carus - part 5
A/N: TADAAAA. It is here, it is over 5k, and I hope very much it fulfills others aside from me because I love this fic (*Cries*) thank you @fightfortherightsofhouseelves @shining-jul-of-hope and @inakindofdaydream for reading and giving me feedback ahh you’re the best.
I have to say this fic is for @petals-to-fish as much as myself <3 from gryffy to petals.
FF and Ao3
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Morning breaks and Lily rises with the brightening sun, its rays warm and enticing as they slide over the crashing waves of the sea. James resists her movements in his sleep, arm tightening around her middle before she’s finally able to slip free. He recovers easily enough from her departure, dropping onto his back and tossing one arm overhead, still welcomed into slumber’s embrace.
He really does make her too poetic, Lily muses as she picks her way across the room, searching their strewn garments until she settles on his shirt and slides it over her arms.
James’ musky scent surrounds her as she peruses the room, fully taking in the overdone, gilded decor that is exactly what she’d expect when Sirius acts as travel organizer. She catches a glimpse of herself in a wide mirror rimmed in gold and finds her skin a bit more rosy than usual, her eyes wide and bright, and eventually, her gaze falls on the freshly bloomed bruise on her collarbone.
The sight sends a rush of heat through her as she recalls James’ panted supplications, the sharp sting of his teeth against her skin as he groaned her name.
He really should wake up soon.
With a sigh, she pushes aside the ever increasing desire to interrupt her husband’s rest and wanders toward a long red rope dangling from the ceiling. Vaguely, she recalls some instruction about summoning an employee of the hotel from the individual guest rooms and figures this must be as good a shot as any at getting something flaky and delicious delivered to their doorstep.
Whatever they bring, she’s willing to sacrifice specific food related desires for other important considerations, like she and James remaining cloistered and private as possible for as long as possible.
The hollow bell that rings from somewhere far off serves the dual purpose of signaling Lily’s success at summoning something and managing to wrestle James from his sleep. If only just barely.
His voice is low and rough when he murmurs a ‘Good morning’ and shifts under the sheets to find her, face twisted in a frown when he finds his search fruitless. “Why’re you all the way over there?”
“Curious about our accommodations,” Lily shrugs, silently pleased at the darkening look he gives as his eyes follow the bits of skin she’s left bare, “In search of sustenance.”
He fumbles his glasses on and sits up. “Right, we’ve got to keep you fed and rested. Hell I was too - too much last night.”
James’ mutterings devolve into a mix of English and language that likely hasn’t been spoken in centuries so Lily can only just grasp his general meaning. “You were fine - even at your most - demonstrative you are ever the gentle lover.”
“I tossed you about quite a bit, Lily,” James says, throwing the covers back and affording her a view she finds quite satisfying as he searches for trousers.
Lily bites her lip and offers, “They might be dangling from the chandelier.”
His brow furrows and then James’ eyes follow Lily’s guidance and he flushes. Nevermind that they both had a hand in the utterly debauched appearance of the suite. Or that they’ve come to know just about every bare inch of each other. He can be so proper at times, for a man who’s come from an era allegedly less repressed than her own.
James rises on tiptoe and pulls the garment from the chandelier. By the time he’s drawn the second side over his leg, there’s two sharp knocks at the door and he stumbles his way to answer. “You may want to make yourself scarce.”
“I am quite scandalous this morning,” Lily says with a smirk, “Though we are quite thoroughly married. I’m no scarlet woman.”
She’s leaning with her shoulder propped against the wall, one bare leg crossed over the other while her borrowed shirt barely disguises her form when James strides over and hisses in her ear, “If you stay out here, I will hardly be able to keep my head. I don’t particularly fancy anyone else being privy to the way I look at you.”
“You look at me all the time, love,” Lily says, innocent and deliberately obtuse.
James darts both hands beneath her shirt and draws her close, palms pulling her up toward him while he slants his mouth over hers in a warm, wet kiss. After a head spinning kiss, he murmurs against her lips. “You know very well what I mean, kokéta ,” another knock at the door, “Now go pretend to freshen yourself while I usher our guest out as quickly as possible.”
“I don’t like being ordered about.”
“Sometimes you do,” James shoots back with a wink, “Now off you go.”
Lily rolls her eyes but does as he asks and after a brief interchange, she hears the door to their suite click closed. “All clear, Lily.”
