When James woke the morning after the storm, he didn't remember much of what had happened the night before right away, but as he found Renata asleep against his shoulder and Harry sprawled across their laps, the memories started to flood back in to remind him. Suddenly, his chest was overwhelmed by a sensation of warmth that left him in such a state of relaxation that he almost could have fallen back asleep. Renata and Harry appeared so peaceful as they slept on that he was afraid to breathe, let alone move in fear that he would wake them up.

The night before had proven to actually be a lot of fun as they had been entertained by Renata's idea of shadow puppets and Harry's outstanding performance. Never in a million years would James have thought to do such a thing for Harry to soothe him over his fear of storms, and that's why he was so thankful to have Renata around. So far, she always seemed to know what to do, even in situations that were highly stressful and that always left him more than impressed. But it also left him feeling bad because James felt like sometimes that he was practically useless in situations.

He wanted to be of more help, not only to Harry but to Renata as well since she had taken over without question. He was capable of doing more, he knew that very well. The war had shattered a lot of his confident nature, but over the course of allowing himself to take a step back and reevaluate everything, James was refinding himself. There was part of him that remembered how confident he had been back in Hogwarts, to the point where it had come across as pure arrogance. He didn't want to go back to that level, but he wanted to be able to look in the mirror and be proud of the person that was looking back.

When a situation arose that called for fast action, he didn't want everything to solely rely on Renata's fast thinking, he wanted to be able to jump right in and solve the problem on his own or at least help. However, James had to remind himself that it wasn't impossible, he was making his way back to be the old James, it was just taking time.

During the first year after Lily's death, he didn't make any sort of progress, in fact, it all seemed to be over as he was stuck in a state of grief. He couldn't think of anything else besides how he had failed so many people at one time, but he was learning since Renata had come into their lives that it wasn't his fault. Unfortunately, life had dealt the Potter family a cruel card and had played it in the most devastating fashion. The fact that he had survived and that he was there for Harry was something that Renata wanted him to appreciate, not live in the sense of regret.

She was showing him that even though Lily died, he did not die with her.

Sure, he missed her terribly and part of him was always going to miss the first woman he had ever fallen in love with. Lily was the mother of his only son, someone he had obsessively fancied since he was a boy and he loved her, even in death. But James Potter wasn't dead and every day, he was learning that there were many reasons for him to still live on.

Whether it was learning that he was actually capable of cooking, bringing Renata and Harry to the beach for their first time and witnessing how much they enjoyed it, or just simply enjoying all the new memories he was making like the thunderstorm shadow puppet show.

James had been at his wit's end when they had met Renata at the park that fateful afternoon, unsure what he was supposed to do with himself anymore. He was broken and he thought all the damage was permanent, but he knew that was no longer the case. Yes, he still had some ways to go, he knew there would be rough days ahead, but he was going to appreciate every good day and every good memory that came his way. He had survived for a reason and he had to make the most of it, he owed it to himself and he owed it to Harry.

The Boy-Who-Lived needed a father who wanted to live, not one that was barely living at all.

His brothers needed him more than ever as they worked through their difficulties as they were still suffering from the times of war too. But they all had to come and realise that the war was over and every day was a new day for them to experience something new. There was still a lot of things left for them to do, to work on, and that had to give them a purpose not to give up even when some days they truly wanted to.

Cheering all of them on in the corner was Renata, a bright and encouraging smile on her face most times, however, not afraid to use a firm voice with all of them when they needed to be set straight. James didn't even know where he was supposed to start when it came to thanking her for everything that she did for all of them. Sure, flowers and making her breakfast was a nice start but not even all the flowers in the world or the best-tasting breakfast could even come close to showing the gratitude that James felt she deserved.

James just founding himself wanting to do nice things for her, but he didn't know what Renata liked in order to do that and he didn't want to flat out ask her because he felt like she would grow suspicious. But besides looking up at the stars, cooking, and enjoying burying people in the sand, James wanted to know little things about her. Such as what was her favourite song to dance to, what happened to be her favourite colour, what was one of her hobbies, or even something along the lines of what was her favourite dessert to eat?

And while he didn't want to ask her all those things in case she asked him why and he couldn't provide an answer besides "I just wanted to know," he knew someone who probably knew the answers to the questions.

Carefully lifting Harry off of his lap and adjusting Renata so that she wasn't leaning against him anymore, James was able to move. He decided to move them to a more comfortable position, such as lying down on the sofa as he used his wand. Once they were settled with Harry's blanket draped over them, James was ready to embark on his mission that morning as he hoped they would both remain asleep until he was back.

