Summary: Lily believes that Sirius has finally settled down with a steady girlfriend, but she finds that this isn't the case at all.

"Saturday Morning"

Lily was in an unusually foul mood for a Saturday morning. Having to work on a Saturday was bad enough, but her mood was more likely caused by the unexpected visit James had paid her last night.

It had been just after 3:00AM when James, drunk beyond belief, had somehow managed to Floo over to her flat and fall on top of her in bed. Lily was in no mood to deal with her boyfriend when he was in this state, especially after being so rudely awaken. She certainly didn't want him staying the night with her (even though he insisted), so Lily began the long and difficult process of getting him back to his own flat. There was much crashing, banging, and enthusiastic shouting from James as Lily struggled to get him out her front door so they could Apparate away. By the time they finally Disapparated, Lily was sure that James must have woken up the whole building.

Once at James' flat, she spent nearly an hour trying to convince him to settle down and go to sleep. It was nearly 4:00AM before he finally passed out (in the middle of an explanation to Lily about how strange Muggle toasters were), and she left a glass of water and a hangover potion on his bedside cabinet for when he'd wake up. She may be angry at him, but she didn't want him to be suffering too horribly in the morning.

Upon arriving back at her own flat, Lily found her flatmate waiting up for her, ready to complain about Lily's 'stupid drunk boyfriend' and how obnoxiously loud he was. Normally, Lily would have apologized for waking her flatmate, but she was already in a bad mood, and no matter how angry Lily was at her idiot of a boyfriend, he was still her idiot, and she didn't like hearing her flatmate call him stupid. So Lily sharply retorted that her flatmate's boyfriend was just as unbearable, and not only was he obnoxious and loud, but he also left their flat in a mess and Lily suspected that it was him who had been 'borrowing' her floral shampoo.

They had rowed about until nearly 5:00AM, at which point Lily finally crawled back into bed. By then, she was too worked up to fall asleep. She was furious at her flatmate and even more furious at James for being responsible for this all.

She certainly didn't have a problem with James going out for a night on the town with his friends, but what had gotten James into such an amorous mood? Visions of James with other women passed through Lily's head, only serving to make her angrier. Who knew what James got up to when he was with those 'Marauders' (as the called themselves). Sirius always had quite the reputation with the girls at school, and it wasn't too hard to believe that James may have joined in on a bit of his fun.

Around 7:00AM, Lily finally got out of bed, though she hadn't slept at all. She needed to know what James had been doing last night. James certainly wouldn't be in any condition to explain today, so Lily decided she would get the information from the next closest source: Sirius.

Sirius was, like Lily, a morning person (far too much energy for his own good), and Lily knew that even after a night out drinking, Sirius would already be awake. Lily made sure to tiptoe around her flatmate's closed bedroom door as she made her way to the fireplace. She picked up a bit of Floo powder, said the address, and stepped into the green flames.

Lily stepped out of the fireplace and into Sirius' kitchen. It was just as clean as Lily had expected it to be: the counters were littered with empty bottles and dirty dishes, and a take-out carton of what looked to have once been some sort of fried noodle dish sat by the sink.

Sirius was sitting at the kitchen table having a cup of coffee and doing a crossword puzzle. He smiled brightly at Lily as she arrived in the Floo.

"Morning, Lil'!" Sirius said cheerfully.

"What did James do last night?" Lily demanded at once.

"I'm doing very well, thank you for asking."

"Well? What did he do?" Lily demanded again, but Sirius just shrugged his shoulders.

"Dunno," he replied nonchalantly.

"Bullshit. James is so utterly pissed, I know you're responsible. I know it's the fault of you Marauders."

Lily glared down at Sirius, but he just looked up at her with a mock-innocent expression.

"I find that a shocking accusation. Have we ever done anything but good?"

Lily narrowed her eyes in warning. She wasn't in any mood to joke around. "Black, you'd better tell me what he was up to last night. I know you're responsible for this."

Even faced with Lily's ferocity, Sirius was still in an amiable mood. "You sound just like you're Head Girl again," he teased, "But I haven't got a clue what James was up to, I think he might have gone out with the Prewett brothers. I just stayed in last night."

