AN: And here is part two of the double update!

Don't forget to comment! Let me know what you're thinking!

"Of course I wanted this to feel like a date," James shook his head slightly and narrowed his eyes, as though it should have been completely obvious to her this whole time.

She blinked at him, her lips pressed into a thin line and her arms still crossed over her chest.

When she didn't respond to that right away, he started to lose a bit of his nerve and his hand jumped up to his hair. "Well, it didn't start off that way. I mean, when I asked you this morning if you wanted to go to the city, I'd hoped- but I didn't think anything would come of it. But then you told me that you fancied me-"

"Five years ago!" Lily threw her hands up in exasperation. "I fancied you five years ago, and we haven't talked much at all in the last four years. I mean, we've hardly even seen each other!"

He waved off her comments. "I know how long ago it was," He took a step back and looked out at the water for a moment before turning back to her. "But I don't know, Lily. I guess I saw this as a chance to do things over."

"Do things over?" Lily shook her head. "We never really did things the first go around. Unless you count yelling at one another."

"Yeah, but we haven't done any of that so far, have we?"

Lily didn't think that that sounded like a sound argument in favor of whatever it was that he was suggesting, but he was grinning at her now, that same grin from earlier. That grin of his that shouldn't make her feel like a schoolgirl again, but it definitely did.

"Besides, who cares if we do start arguing again. I've always liked arguing with you." He readjusted his grip on the bags and they rustled. Lily tilted her head and narrowed her brow, not willing to admit that she'd always found enjoyment in their arguments as well. That was probably why she'd initiated so many arguments. Having his attention was often better than him ignoring her. Now didn't seem like the right time to admit to something like that.

"I'm going to keep talking if you don't say something." James warned her. Lily shrugged and let out a laugh as she pushed her hair away from her face with both hands.

"I'm not sure what to say, James. You want to just, turn this into a date now? See how things go?"

"Yes." He nodded. "Which is also what you should say you want!"

"You're leaving in two weeks!" She reminded him. "Which bodes well if this goes to hell in a handbasket, but-"

"It's not going to go to hell in a handbasket, thank you very much. I'm a great date and we've been having a great time!" He shook his head and laughed. He looked at the bags in his hand for a moment and then set them down at his feet and reached out, putting his hands on her shoulders, holding her in front of him. "Besides, I'm going to play football, not disappearing off the face of the earth. If things work out, which they probably will-" Lily tried to interrupt here, but James just spoke louder and tightened his hold on her upper arms. "Then we can figure things out from there."

"Well what if I don't want to do that. I hate figuring things out after the fact. You just talked me off a ledge about five minutes ago because I'm stuck figuring things out after the fact." She crossed her arms over her chest, wondering if perhaps she should have just continued to complain about her sister. She had a lot of material there, she wouldn't have run out of things to say and James would have eventually forgotten that she'd had anything else on her mind.

James looked over her face for a moment, making her avert her gaze. "If you really don't want to give this a go, then that's fine. This doesn't have to be a date. But I will probably spend the next two weeks trying to change your mind. Nicely of course. Without ignoring you or throwing any rocks at all."

Lily shuffled and then turned toward the river, causing him to drop his arms to his side, and then she put her arms on the rail.

"We've got nothing to lose, Evans." James said quietly, coming up to stand awfully close to her. "Despite what I wanted in secondary, we stopped talking to each other four years ago, we haven't been friends since before uni, if this all falls apart, we're not losing anything." Lily didn't feel like that was true, but she didn't really know what exactly she would be losing.

"Look, James, I'm still trying to digest the fact that you think you fancied me-"

"I did fancy you." He interrupted forcefully. "Since about year six."

"Don't be ridiculous," Lily snorted.

"I'm not joking."

She looked over at him and his face was completely serious and Lily blushed. "Since we were eleven?"

"Yes!" He smiled at her and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Lily, I've been besotted with you for half my life! And then you told me that you had feelings for me too, and since you were the 'one that got away,' of course I want to try and give things a go."

"You've liked me since you eleven, and there was not one point in all that time where you thought, 'huh, if I want Lily to like me back, I might try being nice to her?'" She elbowed him, because the alternative to elbowing him seemed like telling him when she first started fancying him and she didn't want to do that.

"I teased you."

"I remember." She gave him a wry smile. "I thought you didn't like me at all, we've been over this." No, she really didn't want to tell him that she'd fancied him before year eleven.

"Completely ridiculous." James scoffed.

They both looked out at the river for a few moments in silence, but James had never been all that good at silence before.

