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mimssides · 3 years ago

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The Lie of Black and White: 7/9

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The air was tense. Janus looked panicked and Remus as if he was about to start crying again. But before they could freak out Virgil held his hands up and told them calmly: “I’m not saying that Thomas doesn’t need me. He needs the fight or flight instinct, my vigilance and fear in general, but the anxiety is just too much of all of it.”

“I do think, you’ve got the right notion Virge, but I am sceptical of you returning to your former state as Fear. It’s highly improbable that we could reset you”, Logan chimed in.

The logical side sounded far more fascinated than bothered. Which did bother the others except Virgil, who promptly explained: “Yeah, no! I know. Getting back to what I used to be isn’t a possibility anymore. But like, having Thomas’s friends around or the breathing exercises help me being actually helpful. And therapy might do even more good than that. I just wanna help pull my weight too, instead of dictating everybody around and make them adjust to my needs.”

Virgil seemed to be unsure of his answer and looked through the round. Logan seemed very pleased and Patton’s face showed the signs of relief. Janus still looked a little bothered but he gave off a lot less hysteric vibe than before, so Virgil thought that he might have calmed him enough. Then there were Roman and Remus left. Roman’s face was devoid of emotion and Virgil immediately focused on Remus, who was as always easier to read that his brother has been to Virgil.

Remus was afraid. He was afraid of Virgil suffering because he tried to be better, without actually becoming any better. And Virgil understood him too well. He feared that himself but after all what has happened it seemed to be worth a shot. He wanted to at least try.

He didn’t get to think of an answer as Logan reassured him: “That is very good reasoning Virgil. If you are ready to make this step, we might all benefit a great deal from it. There is a possibility of therapy improving Thomas’s self-esteem and the relationship with his intrusive thoughts, if we could get a handle of the anxiety within us.”

“But what if it hurts you? What if you don’t want to do it when we try?” Remus asked troubled and at once was reaching for Roman’s hand again. The Prince let him do as he pleased and only watched Virgil’s reaction.

Virgil gulped. He didn’t know.

“I don’t know. But I know that I’m pretty rational right now and that the scenarios I might come up with when we are that far, won’t be rational. Also, it’s not very likely that it would hurt me. Like, everything Thomas ever did to get his anxiety down – that helped me. And if I’m being more rational and all, I wouldn’t force you to, uhm, illustrate all of these worst-case scenarios anymore. I hope.”

Remus said nothing for a bit. Then he shook his head.

“But I’ll still be intrusive thoughts. You can’t medicate me away.”

“Yeah, and we won’t need to. With me better, we can easier work on that too and you might be able to do the things for Thomas and us, which you have in mind if you want to. You can be – Creativity again”, Virgil told Remus shyly.

But I am Creativity, Remus thought. But that’s not what I’ve been doing. I haven’t been creating. I’m processing and formulating ideas and thoughts from everybody else but me. This might get me free. This might let me say things I couldn’t manage to say because all the words were taken by other thoughts but mine.

“So, you realize that you’ve hurt him by calling and keeping him in your room?” Roman said to Virgil but Remus didn’t really hear it.

“What – I -”, Virgil stuttered taken aback by the calmness in Roman’s words despite their hostile underline.

“You must know that staying in your room has bad effects on us. I mean, you knew immediately what was going on with Patton, Logan and me when we were in your room and started reeling. Which was not pleasant at all, as a side note. And Remus has spent whole evenings in there with you, while the paranoia had come up. You do acknowledge this now, right?”

Virgil’s first instinct was to panic until he realized that Roman was not being aggressive or accusing. He was getting to something different with his point. But what was it? Virgil felt his thoughts race. Not in a bad way though.

What could he get out of Roman’s words? That he knew of Remus sometimes spending nights in his room, when he had a bad day or panic attack. But how did he know? Remus’s and Virgil’s room used to be further away from the common aera than Roman’s. He couldn’t have known about it, had Remus not told him about him visiting Virgil. But why would Remus tell Roman this? Roman and Remus were obviously closer than Virgil and all the others had thought them to be, but that was no reason for Remus to tell Roman if not for-

Remus hid his pain. He couldn’t heal. And the only one who knew was Roman. And Remus had stiches on his body. Stiches that were too neatly done for him to have done it himself. Roman had fixed him up after he had gotten himself injured. And he probably also helped him fix himself, when he was mentally exhausted.

Roman was the one who saw Remus hurt because of him.

“Is… is this why you disliked me so much when we started out? Because I hurt him without knowing it?”

Roman’s stern gaze softened instantly. Wow, Virgil really was on a good reasoning spree today, wasn’t he? And it made sense. Roman had never antagonized Janus as much as he had Virgil before the trial. With Janus it was more of a rivalry, like the Joker and Batman in the LEGO Batman movie.

Virgil bit his lip and scratched the back of his neck. Roman had disliked him a lot when he started turning up in the videos. Virgil had just brushed it off with Roman’s black and white mindset and even embraced the more villainy view Roman had of him. In a way it had gave him the feeling to be in control, to be powerful, when he actually only was lashing out and closing himself out.

It’s been a while since he had realized it. And now he had come far enough to actually work on his old baggage and help himself and the others to deal with their tasks. Calmly, Virgil closed his eyes and listened to the blood in his ears and focused on the feeling of Roman’s eyes on him. His gaze was as noticeable and warm as ever.

“I see that now, Princey. I get it”, Virgil said after he had looked back to Roman.

He kept his eyes steady for once and there was a little hint of a grin in the edge of Roman’s lips. Immediately Virgil felt lighter. He didn’t want to get back on Roman’s bad side. As fun as the fighting could be, the hurtful comments stung and it was a lot safer to bicker with the Prince instead of argue with him who wields a katana and has the knowledge how to properly use it.

“Wow”, Roman muttered and an actual smile stole its way on his lips.

Affectionally, he pulled Remus a litter closer to himself. Remus flinched at the pull and looked as if he had only been pulled out of his thoughts just now, but didn’t seem to mind the affection from his brother.

“This does explain some things…”, Patton quietly said.

As Logan and Janus slightly nodded agreeing to the statement, Remus had a big question mark written all over his face but didn’t bother to inquire what it was about. It couldn’t be too important anyway. But now he noticed that Virgil had a strangely endearing look in his eyes which was directed at his brother, who also looked weirdly fond and –

Remus’s train of thought got interrupted, when Roman looked at him with a meaningful glance and then told the others: “Anyway, when we’re going to bring this up to Thomas, we could use the opportunity and talk with him about Ree, here. And give you a chance to explain yourself too.”

“Wait, what?” Remus asked and sat up straight. “Why would you do that? Why would you want me to talk to Thomas?”

Roman exhaled slightly irritated and raised his eyebrows. Patiently, he answered to all’s surprise: “Because I told Thomas we should talk about you and that I would discuss it with you guys. And since we are talking about heavy topics, it might be the right time to bring you up and give you a seat at the table too. All of this will get easier when we work with you instead of against you, don’t you think?”

“Ro, I’m not – I’m fine with working in the background! I don’t need attention like you do! When Thomas deals with me it means -” Remus refuted but Roman silenced him with a wave.

“When Thomas dealt with you in the past it meant that he had a crisis. When you were seen it meant that we had already let it go too far and if I remember correctly – Roman gave a shot a look in Janus’s direction – we shouldn’t put off dealing with our negative emotions until we have a crisis incoming.”

Remus kept quiet and Roman continued: “I know you don’t need the attention I do, and you get your ideas directly to Thomas or sometimes even through me, but a small check in now and then might do miracles, wouldn’t it? So, we’d see the signs before we have to extinguish the fires.”

Remus sighed and drove with hands over his eyes. His shitty idealistic brother. The stupid shield. The protector. The defender of their Selves.

Defeated Remus looked over to Patton and asked him: “Do you allow it? Do you allow me to show up?”

Patton was immediately hyperaware of Logan’s, Virgil’s and Roman’s confused looks. The question sounded awkward and unrelated to them, Patton was sure of it, but Remus was direct and honest and tired. And he needed to know that Patton wouldn’t stop Roman’s plan and let Remus show up.

And so, Patton nodded and told Remus humbly: “I do. I’ve done so in the past and I will never stop you from appearing again.”

“What-” Virgil began but was stopped by Logan shaking his head and putting his hand on Virgil’s leg.

“Let’s save this question for tomorrow”, Logan asked and pinched the bridge of his nose visibly tired. “This discussion has gone on long enough and I doubt that any of us is still able to assimilate any more information. Can we agree on that?”

“Yes”, all sides agreed in relief.

It was already long past midnight and they were all beyond tired, yet nobody was about to just go into their rooms and call it a night. Eventually, Patton asked if they wanted to throw in a movie and eat the remaining cookies. They decided on Ernest & Célestine, a sweet French animation movie, and ate in comfort as they watched the grumpy bear and the little orphaned mouse slowly befriend each other on the TV. Janus and Patton had moved closer to the middle of the couch and now sat next to Logan and Virgil, while the twins sat on the floor and hummed with the gentle music.

It was Patton who was first to fall asleep. Janus didn’t register it, even though the fatherly side was leaning his head on him and softly breathing on his cape. Nor did Logan but he also was next to fall asleep with his head resting on the backrest on the couch and his arms crossed in front of his chest. Virgil and Janus followed quickly and when the film ended Roman and Remus stood up and stared for a moment at their fellow sides.

They exchanged a look and then helped each other to put the coffee table aside and pull out the couch, so it became a bed, while maintaining the peace of the others. Patton snored a little and was about to cuddle Janus, when Roman took off his glasses and gently placed them on the coffee table. He proceeded with taking off Janus’s hat and giving each of them a cushion and a blanket. After some deliberation he took off their shoes, while Remus was tucking in Logan and Virgil.

The Duke was quiet. The pillows were already under Logan and Virgil’s heads, their shoes off and Virgil gently tucked in. Remus was stuck with Logan’s glasses and the blanket he had summoned for him. He had reacted so quickly when he had touched him. He didn’t want to startle him again and instead watched Logan’s face for some time. His features were almost the same as Thomas’s.

Remus had always found it strange that Logan was the one who had chosen to look most like their human. Sure, it made sense that the one who tried to be the most realistic Side, to reflect Thomas most accurately but there was so much more personality in him. He had interests in everything, always asked “Why?” and never gave up until he got an answer. There were so many layers, so much curiosity and still he decided that his looks should be closest to the person he was a Side off.

Remus didn’t understand it. Not that he understood that much, he didn’t care most of the time if he understood or not, but this was a question that he always asked himself again and again. Why did the Side, who embodied their desire for learning and discover new things decide to stay in this static form? To Remus it didn’t make sense.

And he liked it.

Carful not to touch Logan’s face he finally took off his glasses and tucked him in. Silently, he got up and looked over to Roman, who had observed him. Softly they stepped away and went over to the dining table.

“The whole thing about our predecessor really fucked with Specs, didn’t it?” Remus said keeping his voice low, while seating himself on the table.

Roman leaned against the next wall and watched the others for a second before answering.

“It did. Really did.”

“… Did he like like him?”

Roman tilted his head from left to right. He tried to keep himself out of the romantic attraction some Sides displayed for the others. It hadn’t been too hard to stay out of it, mainly because Patton, Logan and himself didn’t have romantic interests in the other or him, but the whole situation was changing now with Virgil, Janus and hopefully soon Remus too being or getting accepted and mingling more with them.

It had mixed everything up and Patton and Logan showed emotions and dreams he hadn’t heard in quiet a bit. And it was hard to ignore them, when they were almost as loud as Logan’s falsehood cries.

“He might still. I’m not sure he knows.”

“He does. He feels guilty still.”

“Maybe…”

The twins were silent for some minutes. Still even. It wasn’t the first time they saw the others sleeping. Roman had been to too many movie nights, where Pat and Logan forgot the themselves and nodded off on the couch. Too often Remus had tucked Janus and Virgil after them scheming in their little lounge in the basement.

But it hadn’t been like this in ages. All of them together and in peace. Not quiet at peace with all that was happening but so much closer than even a day ago. Maybe they could really get somewhere with all this talking and discussing.

“When did you unlock the door?”

“… Like three days after the wedding…”

Remus chuckled lightly.

“I can’t believe you managed to hold onto your grip for that long, Drama Queen. Only took J to call you evil for you to crawl back to me. Who would have thought, hm?”

Roman took five steps. Waited for Remus to look at him. Saw him look at him. Then he opened his hand and a big rusty key appeared. The one he had made for the lock Remus had summoned for their door.

Remus eyed him curiously.

“I’ll destroy the key. I shouldn’t have shut you out. You can destroy the lock, if you want to.”

“I do.”

The key evaporated and so did the big black lock on the door in Roman’s room. Roman gave Remus a hug. They stayed in the embrace for some time uncaring for the others subtle breathing and the ticking of the big grandfather clock by the wall.

“… Wanna do some pottery?”

“Should we summon the stuff right here or…?”

