Author's Note: Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

Warnings: Character is ill.

Stacked with: MC4A; Shipping War

Individual Challenge(s): Gryffindor MC; Hufflepuff MC; Brush; Seeds; Short Jog

Word count: 727

Shipping War entry information:

Ship (Team): Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin

List (Prompt): Big List (Chocolates)

Off to a Good Start

Remus barely registered his bedroom door opening; his senses were flailing wildly from dulled to sharper than average, as they always did on the day after the full moon.

"Sirius, what is it?" he asked. His instinct would be to say, 'fuck off Sirius,' but his friend was in a bad place right now and so a certain politeness was in order.

"Not Sirius," Dora said.

He felt the blood freeze in his veins. He did not want her to see him like this.

"Dora…" he said.

"Don't," Dora said. He heard the door shut behind her. "I know Sirius usually does this stuff, but he's been holed up with Buckbeak all day, so I wanted to… umm… check on you."

Remus poked his head out from the blankets and pushed himself up onto his forearm. The pile of blankets slipped off a bit, and he was too slow to catch them. He did a mental tally of the new cuts and scrapes and bruises on his chest and arm that would become visible.

Dora, to her credit, did not flinch. Her eyes didn't widen, didn't move to scan his skin, didn't look away from him either.

He dropped back into bed.

"I'm okay," he said. "I promise. I just need to sleep it off."

"Huh," Dora said. "That sounds like a lie."

"I've done this enough times," Remus said.

"So… you don't want to see what I brought?" Dora asked.

Remus turned his head to look back at her. She raised a plastic bag tantalizingly, and then picked out a chocolate, wrapped in colorful tinfoil. She tossed it his way and it landed on the bed, within arm's reach.

"I don't know a lot about lycanthropy, but I know you," Dora said. She tossed more chocolate his way. He laughed and reached out, unwrapping the first one.

"Thank you," he said. He didn't usually eat on the day after the full moon, but he wasn't going to say no to chocolate—or alarm Dora by sharing that piece of information in the first place. Also, this chocolate was delicious.

"Can I stop throwing chocolate your way and come closer?"

"Yes, I'm past the biting phase of this," Remus said. Dora laughed and crawled into bed with him. He moved to turn and put an arm over her, as per routine, but she swatted his hand away.

"Don't worry about me, eat more chocolate," Dora said. "I hear it'll make you feel better."

Remus laughed and relaxed back onto his pillows. His head lolled until he was resting on her chest too. He closed his eyes when she started playing with his hair.

"I'm going to eat some of this chocolate," she said.

He laughed.

"Did you want actual food?" she asked.

"No, but thank you," he said. "I'll get sick if I try."

"Water?"

"I probably should," Remus said. "But I don't want you to move either."

"I won't," she said. Her thumb was running circles just behind his ears quite distractingly. He took a deep breath and felt his entire sore and aching body relax. He didn't feel better, per se, but feeling Dora's warmth and the rhythm of her breathing was definitely an upgrade to the routine.

She kissed the top of his head—which was the kind of soft, familiar gesture that…

"If you need anything, I want you to tell me," Dora said softly. "I want to be the person taking care of you when you need it. I… I think that's where we are. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to fooling around between Order meetings, but… we can do more, and we can be more."

Remus had a rule against making important decisions the day after the full moon, when his mind was foggy, and he was achy and exhausted. But he was tempted, oh so tempted…

"I'll learn more," Dora promised. "I promise, I'll get better…"

"You have nothing to apologize for," Remus said. He reached up and wound his fingers in hers. "I'm happy you're here. Besides: feeding me chocolate is a good start to absolutely anything, for the record…"

She laughed.

"How was work?" he asked.

"It was fine," Dora said. "I'll tell you more later, but we should probably nap first."

"You're just so full of good ideas today," he said. "Come under the blankets."