Obnoxious Onlooker

Chapter 1

A/N – A very pointless, but nonetheless (hopefully) fun fic. Gracious thanks go out to my Beta, Lun, for helping me improve this chapter drastically. Enjoy.

Disclaimer – Own nothing. You already know it all.

"Hey, Mark," Lily Evans greeted the blonde boy as she stepped inside the Subway joint, the bell above the door tinkling pleasantly. She felt the aroma of baked bread and fresh vegetables attack her senses, and smiled.

Mark Little, the chubby boy who stood behind the register, looked up at her entrance, and a wide grin lightened up his face. Noticing the pink tinge on his cheeks, Lily had to keep from chuckling.

He really didn't try very hard to be subtle about his crush on her.

Mark was cute, she supposed.

But he was also still just a fresher in high school, and Lily was a college student. To her, he was cute in a more 'young-adorable-brother' sort of way than anything else. She decided to keep that thought to herself lest she hurt his adolescent pride.

But she did chuckle, pulled off the beanie from her vibrant red hair, and shook off the snow from it as she walked up to the counter.

It was an early Sunday morning; the only day Lily ever found herself completely free of college work or ballet lessons. And she firmly believed that there was no better way of starting off her day than with a sandwich and a hot cup of coffee.

Being a scholarship student at one of the best colleges in the country had at least eased Lily's worries about having to pay off loans or the humongous tuition fee she could have never afforded.

Lily greatly appreciated the savings her parents had left her, before they had passed away a year and a half ago, but she still maintained a safe job teaching ballet to young kids at the local studio. That was the one thing Lily was quite confidently brilliant at, and she felt no qualms about using her talent to support herself and pay her apartment rent.

As a twenty year old girl in a new neighborhood, Lily had initially found it challenging to settle in. But really, anything was better than what she would have had to endure living with her elder sister, Petunia, and her obese, perennially-disgruntled husband, Vernon Dursley.

On the rare occasions that she allowed herself to think of the highly strange couple, Lily always found herself wondering what her sister could have ever seen in a man like Vernon that didn't immediately remind her of a bad-tempered walrus.

And the fact that Petunia was well on her way to have a kid with him…

Lily tried not to think about the abhorrent images that accompanied that fact, unless she preferred to die of brain damage.

She shook away her wayward thoughts, and waved at Mark.

"Sorry about the mess, kid," She told him, nodding towards the melting snow she had brought into the shop along with her, knowing full well that it was unavoidable and that the snow really ought to have let up by now.

The fifteen-year old in front of her grimaced at her referring to him as a kid, and Lily laughed again. At least she controlled her urge of reaching up and tousling his hair. Poor Mark. "I hope Bill doesn't give you too much trouble for it," she said.

"Bill's not here yet," Mark told her, waving her apology away, "besides, he'll come in with his own trail of snow, and then I can just blame it on him."

"You know he'll still make you clean it up,"

"I get paid for it," Mark shot back with a grin. Lily laughed at how pleased he seemed with his answer.

"Fair enough," she allowed, "although why you'd want to let your own brother boss you around, I'll never know."

She'd never work under Petunia. Heavens, no, thank you very much.

"I'm in school, Lily," Mark reminded her, scrunching his nose up in a way that let Lily know how much it pained him to do so. She reined in another chuckle for his sake, "it's the best job I can get right now."

"Aw, there there," Lily cooed, leaning against the glass counter behind which the ingredients for the sandwiches rested, "you'll be pleased to know that you're already ahead of me. I never worked at your age."

That seemed to do the trick, and the boy grinned brightly again.

"The usual, then?" Mark asked her, slipping on his plastic gloves as he moved to stand behind the glass counter. The bell above the door tinkled behind them again, signaling the entrance of a customer, but Lily was too busy reading the menu to pay any attention to the newcomer.

"No, I'm feeling a little rebellious today," Lily answered Mark's question distractedly. Her green eyes scanned over the menu thoughtfully once more before she settled on her choice. "I'll have a chicken and bacon ranch melt, please."

"Excellent choice," a smug voice spoke up from her left.

Lily turned to find a young man, as tall as they came, roughly near her own age, smirking back at her. Rectangular framed glasses, behind which bright hazel eyes shone mischievously, sat on his slightly long, defined nose. Lily' stomach flopped—quite pleasantly—and she tilted her head to the side inquisitively, trying to look unfazed. Although how much of a success that was, she didn't know, because he had that atrociously untameable, sexy hair and—

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" She asked, her voice thankfully not betraying her squirming insides.