“Yeah, why not.”

“Make a painting station and a kiln. I have some vases ready for to bake and some you could paint while I sculpt.”

Roman nodded and only ten minutes later he was already painting a strangely formed plate he was painting with a white base colour. Next to Roman stood a small wood kiln, which he regularly checked for the right temperature and summoned new wood pieced to throw in the fire when he realized that it needed a little more heat. Meanwhile Remus was working on a new piece at his pottery wheel.

And so, they worked in silence. Both had dropped their illusions. Remus had changed in a loose white tank top and baggy pants, which both were littered with clay stains and little holes from wearing them all the time. Roman had chosen his red t-shirt with the yellow crown on it and a pair of black shorts. It got rather warm next to the kiln and he was sweating a little but he couldn’t claim that it bothered him too much. He liked the heat.

#roman sanders #remus sanders #janus sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #arguing #comfort #angst with a happy ending #The Lie of Black and White #sanders sides fanfiction #eir writes #repost

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personalityisnice · 5 years ago

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Some Thoughts on Dealing With Intrusive.....Thoughts.

Some thoughts I threw together while I was working on a more in-depth analysis for this episode.

Well, Thomas isn't okay today. Looks like Virgil's not the only one with dark circles under his eyes this episode.

Oh my God, Logan's shriek and Virgil and Patton's reaction to it.

I'd be willing to bet Logan's "What are you talk-what are you talk-what are you talking about" was a take that didn’t go according to plan that they kept. Good call, if so.

I remember that movie. Mostly for the fact that I was fed up even then with the whole "woman has the gall to spend all her time at work and to not start a family" conceit. And for Jon Heder, whose role in this was his first after Napoleon Dynamite.

Yeah, the sound fading out is a really cool effect. It fits with someone who's gotten no sleep, and captures perfectly that feeling where an intrusive thought sort of...blocks out everything else that's going on around you.

The fingers popping out from behind the tv? Genuinely unsettling. Honest to god though, it took me way too long to realize a new Side had arrived. To be fair, my guess was that Thomas’s intrusive thoughts would be visualized as hallucinations throughout the video for us, the viewers. So I figured that's all the manic looking dude behind the tv was.

First thing I did upon realizing we had a new Side was check his color scheme. So yep, looks like the rainbow theory is all but confirmed. And now I'm going to be thinking of the last dude as Orange Julius until he's shows up and gives us his actual name..

Dude's got a bit of a Snidely whiplash Freddie Mercury thing going on.

Everybody give props to rainbow-sides for semi-predicting this Dark Side.

Damn, I was half-right. I figured we'd get a villain song, but with all three of the Others after they'd all been introduced. But it makes sense that if any of them were going to have one alone, it'd be this guy, seeing as he's Roman's creative counterpart.

Seems I was right about the snake going for back up. Also, yeah I could see already how this episode was going to earn that warning at the beginning of it.

"I'm really stupid right now." I have never related to this man more. And damn I felt bad for him this episode. Dealing with intrusive thoughts and almost no sleep? Someone hug him. Character!Joan, climb out of your coffin, get over there and hug him!

Huh. The creative thoughts Thomas rejected. That's interesting. I doubted that you could make a whole character just out of intrusive thoughts, but those two concepts together work pretty well.

The whole initial argument between Thomas and The Duke feels weirdly meta considering what Joan has said about this episode.

Oooh, I've heard of the white bear experiments. Try it at home! Fun for the kids! Also, I think the fact that the subject of repression keeps being broached could be an interesting sign of where the story is going.

The Others are just Patton's problem children. Prove me wrong.

Can't say I agree with Thomas about creativity. By that logic, no one who ever writes, paints, or sings about anything negative is creative. And we sort of need that stuff, as a society. Given Logan lampshades Thomas's black and white thinking, my guess is that's going to be part of his arc going forward.

The Duke's eyes when he says “Demented” are amazing.

"That....is something Joan would do." I'm cackling.

Yeah, this dude's definitley more than a little reminiscent of our Prince...

There might come a point where the crew delves into it and makes it not funny anymore, but for now I find Logan's repeated dismissal of Thomas' s friends and family strangely hilarious for some reason.

You know, I was already getting sleazy agent vibes from Deceit, but that whole Taylor Swift pitch makes me see it in this guy too. Some one write that AU, please.

Thomas's philosophy about creativity is interesting. But just a little sad. Thomas is focused on making things that'll make other people happy. Making himself happy with his work doesn't seem to even occur to him.

Also, pleasant or not, that first metaphor didn't make any sense.

I'm loving all Virgil's little jabs throughout. Yeah, he knew this guy.

Does the Duke share his curse word with Roman? Now I'm picturing them each wishing each other a Merry Bitchmas.

And we have more of the Others jabbing at Virgil. Looks like that's not just a Deceit thing.

Interesting that Patton (and by extension, Thomas) defines "being a good person" as putting others before himself.

I love how absolutely unimpressed Logan is with The Duke throughout.

Oh my God. Does anybody know who those actors are? Because they deserve some commendation for that, the poor bastards.

The Duke's face when he says "large, sharp knife" is amazing.

"Not acting on every thought that he has isn't faking anything." Yes, thank you Logan.

"Ooh, how fun! You know who could help us with that?" "No! One of you is enough!" Oh my God, yes. I like how Thomas is sleep deprived and out of sorts and still manages a "No, this is all we're doing today, shut that shit down right now, Mister. Or I will turn this car around."

Interesting that Patton is so opposed to lying but has ongoing problems with repression.

Aw, Logan looking out for Thomas and getting the others to listen to him.

Thomas's religious influences were the elephant in the room that I wasn't sure they were going to point out. This is a really intriguing path we're going down, here.

The idea of thought "being a precursor" to action gives a fascinating new perspective on Thomas in general and on the events of S v. S in particular.

Is that why Logan started using "figuritively"? His dealings with the Duke?

Him giving his name away so quickly fits with the character’s impulsive nature. But of course he had to use it to dig at Virgil.

I LIVE for Logan's comments physically affecting Remus.

"S@#%!" Someone give this boy a nap.

Yeah, that screaming....that was definitley just like an intrusive thought.

As soon as they were checking if he was gone I knew exactly what was going to happen. Also, I love how Logan speaks like he's got a lot of experience dealing with this guy.

I also really love the boys see-sawing between genuine horror and just plain old exasperation at Remus's antics. Thomas: *sigh* Shut up.

I relate so much to that moving car thing. For me it's jumping off of high places. I never really thought of that as an intrusive thought, though. More like morbid curiosity. But it's popped up for so many years I'm kind of over it.

How great it is that as Logan describes Remus as a screaming child on a airplane the Side gets more immature and desperate for attention.

Good God I love Logan when he gets all quiet and gentle like this. It's always such a nice surprise considering how brusque he normally is.

Yay, personal growth for Patton.

Virgil's whole speech....! It sort of sounds like Joan speaking to their own intrusive thoughts through him. Which makes the whole thing that much more heartfelt.

Yay, Roman's back. And he's learned some things himself.

I think I'll have more to say about Logan in another post. In the meantime...

God that fun house mirror thing....I need to say more about Roman in another post too. Remus's existence has given us some really interesting insights into Roman.

Listening to the music while Virgil was talking I was actually thinking, "Holy shit, is he going to tell him?" And there we go. It's canon now, and god knows what's going to happen now that Thomas knows. In any case, the Others don’t have that to hang over Virgil’s head anymore.

Whelp, those are my thoughts for now. I have a post I’m cooking up dealing with character analysis in particular and episode analysis in general. Check it out!

#Sanders Sides #Thomas Sanders #Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts #DWIT #Logan Sanders #Roman Sanders #Patton Sanders #Virgil Sanders #The Duke #Remus Sanders #Initial Thoughts

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downn-in-flames · 6 years ago

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9.9 Out of 10, Highly Recommend (chapter 2)

Read it on: HPFT | AO3 | FFnet

Previous chapters: 1

DAY ONE

The 73rd Precinct of the NYPD always smells like a mixture of burnt coffee, musty files, and the 'ocean breeze' air freshener that sprays every 20 minutes like clockwork.

That last one is solely Lily's contribution - damn, someone's going to have to take responsibility for refilling that thing once she's gone. Unless she takes the whole contraption with her, in which case the place will probably start smelling like Peter's feet again.

But on top of that strange concoction of fragrances, the precinct also smells like opportunity.

At least, that's the cheesy line James is telling himself, in the hopes of being largely optimistic about this whole thing. He's still got a slight headache from all his drinking the night before, but he's also got a really solid plan of action.

It's a pretty foolproof plan, if he says so himself. For all that his friends like to rib him about going catatonic around people he's got a crush on, he's also done pretty damn well at getting his fair share of dates over the years.

It's just a matter of applying those tactics to someone he already fancies something awful.

He just needs to channel his inner Aries, or whatever it is that his zodiac sign is. Marlene's always going off about astrology, and truthfully, James is usually only halfway paying attention, but he's pretty sure he's supposed to be super courageous and powerful or something like that.

He's going to need that today. He's not planning on asking Lily out just yet - he needs to take this slow if he actually wants a decent shot at her saying yes - but he's most definitely going to attempt to flirt with her.

In real life this time, instead of just daydreaming about it like he's so apt to do during staff meetings.

I mean, really, what else is he meant to do when Dumbledore is going on about 'the valiant battle of good versus evil in the streets of New York' other than dream up elaborate situations involving Lily and increasingly ridiculous pick-up lines? Pay attention?

In a burst of nervous energy, he goes about cleaning up his desk a little. It's a complete disaster, really - although James is more apt to call it organized chaos, because he knows exactly where every file is, thank you very much. He throws away the Coke can that's been sitting there for far too long, and empties his pencil cup of the various candy wrappers that have accumulated there.

Externally, it's not a massive improvement, but it still feels productive to James.

He looks up when Lily walks in. She's holding a large iced coffee, and James immediately knows what that means. It's her hangover drink. He shouldn't really be surprised that she went out last night - she just got a major promotion, after all - but she very rarely drinks enough on weekdays to warrant a hangover coffee the next day.

Her blouse also has one more button open than it normally does; James isn't sure if she's noticed that particular wardrobe malfunction yet, but he's definitely not going to be the one to point it out to her. He's also not going to pay attention to the way that that extra open button reveals just the tiniest bit of cleavage.

He looks up at her face instead, and that turns out to be a mistake. Because she smiles at him brightly - and it almost blinds him for the briefest of moments. "Good morning, James," she says.

For someone holding a hangover coffee, she's surprisingly chipper. Especially towards him. It's enough of a shock that the pencil he's been twiddling between his fingers falls to the floor.

"Good morning," he replies, trying to sound casual despite the writing utensil currently clattering on the tile. "You look lovely today, by the way."

There he goes. He did it. He flirted. He's doing great at this.

"Only today?" she replies, raising an eyebrow at him. "Do I not look lovely every day?"

Shit, maybe he's not actually doing great at this.

"No, no, of course you look lovely every day," he quickly backtracks. "I just meant that - "

Lily laughs - it's a sweet melodic sound to James' ears and it makes him relax a little bit. "I'm only joking - I know what you meant. I just wanted to give you a hard time, is all."

He absolutely wasn't prepared for that one. Lily's never been cold towards him, but the vibe of her behavior right now feels decidedly different than normal. "Oh."

"How was your night?" Lily asks, walking away from her desk and coming over to lean against his.

James is trying very hard not to pay attention to her open blouse - even though it's practically right in front of his face now - and it's only because of that intentional avoidance that he catches Sirius and Remus walking out of the elevator.

"It was good," he answers. "Me, Sirius, Remus, and Peter tried out another brewery - I take it you went out last night as well?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he catches Remus giving him a thumbs up and Sirius miming a lewd gesture.

A look of surprise crosses Lily's features. "How'd you know that?"

He realises that he's now dug himself into a bit of a hole, and the only escape is admitting just how much he's been watching her over the years. "I - er, you always get a large iced coffee whenever you're hungover."

Lily looks at him oddly - fuck, he's definitely creeped her out. "Huh," she muses, "I guess I do."

James struggles for words for a few moments, trying to figure out how the hell to get himself out of this situation, but Lily speaks again before he has a chance to. "You threw the Coke can away," she observes.

Now it's his turn to be surprised by her perceptiveness.

"I did," he replies, although it comes out more like a question than a statement.

Lily at least looks a little flustered by that. "It's just - it's been there for a while. Four months and nine days, by my count."

James actually laughs at that, and the remaining tension drops out of his shoulders. "Oh my god, of course you would've kept count of that, Evans."

"It's an awfully long time to keep an empty Coke can around, is all," she defends.

He looks at her endearingly. "You're really something else, you know that?"

Lily ducks her head at that, letting a curtain of auburn hair fall over her face, but it doesn't fully hide the fact that her cheeks are notably flushed.

He just… made her blush with that?

Naturally, it's when he's not even trying to be smooth that he actually succeeds at it.

