who ? james and evan potter when ? dinnertime, friday evening, 8th april where ? 12 grimmauld place what ? james and evan eat soup and talk about dating. it is shockingly not awkward. status ? complete
Being on Easter break from uni was starting to drive Evan a little mad. He had read so many books in the past two weeks that even Evan was starting to consider whether it was just too many. Monday lectures would start again and Evan was honestly looking forward to that. Whilst Evan enjoyed the fact that he had more free time to hang out with Andrew, the lack of lectures were really starting to bore Evan and he honestly was not, in no way, good with being bored. It was probably the main reason Evan had spent half the day repainting walls in the treehouse, which, by now, was becoming more of an actual house than a treehouse.
When Evan had been installing the kitchen for Daisy’s birthday, he had decided that some of the rooms needed reworking. Partially this was because they really did and partially it was because Evan never considered his work good enough. There was always room for improvement, quite literally this time around. Magic probably would have made it a lot easier but Evan quite enjoyed the process of wall-painting, it was a mindless job that was oddly soothing rather than boring to Evan.
Doing manual labour for most of the day, though, meant that Evan was absolutely starving come evening. He had been trying to decide what to do for food when Evan realised that he had told his dad he’d come over for dinner. Evan still wasn’t sure why James wanted to have dinner with him but there had been no logical reason for Evan to refuse. He hadn’t had plans, which meant that unless he wanted to lie, there was no excuse not to say yes. And whilst briefly Evan had entertained the idea of just saying that he was busy with Andrew that evening, he wasn’t. It seemed easier to just agree.
Evan didn’t bother to change out of his marginally paint covered clothes, apparating straight outside his dad’s new abode. A rather disgruntled looking house-elf let Evan in once he had rang the doorbell, shoving rather than showing him towards the kitchen. “Hey,” Evan greeted James once he had spotted him and proceeded to stand almost awkwardly near the kitchen door.
--
James hadn't been sure when Evan was going to get there, as "dinner time" really could have been any time after work. Maybe he should have tried to narrow it down a bit more, but he hadn't really considered it. It wasn't as though he had other plans for his evening that would be disrupted by not knowing when his son would be stopping by, after all. So he'd set himself up in the kitchen, sitting at the table with a cup of tea and a book to work through while he waited.
The doorbell was a good indication that Evan had arrived, and James shut his book to set it aside as he heard the front door falling shut. He smiled when Evan appeared in the doorway, pushing up out of his chair to stand. "Hey," he echoed, taking in all the paint on his son's clothes. "You look like you've been busy."
He motioned for Evan to come further in than just the doorway, moving over toward the stove. "I made soup, I hope that's alright. I was going to make sandwiches too, but I figured I would wait until you were here."
-
Following James’ motion to come in more, Evan walked over to the table sitting down as he glanced around the kitchen. Evan couldn’t remember the last time he had been in the house, even though he was sure he had. It always seemed so dark to Evan and from an architectural point of view, Evan wasn’t quite sure why there just weren’t more windows. Whoever had built the house had clearly tried to go for a particular esthetic and Evan wasn’t convinced it worked. “Soup’s fine,” Evan commented with a shrug. Food was food, there was very little Evan ever turned down, especially when it came to free food.
Glancing down at himself, Evan frowned. Oh, yeah, the paint. “I’ve been repainting some of the rooms in Daisy’s treehouse,” Evan explained. No one but Evan and Daisy actually knew where the treehouse was but both had mentioned it enough whilst growing up that their family knew of its existence. Evan had started building it when he was thirteen, it really was by now becoming more of a house than anything else, especially with the kitchen he was slowly setting up for Daisy.
--
"Are you sure?" James asked, glancing over his shoulder at him before reaching to get down some bowls from the cupboard. "It's tomato... I was going to make grilled cheese to go with it, but if you don't want one that's okay too."
He smiled a little more at the mention of the treehouse. It was nice they still had someplace like the treehouse to call their own, he thought, a place to go away from everything else. Growing up, he might have liked to have somewhere like that - but being an only child, it had been easy for him to find places to himself if he wanted. "That's nice of you to do."
