A/N: AH woo I hope you like this! It's just a ball of fluff

James really had high hopes that the first time he and Lily were frantically tearing their clothes off in his cottage would be for a more sensual, pleasing reason.

Instead, they took turns hosing each other off in the yard, before nearly shredding their gardening clothes as they rip them away from reddened skin.

They're both down to their soggy underthings when James spots a live bee and smacks Lily's…lower back.

Lily lets out a yelp, "Now's really not the time for experimenting, James."

Wordlessly, James holds out his hand where the dark insect lies mostly dead and half embedded in his palm.

They slip and slide into the loo, flushing the offending bee while Lily inspects his slightly swollen hand. Her fingers are probing but gentle as she inspects his skin closer, while his lips toy with that spot her behind her ear, leaving her a bit breathless, "D'you have a tweezer?"

Shuffling around in the myriad of drawers and boxes that litter the bathroom, the fingers of James' good hand finally find the necessary implement and he passes them to Lily, "Fix me up, doc?"

With a slight tremble, Lily steps closer, hovering close over his palm, until she freezes, "Wait – this is wrong."

James shrugs, "I mean I don't like the idea of you seeing me in soggy wet pants but –"

"No – you're not supposed to use tweezers," Lily sighs, tilting her head back but remaining just as close so her nose brushes his jawline, "Sorry. My mind's – "

"Somewhere else?" James breathes, nearly dizzy with her nearness.

Nodding shallowly, Lily shifts her fingers so they wrap around his wrist gently, "We'll need a card."

"Tr-trousers," James stutters as she strokes his pulse point, "Wait!"

He pushes past her on the way to the mudroom and scoops up his trousers, pulling his wallet free. Lily eyes him curiously but accepts the proffered card and saving interrogations for later, after everyone's free of unwanted implements embedded in their person. "Oh, what a fancy credit card, posh boy."

"We did meet at a country club dinner, dear," James teases.

Lily snorts, "That I was only attending because my boss brought me, James," she holds out her hand and leans in close to work the stinger free, "You probably learned to swim there."

His hand finds her side, thumb stroking her hipbone gently as he laughs, "Nah, we were living in Scotland when I learned," he presses a kiss to her temple, "Don't you feel foolish?"

"I've got half a mind to leave you maimed," Lily grumbles, though she continues her ministrations, knelt on the chilled tile.

"You'll catch your death, Lily," James murmurs, brushing her waterlogged tendrils back, "Look at your goosebumps."

"You're hardly in better shape," Lily shoots back, scraping the plastic along his skin and finally working the barb free, "Besides, it's done now."

"Mum always kissed it better," he whispers, offering the injured limb forward.

She runs her fingertips over the lines of his palm, "Are you trying to pull a Raiders of the Lost Ark move on me?"

Flipping their clasped hands, James brings hers to his lips, "Depends – is it working?"

Lily leans closer, running her fingers up his chest and sending shivers through his body entirely unrelated to the dampness of his skin. "It's not failing."

Cupping her jaw, James brings Lily's lips to his, warm and insistent, her chest pressed against his, his arm bracing her waist and tugging her closer. "Maybe we should move this elsewhere?"

A sigh breaks from Lily's mouth, heated across James' cheek as he nips along her jawline. "This is the – ah – strangest date I've ever been on."

"It's a bonding experience," James mumbles against her neck, before tugging her up, 'til they're both on their feet.

With a few steps backward, Lily's got them halfway to James' bedroom before his hands find the clasp of her bra. "I don't know what's stranger," she pushes the door open, "You inviting me under the guise of performing manual labor, when you're really trying to woo me – "

James snickers and presses her back against the coverlet. "You love gardening – Lily."

" – or the fact that it's working."

BREAK

When Lily wakes to a darkened room hours later, it's sadly not due to the persuasive touches of her bedfellow, and entirely related to the incessant vibrating near her head. James grunts when her elbow finds his diaphragm as she twists around and kisses him languidly, "James, your mobile."

Pressing her backward, James settles into the cradle of her thighs and presses his lips to hers with equal fervor. "S'probably just Sirius – he's a right nosy bint," Lily snorts and he scowls playfully, "Yes I said bint."

