A/N: Please note I've upped the rating to M. That means there'll be slightly more in the way of adult content from now on – although I am only planning to dip a toe into those M-rated waters. Well, all right, a foot. Actually, I might go in as far as the knee. Anyway, if anyone has any questions about the upped rating, please feel free to PM me, and if not, enjoy….

"That's him."

Tonks and Sirius froze over the cake they were still icing as the front door closed, their wands poised mid-air as they exchanged worried glances. "He's early," Tonks hissed.

"He's Moony," Sirius whispered, rolling his eyes.

Tonks looked around the half-decorated kitchen, taking in the icing on the cake that read 'Happy Birt', the streamers that were distinctly not swinging and the distinctly not laid table. "Hell," she said. "What are we going to do?"

Sirius' eyes darted around the kitchen, and then he shrugged. "Distract him for a bit, and I'll sort everything in here," he said.

"Are you sure you can manage?" Tonks said, peering at him with concern. Sirius raised an eyebrow and pursed his lips in offence that she'd even asked the question, and she offered him a vague apologetic smile, which did little to appease him. "How long do you need?"

"Quarter of an hour?" Sirius said. "I'm sure you'll find some way to keep him amused," he added, rolling his eyes dramatically.

Tonks shot Sirius a mock-glare and grabbed her bag, headed up the steps and intercepted Remus in the hall, where he was taking off his coat, brushing the clinging drizzle from it before hanging it on the umbrella stand. He looked up when a floorboard creaked beneath her feet. "Oh. Hello," he whispered, peering at her through the gloom, his eyebrows high on his forehead in surprise. "I didn't think you were coming until later."

"Got off work early," she said quietly. She tried to shrug nonchalantly, as if she hadn't gone into work two hours before everyone else for a head start on her paperwork and called in a couple of favours so she could leave early. Although she wasn't entirely sure why she'd bothered, since all she and Sirius had done with the extra time was argue about whether Remus would prefer royal icing on his birthday cake or butter-cream. Not that – until very recently – either of them had had any idea how to make either….

Tonks bit her lip. She hoped the cake would be all right. She hoped Sirius would be all right, left to his own devices.

Remus ran a hand through his hair and straightened his grey jumper and then smiled at her, stepping closer so he could wrap his arms around her and pull her to him for a kiss. "Oh well that is very good news," he said, as he lowered his lips to hers. Tonks snaked her hands around his waist for something to hold onto as his lips moved over hers and made her feel just a little bit woozy, and then tried to subtly back Remus down the corridor and away from the kitchen door as they kissed. She stopped when Remus made a vague 'oof' noise as she backed him entirely not-subtly into the wall next to the troll-leg umbrella stand. She smothered his protest with her lips, which he didn't seem to entirely mind, and then pulled away slowly, smiling at him apologetically. "What are you really doing here?" Remus said, grinning at her and tucking a strand of pink hair behind her ear.

"I thought you might want to get started on your birthday celebrations," she said, returning his grin with a cheeky one of her own. Remus closed his eyes briefly and sighed, letting his head drop back against the wall.

"How did you know?" he said, opening his eyes fixing her with a wry smile as if he already knew the answer.

"Sirius."

"Ah," Remus said, with a quick exasperated eye-roll as he dropped his hands into his pockets and leant heavily against the wall. "Motormouth Black strikes again."

She smiled briefly, hoping that Remus wasn't going to put up anything more than a token protest, and shifted forward a little, pressing her body into his. "Why didn't you tell me it was your birthday?" she said, toying with the hem of his jumper.

"When you've had as many birthdays as I have," he said, raising an eyebrow, "another one isn't anything to celebrate." Tonks rolled her eyes at him, and he let out a short snort of amusement as he relented. He freed his hands from his pockets and stroked her arms gently, making her skin tingle and turn to goosebumps, even though she was wearing a thick, knitted cardigan. "This is a very nice surprise, though," he said, wrapping his arms around her and easing her against him, placing his warm lips on her forehead in a gentle kiss.

"Good," she said quietly, half-heartedly wondering how a chaste kiss on her forehead could turn her knees to jelly. She rested against him for a moment, savouring the warmth of his lips against her skin, not really wanting to move, even though she'd planned to take Remus upstairs to the library and away from the surprise in the kitchen.

Remus' arms tightened around her, and he murmured happily against her skin, and she wondered if he was feeling the same way, as if what he actually wanted for his birthday was to stay like this forever.

A pop and the sound of Sirius cursing loudly on the other side of the kitchen door rather spoiled the moment, though, and Tonks leant back, meeting Remus' inquisitive raised-eyebrow with what she hoped was an innocent expression. She cleared her throat far too late to cover the noise. Remus raised his eyebrow higher, smirking just a little too knowingly as his eyes darted down the corridor to the source of the noise. "Do you want to come upstairs and open your present?" Tonks said, as brightly as she could muster when she was trying desperately not to laugh.

"What was that?" Remus said, indicating the door and the noise beyond it with a jerk of his head.

"Dunno," Tonks said quickly, fully aware that she really wasn't fooling him. "Probably Kreacher doing unnatural things to the family album again, or something."

Remus looked at her entirely too knowingly. "Probably," he said, through a breathy chuckle.

"Do you want to come and open your present, then?" she said, and Remus nodded. She slid her fingers between his, shivering a little as they closed around hers, and lead Remus up the stairs.

Once the library door was closed behind them, Remus threw a spell casually at the fireplace, causing flames to shoot up and dance, and then another at the lights which flickered into life, casting shadows across the books on the shelves and making the whole place look homely and inviting, as only he knew how. "How was your day?" he said over his shoulder as he inspected the fire he'd created with a puzzled frown, apparently feeling it wasn't quite up to scratch.

"Good," she said. "Yours?" Remus turned and leant on the mantelpiece, rolled his eyes and thrust his hands into his pockets. "That bad?" she said.

"Worse," he said, scuffing the carpet with his toe. She raised an eyebrow, indicating that she expected details. "Have you ever been to the place Mundungus Fletcher laughing calls his house?" Remus said, glancing up at her from the patch of carpet he'd been studying.

"No," she said.

"Well should he ever invite you," he said, raising an eyebrow at her, "I suggest you politely decline, unless you want to be picking bits of broken pipe out of your shoes for the rest of your days and actively enjoy the smell of ferrets."

"Ferrets?"

Remus closed his eyes and shuddered in perhaps not entirely mock-horror. "He was intending to sell their livers as potion ingredients," he said. "But apparently the bottom has totally fallen out of the ferret market recently, and – owing to a slight miscalculation he made with their contraceptive charm – they're breeding rather quicker than normal and they've rather taken over the place. He tried to sell me one as a pet."

"Were you tempted?"

"No," Remus said, folding his arms huffily across his chest. "Quite apart from the fact that a randy ferret has never been especially high on my list of worldly desires, one of the little bastards bit me."

Tonks covered her mouth with her hand and laughed into her fingers, and then when Remus shot her a look of playful displeasure, she stepped towards him and tried to mask her amusement with a more sympathetic face. "Where?" she said.

"In the living room," he said, and then his brow creased. "At least, I think that's what it's supposed to be. Dung has a lot of – well, I suppose you'd call it clutter, if you were being charitable." Tonks sniggered.

"I meant where on you," she said.

"Oh," he said, uncrossing his arms and holding out his hand. "There," he said, indicating the side of his index finger. "It was my own fault, apparently. According to Dung, I never should have startled it, which I seemed to do simply by existing."

Desperately trying to keep a straight face, Tonks took Remus' hand and lifted it to her lips, covering the digit in question with gentle kisses. "Better?" she said, and Remus stepped closer, smiling and looking every inch the schoolboy whose mischievous plan had just come off. She let go of his hand in favour of winding her arms around his neck, and his hands – injured and otherwise – found her hips.

"Much," he murmured, and he kissed her, his hands slowly sliding up her body and into her hair, making her feel every bit as warm and fluttery as the flames he'd created in the grate.

"So do you want your present?" Tonks said, mumbling the words against his lips.

"Is this not my present?" he said, cupping her face with one hand as he trailed kisses down her neck. "Because I like it very much."

"If I'd known you were this easily pleased," she said, breathily as his teeth grazed a particularly sensitive spot on her neck, "I wouldn't have bothered fighting my way through Diagon Alley on a Saturday."