Leaning back against the counter, he watched him for a moment. "How've you been? The election's almost over, or... well, should have been already, but that didn't happen."
-
“Soup’s fine,” Evan repeated. He really didn’t mind whether there was sandwiches to go with it or not. It was already nice of James to cook for him, Evan thought, so demanding more food was unnecessary, especially when Evan could just have soup. Presumably the soup would be filling enough and if not maybe he could ask for a sandwich after. There did seem to be a lot of soup, though, so unless it was meant to be shared with more than Evan it’d be okay.
Evan nodded when James told him it was nice of him to repaint the rooms. Perhaps. Evan wasn’t sure whether he’d describe it as ‘nice’ but it certainly wasn’t mean, so maybe ‘nice’ was an acceptable description to give it. Besides, Evan had enjoyed the work and the rooms did now look brighter, less like a fifteen year old had thrown them together over a weekend.
At James’ question about the election, Evan gave a small sigh. “Could’ve probably done without the corruption scandal,” he commented with a shrug. There was still bits and pieces Evan had to do, but mostly, since the election had meat to have passed by now, the campaigning had stalled. Not that Evan had done a great deal of campaigning to begin with, but he had talked to plenty of people about his proposals. “But yeah, I’m fine?” Evan offered not sure what else to tell James. Unlike with Lily, when it came to James, Evan was never too sure what to say to his dad.
“How are you?” He asked finally because that seemed like one of those things you asked when someone asked you first.
--
With a second no to the offer of sandwiches, James abandoned the thought of them, instead filling the bowls with soup and taking them to the table so they could eat. Spoons and drinks were there already, unless Evan wanted something beyond tea or water, but that could easily be gotten if that was the case. He listened to what little his son said about the election, and offered a slight shrug as he slid into his seat.
"I think this election was interesting enough without the scandal, but that didn't seem to stop it from happening," James replied, running a hand through his hair as he settled back in his chair. "Buzzing around the office might settle down once the votes are in, at least for a bit."
Evan's question made him pause, mostly because James wasn't sure what depth of answer to give. Saying he was fine wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the truth. Anything beyond that seemed a slippery slope to more than was necessary. "I'm doing alright today," he said, then added with a smile, "Glad to have dinner with you, which is a positive."
-
Evan offered a ‘thanks’ to being given the bowl of soup and a spoon, before starting to eat, since he really was starving. He nodded along when James spoke, spooning more soup into his mouth. Evan wasn’t sure why James’ office might be busier than usual because of the election but he did work at the Ministry so maybe that was just a thing. It would have been easy enough to ask but Evan was too preoccupied with eating to really bother. “It’s nice,” he commented nodding a little at the bowl of soup in front of him. “I didn’t realise you can cook,” Evan added honestly. He was sure that James probably had cooked for them at some point, but Evan couldn’t really recall when the last time that might have happened was.
Doing alright today made it sound like he wasn’t doing alright on other days but Evan didn’t know how to point that out, so instead he concentrated on the second part of James’ reply, of how it was a positive to have a dinner with Evan. “Why?” He asked honestly somewhat puzzled. So far they hadn’t really spoken about anything to any great relevance so what was the point? At least Evan was getting free food out of it, but he failed to see what James was getting out of the dinner. Evan wasn’t really sure why James hadn’t asked Harry or Daisy or even Prim over instead, since he would probably have a better conversation with any of them.
--
"I can barely cook," James said with a chuckle, absently stirring his soup. "I hardly think soup qualifies me as being able to cook." It was one of the easier things to make, and the accompanying sandwiches would have been too, but it didn't get much more complex for James when he was in the kitchen. He normally didn't have to put much effort in anyway, only feeding himself or Sirius if he was making food for two, and there wasn't much finesse needed there either.
His eyebrows raised at Evan's question, and he paused with his spoon in his mouth for a moment before returning it to his bowl. "Why... am I glad to have dinner with you? Because I don't see any of you kids that often and I like it when I do?"
