*throws chapter at you all and runs*
.: Chapter Thirteen: Lily and Sirius :.
"We all have one foot in a fairytale, and the other in the abyss." – Paulo Coelho
The dark road was illuminated under the headlights of Edward Evans's truck. The evening downpour had coated the asphalt in a sheen of water, and the wind blowing through the open window as they cruised down the street was biting. It was still the middle of December, but her window was too dirty to see out of properly with it closed, and she hadn't drove through her home town since August. The lights of the store fronts flickered by in a study rush, and her dad was humming along to Dancing Queen on the radio.
It'd been two days since Lily's parents had picked her up from King's Cross. She'd spent today with her father, shopping for Christmas presents together like they'd been doing for as long as she could remember, and now they were finally on their way home. Mrs. Potter and Sirius were supposed to be arriving in twenty minutes.
Yesterday, Sirius had sent her a letter asking if he could stay at her house for a few days. James's only living grandmother had fallen ill a couple of weeks ago, and she had just passed away yesterday—hence Sirius's letter. He'd assured her that James and his parents were perfectly okay with him attending the funeral with them, but Sirius said that he felt weird about it, having not ever met the woman in his life. And apparently, both Remus and Peter couldn't have him for the almost-week, so that left her.
Lily was more than happy to do it, but convincing her mother to agree was a different story. Lily had spent all morning and afternoon insisting to her mother that they needed to help him out, and she eventually came around by nine o'clock that same night. She promptly went all a titter about having a guest to pamper and set out to dust every crevice of their home before she went to sleep. Petunia, on the other hand, had fumed and stormed about the house in a rage after Rose had said yes. She was insisting that Lily was determined to ruin her wedding. There were plans to go to the bridal shop in three days time, and now Sirius was going to be there. Lily was ecstatic that she'd have a friend to balance out her mother and sister's… exuberance over wedding planning. And she was sure Sirius would be a great addition to picking out a style of dress.
Lily regretfully rolled up her window as they pulled into the driveway. Her father was already at the door with a mountain of bags on each arm, half of them groceries. Lily was just grabbing what was left when there was a loud crack of Apparition, and she watched her father drop a couple bags in surprise. She heard Sirius's voice float out from the alleyway across the street, sounding just as boisterous as he usually did. They were only lit by the glow of the streetlights, but the shadow of Sirius's long hair was unmistakable, and she assumed the tall silhouette next to him was Mrs. Potter.
"Oh goodness," the woman said, catching sight of Lily and her armful of bags. "Let me help."
She waved her wand and all the bags began levitating themselves towards the door—Lily looked around quickly, keenly aware that she was surrounded by Muggle homes, but there was no one around and her neighbor's curtains were firmly shut for the night. Mrs. Potter flicked her wand again and the bags in her father's hand also began levitating.
"You've certainly bought a lot" The woman laughed. Her face was still in shadow, but she had a very warm voice.
"Hey, Red," Sirius greeted, slinging an arm over her shoulders. He began pulling her towards the front stoop and then in through the front door, following a row of levitating reusable shopping bags and passing by her rather dumb-struck looking father.
"Your home is lovely," she heard Mrs. Potter gush from the kitchen, likely speaking with Lily's mother. "I'm Euphemia Potter, but please, call me Mia."
She heard the soft tinkle of her mother's voice in reply, but Lily was too busy taking her shoes off and making sure not to track in a mess that she missed what was said. She gestured for Sirius to do the same.
"You're early," she said.
"Yeah, Mrs. P was pretty impatient to meet you," Sirius laughed. He leaned in and lowered his voice conspiratorially. "You're rather infamous around the Potter's home, as James hasn't shut up about you since first year."
Lily blushed slightly, but smiled and looked to see her mother and Mrs. Potter walk back into the entryway.
"You must be Lily Evans." Mrs. Potter smiled, hugging Lily before she'd even processed the woman's features. "I'm Mia. I've heard so many great things about you."