The buzzing stops and James manages to carry her away on a wave of pleasure that has her head spinning and all awareness thrown out the window.

Until she's collapsed back against the mussed pillows while James places errant kisses over her flushed skin and his mobile rings again; this time vibrating itself off the table top.

He drops his forehead to her shoulder and Lily spears her fingers through his dark hair, enjoying the mess she created. "Just answer him or he'll show up at the front door in a panic thinking you're dead."

"More likely looking for food," James grumbles, tipping over the bedside to grab his phone.

There's a pause as he unlocks and swipes through the missed messages, before he lets out a yelp and jolts from the bed —nearly dragging Lily with him in the process.

"Bloody hell they'll be here in ten," James groans, already crawling to his feet and searching the room for abandoned clothing.

Lily tolerated the tosses garments until she gets a face full of already worn football sock. "James, dear. Unless 'they' means your secret wife and children I don't know about, this level of distress is really not warranted."

He doesn't respond, already stumbling into his pants as Lily grabs her knickers with her red painted toes and slips one of James' jerseys over her head. "Your silence isn't reassuring."

When she rounds the corner, his shirt just brushing her thighs, James stutters to halt, one of her damp socks halfway onto his foot. He blinks foggily and seems to finally get his synapses firing. "My mum and dad are," he pauses to check the messages, "less than ten minutes out of arriving at the front door to find me and the love of my life naked and bee stung in the foyer."

Lily chokes, "The love of your—"

But James doesn't really see how positively she's reacting, too caught up in his perceived failure in romancing her, "Yes. That I want to spend the rest of my life with. That I had in mind when I bought this cottage with the bee infested garden. That I —"

Her lips are on his before he can really get this pity party off the ground and he's nothing if not quick on his feet, so she soon finds herself pressed into the blue front door, stained glass cool at her back. "Was that," she sighs, "An actual proposal or-"

That catches his attention enough that James pulls back, running his hands over her wild hair and darting his gaze over her, the loving expression she'd dreamed of without ever realizing filling her chest with something warm she can't place but never wants to let go. "Ring's in my pocket."

"The pocket doused in hose water and human misery?" Lily asks with a shockingly wry tone, given the way her heart is thudding and her lips seem to be drawn up into a grin by some invisible magnet.

Diving across the corridor, James' hand shoots into his pocket and pulls a slightly worse for the wear velvet box from its depths. The hinge creaks as he flips it open and he sighs with relief, "S'alright," he turns the case toward her, diamonds glinting in the light, "Little bugger made it through."

"I—"

"Though it's made it through almost a century of Potters so-"

A knock at the door cuts his thought off and his loving look is tinged by a hint of fear, her little nearsighted deer in the headlights.

Her hand finds the knob, as she whispers, "We can't leave your elderly parents out in this heat, James."

Crawling closer, he tugs her down and hisses, "I can't see my mum without trousers on."

Another few raps and a posh voice sounds through the door, "Nothing we haven't seen before, my melodramatic son."

Fleamont chuckles next to his wife, smoothing his greying hair, "Or aren't seeing right now."

James buries his face in his hands and Lily pats his shoulder while Euphemia whispers conspiratorially, "We just want to know if she said yes to you know what."

Fleamont elbows her, "She's right there, Mia."

Finally lifting his head, James laughs, dark eyes crinkling at the corners as he offers Lily the ring. "My parents are really eager to know your answer."

Lily's smile is watery as she links her fingers with his, "Not sure if I've cracked your Mum's code yet," James huffs a laugh and Lily grins wider, "Might need some help."

"Marry me?" James murmurs.

Nodding, Lily leans in and whispers against his lips, "Yeah."

A throat clears before they can get too far gone and Euphemia's voice sounds from behind the glass as she questions Fleamont in what she surely intends to be a quiet tone. Though her hearing troubles make such nuances difficult. "Did she say yes, you think?"

Fleamont laughs quietly, "I think so, dear."

"Well good. I like her—she's spunky. And he's quite gone on her."

Lily's smothering her laughter against James' chest by this point and he mumbles into her hair, "Last opportunity to get out of this circus of a family."

She kisses him before tugging them both to their feet, fingers on the door lock, "Not a chance, Potter."