Fashion Disaster

Chapter 6

Day 6 AKA 'The Golden Sequins'

James stifles a huge yawn, pacing inside the short length of the trial room's waiting area. He lifts his wrist to check the time—7:31 A.M—and glances out the corner to find the store still empty, twinkling with merry lights, air humming with the cheerful tunes of Christmas carols. A sigh barely drops from his mouth before he watches Mary saunter out from the back of the store, where James now knows lies a breakroom.

She looks up, catches his stare, coffee mug in hand, and instantly glowers. His brows shoot up in alarm.

"Fucking get back in there!" she hisses venomously, free hand pointing to the trial room.

James nods, eyes wide, and morosely pulls back inside. He checks the time again—7:33 A.M—and groans out loud.

"Shut up," Sirius mumbles from his obscenely splattered position on the nearest chair. James turns to look at him, finds his eyes scrunched closed. "Shut up."

"Didn't say anything."

"This is not you shutting up."

"You didn't have to come, you know." The glare he throws Sirius doesn't feel nearly as satisfactory when the prat can't even see it. "In fact, I remember specifically telling you not to come."

"Which is exactly why I had to come." Sirius finally bothers to crack his eyes open and shoot an unbearably smug grin his way. "Left to your devices, and we wouldn't have gotten here for another five years."

"We? There's no we." James sighs, tries peeking around the corner again. Annoyingly, nothing seems to have changed in the last five seconds. "There's only me and Lily. You just try to stick in your nose everywhere it doesn't belong like a damn dog."

"You're gonna regret saying that. Don't you forget we're still in the middle of the dare."

The word 'dare' shoots a shudder of panic down his spine, and James whirls around, finds Sirius looking supremely pleased at his horrified expression. "Come on, mate. Come on. Not today!"

"I disagree, actually. I think we should especially do it today." And impossibly, he manages to keep a straight face during the entire time he delivers the nonsense that follows. "If Evans is really the woman of your dreams, she will cherish you despite the fact that you look like a clown around her. Don't you want her to like you for real, Prongs? And not just for your money or looks? Hm? Don't you want that?"

James opens and closes his mouth for five whole seconds. "I…do want that, but—"

"No buts!" Sirius jumps to his feet, all sleep seemingly vanished in the face of his need to torture James. "Let's go pick out the outfit."

"What, right now?!" James yelps. "Lily could be here any minute!"

He grins, undeterred. "Well, then we better be quick, shouldn't we?"

James sighs heavily, feels a familiar exasperation washing over him. "I sincerely hope that Mary skins you alive."

"Save those kinks for Evans."

"You're fucking disgusting."

"I can't believe I let you force me into this at… 7:45 in the bloody morning," James bemoans, pulling at the full-sleeved sweatshirt sticking to his chest, trying to taper the horrendous itch prickling over his skin thanks to the tiny bits of sequins embedded into the material. "Fuck, I swear I can feel a rash coming on already!"

"Stop complaining!" Sirius says, and then has the audacity to obnoxiously run a hand over the sequins, watching as they flip sides and change from black to sparkling golden. "This is the best thing I could find given the time crunch. MacDonald didn't even let me pick out a bottom wear." He pauses for a second; shrugs. "And it doesn't even make you look that bad! You should appreciate me."

"Okay, first of all—" James slaps his hand away, "stop doing that. Second of all, I'll appreciate you when you stop trying to ruin my chances with the girl I fancy by constantly daring me to wear stupid outfits that—that, fuck, change colours, or glow, or have blood on them!"

"Hey, what's with the false accusations?"

James's face twists in irritation. "Not one thing about what I said was false."

"Untrue!" Sirius scoffs. "That sweatshirt didn't really have blood on it, and I thought the mouth stole the show besides. And this one doesn't change colour—not unless you run your hand over it, which, by the way, so much fun. You try it!"

"Oh, so then the bit about you attempting to ruin my chances with Lily is true?" James grumbles, running a hand over the sequins as suggested and annoyingly finding it fun. When he looks down and sees them glimmering offensively at him, however, he roughly drags the sequins back up, turning them black.

A few remain stubbornly gold.

He wants to fucking rip them off.

Sirius rolls his eyes, stopping, for just a fraction of a second, as he glances to the right. When he looks back at James, the grey of his eyes gleams scarily. "Now, if I was really trying to do that, would I be telling you, right now, that Evans just entered the store?"

