Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Kiss

Chapter V – A Burning Kiss

I think that I'm going to have to change something.

There's something wrong with a relationship involving us. James and I aren't going to work out. Fire and fire together don't work; we're just going to burn each other out. But I want to kiss him, just to know how it feels. How it feels to kiss someone that you might love. But if I kiss him, I'll fuck everything up. Because he likes me.

He has to care. Everything inside of me screams itself hoarse with that fact, but I can't believe it. It seems much too sudden.

I need to take control of this. He'll never know what hit him.

He had called her amazing. He had called her stunning.

James Potter had done something to her, had changed her, in these twisted, completely fucked up ways. And she liked that way. She liked the way he made her feel so exposed, so vulnerable, yet never taking advantage.

She liked the way he confused her, made her laugh and his beautiful, beautiful eyes.

Lily really loved this feeling.

Shaking herself from her excited, blissful thoughts, she looked over to a red-eyed Elladora, who looked more heartbroken then anything. Her clothing looked rumpled, as if she had slept in it, which wasn't very unlikely, knowing Elladora.

"Elly? C'mon, please talk. You're scaring me." Lily attempted again, petting Elladora's head comfortingly, trying to lull her friend into some sort of serenity. It was extremely hard to sooth aggravated teenagers, and she had found out the hard way.

"Mmph, what do you want?" Elladora muttered into her pillow, shying away from Lily's hand. That was unusual. Generally, Elladora thrived on any attention.

"What's wrong?" Lily tried to make her voice sound assuring and soft, but had a nagging feeling it was coming off as prying.

"Nothin', just the usual asshole being a prat, nothing new." Elladora replied, avoiding Lily's eyes.

"Are you planning to give me a straight answer anytime soon?"

"No." Elladora rolled around, still clutching the pillow over her face.

Rolling her eyes, deciding to leave her friend to her sulking, Lily walked out of the room, heading to the Prefect's meeting that she was supposed to co-host.

Not that she was excited to go see James.

Honestly.

.x.

"…-And that would be the conclusion of our monthly Prefect's meeting, any questions?" Lily wrapped up, quickly scanning the room for any raised hands.

As usual, everyone was too eager to get out of the room they had just spent two hours in, and didn't bother to attempt to prolong the boring experience. James, himself, was lounging in his seat, the chair tipped back to the back two legs. Oh, how dearly Lily itched to take a swipe at the teetering chair legs, just to see James' shocked face as he tumbled down to the ground.

"All right, than you all can go now." James finished off for Lily, who was too busy looked at him to realize that everyone was staring at her, awaiting dismissal. She blushed.

There was a rush as everyone took their bags and raced out the door, impatient to perhaps catch a Quidditch practice or play a game of chess before they went to sleep. Or just to get out of the room. James, instead, remained, looking over at her, smiling softly.

She felt incredibly self-conscious. He was following her with those piercing hazel eyes that caught everything, studying her every move. First, she slowly shuffled through her notes, organising them in her own little order. After that, she stored them in her bag, making sure not to ruin the pages by ripping them.

Then she stopped.

Naturally, Lily should have just walk out the door, bidding James a cheerful, everyday goodbye. But, she wanted to wait for James, who was still sitting there, now in a righted chair, watching her.

"Oh, for goodness sake, what are you looking at?" Lily finally snapped, turning to face him.

James shrugged.

They stared at each other for a few more moments, before a sneeze broke the silence. Kali stepped in, looking around briefly with her dark eyes, before settling her powerful gaze on James.

"James? Would you like to walk with me?" She asked, pretending that Lily wasn't even in the room.

Silently, Lily fumed. Of all holy things above, this was getting on her nerves. She grinned bitterly, ready to give James the hell that he deserved.

"But, Jameeess," she whined, jutting her hip to the right side, resting her hands on her hips in a childish manner and pouting. "I thought we would walk back to the Tower together."

Well, he did deserve it.

"Erm, well, Kali, love," he pleaded, eyes sparkling animatedly as he realized what Lily was trying to pull. "I did promise Lils to walk with her, and you know how I hate to break my promises."

