DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything Harry Potter, nor do I own Christmas or any of its associates (could you IMAGINE if I did, though? Talk about a power trip). You know what, if you recognize it, it's probably not mine. Cover art by viria13.

Just a little something I threw together for Tumblr's lemonsforlimes: A Very Fucking Jily Christmas. I'm not so into the holidays but, hey, anything for Jily smut, yeah? And this time it's festive, so that's new. Took about three days to get it all done and I think I like the outcome. Read, review!

Red Velvet Ribbon

If you can't say it at Christmas, when can you, eh?
– Love Actually –

The enchanted ceiling above the Great Hall was crowded with indigo clouds, peppered with dancing, twirling, swirling bits of white as the world outside was blanketed in yet another December snowstorm. The wind shook the glass, battered into the stone walls, howling with the increasing intensity of the weather outside.

Inside the hall, however, all was bathed in a warm golden glow. Towering pine trees glittered in every corner, decorated with tiny candles and shining silver-and-gold wreaths, color-changing spheres, twinkling with fairy wings and littered with red-and-white candy canes. Music danced its way off an enchanted record player, twirling through the warm indoor air, and the prefects scurried around, hanging ornaments and tinsel and mistletoe at strategic points around the hall.

The Head Girl was no exception. Lily Evans stood on a stepping stool in the cavernous doorway of the hall, struggling to attach a ribbon-tied bunch of mistletoe to the top of the doorframe. She thought such placement was a horrendous idea, but if what Professor Slughorn had told her was true, the Headmaster enjoyed himself just a bit too much watching his students have minor panic attacks whenever they wanted a meal. Something about that ever-present twinkle in Dumbledore's eye told Lily that the Potions master was quite right, and she would have laughed as well if the top of the doorframe weren't so damn high.

She upset her balance further by stretching up on her tiptoes on the less-than-stable stool, and she surely would have stumbled to a very painful concussion if – at the very right moment – a pair of large, strong hands hadn't fastened securely at her hips. Surprised at the contact, Lily yelped and jumped a little but the hands continued to hold her in place, and she recognized the low chuckle that drifted up to her ears…

Lily glanced over her shoulder to see a grinning James Potter holding her steady and she felt her heart skitter around in her chest the precise way a heart shouldn't.

"Don't do that," she said in an attempt to take control of the feeling. "Sneak up on me like that – I nearly jumped out of my skin."

"What? Would you prefer to fall? Not that I'd mind, of course; I'd always be here to catch you." He winked up at her and kept his hands right where they were. As per usual, James Potter wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to touch Lily Evans.

Lily rolled her eyes and went back to struggling with the bunch of mistletoe. "That's just about the worst line you've ever used on me."

"Oh, I don't know about that, Evans; I've used some rather bad lines on you," James said thoughtfully. His index fingers strayed almost casually to her hipbones and dipped beneath the line of her jeans. "Due to the indisputable fact that I've monopolized all your Hogsmeade visits this term, though, I'd say you're a sucker for bad lines."

Lily laughed, squirming pleasantly as James's fingertips traced the slight curve of her hipbones. "Potter, you kept nicking the patrol schedule and leaving ransom notes. I had to meet you in the Three Broomsticks if I didn't want a talking-to from McGonagall about questionable work ethic. Ergo, those weren't dates, they were blackmail."

"Shit," James swore good-naturedly. "Mind not telling Sirius that? I won five Galleons from him."

"You bet on me?" Another burst of laughter escaped her throat, rendering her feigned indignation useless. "Flattering."

"To be fair, we did hold hands –"

"You dragged me down the High Street because I wasn't 'moving fast enough,'" Lily scoffed, but she enjoyed the memory all the same, just as she enjoyed what his hands were doing to her now. Not that she'd ever tell him that, of course. "It seems to me that you and I have vastly different ideas of romance."

"What do you want, then?" James asked, genuinely curious as he grazed his fingernails against her skin. "Champagne, roses, candlelight? I could tell you how beautiful you are."

"You tell me that every day."

"Well, perhaps this time you could, I don't know –" James's entire demeanor exuded sarcasm as he pretended to think about it – "believe me."

Lily struggled against her smile but couldn't manage it. "Oh, shut up, you stupid tosser."

James sighed dramatically. "I tell you you're beautiful, you remark upon my –"

"Intelligence?"

