Authors Note: This was written for the Globetrotter Drabble competition on the Harry Potter Challenges forum posted by why the caged bird sings. It was written for prompt #1 Cairo. I used my 10% leeway again, because apparently I'm bad at drabbles... This probably takes place in Half-Blood-Prince. I am not JK Rowling and I do not own Harry Potter. I want to thank NiftyGirl again for help with the title and for all her help cutting words. I seriously don't have any idea what else needs to be said... Reviews would be great!

Remus Lupin was lost. Partially because he had no idea which Muggle bar in London he was in and no memory of how he'd gotten there, but mostly because he had no idea if he wanted to kiss the pink haired woman seated beside him.
Well, that was not entirely true. He knew that he wanted to kiss her.

But he also knew that kissing her would be surrendering the battle he'd been waging in his mind for a year.

Surrendering to that part of him was not an option. It was only because of the Muggle alcohol he had consumed that he was even allowing thoughts about how her lips might feel to run through his mind. He knew better than to watch Nymphadora Tonks the way he was watching her, yet he could not move his eyes. The more he thought about kissing her the more lost he became.

"You're beautiful, you know?" He blinked up at her, terrified and surprised to have heard her voice. He suspected he had imagined it. Tonks held his gaze, the drink in her hand making her bold enough not to turn even as her face reddened.

Gesturing to his scars, Remus offered a dry chuckle. "Thank you."

"Even with all that," Tonks went on, refusing to hear his protests. She swallowed her drink before she finished, "You're a good man."

The alcohol made his head swim, but it gave him the clarity to admit that that battle his mind had been waging had been finished for months. All the arguments had run dry, leaving him alone with the facts: he was in love with Nymphadora Tonks.

All things considered it wasn't surprising. When you took a man who had squandered most of his life hiding from himself and suddenly a burst of life and color was offered to his grey world, what other outcome was there? Obviously he would cherish her and pray that she would never leave and send him back into darkness.

"Thank you," he said sincerely, leaving his glass and rising from the bar. "We should start back."

She rose from her seat, threw some coins down onto the bar and nodded.

"Have any idea where we are?"

"No," he admitted, "I was hoping you weren't as lost as I was."

"Never as lost as you," she mumbled, starting for the door. If he were sober, Remus was sure he wouldn't see any meaning in the statement, but in this inebriated state it seemed she was referencing his internal conversation. It comforted him, and he sincerely hoped that it was not just the alcohol that made him take hold of Nymphadora's wrist so that she faced him.

"I envy you." He said, unable to stop himself. "I envy you your freedom."

There he stilled his tongue before more words came out, before the words came out. For a long moment she stared at him, and he stared back at her. Then suddenly she pressed her lips to his.

Remus Lupin was lost, partially because he knew that he should not be kissing the woman who he was currently kissing, but mostly because he had the sense that while kissing Nymphadora Tonks, he was not lost at all.