Jily Oneshots (pt2)

A Miscommunication of Massive Proportions

He's dark enough that a flush on him isn't as obvious as when Lily blushes, but it's still somewhat noticeable nonetheless.

Lily doesn't seem to think much of it though, and instead starts digging through the picnic basket. "A whole treacle tart? Really, James?"

James just shrugs. "I told Frolly I only needed a few slices, and she insisted I take the whole thing."

"That's because Frolly thinks you're the single greatest wizard to walk the earth," she answers.

"Maybe I am the single greatest wizard to walk the earth," he shoots back, smirking a little.

Those same sorts of comments used to only serve to make Lily cross with him, but now, she just smiles and rolls her eyes at him. "Sure you are."

They both end up with a sandwich and a packet of crisps, and as they both eat, Lily's telling him some story about Marlene's cat and James is trying to think about the best way to bridge this conversation into what he's really here for.

Not that he doesn't like hearing Lily's stories, or that he thinks they're not worth listening to… but it's kind of hard to concentrate on them with this important task hanging over his head.

But eventually, it becomes clear that there's no easy connection from a cat ending up inside of Mary's trunk to asking her out, so he gives up on the smooth transition idea entirely and just blurts it out.

"Lily, will you go out with me?"

There's a little crease that forms between Lily's eyebrows as she looks at him. "What did you just ask me?"

Merlin, she's going to make him say it again?

"Will you go out with me?" he repeats, hoping for a better reaction this time around.

But despite how many potential scenarios James had created in his own head about how this moment could possibly go, he most certainly hadn't prepared for this one.

Lily starts laughing.

And not pity-laughing or mean-laughing, but laughing. Honest-to-god, full-on laughing.

Unconsciously, one of James' hands flies up to run through his hair - any progress made on his hair by combing it is probably done for by now. "Er, Lily?" he says after the strongest of Lily's laughing fit has subsided. "What's so funny?"

"You have got to be - " she replies, still giggling and out of breath, "the most oblivious bloke - on the planet."

He doesn't appreciate that insult much, especially because she still hasn't answered his question. "What?"

"James, what the hell do you think we've been doing for the past few weeks? Hell, what do you think we're doing right now?"

He just looks at her, wide-eyed. "I - er - "

"Because I don't know what you get up to with Sirius and Remus and Peter, but I definitely don't go on romantic picnics with my friends," she says, giggling again. "This is most definitely a date."

"How was I supposed to know that?" he asks, entirely bewildered by this whole chain of events.

"James, I literally referred to you as my boyfriend in the middle of breakfast last week," Lily replies slowly, as if she's explaining something to a toddler. "How could that possibly have led to you thinking we weren't going out already?"

"I thought you were just calling me your boy friend - as in, two separate words," he defends, realising how stupid it sounds almost as soon as the words are out of his mouth. "Like, 'oh, that's James, he's my friend who just so happens to by a boy.' "