-
Well, soup was still more than Evan could cook, so to him soup-making seemed like plenty of cooking. Especially since it did taste pleasant, even if the way James said that he could barely cook did make Evan pause slightly, but he decided that the chances of food poisoning were probably pretty slim. Evan was pretty sure that James wouldn’t want to intentional give Evan bad food, besides, he was eating it himself, too, so clearly James trusted himself enough to at least not give himself food poisoning. So instead Evan shrugged and had some more of the soup.
Evan nodded slightly when James clarified the what Evan had meant with his question. The answer, though, that didn’t make a great deal of sense. Not seeing his kids often was hardly a good enough reason to see them more often, in Evan’s opinion. “What do you like about it?” Evan asked still rather confused about the whole situation. Evan liked spending time with Lily because Lily talked about things with Evan. Evan liked spending time with Daisy because Daisy talked about things with Evan. Evan liked spending time with Andrew because Andrew talked about things with Evan (also the kissing was nice). So far, Evan and James had discussed soup and the made a note of the lack of voting that had happened this week. What did James find particularly enjoyable in that, Evan didn’t know.
--
Maybe James shouldn't have mentioned it, but he'd wanted to. He was glad to have dinner with Evan, it's just he wasn't sure he could give Evan a good enough reason why that he would understand. He hadn't been aware he needed one, truthfully. Spending time with his family always seemed like a good thing, barring it being for unfortunate circumstances, with no need for explanation.
"You're my kids?" he offered, leaning back in his chair and looking over at him. "Why wouldn't I like it? I miss when all of you were little and at home, and now you're all grown up and off doing your own things and not at home, so..." He wasn't at home either, so maybe that was part of it too. Having them around made him feel less out of place in his own life. "Plus I wanted to know how your school was going, since I hadn't heard about it in a while. Everything good?"
-
“I don’t get it,” Evan said bluntly. He didn’t. Spending time with someone should, to Evan it seemed, at least, be something that you wanted to do because you enjoyed the other person’s company. Being someone’s child, or parent, or sibling, or anything, was not a reason. Perhaps the nostalgia, that Evan could rationalise. Missing having his kids little, that to Evan made more sense, but at the same time, it wasn’t something that would ever return. Evan could have probably asked more questions but he didn’t want to continue the circle of ‘things are things because they are’, and that often seemed to be the sort of conversations people entered into. They were confusing and illogical, so Evan opted to just move on to the next topic offered.
Uni was, in fact, good. Which therefore didn’t make it the greatest of topics, not when Evan thought that James would take very little interest in it past it being ‘good’. “Yeah,” Evan confirmed with a small shrug. “We’re on a break until Monday, and then exams start in May,” he explained. It was another one of those exceptionally short terms that seemed to happen after Easter, but then there would be exam prep to do, so Evan was sure it’d keep him busy. “It’s been going well?” Evan offered. “We need to do a report on unconventional building practices, so I might do caves,” Evan explained. It would certainly be made easier by the trip Andrew had promised him.
--
James had no other way of saying what he meant, and even if he had he wasn't sure his son would understand. So he went back to eating his soup while listening to him talk about his school work. Architecture wasn't exactly a strength of his, but he found it interesting what was able to be done with it, especially where magic was involved rather than the static buildings of the muggle world.
"Caves?" James asked, quirking an eyebrow. "How do you mean, unconventional building practices, like... building something in a cave? Or something else?"
If it was something else, he had no idea what it would be. Being an Auror hadn't exactly given him much opportunity or reason to think about building practices, conventional or otherwise.
-
Evan nodded slightly at the question. That he could do, if there were questions, Evan was pretty good at answering them. “I mean, obviously magic in a way is an unconventional building practice,” Evan explained. “But it’s more meant as... not buildings? So, we can do things like igloos or shipping containers,” he said before spooning some more soup in his mouth carefully. After swallowing, Evan moved on to the second part of the question.
