Hey, guys! Thank you all so much for the reviews, please keep it up! Could I ask you guys to spread my story a little bit? I love you all, and I'd love some fresh new voices to tell me what I can fix, too. Can we make a deal? If I get 50 followers by next time, I'll give you two chapters instead of one. I know that's a bit ambitious, but I'd really like it. It's less than fifteen new folks, yeah? If you all tell your cousin about it or whatever, that's exceeding my goal by almost five times! Please help me spread my story! Thank you all so much for your kind reviews, they've really helped me stay strong lately.
I'm packing in an extra surprise in this chapter. Please tell me what you think! Enjoy!
As it turned out, James was as masterfully efficient at decorating the Christmas tree as he claimed. He took the ornaments Lily handed him and placed them in a spot he thought they would catch the light, where there were no similarly pigmented ornaments, or any other number of reasons he explained cheerily to Lily as he placed a golden lion ornament on the tree.
"See, Lil? The light catches the lion here and it looks like it's roaring! Isn't that neat?"
"Usually, James, I just put the ornaments on the tree without too much thought."
"Then you're missing the true meaning of Christmas!"
"What does an aesthetically pleasing Christmas tree have to do with peace and goodwill?"
"Well, it creates a lot more peace and goodwill than the two of them do," Mr. Evans cut in, nodding over to the sofa, where Petunia and Vernon were wrapped around each other and filling the living room with disgusting slurping noises.
Sirius wrinkled his nose in distaste. "I think I'm gonna be sick," he said, clutching his stomach dramatically and falling onto an overstuffed armchair.
James stood on his tiptoes to exile a homemade ornament of Vernon and Petunia to the far back of the tree, where there would be no danger of seeing it. "It is rather repulsive. Aren't you glad we save that for other places, Lil?" he said, wiggling his suggestively.
Mr. Evans and Sirius mock gagged. "James, my dear boy, as much as I like you, my appreciation of you does not extend to hearing of your and my daughter's romantic endeavors. I got far too much of that from-"
"Okay! This is not the time, Dad!" Lily cut in, blushing furiously.
James turned to Lily, eyebrows raised. "More clues about Lily Evans's mysterious life of crime! I must say, I am quite intrigued. Do continue, Mr. Evans."
Lily's father laughed. "She'll tell you in her own sweet time, James."
"I guess I'll have to convince her in other ways!"
He pounced from his spot by the tree and pushed Lily down on the couch. He began to mercilessly tickle her sides, saying, "Tell me about your ominously unknown life on the dark side!"
Lily squealed beneath him, shaking with laughter. "You'll never get it from me!"
"Um, could you two not be disgusting and couple-y in the middle of the living room?"
James and Lily looked at each other, then over at the couch where Petunia and Vernon were staring at them disdainfully. Choking back laughter, James propped himself up on his elbows and said, "I'm sorry, we're just trying to have a bit of fun to drown out what sounds like the nightly jackal feeding over there."
James could feel Lily shaking with laughter beneath him, and he turned to look into her sparkling green eyes, alight with happiness. He wondered how she would react if he kissed her right now.
"Excuse me-" Petunia began to complain.
"Right!" Mr. Evans broke in. "Why don't we watch a Christmas movie or something? Someone pick! We have everything! Frosty, Rudolph, the Little Drummer Boy-"
"Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey!" James called out, flopping down so his head was on Lily's lap. "That's my favorite."
"Sirius, m'boy, they're in the upper shelf. Would you do an old cripple a favor and get it for me?"
Laughing heartily, Sirius rocketed from his position in the armchair to find the DVD in the shelf above the couch where Vernon and Petunia were curled. Without sparing the two a glance, he unceremoniously climbed on top of Vernon, ignoring his indignant cries and Petunia's snidely disgusted comments on his argyle socks. Stepping on Vernon as much as possible, Sirius rummaged about the shelf looking for the video.
"Where is it, Mr. Evans? I can't seem to find it- oh, did I knock The Year Without A Santa Claus on your head? I would apologize, but the purple of your face really makes it worth it, it's quite a magnificent shade- ah, here it is!"
Climbing down from his perch on Vernon's torso, Sirius brandished the disc proudly. He popped it into the player and the family settled down to watch the movie.
XXXX
"Lily, Petunia, my dearest flowers, as much as I love spending time with you, your old man gets more and more tired every day. I'm turning in early. Sirius, you're the responsible chaperone."
James snorted. "Sirius, the responsible one? I hardly think-"
Mr. Evan's booming laugh filled the room. "I knew you were like me, boy," he said, clapping Sirius's shoulder. "Keep these young things in check." He rolled out of the living room and down the down the hallway to his bedroom.
"Actually, we'll be turning in for the night as well," Petunia said, nudging Vernon to wake him. "Wha- of course, dear. Have a lovely sleep."
"No, you'll have a better one."
"You say goodnight first."
"No, you."
"No-"
"Oh, get on with it, will you?" James said irritatedly. Sending a disgusted look his way, Petunia proceeded to give Vernon a long and lingering kiss (cueing Sirius's retching noises) and threaded her way around the ornament boxes and out of the room, shooting Lily an angry look as she exited. Vernon heaved himself up and proceeded up the stairs to the guest room, panting all the way. Sirius pointed finger guns at Lily and James and stood from his perch on the arm of the couch.
"Not that I don't respect your father in every way, but since you two aren't actually dating, I feel no guilt in leaving to go to bed. Being annoying can really tire a man out. Where's my humble cot, Lily-flower?"
"Up in the garret, Sirius. Have a lovely night."
James waited until he heard Sirius's thumping steps on the staircase, then shifted on the couch so his head was beside Lily's. "So, what do you guys usually do for Christmas?"
Lily exhaled. "That's a bit of a complicated question."
