sent by @mugglebcrns
Number 31: An Exercise in Restraint (You Tease Me)
Some people would’ve said that Lily hated James in school, but they would’ve been wrong. Unless it came to her friend, Severus Snape, or the occasional annoyance when James was clearly trying too hard to be something he wasn’t or when Lily went off on a tangent about why she was right, they got along quite well.
In fact, James found himself sliding up to tease her more than flirt with her (though, admittedly, those were sometimes the same things). He poked fun at her potion-brewing hand until she shot back that his grade was tanking while hers was sailing and he grinned - it was fun. Perhaps sometimes it seemed a bit too far (maybe she took it as because she was a muggleborn, James wouldn’t know), but for the most part, they could laugh together. It was the way to James’ heart, that tinkling giggle - the moment of proud that he made it happen!
When they started dating, he began to tease her in other ways - sometimes with his lips, sometimes with his words. And they slipped into the ease of a relationship that only people who have been together for years can have. If there’s one thing he misses the most about not having actual time to spend together, it’s the laughing. She’s always been so much fun. Where did that go?
