DISCLAIMER: Anything you recognise belongs to JKR.
Drunk. She hadn't been properly drunk for a long time, though toasting Dumbledore's memory with her old school friends had seemed a good excuse. It had been over a year since any of them had seen Charlie, and they had all teased Andy unmercifully about his goofy grin as he hovered protectively over a pregnant Beth. She had been the only one of them sober, and also had the camera, a dangerous combination. No doubt there were already photos being developed of Michael and Jacob duelling with breadsticks, Kate and Laney threatening Larry with a makeover and Tonks sitting in Charlie's lap. She hoped to god that she could get her hands on that one before Remus saw it. Right after she got rid of this hangover.
She rolled over so that she was facing the edge of the bed and tried to order herself to get up. Undoubtedly Moody or Remus or Kingsley would drop by later to update her on the situation and she wanted to look a little less like a teenager after a night of partying. The knock on the door coupled with the pounding in her head and she cursed as she hurried to answer it, trying in vain to charm the stains out of her rumpled t-shirt.
Of course it was Remus, looking far too amused at this early morning hour. A surreptitious glance at the clock as she let him in made her realise that it wasn't all that early. Or morning for that matter.
"Go ahead and say it," she called over her shoulder as she summoned a glass and filled it with water.
"Say what?" Remus asked as he waved a flask in front of her eyes. It took her a few seconds to recognise it as a hangover potion. She looked at him questioningly as she gulped it down, sighing as the throbbing in her head eased almost immediately.
"Courtesy of Bill. Don't worry, apparently Charlie is worse, though he woke up long enough to suggest you'd need this."
"I'm sorry Remus. I should be more responsible than this. I am more responsible than this."
To her astonishment, he didn't agree or start another argument about the difference in their ages. Instead he sat in the one chair not piled with clothes or paperwork and smiled, his long fingers absently tracing the swirling pattern across her kitchen table.
"Someone very wise, who may or may not have been your Auror mentor once told me we all have to live sometimes, so that we remember why we are fighting."
She snorted disbelievingly. "That doesn't sound much like Mad-eye. Maybe he was nicer to you guys, but for us it was all constant vigilance and sneak attacks in the cafeteria."
"Oh, we heard something like that from James and Alice when they dragged themselves back from work. Of course Moody was still on badge back then, so they had some nice mentors too."
He suddenly frowned and looked down, and she held her breath, waiting for the inevitable, but another opportunity to comment on the thirteen year age gap passed without comment.
Tonks filled the silence by setting the kettle boiling and puttering around the cramped kitchen. As she handed Remus his tea, no milk, two sugars, scalding hot, she realised that it was more of a comfortable silence, a pleasant change to the last ten months of sniping and ignoring one another. Well, he'd been doing most of the ignoring, or trying to. Tonks was not a woman to be ignored, and looking back she undoubtedly had seemed like the clingy stalker from hell at times.
But somehow it had all worked out. Two days ago they had sat side by side, hand in hand at Dumbledore's funeral, and it had seemed so right, so strong. They could take the whole world on if they only had each other, and she wanted him beside her like that forever.
The tea saw off the last of her headache and she cast a quick glance to the side as she drained the mug. He was staring into the depths of the half-empty cup, brow creased in a thoughtful frown that made her fingers itch to reach out and smooth it. She curled them around the handle instead, hoping that soon they would be past that uncertain stage where the spontaneous touches would be natural.
A questioning noise made her realise she had been staring at him, and she decided to hell with caution, she needed him. She reached out to him and found his hands already there, drawing her into his arms where she could rest her head on his shoulder. His fingers were in her hair, stroking gently through the short spikes, his breath warm against her neck. It was right, they were right.
I'm going to say it, she told herself forcefully, welling up the courage to say the words that could destroy what happiness they had finally regained. Her Hufflepuff nature told her to wait, but she couldn't wait forever. Now or never, now or never.
She opened her mouth to speak it just as Remus drew in breath. They stared at one another for a few seconds before he reached out and brushed a spike of pink hair back from her cheek.
"You first."
Now or never.
"Will..I..I want to marry you."
She saw his eyes widen, and for one horrible moment she thought she had ruined it all. Then he threw back his head and laughed, one of those rare genuine laughs that she hadn't heard from him since Sirius died. He smiled, and caressed the side of her face as he replied, "I was about to say the same thing."
"Oh. So that's a yes then?"
His answer didn't require words.
