AN: Happy Sunday, everyone!

This is the longest chapter of the bunch, but not by as much as I thought it would end up being.

Only one more to go after this!

Enjoy!

Lily woke up Thursday morning, determined.

She would need determination to get her through everything she had to do today. She had an interview just outside of London, and then she was going to see James whether he wanted to see her or not. If he didn't want to see her, then he was going to have to tell her that.

Perhaps Sirius was right and James was just stressed out, but she still didn't think that was a very good reason to start ignoring her now, when he was leaving tomorrow.

He made her be direct with Anthony, so he would have to be direct with her. It was only fair.

But the interview first.

She wasn't as nervous for this interview as she had been for the one at The Hollows since she had really wanted to work for The Hollows, and this was just a small publishing company that she hadn't heard of before looking for work.

She brushed up on books that they had published on the train ride and it turned out that she'd read a few, so she'd have something to talk about apart from what was on her resume.

She checked her phone quite a bit when she was on the train, waiting for James to text her but telling herself that she wasn't waiting for him to text her.

She had texted him first this morning, she wasn't going to be the kind of person that wasn't going to text just because James wasn't texting her.

But he hadn't yet responded, which only made her want to whack him over the back of his head. She couldn't do anything about it now though, so she put her phone away.

The interview went well, and afterward, she had a virtual coffee date with Mary. She got back on the train around one o'clock and saw that she now had a few new messages.

Sirius had texted her, asking her where she was, which she thought was weird, but she told him without inquiry.

And James had finally texted her back.

James: Sorry I took so long. Spending most of the day packing

Lily: Do you need any boxes? I have some to spare

Sirius texted back before James did.

Sirius: Hope the interview went well. Are you bringing pizza with you? We could use some pizza. Mama Mia is only in a baking mood and Monty keeps trying to make us cheesy toast, but I want pizza.

Sirius: I already ordered it, just need you to pick it up from that place by the train station

Lily bit her lip and reread his message. He was clearly inviting her over to James' house.

Her phone vibrated again.

James: Nah, mum went overboard

James: She's got enough to pack the entire house and I really don't have that much stuff

Lily was spurred by his lack of punctuation and longer responses.

Lily: Well, to be fair, you had to get your flair for the dramatics from someone

Lily: Did you hear anything about Edith yet?

James: … I don't know what you're talking about

James: Yes! She's gonna be alright. Dad and Sirius are a little annoyed with me for spending the money to get her fixed instead of getting a more 'dependable' car, but

James: She'll be ready sometime next week

Lily: That's great!

Lily: Also, Sirius asked me to pick up the pizza he ordered, so I'll be over shortly. Do you have any requests?

James: No, I'm good

He didn't tell her not to come over, so she started to wonder if all the weirdness had been in her head this whole time.

But she hadn't kissed him in like four days so she was pretty sure that it wasn't all in her head.

She texted Sirius back saying she'd bring the pizza with her and then slouched against her seat.

Whatever was going on between her and James, she was going to figure it out today. She had to figure it out today, he was leaving tomorrow.

She walked to James' with the three pizzas that Sirius had ordered, and the large order of breadsticks that she'd added to the order. Luckily, it wasn't long of a walk, because Lily had worn heels to the interview, and carrying three extra large pizzas in heels wasn't the easiest thing she'd ever done.

She stopped by her house first so she could change out of her dress clothes. She put on a pair of grey sweats and an old tie dyed shirt from some camp she went to a decade ago. She wiped off her lipstick in preparation for the pizza as well.

Carrying the pizzas to James' house proved to be much easier.

She thought about knocking on the door, but figured that would be weird since they all knew she was coming, so she pushed the front door open, only sort of second guessing her decision.

"Lily!" Benjy was leaning against the banister at the bottom of the stairs when she walked in and quickly stepped up to help her with the pizza. "You got bread sticks too, good call. Lily's here with the food!"

"What food?" Mia called from the kitchen. "I'm baking!"

Lily took a deep breath, her senses immediately overwhelmed by something sweet. She followed Benjy into the kitchen and set the pizza down on the counter. Mia was wearing an apron with small dragons on it and Lily smiled at her.

"Lily!" Mia stepped away from her pot on the stove and came to give her a one-armed hug, keeping her wooden spoon in the air. "I'm glad you're here."

"Are you making jam?"

"Yes! Though I suppose the boys can't eat jam for lunch," She glanced at the clock and her brow shot up. "Goodness me, is it really two thirty already? I'm surprised Sirius hasn't tried to eat the table yet."

