As per usual, I wrote a jily valentines day fic. Rep will still get uploaded on time, I promise, this is just an extra fluffy surprise for you guys. I got this idea after thinking about throwing candied hearts to gators with my best friend off the back end of a boat in Florida. I felt bad for the gators, thinking back on it, and somehow this came out if it. Enjoy!

xxx

Petals

It was 7am and Lily Evans was minding her own business, eating her buttered toast. Being that it was February 14th, she was dutifully ignoring all the intolerable hearts and flowers everywhere. Even though Professor Kettleburn was running around in a set of red and pink robes, passing out valentines to anyone who even smiled, Lily wasn't feeling very festive. It wasn't because Lily hated Valentine's Day, per say, it was just that she didn't understand the point of having a holiday all about love when people like her felt cheated by love.

Sure, she'd never been in love to begin with but sometimes she liked to pretend she was, if only so that when she sang ABBA she could relate to the lyrics beyond the time Jared Smith broke her heart on the playground in daycare when she was five.

Unfortunately, the fact of the matter was that Lily had never been in love, not at all, and she was bitter of all the happy couples sitting around her. They were all snogging in broad daylight without a care in the world. For this reason, Lily kept her head down, trying not to think of the boy that she spent most of her days trying not to think of…but she did anyways…

She was on her second piece of toast when the first candied heart hit her square in the forehand. It plunked off her fringe and landed in the toast Lily was about to stuff into her mouth. She might've missed it, had it not woken her from a reverie of warm hands tangled up in her hair.

Perplexed, Lily looked around and saw no one out of the ordinary around her. She lowered the toast from her mouth and, using one hand, she plucked the pink candied heart from out of the buttery spread on her bread. It was small, the size of her pinky, but someone had still managed to stamp on a valentine in red food dye.

OWL ME?

Lily grunted and tossed the candied heart onto her plate wretchedly, assuming someone had sent it flying to the wrong person. She finished her toast in peace, thinking nothing of the candied heart or the fact that a boy benches down was staring at Lily while holding a candied heart box. Lily finished her breakfast, leaving the candied heart forgotten on her plate as she followed her mates out of the Great Hall.

The first class was Defense Against the Dark Arts and the Professor had surprised the class with a pop quiz. Lily settled into her seat and got to work on the three-parchment quiz, mumbling resentfully about how much she hated pop quizzes. Pop quizzes and Valentine's Day seemed like a sign from Merlin himself that Lily should've stayed in bed all day.

It was while listing the three signs of a werewolf that, unexpectedly, something hit her ear. Whatever it was, it tumbled through her hair quickly before hitting the floor. Lily brushed at her ear distractedly before glancing down to see a green heart sitting by her feet. Immediately, Lily's eyes shot up and she started examining the students near her, trying to find the culprit. Seeing no one of particular importance, Lily bent over her chair and picked the green candy up between her fingers, reading the message.

ME&YOU

Lily rolled her eyes and got up from her desk. Lily's mary-janes hit the wooden floor loudly as she took the candy heart to the bin and threw out away. A few students looked up from their quizzes from the noise of Lily's shoes against the hardwood. When she turned, she caught the hazel eyes of James Potter, trouble-maker extraordinaire. He was grinning at her, as if something entertained him, but that didn't shock Lily because James was perpetually amused by her. It was her biggest problem. He wouldn't throw candied hearts at her. Would he?

Lily looked away from him and went back to her seat, sighing loudly as she sat back down.

Being hit two times in one day by candied hearts was weird but when another candy hit Lily in Potions before falling into a vat of boiling liquid, she began to become skeptical. Despite mixing her potions, she let her eyes scan the classroom, looking for the culprit. She supposed it could be one of her friends, they certainly loved to tease Lily. Still, she was alarmed Marlene hadn't made a snarky comment yet, normally the blonde couldn't control her self-amusement.

Lily looked away from the classroom to stir her potion counter-clockwise when another candied heart fell magically from the ceiling and right into Lily's spoon when she lifted it from the potion. Frowning, Lily grabbed the heart before it could disintegrate.