Pulling back from the hug, Lily took stock of James's mother. Mrs. Potter was a tall, sturdy woman, whose robes looked to be very expensive. Her hair was shoulder length with wisps of red hidden amongst the grey. Lily had caught glances of this woman at King's Cross, but she was still surprised to see how old she looked. There were lines on her face and her veins were very prominent on her hands. Despite her obvious age though, she looked very kind, with warm eyes and a dimple in her left cheek. She could see where James got his looks from because Lily could picture this woman as the beautiful young woman that she must had been.
"Yes, I'm Lily," she confirmed. "It's very nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Potter."
"Please, call me Mia," Mrs. Potter smiled. "I'm very grateful that you've welcomed Sirius into your home for these next few days."
She was clearly speaking to Lily's parents now, and Lily could hear hints of her Pureblooded upbringing slipping in through her formal speech.
"He knows that he could have come with us, but funerals are weird enough without the fact that he'd never met Monty's mother."
"It's not a problem at all," Lily's father said from behind her. "I'm Edward Evans, nice to meet you."
"Likewise," Mrs. Potter said, giving her father a very firm handshake. "Well I must go, our Portkey to India leaves soon. Now don't give this family any trouble, young man."
She gave Sirius a very stern look and he adopted a 'who, me?' face that made Lily smile. She pulled Sirius into a hug and then gripped him by the shoulders, holding him at arms length and looking him in the eye.
"You write if something happens and I'll come home straight away," Mrs. Potter said.
"Relax, Mum, they're not going to maim me," Sirius smirked. "I've already left the house that did that, remember?"
"Yes, I know, love," Mrs. Potter smiled sadly, touching his cheek gently. "Don't blame me for worrying about you, though. I'll see you in a few days."
Mrs. Potter turned to give them one last nod of farewell, but her attention snagged on the puddles of water that she'd tracked into the kitchen. "Dear, me," she mumbled, waving her wand and vanishing the mess. "I'm sorry for the mess."
Lily's mother looked stunned. "It's no worries. I wish I could do my cleaning that quickly."
And with that, Mrs. Potter swept from the house as gracefully as she'd entered it.
.:..:.
"Nope," Sirius said, popping the 'p.' "I have very horrible memories of riding in these… things."
"It's a truck Sirius," Lily groaned. "We have to be at the bridal shop in an hour, and I don't trust you not to… I don't know, burn the house down because you're curious about the light switches."
Lily thought she heard him mumble, 'it doesn't make sense,' about electricity under his breath. This battle had been ongoing for five minutes, and she finally lost her patience and forced him into the backseat, her mother giggling from the driver's seat and Petunia looking pained from the passenger side.
Today they were looking for a wedding gown for Petunia and Lily was getting her fitting for her bridesmaid dress. They were meeting the rest of the wedding party at the shop, and it was meant to be a girls day, full of champagne and a fancy dinner. Those things would still be happening, of course, but Sirius's presence had put a damper on Petunia's idea of the "perfect day." Lily's mother insisted that he tag along despite Petunia's hatred of the idea because Lily had explained in great detail all the ways that Sirius's curiosity could get the better of him and the house would be no more. It was a short conversation in the long run, and her mum wasn't hearing any of Petunia's protests.
As they were pulling onto the main road, Sirius still grumbling beside her as he tried to work the seatbelt, her mother asked, "Why do you have horrible memories of vehicles, Sirius?"
"Well the first time I rode in one, it was fine really, except that my father was not pleased when he saw me hop out of it on the curb. Not a big fan of anything to do with Muggles, him." Sirius laughed. "One time, I was slightly, just slightly, intoxicated and that was terrifying. Oh, and let's not forget about the time I almost bled out in the back seat of one of those—what do you call 'em? Ah, yeah, a taxi!"
He said this very quickly and very matter-of-factly, and Lily gasped out a, "Sirius!" in warning of him possibly sharing too much.
"What?" he shrugged, entirely unaware of the bulge of her mother's eyes and the loaded glance the woman had exchanged with Petunia. "It's true! You've seen the scar. Really, it was some of my mother's best work."