"As fun as watching you two lovebirds is..." James looks away from Lily to see Marlene standing a few feet away, arms crossed. "Captain Dumbles called a meeting, so I'm going to need you two to keep it in your pants until later."

Fucking hell, he really needs Marlene not to say things like that. Things like that decidedly do not go well with the whole 'taking things slow and not weirding her out' plan.

"I can't wait until the day Dumbledore hears that you call him Dumbles behind his back," Lily retorts, flipping her hair over her shoulder and seemingly choosing to ignore Marlene's massively unsubtle comments about the two of them.

"Please," Marlene grins, "The Dumble-D loves me. If anything, he'll decide to adopt it as his official nickname."

"Somehow, I seriously doubt that," James replies, reaching underneath a stack of papers to retrieve his notepad and a random pen with a faded Flourish and Blott's logo on the side.

Their captain is… a bit of an enigma, if he's being honest. He's rather eccentric, but also takes his leadership role seriously. He's also just about as weirdly private as Mary is when it comes to his personal life, so all that James really knows is that his husband's name is Gellert and that he works as a financial planner.

Beyond that, he could secretly be researching dragon's blood on the side or something and the rest of the precinct would be none the wiser.

Despite all of that - and despite James' many jokes about his boss - Dumbledore is a pretty damn good captain, and James has a lot of respect for him.

When they walk into Meeting Room 1, Lily surprises him by sitting in the seat next to him instead of two tables in front of him like usual.

"Is it alright if I sit here?" she says, leaning toward him just a bit. If James didn't know better, he'd definitely think Lily was trying to weaponize that damn open button on her blouse against him somehow.

But even without the extra button, he's more than happy to have her sit next to him. Pete can just figure out somewhere else to sit.

"Yeah, of course."

Sure enough, when Peter walks into the room just a few seconds later, he looks vaguely scandalised when he discovers that his usual spot has been occupied. There's a moment where James thinks Peter might say something, but he apparently thinks better of it, because he walks over to Lily's normal spot, taking the seat next to Mary. James doesn't miss the way he intentionally moves his chair a few extra inches away from Mary - Peter's always been a little terrified by the other detective.

"Good morning, team," Kingsley says as he walks into the room, taking his spot next to the podium at the front of the room.

There's an unsynchronised echo of 'good mornings' in response.

A few moments later, Dumbledore comes into the room. He's always had a strange way of carrying himself - almost as if he's wearing long, flowing royal robes instead of his police captain uniform.

But if James had to pick out the single most notable aspect of Dumbledore's appearance - and the one he almost immediately commented on with a 'hello there, Gandalf' on the first day their new captain was introduced - is the his impressively long, slightly-greying beard.

Seriously. That thing is practically a work of art.

"We have widespread records of a whole range of various illegitimate activity from last night," Dumbledore begins, without any preamble. His speeches always firmly straddle the line between incredibly blunt and entirely too vague, and this one seems to be no exception.

"There were no fewer than seven bodegas all held up around the same time," he adds, giving much needed context to his initial statement.

"Why would anyone want to rob a bodega?" Peter interjects, sounding almost affronted by the news.

James is, truthfully, of the opposite mindset. Bodegas have everything you could ever need - who wouldn't want to rob one of those?

Well, not him, because he's an upstanding member of society who doesn't steal from anyone, but like, if he had to pick a place…

He refrains from providing that commentary out loud though, because Lily is currently sitting rather close to him and he doesn't want to do anything to disturb that balance.

"The fact that seven robberies happened at once is an indicator that there are deeper, more sinister forces at play," Dumbledore says, ignoring Peter's commentary. "We think that these were meant as some sort of diversion for something else."

"Like what?" Remus asks.

"No one's completely sure. There were also reports of strange activity near the intersection of Liberty and Prospect, but nothing that seemed to warrant police involvement. At least, not when there were seven hold-ups taking place at the same time."

James is paying attention to the meeting - he is - but he's also currently contending with the fact that Lily's knee keeps bumping against his. He's not sure if she's mistaken his leg for part of the table or something, but it's throwing his concentration off just a tiny bit. Largely because he's not sure what to make of it, especially if it turns out Lily knows she's bumping against his leg and not the table.

Were it not for the fact that the four of them had all sworn to secrecy - and having Lily openly flirting with him would actually help his side of the bet - he'd really think one of his friends meddled in things to get her to act like this. Maybe as some sort of joke or something.

After zoning out for a minute and missing a decent bit of the captain's speech, Dumbledore clearing his throat brings James back into the present moment. "Because of this, we have reason to believe some sort of exchange is meant to take place in that same location sometime before this weekend."

"We're going to set up a rotating schedule of stakeouts," Kingsley adds. This has always been how he and Dumbledore have operated - the captain handles all the big picture information, and Kingsley sorts out the details. "McDonald and Lupin, you two are taking tonight. Potter and Evans, you two are tomorrow. Black and Pettigrew, you're taking Friday."

James can't believe the good luck the universe has given him this week.

Sirius, on the other hand, doesn't appear to feel quite as lucky. "Hey, why can't I have Remus as my stakeout partner?"

"You know precisely why, Black," Dumbledore responds plainly, showing absolutely no sign of emotion whatsoever. He's either internally laughing at the situation or still massively pissed about it, but James can never actually tell which of those he's feeling at any given time.

Nor can anyone in the precinct, really. Their captain is nothing if not confusing as hell.

As for the reason his two friends aren't allowed to stake out together anymore, the story involved a very heated makeout session in a patrol car.

They ended up catching the perp though, but not before the criminal witnessed the hickey on Sirius' neck and Remus' undone belt and started shouting something about road head in a cop car as soon as he'd been brought into the precinct.

James is sure Sirius would like to argue further, maybe throw in a comment about how he and Lily were paired together, and surely the sergeant is only doing this because his relationship is a homosexual one - the gay card, his favorite one to pull even though the captain is gay himself - but the rules of the bet preclude him from saying anything about what James is trying to do in the next ten days.

The meeting carries on for a little bit longer, and there's further discussion about the crime ring that Dumbledore thinks this is connected to, but for the most part, it's nothing groundbreaking. They're dismissed eventually, and the only real notes James has managed to take during the entire thing are some terribly done doodles and the word 'Thursday.'

James takes the long way back to his desk, stopping by the kitchens to get a Coke out of the fridge. Remus and Peter are leaving the precinct to go question a witness, and he gives them both a high five on their way out.

When he gets back to his desk, the first thing he does is open up his email - it's filled with a whole host of announcements that he probably should read at some point today, but for now, he just scrolls through them all to get the angry red 'unread' number to go away. The process is weirdly methodical and soothing, and he can almost entirely block out Sirius' phone barking repeatedly - although honestly, who's sending him that many texts right now?

"I still can't believe you don't sort your emails," a voice says from behind him, and James jumps when he realises Lily is standing by his desk again. The extra button on her blouse is done back up this time.

"Why would I?" he responds. "There's a search bar for a reason."

"And you just keep a perfect mental record of the exact search terms you'll need to find whatever you're looking for?"

James shrugs. "Pretty much."

Lily laughs. "Unbelievable."

He feels strangely like he needs to defend his email system - not everyone can be as organized as she is - but he's saved from trying to develop an argument by Lily changing the subject. "So, I was thinking," she starts, biting her bottom lip like she always does when she's nervous, "maybe you and I could go do something after work today? Just the two of us? Like, as a date?"

Well, his perfectly-crafted days one through three just went straight out the window.

But even though his mind is positively reeling - because where the fuck did this come from - he manages to sound pretty put-together out loud. "Yeah, that'd be great, Evans. What do you have in mind?"

She grins, emerald eyes sparkling with something between joy and mischief. "You'll see."

"That sounds ominous."

"Maybe it is," she replies. "But yay, I'm looking forward to it."

She immediately turns to make the five-foot trek back to her own desk, but James can't resist asking the question that's been on his mind since this morning. "Where did this come from, Evans? We've both worked here for almost three years, and you ask me out the day after you find out you're moving precincts?"

The smile on her face falters for half a second - James notices that much. "I have a self-imposed rule about not dating coworkers," she tells him. "But I'm leaving in a few days, so I figured it's now or never."

He supposes that logic is fair enough. And Lily would be the type of person to have a complicated set of personal rules, really.

But damn, if she's only shown no interest in him because they were working together, winning this bet might be a whole lot easier than he'd expected.

Knowing that he's got a date after work has the magical effect of making the day go by so much slower than usual. He's honestly bored out of his mind filling out paperwork from a few small cases he'd worked on over the past few weeks - but there's a good chance Kingsley will kick his ass if he doesn't have all those reports done by the end of this week.

And Kingsley could kick James' ass easily; James passed his physical test to join the force and all, but Kingsley works out like three times a day. There's no way in hell James can compete with that.

"I'll text you where to meet me," Lily says, when she sees James start packing up his things. "Wear something comfortable."

This seems like it's about to be a very unconventional first date, whatever it is, because 'comfortable' isn't usually the look James goes for - at least, not on the usual dinner-and-a-movie first date type of thing.

Despite the confusion of it all, James actually really doesn't mind it. He's always been the type of person that loves surprises, and any surprise Lily comes up with seems like a pretty solid one to him.

He still texts Sirius for advice anyways. As soon as he starts the walk home to his apartment, he pulls out his phone and types out a message to his much more fashionable friend.

ok lily said to dress comfortable, what the hell should i wear for this

you do realise it's a direct conflict of interest for me to answer that, right?

i really should just tell you something to wear something absurd so that i win

honestly, fuck you

no thanks, i've got moony for that

that joke again, seriously?

DO NOT MAKE A SIRIUS PUN I SWEAR TO GOD

since you're so intent on taking things *siriusly*, jeans and one of your t-shirts that doesn't have a hole in it is probably good enough

ideally one of the more fitted ones that makes you look like you've actually got biceps instead of just being a goddamn beanpole

ugh fuck off

but also thx

you're very welcome

Despite the fact that texting Sirius for advice almost always turns into getting endless shit about his questions, Sirius is usually pretty helpful. And he was in this case, and James takes his advice, putting on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt from a campaign he volunteered on.

Lily texts him an address, which he immediately plugs into Google Maps. It resolves a place called 'Indoor Extreme Sports.'

Which, quite honestly, sounds like his dream first date. A dream first date with his dream girl isn't too a shabby a way to spend his Wednesday.

When James arrives at the designated location, Lily's already there waiting for him. He'd thought he'd beat her by getting there five minutes earlier than when she'd told him to meet him, but really, he should've known better. Lily is never less than ten minutes early for everything.

She's changed into black shorts and a green top, and her hair is tied up into a ponytail.

"Indoor Extreme Sports?" James asks. "That's an unconventional date choice."

"You don't like it?"

"Exact opposite, actually," James replies. "I'm realising just how much I've missed out on at this point in my life by not having every first date I've ever been on at an Indoor Extreme Sports."

"Oh," Lily says. "Good." She doesn't sound quite as relieved as her words would imply, and James isn't quite sure what to make of that. "Nice shirt, by the way."

He hadn't even thought about it when he got dressed, really, but he feels like wearing a shirt with their current representative's logo on it is definitely going to earn him points in Lily's book. She's definitely raved about her at work on more than one occasion.

"Thanks," he grins. "It's always a bit of a risk wearing a political shirt on a first date, you know."

"Oh, shut up," she returns his smile, shoving his shoulder playfully. "Don't act like you haven't heard me going on about my political opinions for ages now. You aren't exactly risking me storming out of here because you're a Democrat."

"Fair enough. I had a bit of an advantage going into this one."

"It's the only advantage you're getting tonight," she tells him, "because I'm about to kick your ass in laser tag."

He raises an eyebrow at her. "Are you, Evans?"

"Absolutely, Potter," she replies, stepping forward so that they're almost chest-to-chest.

He's close enough that he can smell her perfume, and really, all he'd have to do at this point is lean down a little bit and he'd be kissing her. And fuck, when she's looking at him with that hint of a challenge in her eyes, it's pretty damn hard to ignore that particular potentiality.

But before he can successfully talk himself in or out of anything, Lily spins on her heel, almost hitting him in the face with her ponytail in the process.

"Come on," she calls, not even turning around to look at him. "The game awaits."

He snaps out of his Lily-induced trance and follows after her, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "So, what's at stake here?"

"At stake?"

"What's the point of a competition if there isn't some sort of prize involved?" he replies.

"Touché." She thinks on it for a moment. "How about… loser buys dinner?"

"You're on," James answers, realising that this is the second time in a 24-hour window that he's made some sort of bet. "But exclusively monetary bets are boring, we need to make this more fun - loser also has to make a public announcement of their inferiority at the precinct tomorrow."

Lily turns her head toward him, looking surprised for the briefest of moments. "You've got yourself a deal. I can't wait to watch you make a fool of yourself tomorrow."

James scoffs at that. "Please. I make a fool of myself every day. Still going to beat you at this."

