AN: Thank you to those who have left nice reviews lately, y'all inspired me to write this !!

The chapter title is in reference to the song goodnight n go by Ariana Grande, it reminds me of Jily A LOT and especially this chapter. Just putting that out there if u want to listen to it.

Lily could not believe her eyes. She felt like the world had stopped as she sat on the hotel bed and stared at her phone screen.

She'd woken up to about twenty text messages from Mary. She'd been alarmed at first but then her heart had stopped when she read them.

LILY WAKE UP WHAT THE FUCK

SLDKFHSLDJ WHAT IS HAPPENING

LILIAN, TESSA AND SCOTT ARE COMING BACK TO COMPETITION, THIS IS NOT A DRILL

I REPEAT TESSA AND SCOTT ARE COMING BACK NEXT SEASON

THEY WANT TO GO TO THE OLYMPICS IN TWO YEARS AND RECLAIM THEIR TITLE

LILY I THINK I CAN'T ACTUALLY BREATHE RIGHT NOW

After those texts, there were three voice messages which basically consisted of Mary screaming and rambling excitedly. Lily then went straight to Twitter where everyone she followed was promptly freaking out, as they should.

She couldn't keep the grin off her face as she texted Mary back, she didn't even care that they would now have another rival, it wasn't like she and James could ever beat Tessa and Scott, especially not within two seasons. It would just be an honour to get to compete alongside them. To share the ice with them.

Before she could realise it, over a half-hour had passed and she hadn't finished packing. In fact, she'd almost forgotten she was supposed to be leaving Germany in a few hours.

The Bavarian Open had been by far her most stress-free competition of the season. Two clean performances, no injuries, no drama, a gold medal. That was her ideal competition. They'd competed in the junior category in order to be eligible for Junior Worlds the following months. Lily had immediately checked their scores there against the personal best scores of the other teams attending Junior Worlds, and it was looking pretty good.

Lily stood as she heard a knock on the door. It was James. "You almost ready?"

Lily immediately put her phone away as James entered the room. "Um... almost."

"What are you so smiley about?"

Lily bit her lip. She couldn't believe she got to break the news to James. "V/M are coming back to competition."

His brows raised in surprise. "Oh shit, that's great."

Lily grinned. "Maybe we'll get to compete with them."

"They're coming back for next season, then?"

Lily's smile dropped slightly. She'd momentarily forgotten she and James weren't currently making any long-term plans for the future. She mentally scolded herself for having already pictured herself and James sharing the ice with Tessa and Scott at the Olympics in just two years. "Yeah."

She busied herself throwing things into her suitcase.

"You know, Ravensburg isn't too far from here, we could stop by to tell them just how much you hate the Ravensburger Waltz."

Lily laughed, her tension easing slightly. "It's actually kind of growing on me. I don't hate skating it."

"I wouldn't know, every dance is a good one if I skate it with you."

Lily felt her heart skip a beat. She went to the closet to keep him from noticing how red her ears had gotten. Why did he say things like that with no warning? It almost made her forget she couldn't have feelings towards him.

She threw the last few things in the case. "We should go, or we'll be late."

Getting back to London meant resuming intense training for both Junior and Senior Worlds. Lily barely had time to breathe. But when she did, she had to do one of the things she hated most in the world. Fighting with her mum.

Lily had very much been slacking on her job at the diner for the past month or so, and upon coming back from Germany, she had promised herself she'd work every day no matter what. She really wanted to make enough money for at least one of her parents to be able to go with her to America for Worlds.

She did pretty well the first week, then Petunia decided she just had to bring her boyfriend home to meet her parents. Lily had no idea why she had to be present for this. But Mrs. Evans had decided it'd be rude of her not to attend the dinner they'd host for the guy.

In the end, Lily had had to give in, because once her mother had her mind set on something, there was no changing it.

So, Lily sat at the dinner table as the large blonde man named Vernon Dursley – who was obviously not nearly good enough for Petunia – droned on and on about his very boring business degree and prospective job at a drilling company.

Lily was actually embarrassed for the leap her heart gave when she saw a text notification from James pop up on her phone screen. She quickly erased the smile from her face, hoping no one had noticed. James was asking if she was working. Lily quickly replied and set her phone back down.

