The Prince's Marriage
A/N: This chapter was exceedingly fun to write. A lot of people have pointed out the switching between first person and third person, I am truly sorry about that and I re-read through this after my beta to make sure however I may not have picked something up. Anyways I think many of you will like this chapter so enjoy.
Disclaimer: I own nothing more then the plot.
Chapter 6
--James POV
I stormed out of my study full of regret. I was supposed to become her friend, not demand her love. I had just put myself back five steps and demanded something that couldn't just be given. Why was I so willing to let her in to my heart and she wouldn't allow me near hers?
I wanted to find her and make her understand, but I knew every time I tried it didn't work. My father said to take it slow and I went and did something stupid out of frustration, worry, panic, and desire. I wasn't going to last long if things continued to go this way. I would never get her to love me- I would never get her to trust me. I knew if I could we could become something great.
--Lily's POV
It had been two days since I had last seen James. He went to bed long after me, woke before me, and was gone before me. He was avoiding me and I was not too keen on finding him myself. The kiss had been addicting and toxic. I craved his lips but I just couldn't understand why. Sure he was a great kisser, but that was it- it didn't mean I liked him.
This was getting ridiculous though...two days of ignoring me. No, I hadn't agreed with what he did or even his demanding, but he was my husband. I was getting kind of lonely at night when I sat in my room waiting for him to return only to fall asleep and wake up alone. I knew I wasn't making much sense anymore, wishing my husband was around and yet claiming not to like him. It was possible, even after only 3 days of marriage, that I had gotten used to having someone to talk to whenever I wanted. Now I was always alone aside from the quiet maids who refused to have a real conversation with me.
I reached my decision. I was no longer going to let him ignore me. He shouldn't have kissed me and he obviously knew that, so I forgave him after two days of complete seething.
I found James in his study, working hard. I couldn't see what he was working on but it looked stressful if the frown on his face was any indication. With his hair messier than usual and his glasses pushed far up his nose, he looked very handsome.
"I brought you some tea," I said pushing forward the tray with the tea set on it. I hadn't known what else to bring.
"I don't drink tea," he answered without looking up at me, continuing to scribble away at his papers.
"Oh," I said, embarrassed. I felt myself blush and was grateful that James was looking away.
Did he not care about the kiss? Was I wrong to think he was avoiding me because of it? What if he really was just busy with his duties? What sort of a wife was I? I didn't know what he preferred to drink and I didn't even know what his duties entailed. No wonder he was ignoring me.
"Should I ring the maid and get you something else?"
"No, but could you hold on a minute? It's important I finish this."
"What are you working on?"
"Just a minute," he said impatiently.
I sat there guiltily. I was supposed to be checking on the maids work right then and here I was waiting for him to finish his own work. I didn't like the idea so I walked behind James and carefully removed his glasses.
"Hey! I need those!"
"You can have them back after you have a talk with your wife."
James sighed impatiently and casually tried, unsuccessfully, to grab the glasses from my hand so he could go back to work.
"Alright, what do you want?"
What was wrong with him? Why was he acting so mean?
"Can see without your glasses?"
James frowned. "Is that what you came in here to talk to me about?"
"No, I was tired of you avoiding-"
"Not everything is about you Lily. My duties here at the castle are hard and take time. I'm sorry I cant be with you all the time."
"That's not what I meant!"
"What did you mean than Lily? I just don't know."
I sighed. Why wasn't he getting this? How could I explain it without misleading him or even lying to him?
"I just wanted to know if you were alright. You haven't been sleeping a lot and haven't been at meals so I just..." I trailed off realizing I sounded like I cared for him- which I didn't
"Why would that matter to you?" James asked, his voice low.
"It doesn't. It just… you know… made me wonder…"
"Wonder about what?"
"Ugh! Why can't you just answer my question?" I said, my temper flaring.
"I really don't have time for this."
"Fine! I'll just leave you alone then!" I walked towards the door but before I could get there a hand grabbed mine. I looked up at James to find a twinkle return to his eye and couldn't help but feel my knees weaken.
He leaned down and gave me a slow kiss on the cheek, twirled me about and gave me a small push towards the door.
