AN: First chapter during the school year! Hope you enjoy it :)

Eventually work seemed to fill up most of James' and Alastair's time until James got a chance to spend an evening with Lily and Vincent.

Christina had gotten more involved with her writing and because of that, needed a babysitter for Vincent. James would have been an obvious and excellent choice if he wasn't so busy and unpredictable but over the years, Lily had slowly gained the trust in taking care of Vincent instead of some paid sitter. Besides, Vincent liked her better.

Now the three lounged in the main room of Lily's apartment as Vincent finished up homework and Lily and James chatted.

James had just finished briefly mentioning what he'd done for his and Alastair's tenth anniversary when Lily appeared over excited and asked, "Did you pop the question?"

"What question?" asked James, utterly confused.

"You know. The question. The only question that matters right now," Lily replied, eyes wide as it was obvious she was hoping to not be disappointed by whatever James said next.

"Uh, what's the meaning of life?"

"Forty-two!" Vincent shouted happily from where he was working which earned a laugh from James and an utterly infuriated groan from Lily.

"I feel like crying," Lily replied, making out a fake sob. "The question as in, will you marry me?!"

"Sorry, Lily. I'm strictly into guys."

"I wasn't asking you!"

"I know I know! I'm sorry!" James cried out as she hit him upside the head. "I was just trying to avoid the question."

"Like you were avoiding my punches? Which you are terrible at by the way."

"Well that probably would have just angered you more so I figured I might as well allow a couple of hits. Besides, your arms aren't that strong."

Lily raised her hand again to hit him but stopped just before impact as she growled out, "You're just trying to distract me again. And it's not going to work. Now, if it had been days, weeks, even months, I wouldn't push you so hard. I hope you know that James. But it has literally been years! Like I understand that there's plenty you have to do, your job being the biggest and most important one by far, and I also understand that it's not like you've sat around thinking about this twenty-four seven. But don't you think it's time you figure out if you really want to and then just make that leap?"

"Probably," muttered James as he rubbed his eyes. "It's just…technically it's still not legal and there's still the fact that Alastair hasn't seemed affected whenever I've mentioned it."

"Maybe so but it's Alastair. Either he's purposely seeming nonchalant because the idea of getting married freaks him out to or he simply doesn't realize that you actually want to get married," replied Lily. "Keep skirting around all this and you probably never will."

"As usual, you're right Lily," James said. "Though that doesn't mean I'll necessarily take your advice."

"I know. I'll just have to end up talking to Alastair at some point."

"Please don't do that! I'm being serious here Lily! Just…no matter how infuriating it may be, watching me dance around this…just let me be the one to actually talk to him about it. Okay?"

She let out a huff but eventually nodded her head in agreement as Vincent cried out, "I don't think I ever want to be an adult! They're to complicated."

"Well you're certainly not wrong," Lily replied with a tired laugh. "You done with your homework?"

"Yep!"

"Alright, if you wanna play a game, find one, or find something for us to watch. James and I will start getting dinner ready."

"Okay!" Vincent said excitedly as he jumped up and rushed around to see what options he had.

While he did so, James followed Lily into the kitchen and started getting the rather simple meal ready as he asked, "So what about you and the American? Hmm? You never really gave me a direct answer as to whatever the hell you two are. You're still in touch right?"

"Of course! I vacationed in America at her place only a month ago."

"Wait, seriously?! Why didn't you tell me? I'm your best friend. I thought best friends tell each other everything," James pouted.

"Well I'm sorry, alright? I honestly thought I had. Though now that I think about it I think you were away on one of those extremely long mission spy things you do. I do know I told Alastair so go yell at him for not telling you."

James rolled his eyes. "Really? I still don't quite understand how you and Alastair have gotten so buddy buddy. I mean, don't get me wrong. I love that you guys talk and what not. But it just seems…weird."

"Well if it makes you feel any better, it's less of a conversation and more of me using him as a sounding board," Lily said with a laugh. "He occasionally will speak up and ask something or comment, but mostly he just lets me talk about whatever I need to talk about when you're not around."

"I'm glad to hear it then. But you went to America, first time ever. What was it like?" asked James curiously.

"Oh I don't know. I'm sure you have much more interesting stories. You've probably been all over the world."

"Maybe so but I don't do it for sightseeing. So come on. I want words," James said as he snapped his fingers with an expecting look on his face. "You can't just leave me hanging."

"Well I mean…we went to some pretty interesting restaurants. We did a lot of walking through the downtown areas, going to shops and what not. But uh…we didn't see…well I didn't get to see that much of America per say," Lily finally got out as she rubbed the back of her neck. "We didn't really…get out much."

"Wait a minute! So you are together? Like together together? Seriously?!" asked James excitedly.

"I guess…"

"What do you mean you guess?"

"I just…I mean we are. It's just…odd saying it," Lily finally got out with a rather strained expression.

James gave a slow nod as he slowly took Lily and dragged her over to her counter sit down. "Alright, first question then. Are you happy?"

"Yes, there's no question about that," said Lily earnestly. "It's not the actual fact that we're specifically…an item so to speak. But like…what does that make me? Am I bi now? I don't really know but I know this isn't a phase because she's…well I'm pretty sure Susan is like…the one. Which is both exhilarating and terrifying."

"Alright, so you're having a sexuality crisis. No biggy."

"No biggy? You may have crawled out of the crib knowing exactly who you were without any doubts but that doesn't mean the rest of us have."

"I know that but you honestly are making this bigger than it needs to be. Maybe you are bi, maybe your demi, or perhaps you are hetero but just happened to fall for a woman this time. All you can do is play with the labels and take time to figure out yourself. Ultimately, you have the realize that the labels only really matter if you want them to though. Love is love and that's what's truly important."

"You should be an inspirational speaker."

"I'll think about it," James said with a light laugh as he hugged Lily tightly. "Just remember that it's okay. And I really am happy for you if you're right about Susan. She's seems extremely awesome."

"Thanks James," Lily said with a sigh as she hugged him back before releasing him and finally turning back to dinner. "With that in mind, dinner still needs to be finished."

"To true."

"And you still need to pop the question."

"Back to this? Seriously? I will, okay! I promise! And you will be the first to hear about it after it happens, okay?"

"You promise?" asked Lily.

James sighed but finally nodded. "I promise."