#i realise you forgot about it because you literally reblogged that post ten months ago but what can you do

[theresonlysofarnewmoneygoes]

so, first off, credit where credit is due: in october of last year, @alrightevans reblogged this post by @pensversusswords, and that inspired this jily one shot. and yeah, it literally did take me ten months to write a 2.8k fic. don’t judge. it’s been a long year for all of us.

disclaimer: literally everything i know about firefighters is from the fireman sam episodes i’ve watched with my brothers (side note: that town has a crazy-disproportionate amount of fires). so, expect mistakes in that regard.

so with out further ado, the muggle!firefighter!jily au. enjoy!

Lily’s already dressed, down the pole, and ready to go, waiting in the passenger seat of the truck before she realises no one else is coming.

She blinks. Did she imagine…? No, there’s the brigade siren, wailing in the background. It won’t shut off until the truck drives out.

Lily blinks again. Pinches herself. Yes, she’s definitely awake.

Why isn’t anybody coming? Some poor civilian home is going up in flames right now. A child could be dying. Or already dead.

Lily looks around. The siren has been going off for a minute and a half now, and none of her fellow firefighters are coming. This has never happened before. They’re a professional bunch. Fire Captain McGonagall keeps them all in line.

She hears a clank from the the second floor, a muffled curse, and a moment later she sees Marlene sliding down the pole.

“What’re you all waiting for, then?” Lily asks her.

“Could ask you the same thing,” Marlene grumbles. “Just go. Siren won’t turn off until you do. We’re trying to sleep, you know.”

Lily blinks at her in disbelief. “I know we haven’t cleaned this windshield in…ever, but it looks like you’re just standing there, in your pyjamas, not getting on the truck and driving us to the fire.”

“And,” says Marlene.

“And what?”

“We haven’t cleaned this windshield in ever and it looks like I’m just standing there. But’s the wrong preposition.”

“But and and are both conjunctions!” calls their fellow fire-fighter, Mary MacDonald, from their bunks.

“Shut up and go already!” Benjy Fenwick says, sleep and anger evident in his voice even though he is on the top floor, with Mary.

“Marlene, people are dying! Let’s go!”

“Honestly, Lily no one’s dying. Haven’t you seen the location?”

“What’s it matter–”

“It’s at that dumb bloke’s. The one on Gryffindor. He just moved there six weeks ago, and he’s called the department fourteen times. He’s an idiot,” Marlene says, quite confidently, “and McGonagall says we don’t have to go anymore.”

“What?” Lily cries. “Are you–is she–for real?”

“Evans, really, calm down–”

“You’re sentencing a civilian to death because you don’t like him! And McGonagall’s all right with it!”

“No one’s sentencing him to any sort of death, honestly, and I didn’t say I didn’t like him. But he’s a right dolt.”

“This is insane,” Lily says, half to herself, and throws herself in the driver’s seat. “This is insane,” she says again, slamming her foot down on the gas.

The drive to Gryffindor Court is a short one, but Lily feels every second, certain that this poor man is locked in his own home, smoke clouding his vision and his throat, his body trying and failing to fight the heat. Lily can nearly feel the flames licking her own form, feel the fire climbing up her legs….

Ugh. This is why she isn’t supposed to take the truck anywhere alone. Under Fire Captain McGonagall, no one’s supposed to take the truck anywhere alone, but she specifically. And though she pretended to be very upset at being singled out so, she was secretly very grateful.

Dumbledore had been a little more…liberal, as Fire Captain.

The truck’s siren is the only the light in the night, and she can’t hear any screams or smell any smoke, so it is abundantly clear even before she reaches the split-level house on Gryffindor that there is no fire.

Still, there might be a gas leak! Marlene and the others have no way of knowing until they show up! And even if the poor man’s just a nervous civilian, well, isn’t it there job to calm him down?

Lily sheds her heavy protective gear as she throws the truck in park and leaps out, racing to the door. She pauses for a moment and looks around. The house is clearly meant for more than one family, and she’s not sure what storey the caller is on. Then again, protocol states that she has to evacuate everyone under the roof if there’s a gas leak or something of the sort.

