AN: Happy Sunday everyone! I'm really glad that I thought to look over this chapter last night, bc I got the second dose of the covid vaccine and it hit me like a truck! I'm starting to feel better now, but my brain is still mush

So please enjoy this chapter, it's nothing but fluff

When Lily woke the next morning, or perhaps it was closer to noon, it was to a pleasant sensation on her head. Someone was playing with her hair.

James lightly scratched at her scalp and she hummed, blindly lifting her hand until she felt his hand wrap around hers. And just like the first time he'd held her hand, his hand was warm and seemed to fit perfectly around hers.

"Morning," He said, his voice quiet and rough. She hummed again. "I've been trying to decide the best way to get back into my house from here. I'm one hundred and fifty percent sure that my parents know that I never came in last night, but I'd still like to try not getting caught, if only because it's more fun that way."

Lily took a deep breath and tilted her head so she could look up at him. She blinked a few times before she was able to keep her eyes open. "Why did you stop playing with my hair?"

He smiled at her and his hand moved back to her hair. "So, you're still unbothered."

"No. Maybe. But I don't want to worry about it right now. I'll be properly cowed when I next see your mum. Probably. It's a good thing we're adults now and no one can ground us. Though, I can probably still get in trouble for having a boy in my room," She looked toward the door. "What time is it?"

"Almost eleven."

"Almost?" Lily groaned. She did the math in her head and then shut her eyes and snuggled closer to James. "That's not enough sleep."

"No, it's not." He agreed, his fingers moving soothingly through her hair. She was quite sure that she would be able to fall back to sleep rather quickly if he kept that up. "I promise not to keep you up so late tonight though."

She snorted, eyes still closed. "You couldn't if you tried. I'm already tired."

He chuckled and she smiled as she felt the vibrations in his chest.

It should have been weird to wake up in his arms. It should have been at least a little weird.

Lots of things should have been weird though, and they just weren't. Of course this is what was happening. Of course she joked with his friends about his parents planning their wedding. Of course she had seen him every day for a week now without making plans to do so in advance. Of course he'd climbed in through her window last night. Of course Sirius had sat her down and told her to be nice to James. Of course no one at the party had thought it surprising at all that James and Lily had shown up together. Of course, of course, of course.

She squeezed his hand.

"Hey, Lils?"

She hummed again.

"Can I take you out on a date? A real date?"

Her eyes popped open.

Lily bit down on her tongue, waiting for the familiar tug of resistance, waiting for her brain to start spinning around in circles to remind her of all the reasons she should say no.

It didn't come though, and all she wanted to do was tease him.

"A real date? You mean I let you spend the night and we haven't even gone on one real date yet?" He laughed and she pinched his side, "Do you want my mum to come in here?" Lily was pretty sure that her mum had left the house around eight or nine to go have brunch with her mum like she did most Sundays. Lily would have gone with her if she hadn't gotten home after three in the morning.

"You know that we haven't."

"You gave me a flower before we went to the diner."

"Yes, but you said that it wasn't a date. You said that we were 'hanging out.'"

"Seemed like a date."

"Lily," He pulled her tighter against his chest, dropping her hand to wrap both arms around her. If he was trying to cuddle her into submission, that would have worked even if she hadn't already decided that she wanted to go on a real date with him. "I want to take you on a real date, a date where you are willing to call it a date from the start," He rolled onto his side and scooted down so that they were face to face. Lily reached up and brushed the hair back from his face. "You like me, and I like you. That can be enough if we let it."

She wanted it to be enough. "I do like you." Her thumb brushed over his cheek and then she pushed her hand into his hair. She'd almost always liked him when she was a kid. Even when she didn't want to admit to herself that she liked him, she'd liked him. "A lot," She added quietly.

He nudged his nose against hers, smiling widely. "Go out with me, Evans."

He was smiling, but there was something unsure in his eyes. She twisted her fingers in his hair and then leaned in, pressing her lips to his. It was a short and sweet thing, and it sent tingles all the way to her toes. "Alright, Potter." And then he was smiling under her lips and tightening his arms around her again.

He pulled back, keeping their foreheads together. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. I feel like saying no at this point would be ridiculous. I do want to go out with you. I'm still not sure it's a good idea, but I guess we'll just have to find out."

"I love how much faith you have in us."

"It's been a week." She laughed. "I'm sure time will help."

"As long as you're willing to give me time."

She sighed and shimmied closer so she was snug against his chest again, his chin resting on top of her head. "You wanna go and get something to eat?"

"Sure. It's a date."

"Is it?" She asked, slowly disentangling herself from him and sitting up. She stretched her arms over her head and then worked her fingers through her curls, pulling her hair up into a plait.