"I was about to," Sirius said, walking into the kitchen. Remus and Peter were close behind him. Lily found herself holding her breath while she waited for James to come in.

"Well, I'm sorry, I lost track of time! I'm still going to make dinner, so save some room."

"Of course, mum," Sirius nodded as he threw open one of the pizza boxes.

"Hey, Lily," Remus grinned as he stepped up to the counter. "Thanks for grabbing this on your way over." Lily smiled and nodded.

"Sirius forgot to get breadsticks, but I fixed that." She reached for the bag and pulled one out.

"Maybe I was being cheap and knew you would get them even if I didn't order them."

"I should hope not, young man." Mia admonished.

"Only joking!" He held his hands up.

Lily leaned against the counter and took a bite of her breadstick. "Do you want any help, Ms. Potter?"

"No, no, no," Mia said, waving her hand at Lily and turning back to the pot on the stove. "You eat, dear."

"Can we fit anymore in the back of our car?" Lily heard Monty and swung her head back around.

Lily bit down on the inside of her cheek and tried to tell herself to calm down. There was no reason she should be nervous or anxious or whatever she was feeling, just because James was about to walk into the room. She'd seen him every day for the last two weeks, even if yesterday it was only for a few minutes. She wasn't about to surprise him either. She'd told him that she was bringing the pizza.

Everything was going to be fine.

He wasn't going to dump her after spending the last two weeks changing her mind. If he was, she would have to kick his ass because that would be very mean. She'd told him in London that she didn't think dating was a good idea, there was too much going on for them to start something new, and he was moving. But he'd made it so easy, he'd changed her mind without her realizing that it was happening. He'd been more than she could have ever imagined, and dammit, everything was going to be fine.

She didn't hear whatever James said to his dad, but then they were both walking into the kitchen and Lily forced herself to unclench her jaw as she looked over James' face. He finished saying whatever he was saying before he looked at her, and the smile that jumped to her face when he did was completely out of her control.

The smile on his face didn't look like it had jumped there on its own, but rather as though James had forced it there.

Lily's stomach sank all the way to her feet and she didn't want to finish her breadstick.

"Thanks for picking this up," James said, walking over to the counter and picking up a slice. "I told Sirius he had to walk out there to pick it up if he ordered it, but guess he knew what time you'd be getting off the train."

Lily bit back her initial response. And then the responses that popped up in her mind after.

"Not a problem." She said instead, stuffing another bite of her breadstick into her mouth.

"How did your interview go?" Sirius asked, and Lily figured that was his way of admitting he had been wrong to invite her over. Lily took a breath and then turned toward the three boys who were seated at the counter.

"Good. Much better than the last one."

"No job offers out of the continent then?" Remus asked.

"What?" Mia spun back around, looking rather alarmed.

"I'm not leaving the country, let alone the continent," Lily assured her. "When I went in for the Hollows interview, they told me that they had already filled the position that I was applying for and offered me a terrible job in New York. I'm not considering it."

Mia put a hand over her heart and nodded. "Alright. I'm sorry they brought you all the way into the city to give you an offer like that."

"Yeah, it was pretty disappointing. But I've got more interviews lined up next week, and today's went well. We'll see if I get called in for a second interview." Or if she took the library job. She had spent the entire interview she went to today, comparing everything to the library job.

"I'm sure you will." Monty came up to the counter and picked up a piece of pizza as well, taking it over to the table where James had quietly sat down.

Lily chewed on her tongue. "I've got a few things to consider regardless of whether or not they call me back. I'm not feeling quite so intimidated anymore after the Hollows interview. That kind of seemed like the worst case scenario, so everything else will be easy." She shrugged.

"You do seem less stressed out about it all." Sirius commented.

Lily shrugged. "I've got time to figure it out. Mary and my mum keep telling me to live in the moment, so I guess I've been trying to do that. Also I just came from an interview that went really well," She smiled and finished off her breadstick. "How is packing going?"

She turned to look at James, who had his mouth full of pizza. Monty answered for him. "Well enough. He doesn't have too much stuff. Less than I thought he did anyway."

"Well, the rest of it is at my flat," Sirius said. "Which I will be tossing out in exactly one week if he doesn't come and collect it."

"Really?" James asked, raising his brow.

"Where are you gonna toss it?" Benjy asked. "The river?"

"That would be the most fun way of getting rid of it." Peter nodded and Benjy snorted.

