A/N: So I wrote this a long time ago but I only put in on Tumblr, not here. therightnippleofgligamesh had a great prompt list a while back and I had to do the chicken-nugget au.
Lily ignored the judging stares she got as she marched into the grocery store with her head held high. Yes, she was in a tank top and sweat pants and slippers. Yes, she was holding her keys and her phone in one hand, and exactly 10.89 quid in the other. Yes, her eyes were puffy and she had not made any attempt to conceal the fact that she had been crying. Yes, all these previous statements were true, and it was four o'clock in the afternoon.
Lily headed to the first aisle, where she grabbed a large bag of pop-rocks, and turned on her heel to find the drinks, momentarily silencing a shrieking toddler. "Mummy, what's wrong with her?" she heard the little boy whisper.
Stuffing her phone and keys into her pocket, Lily took a bottle of strawberry-flavoured fizzy drink off the shelf. She could avoid the bizarre looks she was getting at the store, but try as she might, she could not hide herself from the leering glare her sister was giving her in her mind.
Honestly, Lily, she could just picture Petunia saying, hand on her hip. Do you know how much sugar there is in that? You realise that there aren't actually any strawberries in strawberry fizzy drinks, don't you? How old are you, Lily? Why don't you act your own age?
Quite frankly, Lily didn't care what her age was. Her safe place, her favourite vacation spot, her most-worn sweatshirt, were all connected to her childhood, and her comfort food was no different. When her parents were too tired after a long day at work to cook, they would make something simple and spend the evening with Lily and Petunia. Her parents' hardest days were always the one's they spent together.
If anyone needed reminding of happy family days, it was Lily. She rather thought this was the worst day she had ever had. Probably the worst day anyone had ever had. Ever.
She shoved The Incident from her mind. The Incident had happened in front of some of her friends, and she wasn't sure how she'd ever face them ever again.
Never mind that, she told herself sharply. Right now, she was on a mission. She had the fizzy drink and the candy, now all that was left was... Yes, Lily could see the frozens now! Her chicken nuggets awaited!
She tried not to run towards the open-top freezers, but she really needed that bag. She could see that there was only one left, and even though she knew that there was no chance of anyone taking it before she got to it, she felt she would feel a lot better when she held the bag in her arms. Yes, her arms, not her hands.
She'd had a really bad day.
Lily braced herself for the cold, stretched her hand out, ready to claw the chicken nuggets-YES!
But there was something wrong. Next to her hand was another hand. A bigger hand. She looked up and saw it was attached to a man.
The man had insanely messy black hair, hazel eyes covered by a pair of glasses, and he looked... strong. Like he played some kind of sport or worked out or something.
Lily and the man grinned sheepishly at each other. She waited (rather patiently, considering the circumstances) for him to take his hand off the bag.
He didn't.
Lily chuckles nervously. Perhaps he was stuck to the bag? She picked it up-no, she couldn't-he wasn't letting her.
"What are you doing?" Lily said cautiously.
"I don't know, what are you doing?" the man said with a grin.
"I'm... trying to take my chicken nuggets."
"Yeah," the man agreed. He didn't say anything else.
"What do you mean, 'yeah'?" Lily said.
"Just that that's what I'm trying to do," the man said innocently. "So if you'll just let go..." He smiled at her again. Lily did not smile back.
"Um," said Lily, in a tone she hoped was rude and offensive. "I don't mean to be rude, or to offend you, but this is most certainly my bag of chicken nuggets."
"Your bag of chicken nuggets?" the man said in-was that a mocking tone? "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't see your name on it. Oh, wait!" he said with a small laugh. "It's not!"
"Well, it's got my hand on it!"
"Mine as well!"
"My hand was here first!"
"It was the same time!"
"The same time?!" Lily repeated, horrified. "It was not the same time! Mine was definitely before!" She knew she was lying, but she didn't care.
"Okay, I don't think you understand-" the man began, but Lily cut in.
"No, I don't think you understand, mate. I need these chicken nuggets, all right? Today has been the worst day of my life, and I know for a fact no one has suffered as much as I have in the history of the universe-yes, I know there are children dying, so don't even start! Can't you see I'm wearing slippers to my grocery store? Can't you see I've been crying? Can't you see my hair hasn't been washed or brushed?"
"No," the man said. "Your hair looks plenty pretty to me."
Lily started. She felt herself go red, and cursed, not for the first time, her pale, blush-easy skin. "Flattery's getting you nowhere!"
The man grinned. "I meant it."
Lily was extremely cross now.
"Tell me what happened."
