Room Service

Chapter 31

Oct 31 - Epilogue

"Hi!"

"Lily! Where are you?"

"Um, outside your building, if you didn't give me the wrong address."

A bark of laughter filters through the line from the other end. "Why would I give you the wrong address?"

"I don't know, James. Why would you not give me your flat number?"

"Oh. Did I not do that?"

"James Potter, I am freezing my arse off down here." Lily grits her teeth. "Tell me your flat number, or so help me God I will kick your—" the door to the building slides open, revealing an amused quirk of brows and a brightly painted face. "Oh. You're here."

"I want to say something smart here," he begins, ending the call swiftly as he walks forward, "but I'm a little too distracted by how fucking sexy you look right now, like what the fuck, Evans?"

Lily snorts, looking down at her ensemble with a smirk. "Had a thing for Dorothy as a child, did you?"

"Not as a child," James corrects, reaching out to twirl one of her blue-ribboned braids around his fingers. "But I certainly do now."

"Oh my God. Do you ever stop flirting?"

"With you?" he grins. "Never. Now, where's Toto?"

"Right here," she says, adjusting the basket on her arm and popping open the lid to display the furry little head of a stuffed, shaggy black dog inside. When James chuckles to himself at the sight of the toy, she returns her attention to him, hand reaching up to lightly tug on one of the antlers resting atop his messy head. Hazel eyes glimmer; grin stretches wider, painted nose shining under the streetlight. "And you're Rudolph, I suppose?"

Quite unexpectedly, he scoffs, straightening the glasses that have slipped down his nose. "Nothing that predictable. I'm Prongs."

"Prongs?" She presses her lips together, hilarity bubbling. "Isn't that… you?"

"Precisely."

"Right. And am I supposed to know—"

"OI, PRONGS!"

Lily jumps a little at the noise, neck craning up at the sound of the hollering until she spots—rather predictably—Sirius's drunkenly annoyed face poking out of a window on the second floor, party music pouring out from behind him and into the night. With his long hair pulled back into a bun, it's rather easy to spot the whiskers and black nose painted over his pale skin. "ARE YOU GONNA COME UPSTAIRS, OR SPEND ALL EVENING OGLING EVANS DOWN THERE?"

She feels, quite suddenly, entirely sympathetic towards their neighbours.

"COMING!" James yells back, not the slightest bit unnerved. Then, he turns to look at her again, smiling sheepishly. "We live on the second floor, by the way. 202."

She rolls her eyes, walking away with a reluctant grin. "Come along, you tosser."

"Lily, wait!"

"Wha—" she finds a sturdy arm slipping around her waist, turning her around and tugging her closer until warm lips slide over her own, steal away the cold from her mouth and skin. She smiles into the kiss, stupidly happy, fingers disappearing into thick hair. "Mm, hi, you."

"Hey." He grins back. Glasses lopsided again, antlers the same. "That's better. Let's go up now."

"ANOTHER FOR EVANS!"

"Sirius!" Lily laughs, one hand coming up to cover her ear. "Stop screaming, I'm right here. And I do not need—"

"I think it's wiser if you just humour him," snickers Remus into his drink, carefully angling the glass away from his wolf's snout. The edges of his whiskers still remain pink-tinged from his last cranberry-flavoured cocktail. "Just hand him the drink a few minutes later, and he'll down it without a beat."

"It's true," Peter adds, ironically the soberest person in the room, thanks to his recently-developed nausea over the taste of alcohol. He swirls his glass of virgin mojito, rodent nose twitching self-importantly. "He really is the easiest to fool when he's drunk."

"I am not!" Sirius grumbles, one accusatory finger vaguely oscillating around Remus's outline. "I am very much in control, and I insist—insist that Evans—"

"Terribly sorry, lads, but Evans won't be doing anything." A familiar warmth suddenly slips around her shoulders, and Lily finds herself being steered out from underneath Sirius's grip quite effortlessly. James's thumb brushes absently over her collar bone. "I need to steal her away for a bit."

"For a bit?! For the entire night, more like it, you wanker!" scoffs Sirius. "You're both just as bad as each other."

But the teasing only seems to encourage him more, and with a small wink thrown behind his shoulder, James pulls her away from the living room. But they've taken not more than a few steps past the melee when she finds two large hands covering her eyes suddenly.

"Hey! What's the meaning of this, Potter?"

"Patience," he chuckles, skimming soft lips over the shell of her left ear. Lily holds back an incriminating shiver, but just barely. "Careful now, don't trip."

"Well, I wouldn't if someone didn't find it amusing to render me bloody blind."

"Always so snarky." He bites gently at her earlobe. Before she can do much more than yelp, the sounds of the party seem to dim quietly into the background. "Okay, I'm going to take my hands off now, but you can't open your eyes right away. Count till ten."

She laughs. "What—?"

"Come on, Evans. Please?"