James blinks, watches the insufferable smirk unfold over Sirius's face, and finds something heavy plonking around in his stomach, nerves climbing up his throat until he feels perfectly nauseous. Without really thinking through his actions, he quickly pulls Sirius back inside, out of view of the store, and then sticks himself to the wall like some kind of deranged spider.

"What the fuck are you—"

"Shh," he waves a hand, peeks around the corner. "We can't let her know we're here."

"Yes, but do we have to behave like fucking idiots while we're at it?"

James doesn't pay him any mind, gaze and attention focused, instead, on the person he spots near the entrance.

The surprise on her face at seeing the store already alive and ready for the day isn't too hard to spot even with such a yawning distance between them, and James watches as she turns to face Mary, who's got her elbows leaning on the counter, a smug smile on her mouth. Lily shakes out the snow from her hair, takes off her thick, knitted gloves, and says something to Mary.

They're too far for him to hear the conversation, but it makes his pulse flutter softly when he spots the brightness of her expression, the glow on her cheeks, the animated gesturing of her hands.

She looks, in plain terms… happy.

James sighs, turns around, doesn't even care that he has the most ridiculous smile on his face.

"Wow." Sirius sniggers, surprisingly bothering to temper his volume. This, James knows, is the biggest proof of his loyalty to James despite any earlier accusations he might've thrown at Sirius. It simply makes the warmth in his chest spread a little more; turn him a little less solid. "Wish you could see yourself right now, mate. Almost makes it worth waking up at such an ungodly hour."

"Thanks, Padfoot."

The laughter dies in his mouth, dark brows arching. "What?"

"Thanks for—" James drags a hand through his hair, grins. "Well, for making me see sense, I suppose. I was behaving like a prat and—"

"Stop it."

"What?" He has to hold back a laugh at the stricken look on Sirius's face.

"Stop it this instant! You're freaking me out with all this…"

"Love?"

"Yeah, I wasn't shown enough of it as a child, and I don't know how to deal with affection now unless it's from your mum."

James feels like he'll choke on the laughter he has to hold back, and reaches forward to pull Sirius into a hug. A bit of a scuffle ensues as he tries to dodge the embrace, the struggle ending with Sirius held in something of a headlock while James muffles his snickers into his shoulder. "I love you, Padfoot! I can't live without you!"

"Fuck you, the bloody sequins are scratching my face!" Sirius hisses, but James catches a glint of teeth, feels the shake of his shoulders against him, and laughs a little harder. "Fuck! Look! Evans is heading to the back."

"Wait, really?" He unlocks his arms from around Sirius, waiting until he's straightened before moving to look out at the store again. He wipes away the laughter from his eyes, watches as Lily indeed strolls towards the breakroom as planned, a noticeable bounce in her steps. "Oh my God, she's heading to the back."

"That's what I said."

"Okay." James shakes out his hands, turns around to face Sirius, stomach knotted in nerves again. "Okay, this is it."

"No, it's not, you're not getting married. You already know she likes you."

"But she also said I had to play my cards right for her to give this a chance."

"Mate!" Sirius smirks, plants both hands on James's shoulders and shakes him a little. "She likes you. She's liked you even with all that you've worn in front of her this week. And you're not too terrible when you're not being an oblivious tosser. So, go snog her or something, yeah?"

James nods, feels his own grin taking over his face. "Yeah, I should—well, go talk to her at least."

"Good plan. Don't fuck it up."

And with that bolstering well-wish in mind, he finally meanders out of the trial room, finds Mary wildly waving her hands from near the counter. It's impossible to hear her from this distance unless she shouts—an action which is sure to alarm Lily—and they both know it, so she simply mouths the words furiously in his direction. James catches something that looks a lot like what the hell are you doing, Potter?

He cautiously points his forefinger towards the back of the store, brows raised questioningly.

Both her hands make a sweeping arc through the air, landing in the direction of the breakroom too. "Fucking go!" her mouth snarls, nostrils flared, and James knows that's definitely what she said this time.

He somehow manages to unstick his feet from the floor, and makes himself walk the half dozen steps that bring him to the threshold of the room.

Inside, with her back turned to him, amidst the brilliant smell of coffee and muffled sounds of music, stands Lily, wearing a sinfully soft-looking cashmere sweater and snug jeans. She doesn't seem to have noticed his presence yet, which works perfectly for James, because it gives him the required time to swallow down the heart that pounds near his throat. He watches as she moves her hand, quietly opens the large pink lid of the box he'd stashed there earlier in the morning, and takes this as his cue to fully enter the room, door shutting softly behind him.