Of course, it was a no-brainer of who James was going to pay a visit to if anyone knew Renata better, it was her brother, Adelmo. They seemed like close enough siblings that James figured he could get some answers out of him, that was if Adelmo was willing to share. The last time he had really spoken to the Healer, Adelmo had been under the impression that James had exposed himself to Renata and that had not made for a pretty scenario.

But it was definitely worth a shot as he got dressed that morning and quietly made his way out of the flat to make his way there. He didn't even know if Adelmo was going to be home, considering it was very possible that he was on shift at St Mungo's, but James was more than willing to make the trip as it wasn't going to take very long by the ways of apparating. When he arrived at Adelmo's flat, he knocked against the front door and waited for a couple of minutes. At first, he was fairly certain that his first assumptions of Adelmo being at work were correct, however, as he heard the sounds of Enzo barking and the shuffling of feet behind the door, he remained in place just a little while longer.

A minute or so later, the door opened, revealing a very flustered looking Adelmo is a night robe, he looked wildly confused with finding James' on the other side of the door, but if James wasn't mistaken, was there perhaps a hint of relief on his face?

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you," James began, " I certainly didn't mean to wake you if I did-"

"No, you didn't, it's fine," Adelmo said, " is everything alright? Is Renata okay? Are you-"

The suddenly panicked tone made James realised that even Renata's brother was on high alert, waiting for the moment when things went wrong. That's not what James wanted to be associated with, he didn't want people to be waiting for things to go wrong with him, he was travelling down the right path towards to recovery, wasn't he? Didn't they have just a bit of faith in his abilities to move forward?

"Everything is fine," he reassured Adelmo, " Renata is at home with Harry, they were both asleep when I left and I'm not here for me. I was actually coming here in hopes that you could help me with doing something for your sister."

There was definitely a look of shock on Adelmo's face for a moment, was he that perplexed by the idea that James wanted to do something nice for Renata? He shook his head, he was reading way too much into Adelmo's expression when it was more than likely that her brother was just curious as to what was going on. However, as James went to explain what he was aiming for, he caught sight of movement behind the Healer, bringing him to look over his shoulder.

His breath catching in his throat when he caught sight of a large black dog padding through the hallway of the home because that dog sure as hell was not Enzo.

"Sirius?!"

Suddenly, James was grabbed by the front of his shirt and yanked inside the flat, his lingering screech barely echoing down the empty street before the door slammed behind him. He nearly lost his footing but was able to catch himself as Adelmo released him. But James still recognised his best friend's animagus form from anywhere after spending years flanked at his side as they covered the territory of the Forbidden Forest.

All was quickly revealed as the door was closed, leaving Sirius to fall out of his form after leaping onto the sofa. He was lying there with quite the grin on his face, meanwhile, Adelmo was on the verge of practically hyperventilating at the time.

"Al, relax," Sirius said, trying to calm the other man down " it's James, everything is fine."

Glancing back and forth between the two, it didn't take James very long to piece together just what was going on. He wasn't sure what the appropriate response was supposed to be on his behalf, but what came out of his mouth next, probably wasn't the most reassuring thing to hear.

"Already?!" His eyes were fixated on Sirius, who didn't look the least bit shameful, his smile only growing wider with every passing second as he looked all too proud of himself at the moment. "Since when?"

"Since last night."

Adelmo let out a panicked cry as he made his way over to the nearest chair and proceeded to bury his face into his hands. He obviously wasn't as cheerful as Sirius was at the moment as he continued to shake his head while muttering all sorts of things to himself as James just stood there in pure bewilderment. Eventually, Adelmo dropped his hands from his mouth as he looked at James, almost with a shameful expression.

"I apologise if you're not comfortable with all of this," he began in a low whisper, " Sirius said that you would be-"

Immediately, James started waving his hands, thinking that Adelmo was getting the wrong impression by his reaction.

"No, I'm fine with it, I don't...no judgement here," he stated quickly," I just honestly wasn't expecting it to happen so fast."

"Well don't act so surprised!" Sirius called out from the sofa. " I'm starting to get a bit offended here."