"Sure, that."

Lily laughed a little more – James always could make her laugh – and concentrated on the mistletoe again. She was too short and this doorway was too high and Merlin, Dumbledore was such a twit sometimes… But her frustrated train of thought was interrupted by an insistent tugging on the back of her shirt. Insistent, and oddly pleasurable, too. Lily looked around again to see James toying idly with the fabric of her shirt, catching it in his teeth and every so often flicking his tongue beneath the hem to tease the skin of her lower back. Cue the spine-tingling giddiness, Lily thought and sighed and shot him an odd look.

"Potter, what are you doing?"

Of course, James was completely unashamed and kept on with what he was doing; she tasted fantastic. "Well, quite technically, we're under the mistletoe, so –"

"So you feel traditionally obligated to snog the back of my shirt?" Lily asked, amused and a little stimulated by the warm tingles that zigzagged up and down her spine at his touch.

"Your face is a bit out of my reach. I could kiss you somewhere else, if you'd like…" James offered, his grin widening as he slid his hands suggestively down to the insides of her jean-clad thighs.

Lily glared at him but he swore he saw something like a twinkle in her eye; he could work with a twinkle. "Oh, yes, that's it," she said, turning back to the mistletoe and finally, finally fastening it. "Christmas: the season of giving it up."

"Clever." James moved his fingers in slow circles against her inner thighs. "And I'm amendable to that."

"Wanker."

"Mmm." James's teeth tugged at the hem of her shirt once more before releasing her so she could hop off the stool. "Gorgeous."

"Shut up." Lily shoved his face and James grabbed her hand before she could retreat, pulling her against his chest and wrapping his arms securely around her waist. His fingertips resumed their ministrations, this time under her shirt and across the small of her back.

"Evans, I'm notoriously bad at shutting up," James reminded her. He glanced up at the mistletoe over their heads and then back at her. "Now, if you could give my mouth some sort of alternative, I'm sure we could work something out."

Lily lifted an eyebrow and leaned back as he leaned in. "You're really on your game tonight, aren't you?"

James settled for pressing his lips to her cheekbone, right in front of her ear. "I've been pining for years and the months are dwindling away," he explained, his voice hushed and his lips brushing her skin and his breath tickling her ear and Lily tried very hard not to squirm. "I've lost every last shred of self-respect and I am praying for a Christmas miracle."

"You're really putting your spiritual beliefs on the line, then," Lily informed him in an undertone that made him shiver. He could just imagine other things she could say in that tone of voice, and those kinds of fantasies weren't exactly safe when he had her this close, no matter how much they were just teasing.

"C'mon, Evans, just one kiss, it won't kill you." James nudged his nose against hers, internally steeling himself against that old insane urge to just go for it. He didn't exactly relish the idea of getting slapped.

"No," Lily admitted, nudging him right back but making sure to keep her lips out of his reach, "but you might go comatose from the shock."

"It's a worthy cause," James said, and just as he was about to say fuck it all and go in for a kiss and the inevitable slap that followed, his grip slackened as his hands moved to her hips and Lily managed to step out of his arms and out from under the mistletoe.

She felt a little bad and very unfulfilled, but she laughed when James whimpered and gave her that dramatically wide-eyed reproachful look he always gave her when she scorned his physical advances. She shook her head as the smile continued to toy with her lips.

"If I do it, will you go away?"

"Hardly." James snorted as if the notion of his retreat were completely absurd. Which, he thought, it was. "You know I'd always come back for more."

"Hmm. Greedy," Lily noted.

"Persistent," James corrected.

"Arrogant," she accused.

"Confident," he defended.

"Stupid," she tried.

"Charmingly befuddled," he amended.

Lily swore under her breath and then, louder, she said with a very definite pucker to her lips, "Oh, rats, I thought for sure I'd get you with that one."

"Don't pout, Evans," James requested, more lightly than he felt; something tugged low in his gut as his gaze fell to her mouth. "It does things to me."

"Oh, yeah?" Lily smirked then, teasing him. "What kinds of things?"

One corner of his mouth flicked up into a challenging grin, showing off a few of his teeth and Lily found herself wondering what those teeth could do to the skin behind her ear. "Get back under the mistletoe and I'll show you."

