I make no excuse for my lack of posting, I simply ask for your forgiveness and I promise to update more often than every 3 months. I promise! This last quarter at college took quite the toll on me and I had no time and no energy to do anything once I was finished with class, homework and work. So! I beg you, y dear readers, to forgive me for my absence. Though it is quote inexcusable, I plead that you pardon it anyway. I worked hard and made this chapter extra long for you. I felt I owed you that much.

From the bottom of my soul, I hope this placates you all.

enjoy.

James couldn't remember the last time he had been jogging. He used to love it, it would calm his nerves, sooth his stress, dissipate his anger. Exercise releases endorphins that fixed everything for him. Watching best friend mope around for days had taken its toll on him. He bent over to lace up his running shoes and tried to ignore the bad feeling that had settled itself in the pit of his stomach. He and Lily were at an impasse over what had happened in her home with Petunia, the only girl Sirius had ever expressed genuine interest in had done something that hurt him, and Remus refused to accept love from the only person willing to look past a flaw in his blood. How far the three of them had come, from pulling pranks and flirting shamelessly with anything with shaved legs to complete and udderless cowardice with women they had true feeling for. Peter hadn't really changed much at all, he had always been alone and it seemed that he was going to stay that way.

He stood up and raised his hands high above his head, stretching his spine and going up on his toes. He leaned to each side and took a deep breath, trying to prepare his body for the torture he was about to put it through. He knew that a lot of Muggles liked to listen to upbeat music to keep themselves motivated, but he found that he exercised best when he focused on something that frustrated him. The good news was that he had a lot of material to choose from in that area to focus on. The bad news was that all of the material had come about recently.

He cracked his neck and began to power walk down the driveway. He threw a cautious glance to the right and smirked at Lily's pathetic garden. He really hadn't meant anything by his comment about it a few weeks prior, but it had been a true statement, nonetheless. He shot a peek behind him at his own and tried not to cringe at how horrible it looked. Now that he was a homeowner, he felt obligated to do something to make his home look at least slightly presentable. On one hand, he couldn't very well use magic on it because his neighbors would know something was up. On the other hand, however, he really didn't want to spend hours out in the hot sun trying to impress a woman who could care less about the state of his lawn.

He set his sights forward again and tried to think about something that would make him angry. For one, he was mad at himself for being unable to move on from Lily. He had always imagined that they would end up together, but it seemed like she was more interested in driving him crazy than anything else. He clenched and unclenched his jaw in frustration. What did he need to do to show her that he had changed, but he was still very much interested in her? There were times when he would look at her and find she was already looking at him, there were times when she would look at him in wonder, there were times when she would doing something completely unnecessary and it piqued his curiosity. What was she thinking in these moments?

He knew what he hoped she was thinking, but she was a female so there was no telling if she even knew. The repeated pitter patter of his feet on the concrete soothed his restless mind. He couldn't count on his fingers the amount of times that Lily had been the fuel for his jogging. Now that his blood was pumping and his breaths were getting erratic, he wondered if he could really blame all of this frustration on Lily. He decided that a lot of it had to do with Petunia; he couldn't understand how someone so heartless and inconsiderate had come from the same womb as Lily. They were nothing alike. Lily would give up anything to be on good terms with Petunia again, but her sister wouldn't have any of it. He stopped short in his run, almost falling over from a lack of balance and decided he wanted to take his frustration out on something else.

His fucking garden. He turned around immediately and ran as fast as he could back to his home. He was wondering who on earth would have what he needed to accomplish this goal. Like he had a damn shovel. He thought really hard for a moment about where the closest home improvement store was and what it looked like. After having conjured up an image in his brain, he stepped behind the closest house and apparated away.

Hours later, the sun was beating down, and with every shovel of dirt that James dug out of the ground, he regretted his decision to groom his garden instead of jog. Why did he always feel the need to be right? Sirius knew he would rise to the challenge that day in Lily's house, which was why he had brought up the garden in the first place. James didn't give two shits about gardens, but since he had commented on Lily's - or the lack thereof - he felt like he had to work on one of his own.