James sat up as well. "I mean, no. No, I'm going to plan out our first date, and it's going to be a lot better than grabbing lunch from… Hoppers?"

"Sure." She looked over at him and laughed. His hair was messier than usual, he had lost his dress shirt, but he was still in his undershirt. He'd shoved his glasses on his face already and he looked absolutely perfect.

"What?"

"It's still very strange to see you in my room. And now you're on my bed too," She laughed again. "It's weird. A good weird." She promised.

"And in front of the poster too," He teased, nodding toward the NSYNC poster. "Do you think it's jealous?"

Lily rolled her eyes and pushed herself out of bed. "I'm going to make you go out the way you came in if you don't stop."

That evening, Lily and her mum curled up on the couch with take away to watch Stardust, taking a break from the other pirates. James had gone to some local sporting event with Remus and Sirius, she'd been invited by James, but she told him that she'd already had plans to not crash his friend date. He'd rolled his eyes but didn't argue the point.

She'd called Mary and tried to bribe her into telling her what she'd said to James, but she refused, which only made Lily want to know more. She still told Mary everything that had happened with James since last night anyway, even though she'd said she wouldn't if Mary didn't give up her secrets.

She'd also told her mother everything, because she really didn't know how to keep anything to herself.

"You had a boy spend the night?" Rose raised her brow, staring at Lily. For a minute, Lily thought that her mum was going to reprimand her, but then she just started laughing and Lily crossed her arms, turning her attention back to the movie.

"I do not appreciate you laughing at me."

"I'm not laughing at you, darling," Rose leaned toward Lily and put a hand on her knee. "I'm not, it's just- did he really climb up on the roof?"

"Yes," Lily narrowed her eyes. Rose started laughing again, and Lily didn't feel so bad now because she figured her mum was laughing at James, which was fair. She cracked a smile. "I used to imagine him climbing in through my window. He waited until he was twenty two," Rose's laughter renewed.

"Well, I'm glad you finally got to snog him,"

"Me too," Lily picked up her wine glass and tipped it toward her mum.

"Was it worth the wait and all the theatrics?"

"Yes," Lily answered too quickly and her mum started laughing again. This time Lily joined her.

When they finally stopped laughing, her mum smoothed out her hair and shook her head. "So, what is your plan for tomorrow?"

"To go kick ass at the interview." Lily deadpanned. Rose quirked a brow. "I'm going to drive up there around noon, maybe closer to one, the interview isn't until two thirty, but I don't want to be late. James offered to drive me, but I'm gonna go by myself."

Rose nodded. "Do you need to get any new clothes?"

"No, I've got fancy grown up clothes from when I did my internship." Lily grinned. "Also it's literally the day before the interview, I hope I don't need anything."

Rose grinned, "Alright, I was just going to tell you that you can look through my closet."

"Well if you're offering, I might steal that blue blazer you have. I love that blazer."

"You're more than welcome to it."

They went back to watching the movie for a few minutes.

"He asked me out." Rose looked back at her. "Like, he asked me if he could take me on a real date."

"Instead of the two of you just hanging out." Lily rolled her eyes, wishing that she'd never asked James to say 'hanging out.'

"Yes, instead of that."

"What did you say?"

"I said yes, of course. I mean, I gave him a hard time, but I said yes."

"And how do you feel about that?"

Lily chewed on her lip, looking back at the tv. "Not as anxious as I thought I'd be. He's leaving on Friday though."

"Where will he be?"

"I don't know. Guess it depends on which team he picks. He says he'll be about an hour away."

"That's not very far," Rose shrugged.

"I mean, it's decently far." Lily shrugged. "And he's going to have a new schedule to figure out. And I will too, especially if I get this job."

"Sure," Rose nodded. "But you want to keep seeing him after he moves?"

Lily huffed and let her head fall back against the sofa. "I've seen him every day for a week. I don't know how I'm going to go back to not seeing him every day now. How whipped do I sound?"

When she looked at her mum, she was smiling at her. "Where are you going on your date?" She ignored Lily's question.

"I don't know. He told me that he'd let me know after he figured it out. He told me to keep Tuesday night open though, so I'm assuming that's when it is."

"He's gonna spoil you, flower."

She squirmed, pulled her feet under her and shoving her hands into her lap. "Hopefully not too much."

Lily laid her outfit for her interview out on her desk and looked it over. She'd already tried it on, so she knew it looked good. She was glad her mum had offered the blazer.

She heard her phone buzz.

James Potter: Open your window please

She turned toward her window where she'd pulled the curtains closed while she was trying on clothes.