Remus pulled away a little, and grinned. "You didn't have to get me anything," he said.

" 'Course I did," she said. "It's your birthday."

Remus' eyes flickered up to the ceiling as if he was thinking about saying something, but he evidently decided against it, and let her lead him over to the desk, where she up-ended her bag, spilling the contents all over the green leather inset and worrying far too late if there was something in there she didn't want Remus to see. He raised an eyebrow at her and then picked up one such item, a hanky with her initials carefully embroidered into one corner, surrounded by intricately stitched pink roses. He held it out in front of him, one corner pinched between his thumb and forefinger, and his eyes switched between her, and it, glittering with barely suppressed amusement.

She snatched it out of his fingers and tossed it onto the desk in annoyance. "It's my damn mother," she said. "She charmed all my bags not to leave the house if I don't have a clean hanky in them and I can't figure out how to break it." Remus sniggered. Tonks tried desperately to ignore him and the flush she could feel on her cheeks, focusing her attention instead on the task in hand. She routed around the spilled contents for the gift. "I didn't really know what to get you," she said. "I talked to Sirius – "

"Let me guess," Remus said, leaning back against the desk. "He said you should buy yourself some sexy underwear and that a strip tease is the gift that keeps on giving – or something equally crass about offering to blow out my candle."

Tonks laughed. He'd got it almost word for word. "Actually it was something about making your tail wag," she said, and Remus let out a short snort of amusement as he folded his arms across his chest.

"Ever the romantic," he said. He paused for just a moment, and then raised an eyebrow at her, smiling with utterly flirtatious coyness. "I'm assuming you didn't take his advice?"

"No," she said, and then had a rather devilish idea. "Although – " She pulled her T shirt out a little and peered down at herself, raising her eyebrows in consideration at the black and raspberry underwear she was wearing underneath her faded yellow T shirt, before lifting her gaze slowly back to his. " – what I'm wearing's pretty nice, so if you don't like your actual present…."

She kept her eyes locked on his for a moment and he chuckled rather breathlessly, and then she returned to her search for his present, feeling just a touch more smug than she had previously about the kind of effect she could have on him.

Eventually she found her gift nestled between a shrunken volume on covert poisoning Mad-Eye had insisted it was vital she read, and a hairbrush she'd forgotten buying which, by the looks of it, she'd never used for anything other than picking up bag fluff. "Happy birthday," she said, holding the multicoloured stripy-papered gift out to him.

"Thank you," he said, grinning as he took it from her.

Remus turned the package over and over in his hands, feeling its corners and edges, and then lifted it and gave it a shake. Tonks smiled to herself. She just knew he'd want to try and figure out what it was before he opened it.

Remus bit his lip slightly as he considered the package in his hands, and then, having either apparently figured out what it was, or given up trying, he slid a finger under the flap of paper on the back and flicked it open. She'd never been particularly gifted with gift-wrapping charms, and the paper gave up its bounty instantly.

Tonks really hadn't known what to get him – she'd thought of lots of things that she wanted to buy him – clothes and books she thought he might like, but she didn't want to get him anything too expensive for fear that he might be embarrassed by it, and the more she'd thought about it, the more she thought he'd probably appreciate something that took a bit of time and thought, something personal, and so when Molly had sent her a picture of the two of them, she'd thought that was perfect, and a much better idea than the large, broomstick-motif jumper she'd expected.

She bit her lip, waiting for his reaction, which seemed to take an ice age to come.

It was a great picture – from New Year's Eve. They were dancing – well, not dancing – clinging to each other and laughing as they moved through the frame, her stumbling backwards over nothing, and them both laughing harder as he righted her. He looked gorgeous in it – totally happy and at ease, and the look in his eyes…. When she'd seen the picture for the first time, she'd wondered how, that night, either of them could ever have doubted it; their feelings for each other were quite clearly written all over their faces.

She'd had it framed properly by a small, wiry-haired wizard in Diagon Alley, choosing a black card mount and a pewter frame she thought might be Art Deco, although she wasn't entirely sure. She'd had the date embossed on the card, although she wasn't certain Remus was likely to forget, and she thought the frame went well with his things, or those she'd seen, anyway.

She looked up tentatively, heart pounding. Remus was grinning. He looked every inch as gorgeous as he did in the picture. "Thank you," he said, gazing down at the picture in his hands. "It's lovely."

He ran his fingertips lightly over the frame, taking in its curves and angles, and then watched the picture for a moment. She thought he couldn't have been more captivated if he'd never seen a wizarding photo before, and the thought made her tingle. She watched him as intently as he was watching the picture version of them, wondering why she'd never been this nervous about giving someone a gift before, or more pleased and excited that they liked it. Remus smiled and scuffed her image's face with his thumb, which made the butterflies in her stomach shift over to make way for a dull ache.

Tonks shifted from foot to foot and then sat on the edge of the desk next to him, hoping that might make her look less like a fourteen year old who'd just handed her crush a hand-made Valentine's card. "Sirius – " she said, and Remus looked up. " – once he'd given up trying to talk me into something red and lacy – told me that when you were at Hogwarts, the first thing you always did when you arrived was to unpack your photos."

"I did," Remus said quietly. So quietly, in fact, that if she hadn't been sitting so close, she wouldn't have heard it. "This is perfect," he said, dropping the wrapping paper onto the desk behind them and then taking her face in his hand. He leant forward and kissed her softly, sending a jolt right through her. "Thank you." She hummed vaguely. "I mean it," he murmured, scuffing her cheek with his thumb and setting the picture carefully down on the desk behind him. "Thank you."

He kissed her again and the intensity of it was quite dazzling. She was glad she'd opted to sit down, because she wasn't sure – if he'd kissed her like that when she was standing up – that her knees wouldn't have buckled. "I don't remember this being taken," he said softly as he moved away, raising his eyes to hers and playfully jostling her shoulder with his.

"No," she said, "me either. Maybe we were both too busy trying not to trip over my feet to notice."

"Maybe," he murmured, smiling as he pressed his lips back to hers.

Remus kissed her gently at first, his fingers uncurling against her neck and tickling their way into her hair, toying with the strands at her nape before making their way down and eliciting a shiver. She pressed her lips more insistently to his, stretching up into his kiss with a contented sigh, and he responded by coaxing her lips apart and pressing a little more firmly.

She slid her hands around his neck and he eased her closer, kissing her more insistently, and before she'd really had time to register quite how much he apparently liked his present, he was lowering her back onto the desk

And, even though the desk was hard and she had her hairbrush and that damn volume of Moody's on covert poisoning pressing into her spine, it was fabulous. She shifted back a bit further, hearing something slide off the desk and clatter to the floor as she planted one foot on the desk to get more comfortable. Remus eased himself gingerly on top of her, one leg hooking over hers, his hand finding her hip and settling there. His fingers lightly pressed and only exaggerated the tingles low down in her stomach that his lips were expertly producing.

His kiss was urgent and sexy, his tongue teasing hers and making her wish she could cancel their plans for the evening and drag him upstairs to put some of Sirius' crasser ideas into practice. She mumbled against his lips, only managing to get out half a sigh before he nibbled her bottom lip and made her breath hitch and the noise catch in her chest. She ran her hands down over his chest to his waist, and he moved closer, running one hand from her knee to her thigh and drawing her to him. She kissed him more intensely to assure him of her approval of his actions, and he moved away a little, clearing his throat as he kissed his way down hers, his hand amusing itself on her thigh. She whimpered and felt him smile against her skin before he pressed a kiss to it. "So you liked your present, then?" she murmured, rather breathily.

"Uh huh."

His lips were producing the most delightful sensations and she couldn't resist sliding her hands up his arms and raking her hands through his hair. "For my part, when that picture was taken," he murmured against the skin on her collarbone, "maybe I was too busy trying to resist the urge to throw you onto the table and do wicked things to you in amongst the party food."

She caught his face in her hands and dragged it up to hers. Remus' eyes glittered as if he was desperately battling the urge to laugh and his hair fell into his eyes. Her insides gasped. She raised an eyebrow at him and then pointedly glanced at the desk they were lying on. "Do you have a thing about tables?"

"No," he said, grinning. "I have a thing about you."

The end of his phrase got swallowed as they kissed again with renewed fervour, a jumble of kisses and hands, hairbrushes and the like in uncomfortable places, and sensations delicious and irresistible enough that they didn't care. Tonks wanted to melt.

