Green

Oneshot #13

By: Sunlit Days

You know you've fallen way too hard for a guy when you notice that he wears green boxers every day of the week. (A different pair each day, obviously.) And you know you've gone completely over the edge when you notice that the green boxers accent the green flecks in his gorgeous hazel eyes.

I've gone completely over the edge.

Some days, I'd really like to shove James Potter against a wall and kiss him until I can't breathe. But I don't have enough confidence or courage to do that, and according to my best friend Alice, I need to learn to take initiative.

It's not like I'm trying to see what color boxers he's wearing, though. It's not my fault he wears his pants around his hips, and that his boxers peek out from above his waistband. And when you stare at a guy more than what should be considered normal, you're bound to notice those things. It's Alice's fault for pointing it out to me in the first place. Green's become my new favorite color. I smile whenever I see something green—it reminds me of him.

"Lily." Alice is waving her hand in front of my face. I must be wearing my thinking-about-James-Potter expression.

"Should I be worried about how I'm thinking about how nicely his boxers match his eyes?"

Alice stares at me for a moment, then bursts out laughing. "You really should do your shoving him up against the wall and kissing him thing."

I don't reply to that, because James has just walked into the room, and he's wearing a green shirt. Not only does it bring out the green in his eyes, but it does a nice job showing off his lovely Quidditch-toned muscles. His lips also look fuller and more kissable, but that's probably just me. I can see his boxers, too, and like usual, they're green.

"Lily's having dirty fantasies," mutters Alice.

I swat her arm. "No, I'm not! Look at his eyes; doesn't the green make them look pretty?"

Alice hits her head on the table. "Whatever you say, Lily."

James sprawls out in one of the soft chairs that you sink into by the windows. Dazzling sunlight pours in through the gleaming windows, shining over him like a spotlight. His eyelashes look like they've been dipped in golden sunlight, and his hair seems to have been highlighted with a blend of sunbeams and shadows. I think I'm drooling a little bit just from looking at him. I'm like one of those dogs that starts to salivate when it hears the bell that signals dinner. I can't even hear his name without perking up. It's pathetic.

"You're doing it again." Alice's voice cuts through my daydreams that involve James in those green boxers and not much else.

"Doing what?"

"The thing where you start staring into space—actually, you're staring at him—and I have a feeling you really are having dirty fantasies."

I snatch the first book I can reach and hold it in front of my face as James opens his eyes and gives Alice a really strange look. I kick her under the table as his eyes fall on me, and the corners of his mouth twitch, hiding a smile.

"Nice, Lily," Alice says, laughing as she turns my book right side up. I bury my face in my hands.

"He must think I'm so stupid," I groan.

"I'd worry more about how you're matching his boxers to his eyes."

"Says the girl who pointed it out to me in the first place," I retort.

"Well, it's not my fault he wears his pants so low that his stupid boxers are hanging out," she defends herself. "And I didn't point out that his boxers match his eyes, I just told you that he had green boxers, which was stupid of me. You were the one that noticed that he wears them every day."

"I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out in the first place."

"Yes, you would have; you stare at him so much that it's unhealthy for you."

I can't even think of a reply to this—I know it's true.

"Take initiative, Lily. Whatever you're hoping for isn't going to happen unless you do something."

"As much as I'd love to, I'm not shoving him up against a wall."

"That's not what I meant. Come on. Get up and go talk to him or something." Alice starts to pull me out of my seat.

"Not now. I'll do it later."

"That's the third time this week you've told me that," Alice points out.

That means it's not going to happen. When it comes to James, I have a bad habit of procrastinating and never actually doing what I said I'd do. I know I have to take initiative in order for anything to happen, but whenever he's around, my brain shuts down and I forget how to talk. I'm always telling Alice she needs to have courage, but really, I'm not much better. It's impossible to figure James out. Sometimes I think he likes me; other days I think he hates me. And on the days he asks me out—which he hasn't done in awhile—I wonder if he's only doing it because I'm a challenge to him and he wants to see how long it takes me to fall for his charms.

What he doesn't know is that he's already tripped me, and I am falling, but it doesn't look like he's going to be there to catch me.

--

Until the day a few months ago when Alice figured it out with her insanely scary intuition skills, I was still in complete denial about liking James. I refused to admit it to myself, telling myself that I was letting him win the battle we've been fighting since our first year. We're both fighters—there's no way either of us would willingly let the other win. Unfortunately, I've come to realize that my heart is always going to win over my head. I guess love defies all logic.

