Lily wasn't a big fan of planes. Competitions had taken her all across Europe, but those were always more or less short flights, she'd never actually been on a transcontinental flight. The website had said the flight would be 17 hours long, counting a four-hour layover in New York. Lily had never been on a plane for over four hours, so she wasn't doing exactly great at the moment.
This wasn't the first time Lily travelled out of the country without her parents, but it was the first time she travelled without any adult supervision whatsoever. She already felt weird, knowing that she'd soon be thousands of miles away from home with no adults to answer to.
As the plane headed to the runway, Lily started taking deep breaths to try and prepare herself for takeoff, she hoped James didn't notice what was happening. She wasn't always great on planes, especially on takeoff. Her fingers dug into the side of her seat.
James glanced at Lily, "You good?"
Lily nodded briefly. "I'm fine."
"Take-offs always feel pretty rough."
Lily nodded again, not trusting her voice as the plane gained speed. She was sure James could very clearly hear her erratic breaths now.
She tried to focus on something else. Their season was finally starting to take form, and Lily couldn't help but get a little excited about the prospect of competing for the first time in almost a year. Yes, competition could be nerve-wracking, but she missed the atmosphere of being around all those people from all over the world who loved skating just as much as she did, whom she only got to see once in a while. Hell, she even missed the pre-competition jitters she was prone to.
Just a few days before leaving, it had been Mary of all people who found the perfect music for Lily and James's waltz, and they had even started with bits of choreography, for which Lily was full of ideas, after not having any new programs for months. And now their short dance was almost done.
Lily took out her phone and earbuds and started put on the song she and James would be dancing to, La Valse d'Amelie from the Amelie movie soundtrack. Lily loved that film and the music box melody of the main theme fit perfectly to both her and James's vision of what they wanted, which was nothing short of a miracle.
And now she was on her way to Michigan to be choreographed by Marina fucking Zoueva.
☆
Lily woke with a start. She turned her head to see James looking at her with a slight smile on his face. "Did you just flick me?"
James frowned deeply. "What? No, Lilyflower, I would never. But since you're awake, we're in New York."
Lily stared at him blankly. "Okay..."
James sat up slightly. "Well, we need to trans board planes."
Lily's eyes widened, her brain finally waking up. She must've fallen asleep somewhere over the Atlantic. "Oh, right." She sat up too.
Lily then noticed quite a few people had already left their seats. James must've waited a while to wake her. She was actually pretty thankful James had let her sleep through the landing. She always got unnecessarily freaked out during them.
Lily and James quickly gathered their things and got out of the plane. Lily only caught a few glimpses out the windows to see America for the first time. She only managed to see other planes and the runway though. She wasn't sure how she expected to feel once she was on another continent. She thought she'd feel different, but she felt just the same so far, maybe once she was out of the airports, airports always felt the same in any country.
"You hungry?"
As if on cue, Lily's gut growled. "I guess that's a yes."
James grinned. "I say we go find the most obnoxiously American restaurant we can find and eat there, you know to celebrate your very first time in the States."
Lily nodded, still too groggy to argue and started walking beside James. "You've competed here before, right?"
"Yup, mine and Cat's very first Junior Grand Prix was right here in New York."
Lily hummed in response. "Must've been nice."
James elbowed Lily lightly. "But don't worry, soon enough you'll have competed here too. Maybe as soon as March." He wiggled his brows.
Lily frowned. "Don't. Talk about it. I don't wanna curse it."
Lily had been trying her best since she and James partnered up to not think about the probabilities of them managing to make the World team this season. It was wide open at the moment, and she knew if she started thinking about it, her body might actually collapse from the stress.
"Well, this seems like a strong candidate."
They had stopped in front of something called TGI Friday's. Lily had no idea what to expect from that name, but her gut was begging for sustenance.
"Let's just go in, I'm hungry."
As they sat down at a booth and looked at their menus, Lily realised what the feeling she'd had since arriving in New York had been. She hated the fact that James knew more than her. He'd been to America before, she hadn't. Lily shook her head. She was being stupid.
"How did you and Catherine do on that JGP here? I don't quite remember."
A barely visible crease formed between James's brows. "We were seventh, it was actually our very first international competition. I'm pretty sure um... Aldridge and Eaton won that one."
Lily felt her heart sink a little bit. She knew that James and Catherine had split on their own accord, but she couldn't help feeling like she had come between them since James clearly was still very fond of his previous partner. And Lily had the slight nagging feeling that if Catherine were to come back right now, James would ditch her and go back to Catherine in a split second.
