AN: Alright, I got two chapters edited again so I'm going to post both of them. I think this might be the last week I do that, because these are the last 'short' chapters, but who knows?

Enjoy!

It was surprisingly easy to forget that James had tried to convince her that this was a date. Not that he stopped acting like it was a date. He was still overly polite and insisted on paying for everything and flirted with her shamelessly, but they stopped talking about it and started talking about other things and it was extremely easy for Lily to remember why it was that she'd fancied James so frequently. Well, not frequently per say, but more frequently than she'd let Mary know about.

James was kind of great.

And he knew that he was kind of great, but he was so good natured about it that you didn't mind. He was smart and funny, especially now that he wasn't trying to show her up all the time.

By the time they were back in his car, it was late afternoon, and he was carrying a bag of books that she'd picked out at three different bookshops that he'd pointed out to her. He hadn't tried to deter her from entering any of them. She quite liked that about him as well.

"We should almost stay for dinner at this point," James grinned, rolling down his window before he started to pull into the street.

"Almost," Lily agreed. She felt content. They'd been out walking in the sun for most of the day, so her arms were pink and warm, they'd be burnt later, but they felt alright at the moment. Her legs were tired, her feet were a bit sore, but that only added to her contentment. "Today was a good day."

James looked over at her and hesitated for just a moment too long. "Yes," He nodded his head quickly. "It was a good day. I can't believe the sun stayed out as long as it did. You're going to be burnt."

He'd thought she'd said 'date' for a moment.

"I am going to be burnt. But that's alright. I've got a lot of chocolate I can eat to console myself and books I can read to distract myself."

"Does chocolate help a sunburn?" He chuckled.

"Chocolate helps everything. You're friends with Remus, you should know that."

James laughed and Lily turned her head so she could watch his profile.

"You're probably a bit burnt too." She reached over and poked his arm.

"I don't burn. Power of the pigment."

Lily let out a huff of laughter. "What's this then? A flaw in the mutation?" Lily asked, holding up her arm. "I'm so white that I'm literally allergic to the sun?" James laughed at her, flashing his smile at her head on for a moment as they came to a stop.

"You're just going to get extra freckly now." He shrugged. "That's not a terrible thing."

Lily looked down at her arms. "I didn't even think to pack sunscreen this morning."

"No one ever thinks they're going to see the sun when they go to London." James shrugged a shoulder.

"Fair point." Lily reached for the radio and started fiddling with the dial. Soon a song was coming through the speakers, with limited static. "You might need a new radio."

"I might." He agreed. "Though I was worried you were about to say 'car.'"

Lily shook her head. "Wouldn't bother."

"Good." He was still smiling.

"So explain the whole football thing to me." Lily pulled her legs up and crossed them on the chair as she broached a subject that they surprisingly hadn't covered yet. "Who are you going to play for?"

James took in a breath through his teeth. "I don't quite know yet."

"But not your pick of the litter?"

He chuckled. "Not quite. It's narrowed down to two clubs. I've just got a decision to make." He shrugged like it was no big deal, but Lily noticed how his shoulders stayed tense and how the corner of his mouth had dimpled. He was anxious about this. "My agent sent me out here so I can relax a bit before I have to sign all the paperwork and make things official."

Lily nodded. "So today was a bit of a necessary distraction for you? And then I brought up the problem anyway?" She smiled at him.

"I've always been easily distracted by you," He allowed, keeping his eyes on the road and missing Lily's cheeks tint red. "But no, I'm not trying to avoid thinking about it. I just agreed that a little distance between me and all the fuss wouldn't hurt."

"Can I ask what the clubs are? Or is it top secret until you make an official announcement."

He pressed his lips together for a moment and then shrugged. "You'll forget as soon as I tell you anyway. The Canons or the Falcons."

"Your favorite teams!" Lily laughed. She'd thought the decision was hard for other reasons, not because he could never make a definitive statement about what his favorite team was.

He glanced over at her, eyes narrowed. "How do you know that?"

"I've lived next door to you my entire life, how would I not know that?" She shook her head, "You've got a jersey from both teams hanging up across from your window, you looked completely miserable whenever they played one another and whenever your house got extra loud in the evening, we all knew why. 'Raffi Ovesian! He just did it again! Oh my goodness!' Or who was the other guy," James was laughing now. "Caimin Mac Cathail, Mahdad Faqir? Mary had quite the crush on Faqir. And Ovesian. Actually she had a crush on almost every football player that you did."