Lily's heart skipped its way up into her throat and she felt the blood rushing to her face. Merlin, it was hot in there, and it didn't help when she saw James's eyes traveling leisurely down her frame, like he had all the time in the world, and then he was licking his lips and she saw him bite his tongue as his eyes settled back on her face. He grinned.

"You're blushing," he said with an unmistakable note of triumph. He released a self-satisfied kind of sigh and ruffled his hair. "You want me."

Lily rolled her eyes to distract herself from whatever her traitorous body was trying to do to her. "Potter, you're an idiot," she said. She grabbed a length of tinsel from a box at her feet and shoved it at him. "Go hang this tinsel before I strangle you with it, yeah?"

James raised an eyebrow. "So you're into gagging?"

"If it'll shut you up," Lily said, giving up on James Potter and his goddamn innuendos and double entendres and the things his stupid bloody voice and his eyes and his smile were doing to her.

He winked at her. "Duly noted, Evans."

Before Lily could properly retort, she felt a heavy arm drape around her shoulders and she looked over to see Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew standing next to her. Sirius was shaking his head in a weary fashion as he greeted them with, "You two are gross and you're not even dating yet…"

"Sirius, unless you're here to help, go away," Lily reprimanded affectionately. She smiled at Peter. "Hello, dear."

Peter smiled back and shook his head at his friends. "Hi, Lily."

"Evans, be nice," Sirius chided, shooting a grin at James. "I'm going to be best man at your wedding."

"Oh, sweet Merlin…" Lily looked around for the one Marauder who wouldn't torture her this way. She found him a few feet away, charming ornaments to settle amongst the branches of one of the pine trees. "Remus, your friends are bothering me."

"Give them detention," Remus suggested with an easy smile. "I won't miss them."

"You can't give me detention," James argued before Lily could really consider the idea. "I'm Head Boy. I'll just put you in there with me."

Sirius and Peter chuckled at yet another one of James's poor attempts at flirting. Lily ducked out from under Sirius's arm and jabbed James in the chest. "Potter, take the tinsel and go to that tree and hang it up before I lose my temper."

He smiled and dropped a quick kiss to her cheek. "You're cute when you're angry," he said, trailing kisses down until he was at the corner of her mouth. He flicked his tongue over that spot on her lips and she stomped on his foot.

"You're about to be cute in the hospital wing," Lily threatened despite the heat that was circling and surely emanating from all sorts of interesting places.

"Right, right." James admitted defeat for the time being. He rumpled his hair up and surveyed her over the tops of his specs. There was definitely something like a twinkle in Lily's eye now and he was determined to work with it. He motioned for Sirius and Peter to follow him, and as Lily turned to go help Remus in the other corner, she heard James's voice carry across the hall.

"I can't wait to marry her," he said, and it was so loud that Lily was sure she was meant to hear it.

Sirius barked out a laugh and Peter gave James some much-needed advice: "Try getting an actual date first."

Lily sighed and ran an agitated hand through her hair, all the while glancing up at the mistletoe in the doorway. Those spindly branches and little green leaves, all bundled up in a red velvet ribbon, so falsely innocent and romantically devious… Lily felt that old James Potter tingle shoot up her spine and – as custom would dictate – she couldn't shake it off.

God damn Christmas.

The sky had darkened and the snow was still raging over the blustery wind outside, scattering over the grounds in piles and piles of chill white frost. Lily watched it fall as she curled up on the windowsill halfway down an empty corridor. It was late and she'd taken to double-checking the castle's decorations for no real reason other than procrastination and boredom. She hadn't much felt like polishing off any of her reading or essays, so she'd left her friends in the library an hour ago in favor of a little bit of solitude. After all that James Potter nonsense earlier that evening, solitude was something she needed.

But perhaps it hadn't been the best idea, Lily thought. She blew some hair out of her face and leaned against the shuddering windowpane. Being alone meant her thoughts were completely consumed by that messy dark hair, those winking and smoldering and smiling eyes, those crooked specs and that lopsided smirk, those strong hands and that too-tantalizing-for-anybody's-good mouth… A mouth that had touched her skin, the corner of her lips, that mouth that she wanted everywhere…

Lily shut her eyes tight. Shit shit shit. She was so completely fucked, wasn't she? And it wasn't even in the way she wanted – ugh! Bloody sodding bleeding buggering fucking hell, this was awful.

And, of course, it was about to get worse.

