The Girl with the Emerald Eyes [Jily]

Chapter 13- IOU

Lily blinked. What did James just say?

"Did he ask me to be his girlfriend? Or was I just imagining it? Oh Lily, why can't you focus just for one minute!" She shouted mentally, inwardly cursing herself for not listening. "I'll just say 'yes' and see how things go."

"Um," she bit her lip unsurely, "Sure?"

James' jaw slacked, and he blinked like a deer in the headlights. "Wha-what did you just say? Could you s-say it ag-gain?"

"You know perfectly well what I said, James. Otherwise you wouldn't be looking like a fish out of water right now, would you?" Lily teased, and winked before skipping off.

Just as Lily went out of view, James called at the top of his lungs for his best friends. "Marauders Assemble!!!"

After a few minutes, his friends appeared, and James was jumping up and down on his toes.

"You would never guess what happened!!!!" James squealed ecstatically.

The rest of the boys just looked at each other with eyebrows raised. Deciding to humor him, Sirius muttered, "You got smashed by a giant."

"Guess again!"

"Just tell us!" Remus cried angrily.

"No. You have to guess."

A collective groan from the boys.

"Fine! I'll tell you!" James gave in after seeing his friends' exasperated looks. "Someone agreed to be my girlfriend!!"

"Three guesses who!" Sirius called sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Hm, no you dimwits! It's-"

"Lily! We know!" Remus practically screamed.

"You guys knew? Then why didn't you say so?" He squeaked, his words slurred with the 12 shots of fire whiskey.

Cue another groan from the boys.

"Jamsie, honestly, you should go get some time alone. I swear, if someone talks to you, you might explode." Sirius rolled his eyes and wrapped an arm under James' armpit.

"Mhm. Did Lily really say yes?" Peter asked innocently, and James shot an icy glare at him.

"Oi, quit buggering me, Pete. You know just as well as I do that you were stalking me and recorded this all on video so that at our wedding you can laugh at my foolishness." James snorted.

Remus blinked, "How did you know?"

The quartette giggled together, and for once, it felt like the old times. Like the times before the war.

--

James opened his eyes to a massive headache. He groaned and rubbed his temples, as if it might relieve some of the pain. He spotted Remus reading in the corner of their dormitory, and he frowned at him.

"Why didn't you stop me from drinking so much?" He screamed at the reading boy, causing Remus to drop his book.

"Dang, Mr. Crabby, I tried but you refused to heed my advice." Remus awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Speaking of which, do you remember anything from yesterday?"

James racked his mind for the slightest image. "Nah. Wait, did Lily ask me out, or was that just a dream?"

"Aww, James can't even remember when he asked out his girlfriend." A singsongy voice came from his left side.

Shifting his eyes on the red head sitting on a chair next to his bead, he ruffled his hair and shot a winning smile at her. She rubbed small circles into the back of his hand, and some of his headache faded away.

"Oh yeah, Dumbledore canceled class today, because everyone was so tired from last night."

"Your bloody boyfriend is sitting in a bed with a bleeding headache and all you're thinking about is school?" James put on a fake hurt face. "I can't believe you, Lils. I thought you were the one!"

Lily rose her eyebrow. "Oh really, Potter?" She brushed some of his loose strands of hair away from James' face. "I thought so too."

They were nose to nose now, and James could barely resist pulling her closer for a kiss.

"Not today, mister. You need to rest up." Lily muttered, and he could feel her lips tickling his cheek.

"Gosh dang it woman! Don't tease me like that!" James thought to himself, but broke into a cheesy grin.

"You won't get a kiss until you are well enough to stand up." Lily said as she skipped out of the room, laughing to herself.

"Well, you certainly got yourself quite a catch." Sirius muttered from under his blankets.

"Ugh, well can you tell her to come back! My headache left when she was gone, and I want her to come back!" James shrieked, desperate for Lily's warm hand in his.

Not missing a beat, Lily's voice reached James' ears.

"Did you call, lovely?" Lily chirped from the stair well.

James' cheeks reddened as Lily smirked at him.

Noticing his sickened face, her grin faltered and she put her hand on his forehead.

"A-are you sick, James?" Concern washed though her voice as she felt his hot forehead.

"Nah," he coughed, "I'm just-"

Another round of coughing. Lily's eyebrows knit together and she sat down at the seat next to his bed.

"Get some rest, James." She started rubbing his palm and James immediately melted into her touch.

His eyes eventually slipped closed, and the world blurred out of focus and turned to black.

"If it makes you sleep better, I promise to kiss you when you get better."

"Write it down." He croaked, "So I know I didn't dream it."

"Fine."

James heard the scratching of quill on paper, and felt a parchment get tucked into his palm.

"I owe you one, Potter."

After she thought James was asleep, Lily kissed his forehead.

Of course, James wasn't asleep. He felt the kiss and grinned blind-sightedly up at Lily before falling asleep for real.