'L' for Lily! (thatgingergirl) wrote in throwingstones, @ 2010-02-03 13:09:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! complete, [february 1979], alice longbottom, lily potter |
Who: Alice and Lily
When: 3 February afternoon
Where: Caradoc's house
What: Lily asks Alice for a favour.
Rating: A for adorable
Status: Completed log!
Lily twisted the ring on her finger, stopped, and flipped the small latch open and closed. It was her new nervous habit she'd developed in the days following her engagement. This habit had only intensified since the night before, and ever since she and James - alright, mostly just herself - had decided to speed up their engagement to Friday all she had been able to do was twist and flick her ring, opening and closing the little poison box section. Click, click, click. She wasn't sure this was a good idea. Well, the getting married as soon as possible and not planning was a very good idea, yes. But the telling other people? The team leaders and Alice? Lily wasn't sure. She knew the inevitable would happen, then they'd get the "are you sure?" talks and she didn't want them. She didn't want to talk any more about her reasoning and why this had to be rushed, because it made her uncomfortable. Not with her decision, she was comfortable with that, of course, but of why she made it. It was that knowledge that they could die at any minute that plagued her and haunted her; and she didn't want to acknowledge that it had influenced major life decisions, but it had. Rubbing at her eyes, swollen from lack of sleep, Lily set a kettle of water on the stove, leaning against the counter with her head in her hands. Her fingers sought out her ring, flicking it open and closed again while she waited for the kettle to whistle. Alice was on lunch break. And being on lunch break when you had a hostage in your husband's shed probably meant that you should go and check on her, but no, Alice headed to Caradoc's to pick up keys to the safehouse. Fuck. The fact that she was juggling a hostage situation, her sister-in-law's kidnapping, her husband's dead uncle, her husband and his emotions, and a fucking safehouse warding was enough to make her scream, but she was surprisingly okay...sort of. She was tired and a bit on edge but better than most people would be or so she imagined. Knocking on the door to the house, no one came, but when Alice turned the knob, she saw it was open. Not too safe, but Lily was expecting her, so she wasn't really going to judge. The kettle whistle gave her an idea for where Lily was, so she headed to the kitchen. "Hey." Turning towards the entrance to the kitchen, Lily pushed herself off the counter and looked towards the whistling pot. Had she dosed? Shaking her head he reached up for some mugs, glancing back again towards Alice. "Hey, how are you?" she greeted, trying not to sound as tired as she felt. For a moment Lily tried to figure out how Alice got there. Was Maureen home and let her in? Her brows met, furrowing as she tried to work it out. Had she... Lily's eyes widened. She'd gone out to water some of the plants that morning, and had been distracted by the dirt on her hands. She hadn't touched a thing till she got to the sink. And by then... "shit, the door. My hands were dirty and I didn't want to touch anything and I just..." frustrated, Lily pulled a box of tea bags towards her with unnecessary force, starring at the collection for a beat too long. "Do you want some?" she asked, changing the subject without looking up from the bags. Alice quirked a brow at the excuse, but she didn't fight Lily. She didn't feel much like lecturing so she just let it go. "Yeah, that'd be great." She came into the kitchen and sat down on one of the bar stools. "So...excited to move?" Fuck, she was awful at small talk too. Pulling out two bags at random, not even seeing what they were, she dropped them into the mugs, pouring the hot water over each, ignoring the slight tremble in her hand as she methodically moved from one mug to the next. She didn't want to spill, after all. Handing one mug to Alice, Lily moved the sugar bowl and hunted down a small spoon, giving both to the other woman as well before she took a seat on the stool beside her. "Yes, very," she answered, a touch too quickly to be completely genuine, and the fake smile she gave not quite reaching her eyes before she turned away and concentrated on her tea. Ugh. Peppermint. The only one that didn't have caffeine. Lily made a face and drank it anyways. And again, Alice quirked a brow as she watched Lily, taking the tea happily. She was on so much coffee at the moment, the peppermint was welcome. Besides, she had way more pressing things to concern herself with than a caffeinated mug. Like whether Narcissa Malfoy had somehow managed to escape, or if Frank was really okay and how she could possibly fucking talk to him. Or why Lily was so on edge. "Alright, Lily?" No. No she was not alright. She hadn't slept and her mother was dead and she was exhausted and sad and drinking bloody peppermint and "I'm engaged." It