Disclaimer: I own nothing here but my own imagination. Though I wouldn't mind owning a certain werewolf...oh, well. Darn it.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Remus Lupin nearly jumped out of his skin as Sirius Black strolled into the kitchen of 12 Grimmauld Place. "For your information, I am making dinner."
Sirius grinned. "I can't believe Molly let you in here. I had no idea you had culinary skills."
Remus grinned ruefully. "Skills may be a bit of a stretch, but I have been known to make a mean kidney pie."
"And may I ask who this dinner is for?" Sirius raised his eyebrows, a mischievous sparkle in his eye. "Ooh, does Moony have a date? Who is the lucky girl?"
"It's not a date. Nymphadora and Kingsley have been on an assignment all day, and I thought I'd go ahead and make something for her – for them, if Kingsley stops by too. For the meeting and all." Remus was horrified to find himself blushing and stammering. Get ahold of yourself, Lupin, he admonished silently. Schoolboy crushes should have ended long ago. Besides, she's twelve years younger than you, for Merlin's sake.
Sirius sat at the table and propped his feet upon it. Remus knew Molly would have a fit if she were to walk in and see Sirius with his dirty boots on her freshly cleaned table. However, she and the rest of the Weasleys were at the Burrow, getting things in order for the children's return to Hogwarts the next day. Remus could hardly believe how quickly the Christmas break had passed with the children around. It was refreshing to see the friendship amongst them, particularly Harry, Ron and Hermione. It reminded him wistfully of the relationship between him, James and Sirius – fast friends, brothers even, who would go down to the wire for one other.
"She fancies you, you know," remarked Sirius, studying his oldest friend with an unreadable expression on his face. He placed his hands behind his head, reclining the chair on two legs. "I also happen to know, Moony, that you fancy her. So what are you going to do about it?"
Remus gave a choking laugh and turned away from Sirius, attempting to hide his startled expression. How the hell had Sirius known how he felt? He thought he had been so careful around her. Careful not to show that the admiration he had felt for her when he first came to know her had suddenly – and quite unexpectedly – turned into something else. His biggest fear was that, at some point in time, he had gone and fallen in love with Nymphadora Tonks. "I don't have the foggiest idea what you mean, Sirius."
Sirius gave a barking laugh. "Oh, come off it, mate. You are no better at hiding your feelings from me as Fred and George are at being serious. Come on, Remus, I'm not going to deck you for being interested in my cousin. Although I'm sure I could find another good reason, if you're up for a tussle." He wiggled his eyebrows eagerly at Remus. "I am primed for a good row, you know."
"I am well aware of your propensity to pick a fight these days, Sirius," Remus stated dryly. Just yesterday, he had nearly had a knock-down drag-out with Molly over the state of the meeting area, which he had left littered with half-empty firewhiskey bottles and used glasses. "My children have to come into this room, and I would rather them not think they were living under the same roof as a woeful drunkard!" Molly had shrilled, to which Sirius had snidely replied, "I suppose since it is my house, I should certainly abide by the rules of those who I am accommodating!" Remus and Arthur had had to break the two up, sending them to separate corners of the house to cool off. Molly had become particularly sensitive since Arthur's return from St. Mungo's; Sirius, a man of action to say the least, was so sick of being cooped up in the house he loathed that Remus could hardly blame him for wanting to pick a fight. Anything to see some action, even if the battle was petty and of the domestic sort.
"While I will certainly consider your offer, I will have to currently decline," said Remus.
Sirius sat up, putting his feet back on the kitchen floor. "Remus." Lupin looked up at his uncharacteristically serious tone of voice. "Seriously, man, you can talk to me about this. What else are fellow Marauders for?"
Remus stirred the stew in the pot, carefully considering his next words. "I don't know how I feel about her, Sirius. My first reaction is she is entirely too young for me." Too beautiful, too bright, too…everything. "She has two left feet, a sharp tongue, and entirely too many Weird Sisters t-shirts." He sighed. "We are from two different worlds, Padfoot. I wouldn't even know how to bring them together."
Sirius considered this for moment, then nodded, as if having made a decision. "I think you should just give her a good snogging," he said decisively. Remus, who had been tasting the stew experimentally, nearly choked, scalding his tongue and the roof of his mouth as the spoon clattered to the floor. "Excuse me?" he rasped, turning to his friend to find him laughing so hard he couldn't make a sound.
"Oh, Moony, you should have seen your face, man!" Sirius gasped, holding his side. "Priceless, mate!"
Remus glowered at Sirius. "I swear, Padfoot, if you weren't already a cursed arse, I'd do it for you."
"Oh, get a sense of humor, Remus," chuckled Sirius, his laughter beginning to subside into giggles. "That was great! 'Just give her a good snogging.' Ha!" he barked, sounding so much in that moment like his shaggy black counterpart that Remus would not have been surprised to see a bushy black tail wagging through the back of the chair.
"If you don't shut it, I am going to shove this spoon so far –"
"Alright, alright," Sirius growled grudgingly. "I'm done." He smirked. "But don't expect to live that down anytime soon."
Remus turned back to his pot, stirring angrily. What unsettled him most was not the jibing from Sirius, but the fact that the idea of shoving Tonks against the wall and giving her a good sound kiss sounded extremely pleasant and not all that far from his deepest desire.
"Wotcher, Remus, Sirius." As if conjured by thought alone, Nymphadora Tonks bopped into the room, her hair fiery red and shaped in a short bob that framed her heart-shaped face. Remus could not ignore the slight flutter in his stomach at the sight of her. "What's on the stove?"