She wasn't sure what it was, but since they'd had their talk about him being a werewolf, she'd felt something different, something new, every time they kissed. It was as if they were closer, somehow, as if this wasn't just about pleasant sensations anymore, the tease of their lips or the feel of exploring fingers, but something else as well. Something….

She wasn't sure she really wanted to put a word to it, but whatever it was, it was wonderful. She turned towards Remus more, pressing her hips to his, and smiled against his mouth as his breath hitched. She traced his jaw with her fingertips and wondered what he might say now if she offered to show him her underwear.

The noise of someone clearing their throat startled her a little, since she was pretty sure she hadn't made it, and pretty sure that Remus' vocal chords had been occupied with a low moan. Remus pulled away and looked up instinctively at the doorway, frowning when it was empty. His eyes flickered to the fireplace, and then rolled, and Tonks followed his gaze, finally fixing on Sirius' head, bobbing amongst the flames. He had one eyebrow raised and his hands clamped firmly over both eyes. "If I open my eyes," he said, "am I going to see something that makes me wish I'd gone blind?"

"No," Tonks said, at the very same time as Remus said:

"Yes."

Tonks sniggered as Remus' eyes roved over them both and the position they were in and then met hers, and he grinned sheepishly. "Well, good to know you've reached a consensus," Sirius said, and Remus moved away a little, reaching for her hand and pulling her more upright. "Can I look yet? Or are you still putting your clothes on?"

"It's fine," Remus said, perching on the edge of the desk and running a hand through his rumpled hair. "You can look."

Sirius peeled one hand away from his eyes and blinked at the room uncertainly, and then lifted the other. "You liked your present, then?" he said, raising an eyebrow at Remus.

"Very much," Remus replied, glancing at Tonks and making her stomach somersault. She bit her lip against her grin. "What can we do for you?"

Sirius shot Tonks a glance that was presumably supposed to be conspiratorial. "Nothing," he said quickly. "Just – I was hungry. I thought one of you might want to make me dinner."

Tonks watched a muscle in Remus' cheek twitch as he suppressed a smile. "We'll be down in a minute," he said, his voice lilting with just enough amusement that Tonks knew he'd rumbled them and wasn't at all convinced by Sirius' attempt at petulance, and even less by his attempt at innocence.

"Ok," Sirius said, disappearing from the fireplace, only to reappear seconds later. "Just – no funny business," he said. "Don't make me come up there…."

Tonks couldn't help but let out a giggle as Sirius disappeared again, and Remus chuckled quietly. "I suppose we should – " he said, gesturing to the door with a jerk of his head.

"Hmm," she said, and he leant in and kissed her slowly.

"Come on, then," he said as he leant back again, before she'd even had time to re-tousle his hair.

He held out his hand and helped her off the desk, gesturing vaguely to the pile of assorted handbag detritus she'd left strewn across it. "I hope you didn't have anything – " Remus paused, and let out a brief huff of amusement as he glanced up at the ceiling, " – squashable in there."

"If I did it probably deserved to die," she said, and Remus laughed, holding the bag open for her as she scooped the contents up by the handful and deposited them back in their red canvas prison.

Remus crouched down and retrieved the compact that had tumbled to the floor earlier, swiping up something else that had fallen under the desk while he was there. "Don't forget your hanky," he said, holding it out for her as he rose to his feet. She snatched it out of his hand and offered him a mock-glare which made him chuckle, before stuffing both items back in her bag. Remus took out his wand and vanished the wrapping paper, then took up his picture.

"Ready?" she said.

"As I'll ever be," Remus replied, rolling his eyes. "Just tell me you didn't let him get me a strip-witch."

"I vetoed the strip-witch," she said, and Remus sighed thankfully. "And the strip-wizard," she added, giggling as Remus' eyes widened momentarily in shock. "And the novelty goblin stripper who apparently does amazing things with snitches."

Remus closed his eyes in horror and rocked back on his heels. "I knew I shouldn't have left him alone with Dung," he said, and then took her hand. Tilting his chin down dramatically, he peered up at her through his fringe. "Will it be very frightening?" he said.

Tonks laughed and thought of her attempts at cooking, and wondered what Sirius might have chosen to ice on the cake without her supervision. She looked away, not wanting to lie, and winced on Remus' behalf. "Better or worse than being bitten by a startled ferret when I only had Dung to offer me first aid?" he prompted.

"Better," she said. "Hopefully."

"All right," Remus said, as they headed for the door. "As long as neither of you feels the need to leap on me and shout 'S'alright, I'll suck the poison out!', I'm sure I'll have a lovely time."

"Poison?" Tonks said, perplexed. "Ferrets aren't poisonous."

As they turned and started to make their way down the stairs, Remus rolled his eyes. "I know," he said quietly. "I'm hoping Dung was just panicked into forgetting."

"Hoping?"

"Well," Remus said dryly, glancing up at the stuffed elf heads as they passed beneath them, "either that, or he was using it as an excuse to grope me."

Tonks stifled her laughter with her fingers so as not to wake Mrs Black, and Remus pushed the kitchen door open, gesturing for her to go first.

She stepped onto the staircase, and the instant Remus had closed the door quietly behind them and started to follow, there was a loud 'pop' and several fireworks whizzed straight for him, ruffling his hair as they passed. As he ducked they exploded, filling the air with red sparks, and the words 'Happy Birthday Moony!' appeared in twinkling gold letters in the air. They were both doused liberally with confetti as they passed underneath, and Tonks managed to nearly swallow several pieces as she laughed at the startled expression on Remus' face. He patted her on the back and then laughed, trying to shake tiny pink horseshoes, pale lemon stars and baby blue triangles out of his hair and off his shoulders. The more he tried to remove it, though, the more he seemed to attract, and by the time they reached the ground, he was covered in tiny, fluttering paper fragments.

Tonks looked around the kitchen. Sirius had certainly outdone himself, not only finishing what they'd planned to do together, but adding some touches of his own. Balloons in a variety of colours clustered together on the ceiling, and a large glass bowl of what she presumed was some kind of punch nestled in the middle of the table. It gave off a faintly worrying red glow. "About bloody time," Sirius said from the head of the table, where he was leaning back on his chair's back legs, balancing precariously. "I was beginning to wonder if I should send up a cold shower charm."

But Tonks was barely listening enough to shoot Sirius a derisory glare. She was far more interested in watching Remus as he took in the red and white checked tablecloth and the plates of sandwiches and haphazardly-iced cup cakes on the table. His eyes widened as they took in Molly's emergency replacement chocolate cake centre-piece, which now had the words 'Happy Birthday, you old git' etched on it in darker chocolate butter-cream icing.

Remus stood, covered in confetti, looking utterly stunned. "You did all this?" he said, gaze switching rapidly between them in disbelief.

"Yes," Sirius said, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms as if he'd just been accused of something quite unsavoury.

"For me?" he said, trailing his fingers across the tablecloth as if he couldn't quite believe it was real. He set his picture frame down at the head of one place setting.

"It's your birthday," Tonks said, and Remus lifted his hand to his mouth briefly and then laughed, making the confetti that was clinging to his fringe flutter.

"You shouldn't have – I mean you didn't have to – "

"I know."

"I didn't expect – "

"I know," Tonks said, jigging slightly on the spot. "That's what makes it so much fun."

"The look on your face is priceless," Sirius said, leaning back in his chair and letting out a long, slow chortle.

"I'll bet."

Sirius took out his wand and called off the confetti with a lazy wave. "Sit down," he said. "You're making me nervous."

Tonks pulled out a chair for Remus and he shot her a look of vague protest, and then sank down into it. "We were going to throw you a proper party," Sirius said, "but then we remembered that I'm a wanted criminal and you haven't really got any friends –"

Remus shot Sirius a glare that Tonks thought was entirely half-hearted, and Sirius grinned, reaching across the table and filling three glasses with punch. He set one in front of Remus and another in front of Tonks as she settled in a chair next to him, wondering if she should have chosen one on the other side of the table in case keeping her hands off him was a trickier prospect than anticipated. Which, when he was wearing that adorable, slightly confused, desperately happy expression, was a distinct possibility.

"Happy birthday, mate," Sirius said, flinging a badly-wrapped package at Remus' chest. Remus caught it deftly and grinned, but as he turned it over and over in his hands, feeling the corners, Tonks' suspicion was piqued. The present she'd bought for Sirius to give Remus didn't have any corners. In fact, it was distinctly corner-free, while the one Remus had in his hands seemed to have four….