UR SO HOT

Lily grimaced, "how articulate."

She turned around and looked for any signs of someone playing a prank. Directly behind her, James Potter was leaning against the side of his desk, twirling his wand through his fingers. He looked up nonchalantly when he sensed Lily's stare. Behind his glasses, his eyebrows lifted slightly, and Lily felt red splash across her cheeks.

She knew that stupid, clever look on his face, she'd seen that face too many times for it to be a coincidence. He always gave her that face before he snogged her against an old castle door or behind an old tapestry. She knew it was James in that moment, he'd defiantly been the one throwing candied hearts at her.

"Alright, Evans?"

Everything about James gave him away, from the sheepish grin to the cunning look on his stupid (handsome) face. Lily held up the yellow chalk-like candy in his direction. James looked at it and somehow, his grin grew. Lily's stomach flipped at the sight of his smile, but she repressed her urge to offer him a quick snog after class.

"Are you offering me a valentine?"

Lily chucked the heart at James, and he laughed, dodging it, "stop fucking around, Potter."

"Me?" he asked coyly, "Fucking around?"

"I know you're the one throwing candied hearts at me." Lily said with a frown.

James shrugged, "I don't have any."

"Liar."

"Pat me down," James stretched his arms out wide and he winked at her, "Go on, I don't mind."

Next to James, Sirius broke out into irrepressible laughter. Lily had half a mind of throwing her dead frog right into Sirius' face, but she knew Sirius would retaliate so she controlled her urge. James was snickering too, his eyes imploring her to walk over and spread her hands all over her body to find candied hearts on his person.

James really brought out her violent and erogenous side.

It was absolutely infuriating.

"Never mind." Lily muttered resentfully, "Keep your stupid hearts."

She turned away from James, determined to ignore him. It went really well for the rest of Potions but the moment she entered the hallway, talking to Marlene, another conversation heart hit her. This time the candy magically stuck to Lily's cheek and as she ripped it off, she frantically looked around for James, but he'd had the foresight to run away from the fury in her eyes.

"What's that?" Marlene asked.

As Lily flipped the candy over to read, she said, "Potter's been throwing these valentine hearts at me all. fucking. day."

BE MINE?

Marlene laughed as she took the candied heart from Lily and read the inscription, "That's hilarious."

"It's obnoxious." Lily disagreed, "if he really wants to snog me that badly tonight, he can ask without chucking these candies down my bra."

Marlene rolled her eyes as she ate the candy heart before saying, "you two have the oddest relationship."

"I know."

The truth was that Lily Evans could've had a valentine, easily, only James Potter wasn't really her boyfriend. He wasn't really her anything, to be completely honest.

They kissed last year after James won the Quidditch cup, it had been a one-time thing—or so Lily had thought. When they got back to Hogwarts, even after a summer of not seeing each other at all, James pulled Lily into a compartment on the train the minute he spotted her and kissed her until her hair was a mess and her hands were buried under his muggle shirt. They kept the rendezvous going, if only because they both were really into snogging each other, not because they actually fancied each other.

Still, everyone knew that Lily and James were on a strictly last-name basis in public. They'd get in major trouble if any of the Professors found out they'd been snogging on Head rounds and after curfew. None of the students knew about the affair, only Lily's best friends and James' mates. It was a part of the deal they'd made enough other: their relationship didn't extend beyond a few compulsory nights in the dark.

Lately though, some of their rendezvous had turned from kissing to talking and talking to laughing until dawn…she really liked when they were alone. James had a way of making everything seem like a game and he managed to get a smile on her face no matter what kind of day she had.

Of course, right now, Lily wanted to do nothing more than to strangle James. Especially when she got to Transfiguration and on her desk, in the shape of a heart, were more candies. These ones, he'd charmed to tell her a specific message just to get her blood boiling.

I'D SAY I'M SORRY BUT I'M NOT YOU'RE JUST SO PRETTY TODAY

"He'll be the death of me." she moaned out loud.

