A/N: Written for the Moresome May on the Hogwarts Challenges forum. This is using prompt 21: first date. Word count: 775
Tonks didn't consider herself a nervous person. She had always been sure of herself, and she didn't make decisions she wasn't confident in.
When she'd been sixteen, she'd declared to her friends that the idea of monogamy didn't make sense to her, and she had been confident that it wasn't for her. They'd mostly scoffed, but Tonks hadn't backed down as the years passed.
She was still confident in what she'd said then, she reminded herself. What she was currently finding herself unconfident about was the date she was meant to be at in less than fifteen minutes.
Over the years, she had never happened to date anyone who was married, let alone two people who were married to each other. She hadn't expected it to scare her, considering her views on relationships.
Tonks knew she was a fun person. And nice too. Not perfect. She wasn't conceited, but she had a healthy view of her own self-worth.
Still, Bill and Fleur had been married for two years and together longer. It wasn't dropping into fifty year marriage or something, but they had a history together that Tonks wasn't a part of. There was no denying that, and there was no way Tonks could enter a relationship with them and expect it to be on the same level. Not right away.
It was enough to have her wondering why she'd agreed to the date in the first place.
That was a ridiculous streak of doubt. She'd agreed to the date because Bill and Fleur were both incredible people. She'd been fond of them since she had met them. At Hogwarts, Bill had been popular and someone Tonks enjoyed spending time with, though it had never happened to cross into dating territory. She wouldn't have expected it to; two years was a larger gap when you were a student.
Fleur she'd met much later, during a war and after her engagement was official. Tonks hadn't let herself become interested because she'd had no reason to believe that marriage didn't mean monogamy for Bill and Fleur like it did most others.
It had only been after the war, when the two of them had gone out of their way to comfort her in the wake of Remus' death, that it had become clear they weren't sticklers for the "traditional" family route.
That had been a nice surprise, and when she'd found herself ready to date again, they'd been just as eager to give it a shot as she was. Andromeda had even been thrilled when Tonks had explained why she needed her to take Teddy for the night.
They would make quite the picture in the fancy restaurant Bill had made a reservation at. All three of them there together, including a visibly pregnant Fleur.
When she'd agreed to the date, it had felt thrilling, not scary. It was only after she'd let herself consider the depth of Bill and Fleur's relationship compared to her relationship with either one that her anxiousness had crossed the line from excitement to fear.
Glancing down at her watch, she saw that she should have left several minutes earlier. Her stomach dropped out of her abdomen.
She took a deep, steadying breath.
Nothing could be harder than becoming an Auror, and she'd managed to pull that off. She could get through one measly date. Fear certainly wasn't going to stop her.
XXX
Thankfully, Bill and Fleur were already there when she arrived, so she didn't have a chance to flee at the last second. She wasn't sure that she wouldn't have otherwise.
They were both smiling, and it was enough to calm her. She didn't feel like she needed to escape anymore, though she did still feel a little light-headed. She didn't think that was going to change for the duration of the date.
It wasn't too much as she navigated her way through the restaurant, barely sparing a thought for the rumours that may have already been spreading about them. She'd never been ashamed before; she wasn't going to let society get to her when things finally seemed to be going right after they'd felt wrong for so long.
She could do this, she thought as she approached them.
They were sitting at a table, and it didn't go unnoticed that they'd placed all three of the chairs equally distant from each other. Knowing Bill and Fleur weren't an impenetrable cluster meant more than she'd say out loud at this stage of the relationship.
By the end of the night, none of them had stopped smiling, and Tonks didn't feel a shred of fear when they set their next date.