"Er," he said, his grin faltering for a second. But then he was smirking again, reaching his hand up and running it through his hair, "No, but you would want to."

His confident air, and the swagger in his tone, struck something in Lily, and she cocked an eyebrow at him, looking quite unfazed. Success.

"Uh, that is to say," he fumbled, thrown off by her blasé attitude, and Lily, God save her, found it endearing, "I'm James. James Potter."

Of course he would have a handsome name, too.

"Lily Evans," she offered, before swiftly turning back to look at Mark.

The blonde boy was pouting quite openly now, and although he must have noticed Lily's flushed cheeks—undoubtedly he did—he did not comment on it in front of James.

Lily tapped her fingers against the glass as Mark prepared her sandwich. She resolutely kept her head turned away from the boy next to her, even though she was quite certain he was unabashedly staring at her.

It was more than a little disconcerting to Lily that she did not find his behavior even mildly creepy.

She then decided that the stress was very evidently addling with her brain, and she needed to go home and sleep for a while.

"Sauces?"

"Er," Lily blinked, focusing on the sandwich in front of her again, "right, erm, the usual with that."

Mark nodded—his earlier pout now gone—and started adding mayonnaise abundantly to the sandwich in a zigzag pattern. Just the way she liked it.

"But there's no honey mustard."

"Excuse me?" Lily turned around to look at James, finding herself unable to ignore his displeased observation.

"Honey mustard," he clarified again, frowning as if she had done him some great injustice, "the sauce. You didn't add that."

Lily gave an incredulous bark of laughter, "I don't like it."

If possible, James looked even more scandalized. Dear lord, the boy was strange. "Not—not like honey mustard? How is that—no, that's not—you must try it right now!"

Lily shifted her body completely then, facing James again. She propped up a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow. "No, thank you, Potter, really, but mustard is not my thing," she said.

But James was already shaking his head before she'd even stopped talking. He abruptly broke eye contact with her—it was a pity, he had such nice eyes—to look at poor Mark. The blonde boy had his mouth open slightly as he witnessed the rather strange interaction, and now he looked to James warily.

"Mate, be a good lad and add some honey mustard on the sub, will you?" He asked, completely missing Lily's horrified expression. "She doesn't know what she's missing out on."

"I, uh—"

"Excuse me!" Lily sputtered, sparing Mark from having to respond. "You cannot just—that is my sub."

He gave her a blank stare, as if not comprehending her point.

How obnoxious. Lily fumed, nostrils flaring, before she turned back to Mark. The young boy looked distinctly uncomfortable, and didn't even smile at Lily, which was really saying something. Not that she could blame him of course, Lily assumed she very closely resembled a fire-spitting dragon at that moment.

"I'll have my clean, honey-mustard-less sub now, please, Mark," she bit out.

"Right, right," Mark snapped into action at her demand, bustling around and wrapping up the sandwich in record time. He grabbed a steaming cup of coffee, and was soon punching Lily's total onto the computer screen.

"Hey, uh, Lily, I didn't mean to—I'm sorry," James said, running his fingers through his hair again.

Lily narrowed her eyes, though she could already feel her anger simmering down a little.

"It's okay," she said. And if her voice still sounded miffed, well, that wasn't her fault.

"Right," James shuffled his feet awkwardly, no longer meeting her eye.

He looked embarrassed enough that Lily almost felt bad for him. But really, he'd brought this upon himself.

Honey mustard! Honestly.

"Here you go, Lily," Mark gave her the sandwich and coffee once she'd paid.

"Thanks, Mark," Lily said, turning towards the door, "Tell Bill I said hi."

"You're not staying?" Mark questioned, frowning.

Lily's eyes momentarily darted to James still doing his awkward shuffling thing, and wished she hadn't. He caught her stare and looked down at the floor, seeming even guiltier than before. Although her stomach churned uncomfortably, she didn't say anything.

"No, I uh—need to catch up on some work," Lily answered, "I'll stop by later though."

"Alright," Mark sighed, giving her a disheartened wave, "Goodbye, then."

Lily managed to smile at him sincerely, and then looked back at James again. "Bye, Potter."

James's eyes snapped up to hers in surprise, and Lily had the distinct impression that he hadn't expected her to talk to him again. She almost laughed.

"I, er—goodbye," he said.