"Hi."

The sound of his greeting is slightly drowned out by the gasp that leaves Lily's lips as she twists around. There's a light flush to her cheeks already, green eyes brighter than he's ever seen them—or, perhaps, he's just impossible gone for her—and she blinks owlishly at him for several seconds, hand held to chest.

"What—" Her back presses against the counter, eyes roving over him, taking in his face and attire, once; twice; thrice. "What?"

"Hi, I said." James bites the inside of his cheek, tries to hold in the amusement.

"Yes, well… hello." Then she stares some more. "What are you doing here?"

He takes a step forward, satisfaction humming through his veins when he hears her breath catch audibly, the already small space of the room working to his benefit. "I'm playing my cards," he whispers, deliberately flicking his gaze behind her, to the counter, so that she understands.

It takes half a beat, but then she catches on, lips parting in surprise as she whirls around to look at the box, and then back to him again. "Oh my God. James! You didn't!"

He grins now, stomach tumbling around, fucking up his body functions. "Do you like it?"

"I—" Lily stops speaking, brows pulling together slowly. For a second, he worries everything's gone wrong, she hates it, he's taken a joke and gone overboard with it, but then—miraculously—she reaches out a hand, softly slides it into his. "You got me chocolate tarts."

His blood, his pulse, his senses, everything has slipped down to the spot where her fingers touch his palm. The skin there tingles madly. "Yeah, you said they're your favourite."

"You got me twenty pieces of chocolate tarts, convinced Mary to slip out of our apartment and open the store one hour early, hid the box here, and dressed up in a sparkly sweatshirt, all because I poorly joked once, during a random conversation several days back, that chocolate tarts were my favourite?"

"Erm—" He swallows, grips the back of his neck with his free hand, and itches the skin there while he's at it. "Actually, that last bit was not quite right. This sweatshirt isn't part of the plan, and I'm pretty sure I'm developing an allergy from the sequins."

Lily laughs, drops her other hand to his chest. "I believe you completely."

"I really am, you know," he sighs, "sorry, I mean. Not itchy—though that too."

"I know. It's okay." She bites her lip, takes a step closer—and thereby leaves no respectable space between them to speak of—before looking up at him coyly. "I love it, James. Thank you. Turns out you are exceedingly good at playing those cards."

"Yeah, ace and all that," James breathes, having lost the wits to come up with anything better. Almost outside of his control, the back of his fingers slide down the length of her hair, marvelling at the smoothness of the strands, before he brushes them over her shoulder. When his thumb ghosts over her collarbone, Lily's lashes flutter dazedly. "Evans?"

She inhales, deep, gaze on his lips. "Yeah?"

He leans down. "Can I please kiss you?"

At the question, her eyes fly up to his suddenly, her breath a sweetness so tempting he can't wait to taste. But then she says—

"No."

"Oh." James blinks, feels pathetically like a massive ship has sunk to the bottom of his stomach. "Oh, um—"

But he's not even managed to pull a fraction of distance away before Lily's got her fingers climbing up from his chest, curling around the nape of his neck, tugging him back to her, even closer than before. The sudden motion sends his hand on her shoulder flying around her waist; an anchor deliciously soft and warm.

"You can kiss me back," she whispers on his lips, and then firmly fits her mouth against his to drive the message home.

If he'd been pretty sure so far that she was the perfect woman for him, James is ready to sign it on a fucking legal document now. With the way the glide of her lips and the taste of her raspberry lip balm sends full-out sparks of electricity shooting up and down his limbs, he knows he's never felt like this when kissing someone else before, and isn't likely to feel like this ever again. So the only solution, if he wants to hold onto the feeling, is to hold onto Lily.

And that's what he does.

He holds her, he kisses her, he walks forward until her back is pressed to the counter again, until she's got her fingers sifting through his hair, dragging over his scalp, making him think thoughts he shouldn't be thinking when kissing a girl for the first time.

When he runs his tongue over the seam of her lips, Lily whimpers a little, grip tightening around him as she allows him to taste her. The sweetness of her bursts inside his mouth, and he thinks he can keep doing this forever.

Any such plans are brought to a screeching halt, however, when, at that very moment, a thick strand of her hair catches on the sequins of his sweatshirt.