"So you're undecided then?"

"I think it's a terrible idea, actually. Again, you're leaving in two weeks and I'll be here. Here being Cokeworth, of course."

"I still think that's a nonissue."

"You also thought it was a clever idea to tell everyone in school that I snogged my NSYNC poster."

"I was jealous."

"Okay, but I didn't snog the poster!" Lily laughed, hitting her hands against the rail.

James smiled at her. "Come one, let's go and get lunch."

They ended up walking around, James telling her about all the different places where Sirius was no longer welcomed as they passed such places, and Lily pointing out more sweet shops and hidden bookstores.

"They're not hidden," James countered. "That would be horrible for business."

"I disagree." Lily argued, eyeing a particularly dusty window display with longing.

"After lunch, alright? We can wander around the bookshops after lunch. I think I'm finally hungry."

Lily's stomach was in need of something that wasn't entirely chocolate as well, so she looked away from the display, sure that she'd never be able to find the shop again, but sufficiently distracted by the smell of fresh bread. "I want that," She said.

"What?" He looked around.

"Whatever that smell is, I want that."

James took a big whiff. "You smell bread?"

"Yes." Lily nodded.

"Bread and chocolate? That's almost too easy, Evans."

Lily shrugged. "Yes well, no one ever said I was difficult." Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and Lily just knew it was Mary somehow. She'd probably sensed what Lily had said and was texting her to set her straight.

"You've always seemed like a mystery to me."

Lily stopped walking. "See, that's another reason that dating now is a bad idea." James had taken a few extra steps before he realized she wasn't beside him.

He turned back to her with an amused smile. "Please, enlighten me."

"You don't know me! If you've fancied me since you were eleven, and we've never been friends for more than a couple weeks at a time, then you don't know me. You probably have some version of me in your head that doesn't even exist in real life."

"You think I manic-pixie-dream-girled you?"

Lily blinked. "Are we using that as a verb now?"

"Lily, I know plenty about you." James turned back around and started walking. Lily had to hurry to catch up with his much longer legs. "But please, continue to tell me what all my obstacles are going to be. It'll take some of the guesswork out."

Lily rolled her eyes, "Let's just go and find the bread, please."

She didn't know why he was acting so comfortable with this conversation. Lily had never been good at conversations about feelings, and he was acting as though they talked about this kind of shit all the time. Where was the blushy boy from the car who couldn't deal with the fact that she was apologizing for having been mean to him when they were kids? She wanted him back. He wouldn't be saying these things.

"Of course," James nodded. "I'm fairly sure the smell is coming from over there," He pointed at a bistro nearby, the name of the place, artfully written out on a sign in the shape of a loaf of bread.

"That looks right," She nodded.

"I don't think you're perfect."

"I thought we were tabling this discussion."

"I know, but I don't think you're perfect and I haven't built you up into something unattainable in my head during the last four years. I just feel like we've been given an opportunity here."

Lily clenched her hands and then stopped walking and faced him. "Okay, I am really glad that we were able to clear the air between the two of us. That I don't have to continue on in life wondering why you hated me for all of our childhood. But again, and I can't stress this enough, you are moving to the other side of the country in two weeks."

"The other side is a bit dramatic." James ran a hand through his hair. "You sound a bit like Sirius and my mother."

"Also, again again, I can't stress this enough, you and I haven't spoke except in pleasantries, in over four years."

"That is not dramatic," James said.

"Why is pointing out that you're moving, dramatic?"

"Because 'the other side of the country' is like an hour train ride. I'm not moving to Canada."

Why was this so important to him? Why did Lily feel like it was such a big deal? People went on dates all the time and it wasn't a big deal. She could say yes, let him buy her some bread and maybe snog him a bit at the end. It didn't sound like a terrible idea, but dating James Potter, the infamous boy-next-door, didn't seem like a decision that should be made flippantly or while intoxicated on bread fumes.

Sixteen-year-old Lily would not be happy with her right now.

James let out a sigh and looked up at the sky. "I don't want to hold you hostage here, Lily." She gave him a look and snorted. He tilted his head and grinned, "Look, this isn't a date. I know that, we agreed on that before we headed out." He looked back at her, his glasses slightly askew. "Do you want to head home now?"

Lily narrowed her eyes. "No, James. I want bread. I've said that three times now."

He chuckled and shook his head. "Right, my bad. But I'll back off for now, I just got excited, I guess. I'll save the wooing for when we get home."

"Wooing?"

"Yes," He nodded, starting toward the bistro again.