Footsteps, a few disapproving clicks of a tongue, and a teasing voice said, "Evans, Evans, Evans, skiving off homework to nap in the window?"

Lily opened her eyes just in time to see James slip his hands into his pockets and lean against the stone wall, right at the edge of her windowsill. Of course it would be him. Of course. Naturally. Obviously. Because this was Lily Evans's life and James Potter always always always managed to find a way to barge into it.

"I wasn't napping. I was just…" Lily twirled a hand through the air, searching for something that wasn't a lie but wasn't the complete truth, either. "Thinking. I was thinking."

"Mhmm." James's hazel eyes danced as he looked at her. "About me, I hope?"

"Oh, naturally."

James chuckled and Lily's mouth twisted into a sardonic little smile. They fell into a comfortable quiet, and Lily's eyes shifted back to the scene outside, all dark and snowy and chaotic. All the better for him, James thought as he let his eyes drink their fill of her. The jumper she was wearing was too big, James noticed with a bit of a thrill, and one of the sleeves kept slipping down to reveal the curve of her shoulder, and a bit of her collarbone as well. The dim torchlight bounced off her hair, shadows dimming it into a deep crimson in places and bringing out the gold strands in others. Her pale lips were set in a contemplative line, and her eyes looked deep and dark and far away, making James wonder if he could get that twinkle back in them.

"So," he said, deciding he might as well start by making useless conversation, "you going home for the holidays in a few weeks?"

Lily shook her head. "No. I – well, you know I don't have much to go home to," she said. It had been awhile since her parents had died so it wasn't terribly difficult to talk about anymore. "I don't think my sister would be too chuffed if I showed up at her doorstep, either. Not that I'd want to spend Christmas with her and dear Vernon, anyway."

She slid off the windowsill then as it had been getting rather cold, and leaned against the wall next to James. "What about you?"

"Staying here as well," he told her. "Mum and Dad decided to take a holiday gallivanting about on an African safari, of all things, so me and Sirius figured we'd stick it out here. Glad to hear you're staying, though; I'd miss you."

"Potter…" Lily started warningly, but James was serious and he wanted her to know that; he wasn't going to be discouraged by any lightly veiled threats.

"I would," he insisted. "You have no idea what my summers have been like."

"Seeing as Sirius lives with you, I've always thought they involved a lot of explosions."

"That, sure," James said with an acknowledging tilt of his head. "But something's always missing."

Lily sighed, rubbing her hands tiredly over her face. She couldn't do this with him; she liked him far too much and she knew he liked her right back but, fuck, this sort of thing was always so scary. "James, please."

He looked at her, puzzled. "What?"

"It's all fine and good when we're kidding around, but –" But now nobody else is around and we're alone and it's not funny when we're alone.

"I'm never kidding around."

Lily looked at him. His hands were still in his pockets and he was still leaning against the wall, the picture of casualty, but there was something in his eyes… "What about earlier?"

"What about it? I know it seemed like it was all in good fun, Lily, but it's not just that." James swore under his breath and pulled a hand out of his pocket to push through his hair. She was so close to him right now, he could smell her, could taste her scent on his tongue and he didn't want it to stop there. He wanted more – he always did; he wanted all of it, everything.

"I want to kiss you," he said, because fuck it all, she already knew so he might as well tell her. "I want to give you whatever it is you want. Everything you do, it does something to me. You know that, you have to."

Well, that was something, Lily thought as her heart did that skidding, hammering thing that it wasn't supposed to do. What he said, the way he was looking at her, Lily didn't think she had it in her to shoot him down anymore. Did she even want to? No, she didn't think so. She really didn't think so.

"I –" Lily started to say, but James didn't want to hear it.

"Stop." He shook his head. "Just… shut up, Lily, I'm so tired of talking about this."

Lily felt her breath catch uncomfortably, her heart faltered, and she dropped her gaze from James's face, feeling guilty for some reason. Part of her wanted to be angry but she was tired of it, too, so she just managed a quiet "Okay" in response.

James saw the way her whole demeanor seemed to slacken and he panicked a little bit; that hadn't been what he wanted.

"No, that's – shit. Lily, that's not what I meant." His hands raked through his hair again. Damn, this was frustrating, talking to her about this and they were alone and she was right there. "I – what I meant was – fuck, this is what I meant."

