Title: And Baby Makes... Four?
Rating: R (for inexplicit sex scenes and language)
Pairing(s): Sirius/James/Lily overall, and any combinations of the three can be found within.
Disclaimer: Don't own; if I did, there would be a lot more secksin going on in some rather strange combinations (Mm, Peter/Giant Squid... What?!). Also? Not making any money off of this.
Summary: Lily desperately wants a baby, and James is willing to oblige. Sirius, however, likes things the way they are. JPLESB; slash, het, AU. No spoilers.
Notes: Thank you so much to all of my reviewers! You inspire me to write further on. :)
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"Aw," Lily cooed at the sight of a young witch with a charming baby girl in her arms, "I want one of those," Lily said fondly, taking James' hand in her own and pressing her cheek to his shoulder.
James smiled at his beautiful wife, the woman he had married almost straight out of Hogwarts. That was the third time today she had remarked on a baby, and he had a sneaking suspicion that he was going to be talked into being a father a bit sooner, rather than later.
Sirius, however, was standing on the other side of James, and was looking a bit green around the gills. He clapped a hand to James' shoulder and leaned forward to look Lily in the eye.
"Don't you dare be getting any ideas in your pretty little head," he said. Lily frowned and reached over to tweak Sirius on the nose.
"Don't be ridiculous, Sirius. What better time would it be for me to be thinking about having children? When I'm old and barren?" she asked mockingly. James just sighed silently. These two were always bickering between the two of themselves and, were if not for James to be the voice of reason, he was sure they would have been in several cat fights throughout the relationship. It was sad when you had to rely on James Potter to be the reasonable one in your relationship, but ah, such was life in the Potter-Black household.
"No, but you could at least wait a few years. You just got that job with that master spell-weaver only this past year. You plan to throw such an accomplishment away on having a baby practically right out of school?" Sirius asked, disregarding the fact that he knew Lily's temper would blow up at such a statement. Sirius was a braver man than James, that was for certain. Braver, and indefinitely more foolish.
"Oh, you!" she snarled, pointing a finger right in his face. "Motherhood is a perfectly honorable and respectable way to live one's life," she began, only to be cut off by Sirius's nagging.
"Sure it is, for someone not nearly as talented as you!"
"And what's that supposed to mean, Sirius Orion Black?" Sirius glowered at her; he hated it when she used his full name. It was just one more reminder of his father and the rest of his horrible family. He just wasn't about to tell Lily that.
"It's supposed to mean that you're too good a witch to be content with getting knocked up and popping out babies, one by one until you're stuck at home raising them while all your skills and talents go to waste," he said coolly. Lily's eyes flashed angrily and she stepped in front of James, not caring that the two of them were making a scene right in the middle of Diagon Alley.
"Listen, you, you, you horrible..." Lily trailed off, face flushing red with anger and she was too flustered with ire to come up with an appropriate insult at the moment.
"Lily," James said soothingly, laying a hand on her back, "you can berate him at home, all right?" James knew better than to try and tell her to just let it go; he would end up at the rotten end of her temper as well if he had dared, but what he said was enough for her to pull back and realize that they were in the middle of a crowded, busy street in wizard London, and that people were staring. There really were much better places to sort out her anger with Sirius.
"Humph," Lily said, turning away from Sirius. "We're continuing this at home, Sirius. Don't you, not for one minute, think otherwise," she said, still riled up. Sirius glared darkly at her back; were it not so dangerous for James and Lily to be out and about right now, he would have just apparated off somewhere with a more pleasant atmosphere. However, it was dangerous, and he wouldn't dare leave them, no matter how capable they might be. Safety in numbers and all that.
"You can continue whatever you like, Lily. Doesn't mean I'll be there to listen to it," he scoffed. James lifted a hand to his face, wishing they would just let it drop. Sirius's expression, however, softened when he noticed this. His hand was still on James' shoulder and he rubbed it affectionately.
"Are you all right, Prongs?" he asked quietly, concern flooding those fathomless gray eyes. "Headache?"
"Mm, beginning to get one," James said quietly, not revealing why. Sirius was a bit thick when it came to his arguments with Lily, and he didn't feel remotely guilty for playing it up.
"'M sorry," Sirius said with a sweet smile, "I'll try to keep it down to a dull roar," he promised. Lily turned around and stared at James a few moments. She wasn't sure if he was faking it or not, and as it wasn't him she was angry at (she knew better than to try and force him to chose sides between the two of them during an argument; it was better for all three of them if he just stayed out of it when one of their spats sprang up), she leaned in to press a kiss to his cheek.
