Assignment 9: Wandlore: Task 2 - Apple: Write about learning another language

It's supposed to be a cute surprise.

Tonks just… wants to do this for her girlfriend. She wants to watch a pleased, fond smile curl across Fleur's face as Tonks breaks out into French.

Except that learning French is hard. There's a lot of letters and for a long time she can't make the pronunciation make sense (it turns out there is a pattern. Eventually). Her tongue trips over the vowels and the R's and she just wants to ask Fleur how to say things.

So maybe trying to learn a language in secret isn't her best idea.

But Fleur is kind and deserves kindness in return. And Fleur misses speaking French sometimes, Tonks can tell.

So she learns from books, from Fleur's sister Gabi (who is the best for this, trustworthy and great at keeping secrets), and she even gets a tutor. She wraps her tongue around sounds and then syllables and then words.

And finally she thinks she might be ready to talk to Fleur in French, to show what she's learned, to give Fleur someone to talk to.

So she makes dinner, burns it, tosses it all out, and orders takeout. She sets the table with their best dishes. She even puts out an unlit candle, because she knows better than to use fire.

Fleur comes through the door and Tonks is waiting. "Come in, darling, sit down," she says, a phrase she practiced over and over and over.

Fleur comes in gives her a kiss on the cheek, and asks, "How was your day?" in smooth French before freezing. "Wait," she says in English. "Did you just?"

Tonks smiles. "I've been taking lessons," she says, and Fleur beams, throwing her arms around Tonks.

"You didn't have to, but thank you. Thank you."

And it's exactly what Tonks wanted, and she's grateful for the months and months of practice before this. She still only knows a fraction of the language. Sometimes her words are slow and faltering, and sometimes she has to ask Fleur to slow down and sometimes she stumbles, but she thinks she's doing okay.

Until the end of the evening, when they're cleaning the dishes and the steam from the sink is warming the room and she tries to say, "I'm hot."

Except that she knows she's gotten it wrong when Fleur looks at her and giggles.

"What?" she asks. "What did I say?"

Fleur takes her hands, turns off the water, drops the last dish into the rack, and tugs at her hands, pulling her toward the bedroom.

"I think you meant to tell me it was getting a little warm in the kitchen. What you actually said," Fleur pauses at the threshold of their bedroom, grins, and tugs Tonks in close. She wraps her arms around Tonks' shoulders, and noses forward until her lips are touching the curve of Tonks' ear. "You told me you were horny," she says in a whisper, and Tonks can feel the movement against her ear, and suddenly, the sentence is very, very true.

Tonks grins, wide and bright, and tugs Fleur forward until they're both falling into bed.

"Maybe," she says, pulling at her shirt. "Maybe that's exactly what I meant."

Challenges:

534 words

365: Fraction

Insane: 72. Tonks

WC: Disney: C5: Shan Yu - write about someone who likes a challenge. Alt: write about someone relentless / Showtime: 8. You Love Who You Love: (genre) romance / Liza's: 2. Boyzone - Baby Can I Hold You - "Words don't come easily"

Brand Wars: Shuri: Relationship: siblings (Fleur/Gabi); Emotion: excited; Word: trustworthy