Disgraceful
Chapter 1
"Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absentminded. Someone sober will worry about things going badly. Let the lover be." – Rumi
James
"James, stop eating the bloody cookies and unpack the boxes!"
Remus's shouted admonishment almost sent the jar of cookies in James's hand toppling to the messy kitchen floor. He quickly closed the lid and slipped the container into the empty cupboard behind his head. "I am unpacking," he said around the last cookie held between his teeth, voice only slightly muffled. "Just got distracted for a mo."
"That's the third time you've gotten distracted in the last half-hour." Remus entered the kitchen, looking more than a little frazzled with brown curls thoroughly tousled over his forehead. "And Sirius has been perennially distracted since we started." He slapped both palms down onto the counter between them, eyeing the confection in James's mouth disdainfully. "Out. Go finish up the living room. I'll unpack here, since you obviously cannot be trusted around edibles."
"I thought Pete was doing the living room?" He grumbled, quickly inhaling the cookie as rounding the island.
"Peter already slipped out two distractions ago." Remus rolled his eyes. "Smart lad. Don't know why I decided to stay and help you both when this is not even my flat. No, wait—don't answer that. It's obviously because I'm an idiot."
James ruffled his hair on his way past. "Ah Moony, wonder what we'd do without you."
"Live in an unpacked apartment, for one."
He was still chuckling under his breath when he walked into the living room, the sound halting abruptly as he stumbled over a stray box near his feet, arms flailing out for balance. "Fuck! Who the hell kept this here?"
"Might've been me." Sirius, splayed offensively on the floor next to a window, pulled grey eyes away from the phone they were glued to, and took a second to smirk at James. "Are you blind, mate?"
James picked a throw pillow from the box in front of him and chucked it at Sirius, wishing he'd stumbled upon harder objects that weren't so easy to dodge. "You're aware that lying around, being an arse, isn't at all helpful, yeah? Because it looks like you've got the concept of moving and unpacking all fucked up in your head."
"Slander! I am helping!" Sirius cried; the effect entirely ruined since he'd returned to tapping away at his phone. "I'm… livening up the aesthetics of the place. Go on, you start and I'll let you know how things look."
"You tosser, I'll show you how things look—"
But right before his feet could connect with Sirius's in a spectacular—and deserving—kick, the unfamiliar sound of their new doorbell chimed through the flat.
James raised his eyebrows pointedly at Sirius.
All he got in response was an unbothered, flat stare.
"Will either of you twats answer the door?" Remus hollered from inside the kitchen. James glared harder; Sirius ignored better. "Fucking hell, alright, I'll do it, and see myself out while I'm at it!"
"I'm going, I'm going!" James yelled, instantly guilty about contributing more grey hairs to Remus's head. When Sirius simply snickered up at him from the floor, he received swift retribution in form of an impending kick to his hip. "Would you look at that? Now the aesthetics are livened!"
James proceeded to make his way over to the door to the backdrop of several choice words from his bellend of a best-mate. And he was still feeling pretty smug about the whole fairness of the situation when he opened the door to the flat and instantly found his stomach trampoline up to his throat.
There, standing on the other side of the threshold, was quite possibly the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. Some part of his brain registered the fact that his eyes were widening, shamelessly running over her long auburn hair, big green eyes, freckle-dusted skin, but that decent, gentlemanly side of him had taken a backseat to his banging heart and fluttering hormones.
"Hi," said the girl, eyebrows arching at his obvious ogling. She was wearing a God-given white tank top, and when she shifted from one foot to the other, he was exposed to the unfairly lovely jut of her hips, covered by snug denim shorts. "I'm Lily. I live right across the hall."
Oh, fuck him.
Lily from right across the hall was very pretty.
Lily from right across the hall was also very, very hot.
James tore his eyes away from her fit form, never having felt more like a lecherous creep in his life than he did now, and nodded dumbly. He hoped there was no choco-chip remnant stuck between his teeth as he unglued his tongue. "Hey, Lily. We, uh—we just moved in."
"Yeah, I know. Stopped by to say hello, actually." She grinned. Fuck, was she real?
He felt like everything he'd ever known about flirting and charming women had melted out of him and become goo at her feet. "Hello!"
Okay, he'd definitely already said that.
Lily chuckled, clearly amused. "So, when you said we, you meant…"
"You're such a fucking prick, Prongs!"
James flushed as he held back a groan, ran a hand through his hair, wincing. "If you listen very carefully, you might get to hear my extremely pleasant and well-tempered roommate whispering about how much he loves me."
"Ah, roommates! I have one of those creatures myself." She smiled sympathetically, tilting her head to the side. "Would he be the one with the long, sexy dark hair, or the one with the softest brown sweater and kind eyes?"
His heart flopped a little sadly, squashed under the evident proof that she was more interested in his mates than him. While this was not too rare an occurrence—especially not when he roamed around with Sirius on the daily—it stung just a little bit extra coming from Lily who lived right across the hall. "Um…"
"Blast it, I'm terribly sorry!" She laughed, one hand falling onto his arm before quickly pulling away, as if promptly electrocuted by the touch like he was. "I just meant—well, you see, this housemate I was talking about, she seems to have spotted you and your mates in the morning when you entered the building. And I'm afraid she's developed a bit of a crush on one of them. Unfortunately, I wasn't given too many descriptions when she sent me over to scan the scene."