Just as she’s decided to start with the ground floor, a voice from above her shouts, “Oi! Up here!”

Lily takes a step back on the porch and looks up. A man is half-out a window on the top floor, waving his arms.

A rather young man. Lily is surprised. By Marlene’s description, she’d been expecting someone older. Elderly, perhaps.

“Don’t think they’ve sent you before!” he says cheerfully. “Can you come get me down?”

“Yes; can you tell me what’s happened, sir?” she calls back up, over the wail of the siren.

“No real cause for alarm! Just knocked over some furniture by accident and barricades the door, and set my smoke detector off! You know how it is!” He winks at her.

Lily blinks. How did one “accidentally” knock over enough furniture to barricade the door hard enough to keep themselves locked inside, and what reason would a smoke detector have for going off in the small hours?

But she’s a far better firefighter to civilians than the likes of Marlene and Mary and Benjy and she’s determined to prove it.

“I’ll be right up, sir,” she says.

“Cheers!”

Lily goes back to the truck and flicks the siren off and before setting up the ladder. She’s never gone up without her crew-mates, but she’s not particularly worried about falling or anything. This isn’t the highest she’s ever had to go, and with no real threat, she’s not in any rush.

Lily climbs into the carriage the ladder holds and steers it up towards the man with the controller. When she reaches the second-floor window, the man has his head down, rubbing the bottom of his shirt furiously on something. Lily can’t quite make out what he’s holding because there are no lights on in his flat. She can’t see his face very well.

“The smoke really wasn’t doing anything to help my glasses,” he says in a much softer voice than his previous yelling-down-thirty-feet, looking up to her questioning face.

“So there is smoke?” she says sharply.

“Oh, no, there was–I was cooking, and I, er, messed up a bit. But no need to worry, I’ve put it out.” He smiles at her, and Lily smiles back.

Okay, so he’s maybe a little eccentric! Is that a crime? He seems perfectly kind; Lily doesn’t know why no one else would come. He isn’t the only frequent flyer they’ve had, and knocking over the furniture and accidentally setting the smoke alarm off is far from the stupidest thing Lily’s ever been called in for. Not since Fifty Shades of Grey came out.

“So, I’m going to help lift you out, sir” Lily says, inching closer to the window.

The man nods and puts on his glasses. He does a double take.

Lily turns around, expecting to see something frightening. “Sir, are you all right?” she asks, concerned.

“They’ve never sent you before!” he says, eyes wide. Slowly, his face splits into a broad grin. “I’d remember you.”

“Er,” she says. “Er, no, I’ve never answered any of your calls before. Anyway, have you ever been through this window before? Do you know what to do, sir?”

“You can call me James,” he says, and he winks.

Winks.

Lily stifles a groan. Marlene’s reaction is becoming more and more clear.

“Sir…James,” she says at his pointed look, “I’m sure you’d like to get back to…er, your regular schedule, so if you could just start by slowly sitting on the ledge–”

“Whoa, what’s the hurry, firelady?” he says, raising his hands up. “Why don’t you come inside for a minute? Have a drink? When’s the last time you’ve had a drink? You work too hard….” He eyes her arms, lean muscles visible in the light of the street lamps, whose glow just miss the man’s form and flat . “I can tell,” he says, and winks again.

Lily bites back more than just a groan this time. She can see why even McGonagall said they didn’t have to come here anymore.

“Sir, please, just ease yourself into the basket, all right?”

“What’s your name?” he says, ignoring her. Still smiling though. Quite broadly.

“Firefighter Evans,” she says shortly.

“Evans…that’s a nice name. Is that your surname? Mine’s Potter. James Potter’s always sounded great to me, but there’s something about Evans…James Evans. Yeah, even better.” And for the third time in the span of one minute (and the fourth time so far), he winks!

Lily’s about ready to gouge his eyes out.

“Sir,” she says, through gritted teeth, “if you don’t climb out yourself, protocol says I need to get a crew inside and carry you.”

“Oh, I bet you could do it yourself,” Potter says flirtatiously. “You must spend a lot of time rescuing people from burning buildings, eh, Evans?”

