Sometime in August, 1978
James lay on the picnic blanket he’d set up on the grass outside the Potter Manor, with Lily resting her head on his chest. James hadn’t noticed but Lily’s breath had begun to rise and fall in sync with his. Neither had said anything for a while; instead they were just soaking up the feeling of being with each other in such a peaceful moment.
Suddenly, James broke the silence. “Lils?” he asked. Lily tilted her head so that it was facing the sky, rather than buried in his t-shirt. “When did you realise you had feelings for me?”
“Are you asking about when I first realised I fancied you or when I first realised I loved you?” Lily asked.
“Both,” James replied.
Lily took a deep breath and looked back on her memories.
“Well, the first time I think I knew I fancied you was two summers ago, when you sent me that letter telling me you were sorry for being such an arse and all.” She smiled at the memory. “Christ, I must have written about a thousand replies.”
James furrowed his brow. “You never sent anything back though.”
“No, I didn’t,” Lily said. “I think I was too scared about what I was feeling.”
James smiled softly. “And the first time you realised you loved me?”
Lily let out a breathy laugh. “Your birthday in sixth year,” she answered. “You and Sirius were absolutely pissed and standing on a table, singing that one Queen song ― Somebody To Love, I think ― and I just remember how it felt like you were the only person in the world to me.”
Lily sighed sweetly then added, “Sorry, I’m such a sop. What about you?”
“Well, the first time I think I ever acknowledged that I had some sort of feelings for you was in fifth year, when you pulled that polyjuice prank on me.” He took a pause. “However, I think a small part of me has been in love with you since I met you on the train when we were eleven.” James lifted and bent his neck to kiss the top of Lily’s head.
“Never mind what I said before, you’re the soppy one here,” Lily laughed.
“Y’know, I no longer even feel the need to deny it,” James replied with a chuckle.
He sat upright, causing Lily to move off him and the both of them began to stand up. James held out his hand for the girl.
“May I have this dance?” he asked, putting on an extra posh accent.
“There’s not even any music,” Lily pointed out, cocking an eyebrow at him.
“We’ll make our own then!” James replied, putting one hand around Lily’s waist and the other clasping her hand. “Quick, who’s your favourite muggle band?”
“Uh, The Beatles,” Lily replied, putting her free hand on his shoulder.
James began humming the only Beatles song he could remember; Here Comes The Sun. The two of them were swaying to his hums, although those slowly turned into James singing the lyrics and only humming the music parts with a love-drunk grin on his face.
“Little darlin', it's been a long, cold, lonely winter. Little darlin', it feels like years since it's been here,” he sang. Lily noticed that he was somewhat off-key but didn’t bother saying anything seeing as it would just ruin what was felt to be a perfect moment.
As James got more into the song, he spun Lily around ― though he made her spin him around after too ― which made her giggle and smile so big that she almost thought her face was going to be permanently stuck like that.
“C’mon, sing it, Evans!” James shouted.
“Sun, sun, sun, here it comes,” she sang, though it didn’t sound too much like singing through her fit of laughter that happened after she sang the first word.
They kept on dancing to their own singing until they got to the end. When it was finally over, James rested his forehead against Lily's, allowing their noses to bump into each other’s.
“Marry me,” he whispered.
“What?” she asked. She had to make sure she’d heard him right.
“Marry me,” he repeated.
Lily pulled her head away from his. “James, we’re only eighteen…”
“So? We’re in love. It doesn’t matter how old we are.”
Lily thought about it. She didn’t realise she’d been taking so long to answer until she felt James’ smile fade away. She opened her mouth to answer but no words came out until she looked into his sparkling eyes. Oh, how his eyes lit up when he looked at her. She’d expected her’s did the same. How could she say no to him?
“Alright,” she eventually told him.
“Alright?” James asked. Now it was his turn to make sure he’d heard her properly.
“Yes,” she clarified. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
James brought his hand up to cup her face and pulled her into a soft kiss, though he pulled away very quickly. “Shit, I don’t have a ring.”
“That’s fine, James, I don’t―”
“No, you are getting a ring. I am getting you a ring. Just… not right this second,” he said with a laugh, right before Lily pulled him into another kiss.
James brought his forehead up to rest against Lily’s again, sighing and smiling.
“We are a little young for marriage, aren’t we?” he added.
Lily giggled. “Quite. But like you said, we’re in love, so does it really matter?”
“No, it doesn’t,” James finally decided. “Because I would follow you anywhere, Evans. You’re the only one I can see myself growing old with and I want to marry you more than anything. Doesn’t even have to be some big, fancy wedding. It can just be us.”
Lily smiled at him. “You want to grow old with me, huh? So you’ll still love me even when my hair’s gone white and my skin is all wrinkled?” she joked.
“Lily, I’ll love you until I’m dead,” James replied. “Even then I think my skeleton would still be in love with you.”
“Well, then, we’ll have to make sure we get buried next to each other. Wouldn’t want to leave your skeleton lonely,” Lily laughed. “Christ, when did this conversation get so dark? Are we really planning our deaths before our wedding?”
“Nah,” James replied. “We won’t have to worry about dying any time soon. We still have grandkids to watch grow up from the porch swing.”
Lily smiled sweetly. “And watch them we shall,” she said, placing a soft and quick kiss to James’ lips as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.