wild
A/N: this is for @jilychallenge!!
Prompt: "look I may have driven us off the road because I saw a squirrel on the road and yes we have no signal to call for help but look, I made smores on the fire??? and I set up our tent!! please don't be mad" james and lily get lost in the highlands and end up snuggling for warmth roadtrip au
@gryffindormischief vs @athneas
This is pure and complete fluff. I hope you all enjoy!!
Also on FF and Ao3!
___
Come out to the cottage, Lily, they said, Bring your handsome new beau, Gran sighed, followed by a ‘repressed’ whimper about her aching bones and Grandad’s less than stellar visit with their primary. It will be fun, she said.
To be fair, Lily has loved heading to their little piece of heaven in Hampshire since she could barely see over the swaying oat grasses. She’s not an ungrateful nasty sort of grandchild, and her grandparents - on Dad’s side at least - are just about the most endearing couple of nearly octogenarians. In fact, her homesickness for Gran’s cheeky teasing is probably part of why she said yes when James asked her out for a shitty hamburger after the first year mixer at St Johns.
His stupid, twinkling hazel eyes, the wild curls just tickling his collar - that obnoxiously beguiling grin that he’s currently turning on her full force.
“That won’t work.”
He tilts his head, rather puppy-like. “Come on.”
“James.”
“Lily.”
Eyeing the inky sky overhead, Lily allows her mind to quiet, to enjoy the idea of a night spent under the stars, the bright scent of nature around her. It’s always smelled a bit like freedom to her - fresh cut grass as she followed behind dad while he worked the garden. Crisp, salty spring breezes visiting Aunt Flora in Brighton for Easter hols.
And, conflicting as it is with her desire to remain stern with James, she does have a number of pleasant memories of said cheeky arsehole in various outdoorsy-type settings. Some of the more adult in nature took place in that very tent James is currently halfway through erecting. As her mind begins to wander, he ruffles those dumb curls and smiles crookedly. “C’mon. It’ll be fun.”
Lily pauses to glance at the slightly smoking front end of her car and sighs. “Suppose frowning at you all night won’t fix my bumper.”
James’ eyes light and his mouth falls open, ready with what’s surely some sort of bumper related joke only Sirius could truly appreciate, so Lily raises a sharp finger. “No. I will eat your vegan hot dogs, and your admittedly delicious smores, and I will probably grope your adorable little arse in the tent later. But I will kill you and hide the body if you make one more lewd bumper joke.”
He plops back onto his bum and kicks up a little plume of dirt onto his trousers. “They have been highly clever, up ‘til now, excuse you.”
“I’ll get a fire going?”
Already halfway back inside the tent, James waves his acceptance, though Lily’s not ashamed to admit she waits just a moment to enjoy that pert little bottom. Hopefully James will be up for some sexy smores later. Yum.
For now, she’ll coax the fire into a toasty blaze and hope the ominous clouds looming to the east don’t deliver on that ever present promise to ruin a lovely day of weather.
Before long, James joins her, sitting at her knee after he sets each of them up with a pair of skewered hot dogs of the non-meat variety and nuzzles his temple against her thigh. “This is nice. Admit it. I did a nice thing.”
“I never said not running over that squirrel wasn’t nice, James,” Lily corrects, twisting the skewer over the crackling flames.
Propping his hot dog delicately, James rustles around in his ‘emergency snack pack’ and produces an oversized bag of oily crisps from that questionable shop on the corner near their flat. The plastic crinkles as he tugs the packet open and pushes a handful into his mouth. “Well if I love the stupid things too much to eat them - to refuse bacon - then I’m hardly going to actually murder one.”
Lily snorts and pulls her hot dog from the fire, testing it with her fingertip. “Hardly would’ve been murder. Manslaughter at worst.”
After brushing his hands off on his knee, James bites into his faux meat with a content sigh. “It looked back at me gratefully - we have a bond now. One between man and beast that is incomparable to human relationships.” “So should I not introduce you to my Gran? Dumping me for the rodent?” Lily teases, tucking her veggie dog into a gloriously fluffy bun, which puts her in mind of other buns. “James, are you alright sitting down there?”
He blinks up at her, smile a bit goofy. “Perfect. You?”
“I mean aside from the blown tire - ”
“Did I mention the smores?”
