For Agent ~ agentbot08

【In which Lily and James fall in love over cupcakes, hot chocolate and rainy days...】

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Her apron was splattered with flour and icing sugar in peculiar shapes where she had rubbed her messy hands over herself. Her hair, an astonishing shade of auburn, had sprinkles dotted here and there in her messy bun that was falling out slowly but surely. Her hands were covered in food colouring, frosting and cake batter, all in all: she looked like she'd just lost a particularly nasty fight with a giant cake and, after a sizeable amount of toil, the cake had won.

He, however, thought she looked stunning. He entered the stop looking quite messy in his own right, his hair was tousled and stuck up at the back like a toddler had rubbed a ballon on his head; his gingham flannel shirt was untucked from his ripped jeans and one sleeve was rolled up higher than the other. His rectangular spectacles sat oddly on his nose, like he'd been readjusting them too often and his grin was rather crooked. He wasn't the type of love interest one would come across in romance novels; he wasn't wearing a crisp WallStreet looking suit, nor did he seem to have that 'James Bond Debonair' that a lot of these protagonists seemed to have.

A small bell tinkled when he entered the bakery and announced his presence to her. She looked up from the piping bag she had been prepping for the freshly baked cake that sat on the counter.

"Can I help you?" She asked him in (what he thought) was an angelic tone that he would not forget in a hurry.

The man looked at her with wide eyes and a crooked grin for a short second before coming to.
"Yes, actually. You don't sell cupcakes do you? I was going to get a cake with an obnoxious message on it to act like a dick to my mate but I've decided to take the high ground."

She laughed at his coarse language but nodded to the question, "I've got about a million different cupcakes to pick from. I never tire of making them."

He nodded politely, looking over to where she was gesturing beyond the counter to see the small mountain of cupcakes.
"Which do you recommend?"

Her eyes widened, it wasn't often a customer asked for her opinion on anything to do with her bakery.
"Oh! Um... the double chocolate ones are still warmish but I've always been best at baking the red velvet ones."

"I'll take one of each then," the man grinned, pushing the uneven sleeve on his shirt farther up his forearm, making the difference infuriatingly larger.

She nodded and fetched a box to put them in.
"Two pounds fifty, please?"

"Is that all?"

"I can charge more if you like?"

The man snorted, "I like your style. What's your name?"

"Lily."

"James." He took the box off her and winked, "pleasure meeting you Miss Lily." He turned to leave, unsure how he would open the door with his hands full.

"James?"

James turned to observe her with a surprised hazel gaze.
"Yes?"

"What changed your mind?" He tilted his head to the side in question, "to get a cupcake instead of a snarky cake I mean– for your mate?"

James chuckled, "the smile you gave me when I came in. You positively glow, you know that? You've got a sprinkle on your nose by the way, very cute," he winked again in a way that Lily was shocked to find made her stomach flip.

He was gone before Lily had the chance to reply, but she did catch a glimpse of herself in the glass window of the door when he opened it, he was right: a heart shaped sprinkle was perched on the end of her nose...

She next saw him a month later (or there abouts) his hair still looking like it has been the target of an attack at a children's ballon party and his shirt still untucked from a pair of jeans.

This time, however, he entered the establishment with someone else in tow. This someone else took the form of a little boy no older than three, who Lily presumed must have been a nephew or brother.

"Come on Harry! You've got to get back to nursery on time and I ain't explaining to your teacher that I stole you out of lunchtime to take you here!" James was trying to sound stern but the little boy (and Lily) were merely amused.

Lily readjusted her apron and flashed them both a warm smile, "what can I do for you?"

James turned to Harry, addressing him like one would a peer, "what can she do for you?"
The little boy had a radiant shit-eating grin, shockingly similar to James'; Lily realised quite suddenly that Harry was almost the double of him.

"I'd like a cupcake, daddy." Harry whispered and Lily almost hit the floor. Daddy?! Lily would never in her life have placed James for a father– he couldn't have been older than twenty-two or twenty-three for one thing if the askew glasses, unkempt hair and crumpled flannel shirts didn't paint the picture already.

"Don't tell me, tell Lily!" James pointed to her in demonstration and she nodded reassuringly.

"I'd like a cupcake please?" Harry said, he seemed to have springs in his trainers because he didn't stop bouncing for the entire retail exchange.

"Certainly Mister Harry." She fetched the biggest chocolate cupcake she could find and popped it in a little box with a bow, handing it to a grinning Harry she looked at James who was digging in his pockets for the money.

"On the house, consider it a gift."

James grinned and thanked her, "I've never met a baker as wonderful as you. Say thank you, Harry."

"Thank you Harry."

Lily tried and failed to hide her laugh behind her hand, ending up smearing her face with flour.

"Cheeky bugger," James muttered under his breath.

"Me or him?"

"Good one, Lily...?"

"Evans."

"Good one Lily Evans. Now, you'll excuse us as we've got to get him back to nursery now, don't we Harry?"

Lily nodded, feeling oddly upset to see the duo go, "won't his mum find out?"

"I don't have one!" Harry said, seemingly delighted by the fact (or proud, it was hard to tell with a child so small).

She looked up to James for confirmation and he shook his head, he didn't seem too cut up by the fact either, "nope. It's just me and you isn't it, Buddy?"

Lily wasn't sure if her heart was breaking or melting when James scooped up a giggling Harry and swung him in the air towards the door.
"Thank you Lily Evans, no doubt we'll be back!"

Lily offered them a small wave and watched James and Harry giggle away until they were out of sight...

