Lily was in James's apartment. The two of them were hanging out and chatting about random things, from their clothes to the weather to New York to rhinos.

Yeah, the last one had been pretty random.

"Do you play Roblox?" James asked.

"Huh? Roblox?"

His eyes widened. "Are you kidding? You don't know what Roblox is?"

"Nope. What's that?"

"It's… Oh my gosh. Okay, come here." He flopped down to the ground and pulled out his computer, pulling up an app called 'Roblox'. It was a diagonal white square with a little black hole in the middle. He patted the ground next to him, and she stretched across it, their sides brushing slightly.

"So basically," he explained, "this is a big app full of games. And people. So people can friend other people, and they can make and play games." He gestured to the hundreds of games that were on his screen.

"Who would play that, though? It sounds boring."

"You just offended me."

"Not my problem."

James laughed. Lily loved the sound of his laugh. "Anyway, we're going to play one of these games. Choose."

"I don't even know what these games are," pointed out Lily. "How am I expected to choose?"

He shrugged. "Based on the titles, I guess."

She rolled her eyes. "Doomspire… Arsenal… Jailbreak… Prison Life… ugh, these are all so dark."

"What, you wanted a game with puppies and unicorns? Dark games are the only ones that have some action and thrill."

"No, but it doesn't have to be gloomy."

James laughed again. "Okay, okay, fine. We'll play something lighter. How about, um… Speed Run 4?"

"Why on Earth does it say 'MOON' next to it?"

"It's the dimension code," he explained.

"What's a… you know what, nevermind. All right, we can play this one. How does it work?"

He clicked on the game and it pulled up a large terrain, and standing in the middle was a little avatar.

"Is that you?" she asked him.

"Well, yeah. It's my character. Any game I want to play, he's my little avatar."

"Wow. He looks nothing like you."

"Hey!" he protested, laughing. "I tried. You have to pay Robux to get some of the best clothes and hair. Robux," he added, seeing her confused expression, "are the coins in Roblox. Like the virtual currency."

"Still don't understand why people want to play this game," she muttered. "How do you play this?"

"Do you want to play with the dimension code or not?"

She stared at him blankly.

"Okay, nevermind. Let's do this easy." He pressed the up arrow key and his avatar started running over a yellow line onto a green hill kind of thing. Then he pressed the spacebar and his dude jumped over onto the next one. "You fall off these big blocks, you die."

"Oof."

"Yep. Then you start over from that level. Right and left to turn, up and down to go forwards and backwards. Spacebar to jump." He swivelled his computer to her. "Play."

Lily looked at him uncertainly before trying to make through the run. Then, naturally, she fell and crashed into a bunch of pieces.

"How the heck do you even like this game?" she grumbled.

He snorted. "You wanna play again?"

"Absolutely not." She reached forward and closed his computer. "I hate that game. No wonder I never got a Roblox account."

He leaned over and poked her side, making her squirm and making butterflies erupt in her stomach. "You've just offended half the world."

"Half the world plays this stupid thing?"

"It's not a stupid thing! It's-"

"I know, I know." She rolled her eyes. "I'm just joking."

He grinned, leaning back and stretching his arms out into the air. "So, what would you like to have? Cookies? Tea? Juice? Oh, wait. We got these new biscottis the other day."

"Yum."

He raised an eyebrow. "You want?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Cool. Gimme a sec." He jumped up and jogged over to his pantry, emerging with a box of chocolate biscottis and two plates. Each biscotti had a different topping. Some cherries, some crumbled chocolate flakes, some cream, some vanilla coating. "Which one do you want?"

She reached out and took a dark chocolate one and bit into it. "Mmm. It's good."

"Isn't it?"

Then she frowned, watching him chew on a one with vanilla cream. "Aren't you supposed to be dieting? I thought you said your season was now." She immediately cursed herself after asking that. That was an awful thing to say. She had no right to bring up his diet, it was his business when he ate what and he could eat what he wanted. She immediately started fretting that he'd start to yell at her or stop eating and look sad.

He paused, looking down at his biscotti. "Nope. No dieting."

"Okay," she replied, quickly trying to backtrack on her earlier words. "You don't need to. I mean, you are pretty fit…" The words were out of her mouth before she could realize she'd said them. What was happening?!