"Awh," Marlene cooed when she read it over Lily's shoulder, "How romantic."

Lily shot her friend a glare as Marlene popped the PRETTY heart into her mouth, "don't encourage his bizarre attempts at flirting."

"I don't even know why he's trying so hard." Marlene sat down and kicked her feet up onto her desk, "You'd snog him either way."

"I'm definitely not snogging him tonight."

"Yeah right." Marlene scoffed, "Keep lying to yourself Lily."

"Shut up." Lily stated as she fell into her seat and swiped all the candied hearts onto Marlene's desk, "Eat your heart out."

Marlene cheered hungrily and popped the rest of the hearts into her mouth, chewing contentedly. Lily placed her head in her arms and closed her eyes. She wished James wouldn't try, she didn't want him to think there was anything more to their relationship other than an occasional snog. She didn't want him to do anything cute on Valentine's day if they were just going to be friends with benefits the rest of their lives.

As far as Lily was concerned, she'd had enough of the candied hearts that promised her nothing beyond a snog after curfew. If James really wanted to give Lily candied hearts and really wanted to be hers…he should've been more serious. He shouldn't have pulled her into the compartment on the train and kissed her senseless. He shouldn't have suggested they keep meeting for late night snogs by the library. He shouldn't have expected her to just keep crawling over to him whenever he needed a decent snog.

James should've never thrown his heart at Lily the same way he was throwing the candied hearts, for fun.

Lily's clear frustration didn't stop James from throwing candied hearts at her whenever Professor McGonagall was writing on the board. One by one, different colored hearts were hitting her on the side of her neck. Some fell into her robes and she had to fish them out of her bra while Marlene snickered, absolutely loving Lily's predicament. Marlene had always said snogging James for free would eventually cost Lily, and she'd been right, because snogging him had cost Lily her sanity.

More and more hearts fell into Lily's lap during class and she was now wondering if his bag was just stuffed with conversation hearts.

BE TRUE.

SWEET PEA.

TRUE LOVE.

I'M A KEEPER.

XOXO.

SAY YES.

LOVE BIRD.

CLOUD NINE.

MELT MY HEART.

I WANT YOU

UR GORGEOUS

By the fifth KISS ME and sixth UR A CHARMER it was taking all Lily's willpower not to stand up in class and strangle James Fleamont Potter by his tie with a Professor in the room. Lily stuffed all the candied hearts into her bag, one by one, resentment only rising.

"Stupid, selfish, insensitive, prat." She muttered as she stuffed her books into her bag amongst the candies once the bell for class rang, "I should charm the candies to hit him in the head for a bloody while."

Thankful for the lunch hour, Lily stalked out of the class. She was Hell bent on giving James a piece of her mind. She caught his arm before he made it to the staircase, her fingers gripping his wrist and yanking him away from his friends before they could guard him from her wrath. James protested immediately as Lily dragged him up the crowds of students and into an empty classroom. She tossed him through the doorway, following him in, only to slam the door shut.

James' hand immediately shot to his corkscrew hair and he ruffled it, shame-facedly, "You look mad."

"Mad doesn't even begin to cover it." Lily said furiously, taking a step towards him.

For the first time in his life, James looked alarmed of being advanced upon by Lily, "You really didn't like the conversation hearts?"

"Whatever gave you that idea?" she asked mockingly, "finally caught on have you?"

"Well," he said, "Your death glare is pretty hard to miss."

Lily rolled her eyes and tossed her bag on the table next to her, shaking her fist up at him, "You can't just go around chucking valentine conversation hearts at someone!"

"I thought it was romantic!" James disputed, ears going red, "I was trying to be nice!"

"By throwing candy down my bra?"

James gave her a saucy smile, "I can get those for you."

Lily bent down to grab a handful of the candied hearts in her bag. She threw them at James in frustration, the little candies bouncing off his glasses and landing on the floor. When Lily took another step closer to him, her shoe heel squashed most of them. James looked less than charmed by the direction his afternoon was taking.