And before Lily could ask what this was, James closed the small stretch of space between them, his hands grabbed her face and his mouth enveloped hers, effectively silencing her gasp of surprise. He kissed her fervently, urgently, desperately, possessively, unleashing every last feeling he'd ever had for her – the want, the need, everything that had been unrequited for so long and he couldn't take it anymore so he shoved his tongue into her mouth and swallowed her moan.

Lily's hands moved up the front of his shirt, catching and tugging at the collar, her fingernails scraping lightly against the base of his neck. She wasn't about to stop this, to argue, to anything except reciprocate, to give back just as much as he was giving her. All teasing aside, she knew this was what she wanted – it was James, it had always been stupid, arrogant, insufferable James. And then, now he was funny and sweet and considerate James, and she wanted him even more because of that. So when his tongue stroked over hers, hers moved with it; she tugged at his bottom lip with her teeth and when he changed the angle of the kiss to deepen it, she just let it happen. She let it happen and she drowned in it.

James's hands descended to caress her sides, up and down, until they clutched at her hips and dragged her against him, their midsections rocking together and their groans crashing between their lips. Heat was crackling wherever they touched, like a spontaneous combustion that should have happened ages ago but had been so fiercely contained, and now it was exploding with an inevitable, insurmountable vengeance that was nowhere near finished.

They broke apart to breathe, and it was all short and shallow and ragged, and as James plucked small, heady kisses from Lily's lips, he threw whatever caution he had left to the wind and murmured against them, "Come upstairs with me, Lily."

"One condition," Lily said on something like a gasp as James's mouth moved to suck at her neck. His teeth nipped and her head spun. "You show me all those things I do to you, yeah?"

Oh, sweet mother of Merlin… James couldn't take it anymore, not unless he wanted to take her right there in the middle of the corridor, and something told him that wasn't the way to go about this. So he grabbed her hand and the pair of them walked-almost-ran down the corridor, up a staircase, around a corner, down another corridor, their hearts pounding and their heads swimming. James thanked every deity he could think of that the boys were holed up in the library for at least another two hours, and Lily just thanked her lucky stars that she'd bothered to shave her legs that morning; she doubted James would give a sodding doxy, but all the same…

They reached the mercifully empty dormitory and James kicked the door open and yanked Lily inside, slamming her back against it so it shut and shuddered in the doorframe. His mouth was back on hers, lips and tongue and teeth assaulting each other in a years-old fervor. The sounds of the storm were louder in Gryffindor tower than they had been in the Great Hall or that formerly insignificant corridor, but they were a little too preoccupied to notice.

Lily tore at the buttons of James's shirt and he shrugged it off, tossing it aside as his mouth lowered to her neck again. His teeth pulled at the skin, tongue swirling and sucking until she moaned and pressed her body into his and tugged at his hair. He was determined to litter her flesh with evidence of the way he wanted her, so that everyone would know she was his and he was hers because there was no way this was only going to last one night. He'd waited too long for just one night.

James fumbled with the snaps on her jeans and dragged them down over her legs, those legs that were pink-kneed and too skinny and forever-long. He dropped to his knees in front of her to pull the jeans over her feet and he kissed his way back up those legs – hot, heady, open-mouthed kisses. His hands gripped her thighs like they had when she'd been hanging the mistletoe, only now it was better, so much better, because it was skin-on-skin and they were alone and Lily was practically sobbing his name as his tongue traced under the line of her knickers. Her fingers twisted in his hair while his tongue explored the expanse of her thighs; the tip of his nose traced over the apex and he inhaled that clean, flowery, tinged with vanilla scent that was just so Lily that it nearly unraveled him then and there.

Feeling his hands and his mouth on her the way she'd fantasized about time and time again and growing ever more impatient, Lily started pulling her sweater over her head, but then James's hands wrapped around her wrists, stopping her. She met his eye as he straightened up and she said, "What are you stopping me for?"

"You told me you wanted me to show you all the things you do to me," James reminded her. Very quickly he scooped her up into his arms and carried her over to his bed. "And at the top of my list of things I want to do to you is undress you myself."

"Control freak," Lily accused with a giggle when James dropped her onto the mattress and climbed on top of her.

"Shut it, Evans," he said good-naturedly as his mouth attacked that exposed shoulder he'd been so captivated by in the corridor. "Otherwise I'll take that whole gagging thing seriously."

