Er, a little bit of a stretched theme. Anyway, enjoy.

Audrie

James heard the door open and looked up. Lily smiled when she saw him sitting on her couch.

"I guess Muggle locks aren't much against you, are they?" she chuckled.

He grinned as he got up to kiss her. "Yeah, but you better put some more protections on those. We wouldn't want the wrong sort of people breaking in." James's tone was light, but he did intend to put some more precautions against Death Eaters on her door. He really didn't like Lily living alone, but she argued that after seven years of constantly being surrounded by people she needed some privacy. He'd suggested that she live with her mother, but she'd opposed him firmly, not wanting to draw danger to her mom now that she was involved in the Order. James had then suggested that they could find a place together, but while Lily had agreed, his parents and her mum had held resolutely against it. Since then his mother had been dropping annoying and blatant hints that he ought to be searching for a ring.

James kissed her before he helped her bring her groceries in before waving his wand and sending them to the kitchen. He'd once levitated the groceries from the corridor, but Lily had thrown a fit (when are you going to get it through your thick head that I live in a building of muggles!).

He watched Lily set her purse on a hook behind the door and slip off her shoes. Despite her smile, she looked as if she had been replacing sleep with coffee. Was her hair a little bit duller? "So, what's for dinner?" he asked as he trailed her to the kitchen, hoping his visit would relax her enough so that she would sleep. They had both been putting so much energy into the Order of late.

Lily chuckled. "I thought you would prefer your mother's cooking to mine."

"Is that a hint?" He smirked as he leaned against the doorway of her kitchen. With a final flourish of her wand, the final groceries settled into their places.

"You're welcome to stay of course. I guessed that I might find you here, so we're having Shepherd's pie and I bought a surprise for dessert."

"Excellent," he agreed.

Lily smiled up at him as she began waving her wand and directing the food and pots and pans about the kitchen.

"How'd you learn how to cook magically?"

She laughed and waved her hand toward the living room. "Books. Oh, and a few lessons from your mum."

James's eyes widened. He never remembered his mother allowing a guest to help her in the kitchen; then again, maybe she considered Lily family. Lily saw his surprise and shook her head. "James, I don't always go over your house to see you."

"You don't?" The words left his mouth before he could stop them. But in a moment he didn't mind because Lily threw back her head and laughed. He loved the way her red hair slid down her back and her eyes curved upward with the lift of her cheeks.

"No." A faint blush settled over her cheeks. "But I miss you when you're not there."

James's grin hurt as he moved toward her to kiss her, but she waved him off. "You're just going to distract me while I'm trying to cook. Please make yourself useful instead of getting into mischief."

He pulled his face into innocent bemusement. "Me? Mischief? I am deeply wounded by such an accusation my dear lady."

Lily chuckled and swatted his arm. "Just do as you're told."

James bowed to her, his bangs flopping into his eyes. "As you wish." But before he turned he grabbed her around the shoulders and pulled her into a kiss.

"To keep me going through my labors," he teased when he let her go.

Lily rolled her eyes and added something green to the potatoes with a jerk of her wand. "You're not doing that much work since you'll be using your wand."

She saw the sly grin spreading across his face and pursed her lips, pointing at him threateningly with her wand. "Don't you dare, James Potter."

"Alright, alright. But you shouldn't give me such a warm opening."

James yelped when something stung his arm. "I was serious," she said without apology as she turned back to her mashed potatoes.

When dinner was ready, James took a seat at Lily's small dining room table. Sirius often teased him about "playing house" with Lily, but James couldn't care less, especially as the aroma of Lily's cooking wafted through the flat. There was a reason she'd been good in potions.

"Okay, yeah you had books, but no one cooks this well from a book," he told her, helping himself to a large portion of the Shepherd's pie.

Lily set a butterbeer in front of him and sat down. "Yeah, well, you learn really fast when your mum can't cook. I love her dearly, but cooking was never one of my mother's strengths. I hope it tastes as good as it smells. I did something a little different this time."

James was hardly paying attention as he shoveled a huge forkful into his mouth and began to chew. The meat tasted odd, but not bad, just a little drier than usual.

"I made it with venison," Lily told him. "Do you like it?"

James choked as he felt his stomach stir. Venison? Deer? He tried to swallow but he couldn't force the lump of food, which now felt like lead on his tongue, down.

"James what is it?" Lily cried as he jumped up from the table and ran for the kitchen. He leaned over the rubbish bin and spat out the pie. He continued to spit, trying to expel the taste from his mouth.

"Are you okay? I didn't think it was that bad…," Lily handed him a glass of water when he straightened up.

James gulped it down and tried to conceal a shiver. He had nearly eaten a deer, possibly a stag. He had to force the thought away to keep his stomach in place. "I don't eat venison," he told her after he'd swirled the last bit of water around in his mouth and spat it into the sink.

"Oh. But you seemed to like it at first."