She put her phone down and walked over, sliding the curtains over and spotting James sitting on his windowsill, the window open. She pushed hers open as well.

"Yes?" She grinned at him.

"Mary texted me a few times this evening. Thought you'd want to know."

She nodded, "I knew she would. Are you canceling our date then? She's scared you off?" He laughed. "I'm not gonna tell her to stop," Lily went on, leaning against her window sill. "I'm not technically allowed. Apparently I signed a friendship contract."

"She has not scared me away." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "I think I picked a team."

Lily raised her brow. "Yeah? How did you manage that?"

He looked at her, quiet for a moment. Then he shrugged and looked away, his hand going to his hair, "I don't know how it happened and if you make me think about it, I might change my mind."

She didn't believe him, he had a reason, and he didn't want to tell her. "Alright. Who are you gonna play for then?"

"Since you've proven yourself to be good at keeping only this specific secret," He looked at her over the tops of his glasses and she couldn't stop the wide grin that spread over her face, "I'm gonna wear red. The Falcons."

"Oh good," Lily crossed her arms over her chest. "You look really good in red."

"That was the deciding vote. The Canons gold is too yellow, clashes with my skin tone."

She'd seen him in a Canons jersey before and she knew that was false, but she nodded. "I think you made the right call."

"Me too," His smile was softer now. He still wasn't telling her something, but maybe he couldn't. He wasn't supposed to tell her which team he was going to play for until he signed a contract either, but he would tell her when he could.

"Did you have fun tonight?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "I still wish you would have come though."

She reached up a hand to cover her smile. "Of course,"

"Are you ready for your interview tomorrow?"

"I am. I'm a little nervous, but mainly excited."

"Good. You'll do brilliantly."

"Probably," Lily grinned.

"Are you driving tomorrow?"

"I don't know. I'm thinking about taking the train. Actually, I probably am going to take the train. Takes the same amount of time and I don't have to drive."

"I could drive you."

"You've already offered." She reminded him. "But I'm good. I don't think anyone normally brings a bloke along when they're going in for a job interview."

"Probably not, but we could start celebrating a lot sooner if I came with you."

She shook her head. "Tempting, but I'm good to go on my own."

"Alright," He was grinning at her, that boyish grin of his that made her cheeks flush, that made her feel foolish for how much she liked him. "So I should just let you get some sleep then?"

She bit down on her lip and tilted her head, so it was leaning against the windowsill. "I mean, you should, yes."

His grin got a little bigger, but he waited for her to go on.

"Will you meet me in the backya-"

"Yes." He winked at her before he pulled his window shut.

Her heart danced happily in her chest as she reached out to pull her own window closed.

Lily arrived in the backyard ready to be met with cheeky remarks and some light teasing. But James didn't have anything to say as he crossed the yard and pulled her in for a kiss that might have suggested that they had gone a lot longer than half a day without seeing one another.

Not that Lily minded at all, especially not when his hands were cupping her face like they were.

Her body quickly molded against his, and she wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him closer. Her body seemed to know what to do, as if yesterday hadn't been the first time that she'd kissed him, but her mind was on fire with all the different sensations that it was trying to process.

She'd snogged other people before, but kissing James was different. Kissing James made her feel as though she'd never actually been kissed before.

Whatever she'd done before, it didn't feel like this. This was what a kiss was meant to feel like, these were the feelings that people dreamed of, that they fought for. Everything before had been a colorless imitation.

And she was greedy for it. Her hands buried in his hair and she tugged, keeping him as close to her as she could. His hands left searing trails across her skin as his hands slipped under her t-shirt. He gripped her hips, his fingernails sparking an explosion of goosebumps. He nipped at her lip and trailed kisses down her jawline until he was at her neck. She gasped in surprise when she felt his teeth graze sensitive skin. Her grip on his hair tightened and he moaned against her neck.

When she was out of breath and felt as though she was moments away from drowning, she pulled back and sucked in a shaky breath, her eyes still closed. She slowly disentangled her fingers from his hair and slid her hands down to grip his shoulders.

She could feel his heart thudding against her chest.

He let out a ragged breath. "That was a bit more than a goodnight kiss,"

"Is that what you were going for?" She asked quietly, nudging his nose with her own.

"That was the original plan."

"Maybe you should try again tomorrow."

He laughed, "I appreciate that you're willing to give me a second chance."

"Of course. I'm nothing if not understanding."

She opened her eyes to find James' hazel eyes, bright and warm, looking right back at her. "Goodnight, Lily." He leaned down to kiss her again, but this time his lips were soft and gentle. She let out a small, contented sigh when he pulled away.

"Goodnight, James."