Chapter 2
"So.. you're into him?"
James had indeed gone to the shop. He sat on the run-down brown leather couch as Lily tattooed. The person being tattooed was older, but not by much. Francis? Fran? Whatever their name was, was reading.
(nonbinary frank fr)
"No! He's a total prick, and I barely know him."
"Just because he sucks doesn't mean you don't want to lick the sweat from behind his ears," Lily said this with a shrug. James sputtered and even Fred looked up surprised.
"Lily what the actual fuck-" he had yet to regain his composure. "I absolutely do not want to lick the sweat from behind his ears. Who even does that? Do I need to be concerned for Mary?" Lily chuckled. She and Mary had been together since high school, and that's not even counting the years of mutual pinning before they confessed. Luckily for James Lily did not answer that last question, instead, she said-
"Yea whatever you say, Jamie." Thankfully they steered the conversation away from 'mystery man' enough for the buzz in James' stomach to settle. Harry had just started preschool. His moms had been a nervous wreck about this, but after meeting his teacher their concerns were eased greatly. Mr. Lupin, Remus, was very good at what he does. Harry had clicked with him immediately, as did Lily for that matter. Lily was gushing about him ' he has such good taste in books', 'turns out he's really funny', 'he's such a sweetheart'. If Lily wasn't so incredibly gay and head over heels in love with her girlfriend, James would think she was crushing on him. He was incredibly intrigued, anyone that Lily Evans liked this much must be a god.
Speaking of people Lily likes overcame Mary. She tugged on Lily' hairtie, releasing the carefully contained waterfall of bright orange hair. As she ran her fingers through her girlfriends hair she said-
"Are you talking about my competition? He's giving me a run for my money I swear."
"He may be brilliant but he's no you." Lily leaned into her touch, voice soft and so very honest. Mary bent over slightly to press a gentle kiss to her lovers head. She kissed her like a promise, so tender and full of affection. They loved like a summer day, warm and beautiful and just so so safe. This brought a smile on James' face just to witness this kind of fondness.
Mary did not take her hands out of Lily' hair as she asked "So how's it going with lover boy?"
James groaned "He's not my lover boy! He's just someone I happen to go to the same rink as." Even though it was completely accurate it felt like a lie. James really didn't like the implications of that.
"Mhm, oh by the way tomorrow we're inviting some people over to our place, you should come. Who knows, maybe you can bring y'know who."
James rolled his eyes. "Shove off." The couple laughed. Mary dragged herself away from Lily, crashing on the couch with James they all settled into comfortable conversation, Francene included. By the time the tattoo concluded it was dark. While James was tempted to sleep on the couch he headed home.
The walk was short, but long enough for James to lose all feeling in his hands due to the cold weather. He struggled to jam his keys into the door of his apartment. The keys jangled as he dropped them on the kitchen island. He hated this part of the day. It was just so quiet here, he was all alone. Turning on the TV to drown out the deafening silence he took off his shoes. He flipped through countless cooking channels and nature documenteies trying to fill the hollow pit in his stomach, but nothing entertained him. Nothing did it's job. James only had the company of tears weighing heavy in his eyes and NCIS reruns to hold him as he gave into his body's exhaustion.
A/N: sorry this chapter is so short, I'm exhausted. also def projecting with james here lol. Next chapter will hopefully be longer. I can't tell if I want this fic to be a bit angsty, it will have a happy ending for sure but maybe I could sprinkle a bit of misery in there, what do yall think? On a completely unrelated not I was blasting rainbow kitten surprise while writing this so that's nice. hope yall enjoyed, lmk what u think!! <33333