She wanted to elbow him sharply in the gut, but he turned to her, confused, and asked, "Do you not tell you parents all about your friends?"
She shook her head. "No. And this wasn't really my story to share in the first place. I thought the secret was supposed to be—I don't know, under lock and key."
"That's funny," he laughed. "James tells his parents everything, and they're the only normal family I've ever been around, so I thought that's what people did."
"It sounds like your family's a real piece of work," her mother added, making a sharp turn onto another road.
"That's one way of putting it, Mrs. Evans," he drawled. "But I'm freshly disowned and apparently they can prosecute me if I ever lay claim to them as family, so I'm placing them rather firmly in the 'past' portion of my life. They can be a 'real piece of work' to someone else."
The rest of the drive to the bridal shop was silent, but for Sirius's constant questions about the things both inside the truck and outside of it. He got stuck on the actual mechanics of the vehicle that no one could answer and then just started blurting out theories. Ranging from how the truck is run on oil like the lamps at Hogwarts (which Lily was able to confirm was somewhat true), to how he could probably make it work with only magic. He was very charming, and her mother seemed rather taken with him as they bounced ideas off of each other about some non-existent motorbike that Sirius insisted he was going to own someday. Lily actually laughed when her mum said the whole bike should be able to disappear whenever you wanted it to.
They were still laughing with each other when they pulled into the parking lot across the street from their destination. As they were walking to the shop, Lily was (trying not to) lecture Sirius about how he should behave around Muggles.
"Believe it or not, Evans, I happen to be very intelligent," he said, holding a hand to his chest and looking towards the sky. "I also have no interest of getting expelled from Hogwarts for breaking the Statute of Secrecy. Turns out I need an education now since I'm no longer lounging on buckets of gold."
"Oh, I'm so sorry you're poor," Lily mocked.
They laughed together. She was happy to see that Sirius was actually acting as she was used to seeing him. Making fun of his situation was much more Sirius-like behavior than him walking around as if he were a ghost. He'd been gradually getting better for a month now, and Lily didn't think that the timeframe was a coincidence. She thought that him getting disowned lifted a huge weight off his shoulders, and allowed him to look at everything from a different perspective. She was glad for him.
Sirius was looking around in horror as they entered the bridal shop, and Lily joined him. Everything was so white and it looked as though wedding things had literally exploded around the room. Lily almost expected there to be a minister and pews in one corner.
A very perky and very cheerful attendant led their small party of four to the rest of Petunia's friends that had arrived before them. Petunia squealed as she caught sight of them and hugged each of them quickly, gushing all the while about how happy she was to finally be here. As Lily sat down next to Sirius on the white sofa, she could understand her sister's excitement. She could picture herself in her sister's shoes: her here with the girls and her mother, her getting worked up over the stunning white dresses, and her own gushy-ness about the man that she was to be marrying. And she was happy for her sister. She'd yet to meet Vernon, but if he made her sister look like this, then she was sure to like him, even if he did sound dreadfully boring the few times she'd heard Petunia speak of him.
Lily then realized that everyone was looking at her, or rather at Sirius who was sitting close enough to her that their sides were pressed together.
"Who's this, Tuney?" one of her sister's friends asked.
"He's just my sister's friend from her school," Petunia replied, obviously very delighted at having to speak about it. "He's staying with us for a few days."
One of Petunia's other friends, who looked vaguely familiar, spoke next in a very haughty voice. "Friend?" the woman scoffed. "My mother never would have allowed my boyfriend stay over."
"We're not dating," Lily defended. "Sirius and I have been friends since we were eleven—no romance at all."
Sirius then threw an arm around her shoulder and pulled her impossibly closer. "How easily you dismiss our love, Red! You are the only woman I'll ever love, allow me one last kiss before you leave me forever!" he cried. He then proceeded to plant very wet and very disgusting kisses all over her face. She made a noise she'd never made before as she fended him off.
"Black if you don't' stop, I'll tell!" she gasped.