Sweat had soaked a vertical line up the back of James' shirt and was working on the rest of the dry fabric. He contemplated taking it off, but he had seen the way that his young, female neighbor across the street had been looking at him the last several days. He didn't - for almost the first time - want to encourage a female's advances. After he shoveled a few more chunks of dry dirt, he grabbed some green type of bush and borderline threw it into the hole he had created. The woman at the Muggle store had promised him it required no maintenance.

"Hey neighbor!" he heard a young, feminine voice call out. When he lifted his eyes, he saw a womanly silhouette bathed in sunlight. He brought his left hand up to block the offensively bright star, but when his eyes refocused, he dropped his shovel in alarm.

There stood, in a mere bikini, the seventeen-year-old girl he lived in front of. "Hey," He choked out. He dropped his hand to avoid seeing the details that her lack of clothing clearly depicted. She was only a year younger than him, but she seemed so trivial in comparison to Lily.

"I'm Heather. I was just laying out, trying to catch myself a little glow when I suddenly found myself parched!" She explained in her high pitched voice. "I figured with you being hard at work, you might want something to drink too." Her smile was brilliant and a sweating glass of ice water was enveloped in her fingers. "I do appreciate a man who cares about his landscaping!" she giggled out.

James was about to thank her but deny her offer of water - as much as he would have loved it - when Lily's voice rang out behind him. "Don't we all, girly?" It was clear to James that Lily was faking her kindness toward the young girl, but Heather didn't seem to notice. "I once heard a man say that a person's garden reveals a lot about them..." James refused to meet Lily's eyes until the glare Heather was shooting her way was unbearable for him to see. He finally glanced in Lily's direction. "Lemonade?" Lily offered sweetly, holding out a glass to him.

When James met Heather's rage filled eyes, he smiled sheepishly. "I have an addiction to sugar," he said in way of explanation as he took the glass from Lily. "Otherwise, I would have welcomed your water. Thank you." His calming words seemed to have the desired effect, as Heather began smiling again. James made eye contact with Lily and while it wasn't said out loud and would probably never be spoken of, her eyes held and apology and a plea all in one. He smiled a completely different caliber of smile to Lily than he gave to Heather. The difference in his smile did more than show her that he understood and forgave her, but it made her feel warm inside.

"Me too! We have so much in common." She squealed. "Here, I'll help you water your new plant." She poured the water over the green leaves and then looked back up at them. "Well, I'm gonna go back and keep tanning. Don't work too hard!"

The two adults stayed relatively quiet until the girl had made her way back to her lawn chair and iPod, her bare hips swaying the entire way. Instead of addressing anything in the air between them, she picked what would most likely end in bickering. She wasn't quite ready to analyze or admit what was going on inside of her. "You're really going to stay out here and work all day in the blistering heat instead of just being wrong?" Lily asked quietly. James looked up and met her eyes.

"I never turn down a challenge and I'm never wrong." She gave him a challenging look and he was immediately taken back to the time that he was challenged to kiss the girl standing in front of him. He had turned it down without hesitation and she had thought it was because he was repulsed by her. It was obvious by his actions with other girls that he wasn't against the act. The truth of the matter was that it had scared the shit out of him. He had known that if he had gotten a taste, he would never go back to any other girl again. She shuffled her feet awkwardly and he realized she was probably thinking of the same incident.

Ever since Severus had called Lily a mudblood she had begun spending even more time around the Marauders. One random afternoon during their sixth year, Lily and the four mischievous boys had been wasting away hours in the sun down by the Great Lake. Lily had been ripping up grass next to her feet one blade at a time when the commotion started. The first thing she noticed when she looked up was that Peter's eyes were flitting nervously back and forth between her and the two boys arguing.

Sirius was laughing at something that James obviously found to be quite the opposite of funny. "No, Black, I swear to you, you will rue the day," she heard James whisper harshly under his breath. Remus was making his way over to her in a hurried manner, but he was trying to play it cool. The moment he plopped down next to her she could feel the tension rolling off of him.