"You laugh, but you haven't even thrown anything in the river." Sirius said, shaking his head.

Lily smiled, "It is fun to throw things in the river."

"I bet." Benjy laughed.

"Well now you get to come with me when I toss out James' shit and you'll see."

"Or we don't have to toss out James' things." James said.

"We'll see," Benjy shrugged.

"Benjy?" James pushed his glasses up his nose. "You getting a bit comfortable, mate?"

Lily laughed when she saw Benjy just shrug his shoulder again. She forgot that he only started hanging out with everyone a couple weeks ago as well, that Sirius had been so nervous to introduce him to everyone.

Monty persuaded them to come up with an actual plan to get James' things from Sirius' flat, to James' new flat.

"They're not all that far from one another, it really shouldn't be much hassle." Mia said, stirring the pot on the stove. Lily took a few steps closer to her so she could peer in at the sweet smelling jam.

"I know," Sirius said. "I just like giving him a hard time."

"I know," Mia parrotted, "But maybe we've all been giving James too hard of a time."

"No," James laughed. "If you were all supportive and loving I would think you were actually upset with me. I really don't mind the jokes."

Lily knew what he'd meant by that, since he hadn't been joking with her for the last couple of days and she did think that he was upset with her.

"What are you making all this jam for?" Lily asked, once she was standing nearly on top of the stove.

"I'll be sure to share," Mia grinned at her. "I always make a big batch. I'm known for my peach jam at Monty's work, and so we put together little gift baskets every summer as a thank you. Though I didn't have to choose today to make it. I suppose I might just be making everything a bit more hectic than it needs to be, but I needed to keep busy and the boys kept telling me that they didn't need my help."

Lily nodded. "I understand that."

The boys started talking about something, but Lily was thinking about how James hadn't even told her that he was spending the day packing with the boys until after Sirius had. Maybe she was intruding, maybe she should head home.

She was leaning against the counter, her arms crossed over her chest, facing the room, but she felt separate from everything that was happening in front of her.

Mia bumped her elbow against Lily's. "Everything alright, dear?"

Lily bit the tip of her tongue.

"He's not going to be that far away. And he's promised to visit all the time, though I'm sure that has more to do with you that-"

"No." Lily shook her head, but then realized that maybe she shouldn't have interrupted, because now, Mia was looking at her as though she wanted an explanation and Lily didn't have one. She took a deep breath and turned so her hip was against the counter, angling her body away from the rest of the room. "Does James believe in bad luck?"

Mia held her gaze for a moment before looking back at her jam. "I think all athletes do, to some extent."

Lily sighed and tucked her hair back behind her ear. "That's what I thought."

"Do you believe in bad luck?" Mia asked.

"No. I think we make our own luck. That's why some people choose to believe that rain on a wedding day is lucky, or other inconveniences are lucky. But it wasn't just the rain, was it," She said wryly.

Mia frowned at her. "He doesn't think that you're bad luck, Lily."

"No, just that our date was bad luck." Lily turned entirely away from the room and put her palms on the counter. "S'fine though. I'll get him to talk to me tonight."

Mia looked uncertain, perhaps she hadn't known that anything was off between James and Lily before now, but she nodded. "Good." They were both quiet for a few minutes after that and Lily turned back to face the room. She caught James' eye and before he looked away and masked his face, he looked almost hurt? Worried? Lily wasn't sure, but it didn't make sense, whatever the look had been.

"Do you want to try some?" Mia asked, holding out a small cracker that she'd dipped in the jam.

"You know that I do," Lily gave her a small grin and took the cracker from her.

She'd worry about James when she figured out how to get him alone.

And, to Mia's credit, the jam did make her forget about absolutely everything for a minute.

It was much later before any of the boys started leaving.

Mia had relented and let Lily help her make dinner, and then there was some more packing, and then they started saying goodbye. Sirius was going with James tomorrow to help him unpack with Monty and Mia, but Remus and Peter both had to work so it would be a while before they saw him. Most likely less than a week, but still, they had a lot to talk about before they left.

Lily spent most of the evening trying to get James to speak to her normally, and then hanging out with Remus and Benjy.

But as they all started to leave, Lily made her way upstairs. Her thought was that this way, no one could ask her to leave. Not that she thought James would be that direct, as he'd been unhelpfully indirect all day.

Once in James' room, she went over to lay on his bed, pulled out her phone and just started scrolling through one app and another, responding to texts from Mary and Marlene. She'd been vague with Mary about what was going on with James, but she did give a bit more detail within the last hour because she needed Mary's pep talk for the confrontation that was about to happen.