"Tell who?" he questioned, stopping his 'kiss assault' but keeping his leg thrown over hers and his arm around her shoulders.
She thought quickly and settled on, "Mrs. Potter!"
"She would say you deserve the affection!"
"Fine, then I'll tell James! I know there's a rule about me somewhere."
"It's an unspoken rule, but go ahead! He has recently acquired information about me that will make him uncaring of my advances."
"What information?" she asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at him.
He withdrew all contact immediately, which made her not only more suspicious, but cold without him wrapped around her. Lily was about to open her mouth to question him further, worried that James knew how she really felt about him and knew she wouldn't accept Sirius's affections, when she became aware of everyone's eyes on them again. Petunia looked angry, which was usual these days, and her friends looked more than a little appalled. Lily's mother, always the peacemaker, spoke before anyone else.
"Why don't we try the first dress on!" she called, clapping her hands once.
Petunia's smile, miraculously, returned to her face immediately.
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Dress shopping, Sirius decided, was what he would face in hell. He could picture it now, his daily torture regimen consisting of watching Lily's dreadful sister try on dress after dress, the only difference between some being the placement of buttons. Buttons. Lily was a delight though, and, really, he was doing this for her. He also had a feeling that she had dragged him along not because of the damage he could do to her house, which was unlikely in the first place and easily fixable in a second, but because she didn't want to face this outing alone.
Sirius didn't blame her. The levels of shrill that Petunia and her friends could reach when they particularly enjoyed a dress was painful to Sirius's ears, and the conversation topics ranged from table cloths to the sizes of high heeled shoes. Lily was speaking up occasionally though, voicing her favorite choices and complimenting certain veil-to-dress pairings. Most of the dress conversation went straight over Sirius's head. He'd thought that he had no room in his brain for 'sweetheart necklines' or 'sheath dresses' or 'mermaid tales,' but apparently, he did. Eventually, he even found himself preferring the 'ball gown' style even if it did accentuate Petunia's extraordinarily long neck.
When he realized that he thought pearls would hide the minor flaw on the girl, he became in need of a cigarette immediately—and he wouldn't turn down a nice hard slap on the back from someone who didn't know what a 'modified A-line' was.
Just as he was about to excuse himself for a quick smoke, a woman dressed in a blue pantsuit called Lily's name. Lily stood to follow the woman, and she grabbed Sirius by the hand, forcing him to follow her. They were led to a closed off section with a small pedestal in the center and an elderly woman seated on a rolling stool. Sirius was alarmed to see the woman had a great many metal pins sticking out from between her closed lips.
"Stand here," the elderly woman instructed, somehow speaking around the objects in her mouth. "Your friend leave, and you take clothes off."
Lily looked taken aback by the sternness in the woman's face and her no-nonsense Russian accent. She sent a slightly pleading look his direction.
"I'll stay if you don't mind, ma'am? Keep my friend company while you…" he looked around and realized he had no idea what was going on, "do what you, um, do."
The woman only nodded, her irritated expression apparently permanent. Lily looked relieved but she still hesitated to remove her clothing.
"Don't worry, Evans," Sirius reassured, taking a seat on one of the chairs by the door and propping his foot on his knee. "I'm not going ta ogle your bits."
That made her laugh, and she shucked off her jeans. Even though Sirius had zero interest in woman whatsoever, he could recognize that Lily was beautiful. He knew this already because only a blind person would deny the fact, but now he knew it up close and personal. Very little of her skin was revealed at one time because she had a dress clutched around her waist as she removed her shirt and the straps covered her shoulders quickly, but it was enough for him to count James as a lucky man—even if he did just take a couple glances, sticking to his promise of not ogling her. This was thought lightly, though, and with a small laugh that drew Lily's attention. His friend had none of his shit together where it concerned Lily, nor was James focused on her looks in the first place. Sirius still remembered the first time that James had spoken to him about her. He had said, "That Evans girl got a better score on that test than me, and I think I love her."
