls than I can count, and I have groped more girls than I can count, but I am sixteen goddamn years old and I have never kissed anyone the way I just kissed you out there." He gestured to the portrait hole briefly, then slid his hand back under her chin. "I have thought girls were pretty before, and I have been attracted to girls before, and I have liked girls before, but I have never fallen in love with anyone the way I have fallen in love with you. Now, listen to me. I have been there through thick and thin for you, since we met six years ago, and I will be there through thick and thin for you until I die, and if touching you happens to make me feel infinitely better than snogging those girls did, and if talking to you happens to make me lose all notion of who I am, and if seeing you happens to make me forget to breathe, then so be it, but I will never, ever let you down. I will never stop being your best friend, whether I'm less than that or more or just in between. I will never stop caring about you, and I will never stop loving you, regardless of whether you love me back or not. I can always be second-best, if that's the way you want it, and I will fully accept that, but you'll always be first-best to me. I don't know what else to say to you… I'm just saying what's on my mind now, since I've made two big speeches today, you know, to you, about you… and, well, the fact that I'm just saying whatever's on my mind, well, that might not be such a good thing at all, considering… um… oh… well, did you know that your eyes are really, really green right now?"
That was about when Lily kissed him with such force that he fell back onto the couch for the third time that hour. This time, however, James didn't really seem to mind so much.
"You prat," Lily told him, pulling away just a few inches, "I was going to say yes anyway, and then you had to go be all sweet and romantic and… well, don't you ever just get so sick of me?"
"Nope… not really," said James, and pulled her back down.
"Ah… true love," sighed Sirius, from the other corner of the room. "Hey, you two… how d'ya feel about Annabelle for a girl?"
*
Gah. Mush. Mush mush mush mush mush. 'Course, I don't see what's so wrong with that. This is my plotless endeavor of the week, you guys! C'mon! Give a girl some optimism!
On a slightly saner note (*cough*, *cough*), this is indeed the second in its trilogy:
1) "The Merits of Failing Transfiguration"
2) "The Demerits of Having Best Friends"
3) …an untitled piece, completely plotless and pointless, taking place a fortnight later.
Well, that's all, folks. It'd be really nice if you reviewed… Oh, and can you do me a favor? Check out "Just Me," by, well, me. It's L/J, and I'm very proud of it, and I'm working on a sequel of sorts, from James' lovestruck point of view (Can you tell I really like having James ramble on to Lily about how much he loves her? I think Rambling!James is just so sweet.), for those interested. The sequel's called "Exactly That"… in case you wanted to know. Which you didn't, but deal. Oh, and if you read "Just Me"? PLEASE review. I really want feedback on that story.
Laters!
--Ivy