Olive
Chapter 4
It becomes something of a ritual soon, these walks that Lily goes on with James.
Mostly it's James popping by the bakery whenever he can—whenever the restaurant crowd (and the owner) allows him to—but sometimes Lily finds herself visiting Elia too, hanging out about the kitchens and waiting for James's shift to be over so that they can walk around the city at leisure.
This inevitably increases her interaction with the other boys, who, Lily soon finds out, have known each other since their high school days and have really dorky nicknames for each other.
"What do they mean?" she asks James one evening.
"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you," he says, his face eerily solemn.
She finds out that Remus is quite sweet and sensible, while also carrying a great amount of kindness in his heart, and she takes an instant liking to his quietly-mischievous personality. He seems to be in a constant state of exasperated amusement around the boys, but Lily can clearly spot the adoration in his eyes whenever he talks of them.
"They've always been there for me," he tells her one night during his break, approximately two weeks after James had stopped by the bakery, "I don't have any siblings by blood, but I have difficulty imagining any real brother who could surpass them."
Lily smiles softly at this admission. And when James passes her by with a tray of food balanced expertly on one hand while the other inconspicuously brushes her knuckles in a feather-light touch, the smile widens.
"He's a good man, Lily," Remus tells her, like she ever had any doubts. "I hope you know how much he cares about you."
She blushes, scuffing her trainer against the floor. "I know, and I'm not—I won't hurt him."
Remus's eyes soften and he gives her a warm smile. "No, I don't think you're the type to."
"You believe me, right?"
He chuckles. "Why wouldn't I? You're not a pathological liar, are you?"
"As far as I'm aware, no," Lily grins. But then her smile fades a bit. "If only it were this easy to talk to Sirius."
Sirius, who thus far, has made it a point to never stay in the same room as Lily for beyond a couple of minutes, is also James's adoptive brother.
"Sirius and easy aren't two words that generally go together," Remus says ruefully, "But don't let him bother you. He's honestly more bark than bite. Idiot's got way more defensive energy in his body than sense."
"He hates me, doesn't he?"
It's obvious that Remus is thrown by the blunt question when his eyes widen a little. But he seems to shake it off quickly and gives a surprisingly confident shake of his head.
"No, he doesn't."
"But—"
"Just give him some time. He'll come around soon, I reckon. It's too much effort for him, pretending to brood all the time when I know for a fact that he grudgingly likes you."
It's Lily's turn to be shocked. "He does?"
"Don't be so surprised," Remus laughs, "You're quite likable, Lily. Sirius is just…complicated."
"I've heard that before."
"Heard what?" James asks, his voice close to her ear.
His sudden presence doesn't startle Lily nearly as much as it should, instead causing goosebumps to sprinkle over her skin. Thankfully enough, Remus, who undoubtedly has a splendid view of her flaming face, simply grins at her knowingly.
"Heard how terrible you are at your job," He answers James smoothly. "I think we have to stop asking Lily to visit us if you're going to be so unproductive, James."
"Speak for yourself, you prat!" James huffs, throwing a dirty napkin at Remus's face, which the latter easily dodges, "I'm not the one who's been idling away his time chatting."
"It's my break time."
"Well, that's—that's—"
"A perfectly logical argument?"
"Unfair!" James glares, "unfair is what it is."
Remus simply laughs. "You're so ridiculous sometimes, Prongs. Go on, get out. I'll cover for you."
That immediately perks James up, and a wide smile spreads across his face. "Really?"
"Yeah, yeah."
"Remus, are you sure?" Lily asks, her heart giving a guilty little tug even as the rest of her hums with glee. "It's all fun when you're kidding about it, but I don't want to actually cause trouble for you—"
"It's alright, Lily!" Remus claps his hands on her shoulders with a grin, "We'll manage. It's almost time to close anyway."
"Thanks, mate. Owe you one," James says, already untying the apron from around his waist. Suddenly, a small frown takes over his face. "What about—"
"I'll handle Euphemia when she comes along. She'll take great delight in the recent developments anyway."
"Euphemia?" Lily asks questioningly just as James lets out a loud groan. "Who's that?"
"She's my mum," James answers with a self-conscious ruffle of his hair, "Who honestly has way too much time on her hands and is way too meddlesome for her age."
"Why do I feel like she and I would get along brilliantly?"
"You probably will. Which is why we need to get out of here. Fast."
Lily laughs as James looks all but ready to make good on his words by catching hold of her wrist and lightly tugging on it. She just manages to swipe her purse from where she had kept it on the kitchen counter when a sudden thought crosses her mind.
