A soft sigh broke from Lily's lips, forming a cloud of mist in the cold winter air as she warmed her hands by wrapping them around her steaming hot mug of coffee. She stared outside the café window, at the snow covering the roofs of houses and bare trees, and the road, where her car was parked beside a silver and black bike. She took a sip of her milky coffee, and closed her eyes in bliss. This barista knew exactly how to make coffee. She was addicted to this.

"Two blueberry muffins, ordered by Lily," the girl at the counter, a tall blonde called Emmeline with Louis blue-colored strands in her hair, called out, and Lily stood up to get them.

"Thanks, Em," Lily smiled at her, quite familiar with everyone at the café.

"Of course love." Emmeline smiled back as she read out another order.

Lily turned to go back, but hesitated for a second and then asked, "who made my coffee? You don't add milk in this amount, and I had no idea I liked so much milk in my coffee. It's per-fect." She, very intentionally, added a One Direction reference because she could.

"Oh." Emmeline giggled. "Flattered to see you know how I make coffee. And no, I didn't make it. Effie's son made it. He keeps visiting once or twice a day to check up on her, and helps us a lot."

Euphemia Potter, or Effie, owned the Zephyr café on Pearl Lane. She was a kind, sweet old lady, and knew Lily's mum well, Rose Evans being an ex-classmate of hers in school. Lily knew she had a son (some said two sons, and some said four, but Lily liked to believe she had one biological son), but didn't know he came to visit the café and even helped here.

"Ah, there he comes," Emmeline said, gesturing towards the café kitchen.

Lily stoos on the tips of her toes, being slightly shorter than Emmeline, to look over the blonde girl's shoulder and saw Remus Lupin, a guy in her year at college in management, come out of the kitchen, covered from head to toe in flour, followed by a really handsome guy, who seemed like the male (and taller) version of Euphemia, except with hazel eyes.

"James Potter!" Euphemia yelled from the cash counter. "Why would you- Jesus, clean up! Clean up! I'm so sorry, Remus dear, James, we must have a talk."

"James," Lily mused. "A prince's favoured name, but this guy is about as orderly and prim as an assassin."

Emmeline snorted as she passed a two cups of black coffee to a petite brunette. "This is the least of what he does. Once, he squeezed a whole bottle of whipped cream on my head. The smell came off after I washed it for the third time."

"My condolences," Lily said sarcastically. "I suppose that's the reason for this new haircut?"

Emmeline's hand self-consciously went to her pixie cut blonde and blue hair. "I can neither confirm nor deny any statements."

"I'll take it as a yes then."

"I never said that!"

"You didn't deny it either."

"Oh fuck you."

A grin broke over Lily's face as she considered it a victory. She finished the last of her muffins and drank her coffee to the very dregs and bade a quick goodbye to Emmeline before heading towards the cash counter, fumbling inside her pocket.

"Six bucks," Lily said as she placed to money infront of Euphemia, who took it and placed it in a drawer and scribbled out her name and payment amount in her diary. Lily looked over her shoulder and saw James inspecting a novel. Raven curls fell into his eyes and he reached up to push them back. Before Lily could resist it, she said:

"Nice coffee-making skills."

He looked up, startled, and his cheeks tinted pink, the color an adorable constrast across his tanned skin. His ruffled his hair and then adjusted his rectangular glasses, giving her a small, embarrased smile. "Thanks. Courtesy of mum here."

"Mhm, it's useful when you come home late and exhausted," Euphemia laughed as she turned around to ruffle James' hair. Lily smiled at the pair and then waded through the labyrinth of tables and chairs towards the door, and turned back once to glance at James, and her cheeks turned as red as her hair when she realised he was staring right at her. They dropped gazes at the same time, Lily walking out of the door and James bending his head towards the novel, which, he realised later, read "The Coffee Shop: A Strange Love Story".

The universe ships.

♥️♥️♥️

And there she was again. With the (sort of) same order: coffee and strawberry-and-vanilla cake. James made sure to push the regular coffee-maker, a guy called Daniel, and he made the coffee himself, while trying to calm Sirius' excitement.

"You finally found someone you like and you expect me to be calm?" Sirius exclaimed. "I was beginning to think you might as well be aromantic/asexual!"

"I think I mentioned I'm biromantic once," James said as he poured the coffee into a paper cup.

"Asexual still stands," Sirius argued.

"Biromantic heterosexual," James clarified.

"You've very limited choices, Prongs," said an extremely pansexual Sirius.

"Not to mention my interest is only limited to one girl now," James muttered as he headed out of the kitchen with a tray in his hands.

"Point her out to me!" Sirius whisper-shouted excitedly.

"Stands out." James shrugged as he passed the tray to Emmeline, his front turned towards Sirius.

"You dumbass, anyone can spot that giant, Fjerdan height, and those crazy curls," muttered Emmeline as she pushed them into the shadows of the kitchen.

