So I started writing this a couple years ago, and the idea was born from me doing laundry in my freshman college dorm. I was thinking how fortunate that the washer dryers were front loading because if they were top loading, I would get myself stuck trying to reach my last pair of underwear, and a cute boy would witness this, the shame. And then I thought, hmm you know who that would 10/10 happen to? And it was either Tonks or Neville, so I just picked one and this stuck.
I worry it lost its quality in writing in the last half, but they're cute so...
It all started when her alarm didn't go off and she had to scramble to get ready. Foregoing breakfast and having a short-lived battle with her hair, Nymphadora Tonks found herself leaning against the wall beside the elevator with more than a tinge of regret for living on the fourth floor. After what seemed like ages, the doors opened with the usual sound, and she stepped in gratefully, closing her eyes for a moment of tranquility. It was only once the doors closed and she heard a sniff that she opened them to discover that she was not in the elevator by herself.
She bit back a groan. Why, out of all the people that lived on her floor, did he have to catch a ride down with her? And of all days, why couldn't it be one where her hair wasn't a mess and - fuck, did she remember to put on a bra today?
"Good morning." His voice was low and warm, circling her sleepy brain in tendrils, and when he turned to smile at her, his sea green eyes were lit with amusement. After patting her front on the pretense of straightening her shirt to ascertain that she had indeed remembered to wear a bra, Tonks nodded back, too ensconced in the fog to verbalize a greeting back.
She kept her eyes forward, but out of the corner of her eye, she could see him taking in her appearance. While she would usually glare at someone who dared to judge her style, she felt a sense of mortification. Of course the tall and handsome man dressed for a day at his adult career would take one look at her combat boots, torn jeans, and the messy pink hair she dyed herself, and roll his eyes.
But he didn't roll his eyes. He didn't say or do anything judgmental. The elevator doors opened to the ground floor and he politely said goodbye before exiting and heading to the lot behind the building. Tonks almost followed, but she really was in a rush, and wouldn't that seem rather stalkerish, what with her car not even parked there? So she left through the front doors and walked as briskly as she could to the bus stop. If her car wasn't fixed by tomorrow, she was going to go down to the shop herself and raise hell, because this was ridiculous.
A gust of wind blew past her, and she shivered. Damn, she forgot to bring a jacket, and knowing her luck, if she went back up to get one, the bus would come and go, forcing her to wait for the next one, which could take another half hour. That was time she didn't have, so she plopped down on one of the benches with her arms around her shoulders, willing herself not to freeze. A navy blue car in the opposing lane went past, and just as quickly backed up to pull into the bus lane in front of the bench Tonks was sitting on. She gulped, her hand resting on the pepper spray she kept on her keychain.
The driver side window rolled down and her stomach flipped. He smiled kindly, another gust of autumn wind whipping his tawny bangs up.
"Do you need a ride or anything?" he asked, and Tonks suppressed a shiver that had nothing to do with the chilly weather. After clearing her throat, she shook her head.
"Er, not really, my bus will be here in a few minutes. But thank you for the offer."
He nodded, but made no indication of leaving. "Are you sure? I got the impression in the elevator that you had a less than ideal morning." His bright eyes glinted as they trailed down to her feet, and it was only now that Tonks realized she was wearing a sneaker on one foot and a sandal on the other. "If you don't mind my saying," he added with another kind smile, as if apologizing for her embarrassment, and she flushed more at the flutter in her chest.
"I am," she replied, struggling to get her bearings. "Having a difficult morning, I mean. But it's fine, I'm always late. It's like my thing."
He laughed, and god, his smile was nothing compared to the soft chuckle that seemed to bubble up from his core and wrap around her like a warm blanket.
"At the very least," he started, pausing to unbuckle his seat belt and fish around in the back seat for a moment before straightening up, "let me lend you an umbrella. It looks like it might rain and I wouldn't want you to freeze."
Tonks opened her mouth to decline, but the wind picked up once more and brought with it a smattering of icy water droplets that skid across her cheek. He held out a maroon umbrella with a black curved handle. She stood up and approached the car to take it, her fingers brushing against his, the brief contact sending a jolt through her system and causing her to yank the umbrella to her chest.
"Fuck! Ugh, sorry," she winced, noting the look of concern that appeared on his face. Great, now she looked like a twitchy weirdo with a foul mouth. "Static shock."