His back is to her as he examines the savory and sweet dishes piled atop a shined golden breakfast cart, so Lily wanders over and presses her chest against his back. “I’m hoping our meal will be a quick affair.”
James hums, already filling two plates. “So long as you agree to dessert.”
“For breakfast - ”
Lily’s question trails off as he uncovers a dish full of whipped cream, or considering where they are, creme fresh. In answer, she swipes a finger through the stiff peaks and drags it across her tongue. “Why of course, what else are holidays for?”
It’s only much later, when they’ve made an undeniable mess of their rooms, that Lily’s mind finally returns to matters outside the marriage bed. James has started to doze when her finger finds the dimple in his chin and she asks quietly, “Tell me about your parents.”
“You know most of it already,” James murmurs against her hair, pressing an errant kiss to the crown of her head, “But I know you - just ask the question you’re dying to.”
Chuckling, Lily props herself up on one elbow and watches him for a moment. “Why - I can’t help but think none of this was a mistake.”
“Invoking the Moirai?”
Her fingertip wanders over the planes of his face, mapping each dip and rise, committing it to memory. “Not in the sense of the ladies of fate themselves, but prophecies that span thousands of years before coming to fruition are hardly happenstance when they do. Have you - have you considered perhaps your parents knew what was coming long before - that they wanted to prevent everything?”
“Of course, it’s logical to assume they knew, but less so that they tried to interfere,” James pauses and pulls her hand to his chest, brushing his fingers along hers, “I’ve made my peace with it. They surely had their reasons. No real way to judge things from now, not fairly that is. Things then were so very different - most wouldn’t dare attempt to defy a prophetic foretelling.”
“Quite mature of you, husband,” Lily says softly, then grins, “You really are the adult among us.”
“Mm, what do you think I was brooding about all those months between my return and Riddle’s?”
“My beautiful face?”
“I was trying very hard not to brood about that.”
“Went well, eh?”
“Swimmingly,” James answers, eyes shut with content.
Lily’s mind is still whirring with possibilities and she can’t seem to turn it off, not when it all feels so close to resolution. “What was your family crest? Assuming you had one.”
James’ brows rise and he scoffs, indignant. “What do you take us for? Of course we had a crest - Sun and moon interlocked, a lion in the foreground. I’ll admit the lion did at times look a little too human faced.”
LIly stiffens and sits up. “Sun and moon - like - ”
Realization dawns on his features. “Oh hell, like Sirius’ damn eclipse.”
After the minor revelation regarding James’ family’s penchant for solar movements and the impending eclipse - which is really more like two dots connected that have as yet unknown value - James and Lily decide their morning lie in has to come to a close. The rest of their party will likely have some input on the significance, the weight of connecting James’ family specifically to the eclipse, and the elixir all while bringing it together with the earlier prophecies about James’ hand in Riddle’s death - there’s almost too much to consider. And a selfish, scared part of Lily doesn’t want to.
Once they’re presentable and Lily’s managed to calm her pounding heartbeat, they head for Sirius’ room and find him enjoying an overdone lunch with Remus.
“How kind of you to join us, lovebirds,” Sirius says with a flick of his hair, “We thought you might never emerge.”
Lily claims the settee and lounges back against one arm, tossing her leg up on the seat, doing her best impression of calm, cool Lily. “Don’t be such a fussbudget, Sirius. We both know you have not been up long enough to complain.”
Remus snorts and tosses an apple James’ way. “I woke him up about ten minutes ago.”
While James makes himself comfortable on the plush carpet, he takes in the rather gaudy room from the rich velvet curtains to the gilded moldings, to the brocade fabric stretched over the walls, it’s exactly what he’d expect from Sirius Black. “What a surprise - you’ve kept the richest room for yourself.”
“I am the benefactor, of course.”
As James leans back against Lily’s shins, her hands find his shoulder and knead gently. “So James and I were chatting.”
It’s a vague beginning, but her chest is tight with what might come of pressing this, of the revelations that might finally push her past the deniability of unfinished business that could change everything and wrench them apart.
“Is that what they - ” Sirius’ sentence ends with Remus’ elbow in his ribs. He glares but complies and returns to the original topic, “Yes, what have you brought us, Potters?”
James brushes Lily’s fingers with his. “Tell us more about the text, the message from my parents.”