For a moment, Remus eyed the package in his hands just as suspiciously as she was, although she suspected for entirely different reasons. Merlin only knew what Marauders considered to be appropriate birthday fodder. Remus looked up, meeting Sirius' eye, his narrowing slightly. "Is this going to blow up in my face?" he asked. Tonks laughed. She supposed that answered the Marauder birthday-fodder question.

"Figuratively or literally?" Sirius said.

"Let's start with literally, shall we?" Remus said.

"No."

"Figuratively?"

"Perhaps."

Remus laughed, and then gingerly peeled the spotty wrapping paper open and peered inside. He grinned at it, and then Sirius, before extracting what appeared to be a book and setting it down on the table as carefully as if he really did expect it to explode. He leant heavily on his elbow and rubbed his chin, seeming as if he was desperately trying to avoid laughing.

Tonks peered over the table to read the cover: Fly Fishing, by J.R. Hartley. "Fly fishing?" she said. "What's that?"

Remus jaw tensed and he gritted his teeth together, covering his mouth with his fingers. He swallowed rather obviously, and then choked out the words: "Muggle sport."

"Why would anybody go fishing for flies?" Tonks said, her forehead creasing in confusion as to why anyone would do anything that was such a waste of time, and why Remus would need a book on the subject. "Isn't that really, really hard?"

Sirius' laughter in response was so loud that Tonks expected him to set Mrs Black off at any second. "What?" she said, and Remus met her eye, a cheeky twinkle in his as he pressed his fingers harder into his mouth.

He swallowed again, closing his eyes briefly and letting out a brief, faint snort of amusement. He cleared his throat. "It's a kind of fishing," he said. "It's a different technique."

"That's right. I thought Moony might need to brush up," Sirius said. "On his technique."

"I didn't know you liked fishing," she said, turning to Remus.

Sirius laughed so hard that she thought he might burst something, rocking back and forth in his chair, slapping the table and then wiping the tears from his eyes. Tonks eyed Remus searchingly. There was something deeply suspicious going on. Remus pressed his lips tightly together, taking a moment to try and quell the amusement that was clearly rising within. "It's not – it's not a book on fly fishing. He's charmed the cover – I presume so only I can see it?" he said, looking up and meeting Sirius' eye with a questioning raised eyebrow. Sirius nodded.

"What is it then?" Tonks said. She watched as Remus' jaw tensed as he fought the laughter that was evident in his eyes.

For a moment she thought he wasn't going to answer, and then he steepled his fingers in front of him, cleared his throat and said: "I believe the term would be lovers' guide."

Tonks started, eyes wide, which sent Sirius' laughter back into over-drive.

"In case you've forgotten where everything goes," Sirius said, wiping his eyes roughly with the back of his hand. Remus shot him a look that was equal parts amusement and disapproval, as if he knew he shouldn't laugh, but desperately wanted to.

"How thoughtful."

"Well," Sirius said indignantly, "if you're going to shag my cousin, you should at least do it right."

Remus met Tonks' eye and his eyebrows dipped apologetically. The fact that the eyes beneath them were sparkling with amusement deadened the effect somewhat, but luckily she thought the combination was adorable on him. He returned his eyes to Sirius', which were sparkling with equal amusement, making him look more alive than he had done for quite some time. Remus finally allowed himself a smile. "Thank you," he said.

"Well you know me, Moony," Sirius said, his face stretched into a grin that made him look ten years younger, "I like to do my best to try and help."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "I don't suppose it would really feel like my birthday without you doing something to embarrass me."

"Oh, so this is a tradition, is it?" Tonks said.

"Oh yes," Remus muttered ruefully. "One that I assumed we were now too old for. Apparently not."

Sirius laughed. "Anyway, this is your real present," he said, tossing another, equally badly wrapped but rather more familiar-looking, present at Remus. "Tonks picked it," he said softly.

Remus offered them both a quick warm smile, and then turned his attention to the gift in his hands. She and Sirius had decided to buy him a jumper, with him providing the money and her the legwork. In theory, it was a simple purchase, but in practice, however, it had been a little more tricky, and she'd spent hours in the shop debating greens and browns and even reds, wondering which would suit Remus and what he'd like best. She'd even asked a couple of passing wizards who had similar hair to try on a couple of choices, just to be sure. The one she'd chosen eventually was a dark blue-green coloured V neck, and she'd been nervous about it ever since, wondering if she might have chosen the wrong thing.

Remus freed the jumper of its garish wrapping paper, and held it up, grinning. "Do you like it?" she said. "They said if you didn't you could take it back and swap it."

"No," he said. "I love it."

Remus obligingly pulled off the grey jumper he had been wearing and slipped the new one over his head, adjusting it and the way the collar of his shirt sat until he was happy with it. "What do you think?" he said, looking down at himself at smoothing it across his chest.

"Very swish," Sirius said.

"Hmm," Tonks concurred. He looked every bit as handsome in it as she'd hoped he would.

"I think the squeak means she likes it and she'd rather I bugger off and leave you two alone so she can take it off again," Sirius said, and Tonks gave him a quick kick of admonishment under the table. Not that he'd been wrong, of course…. She swallowed, remembering what Remus had said about him battling the desire to throw her onto the table and do wicked things to her amongst the party food. She shivered, trying not to let out the school-girl giggle she was on the very brink of.

"Thank you both," Remus said, and Tonks was grateful that he'd spoken and stopped her mind from wandering down a track that was all too filled with distracting images.

"Don't mention it, mate," Sirius said. He reached for his glass of punch, and raised it. "Here's to you – older, but not wiser. Hopefully."

Tonks chuckled and Remus joined in, and they both raised their glasses and clinked them against Sirius', before taking a sip. Tonks winced as the punch burned her throat, and when she looked up, Remus' eyes were wide and a bit watery. "Do I want to know what the ingredients of this are?" he said, waving vaguely at the bowl in the centre of the table and then coughing into the back of his hand.

"Probably not."

"Here's to an interesting night, then," Remus said, raising his glass and taking another sip.

"That's another Marauder tradition," Sirius said, leaning across the table conspiratorially and meeting Tonks' eye. "The birthday boy must get drunk to and beyond the point where he's capable of rational thought, let alone speech. You're very lucky. Normally girlfriends aren't permitted to bear witness to the process."

Tonks smiled, her stomach tingling in approval at Sirius' use of the word 'girlfriend'. She really did like having people think of her as Remus' girlfriend.

"So what are we having to soak up all this alcohol?" Remus said, gesturing to the table.

"Well this one," Tonks said, pointing to the nearest plate, "is hot dogs and grilled cheese with onion relish."

"Wow," he said, laughing.

"And this one – " she said, taking the plates in order " – is boring old ham and salad, but that one's pork and apple sauce." She pointed to the plate closest to Sirius. "That one's the fish finger, ketchup and peas, and the one next to it is steak and blue cheese sauce, the cobs are chips and mayonnaise, and the other one's turkey, stuffing and pickled onions."

"Very inventive," Remus said. "I'm impressed."

Tonks looked at the selection of sandwiches she'd made. They were no-where near as neat as Remus' – her sandwiches were all Marauder, she felt, and rather shabby-looking ones at that – but Remus didn't seem to mind. He reached for a steak and blue cheese sandwich. "Dare I?" he said, his tone light and teasing, his eyes dancing.

"You know, if you really liked me, you wouldn't mind getting food poisoning," she said, and Remus obligingly took a bite.

Sirius pulled the plate of fish finger sandwiches towards him and selected the biggest, taking a large bite and chewing it thoughtfully. "What's with all the strange fillings?" he said, shoving a piece of stray crust into his mouth.

"I introduced Tonks to the Marauder Hangover Special," Remus said.

"And when did you get Tonks drunk enough to warrant one of those?" Sirius said, raising an eyebrow accusatorially. "Because, you know, I think I'd have to frown on that."

"There was only very minimal drunkenness involved," Remus returned, "so hold your big brotherly horses."

Sirius turned towards Tonks, mouth open in awe and giving her far too good a view of half-chewed fish fingers. "You ate one sober?" he said.

"I am an Auror," she said, and he chortled.

