A/N: This was written for Week One of the 'Pairing the Character Challenge' on HPFC. The character was Draco Malfoy and I chose to pair him with Tonks. Warnings therefore for incest given that they're cousins.
Word Count: 466 words.
Safe House
He came to her barely 17, clutching a portkey made by his Mother to help him escape being marked. Narcissa and Andromeda had concocted a plan, talking for hours to make up for lost years.
Tonks had sat with him and even then, she had been struck by his resilience. Draco had to be hidden from the world and she, who'd been raised by a Slytherin and trained by Moody, of course had a safe house.
She had kept him safe.
When it changed, neither was sure. Draco couldn't leave and as the seasons passed, the Dark Lord and his armies seeming to grow stronger almost effortlessly - a virus cultivated in a culture of fear - Tonks found herself spending days in his company, a wanted woman. Soon he stopped being just a teenage boy, but a young man with dreams, wishes, an acerbic sense of humour that made her laugh so hard her hair bled lemon yellow.
Remus did not write. Draco's friends cut him off. They were alone in a world baying for blood.
Eventually her heartbreak healed. Eventually his confidence grew and they started to whisper about a future, when neither felt like they were being hunted. In every two a.m. discussion over red wine and tiramisu (their favourite) it seemed obvious that they'd escape together.
When it changed, neither could pinpoint. One day they were people who were surviving together and then she was asking him if he'd ever kissed a girl. She loved to make him blush but it was he who made her skin flush with fingers that trailed over lingerie that night with a cocky smile that Tonks wiped off his face all too easily with a coquettish wink and promises that made the man's eyes widen.
Only once did she mention how they were fulfilling the long family tradition of intermarrying. Only once did he mention how he would never want to taint her by giving her the Malfoy name.
Instead they made their plans and lay together, in the bed they now shared. Tonks wanted to study more about being a metamorphmagus; Draco merely made her promise to never change for him, only if it was what she wanted. He in turn wanted to see more of the world now that he was no longer shackled to maintaining appearances and antiquated ideals.
The war raged on, the world on fire. They escaped Britain the day after the Ministry fell, with only their parents aware. Draco kissed her as their feet landed on solid ground, the international Portkey falling from her fingers. The air was thick with new smells, new possibilities.
She had kept him safe.
He had helped her heal.
They were going to survive together, her hair now lemon yellow and his eyes no longer haunted.