"Come on Evans," he pleaded, "I was just—"

"Being a prat."

"It wasn't so bad." He said, taking off his glasses to clean them on his sleeves before replacing them irritably, "I don't know why you got so annoyed."

"You made one stick to my cheek." Lily pointed to her face, "You pelted me with about fifty in the last class! I'm surprised McGonagall didn't see!"

"Technically that was Sirius," James defended himself quickly, throwing his best friend under the bus, "he was having a great time."

Lily pinched the bridge of her nose, "Why?" she asked, "Why did you feel the need to chuck candied hearts at me all day?"

James shrugged, "Well, we are seeing each other and I—"

"Seeing each other?" Lily managed a laugh and she shook her head, "James, we snog for fun. That's hardly Valentine's Day material."

James' skin got darker, "well maybe," he said, voice rising irritably, "I'm trying to imagine what it'd be like if we started acting like, I dunno, a real couple."

Lily, who had been glaring at the candied hearts under her feet, swung her head up so quickly that her neck actually cracked. James was serious and uncomfortable, a combination she rarely saw on his face. Slowly, warily, Lily crossed her arms across her chest.

"A real couple." She echoed.

He nodded, "you know, like a boyfriend and girlfriend kind of couple?"

A flutter of hope shot through Lily like a stunner.

"You want to be my boyfriend?"

"Obviously." James adjusted his glasses, "I thought the candy hearts gave that away."

"In case it escaped your notice," she replied satirically, "Normal boyfriends don't chuck conversation hearts at their girlfriend."

James clearly took offense to her retort and he frowned considerably, "Maybe I just wanted to get your bloody attention since you act like I don't exist during the day."

Just as hurt, Lily shot back, "Forgive me, for assuming you only wanted me around at night for a quick snog."

"You act like I'm the one who initiated this mess, but you kissed me first."

"Oh, so now kissing me is a mess?"

"Fucking Hell," James complained, tugging at the roots of the hair on the top of his head, "You drive me mad!"

"That's one thing we have in common."

Lily's mouth clamped shut and James crossed his arms, pouting. He sat on the edge of one of the desks, legs sprawled out in front of him. His curls fell in front of his eyes as he gazed purposely at a spot just next to Lily's right foot. He was staring at the conversation hearts she'd dropped, glaring at them as if everything was their fault.

Lily sat on the desk across from him and measured his scowl. He always looked the most handsome to her when he was smiling and because of their argument, his smile was nowhere to be found.

She wished they'd been a normal couple.

She wished he'd asked her out over the summer.

She wished they hadn't started something they couldn't stop.

James' voice cut through the silence, "I wanted to give you conversation hearts because I saw muggles trade them once when I was a boy." He finally looked at her, hazel eyes steady, "I didn't think you'd get mad about it. All we've done lately is kiss and then you make up some excuse to run away. I liked it better when you stayed and let me hold you, when we'd talk about things."

Lily's shoulders dropped at his confession and she stared at her feet pointedly as her face heated up. She had been leaving him high and dry after one of their nightly rendezvous. To be fair, it was because she was trying so hard not to catch feelings for him. Notably for her, James was very hard not to fall for.

"I was running," she grumbled tartly, "Because I thought all you wanted from me was a quick snog when you were bored on rounds."

There was no sign of comprehension from James, until suddenly he'd somehow stood up and crossed between the desks in one stride. His fingers lifted her chin and his thumb brushed at her lip affectionately. He leaned forward and pressed a chaste kiss to her cheek. Then he traced his nose across her cheek until he was blowing softly on her ear.

Every touch made her weak in the knees and, pathetically enough, she loved it.

"Lily," James kissed just below his earlobe, a curve on his lips as they pressed into her hot skin, "You were never a quick snog for me."

"Then why couldn't you just ask me out?" she moped as he brought his nose back to hers playfully, "Why stick to the secret meetings and the candied hearts?"

James pressed his forehead to hers, "you really have no idea how nervous you make me, do you?"

"Uh, no."