Lily cleared her throat a little. "Oh, Eaton is in Canton with his new partner, right?"
"Yeah, he is. I actually met Alison through him, they used to train together."
Lily's interested perked up at this. Alison was the woman they were staying with in Michigan. Lily had never met her before, but she knew that she trained with Marina and Igor, and Lily had even seen her skate on videos. James had met Alison at some junior competition years ago and had remained in touch for the last couple of years. James had contacted her about a place to stay in Canton, and Alison had immediately offered up her place for them to stay, which Lily thought was very nice.
"Is Allison.. well, did you guys... date or something?" Lily spluttered out. She cursed herself for the phrasing of that question. She had been meaning to ask James about this for a while. She didn't need him to have any sort of distractions and waste any of their precious time with Marina.
James laughed slightly. "Um, Alison is four years older than us and I met her when I was fourteen, so I think that would've been kinda inappropriate. So, no, Lils, I have never dated her and have no interest in doing so."
Lily nodded slowly. "Okay, just wanted to check," she said quietly.
Soon enough, they both had unbelievably big and greasy cheeseburgers in front of them. As soon as Lily saw her plate, Lily knew she was not eating all of that. She immediately started taking her burger apart and trying to scrape the American cheese off her patty.
"What are you doing?" James had already stuffed his mouth with a huge bit of his own burger.
"If I eat all of this, it will literally take forever to burn all those calories and fat."
"Oh come on, you've already gotten chicken instead of beef and salad instead of fries, is that not enough?"
Lily glared at James. "Well, not all of us spend a suspicious amount of time doing CrossFit, so I am not eating bacon and American cheese."
James didn't contradict Lily. "What's so suspicious about it?"
"It's unnatural, James! Humans shouldn't be physically able to do that amount of CrossFit! I mean I kinda get why Sirius does it, he actually has to throw Melanie around like a rag doll, but you? Is it really necessary for you?" Lily ranted.
James scoffed, slightly offended, a bit of sauce clinging to his chin. "Well, you girls try carrying yourselves around for an entire program, see if you can do it with just our regular off-ice workouts, see how you manage."
Lily raised a brow. "Well, Remus seems to manage just fine."
James didn't miss a beat. "Well, yeah because Remus has a – " He cut himself off. He knew this was not heading somewhere good. "Yuna's well.. you know... short."
Lily almost let out a laugh but controlled her features. "So you're saying I'm fat?"
"What? No, of course not. I'm just saying you know Yuna is very short and her bones... are lighter?" James tried to explain flustered.
Lily burst out laughing. "I'm just messing with you, I know I'm heavier than Yuna, I mean she's built like a thirteen-year-old, she's obviously lighter."
James breathed in relief. Even let out a small smile.
"Although, Severus never did work out much, and he lifted me."
James smirked. "Yes, Lily, and that's why he could never lift you more than two feet off the ground."
Lily surprised herself by chuckling at James statement. Well, he wasn't wrong. "Just eat your greasy food."
☆
After another hellish hour on another plane, they were finally in Michigan. Lily wanted nothing more than to rest and take off her shoes. But alas, they still had to go through immigration, which according to James could take up to an hour, since Americans tended to be very thorough.
They reached the long line and Lily could feel her heart tightening in her chest, going through customs was always like those things that made you feel like you were doing something wrong even though you weren't. "Is it weird that I'm kind of afraid that American customs isn't going to let me into the country for some reason?"
"I get it, but you've really nothing to worry about, Lils, I mean, you're European and you're white. Me on the other hand..."
Lily frowned at James. "What about you? You're also European and white."
James smirked. "While that is true, Lilyflower, I also carry a South American passport that literally has the name Joaquín Guzmán on it."
Lily's frowned deepened. Her brain wasn't quite processing what James had just said. "What?"
James pulled two passports out of his pocket. Lily wondered how she had missed the fact that he had been carrying two passports the whole time.
"Actually, I should probably warn you, there's a pretty high chance that I will be stopped by customs for questioning. It will be fine, it's happened before, they'll just ask me a few questions and let me go, it'll all probably take about an hour tops. So, if it happens, which it probably will, don't freak out."
Lily wondered if James was trying to play a joke on her, but although his demeanour was calm, he had a note of seriousness in his voice. "Okay, please explain because I'm really not understanding and I'm getting a little freaked out."
