"Dora, you shouldn't be here," Remus Lupin's voice shook very slightly, only slightly, betraying none of the longing he truly felt for her gaze, her touch, her voice.
"You always say that, Remus," Nymphadora Tonks needed no invitation, not really. She gently pushed her way past him, into his small apartment. Even as she brushed past him he could feel the hairs on his arm stand up, alert, underneath his robes. He wanted to pull her into his arms, to kiss her.
Remus cleared his throat, following her into his own cramped living room. "No really, you shouldn't have come." Being here was no good, not when only in a week's time he would be leaving to join his own kind. The last thing he needed when he was surrounded by blood-thirsty werewolves was memory of her.
"I know why you're all upset," she draped an arm over his shoulder, despite his weak protests. "Do you think that pushing me away is going to do you any good. I mean, Remus, I need you just as much as you need me." Dora stumbled over the words, trying to reach him through his facade.
"I'm not pushing you away-" he said hastily, trying to shrug her arm off his shoulder. Honestly he had been avoiding her all summer, declining every single one of Molly's good-natured offers to come around for dinner, as well as making some excuse or another whenever Dora invited him out. But he knew that she was going to come, all summer he had known, perhaps he had almost been eagerly awaiting it, to see her one last time before he went.
Dora sighed, as if he was a young child protesting some unarguable point of fact. "Remus, please. You've been avoiding me all summer, I know and-" she choked then, and his heart wrenched badly at the sound, "-and you've missed me, haven't you? I know you have. I can see it in your eyes," her voice became slightly pleading, placating, "Don't push it away, Remus, don't. You feel it, just as I do. I want you, every part of you. Even the darkest part you won't even admit to yourself." Her hand slid down his shoulder and laid itself just above his heart, which began to pound loudly in his ears.
How did she know, know how part of him craved her, wanted to bite her, make her cry out, to turn her light into darkness-
"Remus," her firm voice anchored him back to reality. "I love you." From her expression it was clear she wanted the truthful answer, the one they both knew would fix the hurt that had been caused over the last two months, if only slightly.
"I ... Dora ..." His voice was a whisper, trembling and wavering, but she seemed to understand him nonetheless, the words he couldn't say. Her arms wrapped around him, warm and safe, and as he buried his face in her soft sweater his lips breathed, "I love you."
Her fingers trailed down his spine, sending shivers through his body. He could hear the darker part within purring delightedly at her touch. He loved every part of her, wholly. From the tips of her bubblegum pink hair to the soles of her clumsy feet.
His lifted his head off her shoulder, his left hand trailing slowly down the side of her face to cup her chin, lifting her head gently so his lips could reach hers. If their bodies fit together as perfectly as their lips did, Remus knew that his argument was already lost. As he pulled her closer towards him the darker part smiled in triumph- surely she must sense it, he thought- but she did not resist, merely pressed herself even closer, kissing him until they were both breathless.
"More." One of them had said it, or perhaps both (or was it the three, since he was split in two,) of them at the same time. As her klutzy fingers fumbled with her outer cloak, he brushed her hand aside and undid it himself, then tossed her traveling cloak lightly onto the love seat. Dora's gaze was filled with longing and Remus could not hold back, could not hold back either part of him.
As Remus' arms encased her, lifted her, and carried her to the door that led to his bedroom, he could not have heard the part of Nymphadora that sighed quietly in victory, already relishing in the hint of darkness she saw in his eyes.
xxx END.