"I-what?"
"Tell me what made your day so miserable," said the man patiently. "Maybe you do deserve these chicken nuggets."
"I don't even know you," Lily said, humiliated at the mere thought of telling someone about what had happened.
"Sure you do. I'm James, proper owner of this bag of chicken nuggets. Unless," he said, catching the look on Lily's face, "you tell me why they should be yours."
"Well, why should they be yours?"
"I'm hungry."
Lily stared at him. "All right," she said suddenly. "Fine. I'll tell you. So I've got this mate, right? Sev. He's been my best mate since forever. Since I was... seven. And Sev, everyone warned me about him. But I never listened. Not to my big sister, whom I used to be really close with, you know? Not to any of my other friends. Because he was Sev."
James nodded. He was listening intently.
"And between me and Sev," Lily went on, trying to get it all out as fast as she could before she could change her mind, "it's always been strained. Because I've seen the other people he hangs out with and at first I tried to ignore it, but these past couple of years, I started seeing them bleeding through him. But today, I realised it's not them, it's him. His friends, they're not... normal. They belong in prison. Some of them have been. They're horrible, abusive, manipulative, racist, mean... Just so mean, James. And today, this morning, my sister called me-and this is huge because my sister never calls me, right? So she calls me, and tells me she's engaged, and I am under no circumstances in the wedding party. So..." Lily was desperately trying to keep the tears from dropping down her face, and failed. Without realising, she pulled her hand off the bag and started wiping her eyes. James, too, took his hand of the bag and rubbed her shoulder.
"So I go to find Sev. Because he's still my best friend, after all. And it's in this big area, where everyone is, nearly all my girlfriends, too, but I go right to Sev. And I told him, and he just... He called me..." Lily looked away, not wanting to repeat the horrible word. "Everyone was there," she said miserably.
"Wow," said James in a hushed voice. "Aren't you strong."
Lily gave a sort of laugh.
"Strong? I'm crying to a stranger in the middle of a grocery store."
"Yeah, but on the same day! If my best friend betrayed me like that... I don't think I'd ever leave the house again!"
Lily gave him a weak smile. "I'm Lily," she said.
"Well, Lily," he said. "I think you win this bag of chicken nuggets fair and square. Shame, though, you deserve the best chicken nuggets ever."
Lily laughed. "What do you mean?"
"I mean I make them better than anyone else on the face of the planet," James said matter-of-factly.
"How do you make chicken nuggets better than someone else? You put it in the oven and take it out."
"Au contraire, Lily Grocery Store."
"Is that so, James Grocery Store?"
"Yes it is and I'll prove it."
"How?"
"Let me make you the chicken nuggets."
Lily cocked an eyebrow, no longer feeling much like crying. "You could be an axe murderer."
"How could I be an axe murderer? Haven't we just clarified we've got the same surname?"
Lily laughed again.
"Here," he said, taking out his phone. "Look, I'll call my mum, she'll tell you."
This only made Lily laugh harder.
"Mum?" James said on the phone. "Hi, I need you to tell this girl I'm not an axe murderer."
"Hello?" Lily said through her giggles. "James' mum?"
"Ooh, it's been a while since I've been called that, hasn't it? Well, I can assure you, sweetie, James isn't any sort of criminal. Keeps his room relatively clean, too."
"Does he?" Lily said, looking at James, impressed. He nodded proudly. "Well, I guess that settles it then. Thank you, James' mum."
"You're welcome, sweetheart."
"Okay," Lily said to James. "Okay, you can come to my house and cook me your so-called fantastic chicken nuggets."
"Oh, you just wait, Lily Grocery Store."
Lily laughed. "It's Evans, actually."
James grinned. "Evans, huh? Dunno... liked you better as Grocery Store. We matched."
Lily's eyebrows went up slightly. "Don't push it, James."
"Potter," he said.
"Potter," she replied. "So, how'd you get here?"
"Walked."
"Excellent. Take these-" she handed him the money, sweets, and the fizzy drink-"pay, and I'll bring the car up front."
"Good."
"Good?"
"Good."
"...Good."
The two grinned at each other for a bit. Lily tossed him the chicken nuggets. "Don't forget these."
"Wouldn't dream of it." James winked at her. "See you in a bit, Evans Grocery Store."
"Counting on it, Potter Grocery Store," she said, slightly surprised by her nerve after having the worst day of her life.
This time he laughed, and she quite liked how the sound echoed through the aisles.
A/N: I'd love a review if you've got the time! (Also yesterday was my birthday. So that would be a great present. No pressure, though.)