She laughs at that, and James quite honestly feels pretty proud of how far he's come in just ten hours. Yes, she's still laughing at him just like she did this morning, but now it's because he made her laugh, not because he'd just stuck his foot in his mouth.

They pay for nine rounds each, get suited up with vests and guns that are essentially smaller replicas of the real versions they normally wear, and are set out into the darkened obstacle course. They're definitely the only two people here over the age of twenty, but James doesn't care much.

He is still a bit surprised that Lily's picked this location - it seems like something she might write off as childish - but he's not disappointed with the revelation either. If anything, her behavior tonight has made him like her even more.

They're both pretty decent at the game, consistently scoring at the top of their respective teams after each round - they've got a slight advantage over all the teenagers here given that they're actually trained to use guns and whatnot.

After eight rounds, they're at a perfect tie.

"What do you say we make up our own rules for this last round?" Lily asks, examining her laser gun and trying to look vaguely threatening.

"I wouldn't have put you as the type to go rogue," he jokes.

"We're not breaking any official game rules - I would never," she replies. "We're just making this sudden death."

James' massive competitive streak is instantly onboard. "I'm listening."

"Points are irrelevant. First person to take the other out wins."

He grins. "Perfect."

When they're both dumped into the obstacle course for their last round, they immediately head in opposite directions. James has his back to the wall at all times and takes corners carefully - even though this is a friendly competition, his heart is hammering in his chest just as much as it does when he's doing this for real.

They've been in there for five minutes before he catches his first sight of Lily - she's a full head taller than any of the pre-teen boys also playing this round with them and therefore very hard to miss.

Although that makes him an even easier target to identify than her, really. He's even taller than her, after all.

And it's apparent that she's seen him too, because she immediately ducks behind a wall, pointing her gun in his direction and firing aimlessly.

James isn't a complete amateur, so he dodges her random shots with ease. Instead, he goes about cornering her - he knows for a fact that the area she's hiding in is a dead end, and he has every intent of using that against her.

He's gotten himself plastered against the wall currently dividing them, fully prepared to aim at her the moment she tries to make a run for it. He gradually inches closer and closer to the gap in the wall - he's all but got her trapped at this point.

He's about to round the corner and fire when -

"Oh! James!"

He falters for just a moment, trying to decipher her tone, and that moment of hesitation is where he makes his mistake.

In a matter of seconds, he's flat on his back, Lily straddling him and aiming her gun at his chest.

"I win, Potter," she says, before pulling the trigger and making his vest go dead.

It'll turn back on in about thirty seconds, because their sudden death rules don't apply to the system powering these vests, but it's a loss on their terms nonetheless.

But weirdly enough, with Lily looking down at him with the most self-satisfied smirk ever, illuminated only by the red light coming off of her gun and vest, he can't really find it in himself to actually be all that disappointed.

He plays along with it nonetheless, feigning offense. "You played dirty, Evans."

She shrugs. "I like to call it creative gameplay."

"You just don't like that I had you cornered," he retorts, just as his vest comes back to life again.

Lily lazily shoots his vest again, just for the hell of it. "Please," she replies, rolling off of him and standing up, "I wasn't cornered."

"You're so ridiculously stubborn, you know that?" he says, laughing. "If that was a suspect, you would most definitely have called that being cornered."

"I am ridiculously stubborn, actually - I'm glad you've just now noticed. Now get up so we can go get food - I'm starving, and you're buying."

He pushes himself up off the ground - honestly, he's lucky this place is covered in mats, otherwise that tackle would've hurt a hell of a lot more - before answering her. "Oh, trust me, I've noticed for a while - do I need to remind you of the time you made Shacklebolt reprint the entire IT manual because you found a typo?"

"It changed the meaning of the sentence," she responds immediately. "It could've resulted in some fatal mistakes."

"Right, because someone is actually going to think they're meant to stick a headphone cord into an outlet because they read it in an old IT manual that's practically falling out of the binder it's in."

Lily raises her eyebrows at him challengingly. "You haven't hung around many of the beat cops then."

"See, but you assume people actually even read that manual to begin with though," he replies as they make their way out of the venue, passing by the preteens still firing amongst themselves.

"I read that manual," she says, unbuckling her vest and pulling it over her head.

"Yes, and you're a complete anomaly, Evans." He follows suit, hanging his gun and vest up on the wall. "Tell me, was there really anything in there that you didn't already know how to do?"

That one gives her pause, and in the light, James notices just how many strands of hair have escaped her ponytail. It's a little bit wild and every bit adorable.

"I - I'm sure there was something," she eventually insists.

"Whatever you say," he responds, smirking, because he knows he's won this one.

They go up the street to a hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant - James had briefly considered taking her somewhere fancier, but it's late and they're both starving; plus, he knows for a fact that Lily has really strong feelings about red curry, and this place makes some of the best he's ever had.

He tells her as much when they walk in. "They make a bomb red curry here - you'll love it."

She looks at him oddly. "How do you know I'm getting red curry?"

Shit, shit, shit - does he sound like one of those douchebags who orders for their date now? "I just - I know you're picky about them. You're always talking about which places do it well."

"Oh," she says, sounding a bit surprised. "I guess I am."

They get seated, and that brief bout of awkwardness fades away as soon as it arrived - it appears that Lily didn't interpret his comment the way he'd feared she might've. He knows that if she did, she would've already walked right out the restaurant door by now.

Dinner goes by with ease; neither of them are really pretending to be anything they're not. They're just James and Lily, the same way they are at work or when they're at some sort of after-hours get-together, but this time, it's only the two of them.

James quite likes that particular change of pace.

"Fuck, this is good," Lily says when their food arrives. "As much as I hate admitting you're right about things, I commend you on your restaurant-picking skills."

He grins at that. "I've gotta be good for something, you know. And since laser tag apparently isn't it, finding good Thai food is my replacement superpower."

"That's not too shabby a superpower, honestly," she replies, before taking another bite.

"I mean, it wouldn't have been my first choice," he tells her, "but all the cool ones were apparently taken by actual superheroes. I got stuck with whatever was left."

That gets a small laugh out of her, although it's obvious she's trying to pretend she doesn't find it funny.

"What about you?" he adds. "If you could have any superpower, what would it be?"

She thinks on that for a moment, pushing a few errant strands of hair out of her face. "Invisibility."

"Why's that?"

"Well, first of all, it'd make work so much easier," she replies. "Instead of having to actually hide out, you can just be in plain sight and never get noticed. Plus, I dunno, I always liked the idea as a kid of being able to just disappear for a few hours with a book and not have anyone come take the book away from me."

It feels like there's a little more to that particular story than she's telling, but James doesn't want to push that particular envelope right now. "When Sirius and I were younger - like, elementary or middle school-aged, mind you - we used to pretend my dad's old cloaks made us invisible. We obviously weren't, but my parents played along the whole time and just acted really confused when we moved stuff around in the kitchen cabinets or whatnot."

Lily laughs at that. "Why does it not surprise me that you and Sirius were getting up to all sorts of troublesome shit even as kids?"

"Oh, trust me - we were even worse as kids."

She shudders at that - but it's very obviously faked. "I am so happy I didn't know you as a teenager then."

"If you think we're annoying now, you haven't seen anything. The principal at our high school still tells my mom how many grey hairs we apparently gave her. Also that if either Sirius or I ever have kids and move back to that school district, she's immediately retiring."

"And yet somehow you ended up a cop," she replies.

"Oh, we never broke the law or anything like that," he immediately defends. "We were… admittedly, kind of bullies to some of the kids that were constantly going around spouting racist shit - and I knocked a kid out once for calling Sirius a homophobic slur - but for the most part, it was just dumb shit like filling the hallway with solo cups or hiding a bunch of alarm clocks in the library."

Much to his surprise, she's got a softer look when he finishes his explanation. "I mean, that's the most justifiable reason for knocking someone out, honestly."

James shrugs. "It wasn't my finest moment, really. I still didn't really have a grip on my own sexuality at that point, really - not to mention that Sirius is basically my brother - and the combination of both of those things and that word just resulted in me flying into an uncontrollable rage. I don't regret the first punch, but I regret a number of the ones that came after."

Lily just hums in response to that, and he hopes it's a hum of approval rather than one of distaste.

She opens her mouth to say something, but they're interrupted by the arrival of the check. The waiter wordlessly places in in front of James before walking away, and James already knows Lily's going to have words about that as soon as she's out of earshot.

She does, in fact, prove his predictions correct. "God, like, I know that you're paying because you lost, but are we really still in the 1950s here? Are we really still assuming that there's no way that maybe I'm the one paying the bill?"

"We're living in a society bound by patriarchal norms, Evans," James replies, getting his wallet out of his pocket and sliding his card into the envelope. "I'm obviously the only one capable of being the breadwinner here."

He gives her a wry grin. "Honestly, I really should let you pay the bill - you are about to be making significantly more money than me, after all. That makes you the breadwinner in this situation, really."

"Absolutely not," she replies. "Absurdly sexist assumptions aside, I tackled you for a free dinner and I fully intend on cashing in on that."

"As you should," he tells her, just as the waiter comes back by and picks up the check.

Once he's paid and tipped properly - Lily hadn't been shy about ensuring he'd tipped at least 20% - they walk out of the restaurant.

"I can call us a Lyft back to your place?" James offers when they get outside, and it's only when Lily gives him a disbelieving look that he realises the error in what he's said.

Foot, meet mouth: round… probably like seventy-something at this point.

"I just meant," he quickly amends, "I only live like five blocks from you, so I figured it'd be cheaper if we just rode together and I walked the rest of the way back."

Lily's expression loses its edge. "Oh. Yeah, that makes sense." When James pulls out his phone, she's quick to tack on, "But I'm paying you back for half. I didn't win anything this time."

James just laughs a little at that. "Sure."

As much as he'd be happy to pay for the full fare, he knows that she will stubbornly insist on paying her half until she's blue in the face, and it's not really the type of thing worth actually arguing about.

Their ride shows up, and they fall into a comfortable sort of silence on the ride home; it's not the sort of thing that feels necessary to break, so James embraces it, sneaking little glances at Lily every so often, watching the lights from outside briefly illuminate her face.

She catches his eye when he does it one time, and smiles softly, like they're sharing some sort of secret between the two of them.

It does things to his stomach that it absolutely shouldn't.

In a much shorter amount of time than he would've liked, they're pulling up to Lily's apartment building. They both get out of the car, and as their driver pulls away, James finds himself automatically turning to face Lily, as if she's got some sort of magnetic pull over him.

"This was fun," he tells her, fully aware that they're much closer now than they've been for most of the night. "We should do it again sometime."

"Tomorrow?" she asks, with just a hint of mischief in her eyes.

"Damn, tomorrow doesn't work," James replies, feigning disappointment. "I'm supposed to be doing some sort of stakeout thing with one of my coworkers, and she's a bit of a rule-follower, you see, so I don't think she'd be too pleased to find out I was abandoning her to go on laser tag dates."

Lily hums, as if considering this. "That's true - you wouldn't want to disappoint her."

"No, I definitely wouldn't," he says, taking stock of the fact that they're now so close that they're practically touching.

They stay like that for just half a second, teetering on the edge of something, before James takes the leap and breaks the mounting tension between them. "I'm going to kiss you, if that's alright."

Lily gives the tiniest of nods, and that's the exact answer James needs to close what's left of the space between them and put his lips on hers.

And if Lily's smiles did things to his stomach, her kisses go straight to his head. It was only meant to be a quick thing - a soft goodbye gesture - but the way that Lily's arms almost immediately wrap around his neck and her fingers slide into the hair at the nape of his neck suggests that while this kiss may be many things,'quick' is most definitely not among them.

His hands instantly find her waist, pulling her into him even tighter than before. The intensity very quickly ratchets up a few levels, and soon enough he's got her back against the brick wall of her building, doing his best to memorise the feeling of her lips and the way her body molds so perfectly into his.

This is so much more than a simple goodnight kiss - this is pure electricity between the two of them that he both wasn't expecting and is somehow entirely unsurprised by. It's Lily, of course, how could he have expected it to be anything other than fucking amazing, but fucking hell.

Were it not for the very pointed coughs of a few passersby, he would very happily stay in this exact position for the rest of his goddamn life.

But he takes the hint from the people walking by, and forces himself to pull back. And he very quickly adds this moment to the list of things he wants to memorise, because Lily's flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes in the dimly lit street are a masterpiece he never wants to forget.

Lily takes a few moments to get her bearings, as if kissing him had quite literally made her forget where she was. He feels oddly proud of that.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then," she says after a moment, dropping her arms from their place around his neck and immediately digging into her crossbody bag to retrieve her keys.

"See you tomorrow, Lily," he replies, giving her a dumb half-wave before turning and walking down the street.