James was not a stranger to the bakery after that day. He often popped in for a cupcake and a chat; sometimes he brought Harry and other times he came on his own.
She learnt that his name was James Potter, that he was twenty-three and he worked as a History teacher in the local high school where he didn't take to his co-workers.
She also learnt that Harry was going to be four in July, his mother fled as soon as she was fit enough to leave the hospital and miraculously it had very little effect on the sunshine he seemed to radiate.

And he learnt that Lily Evans was twenty-two, had one annoying sister and had inherited the bakery from her mother who retired two years prior, he learnt that her sister didn't approve of her job in the bakery and they hadn't spoken since she'd gotten married to a business man in Surrey. (James questioned what sort of business ever went on in somewhere as boring as Surrey).

And every time he came he bought a different cake or pastry. Sometimes Lily found herself making them especially for him...

The tinkle of the bell announced the arrival of a customer while Lily was in the oven room, taking out a fresh tray of honeycomb brownies.

"Hello?"

The sound of his voice was enough to make her grin as she rushed out to the front counter to see him.
"James Potter, how are you this..." she looked out to the rain and grimaced, "this fine afternoon."

"Spiffing, Lily m'dear."
Only then did she notice how wet he was. His usually gorgeously unkempt, raven hair lay flat and in curls stuck to his forehead and raindrops dripped off the ends of the strands. The sweater he wore stuck to his body, making it easy to see him shivering.

"Oh my god you're shaking! Let me get you something better to wear that won't do!" Lily cried, instantly rushing up to her apartment (which was upstairs) and fetching him a jumper and trousers from her roommate Eliot's wardrobe.

When she came back down James had slipped into a chair on one of the tables in the far corner of the bakery.

"Sorry I couldn't find anything big enough for you. Eliot is... vertically challenged to put it lightly so the only clothes that would fit you are his 'oversized' getups." Lily handed him a small pile of clothes which James gladly accepted with a warm smile that did enough to heat up the whole room on its own.
"You go and get changed and I'll put the heating on and get you a hot chocolate, okay."

"You're an absolute sweetheart, Lily Evans."

She blushed and turned away, scurrying off to do what she said and using all the willpower she had not to turn when she heard him taking his sweater off.

Once she had deemed it safe to re-enter the room she came with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate. James was waiting where she left him, but this time he was wearing Eliot's clothes and a much more comfortable expression. The ends of his hair were even beginning to dry.
"Here you go."

James nodded in gratitude and sipped the heavenly liquid, letting it slip down his throat and warm him up head to toe. It was the best hot chocolate he'd ever tasted.
"Jesus Christ did you make this yourself?"

She nodded, giggling, as she took a sip of her own blue ceramic mug.
"Secret recipe."

"This is better than sex, I'm telling you!" (She snorted) "I'm serious!" He laughed, sabotaging his efforts of seriousness, "not that I'd know much about that since Harry."

She shot him a look that might have killed him.
"You don't mean that."

"There are some downsides to having kids you know? As rewarding as they are, it means I have less time to meet women as beautiful and wonderful as you."

At first it appeared as though he might have been joking but the sincerity in his deep hazel eyes conveyed something completely paradox. She stopped smiling. Matching his gaze and allowing him to move closer to her, maybe even edging a little closer herself.

He hovered over her lips for a moment, their noses barely grazing as the sound of the rain seemed to dissipate.
She kissed him after a painstakingly prolonged moment of hesitation. He tasted like the hot chocolate and marshmallows she had made him and he smelled like fresh rain still. His kiss was tender and slightly dithering at first but a moment later was brilliantly amorous.
She let her hand cup his face to reassure him that she knew exactly what she was doing. This wasn't just a frivolous kiss they would forget the next time he came. It meant something. It meant a lot.

She could almost feel exactly what would happen when they broke apart. He would apologise and he would leave, back into the storm that was still pummelling and assaulting the concrete with rain.
She knew it would happen and so she tried her best not to let him go, so kiss him with as much lull as she could, trying to make him stay but it wouldn't work. Eventually they would need air and when they did Lily found herself proven correct.

"I shouldn't have done that," he whispered, his forehead resting on hers and his eyes still closed. It was clear he didn't want to be saying the words that fell from his mouth.

"Yes you should."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

"But I am." And with that he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and pulled away, fleeing the shop seconds later, leaving Lily alone with two mugs of chocolate and a small pile of wet clothes that James had forgotten to take with him...

She didn't see James for a while after that. It must have been almost a fortnight before the bell tinkled and a familiar 'hello' rang through the bakery, making Lily sigh with relief.
"I thought you weren't coming back."

"So did I."

"What changed your mind?" She asked, her green eyes clouded with curiosity and sheer jubilation that his mind was changed regardless.

What changed your mind? It was a question she had asked him not so long ago, the first time he had ever made the bell tinkle when he opened the bakery door.

James smiled a smile that sent Lily's heart into a frenzy, "the smile you gave me when I came in," he said, just like he had that spring afternoon, back when he was a handsome stranger with an untucked flannel, ripped jeans and tousled hair. Back before he was James. And back before she realised how much she really liked him.

Lily stepped out from behind the counter, an affectionate tear in her eye.
"Really?"

"Yeah. You have a sprinkle on your nose by the way."

She got closer to him, they were in touching distance now, "again?"

He nodded, smirking, "let me get it."
But instead of reaching over he pulled her to him and gently licked her nose.
"You didn't really– I just wanted an excuse to be this close you again."

She giggled hopelessly, "then why don't you kiss me?"

"I might just do that, actually."

And so he did. And he would again and again...

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