“No, it’s mostly just unlocking balcony exists for idiots who jam their front doors and the like,” she says, unable to stop herself. “Not a lot of them have friends they can call to use a spare key, see.”

Her eyes widen as soon as she hears herself finish her sentence. He may be a prat, but he’s still a civilian who called for help, and even if Fire Captain McGonagall said they don’t have to show up, she still did, and he could have her put on trial, he could have her investigated, he could have the whole brigade–

Lily’s panicked thoughts are cut off by laughter.

“Guess that’s what it looks like,” he says, chortling still. “But I do have friends! They’ve just, well…they’ve had enough of me calling for help lately,” he admits sheepishly.

Now Lily’s the one who laughs.

“And I thought I’d gone and scared off the the whole of the fire department,” he says, oddly encouraged by her laughter, “but then you showed up! I’ve gotten Firefighter McKinnon loads before–she doesn’t like me very much–and Firefighter Fenwick, too, he saw me at my worst, I think. There was a slight gas-leak situation, but whatever, it all worked out in the end. One time I met your Fire Captain! She was definitely charmed, I could tell. She was only pretending to be irritated. Hard-to-get, you know the type.”

James winks yet again, and this time, it makes Lily laugh.

“You could come inside, you know,” he says. “I’m going to try and make the recipe I just messed up. I think I’ve got it figured out.”

Lily laughs again, and she wonders if he’s really that funny or if it’s the hour.

“I can’t,” she says. “I’ve got to get you out and bring the truck back. I’m not supposed to take it out by myself.”

“Oh, so no one else would come rescue me!” James says, connecting the dots. “And you’re my knight in shining armour.” He–what else?–winks. And oddly enough, it’s growing on her.

“Come on,” she says, “let me help you out.”

James seats himself on the ledge and Lily takes hold of his legs. James ducks his head and shifts the rest of his body outside. Lily wraps an arm around his torso, and is carefully holds him for a few seconds before she sets him down beside her.

“You really are strong,” he says, but now that he’s fully engulfed in light and she can take him in, she doesn’t have an answer. Or the ability to speak.

Lily’s not quite sure what hits her first. How handsome he is, or that he’s not wearing trousers.

He’s obviously used to his own face, and he can’t see it anyway, so he’s clearly not distracted by it. And as for his literally-not-wearing-trousers-situation, well…he doesn’t seem to be the least bit bothered.

Lily looks up at the sky, behind her, down at the truck, anywhere but at him. She hits the controller with such force her hands stings, but that doesn’t make it go any faster.

“How long have you been a firefighter for?” he asks her.

“Couple years,” she mumbles, hoping he can’t see how red she is in the lighting.

“I think it’s really noble, you know. Better than what the police do, and you don’t get half the credit! I think you lot are the real heroes.”

Ah, Lily can’t avoid his face at that. “I think you’re right,” she says, grinning despite herself. They have a rivalry with the local police precinct, obviously. The police do have more rapport and generate more awe with the civilians and they never let Lily’s brigade forget it.

“When do you get off?” he asks.

“What?” Lily squeaks. Yes, squeaks.

“When do you get off call? Or duty, whatever it’s called.”

“Oh,” she says, somehow going redder. “Oh, I’m off call at eight this morning.”

“Breakfast?”

“Suppose so,” Lily says, shrugging.

James laughs as they finally reach the truck. “No, I mean, with me. A date.”

Lily’s eyes widen. Is he seriously asking her out on a date? At three in the morning? As she rescues him from the house he locked himself inside? Trouser-less?

And is she seriously considering?

“I can cook,” he adds, smiling at her.

“Ha!” Lily says. “Can you really?”

“Breakfast I can cook!” he says indignantly. “Pancakes and waffles and orange juice and cereal and the like.”

“You don’t cook orange juice and cereal!”

“Whatever, I mean I’m excellent at pouring.”

“Oh, of course,” Lily says. She laughs–again! She’s never made this much conversation with a civilian while on duty before. Much less this pleasant.

“All right, then, James,” she says. “I’ll swing by when I get off call.”