I left the study with a slight smile on my face. At least he wasn't mad at me any more and it was only on the cheek, so I convinced myself it was appropriate instead of hating it.
-- James POV
I sat back down at my desk and sighed, content with what had happened between Lily and me.I finished my work and left to write a letter to my best friend, Sirius Black. Now more then ever I needed advice.
Padfoot,
I need some advice from you, Mooney and Wormtail. Come to the castle tonight.
Prongs
-- James POV
"Alright guys. I called you all here because I need advice on my marriage."
"Whoa buddy, its been what? A week?" Sirius said in his bark laughter.
Sirius Black was my best friend, he had shoulder length hair and silver eyes that attracted a lot of female companions. My other best friend Remus Lupin, also known as Moony, and couldn't relate nearly as much to me as Sirius, had short blond hair and blue eyes. His face was covered in scars from an accident when he was little . Peter Pettigrew, also known as Wormtail, was a short and chubby boy who worshiped me and Sirius.
"No, worse. Its only been 5 days."
"Don't worry Prongs. We brought some whiskey." Sirius said cheerfully.
"What's wrong with it so far?" Remus asked.
"I started off trying to be nice and trying to become her friend, to gain her trust, and my father advised this, but on the third day I demanded she love me and forced her to kiss me. I just don't know what to do! She argues about everything and if I try to explain I sound worse and then I get angry and you know how I am when that happens."
"Yes we do," Peter said and laughed.
"My advice is take her and the love can come later on." Sirius said grinning.
"Padfoot, don't put silly ideas into his head! You know he'll do it," Remus chastised.
"I agree with Padfoot," Peter said.
"Don't listen to them Prongs. Get to know her and don't be in such a rush all the time. Try apologizing for your rashness," Remus advised smartly.
"Will you open this bottle up for me? Take a sip while your at it." I was passed the bottle of whiskey and soon three bottles were down. No longer was I worried about my wife or any other problem. I was with my friends having fun. That's all I needed to unwind and relax.
"What the hell is going on here?" A shrill voice interrupted the cheery surroundings.
I looked at the rest of the marauders to find them all gaping at my wife. I stood up as quick as I could without falling over and tugged Lily's robes shut.
"Whoa! What a knockout Prongs!" Sirius said.
"Uh, Lily- we're just sitting around relaxing and-"
"At two in the morning? Drinking whiskey? You decided, 'hey, my wife doesn't need to sleep! Lets be loud and get drunk!'"
"No, that's not what we-"
I could tell she was mad and I couldn't tell how drunk I really was. I tried recalling how much I had had to drink, but I couldn't remember a lot at that point in time. I hoped I wasn't slurring too bad.
"No. I try apologizing to you earlier and all you do is take revenge on me..."
"That's not what the plan was," Sirius put in to defend me.
If Sirius was anything it was loyal. If anybody said anything bad about any one of his friends, Sirius was right there backing them up.
"Oh? Who might you be?" Lily said in a cold voice.
"Sirius Black," he said as he stood up to kiss her hand. She allowed him to place a kiss upon it and I couldn't help but feel a little jealous.
"Meet Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.," I introduced, pointing to my other friends.
"I see, and how late were you planning on having this get together?"
"Uh, not this late," I said with a impish grin.
A knock came at the door and two people entered before anyone could grant permission. In walked my parents.
"We were just going to bed and we heard noises so- hey! I thought I told you three to stay away from here for the first month of their marriage?" The king said angrily..
"Yes your majesty, we're sorry. James called us to seek our advice." Remus apologized.
My father looked at me and frowned.
"Now that you've given your advice, you should leave."
"Joseph, they can't possibly leave at this hour. Its..."
"They will leave! They aren't supposed to be here!" My father roared.
I watched my three friends walk sluggishly to the door. I felt despair swoop through me as I was back to where I had started. With no advice I could follow and now with a mad father.
I sensed Lily shrink behind me and felt horrible for not warning her of my fathers temper. I took her hand in mine, trying to reassure her. My father left with a wave of his hand.
The room was silent with no one but me and Lily. Aside from this afternoon we hadn't been alone for two days. I grimaced. How mad was she? I hoped not too much.