just slipped out. It wasn't at all how Lily was planning on telling Alice any of this, and her mouth gaped for a moment after she said it. Well it was either that or start crying about her mum, so this was much preferable really. Turning away from Alice, Lily looked back at her cup. "James asked me Saturday. We want to get married this Friday," she clarified, cupping her hands around the mug to give them something to do other than play with the bloody ring. A very distinctive cough caught in Alice's throat as she choked on her tea. "What?" She managed to get out between coughs. Engaged? Well that was fucking sudden wasn't it? Once she'd caught her breath again and her throat wasn't burning, she managed to focus on Lily once more. "Congratulations?" But Lily seemed a bit perturbed which was, you know, not supposed to be how you reacted when you were engaged. Even Alice, who had not been the one to jump into engagement, had been much happier than this when Frank proposed. "You are happy, aren't you?" Lily really hated that question. Yes, she was happy but... she was terrified. It was like now they were in this tentative stage of limbo and at any moment something could ruin it. Almost as if she was tempting fate just by putting a toe into a forbidden fountain and the wrath of some really angry god was going to thwart her or something. But instead of saying that she nodded. "I am. Just tired. It was a long night. I'll be better once it's Saturday," she promised, another shallow grin flicking across her face. "But, um, I was rather hoping to ask a favour?" If Alice had been better at communicating and expressing feelings, she probably would have pressured Lily a little bit more to ensure that she was alright. But she wasn't that person, so she let it slide, figuring if Lily really wanted to talk about it, she'd do it. On her own. Without Alice pushing her. "Sure. What do you need?" "Well. We need to get married somewhere? And we don't really want to make it a big deal. So we were kind of hoping we could just invite some of the Order, and Greta over to your place for dinner. Like, just Chinese or something even? And James is asking Caradoc if he can do the ceremony. So it won't be long or drawn out. Just... Chinese, some binding charms, and cake," Lily said in a rush, the words tumbling out over themselves. Then she bit her lip. Alice didn't exactly seem to be in a good mood. Maybe it wasn't the best time to be bringing this up? "It doesn't need to be fancy or formal even. I'm just wearing denims and a jumper," she clarified. Again, Alice choked on her tea at the term binding charms, but after keeping a hostage, your thought process didn't go to 'binding for life' straight away. It went to tying someone down to a chair and kicking her hat off the cliff. But once she figured it out and caught her breath once more, Alice began to process the request. A wedding at her cottage with Frank. It would be possible. Well, if Julia wasn't there. That was assuming they got Julia back and she wasn't too injured. The likelihood of the latter was pretty much slim to none, but that didn't mean she had to tell Lily no. They could silence Julia's room. Keep her out of sight. It was doable. Besides, where else would Lily do it? Caradoc's basement. Yeah...no. "I think we could--" But Alice cut herself off when she processed the last bit of Lily's ramble. "You're wearing what to your wedding?" The beginnings of a real smile had started to stretch across Lily's face was quickly halted at Alice's interruption of herself. Instead Lily's face snapped back to a wrinkled brow as she tried to think of why Alice was objecting. "It's a white jumper?" she said tentatively. "And the denims are new." "No. You can't wear a fucking jumper and denims to your wedding." Alice protested, her face crinkled in sheer confusion. "Fuck Lily, even I wore a dress. You have to wear a dress, or at least a skirt. It's your wedding. You don't want to look like a fucking bum." She shook her head again. "Don't you want a dress?" "But I don't want anyone to know it's a wedding. And I never wear skirts or dresses really so why would I start?" Lily objected, starting to feel concerned about this for the first time. "It isn't like I'm wearing patched clothing and a bathrobe." "Lily, you can't get married without everyone knowing they're at a fucking wedding." So Alice was getting a bit more pissy but it'd been a long week, and it was only Wednesday. "No. We're buying you a dress. Hell, I'll fucking drag you out shopping. You're not wearing denims. You'll regret it." Lily glared. At her tea though, and not Alice. "Fine. I'll wear a dress. But we aren't telling people. Then it'll get out and it will be a wedding and not a dinner party and something somewhere will interfere and it will go wrong. If I plan it then something will happen," she insisted. Okay, so it might sound a bit insane when she put it that way. But that didn't change the fact that it was true. "Okay we don't have to tell people." Alice shrugged and sipped her tea. She looked at Lily for a while, and