Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.

Author's Note: Hullo again everyone. I know it's been an awfully long time since I've updated anything, and I know I've been a terrible person for not adding another chapter sooner. The truth is (aside from being completely busy with college homework and exams) I've lost my notebook that I had used to write down my plots and twists and such for the story. It makes me very sad – I've looked everywhere, and I can't seem to find it. I decided that I'll just have to finish the story without my notes, and I hope it goes okay from here. I have a feeling it won't be as good as I'd initially planned, but we'll just have to see.

Here's chapter eight, better late than never, I suppose.

Chapter 8: Surprises ruined?

"This would be so much easier the magic way, Lily," James whined for what might have been the millionth time that afternoon. "So much easier, and so much faster. Can't we just speed things up a bit?" his gaze twitched to the kitchen counter where his wand had been stowed away in a cookie jar by Lily.

Lily giggled and turned to look at him. "Don't even think about it," she said, shaking her head. "We've done all the other rooms by magic, we're doing this one my way. You promised," she reminded him.

James still did not look very happy, but he had promised, and so he stopped complaining – for the time being, at least.

Two and a half of the four kitchen walls were painted a pale yellow colour; the other one and a half (which happened to be on the side of the room that James was working on) were still the original beige colour. They'd started at one, and since then four hours had passed. Lily could hardly blame James for growing bored of the tiresome chore of dragging his brush up and down the kitchen walls, though she thought that the sad face he'd painted on the wall was a bit dramatic.

She paused in her own painting and glanced over at him to see him lazily stroking the brush over the same spot over and over again. Lily laughed and shook her head, dropping her paintbrush to the newspaper-covered floor. She walked over to him and put her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly from behind.

James looked down at her in surprise, and then a pleased smile appeared on his face. "Does this mean we can take a break?" he asked, sounding rather like an eager child.

Lily laughed at his tone and nodded. "Yes, we can take a break."

James was quick to drop his brush and he turned around so that he could face Lily and hug her back properly, arms around her waist.

"You've paint all over your face," Lily pointed out, lifting her hands to try and wipe it from his cheeks. "Ah, oops," she said, realizing that she'd had paint on her fingers. Instead of wiping it off his face, she'd only managed to smear more across it. "Sorry about that," she smiled apologetically.

James narrowed his eyes at her and stepped away from her. "Did you just put more paint on my face?" he asked slowly, as Lily backed away.

"It was completely unintentional," she assured him, laughing as she watched him bend by his bucket of paint and stick his hands in it. They came out dripping and yellow. "What are you doing?"

James chuckled playfully, menacingly. "Nothing," he said innocently, slowly advancing towards Lily with his hands outstretched. He reached her quickly after she backed herself into the counter with no way passed him, and he put his hands on either side of her face and smeared paint over her cheeks, nose and forehead.

Lily squirmed and tried to push him away, but he didn't budge. "James, gross," she laughed, hands pressing and shoving against his chest. He took a step back, laughing, as Lily tried to wipe the paint off with her sleeve and only succeeding in spreading it even more.

"Yellow's a good colour on you," James noted.

Lily frowned and stuck her tongue out at him, earning nothing but a laugh in reply.

"It's itchy," Lily complained, scrunching her cheeks where the paint was beginning to dry.

"You started it," James reminded, and then he took a few steps towards her again and put his hands on her hips. "We could go wash it all off in the shower," he said, smiling mischievously down at her.

Lily lifted her head, noted the smile and caught on quickly. Soon enough she was wearing a smile of her own and she reached up to put her paint covered arms around his neck.

Taking that as a yes, James chuckled and leaned down to kiss her. With his lips firmly against hers, he shifted his arms around her so that he could bend and sweep her up into his arms. He ignored her yelps and giggles of protest, silencing her with another kiss that she happily returned as he carried her out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

--

It was a while before they emerged from the bathroom, fluffy towels wrapped around their bodies. They seemed to have a hard time keeping their hands off one another, their lips apart, as they made their way down the hall from the bathroom to the bedroom. As they reached the closed door to their room, Lily reached behind her and fumbled with the doorknob until it opened and she walked backwards into the room. James kissed her hungrily as he carefully backed her up until the backs of her legs met the edge of the bed, and she fell backwards. She laughingly pulled him down with her, hands gripping his shoulders.

