#carus 1

Her voice is entirely too breathy as his questing fingers leave all thoughts of innocence behind.

James’ answer is a low growl. “And we are quite alone for the day.”

“Sirius?” Lily asks, eyes drifting shut as her lips part in a sigh.

Suddenly she’s on her back with James hovering overhead, linens twisted around them and his body a hard line along hers. “Perhaps refrain from using other people’s names in our bed?”

Which is a silly request, out of context at least, since they regularly discuss all sorts of business in their bed. But the low tone of his request, the heavier than normal accent that lilts his words, and Lily can’t really bring herself to nitpick.

Especially when he kisses his way down the front of her nightgown and nudges the hem up to her rib cage.

Or when he descends lower and tugs meaningfully at her garment until she lets it fall to the floor in a gauzy heap.

His shoulders are broad and muscled as he works, worships each inch of her skin and sends her somewhere out of body.

After - it could be seconds or years she’s not quite sure - James works his way back up until they’re face to face looking like the cat who got the cream.

“Don’t smirk at me like that, sir,” Lily grumbles, her fingers twirling his curls absently.

He leans forward to kiss her jaw and collapses over her, face buried in the pillows.

As the sun rises, sending golden beams across the plus bedspread, Lily works James’ shoulders.

“You know this just won’t work,” she pauses until taking his muffled response as invitation to continue, “If you want to take care of things you can’t be a no good lump.”

And just to ensure he fully grasps her meaning, Lily subtly rolls her hips. James gasps against her throat and swears - at least she’s fairly certain it’s a swear. Language gap and all.

His hands return to her hips as she fiddles with the tie at his waist, earning a groan when her fingertips brush his sensitive skin. “ Lily .”

She hums. “Yes my love?”

Then he’s flipped them over, bed creaking beneath as she’s set on display for all the world to see. It’s lucky they've got the house and property to themselves for the day. So far it certainly hasn’t been a quiet morning.

Lily lets her fingers tease over his bare chest, toying with his sparse hair and mapping each scar and sinew until she works her way further south. And pauses.

“Don’t tease a poor old man,” James groans, looking too adorably puppy like for someone she is about to ravish.

Quirking her brow, Lily begins working the tie of his trousers loose and before long they’re both bare. Years later and he still takes her breath away like the first time they met in a cold, dark cave.

Though he was equally as caught up, James’ patience runs out and he nearly unseats her with a tilt of his hips. Instead she tips forward and their foreheads knock together.

“ Ouch - can we avoid concussing ourselves?”

“Can we - ” James wriggles his brow and grins at her.

Adorable. Tempting. Very tempting.

She does as he asked, or hinted, their twin gasps muffled by the thick velvety curtains hung from the bedposts.

Lily’s hands find the headboard as she tilts and twists and sighs while James’s grip on her hips tightens. “ Lily .”

He pulls her close, palms running slowly up her back until her lips are a breath away from his. Eyes half-lidded, Lily murmurs, “ Iacomus .”

With something like a growl, he arches into her, their dance lasting only a few more ragged thrusts until they’re both flushed, elated, and utterly spent.

It’s over lunch - their first meal of the day despite their early waking - that Lily picks up their earlier conversation regarding anniversary plans. “If this morning is what I receive for three months, I can’t wait to see what you give me for our golden anniversary.”

James smiles soft and a little sheepish as he reaches across the table. “Well this morning wasn’t your gift - hopefully it won’t pale in comparison.”

Lily lifts his hand and presses a kiss to his calloused knuckles. “Quite hard not to but I have faith in your ability to outdo yourself. I also have an additional gift.”

“Shall I go first?” James asks, taking a long drag from his glass.

“But of course,” Lily says with a wink, “Can’t have you suffering the emotional turmoil of presenting yours after mine has so outmatched it.”

Rolling his eyes, James rises and disappears for a moment. Presumably to the study given the length of time and the fact that he returns with a thick stack of envelopes.