"Evans, I can never keep my head straight around you." His tenor voice was laden with amusement, "Every day I wake up wondering how I can get your pretty green eyes to look my way for even a second and then once they do, I don't know what to do with my hands…" he traced his fingers along her face, "…or with my mouth." His lips nipped at her nose carefully, "I forget how to speak." His knees knocked into hers, "and I just go with my first gut instinct."

"Your first gut instinct was to pelt me with candy?"

"No, to ask you to be my girlfriend."

Lily's fingers wrapped up in his robes, anticipating what was to come, "all you had to do was ask, I'd do anything for you if you'd just asked."

"That's what the candied hearts were, me asking."

"Your idea was sweet in theory, but the execution was…" she hesitated, a little smirk and a wink accompanying her review, "less than satisfactory."

"I guess being pelted by candy isn't very affectionate." He mused, "But I thought you'd laugh when you saw them...not threaten my life."

Lily patted his cheek, teasing, "I wanted to strangle you. I almost did."

"I should've known it was a poor idea when Sirius bizarrely encouraged me." James sighed drearily, "At first I thought you were play fighting with me and then I saw the look on your face and knew I was dead."

Lily laughed at that, "you mean that wasn't a part of your original plan to woo me? By pelting me with candied hearts?"

"I was just going to place them on each desk you sat down at," James said as he inched closer, sliding one of his hands behind her, "but then I thought that was a little boring and Sirius agreed with me."

"Of course, he did."

When James shifted closer, he stepped on a few more candied hearts that littered the floor from Lily's attack. Lily glanced down at the different colored hearts that littered the floor and she smiled even wider. They were charming, now that she was no longer being assaulted by them.

Lily reached up to run a hand through his hair fondly, "I can't believe you went out and bought candied hearts to try and woo me."

"Did it work?"

"Mayb—"

Lily was no longer focused on the candied hearts, instead she was attentive to the way James' lips were indulgently consuming her conclusive words. She kissed him back readily, scooting to the edge of her desk so she that could wrap her legs around his body to wrench him closer. Lily's mouth opened avidly in response to his lips as both of James' hands became tangled in her hair so he could expertly guide her along the chase of teeth and tongue.

He knew how to build her up, how to set every inch of her body on fire. Now, with nothing between them but reciprocal tenderness and delight, the kissing turned languid. Slow, relaxed and mind numbing was their game now. Lips pressed away any remaining doubts and hands traced the lines of keen figures under robes. She did not know how long they kissed before one of them spoke, all Lily knew is that she was so wrapped up in James…she never wanted to leave the room.

James begged impishly as he planted hot kisses against her neck, "Be mine, Valentine?"

"As long as you promise to never throw candied hearts at me again," Her palms traced his shoulders as she leaned into his touch and her fingernails dug in when he nipped at her skin.

"I won't." he declared as she hitched herself up off the desk to create a more agreeable friction between them, "I swear to Merlin, I won't ever throw any damned hearts at you again."

Lily pulled back from James and he tried to lean forward to follow her. The result was both of them half-laying on the desk Lily was trying to stay on. For a moment, they both just grinned stupidly at each other, too caught up in the exhilarating rush that comes with young love. Finally, Lily pointed to the middle of his chest, drumming him lightheartedly as he nestled closer to her on the desk.

"That's the only heart I want." She told him warmly.

"It's yours."

Lily beamed at James, feeling as if he'd given her the world because in a way, he did. She wasn't in love, at least she couldn't admit it yet. Still, the moment he gave her his heart, he'd had hers in his grasp forevermore.

They snogged until their lips were swollen, Lily's robes were bunched high up on her hips, and James' curly hair was sufficiently hand-swept. James kept his promise, he didn't throw anymore candied hearts at Lily. Unfortunately, for the both of them, James' promise meant nothing to Sirius, who spent the remainder of Valentine's Day charming the remaining candied hearts to dive-bomb the happy couple whenever they were being nauseatingly affectionate with each other.

I hope you liked it! Happy Valentines Day! You know where to reach me if you liked it!

xxx

Petals