"Come on, let's go. I only need a few things from Flourish & Blott's and Slug & Jigger's and then we can go home," she said kindly, pointedly ignoring Sirius.
The short shopping trip passed quickly and without further incident. Lily bought the newly released research book on spell crafting and weaving that she had wanted, along with some parchment and new quills, as James had a bad habit of snapping the nibs on all of theirs, from Flourish & Blott's. She had also gotten some bottled streeler slime and hellebore from the apothecary as she had run out of the latter and her stores of the former had gone bad.
Once they finally got home, Lily fussed with James until he finally consented to going up to their bedroom for a lie down. He hadn't had much of a headache when he had complained of one, and now it was completely gone, but he wasn't going to tell Lily that when she began to coddle him.
Sirius had gone outside into the backyard and headed for the refuge of the shed, where his flying motorbike was hidden away from prying eyes. It wouldn't do for the neighbors to see it and wonder what exactly he was doing with a muggle motorbike, nor for them to wonder why Sirius kept his bike at the Potter's.
No-one but their dearest friends had any clue that the perfect Potters had a boyfriend. It was a surprising enough story that James and Lily Potter even associated with one of the Blacks, let alone that they were involved in some sort of sordid threesome with one. Lily had told Sirius on more than one occasion that she didn't "give a rat's arse" about what others thought about the three of them, but James, while not ashamed of their relationship, was still not comfortable letting his parents know that "sweet Sirius", who had lived in their home for a time, was not only sharing James' wife with him, but was sharing James with Lily as well.
Sirius wasn't sure if James was being completely honest about not being ashamed of it all, but Sirius didn't really care one way or the other. It was no one's business but theirs if the three of them wanted to share a bed, but it would be nice if he didn't have to restrain himself in public to keep from acting too close to either one of them. It wouldn't do to have people talking about either James or Lily cheating on the other with him. With names like Potter and Black, that would sell newspapers and they'd likely be on the front page of the Daily Prophet if word ever broke out.
Sirius scoffed to himself. That paper was a joke; it was just a shame that more people didn't realize that fact.
While James was lying down in bed, and Sirius was out back working on that "ridiculous toy of his", as Lily had called it more than once, Lily was down in the basement of the house, putting her potions ingredients away in her store cupboard. She was preoccupied, thinking back on the argument in Diagon Alley, and trying not to let her temper blow up once again. She couldn't believe Sirius's nerve!
She supposed he was somewhat right, in a rather convoluted way. She was more talented than the average witch, even if it might be a bit prideful to admit it. And she would be giving up her chances at an excellent career in spell-weaving if she decided to have a child now. But she found herself not really caring all that much. Yes, she would love to be successful and doing good for the wizarding community by contributing in the field, but she also was never sorted into Slytherin for a very good reason; she lacked ambition.
Sure, she had goals in life, and of course she would do what she could to achieve them, but she had never had that drive that some people just seemed to be born with. She could be content with a life of motherhood, raising children and keeping up the house. She didn't need to have a paying job to feel accomplished because she knew that having a baby would be an accomplishment in and of itself.
She knew that James would see it her way; his mother hadn't worked a day in her life and he had the utmost respect for the woman. It was just Sirius she needed to convince. She just wasn't sure how she would do so.
A rather cruel corner of her mind told her that she wasn't married to Sirius, that it didn't matter what he wanted, but she knew that that was neither fair nor kind. Sirius was one of the family, and, for all that he drove her crazy on a daily basis, she loved him just as dearly as she loved James. It wasn't his fault that polygamy was frowned upon in society, and that the only way the three of them could have been wed was if Sirius had been a woman as well, and even then it was some ridiculously ancient ritual that had gone out of practice ages ago and- well, none of that mattered anyway. Sirius might not legally have been theirs, but still he was theirs nonetheless.
Now she just had the trouble of getting Sirius to agree to a child. She was sure he would be an excellent, if overly lenient, father, and that any child they created would love him to death. She just wasn't sure if Sirius would be able to love the child, whether or not he was the biological parent.
Determined, Lily slammed a close fist down on her work table. She was going to get Sirius to want a baby as much as she did, one way or another, or her name wasn't Lily Potter!