James hovered over her, hands on either side of her head carefully holding his weight off her body. He was still wearing a goofy grin as he bent his head and left a trail of kisses along her jaw. "I love you Lily," he said, kissing the spot below her ear.

Lily giggled as his hot breath tickled the side of her neck and with her hands on either side of his face, she brought his mouth back to hers for another kiss. "I love you, too," she smiled at him when the pulled apart.

Beneath him, her stomach growled. "Hungry?" he asked, chuckling.

Lily laughed at her own expense and shrugged and nodded at the same time. "Kind of, I guess," she admitted.

"I can make you dinner," he said, rolling off of her and lying next to her, head turned to look at her.

"You can cook?" Lily asked, turning her head as well for her gaze to follow his face. Her eyebrows lifted in surprise.

James grinned sheepishly. "Well, no," he admitted. "I was thinking you could stay up here while I go downstairs and magically make a beautiful meal appear."

Lily laughed and rolled onto her side, lying close to James with her head in the crook between his shoulder and his chest. Her emerald eyes lingered on his face, smiling as she felt his arm curled around her small waist. "Still sounds good to me," she said, laying a lingering kiss upon his cheek. "Besides, I don't think the kitchen is exactly useable right now." She smiled.

"I can fix that with a bit of magic, too, you know," he waggled his eyebrows.

Stubbornly, Lily shook her head. "No, we are finishing it my way. You can't get out of it," she told him, setting her jaw in that way that made it clear that she was not going to change her mind.

James sighed. "Well, maybe doing it the muggle way isn't so bad," he amended, kissing her temple at the same time he tightened his arm around her waist.

Lily laughed and pushed away from him, sitting up. "I told you so," she sang teasingly and she stood up, stretching her arms over her head.

James admired the curve of her back as she stretched for a moment, and then he too sat up on the end of the bed. He eventually stood and crossed the room to the dresser where he kept his clothes. He pulled out a pair of plaid boxer shorts and pulled them on, dropping the towel on the ground where it joined a small pile of his dirty clothes from the week before. Lily had given him a laundry hamper, but he just never remembered to throw them into it.

"I'll be downstairs," James said, watching as Lily went through the closet where she kept her clothes. "Anything specific you want me to make?" he asked.

"Spaghetti," Lily replied without looking away from the clothes.

James smiled at the quickness of her reply (he knew that spaghetti was her favourite meal) and left the room, heading downstairs to create a terribly romantic atmosphere in their living room (where the kitchen table currently resided until its more permanent home was finished) before getting to work on making Lily's spaghetti dinner appear.

Lily, meanwhile, pulled on a pair of fleece sleep shorts and a white tank top to lounge around it. She held onto her towel, and then walked across the room to pick up James' towel from the floor, and then she tossed both towels onto the bed. She'd spied James' pile of laundry and shook her head with a small smile.

"Ah, James," she sighed, bending to pick up the clothes he'd left there. She separated the pile according to what was still clean and what was actually dirty. She threw the dirty laundry into the hamper, and set to work folding the clean stuff. Clean clothes folded, she brought them to his dresser and began to put them away. Lily reached the drawer where he kept his jeans, and she pulled it open.

"How he finds anything in here, I'll never know," she muttered to herself, pushing badly folded pairs of trousers out of the way so that she could fit in the clean pairs.

Just as she was about to lower the jeans into the freshly cleared spot, she noticed something and stopped. "What is this," she mumbled, bending to pry a small black box from the drawer.

Lily balanced the jeans between one arm and her hip so as to free both her hands, and, curiosity getting the best of her, she pulled the box open with her fingertips. She couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her at the sight of the small diamond ring.

"Oh my gosh," she said, bringing the box closer to her face for a better inspection. It was beautiful; the diamond in the center and the small emeralds on either side made the ring one of the prettiest Lily had ever seen. And it was just her size.