"What's going on over there?" she inquired softly. She could tell from the way that James grabbed onto Sirius and tried to hold him back that if Remus didn't tell her, Sirius would. Remus stayed silent so she decided instead to address the most daring of the bunch. "Sirius, what's goin' on over there?" They weren't all that far apart but she raised her voice anyway.

He smiled devilishly and his eyes seemed to thank her for her question. "Well, as you know it is Wednesday. On Wednesdays, we like to play a game called Work For It. More affectionately referred to, by myself and Wormtail, as "Work-For-It-Wednesday". Essentially, three of the four of us pick the last Marauder and give them a task. They must use this task to continue on with their title of man. Should you," Sirius looked straight at James, who had since released Sirius and was staring out at the water, "choose to turn down the challenge, you will no longer be considered a man."

Lily almost laughed at the idea of it, but she refrained. Why was everyone so nervous if they did this weekly?, Lily had wondered. "We rotate who the odd man out is, everyone's it once a month and it's James' turn!" Sirius sounded excited enough that Lily felt the knowledge warranted. "I bet your pretty little mind is wondering what James' challenge is..." James turned around and met her eyes briefly before flitting down to his feet and remaining there.

She had to admit, she really did want to know, but something about the whole situation just felt off. "I have dared James to kiss you, my dearest Evans, on the mouth." Sirius stated matter-of-factly. Lily knew why she was opposed, or why she would say she was opposed. But she couldn't figure out why everyone else seemed to disagree with the decision. And honestly, it wasn't as if James was against kissing. He had proved a thousand times over that he was all for it.

So to say that she was shocked when James opened his mouth and turned down the challenge was an understatement. "Good, I don't want him to kiss me. And didn't you say that all three of you have to agree to it? Remus and Peter don't seem quite as on board as you are Sirius." She always tried to turn to logic when she was uncomfortable.

Sirius got a wicked smile and responded in a patronizing way. "Yes, well, they were until James here explained that..."

"That's not your business, Padfoot." Remus interrupted. James seemed to relax a large amount at Remus' halting of Sirius' explanation. "Lily, Sirius isn't telling you the whole story, and it's not his story to tell. Please don't be offended by all of this." He pleaded gently.

"I'm not offended!" she lied easily. "Whose story is it?" All three guys looked at James without saying anything. When Lily registered that they were all looking expectantly at the shaggy haired boy who she was trying desperately to repress her feelings for, it clicked into place. Something was going on with James and he was the only one truly objecting. "What?" she whispered harshly. Out of her peripheral vision she could see Peter getting fidgety; he didn't like it when people fought. James' eyes snapped to hers at her words. He looked pained. "You're going to lose your right to be called a man because you find me repulsive? Really?" He looked like he might argue but seemed to decide better of it. "Unbelievable," she whispered under her breath, his silence only served to confirm her accusation.

She stood up abruptly and moved to leave. Just as she was about to "accidentally" knock shoulders with James on her way past, his hand grasped her wrist. The force of his grip cause her to spin and face him. "Lily," he started. "There is a lot more going on here than what meets the eye. Please don't be mad at me, I'm sorry." His voice had been so genuine, but she had been so hurt. His eyes flitted down to her lips like he was genuinely considering the dare, but when he met her eyes again, she ripped her arm from his grasp and proceeded to stomp her way back to the castle.

"Lils, that had nothing to do with you," James admitted quietly. That statement was mostly true.

"Right. Of course, Potter. Nothing to do with me," Lily repeated to herself. "Enjoy that." She gestured to the glass in his hand and turned to leave. Lily wished, in hindsight, that she had ignored the flare of jealousy she felt from her kitchen window and let James be flirtatiously attacked by the young woman. With every step she took, he felt more and more like an asshole for sparing his own feelings at the expense of hers all those months ago.

So... All of that really just happened. I told you someone was openly interested in James. Vote time! Do we want another James and Lily chapter next or would you prefer I show you a little into the others' lives? I have a few things up my sleeve for any of it, but I want your thoughts.

Message me, review, call me (if you can possibly figure out my cell number), hell - if you show up on my front porch and identify yourself as a fan, I'll invite you in/out for coffee and a cigarette... in/out depending solely on your level of creepy