“Carrying on with the postmaster already? Our love is so young,” Lily jokes, even as she tries to spy the contents of the letters.

James reclaims his seat, pushing his empty plate aside and clearing his throat importantly. “ These represent negotiations for an upcoming excursion to the location of your choice, provided there’s something historic and possibly fantastical for us to get caught up in.”

Unable to control her whoop of excitement, Lily jumps from her seat and embraces James before disappearing from the room. She calls out, “You are never going to guess - ”

“I take it you’ve got a compatible gift?”

She returns quickly enough, her own paperwork in hand, suddenly feeling a sting of hesitance. It had felt like such a lovely idea before James was staring at her with his untucked shirt and wide fawn colored eyes and those silly crooked glasses. Now, now it just feels like she’s about to crush him. “It - it’s a complicated gift.”

Smiling gently, because for all his years as a battle hardened warrior and his cheekiness to boot, James is the softest, sweetest man she’s ever known. “Come here, my love.”

He doesn’t relent until she’s perched on his knee, papers propped on her lap. James is patient, letting her work things through with no interference but his steady hand on her back and occasionally wandering eyes.

Finally, Lily takes a deep breath and begins, “I thought - this seemed like a loving, thoughtful gift at the time but now. I won’t be offended if you say it’s out of line.”

“Darling.”

Lily pauses. “Yes?”

“I may seem a soft touch, but I can handle a bit of turmoil - emotional and otherwise.”

With a sigh, Lily presses her forehead to his and lets her eyes drift closed. “You recall my secretive research project?”

James hums.

“I - ” Lily pauses, toying with the paperwork in her lap, “I found your parents - where they’re. Where they are. I know we found details before, but now you could go pay your respects. We could.”

He stiffens, but rather than pushing Lily away like she’d feared, his grip tightens as he drags her closer. “You’d use your gift for - there must be something more enjoyable.”

“Remember to whom you are speaking. I am a historically inclined research librarian with a millenia-old warrior for a husband,” Lily cuts in.

Laughing, James presses a kiss to her forehead and melts into her touch. “Don’t make me sound like an aging relic - need I remind you how virile I remain?”

“I would not say no.”

“James will like it,” Sirius says, voice heavy with that sickly sweet tone he uses when he really wants something that doesn’t seem likely, “It’s like a Dionysia.”

“I didn’t attend when it was a Dionysia,” James drawls, eyes not leaving the book in front of him, glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose.

Lily surreptitiously eyes Sirius, who - for all his blustering - seems genuinely disappointed to be out a companion for the evening. “Perhaps you should go.”

James looks up at her, marking his page blindly. “I don’t particularly wish to attend - especially since you’re not invited.”

“Ladies very rarely are, love,” Lily smiles, “At least the worst that will take place at this particular ‘gentleman’s club’ is a bit of drunken revelry.”

His grin is lopsided as he rises and presses a kiss to her brow. “Alright, but I am giving myself a midnight curfew.”

“It will be at least two before we are home, my good Iacomus.”

After sharing a commiserating glance with LIly, James turns to Sirius, “What does one wear to such an event?”

The following three quarters of an hour were spent in a mix of dressing and dragging James from his reading in the library - he says his life deprived him of the finer things for too long to allow literature to be neglected now - until finally the pair disappeared in Sirius’ hired carriage.

That had been ages ago, or at least it felt so, and Lily has realized she’s no longer quite as comfortable alone as she had been. Each new note she makes on her research feels a little diminished without being able to prod James with her pen and share, her tea cools without someone there to top it off, and dinner goes entirely neglected until her stomach rumbles angrily at half past ten.

Eventually, she settles with an egg over hard and a few triangles of toast in the kitchen and a new novel in hand so time passes a little faster. By the time she’s tidied up, Lily finds her eyelids drooping and readies herself for bed, sheets too cool on her own.