Lily made her way up the stairs and into the kitchen, set upon making a nice dinner for that night. She wanted to appease Sirius after the argument from earlier that day without having to apologize (as she was clearly right and he was clearly wrong), and cooking always helped her unwind after a long day.
When she was nearly done pan-roasting the chicken with white wine, she startled as she felt two arms wrap around her middle, and a bony chin settled down on her shoulder.
"'Lo, Lily," James murmured a bit tiredly, having just woken up from his nap. He leaned in and kissed his wife's cheek.
"Do you feel better, now?" she asked sweetly, using her wand to flip the breasts over in the pan with magic. She loved to cook, yes, but it didn't mean that she couldn't use magic to help things along.
"Oh? Oh! Yes, much better," James said, recovering quickly from his confusion. Lily, fully aware that he had been faking, chuckled softly and turned around in his embrace to kiss him soundly on the lips.
"Why don't you go get Sirius," she said after finally drawing back, both of them slightly short of breath. Even after a year and a half of marriage, they were still like newlyweds, to everyone's amusement. "Dinner's nearly done."
"And where might Sirius be?" James asked calmly, wondering if she would say something like, "Oh, I just locked him in the closet, dear," or, "Tied up and in the attic; the ghost is probably keeping him company." Lily had a nasty streak at times, and the very thought of those responses made him chuckle. She might be bad at times when you've annoyed her, but she wasn't that bad.
"He's in the shed out back," she said smoothly, and he very nearly choked on his own spit right then and there.
"What?" he asked incredulously, eyes wide and full of surprise. LIly frowned in mild annoyance.
"He's out back. In the shed," she reiterated slowly, as if she was speaking to a dull child. "He's been working on his ridiculous monster of a machine since we got back from shopping, James."
James suddenly felt very, very stupid.
"Oh!" he exclaimed softly. He pressed a kiss to his wife's forehead and then pulled back and headed toward the back door. He paused a moment and smile at her after she had turned back towards the stove.
"The food smells wonderful, by the way," James said before closing the door behind himself. He felt so lucky to have such a beautiful and talented wife, who really, truly loved him. Feeling better about the stressful day they had had, James sauntered over to the shed and let himself in.
It was much larger on the inside than it was on the out, but it was still a bit cramped within. It was filled with various things they had picked up over the past year and a half, and plenty of that was made up of tools for Sirius's "other girlfriend," as James had dubbed the machine.
"Hey, handsome," James said cheerfully as he spied Sirius kneeling beside said motorbike, grease smudged on his hands and on his face, most likely transferred by his hands by wiping his face, while he tinkered with it.
Sirius looked up in surprise; he had been so focused on the matter at hand that he had not even noticed James enter the shed.
"Mm, hey," Sirius muttered noncommittally before turning his attention right back to his bike. James frowned.
"What, no kiss?" he asked, only half teasing the man. Sirius looked back up at him and gave James a half-smile. He reached up to grab a rag hanging off the motorbike and wiped his hands on it as he stood up from his position on the floor. As he stepped over towards James, he let the rag hit the floor and he took his lover's face in his hands. Sirius leaned in, pressing his lips against James' and allowed himself the pleasure of a rather passionate kiss.
When James finally withdrew, panting slightly from a lack of oxygen, he grinned brilliantly.
"Still as fabulous as ever, I see," he teased to embarrass Sirius. Unfortunately, Sirius was not easily embarrassed.
"I'm sure I've graduated to spectacular by now. I mean, I have had an extra two years of practice," he said with mock seriousness, eyes glittering dangerously. James laughed out loud and slid a hand into Sirius' hair, and although it was much shorter than it had been when he was younger, it was still as baby fine as ever. Leaning in, James placed a chaste kiss to Sirius' mouth.
"Come on. You need to get cleaned up before dinner or Lily will throw a fit," James murmured, but evidently this was the wrong thing to say.
"Yeah? Well, let her," Sirius said, expression darkening a little. He was clearly still upset from that afternoon's shopping trip. James decided to play dirty.
"Come on. If we hurry, we ought to have time to shower together and still make it in time for dinner," James remarked almost casually, before wrapping his arms up and around Sirius's shoulders. Sirius raised and eyebrow at that, but he wasn't about to complain or deny himself a shower with James Potter.
"All right," Sirius agreed after a moment or two of silence, and then gently pushed James away from him and pushed him towards the house. "What are you waiting for? We need to get a move on!"