"Oh my gosh," she said again as she realized what she was holding, and she quickly snapped the box shut. Heart pounding louder than it had been just a moment ago, Lily placed the box back into the drawer – careful to put it in the exact same spot it had just been in. She placed the clean jeans over it and closed the drawer straight away.

She wandered back over to the bed and sat down on the edge, eyes still lingering on the door where the ring box lay hidden under James' clothes. Just as she was wondering if that was what she thought it was, she heard footsteps on the stairs and then they started down the hall.

Lily got to her feet and met James at the door of the bedroom.

"Dinner is served," he announced pompously with a smile on his face.

Lily smiled back, trying to forget that she'd just spied what she'd spied in his drawer. "Already? That was fast," she told him, taking his hand in hers as they headed back downstairs.

"I'm a fast worker," James shrugged, squeezing her fingers. He led her to the living room, where he had, indeed, fixed a terribly romantic dinner area. There were candles in the center of the table, rose petals scattered across the table cloth, a bottle of wine in the center – two glasses already poured, one at either end of the table – and a plate of spaghetti at both place settings.

Lily smiled. "James," she said. "It's absolutely perfect. I ask for dinner and you give me this." She turned around so that she was standing in front of him, holding both his hands.

James shrugged. "You deserve the best," he told her, as if it were nothing.

Lily smiled and rose onto her tiptoes to kiss him. "I have the best," she said, and then she kissed him again. And though she had the most wonderful man in her arms and a beautiful dinner waiting right behind her, her mind lingered on the ring upstairs.

--

"I think James wants to ask me to marry him," Lily blurted out. Louise, Anna and Victoria all turned their heads to look at her wearing similar expressions of confusion and curiosity.

"What do you mean?" Louise said.

The girls were on their way home from work, taking the scenic route in order to spend more time together. With all the chaos that seemed to be ever growing around them, and all the work that they had piled onto their plates, quality time with friends unfortunately fell to the bottom.

"I was putting clothes away and I found a ring in his drawer. Unless he's got another girlfriend somewhere…" she trailed off, frowning.

Victoria squeezed her arm, which she had linked with her own. "Nonsense. James hasn't got another girlfriend anywhere."

"Well then, I assume the ring is for me." Lily said, nodding her head slowly.

"What's it look like?" Louise was quick to ask.

Lily grinned. "Small and cute with a diamond in the center and emeralds on either side. It's beautiful, Lou."

"Sounds like it," Louise agreed.

Victoria squealed and squeezed Lily's arm tighter. "Oh, Lily this is wonderful. You and James are finally going to be married," she beamed. "It has to be a perfect wedding. We'll be your bridesmaids of course – unless you're asking your ghastly sister? – anyway, we'll be your bridesmaids, and James will choose Sirius as best man. And there will be flowers – daisies, because they're your favourite and - "

Lily cut her off. "Vicky, he hasn't even asked me yet!" she laughed.

Victoria waved her hand. "Minor detail."

"This is so exciting, Lil," Louise exclaimed, rubbing her hands together.

"You're awful quiet, Anna," Victoria pointed out.

Anna looked up, cheeks a bit pink. "Am I? Sorry, lost in thought, I suppose," she said and her face quickly lit up with a smile. "It's absolutely wonderful that you and James are going to be engaged. We should have a party."

Lily laughed. "I think it's best we wait until he actually asks me to start planning any kind of party." She said.

"Fine, we won't plan anything until he asks you. But you absolutely must call us straight away when he does, understand?" Victoria said, looking very serious.

"Promise," Lily said.

"And make sure to act surprised when he asks you, eh," Anna said. "I bet he's nervous enough as it is. If you just sit there like a bump on a log, his nerves will be through the roof and he'll have a heart attack before you even get a chance to say yes."

"You will be saying yes, won't you?" Louise asked.

All three girls turned to look at their red-headed friend, who just stared silently back.

Would she?

Author's Note:

So this chapter was kind of a filler, just to get me back on track, to make sure I haven't lost my touch for writing (have I lost it?). I still like it, though. Let me know what you think of it, alright?

Xoxo, Cait.