He'd be lying if he said he didn't spent the entire five-block walk home with a little extra spring in his step, or if he acted like he was able to wipe the slightly-dopey grin off his face until a full ten minutes after he got home, or if he pretended like he didn't spend at least fifteen minutes telling his cat exactly how well his date went.

He falls asleep feeling about a million times more confident about winning this bet than he did when he woke up this morning.

DAY TWO

In contrast, Lily wakes up on the second day of the bet feeling much less confident than she did on day one.

She really thought she'd shown off some of her worst traits yesterday - all under the guise of a sweet date, but still enough to at least create some sort of hesitation in James - but it seems that nothing of the sort was accomplished.

After the overly flirtatious beginning, which clearly just about stunned the pants off of him at first, she went about subtly showing off some of her 'worst' traits - that is, the ones that previous boyfriends had always had issues with. She got onto him for how he organised (or didn't organise) his emails, she took complete control of both asking him out and planning the entire date, and she'd picked something that showed off how ruthlessly competitive she was.

None of those things - overly nitpicky, dominant, competitive - are ever seen as remotely positive traits in a woman. (Which is perhaps an issue of ingrained societal gender norms and expectations, but that's an issue for another time. She can address that particular issue when her pride isn't on the line.)

And yet, when he'd kissed her at the end of the night, it was with so much affection and fervor that Lily still gets a little dizzy just thinking about it. She can't remember the last time a first kiss with a guy sent that much warmth through her veins - if it ever did.

But, she supposes, it was only the first date. Everyone experiences a first date in rose-coloured glasses from time to time. There's still nine other days to prove to him just how incompatible they really are.

Of course, there's also the totally separate fact that last night also showed her a totally different side of James than she'd expected to see - the type that owned up to his past mistakes, that kept up with her constant teasing and gave it back just as good, that surprised her again and again.

It was really his perceptiveness that got to her - the way he'd clearly caught onto some of her habits over the years, like always ordering a large iced coffee the morning after a night out or always getting red curry at Thai restaurants. It's just the tiniest of red flags that maybe, just maybe, her original theory surrounding James' crush on her was wrong.

And she well and truly enjoyed herself last night. It easily earned a spot in one of her top five best first dates of all time, which is such a concerning thing considering her whole goal here is to get James to dump her.

All of these thoughts are just wildly buzzing around her head as she makes herself a cup of tea, making it completely impossible to have anything close to a nice, calming morning.

And she'd really been hoping for one of those - between the inevitable grilling she's going to get from Marlene (as Mary listens in but acts entirely nonchalant about it) at work and the fact that she's going to be on a stakeout until god knows when tonight, a moment of peace would've been nice preparation for all of that.

But no, her stupid brain can't even manage that much.

Lily's normally rather proud of her Type A, borderline-perfectionist tendencies; but right now, when her brain is doing that thing where it thinks itself into a never-ending spiral, not so much.

Once she's finished her tea and gotten dressed - doing up all the buttons this time - she leaves for work.

She lives walking distance from the 73rd precinct - she's always loved being able to make the trek to and from work on foot when the weather allows it, and it's something she's going to miss at her new position, where she'll likely have to take the subway up a few stops or get used to calling a Lyft every time.

And sure, she could move, but why would she want to? Her apartment is honestly kind of perfect, and she's close to all of her friends. And James.

Not that that last one will matter much after she wins this bet, but it pops into her brain nonetheless.

When she gets to the precinct, most of her co-workers haven't arrived yet. That's pretty standard, really - Lily's normally one of the earliest to get there in the mornings. Yesterday was the obvious exception, but that's because the line at Dunkin was bordering on absurd and Lily needed that extra dose of caffeine and sugar.

Peter's already at his desk, and when he sees that Lily's walked into the room, he practically lights up. "Good morning, Lily!" he says cheerily, opening his mouth again as if to add something else before thinking better of it.

He probably wants to ask about her date with James, but has decided to wait until more people are here.

Bet aside, this is why she's had her rule against dating coworkers for so long. She doesn't need her workplace - where she's supposed to be talked about for her work - to be littered with gossip about her love life.

She can only hope that no one judges her too much for this thing with James - especially Captain Dumbledore, heaven forbid, because she cares more about his opinion of her than she cares to admit.

Drunk Lily was definitely a bit of an idiot to have made this bet in the first place (for a number of reasons), but it's too late to back out of anything now.

The remainder of her coworkers gradually trickle in, and Lily makes a pointed effort to not make eye contact with any of them. She knows it's an avoidance tactic that's destined for failure, but it doesn't stop her from trying anyways.

The only arrival she does look up for is James, and she's actually a bit surprised by the small herd of butterflies that take up residence in her stomach when she makes eye contact with him.

It's ridiculous, really - she doesn't suddenly have real feelings for a guy she's previously only been marginally attracted to all because of one date. That's not how things are supposed to work.

"Morning, Evans," he says, grinning at her as he takes his seat.

"Good morning, Potter," she replies, although what she'd expected to come out in a purely professional tone sounds decidedly warmer.

There's a distinct sound of office chair wheels speeding across the tile floor, but even that isn't enough warning when Sirius comes careening into her desk.

"So, Prongs and my dearest Lily," Sirius says, splaying his hands out dramatically so that one hand rests on James' desk and one hand rests on Lily's, "which one of you is going to give me all the juicy details about your night last night?"

"Neither of us," James responds immediately, which is yet another surprise to Lily. She would've thought, given his show-offy tendencies, that he would immediately want to brag about how well their date went.

Unless… he doesn't think it went as well as she did?

Which should, theoretically, feel like a win, because it would mean she's actually in a better place in this bet than she thought, but she feels a knot of worry form in her stomach nonetheless.

The silence from both of them seems to only egg Sirius on further. "Based on the lack of reply," he reasons, "things either went really well or really terrible. And given that you're both still talking to each other, I'm inclined to go with the former, but then again, maybe it's all a front? I'm going to need some official confirmation either way."

"Pads, give the poor folks a break," Remus calls out from his desk.

Sirius spins to face him, frowning. "Don't be a buzzkill, Moony. Don't you want to know how their date went?"

"Obviously," Remus replies. "But you're not going to get information out of them like that - are you forgetting absolutely everything you know about interrogation tactics?"

"So what you're saying is we need to lock them in a room somewhere until they answer me?"

"I've got an extra set of handcuffs!" Peter chimes in.

At that, Lily turns to glare at him. "Pettigrew, if you even think about handcuffing me, so help me god I will cut your hands off."

Peter mimes surrender at that, clearly not wanting to test Lily's ire any further.

"Come on, just tell us how it went and we'll all leave you alone," Marlene says, joining in on the conversation and making Lily feel very, very surrounded.

"Did you at least kiss?" Sirius tacks on.

Lily feels a telltale heat creep up her cheeks at that - because oh, did they kiss - and she knows it's all over at that.

"You did!" Sirius exclaims triumphantly. And then he seems to realise something, because he looks across the pit to someone totally different. "Shacklebolt! You hear that? Evans and Prongs kissed, and they're still stakeout partners."

"Padfoot…" James says warningly, probably worried that this is going to result in the two of them getting split up.

But Kingsley doesn't react that way at all. "They did?" he asks with a clear tone of excitement, before clearing his throat and sounding much more serious. "They did. Well, given that they have no past record of doing it on the job, I see no problem with them continuing to be partners. You and Lupin's record, on the other hand, isn't quite as clean."

"Aw, c'mon," Sirius whines, before being noticeably elbowed in the side by Remus.

"Let's not interfere in this," the other man says softly, with a look in his eyes suggesting there's a deeper meaning behind his words. "Besides, I've already done my late-night shift for the week anyways, and I'd quite like to keep my Friday night free."

Sirius pouts a little at that, but shuts up anyways.

"What on earth are all of you piddling about for?" their captain's voice rings out over the precinct. "Stop crowding Potter and Evans' desks and get back to your own work."

"But Captain," Peter interjects, "we're just trying to find out more about - "

"As thrilling as these two's personal lives may be to the rest of you, I can assure you that neither of them want to talk about it right now," Dumbledore replies, and Lily feels a rush of relief.

Dumbledore seemingly knows about her and James - it'd be hard not to, given how loud Sirius has been about it for the past ten minutes - and doesn't seem to care much.

Deep down, Lily kind of knew that would be the case; Dumbledore's a pretty objective captain, and is much more likely to judge a person based on the quality of their police work than on anything that might be going on outside of work hours, but she'd fretted about it nonetheless.

Despite his eccentricities and the fact that he's often damn near impossible to read, he's definitely one of Lily's role models. He's done a pretty incredible job running the precinct - even with Sirius, Remus, Peter, and James constantly getting up to stupid shit - and earning and maintaining his respect is one of the most important things in the world to her.

And as is often to happen when she cares a lot about something, she thinks way too far into it and worries about it at entirely unnecessary levels.

But Dumbledore's word in the precinct is law, so the four people clustered around her desk gradually roll their chairs back to their workspaces - although not without some audible grumbling about 'no fun.'

Almost as soon as that chaos in the precinct calms down, and everyone's gotten back to work at their own desks, a new form of chaos enters the office, in the form of an elevator ding and a tiny, stout woman wearing a pink headband with her captain's uniform.

Dolores Umbridge is the Deputy Chief of the NYPD and, in Lily's opinion, an absolute living nightmare.

And that take says a lot about Umbridge's character, because Lily has a natural deference to authority figures, so it takes quite a bit of horrific behavior for her to outwardly dislike someone who's got so much power over her.

Umbridge starts making a beeline for Captain Dumbledore's office.

"Do you have an appointment?" Marlene asks, but the question falls on deaf ears. Umbridge just opens the door to Dumbledore's office entirely without preamble, and closes it behind her before anyone can even see the captain's reaction, much less eavesdrop on the conversation.

It doesn't stop anyone from talking about it though.

"What do you think she wants?" James asks aloud.

"Probably trying to figure out another way to ruin our lives," Mary chimes in, sounding even more annoyed than usual.

"Or she's come up with yet another ridiculous PR stunt that our precinct just has to be the ones to run," Remus adds.

For some reason, any time the NYPD's PR department has come up with a promotional campaign involving 'real life cops,' Umbridge has come directly to the 73rd Precinct in pursuit of 'volunteers.'

It's an absurd concept, and any cop that participates is basically subjecting themselves to public ridicule - which is probably why Umbridge is so intent on making Dumbledore's precinct get involved.

They've got some sort of historical epic rivalry that goes all the way back to their training days.

But using stupid PR campaigns is never actually going to do anything helpful for the NYPD's reputation, in Lily's opinion, especially when leadership continues to ignore valid accusations of police brutality and pardon officers who have essentially committed homicide on the job.

No amount of posters with smiling officers and anecdotes about their dog is going to address the systematic failure of the organization to hold their employees responsible for their abuse of power.

"I refuse to participate again," James says stubbornly. "Someone graffiti'd a mustache onto my cat."

"Didn't they also draw a dick on your forehead?" Lily asks.

"Yeah, but I don't care about that," he replies. "But when you disrespect Godric, you've gone too far."

She giggles at that, because it's honestly kind of hilarious that he's more defensive of his cat's honor than his own.

"Regardless, these stupid PR campaigns always suck," Sirius says, putting his feet up on his desk. "And someone needs to tell Umbridge that before we get made fools of again."

"I think that's kind of the point though, Padfoot," Remus comments. "Although someone could do with telling the PR department that pitches these sorts of ideas that their ideas suck and nothing's going to change with public opinion until the department as a whole takes responsibility for their actions."

"Oh but why would we ever want to do that?" Marlene answers sarcastically. "That requires actual work,and it's just so much easier to stick a picture of me and my wife's dog in a subway station. Admittedly, I looked great in that picture, but my natural beauty is going to do fuck-all to fix their reputation."

"You guys know Umbridge can probably hear you, right?" Kingsley interrupts. "Captain Dumbledore's office isn't that soundproof."

"Good, I want her to hear how much she sucks," Mary answers.

Lily privately agrees, even though she hasn't actually participated in this conversation much.

It's weirdly perfect timing though, because Umbridge picks that exact moment to walk out of Dumbledore's office, a smug, self-satisfied grin on her toadlike features.

When Dumbledore walks out of his office, he looks decidedly uncomfortable - Lily can't help but wonder exactly what went down in that conversation that has him looking like that, because he's usually relatively unshaken by most anything.

"Umbridge has informed me that a few precincts will likely be undergoing remodeling efforts over the next few months, and our precinct is going to house their employees while the construction is underway," he announces to the room. "Meaning that we'll likely have to consolidate space to accommodate them and their desks."

"Enjoy the lack of personal space," Umbridge adds with a tone of artificial sweetness, before the elevator dings and she steps inside.

When the doors close, the precinct goes up in a storm of commentary - and Lily absolutely doesn't hold back this time.

"Why is she always like this?"

"I can't believe the nerve of that woman."

"It's absurd that she just gets to walk all over us out of personal vengeance."

"At least no one's drawing a mustache on my cat this time."

