LbN: Hello! Back w/ updates. Hope you enjoy :)
Tonks straightened her tie, and then undid the knot and tossed it behind her. This added to the steadily growing pile of clothes on her closet floor. It wasn't fair. She shouldn't be this nervous about her date. She'd already slept with Luna, was her outfit really going to make a difference?
"You know what I think?" Fred asked, leaning against the doorframe.
"No, and I don't want to right now," Tonks said, pulling another shirt from the hanger.
"I think you're test running," Fred said, ignoring her. "You're afraid to ask out the girl you really fancy, so you're dating Luna to see if you'll…appeal to the type, so to speak."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Same age, same sense of humor, same body type, same line of work…." Fred said. "You know I'm right."
"Look, even if there was some other mysterious girl that I wanted, that doesn't mean I don't like Luna."
"I know you do. But she's not the one you want."
Tonks ignored that last statement, pulling a vest over her white shirt. She picked a few specks of lint off of it and stared at herself in the mirror.
"Wear the blue button down with the dark skinny jeans," Fred said.
"You're my favorite girlfriend," Tonks said, grinning at him and pulling the shirt in question out of the pile.
"I have to go meet George and Lee for a charity event. Swing by the shop tomorrow and I'll let you raid our gift bags."
Tonks laughed as he hugged her. "Wotcher. Say hi to them for me."
"I will."
Tonks went back to getting ready. She heard him let himself out of the flat as she morphed her hair. Long and pink, short and purple, spiky and blue…that would work. Grabbing her wand off the bathroom counter, she checked her watch. On time for once, that was new. She ran a hand through her hair nervously, Fred's words ringing in her head. He was right, of course, but it didn't matter. She had a date tonight, and thinking about another girl would be a dick move. She ran a hand through her hair again and looked around for her wallet.
Fifteen minutes later she was knocking on Luna's door. "Wotcher," she smiled when the blonde answered the door.
"Hey Tonks!" Luna said. She grabbed her cloak off of a hook next to the door and joined the metamorphmagus in the hall. "Where are we going?"
"I thought we could have dinner at Brink," Tonks said.
Brink was one of Tonks's favorite restaurants. It was one of the places in Lee's web of entertainment power, and lived up to the hype. The outside looked like any of the Muggle restaurants that surrounded it, but the inside was heavy on the magic as Tonks liked to say. Floating blue and green orbs lit the contemporary-decorated rooms. The restaurant itself was sectioned off into four parts, each part specializing in a certain type of food. Tonks and Luna followed their hostess into the third room and sat at a small table near the back.
"I've never been here before," Luna said, looking at her green menu. "What's good?"
"Everything," Tonks said, grinning. "But I usually get the Greek Chicken Pasta. The Shrimp Alfredo and Crab Stuffed Shells are good too."
They ordered and talked as they waited for their food. Tonks was having difficulty keeping up. Luna switched from subject to subject like crazy. Tonks found it was kind of fun to try and find the logic in some of the switches of topic. Usually, there wasn't any. In the twenty minute span of them waiting for their dinner, they'd discussed three different Quidditch teams, Luna's job, Tonks's job, the Werewolf Protection Act that was just passed, the new professors that were starting at Hogwarts next term, and dental floss. Tonks had no idea how they'd gotten onto that topic, but they didn't talk about it long. Their food came and both of them quieted for a moment, eating. Tonks had thought, when she recalled the few parts of the previous night she could remember, that the alcohol was what had made the pair of them so ADD conversation-wise. Apparently they were just naturally like that.
"So how many of these places does Lee own?" Luna asked.
"Seven," Tonks said. "He's got four restaurants—this place, Clover, Double L, and The Giant Squid—"
"Really?" Luna asked, amused.
"Yeah," Tonks laughed. "George suggested it and the name stuck."
"Nice. What do the double Ls stand for?"
"Lee's London," Tonks said, smirking. "Again, we have the twins to blame for the name. It was the last one to open and one of them made a joke about him taking over London. So that name stuck as well."
Luna chuckled. "You said seven places? What are the other three?"
"Well, Krisp obviously, and then Playhouse and Arco Lounge."
"I've been to both of those," Luna said. "I didn't know Lee owned them."
"Krisp is his favorite haunt," Tonks explained. "It's his first and Fred's favorite, so he sticks around there."
"Are they dating?"
"Well, they say they're not," Tonks said, smiling. "But who knows."
They chatted and ate, time whizzing past. Finally, after Tonks had paid (she might have accepted the date reluctantly, but that wasn't going to stop her from being chivalrous), they left and walked through a nearby park.
"Want to go back to my place?" Luna asked. "I feel like watching a movie."
"How about we go to mine?" Tonks asked, taking her hand. "I happen to have a movie collection like you wouldn't believe." Tonks gave her a winning smile. She wasn't opposed to spending time at Luna's place, but if the night ended the way it had the night before, she wanted to be far away from Luna's closet of wonders….
"Alright," Luna said. "Hope you've got some good horror flicks."
"Oh god…." Tonks said, smiling as she and Luna Disapparated.
LbN: Hope you liked it! Sorry this chapter was kind of boring :). Send reviews! Oh, and one other thing, after next week the updates should start coming faster. This is for two reasons: 1) the semester's ending so I'll have more time and 2) I just read "Master" by AkashaTheKitty and am going to write a sequel for it. Since I have an aversion to having too many stories open at once, that means I'll be working extra hard to get this and "Time of Dying" finished. Peace out!