"Remus made dinner," Sirius announced, aiming a sly look at Lupin. "Wasn't that thoughty of him?"
"Great! I'm starved." Tonks moved towards the cupboard to retrieve a dish. She grabbed a bowl and turned, knocking into the cupboard door and sending her bowl crashing to the floor.
"Bugger," she muttered, kneeling down to pick up the remnants of the broken dish.
"Here," said Remus, stooping next to her with his wand drawn. "Let me. Reparo!" in a moment, the bowl was mended back in one piece. He handed it back to Tonks, a soft smile on his face.
"Thanks," she murmured, looking into Remus' eyes. He suddenly became very aware of how close they were to one another, their hands brushing on the rim of the bowl. He could smell the scent of her lavender soap, and it was so intoxicating that it took a moment for him to recover his senses. He noticed that her eyes were a dark chocolate that evening, with flecks of amber throughout. The look in them hinted towards something more than just thankfulness for his gesture, and it nearly took his breath away.
"My pleasure," he said softly, not wanting to break the tenuous connection between them, afraid that he was reading too much in her gaze, afraid that just maybe he wasn't.
"Ahem." The moment was broken as the two looked up to find Sirius standing over them, his eyebrow arched. "If you would excuse me, I'd like to get to the cupboard myself." They stood quickly, moving away from the cupboard doors. Remus busied himself stirring the stew, but he could feel Tonks looking at him as if she were boring a hole into his shoulder.
"Ah – will Kingsley be joining us tonight?" he asked, stirring as though his life depended on it.
"He went back to his flat," Tonks replied without looking away from Remus. "He'll be coming back later for the meeting."
"Oh. Alright. Well, then," he said, cringing inwardly at the forced brightness of his tone. "Dinner's ready."
The three sat in silence, spooning the food into their mouths to prevent the need for conversation. Suddenly, Sirius stood. "I need to go look after Buckbeak," he said, grabbing his bowl and bread and waking towards the door. "You lot enjoy your dinner." Remus was fairly positive he winked at him on the way past.
Once Sirius had gone, the room was once again filled with a tense silence. Remus, for one, hardly knew what to say to his dinner companion. So, Nymphadora, how do you like the idea of pursuing a relationship of some sort with an old, poor werewolf? That was probably not the best way to approach things. Want to go find a dark corner? Yeah, that probably wasn't right either. Remus was so intent in his thoughts that it took him a moment to realize Tonks was staring at him over her bowl.
"Do you fancy me, Remus?" she asked bluntly, the pink in her cheeks betraying her forthright attitude.
"I – do I – what?" stuttered Remus, staring blankly at her.
Tonks looked quickly down at her empty dish. "If you don't, you know, it's alright. I just – I thought maybe…"
Remus was speechless. He had never in his life felt so exposed, so transparent, as he did in that moment. Tell her, you git! shouted a voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Sirius. There were too many reasons why he shouldn't, couldn't do this with her. A couple of them involved his desire not to lose this comfortable friendship the two had managed to create in the past few months of working together; the majority of them involved his unworthiness of her attentions. Too old, too poor, too much a bloody werewolf.
Tonks waited a moment, then stood abruptly and took her dish back to the sink. "Never mind, just pretend I didn't say anything." She turned back to him after a moment, a too-bright smile plastered on her face. "Thanks for the dinner, Remus. It was really nice of you." She turned to beat a hasty retreat out the door.
"Nymphadora, wait." Remus stood uncertainly, suddenly very afraid that he was about to let his one chance at happiness – and at love – walk out the door.
She turned in the doorway, that fake smile beginning to slip a little. "Remus, you know how I hate it when – "
And suddenly he was upon her, crushing her lips to his in a hungry kiss. She stiffened in shock, then relaxed against him, returning equally that passion that Remus had underestimated within himself. He threaded his fingers through her hair, realizing that he had yearned to do that for quite some time. Her scent intoxicated him, sending jolts of pleasure through his body as she responded eagerly, her hands running up his back and stopping at the nape of his neck. The taste of her lips was like a dream, from which he never wanted to wake.
After what seemed like a moment and an eternity wrapped into one, he pulled back from her, looking down at her heavy lids and swollen lips. She was so incredibly beautiful and sexy to him in that moment that he had to restrain himself from catching her up in his arms and taking her to his room.
"Well – I guess that answered that question," she whispered softly, gazing up at him with a mixture of surprise and something else Remus couldn't quite put his finger on glowing in her eyes.
Remus laughed hoarsely, tucking a strand of fiery red behind her ear and running this thumb gently along her jawline and down her throat. "I must say, you are quite stunning when you are speechless."
Tonks smiled up at him, biting her lower lip. That gesture made him want to kiss her again, so he obliged himself. This one was slower, gentler, and infinitely sweeter than the first, born more from desire and a growing happiness than desperation.
This time when they broke apart, Remus heard Tonks sigh as she wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest. He leaned his chin on her head, surprised and pleased at the giddiness that her closeness invoked.
"So could this be considered our first date?" she asked, her voice muffled by his jumper.
Remus laughed happily, recalling Sirius' words from before. It seemed like a lifetime ago, even though only a few minutes had passed. He knew that for the rest of his life, time would be divided into two parts – before and after he kissed Nymphadora Tonks.
And Remus realized with a growing sense of happiness what it was he had seen in Tonks' eyes after that first searing kiss, because he was quite certain she had seen it in his eyes as well. It was the joyful glow of a person very much in love.