I wonder if he knows the effect he has on me, and maybe that's why he always has that look on his face when he sees me—that half-hidden smile, with his eyes gleaming with laughter. He probably knows that whenever he walks into the room, my hearts starts beating faster, and there's a fluttery feeling in my stomach. He can see the blush that stains my cheeks when his eyes meet mine for a brief moment, and he hears the silence that swells between us when my brain stops functioning properly because of him. Sometimes, when we're accidentally close enough, I notice how good he smells, and it's as if I'm drunk for several fleeting seconds. Like Alice tells me, this obsession with James Potter really can't be good for my health.

Alice elbows me in the ribs and I come back to earth as Professor Slughorn waddles into the dank, gloomy classroom. There's already a cauldron of boiling liquid over the dancing flames at the front of the room, and a misty, dreamy vapor rises from the shimmering potion. The surface catches the light of the candles now being lit, winking like diamonds. From my seat, I can see James perfectly. I'm secretly hoping that Slughorn assigns partners today, so that I might get to work with James, but knowing my luck, I'll end up with Sirius, who'd rather focus on flirting than actually doing any work—he's amazingly smart, but he has no work ethic.

So of course since I'm hoping that he'll assign partners, he lets us pick who we want to work with. Alice immediately pairs off with our friend Marlene, leaving me by myself. I glare at her as she hisses the word "initiative" at me. Instead of approaching James like she's obviously hoping, I ask Remus to work with me instead, even though he's terrible at Potions. I'm friends with him, though, so working with him is normal, whereas working with James isn't, because as far as everyone else is concerned, I still hate him. And if I supposedly hate him, it would be out of character for me to ask him to work with me. I make a mental note to use this reasoning on Alice when she yells at me later for not taking initiative. I already know what she'll say, though—if I don't take initiative, he'll think I hate him, too.

I laugh at the expression on Alice's face when she sees that I'm not working with James. James and Sirius are both watching Remus, frowning slightly, and when they turn to me, they're glaring. I'm really tempted to hide my face behind my hair—I can't stand being looked at like that—but I remind myself to ignore them and have confidence, since Alice isn't near enough to say it herself.

I manage to get through the rest of the class without being murdered by the expressions on the faces of James, Sirius, or Alice, but if looks could kill, I'd have died three times. I stand behind James as he shuffles out of the classroom (according to Alice, he walks slowly, but he beat me to the door, so I guess I'm slower), and pick up the sheets of parchment he's dropping.

"James, you dropped these."

He stops and takes the ink-smudged notes from me. "Thanks," he says, smiling. My heart skips a beat as his hand brushes against mine, and that smile makes me feel like I'm melting.

"Alice!" I shout down the hall once James has joined his friends.

She turns around, blonde hair whipping around her shoulders. "Way to take initiative, Lily," she says sarcastically.

"I just did, actually," I reply. I tell her what just happened.

"That doesn't count." She's laughing at me now.

"Yes, it does. I could have just left his stuff there. And I talked to him."

Alice is still laughing.

"What? What am I supposed to say to him?" I demand as we reach the common room and give the Fat Lady the password.

"I don't know. Maybe 'I like what's under your pants'?" Alice suggests.

Now I'm the one laughing. "Do you really think I'd say that to him?"

"Well, you are obsessed with his green boxers. I wonder if he'd be obsessed with your underwear if he found out what color it is." Alice slides her bag off her shoulder and flings it to the ground, then takes a seat in her usual chair. "Oh, please tell me you didn't go out and buy green underwear."

"No." I sit down, too, and attempt to organize the contents of my bag, which is going to rip any day now with the amount of stuff I've been carrying around.

Alice coughs and raises her eyebrows at me. "And why don't I believe that?"

"Well, if you're going to attempt to find out, I'd greatly appreciate if you don't do it here, and wait until we're not in a public place, in which case I'll simply avoid you for the rest of my life."

"So you did," Alice concludes.

"No, I didn't say that; I just said—"

"Well, you meant it. I think we should keep you away from green things forever."

"No, I read that green's a calming color or something. I could go insane from not seeing it," I protest.

"Lily, you already are insane, you don't have to worry about that. And personally, I don't find Slytherins calming."

"Slytherins aren't green."

"It's their color, Lily," Alice sighs.

"I know, but that doesn't matter. They're not the only ones who wear green. James wears green boxers; I find that calming."

"I find that you find that calming somewhat twisted and disturbing."

"I just heard two of my favorite words," announces Sirius as he throws himself into a nearby chair.

"What, sex and girls? Sorry, you must have misheard us."

He rolls his eyes at me. "Clever, Lily. I was actually referring to twisted and disturbing."

I can't tell if he's joking or not. "Yeah, we were talking about you," I quip.

Sirius juts out his lower lip.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" I ask.

"It's my common room, too. Actually, I wanted to ask you something. What's with you and Remus?"

I can't help laughing at the question. "What's going on with us? Nothing. Why?"

Sirius shrugs. "You seem awfully friendly towards him. And I know there are people who wouldn't be too happy about that."