He seemed to believe that, and his lips quirked into a half smile. Stubbornly ignoring how appealing she found that expression, Tonks readjusted her grip on the umbrella and said, with another clearing of her throat, "Thanks. I'll get it back to you as soon as I can today."
"Oh, no rush," he said, waving a hand. "I always carry a spare." He shifted gears and rolled the window halfway up before flashing another warm smile. "Anyway, have a nice day."
"Er, you too," Tonks managed to reply before he drove away. The rain was really coming down now, and she opened the maroon umbrella and twirled it around, an involuntary giggle escaping her.
"You're geeking out because he lent you an umbrella?" Charlie said, the freckles around his mouth stretching as he smirked. "I mean, it's a nice umbrella, as umbrellas go, but it's just an umbrella."
Natasha snorted beside him. "Say umbrella again."
"Umbrella," he repeated slowly, enunciating every syllable in a sultry tone by her tan ear and making her giggle.
Tonks took a sip of her smoothie and swallowed before scowling at them. "Can you two be disgusting somewhere else?"
Charlie tossed his napkin at her. "Just because you can't work up the nerve to have a decent conversation with your handsome neighbor doesn't mean you can shit all over everyone else's love lives, Nymphadora."
"Lay off her, Charlie," Natasha cut in, giving Tonks an apologetic look before bestowing her boyfriend a glare that held half-hearted heat and barely repressed affection. "It's not Tonks' fault she only gets Handsome Neighbor's attention when she's frazzled or being a klutz."
Tonks slurped her drink again and silently flipped the other girl off. Charlie kissed his index and middle fingers and pressed them to Tonks' forehead, humming, "Love you, Dora."
"Both of you can fuck off," she grumbled, stuffing a handful of fries in her mouth. It was an unfortunate truth that every interaction she'd had with her neighbor happened when she was not at her most put together, whether she was tripping over air or getting locked out of her apartment. And then there was the lack of proper speech.
"If you could find out his actual name, that'd be a start, at least," Natasha offered helpfully.
Tonks swallowed. "Yeah, it would, except my brain short-circuits whenever he so much as looks at me." She sighed dreamily. "His eyes are so mesmerizing, I'm too busy drowning in them to form meaningful sentences."
"It could be worse," Charlie offered through a mouthful of cheeseburger. "Word vomit, ya know?"
Natasha groaned in disgust and Tonks shook her head. "I think I'd rather it be like that, at least then I could play the easily excitable girl next door. Instead I'm the inept moronic child he has the misfortune to live beside."
"You're not a moron," Natasha said, rolling her eyes. "And I'm sure your neighbor doesn't think so either."
"And I'm sure he's just being polite," Tonks insisted, picking up her phone. "I have to go into work soon, so if you don't mind."
It was Saturday, a day intended to be devoted to rest and relaxation. And yet, here she was, not resting or relaxing, but stuck. In a washing machine. Tonks shifted her weight to her right hip and made another attempt to dislodge herself, which did nothing but result in pain to the hip in question. She groaned loudly, the sound reverberating in the enclosed space. She couldn't even call for help, because, fool that she was, she left her phone in her apartment. A fat load of good it would have done, though, given that she couldn't even get to her pants' pockets. She was so frustrated and panicky, she didn't hear the footfalls clacking down the stairs until she heard their owner's voice.
"No, it's not an imposition at all, I wasn't planning on doing anything except getting my 11th years' essays graded. He can draw smiley faces on the best ones if he'd like."
She knew that voice, even the confines of the washer couldn't dull the buzzing in her ears at that warm and soft tone. The energy put into keeping her legs up left her with a thump against the metal, and she winced.
"Hang on, Lily, I have to call you back." The footsteps grew louder and his voice was on top of her. "Er, I feel like the answer is obvious, but do you need help?"
She wanted to say no, because dying in the washing machine was preferable at this juncture, but then she'd appear to be even more deranged, and the pressure in her head was unbearable. She coughed to clear her throat, which didn't help, and said with a waver, "I wouldn't turn it down."
She could almost hear the smile in his words. "Right, okay here's what we'll do. I'll pull and you push, and that should be enough." She must have made some noise to indicate agreement, because his hands were immediately gripping her calves. The heat easily seeped through her sweatpants and creeped up her thighs. Now is not the time to think about those things, she told herself.