“Caves have historically been used as habitats for humans across the world,” Evan clarified. “So it’s not as much as me building something in a cave, as it is--” He paused trying to decide what the best way to explain it would be. “In order for me to understand how spatial practices of living work, it’s important to establish why we build houses like this,” there was a small wave of his hand at the general direction of the house they were in. “Rather than live in something completely different,” Evan concluded. There were, of course, many considerations to give to things like infrastructure and urbanisation, but the principle was still there.
--
It made a lot more sense when Evan started explaining it, for which James was incredibly grateful. Otherwise he would have just had to nod and move on because it didn't make sense. Igloos, shipping containers, or caves all seemed interesting when thought of in terms of use in building rather than the typical house like the one they were in, or where they lived before. It wasn't something James fully understood, but he could picture it better than he had before.
"So not so much you building something in a cave but rather studying caves to determine why we don't live in places like them, or igloos, or shipping containers, rather than the houses we do?" James asked, hoping he had understood correctly. "That's very interesting. It makes you wonder when in history we started having houses like we do today, things like that. I'm sure that's something you've probably looked into, or learned about. It's always interesting to look at how things have changed over the years as a whole."
-
“Yeah,” Evan nodded almost too energetically when James summarised back what Evan had told him. “It is interesting,” Evan confirmed. Of course, Evan knew why people lived in houses, he understood the developments of architecture over time, but it didn’t make the original concepts any less fascinating. Especially when compared to what and how things were then and then the transition they had made. “And caves is a really interesting case study,” Evan said. “I mean, people started out by living in caves and then made the transition to huts and so such, but there are still cave cities around the world, some which have people living in them, and those are a very different time period than what people originally had.” Which to Evan made it absolutely fascinating because it indicated a level of common thought indicative of human behaviour rather than learnt behaviour.
Finishing his soup, Evan got up to get some more, since there was more. “Andrew’s present for my birthday was a trip to a cave city,” Evan explained as he poured some more soup into his bowl. “So it made me realise that I could do my report on that,” he added before returning to the table. “Seems easier than reading up on igloos.”
--
James smiled as he listened to Evan explain more. It was clearly something he found interesting, and it was something James hadn't thought much about on his own so he liked hearing about it. It was always amazing to him that there were so many different topics out there that he knew next to nothing about, but that others knew so much, and anytime someone was passionate about a topic it was easy to listen. It made it easier to learn, too, he found.
"A trip to a cave city? That's quite the present." James finished the last bit of his soup before nudging the bowl away and settling back in his chair again. "Easier than igloos, and also not as cold." He paused as he racked his memory for a mention of an Andrew, but mostly came up blank. "Who's Andrew? Is he the one from in the paper that one time?"
-
Evan had almost forgotten about the story in the paper, the one that had called him ‘Harry Potter’s brother’ rather than using his actual name. By now, Evan didn’t really care about it any longer. Mostly. There was still a slight bitterness about the fact. Evan had also forgotten that when he brought Andrew up, there were still plenty of people who had no idea about how much time him and Andrew spent together these days. It had happened with Ron, so mostly Evan just hoped that James wouldn’t ask Evan not to talk about Andrew, too.
“Yeah,” Evan replied before spooning some more soup into his mouth. James was right, it was quite a present but Evan was still finding it impossible to think about it outside the extreme excitement he had for the trip. “Andrew and I--” Evan paused. He didn’t want to say that they were dating because the whole point was that they weren’t, even if Evan was rather conscious of the fact that it most likely looked exactly like dating. “We spend a lot of time together,” Evan finally settled on. They did spend a lot of time together. Some of that time was spent going places and doing exciting things and some of that time was spent kissing and touching. Both of those, Evan thought, still qualified for ‘spending time together’, though.
--
James watched his son a moment when he paused, waiting to hear what he and Andrew... whatever the end of his sentence was. He couldn't remember much of the article, just that he'd read it and knew they were talking about Evan and that someone named Andrew was in it. As a rule, he didn't put much stock into what the gossip columns printed. Evan's ending his thought with 'spend a lot of time together' didn't give him much to go on, though he could read between some of the lines.
