Nothing To It

"... so I think we should just get it out of the way."

Severus pushed a few lank strands of hair behind his ear and tried to make sense of what Lily had just said. He hadn't caught all of it; his brain had short-circuited at the mention of a kiss, so his understanding of what she was twittering about fell short of coherent. "I see," he said unhelpfully, but damnit, he was panicking!

Lily went on, as easily as if she was discussing the recent weather. "I mean, it'd save a lot of angst in the future, wouldn't it? So when the time came for... the real thing, you know, there wouldn't be any problems."

"Hm..." said Severus, quite sure that he was, by now, blushing three different furious shades of red. The spreading burn upon his cheeks certainly felt like it.

Lily stared at him with expectant, unquenchable green eyes, her hands resting on her hips. She waited a few seconds, before tapping the toe of one shoe on the cobbled courtyard ground.

"So, what do you think?" she prompted.

"I - um..."

Taking hold of his robe sleeve none-too-gently, Lily yanked Severus across the deserted courtyard, past the sundial centre feature and rock garden, and under one of the many thick stone archways lining the edge. From there, they were hidden from view of any nosy students or professors who happened to be looking out of the castle windows.

"Trust me, Sev, this'll save a load of hassle," Lily assured. "One day you'll thank me for it."

Not for the first time, Severus wondered how the hell he'd managed to keep up with Lily Evans all these years. He was fiercely thankful for a lot of things when it came to his best friend, but being subjected to one of her experiments was not one of them.

Yet, he could barely push that thought into words, let alone speak them. The "wait, Lils, I don't think this is such a good idea" died on his lips as she said, coolly,

"You ready?" She quickly reached up and tossed her long red hair back over her shoulder, evidently so it was out of the way.

Oh, God, everything was becoming way too real for Severus's liking. The curling nerves in his stomach were not a pleasant experience - if he only had more time! More time to talk her out of this, more time to... he didn't know - run away or something. But then, when had he ever been able to hide from Lily? Ever since they were kids, she had always won at hide and seek.

Lily stepped forward.

Severus stepped back, and found himself pressed against cold stone wall, rough through his robes. She was getting closer, closer, and Severus swallowed before he choked on his own tongue. How she could smell like that - so incredible - he had no idea. At no point in his memory could he recall her smelling so exotic before. Her mouth looked so soft, too, and shiny, like when she used that cherry lip stuff he had no clue about (he'd tried eating it once, when they were thirteen, but it'd tasted foul and she'd laughed at him fondly as he coughed and spluttered into a hanky).

She was rising up onto tiptoe now, so close the hairs of her eyelashes were distinguishable before they grew too close and started to blur dark red. Severus closed his eyes and quickly put his hand out, stopping her mere centimetres away. He dared to look, then, already sure she'd be frowning at him.

Her head was tilted up and she waited, then blinked twice.

"Uh," said Severus, still holding her firmly by the shoulder. "I was... I was just thinking about that Charms homework Professor-"

"Sev!" To his surprise, Lily laughed and punched him good-naturedly on the arm. Not for the first time he remarked she was pretty strong, for a girl.

Cheeks burning again with embarrassment and - quite frankly - terror, Severus dropped his gaze, letting his hair fall forward to obscure his face. He was also vaguely annoyed she had the nerve to laugh at him, at a time like this.

"You spoiled the mood," Lily complained. "Come on, Severus. You trust me, right?"

"Of course," he said quickly, looking up at her.

"Well, then." Lily paused for a moment, watching him steadily. "Loosen up a bit." She gave him all of five seconds before coming in for the swoop again. Severus barely had time to figure out just how he was supposed to 'loosen up' when the girl he - well, his best friend was about to - to do that to him.

This time, no less petrified than the last, Severus did not stop her. He found his body incapable of movement and silently cursed it, the treacherous thing that it was.

Her mouth was as soft as he'd imagined, and although he could faintly taste the cherry of her lip goo, there was a much stronger underlying flavour - something earthy and energetic and fresh like pure wind. Something entirely Lily.

She moved her head slightly to the left and Severus's nose got in the way. He hated it, then, even more than he usually did. A small, mortified noise sounded at the back of his throat and he frowned, willing things to get better, or for her to stop, or for her to never stop so he wouldn't have to admit it was a pretty awful kiss.

That was it; he had to put an end to this disaster. But before he could push Lily back, he felt her fingers on the inside of his left forearm, curling around to hold him tightly. Her other hand came up and she wound it around the back of his neck, and Lily leaned closer still, and the kiss got deeper after that, and wetter, oh God, it was amazing; Severus didn't know what to do with himself. Lily's touch was gentle and yet there was a lot of force behind it, which suited her down to the ground. Severus could only hold on and part his lips a little to taste her, to let her take what she wanted - whatever she expected to get out of this.

He sincerely doubted it would be the same as what he got out of it.

Just as Severus was starting to get the hang of things, to his dismay, Lily slowly broke off and her grip around his neck and arm loosened, then fell away. She stepped back and pursed her mouth, blinking. Severus hated how he leaned toward her briefly, as if still attached by some inexplicable link, before he righted himself and straightened up.

Lily cleared her throat. It sounded loud, or maybe it was just that Severus was holding his breath and had lost all sense of their surroundings: of the birds nested in the turrets that were surely chirping, of the rustle of dry Autumn leaves that were surely sliding across the stone at their feet.

"Well, there we go," said Lily after a few moments. "Nothing to it, right, Sev? Hey, are you okay?"

He realised she was staring at him oddly, a small, concerned frown creasing her brow.

He had to say something. He hoped his voice wouldn't come out all high-pitched and lame. "Uh, yeah. Nothing... to it." He nodded firmly, still not sure what he was agreeing to.

From far off, the school bell sounded, deep and imposing in the quiet. Severus wanted to ask it why it hadn't rang earlier, before she'd had the chance to - and he'd gone and got himself even deeper into - and his world had tipped even further off its axis.

"Oh shit, is that the time?" Lily was now pulling up her robe sleeve to check her watch. "Gah, I have to go! I'm going to be late for the play rehearsal!" She offered Severus an apologetic expression. "Sev, I'm sorry to run out on you. I'll catch up with you later though, yeah?"

"Uh, yeah." What else could he say?

She smiled at him, a big, bright Lily smile and he felt something in him crumble at its brilliance, like always. In return, he smiled back, but it felt tight on his face.

With a flurry of robes and red and gold scarf, Lily turned and raced out across the courtyard.

Severus held his smile for all of two seconds before he let it drop like a dead weight, running a hand through his hair. As he watched the first few students mill across the grounds, his fingers roamed to his mouth, where the warmth of Lily Evans's lips still lingered.

He tried to hold on to the heat but it was useless. Soon enough, he felt cold again.

~Fin~