"You know, it's a very fine line between bravery and stupidity, cousin," he said, nodding sagely and polishing off the rest of his sandwich before reaching for another.

Tonks met Remus' eye and he smiled. She wondered if they were both thinking the same thing: how nice it was to have Sirius like this, instead of the frustrated, morose creature he'd become of late. "I thought you'd rather have these than boring old cheese and pickle," Tonks said, reaching for a chip cob and offering one to Remus, who nodded and took one.

"Indeed," he said, "and I applaud your imaginative take on the traditional birthday tea."

Tonks grinned, and took a large bite of her chip cob, quite impressed that she'd managed to perform a good enough gentle warming charm to keep the contents warm without completely incinerating the bread – which was what had happened to her first three batches. "So what have you done to each other in the past on your birthdays, then?" she said, reaching for her punch to try and dislodge a stubborn chip from her throat before she choked on it.

"Well," Sirius said, rocking back in his chair. "Although Moony likes to let everyone think he's all sweet and innocent, he was, for a while, the king of the conniving birthday prank."

"Oh yes?" Tonks said, raising an eyebrow at Remus, who was pretending to be completely engrossed in his cob.

"When I was – was I fifteen or sixteen?" Sirius mused. "Anyway," he said, waving his own question away, "I was at a delicate age – " Remus snorted. Sirius glowered, and Remus held up his hands in apology, gesturing for him to continue. " – and he hit me with a spontaneous rhyming couplet charm over breakfast. I leapt up onto the table – no idea what I was doing – and launched into an improvised sonnet about how much I loved marmalade."

"And then he just couldn't stop," Remus said. "It was sonnets about statues we passed, limericks at lunchtime – I think he attempted a sestina at one point – "

"Yes, and this bastard wouldn't lift it until that night, even though I'd arranged to meet a girl – "

"I seem to recall she rather liked your ode to her pigtails," Remus said, and Sirius laughed.

"Pigtails, pigtails, so much better than wig tails, I love you so much I could gargle your entrails," Sirius pronounced dramatically, throwing his arms wide. Remus chuckled, while Tonks groaned at the rather displeasing mental image she'd been presented with. "Hard to keep up my rebellious image when I was spouting poetry, though," Sirius added, reaching for his glass and draining it.

"You pulled it off with considerable flair," Remus said, smiling at the memory. "And that was your fifteenth. On your sixteenth, James and I cast a forgetfulness charm on our room after we left, so that every time you tried to leave you forgot why you were doing it, and you missed all our lessons and spent the next week in detention."

"That was a good one," Sirius said.

"As was my seventeenth," Remus said, turning to Tonks. "It was just after they'd found out about my huge dislike for caterpillars, so they cast some kind of charm so that I'd see all authority figures as giant, twelve foot versions, so all day I was cowering whenever one of the teachers spoke to me. Transfiguration was particularly trying, since Professor McGonagall was giving us one of her speeches about how unless we all pulled our socks up, we'd all fail our NEWT. Anyway, she was standing right next to me – twelve feet high and far too green – " Remus shivered at the thought " – and I must have looked horrified because she turned to me – waving her caterpillar legs, which only made things worse – and said 'There's no need to look like a frightened kitten, Mr Lupin, I'm sure with the proper application you'll have no trouble attaining an acceptable grade'."

They all laughed, and Remus reached for the plate of turkey, stuffing and pickled onion sandwiches, offering Tonks one before taking one for himself, while Sirius stuffed another fish finger one into his mouth and refreshed their glasses with punch. "Well," he said, swallowing the remnants of his fish finger sandwich with difficulty. "In true Marauder tradition, I should like to propose a toast."

Tonks raised an eyebrow. Hadn't they already done that? "We toast a lot on birthdays," Remus said, meeting her eye and apparently reading her mind. "It helps speed up the process of mindless inebriation."

"Less chatter from the floor, please," Sirius said, raising his eyebrow at Remus and then his glass. Remus raised his glass too, failing to look suitably abashed. "To Remus J Lupin, erstwhile Professor, un-ending Marauder, and birthday prankster extraordinaire, who always takes whatever life throws at him on the chin."

Remus smiled bashfully as he clinked his glass, and they dissolved into pleasant chatter about birthday's past while they polished off the majority of the sandwiches. The chatter sustained them until they'd all drained their glasses, whereupon Sirius sprang to his feet and re-filled them, and proposed another toast. "To Tonks, fearless Auror – even when it comes to chilli and fried egg sandwiches, noble scourge of our insanely evil family, surprisingly fantastic cook – "

"You wait 'til we've tried the cupcakes before you say that," Tonks interjected, frowning at the thought.

" – and enemy of troll-leg umbrella stands everywhere."

She laughed. "Cheers," she and Remus said together, clinking their glasses and taking a sip.

"And talking of cupcakes," Remus said, gesturing to the plate, "may I?"

Tonks nodded, and Remus took a pink icing-topped cake with rather more enthusiasm than she thought its dribbled decoration deserved. He peeled back the paper case and took a bite, swallowing and smiling pleasantly. "They're very nice," he said, sliding the plate towards Sirius. He took a cake with blue icing and ate it whole, while Remus and Tonks looked on aghast.

"A Marauder birthday is the cause for many things," he said, meeting her eye, "but apparently not better manners."

They chatted pleasantly for a while, with Remus regaling them with stories about the horrors of Dung's house, and Sirius holding court on a variety of subjects of a variously disturbing nature until their glasses were drained, and Tonks, at least, was feeling a little bit light-headed. Remus re-filled their glasses, raising his in toast. "To Sirius – "

"Don't you dare tell her what my middle-name is, Moony," Sirius said, threatening Remus rather ineffectually with a second cupcake. Remus raised an eyebrow.

"To Sirius – " Remus paused dramatically, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Sirius' hand twitch towards his wand " – Black. Master decorator, Casanova, and genius – the only man I've ever let hump my leg."

Tonks frowned at that particularly unsavoury mental image as Remus and Sirius downed large swigs of punch. "When did you – actually, I don't want to know," Tonks said. Remus smiled at her, and Sirius leaned forward and slapped him on the back, nearly knocking him off his chair.

"I think it's time for cake," he said.

"You just had cake."

"Not chocolate cake," Sirius said, sticking his bottom lip out slightly. Remus rolled his eyes.

"Did you make it?" he said, eyeing Sirius suspiciously

"Would I be this keen to eat it if I had?" Sirius said, and Remus' head dipped in thought before he nodded in acquiescence, she supposed thinking that that was a fair point. "Molly made it."

"Ah," Remus said. "Then I'd love some."

Sirius conjured a single – and rather large – white church candle and stabbed it into the top of the cake, right in the centre of the 'o' in 'old git', and lit it with his wand. His eyes darted about the room, and a rather worried expression crept across his features. "I suppose we should sing, or something," he said, looking about as keen on the idea as Tonks was.

Still, despite their mutual reluctance, she and Sirius made a reasonable stab at limping their way through a chorus of Happy Birthday, which brought a distinct pink tinge to Remus' cheeks, even though she thought a couple of cats being strangled would have been a more pleasant sound, and possibly would have been executed more rhythmically. As they drew to a close, Remus stood and blew out the candle, and they both clapped enthusiastically. Remus took out his wand and neatly cut three generous slices of chocolate cake, summoning three plates from the dresser and handing them one each. "Do we get a speech?" Sirius said.

"I'll spare you," Remus said, re-taking his seat and tucking into his cake with gusto.

Tonks grabbed a fork and did the same, sighing happily as the cake melted in her mouth. She was suddenly quite glad her attempt had exploded and was currently residing mostly on her kitchen ceiling….

"Oh, and I've got – " Sirius said abruptly. He rummaged in the back pocket of his jeans and extracted a mint-coloured envelope. He flattened out the edges and handed it to Remus. "From your mum," Sirius said. He leant towards Tonks and grinned, flashing his eyebrows briefly. "She flirts outrageously with me, of course."

Remus rolled his eyes, but took the card anyway, extracting it slowly from its envelope with his long fingers. Tonks got a brief glimpse of a dancing seascape on the front before he opened the card, smiled briefly at whatever was written inside, and then stood it up on the table, next to the picture she'd given him. She watched the tiny sailboats dip and rise on the painted ocean for a moment, before the scrape of Sirius' fork across his plate attracted her attention. She looked up to find him shovelling the last of his cake into his mouth, while she and Remus still had most of their to eat. "Do you always eat so – " she struggled for the word " – quickly?"