Kali turned to look at Lily, her smoky eyes gleaming furiously. I guess this was the first time she had been refused. She blew her feathery fringe out of her eyes intolerantly, sending one last shuddering look at Lily before stomping off.

Yet, Lily didn't even care all that much. She had just got James to stand up for her.

"Thanks for offering to walk me to Tower, flower." James laughed, looking at her with that completely odd, approving look that alarmed her, because he had never looked at her like that before, years ago.

He called her flower.

"Not a problem," Lily laughed, her heart feeling fluttery. Light. Warm. All fuzzy and happy, as if something had happened momentous, something incredibly life-altering.

"Let's go?" James smiled.

And she hooked her elbow with his, still smiling too widely, still red from… whatever had just happened.

Something had changed in their relationship.

And Lily wasn't sure if it was for the good of it all.

.x.

Elladora Guffy wasn't popular with the boys. It just was a common fact, something that didn't need to be spoken or written down, because it just was that way, no buts or ifs. Her sassy attitude and frequent mood swings were too much to ask of someone to take care of, much too complicated for a romance.

Perhaps that was why Lily liked her so much. Elladora didn't date guys often, leaving that to others to deal with. Her mischievous manner did lead to the occasional one-night stand, but nothing that would worry her friend.

Lily liked it that way.

No boys ruining devoted relationships, no ex-boyfriends and perverse love triangles. Just uncomplicated, unadulterated friendship was the way Lily liked it.

But, for the oddest reason, Elladora was crying over some boy. Some juvenile, apparently uncouth little boy who had tried to use her, leaving Lily's closest and only friend curled up in her bed, soaking her pillow with wasted tears.

"-It was all a stupid bet, and I believed him, thought that it'd be nice to have a boyfriend, be normal for awhile. See how it is on the other side of the Quidditch Pitch. Be attached. Have someone to snog and hug and cuddle with."

Lily was getting frustrated. Elladora had been whinging for hours, snivelling and complaining, sobbing and being a quivering pile of teenage distress. But Lily still didn't know who it was that had sent her into this state.

"Look, Elly, darling, could you just tell me who it was?"

"-And he was so crude about the entire ordeal, like I didn't matter one whit to him. Gah, I hate him!"

"-Elly, just please, could you for the love of all things holy,-"

"I hate him. I bloody hate Sirius Black and all his stupid mind games." And with that dramatic finish, Elladora collapsed back into her pillow, sobbing fresh tears.

By now, Lily was sure that Elladora was just milking it for all it was worth. She was much too blasé to drown in regret for so long, much less at all. It was definitely not like her. But, who knew? Elladora was the type of person who liked shocking people. It was just a second nature to her.

Still, the mention of Sirius Black did prompt two raised eyebrows from Lily. "Black, of all people, Elly? I thought you detested him."

"I do, I did," Elladora moaned from beneath her pillow. "It's just he was so sweet and charming, and I was horny and bored… I couldn't help it. He looked so good at the moment, and you know how I always jump into things, head-first. And then I found out it was all a bet." She broke out into a long string of curses, running her fingers through her bedraggled hair and getting them caught in it.

Lily flinched. This was not going to end well.

.x.

"Falling in love or having a whirlwind affair?"

For the oddest reason, Lily didn't know. Falling in love had been one of the worst, yet most thrilling experiences that she had ever gone through. Yet, in the end, it felt so… inanely amorous. She liked it. The whole swirling, changing transformation that love was.

Yet, an affair sounded deliciously sexy.

"Um, well, I'd have to say falling in love," Lily replied, screwing up her face to look more thoughtful. "So much more romantic, and the overall factor is how nice it'll seem in the end."

James nodded. "I agree. But still, an affair sounds so fascinating, doesn't it?"

"Fascinating?"

James blushed, looking up at the sky while he did so, as if in futile hopes that Lily wouldn't see, "Well, yes, fascinating. Sneaking about, denying all rumours and yet still being incredibly passionate. It sounds like a thriller novel, or something out of History books."

James Potter had the strangest way of making sense.

"I s'pouse," she admitted as she tucked her legs under her folded lap, looking over at his resting figure.