James laughed in response and made his way into the house with Sirius hot on his heels.
"Don't you dare get any grease on my walls!" Lily yelled at her boys as they swiftly made their way through the kitchen and headed for the stairs.
"Yes, Mother!" James yelled back jokingly, and ran up the stairs, with Sirius's hands under his shirt and holding onto his waist the entire time.
As they reached the top of the stairs, Sirius pushed James up against the wall and began to devour his mouth, covering his lips with his own and parted them to get a taste. James let out a nearly inaudible moan, and the two sidestepped towards the bathroom, arms tangled around the other's body and mouths connected without the intention of ever separating.
They finally made it into the shower, peeling their clothes off in a mad rush and leaving them on the bathroom floor. The two of them were so intent on getting each other off, they hadn't even realized that neither one of them had started the shower before climbing in. Soon, however, they slumped into each other, spent. James with grease stains streaked across his thin frame, and Sirius with bruised lips from the ferocity of the kisses and James' affinity for biting.
Meanwhile, Lily was downstairs, fidgeting while she started piling the table with food and casting warming charms on everything to keep it warm while her boyfriend and husband finished up in the shower upstairs. As she looked at the table, laden with food, she told herself that they needed to extend an invitation to Remus more often for dinner. The man knew he was welcome any time, they certainly told him that often enough, but he never came over unless specifically invited. It was infuriating to Lily, who had a natural inclination to mother him; he always looked so thin and hungry, like he had missed a few meals too many and couldn't catch up.
While she was musing, she heard the water shut off upstairs and she knew it wouldn't be long before James and Sirius came thundering down the stairs, hungry and looking for their dinner.
Pulling out a carton of milk, Lily began pouring glasses as her prediction rang true and Sirius came down in nothing but a pair of pajama bottoms, hair still trickling water down the sides of his face.
"Ah, ah, ah!" Lily scolded, waving a finger at him with her free hand. "You need to put a shirt on before you sit at my table."
"You don't want to appreciate my beautiful body? Lily, I'm hurt," Sirius said with a ridiculous pout.
"I do appreciate it, Sirius. Just not while I'm trying to appreciate dinner, thank you. Now go upstairs and put on a shirt," she said firmly as she put the milk away. She didn't notice Sirius coming up behind her until she stood back up straight and he enveloped her in a hug from behind. She seemed to be getting a lot of that today.
"You're no fun," he whined, pressing his face into the back of her head to smell her hair, his eyes closing in appreciation.
"Yes, I know. I'm a horrible tyrant. However, I'm a horrible tyrant who has made you dinner, so you should be grateful and do what I say before I lock you in my dungeon," she teased.
"Mm, dungeon? Will there be some sort of sexual torture commenced within? If so, I might have to forgo the shirt," Sirius said, spinning her around to face him and pulling her flush up against his chest.
"No sexual torture. That's saved for the good boys who wear their shirts to dinner," she replied with a playful look on her face.
"Ah, now we're getting somewhere! Incentive; I like that," Sirius said as James came down the stairs, hair mostly dried and wearing the oldest robes he owned that still fit him. They were very worn and very comfortable, and they were what he most often wore around the house. With nothing underneath them. But that was mostly because he knew it drove Sirius absolutely crazy to know that James was walking around the house without any underwear on.
"Shoo," Lily said, swatting Sirius on the bum.
"Ooh, does this mean I get a spanking?" Sirius asked flirtatiously. James just stared between them and just shook his head.
"I don't even want to know," he stated aloud calmly and then sat at his normal seat at the dinner table. Sirius just grinned at James wolfishly and gave him a wink.
"You can have a spanking too if you really want." James stared in horror at Sirius. He wasn't half as kinky as his wife, nor his boyfriend, and he wasn't really sure if Sirius was being, well, serious.
"Just go," Lily said through laughter. Finally, he ran up the stairs and as soon as he reached the stop of the stairwell, Lily murmured softly to James, "I'm going to try and convince him that we should have a baby."
James looked up from the table, eying the wonderful smelling food with hunger evident in his expression.
"Yeah? Well, good luck with that. I mean, I don't mind either way, Lily, you know that. But you'll be hard pressed to get Padfoot to go along with it," James said seriously, staring at the redhead. She merely sighed in response, and nodded just as Sirius came running down the stairs wearing a faded tee shirt.
And no pants.
