“You lot are the biggest bunch of prats I have ever met,” Lily told them, but she still couldn’t stop smiling.
There were witnesses.
This was real.
He was hers.
And they were surrounded by their friends in the early hours of the morning, laughing as the boys hoisted James onto their shoulders and paraded him around and then subsequently dropped him, everyone catcalling them when he bundled her up into a hug and kissed the top of her head, the happiness that soaked into their every pore and emanated throughout the entire room, it was telling them that no, not everything would be perfect, it might not even be all right. But at least through whatever storm was sure to come, they would be together, Lily and James, every moment of it.
She was happy, happier than she could ever remember being in that pub as the sun rose over the hill.
And then Ellie walked down the stairs, took one look at James and Lily’s hands entertwined, and screamed, shattering the moment into a million pieces.
-Castle on the Hill, Chapter 24 (ao3)