•stay-jily fanfic•

Chapter 43- I'll Always Remember You

"Of course I wanna marry you. I wanna marry you and buy you a big house and have lots of children and grow old together. It's just a lot, because I don't know if you want that, and it's not enough that you deserve, but I can only hope that that's what you want. Because if it's not what you want, then I'll never marry. Lil, if you don't marry me, I'll become a weird single old man. I've been in love with you since I was 15. I'm not gonna change now."

Lily POV

I suck in a breath. His face falls, and he rubs his face in his hands. "Ah shoot, Lil, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything, now you're worried and feel obligated to marry me-" I cut him off by giving him a kiss. He sinks into my touch, wrapping his hands around me. I run my fingers through his hair, and feel his breath hitch. I pull back, a look of worry on my face. "What's wrong?" I say breathlessly. He turns my head gently, looking more concerned. 

"There's a hole in your ear!" He says, eyes wide. I burst out laughing. He holds my hands tightly in his. "This isn't funny, Lils oh my gosh it's affecting your brain! We need to get you to the hospital wing like now!" James says, trying to pull me out of the hole of blankets in the couch. I laugh even harder. 

"James, it's an earring hole. I put my earrings in it." A look of realization dawns on his face, and he slaps himself with his palm. "I'm so STUPID." He exclaims. "Yeah, a little bit." I say quietly, using my fingertip to draw his jaw back over to face me. I kiss him for a little bit. "But I still love you." He laughs, and kisses my nose. "I love you too." "Okay, lovebirds. Time to talk about my WEDDING!" Marlene's voice goes up to a high octave at the end, and James and I both wince, holding our ears. I turn to James, and he looks so much happy then I've ever seen him in the past couple days since Rosie died, that I can't help but smile back. He deserves happiness and so much more, and I can only hope I can give it to him.

"Lily?" He asks, pulling me onto his lap. "Yeah?" I say, leaning back and putting my head on his chest. I can hear his heartbeat steadily pumping along. Thump. "It's just," Thump. Thump. Thumpity thump. "Have I ever told you-" Thump. "How beautiful you are?" Thump. I look up at him with a small smile. "Thanks, Potter." Thump. 

"No, seriously. Your hair is the color of fire and it's the pretty fire like the kind on a summer night when you can hear the birds chirping and the ocean crashing on the beach, and the smell of marshmallows with sticky chocolate on your fingers and wet bathing suit plastered to your body . And your eyes are like emerald green, like the jewels that you find deep deep underground, treasures, because that's what your eyes are. They're like little treasure chests of emotion. Your skin is so smooth with all those little freckles across your face like Peter sprinkles the rainbow sprinkles on his ice cream. They're so perfect and I just wanna kiss each and every one of them." He says, running his hands through my hair, then along my eyelids, and then across my face. 

And in that moment, it was one of the very first times I felt truly, and honestly, beautiful. 

He kisses my face gingerly, and smiles when I laugh. "See? I like hearing you laugh. I like making you laugh, because then I know that beautiful laugh is because of me. That makes it even better." I kiss his lips. "You treat me too well, James." He laughs quietly. "You're all I ever wanted. How do I not treat you like the princess you are?" He kisses me again. Bella rolls her eyes. "Come on guys, I know you're disgustingly in love and all that, but really. That's a bit too cheesy for my liking." Sirius waggles his eyebrows at her. "You want cheesy? I can give you cheesy." James, Remus, Frank, and Peter all immediately groan. "We had to listen to him recite and perfect these things. All. Bloody. Day." Remus complains. "And sometimes even in the middle of the night." Peter adds, wincing at the thought of it. Bella holds out her hands. 

"Please, I'm lactose intolerant. Keep your cheesy pick up lines away from me." I'm dumbfounded, and all the girls in the room start shrieking with laughter. "Ugh, I should've used that one when all the guys tried to hassle me back at Hogwarts!" Marlene complains, and Derek frowns. "Who were they? I swear, I'll shove my foot up their ass so hard the dentist'll be picking my toes out of their teeth." James laughs. "Not to worry, Hale. We took care of them long time ago. Those types of guys to these girls over here were at the tops of our pranking lists." I gasp. "I didn't know that's why!" He shrugged and blushed modestly. "We didn't like them playing with you." I smile and all of the girls murmur their thanks. Sirius starts to protest. "Come on, it took me a long time to come up with these things!" I laugh. "Okay, lemme hear it." Bella says, leaning back in her chair.