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Chapter 4: Cinnamonroll

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Bumping into another cart, Lily oomphed but was able to hold tightly to the handle bar, her wide eyes watching her hair flow quickly past her at the abrupt stop obscuring her view for a second before settling down to the front sides of her (a bit tangled but not too bad considering) at her lower stomach length.

Blink. She glanced to the side with her still widened eyes at Severus's low toned concerned exclamations. Mentally keeping track but not concentrating fully on the slightly groaning boy on the other side of the cart which she had bumped into since Severus was, and still, distressed over her. Such a sweetheart, she'd have died by now if it wasn't for his survival 101's.

"-n't listen Bloody hell I told you and you just-" Placing her hand over his mouth, she grinned a bit impishly at his muffled tone of annoyance. For his manly man man pride, she wouldn't tell him his worry made her feel all warm. He wouldn't appreciate being told he has feelings.

Lightly hopping down from the cart rail, she began shamelessly pulling down her dress from the edges and the buttocks since it had scrunched up at the waist, grinning at Severus's mumbling diagnosis on her person.

"I did that on purpose, of course." Of course not.

He frowned a bit and stared at her, roving his narrowed eyes over her body before finally settling on her amused eyes, nodding curtly.

She waggled her eyebrows at him.

He snorted and rolled his eyes.

Smacking his arm, this tsundere*, and swaying away from the his retort smack, she stuck her tongue out at him and hopped away a few steps closer to the other cart that was crashed when his eyebrows narrowed.

"Abort mission, abort mission!" Lily whispered dramatically to herself, dutifully ignoring his exasperated annoyed look, eyes brightening as she turned her full attention back to the situation at hand, ergo the boy who was silently just staring at their interaction with a flickering uncertain expression and looking like he either wanted to run away- Oooo pretty eyes!

Lily trotted forward with concentrated large eyes, not looking away from the suddenly stiff boy who's own pretty greenish brownish eyes widened and upper body leaning back a bit from the sudden movement of her swift smaller body leaning Right in his personal space. "You have lovely eyes." She breathed out with fascination in her tone. It was such a captivating mixture of brown and greens, and not just dark but also light tones.

"Such pretty colors." He was frozen with wide confused eyes, and he flinched hard; startled out of the strange staring contest he got caught in by the turquoise blue's when Lily was tugged back gently but tightly on the upper arm by a resigned looking Severus, who asked her to please control her impulses they weren't even at the school yet. She promptly shushed him with a finger to his face, then remembered that she hasn't apologized and oh damn she had more manners than that, she thinks.

"That's right!" Snapping her fingers together in a 'Aha!' moment, she turned her attention back to the boy- ...who had been slowly taking steps back and jumped when her head snapped to him like a shark to blood. Her bright eyes widened and then shut as she covered her face with her palms, silencing her abrupt laughter at the deer in headlights look he got when she turned to look at him.

"Are you alright? The cart didn't hit you?" Clearly, Lily was too amused at the situation to respond, therefor Severus decided to be the voice of reason for the moment. And only for the moment. He remained blank faced when the boy flinched at his monotone voice compared to his usual tone when responding to the red haired girl beside him silently attempting to calm her snickers. Severus knew Lily had automatically bypassed the patches of scars, thin and in various lengths around the other boys face.

"I'm fine, uh.. thank you for asking." Lily tilted her head at the tone in his voice, weary hesitant yet soft. Though staring at his eyes she could see the curiosity despite his tense body language. Ignoring the curious and judging eyes that she could instinctively feel surrounding them; didn't they have anything better to do than watch three children talk? Talk about priorities pft. Although they were all teens and children.. but still psh.

Absentmindedly gently rubbing the slightly aching abdominal area where the railing had dug in, "I really am sorry", she gave a genuine warm smile at the timid seeming boy, who's hunched tense posture eased somewhat from her sincere tone, uneasy features shifting to a more relaxed expression of a tentative smile.

"I was too excited." And technically forgot that she had put on that featherlight charm on her bags.

Severus's taunting glance told her such. She ignored it with ease that spoke of years in practice.

"You're done laughing?" He mumbled sarcastically from behind her.

"Was that meant to insult me?" She mumbled back.

He scoffed lowly at the too sweet tone. Which he knew meant complete bull. So proud of him she is for calling her out on her shit. Sniff sniff.

She beamed with a warm grin at the hazel haired boy, with the very pretty eyes who looked more mature than his years should be, and who's body language and facial expressions explained things Lily is pretty sure does not paint a good picture overall. She can only assume however and well, you know what they say about assumptions. Despite her mental age of (now) thirty five, she's not all knowing on everything. And won't judge. She'll just have to see and come what may, she'll do and react.

Turquoise blue's brightened gleefully, "My names Lily, and this is Severus", She lightly smacked Severus' arm, grinning at the incredibly reluctant responding grunt, his caveman version of 'hello'; One of her goals is to make him dress up as Itachi for Halloween. She's already made him do Gaara and Sasuke and a bunch of others in which she has the pictures saved secretly so he won't burn them like he did the others r.i.p, such a savage psh.

She brought out her hand to the now mellow smiling boy who also brought out his hand in etiquette, if a bit more slowly to hers.