I felt her let go of my hand and watched her blow the candle out before making her way towards the room. My feet trudge after her, unwillingly. Now that it was silent I could feel the warmth of the whiskey and knew I must wreak of it.
I watched Lily sit at the edge of the bed and waited for her to speak. I stood across from her, not sure whether I would get in trouble for sitting on the bed. I had been a royal ass lately and I didn't know how she was going to react to the new shape of things.
"Why did you kiss me?"
"Huh?" I asked bewildered.
"Why did you kiss me the other day in your study?"
"Because I wanted to. No, that's the wrong word. I needed too."
"Why did you need to?"
"Because you've been driving me crazy. I don't know when I'm saying the wrong thing because it seems everything I say is wrong and then the next second your pulling me into a meadow and were getting along and then were not. Its all very confusing and I just burst."
"It had only been three days though!"
"Yes! Three nights of laying next to a beautiful wife I am not allowed to touch! Three days dealing with a who woman constantly hates me! I haven't done anything to deserve your hate. Maybe now I have, but I didn't then."
"I don't hate you," Lily said in a low voice.
"You don't?"
"No. I realized that today... I don't like you and I most definitely will never love you, but all together I don't hate you as much as I would like."
"And how are we supposed to have a happy, or even just a good marriage if you want to hate me?"
"I don't know... I didn't want to marry you."
"So we all know...but that doesn't change the fact that we are married. Hating me isn't going to make life easier so don't try wishing that it would. It's only going to effect your own happiness. You need to allow me to be your husband and I'll allow you to be my wife. I want to love you Lily... I want to be happy and I want you to be happy so why don't we just give this a fair chance?"
"I don't know how to be a wife and I don't know how to love you! Men are allowed to do things women are not. I am not experienced in bed and I have heard it hurts. I'm not ready to give that to you. I come from a world where women are expected to be the perfect everything and I don't know how to be perfect at marriage."
"I may be a man and you may be a woman, but that makes no difference because I haven't been married before. I don't know what I am doing anymore then you do. I don't want a perfect marriage- that would be too boring. I just want to give it a fair chance and we can work out the knots as they come."
"What if the knots are too big?"
"We'll figure it out than."
"Alright."
"Alright what?"
"We can try and give this marriage a fair chance from here on out."
"Thank you."
Now I was probably the happiest man in the world. We had just solved our biggest problem. I just hoped she wouldn't change her mind by morning.
-- Lily's POV
I have no idea how he kept such a serious conversation while he was drunk, but he convinced me into trying to become his wife and not his enemy. What he said had made sense. When I said I didn't hate him it had confused me, but I realized it was true.
I looked up at James to find him staring back and I wondered if that meant we had to start right now. I sure hoped not. He hadn't slept much and I was worried he wouldn't be able to make it through this marriage intact.
After we had both settled in bed I wondered what he was thinking and if he was truly as confused as he had said. I knew I was confused, and I didn't think he was, but why the cold shoulder this afternoon? He did sort of apologize for that though, didn't he?
"James?"
"Yeah?" He answered in a muffle.
I could tell he was close to asleep and would need to broach the subject quickly.
"What were you working on this afternoon when I came and saw you?" I asked, remembering I was going to try to find out more about him.
"I was recording the acceptances to the ball."
"Oh. Shouldn't the queen do that?"
"Yes, but she prefers it to be a surprise."
"You mean she doesn't want to help?"
"Exactly."
"I could help." I wanted to help take the stress off of him, and more than that, I wanted to spend time with him. I couldn't tell what his reaction was after his speech.
"You could, but the ball is being held for you, so I'm sure it would be inappropriate."
"Oh."
"I m sure we can find something else for you to do."
"Thanks," I said, a smile touching my lips.
He fell silent again and I could hear his breathing steady and soothe me.
"Did you mean what you said?" I asked before I could fall asleep.
"About what?"
I was surprised he had answered. I had imagined him asleep.
"That you wanted to love me and make me happy?"
"Yes I did." He rolled over to face me and tucked his arm around my waist bringing me closer to him. I allowed my arm to rest on his arm and felt myself relax.
I fell asleep for the first time in years feeling safe.