"Mm, fuck, fuck, ouch—" Lily breaks away, panting heavily, eyes glossed over but caught onto his chest. He makes the mistake of pulling away. "Fuck, James, stop! Don't move. My hair is stuck on your sweatshirt."

"What in the fucking—" He looks down, fingers immediately trying to disentangle her hair. Somehow, it seems to have twisted agreeably around the sewed string, and he wonders how anyone is supposed to have thin enough fingers to deal with this. "How has this—which direction has it even twisted in?!"

"Wait, I'll do it. I have nails."

"Nails, right!" He drops his hands, lets Lily take over. "This is—this is such a disaster."

"James—"

"I'm so sorry. If Sirius hadn't forced me into this... I told him. Why can't anything go right for once?"

"It's not—"

"I finally get to kiss the girl I've been losing my mind over, but then end up getting her bloody hair jammed on a shirt I don't even like; one that's making me want to itch my skin off anyway."

"James, please shut up. I need to concentrate here and you're making that impossible to do by saying really stupid things."

"Yes, right, I'm sorry." He sighs, feels sadness turning the room grey as Lily keeps struggling with her hair. "You know, you could just call me a miserable oaf and leave after this. I won't even blame you. My heart might not be able to take it, but that's about it. I'll have to check if I can find a new one. Mum might know some people. Or Sirius might. This is entirely his fault after all—"

His monologue peters off when he feels Lily's forehead drop onto his shoulder, her whole body shaking in silent laughter.

"Oh my fucking God," she wheezes, pulls back to look at him, but immediately starts laughing again, shaking her head. "You're crazy."

James feels his face flush, shrugs sheepishly. "You got your hair out."

"I did," she says, voice softer, and then proceeds to slide her hands around his face, tilting his eyes down until he's looking right at her. "I'm not going to call you a miserable oaf or leave. Not anytime soon."

His pulse soars. "Not even after what just happened?"

Lily grins, steps on her toes to press another quick, burning kiss on his lips. "No. I think it was perfect. Very on-brand for us. In fact, I think it makes for a really exciting story. I've never had to worry about my hair tearing out of my scalp when snogging a bloke before."

James takes in the happiness of her face, somehow magnified ten times over since he saw her earlier, and feels his own laughter bubbling out. "You're crazy." And then immediately after: "Go out with me, Lily."

She nods around another smile, this one larger. "Okay."

"No, like, now. Go out with me now. We can grab brunch, or—"

"Um, I have work."

"Oh right." James deflates, wonders how he can be possibly expected to wait until the next day to meet her again—

"We can go out in the evening though," Lily supplies, her thumb still brushing against his jaw. "I get off work around eight, and then—"

"It's Christmas Eve," he sighs. "I have to be home. My mates are coming over again, and—" he pauses, eyes flitting between hers. "Come."

"What?"

"Come home tonight. Have dinner with us. It'll be brilliant, I promise."

Lily sinks back to her feet, eyes wide. "James, I couldn't possibly intrude. Your parents—"

"They'll be more than happy to have you there. No, really, I mean it. Bring Mary with you too, if you both don't have any other plans."

"No, we were just going to sit in our pyjamas and order takeaway. Petunia's off to dinner with her fiancé too, so I don't have to entertain her either." Despite her words, however, there's still an uncertain pull to her mouth. "Are you absolutely sure?"

He closes the space between them, leaves a lingering kiss against her mouth. "I'm sure."

"Okay," Lily breathes, a slow smile creeping over her face. "Okay. I will see you around eight then."

"I'll text you the address," he says, positively sings. "After Sirius gets your number from Mary for me, that is."

"Of course. Very practical. It's not like I'm standing right here and you can take it from me."

"If I take your number now, I won't be able to stop texting you the whole time."

She seems to consider this. "Reasonable. I can't make any promises either."

He takes a step back then, another, feels a strange sort of longing pull at his chest as the distance widens between them. "Goodbye, Lily."

"Thanks for the tarts." She licks her lips.

He makes the tough decision to turn around then, leave before he loses all self-control and rushes back to snog her senseless.

"James?"

"Yeah?" He pauses at the doorway, looks over his shoulder.

Lily's brows have stitched together in concern. "Please take off that sweatshirt. You really are getting rashes."

A/N - Just one more short chapter to go! Thank you to everyone that's reviewed and supported this fic. I love you all! Please come talk to me on Tumblr!