"That sounds nice," James said with a smile, picking up his tea and taking a long sip before tilting his head in thought. "Where is this cave city? I don't think I know where any might be - and you said there are many still around?"
-
Evan smiled when James said it sounded nice. It was nice. Evan liked Andrew a lot and even if he wasn’t saying as much to James, the fact that the topic made Evan smile might have been a good indication, since Evan wasn’t exactly known for smiling a lot. Andrew, though, seemed to bring smiles out in Evan a great deal. “Georgia,” Evan replied when James asked where the cave city was. There really were a few, some in China and Turkey, some in the States and in India. The one in Georgia sounded fascinating, though, especially with an allowance for staying in Tbilisi for a few nights as well.
Finishing his soup, Evan reached for the glass of water on the table. “Do you like living here?” Evan asked glancing around again. He didn’t think he’d like living in a house like 12 Grimmauld very much. The flat he shared with Harry and Daisy (for now) was light and spacious and Evan liked that. This seemed a bit too... tight.
--
"Georgia," James repeated, thinking for a moment. "I've never been there. You'll have to take lots of pictures when you go, I'd be interested to see what the cave city is like."
Evan's question was a fair one, but that didn't make James want to answer it. His feelings on 12 Grimmauld were varied and complicated, and had years of history to back them up. "No," he said simply, his gaze dropping to his empty bowl on the table for a few seconds before he looked over to his son again. "No, I don't. I like and am grateful that Sirius is letting me, and that I'm not alone in an apartment somewhere, but I don't like this house."
-
“Oh, I intend to,” Evan confirmed with a nod. He doubted anyone would want to sit through all the pictures he intended to take, but Evan was hardly planning on going abroad and not taking as many pictures as he could get away with. “It’s going to be great,” he added truly believing his statement. Seeing the cave city would be a great deal of fun, Evan had no doubt, but sharing the experience with Andrew would definitely add to it.
When James said that he didn’t like the house, Evan frowned. “Couldn’t you go stay with Peter or Remus or whoever else?” Evan got not wanting to live on his own, he never had and the idea in no way appealed to him, but if James didn’t like the place, then surely it’d be easier to move elsewhere? “Are you planning to stay here forever?” He asked instead. Evan had no idea what the situation was between his parents but it seemed reasonable to at least presume that there was a probability that James would never move back in with Lily.
--
James was glad Evan was so excited for his trip, and that he was going to use it for something in his studies as well. Though he didn’t know, well, anything about Andrew, he was left with the thought that whoever he was, he knew Evan well enough to get him such a thoughtful gift for his birthday - so he couldn’t be bad.
Sure, he might have been able to stay with one of his other friends, but Sirius was the first person he’d gone to when everything happened and despite not liking the house itself, James enjoyed the comfort of having Sirius nearby. Evan’s second question caught him off-guard, and he gave a quick shake of his head in response, almost automatically. “I--no. I don’t plan on staying here forever, though… I guess I don’t know when anything might change, or where I would go.”
-
Not knowing when things might change or what the plan would be for and if they did, sounded pretty awful to Evan. He liked plans, liked knowing exactly how things would go. This was why Evan usually had plans from A to H and then, depending on the situation, he might extend them to J. Usually by the time it moved past J, the plans involved Evan’s accidental death, so he didn’t find them particularly optimal. “That doesn’t sound very thought through,” Evan commented because it really didn’t.
“Aren’t you too old not to have at least some sort of idea what you want your future plans to be?” Evan asked before getting up to make himself some tea. And make some for James, too, because his mug was almost empty, which to Evan automatically meant it had to be refilled.
--
“Why thank you, Evan,” James replied with a laugh, bringing his hands up to rub over his face before letting them drop down to his lap again. “I’m quite aware of how old I am, yes.” Some of his future plans were settled, which had been at least a slight comfort over the past many months of upheaval. Work, for instance, he knew exactly where he was and where he was going. There was a plan, and he was on it. His personal life, that was a completely different story.