She stops and waits until James turns around to look at her again.
"Hang on. If your mum is coming here to visit you, then you should stay. She'd be disappointed if you weren't here—"
"Lily, it's fine," James shakes his head.
"No, I really wouldn't want her to be upset."
"She's not the type to brood over something like this—"
"And what about the owner? What if they have a problem with you suddenly leaving before your shift—?"
"They don't have a problem with it."
"How would you know? Did you ask?"
"No, but I know—"
"Well, then, there you have it. If you haven't asked, then you don't know and—"
"It's not—I do—"
"You've already toed the line too many times because of me and I don't want you to get into more trouble, James."
"Do you not want me to go with you? Is that it?" James asks, a hurt look on his face.
"I—what?" Lily reels back in shock. She blinks for a second and then frowns deeply. "Excuse me? I'm just trying to be considerate here and—and you—well, pardon me for not wanting you to lose your job!"
"I won't lose my fucking job!" James throws his hands up, and for the life of her, Lily can't understand how they've gotten to this point where they're both red-faced and scowling. His hazel eyes are frustrated and bright and mixed with an emotion she can't place.
"Well, maybe not lose it, but you could get into trouble and that's equally as bad."
"Christ, Lily! I know nothing will happen because I am the owner and I'm okay with it."
For a second, Lily thinks she's misheard him.
She wants to ask him to repeat what he's said but the words are stuck in her throat and the only sound she's managed to produce is a strange gasp that makes James's eyes go really wide.
However, what Remus says next is enough to erase her suspicions about malfunctioning eardrums and slow synapses.
"Well, thank fuck. That was painful to watch, but I'm glad it's finally out there. Have a good night, you two." He picks up a notepad and leaves the kitchen, an amused smile on his face.
Severally seconds of silence painfully tick by where Lily can't do anything but stare at James with a comically gob-smacked expression.
"You're the—" She tries, and chokes for a second. "You own Elia?"
James cringes, his hand reaching up to his hair as he looks at her with a wary expression. "Yes."
"I—what?" Lily blinks, not able to make any sense of it. "Why didn't you tell me then? Is this restaurant secretly operating as a drug trafficking hub?"
"Not that I'm aware of," He answers.
"A secret meeting place for The Fight Club?"
"No."
"It has to hold the magical entrance to Narnia, then."
"Um," James says eloquently, taking a tentative, brave step towards her even while his lips fight a smile. "While that does indeed sound like a great plan for future architectural renovation, truly it does, I'm afraid this is just a plain old eatery that humbly serves its patrons their nourishment in exchange for certain monetary returns."
"Then what," Lily grits, stabbing an accusatory finger at James's chest, "were you thinking, James Potter? Because if this was your idea for a grand prank, it was not at all humorous, let me tell you."
"No!" James implores immediately, smile dropping as he grabs onto Lily's hand and holds it against his chest firmly, as if she could bolt from the kitchen at any moment. "This was not a prank. I promise. I am much funnier when I want to be. And you'd know if I really wanted to pull a prank. In fact, I was quite the prankster at school. And, well…" James trails off, looking uncomfortable all of a sudden.
"Well?" Lily prods, her heart melting at the light red spots that appear on James's cheeks as he struggles to find the words. It's dead unfair how attractive he is.
"Well, I mean, it's Elia. It's not exactly very low-key, is it? It's relatively new, but I never expected it to—to grow so fast, you know? I had a lot of financial backing because, well, we have another family business, but I wanted to do something on my own. And I'd always been a good cook, so I thought, 'hey, why not?' and I roped in my closest friends too. In any case, it grew, and now—now it makes more money than I know what to do with, and—ahh, I don't even know what I'm saying!" James groans, dropping his head against Lily's shoulder.
"Are you trying to explain how deeply uncomfortable you are with your whopping rich-boy status, James?" Lily chuckles, her heart quietly thundering against her rib cage at his proximity.
"Oh my God, don't put it like that!"
"Are you mental?" Lily laughs, pushing him away to look at his face, which is a shame because his hair smells divine, but also isn't really because she gets to see him being adorably flustered. "James, you should be so proud. You're so young and insanely talented, and you've already achieved so much in life, you dolt! If I was this successful, you'd never get me to shut up about it!"
"That's blatantly untrue," He says, a meek smile on his face as he plays with a strand of her hair. "You're already plenty successful, Lily."
"Yes, well, and I'm very proud of it!" She grins. "And you should be too! I must say I never pegged you for the conscious type, James."
