Disclaimer: I own nothing.
I know, it's short (again) and it took months (again), but I hope you enjoy anyway!
"Lily you know you're actually going to have to get on the broom in order to learn to fly, right?" James said after forty seconds of watching Lily stand there staring at her broom.
"What? Oh yeah, I know... I just... can't" Lily said, blushing."What do you mean you can't? Of course you can!" James said in a half confused half exasperated voice.
"Well I know I can... But I can't!" Lily responded starting to get angry after hearing the exasperation in James' voice.
"Lily you're being completely illogical. It's just a broom- it doesn't bite," James reasoned, trying to use humor to placate her. Unfortunately for him, Lily had never really learned to respond to humor when she was stressed.
"I know it doesn't bite James! I'm not an idiot!" Lily snapped at him. "But, what if I fall off?" she asked, her voice growing smaller and more timid with every word.
"Lils, I won't let you fall off. I promise." James answered, using the same reassuring voice he used with Remus when his werewolf friend started doubting his self worth.
"How are you going to stop me? You'll be on another broom! And I don't care what you say; you will not be able to fly fast enough to stop me from falling straight onto the ground and going splat!" Lily said hysterically as images of her falling and 'splatting' ran through her mind.
"Well then how about this: we'll go on the same broom— I won't try anything!" He said in protest as Lily's mouth opened in disapproval.
"Anyway, we'll go on the same broom until you're comfortable enough to go by yourself. Sound good?" Lily nodded as she tried to take deep breaths.
"Ok then! Let's go!" James practically yelled, once again his happy and loud self.
"See Lils, that wasn't so bad, was it?" James asked, flipping his hair out of his eyes as they landed on the ground.
"Are you kidding me? That was absolutely terrifying!" She contradicted, though her eyes agreed with him.
"You liar! You might have thought that at first, but admit it, you had fun!" James said with absolute certainty.
Lily allowed a bit of a smile, "Well, maybe. Anyway, same time tomorrow?"
"Sounds good to me!" James nodded, "See you tomorrow Lils." James turned and started to retreat, until Lily stopped him.
"Wait! Why do you keep calling me Lils?" She asked, her eyebrows pushing together out of confusion.
"It's your nickname. I mean, come on, I'm sure I'm not the first person to call you Lils." James said, incredulous.
But she shook her head. "No, none of my friends ever bothered. I guess because my names so short already, they didn't see the point."
She spoke her words easily, true as they were. But, somehow, she couldn't help wondering if she hadn't been given a nickname before because the wizard in front of her was the first to really care.
"That's nonsense," James said, and for a moment Lily wondered if she had spoken her irrational theory aloud.
But he continued, "Everyone needs a nickname." And he turned back around and headed back up to the castle, bursting with happiness and preparing how to break it Sirius and Remus that he had just spent an hour on a broom with Lily Evans hugging him as hard as she possibly could. He didn't even care if it was out of fright rather than affection. In his mind, a hug was a hug.
James is SO the best character to write fanfiction about (just my opinion).
Thanks for reading. Please review!
~Guro of Flowers