Stretch

Lily Evans did not enjoy early mornings.

She did not like the cold rush of air that hit her legs when she swung them out of bed and away from the comforting warmth of the duvet. She did not like the way her hair stuck to the side of her face. She did not like the brush that ran through her hair hatefully pulling at every strand it could find. She did not like the shower that blasted hot and cold in equally irritating measures so that she was scalded and then frozen.

And, yet, she could be found getting out of bed religiously every morning at 6 am.

The reason was simple.

James Potter awoke at 6.17 precisely and then proceeded to stretch out his kinks from the night before.

James Potter also never remembered to close his bedroom door so, from the Head's Common room, peeking over the back of the sofa, Lily Evans could observe this stretching ritual to her heart's content.

The first time she had been privy to such an act she had stumbled upon it by accidentally. There had been a stomach bug going around and she had become an avid sufferer. Up since 4 am she had been trekking to the bathroom to empty the contents of her stomach repeatedly and then decided to sleep in the common room on the sofa because it was easier to get to the bathroom that way. James had woken once in the night and, embarrassingly, caught her just as she made a mad dash for the sanctuary of the toilet bowl. Ever the gentleman, he had held her hair and rubbed her back, even as she heard him mutter 'ew' under his breath. He had tucked her in on the sofa, her body shivering and said he would check on her in the morning. She had nodded somewhat pathetically and tried to sleep for at least a couple of hours. This was impossible and she found herself tossing and turning as her stomach churned uncomfortably.

It started doing all sorts of weird back flips when James woke up with a groan.

Her head poked over the top of the sofa, to wish him good morning and, suddenly, her tongue swelled in her mouth and she couldn't swallow properly.

He was sat up in bed, the duvet wrapped loosely around his waist, his chest gloriously bare and open to her very interested perusal. He ran a hand through his hair and over his neck, rubbing in a circular motion at the base of his neck and his head lolled on his shoulders. His arms reached above his head, his hands locked together as he arched his back in a way that made her head spin. His neck, back, arms and all the delicious spaces in between tensed and flexed. She could feel her jaw slacken as all the air left her lungs. Her eyes followed the lines of his arms to his shoulders, oh God, his shoulders. They were toned, muscular even but not bulging and she longed to run her hands over them. To feel the muscles twitch and flex under her fingers. She could imagine the skin, warm and smooth, beneath her fingertips, grazing the hair at the nape of his neck and skimming down his biceps, which her small hands would not be able to wrap around, dipping into the delicate crease of his elbow, or maybe skipping across his collarbone, tenderly caressing in a way that felt so good it should be illegal. Maybe one of her hands would run down his back, feeling the bones of his spine and falling to the dimples just above his hips, feeling so feminine in the shadow of this man. This raw, powerful man.

He yawned with a moan, clicked his elbows once and rolled out of bed and the spell holding Lily frozen to the spot was broken.

Lily dropped quickly onto her back on the sofa, her breathing shallow and heat rising in her face. Her heart was pounding in her chest, her eyes wide with something akin to shock. It was several minutes later, the images on constant replay in her mind, that James stood over her, a robe wrapped around him as he gazed concernedly at her.

"Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

She barely managed to whimper, worried that she might embarrass herself with incoherency if she tried to speak as this Adonis stood in the flesh before her. He obviously took this as a bad sign and laid the back of his hand on her forehead. This did not help her discomfort.

"You're burning up. Come on, I'll take you down to the Hospital Wing."

Lily didn't think Madame Pomfrey could really help her but allowed him to fuss over her as he tugged at the duvet she was lying on. At least not with the burning up which had absolutely nothing to do with her tummy bug and entirely to do with the bloke wrapping her up in her duvet and all but carrying her to the school nurse. Having those arms locked tightly around her did not calm her raging temperature or her raging hormones either for that matter.

It was a couple of weeks later that Lily stumbled across James stretching for Quidditch practice and, after nearly passing out, vowed to attend every game from then on.

Even if she did have trouble breathing whenever the team was warming up.

~*~