Sirius sounded like he was being honest, but then again, Sirius had quite a lot of experience at pretending to tell the truth.

"Don't lie to protect him. I want to know what he was up to. If there was... if there was some other woman..."

Sirius laughed.

"It's not a joke!"

Sirius looked at her with disbelief. "Honestly, Lily, you think James would cheat on you? After he spent so many years trying to win you over? I don't think James has even so much as looked at another girl since he set his sights on you."

"Well, you never know when he's that drunk." She had never seen him in such a state before. With that amount of alcohol, James could have done anything.

"Ah, but that's exactly how you know!" Sirius said, jabbing his finger into the air as if pointing to the answer. "You know what good old Jamie is like when he's drunk. He spills his heart out to you. It's ridiculous sometimes, 'Siriuss, y'know, yer my best friend, y'know, I love you, stop laughing Sir-us, I mean it, y'know.'"

Despite her bad mood, Lily had to laugh at this (rather accurate) impression of drunken James. Sirius grinned at her.

"Exactly like that. James tells you everything when he's drunk, he'd tell you if there was another girl."

This was true. As annoyed as Lily had been as she wrestled James into his own bed, there was one thing that James had said that really stuck in her memory. She was struggling to pull the blankets up over his chest and get him tucked in when suddenly he had taken her hand and looked up at her with the most earnest face, and said to her, "Y'know, one day 'm goin' to ask you to be my wife."

A smiled bloomed on Lily's face at the memory.

"I guess you're right," she admitted to Sirius.

"Of course I'm right." Sirius smiled that arrogant and charming smile that had annoyed Lily for so many years, but now she could see could see the charm in it. "James is a simple man, you know."

Just then there was a loud snore from behind Sirius' closed bedroom door. Lily glanced over at the door.

"Have you got someone over?" she asked, lowering her voice and turning back to Sirius with disbelief.

A grin spread across Sirius' face.

"You said you didn't go out last night!" Lily said accusingly.

"I didn't," Sirius replied, a certain smugness in his voice

"Well then where would you have picked her up?"

Sirius just shrugged, still smirking.

"Unless..." Lily gasped as it dawned on her. She looked at the empty wine bottles that were among the junk that littered the kitchen counters and noticed that there were only two wine glasses from last night, instead of the usual four when the Marauders got together. Only two…

"Have you finally got a girlfriend?" Lily asked excitedly. She couldn't remember Sirius ever having a girl important enough that he would willingly invite her over, but if he hadn't gone out last night that meant that this girl must have come over on her own (and goodness, this girl sure snored, no wonder Sirius was awake already).

A contented smile passed across Sirius' face. "Something like it."

"I don't believe it. Sirius Black is finally settling down?"

"Do you think I'll ever 'settle down'?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lily laughed. "I suppose not. Do I get to meet her?"

Sirius glanced at the clock on the wall, still smiling. "Won't be up for another hour yet."

Lily studied Sirius for a moment, that arrogant, charming, confident look he always had on his face. Of course girls fell for him, but now it seemed that Sirius had fallen for a girl as well. Lily had noticed as of late that something about Sirius had changed, and now it all made sense.

"I'll figure you out eventually, Sirius Black," she said matter-of-factly.

"Mm. Coffee? Toast?"

"Just coffee, thanks."

With a wave of his wand, Sirius summoned a coffee mug (one of the few clean dishes in the flat, it seemed) from the counter to the table, followed by the coffee pot to pour for her. He stood to put bread in Muggle toaster for himself. Sirius shared James' opinion that Muggle toasters were just the strangest things, and he was curiously trying to peer at the bread as it toasted.

Lily laid her cloak over the chair and sat down at the table, leaning over to fill in a few spaces on the crossword puzzle that Sirius had been working on. It was a nice calm after how Lily had been feeling earlier. She wasn't exactly happy about what James had done, but Sirius had settled her fears. She had become closer with Sirius since she had gotten together with James, and she couldn't help but be amazed at how good of a friend Sirius was once she got to know him. In school she had always hated him for his arrogance, but finding the loyal friend underneath quickly changed her opinion.