“Brilliant,” he says, grinning.

Lily smiles as she leads him out of the ladder’s basket and onto the ground.

“My name’s Lily, by the way,” she says.

“Lily. Firefighter Lily Evans. Pleased to meet you, Firefighter Lily Evans.”

Hearing her full title always picks her up, but something about his voice makes it sound particularly lovely. “Pleased to meet you too, Civilian James Potter. Erm, also, where is the entrance to your floor?”

“Oh, er,” says James. “It’s not a split-level. I mean, it used to be, but a long time ago we made it a one-family house.”

“Oh,” Lily says, nodding slowly.

“Yeah, suitable for a big family. Lots of guests…and friends.” James pauses for a moment. “Er, I grew up in this house, actually. I just moved back in. It had been empty for a while….” James hesitates. “My parents passed away,” he said, shifting his gaze away.

“Oh,” Lily says again, softer. “Oh, I’m sorry, James.” Then, her voice softer still, she says, “My parents passed away, too.”

James looks at her again. “Sorry,” he says. His voice falls flat, but Lily knows it’s not from lack of compassion. She understands. “Cancer?”

“No,” she says, shaking her head, her voice barely a whisper. She holds her hands together. “A fire.”

“Ah,” James says.

They both look away. They catch each other’s eye after a moment…and giggle.

James swallows. “Bit early for this, I think,” he says.

“Yeah,” she agrees. “We’ll want to discuss this at a proper late hour, like eight or nine.”

“Eight or nine,” echoes James. He purses his lips. “You mind if we don’t spend all of breakfast talking about our dead parents?”

“If I had known your parents were dead before you asked me, I wouldn’t have said yes,” Lily says. Then she wants to throw herself under the truck.

He’s clearly just lost them! There’s no way he’s gotten to the dark-humour zone yet! Not this way, not this fast!

But he does laugh, to her immense relief.

“It’s good,” he says. “Laughing is good. I feel like everyone wants me to still be, like, crying all the time…laughing a little is good.”

“Just ignore everyone else,” Lily tells him. “It’s such a confusing time…you hardly know what you want. So if you think you’re doing something that feels good, keep doing it. Sometimes you cry. Sometimes you laugh. But don’t listen to people when they tell you it’s a straight progression, because that’s such a lie. There are ups and downs and lefts and rights. It’s not a diagonal line on a graph, it’s more of a series of loops on both side of the paper.”

James eyes light up. “That’s it,” he says. “That’s it exactly.”

Lily tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. “I’d better head back,” she says, climbing into the driver’s seat. “Fire Captain McGonagall can’t know I’ve been out…well, you’ve met her. But I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“Can’t stay away, can you?” he says, and he winks again.

“Guess not,” she says, and she winks too.

James’ eyes widen, and she can’t blame him. She’s surprised even herself tonight.

#lizo writes #jily fanfiction #jily #alrightevans #chloe i really hope you like this!! #i realise you forgot about it because you literally reblogged that post ten months ago but what can you do #(keep to a normal fic writing schedule? no way. unheard of) #anyway i hope anyone who does like this lets me know!! #i feel like this is very different from most of my fics? #so yeah i'd love feedback if you've got the time!

[islareeveswriting]

Fool’s Gold | Epilogue | Harry Styles PT AU

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Story Page Here

Listen To Thinking Bout You Dua Lipa Like poison coursing through me So clear my vision is blurred The haze won't put my mind at ease I've been sleeping later, I've been breathing stronger I've been digging deeper but the memories won't stop

Word Count 1.6k (it’s an epilogue) 

‘Shit.’ Olivia’s heart was beating like thunder, she felt like she was going to be sick and in the next second she had her head over the toilet and was expelling her morning coffee. It tasted like acid and it burned. She looked back to her hands, they were shaking and with that so was the white stick in her fingers. The white stick with the two blue lines.

‘Shit.’ Olivia’s heart was beating like thunder, she felt like she was going to be sick and in the next second she had her head over the toilet and was expelling her morning coffee. It tasted like acid and it burned. She looked back to her hands, they were shaking and with that so was the white stick in her fingers. The white stick with the two blue lines. 