Maybe it wasn't going to be a confrontational conversation, but she knew that it had the possibility of becoming one, so her heart was beating a bit faster.

She also knew that she might hear some things that she didn't want to hear.

She'd always been good at confronting James. She didn't know why the thought of having it out with him now made her nervous.

It was a long while before she heard footsteps on the stairs. Her heart was in her throat as James pushed the door open.

She was still looking at her phone, her attempt at nonchalance, as though this wasn't the first time she'd sneaked away to his room to lay on his bed.

She turned her phone down, putting it on her chest and looked over at him. "Hey." She said, glad that her voice sounded normal.

"Hey." He said, and he did not sound normal. Good. "I thought you went home already."

"I wouldn't have left without saying goodbye. Even if you've spent the entire day keeping me at arm's length." And that was being generous, though it didn't sound generous when she said it. It sounded kind of like she was pouting. At least she felt like she was pouting. But she also knew that she didn't have to, nor should she, try and hide that he'd hurt her feelings these last couple of days.

James swallowed and then stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. "What are you doing, Lily?"

Lily bit the tip of her tongue and picked her phone back up. "You know, we've been doing a pretty good job with the whole communication thing up until now."

"I know. I'm sorry that I've been busy these last couple days-"

"James," Lily put her phone down again and sat up, crossing her legs under her and tilting her head at him. "I'm starting to feel like we're in secondary all over again." She huffed and tucked her hair back behind her ear. "What's going on? I think it's easier if you just tell me."

"Maybe this is me trying to make things easier on you." James ran a hand through his hair and looked away from her. Lily bit the tip of her tongue and tried to work through that sentence.

"What? Why would you ignoring me be easier for me?"

"I haven't been ignoring you."

Lily took a deep breath through her nose. "When we have spent the last week and a half spending all of our free time together, and then you start responding to my texts with punctuation, you might as well be ignoring me."

He shifted from one foot to the other and then walked over to the couch and leaned against the arm, facing her with his arms crossed over his chest. "I didn't mean to make you feel like I was ignoring you."

The way he said it, so diplomatic, it made her sit up straighter. If he kept this up, she was liable to throw something at him. "Yes you did."

James' eyes flashed to hers, but he didn't hold her gaze. "I might have pulled back a bit, but I wasn't ignoring you."

Lily's stomach was in knots now. Everyone had been wrong, he did want to end things with her before he moved. She had been right that first day that they had hung out. It was too much, too fast. You couldn't cram a relationship into two weeks. Now that he was about to move, he finally agreed with her.

After he'd changed her mind.

"When we were up on the roof the other day, you told me that I had to be direct and say exactly what I wanted." She watched him swallow as she repeated back the advice he'd given her when she had been dealing with Anthony. "Right?"

"I did."

"So?"

They were both quiet for a moment and then James looked up at her. "Fine."

Lily tried to brace herself, though she had a horrible gut feeling that she was going to be leaving the Potter house while fighting back tears.

But James didn't say anything, he just kept looking at her.

Lily narrowed her brow. "Well?"

"Well what? Go ahead," He uncrossed his arms to wave them out in front of him. "Maybe I pulled back a bit because I didn't want to have this conversation, I was trying to give you an easy out, but you're here, so go ahead and say what you want to say."

Lily blinked at him. "Why are you being an ass?"

"I'm not being an ass," He sighed, pushing his glasses up his nose and pushing off the side of the couch. "You're here, so say what you want to say."

Lily pressed her lips together and huffed. "I'm not the one who's been pulling back and trying to give you an easy out. I don't have anything to say. But if you're going to dump me, you're going to do it to my face. I don't want you to prance around my feelings and just stop talking to me. Be honest with me, fucking talk to me."

"Wait," James shook his head and took a step toward her. "If I'm going to dump-"

"I mean how shitty is it that you spent all this time changing my mind after I told you that I didn't think this was a good idea, only to start ignoring me now? I know that everything is changing, and things are going to be different, I knew that from the start, I said-"

"Wait," James said again, taking another step toward her.

Lily clenched her fists and shook her head. "No. I don't like how you've been treating me these last couple days. I know that our date didn't go how you planned, but I didn't think that meant you were going to just-"

"Lily," James was at the edge of the bed now and his hand was buried in his hair.

"Stop interrupting me."

"Do you think that I want to break up with you?"