“As far as I can tell, it’s a prophecy, of sorts, or a warning,” he hesitates, “They mentioned you. Or at least it seems like you. It said ` diavolaki leander .’”
James sucks in a breath and he grips Lily’s hand. “That’s - that’s me.”
She leans forward and strokes his hair back from his face, lips pressing to his forehead in a barely there kiss. Her voice is a murmur. “Their little impish lion boy.”
Their partners watch quietly, waiting, just as Lily does. It feels like everyone is out of their depth at this point - no amount of study or book learning can allow them to understand as James does. And even if it could, the close cut of any decision they make is unparalleled. “We need to protect it - to keep it away from the people they worried about. It was a mistake, making it.”
Remus fiddles with his teacup absently. “Do you think - is that why you were sent ahead, for lack of a better description?”
“I don’t believe they wanted to give me up. But I do think they understood the original prophecy to an extent. That I had to - die essentially. Without me turning on that battlefield, who knows what havoc Riddle would have wrought. And that perhaps however much they wanted their son, they couldn’t challenge fate.”
“Is it horribly selfish to be glad they didn’t?” Lily asks after a moment, “It does feel like destiny that you found us.”
James rises on his knees and turns to face Lily, cupping her jaw with his palms. “You are my pepromeno .”
Lily tilts into his hand and lets out a watery laugh. “And you are mine.”
Whatever James would have responded is cut off by Sirius’ snort. “I wish my mother had put a thousand years between us.”
Remus shakes his head but refrains from physical action against Sirius, understandably since it hasn’t appeared to work yet. The foursome is quiet while the gilt clock on the mantle ticks away the minutes, the sun bright and warm as it slices through the expertly shined glass panes. Aside from James moving to claim a seat next to Lily, it’s as if they’re frozen in time.
“Do you,” Remus hesitates a moment, “We are relatively certain this is a series of interconnected prophecies relating to your family line. But do we know why your parents would have gotten mixed up in all this messy alchemy?”
Sirius frowns. His gaze doesn’t waver from James’. “Do you think…”
James’ brow furrows, “It crossed my mind.”
Lily glances between them and James explains, “I think it possible they were trying to bring me back and made this by mistake. And in the process, well - maybe the Fates were unhappy with the interference.”
“Likely still are - unless you think they’ve gone on holiday too,” Sirius laughs darkly, then asks, “And the eclipse?”
Lily grunts. “Of course - that’s why we came to find you in the first place. James’ crest is essentially an eclipse. And that’s beside all the alchemical connections to lunar and solar cycles. We are on the verge of one of the most magically volatile days in our lifetimes and James is the damn center of it all.”
Remus sighs, “So I guess we’re off to save the world again, eh?”
Another day in town allows them enough time to pore over the information gathered between the four of them, logistics and local lore care of Remus and James, while Lily and Sirius had uncovered what they could on Flamel and the Potters. James’ translation confirmed what they’d thought - the regret spoken of was more than simply missing their son. It reached beyond to something dangerous, a fear that they’d left the world worse off and ran out of time to remedy the mistake.
Of course, this could be something less ominous than all that. For all they know, Fleamont and Euphemia’s regrets could come down to leaving Riddle the chance of return. After all, anyone could have found the elixir over the thousands of years it’s taken for James to return and find it.
It’s a thought, but not one they trust or are willing to accept. So soon they’re trundling off the cobbled roads onto dirt ones that run through the countryside, with Remus at the reins.
Sirius has lounged across one bench in the open air carriage while Lily and James share the opposite. The whole set up is rather plush for a ‘save the world’ adventure. Not that any less should be expected from Sirius.
While the wheels rattle along, Sirius says, “So I’ve been thinking about the regret of your parents.”
“Join the club,” James says with a rueful grin. Lily pulls his hand into her lap and strokes his arm.
“I don’t think it was any one thing,” he sits up straighter, “First off, they certainly regret not succeeding in bringing you back, second they likely took the whole life and death mess seriously and whatever they created is clearly not what they or the Flamels started out working for. We’ll never really know - maybe they wanted to live long enough to see you return.”
Lily hums. “And third, it seems like this is a less than predictable creation, alchemy has never been an exact science.”
“Science itself is rarely one,” Remus chuckles as he clicks his tongue at the horses, “Not when you’re at the wild frontier of it all.”
“And the eclipse?” Sirius asks.
