[No one's hurt. No one's died. That's half the tension out of his shoulders, although it doesn't stop the rest of the nerves as he moves to crawl into bed with the rest of them. It's a little victory every time news is something less than another friend hurt, tortured; gone. It's another little victory every time coming home means sprawling where he can tangle one hand with Lily's and get his other hand on Remus's knee and lean some of his weight on Sirius and trust that Peter will be back any minute now.
Relaxing half-way into this tangle of limbs and heartbeats is always a good thing. The ghost of a smile is always haunting the back of his lips just for being home. And maybe that, as much as anything else, is why the initial stillness when Lily speaks flags away into something of an awed grin without thought.]
--you're pregnant.
[He knows they all look tense. He knows there's a lot to think through, a lot that could go wrong, a lot of worries that will have to be properly wrangled and accounted for and made safe. He knows that.
It's just that his own fight has always been for normalcy. It had been so important at school (getting Peter to find his groove, getting Remus to be something closer to safe, getting Sirius out of his house), but it had exploded in importance since graduation. Good news had been so rare. Feeling safe in their own home had been so fluctuating.
But Lily's pregnant, and it's impossible for James not to let himself relax for at least a few heartbeats into a deliriously happy smile.]
You're pregnant. [It's awe-inspiring. It's beautiful. It's something they'll need to fight to protect, but it's something so completely worth protecting. His gaze casts briefly to Sirius and Remus, not quite able to be tempered despite the bared nerves in the room.] She's-- pregnant.
[He'll come back down from the sheer joy in a minute. It's just such a nice thing to be overwhelmed by happiness again after all this bleakness.]
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Relaxing half-way into this tangle of limbs and heartbeats is always a good thing. The ghost of a smile is always haunting the back of his lips just for being home. And maybe that, as much as anything else, is why the initial stillness when Lily speaks flags away into something of an awed grin without thought.]
--you're pregnant.
[He knows they all look tense. He knows there's a lot to think through, a lot that could go wrong, a lot of worries that will have to be properly wrangled and accounted for and made safe. He knows that.
It's just that his own fight has always been for normalcy. It had been so important at school (getting Peter to find his groove, getting Remus to be something closer to safe, getting Sirius out of his house), but it had exploded in importance since graduation. Good news had been so rare. Feeling safe in their own home had been so fluctuating.
But Lily's pregnant, and it's impossible for James not to let himself relax for at least a few heartbeats into a deliriously happy smile.]
You're pregnant. [It's awe-inspiring. It's beautiful. It's something they'll need to fight to protect, but it's something so completely worth protecting. His gaze casts briefly to Sirius and Remus, not quite able to be tempered despite the bared nerves in the room.] She's-- pregnant.
[He'll come back down from the sheer joy in a minute. It's just such a nice thing to be overwhelmed by happiness again after all this bleakness.]