Shut up! Everything you say has to be monitored and planned. Stop letting things out!

Lily rolled her eyes.

"Well, yeah, I am," replied James, looking amused, "but that's not the… um, reason."

She sat up a bit straighter, hearing the slight sadness in his voice. "Oh, it's fine. You don't have to tell me."

Without warning, he smiled. "How did you know something was wrong?"

"I could…" Good question. How did she know? "I don't know. I could hear it in your voice. And your expression."

"Nobody else has been able to decipher that something was wrong," he informed her. "Not Charlie, Marilyn, Arnold, nobody, really."

She blinked, not knowing how to reply to that.

"But I'm going to tell you," he continued. "Because you're my friend. You deserve to know."

Aww.

Friend, huh.

SHUT UP.

"But, if possible, please don't tell anyone else. Not even Charlie. He doesn't know about anything I'm about to tell you."

"Of course not," she replied, her heart thumping quick. Was she really that special to him? For him to tell her something he hadn't told his best friends? Just the thought made her heart melt and her insides go all tingly.

Shut up! That stuff doesn't happen.

"So you know FIFA World Cup is happening next summer?" he asked. She nodded. "Right, so, selections were happening, and…"

He told her the entire story. All about Reed, Arnold, how he'd been framed and sabotaged, how he wasn't going to make the team. He explained everything to her, and the emotion was really showing in his voice.

"-so yeah. I… h-haven't made the team this year."

She could sense that this had really affected him, and she was admired. He truly enjoyed his job. He truly lived soccer. And he sounded beyond hurt.

This couldn't happen.

That was unfair, and she really couldn't bear to see happy-go-lucky, carefree, teasing James Potter look upset.

"Lily?" he asked softly. "Lily, what are you thinking?"

"How dare he!" she exploded, standing up. "How dare he do that to you! How dare he sabotage you and take away your spot on the team! I'm going to kill him! Right now!"

"Lily," pleaded James, tugging gently on her arm. "It's okay. Don't do anything about it."

"How can he just do that to you?!" she demanded. "Aren't there rules against that? Can't you complain?"

"I don't have proof," he explained. "Reed does. Arnold's witness."

"What about the other players?"

He snorted. "Too scared to defy their Captain." Then he sighed. "Lily, it's okay. Nothing needs to be done about it."

"No!"

"It's too late," he told her. "Today's the last day to get the team finalized. It's already evening."

"But…"

"It's not worth it, Lily. You could get in trouble."

"But how's it fair?" she asked softly, sinking down on the ground next to him. He gently put a hand on her hair and started stroking it. It felt rather nice.

I'm warning you…

"It's not. Life isn't always fair. But you gotta look on the bright side of things. I still have my job. I'm still an awesome midfielder."

"Yeah," she murmured, leaning against him lightly. "Yeah, I guess so."

It was late at night. Lily was awake, sitting in front of her mirror. She actually hadn't had any work to do that night, and there was a day off at work tomorrow. So she really should've been sleeping.

But she wasn't.

She was thinking about how to get James a spot back on his soccer team, because he deserved it.

While doing that, she didn't want to get her or James in trouble.

She thought about it for a while. To get James a spot on the team, somebody else would have to be kicked out, since there was no room. And Reed deserved to be kicked.

Really, it was simple.

She remembered what James had said. I don't have proof. Reed does.

She snorted, having watched all those crime thriller movies. Getting proof was a familiar trick that they used all the time. She would have to lure him into saying what he'd done, and then she'd record him saying it.

The hard part: Getting him to admit what he'd done.

She checked her watch. It was 11:20. Forty minutes she had to get this done. Could she really get information out of Reed at this hour? Wouldn't he be asleep?

She groaned. If she had to get evidence from Reed, she could only think of one reason why he'd talk to a stranger at night.

"It's worth a try," she muttered to herself, getting out of her chair. Her hair was a total mess, so she half-tied it and pulled on a red dress and brown boots before applying a coat of lipstick. She grimaced before grabbing a black handbag and running out of her apartment. She pulled out her phone and managed to find Reed's address pretty quickly. He was a famous soccer player after all.