"On three. One….two….three!"
Either her neighbor was stronger than Tonks thought, or she was lighter than he thought, but whatever the case, she still popped out and knocked them both to the floor in the most ungraceful heap.
She sat up and rubbed her head, which was feeling both better due to a release of pressure, and worse because linoleum was not gentle. "I, um, I'm so sorry, are you okay?" she asked, keeping a hand over her eyes because she was not prepared to face him in all his handsome glory.
"Yeah, but but I'm not the one who got herself stuck in laundry machinery."
Oh it should be a crime to have a voice that sweet say things in such a teasing manner. If the earth were to swallow her up, it would be too late.
"Did you hit your head in there? Nymphadora?"
She put her hand down to gape at him. "You know my name?"
He still looked as handsome as ever, but he was in a t-shirt and flannel sleeping pants. Clean pajamas, she noted, absently scratching at a curry stain on hers. His pale green eyes widened slightly and he nodded with a shrug.
"Sorry, that must sound rather stalkerish, but the front desk seem to be well acquainted with you."
Tonks ducked her head, a flush rising. "Yeah, I get locked out a lot."
"I know," he grinned, and stuck out his hand. "Remus Lupin."
She shook it, his warm hands sending a jolt up her arm and down her spine. "Nymphadora Tonks, but call me by my surname please, because the first is ghastly." Although it didn't sound so bad coming out of his lovely mouth.
"Nice to meet you under totally normal circumstances, Tonks," Remus said matter-of-factly. "This definitely beats our real first meeting,
Her flush had just gone down, and now it was up again with the memory of falling down the stairs, along with shame churning in her stomach. "Yeah, I'm a great source for hilarity," she said, looking down at her palms tinged with cold beads of sweat. "I should, um, start the dryer before my clothes get all mildewy."
She stood up, keeping her back to him, willing herself not to cry. Here she was, actually talking to the guy, and he brought her shortcomings up like they were nothing.
"It wasn't funny at the time, I was worried you had really hurt yourself. I wanted to check up on you later that day, but I hadn't the nerve to knock on your door."
She looked up to see him loading the dryer beside hers, and he kept his eyes trained down. "I've actually been trying to talk to you for months now, but every time I ran into you, you were in a hurry to get away. I started to think you were a little put off by me, actually," he added, looking up with a chuckle.
He looked so different now, hands twitching and his teeth worrying his bottom lip. Tonks eventually found her voice. "No, the, um, the opposite actually." Hoarse and quiet, but there. "It's not easy to be around someone so polished and cool when you're a mess."
"If either of us is cool, it's you," Remus said, rolling his eyes, all smiles again. "I'm a secondary school teacher who wears bakes and knits, and your hair is pink and spiky."
Tonks ran a hand through her hair. "You don't think it's garish?" she said, scrunching up her face.
"It's beautiful."
The choking noise she made echoed in the room, and she got to witness a truly breathtaking sight. Her neighbor, who she had always taken to be out of her league, was blushing and she worried his thin legs would give out from under him.
He cleared his throat and ran a hand through his fringe again. "Sorry, I should leave you be. I'll um, I'll see you around, I guess."
Tonks's quota of odd things done in a day was usually capped at one major oddity. However, even though she knew Remus wasn't getting on a plane to another country or something else final, she still ran across the laundry room to pull him back, and then her face was almost touching his, and she opened her mouth to say something eloquent.
"Teaching is cool."
Well, at least real words came out. Remus smiled his warm smile and laughed his soft laugh, the sound vibrating pleasantly in her ears.
"I have to babysit a friend's kid tonight, but if you'd like to do something tomorrow or-"
"I'd love that." Tonks almost shouted, and she bit her knuckle. "Sorry. You said you bake?"
"I do. Actually," he glanced at his watch. "If we head up now, we can get the prep done for these muffins I've been thinking of making before our laundry is done. If you're interested, of course," he added, biting his lip. How had she not noticed how shy her neighbor was?
"I'm very interested," she assured him, grabbing his arm and leading the way up the stairs to the ground floor. "Fair warning, my mom didn't let me in the kitchen for safety reasons."
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Remus laughed, and Tonks dropped his arm to huff indignantly. He responded by grabbing her hand, and interlocking their fingers. His pulse traveled up her arm and wrapped around her in a steady beat. This was so much better than she could have ever imagined.