Apparently, while Sirius had been much for vocal about his pursuit in hopes of getting with Adelmo, it seemed Adelmo had shared his own feelings or attraction towards Sirius, however, he wanted to keep matters extremely private. He feared judgement, something that Sirius no longer dealt with as he usually told people to shove it if they decided to share an opinion he didn't ask for. James discovered that Renata was aware, but had vowed to keep quiet about the feelings that both men shared until Adelmo was ready to come to terms with it all.

But things had moved at an unexpected pace for both of them. Sirius thought he was going to have to try a lot harder and Adelmo figured he was going to push all thoughts aside because, from a young age, he had been told that it was wrong. However, after countless attempts of just trying to get Adelmo to speak with him, Sirius was tired of the rude behaviour of being flat-out ignored at St Mungo's.

During the thunderstorm the night before he had shown up at Adelmo's flat, demanding an explanation at the back and forth behaviour, only to find himself pulled into a strong kiss. Obviously, Adelmo was not set on ignoring him any longer as the kiss escalated to so much more that same evening. Although the night was wonderful for the both of them, Adelmo woke up feeling regret as he feared that he had just given into his own evil temptations and he wasn't sure what to do.

Now James was there and he was sure that was going to lead to Renata finding out.

"So does that mean you two are-" James went to ask if it meant they were pursuing things further, but Adelmo wasn't even going to let him finish.

"Yes!" Sirius said with a bright smile, only to have it immediately fade following Adelmo's answer.

"No."

The sudden awkward silence came over the flat as Sirius immediately looked over at Adelmo, but the other man wouldn't bring himself to look over at him.

"I'm sorry, Sirius."

James didn't even know what the hell he had walked into that morning, all he was trying to do was perform a nice gesture for Renata and he had stumbled upon quite the mess. He stood a witness to Adelmo basically rejecting his best friend after Sirius had probably figured that there was something between them brewing. It appeared cold and harsh, Sirius' face contorted in pain and confusion as he didn't understand, but Adelmo didn't look like he was going to be offering an explanation either.

How the hell was James supposed to explain to Renata that he had basically barged in on a one-night stand between his best friend and her brother?

Things only grew worse as Sirius decided he was going to storm out of the flat, not bothering to look at anyone as he left. James didn't know if he should leave but Adelmo hadn't told him to get out either. Instead, it appeared that he was braving a look where he wasn't hurting at all with what had just happened as if nothing had happened at all.

"What can I help you with, James?"

He had to remind himself that it was none of his business, whatever happened between Adelmo and Sirius the night before was strictly between them and he couldn't let that alter his judgement. It was just conflicting at the time because while it was personal business between them, Sirius was like James' brother and he never wanted to see his brother hurting.

"Um, maybe I can just come back at a different time or something," James said quickly, " it wasn't a big deal and I really shouldn't have intruded so early in the morning."

"You might as well just ask or say what you need, James," Adelmo sighed as he ran his hand through his hair in a stressful manner. "You're already here and whatever happened between Sirius and me is done with. Regardless if you agreed with what happened or not, I'm sure that's separate from as to why you're here."

Feeling stuck at the moment, James decided to just say the hell with it and go for it.

"Well, I was just coming over to ask you if you could help me," he began, clearing his throat as it quivered slightly with nerves. "You see, I wanted to do something really nice for Renata, she's been so helpful with Harry...well, not just Harry, but with myself as well. I really wanted to show her how much we appreciated everything. Flowers and breakfast just weren't cutting it, but I didn't know what else I could do that she would really, really enjoy. That's why I came here."

Without warning, Adelmo stood up from the chair he had been sitting in and left the room without a word. While it came across as rude, James couldn't really blame him because there seemed to be a lot going on the Healer's mind. Thinking that was the man's way of telling him to get out, James turned on his heel to leave. He would probably go to Sirius' home and see if he was alright before heading back to Renata and Harry.

However, as he went to reach for the door, the sounds of footsteps trailed from behind as Adelmo returned.

"Here."

An envelope was held out to him, leaving James completely curious as to what he was being handed.

"I don't-"

"Just hand her the envelope," Adelmo told him, " trust me, it'll probably make her cry. Happy tears, of course. Very happy tears."

Taking the envelope, James looked it over for a few seconds before peering back up again. It was beyond a kind gesture, whatever it was that Adelmo was certain his sister was going to love. It made James happy that he was going to present her with such a thing, but he wasn't comfortable with the idea of leaving Adelmo in such a state.

"Are you going to be alright?"

Adelmo let out a sad little chuckle.

"I've lived this long this way, and I'll go on to live another day."