The first thing Lily sees when she wakes up is a pair of antlers. The shock of that is probably why it takes her longer than it should to remember where she fell asleep last night.

Lily knows she should probably regret her decision to stay the night, but she just… can't. Everything about last night – the dinner, the date, the sex – was amazing.

It surprises her, how James is so different from what she'd expected her soulmate to be and yet he has her completely charmed nonetheless. For someone who thought she knew exactly what she wanted in all aspects of life, Lily is discovering that she actually may not have known everything.

The distinct scent of coffee pulls Lily from her morning thoughts, and it's only then that she realizes that the space in the bed next to her is empty. She gets out of James' bed and follows the smell, exiting the bedroom and finding the source of the fragrance in the form of a coffee machine on the kitchen counter.

James is standing in front of the stove, cooking what appears to be eggs and bacon. And he's doing so shirtless. God, did the man step straight of one of Marlene's trashy romance novels or something?

No, definitely not, Lily realizes. If he were something out of a romance novel, he wouldn't have just let out an aggressive stream of swear words in response to getting hit with a spatter of hot grease.

Lily laughs at that, even though her own finger is smarting from the spot where James just got burnt, and her laugh serves to alert James of her presence. He jumps a little, but by the time he turns around to look at her, he's got a smirk pasted on his face.

"Between the two of us, we successfully make up one fully-clothed person."

Given that Lily is clad in nothing but one of James' old uni T-shirts, James does have a point. It is, however, an incredibly odd way to greet her, Lily thinks to herself.

"Good morning to you too," she answers.

"I'm making breakfast," James adds, as if the fact that he's standing in front of the stove doesn't make that fact incredibly obvious.

"Yes, and you're going to burn it if you keep watching me instead of the food."

"Oh shit." James turns his attention back to his cooking – nothing is actually burnt, but Lily finds that she rather enjoys teasing him for the hell of it.

As Lily sits on one of James' barstools, it strikes her that this 'morning after' stuff seems to be something that James is all-too-familiar with. She's never had a one night stand, or even slept with a bloke on the first date. But James, famous rugby player that he is – Lily can't help but wonder how many other girls have sat in this same position before her.

Instantly, she's struck with a wave of insecurity – that same fear that kept her from agreeing to a date in the first place, that fear that she was nothing more than a game to be won.

And she had certainly let James win that game. The fact that she's sitting in his kitchen the morning after, wearing nothing but his T-shirt, with the vivid memory of just how many times she had cried out his name last night, is evidence of that.

"So," James begins, placing a loaded plate in front of Lily, "Sirius and Remus are throwing some sort of full moon bash at their flat next Friday. Want to come with?"

As James slides into the seat next to her, Lily feels the tension in her shoulders fade away as quickly as it came. If James is already inviting her to come hang out with his friends, this doesn't seem like a one-time thing after all.

"We're not even done with the first date and you're already asking me on a second one," Lily replies, using a bite of egg to conceal the smile creeping up her face.

"Yes, but this isn't any old first date, love," James replies easily. "This is my first date with my soulmate. And in all likelihood, my last first date."

He smirks at her, and even though it's that same casual confidence that once endlessly ground on Lily's nerves, it now has the effect of completely melting her heart into a puddle.

After they finish eating, Lily changes back into her clothes from the night before and kisses him as she leaves. That's the right thing to do when leaving a bloke's apartment in the morning, right? Lily isn't really sure of the protocol for this sort of thing.

Then again, she's quite sure that they've completely buggered up the protocol in endless other ways.

Lily has the vainest of hopes that she won't run into either of her friends on the way up to her flat, but as fate would have it, Marlene steps off the lift with her dog Benjy as soon as Lily walks into the lobby.

Marlene takes one look at her friend, and her face splits into a massive grin.

"Oh we are most definitely talking about this later," Marlene teases as she walks by.

Lily's cheeks burn in response. She's distracted from her embarrassment, however, by a buzzing in her pocket.

11:23

admit it: you fancy me

Lily laughs to herself as she steps on the lift.

11:25

Just how long did it take you to find a colon on that T9 keyboard of yours?

11:26

irrelevant

i'm waiting on a confession here

11:27

I feel like my actions from last night and this morning should be a sufficient answer.