She tried to listen to Vernon. She really did. At first. But he was just so goddamn boring. He had barely even looked at Lily since he'd arrived, and Lily had the rousing suspicion that Petunia had talked shit about her to him. Which hurt her more than she thought it would. She never actually thought they'd be reduced to badmouthing each other to their boyfriends. Lily might not be in the greatest terms with her sister, but she'd never want her boyfriend or girlfriend to hate Petunia.

She'd been kind of hoping her relationship with Petunia would be repaired, with time. Maybe once Petunia realised that their sisterhood was worth more than a silly sports rivalry. And that medals and scores had never actually meant anything. But she was starting to doubt that.

A succession of texts appeared on Lily's phone screen. She was grateful it was on silent. James had sent her a bunch of pictures. She discreetly unlocked her phone under the table. James had sent three pictures of himself wearing his new costume. His previous costume had been okay, but his mum had thought it wasn't the right shade of blue and had had it remade, adding some more details in the process.

The shade was a little darker than it had been. Lily liked it. The velvety fabric looked good on James. She saved the pictures to her phone for professional scientific purposes. Looks good! she replied. She wasn't sure how many exclamation points to use. She'd put three at first but ended up settling for the one.

I thought you were working every day this week, James quickly texted.

Lily glanced up to check if either of her parents were glaring at her for having her phone out at the table. Her father looked like he was about to fall asleep. In fact, he was so still, she thought maybe he had fallen asleep even if his eyes were open. Her mum was staring intently at Vernon, probably trying to focus on whatever he was saying, which obviously required a visible effort.

Mum forced me to attend dinner with my sister's dumb boyfriend /, she wrote as quickly as she could.

I take it you don't like this dumb boyfriend.

He's just v boring, Lily replied. He's been talking about drills the entire time.

Jesus.

Lily's heart almost stopped at James's next text. Want me to rescue you?

She took a minute to respond. How?

You can say you have a skating emergency and I need you to come to the rink right now.

That actually sounded tempting. But she needed a bulletproof excuse if her mum was going to believe her. Mum would never let me go to the rink by myself at this hour.

Tell her I'm picking you up.

Okay, but even if I said that, what would I actually do once I'm out of the house?

This time it took James more than his usual ten seconds to text back. Well, come with me to the rink, I'd never suggest you actually lie to your mother, Lily.

Lily rolled her eyes at her phone. Right. Except there is no emergency.

Ah, but you wouldn't be lying about where you are though. Then another text. Either way, I'm already on my way, see you in ten.

Lily almost dropped her phone. Before she could text back, a call from James came through.

She knew she shouldn't interrupt Vernon's never-ending monologue about drills but she turned to her dad, pleadingly. "Dad, it's James, he said there's an emergency."

Mr. Evans nodded absent-mindedly and Lily rose from the table before anyone could stop her.

"James," she said into the phone once in the hallway and out of earshot.

"I'm already on my way, Lily. Just tell your parents there's a skating emergency."

Lily frowned. "What sort of skating emergency?"

"Uh... I don't know. There was some sort of problem with our documentation for Worlds?"

Lily thought for a moment. Maybe it was just crazy enough to work.

"Come on. We'll get some light training in for an hour and I'll bring you back."

That sounded unbelievably tempting. Her mum would definitely be suspicious of the timing of this 'emergency', but she'd never get proof that it wasn't true. "Fine."

"Great, see ya soon."

Lily decided to go with the strategy of announcing her emergency to the entire dinner table. That way, her mum wouldn't want to scold her in front of company and she wouldn't have to explicitly ask for permission to go. Her mother did look suspicious, but ultimately let her go, even if she didn't believe Lily, maybe she'd realised the torture she'd been putting her daughter under. Vernon barely spared her a glance. Petunia glared at her, but what else was new?

James arrived at Lily's house surprisingly fast. Lily flew out the door and got into his fancy car. She complained about Vernon Dursley almost the entire way while James listened patiently.

Once they got to Alexandra Palace, Lily remembered the rink was still open to the public at this hour, though it was late enough that she didn't think there'd be too many people around.