"I'm not," James admits quietly, his eyes latching onto hers with meaning, "It's just, I didn't want to take a chance. Not with you."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I'll be honest, I don't have a very brilliant record of ex-girlfriends," James explains, "Not a few weeks before I met you, I broke up with someone who was only dating me for my money. My friends were right pissed, especially Sirius. And it wasn't even like I was all that invested in her, but this was not the first time something like that happened, and well, I—"
"Didn't want to take a chance," Lily repeats, smiling sadly at him. James nods, cheeks warm again. "I get it."
"You do?" He asks, a small frown on his face now, "because I don't want you to think that I doubt your intentions, Lily. I don't! I mean, not that we're—y'know—anything. At least I don't want to presume. But I saw you there that night with your stupid boyfriend, and you thought I was just a simple waiter and yet you smiled at me like we were sharing some inside joke, and I felt—good, like it was easy and fun. And obviously, you kind of stole my breath away, so I was not in any position to say much of anything at all—"
"Oh my God, you idiot!" Lily laughs, tugging sharply on his shirt to bring him closer. "Just shut up," she whispers before closing the gap between them and covering James's mouth with hers.
His reaction is almost instantaneous, as if his body is finally given the freedom to do something it had been struggling to restraint itself against. James's hand abandons its shy ministrations of playing with her hair and instead buries itself within her locks completely while his lips unabashedly glide over hers in slow, firm strokes. He kisses her like he has all the time in the world, like he can't believe that she decides to spend her time with him willingly, like he can't possibly explain the crazy emotions she stirs within him.
Lily feels quite like she's never been kissed before at all, which is ridiculous because she's had her fair share of good kisses, but it astounds her all the same because kissing James is not good. The things she feels, the way her entire body thrums with pleasure and nerves, and the indescribable sensations that erupt somewhere behind her rib cage tell her that kissing James Potter feels much, much more than just measly old good.
"We're something," Lily mumbles against his mouth.
"What?" James asks, continuing to litter kisses across her cheek.
"You said we aren't anything," Lily explains, pulling back slightly to look at him. The hazel in his eyes makes her lose her train of thought for a second. "But we are. Something."
"Something," James agrees with a nod, "good."
Then he promptly goes back to kissing her. Lily decides that the message could've probably been delivered in a better way, and certainly in a clearer fashion, but can't seem to be bothered too much when James's mouth continues to draw kisses from her.
"For fuck's sake, this is a kitchen! Don't make me vomit here," Drawls a lazy voice, breaking them apart.
James pulls away first, groaning loudly. "Not now, Padfoot."
Lily disagrees. With her haze slowly clearing, she decides that now is definitely a good time. In fact, five minutes ago would have been the best time because then she'd remembered that she was, in fact, standing in the kitchen of one of the fanciest restaurants in the city while waiters and cooks ambled around them, however infrequently.
Five minutes ago, she wasn't clawing at James like a sex-deprived vixen.
"Shit, shit," She mumbles now, pushing James away gently and taking a sensible step away from him, her cheeks flaming something horrid. "Er, hi, Sirius."
"Finally found out the secret of the century then, have you?" Sirius asks in lieu of a greeting, though he sounds anything but pleasant. "I can see it's pleased you quite a bit."
"Sirius," James warns, eyes narrowed.
But Lily simply smiles, her embarrassment and redness fading as she feels a sudden understanding run through her about the man in front of her. She walks up to him and puts a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"He tried his best, but I had to put my foot down about the threesome, Sirius. I understand this is very hard for you, maybe literally, because I know how badly you took it when his last girlfriend left," Lily sighs dramatically, "It's a pity, but I think you're too stuck up on her. I promise to take care of James, though."
Sirius looks down at her, this vibrant redhead with her witty words and dancing eyes, and then promptly barks out a laugh like he hasn't done in a while.
"You're so full of shite!" He laughs, before turning to James, who simply blinks back at them owlishly, still unable to process what Lily said. "She's too clever for you, mate."
"Well now you're just trying to change my mind," Lily grins, prompting another chuckle from him.
"Oh, this is good. Can't wait until mum hears this," Sirius says, draping an arm over her shoulder and suddenly leading her out of the kitchen.
"Mum's here already?" James asks, jogging to catch up with them as Lily struggles to make peace with the fact that Sirius plans on telling Euphemia her highly inappropriate joke. She fails.
"Of course, she is. Why else would I be in the kitchen?"
"Um, because you work here?"
