Chapter 2
Days blended into weeks as time went on. James and Lily strengthened their relationship each passing day but it always felt like something was missing, at least to James it did.
Lily had started to open up again towards him. She told him the little thoughts on her mind, they were just as easy and smooth as they had been at the start. It helped that James knew she loved him, the beautiful stranger had seemed rather sure in his words and so he decided to take him for his word as he seemed like a person that wouldn't lie about something like that.
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Spinning Lily around as her hair blew in the breeze. Some of it catching in their faces but they didn’t mind. The air of flowers around them intoxicated their minds. Blue skies painted the scene with the freshness of nature. As they both laughed and giggled amongst themselves. They soon got dizzy enough to stop but that laughter stayed in their minds. It was a sweet moment to remember. The days of summer already fading away.
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They’re laying in the grass. It’s practically the season of fall. Summer's left them already. It’s been months since they’ve gotten to be the way they are now. Content. As content as they can be.
Lilys hair is splayed across the ground as they stare up into the sky. James’ glasses are slightly pressed too close to his face but he doesn’t mind, as they watch the clouds drift by up above. They can hear birds singing nearby, the rustle of the wind on their clothes. The slight wetness of the grass as it had rained a few days ago. It’s rather relaxing to them, which is why they’re doing this.
James is watching the sky when his mind presses the image of that stranger to his eyes. He blinks out of his daze, slightly confused. He tries pushing it away. The slightest voice proceeds to say “Regulus” naturally it startles him. Blinking furiously, he looks to where he heard that coming from. He finds his Lily staring at the sky, eyes dazed, lips parted slightly as if she’d just spoke. His mind replays the voice. He’s almost positive it was her.
“Lily?” he asks, confused. Somehow irrationally it feels as if she was reading his mind and that scared him a bit. He doesn’t know why she said that name or if he was just mistaking it and believes he heard his name just because the man was on his mind. He’s rather confused at the moment. Nerves slightly spiked up. He sits up to try to have better control of himself, and he can’t do that laying down, as his arms are holding him up. Head turned slightly downward to her.
“Yeah?” she replies eyes still in a sort of hazy daze as she continues to watch the drifting sky. “Did you say something?” James finds himself asking in a rather unsure way. The visible anxiety that he’s trying to mask clearly seen in him, in the way he’s holding himself too casually. Lilys eyes proceed to blink with a clarity blooming in them again as she gives a huh expression, turning her head to look at James, distantly her mind notices the way he appears to be acting. “What?” she says, as her eyes unfocus for a spilt second barely noticeable to someone who isn’t paying attention but James was, he’s always rather paying attention. Unfortunately having been able to spot that moment.
“Oh, yeah. I did. I said Regulus.” Now he is confused but finding himself slightly nervous as he still doesn’t quite yet know the reason for that. “Why?” he asks her back. She glanced away from him now to just continue staring at the sky. After a beat she answers him back.
“I miss him” is her response. James’ heart skips a beat at this but the good kind, a nervous kind because truly and honestly so does he. He didn’t spend as much time with him like Lily did admittedly but well he still misses him. As he thinks this, he realizes it and in a James like manner accepts it.
There’s a pause of silence at her answer, Lily goes back to as she was as he lays back down to do the same.
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Lily does really miss that beautiful stranger. Regulus. Regulus who had told her all that he could about her in that tiny moment in time, half that she does not remember because of her drunk addled mind does not know. It had made her slightly frustrated to find that she lost moments in her memory with him, but she knows better to just adore what she can remember. She senses James wants to know about him so she tells him. Giving James what Regulus does, what his brother does, the name of his brother and what he does. Moments that she recalls and can tell him with the utmost honesty. James is rather acting odd about him, Lily finds herself hoping that perhaps he likes him too. Maybe just maybe, a big maybe, James can love that pretty stranger like Lily thinks she might be finding herself doing.
She loves James a lot but it feels like to her that she could love Regulus too. Once she's done, she looks at James as she'd been doing, seeing him in thought. She seems him relax, coming to a conclusion about something. She finds out what when he says that he has his number. Her heart skips a beat at that honestly. James seems unsure if it would be wise to contact the guy. she doesn't know so she gives him a maybe, because if James really wants to she knows he will, she's not one to stop any sort of love from blooming in between others. She would rather like to see their love bloom, because she can feel it throughout her body that it would be a magnificent sort. A special love that doesn't come around very often, she's not saying she doesn't love James, she does very much, but she loves him enough to be okay with another in their life, seeing as she's very capable to love the pretty stranger as well.
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He's bored. Staring off into the words that he's read so many times by now that he can't see them anymore. He needs a break and he knows this and yet he doesn't want to. That'll give his mind free rein to think, and if he thinks, he'll think of them. Even though he's already thinking about them. There hasn't been a day where he hasn't, the couple that couldn't be more perfect for each other. He doesn't know them and yet it feels like he has known them his whole life.
Lily and James, he misses them. It feels to him as if he was destined to meet them. Everyday he tries to not mention them to Sirius. Whether it be in person or when they are texting. Who only met Lily but at least confirms that she was real. Sometimes it feels as if he's made them up. He's gone back to where they met a few times, hoping scarcely that she might appear. She hasn't. He pretends he isn't disappointed by that fact. Giving up on studying, he goes and gets ready. Some fresh air should do him some good. It's been months, they probably forgot about him anyways. He's not that special, at least to him, he doesn't think so.
As he's getting ready, flashes of the boyfriend go to his mind. At that his heart swoops, as it's been doing. James was undeniably attractive, but so was Lily. He just knows that they would be brilliant people to know and have. He has thought about contacting them but thinks that it would be weird, especially after so long. They'd think he was obsessed and well he is a bit. But he doesn't plan on doing anything except think about them. That way they'll exist in his memory until he forgets about them.
Regulus goes on his walk with nature as he allows the breeze to caress him.