"Sorry," Sirius said, suddenly looking rather crestfallen. "Habit I picked up in Azkaban. There's some right nutters in there. They'll have the stuff right out of your mouth if you're not careful. You've got to learn to swallow anything you don't want nicked straight away."

Tonks' eyes widened in horror at what she'd said. "Oh – Merlin – sorry – I didn't think – I never thought –"

She frowned in embarrassment, looking to Remus for support, and finding him rather unexpectedly smiling. "He's joking," he said. "He always ate like a pig."

Tonks turned her attention to Sirius, finding him grinning at her with a rather manically pleased with himself expression. She tightened her jaw and stuck her tongue out at him. "Git," she said.

"If you're going to hang around with us, you'd better get used to it," he said, and Tonks smiled, even though she thought he was a git for making her feel bad, because it felt, for the first time, probably, that she and Sirius and Remus were a unit, of sorts. And it was a very nice feeling. "Anyway," Sirius said, waving at the now-empty punch bowl in the centre of the table "we appear to have run out of punch."

"I suppose you have a suggestion for how we might rectify the situation?" Remus said, resting his head on his hand and peering at Sirius through his fringe.

"You know me, Moony," Sirius said, summoning a bottle of Firewhiskey from the pantry, "always be prepared."

He set the bottle down on the table, summoned some more appropriate squat glass, and poured them each a very generous measure. Tonks shovelled a large forkful of cake into her mouth as a precaution. "Who's turn is it to toast?"

Remus' eyes fell on Tonks, and she shook her head furiously. She couldn't. Remus' toast had been witty and liberally sprinkled with warmth and affection, and even Sirius had his moments of rather uncharacteristic kind-heartedness. She didn't have the faintest idea what to say. Remus seemed to have other ideas, though, and he smiled at her encouragingly. "Go on," he said. "I wouldn't want you to feel left out."

"Come on, cousin," Sirius said. "Don't let the side down."

Tonks rolled her eyes. "All right," she said, lifting her Firewhiskey tentatively and wishing she could take a sip to steady her nerves. "To Remus, who deserves to have a very happy birthday, and to Sirius, who makes really great punch."

Remus clinked his glass against hers, his eyes twinkling reassuringly at her, and she smiled. "See?" he said. "It wasn't that bad."

Sirius tossed back his Firewhiskey, barely wincing. Then his face lit up as if he'd just had a very good idea. "Do you remember that time that you – " Remus held up his hand for quiet, and Sirius stopped.

"Before you go any further, could you please ask yourself whether this is a tale I want Tonks to hear?" he said, his lips curving into a slight smile. Sirius smirked.

"I can see how there's a chance you wouldn't want your girlfriend to know what a liability you are when you're hammered."

"Me?" Remus said, appalled. Sirius ignored him, waving his protest aside.

"Anyway, do you remember that time we all went out, and you had all that Firewhiskey because you wanted to drown your sorrows – "

"About what?" Remus said. "Help me narrow it down and determine whether or not I should hit you with a silencing charm before you say something that makes Tonks wish she'd never agreed to have anything to do with me."

"How am I supposed to remember that?" Sirius said, aghast. "You did a lot of moping, Moony – they all tended to blend into one after a while."

Remus opened his mouth to protest, but Tonks jumped in before he had the chance. "I did hear a rumour," she said, "about an incident involving nudity, humiliation and a fist fight after a large amount of Firewhiskey."

"Did you?" Sirius said, smirking at Remus. "I would have thought that fell squarely in the never-to-be-mentioned-in-front-of-girlfriends category."

Tonks met Remus' gaze and raised an eyebrow. "She's fishing," he said, looking away and smiling to himself as he raised his glass and took a sip of his drink. "She knows nothing."

"Glad to hear it," Sirius said, "because neither of us come out of that one looking very good."

Remus chuckled softly. "Indeed."

Tonks folded her arms and let out a brief huff of frustration that she wasn't about to hear the story. "Of course that's not what I was talking about," Sirius said, grinning, "I was talking about that night in The Grinning Kneazle when you had a couple of dozen too many and fell off the table."

Tonks' eyebrows darted up in surprise and she turned to Remus, any huffiness dissipating in favour of how curious she was to hear any tale about Remus that involved him falling off a table. "What were you doing on a table?"

"Singing," Sirius said, through a snigger.

"Singing?"

Remus dropped his head onto his hand and let out a low groan. "I thought we had a gentleman's agreement never to speak of that again?" he said.

"Did we?" Sirius said. Remus rolled his eyes.

"Yes."

"When did we agree on that?"

"It was tacit."

"Oh." Sirius looked momentarily perplexed. "I don't think I do tacit."

"Apparently not," Remus replied, rubbing his temple with his fingertips.

"What were you singing?" Tonks asked.

"Some God-awful dreary – "

"It's not dreary," Remus said.

"It is. All the music you like's dreary. I'd rather listen to the anguished howls of Azkaban's residents than most of your record collection."

Remus pressed his lips together to keep from laughing.

"What were you singing?" Tonks asked again, turning more squarely to Remus. He avoided her eyes and cleared his throat.

"As I recall it was 'You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio'," he said, and when his eyes flickered to hers, they were coy and amused at the same time. She stifled a laugh.

"To anyone in particular?" she asked, feigning nonchalance rather badly.

Sirius spluttered into the glass he'd apparently re-filled. "No. If there's one thing Moony shouldn't do to try and get into a witch's knickers, it's sing." Remus shot him a look of admonishment, which Sirius ignored. "He's much better off with his sweet and innocent routine," he muttered.

Two hours later, Remus' birthday cake was half-eaten, the bottle of Firewhiskey was three-quarters empty, and Tonks was feeling a little bit drunk around the edges. She'd gotten over her fear of toasting quite rapidly, proposing that they toast the stuffed elf heads in the hall, and as a testament to the fact that Remus and Sirius were feeling as fuzzy of thought as she was, they'd both thought it was an excellent idea.

She looked up from the glass in her hand, the contents of which she'd been studying for some minutes for no apparent reason. Remus was swaying slightly in his seat, and Sirius was in the middle of a ribald story she and Remus had both rather lost track of around half an hour ago. "So I said to him – I said 'screw you and your tight-arsed door policies' – well I would've if I could have said something – "

"Er, why couldn't you say anything?"

"I was Padfoot," Sirius said, with an airy wave. "So I just pissed on his leg."

Remus and Tonks exchanged glances and then burst out laughing, even though they had no idea what the story had been about. Sirius saluted them both, and then slumped forward and toppled into a plate of left-over birthday cake.

Tonks rested her head on her hand, still half-heartedly chuckling at Sirius' story, and Remus hunched forward and rested his head on his fist, peering up at her through his fringe from the tabletop. Tonks' eye switched from him to Sirius to the plate of cake and then back again. "I've got the strangest sense of deja vu," she said.

"Me too," he said.

"Does he always pass out in food?" she said.

"If there's food to be passed out in, Padfoot will find it," he said. "He slept the whole night with his face in a plate of spaghetti bolognaise once. When he woke up he had it all stuck to his cheek…."

Remus trailed off into a spluttered laugh and looked up at her coyly through his hair. She was suddenly rather overtaken by desire, and she stood up, clinging to the table to steady her inebriated legs, and stepped closer until he leant back in his chair. Tonks slid onto his lap, and the chair creaked beneath them. "This is new, though," he said, his voice soft and deliciously teasing as he rested his hands on her hips. "I'd definitely have remembered this," he added, sliding his hands round to her back and pulling her closer. She hooked her feet around the chair legs for balance, biting her lip at the sensations that passed through her body as they were pressed even closer.

"Hmm," she murmured against his lips as she leaned in to kiss him.

Remus responded with instant enthusiasm, and his mouth was warm and sweet-tasting from the Firewhiskey, his lips as accommodating as ever. He kissed her just the way she liked to be kissed – his lips were a feather-light tease one second, fully committed and intense the next. She heard Remus take a sharp inward breath as she shifted against him in appreciation, and his fingers tightened on her back briefly, before his hands slid up her spine, drawing her closer to him and giving her the tingliest stomach sensations as he held their bodies together.

