A/N: I don't know where this came from; but it came and I figured I'd share it with you lot. Just something short and sweet. You don't see this sort of stuff coming from me often, but what can I say? The holiday season has the power to thaw out this hard, ice-cold heart of mine. Miracles do happen after all, I guess.

Seventh year, just after Lily and James start dating. Enjoy.

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The Reason Why
By: Zayz

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"Hey Lils?"

James's voice is the first sound in the air between the young couple for a while now, mildly surprising to the redhead sitting on the red sofa across from him, chewing on the feather of her quill as she ponders her Transfiguration essay. Her head snaps up at the sound of his voice and she looks straight at him, blinking a couple of times as she registers his question.

"Sorry?" she says politely.

"I have a question for you," James informs her casually, flipping a page in his textbook. "Just came to me."

"Oh, all right." She puts her quill down and pays proper attention. "What's up?"

"It's a fairly random thought, I'm afraid, but I've been thinking about it lately and it has to be said." The look in James's eyes is perfectly serious, but nonchalantly so, which only adds to his haphazard charisma.

"Well, go on then," Lily prompts, the faintly-upturned corner of her mouth twitching ever so slightly at his earnestness. "What do you want to ask me?"

"You never did tell me, you know."

"Tell you what?"

"The reason why we're together," he says without missing a beat. "Why you fell in love with me."

Lily absorbs his frank, unexpected words one at a time, musing upon them individually with her filmy green eyes, tapping her foot as she attempts to formulate an adequate response. Despite being in the midst of the loud, boisterous Gryffindor common room, the rest might as well be non-existent for the attention the two pay to them.

"To be honest…there's no specific, factual reason why things changed between us," she eventually says, her tone slow and airy, as if she's thinking aloud. "I suppose…I suppose it's because I didn't know you before."

Her gaze penetrates deeply right into his hazel irises, despite the physical distance between the two of them. "Before, I knew you like a film fan knows his or her favorite actor. This year, I was forced to get to know you personally, without the social filters; and then I expect I was done for."

She considers a moment, mulling her response over, before adding, "Some people say we're fated, but me, I think we just got off on the wrong foot. This year, we got off on the right one and the rest just sort of…fell into place."

James nods in his slow, accepting way as he absentmindedly flips another page in his textbook without reading a word on it, running his hand through his hair like he does when he's thinking.

"Oh," he says. "Okay."

"Does that answer your question?" Lily's smile is vaguely sly as she picks up her quill, ready to resume what she was doing.

"I reckon it does." He winks at her. "Thanks, Lils."

Lily ponders for a moment or two, then says, "Come to think of it, James…you never told me the reason why you loved me, either."

James looks genuinely astonished by her remark. "But I would've thought that was obvious by now," he says. "I mean…Merlin, Sirius says I'm far too obvious about it."

"Well, yeah, okay, you say that you fancy me because I'm different and all that, but…" Her voice trails off. "But I want something more...rational than that. You've spent years trying to get to where we are now. You had to have had some kind of motivation."

He shrugs, searching his mental bank with little success for the best way to phrase how he's feeling. "I dunno, Lils," he says after a minute or two. "Really, I dunno. I can't just make a list of the reasons why I love you. I just love you ­– the essence of you. Everything about you."

Lily blushes deeply pink, moistening her lips with her tongue and fidgeting slightly like she does when he says something remotely romantic. Continuing to chew on her quill as she was before, her green eyes glimmer with playful embarrassment as she says, "Oh, well, thanks, James."

"You're welcome." Grinning slightly to himself, James turns his attention back to his textbook.

Lily tries to work, but her head isn't in it anymore and she knows it. She glances back up at her boyfriend, who is trying with equal futility to do his work and watches him a little, before she finally gets up, book, quill and all, and arrives at the opposite sofa where James is sitting.

He looks up at her, the question in his eyes, but she simply situates his things so that his lap is open and she is free to settle down in it, as though he is nothing but a warm, human-sized bean bag chair made for her body to curl into.

He grins as she resumes reading her book and chewing her quill once more upon his legs, but he doesn't say anything more; instead, he kisses her cheek and resumes his own reading, both of them remaining untouched by the atmosphere around them, and enjoying the particular intimacy of two people knowing exactly the reason why.

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A/N: Endings are ridiculous and mine are no exception. Read and review either way, please?