Her period was a week late, and she knew when it didn’t come the day it was meant to what was going on. She’d never been late, not ever. She blamed it on stress and tiredness and hormones, but she knew. As soon as it was a day behind she felt like her body changed, it was like she could feel it inside her. Each day she hoped to see a spot of blood, but she never did. As the seventh day rolled around she knew it was time to take a test. 

She picked it up with her groceries from the small Tesco Express on her road, and hoped she didn’t bump into anyone she knew. She was so occupied by it that she forgot to pick up the chicken for the chicken stir fry she was intending on having for dinner that night. She had a vegetable one instead. It wasn’t quite the same as the one Harry had shown her how to make, there was something missing (apart from the chicken), maybe it really did matter what way round the salt and pepper went in. Or maybe it was just that he hadn’t made it, and they hadn’t sung and danced around the kitchen as they, well Harry, cooked. 

They hadn’t spoken since the day he’d left the flat, but everyday she came home and missed the familiarity of him being there. She missed the smell of him freshly showered, wafting through the flat as she walked in. She missed the sound of his laughter as he watched re-runs of ‘Would I Lie To You?’ and ‘Friends’ on repeat. She missed watching him as he cooked something delicious for dinner, and she sipped on a post-workout smoothie he’d made. She missed the familiarity and the comfort that came from having him around, the warm feeling of knowing he’d be there when she got home. It didn’t matter if she’d had the best day ever or the worst she could have imagined, he’d be there, and he’d ask, and he’d listen, and he’d cook her dinner, and she’d shower, and they’d curl up on the couch, and they’d be. They’d be Harry and Olivia for just a few hours and no one would know, so that was ok. 

She missed that. 

Niall had told her he was knocking around with someone, dark hair, dark eyes, Olivia knew who. Olivia had kicked her out of her flat just before breaking Harry’s heart for the second time in as many days. It stung when she found out, but how could she expect any less when Olivia had been in those shoes when Ella left him. Maybe Harry just didn’t know how to be alone. Olivia just hoped he wasn’t saying their things or doing their things with her. Olivia didn’t like being alone anymore. 

Olivia missed him but she didn’t want to be the one to call him. When he’d left he’d said he needed to be away from her to get over her and she had to respect that. She couldn’t go muscling her way into his life if that wasn’t what he wanted, and as much as that hurt, it didn’t hurt as much as realising she’d be willing to admit she was wrong if it meant she could have him back. She told herself he was probably happier and that made it ok, that made it easier, that’s all that mattered. It was her own fault. She deserved to look back and know she was happier when he was around, but he deserved to be happier elsewhere because he’d offered her everything and she’d thrown it in his face. Olivia knew she’d be there, if his heart was broken again, ready to pick it up, patch it up and maybe try again. Re-run the same story with a different ending.  

She couldn't stop thinking about him. She’d tried everything. She’d been out drinking with friends more often in the past month than she had since she left university. She worked later than she really wanted to in attempt to keep him out of her mind but it made no difference. 

She sighed looking at the stick. She’d only slept with one person in the last six months. His child was inside her and they weren’t even talking. Once again, everything came back to him. 

++

Harry was in the kitchen, cooking his chicken stir fry, the one he’d taught Olivia to cook, he wondered if she’d cooked it since he left. He often had thoughts like that about Olivia, if she still did things the same way without him, if she still had the same routine, if she still thought about him the way he thought about her. She still consumed his every thought and every feeling, no matter how many times he bought Heidi back, no matter how many times he bought anyone back. It all came back to Olivia and it angered him that, that was still the case. 

‘Smells good Haz.’ He didn’t like it when Heidi shortened his name like that, but he didn’t say anything because she didn’t say anything when he’d said Olivia’s name two nights ago, and had all but refused to touch her since. Harry turned to her with a soft smile that quickly fell. She’d pulled on his white Rolling Stones t-shirt after her shower. Harry felt his nostrils flare. 