James bites his lip, thoughtful. “I don’t think they knew everything, or that tying it to solar movements was necessarily intentional because of our family crest. You - it’s hard to put into the context of the modern era but my people - ” he pauses, brow furrowed, “Superstition wasn’t fringe and it wasn’t even unfounded. We’ve all seen the power of an accurate prophecy first hand. Back then it wasn’t odd to believe and if you tried to stop it you weren’t seen as a hero in any sense. So my parents - they couldn’t try to keep me from my destiny as it had been written.”
“So they did the next best thing,” Lily says softly, “Or as close as they could figure.”
“Tried,” James adds, “I suppose prophecies are living, breathing things in a way and one as strong as mine - it wasn’t to be thwarted.”
“If the elixir was for you and you’d come back too soon, we wouldn’t have had a chance against Riddle,” Remus muses and they fall into silence once again.
The early morning sun is high and bright overhead, no sign of an impending eclipse, nor of the danger that could rest just over the rolling hills. For all the world, they seem a quartet of jolly travelers on holiday at the seaside.
But soon enough, Remus guides them to the ancient cemetery filled with cracked markers, and even larger monuments to the wealthier dead interred below.
James’ jaw is set when he steps from the carriage and offers his hand to Lily. “I have no idea how to find them.”
“We’ll do it together,” Lily answers quietly, grip on his hand tightening, “We’ve got plenty of time.”
They split off two and two to search the rows, some orderly and others crooked and meandering from years of separation between deaths, from disparity in decoration, and simply the passage of time.
Lily knows the sketch she’d found back before so much was a simple headstone, but all they’ve learned since seems to count against the accuracy of that notation. Perhaps a deliberate falsehood to put would-be robbers off the trail. It’s all guesswork at the moment, leaving their best bet a careful examination of every plot.
Finally, after too many hours for comfort, James lets out a low exclamation and Lily runs to his side a few paces away one row over. The site is a stone and glass mausoleum with delicate carvings around what’s presumably the entry point. White marble gives way to stained glass, some intact others cracked inward with time and an iron door locking whatever lies inside away from prying eyes or ill intended hands.
She shouts for Sirius and Remus while James runs his fingers over the inscription at the right of the door, the same as she’d read on those old records, beloved, held close always .
Behind smudged glasses, James’ eyes flutter shut as he takes slow, deliberate breaths. Remus and Sirius slow to a jog as they near, faces somber as they wait for James to speak.
After a few moments, he clears his throat, “I presume one of you has a proclivity for lockpicking.”
Lily presses a kiss to his jaw and moves forward, kneeling as she pulls out her kit. It’s been ages since she’d needed to use her tools but she’d kept fairly agile by locking doors around the cottage and forgoing the use of her keys.
The heavy weight of the components moving against her slim tools is familiar, the focus a welcome cleanse of her whirring mind. Calming the thoughts that have spun around in endless circuits for the last two days.
It’s an old lock, ancient actually, so the pieces are simpler than some Lily’s come across, and soon enough the door swings open with a low creak. Sunlight cuts through the dim interior, dustmotes floating on the air pushed by their movements as the group enters with James at the lead.
Shattered glass crunches beneath boots, painted tributes half worn away from the walls seem to depict an entire lifetime and Lily’s heart skitters when she finds the images no longer contain a lone couple and instead turn to a family of three. Even the simplistic figures capture the features James inherited from his parents - lanky build and wild hair from his father, deep set eyes from his mother - it’s a little heartbreaking that she’ll never get to see up close.
James swipes at his eyes with the back of his wrist and clears his throat. “Do we think - is the elixir in a secret compartment?”
Sirius presses his shoulder to James under the pretense of joining his search, but Lily sees the muscles in James’ back relax as he accepts the comfort. “I would say a compartment is likely. Some sort of triggering mechanism is what we’re looking for - simple enough that it could be released but the hope is generally that only the creator would use it.”
Remus nods as he runs a gentle hand over the walls, fingers prodding and poking at every ledge and crevice. “I know it’s no help to things - but by the look of things the eclipse is not long off.”
While James and Sirius sharpen their search, Lily crouches and examines the timeline of the Potter family and finds the trio - James now grown to adulthood - posed almost like a portrait with the sun and moon behind them, half eclipsed. Perhaps the images were more than tribute...perhaps a roadmap of sorts to the seeker.
