Last Friday it was thunderstorming like mad. Unfortunately this got me writing again. I had to.

Discl.: Unfortunately, JKR does not write pointless RemusXTonks fluff. Even more unfortunately, I do, therefor I am not JKR and since she still has the sodding rights I'm after, I do not have 'em. Bugger.

Shelter

It was late June in the year after the Order of the Phoenix hat reunited. The summer had been early that year, reaching above 25 degrees celsius already in April. May had been very dry and hot, with about 30 degrees and June had finally brought thunderstorms and sticky air.

This very year had also entwined the fates of two people, being less alike than anyone could ever imagine. The most obvious difference was that of their gender: they were man and woman.

The most striking difference was their appearance. The man was a tall one, with light brown – though fairly grey-streaked – hair, the woman, well, she was a Metamorphmagus. Thus, she could change her appearance at will, but one would always be sure: she looked young, and wore some extraordinaire hair-cut and –colour.

His clothing contained mostly unimposing things, he preferred not to catch eyes, wearing mostly brown and green garments, all of them heavily patched. She liked patched clothes, too, but for a different reason: it was the style now. She wore band t-shirts and vintage jeans, for example.

He wore the patched clothes because he could not effort new ones, he had been poor since his parents had died, after having a hard childhood. She had had a nice childhood and with 22 she already had her own appartment, being paid fairly good as Auror.

She was young and definitely behaved that way. She was loud, almost always laughing – tagging others along, too – outgoing and open-hearted. He on the other hand was very old-fashioned, rather quiet, with nowadays rare gentlemanly behaviour.

Now these two entirely different characters were sympathising fairly well with each other. So well indeed that another person felt commissioned to play matchmaker. This third person made sure that the first two spent at least one duty a week together.

It was then that this weeks duty took the Metamorphmagus and the Werewolf to an old village at the west coast of England. The day had been rather stormy but dry, and Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks were cautiously walking along a shore.

The sky held a dark grey colour and Tonks could swear she could already smell a thunderstorm…

They'd been chasing supposed Death Eaters for the last three hours, the current culprit being a person with – of course – a black hooded robe, who had entered a coffee shop a mere minute ago.

"Should we enter, too?" Remus wondered aloud. He felt uncomfortable, walking under the sky, which was almost glaring down at him with its dark clouds and the wind ruffling his hair.

"No, we might be discovered." Tonks answered with a steady voice.

"And if he disapparates? We won't even notice," Remus supposed, eyes fixed on the door of the shop. They stood in front of the building, but on the opposite side of the street.

"Our task is to observate. Not arrest. If the aim is lost, we can't do anything against it. Dumbledore will understand. We don't have any evidence that this person is a Death Eater, and as long as we don't know, I'm not gonna follow," Tonks said defiantly.

Remus sighed. "It is going to rain," he stated. "Soon."

"I know."

Remus head whipped around and he locked eyes with Tonks. His breath caught in his throat. Why did he always feel so… calm around her? It was different from watch duty with Emmeline or Hestia. With Tonks he felt… as if nothing could ever harm him, as if nothing could ever destroy this understanding that lingered between them from the moment they had first set eyes on one another.

Tonks' dark sparkling eyes looked back at him without blinking.

He sighed. "I could have done with a coffee..."

She smirked. "So that's it. Well, we can go have a cup after we're finished with this guy."

Remus' heart jumped in his throat. Had she just asked him on a date?! And moreover, was she blushing?

Indeed, Tonks stood by his side, looking determinedly ahead towards the shop and not meeting his gaze. Her cheeks were tinged with pink. Almost as pink as her hair.

Remus chuckled. "Then, this is the reason why you are so keen on losing the target?" he smirked flirtatiously.

Remus would have bet his collection of "Advanced Magic against the Dark Arts" that her cheeks had just darkened even more than her hair. A thunder rolled towards the pair from the east and the first drops of rain fell to the floor and onto their robes and heads.

Tonks cast a look at the sky. Though it was only four o'clock in the afternoon, the absence of light made one suppose it was at least early evening.

Tonks drew her eyebrows together and let out some kind of a sigh. Remus studied her expression. She actually looked worried. He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and opened his mouth to speak. But the kind words he meant to say never came. He froze.

Tonks turned her head at the touch on her shoulder and met Remus' gaze. Her eyebrows crinkled even further. He looked straight over the top of her head, completely frozen, an expression of pure shock on his face. Tonks slowly turned to follow his look and gasped.

"What the bloody hell does this old hag do here?!" she hissed, her face contorted in anger. Remus still didn't move.

Tonks grabbed Remus' hand and dragged him around the small seaside cottage they were positioned at. The hem of Remus' robes had barely disappeared behind the wall, when Dolores Umbridge walked across the street and straight into the coffee shop.

Tonks poked her head around the corner to check if the danger had abated and then turned her attention back to Remus. His face was white and showed immense hatred. The knockled of his right hand were clenched tightly around his wand, he was shaking madly.

Tonks lightly touched his hand. Remus shivered at the touch. "You alright?" she asked concerned.

Remus simply nodded, his jaw clenched tightly. The rain was beginning to pour down onto them both, and Remus - seeing that Tonks only had a shirt and jeans on - removed his coat from around his shoulders and draped it around hers instead.