"Oh!" The flopping halted, and a slow smirk spread over his lips as he leaned against the doorframe. "Which mate?"
"Long hair."
"Not very surprising. But do tell your friend that he's a complete rascal." And then his smirk grew, stare becoming a little pointed as he looked down at her. "Well, go on, then. What was my description?"
For some reason, the simple question invoked pinkening cheeks and blinking eyes on Lily's part. "Oh, nothing really. Just something about you being tall and having specs."
"Nah, that can't be it." His confidence bubbled at her flustered state, despite the fact that she was now watching him with a narrowed, warily-amused gaze. "I think there was more to it than you're divulging."
"And I think you're a little too sure about yourself, Prongs."
"What's going on here?" Sirius's hand was suddenly on James's shoulder, pulling him back so that he could slot himself on the threshold importantly. He looked at Lily for three long seconds, then back to James, a delighted glint in his eyes that clearly displayed what James already knew to be true: she was so his type. "Oh."
"Hey, I'm Lily—" She was looking between the two of them a little strangely, which, all things considered, was a natural reaction to have around Sirius. "—Evans. I'm in flat 4C with my mate, Mary. She—um… well, you'll see her sometime soon enough. And you are?"
"Sirius Black." He inclined his head. "Are you here to help us unpack? Feel free to start with James's bedroom."
Lily pressed her lips together, one brow climbing high.
"Sorry. Ignore him. He doesn't know how to talk to people on account of being an actual dog." James shoved Sirius back inside the flat with one arm. "I promise we don't make strangers do free labour for us the very first time we meet them."
Suddenly, there was a clatter of noises and thundering of footsteps from behind. "Sure, yeah, why would you need extra help when you have your own personal servant?!" And then Remus was slipping out of the apartment, tugging on his beige jacket, steam billowing from his nose. His eyes fell on Lily for a second, and he made the effort to be polite. "Hello, I'm Remus Lupin."
"Lily Evans."
"Hi, Lily, I'm usually not such a massive dick, but—" He strode out into the hallway, "hang around for a while and I'm sure you'll understand me better. And you two," he paused to glare menacingly at James and Sirius. "Get off your arses and unpack your own bloody flat. Good fucking bye! Call me only once it's done."
And then he was gone; jabbing at the elevator button with a huff and disappearing out of view.
"Kind one with the softest brown sweater?" Lily asked, thumb hooked behind her shoulder questioningly.
"That's a pretty accurate description for Remus most of the time. You know, when he's not being completely terrifying." James shrugged. "You caught him at a bad time."
"Yeah, I caught that part." Her eyes gleamed brightly; his heart continued to rattle away. "And you're James, I'm guessing. Unless your real name is Prongs, in which case, I'm very apologetic and also highly curious."
"You should be both," Sirius said. "Especially apologetic. There's a lot to apologize for about him."
"Will you fuck off already?"
"Oh, alright, if you insist." He flashed James a diabolic grin, turning around immediately. "I'll be in my room then, drying my tears while you set up the flat."
"What the fuck! No, wait—Sirius!"
But he had already traipsed inside, and James was prevented from chasing after him and smacking him upside the head by Lily's soft snort of laughter.
"Sorry," she said, covering her mouth. "I just… I see what Remus meant when he said I'd understand him better soon enough."
"I do feel bad for the guy," James agreed. "But then I feel worse for myself because guess who has to actually share a flat with this menace now."
"Poor you."
"Precisely."
"Well, alright, I'll let you get back to it, then, James." She smiled, slipping her hands inside the pockets of her shorts. He tried not to linger on how nice his name sounded every single time she said it. "I have some reports to file now for Mary with my observations of the day."
"A noble task, that."
"Hey, listen," she started half a beat later, almost turned away, "if you're new around the block, I wouldn't mind showing you around the place sometime. I know it's a bit of a mess, but the neighbourhood's nice enough. I've lived in this building for over a year now, and I work at the café across the street, so—"
"Oh, that's alright," he rushed to assure her, not wanting to look like a posh fool who couldn't deal with a new place. "Our Uni was actually pretty close from here when I was studying Photojournalism a few years back. Luckily for us, not much has changed since then." He grinned. "But thanks for the offer, Evans, that's really nice of you."
"Yeah, sure, no problem," she said, but her voice sounded less buoyant now, like some enthusiasm had fizzled out suddenly. There was a light flush crawling over her neck that made absolutely no sense to James, and the smile on his face slipped a little. "That's—of course, that's perfect. You're all sorted here. I guess I'll see you around, then."
"See you around, Lily." He waved, watching with a little frown as she quickly spun on her feet and practically sped down the hall to her flat, like she couldn't get away from there fast enough.
With a flat in shambles behind him, and a mate to drag out and coerce into working, however, James didn't have the luxury of time to figure out what had abruptly changed in her demeanour right then. It wasn't until several hours later, after he'd already finished setting up the living room with Sirius, arranged his bedroom, and unpacked half the kitchen supplies, and was chopping some onions for dinner that the realization came to him with a dramatic gasp.
She'd been inviting him to spend more time with her.
And he'd refused her because he was a moron of the highest order.
The internal bemoaning and his outward groan sent the knife in his hand angling wrong, and he nicked his finger with the tip.
Brilliant. Fucking idiot.
A/N - Yes, I'm starting another multichapter! Are you squinting your eyes and shaking your head at me? I wouldn't blame you. At least I have a Plot™ in mind this time. Huzzah!