The carvings below are like the rest along the base of the wall, intricate and filled with anything from crashing waves to blooming flowers. Here a lion bares its teeth in a silent roar, mane billowing backward with the phantom movement.
Biting her lip, Lily lets her finger slide between the jaws and drag over the smooth inner surface of the lion’s mouth until her touch catches on a small latch and a quiet click sounds.
Slowly, a compartment no wider than Lily’s hand slides open, the hollow sound stone grinding on stone echoing in the room, the sky darkening enough that Sirius ignites a lamp they’d brought along and gently sets it atop one of the stone caskets.
With the damn the consequences attitude Lily’s never been able to overcome even with age, she reaches inside and swipes her hand through the empty space until her skin brushes a cool glass object. It hums beneath her touch as she pulls it out into the rapidly dimming light to examine it more closely. Air rushes in her ears and her pulse pounds. James’ shouts are lost to her as the vial begins to feel like an extension of her.
Beneath the glass, liquid undulates like a living thing, swirls licking over the sides and glowing low like ignited coal. She hears James’ voice pitch lower, call her name like a warning.
The longer she holds it, the more it warms in her palm, biting now rather than comforting, the light within sparking until shots of gold slice through the glass, stinging her skin like sparklers. Her body feeling light and yet immovable, like she’s frozen in between moments.
She can’t seem to tear her eyes away, but her mind grinds to action and her voice sounds thin when she speaks, “James.”
Sirius swears low and vicious and soon she can feel her companions crowded close by, though the comfort is minimal, as though all her body can comprehend is the growing heat that travels up her arm, cracks slowly forming in her skin. She watches as James’ hands grab her forearms, sees him duck his head and press his lips to her skin as it turns ashen.
But instead of pain, it's a delirious sort of euphoria that fills her, even as Sirius joins James’ desperate shouts, as Remus shakes her shoulders. The sun is truly gone now, the world black as pitch save the glowing crystal in her hand.
Part of her knows the horrific picture she must make, slowly turning molten, her body splitting open, eyes blown wide, body completely out of her own control. But she can’t really feel it, the terror that really should wrack her body like it does James’.
Vaguely she hears them exchanging increasingly panicked words, James begging for her to look at him, telling her he loves her, but none penetrate her comprehension fully until James’ plea for the baby.
Her mind finally grinds into action and her body begins to comply, paralysis relenting at least enough to let her eyes find James’, for her to recognize the tears running down her face in steady trails, and recognize the heartbroken expression on James’ face.
“I love you Lily,” he says, just before he pulls her into his chest like he has so many times, and it's a warm comfort nothing like the overwhelmingly heady power of the stone. She shudders out a breath and then suddenly she’s cold and the stone flares.
Flares in James’ palm.
She shrieks in horror, the blisters on her hand and arm already fading back to pale skin while James stumbles backward until his back collides with the wall.
Vaguely, she hears him shouting for Sirius and Remus, feels their hands grab at her but she shoves them away. “I am not leaving him - stop!”
Sirius grips her hand and pulls harder, “Lily we can’t - he is the only one that can contain it. He told us what to do. It’s too out of control. There’s nothing - ”
Remus looks at her, pleading, “You didn’t see what it was doing to you. You were - it looked like lava, and we couldn’t reach you. You were slowly burning from beneath your skin. The heat was like standing in front of a pyre. He’s the only one with a shot at having enough magic roiling around in him to keep the power from killing everyone within a ten mile radius.”
Lily wrenches herself away from their pulls. “That doesn’t mean I’m leaving him - I can’t leave him. He needs me,” her chest rises in a shuddering sob, “I need him.”
James calls out for her, his arm already too heavy for him to remain upright. He slumps against the wall as bone and muscle and sinew slowly turn back to cold marble. She’d almost been devoured by the power, and he’s absorbing it all. “Lily please. Go .”
The last word is wrenched from his throat just before he bellows in pain, eyes clenched shut and suddenly she can see it all - from that very first day. His confused eyes warm on hers, those blissful summer days spent learning each other while he learned the new world. Friendship growing to something more. The press of his lips on hers, the slow movement of their bodies and together in a dance she thought they’d have years to perfect. The unbridled joy when he learned of their child.
She can’t stop the wild yell that grinds from her throat, “How many times are you going to die Iacomus?”
