Deliverance. Disorder. Descent.
Author note – Date night! If any guys are reading this - this is how you woo me: eat garlic pizza with me and rock up at my doorstep at 5am with the intent to make me a hot chocolate for breakfast. Please Read & Review! :)
for the Berry to my Straw, Rasp, Black, and Logan.
The next morning, at some un-Godly sunless hour, Lily awoke to a persistent knocking coming from the door to her apartment.
Groaning, she buried her head under her pillow and tried to block out the noise. When her efforts to block the knocking failed, she wriggled out of the covers and stumbled to the door, wrenching it open and coming face to face with James, who was looking infinitely more awake than her.
'What the hell, James? It's like 5am.' She growled at him.
'Happy Valentine's Day,' he said, smouldering at her, 'I got something for you.'
She raised her eyebrows at him without talking and leant on the doorframe whilst she waited for him to continue. He gave her a look to let her know to go along with it and reached for her waist. He pulled her towards him and dipped her before kissing her.
Lily melted into the kiss, returning it with the same fervour as James. Wrapping her arms around his neck she pulled herself closer and let the kiss deepen. She could tell that James was restraining himself from taking it further, and she took note of the fact that neither of his hands strayed from where they were situated, holding her up. He also didn't let his tongue invade her mouth like her last boyfriend did the first time he kissed her. She couldn't deny that the way his mouth moved against hers dissipated any thoughts of sleep.
James pulled her back standing but didn't stop kissing her; instead he moved his hands to the sides of her face and continued moving his lips against hers.
They were both panting, out of breath when they broke the kiss some time later. Staying close enough that their noses touched, James nudged his nose against hers and grinned.
'So did you enjoy your first Valentines gift of the day?'
'I might have, that stubble of yours was a bit of a wake-up though.'
James responded to that by rubbing his cheek into hers, laughing as he did so.
Lily shoved him off her, and turned towards the kitchen, flicking on the kettle and pulling them both out a mug.
'Coffee, tea or hot chocolate?' she asked him.
'I'll have whatever you have.'
'Hot chocolate it is.'
'Make it strong.'
'Always.'
0-0-0
Later, as James walked with Lily to her work, they quietly discussed how successful they thought they were in getting Riddle's goons to believe they were a legitimate couple.
James wasn't admitting to Lily that that was one of the best kisses he'd ever had, but he was completely confident that Riddle would be sold on their cover, because he certainly was.
Surreptitiously looking at her from the corner of his eye, he noticed that she kept biting her bottom lip. He took hold of her hand and grasped it tightly, murmuring that he wasn't sure if they were being followed by anyone or not.
Truth was, he wouldn't ever tell her that the past month of working with her had strengthened his feelings for her, but at least he had the opportunity to be close to her; mandated physical contact notwithstanding.
He also felt something was off about the meeting last night, he was fairly confident that their covers were intact, but the way Riddle willingly outlined his entire plan sent off a warning alarm in his head. He couldn't figure out the man's motives, and it didn't make sense to unload the plan to a roomful of people that Riddle may not necessarily trust.
0-0-0
The afternoon wore on slowly as Lily watched the clock tick down to five pm, when she got to go home and get ready for dinner. James had said he'd picked a casual, but nice restaurant for them to have dinner at, and although that narrowed down wardrobe options somewhat, she still had to pick what to wear, how she would do her hair and all the other things she was required to think about before a date.
Three hours to go.
Two hours, fifteen minutes and twenty eight seconds to go.
Two hours, fifteen minutes and six seconds to go.
Two hours, fourteen minutes.
Two hours.
One hour.
Five minutes.
Zero minutes.
Home.
James wasn't due to pick to her up until quarter to seven, but she'd been standing in front of her wardrobe with a dumbfounded look for over twenty minutes already. What to wear? She kept asking herself; top and skirt, top and pants, jumpsuit, dress, tunic with leggings, boots, heels, flats, hair up, hair down, lots of make-up, little make-up, no make-up. There were simply too many options and not enough time to think it through, or a close girlfriend to call over.
Closing her eyes, she reached into the wardrobe and pulled out whatever her hands touched first.
Dress it was.
0-0-0
Stepping out of his apartment, James squared his shoulders and prepared to make the short walk to Lily's place. It felt so unusual to be taking her out on a date, despite the fact that it merely strengthened their cover.
No small part of the nervousness he was feeling came from the fact that he did like her, and was quite aware that the way this evening panned out would definitely influence her behaviour towards him when they returned to their regular roles in government security.
He just hoped he didn't screw it up.
Bypassing the pop-up flower shops, the harried men rushing past him to get to the store to buy last minute presents for their loved ones and the ever-growing crowd of people heading home from work, James walked steadily and purposefully to Lily's apartment.
Despite the fact he'd previously walked into a highly volatile hostage situation as a negotiator when a handful of politicians were among civilians held hostage at a bank robbery, as well as that one time where he'd been sent to retrieve a former cabinet minister from an area that had been in lockdown due to a gas pipeline leak that had occurred very close to series of bonfires that had been celebrating Guy Fawkes day early; walking to the house to pick up his date, his partner, was more terrifying than both those instances put together. As he thought about it, the nervousness he was feeling was unwarranted – both those times Dumbledore sent him in alone without backup or contact and had warned him beforehand that if events turned sour, his rate of surviving the mission was not in his favour.
To calm the ever-rising nerves, James counted the forty-four steps it took to get to her third storey apartment, and took exactly three deep breaths before knocking on her door.
In the few moments it took for her to open the door, James felt as though his heart stopped, and then restarted again as the door cracked open. She peeked at him through her lashes, and widened the door to let him in.
'I'm almost ready; I just have to finish my hair.' She told him as she turned back to the bathroom.
'All good, I am a little early; we're not due at the restaurant till about quarter past seven.' He replied, sitting down at the kitchen counter.
'So where are you taking me?' she called out to him.
'A nice little Italian place about four blocks from here, customer the other week told me they do a decent pizza.'
'Oh, I do love pizza,' she called out teasingly, 'all that melted cheese and garlic; you won't be wanting to come anywhere near my mouth after I've had all that garlic!'
'Well I'll be eating all that garlic too, so we'll both have garlicky breath and there'll be no excuses about bad breath to stop you from snogging me.'
'Who says I'll want to go anywhere near your lips after you've consumed garlic?'
'Who says you won't?'
'We'll just have to go eat and find out, shan't we?' she said as she walked out of the bathroom, hair and make-up done and looking utterly gorgeous in his opinion. 'How do I look?' she asked as she twirled.
'Breathtaking.'
0-0-0
Dinner consisted of garlic pizza, wine and a constant, non-awkward conversation between the two. James and Lily decided to grab some roasted chestnuts from the cart where their cover identities claimed they had met. They shared a large bag as they took a shortcut back to James' apartment through a small walking park. Enjoying the meaty flavour of the chestnuts, they quietly talked about their game plan for when they reached James' apartment, and how they would act in order to strengthen their covers without crossing a point to where either one of them was uncomfortable with their actions.
Any form of sex was definitely out, as was getting naked, or showering with each other. After spending a few minutes hashing over each other's no-go actions, they both felt as though they had a pretty good idea on just what they would do.
0-0-0-0
Next time:
He wanted to stop what they were doing and ask her, to be granted the smallest of glimpses into the puzzling mind of his red-headed partner. To do so however, could be a fatal mistake for them both.