‘Get that t-shirt off.’ Harry growled through a clenched jaw. Heidi just dipped her brow. That wasn’t her t-shirt to wear. That was Olivia’s t-shirt, well it was Harry’s, but it was the one Olivia always went for. Olivia pulled it on more often than he did, and her smell was still on it, not the smell of her shower gel, or shampoo, or perfume, just the smell of her. There was the red wine stain, on the bottom hem, that she’d put there when she spilled her glass at dinner. She’d been wearing only that t-shirt and her underwear. Harry had joked it made her look like she was bleeding, now he felt like he was bleeding from a wound inflicted by her. He felt like he was bleeding love and no one could stem it, well, someone could but they didn’t want to, they’d rather watch him bleed to death.  ‘I said take it off.’ Harry repeated, louder than before and with more venom as he began to hate the person he was turning into. How did she still have so much power over him? 

‘Fucking hell Haz, calm down it’s only a t-shirt.’ Heidi chuckled. She was fresh from the shower, but Harry couldn’t help but think how much better Olivia looked fresh from the shower. He didn’t know why he was sleeping with Heidi, he thought it might be filling a hole but all it really did was clarify how much he wanted, needed, Olivia. All he did was compare Heidi to Olivia, and it never went in Heidi’s favour, no matter how bad Olivia had hurt him she’d always come out on top. She made him feel better, stronger, more alive, less like a leech, less like an empty shell. That wasn’t really Heidi’s fault though, really it was Olivia’s fault, but Olivia was still what Harry always circled back to.

‘Take that t-shirt off, don’t call me Haz and get out.’ Harry told her moving closer and looming over her. He recoiled as quickly as Heidi did, and he hated himself but he didn’t apologise, simply pushed past her heading for the bathroom.

He fell against the door, heavily, after locking it. The tears were already streaming. As soon as he’d walked past Heidi they began to fall, thick, blobs of salty tears streamed down his face, making his eyes bloodshot and glassy, and reddening his cheeks. He sobbed violently, his body shaking with it as he lost his breath and choked on the air that did come to him. 

It hurt so much. It hurt like nothing else he knew. There was nothing he could do about it and that made it worse. The only thing that could fix him was so far out of reach it wasn’t even a speck in the distance, it wasn’t even a mirage of something he wanted, it was just nothing, not even atoms, just nothing. 

It was still suffocating him, she was still suffocating him and he didn’t know how to stop it. Being away from her was meant to make him get over her, move on, make him see things the way she’d seen it, disposable. But, it only made it worse. It only made the bruises darker, the scars re-open and the hole inside him emptier. It was twisting him, he was becoming bitter and it wasn’t just whiskey that made him angry anymore. The missing her made his heart ache the way a dead leg ached, but it didn’t fade. Everything still came back to her, even the unrelenting selfishness, he blamed that on her too, she’d made him that way. 

Harry couldn’t even convince himself he was only in love with the memories of what they had, and not with the person who had helped make them. He told himself he’d come to terms with her not feeling the same but he hadn’t, it still knocked him for ten and everything after that was collateral damage. He didn’t feel like he’d come up with diamonds anymore, he felt like he’d come up with fool’s gold.

So there we go that really is it, the end. What do we think? Bit of a shock for Liv, shock for you too? I love hearing your thoughts and stuff about this and my inbox is always open to chat about this fic cause Olivia and Harry have a huge place in my heart and we will definitely come back to them in the future. Can’t really leave it like that can I?

Thank you for coming on this ride with me and thank you for all the messages, reblogs and likes I really do appreciate every single one of them,

@cuddlemusclestyles and @harrysmeadow have literally been there since the beginning on this with me and they’ve been the best. They put up with me moaning about it when it was going to shit, they put up with me asking 101 questions and pretty much wrote the Rome chapter (ah the Rome chapter that seems like so long ago now). I love them so much they don’t even know but they really are the best and I’m so glad they’re in my life. Steph has got an awesome (and adorable) going on and Emma’s just finished a good’n and has not long posted a killer one shot and will be taking you on a journey soon so PLEASE go and check them out.

I hope you enjoy xx

#fools gold #epilogue #holivia #harry styles #harry pt au #harry au #harry styles au #harry fic #boxer harry