11:28

but i wanna hear the words from you

i need evidence that i did eventually woo the unwooable lily evans

11:29

I am 110% sure that "unwooable" is not a word.

But fine.

Yes, I fancy you.

11:31

ha! i knew it!

11:32

You fancied me first, you idiot.

11:33

betcha wouldn't rather go on a date with the loch ness monster now, eh?

11:35

You have a point.

It's an even tie now.

Lily opens the door to her flat, laughing when James' outraged response pops up on her phone screen. She knows Marlene will come knocking soon looking for details, and Dorcas will follow soon after, and more and more people will eventually find out.

For now, Lily sits on her couch, reminiscing on the best details of the previous night – the ones not significant enough to share with anyone else but the ones she treasures the most: how James stood in her doorway trying to look cool when he picked her up, him adamantly defending his ancient flip phone, the way that he kissed her just before they fell asleep.

Unsurprisingly, it takes all of 48 hours for someone in the Saint Bartholomew's A&E department to find out about Lily's new relationship.

She catches on when she walks into the hospital cafeteria on Monday and instantly notices that a number of the interns surreptitiously glance her way. She tries not to think much of it, but that plan of action is ruined when one of the interns, Alice Prewett, walks up to the table that Lily is sitting at with Marlene.

It's obvious that the interns had a strategy to this; it's well-known that Lily considers Alice to be one of the best interns in their year.

"Lily – er, Doctor Evans," Alice starts, looking a bit nervous about being the one put up to this, "is it true that you're dating a famous rugby player?"

"We went on a date," Lily corrects.

"And they're going to get married and have the most intelligent and athletic children ever," Marlene oh-so-helpfully adds in.

Lily rolls her eyes before looking back at the intern. "Where did you get that information anyways?"

"Oh, Frank follows a Wasps fan account, and they tweeted a picture of the two of you walking out of a restaurant. We all thought it was you, but we couldn't be sure. Hence, why I got sent over to ask you."

Lily nods. "Well yes, it was me."

A bit of relief floods across Alice's face when she notices that Lily isn't getting annoyed at the confrontation. "Right, well, thanks."

"Although I'd really prefer it if you lot didn't discuss my love life, if that's quite alright," Lily quips, grinning conspiratorially. "You stay hush about mine, and I won't tell the entire hospital that you and Frank were shagging in the break room last week."

Alice's cheeks flush bright pink. "I – I will do my best to change the subject."

"And tell Doctor Abbott that I've got my eye on him." Lily knows that the intern in question knows quite a bit of information about Lily's first meeting with James, and she'd prefer if that information didn't spread around the hospital.

"Will do, Lily."

As soon as Alice turns around to head back to the intern table, Marlene starts laughing. "Do you always have to be so cruel to the interns?"

Lily shrugs. "I'm not cruel. I just enjoy having a little bit of power over them, is all. I'm nowhere near as bad as my own internship supervisor was."

"And you got that bloke fired."

"Yes, well, Doctor Snape got fired for unprofessional behavior. None of my behavior was unprofessional," Lily answers.

"Lily, you just basically blackmailed an intern into not talking about your love life."

Lily laughs. "It's Alice. She knows I'm joking. I've been ribbing her about the Frank stuff ever since I found out she fancied him."

"Oh, well they're cute together," Marlene says, looking over at the intern table. "Good for them."

And then after a moment, she adds, "Should I go over to the intern table and regale them with the story of you not making it back from your date until Sunday morning?"

Lily swats her friend's arm. "You wouldn't dare."

On the night of Remus and Sirius' party, Lily opens the door to her flat to reveal James leaning against her doorway in much the same manner as he did on the night of their first date.

"I can't believe you think that makes you look cool," Lily says by way of greeting.

James raises an eyebrow. "Are you saying it doesn't?"

Lily laughs. "No, it makes you look like you're trying too hard."

"Well, that too, I suppose," James admits.

Lily realizes how much she likes that James can take her teasing in stride – something none of her past boyfriends were particularly good at. She's always had a sarcastic side, and it has more often than not caused some sort of offence in previous relationships.

As James is holding the door open to the same private car he showed up with last time, he pops the relationship-defining question. "So, what are we?"