"You wouldn't."

"Evans, shut up."

Lily twisted her legs around James's waist and tugged him closer so their bodies rocked together. "Frustrating, isn't it?" she said on a moan as James bit his way up her neck. "When someone goes on and on and on and they just won't –"

James groaned in a mixture of frustration and amusement and this mad desire as Lily kept talking and her legs tightened around him. "If you're going to keep at it, at least give me something dirty to work with –"

"Oh, I think I could manage that." Lily grinned at James's raised eyebrows, using his distraction as leverage to flip their positions so she was straddling his hips. She leaned down to work her lips against his neck, all the while keeping true to her word, ever-so-conversationally… "So earlier tonight, when you were getting all cheeky with me, honestly I had a hard time keeping up because all I could think about was –"

"How you planned on engaging me in story time?" James guessed, laughing when Lily swatted him across the chest and sighing roughly when she pulled his earlobe between her teeth and sucked on it. His fingers dug into her hips when she ground against him, but still he couldn't resist egging her on. His voice was strained but managed to hint at teasing. "Go on, Evans, if you're going to get dirty with me, I really want you to commit."

It was Lily's turn to laugh – again, for the umpteenth time that night, and when she looked at James's lopsided smirk and that mess of hair and that everything, she felt something tug at her heartstrings because he was the only one who could make her laugh like that. She knew she felt like this, but she hadn't expected it to hit her this hard when they'd been running up to the dormitory like a couple of mad hatters…

"Forget it," she said in answer to James's smart remark. "Just shag me."

"There it is." James's grin widened as an erratic twitch ticked its way through his body. He sat up and tugged at the hem of Lily's sweater, pulling it over her head like he'd imagined doing a thousand times before he'd ever gotten her anywhere near his empty dormitory. He whimpered when all that bare skin was revealed. "Oh, bloody hell, Evans…"

Before Lily could so much as smile in response, James had caught her around the back of the knees and yanked, hard, so she was flat on her back and he was on top of her again. Her surprised shout of laughter was muffled by his mouth taking hers, all heat and speed and impatience. Their tongues tangled and their hands were everywhere – neck, chest, stomach, legs, back and forth and back again in a heated cycle of skin-on-skin. Lily's back arched and she rolled her hips against his, and James thought a few key appendages might implode, explode, something, if she kept on like that. Not that he wanted her to stop – God, no – and she didn't.

Her hands moved down, fingertips trailing along the line of his stomach to the snap on his trousers. She flicked it aside and pulled down the zipper and then her hand was pushing through and past his boxers and – oh god oh Merlin holy god damn it… James's thoughts trailed off into a stream of incoherence as he moved his own hand to rub over the top of Lily's knickers, shoving past them to slip a finger, then two, three, inside of her. Their moans crashed together again, exploding on contact, shattering into a thousand little stars that sizzled as they showered sparks between their lips.

Lily's free hand pulled at his trousers and James kicked them the rest of the way down, swinging them off his feet so they dropped off the side of the bed and onto the floor with a light fwump. Then they were both tugging at was left of their underthings, swearing and giggling through their sighs and moans and distractions in the form of seeking hands and roving mouths.

"James," Lily said as he was kissing his way down her stomach, dragging his tongue across the lines of her ribcage. "James, just – oh god…" She bit down on her lip when James's mouth reached her hipbone, biting and sucking and swirling his tongue around the skin.

James felt his heart thrum in his chest at the sounds Lily was making, unable to believe that he was the one who elicited those sounds, that it was his name falling off the tip of her tongue and out from between her lips. It was his name, his mouth, his hands, and it was her and her waist and her collarbone and her neck, and she was in his bed and she was letting him do all these things to her and she was doing all these things to him. There were an innumerable array of fireworks setting off inside of him, lighting in his chest and exploding and ricocheting off every corner of his body as he worked his mouth back up Lily's to her shoulder, her neck, her jaw…

"Just what, Lily?" he murmured, panting slightly into the crook of her neck. His teeth grazed the skin and his tongue tasted it and he knew he'd never get tired of that taste, he'd never get enough of it. "Tell me what you want."

"You," Lily told him on a sigh, on a moan and a sob when she felt him so close to her. And it felt good, so good to tell him, after all those days and nights they'd spent together, talking and laughing and bickering about things that didn't matter, after all those touches that lingered on her hands and her back and her hair hours after James had pulled away… "Make love to me."

