Gamble

A/N: I found a prompt on Pinterest that was just a picture and no way to credit the creator, but it was too good to not make into a ModernMuggle Jily fic, so here you have it. Prompt: "You traveled 50 miles just to see me?!" "I heard you were out of milk."

A/N: Also, if you liked my last Jily story, Extricate, I added a second chapter to it since a fair number of readers seemed to think it was worth it. :)

James is pretty sure he's crazy, no he knows he's crazy. Sirius has been telling him that his whole life but right now, almost two hours into the train ride to Oxford from Cambridge, he's positive Sirius has been right all along. He looks at Lily's tweet again.

You know that the day is doomed when all you want is a bowl of coco shreddies for breakfast and you're out of milk. :(

Yep, James sighs. He is crazy.

But what do you expect from a guy who recently decided to stop denying that he is way past fancying his childhood enemy turned teenage and early adult best friend? Sure there had been about five years in between that where they were both forbidden to speak to each other - probably because it came to blows when they were about ten - but when they ran into each other when they were sixteen something changed and Lily slowly became closer to him than Sirius. Even with her choosing Oxford so she could study purely chemistry, and him and Sirius and Remus choosing Cambridge's NatSci - mostly so they could have as many classes together as possible while going into different fields - Lily and James had remained close.

But it had been recent that James' feelings had changed, and he finally pinned it down to when they both started their Ph.D. programs. They'd gone to lunch in Oxford and James started noticing things he'd never taken the time to see before, how the sun catches her hair and makes it look like a part of the sunrise, how her eyes had layers of green he'd never noticed before, how her smile made his chest ache, how when she hugged him his breathing became labored, and how much he hated being away from her. That was two years ago.

James had spent two years denying his feelings, pretending they weren't there, trying to go back to just being friends, dating other women, anything to get over this passing fancy, but the feelings just seemed to reinforce themselves, burrow deeper into his heart. It was a month ago that James decided to stop fighting it, and the month had been both freeing and torturous; freeing to finally accept his feelings, torturous because, as Sirius so eloquently pointed out, he now had "to grow a fucking pair and do something about it".

Which is why James is currently sitting on the train to Oxford, reading Lily's tweet for the millionth time, and second-guessing what was probably the most off the cuff plan he's ever come up with.

It's Thursday, and while James doesn't have anything on Thursdays, he knows Lily's Thursday schedule is the nightmare of her weeks this term. He knows she'll be falling into her flat a little after seven, hungry, tired, and James is going to be sitting at her kitchen table with a carton of milk.

He is crazy.

But it's too late to back out now. He'll be in Oxford in thirty minutes and he'll only have twenty to get milk and walk to her flat, and hope that her flat-mate, Alice, did, in fact, leave the spare key under the mat for him.

But even with the time constraints, James still finds himself with five minutes to kill before seven as he sits at Lily's kitchen table. He realizes he can't leave, but he doesn't necessarily need to tell Lily why he's really here, does he?

James' internal worrying is interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and Lily walking into the kitchen, where she jumps and drops everything in her arms.

"James! What the hell?" Lily bends to start picking up everything she's dropped and James jumps up to help her.

"Nice to see you too, Evans," He bumps her shoulder as they stack everything up on the table.

"You didn't tell me you had anything with the theoretical physics department here, was it a last minute thing?"

"No, I didn't have anything with your cushy physics department here." James hops out of the way as Lily tries to shove him.

"Wait, you traveled 85 miles on a two and a half hour train ride in the middle of the week just to see me?!" Lily's face wears a look James has never seen before, but it makes his stomach knot and so he looks away and walks to the fridge.

"I heard you were out of milk." And he pulls the brand new carton out to show her, smiling as the look on her face turns to excitement.

"You came all the way down to Oxford to buy me milk because I was whining on Twitter about wanting coco shreddies?"

"More or less," James shrugs as he watches Lily stand and grab a bowl. She pulls a second and hands it to him.

"Here, you might as well have dinner too."

"Mum would be so proud of us, coco shreddies for dinner." Lily punches James' shoulder but laughs.

"We're getting our doctorates; we're still allowed to eat like undergraduates."

James lets himself fall back into the easiness of their friendship and pushes his feelings aside again. Does he really want to risk this?

They end up on her bed and Lily pulls out her laptop throwing on Netflix.

"I'm guessing you're sleeping on my couch tonight, huh? Unless you're going to pay for an Uber back to Cambridge," Lily stretches and leans back into him, something they've done countless times before but James' heart rate picks up.

"My plan was your couch, but if you don't want me here, I suppose you could pay for my Uber." James pokes her side and Lily jumps landing closer to him, and James swears his heart is going to burst out of his chest now.

Why did you poke her? Idiot!

But Lily seems comfortable with the closeness as she laughs and burrows even closer to him. James prays she can't hear how fast and hard his heart is beating.

Lily's draped her arm over him and James swears they're cuddling but he can't trust himself because he's been boarder line in love with this woman for two years and his mind has gone down the rabbit hole already.

But then Lily looks up at him, a soft smile on her face, illuminated by the flickering computer light making her green eyes dance, and whatever speech James had semi-thought out to tell Lily how he felt is completely forgotten, replaced by the desire to put his lips on hers, to run his hands through her hair, to show her how much his feelings have changed.

James brings his hand to Lily's face, and he could swear he hears her breath catch. His fingers trace her cheek down to her chin, where he gently tilts her face up and brings his lips to hers.

He ends it quickly, pulling away to see her reaction. Lily's eyes are closed and her lips parted. When she opens her eyes she looks at James with confusion.

"Why did you do that?"

Well shit.

"Because I've spent the last two years trying to deny that I fancy you and the last month accepting it, and the milk was just a good excuse to come here and tell you that."

James hangs his head and moves to get up but Lily grabs the front of his t-shirt in her fist and stops him.

"James," He looks at her hand fisted in his shirt then brings his eyes to hers, "I meant why did you stop?" Her grin is mischievous and James is pretty sure he just got played, but he can't be damned right now because she wants him to kiss her, and there's no way he could deny Lily anything right now.