James shook his head. "I didn't know that you knew anything about football."

"I don't know much, but my dad and I used to watch games together. And then, like I said, Mary was obsessed with a few." She might have tried to pay attention to some of the players whose names she saw on James' jerseys as well, but she didn't want to share that at the moment. Not when he'd spent a good part of the morning trying to convince her that their outing should be a date.

"Well alright then. Keep the teams to yourself."

"Mums the word." She nodded. "You're gonna have to flip a coin or something, aren't you?"

James tapped his hand on the wheel and nodded. "That sounds about right."

"That's great though. It's a fantastic problem to have. Imagine if you were in the position to choose between the Tornados and the Wasps," She laughed.

James was looking at her again, or glancing between her and the road anyway, but she just kept looking out her window. "Well, I think I'd just have to quit if that were the case. Can I ask you something?"

"No," She shook her head, sure that she knew what his question was going to be.

"Okay," He nodded. "So when exactly did you fancy me?"

She huffed and sunk down into her seat. "I said that you couldn't ask me anything. Also I just remembered that someone texted me about three hours ago." She pulled her phone out and flinched when she saw that she had twelve new texts from Mary. "Nevermind, I don't want to look at whatever Mary sent me."

"Does she know that you're spending the day with me?"

"Maybe." Lily shook her head. "I mean your stupid mate might have told her."

"Remus?" He guessed.

"Rude of him if you ask me. Because then she decided to wake me up at an ungodly early hour to ask me a million questions."

"By that, you mean she teased you about you having agreed to go on a date with me."

"I mean, that is exactly what she did, but it's not what I agreed to."

"Yes, I know that. But I also remember what Mary is like. And Remus did tell me what she said to him so."

"She was mad at me because I hadn't told her about our plans."

James nodded. "So back to my question,"

She could lie, but give him an answer to his question. Or she could see what Mary had texted her. She didn't want to do either.

"I don't know James." Lily muttered, twirling her phone around in her hands. "I fancied you for a while in year eleven."

"Okay."

"Look," She sat up straight now and turned toward him. "I didn't like you all the time. Most of the time I didn't like you, but then sometimes I would just- I don't know. It was an on again off again thing."

"You're doing a lot of vague talking. That's what my mum calls it when Sirius won't tell her where he's been all night and just keeps listing weird and unhelpful details."

"It started when we were seven and you told Kyle off for breaking my headband." James' jaw actually dropped so Lily went on, "But it stopped a week or two later when you threw a football at Bertram's head and gave him a bloody nose."

He laughed, "Ah Bertram. I'm glad that he was able to forgive me for that."

"Yes, before you move to the other side of the country."

He shook his head. "You fancied me when you were seven? That's adorable, Evans."

She closed her eyes and gave him a sarcastic smile.

"So, in reality, we both went through our adolescence fancying one another and believing the other person to be, at best, indifferent."

"Yes, it seems like that is what happened." Lily nodded. "I'm so glad that we could figure that out."

"Me too," James nodded, only he didn't sound sarcastic. "It changes everything."

"There's that word again."

"Yeah," He nodded. "Only I feel like you're starting to get what I mean."

Lily clicked her tongue, "I understood you the first time."

"I mean, I thought so. You seemed like you were only pretending to misunderstand me. Now see what Mary wants so she doesn't call the police and tell them that I kidnapped you."

Lily looked at him and then grinned. "It's almost as though you are also friends with her." James laughed and Lily pulled out her phone.

Mary: Have fun on your lunch DATE

Mary: Oops, that was a typo, please ignore that

Mary: Though I do think that it's a little weird that on this non date lunch date, you haven't felt the need to check your phone once

Mary: I mean, this is my fourth text and you haven't even looked at these messages yet

Mary: What could you two possibly be up to that would keep you off your phone this long?

Mary: I believe snogging may be involved

Mary: Okay so now I'm starting to worry though I'm hoping you dropped your phone in the river or something because I was texting you too much

Mary: I will report James if he kidnaps you

Mary: If he brings you back now though, I will still allow him to marry you

Mary: But if he doesn't give you your phone back I'm going to shave his stupid head

Mary: Lily Jane Evans, answer me please

Mary: LILY JANE

Her last text had been sent only seven minutes ago so she quickly typed out a lengthy response.