She felt her body come alive under his touch, and every pound of her heart and fresh surge of blood through her veins only served to intensify things, to make her feel every delicious sensation more keenly. She really wasn't sure how much more she could stand before she gave in to the urge to drag him upstairs and –

"Moony? Are you taking – "

"Yes I am," Remus said, barely bothering to prise his lips from hers to let the words out. "So be quiet and avert your eyes."

Sirius tutted, but Remus ignored him, taking her face in his hands and kissing her soundly, and very nearly making Tonks forget that they'd been interrupted at all.

"I can still hear you," Sirius muttered, and Remus dropped his head onto her shoulder, sighing. Tonks glanced behind her to see her cousin resting his head firmly in his plate of cake crumbs. "As if this house isn't full enough of disturbing memories…" Remus took out his wand and conjured a pair of pink fluffy earmuffs, which he tossed at Sirius' head. "Ow."

Remus brought her face back to his, kissing her chin before making for her lips.

"You could at least have made them a colour that goes with my skin tone."

Remus sighed and leant back, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You really are the human equivalent of a cold shower, you know," he said. Sirius grinned.

Tonks clamboured off Remus' lap and he shot her a brief glance of acute disappointment, which made her stomach clench. She wobbled slightly on her feet, not knowing whether it was Firewhiskey and punch or Remus-induced inebriation that had made her feel light-headed, dizzy and as if her knees weren't working properly. She was ninety-nine percent sure Remus was responsible for the flurry of activity in her insides. One thing was for certain, though. "I think I should go to bed," she said, a little surprised that she didn't slur her words. "I've got to be at work in – yikes," she said as she checked her watch " – seven hours."

She bent down and gave Remus a lingering kiss before ruefully forcing herself to pull away and move towards the door. "Don't I get one?"

She raised an eyebrow at Sirius, and then went over to his chair and kissed him on the top of the head. "Happy?" she said, ruffling his hair on impulse, and he grinned at her.

"You know we're going to talk about you as soon as you're gone," he said. She sighed.

"As long as it's mostly complimentary," she said, "I don't mind. G'night."

Tonks trudged up the stairs, clinging to the banister, fully intending to crawl into bed and sleep, dreaming wonderfully Remus-y dreams about desks and chairs and what constituted wicked things amongst party food. When she'd closed the door of her room behind her, she whimpered at the thought and leant on the wall, damning Sirius for not knowing how to pass out properly.

She wondered if they'd really be talking about her.

She tried to push the thought aside. Remus wouldn't talk about her. Not like that.

But then he and Sirius had been friends a long time, and he had had quite a bit to drink….

The thought wouldn't let go, and her brain helpfully chipped in with questions about what Remus might be saying about her, what he really thought about her, what he really thought about them.

She wished there was a way to hear –

And then a thought occurred, a bolt from the blue.

She went over to the desk, opened the drawer, and there it was. One of Fred and George's Extendable Ears. Sirius had found it earlier in one of the upstairs rooms when they were looking for left-over party streamers and had given it to her, thinking that it might come in handy. And lo and behold….

She bit her lip. She shouldn't.

The impulse, however, proved too strong for her drunken brain to resist, and before she really knew what was happening, she was kneeling on the landing, feeding the Extendable Ear between the banisters and uttering the word 'Go', sending the fleshy string on its way down to the kitchen. She put the other end to her ear, and waited, swaying slightly and resting heavily on one hand to steady herself.

As the voices below became clearer, she swallowed, not really knowing what to expect.

Sirius' voice was the first she heard: "A toast," he said. "Happy Birthday."

"Thank you," Remus said, and Tonks heard clinking glasses. They were quiet for a moment, and Tonks shifted into a slightly more comfortable position, curling her knees into her chest and resting her head on her hand.

"You like her, don't you?" Sirius said, his voice floating up to her as clear and crisp as if she'd been sitting next to him.

"What was it that gave me away?" Remus said, in a tone that suggested he might be rolling his eyes.

"No, I mean you really like her."

There was a long pause, and for a minute Tonks thought the Extendable Ear might not be working. She took it out, gave it a quick shake and then held it back up to her ear, frowning at its sudden malfunction. And then Remus replied: "I more than really like her."

Tonks started and nearly dropped the Extendable Ear altogether. More than really like?

Her heart pounded every bit as quickly as it had when she was sitting on his lap in the kitchen. What was more than really like? Did he just mean really, really like?

Or –

She swallowed.

She wasn't even sure it was helpful to let the thought form in case he did just mean really, really like – which was cause enough for enthusiastic inside jigging – and not –

She swallowed again. Did he – could he possibly – mean something else? Something involving another four letter word beginning with 'l' that neither of them had mentioned yet?

He couldn't, she thought. He must mean really, really, like…although there was something about the way he'd said it….

Her heart pounded, nearly drowning out what Sirius said next:

"You're not just messing around?"

"No," Remus said, his tone rather horrified. "When have you known me to just mess around?" There was a pause. "All right," he said ruefully. "I don't need to hear the list."

Tonks' features crumpled into a frown, all of their own accord. She didn't like the sound of a list. She knew he'd had other girlfriends – really, at his age, she'd have thought it a bit odd if he hadn't – and that some had been more serious than others, but the thought of him with anyone else drove her just a little bit crazy, as did the thought that Sirius knew more about the matter than she did.

"How far have things gone between you exactly?"

She was so lost in her own thoughts that Sirius' voice startled her a little, but she couldn't help smiling as her brain made sense of the words, because it was a very Sirius – very blokey – kind of question.

"Far enough that if I were to tell you, you'd wish you hadn't asked," Remus said, and she smiled again, for entirely different reasons.

"Good job you're a gentleman, then," Sirius muttered.

There was another long pause, and Tonks wished they'd keep talking, distract her, because every time they stopped, her mind went back to tossing that 'more than really like' thing back and forth, wondering which of the two options he meant, wondering why he hadn't said anything of the sort to her. But then she hadn't said anything of the sort to him, either….

"It's nice to see you happy anyway," Sirius said, granting her wish for distraction. "You're normally such a miserable bastard."

"A role you seem to have taken to with remarkable aplomb in my stead," Remus said.

"You'd be miserable too if you were stuck in here day in, day out."

"I am stuck in here day in, day out," Remus said. "And to make matters worse I've got to put up with you and your bloody whinging. If anyone should be knocking back Firewhiskey at breakfast it's me."

Sirius let out a brief snort of amusement.

"You are being careful, aren't you? With Tonks," he said, and Tonks felt her brow crease. Even for Sirius it seemed an odd change of direction. She put it down to the Firewhiskey

"Don't you think I'm a bit old for the contraception charm talk?"

"No, I meant – I meant with your heart."

Remus laughed heartily. "Now I know you're drunk," he said.

"I'm serious."

"I know you are. That's what makes it so amusing."

"I know what you're like," Sirius said. "How you get yourself into…situations."

"Situations?"

"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about."

"I'm not pretending," Remus said, sounding distinctly baffled.

"You must admit that you've got a bit of a tendency to, you know – "

"Ah," Remus said. "The way I – "

"Yes."

"Because I – "

"Yes."

"And then I – "

"Yes."

"And then things – "

"Exactly."

Tonks let out a frustrated huff. What on earth were they talking about? Would it have killed them to spell it out for those listening illicitly on the landing? This is what happens to people who eavesdrop, she thought. They hear a load of half-thoughts they can't put together properly and a load of things they can't possibly understand that are bound to torment them.

"Well," Remus said, "I don't think I'm in a situation, as you put it."

"Are you sure?"

"Are you trying to tell me that I am in a situation and I don't know it?"

"No, it's just – well, I don't want you to get hurt."

"Well," Remus said, "thank you for being concerned, but I don't think there's going to be any situation. I mean I'm not entirely sure what she sees in me, but – "

"Haven't you asked?"

"No," Remus said. "Of course I haven't. To be honest I don't want to bring it up again in case it hasn't occurred to her that there is nothing to see in me."

Tonks felt an acute stab in her chest. She wanted to rush downstairs and tell him exactly what she saw in him –

"Don't be ridiculous," Sirius said, and Tonks nodded her approval for her cousin's words.

"I'm not being ridiculous."

"Yes you are."

"No, I'm not," he said.

"Are. You're quite the hotty these days, you know," Sirius said. "If I was a girl, I would."

"As you're roughly as choosy as a randy stoat," Remus said, "that's very comforting."