Lily sat next to James on one of the benches and started lacing up her skates. There were only about ten people on the ice, no familiar faces.

"That's nice," James said, pointing to Lily's skate.

Yuna had bedazzled Lily's white boots with a series of five small pink hearts on the sides when they'd hung out for a bit after practice. It looked cute. "I can ask Yuna to do yours if you want."

James smiled. "If she could do a lion on the side, I'd go for that."

"You might be overestimating Yuna's bedazzling abilities."

They finished tying their skates and entered the ice. There wasn't much that they could do with the general public on the ice, they couldn't risk running someone over. But they stroked around for a bit, James taking Lily's hand in his, which she figured was out of instinct more than anything at this point. But she wasn't complaining.

Without saying anything, James put his arm around Lily's waist in a dance hold. They did crossovers, although they were trying not to gain too much speed (which pretty much defeated the purpose of crossovers). Lily separated from James as a clumsy skater almost crashed into them. She shared an amused look with James.

She started going through a few of the steps that she'd been practising that morning, trying to flow with the rhythm of the Taylor Swift song playing over the speakers.

James stared at her intently. "Have I ever told you you've got the cleanest rockers I've ever seen?"

Lily stopped in her tracks. He'd just complimented one of the steps she'd been doing, nothing else, but something about the way he said it got her kind of... flustered. "No, I don't," she muttered.

"Swear to god," James insisted.

She rolled her eyes. "They're fine, I guess."

"Seriously, Lily. You've got to stop selling yourself short. You are literally the most talented ice dancer I know. Sometimes I watch you skate and I'm in awe of your skill and I thank my lucky stars you chose me as your partner."

James's words sent Lily's brain into a bit of turmoil. She felt warmth coiled deep in her chest. But she also felt... mad. Before she could think better of it, she said, "You have got to stop saying things like that."

A crease formed between James's brows. "What?"

Lily was so close to just plain asking him to shut his eyes when he spoke to her because they were so disarming, she didn't think it was fair that he had that advantage against her. "Just... whenever you say nice things like that about me, it makes it hard to—"

Lily shut her mouth. That sentence was never going to end up anywhere good.

James's curiosity was peaked though. There was a glint in his eyes. "Hard to what, Lily?"

Hard to remember that I'm not supposed to like you. Lily crossed her arms over her chest. She had to get her shit together. "Just forget it."

She turned away from him but James set a hand on her arm to stop her. "Okay, now you have to tell me. I want to know if something I'm doing or saying bothers you or makes you uncomfortable."

Ugh. Lily missed the times when she thought he was a senseless jerk. She looked at James for a moment. He seemed genuinely concerned over this. "It's just... when you say things like that... not just about skating but about me in general, I wonder if maybe you..." she shook her head. "It's stupid really... just forget I said anything."

A look of understanding dawned on James's face. Lily didn't trust the small knowing smile on his lips. "You wonder if I might still have feelings for you, from all those times I asked you out when we were fifteen."

Lily wasn't even sure if that was what she'd meant to say when she started talking, but she might just let this play out if it meant she didn't have to talk about her feelings. God, it sounded so silly coming out of his mouth. Yes, he'd pursued her when they were fifteen but that seemed light years ago. So much had happened since then. It felt like they were both different people.

After Lily stayed quiet, James took a deep breath and spoke again. "Well... to answer your question. Yes, Lily, of course I still like you, how could I not? But I know you don't feel the same way and I one hundred per cent respect that, so for the sake of our partnership and our friendship, I have squashed those feelings for a while now and I am willing to continue to do so until they're gone. You have absolutely nothing to worry about."

Lily's heart was drumming in her ears so hard, she was sure James could hear it. The resigned tone his voice had taken at the end made her want to scream 'No! Don't squash your feelings! I feel the same way!' But she didn't.

His words made her remember something he'd said back in November on a cab ride in Estonia. 'Oh, no, Lily. I've done my fair share of asking. If you want to go out with me, you'll have to ask me.'

A voice in her ear whispered, Tell him how you feel! Then you can be together and things will be great!