“I know what I want my future plans to be, but that doesn’t mean they’ll happen,” he added, turning in his chair to look over where Evan was. He tried not to talk about the separation much around the kids, even though they were all adults. He didn’t want it to seem like it was him versus Lily, because it wasn’t. “Not everything’s up to me. Maybe I should come up with a Plan B, but I don’t know.”
-
“I didn’t say you were old,” Evan said with a slight eye roll as he located where the mugs lived and filled up the kettle. “I said too old,” he clarified. Personally, Evan felt that he himself was perhaps still young enough not to have an idea of what his future plans were, but even then that wasn’t a definite. Evan wouldn’t have expected Daisy to know exactly what she wanted but by the time people reached their thirties, Evan thought they should have an idea. And James, no matter how polite Evan might have wanted to be, which was most likely not at all, was well on his way away from thirty.
Pouring the water into the mugs once it had boiled, Evan glanced over his shoulder at James. “What’s plan A?” He asked somewhat puzzled. If staying here wasn’t a plan at all and a Plan B didn’t exist then there had to be a plan A. “Wait,” Evan said pausing slightly. “Is mum Plan A?” That sort of made sense, he thought. Especially in how James said that not everything was up to him. If Lily was Plan A, then he was right, because she, too, might have Plans A to J that involved James in different ways. Hopefully, none ended with his death.
--
Too old, old, James had known what Evan meant when he said it but he was aware he probably should have come up with some sort of plan. He’d been drifting for months, ever since he’d moved out of their family home and into a spare room in a house he had no love for. Perhaps he should have thought beyond the present, but he had hope for his original plan, be it misplaced or not.
“Plan A is your mum,” he confirmed. “Plan A has always been your mum.” She’d been his Plan A since he’d seen her, and that hadn’t changed through a war, decades of marriage, and her essentially kicking him out of the house. “Maybe I should have a plan B, but I don’t want to give up on plan A.”
-
“Right,” Evan nodded. It made sense that mum was Plan A. Sort of. Personally, Evan did think that even not wanting to give up on Plan A meant that you needed a Plan B, but then Evan also over planned most things so perhaps it was more him than James. “So what is the plan?” Evan asked finishing off making tea for both him and James and returning to the table. Taking a slow sip, savouring the taste, Evan frowned slightly over his mug. “You do have more than a ‘I have a plan’ strategy, don’t you?” He asked suspiciously.
In all honesty, Evan had at no point been bothered by his parents separation. They were adults who could do whatever they wanted. Evan didn’t like the idea of either of his parents getting involved with his life so there was no reason to get involved with theirs. Still, from having spoken to Lily, Evan presumed that she wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to James’ Plan A, but presumably it could not be the same as it was when they hadn’t been separated. “Like what’s your action plan?” Evan asked since it seemed something to start with.
--
James, in fact, did not have more than an 'I have a plan' strategy. Not because he didn't know how to come up with a better plan, but because he didn't know where to start. He didn't know what a good first step would be, or what Lily would even be open to at that point. He couldn't make her want him back, and she'd been fairly clear about needing him to go. His biggest concern was accidentally pushing her further away, which was the opposite of anything he wanted to do.
"I'm not sure," James said honestly, pulling his mug in toward him once it was returned. "I'm not sure where to start, what your mum would be open to. Maybe take her to dinner, if she'd let me? That seems like a safe, non presumptive first step."
-
“Well, who doesn’t love food,” Evan shrugged and scrunched up his nose a bit. Personally, he was not a fan of ‘let's go for dinner’ dates because they just seemed rather... boring. But then, Evan wasn’t sure if he had any real experience to be giving any sort of advice to his dad on how to date his mum. Then again, Evan had no idea what their dating history was, since as far as he was aware they had just sort of gotten married out of Hogwarts. Maybe James really didn’t know what constituted a good date.