He winked, grinning goofily. That small act resulted in her reddening deeply, and turning away, gazing up into the distance. What was it about him that made her feel this way?

"But… what if you're ruining your life by having this aforementioned affair? Then it really doesn't seem all that brilliant, does it?" She asked, curious if he really did have an answer for every question.

"Well, depends if the girl you're having the aforesaid affair is worth it. All I know that is if she's anything like I hope she'd be, if I ever did have an affair, than it positively would be worth it." He replied smoothly, as if he were reading the entire conversation off a slip of paper, hidden in his robe sleeve.

Lily shrugged, deciding to just let him win the argument. "Is it really that impossible to win a bloody spat with you, or am I just pathetically bad at debating?"

"A bit of both, I would think." James laughed, squinting at her in the fading sunlight.

She whacked him on the head at this, but gently. She didn't want to hurt him too badly; she still needed him for that goddamn kiss. If she ever got around to it, that was.

Somehow, Lily couldn't believe how quickly their relationship had shifted to this. Whatever this was, that is. From rivals to acquaintances, they had leaped around each other, their bizarre relationship baffling all their onlookers. She always had had that tiny crush on him, but now it had swelled tremendously, seemingly growing bigger every minute she spent in his charming presence.

Some would call it love. She just called it a minor, brief infatuation. Like those intense, fan girl crushes you developed when you were thirteen, hormonal and literally off the wall. He was just a craze, she would assure her doubting self conscious, stroking its paranoid ego, nothing but a cute guy who looked sexy in nothing but a towel.

Suddenly, Lily stiffened. James hand had crept up around her shoulders, pulling her closer it him. What was she supposed to do?

So, she moved closer, still frozen in her adolescent shock.

His hand felt warm on her bare arm, burning the cool skin with its fire. His voice has drifting around her, but she couldn't focus. All these intensely rapt emotions were running rampant inside of her, shaking her senses awake, and insane. His breath in this cool room chill, dark hair that tickled her neck, he spoke and time stood still. He was killing her, because she had no idea if anything was going to happen between them, everything was so muddled and fucked up.

It was as sick and riveting as violence. She wanted to tear her mind away from him, to look over to her right and watch a budding third-year romance, or to laugh and smile and pretend everything was okay.

Except that it wasn't.

So she kissed him. Because that's what always happened in the stories, wasn't it?

She craned her neck forward, capturing him and pulling his face down with both sweaty, shaking hands. She pushed herself against him, needy and desperate. All she wanted was to forget about how it felt when she was around him.

But Lily only succeeded in making it worse. Because it felt so perfect, so right, that she knew she had just screwed up the whole strategy.

His hair was velvety, nothing like she had expected, under her fingertips, and his lips were soft and warm, like a reassuring cup of tea on a bitter winter day. Everything inside of her was on fire, yet she felt no butterflies or fireworks inside of her stomach, like all romance novels said.

Instead, she felt light-headed and dizzy in the best way, and hot. She felt extremely, uncomfortably hot.

He kissed so… flawlessly. Ardently, as if every desperate, heated moment mattered the entire world to him, rushed and lustful, yet gentle and subtle, somehow that just made it so much harder to pull away. Everything about him was fire; his passion, his daring, his pure essence of life.

James Potter was going to burn her, if she didn't get away from the scorching passion that he held in the palm of her hand.

There was no way that this torrid romance was going to end well, she thought, as she plunged herself deeper into the kiss.

So she might as well get the best of it while it did last, however long it did.

Which no one was certain of, not even Lily herself.

.x.

I'm so sorry, but it'll be awhile before the next update. This story is really getting into the plot right now, and I'll need some time to write it. Not to mention how demanding school is becoming.

I'm quite happy about the fact that many of you have noticed the slight change in Lily. Yes, she's growing confidence and trust in James, but I promise you, they won't be together for awhile, if I can help it.

Otherwise, thanks a million for all the feedback pouring in! I'm really happy about it all. You guys are totally brilliant.

Hugs,

Ria.

C'mon, all you have to do is… REVIEW!