That last comment from James draws Lily out of her righteous anger, and she looks over at him.

He shrugs. "Hey, I'm just looking at the positives here."

"I'm suprised you're not more annoyed about this," she says. "You're not going to be able to just roll your chair around the pit anymore."

"Eh, I can still do it - I'll just hit more things. It's like a giant real-life game of pinball," he replies. "I'm surprised you're so annoyed by it - you're not even going to be here when this happens."

Shit - she'd almost forgotten about that. "It's the principle of the thing," she insists anyways. "It's ridiculous that she can abuse her power and wield it against people she harbors a personal vendetta against."

"Oh yeah no, that part's definitely absurd," James agrees.

The one bright side of Umbridge's unannounced arrival and announcement is that it gets pretty much everyone in the precinct to stop obsessing over James and Lily's date - it doesn't even dominate the conversation when Lily and Marlene walk up the street to grab lunch, when questions about her personal life are much more appropriate.

"I honestly can't decide who pisses me off more - Umbridge or Snape," Marlene says while they're waiting in line.

The Deputy Chief who likes making their lives a nightmare or the Major Crimes detective who insists on stealing their thunder whenever he can - it's a pretty tough decision, honestly.

"My vote's definitely on Snape," Lily replies. "At least Umbridge doesn't hit on me when she's trying to ruin my life."

"Oh god, I almost forgot about his thing for you," Marlene says, shuddering.

"You'd think he'd take a hint, but apparently not," Lily replies, thinking back to the numerous times Snape had blatantly made his fascination with her known.

It's awfully funny to her, in a twisted sort of way, that he somehow thinks she'd still be interested in him when he regularly tries to stab both her and the rest of her colleagues in the back.

"Well, maybe now that you're dating James, he'll leave you alone."

"I somehow doubt that would stop him," Lily reasons. "If anything, it'll probably just spurn him on. Not to mention, James and I aren't dating - or at least, we won't be for much longer."

"But you did kiss him," Marlene replies.

"I did." She pauses her conversation with Marlene to place her order, before jumping right back in where she'd left off. "Doesn't change the fact that I'm still going to win this bet."

"As both a neutral spectator to this bet and a person who is literally always right about these sorts of things, I can say with a lot of confidence that you are definitely not going to win this bet. James' heart eyes are even bigger this morning than they were yesterday."

Lily waves that off. "First dates are like that. We've still got nine days for things to go downhill."

That's the thing she's been repeating to herself all day, anyways. Nine days for James to realise she's not the one for him and for the stupid butterflies she gets whenever he looks at her to just die already.

Marlene rolls her eyes, clearly still convinced that she's right, but doesn't push the point any further. Instead, she starts off on a story about this past weekend, when she swears she and Dorcas saw Justin Timberlake in Soho.

Lily gets to go home early today - one of the side effects of doing a stakeout in the evening is that she's granted a half day in return.

She probably could benefit from taking a nap while she's home - she's going to be horrifically tired tomorrow morning if she doesn't - but she's also got a weird thing against midday naps and as a result, ends up showering, cleaning her apartment a bit, and reading a book instead.

On her way back to the police station, she grabs a pack of Red Bulls from a corner store and just accepts that she'll need half of them to get through tonight, and the other half to get through tomorrow.

Of course, when she gets there and walks around back to where the unmarked car they're taking to the stakeout tonight is parked, James is somehow there even earlier than she is.

"Do you know how unhealthy those are for you, Evans?" he asks with a smirk when she opens the car door. "And to think, you say my eating habits are bad."

She slides into the passenger seat and pops open one of the cans. "There's a difference between a couple energy drinks and putting Cheetos on a Cosmic Brownie."

"That was a dare," he insists. "I love both of those things individually, but I would never combine them of my own volition."

"You still ate it, that counts for something."

"Look me in the eyes and tell me you wouldn't eat that on a dare," he says, turning to face her. "If your honor was on the line, tell me you wouldn't eat some absurd food combination just to prove a point."

Given the absurd lengths she is currently going to in order to prove a point - though there's no food involved in this one - he's definitely one-hundred percent right in that assessment. "My honor isn't dependent on absurd food combinations."

"Right," James laughs, turning the car on. "I forget that you and your honor are above the rest of us mere mortals."

"Not above mortals," Lily corrects, "just above you, Sirius, Remus, and Peter."

James pauses in his attempt to back out of the police lot and puts a hand to his heart in mock offense. "So we're not even mortals anymore? What are we, some sort of goblin underling?"

"I mean, it would explain a lot," Lily teases. "You all sort of do resemble goblins, in a way."

James doesn't even look away from the road. "Are you calling me ugly, Evans? Because if so, I feel very personally attacked."

"So let me clarify, you're not offended when someone draws a dick on your forehead, but you are offended when someone insinuates that you look like a goblin?"

"Um, yes?" James replies. "How is telling someone they look like a goblin supposed to be the less offensive alternative to drawing a dick on a shitty NYPD PR photo of them?"

"Fair enough," Lily concedes. And then, because she feels like it's necessary to clarify, just in case he was actually offended, she adds, "You don't actually look like a goblin, by the way."

"That's probably the closest I'll get to a compliment from you, so I'll take it."

"Oh, shut it," she says, resisting the urge to jokingly shove him, because he's driving a car and that's not safe for anyone. "If I actually compliment you, it'll go straight to your already over inflated ego."

"If it's already over inflated, one extra compliment surely can't hurt that much?"

"Okay, now you're the one with the terrible logic," she argues. "That's like saying 'oh, if I continue to blow up an already over inflated balloon, there's nothing else bad that can happen, it definitely won't explode and hit me in the fucking face.' "

"Good point, Evans," he says. "We wouldn't want my ego to explode - that would get impossibly messy."

He cranes his head to parallel park the car across the street from the building they're meant to be watching, and the way he suddenly moves closer to her sends a waft of his cologne - or laundry detergent, or body wash, or something of his that smells impossibly tempting - towards her.

The suddenness of it immediately transports her back to last night, and the moments where she'd had him even closer - particularly, that kiss at the end of the night - and it takes more self control than it should to resist grabbing him by the collar and reprising the whole ordeal.

But they're here on business, and they're not Sirius and Remus and therefore aren't going to make out in a cop car while they're meant to be watching a potential crime scene, so Lily restrains that particular impulse.

James gets the car parked with relative ease; Lily's actually impressed at that, because she's still absolutely awful at parallel parking.

"What does an exploded ego even look like, anyways?"

He snorts. "Ask Snape?"

"Hmm, I wouldn't quite call Snape's that," Lily comments. "I think it's the opposite - why else would he overcompensate so much?"

"Why else would he overcompensate so much: title of Snape's sex tape," James replies immediately.

Lily can't suppress her giggle at that. 'Title of your sex tape' jokes are James' own version of those 'that's what she said' type lines, and while Lily probably shouldn't find that type of crude humor all that funny, she does nonetheless.

"Eugh, if Snape has a sex tape, I really hope I never, ever have to know about its existence."

"Likewise," James agrees.

They settle into easy conversation - it's not entirely unlike last night, except instead of sitting at a table for two in a Thai restaurant, they're in a parked car outside of a warehouse.

There should be all sorts of bells going off in Lily's head about how this isn't going even remotely sour, and that she needs to be trying harder to make him dislike her, but the ringing of those alarms is somehow entirely offset by the fact that she's just genuinely enjoying his presence.

"Tell me something I probably don't know about you," he says suddenly.

"What?"

"I feel like I've talked about myself a lot recently. I mean, you basically got my whole high school detention record last night; now it's your turn."

"Well, and I'm sure you won't find this surprising at all," she tells him, "I didn't get detention once in high school."

James laughs. "Somehow, I entirely expected that."

"High school me never would've expected to be working in the NYPD though," she adds, figuring that she might as well tack on something at least somewhat more surprising. "I actually wanted to be a chemist for a while; my chemistry teacher in high school adored me, and really wanted me to go the whole PhD route."

"Why'd you change your mind?"

"I realised just how expensive it'd be to be in school for that long," she replies. "And my mom got really sick my senior year of high school, and all my college savings went towards that instead."

It's not usually a story she finds herself telling very much, but she's weirdly okay with divulging this information to him.

"So I went to community college just long enough to get my associate's degree, and joined the NYPD from there - it seemed like the most impactful career I could have without needing to put myself in an extreme amount of debt."

James is looking at her, but not in the pitying way she might've expected from him. She knows that he comes from money, and that can sometimes color how people react to her story.

People who grew up comfortable often don't understand that there's a world in which both of those things - a college education and life-saving healthcare - aren't just assumed. When you're wealthy, you don't know what it's like to choose between your child's education and your wife's health - but it's the choice Lily's father had to make, and while she knows he made the right one, she still sees the regret in his eyes every once in a while when it's brought up that Lily didn't get a four-year degree. And James could never know what any of that's like.

But he doesn't actually say any of the things she'd presumed he might say. He takes her reality at face value, and doesn't question it.

"And now look at you," he says instead, with a wry sort of grin on his face, "destined to run the NYPD someday."

"I don't know about that…" Lily replies modestly, even though she would love nothing more than to reach that top office one day.

"I do," James responds. "You'd make a brilliant commissioner."

She almost wants to kiss him for that alone.

"Well, thank you," she says. "I suppose it's proof that sometimes things that feel like the end of the fucking world at the time sometimes work out in your favor."

"I can toast to that, Evans," he says, picking up his Coke bottle from the cupholder and clinking it against her Red Bull.

As soon as he puts his drink back down, she switches course. "So, tell me something I probably don't know."

"Hmm," he replies thoughtfully. "Well, despite you ribbing me about my food choices, I'm actually a pretty good cook - especially when it comes to Indian food."

That's actually relatively unexpected. "Oh really?"

"Yes really," he insists. "Better than most of the Indian places around here, if I do say so myself - my mum taught me a number of her recipes over the years."

She hums. "You'll have to show me sometime."

"Tomorrow?" he replies immediately, before fumbling his words a little bit. "I mean, yeah - I could just, if you wanted to come over to my place after work tomorrow, I could cook you dinner?"

She's a little taken aback by how quickly he'd offered, but she's honestly all too happy to spend more time with him - she's breaking all of her typical rules by spending this much time with a guy right when they've just started dating, but she just… really enjoys his presence.

Oh yeah, and the bet thing too. Seeing more of him is good for the bet thing too.

"Yeah, I'd like that," she says.

He grins at that. "I'm glad you're not sick of me yet - fuck, we've got movement."

Lily follows James' eyes to see that, sure enough, there's a van that's just pulled up outside the warehouse. Both the driver and passenger side doors open simultaneously, revealing a short man in a suit and a woman with wildly curly hair dressed in leggings and an oversized sweatshirt.

Lily immediately reaches to the gun sitting against her hip, checking that it's still there.

When the pair go into the building, that's her and James' cue to get out of the car. They do their best to do so casually - who knows if there's still a third person (or more) in the van, and they'd very much not like to blow their cover immediately.

It's a bit hard to entirely miss the bulletproof vests and guns on both of their hips once they get closer, but a few seconds of anonymity could very well be their saving grace.

They cross the street in relative silence - the only words they exchange are to confirm that Lily's going after the guy in the suit and James is in charge of catching the woman. Lily also takes a peek into the van when she gets close enough to see inside the windows, and at first glance, there doesn't appear to be anyone laying in wait.

The two people emerge from the building just a few moments later, the man holding a briefcase in one hand that he definitely didn't have when he walked in.

"NYPD, freeze!" Lily yells, pulling her gun out of its holster.

But because these things are never that easy, neither one of them actually freezes. Lily and James each go for their respective targets; the man, who's also got that briefcase of his to attend to, is noticeably slower, which very quickly results in Lily getting him on the ground.

It's not entirely unlike the maneuver she's used to get James down yesterday.

She immediately gets the man in handcuffs, and grabs the briefcase as well. Her heart is pounding in her ears as she goes through his Miranda rights - it always is, in these sorts of situations - and it's waking her up more than any Red Bull ever could.

That attuned sense of hearing means that she very distinctly hears the sound of breaking glass inside the warehouse, and immediately starts to wonder what the hell that could mean.

About a minute later, James reappears, out of breath and alone. "She had a getaway car waiting out back," he informs Lily.

"The dirty bitch didn't even tell me about that," the man in handcuffs mutters angrily. "Second in command and I don't even get to know the escape plans."

Lily's actually a bit taken aback by the revelation that he's not the one in charge. It's probably the massive difference in the way the two of them were dressed (and maybe something with her socialized biases causing her to automatically assume the man was in charge), but she really wouldn't have pinned the woman in the oversized hoodie as the one running this whole operation.

Of course, Lily still has no idea what this whole operation actually is anyways.

But that's what the person they've just arrested is for, hopefully. It remains to be seen if they'll be able to get him to talk.

"What's in the case?" James asks, grabbing onto the briefcase and following Lily's lead as she starts to bring their suspect back to the car.