Lily nodded once and walked to the door. She felt an unfounded tug that made her want to go talk to James Potter again—her anger entirely nonexistent now—but she squashed the urge.

How absurd.

He was silly in a charming way, sure, and he had his looks going for him too, but no—Lily shook her head decisively—he was a complete idiot. Taking a deep breath, she pushed open the door and stepped out into the snow again, sipping her coffee.

A tall, ridiculously good looking man with long dark hair was leaning against the wall of the shop. His grey eyes locked on her when Lily exited. He gave her a weird look, which she stupendously failed to understand.

Suddenly, he was stepping away from the wall and into the shop, and Lily shook her head again. She was clearly too exhausted, and was imagining things.

Taking another sip of her coffee, she made her way to the nearest bookstore.

The bell above the door of the shop jingled merrily again just seconds after Lily Evans had stepped out.

James's head immediately jerked up from where he'd taken to gently banging it against the glass counter, accompanied by miserable groaning, with surprise. Could it be that she was back?

But no, it was just Sirius.

James's shoulder slumped dejectedly again at the sight of his best friend—which was rather ironic—and he went back to his head-bashing.

"Well?" Sirius poked James none too gently on the side, "How'd it go?"

"Bad," came the despondent reply, "Really, really bad. She hates me."

"Cheers," Sirius clapped James on the shoulder before swiftly turning to the blonde boy behind the counter, "Oi, mate, you were here, weren't you? How dramatic is he being, exactly?"

"A little. She doesn't hate him," Mark replied. Sirius noticed that the boy didn't seem too happy with his own answer, and assumed quite correctly that his sappy best mate wasn't the only one besotted with the pretty redhead.

"Now then," Sirius turned back to look at James, "Tell me the tales of your idiocy."

"Yes, please, I'd appreciate if you ceased the head-banging," Mark put in, "I'm the one that cleans the glass."

Sirius grinned, deciding immediately that he liked the boy very much.

James simply groaned loudly, and looked up to glare at his best mate. "You're shit at consoling, Sirius."

"Better than being shit at talking to women," Sirius said flatly, "Honestly James, how could you have messed up within a five-minute conversation?"

James opened his mouth to reply, but then Sirius held up his hand to silence him. He turned back to Mark. "I'm starving, mate. Get us two steak and cheese sandwiches while I endure this sod, would you? All vegetables and sauces."

The young boy snickered and saluted him, getting to work.

With an exaggerated long suffering sigh, Sirius dragged James over to one of the tables in the small shop, and plopped down—looking quite cool doing so—onto a chair. James followed suit much less gracefully, and simply went back to thumping his head against the table.

"Enough of that," Sirius drawled, rolling his eyes, "I saw her walk out of the place. She didn't seem nearly as upset as you're making me believe she was."

"I'm an idiot," James finally looked up.

"No arguments there."

"Ugh, I don't know what's wrong with me," he continued, "it was going fine—well not fine, because I couldn't think of what to say. She looked so gorgeous—and then she ordered her sandwich."

"How dare she," Sirius deadpanned.

"Shut up," James groaned, "She didn't ask him to put honey mustard on her sandwich. And of course I had to tell her how wrong that was, because it's only the best sauce ever, and she didn't agree. But then, I tried to convince the boy there to do it anyway, and she got really red in the face, and like—I definitely screwed up, Sirius."

"Hold on," Sirius blinked, cocking an eyebrow, "you mean to tell me that after weeks—no, months—of pining after this ballet girl, when you finally get a chance to impress her, snog her, or at the very least get her number, you instead choose to convince her of your weird obsession with a sauce flavor?"

"I think we've already covered that I'm an idiot," James moaned.

It had been a little over two months ago, while he was strolling by the ballet studio near his house, that he'd first laid eyes on Lily Evans through the glass window. And although he hadn't known who she was, hadn't even known her name then, James had immediately turned into a pathetic puddle at the sight of her.

Thick red hair tumbling past her shoulders, bright green eyes standing out beautifully against her pale skin; it was all too much to take in at once for him. But then she'd smiled widely at one of the twelve-year old girls she taught, and James had known he was doomed to pine after her forever.

She had struck him dumb.

Of course, this was something that still had to change. Unless he was talking about which kind of sauce she should add on her sandwich, obviously.

God, he couldn't believe he had acted like such a moron.