Lily stared at him for a moment as he stood there in the kitchen, looking proud of himself for a few moments, until Lily pointed at the staircase and shouted.
"Sirius Orion Black, you are going to march up those stairs and put your pants back on! I will not have some half-dressed caveman sitting at my dinner table!"
Sirius bowed his head, and James, trying not to choke on his own laughter, covered his mouth to hide the ridiculous grin that was stretching across his face. As soon as Sirius went right back up the stairs, Lily smacked James over the back of his head.
"Ow! What was that for?" James whined.
"That was for encouraging him," Lily said with a scoff, and sat down at her place at the table. Once Sirius came downstairs once more, this time wearing both the tee shirt and his pajama bottoms, Lily allowed him to sit at the table and the three began filling their plates.
Halfway through the meal, Lily's fork paused above her plate and she cocked her head to the side thoughtfully, before turning to stare at Sirius.
"Why don't you want to have children?" she asked rather bluntly. Sirius was glad that he was in between bites, or else he would have choked.
"Do we have to have this conversation right now?" Sirius asked, a cool edge coloring his tone. Lily paused, staring at him briefly, before nodding in reply.
"Yes," she said shortly.
"Look, I figure: why ruin a good thing? I mean, right? We have a good thing going for us; we work well together. Besides, James and I are busy working with the Aurors, and you've just gotten that job, and the sex is really, really good, Lils. Really. So tell me: why do you want to ruin all that?" Sirius asked plaintively.
Lily sighed and shook her head softly.
"It wouldn't ruin anything, Sirius. Okay, so yes, I would end up quitting my job to raise the child, but you didn't know that. You just assumed I would. I could be a perfectly good mother and still have a career, you know," she scolded. "And we could still have sex, Sirius. Maybe not quite as, as frequent as we do now, nor as spontaneously, but our sex life would not suffer because of a baby."
Sirius just frowned at this reasoning. He set his fork down on his napkin and pushed his chair back. As he stood up, his eyes flickered to James, who had been silent throughout the entire thing.
"We are in the middle of a damn war, Lily! Wake up! Why would you want to have a child now? Voldemort is taking over and the Order is suffering; Merlin, just last week we lost two members. Two! You want a raise a child in this? You are being so damned selfish, it makes me sick!" Sirius shouted at her, his fist slamming into the table causing the dishes to rattle. He took a deep, calming breath and pushing in his chair.
"Thank you for making dinner, Lily. It was lovely," he added calmly, "but don't expect to see me around for a few days. I need to get some air. Do what you want. I want no part in it." His eyes were cold and devoid of any emotion, despite the very emotionally charged rant he had just given.
He left the table and headed upstairs. Lily started to stand as well, but James put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down into her seat. Right now, she wasn't sure whether she should be worried about Sirius, or angry at him. She settled for both.
"Let me go talk to him, Lily. I don't really think you're the person for the job at the moment," James said, not unkindly. He rose and headed upstairs.
Lily lowered her head into her arms, wondering what was happening to her family. It was usually James or Sirius who lacked the common sense and tact needed to comfort the other, not the other way around.
A set of footsteps came down the stairs a bit more calmly than before, and Lily raised her head just enough to get a look of which man it was. It was Sirius. And he had a bag in one hand, and his helmet in the other.
"Sirius! You can't seriously be considering riding that ridiculous thing! You'll kill yourself!" Lily said sharply, bolting into an upright position.
"Better it than Voldemort," he said scathingly, and headed out the back door. She heard the engine start after a few moments, and then she heard him speeding off from the front of the house. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she stood up hurriedly, her chair toppling over in the process. She didn't care to bother uprighting it, she just made her way upstairs and went into the bedroom she shared with James and Sirius. She was crying openly now, her hand covering her mouth to stifle to noise. As she entered the bedroom, James came over and wrapped his arms around her body, holding her close to him.
"Shh, it'll be okay, Lily. You'll see," he murmured softly. "Sirius will be back before you know it and you'll both be bickering over whether the toilet seat should be up or down and yelling at him for drinking orange juice out of the carton." Unfortunately, this seemed to be the wrong thing to say because Lily just sobbed harder, grabbing James' robes and burying her face in them.
He rubbed her back in what he hoped was a comforting manner, and carefully maneuvered her over to the bed, sitting down and pulling her with him. The two crawled into bed with Lily still weeping into his chest and James stroking her hair.
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