"I'm not telling you that," he responds.

So it seems he's one of the stubborn ones. "We'll just be able to unlock it when we get back to the station, you know," Lily says.

The man still remains silent on the subject.

"What's your name?" James tries again.

"I'm not telling you that either," he reiterates stubbornly. "The pretty one told me I don't have to say anything without an attorney present."

"Huh, I don't remember saying that," James muses, looking over at Lily with a glint in his eye.

She can't help but quirk a smile at that, even if they are on the job right now. "Would you look at that, your ego exploded even without my assistance," she comments mildly, as she guides their suspect into the backseat of the car.

"It was a ticking timebomb, I guess," he replies, getting into the driver's seat and putting the briefcase over on Lily's side.

Backup arrives on the scene almost as soon as they're both in the car, and they take over searching the van. There's some pretty intense surveillance equipment and a number of illegal weapons - the second part is a godsend, in a weird sort of way, because it means they've got at least one charge on him and don't have to end up racing against the clock to investigate the contents of the case or interrogate him. They can push both of those things off until tomorrow morning and actually get some proper sleep tonight.

The ride back to the precinct is a bit quieter and less playful than the one on the way over - there's only so much teasing you can pull off when you've got a suspected criminal and apparent second-in-command to some sort of unknown crime operation seated behind you.

When they get back to the station, James takes on the task of bringing their suspect up to one of the holding cells, and Lily takes the case down the the evidence lockers. They'll deal with both of these things in the morning, but for now, it's well past midnight and they've successfully caught at least one part of the pair that's likely responsible for all those bodega robberies and god knows what else.

That's quite enough work for one day.

She runs into James again while she's waiting on the ground floor for a Lyft to show up; she may live walking distance from the precinct, but making that trek in the daylight is massively different from making that same trek at nearly one in the morning, and a car ride home feels like the much safer option here.

"Good work tonight, Evans," he says, walking up next to her.

"You as well."

He runs one of his hands through his hair, before asking, "So… do you actually want to come to my place for dinner tomorrow?"

"I said yes, didn't I?" she replies, nudging him with her shoulder.

"Well, yeah but I didn't know if - I don't know, maybe you'd changed your mind?"

She looks over at him, a bit taken aback to discover that he actually looks serious about it. And she's confused by it - why would she be the one to change her mind in this situation?

He's the one that's meant to eventually get sick of her, anyways.

"I haven't changed my mind," she reassures him.

His expression melts into something akin to relief. "Oh. Good, I'm looking forward to it then."

"Me too."

She realises that they've somehow moved to face each other over the course of this exchange, and for the second time tonight, she's all-too-tempted to go for a revival of last night.

She almost goes for it this time too, shifting her weight to the balls of her feet as if to pop up on her tiptoes to kiss him - because he's so close and somehow still smells so good despite literally chasing down a criminal earlier tonight - but she's stopped at the last minute by the lights that come streaming into the front windows of the station.

"Shit, uh, fuck, that's my ride," she says, immediately doing her best to collect herself. "I'll see you tomorrow, yeah? Both, uh, at work in the morning and at your place tomorrow night."

Now it's her turn to sound like a nervous wreck, apparently.

But instead of calling her out on her sudden awkwardness, he just smiles at her. "See you tomorrow, Evans."

She spends the entire ride home trying to tell her brain to get it together, for fuck's sake. She's supposed to be showing him why they're incompatible, not fucking collapsing into a puddle every time he looks at her with that silly glint in his eyes.

She'll get her shit together tomorrow.

Maybe.

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maple-keenes · 5 years ago

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of drunk kisses and superpowers

[HEY GUYS, I’M PUTTING IT AT THE TOP THAT THIS IS A REMUS X DECEIT FIC. PLEASE, DO NOT READ IF THIS MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE.]

summary: deceit (damien) is a mostly-normal journalism student who managed, somehow, to only make friends with superheroes and supervillains. he's in his final year of college, got an amazing best friend who's only a semi-murderous supervillain and he's landed an internship at the new york times. problem is, they keep making him report on all the superhero vs supervillain fights around the city - which means he's seen roman and remus fight against each other a million and a half times. the only issue with that is that he's starting to watch these fights more intensely and notice a hell of more about how good remus's costume looks on him. soon, damien's juggling his job, his schoolwork, and the growing feeling that he might want a little bit more than friendship with remus.

pairing: dukeceit, logicality, remile if you squint

tw: remus, deceit, cursing, alcohol, getting drunk, more cursing

wc: 4293

a/n: ...i’m not ashamed of what i’ve done here

read it on ao3

general:

@analogical-chaos @theflatpancake @ilovemygaydad @alltimevirgilant @virgiliananxiety @romanticsanders @theincediblesulk @wroammin @creativity-killed-thekitten @bitchyybabyy400 @wooflesthatwoof @lyditist @heck-im-lost @max-is-tired @demurphart @thelowlysatsuma @land-of-dragons-and-frogs @theeternalspace @magicallygrimmwiccan @weirdsthenewnormal @romansleftshoulderpad

Damien May was a fairly normal college student. He was a bit of an asshole, tended to not do his homework, but deep down he was a decent person. He lived in an apartment with a friend of his, Logan, and he was majoring in journalism.

He was not a superhero.

Actually, Damien was fairly certain he was the only one in his extended friend group that wasn’t a superhero or villain. Logan, his roommate was also known as Logic (he wasn’t the most creative), Remus was The Duke, his twin brother, Roman, was The Prince, (Damien was ticking these off on his fingers as he went), Logan’s boyfriend was Empath, Damien’s kind-of-friend from Composition was known as Dark Magic, and Damien's cousin Remy was also some sort of superhero. Thank god Remy's husband was just a therapist, or Dami would have gone batshit.

None of his friends knew that he knew who they all were except Logan. It was something that was hard to hide from your roommate, especially when said roommate is a seasoned professional in persuasion and observation. And Logan tells Patton everything and Damien tells Logan everything and vice-versa, so the whole-Patton-is-Empath thing was kind of out in the open from the beginning. And Virgil, aka Dark Magic, had told him off the bat too.

So really, it was just Roman and Remus.

Overall, he was generally content to stick with his normal life, with his not-so-normal friends, and continue pissing off Roman's main gang of friends with Remus.

This worked fine for him until his internship at the Times decided that he needed to cover a fight between The Duke and The Prince that had broken out, and Damien just sighed and grabbed his notebook. Tonight was gonna be great.

So he sat in a car, watching the twin brothers fly around yelling weird insults at each other. Since he lived and worked in New York, this was not the first or last fight he'd ever have to cover, so Damien just scribbled down an account of what had happened the last four times (the Arellano twins were pretty consistent) they had fought. He pulled out his phone and texted Logan an update.

The Best Person To Ever Exist (Me) 5:43 PM

they're not even fighting anymore, just yelling weirdly personal insults at each other

The Best Person To Ever Exist (Me) 5:43 PM

"GREEN ISN'T YOUR COLOR" "IT BRINGS OUT MY EYES YOU BITCH"

Spooky Mind Control Dude 5:44 PM

Oh, hell. Well, that sounds like them. I'll see you later, Dami.

The Best Person To Ever Exist (Me) 5:45 PM

i hate it when you call me that.

Spooky Mind Control Dude 5:45 PM

Okay, Dami.

Damien groaned and banged his head against the dashboard of his car, not even noticing the fountain explode next to him as Roman and Remus flew over top of the car.

“This is dumb, my life is dumb, I want to go home,” he muttered to himself as the battle raged on. “Go Remus, go Remus.”

It dragged on for another hour or so, and Damien found himself napping the backseat and dreaming about… something not to be discussed.

He woke up when someone tapped on his window and he mumbled “mrmph” and sat up. He quickly rolled down the window and stuck his head out, immediately waking up fully when he realized he was staring right at Remus and Roman. “Oh, hello sirs, I’m with the Times, do you think I could get a statement from you two on what we can expect from you next?”

“Hi, Damien. How long have you been reporting on us?” Roman asked, hands on his hips.

“I’m not allowed to tell you that. Now, what can we expect -”

“Damien,” Remus interrupted. “We know you know it’s us.”

He jerked up, smiling. “Oh, hi Remus, didn’t see you there.”

“I’m here too! Don’t think you can ignore me just cause you’re gay for my brother or some shit -” Roman said.

Remus spun around to face his brother. “Now listen here, Ro -”

Damien sank back into his chair, hoping that he could just drive away and possibly hit both of them when he did. He had to deal with their bickering constantly at home, dealing with it at work as well was something he’d definitely had nightmares about. Eventually he gave up and turned back to the window, raising his voice to be heard over the twins’ arguing and said, “Hey! You two! Shut up!”

They both looked at him, startled. “Damien?” Remus raised an eyebrow. “You okay?”

“Okay, you two aren’t subtle. I’ve known you guys are the Duke and Prince since I met you because anyone who knows you in real life knows it’s ridiculously obvious.” He took a deep breath. “And - and - I have to report on you guys because it’s my job. It’s not a personal thing and no, Roman, it’s not because I’m gay for your brother, it’s not like I want to report on you two doing the same thing every time!” Damien chastised. “So, please, stop it.”

“Fine.”

Damien sighed. “Thank you. Remus, I’ll see you later?”

He nodded. “8 PM?”

“Sounds good.”

With that, Damien figured the conversation over and drove off, wishing that it was possible to just scream as loudly as possible on the highway and hope that no one heard him. Ugh. If Remus and Roman knew he knew who they were, that meant he couldn’t report on them unbiased anymore, and that was just great.

When he got back to his and Logan’s apartment, he didn’t even bother to go to his room before he collapsed on the couch and started screaming into the pillow.

Logan poked his head out of his room. “Damien, what are you doing?”

“Suffocating myself,” he said, voice muffled by the pillow. “Roman and Remus found out.”

“About what? The superhero thing or the other thing?”

Damien sat up and glared at him. “What other thing? There’s only one thing!”

“I just meant…” Logan trailed off, giving him a curious look. “You don’t realize? Oh, that’s interesting. Anyway, I’m sorry about that. Are you sure they’ll act strange now that they realize it’s you that’s been reporting on them?”

“Yes! It’s what happened with you!” He groaned, burying his face in his hands. “Especially Remus. He’ll be super weird if he knows it’s me watching. Probably hurt Roman less. Which’ll especially suck because that’s like, the most enjoyable part of my job.”

Logan shook his head. “You are really oblivious, you know that?”

“I do, actually,” he replied, glancing at the time. “I’m leaving at 7:30, walking over to Remus’s place to hang out for a bit and awkwardly talk about what happened today before we get blackout drunk.”

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

He grinned. “Isn’t that the whole point, Logan?”

Damien lounged around the apartment for a bit, typing up the rest of his report and trying to figure out why the hell everyone was acting so weird about him and Remus lately. Logan was even doing that thing that Damien had told him when they moved in together he was Not Allowed To Do - which was to give him that look like “I know something you don’t.'' The rule was wholeheartedly ignored because Damien did it all the time, but it was just really annoying this time.

Come 7:30, he grabbed his jacket and opened the door, only to be greeted with a smiling Patton.

“Oh, hey Damien! I’m just -”

“Hey, Patton, nice to see you too. I’ll be back around… eventually, don’t do it in my room.”

He laughed and nodded, and Damien waved goodbye as he walked down the hallway towards the stairs. It was a long walk to Roman and Remus’s place, but he enjoyed the calm of it all once in a while, even if he’d never admit it.

When he reached their apartment, he knocked on the door and Roman opened it begrudgingly, and Damien went straight upstairs (stupid rich superheroes) to Remus’s bedroom. He threw his jacket on the chair and flopped down on the bed next to his best friend. “It has been too long of a day for anything other than your best wine, man.”

“I have, like, tequila and vodka too, you know,” he said, leaning back against the wall.

“I have standards, Remus.”

He laughed a bit. “Nothing is ever good enough for Damien May.”

Damien pouted. “Not true. You’re good enough for me, why do you think I let you stick around?”

“My impeccable fashion sense and weird sense of humor,” came Remus’s response, muffled by the fact that he was now halfway through a bottle of beer.

“And your ass.”

“I’m blushing.” This was meant to distract from the fact that he was, indeed, blushing.

Damien rolled over and made himself comfortable in Remus’s lap, staring up at the ceiling. “So… are you mad that I knew that you and Roman were superheroes this whole time?”

“Number one rule of my bedroom is that my brother’s name does not enter this room. That stupid bitch ruins my whole vibe,” Remus said, eliciting a laugh from Damien. “Secondly, I’m not mad. I understand that it’s a problem and a conflict of interest or whatever and I’d rather you keep your internship.”

He reached up and patted Remus’s cheek. “So selfless. Ugh, I could kiss you. You’re the best.”

“Mmm.”

Four glasses of wine later and Damien was practically straddling Remus as they talked about… something. Both boys were pretty damn drunk at this point so talking was pretty much off the table unless it was something that required few sounds and even less thinking.

