"Pea soup again?"

The look on Lily's face quelled James's whining. "You know we can't leave the house. There isn't much left." Lily sighed, setting down her own bowl and taking a seat at the small dining table. Harry sat in his highchair next to her, his short arms reaching for his own dinner. "We can try to go out and get some groceries tomorrow, I suppose…"

James gave her a half-smile. "Pea soup is wonderful." He ate a spoonful in demonstration, promptly burning his mouth and hissing at the temperature. James dropped the spoon into his bowl, some of the green soup splashing out onto the table. Harry watched him, head cocked to one side before he started laughing at his dad's mishap. Lily smirked, picking up a knife and slicing the loaf of bread, giving them each a piece – Harry's, she broke up into small pieces which he happily grabbed and threw across the table.

Chucking but trying not to visibly encourage him, James held one of Harry's remaining pieces of bread to the boy's lips, getting him to eat something. He smiled, ruffling the kid's black hair. It was so like his own. James looked over at Lily. "We've got to give this kid a good life, Lils."

She merely sighed, nodded. James missed the bright shine her eyes used to have, back when they were in school and not fighting a war or hiding from a murderer. He just wanted his life back, he wanted to be able to control something. But he wasn't sure what else he could do.

He watched as Lily dipped her bread into her soup. They were both getting so tired of eating the same things for every meal. Any magic they could do to stretch their food supply would just lower the quality, it wasn't worth it. If they were going to have pea soup every evening for a week, they were at least going to have pea soup with some flavor.

When Lily finally spoke, her voice was quiet, distant. She had the sleeves of her – or, rather, James's – maroon sweater stretched over her hands. "This war has to end soon. It will, won't it?"

"Has to," James said around a mouthful of bread. He tried to meet her eyes, but she was staring fixedly at the woodgrain of the table.

"I just… I feel so useless, just sitting here, waiting it out."

"I know," he murmured. James stood up, pushing out his chair and coming around the table to stand behind Lily. He wrapped his arms around her, resting his head on hers as she clutched his arms close to her. "We just need to stay safe. For Harry," he added. He meant it as a sort of fortifying gesture, to strengthen their resolve. But there was a hint of guilt to it, too. James felt it as much as Lily did. They both wanted nothing more than for life to go on like normal, for them to wake up tomorrow morning and leave the house and spend the day out with their kid. But they both knew they couldn't – not safely, not without risk. And neither of them believed the risk to be worth it. Not when they looked over at Harry, sitting in his chair with pea soup smeared all over his face and bits of bread stuck in his hair.

So they stayed at home, day after day. James was sure he had every crack in the paint on the walls memorized, but if it meant keeping his child safe, he'd stay here the rest of his life.

"For Harry," Lily echoed, leaning over to clean up the mess he'd made with dinner. Even after this war ends, she sighed to herself, we're sure going to have our hands full with this one.

.

A/N: I've wanted to do a massive Jily!life AU for ages, and I thought about doing it in a long series of individual oneshots/drabbles and eventually compiling them together in some sort of chronological order. So. That's what I've got going right now, and that's what this goes with, I suppose.

Also written for Writing Club: Character Appreciation 25: (relationship) Husband/Married; Cookie's Crafty Corner 6: (object) Knife; Showtime 8: (color) Black; Amber's Attic 3: (food) Pea soup; Count Your Buttons O1: Knife; Lyric Alley 14: I want to have control; Ami's Audio Admirations 14: (era) Marauders; Em's Emporium 7: (emotion) Bitter; Lo's Lowdown O1: Theme – Family; Seasonal – Days of the Month – Oct 19: Write about someone dissatisfied with their life but not knowing how to change it; Autumn Prompts: (word) Bright; Color Prompts: Maroon; Audrey's Dessert Challenge: Lily Evans; Dragons and Writing Month: wc 638