There was a quiet creak of a door, and Lily glanced up to see someone coming out of Sirius' bedroom. A very male someone, arms stretched above his head and yawning, dressed in only a pair of pants. The posture was so open and relaxed that Lily almost didn't recognize the person as Remus.

"Remus? What are you doing here?" she asked, surprised and confused.

Remus noticed her and stopped in mid-step. He stood frozen for a moment, arms still stretched above his head, before his arms quickly came down to cross over his chest. At once he assumed a more tense posture that Lily was more accustomed to seeing him with. He looked deeply uncomfortable and just as surprised as Lily felt.

"Oh," Remus said weakly, staring back at Lily with wide-eyed horror. "Uhm. Good morning. Uh, thanks for letting me crash here last night, Sirius. I was in no condition to make it home on my own," Remus said flatly.

At this, Lily turned to Sirius, who was still standing by the toaster. He was wearing the same uncomfortable expression that Remus was.

"You did go out last night!" Lily said accusing. Remus had apparently been in the same state James was in if Remus wasn't even able to Floo home. Was Sirius just trying to cover for James even though they had all been out together?

"No," Sirius said, at the exact same time Remus said, "Yes".

The two of them exchanged nervous glances, and a heavy awkwardness settled over the room.

"Didn't think you'd be up this early," Sirius finally said.

Lily remembered her earlier curiosity about the girl who was spending the night, and she glanced through the open bedroom door, wondering if the girl was in there as well. Had Remus slept on the floor or something? But the bed was empty, still tousled from sleep

"Where's the girl?" Lily asked, confused.

Sirius coughed.

It dawned on Lily, just what Remus had been doing here. She would have never guessed it; these two? She looked at Remus, who was still standing frozen and looking incredibly awkward in his pants, and then at Sirius, who looked a bit sheepish but not quite embarrassed.

The sound of the toast popping out of the toaster seemed loud in the quiet room.

Finally, Lily smiled and laughed disbelievingly. "I can't believe it. You two... You're really serious?"

"I'm always Sirius."

Sirius has to be feeling incredibly nervous to pull out a terrible joke like that.

"I mean, are you really?"

There was another exchange of nervous glances between Sirius and Remus, and Remus nodded.

"Really," Sirius said.

Lily laughed again, happily. "Wow! What a surprise!" It was strange to find out, and Lily would have never guessed that this would ever happen, but she was happy for her friends. "Does James know?"

"Don't tell James," Remus said before quickly disappearing into the bathroom. Obviously standing around in his pants while discussing his freshly discovered relationship status was a bit too embarrassing for him.

"You haven't told him?" Lily asked, as Sirius sat down beside her with his toast.

Sirius frowned. "You know how he gets when he finds out he hasn't been included in something. We'll figure out a way to tell him, just... not yet."

This was true. James was a good friend, but he had a tendency to get angry about things going on 'behind his back', even if they were things he had no business in. But Lily knew that even if James wasn't entirely comfortable with his friends' relationship at first, he would accept them and be happy for them.

"I told you I would figure you out," Lily said smugly. It was getting close to 8:00AM, and she would have to leave for work soon. She stood and brought her empty coffee mug over to the sink, adding it to the mountain of dirty dishes.

"Why, you've barely brushed the tip of the iceberg." Sirius was back to his usual confident self now, and he had reassumed the casual posture.

"I'll say. How long have you been together?"

"A few months now."

"And it just... happened?" Lily took her cloak from where she had laid it over the chair. She had to leave for work now, but she knew that later she would be asking Sirius for the full story.

Sirius had an unusual smile on his face again, a look of such contentment and happiness like Lily had never seen before. "I'm sure that you out of anyone will agree that once you're out of school and into the real world, you start to see things in a different light. Your life changes a lot, people change, and you may end up with someone you'd never expect."

Lily had to agree. She would have never thought that she'd find herself with James, but now, despite that he was a horrible drunk, she had to admit that she was quite in love with him. It wasn't so hard to believe that these two had gotten together.

"What other secrets are you hiding?" she asked teasingly.

Sirius just smirked.

"Alright, keep your secrets. But I'll figure you out eventually, Sirius Black," she said, taking a bit of Floo powder from the jar above the fireplace.

"Mm," Sirius hummed in reply, waving goodbye as she stepped into the Floo.