"So, why is it that you have three wallets?"
"I don't have three wallets." Tonks looked confused over her glass of wine.
"It's just that at the pub, when you opened your purse-", Remus started to explain and suddenly a wide smile spread on her features.
"Right, when it all fell, you saw…," she chuckled a little and put her glass on the wooden table, "No, I don't have three wallets."
Still beaming, she reached for her large purse hanging from the back of her chair, it did not seem to be the same she had had back them, but Remus could not be sure. Looking at him, she opened it, showing its contents.
He could distinguish two or three books, pencil cases, a couple of bags he thought could contain cosmetics, and not three but five wallets.
"It's all transfigured," she whispered even though she had casted another spell to protect them from being overheard at the start of the dinner; still speaking in low tones, she approached him so he could hear her over the noise of the Italian restaurant they were in. "As you might notice, sometimes I have a proclivity of… dropping things around. That's too much of a risk when I'm carrying work stuff."
He raised his eyebrows in admiration.
"So," Tonks continued, pointing at the objects inside, "that blue wallet over there is a file on a suspect I'm currently investigating, the bright pink pencil case hides an assortment of antidotes I was supposed to have left at home, only I forgot, the red one is my badge, and so on and so forth…"
"That's clever."
"It's not," she shrugged, sitting straight again. "It's just if I don't do at least this, Mad-Eye could skin me alive."
The day had passed too slowly, and he had felt way too excited to stay put. Therefore he had directed his energies on number 12, Grimmauld Place, in their continuous fight against years and years of debris and dark things lurking about and breeding. The only downside about that plan was that he was forced to be with Sirius, who seemed to be only too aware of this restlessness of his.
"There must be something going on, mate. It's just not normal for you to move so much."
"And how would you know?" Remus said, trying to sound nonchalant, while struggling with the drawers of a dresser that aimed to take a bite at his fingers. "Perhaps with the years I've developed a habit of moving a lot. It could also be the fact that the full moon is approaching. Or perhaps you should consider the possibility that there is in fact much to do in here and sitting on that sofa, trying to fish for non-existent gossip as your average Celestina Warbeck fan, is not being helpful at all."
"Aren't we jumpy today, too?" Sirius grunting, without any indication of ever wanting to stand up.
"Most definitely not enough," Remus said, quickly pointing his wand at the sofa and casting a non-verbal spell.
With a yelp, Sirius jumped onto his feet.
"Now we are," Remus added with a smirk. "Care to help me with this dresser?"
Sirius muttered something under his breath, but Remus could not fail to see he was smirking as well. He would not let it rest, Remus was sure, but at least, for the time being, he had been left only with his own thoughts to deal with. Not that those were easy anyway.
"Moody seems to appreciate you, though," Remus said, remembering the few things the Auror had told him and Sirius about Tonks that very morning, when he had dropped by to check on the new settled protections on Grimmauld place. "I doubt he would skin you alive."
"Good to know," Tonks said nonchalantly. "But I wouldn't be so sure about anything he says or does." She took a large bite of the pizza in front of her and Remus did the same with his. "We're sort of a steady joke for some people at the office," she added after a while.
"You mean…?"
"Aurors, yes," she nodded.
"How come?"
"It is pretty obvious, isn't it?" she said with a small laugh. "Could you possibly imagine two less likely people to team up? The only reason why that happened is that I was the only one in training and it was going to be his last opportunity to train somebody before his retirement, so he did not have much of a choice."
Remus could imagine the scene perfectly. The tough Auror Alastor Moody, refusing as long as possible to retire and planning on making the best out of that last opportunity, only to find….
"He got me," Tonks said, almost matching up with his thoughts, "and he was not particularly thrilled at the beginning."
"But couldn't he get away from it?"
"Oh, he could all right, but that would mean he would not get another chance until the next year, if that! He would have to retire before finishing that training. And you know, the next year and ever since, they haven't found suitable prospects among the candidates, so he would've finished with naught. Come to think of it, he should be more thankful," she added with a loud huff that made her purple fringe quiver.
Even with the nonchalant way in which she had said it, Remus had paid closer attention to what he already knew. Tonks was the last Auror for the time being. In all those years there had not been any other candidate they had considered good enough. She knew it, and she was proud of it, Remus could tell.
"When did he start liking you?" he wanted to know. Why was he so eager to learn all those details about her, he did not know. He was only aware of the wonderful feeling of discovering something precious, every time she came up with a new story.
Tonks beamed at him.
"Sometimes I'm not sure he likes me… but well, the first thing I gained from him was respect."
"How did that happened?"
"Oh," she said, sounding offhand, "there was this time, while I was still on training. I captured two suspects single handed."
Remus whistled softly, wondering if she was trying to show off.
"It was actually an accident," she blurted out, blushing deeply and Remus actually saw the colour vanish a little. Was it her trying to hide her embarrassment just as she had told him she did? "I was running down this alley, following them, and… and I tripped," she said, blushing again, "and my wand just fired something... something slimy. Until now I have no idea what it was! That thing just covered the entire alley and would not stop growing, it cost me ages to think of a counter course. But those two had slipped with it and fallen down, so before getting rid of it I stunned them and tied them up. By the time Mad-Eye arrived, most of the slime was gone and he did not ask any questions, fortunately."
Remus was laughing hard at the image, and at thinking about Tonks, covered in something oily and trying hard to make it vanish while keeping an eye on the men she had just captured. She glared at him at first, but after a moment she chortled as well.
"He doesn't need to know those details, though," she added as an afterthought.
"You mean Mad-Eye doesn't know it was an accident yet?"