"We're just friends," I assure him. "Haven't you ever heard of platonic friendship?" I realize that I'm talking to Sirius Black; obviously he hasn't.

He seems satisfied with my answer, though, because he gets up to join James, who's talking to Frank Longbottom, Alice's boyfriend. I'm distracted for a moment by James's green striped boxers. Alice hits me with her Charms book.

"Ow!"

"That's not healthy for you. You're obsessed with his boxers."

"Hitting me isn't exactly healthy, either," I retort.

"Someday, he's going to catch you staring at him," Alice warns.

I know she's right, and I can imagine how stupid I'd look in that situation. I can see the whole thing playing out in my head.

"You have that look on your face again," Alice tells me when my brain's wandered off into a fantasy in which James is kissing me.

I groan and put my face in my hands. People used to tell me that I was difficult to read, but now everyone can figure out exactly what I'm thinking. James probably can, too. And that's probably why he's always laughing when I'm around—because I'm hopelessly in love with him and it's written on my face for everyone to see.

--

Professor McGonagall taps her quill impatiently on her desk, sighing. We've been waiting for James for the past ten minutes, and we can't have a Prefects' meeting without the Head Boy.

"I'll go look for him," I finally volunteer.

Professor McGonagall nods. "Thank you, Miss Evans."

I exit her classroom, knowing that James would never purposely skip a Prefects' meeting. He's never been very responsible, in my opinion, but even James has enough common sense to know that missing a Prefects' meeting is a bad idea.

When I don't see him in the common room, I go upstairs to his dormitory and knock on the door. He probably forgot and overslept of something. It is, after all, a Saturday morning.

I'm not prepared for what I see when the door opens. James is standing there in what I assume are his pajamas, unless he's in the process of getting dressed—green boxers with a diamond pattern, and nothing else. He has really lovely muscles from all those years of Quidditch, I notice. My brain shuts down.

"Nice boxers," I blurt out, then blush. Alice is going to die laughing when she hears about this. At least it's better than I like what's under your pants, but it's not much of an improvement. "Green's my favorite color."

James glances down and laughs. "Me, too."

I think I'm having a heart attack. I've always imagined that his Quidditch muscles would be nice, but I didn't expect this. His chest is perfectly carved and chiseled. All those workouts and practices have really paid off.

"Uhhh…" is all I can manage to get out. I clear my throat. "Sorry, I think my brain kind of shut down." I can hear Alice's voice in my head, yelling at me to shut up.

"Yeah, I seem to have that effect on girls," James jokes.

This time I can hear Sirius Black's voice in my head, adding, "And some boys."

But I guess it's not in my head; it's real, because Sirius comes out of the bathroom, his dark hair dripping with droplets of water.

James glares at him. "Save it for Remus."

In the past five minutes, I've found out far more about the Marauders than I've ever wanted. There's a tube of lubricant on Sirius's nightstand, and I really don't want to know what it's been used for. Dirty clothes are strewn all over the room. I look back at James to avoid seeing anything else I'd rather not see, which is a mistake, because my brain shuts down yet again.

"I'm going," says Sirius. He winks at me. "You two have fun."

James groans, and I can feel myself blushing profusely. For some reason, I remember that I'm wearing green underwear, and I'm so glad it's not me in his situation, as I would have probably died of embarrassment. It's even more awkward now that we're alone.

I try to talk, but it comes out as "Uhhh" again, so I cough to cover it up. The corners of James's mouth twitch. Alice will be so proud of me.

"Do you know why my favorite color is green?" asks James suddenly.

"Why?" I squeak out.

"Because it reminds me of your eyes."

"Funny, it's my favorite color because it reminds me of your boxers," I blurt out.

He looks at me and starts laughing, and I can't help joining in because I can't believe I just said that.

"Green underwear would probably bring out your eyes, too," James laughs. He takes a step closer.

And I summon all of my confidence and courage, and although I don't shove him up against the wall—sorry, Alice—I finally take initiative and kiss him.

He seems surprised at first, but the kiss deepens and grows more fervent and passionate. His arms are around me, and the feeling of his lips against mine is even lovelier than I'd imagined. I could get used to this.

We break apart, gasping for air, and his face reddens when he realizes that he's still only in his boxers. I remember what I'm here for.

"Um…we kind of have a Prefects' meeting right now..." I mumble.

"Yeah, I overslept; Professor McGonagall's going to kill me." James grabs a pair of pants off the floor, shoves his feet into a pair of shoes, and grinning at me, pulls the green shirt I was admiring just a few days ago over his hair. His hair is rumpled and messy, but he still looks adorable.

"She's going to wonder what we've got up to," I laugh.

He kisses me quickly on the lips once more, and laughing, we leave the dormitory together, fingers entwined.