This was supposed to be for @jilyfest, as were the gifsets in my drafts, but I missed the deadline bc I’m terrible. thank u @ilremus for beta reading <3
Slightly inspired by Brooklyn, a film i’ll most likely never get over
in which Lily is a 1950s Irish girl who just moved to London on her own and meets a messy haired boy with a lot of hair gel during a dance organized by the local rugby club which he’s the captain of
‘There are some nice fellas, usually. All from the rubgy club. Same hair gel and sports jackets, the lot of them, but some are pretty good looking’.
Lily was with Mary, who worked with her at the diner. They were walking behind a huge group of 20-somethings just like them, all heading towards the same direction, all talking loudly, all dressed up. It was already dark outside, and quite cold; Lily had put her warmest coat on; part of her regretted that choice for it was old, faded and too big for her, but she couldn’t take it off, this bloody country was too cold. She was the only one though.
‘I certainly hope so. I don’t really fancy spending the whole night sitting down with you’, Lily playfully replied, elbowing her friend.
Mary giggled.
‘You won’t have to, for I am quite the star around here, I’ll have you know’.
They entered the place and Lily instantly smiled because it was warm and cheerful. Jazz was playing and there were flowery dresses everywhere. Most rugby club boys stayed together, like little herds of cologne and forest green jackets, talking loudly, beers in hand.
One group stood out though; and she took more time to look at them while Mary was gone to get them drinks. Four boys, laughing really hard at the story one of them was telling, very different in appearance, attitude, style and yet they made quite the picture. The storyteller was the tallest one, he was lanky, and kept moving while talking, he was expressive, charismatic, and it was just hard to look away from him. He was the only one who was wearing the rugby jacket, and Lily thought he sort of lacked the shoulders of a rugby player; but she was even more surprised when after looking more closely, she noticed a golden Captain badge on his chest. He had an impressive amount of hair gel on, but it didn’t prevent rebel curly strands from sticking out. He was wearing a nice model of glasses that a month salary at the diner probably couldn’t afford, and though it was an unconventional kind of charm, he was handsome. She stopped looking when Mary came back and she realised that she hadn’t found a table for them like she had promised; she quickly looked around, and obviously, the only table left was right next to the four boys. She sighed and rushed towards it before Mary could see her, and waved at her friend once she was sat.
“I got you lemonade”, said Mary, who looked very excited.
“You didn’t get anything?”
“No, I’m waiting for Charlie Atkins to offer me something. He’s the blue-eyed one over there. Been staring at me for 10 minutes.”
“You’re just gonna leave me here on my own? What are friends for?”
“You’ll get asked to dance! Probably before me, by the looks of it.”
“What looks are we talking about?”
“Mister Glasses, your ten o’clock.”
Lily’s heart missed a beat as she thought about Handsome Captain and looked up towards him, but Mary was talking about a short, big bellied boy with huge round glasses who was timidly staring at her.
“Ahhh, but Miss Evans already had her eyes on another Glasses!” said Mary with raised eyebrows and interested eyes after noticing Lily’s quick glare. “Oooooh, Captain....”
She had a mocking, flirty tone and Lily smiled but still elbowed her. However, her eyes found Handsome Captain’s two seconds later, for he was staring at them with surprise and the hugest smirk she had ever seen. Her skin turned as red as her hair as she mentally murdered Mary.
***
“James? James?”
“He’s not listening, Peter, he’s too busy silently flirting with Redhead over there, and failing, might I add”, said Sirius.
James didn’t respond, for he was indeed winking at Redhead-over-there, not paying attention at all, and didn’t even react when they all laughed at him.
“Shall we get some more drinks, lads?” suggested Remus with a knowing smile.
“We shall, Remus”, Sirius replied, taking Peter by the shoulder and heading towards the bar.
***
Charlie Atkins did work up the courage to ask Mary to dance, in the end, and the latter stood up happily, taking his hand and winking at Lily as she left. Lily had a feeling she was probably gonna cry at any given moment now, because Handsome Captain was handsome, and she was not good at this, and she felt stupid sitting alone, and stop winking, for God’s sake!
***
James only noticed that his friends were gone about thirty seconds later, after seeing Brunette Flirt leaving Cute Redhead alone, and decided that he wouldn’t have an opportunity like this before a few decades or something, so he walked up to the girl and sat across from her.
“Hello.”
“Hello.”
“Accent.”
“Irish.”
“I love Irish girls - I mean, Ireland! Beautiful country! Great countryside. Very green.”
The girl raised her eyebrows but she was smiling. That was a good sign, right?
“My name is Lily.”
“That’s beautiful. I like this name. Love it. It sounds… vivid...”
He had giggled after saying it because it sounded stupid and he didn’t want her to think he was stupid. He wasn’t. The giggle made it sound like he had said that on purpose, right? I’m not a fool, I swear, he wanted to say.
She laughed with surprise. And nervousness. Or something. That was a good sign, right? That she was nervous? He loved her smile. And her hair. Her eyes were quite nice, too.
They didn’t say anything for a while.
“And your name, Captain?” she finally asked.
“Oh, yeah, right, um, (he looked at his captain badge), James. Potter. James Potter.”
“Alright. Do you know how to dance, James Potter?”
She said Potter with her cute Irish accent, and the sweetest hard ‘r’. Sounded nice.
“Errr…”
He actually didn’t know how to dance, at all, and that was why he hadn’t asked. Sirius, with his stupid aristocrat ballroom training, loved mocking him about it. You have three left feet, James, I don’t understand how you can run through a whole field with that stupid ball in your hands without falling on your face. But running was easy. It didn’t involve another person’s feet or hands - the last time he had tried to dance, it was with his cousin Sally from Brighton, at his aunt Susan from Birmingham’s wedding, and he had ruined her brand new shoes. Which she hadn’t been happy about. He was 9. But Redhead - Lily - was… probably the only thing he’d dance for. Or try to. But she’d laugh at him. Wouldn’t she?
“I’m more of a sit-back-and-watch-people-trip type.”
“What am I hearing? Mister Captain of the royal rugby team is secretly a terrible dancer?”
That smile.
“I’m actually spectacular at dancing. I just don’t want my teammates to look bad next to me”.
“I’m sure”, she said. Contagious smile striked again.
They just looked at each other for a while, and then cracked up laughing at their own awkwardness, so hard they almost cried.
“We can dance here then”, she said, after they had managed to stop.
The table was in a corner, where no one would really notice them.
“We could.”
He was just watching her and answering whatever at this point.
She stood up and smoothed up her skirt.
“Come on!” she whispered.
He did. Offered her his hand, too.
“If I dance”, he started as she took his hand timidly, “can I walk you home? Later?” She looked up towards him. “Just walk you home,” he quickly added.
She blushed. Laughed again. That had to be illegal, he thought.
“Maybe”.
***
“Sirius. Sirius! Look!”
Remus tapped his friend’s shoulder, the latter turned around, and almost spilled his drink.
“I can’t believe my eyes, which is significant because I’m awfully intuitive and insightful”, Sirius whispered.
“What?” said Colin, one of Remus’ friends who had joined them at the bar.
“If she’s getting him to dance, they’re as good as married”
for the name playlist: well i just changed my name to vee and it's not the best name for these things so :') either my birth name sophie or my url ilremus? thank you:)
