Chapter Two: Kissing My Best Friend's Girl

"Evans' residence, Lily Evans speaking."

The telephone wasn't a new thing to Sirius. Remus had talked Sirius and James into taking Muggle Studies with him, seeing as they were all from Pure Blood families, so Sirius was very adept to using the telephone. (Prank calls, he reasoned to Remus, was a very good way to practice for class.)

But what was new to Sirius was standing on the corner of a London street, the sun beginning to set in the summer sky, and gaping like a fish at nothing in particular as he tried to get the courage to say exactly what he wanted to say.

"Hello?" Lily's voice snapped him out of his daze.

"Um, hi!" Sirius practically shouted into the mouth piece. He banged his head on the receiver and took a calming breath so he could start over. "Hi, Lily. It's Sirius."

"Oh, hi Sirius! Is everything okay?"

"Of course Miss Evans! Everything is…peachy keen!" Again, he hit his head on the receiver.

Lily giggled a little and asked, "Are you alright? You sound kind of odd."

"No! I mean…yes. I'm fine. Um, I was actually wondering if you would like to…that is if you're not busy…I mean I'm sure you have other things...tomorrow if you would like to..."

"Yes, Sirius?" Lily asked patiently, almost like a mother would to her child if he was trying to confess something difficult.

Sighing in resign to his fate, he asked softly, "Would you like to go out with me tomorrow?"

There was a pause on the other end and Sirius, for the first time in his life, thought he was going to die of shame.

He was just about to ramble on about how he was just kidding or something to save his wounded pride when she replied, "I would love to Sirius." Sirius could tell she was smiling softly by the tone of her voice.

Releasing the breath he didn't know he was holding Sirius made a date to meet Lily at her house and floo to Hogsmead where they could have dinner together and walk around the shops.

"See you tomorrow night." He said and hung up the phone.

He sat on the curb wearily and ran his fingers through his hair. Feeling excitement bubbling inside of him along with the clenching of doubt and guilt in his stomach was a feeling he wasn't accustomed to. 'Oh well.' He thought consolingly to himself. 'I'll go out with Lily, we'll have a nice time, we'll decide to be friends because we can barely stand each other anymore, and James will never know. Then everything will go back to normal.' "Oh please let everything go back to normal!"

"Lily, I feel like I can talk to you about anything so I want to get this out of the way."

Lily turned politely curious eyes toward Sirius and he thought he would die.

The evening had gone very well. He had enchanted a bunch of weeds to turn into roses, though somehow they seemed slightly off, and rang the door bell to her quaint little home in Surrey with well hidden fear. He had felt so sure of himself on his broom ride over to her home but now that he was back on the ground it seemed reality had hit him full on.

After being warmly greeted by Lily's mother and properly interrogated by her father (he was sure that Muggle fathers didn't need a wand to be scary) Lily came down the stairs wearing a short green skirt, a white collared blouse, and a green ribbon in her hair. And after stumbling over himself with compliments that didn't adequately describe the way her smile made him feel like laughing with joy and ridiculousness, they flooed to a restaurant Lily had never been to before where they enjoyed a meal by candlelight and talked about the worst dates they had ever been on (Lily had a surprising amount of them.)

So now they were walking in front of the Shrieking Shack in the twilight of the evening with the woods looming in front of them with surprising depth and calm.

And while Sirius had found this to be one of the most calming and best dates of his young life, with no expectations that his reputation usually insinuated, Sirius found he could not properly enjoy himself knowing that he was currently on a date with the girl that James Potter, his brother in everything but blood, loved and admired more than himself.

"Lil, I know we just recently got to know each other and I know that I've been a real jerk to you in the past but I'm really starting to like you." He was never one for subtleties.

Lily smiled and looked down at the ground with shy eyes as she reached out to hold Sirius' hand.

"I like you too, Sirius."

Sirius grinned brilliantly at her but then looked away and wondered how to come out and say what he wanted to say. 'Well, I should just try the way I know best. Bluntness.' "Lily, I don't know if I can go out with you because of James."

She stopped walking and let go of his hand, furrowing her brow while her eyes got an angry gleam in them. "What does James have to do with this?" Then her eyes got a look of furious comprehension as she practically snarled, "Did he put you up to this!"

Sirius' eyes widened and exclaimed, "No! Of course not! I went out with you because I really wanted to." He reached out his hands and began to rub her upper arms soothingly as she got a handle over her emotions. It seemed like she was about to cry.

Surprisingly, she stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his leather jacket, partly for comfort and partly to hide her distraught face.

Smiling in her hair, Sirius said, "I think I'm going to have to call you Tiger Lily because you're way too wild to be one of those wimpy ones that float on the pond all day."

She pulled away from him and laughed. "I'm sorry. You just caught me off guard." She sniffled a little and continued to walk with Sirius trailing a little behind. "What does James have to do with us going out?" She asked again, with forced calm.

Sirius sighed and shook his head. "It's just that the whole school knows that James has been after you for so long and I just know he would hate me if I told him I was going out with you."

"I thought you guys were the best of friends. Completely and totally loyal to each other and each other's happiness." She paused and looked at him. "I'd figure if he was as great a guy as you always boasts he is, then he would understand. It's not like we're getting married or anything," 'Ah Lily,' he thought, 'always the realist.' "We would just be going out to see if it works."

Sirius shook his head again. "With James, if it has anything to do with you than it's serious. (No pun intended.)" Lily grinned at him. "To James, anything with you will equal marriage because in his eyes, you're the most extraordinary woman anyone will ever meet and anyone would fall in love with you." Sirius took her hand in his and whispered, "And I'm starting to think he's right, Tiger Lily."

And so Sirius did the one thing he would have never thought of doing before the summer started. Sirius Black kissed Lily Evans in front of the Shrieking Shack with the stars twinkling above them and laughing at their foolishness.

TBC…