But then another voice in her other ear whispered, Do not fuck this up for us, Lily! If you date and end up breaking up, and ultimately end your partnership, there is no way your career will recover! A relationship with a boy you hated not six months ago will not end well. You wanted to be the best ice dancer in the world, you wanted Olympic glory, that means no dating this boy!

And she hated herself for it but she nodded once firmly. A mask of blankness had fallen over James's face and she immediately missed his easy smile.

James started skating forward and it was clear the subject was being dropped.

They skated in silence for a few minutes. Lily thought it might be awkward after their conversation but it surprisingly wasn't. James was pensive — which was unusual — but Lily wouldn't qualify this as awkward.

James rolled his shoulders and cleared his throat. He wasn't quite smiling but he didn't look so serious anymore. "Want to run through some of the exh?"

They'd just finished their exhibition program the previous day and Lily was definitely itching to practice it again. "Okay, but no lifts, Minerva would kill us if she found out."

"Of course, no lifts."

Lily reached for James's hand. "We don't have the music though."

"I'll mark the rhythm."

Lily wasn't sure that would work but she nodded, taking centre ice with James. The few people around the rink all remained skating along the boards, so they had some space.

A first James hummed the song, but then he started singing softly. He had a nice voice, Lily had no idea what the song said, as it was fully in Spanish, but she still felt her heart clench. Her stomach lurched downright aggressively as James wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her hard against him. Only to let her go again, spinning her around. Lily felt so warm in her jumper, she thought she might not survive through the entire program.

Skipping the lifts at least provided her with a few seconds to gather herself when they paused. But then James's hands were on her again and her brain turned to mush and all she could think was, James hands soft and warm and strong.

Lily was grateful when they reached their ending pose. James with one arm around her waist and a hand on her outer thigh, raising her leg a little up his waist, Lily's torso bent outwards to face their non-existent audience.

She turned back to look at James, his cheeks were flushed and he was breathing a little heavily, as was she. His hand still on her thigh. Their faces had inadvertently ended up within inches of one another. James glanced down at her lips so quickly she would've missed it if she hadn't been staring into his eyes like a fool. It made her hold her breath.

James bent down slightly and Lily almost gasped but he only met his forehead with hers, their noses narrowly touching. She felt her breath mixing with his.

Then she jumped away from him, startled by a very annoying vibration in her back pocket. She skated backwards slightly and took her phone out, noticing now that more than a few people were staring at them. She cleared her throat, trying to get out of whatever spell had possessed her to almost kiss James.

She frowned at her phone screen. It was Melanie. They never really called each other. "Hey."

"Lily! I have to tell you something very important. Where are you?" Melanie's tone was earnest.

"Um, I'm at the rink actually, with James."

"Oh, that's good. Put me on speaker, he should hear this too."

Lily really didn't want to have to turn to look at James's face but she did. His face was still slightly flushed but his expression was neutral, which Lily didn't know what to make of. She skated over to one side of the rink so they could have a semblance of privacy and put her phone on speaker. "It's Melanie, she says she needs to tell us something important," she said to James.

Melanie wasted no time. "Okay, you know how Sirius's brother is in Horace's group? Well, Sirius talked to him today briefly and the kid let it slip that... Narcissa and Evan are going to withdraw from Worlds."

A tiny gasp escaped Lily. What? "H-how? Why?"

"I don't know, but while you guys were in Germany last week, they were having these terrible arguments and then all of a sudden they left to work with a coach in France this week? There's definitely something going on. Maybe they're injured."

"Are you sure about this, Melanie?" James asked.

"Yes, I had Sirius ask around a bit and apparently they've already told NISA they're withdrawing and it'll be formally announced no later than tomorrow morning."

Lily had so many emotions going through her, she didn't even know what to say.

"You know what this means though, Lily?" Melanie ventured in a worried tone. "The first alternates are going to replace them."

It had actually dawned on Lily the second Melanie had said Narcissa and Evan were withdrawing, but she didn't even want to let the thought enter her mind because it made her want to actually hurl.

But she very much realised what this meant.

The little dickwad was getting what he'd wanted all along after all. It didn't matter that he'd almost certainly sabotaged them in Poland, and caused James to get injured or that he was quite obviously buying his scores. None of it. John's smug ass was going to Worlds.