Granted, that was first year and an eleven-year old's priorities are different than an almost-seventeen-year old's, but just the other day James had been complaining about how Lily's marks were better than his on the Transfiguration essay. Some things didn't change.
"Why'd you just laugh?" Lily asked, eyeing him funny.
"Oh, I was just thinking that if I were into girls, I'd be in heaven right now," Sirius smirked, purposely giving her ostentatious once-over and wiggling his eyebrows.
"Well, I'm glad you're not because that look you gave me would send most self-respecting women running for the hills."
Sirius laughed. And then he froze.
"Wait," he croaked. "Did I just…"
"Yup," Lily said, popping the 'p'—like Sirius had earlier—and smiling.
"Nice. Perfect. Not how I expected that to happen." Sirius ran a hand across his brow and shook his hair out of his face. "You—you can't tell anyone. Only-only James really knows and you can't–"
"Don't worry, Sirius," Lily assured. "Your secret's safe with me. And even if you didn't really mean to share it, I'm happy you trusted me enough to tell me."
"Yeah, can we drop this for now?" He laughed nervously. "Or can we at least pretend that I didn't just drop a bomb so casually."
"Well, it wasn't exactly a bomb, but whatever you want, Sirius," Lily said. She gave him one more smile before turning as the woman on the stool instructed.
The dress fitting, because that's what this was, took an hour. By the time Lily was thanking the still silent seamstress, Petunia had narrowed her choice of dress down to two options. Sirius, despite the crash course in dresses that he'd undergone in the last hour and a half, thought they looked remarkably similar. They were both pretty—beautiful if Sirius were to admit it—and he didn't think the girl could go wrong with either one of them. He decided he should say as much as he was retaking his seat on the sofa next to Lily.
"They're both very nice choices—and you look lovely in each—but I like the first one best," he chimed in. "The one with the buttons on the arms."
Two of the other women, both of who Sirius couldn't remember the names of, agreed with him immediately
"I like that one too," Lily said, smiling wide-toothed at her sister. "It makes you look tall and regal."
"You think so?" Petunia asked, looking at her sister in the mirror.
"Yeah, I do." Lily nodded.
Despite Petunia deciding on the dress then and there, they were still in the bridal shop for another hour and half. Sirius used this time to finally take his much needed smoke break, and he passed a half hour of that time leaning against the brick building of the bridal shop. He took a deep pull from the cigarette and watched the grey smoke billow into the sky and the wind send it away. Lily sighed obnoxiously next to him, and she was shaking her head at him when he lazily rolled his head to face her.
"These things are horrible for you, you do know that right?"
Sirius snorted. "Evans, if I live long enough for a cigarette to do me in, then I'll give you a million galleons."
"Well, that's morbid." Lily laughed and took a pull from her own cigarette. Sirius watched the embers glow red for a second and the ash flutter to the concrete.
"You're one to talk," Sirius replied. He tipped his cigarette in her direction, gesturing to the one balanced between her fingers. "Those things are horrible for you, Red."
"Well, if you don't think I'll be right by your side in this mess we're about to get into, then I'll give you a million galleons."
.:..:.
Sirius was very much ready to be back at Lily's house, sitting in her living room and flicking through the channels on the telly (his aunt Andromeda was right, they were amazing contraptions). But Sirius knew this wasn't yet to be because all Petunia was now talking about was the French restaurant they were meant to eat at, and how they served authentic French food and it was supposed to make you feel like you were in Paris. Having actually been to France more times than he could recall, he had his doubts about how good a French restaurant in the middle of London could be.
Realizing how snobby that sounded, Sirius vowed never to voice it and to suck it up. He'd have to get used to French food in London because when he craved it, there were no funds available to him that allowed him to just nip off to France for the day. He guessed the place did look rather high end, though, when their party of seven entered the venue. He could've done without the large metal Eiffel Tower crawling up the wall behind the hostess stand, but it looked well enough off.
"Party of seven for Evans," Mrs. Evans said to the maître D.