didn't say anything, but it was itching at her. "You probably don't want to hear this, but you're sure you want to get married, right? You realise how big of a commitment this is, don't you?" At that Lily looked up, her fear of something happening to stop the wedding gone and replaced with an almost icy determination. "I know. I've already almost died trying to protect him before. If I'm willing to die for him then I'm more than willing to live with him. And if I know that now what is the point of waiting? In a year we could be dead. In a week we could be dead. Death Eaters could capture him on the way to work tomorrow and that could be it. It's stupid to plan a whole wedding when all you need are the charms and the paper. I just want the ceremony over with so I don't have to worry about it not happening anymore." She got the rationale. To be fair, she'd used it with Frank a month ago when they'd talked about having kids. And if Lily was anything like Alice, which she was pretty sure she was, nothing was going to stop her once she'd made her decision. "Okay then." She smiled, fuck that had to be her first smile since she'd gotten drunk in Caradoc's basement and Frank had suggested hanging Narcissa off a cliff. "Well I'm happy for you, I really am." Alright, that was better. Lily's lips slipped into a tentative smile, still fragile since she wasn't sure that anything could widen it today anyways. "Thanks," she said, picking her mug up and finishing off her tea. The peppermint didn't even taste that bad anymore. But there was still one more thing. And it was the most awkward and Lily wasn't sure if it was apropos or inappropriate to be bringing this up today. "Also. There's that part with the whole 'who gives this woman' and everything. And it's not like there's an aisle to walk down. But, I don't have any parents anymore and... well do you think when that part comes up you could just hand me over to James? Or... something?" she finished, rather lamely. Okay, that Alice wasn't expecting. She blinked at Lily in confusion. Lily wanted her to give her away? But she wasn't a guy. And then Alice realised it didn't really matter did it? A huge smile spread across her lips as she processed exactly what this meant. That she meant that much to Lily. "Of course, Lily." Maybe it was all the shit that happened this week, and maybe it was just the fact that Lily was bestowing an honour like this on her, but something made Alice be a bit unexpected and she got up, rounded the table and hugged Lily. The second Alice's arms were around her Lily was frozen. Alice? Hugging? Instinctively her arms went up and around Alice in return, hugging her back, her mouth opening and closing to illustrate her being speechless until eventually she found her voice. "Okay. Good. Thank you. I just... I had no one else to ask." Not a minute into the hug and Alice was feeling a bit uncomfortable. She wasn't really used to all that emotion, especially coming from her. So she pulled away and then stood there a bit uncomfortably, shifting her weight for a second. "Of course. It's um an honour." That was what you were supposed to say right? Funny that. First Frank and Greta, then her and Lily. Fuck, the Longbottoms were fake parents all over the place, weren't they? "So when do you want to do this?" Well that was more like Alice. Lily felt much more comfortable around awkward-Alice than touchy-feely-Alice, and her smile widened a bit more as she watched the way the other woman shifted uncomfortably, back to herself. "Friday evening. I was just thinking I'll ward everyone and say we really need just something nice and light hearted so how about Chinese take out at your place for whoever wants to come, and then right before dinner we'll have Caradoc do his thing and then we can eat." Alice nodded her head, "Okay, yeah." Tonight they were trading Julia, she'd need to be home for that, but that left tomorrow. "Then tomorrow we're buying your dress. Lunch again. I'll tell Caradoc." Tomorrow would be fine. Alice could buy a dress in an hour. How hard could it be? A very small laugh escaped Lily and she nodded. "Alright, fine. We can buy a dress tomorrow. But it can't look like a wedding dress. And it can't have lace or flowers or ruffles or satin or tulle or any of that," she warned. She looked at Lily in disbelief. "Seriously? Do you think I'd put you in fucking frills? Fuck Lily, it could be red if you wanted it to. It just needs to look nice." "Perfect! I'll see you this time tomorrow then," Lily said, slight relief in her voice as she scooped up the tea mugs and moved towards the sink, turning back to Alice with a genuinely huge smile across her face. "Thank you Alice. I really don't know how to thank you enough." "Seriously, it's not a big deal." But Alice was smiling. It was a big deal. "I'll talk to Frank when I get home." Somehow she'd explain the 'we're having a wedding at our house while your sister is in our guest room likely dying' story well enough. And if he was pissed? Then he was pissed. "So do you wanna grab me those keys?" |