Sipping some more of his tea, Evan pondered the topic. “Andrew and I go places,” he said almost conversationally. Evan wasn’t going to suggest that what him and Andrew did was the better alternative but he could say that it pleased him more than dinners. “We went to a lantern festival and we went go karting, and we went on a tour to a sweet factory, and we went to see an exhibit at the British Museum, and skating,” Evan explained. “I liked that a lot,” he added wondering if that explained much at all.
--
James took Evan's scrunched nose to mean he didn't approve of the going for dinner idea, or maybe it was because James didn't have a better plan. It could have been both. He took a sip of his tea as he listened to his son talk about what he and Andrew did, a little smile turning up the corners of his mouth. While he didn't know much anything about Andrew, it sounded like he and Evan spent a lot of time together doing a lot of fun things, and that was good.
"Going someplace might be good," he said as he tried to think of what Lily might like. Dinner felt safe, but going someplace together felt more like a date, and James wasn't sure if that was something she would go for. "Was the lantern festival nice? It sounds like it would be. I should see if there are any festivals happening that Lily might like."
-
“Yes,” Evan confirmed with a nod. “It was muggle so like there weren’t things floating about, but they had these huge paper animals all lit up and it was awesome,” he explained rather energetically. Evan had enjoyed it a lot and that was sort of his point, he thought. The festival in its own right had been quite great, but going there with Andrew had been what had made it as memorable as it was. “Like, obviously, I have no idea why you and mum are living apart,” Evan said after a small pause. “But presumably you might have an idea?” He offered, since it seemed likely that perhaps James might.
Frowning slightly, Evan gave a small sigh. “Mum said she finds it weird not having you around,” he commented since Lily had said as much to Evan. “Not that that necessarily means she’d want to change it,” he added because it would have been unfair to both James and Lily to pretend that she had definitely said she wanted James to move back in. “But I’m sure she might want to spend time with you? She’s your friend, right?” Evan asked. It made sense to him that seeing how long his parents had known each other, how long they had been together, that they would be friends. Evan wasn’t quite sure what the distinction between a spouse and a friend was other than paperwork and physical intimacy. “You must know her quite well,” Evan added. “Better than anyone else, I’d assume,” he noted. Evan felt like he knew Lily well, better than he knew James, certainly, but James had known Lily for far longer than Evan had been alive. It couldn’t be that hard to figure out what she liked, right?
--
The lantern festival sounded like it had been beautiful, and James wished he could have taken Lily there. They'd never really done anything like that, but there had been the war, and then the kids. He gave a little hum of acknowledgement, taking another sip of his tea. "Yeah, I've got a pretty good idea as to why I'm living here."
He frowned when Evan mentioned what Lily had said. Part of him wanted to think it wasn't fair of her to say that, but that was just the little voice in the back of his head that poked at him when he wasn't feeling great. He certainly found it strange not to have Lily around. "She's my friend," James replied after a moment, absently tracing his thumb on the handle of his mug. Maybe that was another reason the separation hurt so much, because she'd been his partner in so much for so long and then she wasn't there. "I'd certainly like to spend time with her. I'll have to look into what we could do, then see if she'll go." He offered Evan a smile, even if it wasn't one that reached his eyes to make the corners of them crinkle like they normally would. "I think that would be much better than going to dinner. Thanks for that, Evan."
-
Evan listened to James’ confirmation that he was friends with Lily and nodded. Good. Evan wasn’t sure what the point would be of James’ Plan A if he didn’t consider Lily his friend. And wanting to spend time with her then made a lot of sense, since Evan thought of Andrew as his friend and wanted to spend time with him but Evan also wanted to kiss and touch Andrew. You could still be friends and want to do that, Evan was sure.
“Oh,” Evan said almost startled when James thanked him. “You’re welcome,” he replied, because Evan didn’t think he had necessarily done anything helpful, but if James felt like Evan had that was nice. Evan liked the idea of being helpful. Especially since it also then made more sense for why they were having dinner. There seemed to be some sort of a purpose and Evan always liked things much better when they had a purpose.