"Lily!" Emmeline called out, and James body sprung into action.

"That one! The coming one!" James hissed.

"Red curls? Freckles? Green eyes?" Sirius asked in a low voice, peering over James's shoulder as he stood on the tips of his toes, a mere ant with his 5'11 height against James's 6'3 one.

"Yes," James whispered, feeling more like a teenage girl who was telling her best friend about her first crush rather than a 18+ guy who was the captain of a football team.

"Never knew you had a taste for redheads," Sirius commented after Lily had walked away. He recieved a punch in the gut by James and doubled over. "You rotten sod, all you've ever done is compliment brunettes! Not my fault!"

"My first girlfriend was a blonde," James hissed at him as he pushed Sirius into the kitchen.

"Wonder why you remember that." Sirius wrinkled his nose in disgust. "She had a rotten attitude. I think her name was Elina?"

"Eliza, and yes she had a rotten attitude because she was cheating on me with Amos fucking Diggory," James huffed. "Look at that guy now, an eleventh-grade fail who works in a bakery. A pity. Bakeries have nice guys like Harry Styles."

"Name your and Lily's kid after the 1D guys, and me." Sirius's grin was impossibly wide and teasing.

"We haven't even had a proper conversation," James emphasised on the last word.

"You have no balls, Prongs," Sirius snorted as he hoisted himself on the kitchen counter and started munching on a cookie.

"James!" Emmeline's voice called out, somewhere between excitement and disbelief. "Come here, you lucky garbage bag!"

"Why do people love calling me names?" James grumbled as he left Sirius to eat there and headed out of the kitchen. He saw Emmeline jumping up and down, biting her nails as she squealed, a note clutched in her left hand.

"There's a note for you," she said, breathless with excitement as she handed it to James. "Read it alone, in Effie's office."

James turned, confused as he headed towards his mum's "office" which was basically just a tiny room with stacks of papers with a desk and chair in the middle of it with a window. His mum mostly used it to store old bills and the café's papers. He sat down at the edge of the desk, adjusted his glasses and brought the note towards the winter sunlight, not having turned on the lights. He nearly fell off the desk when he read it.

Nice coffee again. If I'm not wrong, you intentionally pushed that guy (who, I presume, made the coffee and tea usually) outside the kitchen? Suspicious. Anyways, wanna meet up? You seem really cute ;) 144-280-289. Fiona Garden, opposite the Eris book store.

P. S.: look near the lake

James whooped in the air.

♥️♥️♥️

The Fiona Garden was a good place for first dates (and break-ups, but that was depressing). James waded his way through the crowd of young couples at the front gate towards the lake. His smile widened when he spotted a certain someone's flame-colored hair. She was standing with her eyes on the eastern edge of the garden, moving over the rows of beautiful flowers. Her pale skin contrasted beautifully with her chocolate-brown skirt and ivory sweater. Her cheeks were flushed red, and she was probably the most beautiful sight James had ever witnessed.

Smitten, Sirius would say. (And a certain Mrs. Holland.)

"Hi," James said, his hand automatically going up to his hair and ruffling it as he shot her a smile.

"Hi," Lily smiled back, her head tilted to one side. "Who ever thought my first date in years would be with a coffee-maker?"

"A 'cute' coffee-maker, as your note suggests," James said cheekily.

"Mhm, that kept aside, do you prefer ice-cream or-"

"Ice-creams in every weather," James interuppted her. "Also, you're not paying." He leaned forward slightly and took her small, soft hand in his larger, guitar-calloused one.

"Amen to that, Mr. Potter," Lily giggled.

"Amen indeed," James laughed as they made their way towards the ice-cream parlor."

Later, they sat at the edge of the lake, Lily's hand in James's as he counted all of the visible freckles she had. She giggled everytime he lost count and had to do it all over again. When he reached to the small freckle right beside above lips, she reached behind his neck, pulled him forward, and kissed him in the fading light of the sunset.

♥️♥️♥️

Love stories start in the weirdest of places, but, seriously, ever saw a couple who met at a café, connected by a cup of coffee, and waded their way through life and finally married with three kids?

No?

Same.

But it's okay. Because the smallest of threads bind together a tapestry, and James and Lily were one tapestry full if tiny things which may seem pointless, invisible to the world, but mattered a lot to them. With that, keep in mind that you cand find your soulmate even in cafés so: beware. And here we part ways.

A/N: a writing come back after a long time! I hope you liked this, because it's probably my longest one-shot ever, and my most favourite. I'm slowly coming back in terms with writing, so bear with me. It's a painful journey. Also, Spotify Wrapped 2021 says I spent 4712 minutes listening which is more than 77% of the listeners in India. And I'm 1% of 1D's listeners this year :) Take care besties!

Love,
~Aurora♡