"It says the reservation is for six, madam," the man replied after a short perusal of the list in front of him.
"My husband called yesterday to say that we would be adding another plate," Mrs. Evans insisted. "I watched him make the call and we were told that it wouldn't be a problem."
"I'm sorry, we only have a table for six." The man leaned away and began to converse in French with the small woman that had come to look over his shoulder.
Mrs. Evans glanced anxiously at him and then swiftly looked to her eldest daughter, who seemed to be on the verge of panic. Sirius could see the look in her eyes and it reminded him, suddenly, of Regulus. Before he could process what he was doing, he launched into a rapid fire conversation with the maître D— in fluent French. He quickly began explaining that his sister was getting married and that today was supposed to be all about her and what a shame it would be if it was ruined on the account of a small mix-up. He knew that Lily (and everyone else in their group) was watching him in astonishment, but he was too busy trying to translate what the man was saying back to him to acknowledge them.
He wasn't sure if it was what he said or the language he spoke, but the woman began nodding and she plucked the menus out of the man's hand and snagged another one from the hostess stand.
"You are very kind, young man," she said, her French accent coating her words. She began to lead them to the back other restaurant.
"You speak French?" Lily hissed at him. "What did you say?"
"I learned how to speak French before I learned to speak English, Red," Sirius laughed, recalling the old man with the monocle that had taught him. "And I just told him that it was Petunia's day and that they'd be horrible to ruin it."
"Really?" Lily asked, her eyebrows rising.
"I may have embellished a little, but it got the job done."
Once they were seated, Mrs. Evans reached across Lily to pat his hand twice and give him a smile. Dinner passed quickly, and without any further incidents. Sirius had a few laughs as he watched Petunia and her friends try to figure out which silverware to use, and a few more when they eventually decided on the wrong one. With the memory of his stout governess who'd taught him the "art of dining" engrained in his head, he worked his way through the courses with no problem. He was surprised to see Lily doing it correctly too and had asked her about it.
"Marlene told me once at dinner—last year," she'd informed.
Now they were on their way back to Lily's house, the hour late and his eyelids a little heavy. Lily had her head on his shoulder and was humming along to a song on the radio. Today, he decided, was one of the best days that he'd had in a long time.
.:..:.
Sirius was eyeing the couch where he was meant to sleep, no longer the least bit tired. He was grateful they had allowed him to stay over, but he was not going to be grateful about the kinks that floral sofa would be putting in his back. One night on that… thing was enough to last him a lifetime, but here he was, frowning deeply and forcing himself not to complain. He'd had worse sleeping arrangements—the floor of the wine cellar at Grimmauld Place immediately coming to mind—so he buckled down and started situating himself. As he let out a particular type of hiss when he twisted just the wrong way to aggravate the knot that had persisted in his neck all day, Lily rounded the corner. She was clutching two mugs of what smelled like hot chocolate and her pajama bottoms were pooling around her socked feet.
"I know," she winced. "This couch is older than me. My dad's had his fair share of nights complaining on this thing."
"Well, I sympathize with him," Sirius groaned, pushing his hair out of his face and accepting one of the mugs. "It's been one night and my head feels like it's going to pop right off."
They were quiet as they sipped from their mugs, which was in fact deliciously creamy hot chocolate.
"So, I realized a few minutes ago what you meant about James 'recently acquiring information' about you that would make me tattling on you meaningless," Lily said, breaking the silence.
"Ah, yes… that," Sirius confirmed. "You do know that James has never told us we couldn't go after you, right. And that he's never discouraged anyone from asking you to Hogsmeade, either."
"Now I know that second bit's a lie," Lily voiced.
"Is not! Marauder's honor, Evans," Sirius intoned. "Peter and I… may… have-um… well we were the ones behind both that David bloke and the Sam guy."
"So James must have still made Louis Heard's head swell up."
Sirius laughed. "Actually, that one was all Ailana and Remus, believe it or not."
Lily was shaking her head. "Well, my whole worldview just changed."