"What's your point?" Sirius deadpans, earning a whack behind his head from James. This, of course, leads to an incredibly mature fight between two warriors while Lily watches on from the sidelines with poorly hidden amusement.
"Boys, behave," comes a fond voice somewhere from Lily's right. She turns around to find an elegant woman who looks to be in her late sixties staring at them with exasperation and unadulterated fondness. Euphemia Potter, for Lily can only assume that it is her, is a woman with impeccable dressing style and confidence that demands to be acknowledged. Her hazel eyes dance with mischief, much like her son's, and several laughter lines run across her beautiful face.
Lily immediately likes her.
"Hello, Mrs. Potter," she says amicably.
"Oh, you must be Lily!" Cries Euphemia, with considerably more enthusiasm than Lily had been expecting. She directly moves in for a hug, and Lily can't help the pleasantly surprised chuckle that leaves her. "Please call me Euphemia, dear. Mrs. Potter sounds terribly formal."
"Alright then, Euphemia," grins Lily.
"My darling boy! I'm so proud of you for finding such a sweetheart!" She sighs lovingly, moving towards James to ruffle his hair. "Knew you'd make the right choice eventually."
"Oh my God, mum, please," James lets out a groan of long-suffering, even as he gives Euphemia a warm hug. "Can you try not to embarrass me tonight?"
"Yeah, he does that enough himself," Sirius says evenly, reaching out to hug Euphemia as well. "They were making out in the kitchen like wild beasts, by the way."
Lily's eyes feel like they could pop right out of their sockets and it wouldn't seem too out of place. Her face flushes a delightfully bright red as Euphemia squeals happily.
"Oh, this is great! James has been pining after you for weeks, Lily! I'm so happy!"
"Er, thank you?"
"I think I'll go die now, excuse me," James says, and Lily feels quite inclined to follow him.
"Oh, stop being so dramatic, you silly child," Euphemia rolls her eyes, "I'm sure Lily enjoyed herself thoroughly."
"Alright, that's it, we're going off to dinner now!" James says, thankfully sparing Lily from having to reply to that mortifying comment as he grabs her wrist and pulls her along. "Goodbye, mum. I'll kill you tonight, Sirius!"
"Goodbye! Enjoy yourselves!" Euphemia says jovially, her voice drowned out slightly by Sirius's hooting laughter.
"I'm so sorry, that was horrible," James says as soon as they turn the corner, his eyes wide and disbelieving. "I had no idea she would jump on you like that."
"Neither did I," Lily snorts, turning around to face him as she walks backward on the footpath. She bites her lip, but then a sudden chuckle bubbles out. "Honestly though, that was brilliant! Your mother is a gem!"
James shakes his head fondly, "Well, she's definitely an interesting character. She's the one who pushed me to start Elia, by the way. So, she's the actual owner, when it comes down to it. Certainly acts that way. We even named the restaurant in her honor."
"That's really sweet," Lily smiles, "What does it mean?"
"It's Greek for olives."
"Your mother's Greek?"
"Yes, and big on olives, if you didn't guess. A love the both of you share, I've noticed."
"Not the only love we share," Lily says, the words slipping out before she has a chance to over-analyze them. James's eyebrows immediately fly up, a heart-stopping grin spreading across his face.
He wraps his fingers around Lily's as they continue walking, his smile never letting up. "Any redder, Evans, and I'll have difficulty differentiating you from the traffic light."
"Are you serious?" Lily laughs, "Of all the things in the world that are red, you come up with traffic lights?"
"I think I can be excused tonight, on account of my highly eccentric family having fried my brain."
"Is that all it takes to fry your brain?" Lily giggles, the back of her calves bumping against James's car, their destination now reached. "A couple of inappropriate remarks from your best mate and your mother?"
"Alright so perhaps it had more to do with what preceded that whole interaction."
"Oh?" Lily asks, heart hammering away as if on cue.
"Yeah, in fact, I'm quite certain that was it."
"Well, we can't be risking what's left of your brain then, can we?"
"Oh, but what's left of it thrives on risk-taking. Survival of the fittest and all that, see?" He presses closer until she finds herself deliciously trapped between him and the bonnet of the car.
"No, I decidedly don't see, you ridiculous man."
"Daring is my middle name."
"James," She laughs, rising on her toes and wrapping her arms around his neck, "your middle name is Lancelot."
"How on earth did you know that?" He instantly pulls back, hazel eyes wide.
"Remus told me," Lily smirks.
"Traitor," James manages to mutter half-heartedly before capturing her lips with his again.
THE END