She reached his mansion in around five minutes and took a deep breath, stuffing her phone in her handbag and turning on the voice recording app before knocking on the door.

Reed opened it a moment later, rubbing his eyelids groggily. "H-Hello?" he asked. He blinked upon seeing her and his eyes roamed her body.

She mustered herself before saying, "Hey."

"What brings you here so late at night?" he wondered.

"Oh, um…" Ugh, why hadn't she planned this? "My friend said she'd come pick me up after an event at 10, but she didn't, and now curfew started at the place I live. I can't go back until morning. And I'm a huge fan," she added. The words made her sick.

"Oh, of course. Come on in. It's cold outside, and you're not… wearing warm clothes."

"Sorry for waking you at this hour," she told him.

"No worries. It's okay." He was blinking rather rapidly now. "Uh, sit down?"

She nodded, sitting down on the sofa right next to him. "So… How's FIFA coming?"

"The teams have been selected," he replied.

"Are you on it?"

"Yes."

"That's… super impressive," she replied. Gross.

"And the team's finalized. Well, today's the deadline, and it's eleven, so…" He snorted. "The team's the team."

"Awesome." She wondered how she was going to breach the topic of James. She cleared her throat. "I'm so happy for you. Uh, I suppose you're not allowed to tell me who's on the team?"

"Unfortunately not. But for you… I may make an exception." His eyes travelled down her body again, and then back up, rather hungrily. She tried hard not to smirk as he listed the members of the team.

"Ooh, nice." Then she paused. "Hey, wait… James Potter isn't on the team?"

"No." He tilted his head to the side. "Do you… like him?"

"Promise not to tell anyone?" she whispered, leaning forward. He nodded, leaning forward as well. "I really don't. Everyone's crazy about him, but I don't get the hype."

He grinned rather wickedly. Lily didn't like his grin. It was gross. "I agree. I don't like him either. In fact, I was the one who made sure he wouldn't make the team."

"No way. How'd you do that?"

He looked around, and then turned back. "Okay, so basically, he's always been kind of a show-off and arrogant person. And you know, it's bad for a team when that happens. But he was a star player, apparently, and the managers were willing to overlook his personality. Which got me annoyed, so I had to bend a few rules. But it's always good to bend a few rules to straighten somebody else out. I got Potter's little friend Arnold to false testify that he was a bully and was awful for the team. Even though he technically didn't."

Lily bit back a smirk. Idiot. "Woah," she whispered. "That's… wicked."

"It is. I am. Now, enough of soccer talk." He grabbed her hands. "How are you?"

Lily tried to hide her grimace. "I'm fine," she replied slowly. "Just, you know, stuff going on..."

"Yep." He grinned devilishly, leaning forward. If Lily hadn't been so quick, he'd be kissing her, but she was quick, and she'd jumped off the couch in a split-second, and now he was kissing the sofa.

"Wait, what?!" he asked, jumping up. "Where'd you go? Where are you going?"

"To the selection office!" yelled Lily, slipping on her shoes and waving her phone in the air. "With all the proof that you've illegally sabotaged James's spot!"

"What? No! Stop-"

Lily rolled her eyes and started running to the soccer field building, reaching there within ten minutes. She checked the time. 11:50.

She barely had time. She had ten minutes. She reached an office and found a sheet of paper with all the selectors and their names and numbers. She quickly phoned up one of them. He didn't respond. Her heart beating quick, she called a second one. No response. She called a third one. Nobody picked up.

"Shoot!" she whispered. It was the end of the day. There were only eight minutes left.

All that work for nothing?

She grit her teeth and dialed up a fourth number. This time, someone picked up.

"Hello? Who's this?"

Her eyes widened. "Uh, hi! Hello! I'm Lily. Lily Evans. I need you to come to the, uh, soccer building right now. The selection building."

"Excuse me? Right now?"

"Yes! Yes! Right now. I have important information."

"It can wait until morning-"

"No it cannot! It's about the soccer team. The captain, Reed, has illegally sabotaged James Potter's spot, and I have proof to show you so! Please, please, come…"

"The team has already been selected and finalized. It's over."

"But it's not 12 yet!" exploded Lily. "How can you say that? How can you let an innocent man's spot on the team go away? His career? Get over here now!"