"Nice to meet you, pretty eyed boy." Lily beamed, watching curiously as color grew on his face at her words and he instinctively pulled back his hand with a strength that honestly surprised her.

She blinked. How peculiar.

"Sorry, It's just-" His mouth moved and he coughed roughly, "I..don't usually hear those words...it's strange is all." He awkwardly shrugged, smile slightly more unsure and face still flustered. Lily tilted her head again with a curious pucker to her lips. Even though it's the truth? Psha. He continued quietly, "I'm Remus Lupin, it's nice to meet you too," the corner of his mouth edged up a bit, "even with the circumstance of our crash." Her pucker changed into a delighted grin, even as her mind pinged in familiarity like the familiar wall of the train station.

"Fortunately I have insurance." She blatantly pointed behind her at Severus, who lightly flicked her in the back of the head in retort. Remus snorted softly, unwinding even more from his slightly tense pose of before, now looking remarkably just awkward and taller than both Lily and Severus by quite a few inc-

-Wait,wait,wait,WAIT. Remus Lupin... oh my god, Remus Lupin! Moony! The one that's a werewolf, and married that younger girl Tonks, and so many other little details she remembers from some fanfics and the movies, (which she had heard back then wasn't one hundred percent accurate, like always). She presses her palms to her cheeks, blinking dazedly with her eyebrows narrowing in contemplation, all kinds of mini details from what she could scarcely remember. Lily's eyes gazed upon a curious but still timid looking eleven year old Moony.

Her amusement at the situation had her covering her grinning mouth with both hands, words coming out muffled but still audible, "Oh no, what to do, what to do", high giggles came out despite her attempting to smother them.

"Ignore her. She gets into these moods enough that its normal." Severus deadpanned, tone casual and eyes not even glancing at her, but staring at the curiously blinking form of oh my god eleven year old Moony- She began slapping her cheeks continuously lightly; biting her bottom lip in rebuke because he was so cute she wanted to smother him with love and hugs now that she knew who he was and she couldn't because he wasn't a character anymore but an actual person but damn it still-

"If.. you say so." Remus' lips tugged into a more sure smile, some amusement now in his eyes from the strange yet not unpleasant actions of the red haired girl before him. Lily couldn't help it. She cooed and tilted her head, smiling broadly at him all dopey with her palms now resting on her cheeks. "D'aww you're adorable!" Her grin widened mischievously at his abrupt surprise cough and dumbfounded beet red face at her random affectionate sounding comment. She wonders if he would allow her to hug him. Look at that cuteness. "Such a cinnamon roll." She cooed softly.

"Stop that, you're going to make him have a heart attack." Severus tugged her back gently by the arm from where she was swaying closer to the now spluttering red faced Remus who was waving his hands around in a very 'No No' fashion of objection. "And then where would you hide the body?" His truly serious sounding question had Lily popping out of her cooing bubble and laughing out loud at the considering look Severus was giving a 'what the fuck is wrong with these people' looking Remus.

"I, but..what?" Remus sputtered and eyes filled with trepidation at what was said quite seriously in such a way from the grim looking boy dressed in all dark clothes. Lily chuckled beside him, making him flinch- when did she even get there?! "Don't worry Moony, He's only partially joking." She grinned at him mirthfully, patting his head soothingly and gently, even though she had to go a bit on tipy toes to do so. She did it, she called him that name! Because hell no she wasn't going to wait for years to go by just to call someone a nickname. Nope. Moony suits him, therefor she shall use Moony. Yup. Thankfully he hasn't noticed the nickname, although Lily wonders when and if he'll even bring it up. For now, seems he hasn't noticed, which, good.

Despite himself, Remus felt a tiny bit amused yet confused at the contradicting emotions of amusement and alarm, silently allowing her random petting and mentally asking himself why he even allowed it. "Partially?" Is that your attempt of a consolation?" He half mumbled half said as they all began making way to the luggage section. "My consolation is way better." She waggled her eyebrows at him from few feet behind where she let go of her cart next to where he dropped his off.

His face went a dark red again, widened eyes and gaped mouth in her direction from her insinuating scandalous comment. She dropped her luggage next to his with a loud carefree laugh, not even thinking as she helped Severus with his luggage that were filled with way more dangerous objects than hers. Severus scoffed in disgust from beside her, "You're as subtle as a nuclear bomb." Remus involuntarily let out a snort of short laughter at that as they closed the latch.

Lily grinned lighthearted, not fazed at all and pleased that Remus felt a bit lighter now than few minutes ago. He even laughed! Not fully but still an adorable half laugh. She continued to coo at Remus as they walked through the walkway of the train, passing by compartments and students still walking here and there, others inside their sections while some still out; the noises of everyone talking drowning out some of what was being tossed between the three. Remus, again pink faced and now quietly pleading for a freely laughing cheshire grinning Lily to stop her loving cooing at him he wasn't a cat or a high calorie pastry please and thank you, Severus silently enjoying the suffering of the taller boy who was too polite for his own good.

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Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed the story so far!

(Apologies for the late update, and thank you those who have continued to like the story

even through the random/late updates, thank you!)

*Tsundere is a Japanese term, its general meaning is describing someone who is initially cold

before gradually showing a warmer, friendlier side over time.