Lily's not quite sure what he means, so she asks for clarification.

"I mean," James answers, "how do I introduce you to my friends? Are you 'Lily, my girlfriend'? Or is that too fast? Should we go with 'Lily, the girl that I went on a date with and shagged that one time'?"

Lily shoves him when he slides into the seat next to her. "That second option is a hard no. Which, I suppose means the first option is the only one we've got."

Lily knows they're probably moving a little too fast – or, at least, they're moving faster than any of Lily's past relationships. But this isn't a past relationship. This is James. This is her soulmate, even if she's still a little uncertain about the accuracy of the match.

The old rules no longer apply.

James flashes a megawatt smile in her direction. "Brilliant. Doctor Lily Evans, my wonderful and incredibly sexy girlfriend."

" 'My girlfriend' will suffice," Lily replies with a roll of her eyes.

"I can work with that," James answers, leaning over to kiss her.

And that kiss turns into a heated snogging session that lasts the duration of the ride to Remus and Sirius' place. Lily has to strategically position her hair to conceal the two marks James made on her neck.

When they walk into the flat, James is immediately accosted by a huge black dog. "Padfoot, buddy!" he cries, dropping to his knees to greet the dog affectionately. "It's been too long!"

"You say that like you didn't live on our couch until like three weeks ago," Remus says, having joined his dog at the doorway to greet James and Lily.

"And that was three weeks too long," James reasons.

"James! It's been way too long!" Sirius suddenly pops into the conversation, immediately giving James a hug and clapping him on the back.

Lily and Remus share a glance, silently communicating something along the lines of 'why are our boyfriends like this?'

This is the first time Lily has called James her boyfriend, even if only in nonverbal communication. She finds that she's fond of the new title.

James suddenly jumps up to his full height again. "Right, so this is Lily, my girlfriend," he announces, wrapping an arm around Lily's waist as if to provide a visual demonstration to accompany his words.

Remus laughs. "James, you know Lily has already met both Sirius and I, right?"

"He knows that," Sirius chimes in. "He just wanted an excuse to announce that he's somehow nailed down the girl that once told him she'd rather live off Marmite than go on a date with him."

James and Lily both blush simultaneously – James for being called out on his overeagerness to announce his newly-defined relationship and Lily for being treated with the memory of one of her many creative rejections of her now-boyfriend.

"The all-Marmite diet is going swimmingly, thanks for asking," Lily replies, trying her best to hold back a grin.

"Anyways," Remus says, changing the subject, "can I get you two something to drink?"

Lily answers with "whiskey and Diet Coke, please," at the same time as James replies, "whiskey and Coke, obviously."

Somehow Remus catches both of those orders, and walks through the clusters of people to the makeshift bar in the living room. Meanwhile, James pulls his hand off of Lily's waist, and Lily looks up at him to realise he's looking at her, nose crinkled in disgust.

"I can't believe you'd destroy perfectly good whiskey with that disgusting fake sugar stuff," James tells her, sounding scandalised.

"And I can't believe you'd drink something that's basically 100% sugar," Lily retorts. She doesn't even care that much, but she feels obligated to reciprocate James' intensity.

"You know, when Remus first told me that you two were apparently soulmates, I didn't think that match made much sense," Sirius comments, watching the two of them. "But holy fuck, you two are perfect for each other. No two normal people would get this intense about mixer choices."

James laughs, and any tension, real or dramatised – although Lily's pretty sure it was the latter – floats away. He grabs Lily's hand and drags her along to meet a bunch of his friends.

The Friday night party ends up being a catalyst for an entire weekend that James and Lily spend side-by-side. The pattern continues for nearly every weekend following, with the exception of when James' coach schedules a weekend practice.

Lily has some reservations about the relationship moving as fast as it is, but those reservations get completely washed away every time James says or does something ridiculous that makes her fall for him even more.

When rugby season starts again, she starts going to his games whenever she can. She wears a bright yellow jersey with "Potter" across the back, because it makes James happy even though the color clashes horrendously with her hair. By some miracle, he tends to get injured less when she's there watching, although he does get hit in the jaw one time while Lily is in the middle of eating chips, and she's not too happy about that one.