The man sighed. "Okay. I'll be there in a minute."

"Thank you so much."

He hung up and within five minutes, he'd arrived at the building.

11:55.

Uh-oh.

He reached the office and Lily threw the recording at him, pressing the play button. Both of them listened to the entire thing, Lily grimacing at her tone and her methods to get it out of Reed. The selector seemed to be thinking along the same lines, but he didn't say anything.

"This is serious," he said once the tape had finished.

"I know," replied Lily. "That's why James truly does deserve a spot on the team. And Reed… well, is this even allowed?"

"Of course not." He looked offended that she would even suggest the idea.

"Yeah, so… It's not too late now, is it? It's…"

He looked amused. "So you called me at midnight for this? I must say, you're pretty smart."

"Thanks. Um, is it possible to get things changed?"

"This has never happened before, but yes. I can foul out Reed." He took out some papers and signed his name on them with a pen, scratching out some things before scanning it and printing it off his computer. He bustled around the office for a minute after that before saying, "Okay. Reed is no longer on the FIFA team. Potter is."

"Yes!" squealed Lily, before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. "I mean, thank you so much. This was super helpful."

"Obviously, I'll need some more signatures and things done, but since this is a special case, I prevented the current list from being sent to the FIFA World Officials. By tomorrow, we'll have the official list sent to the Officials. The one with James's name on them."

Lily had no clue what that meant, but she could sense that it was a good thing. "Awesome. I don't know how to thank you for this, but… thank you."

He nodded, smiling. "It's my duty. Now, if that was it? I really have to go to bed. I have a couple young girls at home that I know will have probably already blown up the house by now…"

Lily snorted. "Yeah, okay. Bye. Thanks, again."

He nodded once and left. Lily collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily, checking the time on her watch.

12:00.

What. The. Heck. Had. Just. Happened.

Usually, something like that would've been totally planned. She would've thought about it for a long time before doing it all out. She probably wouldn't have even done it a few weeks ago.

But nope! She'd just strutted over and done everything she liked.

What had happened to her? Ever since she'd met James, everything had gone funky and haywire. There was no schedule. No planning. It was so spontaneous.

How did he have this effect on her?

She shook her head and got up. She wasn't probably allowed in the building alone. She would most likely just get arrested. She grabbed the new list, got out, and called an Uber (thank goodness for the people who were available so late at night) back to her apartment and went up to James's room before ringing his doorbell.

After three rings, he came out. "I'm coming, I'm coming. You didn't have to… Lily?" His eyes widened, taking in her outfit. Except not in a creepy way like Reed. "Uh, hi? Why are you so decked up?"

Lily looked down at her short red dress and shook her head. "Don't ask. Can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure…"

She walked in and shut the door before holding out the list to James.

"What's this?"

She rolled her eyes and shook it once. He took it from her, reading it slowly, and then his eyes widened as he looked back up at her.

"This is the soccer list."

"And…"

"And my name's on it! What the heck? How did you do it?" His eyes were full of light and his expression was spilling with happiness.

Lily quickly explained to him what she'd done, and by the end of her speech, he looked like he was about to cry.

"You seriously did all that just for me?" he asked quietly.

"Of course. You're my friend, and I wanted to help out. What kind of friend wouldn't do this?"

"You are the best, Lily, thank you. I love you so much," he told her, pulling her in for a hug.

Her mind was spinning, and she suddenly felt dizzy. She knew the last five words had been totally platonic, had just come out in the spur of the moment, because she'd done this for her.

So why did it make her feel so happy?

Don't.

Don't do what?

You know.

Lily did know.

And she couldn't believe it.

This couldn't be happening. This was totally crazy.

Lily Evans. Lily Evans, the woman who didn't believe in love, the woman who thought 'falling-in-love' was just a myth, the woman who did everything practically, had started to fall in love.

With James Potter.

A/N: *in lavender's voice* friends, don't make me laugh.

12 chapters and we finally got there. woohoo!

I wanted an action paced chapter because I just was in the mood when I wrote this lol. hope you guys liked it!

sorry for the long wait. but don't worry, I have a bunch more chapters written up so there's no chance of me ditching this story anytime soon.

let me know your thoughts! :)