James sighed. "Ah, well it's not very complicated really, my grandparents emigrated from Chile to the UK, changed their name from Alfaro to Potter so they could get decent jobs, had my dad, then my dad married my mother, also Chilean, whom he met while she was studying in London. Then when I was about six-years-old my mother got a job offer in Chile, so we moved there for a couple of years, and I got citizenship, hence the passport." James handed Lily his passport so she could take a look at it. "My full name is James Joaquín Alberto Guzmán Potter, and I don't know if you recall this, but Joaquín Guzmán is the real name of El Chapo."
Lily's eyes narrowed. "Wait, you mean like the Mexican drug lord, with the escape tunnel? Why would your parents – ?"
James cut her off. "Well, it wasn't intentional! He wasn't like a well-known person in Chile or England when I was born. And my mother's maiden name is Guzmán, and my paternal grandfather's name is Joaquín. So, yeah my parents accidentally named me after a drug lord."
Lily then realised that she had been gaping at James for the last minute and quickly shut her mouth. She really knew way less about James than what she thought she did. "But if you're not related to the guy, and you're Chilean, not Mexican, why would customs stop you?"
"Beats me, Lil. I guess they want to be especially thorough when it comes to the most wanted criminal in the world. And I've learned it's easier just to comply with these guys."
"D'you think they'll let me go with you if you get questioned?"
A slight smirk tugged at James's lips. "Aw, Lils, I know you don't want to leave my side for even a second, but I promise you I'll be fine."
Lily felt her ears go red. She scoffed. "It's not that, I just don't want to be left by myself for an hour in a place I don't know in a foreign country."
"Well, they usually let my mum come with me since I'm a minor, but I don't think they'll let you if I'm honest. You'll be fine though, you can manage, you always do."
Lily sighed. "I guess."
"Besides, we don't even know if I'll get held back for sure."
☆
James absolutely got held back.
It really wasn't as scary as Lily had imagined. She'd thought James would get pulled away by agents in full tactical gear with rifles in their hands and sniffer dogs, the whole American shebang, but in reality, he'd only gotten pulled away by one of the immigration agents at customs. They let Lily wait right outside the room where they'd taken James. The most frustrating thing about the whole ordeal was that Lily's phone was about to die and she couldn't even scroll through Twitter while she waited.
But they were finally out of the airport, and out into the chilly Detroit night.
Alison had thankfully been right on time to peak them up at the airport. Lily relaxed once introductions had been made and she realised that Alison was, in fact, a really nice and genuine person.
The car ride to Alison's house took about half an hour. Alison chattered happily at Lily and James, not minding their almost complete silence. Lily was paying attention to what Alison was saying though since she seemed to be quite open to talking about Marina and Igor and the rest of the people at the rink
"Well, I know that Marina has seen you both skate, and she seems to like you both, I do think she's been waiting to see how far along you guys are on lifts and stuff to see what to do in terms of choreography."
Lily's heart lurched at hearing Marina liked them. It made her feel a little better, even though she was almost sure Allison was exaggerating a little.
Allison didn't mention Marina again. She mostly spoke about rink drama, which Lily didn't care for all that much since they were only going to be here for less than a week.
Allison's house was in Ann Arbor, which meant it was about a twenty-minute car ride to the rink. But it was closer to the University of Michigan, where Allison attended classes. It was a just big enough place for two people, so having three of them there was a bit tight but comfortable enough. Lily was just grateful to not have to pay for a hotel.
Lily had been given the small guest room at the house, which was barely big enough for one person. James was going to sleep in the living room sofa, which Lily felt a little bit bad about, but not too much.
"Hey."
Lily turned to see James standing in the doorway. "Hey."
"You nervous about tomorrow? Meeting Marina?"
Lily sighed. She put down the clothes she'd been arranging in the small bureau. "Well, I'm trying not to think about it, but I just hope she likes us enough to give us something good."
"She obviously will not be able to resist my charm, Lils, so you don't have to worry about that."
Lily bit back a scoff. "Well, if she could stand Scott, I guess she'll be able to deal with you."
"But, really even if she didn't like us, even her worse programs are still quite good."
Lily hummed in response. "I guess you're right."
"Don't worry about it, though Lily, really. When have you met an adult who didn't like you?"
Lily smiled, despite herself.
James turned to leave. "Sleep well. We've got a big day ahead of us."
Lily sighed and said goodnight. Oh boy.