“Have I ever told you how hot you are, Remus?”

“That’s the wine talking, Dami,” he responded quietly.

Damien flopped backward onto the bed, taking his legs off Remus’s hips. “I would say that even if I wasn’t drunk. I already said I’d kiss you.”

“Mmph. You were kidding.”

He looked at Remus, aghast. “I have never told a lie in my life.”

“You lie all the time.”

“Ah, wait, no, that’s right,” Damien said, giggling. “I wasn’t lying about wanting to kiss you though.”

Remus sighed and crossed his legs. “Yeah, okay.”

“I’ll prove it.” He sat up straight, as sober as someone five glasses of Chardonnay in could be. “C’mere.”

“I’m not going to - “ his sentence was cut off by Damien grabbing the front of his shirt and kissing him hard. God damn, this felt good. It wasn’t the best kiss Damien had ever had, because it was sloppy and messy and Remus was messing up his hair as he played with it but the best part for some reason was that he was kissing his best friend.

His hands were on Remus’s face, on his waist, and then he was straddling him and they were still kissing and -

“Holy shit, you two are making out,” came Roman’s voice. “Oh my god, I so regret opening this door.”

Remus broke the kiss and threw a nearby plastic cup at his brother. “Why, oh why, are you here?”

“I was going to tell you that I ordered pizza and you two assholes could have some, but apparently you guys are getting sexy up here so -”

“I’m going to throw you out a window.”

Roman stuck his tongue out at him. “Do it, I dare you.”

He shut the door behind him after that, and Remus smiled sheepishly and sidled back up to Damien. “Should we pick up where we left off?”

There were a few seconds where all Damien wanted to do was grab Remus by the front of his stupid green shirt and kiss him senseless, but his fight or flight instinct kicked in and he pushed Remus away from him. “I - I’m sorry, I shouldn’t - I can’t -” he stuttered, getting off the bed and grabbing his jacket. “I shouldn’t have done this. I have to go.”

“Holy hell, Dami, what are you doing -”

“I’m leaving, Remus,” he said, running down the stairs as his best friend ran after him.

Remus huffed. “You’re kidding.”

“I don’t know what came over me, I - I’ve never felt like that around you before and I guess I was just drunk -”

“Get out of my house, you fucking asshole!” he cried, tears in his eyes. He turned around and slammed his door, and Roman gave Damien the dirtiest look in his repertoire.

And so for the second time that day, Damien walked through the gardens on the way between his apartment and Remus’s. However, this time, his eyes stung with tears and he could only think about Remus, Remus, Remus…

He didn’t stop to say hello to Logan and Patton, who were watching a movie on the couch, as he stormed into his room and laid facedown on the pillow. He sobbed quietly, trying to make himself feel like his world didn’t just come crashing down on top of him and he didn’t just ruin the best thing in his whole life.

Patton sat down on the edge of Damien’s bed. “Hey, kiddo, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“I fucked it up,” he mumbled into his pillow.

“Fucked what up?” Logan asked.

Damien sat up, wiping his eyes. “So… we got drunk, as usual, and then we were flirting a bit, and I was probably straddling him, and then we started making out and when we stopped… I freaked out. I had never thought about Remus like that, and it felt like I was taking advantage of him. I just… I know I don’t like him…” he trailed off, creasing his eyebrows as Logan stifled a laugh behind his hand. “What?”

Patton patted his leg affectionately. “You seem a little lost, kiddo.”

“I’m older than you.”

“Congratulations, Dami, you’re officially the last person to know that you, oh magnificent journalist, are totally into Remus,” Logan deadpanned.

Damien laughed, still wiping away tears. “I’m not.”

He nodded. “Yeah, you are.”

“I am not!”

“You are!” Patton exclaimed. “You’ve seen every single one of his fights.”

“It’s a work thing.”

Logan groaned. “If it was a work thing, you would have talked to them about it by now.”

“That’s true,” he agreed, “I can feel it, Damien. It’s one of those things that’s always buzzing in the background behind you, like right now, it’s right under the fact that you’re super angry with me -”

He threw his hands in the air. “Fine! So I like him a little. But now I’ve gone and screwed it up so it doesn’t even matter, and I’m here rambling to you two.”

“He likes you, Damien. He does. You need to apologize for freaking out.”

“I doubt Roman will even let me in the house.” Damien flopped back onto his bed. “I appreciate you two, but right now I want to sit here and cry about lost love until I have to go to Composition tomorrow.”

Patton and Logan relented and left him alone, and Damien laid back down and cried to his heart’s content (not that he would ever tell anyone that).

The next day in Composition, Damien slid into the chair next to his kind-of-friend and slammed his head down on the table, groaning.

Virgil chewed on the back of their pencil. “What’s up, Damien?”

“Mrph,” was his response.

“Dude, are you hungover or something?”

He sighed, picking himself up off the table. “I wish I was just hungover. That would make my life so much easier right now.”

Virgil tilted their head, concerned. “Is something wrong?”

“You ever make out with your best friend, then freak out on him and run out, then only later when you’re talking to your roommate’s boyfriend figure out that you’re probably in love with him and now he won’t talk to you and his brother is probably about to kill you, which he can do because he has super strength?”

They chewed on their pencil some more. “No, but are you talking about Prince and Duke? Cause lemme tell you, they are massive pains in my ass,” Virgil said.

“I don’t think I can tell you that,” Damien responded, laughing. “Anyways, now I can’t even talk to him.”

“Mm. Did you analyze the essay from last week?”

The rest of his day passed by like a blur until the gods at the Times decided it was time to punish Damien for his crimes.

Boss Man Holt Dude 4:36 PM

Hello, Damien. We need you cover a battle that’s broken out between Empath and The Duke on 39th street. Final report due on my desk by this time tomorrow. Thanks, Charles Holt.

Damien leaned back in the seat of his car and flip off the sky through his sunroof. “You see that, O God Who Hates Me? Fuck you.”

He gripped the steering wheel and sighed long and hard, trying to exhale out all of his stress. Still mentally hitting his head against the wheel as hard as possible, he drove over to 39th and parked right next to where Patton was standing off against Remus. He tried to hide his car best as possible so he wouldn’t be noticed.

It didn’t end up making a difference, because after about fifteen minutes of Patton fighting Remus, he noticed that Damien was parked a few meters away and after a bit of an argument with Patton, stormed off and left Patton to fix the mess he’d made by manipulating reality. Damien was half tempted to drive off, but since he’d missed most of the fight he was going to need to take Patton’s statement.

He rolled down his window as his roommate’s boyfriend walked over. “Hello, Empath, I’m with the Times, could I take your statement on the fight today?”

“Hi, sir, of course.” (Thank god at least one of his friends knew how to properly conduct themselves.) “The Duke was set on warping the reality of this neighborhood for no other reason than to cause chaos, and I was contacted by the police to slow him down. Luckily, he got spooked when he noticed that the guy he’s in love with that also crushed him completely was watching.”

(He rescinds his earlier statement.)

“Patton!”

He shrugged. "I'm not saying put it in your report, I'm just telling you that's what happened."

"I came all the way here and now I'm being attacked by my roommate's boyfriend," Damien grumbled.

Patton's face softened even more, if that was possible. "You can call me your friend, you know."

Damien felt his face heat up. "Yeah, thanks."

"You're welcome. Anyways, I'm all done here," he said with a snap of his fingers, clearing up the mess, "so you can go home and write up your report. Oh, and also you should apologize to Remus."

He shot Patton an annoyed glare. "I'm going to."

"When?"

As it turns out, the answer to that question was a week later when Logan got sick of him moping around their apartment and kicked him out until he was able to talk to Logan with some inflection in his voice again. This led to him moping in the park.

Thankfully (not for him, but for his friends and such that were so done with the moping) his cousin texted him at the point Damien was about to turn around and beg Logan to let him back into the apartment. The universe, it turns out, is also done with his moping.

The Gay Cousin 10:27 PM

hey girl, do you have grandma’s phone number

Actual Mistake (Me) 10:28 PM

life is a curse. why do i exist

Actual Mistake (Me) 10:28 PM

also yeah it’s [a totally real phone number]

The Gay Cousin 10:29 PM

u okay dami?

Actual Mistake (Me) 10:29 PM

no i’m having boy troubles

The Gay Cousin 10:30 PM

well you came to the right cousin!!!! what seems to be the issue??

Damien recounted the events of last week to Remy, who was supportive, but also willing to call him out on his bullshit, which is the best balance a person can have.

The Gay Cousin 10:35 PM

you need to talk to him, dami. this isn’t something you can ignore and hope that it goes away after a while. if you really like this guy you need to set the record straight.

The Gay Cousin 10:35 PM

*gay

Actual Mistake (Me) 10:36 PM

i... yeah. i guess so. i’ll text you later, okay?

Damien turned off his phone and took a deep breath, standing up and steeling his nerves. “Guess I gotta get this over with,” he mumbled to himself.

He knocked on the door of Remus’s apartment a couple times, only to be greeted with an irate Roman. “Damien, why are you here? It is 11 pm and I have class in the morning - “

“I need to talk to your brother.”

Roman mouthed “oh” and folded his arms across his chest. “Well, I was told you weren’t allowed in here. Remus wants you to, and I quote, ‘go jump up your own ass.’”

“I get it, I fucked up, but I need to see him!” He rolled his eyes and looked down at the ground. “I wanted to apologize for leading him on or whatever.”

“Really?” Roman asked, raising an eyebrow. “Alright, well, as much as my brain is struggling between the desire to torment my brother and the hope that he’ll find someone that makes him happy someday, you can come in. I’ll go get Remus.”

Damien bounced his leg up and down as he waited for Remus to come down the stairs. He knew he screwed up - he had been doing that a lot recently - but he was kind of certain that he might like Remus a little bit and that was messing with his whole thing.

He heard footsteps coming downstairs and his head shot up, glancing at the stairs. The second Remus saw Damien waiting for him, he turned and went back upstairs, and Roman’s annoyed sigh was probably loud enough to hear all the way back in Damien and Logan’s apartment.

Damien sat back down, putting his head in his hands. “Jesus, I am never going to fix this.”

Roman sighed and plopped down on the couch next to him. “I know I give you guys a lot of shit, but I’m rooting for you two. I want that weird little psychopath to be happy.”

“You’re a good person, Roman,” he said. “This is really hard for me to say, but I’m really thankful you’re doing this.”

“Mm.” He nodded thoughtfully. “Now come on, just go sit outside of his door and talk to him. He’s been so depressed lately, and I know he’s liked you for a long time. If Remus knows you’re sorry… he’s going to forgive you.”

Damien gave him a half-smile. “Thanks, Ro.”

He followed Roman’s advice, slowly walking up the stairs and sitting down in front of his best friend’s door. “Hey, Remus. Your brother told me I could come up here. I’m sorry I’m here right now, instead of the day after. I should have come right away.” He took a deep breath and exhaled, picking at his fingernails. “I think I do like you. I think I might love you, even. And I think that’s the most honest thing I’ve ever said. I’m sorry I freaked out on you, you deserve better than that. I’m sorry I blamed it all on the alcohol because yeah, I was drunk but kissing you was the soberest I’d been that whole night. It’s been a hell of a week without my best friend, Remus. And… you don’t have to love me, or even like me, but I at least want you to forgive me,” Damien said. “I just want you to know that I never meant to make you feel used, and I’m sorry I did. It was awful of me.”

There was a small thump against the door, and Damien whipped around to face it. “Remus? You there?”

“I - yeah. I’m here.”

“Will you talk to me?”

The door creaked open. “I’ll talk to you,” he whispered.

“I’m really sorry, Remus.”

“I know you are.” He sighed. “I just… I dunno. Something felt right but then you got into my head about it being just ‘cause we were drunk and then I was just angry as all hell with you.”

Damien nodded. “And I deserve that.”

He bit his lip, which Damien only noticed because it was just adorable. “You drive me crazy, Dami. But it’s your best quality, how close you are to your friends. And if I could have just a little bit of that attention I think I’d be set for life.”

“Remus, I promise you’ve got all of it.”

Remus smiled, turning to face Damien. “Then I forgive you.”

He stopped his nervous fidgeting and glanced up at Remus. “You do?”

“Yes, I do, you dumb snake, it’s not like you killed my brother - though I think I’d forgive you for that too.”

He giggled. “God, you’re amazing.”

“Here, my turn,” Remus said, grabbing the front of Damien’s shirt and kissing him hard.

Something switched on inside of him at that moment and Damien pushed him back into the room and slammed the door behind them. These kisses weren’t the fervent, messy ones they had shared when they were drunk, but they were slower, softer, and there was the knowledge behind them that this meant more than a makeout session, and that was good enough for both of them.

#tw deceit #tw remus #tw alcohol #tw drinking #tw cursing #remus sanders #deceit sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #nonbinary virgil #remy sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #ts fanfiction #dukeceit #logicality #remile #sanders sides

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