Lily narrowed her eyes. "I have no idea what else you could be trying to do." She thought back to how he hadn't kissed her goodnight after their date, but she couldn't bring that up. She would blush horribly and get flustered, and she needed to stay focused and non-flustered. She might also have been concerned with sounding pathetic. James knew that he hadn't kissed her. So she stuck with something safer. "You didn't even invite me over here today. Sirius did. And you've barely spoken to me."

James blinked at her and then sat down on the edge of the bed. He opened his mouth and then closed it. He repeated this a few times and then sighed and rested his face in his hands. "Oh no."

Lily bit the tip of her tongue. "What?" She asked quietly. She'd been growing more and more nervous when she was waiting for him to say something, and when he finally did, it was very anticlimactic. "You better not tell me that you thought everything was normal today."

"I'm not going to." James sighed again and then sat up, turning to look at her. "I'm not trying to break up with you."

Lily continued to look at him through narrowed eyes.

"Really, I'm not. I can't think of any situation where I would ever want to do that. I didn't even think that you considered us to be in a place where we could break up."

"James-"

"I thought you were going to end things."

"I told you to stop interrupting- What?"

"I thought that you were going to end things." James repeated, shaking his head. "The date went so horribly, between your ankle and the rain and your phone getting ruined. I'd been trying to show you that I knew how to plan ahead, that things weren't going to be so bad once I moved and everything went to hell in a handbasket."

Lily just kept looking at him. Had she done anything that should have led him to believe that she was going to end things? She might have waited too long to text him on Wednesday, but she had still texted him first. She didn't know when the note she hung up the night of their date had fallen, so there was a good chance that he'd seen it, unless he hadn't looked. She'd asked him to have breakfast with her on Wednesday. She'd tried again to see him that evening. And then she'd let Sirius invite her over today.

Lily clicked her tongue, "I'm finding it a little hard to understand why you thought I was the one trying to end things."

James fidgeted. "You've been saying from the beginning that you didn't want to date, or that you were unsure about all of this. And I heard you when you said that you liked hanging out and that you were excited about our date, but," He shrugged. "Well none of that meant that you had changed your mind, did it?"

Lily wanted to hit him with a pillow.

She took a deep breath instead.

"James," She covered her face with her hands and fell back on the bed, bouncing gently as she hit the mattress.

She knew he was half right. She'd never come out and told him that she had changed her mind. She had kept that to herself. She was always quick to jump at the chance to see him, she was quick to tease him, but she hadn't really said anything about how she was feeling about him.

She thought back to when they were sitting on the roof and he'd asked her, 'You like the offer you have?' And she turned it into a joke that ended with James offering to buy her a milkshake.

Now that she was thinking about it, the last two weeks had been almost exclusively James showing her how he felt, and her just going along for the ride. He'd made most of the plans, gone out of his way to show that he cared, and what had she done? Invited him to spend the night that one time? Told him to flip a coin to choose which team he should play for?

"It's alright," She felt him lay down next to her. "I understand where you're coming from-"

"Stop it," She interrupted him this time. "I don't want to break up with you. I already said that I thought you were trying-" She shook her head. "I changed my mind." She felt her cheeks heat up.

"You don't want- you changed your mind about what?"

"I changed my mind about us. Almost a week ago now. I hadn't realized that I hadn't told you, or that you didn't know."

James didn't say anything and Lily didn't think that he was going to until she removed her arms from her face, which she was reluctant to do. But she knew that they needed to keep talking, so she took a deep breath and pulled her arms down.

"A week ago?" He asked quietly, and Lily felt her cheeks flush again.

"Sunday probably, if you want to be more specific." She chewed on the tip of her tongue. "I wouldn't have agreed to go on a real date with you if I hadn't changed my mind."

They both lay there, staring at James' ceiling.

"Is that what you were trying to say before we left? When I cut you off and told you to wait until after we went on our date?"

Lily bit down on her cheek. "I don't think I was going to be so clear, but I was going to say that I already wanted a second date."

"And… having everything go horribly wrong didn't turn you off the idea?"

Lily grabbed one of James' pillows and swung it over her to thwack him in the stomach with it. "No, James. Which you would have known if you hadn't avoided me for the last two days. I liked our date. I'm sorry your car broke down, and I know it ended abruptly, but I still liked it. I still like you, I still want to go out with you." He took the pillow she'd hit him with, so she grabbed another one and swung it over at him. "Git."