"Are you mental? That bit of respect was very hard to gain; I'm not going to lose it!" She said, taking another bite of her pizza.
Remus felt his smile widen.
"Oh really?" It was too good of an opportunity. "So now I have something to threaten you with, in case you try to hex me or any of my limbs."
Tonks let the pizza drop into the plate.
"You wouldn't," she said, glaring at him, but to Remus it seemed as if she was actually playing along, while making efforts not to smile.
"I need something to back me up, don't I?"
She raised her eyebrows.
"Do you, now? Why, what are you planning to do then, that needs some back up?"
He was saved of the trouble of answering that by taking another large bite of pizza, followed by a sip of wine.
As Sirius' questions did not stop, and Remus grew tired of fighting against cobwebs that seemed determined to strangle him, he had finally decided to go back to his flat and just wait there until it was time to go to pick Tonks up. He was getting even more restless with a question that would not leave him alone and he needed some peace and quiet to come up with a suitable answer.
What now?
They would go out, they would probably have a good time and they would part their separate ways. And he could keep with that for many days or weeks. Only, he was not sure he wanted to. He wanted to get closer to her, so actually be with her, but how and when was he to achieve that without scaring her away by giving the impression he had been after getting into bed with her again all along?
The clanging of the new security bolts on the door stopped his train of thought. Was Moody coming back to headquarters? Ready to stun shut the portrait of Sirius' mother if necessary, he exited the parlour right when the door opened.
How strange it was to feel his insides freeze at the sight of somebody he had had coffee with the day before and would join him to diner in an hour's time.
"Remus! Wotcher!" Tonks said breathlessly; she seemed to be flustered as well and stood there, the door opened at her back for a moment.
"Hello," Remus said, his mind suddenly blank.
"I wasn't expecting…" she muttered, finally closing the door and tapping it with her wand, in order to put the protective spells back into place.
"I'm staying here for some time," Remus explained, "it's easier for the Order."
"Right," she said, facing him again. "I just wanted to leave this…" she produced several rolls of parchment out of her large back, two of them felt on the dusty carpet. Remus bent down to retrieve them. "Hestia needed to review this stuff before going to her next mission," she went on. "I thought I could drop by here on my way home. Before… you know… getting ready."
Remus felt it was almost a question and he smiled at her. It was silly, really, he had the impression both of them were acting like very shy children.
"Actually, I was about to go to my place. To get ready as well."
She finally smiled and Remus almost sighed aloud in relief.
"I'll see you later, then," Tonks said, taking the rolls of parchment from Remus' hand.
"I'm looking forward to it," Remus said, and before any more awkwardness could grow between them, he undid the protective spells and opened the front door.
"Bye," Tonks called at his back and he turned around. She was still smiling and another roll of parchment had fallen on the carpet. For a moment, both of them froze, just looking at one another, and there was something warm and pleasant Remus had not felt for a very long time.
"Later," he finally said, and exited the house, without being able to stop beaming.
The diner was over and they were walking back to Tonks' flat, and Remus still did not have an answer to his question.
They had had a good time together and they were talking about going to this other place later that week where, Tonks assured, serve superb Chinese food. So they would have dinner again, and chat, and exchange glances, perhaps even flirt a little… and then? Then, just like it was going to happen in a moment's time, when they finally reach her door, he would be much too afraid to try and do something that could scare her away.
So, instead, in a moment's time he would just tell her, again, what a lovely time they had had and, if he was lucky, she would agree with him.
Of course she would, he thought with an uncharacteristic feeling of self-confidence. They shared the same wry sense of humour, the same goals, a very akin way to see the world... they just enjoyed the time spent together.
But it did not make it easier to come to an answer. Should he try something else, or should he just wait and enjoy her company just like it was, for the time being? What should he do next? He had no idea, so, he would say his good-byes and, if he did not run out of courage, he would kiss her again, in the cheek of course, and he would agree on going to that Chinese place. It could go on like that forever! And one day he would realise he had become her friend, which was very nice, very good indeed… only absolutely insufficient.
"… we had no idea how had it worked out, when all out attempts had been hopeless," she was telling him about some prank she and a group of friends had done back at school and he felt slightly guilty for not having paid proper attention. "But somehow we had managed to make all horizontal stripes on McGonagall's tartan dress robes disappear!"
Remus laughed, relieved that he had not missed the end of the story, but still worried about his own thoughts. Walking at his side, Tonks was laughing as well, absolutely oblivious to his predicament.
And just as they arrived to the bright red door of the house, he made up her mind.
"I am not sure about how to do this," he started tentatively once her laughter had died away.
"Do this…?" she stared at him blankly.
Remus nodded.
"Because, even though we've talk a little about it, you did asked me to pretend that night, in the pub, did not happen; you asked me to pretend we'd met for the first time during the Order meeting."
"I did…" Tonks replied slowly.
"Now I don't know how am I going to convince you of this."
"Of what?" she asked, and was it Remus' imagination, or her eyes seemed to be brighter?
"If we had indeed only met that night, and not before, and afterwards we'd had seen each other, as we have, yesterday and tonight, I would still try to do what I am about to do."
She was still looking at him and he wished he could know what she was thinking. Hoping against hope that she would not pull away, Remus bent lower, slowly, until finally he kissed her.
Her lips were so soft, and warm, and it felt so much better than his memories; he all but wanted to get lost on that kiss, but he had to be strong and give her all the time and space she might need. He needed to leave.
So with what seemed to be a supreme effort, he drew back.
His eyes widened in surprise and he was sure his knees were about to buckle, when he felt her lips on his again, capturing them, and most definitely telling him he was not going anywhere.