"Why? Traditions are traditions. They don't really change from year to year."
"The thing is, this is our first Christmas without Mum."
Oh, shit.
"Oh my god, Lily, I am so sorry, I completely forgot, that was so insensitive, please understand I didn't mean to-"
Lily reached over and covered James's mouth. "It's alright, James, it must be hard to remember our house wasn't always like this."
James moved her hand aside. "No, it's not okay, it's completely-"
"It's fine. We're trying to ditch some of the old traditions that remind us too much of Mum and make some new ones. We decided that would be less painful."
"Petunia didn't like that, did she? That's why she was so hung up on this being a straight-up family Christmas. That's why she was so hostile towards you today."
"There are a lot of reasons why Petunia was hostile today."
"Care to share?"
"Well, you obviously know that she's pissed that I got a full ride to the University, and that I wasted part of it on Music."
"Yeah."
"Well, she also kind of blames me for taking Mum away."
"That's completely ridiculous. Don't listen to her-"
"The thing is, she kind of has a point."
"What? That's completely ridiculous! It was a car accident, you had nothing to do with it-"
"She was driving to pick me up. It was after, the, um, thing with Sev last year, right? Petunia's always hated Sev- we were best friends growing up, and I guess she was jealous of his brains, or she thought he was taking me away from her, or something- but she thinks that if I was never friends with Sev, I wouldn't have come home early from Uni last year, and Mum wouldn't have come to pick me up at Exeter station and been broadsided by Edward."
"That's completely ridi- wait, who's Edward?"
"He's the driver who lost control of his brakes. Dad thinks the road to acceptance is forgiveness, so he comes round for dinner about once a month."
"Your dad is metal as hell."
Lily settled into the couch next to him. "Yeah, he kind of is." She froze, and a smile began to curl at her mouth. "Hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"That." She paused, and James could faintly hear creaking on the stairs. "It's Petunia. She wants to see if we're really dating."
James smiled and flipped over so he was laying on top of Lily. "Let's give her a bit of a show, then, eh?"
He leaned down and heard her inhale sharply. Gently pressing his lips to hers, he cautiously kissed her, taking in her intoxicating scent and sweet, smooth mouth. To his surprise, she responded in kind, moving her hands behind his neck, leaving her fingertips open to play with his hair. He moved off her lips to place gentle kisses of her neck, cheek, and collarbone. He heard her gasp and-
"What is going on here?!" came angry hiss from the doorway. "Dad specifically told you two to stay in check! Where is that ragamuffin, he was supposed to chaperone-"
James smiled against Lily's shoulder. He propped his chin up, grinning cheerily at the housecoated figure in the doorway. "It wasn't hard to convince him to leave. Nice hair curlers, by the way."
Petunia huffed indignantly and turned on her heel, no doubt angry that she was proven wrong about her theory that he and Lily weren't actually dating. James once again looked down at Lily and found her smiling and biting on her lip.
Is she smiling because we kissed or because we just tricked Petunia?
"Man, we got her," Lily said, chest heaving with laughter. James felt his heart once again drop. That's what she was smiling about. Right.
Does she really feel nothing for me?
Lily froze. "What's wrong?"
James tried to rearrange his face into a more amiable expression. "Nothing. We should be heading up."
She looked at him curiously. "Alright. Good night, James," she whispered, squeezing his hand.
"Good night."
XXXX
She was asleep, Alan saw.
They were so close to finishing King Arthur - so close to finding the final fate of Lancelot and Guinevere and Arthur and Gawain and all the people who made Marlene's eyes light up and a spring in her step and a happy sigh at the end of her sentences. His hands lingered on her thumbs, where they had come to rest without him noticing, automatically stroking the hands that seemed to be made to fit his.
He lifted the book from where it rested on her stomach, rising and falling with every breath she took. He carefully marked her place - not looking at the words on the pages, no matter how much he wanted to know what happened. Marlene had made him promise not to read ahead after he had stolen the book in the confusion of Lily's departure, and he intended to keep that promise - he wanted to finish it together, like they had done with so many books over the years. He sat the book aside, and leaned back against the wall. Frank wouldn't be back, he and Alice had went back to Augusta's for Christmas. And he really was too tired to walk Marlene back to Kellynch. So Marlene could crash here, it wouldn't have been the first time.
He stretched to reach the quilt off his bed, trying not to disturb Marlene's peaceful slumber. He draped the blanket over her and leaned down to kiss her lightly on the forehead.
"I love you, Marlene."
She snuggled closer to his chest. "Love you too, Alan."
He froze for a moment. Beneath him, Marlene's eyes snapped open, as if she had just realized the enormity of what she said.
"Oh, buggering-" Alan began to swear, standing up and upending Marlene from her position on his lap.
Marlene began to laugh. "That's not the way I would have chosen to tell you, but-"
Alan's eyes began to widen. "You meant it, then?"
Marlene laughed, putting her arms around his shoulders. "Of course I meant it, you ridiculous man. I've been trying to tell you for days now, but you've been burying yourself in that wretched lab of yours, so the only lady getting your attention is that blasted robot."
"You always have my attention, Marlene. Everywhere you go, you're the most important thing."
Marlene laughed, her golden hair swinging as she stood up to open the window. "I know."
Alan stood up next to her, placing his hands at her hips and rotating her from the window to face him. "It's always been you, you know."
"Ever since grade school. The first day you fired that bloody egg cannon on my desk, I knew."
"I've always been a bit of an engineer. I knew when you didn't try to clear the yolk off and helped me get a better trajectory to hit Frank that we were meant to be."
She smiled up at Alan. "What a pair we make."
"What a pair we should have made earlier," he said, pushing a stray curl from her face. He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers, and all seemed right with the world.