As his mouth caught hers and he pushed inside of her and their breaths collected and mingled and erupted, James was sure that his heart wouldn't be able to handle it, but Merlin, Circe, Morgana, there was nothing better than having a heart that burst from having everything it had ever wanted. Lily, it was always Lily, smiling and laughing and touching and talking and shouting and hexing and fighting and kissing and everything, it was her, always her.

He kept his thrusts slow, measured, because they both knew from an all-night game of Truth that neither of them had done this before. James didn't want to rush it and he didn't want to hurt her, no matter how many times he had to tell himself to take it slow because his body was screaming for him to speed up, to hurry…

Once her body had eased into the pain of her first time, Lily noticeably relaxed. Her arms wound around James's shoulders and her fingers clutched at his hair as his lips peppered clingy kisses down her neck. Her legs tightened around his waist and she rocked her hips up to meet his for every thrust, speeding up about half a second earlier to wordlessly encourage him to pick up the pace. A moan ripped its way from her throat, a moan forming around his name, when he hit her harder right where she needed him to, and James lifted his head from her neck to draw short kisses from her lips. She thrust upwards again and James thought he was going to lose it.

"Fucking – hell, Lily, yes…" He was panting and groaning and surprised that he could speak at all. His lips clung to hers between unsteady breaths. "Oh my god…"

"Mmm…" Lily whimpered a little at the friction between their bodies. Her hands disentangled from his hair to grip his shoulders, her fingernails biting into his skin and making his heart skip around in his ribcage. "James… faster. Go faster. I want – need – you now, right now."

James didn't miss a beat, his body reacting before his spinning, foggy, muddled brain had a chance. His hands pressed her hips into the mattress and he moved faster, taking her in hard, shallow strokes, her name falling off his tongue and mingling with his own from hers. Everything was shadows and flashes of light, electricity and tingles and tensed muscles, aftershave and vanilla lotion and the sweet tang of perspiration against their taste buds. There was an explosion of light – gold, bright gold bursts of it – and their lips halted their movements and Lily's muscles clenched and released and James's body shuddered and their names rolled out and collided, the letters bursting apart and scattering and then there was just heavy breathing, sore but satiated limbs, and small, slow kisses.

James rolled away before his dead weight could get too uncomfortable. He propped himself up on one elbow and swept some of Lily's hair away from her face. Her eyes were closed and he leaned down to press a kiss right between them, on the little bridge of her nose. She sighed and a smile played around the edges of her lips, and he knew – he just knew, so he said, "I need to tell you something."

At the hushed yet serious tone of his voice, Lily opened her eyes to see that old determined glint in the hazel ones looking down at her. "All right."

James took a deep breath and started rambling. "I'm only telling you this because – well, it's not because I expect you to agree or reciprocate or anything, but – I might as well just say it," he rattled off, hoping against hope that she would agree or reciprocate or anything because that's what he wanted and she was what he needed. "Like I said earlier, you know, the time I've got left for fucking around is dwindling and I don't just want to fuck around with you, anyway, so I just – it's Christmas, yeah, and aren't you supposed to be honest or something at Christmas?"

Lily smiled and messed up his eternally tousled hair. "I haven't the slightest idea," she said, trying hard not to tease him. "I think you should be honest all the time."

"Always with the semantics." James smiled and kissed her forehead, his heart beating erratically like it was trying to escape before Lily had a chance to break it. "Okay, well, then, I'll just say it – I'm rather in love with you."

Silence. Lily stared at him and he stared right back, both their faces creeping into a pink that had nothing to do with physical exertion, both their hearts tittering and their nerve endings fluttering with butterflies and James had no idea if he should have said that and Lily had no idea what the hell just happened.

"You don't have to say that," was what she blurted out. Because surely he only said it because he thought she expected it after what just happened. "I've already shagged you. I'll do it again, too, but –"

"But? No buts." James shook his head vigorously. Something about how nervous Lily seemed had kicked his confidence back into gear. "I love you, shagging or otherwise. Love love love you." He kissed her soundly on the mouth and flopped onto his back next to her. "Deal with it."

"You – I – what?" Lily's head was spinning again.