She can only toss and turn for so long before giving up and flicking the lamp on to a low glow to read by. And luckily, she hasn’t lost the ability to get entranced by a well crafted story so before she knows it the front door is slamming open to the tune of raucous laughter.

Followed by shushing. “ Sir-Sirius .”

Oh, James is drunk.

“Iacomus.”

“Why - ”

Fairly quickly, James devolves into a slurred question that is definitely not in English. He is very drunk. The front door falls shut, if the thud is anything to go by, and soon one pair of feet are shuffling through the hall and toward the bedroom.

James stumbles his way in, collar crooked and tie loose, and Lily being alive can’t help but take in the whole enticing tableau. His hair, slicked back for polite company, has begun falling from its coiffe so ringlets fall messily around his face and his glasses sit precariously low on the tip of his nose.

As her eyes drag lower, she finds the first buttons on his shirt have been loosened and watches as he jerks himself free of his suit coat revealing those shoulders and his suspenders. Which are surprisingly attractive for a purely practical garment piece.

With unexpected deftness for the level of intoxication Lily presumed, James flicks the remaining buttons of his shirt open and does the same for his sleeves before dragging the suspenders from his shoulders so they dangle around his hips.

And then, he’s shirtless and golden in the lamplight and apparently unaware he has a very attentive audience.

Or so she thought.

“Enjoying the view?”

She may flush, but he is her husband and she’s entitled to a bit of self indulgence, so Lily sets her book aside and rises from the bed. “So far, it has been acceptable.”

He saunters closer until they’ve closed the distance between them and somehow Lily’s back is pressed to the dark patterned wallpaper. James flicks his curls back with a twist of his fingers. “I should hope there will be an opportunity for redemption.”

Lily lets her head tilt backwards as James begins teasing at her jawline with his lips. “Always - though it would seem you might not be up to the challenge this evening.”

“Sometimes, to outwit one’s opponent one must let him believe he has won,” James murmurs, popping three of her borrowed nightshirt’s buttons open in quick succession and letting his hot breaths follow the path. His eyes flash in recognition.

“How devious,” Lily sighs, “You’re not too - ”

“I was raised on Greek revelry and libations,” James says as the last button on Lily’s front is worked free and her nightshirt drops to the floor in a heap, “Your modern spirits are child’s play.”

Lily grins even as a shiver runs up her spine. “Well then - ”

Her retort is cut off with a groan as James hefts her up against the wall, his arms tensing beneath her legs. James’ mouth finds hers, the kiss long and deep before he pulls away, breathless, “Perhaps the time for talking has passed?”

Lily hums as James works his way down the long line of her throat, the closeness of his body to hers nearly taking her breath away. “But you - you love talking your way through things .”

One of James’ hands comes to grasp her closer while the other smacks flat against the wallpaper, inches away from her head. “ Lily .”

“Yes, dear?”

“I’m beginning to think you’re taunting me.”

With a roll of her hips, Lily draws a strangled moan from James’ lips and grins, triumphant. “Glad to hear you’re finally - ah - catching on.”

Between the two of them, fumbling hands and all, James’ trousers are worked open just enough. “Choose your next words carefully, my love.”

Lily drags her hands over his chest, not too proud to acknowledge her trembling fingers as they link around James’ straining neck.

Using the leverage she’s gained, Lily brings them just shy of exactly what would be most pleasing and nips at James’ ear. “I know what I want right now, and there’s nothing careful about it, Iacomus .”

Taking her invitation for what it is, James lets out a grunt and shifts to close the last space between them.

Lily muffles her shout against his shoulder, kissing her way up to his neck as he shifts and sends a zing of pleasure through to her toes.

In her shock, Lily bites at his corded neck, leaving a welt and surprisingly winning a pleased growl from James as his hand thuds against the wall.

Despite herself Lily manages a laugh, strained though it is, and soothes the nip with a kiss. “Enjoyed that, did you?”

James grunts, pressing closer to murmur into her ear, “You should not toy with me right now.”