Tonks blushed again at the kind gesture. Remus smiled reassuringly down at her. She took his hand properly into hers and tagged him along. Remus was about to protest - they were on duty after all - but she seemed to have sensed his protest and tightly squeezed his hand. He followed her down the street and onto the sticky sand leading straight into the ocean. But to Remus' relief she didn't drag him into the waves.

Instead she pulled him towards a small wooden hut, which appeared rather fragile and untrustworthy in Remus' opinion.

He followed her anyway.

Right before the hut, Tonks dropped his hand - Remus almost instantly missed the contact - and crawled inside. Remus stood there in the sand, drenched and couldn't bring himself to enter the ... er, building.

Mass of broken and wretched planks more likely.

He felt a tug on the hem of his sweatshirt. A small pale hand had attached itself onto his sweater. She pulled him down firmly. Remus bent down and peered into the hut. Tonks sat in the sand, seemingly completely content with herself.

"C'mon, I've cast a water repellent spell."

Remus squeezed in beside her and for a few moments they just sat in uncomfortable silence. Then Remus pulled his wand and began drying Tonks' hair with a stream of warm air erupting out of the end of his wand.

Tonks blushed deeply and Remus smiled. "If Mad-Eye ever happens to find out about this, he will most likely kill me."

The girl at his side sniggered. "Because you dry my hair or because you lost the target?"

Remus stopped for a second, but caught himself quite quickly. "For both, I would assume."

He attempted to grin down at her, but seeing she had closed her eyes - obviously enjoying the feeling of Remus fiddling with her hair - his lips turned into an affectionate smile instead. "Finished." he stated, putting his wand away. Tonks' eyes snapped open and she looked as if being pulled out of a spectacularly pleasant dream.

They sat in silence for a while, each of them lost in their own thoughts. Remus' mind had wandered back on the day he had first met Tonks. She had stumbled over the threshold of # 12, Grimmauld Place, a bright smile on her face. She had immediately thrown herself into Sirius' arms, obviously remembered of her 16-year-old cousin when he had visited her in her childhood. Sirius had actually blushed and awkwardly patted her on the back, throwing Remus a look clearly requesting help.

Remus had let his mate struggle. He had watched - highly amused - how Sirius had tried to detach himself from the cheeky girl. Finally, the infamous mass murderer had hoisted her attention towards Remus, sponsoring the words "Hey, want to know my werewolf-friend?".

Remus' heart had stopped at this, but begun to beat with enthusiastic force again when she had turned towards him, flashing him her cutest smile. No wonder his stomach had tried to perform a flip-flop this very moment.

It was a while later, when they had gotten to know each other better, that Remus had felt like it was love. They had sat in Grimmauld's kitchen, drinking tea and eating cookies, when Ginny had entered and asked Tonks' advice.

Remus' former student had appeared very tense and nervous. She hald told them she needed Tonks' advice in a personal matter, and Remus had offered them privacy, but Ginny had bid him to stay. At first the red haired girl had stammered around a bit. Finally she had burst out something like "When a girl really likes a guy, but he doesn't notice her..." Tonks had told her that she ought to act normal and try to somehow show the boy through body language that she liked him. Ginny asked whether that worked and Tonks - with a quick glance at Remus and a pretty blush erupting on her cheeks - had told her "Hopefully".

Remus had thought nothing of it until later that day, when Tonks had left for work. He had told her to take care and she had blushed, but grinned nonetheless, while standing on her toes and kissing his cheek.

He had avoided her since.

But it usually didn't work that way and as if to prove his thoughts, he felt Tonks' head lightly resting on his shoulder, while the rain poured down onto the roof of their hideout.

Tonks on the other hand had thought about this very last two weeks. She knew Remus had been avoiding her. And it pained her. Because she had not meant to scare him off.

She shivered involuntarily and Remus - he must have thought she was cold - put his arm around her shoulders but refused to look at her. She stared up at him, her heart pounding loudly against her ribs, and had he shown her his face, she would have seen him flush.

"We could have apparated to headquarters, you know..." Tonks' quiet voice startled him and he instinctively leaned down to catch her words.

Their noses were almost touching. "We could have..." he echoed, breathing slightly unsteadily due to the sudden closeness.

Tonks thought her heart might stop if none of them was going to do anything about the situation. Luckily, Remus had lost his inner battle.

He had been fighting with himself - his consience versus his heart - and his heart had easily lost. All his mind had managed to say was "But-" before being overruled by his heart.

Remus caught Tonks' chin in his left hand (his other arm was still around her shoulders) and pressed his lips to hers.

The kiss lingered a second before he pulled away slowly to meet her eyes. Tonks eyes opened to him slowly. They were sparkling up at him, lovingly.

Remus smiled happily. For just one second he had doubted her feelings. That was the trouble with love. But Tonks' reassuring hands snaked around his neck, completing their embrace and his smile quickly faded before he leant down once more, covering her lips with his.

Tonks' body tingled from the inside and she knew that her hair must be changing colours. Her metamorphosing abilities always went haywire when she had a strong feeling.

It had not happened in connection with a kiss, though. But this time she simply knew, because she'd never had a feeling as strong as at this very moment.

Remus removed the hand from under her chin and slid it into her hair for a change, receiving a shudder in return.

Outside, on the streets, people were running for shelter. Remus had already found his.

Oh, dear, getting all cheesy in the end again… ; Couldn't help myself.

I warned you, it is pointless. +shrugs+

Reviews always welcome!