James tossed the pillow off the bed when it hit his stomach and rolled toward her, reaching out to wrap his arm around her middle and she quickly sat up to glower at him.

"I don't think so, pal."

"Pal?" He asked, and he sat up as well, doing what she could only assume was his best to hide his smile.

"I'm not gonna cuddle you now, I'm still upset. I had to trap you in your room to get you to speak with me-"

"I thought you were going to-" He interrupted again.

"I don't care what you thought. We need to talk to each other or I'm going to push you in front of a car!" She tugged at her hair. "I thought I was going crazy yesterday! Everyone was all 'He likes you Lily, he's not going to dump you.' And then you wouldn't even get ice cream with me?" She shook her head.

"I'm sorry." James sat up as well, pulling one leg under him so he could face her. "I didn't mean to make you feel like that. I'm sorry that I did."

Lily bit the tip of her tongue. "I'm sorry too. I didn't realize that I wasn't being clearer about how I feel about you. And about..." She motioned back and forth between them. "Us."

James coughed, and she knew it was because he was covering up a laugh, but she didn't mind. "Well, maybe I should have let you talk before we went on our date."

"Probably." Lily agreed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Or I could have asked you outright before I acted as though I knew what you were thinking."

"Most definitely." James was still trying to hold back his smile, and it was so different from the look he'd given her in the kitchen earlier that she felt her insides start to melt. He didn't want to dump her. "I have a hard enough time figuring out what I'm thinking without you trying to do it for me."

"I know."

"Oh? Do you?" She raised her brow.

James shrugged. "Are you sure you still like me?"

Lily bit her lip to squash the smile that was threatening to tug at the corners of her mouth. "I am. Though I've liked you more."

"That's fair. But I think I can fix that."

"Can you?"

"Sure." James grinned, and he leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead before she could protest. "I'll be right back." Her skin tingled where his lips had been, and she watched him jump off the bed and jog out of his room.

She still felt like he had been rather dim, but she supposed she couldn't blame him too much. He'd been much clearer about his feelings than she had, and she had thought that he was going to dump her.

When he came back into the room, he had the box of left-over breadsticks, and a bag of chocolates.

She didn't try and stop her smile this time.

James put the food on the coffee table, so Lily got up and moved over to the couch. She snagged a breadstick while James was opening the bag of chocolates and pulled her legs onto the couch. James sat down next to her, but with enough space between them so they weren't touching.

And she knew that he did that because of how she'd reacted when he'd tried to touch her a few minutes ago, but it still made her unsure for a moment.

She stuffed another bite of bread into her mouth and then scooted toward him. He responded immediately, opening his arms and wrapping her up, pulling her tightly against him. The relief that flooded through Lily was a bit unexpected and made her eyes sting. She blinked rapidly and relaxed her shoulders.

"We've only known for a couple weeks." James said into her hair. "It still doesn't seem real sometimes."

"Yeah." Lily agreed, still chewing her bread.

"I mean, I know you've said that you fancy me, but I guess it's easy to convince myself that maybe you don't. Or you thought you did-"

"James," Lily swallowed her bread and tossed the rest of her breadstick into the box. Luckily it landed where she wanted it to. "I get it. I was doing the same thing all of yesterday. Though you did come over and give me my stuff back and then pretend like you were too busy to see me all day, so I feel like I had much more reason to think that you changed your mind than you did."

She pulled back so she could see his face. He blinked a few times and then narrowed his brow. "I totally would have read that the same way you did."

"Yeah. You're not alone in this. And we're definitely going to have more moments where we're unsure, but so long as we just talk to one another…" He tightened his arms around her.

"Right. Yeah. I was really walking around acting like I'd learned so much since secondary, and then I did the same damn thing." Lily snorted and then settled against him.

"I asked Sirius if you were dumping me."

"You did?"

"I did. He said that if you were, I could just reject it."

James laughed and Lily smiled up at him. "He's not wrong."

"Good." She bit her lip. "Alright, so I need to be more honest with you, yeah?"

"You're very honest already."

"Open? Forthcoming?"

"I'd appreciate it." Lily nodded.

"We haven't kissed in three days and it's really bothering me."

She did start to flush, but the smile that overtook James' face made it worth it.

"I like you so much, Lily."

Lily bit down on her tongue. "I like you too. Like that Carly Rae Jepson song."

"Which one?"

"I really like you."

"Right." He laughed. "Can I kiss you now?"

Lily took a deep breath and then leaned up, closing the distance between them.