James shot her that old lopsided grin. "How many times do you want me to say it? I could go on forever, you know, but still. Oh, hey, though," he went on before Lily could splutter on any further, "that reminds me – d'you want to be my girlfriend?"

Lily thought she might explode all over again, this time in nerves and anticipation for an entirely different reason. "James."

He smirked. "Lily."

"What the hell?"

"Nice try, love," James said, rolling over so he could look at her more comfortably, "but you've still got to answer my question first."

"Well, I – yes, I thought that was a given," Lily said with a little half-smile, "so there's your Christmas miracle."

"Ah, yes," James sighed triumphantly and he started moving his lips against her neck again. "Faith has been restored."

They lay quietly then, James content in the knowledge that he'd told her everything he had to say for one night, waiting patiently for her answer. He was sure she had one, if the way she was tripping over words was any indication. He knew Lily Evans, and Lily Evans didn't trip over anything for anyone, until now. That could only mean good things for him.

Lily, meanwhile, was buzzing with butterflies and a hundred thoughts that overlapped, all of them telling her the same thing. James had caught her off-guard with the I-love-you business, but now that she had a minute to let it settle, she felt a bit stupid for not realizing it before. The way he looked at her, the way he touched her, it had always felt like more than just some hormonal impulse. It had been in the way he talked to her, the way he helped her when she needed it, the way he listened even if he didn't like what he was hearing, the way he always seemed to know what to do and when to do it and… Well, it had been in everything, really, and Lily had felt it all right back. That had been what was tugging at her heartstrings, hadn't it? That little jump and twitch and skitter of her heart whenever she saw him – that was it, wasn't it? Of course it was. Naturally. Obviously. Merlin, she was supposed to be smarter than this denial…

She shook her head and tugged at James's hair so he'd quit kissing her neck long enough to look at her. "Hey," she said when he ignored her, laughing when he responded by sucking at her skin harder. "Hey. Pay attention. James."

"Hmm?" he whined against her skin before giving in. He detached himself from her neck and looked at her, his heart doing that little skip that was just so all about Lily Evans.

"I love you, too, you know," she told him, and her heart lifted when she saw the way he smiled.

"I do now," he said, and leaned in for another kiss, this one slow and sweet and steady, and Lily's arms wrapped around him and pulled him down close, their bodies heating and crackling as their mouths opened to deepen the kiss, and James's hands slid over her thighs to part them, and –

The door opened with a bang, accompanied by the unmistakable shout of Sirius Black's voice saying, "Oy, Prongs, nicked a branch of mistletoe for you. Now you can just carry it around and anytime you see Evans, you can – oh, shit."

Lily and James had sprung apart so quickly that the former promptly rolled off the bed, laughing loudly and catching one of the sheets to cover herself with. "Don't think he'll be needing the mistletoe, Sirius!" she called from where she'd landed on the floor, out of sight of the Marauders.

Sirius crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently, fixing James with an accusatory look. "Well, well, well, it would seem that way, now, wouldn't it?"

James grinned rather sheepishly at his friends – Sirius tapping his foot, Remus doubled over in suppressed laughter, Peter red-faced with embarrassment but clearly impressed all the same.

"Well," Peter said after another silent moment that was only punctured by Remus's chuckles and Lily's giggles, "looks like Christmas came early for someone."

"Not too early, I hope…" Remus managed to say through his chuckles, causing Sirius and Peter to burst out into their own raucous peals of laughter.

James whipped his pillow at the lot of them. "Would you all just sod off for five minutes so my girlfriend can get dressed?"

"I second that!" Lily said, popping her head over the mattress to send a mockingly scathing look at the three laughing boys in the doorway.

"Girlfriend?" Sirius echoed with a mischievous grin as he looked at Peter and Remus. "Brilliant! Who had pre-hols, then?"

"That would be me," Remus said, digging into his pockets for some gold. "But Sirius, I owe you two Galleons since they've apparently shagged already, and Peter, you get five for guessing that we'd barge in on them…"

As money changed hands and the Marauders didn't seem to be retreating, James rolled off his bed to join Lily on the floor out of their sight. He wrapped his arms around her and resumed their interrupted kiss, all slow and sweet and steady and turned up at the corners in their smiles. And when James whispered that he loved her and she whispered it back, Lily thought that perhaps spindly branches and little green leaves, all bundled up in a red velvet ribbon, weren't really so bad, after all.