The stone eating away at him grows nearer to his heart, his remaining skin glowing golden while his hazel eyes linger on hers and he crunches the elixir in his palm. “I love you.”
A shockwave ripples out from his body as the final bit of him hardens to stone and with it, takes the last of the strength in Lily’s legs.
Sirius growls and smashes the lamp to the ground, shards of glass scattering while the light gutters and sends them into blackness.
Lily hears him storm from the final resting place for the Potter line, feels Remus embrace her. “James wouldn’t - ”
“Well James isn’t here to say what he bloody wants and it’s that damn arseholes own fault,” she shouts before a sob wracks her body. “Just - give me time. Go stop Sirius from doing something idiotic.”
Remus hesitates for a moment before he leaves to follow Sirius.
Lily pushes to her feet, barely feeling the shattered glass prick her palms, her entire body numb and moving like an automaton, completely outside her own consciousness.
Slowly, she steps toward James, her James, frozen and cold to the touch as she runs her hand over his arm, fingers lingering on the cuff of his shirt, the suspenders strung over his shoulders, his perpetually crooked glasses, the grim set of his jaw. His gaze still set as it was, on her, as the life was slowly leached from his body.
His hunched position brings their heights closer together, a torturous mimic of his posture when he leaned in to kiss her. “I’m so very angry, and yet still so glad you were mine.”
With gentle hands, she cups his cheeks and presses her forehead to his, barely conscious of her actions as she murmurs like some uncontrollable impulse, “ Novus lapis vibrus .”
She shifts until her face is buried against his neck, the warm, heady scent of him replaced with nothingness as her tears slip over the smooth marble.
A low tremble rumbles through her bones and she topples backward and only just manages to keep her feet.
Blinding light fills the room and Lily can’t help but bring her arm over her eyes. And just as quickly as it appeared, the light is gone and the stone slowly begins crumbling before her as the sun reemerges and lights the day.
That’s when the final blow to her grip on her composure lands, as she sees the last she or her child have of James begin to fall away. Blood streaked pieces fall to the ground at her feet and where she expected nothingness, deep hazel eyes slowly blink back at her while the remaining marble crumbles.
With a half crazed exclamation, Lily stumbles toward him and begins pulling the stone away from him. At least until his arms are free and he pulls her into his chest and she feels the glorious rhythm of his bounding heart. In between kisses placed to every bit of him she can reach, Lily murmurs his name, grasps every living, breathing bit of him she can.
When he chuckles against her mouth, she pushes his chest, tears welling against her will. “What the bloody buggering hell was that?”
“Saving you, our little one, and then as a result at least a lot of people in our vicinity,” James answers as he pulls her close and they melt to the floor.
Slowly, he runs his fingers through her hair and her breathing calms enough for her to bite back, “I’m glad you’re alive because I could kill you James. I really - “ her throat closes up, “I thought you left me, left us.”
“When you love someone, it’s eternal,” he says, quiet, “They don’t leave you, not really anyway. And I love you both.”
“James I was handling it and you just - ”
“I love you,” James repeats.
“And you just had to jump in and take all the glory and do your save the world moment while I was left here like- like nothing ever changed,” Lily continues, “Except I have this piece of you, of us, growing inside me and I- ”
Her sentence ends on a strangled sob and James pulls away, swiping the tears from her cheeks, “Oh - things have changed. Lily you’ve given me - ”
His hand falls to her barely swollen belly, “Who knows what could have happened to our little one if you - and there was no guarantee.”
“Which is why you shouldn’t have - ”
He grins and presses a kiss to her forehead. “I promise next time we get the chance to do something rash and sacrificial - ”
“So you admit - ”
“- I will let you do it.”
Lily buries her watery laugh in his shirtfront. “How about we all just stay alive?”
James lifts her face so her eyes find his, “For you, my love, anything you ask.”
And then they’re drawn together like they’ve always been, his lips pressed to hers like they were forged over millennia, Lily and James, to be the perfect matched set. Shards of humanity honed and crafted through heartbreak, war, and victory to fit together like puzzle pieces.
As James sighs into her kiss, he murmurs, “Maybe we should - go find Remus and Sirius?”
Lily laughs and reaches up to hold him in place, her injured palm smarting as it drags against his hair, “They’ll be fine minding themselves for another moment. Just let me hold you - ” her voice catches.
Nodding, James pulls her into his lap and presses his forehead to hers. “As you wish.”