Lily: I need you to not tease me right now, okay. James is doing enough of that for about seven of you. AND you're not supposed to be on your phone when you are hanging out with someone, it's RUDE! You and I have lots to talk about, but not right now because I'm still with him. We're driving back from London, WHICH I WILL EXPLAIN LATER PLEASE AND THANK YOU FOR BEING CHILL

She didn't think that her text was going to deter Mary from sending more texts, but she was most definitely not going to text Mary with James in the seat next to her, even if he was driving and incapable of reading what she was writing.

"She did think that you had kidnapped me, so good call." She said, turning off her screen and shoving it into her lap. "She wants you to know that she would report you if you did that."

He nodded. "Well I guess that takes that off the table."

"Yeah," Lily poked her forearm and watched her white fingerprint change back to pink.

"Do you have aloe?" He asked.

"We should. I mean this isn't an uncommon problem in our house."

"Failure of the mutation." He repeated her earlier phrase with a nod.

The drive home always felt shorter than the ride to somewhere, but Lily was surprised to see the diner that was just a few blocks from her house.

"Should we stop in for chips and chocolate shakes?" James asked, looking over at Lily.

It was appealing, but she thought she might get sick if she tried to eat anything more. "If I hadn't eaten those last three bread sticks, then I'd probably say yes, but if I see a chocolate shake right now…"

James laughed. "You did eat an impressive amount of bread."

"It was really good bread," She shrugged.

"I agree. We can get chips and shakes another time. Tomorrow maybe?"

"Maybe," Lily shrugged, though she knew that he wasn't going to let her be non-committal. "If I survive my phone call with Mary tonight."

James laughed. "It'll have to be dinner tomorrow though. Sirius and I are going- furniture shopping? I'm not actually sure, but it sounded important to him."

"You're not sure if you're going furniture shopping?" Lily laughed and then felt a bit disappointed when she saw their houses come into view. She didn't want to feel disappointed of course, but she did. She had had a lot of fun with James today, even if there had been a lot of stress as well, and she wasn't ready for it to end. But at the same time, she didn't want to get used to spending a lot of time with him if he was only here for a couple of weeks.

"He phrased it weird. I'll let you know tomorrow. There's a boy involved. Benjy. It's the first time Sirius has ever dated anyone and he's being a little odd about it."

"I didn't know that," Lily said, "Which means Mary didn't know that." And that was what was really strange.

"It's pretty new." James shrugged. "They haven't posted about it or anything."

Lily nodded. "I can't believe I know something before Mary do- not that I'm going to run and gossip about your best mate of course."

"I don't think it counts as gossiping when you're telling your best friend something." James shrugged.

"It does, it's just not as harmful as other forms of gossip. Though if it's new, maybe I shouldn't tell her, because she does like to gossip and might tell other people."

James tilted his head back and forth.

"When did it start?"

"Last month." James laughed. "Sirius didn't want to tell me about it. It was great fun for me. I've never got to tease him about catching feelings before. It's about time I got some payback on that front."

He pulled into her driveway before Lily realized that he was doing it and she gave him a look. "Why did you do that?" She asked.

"I'm dropping you off at your house."

"Yes, but your- thank you, James." She shook her head and took a deep breath before she opened her door. He was out of the car by the time she had her door shut, and gathering up her bags from the backseat. "This is because your mum is probably watching, isn't it?"

"I thought we had established that she's been watching the entire time."

"Right, through her network of spies," Lily reached out to take the bags and James looked conflicted. "I know that you've been carrying them all day, but I promise you that I am in fact capable of doing it myself."

"I know that," He handed them over. "I was just trying to work out if I should walk you to the door or not." He glanced over his shoulder toward his house. "I don't think my parents are home at the moment, but still." He smiled at her.

Lily found herself smiling back at him, not even looking for something to say.

His smile got larger after a minute and Lily looked down at her shoes. "Thanks for driving today." She said, "Even if I did spend a significant portion of the drive worried for my safety."

James' smile diminished at that. "Hey now," He tapped the top of Edith's hood and something made a rattling sound. He flinched and pulled his hand away. "She's not going to fall apart." He shook his head. "I'll see you tomorrow." He waved and then started walking back to the driver's side, perhaps before she could refute him.

"See ya," She waved as well and then started for her porch. She figured it was best to get inside before he parked his car in his own driveway and they were stuck three meters apart, which was an awkward distance to end a non-date on.

Lily's phone started ringing almost as soon as she stepped in the front door.

AN: Don't forget to leave a comment!