Of Everything being Exceptionally Ordinary
Lily was lying on her back under their tree when Severus arrived. The clear blue sky was reflected in her bright green eyes; she didn't blink.
"Hey," she said, without moving. "How does it all look?"
Severus glanced back at the redbrick estate, all straight lines and grubby backyards, and wrinkled his nose. "Exceptionally ordinary," he confirmed. "Nothing fantastical to report."
Lily almost sighed. "A shame," she murmured.
"Perhaps. Yet also a relief," Severus decided. "Is that my shirt?'
Lily finally blinked, and glanced down at herself. The black button-up shirt was stitched with silver thread, and she was wearing it open over a grey crop-top. "Oh," she said. "Do you know, I think it might be." She smiled faintly. "I guess all the oddly elvish singing was cathartic. Clearly my subconscious has forgiven you and selected your shirt as a peace offering."
"And has your… conscious… forgiven me?"
"You're forgiven, but it's not forgotten," she said mildly. "How was home?"
"I got a bollocking for being out all night and then the Spanish Inquisition from mum," Severus reported, flopping down beside her. "She wasn't impressed that I couldn't explain how I'd come to be out all night, or what I was doing for all those hours. But dad was hungover, so nothing of note." By this, he meant - and Lily knew it - that he had no injuries. "You?"
Lily tipped her hand from side to side. "So-so. Mum went mad and Tuney stirred. Dad told them both to leave me alone but then pulled me to one side for a chat about safety. It was mortifying." She pulled a face and after a beat of confusion, Severus caught on and laughed, flopping down beside her.
"Yeah, I'm not sure they'd have accepted the singing explanation."
"'Oh, is that the slang these days?'" Lily said in a fair approximation of her father, adding quote marks in the air with her fingers.
Severus snorted, and the two of them laughed long and hard, feeling their spirits lightening by the moment. Finally, he wiped his eyes and sat up.
"You could just tell them you're ace," he pointed out. Lily smiled gratefully at him, and he continued, "It would save the embarrassment. 'Hey dad, I don't need the sex talk because I think sex is disgusting and I'm not interested in trying it.'"
Lily stopped smiling and punched him in the arm half-heartedly. "Asexual doesn't automatically equal sex repulsed," she scolded, but the twinkle in his eye told her that he already knew that, and she rolled her eyes fondly before considering his words. "I know," she murmured. "And with magic, it's not like my life will be massively impacted. But I live away, and they barely know me. I don't really want to share this part of myself with them."
Severus considered her for a moment from under his dark hair. "That makes sense," he said finally.
"The people who are important to me know. Nobody else needs to," she said firmly.
He reached for her hand, and twined his fingers with hers. He relished their closeness; back to how it had been before he let that word slip from his lips. He silently vowed to stay away from those who had made that word part of his vocabulary.
For Lily.