It wasn't as if James was such a nincompoop in general. In fact, he was pretty suave and debonair when he wanted to impress someone. Wit and charm came effortlessly to him. So this was something James wasn't used to—or happy with—at all. Lily made a blundering fool out of him.

It had been a shocking moment for him when he'd noticed her entering the shop that morning from across the road. Sirius, who had been completely oblivious to James's earth-shattering nerves, had continued towards the shop for a good five seconds before noticing that his friend hadn't been following.

It had been so surreal for James. The beautiful, ballet-doing, heart-stealing redhead had seemed like an existence he could only hope to catch a glimpse of once in a while from outside the studio.

But seeing her out in the open, going to the same place he had so casually been about to walk into, no less—well, it had broken his brain, to put it mildly.

Naturally, Sirius had taken it upon himself to remind James that he was acting like an utter ponce, and that talking to her directly was the only way to go about solving this problem. At that moment, Sirius's argument had seemed quite sound and reasonable and had motivated James enough that he'd entered the shop alone to talk to Lily.

But of course, this was all before he'd remembered that the girl pretty much made him as eloquent as a cow on drugs.

And now, because of his stupidity, she would probably never speak to him again.

"Here are your sandwiches," The young boy from earlier—Mark, if James recalled correctly—came up to their table.

Sirius took the food from him, and gave the boy a curious look. James could clearly see the wheels turning in his head as he regarded Mark speculatively.

"Say, that girl my friend was talking to earlier—she come here a lot?"

Mark shrugged his skinny shoulders, "Lily? Occasionally, on the weekends, yeah."

James's stomach gave an excited flip at the answer, but he tried to keep his composure. Of course—as was his usual case in all matters concerning Lily—he failed spectacularly, and ended up looking entirely too hopeful.

"Brilliant. Thanks mate," Sirius told the young boy, smiling charmingly. Mark shrugged his shoulders again, trying to look casual, but it was hard to miss the idolizing light in his eyes as he looked at Sirius.

James was of the mind that after what Mark had observed earlier, the boy would have found even the sewer rats cooler than James in comparison.

Being compared to Sirius now was just unfair.

"So, now you know where to have the next run-in with your ballet-bird," Sirius told him once Mark had walked over to serve another customer that had just entered the shop.

James frowned, not liking the idea of him acting like a stalker, even though the way Sirius had just referred to Lily has his—

"Too creepy," James countered, picking up his sandwich and taking a hefty bite.

"Mate," Sirius leveled him with a flat look, "you stare at her from outside her ballet studio."

The tip of James's ears flushed furiously, "That's—it's not the same thing! I happened to walk by the studio—"

"The first time."

"—and it's not like I was following her around!"

"You won't be following her now," Sirius shrugged, picking up his own sandwich, "it'll just be a deliberately planned accidental meeting. For the second time."

"You should hear yourself," James grumbled, "you're, like, ten different shades of bullshitting."

"I hear myself just fine. I have a very charming voice," Sirius waved his complaints off, "I'm just trying to help you salvage yourself from your own incompetence with women. And well, trying to save myself from your incessant whining, to be perfectly honest."

"I'm not incompetent with women—"

"Honey mustard, Potter?"

"—it's just Lily I seem to be having difficulty with," James glared at him.

Sirius flicked a lock of dark hair away from his eyes before continuing, "Look, I'm hardly asking you to follow her home, James, but really—"

"No, Sirius," James shook his head resolutely, "she'll definitely catch on. And I've already made a fool out of myself in front of her. I'd rather not come off as a creepy fool, thanks."

"Says the peeper," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Peeper?! I'm not—"

"Fine, fine," Sirius stuffed some of the sandwich wrapping paper into James's indignantly open mouth. He quite pointedly ignored the sputtering and slew of insults that followed. "Have it your own way, then. But I'll tell you this; my ears are officially closed to any whines and laments about her, starting now."

James made a noncommittal grumbling noise.

"Must agree she is quite a fit bird, though," Sirius mused absentmindedly.

"Oi!"

"Maybe I should have a deliberately planned accidental meeting with her instead."

"You wouldn't dare," James narrowed his eyes with a glower.

Sirius grinned wolfishly. Target hit and acquired.

A/N – Hello there, lovely readers. This was a very unplanned story for me. But I really like the direction it's taking now. So this will probably be a two or three chapter story, I'm not entirely certain yet. Do leave me a bunch of reviews about what you think will happen, and what are your thoughts on it so far. Mountains of love.

Claudia.