"Until I knew what it was," he snapped and then closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. It wasn't her fault that she didn't know what he was.

Lily crossed her arms. "What's wrong with venison?"

James tried to find an excuse but nothing was coming to him. He glanced around almost as if Remus and Sirius would appear to help him.

"James, what's going on?"

"When I was younger I found a baby deer in the woods near my house. Its mother never came for it and my parents let me take care of it." James almost sighed in relief as he pulled a long face. "I couldn't think of eating Merlin."

Lily turned toward the wall, chewing her lip. "James, why are you lying to me?"

"Lily, I'm not—," but he couldn't refute the lie when she turned to look at him, her eye twitching, indicating the tears soon to come. How did she know that he was lying?

"James, what is going on?" Her voice shook and he reached for her, but she stepped back. Lily's forehead folded in a cold scowl.

He regretted not starting with the truth, but the trouble was, this wasn't just his secret. It was Remus's, Peter's, and Sirius's as well. Maybe if he'd told her before it wouldn't have been so bad; he could have devised some other story, but it was too late now. James still hesitated, caught, not for the first time, between his friends and Lily.

Lily's lips shifted and twitched as if she didn't know what she wanted to do with them. Her green eyes were unsettling; he'd never seen her so angry. How could her eyes be sparking and yet sending chills down his back?

James looked away, unable to stand her glare any longer. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the cabinet. "I'm a stag." There was no reply for a long time and he had begun to wonder if she'd even heard.

Then, "You mean, you're actually—but how?" She could barely get the words out.

James swallowed. "I'm an animagus."

"James Potter, I swear if you're lying..."

He closed his eyes and stepped away from the cabinet, turning toward her. He concentrated for a moment before he felt his arms lengthening and his back sinking forward. James heard Lily's gasp as he opened his eyes and shifted. Her kitchen, already small for two people, was even more uncomfortable in his current form.

"James?"

Lily moved toward him and he snorted as her fingers hesitantly brushed his nose. He allowed her to finger his antlers before he closed his eyes and changed back. He expected to be hailed with questions, but she just stared at him, blinking.

"When were you going to tell me, James?" she whispered, her eye twitching dangerously. One mockingly plump tear curved from her eyes and his insides plummeted to his feet.

"Lils—,"

"When, when James?" she demanded, her voice rising. "When were you going to tell me that you're an illegal animagus? Were you ever going to tell me?"

James blushed guiltily at her words. Would he have ever told her? Did it matter? Why did she need to know everything about him? She was acting like she was entitled to know. He scowled. "I told you about the cloak and map," he argued. "Why did you need to know about this?"

Lily threw up her hands. "Because James, it's illegal."

He crossed his arms over his chest and felt his lips curve into a sneer worthy of Severus Snape. "So what're you going to do, Little Miss Perfect? Turn me in?"

"No, but I don't want to be blindsided if someone does come after you," she shot back.

James nearly winced; she had a point. "No one's coming after me!"

Lily's eyebrows wrinkled and she jabbed him in the chest. "You are so egotistical! You think that you're so bloody brilliant that the consequences are never going to catch up to you. James, when are you going to realize that life isn't Hogwarts? Azkaban is not some little detention!"

"Some things are more important than Azkaban!"

"Like what? Proving that you're the brilliant James Potter?" she spat scornfully.

She'd overstepped the line and from the widening of her eyes, he could see that she saw it on his face. James clenched his fists as he felt his wand warming in his back pocket. "For your information, Evans," he snarled, "there is a valid reason. I did it because I cared for someone, no matter what secrets there were."

Her petit features slackened in shock, but still she pressed on. "If you'd just—,"

James exploded. "So it's all my fault is it, Evans? It's always my fault, because you're too bloody perfect, aren't you? Maybe I never told you because I knew that you'd react like this!"

Somewhere toward the back of his mind he felt a tug of regret at the tears pouring down her face, but he was too angry to let it take over now. He was tired of apologizing, of explaining himself.

"Part of the reason I'm reacting like this is because you tried to lie to me, Potter!"

"And you've always told me the truth?" he challenged.

She just looked at him. Her eyes were lost behind a blur of tears. But he knew. He knew that she always had, at least in the most important things.

Lily spun and hurtled from the kitchen. A few moments later he heard her bedroom door slam.

James realized that he was breathing hard from their argument. It was no point going after her right now: both of their tempers were running so high from stress and lack of sleep. He might come back later. James stomped toward her front door, trying to let out the last of his quickly receding anger. He was about to leave when his empty stomach remembered Lily had said there was a surprise dessert.

He went to her kitchen and opened a few cabinets before he found it. It was a treacle tart, his absolute favorite dessert, from his favorite bakery. James felt the heat drain from his face and then he quietly shut the cabinet and left for a walk.

By the time he returned, he had found one tarnished silver lining. At least Lily now knew that he was an animagus.