An exasperated smile blooms on her lips, but she still makes herself sigh dramatically. "Oh, fine. I won't look."

"I'm taking your word for it." A pause. And then, "Are you sure I can trust you?"

"Take your hands off, or I'll sic Toto on you, Prongs."

James snickers, slowly pulling his palms away from her face. And though every inch of burning curiosity within her tells her otherwise, she keeps her eyes firmly shut, a tiny smile refusing to leave her lips. "Okay, do I start counting now?"

"Yes. And remember, Evans, don't—"

"Open my eyes, yes, yes. You really are insufferable, you know."

When he presses a quick kiss to her cheek in response, Lily feels the grin curving over his mouth against her skin. And then she begins the countdown, feels him step away, leave the room, the door clicking shut softly in the aftermath. But she keeps counting, right up until ten, after which she blinks her eyes open. For a moment, the colours in the room bloom so strangely in her vision that Lily thinks she's a lot more drunk than she'd imagined.

But no—

She lets her eyes adjust, gaze flying from one end of the room to the other in stunned disbelief.

Before her stands a large, gorgeous bed with rich, maroon sheets, the space around her bathed in the soft lighting provided by half a dozen small candles placed across every flat surface. And in between all that: a single rose, lying atop the mattress. She walks closer, notices the small note trapped beneath the stem.

Surprised?

Please be.

But before she can so much as draw a breath or do anything more than gawk dumbly, a knock sounds on the door behind her.

"Room Service!"

Lily laughs, now, the sound half-awed, half-amused, feet tripping over each other as she rushes to answer. A quick wrench of the door, and there he stands, hazel eyes bright and dancing, hands holding onto a large tray with two covered dishes, a bottle of champagne, and two flutes.

She bites the inside of her cheek. "My God, James, this is—you—" she pauses, shakes her head. "This is amazing! Dare I say it, this is the most romantic thing anyone's ever done for me. Thank you—"

"Ah ah, not yet." He winks, steps inside, kicking the door shut behind him. "I'm not doing this for free, you know. I was promised something yesterday, if I recall right."

"Hm?" She pretends to think. "And what's that?"

"Well—" he grins, setting down the tray carefully on a table and pushing his glasses up his nose. "I'm pretty certain it had something to do with letting me remind you exactly why you love saying my name..."

She cocks a brow, slowly stepping forward and placing her basket on the table as well. And before James's smirk can get any wider, she pulls him forward with a tug on his fluffy brown jumper.

"All that ego." Her lips slide over his, almost teasing, warmth simmering beneath her skin. "You're lucky you're attractive."

"You're just bitter that you can't resist my charms."

"Oh, please." Her nails drag lightly along his scalp, instantly prompt a shiver to run down his spine. "I can be so much more charming than you."

"And how's that?" He swallows, the challenge in his eyes looking more like invitation.

Lily presses kisses down the column of his throat, distantly thanking the liquid courage flowing down her veins for what she says next.

"You're not the only one who requested some privacy from your friends, you know," she whispers, and slowly guides James's hands down from her waist, beneath her skirt, up her thighs, hips, inward, right until the moment she watches a breath stutter in his mouth at the feel of her bare skin. "And you're definitely not the only one who can plan."

"That's… ah—" His eyes flit between hers, dark, wild, the flush on his cheeks a deep rouge. "That's not exactly what I'd call 'charming'. But we can work with it."

"Oh, yeah?" Lily presses closer, teeth biting down on her lower lip at the brush of his hands. "What would you call it, then, Potter?"

In lieu of a response, a dangerous sort of glint flashes behind his glasses, and she has time only to grip onto him tighter before he descends on her, mouth hungry, taste intoxicating, entirely mind-numbing. Before she knows it, the back of her knees hit the edge of the bed behind her, and when she stumbles onto the mattress the next second, movements clumsy, James doesn't follow; he sinks, instead, onto his knees, between her legs.

"Wait, I—" Lily scrambles onto her elbows, toes curling on the floor, fingers curling on his shoulders. The air in her lungs might as well not exist. "I want to thank you first."

But he simply smirks, pushes her thighs apart, bunches up her skirt. And right before he drives her wholly insane with his mouth, he says, "let's work on that name bit first, yeah? Very important when you're showing gratitude to someone."

She lets out a huff of laughter at that, a sound that quickly dissolves into a soft moan. "Fuck, James—"

"Hm, much better."

And they work on it for long enough into the night that Lily forgets her own name, her mind consumed completely by everything James Potter.

It is, undoubtedly, the best Room Service of her life.

THE END.

A/N - Thank you to everyone who has stayed with this story and supported it from start to end despite all the hiccups and breaks in between. Finishing the last four chapters amidst one of the worst writer's block I've ever gone through has definitely been a challenge, but receiving such wonderful comments and so much love has made the journey worthwhile. Only gratitude and adoration in my heart for all of you. Hope this story brought a smile to your face! 😊

Happy New Year! May you have the best 2022!