"Did it really though?" Sirius asked.
Lily just shrugged and flipped on the television. They watched for a few minutes before Sirius felt his eyelids droop.
"Thank you for the drink," he said, realizing he'd yet to do that. "This will cancel out at least half the lumps on this couch. Maybe if I drink it really fast, then it'll take care of the broken spring that's currently digging into my spine."
Lily laughed and brought her mug to her lips to cover her smile. Then she got a look on her face. It was the same look she'd given him before she hexed Mulciber in third year, and then again right before she'd ripped Snape a new one in potions at the beginning of term. It usually meant she was going to say something rash and/or stupid.
"Why don't you just sleep in my room?" she asked.
His eyebrows shot up, half in surprise at her offer and half because that was so much tamer than what she usually said after that look graced her features.
"I can't sleep in the same bed as you," Sirius stated.
"And why not?" she pouted, sticking out her bottom lip and quirking an eyebrow in a challenge.
He just looked at her, trying to tell her without having to say it out loud that it would be beyond weird. Apparently it didn't work because she persisted.
"I have a double bed, so we wouldn't be up in each other business, and I know from James that you don't snore, so that's not a problem, and above all, this sofa is going to mess up your back for a month—which wouldn't make me a very good host, would it?"
He just stared at her and couldn't think of a reason to say no that wouldn't be a lie. Once Lily Evans set her mind to something, then the idea was here to stay. Finally, he latched on to something.
"Your parents wouldn't let me," he reasoned.
"Trust me, after this afternoon, my mother thinks that you hang the moon." Lily smiled. "You say one thing about your back hurting and she'll likely insist. As for my dad, well, we can let him yell at us in the morning."
"James wouldn't like it," he added.
"Ah." Lily smiled. "I recently acquired some information about you that would make him uncaring of your affections."
Yeah having his words thrown back at him always sucked. Sirius flopped back on the couch. "Lily," he sighed. "I just don't think it's a good idea."
"Oh, okay," she replied quickly. "It was just a thought, don't worry about it."
Sirius hated the flat way her voice sounded, and she was standing up and shuffling towards the stairs before he could gather his thoughts. She stopped on the first step and looked over at him.
"You know I love you, right?" she asked. He scrunched his brows and just looked at the way a soft smile curved around her lips. "Just in case that message got lost somewhere. I'll see you in the morning, Sirius. Goodnight."
He lied there for another hour, despite his brain screaming at him for rest, simply thinking about what she'd said. He could count the number of times that he'd been told "I love you" on one hand, and it'd all happened in the last six months. There was no love in his house growing up and it wasn't a word that was ever said. James had been the first to ever say it to him, and the second, but Mrs. Potter held the spot for third, fourth, and fifth. Now Lily held the spot of sixth and he could move his count to his other hand.
It was a warm feeling that filled his chest as he crept up the stairs to Lily's room. There was a beam of moonlight lighting a patch of the carpet inside her door, and her bed was pressed against the far wall.
"Lily?" he whispered, closing the door and taking a few steps towards his sleeping friend.
"It took you long enough," Lily mumbled, sleepily patting the open space next to her. "Climb in."
He did as he was told, being extra careful not to jostle her too much as he did so. He settled down on his back, one hand on his chest as he stared up at the ceiling. He glanced over at Lily when she gave a small sigh.
"I love you too, Lily," he whispered, "and I'm really glad that you're my friend." This marked the third time he'd ever said these words out loud. That same smile found is way to her mouth and she reached out a hand to place it on his shoulder.
i'm so sorry for the wait, y'all. i didn't realize that it had been so long! but here i am, and despite this being a slightly disjointed chapter, i hope you all enjoyed it. i greatly admire lily and sirius's friendship and i added this (filler) chapter because i wanted to take a chance to explore it a little further.
and while i can't promise the next chapter will get here any quicker, i did just officially graduate from college! *woop woop* hopefully i can use this time to write before i'm thrust into the true adult world.
let me know what you think of this chapter! thanks for reading :))
