Warning: brief mention of (hypothetical and half-joking) slash. So if you're not into that... leave.

The Best Deceptions

i.
(a little truth behind every)
"just kidding"

...

Lily's ears are buzzing. Her stomach is churning. She forces a laugh and feels her cheeks fill with color as Sirius calls something inappropriate to her and James, who is trailing behind her out of the common room, reluctant to abandon the nice warm fire and his friends for another night of patrols.

He chuckles for a few yards further, sighs, and shakes his head. Looks sideways at her.

"Er," he says, and it's kind of awkward; he's been trying so hard not to ruin their tentative friendship it's almost painful. "Uh, sorry 'bout him. He can be…" As if she's offended.

Lily gives him a shove in the shoulder and tries to hide her sudden goosebumps at the contact. "You say that like I haven't known Sirius Black for six and a half years."

James shrugs, grinning slightly sheepishly. "Yeah, well," he mutters. "You haven't been hanging around him most of that time, have you?"

With a roll of her eyes: "You don't have to be friends with him to know what he's like, honestly. He's loud and obnoxious enough for the Slytherins to be able to hear him."

"Damn, Evans, that's a pretty long way."

"Good to know you have enough brain cells left to figure that out. And I thought we'd dropped the last names?"

"Depends on my mood."

Their pace begins to slow. They're almost at the other end of the seventh floor, so that none of the empty-classroom-seekers would stumble across them in their haste to find solitude, if any appeared.

They reach a staircase leading to the sixth floor, and stop. Lily realizes that James is giving her that look – the one where the lenses of his glasses glint for a moment in the flickering torchlight and then clear to reveal glittering hazel eyes; the one where it's like he's trying to memorize every detail of her face, as if he'll never get another chance to see it.

She clears her throat and suppresses a blush. "Well, Sirius needs to get his mind out of the gutter, anyway." He still stares at her. She tries for a mischievous grin and says, "I suppose he spends enough time bent over and saying dirty things as it is."

James's laugh, loud and carefree, echoes down the staircase as they step onto it. It's one of the longer ones, spanning between the two topmost floors of the castle, and they have to skip a step and wait for it to groan into a new position before they can continue on.

"What?" says Lily defensively. "Why am I the only one who sees how obvious it is that Remus and Sirius are in love with each other?"

"Because they aren't," James says. He's exasperated: They've had this conversation before.

"Of course that's what they would say, they don't want anyone to know what goes on in the dorms and broom closets when no one's watching – speaking of, we should probably be checking those –"

"Lily." She can't help but shiver at the way he says it. "A few things. First – I don't need that mental image in my head, thanks very much. Second – who the hell would want to watch? Merlin, there must be something wrong with you…" (She scowls.) "Third – truthfully, I'm a little scared to see what might be in those broom cupboards, so I suggest we stay away from them, all right? And fourth, Remus and Sirius are both straight."

"But how do you know?"

He snorts. "Please. You underestimate the – what was it? Oh, yeah" – air quotes – "'Black good looks.' We've lost count of how many times Sirius has had a sock on the door –"

"Wow, okay, I did not need to hear that," Lily mutters.

"– and Remus was with us every – time."

"Every time?"

"Every time. Well, not every time – once the git found some Ravenclaw bird to shag on a full moon."

"Arse."

It leaves her lips before she even thinks about it, before she can even consider that James might take offense on his best mate's behalf. But he laughs again, briefly, throwing his head back, his mouth open wide.

His eyes are shining, so bright, as he sighs, "I love you."

Lily's heart drops, and it's not because the stairs have finally clunked into place. She kind of just stares at him, frozen solid, while his brain catches up to what his mouth has said.

And like a pro, he laughs one more time and says, "Just kidding." Brushing it off like it didn't matter. Like he didn't even say it.

But he did.

And although he's careful not to make physical contact with her for the rest of the night, and glances at her smile all the way back to Gryffindor Tower, and barely lingers in the common room after he mumbles, "Night," Lily lies in bed into the latest hours of the night and replays the moment over and over in her head. He wasn't kidding.

James Potter is many things, but he isn't a liar.

a/n: welcome to the story, peeps. sorry for the late night/early morning/whatever-time-it-is-wherever-you-are posting, but at least this makes a nice surprise, right?

so if you're like me and browse/d iPod wallpapers for entertainment, you've probably seen this quote before. way back in may (which was when I wrote this chapter), a cord in me decided it was gonna be struck by this quote, and this four-shot was born. :) and it only just ended, meaning i finished the final chapter, this week, so... yeah. writer's block's a bitch.

i'll be posting every other day so you guys have something to look forward to for the next week or so, mkay? but don't kill me if i forget - i haven't not had homework in about a month. :/

what else... reviews are always appreciated, as you should know, and i guess i'll tell you that next up is ron and hermione! :D

thanks for reading, i hope you will/have enjoyed it.

~whispered touches

disclaimer: i do not own harry potter or its characters. all rights belong to JKR. no copyright infringement is intended.