She's not entirely sure what the catalyst is, but Lily and James have been together for about two months when she realizes that she's in love with him.

Lily reminds herself that, objectively, love is simply a combination of brain chemicals designed to create attraction and attachment. Looking at it that way, she feels more justified; if the sequence of actions in her and James' relationship just happens to be creating those chemical reactions at a faster rate than normal, who is she to suggest they slow down?

Eventually, she's the one that says it first, in the middle of a rainy day Netflix marathon of obscure documentaries. James pauses the film, going into a brief rant about how the narrator is only considering one perspective in his analysis of the War of the Roses – something that is apparently incredibly problematic.

Lily turns her head to look at her boyfriend, who's far too fired up about a documentary narrator's script, and says 'I love you' before she can think about it.

It takes James a moment to react – he drops the remote off the couch and has to fumble to pick it up. When he does, he's practically glowing.

"I love you so fucking much," is James' eventual reply.

And the Victorian documentary is entirely forgotten as James leans over to kiss her, and it quickly becomes the second time they've shagged in his living room.

They lay there on his couch afterwards, all wrapped up in each other and blissfully happy about it.

Perhaps she had this whole soulmate thing wrong before, Lily muses. She'd always envisioned a 'soulmate' as someone with an identical soul – like Marlene and Dorcas, who are so similar they finish each other's sentences and come up with the same ideas simultaneously.

And while that may be one type of soulmate, Lily has found that she and James fit together in a different sort of way. They are two totally different people, two opposite souls, but they somehow combine to make something better, stronger.

Their personalities are cacophonous – Lily is everything that James is not, and vice versa. But they balance each other out. James eases out Lily's sense of spontaneity, and Lily drives James to think through the consequences of his actions before charging blindly at an issue (or an opposing rugby player).

They catch themselves in petty arguments regularly. For all their differences, they're united in their stubbornness and self-assurance. But they work through it. Lily lives for a challenge – perhaps that's why James is her soulmate, honestly – so she takes their disputes in stride, and they work together to solve their problems. They make it through each time.

As yet another development in the theme of their relationship moving light years faster than anything Lily would've normally anticipated, they've only been together for ten months when James gets down on one knee.

It's after a rugby match, but James seems to know Lily well enough to know that she would've hated a public proposal. So he waits until everyone's left the stadium, and he proposes in the same spot that he broke two ribs just a year before.

Lily stares at her boyfriend of less than a year, reminded once again just how much he's thrown her entire existence for a loop. Before, she would never have even vaguely considered marrying someone she'd met only a year ago; now, she looks at James and can't imagine anything else, can't imagine any timing more perfect than this.

So her answer is a resounding yes, yes, YES. As she leans down to kiss her new fiancé and he slides a ring onto her finger, her friends and family – sans Petunia – come pouring out from their hiding spots behind the stands.

Sirius reaches them first. "Look at our Jamesy-boy, all grown up!" he cries, throwing an arm around James as soon as he and Lily break apart.

He suddenly turns his attention to Lily. "Did he tell you how long he's had that ring for?"

James shoves Sirius, but that doesn't seem to be enough of a deterrent for James' childhood friend. "He bought it the day after he met you."

Lily looks at James, trying to stifle a laugh. "You did realise I pretty much hated you that day, right?"

She thinks back to that day in room A220, snapping at Daniel Abbott and losing her temper with James. If someone were to tell her a year ago that she'd be engaged to that same infuriating patient a year later, she would've called them insane.

James smirks. "I knew I'd wear you down eventually," he answers.

"The one time that your recklessness actually turned out in your favor," she replies, admiring the diamond ring adorning her left hand.

"I'll have to be reckless a lot more often, then."

"I think you've achieved enough recklessness to last a lifetime, love," Lily says, closing the gap between her and James and kissing him yet again, prompting a number of whoops and a wolf-whistle from Marlene.

In addition to the ring, James celebrates their engagement in the form of a piece of artwork: a silhouette of a doe that joins James' stag on the wall of his – now their – flat. The two creatures hang side-by-side, facing each other as if being together is their destiny. Not unlike the two people those deer are meant to represent.

Lily can't think of anything more perfect.