Sirius chortled quietly to himself, and Tonks thought she heard him pouring another couple of drinks. "You do have things to offer, you know," Sirius said.

"Like what, exactly? My incredible wealth? My fantastic employment prospects? The fact that I turn into a bloodthirsty monster every month?"

"Like you," Sirius said emphatically. "You can roll your eyes all you like, Moony, and I know you think I'm only saying this because I'm drunk, but I'm not. You're pretty special. Not many people would have given me a second chance for one. I mean you don't hold a grudge – even when you probably should – that's pretty rare. And you're kind, and thoughtful, and generous. You'd give anybody everything you had if they asked for it."

"So what you're actually saying is that for people I care about, I'm a bit of a push-over."

"Well yes," Sirius said, laughing. "And girls like that in a man."

On the landing, Tonks sniggered.

"I don't know," Remus said, letting his words out as a long, drawn out sigh.

"For what it's worth," Sirius said, "I hope you get married and have loads of children and grow old together and sicken everybody with how completely in love you still are."

"Steady on," Remus said, his tone leaping in surprise. "It's only been a few months."

"I know," Sirius said, "but you're my best hope to be a rakishly handsome and eccentric uncle. You can't blame me for getting excited."

Remus let out a soft breath of laughter, and Tonks wished she could see his face, his reaction to what Sirius was saying. Was that what he wanted? Had he even thought about that kind of thing?

But Remus, annoyingly, didn't elaborate. "And what about you, Black?" he said. "What are you planning to do with the rest of your life?"

"It'd be easier to make plans if we weren't in the middle of a war and there wasn't a price on my head, Moony."

"I suppose," he said. "What if we weren't? Where would you be?"

"Hypothetical tonight?" Sirius said, rather wistfully. "We haven't played that for years."

"No," Remus said. "So what'll it be?"

There was a lengthy pause, and Tonks sat up, resting her head on the banister as she waited for Sirius' reply. "Well, since it's your birthday," Sirius said, "I'd be in a fancy restaurant with you and Tonks, with a blonde half my age on my arm. I'd be making you feel uncomfortable by insisting on paying, and making everyone uncomfortable by flirting with the waitress."

"And hypothetical tomorrow?"

"Puking my guts up. Karmic food poisoning."

Remus chuckled. "It's nice to see you haven't lost your sense of whimsy."

"What about you? Hypothetical no war tonight."

"I wouldn't change a thing," he said, "not even being bitten by that damn ferret. I've had a very nice day."

"You big softy."

"Thank you."

Tonks traced the grain on the banister with her fingernail, smiling at Remus' words.

"Well, I think we should have another toast," Sirius said. "You choose."

"To absent friends," Remus said, and she heard clinking.

They were quiet for a long time, and when Sirius spoke, his voice was oddly soft. "Sorry I haven't been much fun to live with recently."

"It's all right. You can't possibly think that after all this time I'd hold something as trivial as you making my life a misery against you?"

Sirius laughed. "Do you ever hold anything against anyone?"

"No," Remus said, and his voice had that delightful lilt it sometimes had when he was amused by something. "Annoying, isn't it?"

As their chuckles dwindled, Tonks shifted again, stopping abruptly when the floorboards beneath her knees creaked. The last thing she wanted was for them to come out to investigate the noise and find her curled around a banister, listening. She barely dared breathe, but as a minute passed and then another without the kitchen door creaking open and their wand lights appearing, she relaxed.

"I'd forgotten how much fun you are when you're in love," Sirius said.

"Who says I'm in love?"

"You do," he said. "Every time you look at her."

Tonks' heart leapt in her chest, any thought of being discovered utterly forgotten. She pressed forward and peered over the edge of the landing to try and see the kitchen door, even though she knew she wouldn't hear any clearer. She tried to swallow, to push her heart back down to its normal position, but it wouldn't budge and stayed lodged in her throat, fluttering wildly.

"Getting sentimental in your old age, Sirius?" Remus said, and his voice danced with something that sounded like, but wasn't quite, she didn't think, amusement.

"Isn't it about time? I found a grey hair the other day for Merlin's sake."

"No sympathy from me on that front, I'm afraid," Remus said, his voice low and droll.

"No," Sirius said, laughing. "A toast. To becoming grumpy old men."

"To growing old disgracefully," Remus returned, and they clinked glasses. One of them, she couldn't tell who, let out a long sigh.

"Do you remember the first time we had Firewhiskey?" Sirius said.

"To be honest, no," Remus said. "I remember drinking the first glass, and then for a while everything's a blur…and then I remember James rolling me over and saying 'do you think he's dead?' and you saying 'I hope not. I need him to help me with my Charms homework', which, at the time I thought was very odd, because you never needed my help with anything."

"Lily gave us such a telling off for letting you get in such a state," Sirius said. "She was halfway through her lecture when you kind of jerked awake and said 'not their fault' and then threw up everywhere. It was the funniest thing. Even she laughed."

"Well I assure you I've come a long way in terms of holding my liquor."

"Which is a shame," Sirius said, "because you always were my favourite drunk. Very entertaining."

"Pour me another one, then," Remus said, "and I'll try my best."

Sirius laughed, and Tonks heard him pour another two, what sounded like, generous measures. "You know, if anyone'd told me when we were 11 that we'd be drinking together – what – twenty-five years later, I'd have thought they were severely Confunded."

"Me too," Remus said. "I hated you."

"You still do, don't you?"

"You've grown on me."

"Like a fungus?" Sirius said.

"Itchy fungus."

Sirius laughed, and Tonks wondered if she'd ever heard him laugh so much in one evening. It was a nice sound, and with the two of them in the kitchen chuckling over reminiscences, the gloomy hallways of Grimmauld didn't seem nearly as grim as they did normally. For once, the place actually seemed like people lived here, that there was life, and not just doom and gloom, within the walls.

"You were such a nice boy," Sirius mused.

"Too nice," Remus said, rather wistfully. "Sometimes I wonder what would have become of me if we hadn't met. I think life probably would have chewed me up and spat me out long ago if you and James hadn't lead me astray."

"Nah," Sirius said. "You always had it in you to be a trouble-maker. You were just more prepared to try not to be than the rest of us. Besides, works both ways."

"How so?"

Tonks stifled a laugh with her fingers. Only Remus would think to use a phrase like 'how so' when drunk.

"I mean, if I hadn't met you, I'd be dead," Sirius said. Tonks frowned, wondering how on earth he'd worked that out.

"Dead?" Remus said, evidently sharing her thoughts.

"Well if I hadn't been friends with you, it would probably never have occurred to me to try and become an Animagus, and if I hadn't done that, I'd have died in Azkaban. So really, when you think about it, you being a werewolf saved my life."

"Now there's a gift that keeps on giving," Remus said dryly, and Sirius' bark of laughter bounded up the stairs to meet her. "I suppose it's about time some good came of it," he added, rather more seriously.

"Suppose. I have been a very bad influence, though," Sirius said.

"No you haven't," Remus said, quietly. "You and James – you convinced me that I was entitled to something more than reading about life in books. Even though I've ended up living a little more life than perhaps I expected or even wanted, I'm very grateful. You've been the very best influence. I'm very glad we met, very glad we're still friends."

"Me too," Sirius said, and they clinked glasses once more. "You think we should call it a night before one of us starts crying?"

"Hmm."

"Are you going to wait until I've gone to sleep and then sneak into Tonks' room?"

"No."

"I know that you've stayed the night at hers," Sirius said. "So there's no point being coy."

"I know you know, and I'm not being coy. She's probably asleep."

"She's probably listening."

Tonks froze, gripping the banister tightly.

"What?" Remus sounded almost as surprised as she was.

"I found one of those Extendable Ears things earlier – you know, they're really something – and, being a good citizen, I handed it over to an appropriate law enforcement officer. She's probably curled up with it on the landing."

"And you didn't think to mention that before because..?"

"I thought she might like to hear what you think of her first hand for a change."

There was a pause, and then Remus said: "You really are the biggest git I've ever met."

"But you love me anyway."

"More fool me."

There was a creak downstairs, and Tonks scrambled to her feet, feverishly winding the fleshy string back into her hands, and bolted for her bedroom. She threw herself into bed without changing into her pyjamas and pulled the covers up over herself, closing her eyes and trying to settle her erratic breathing into a more sleep-like rhythm.

Minutes later, there was a very soft knock on the door, and she opened one eye a crack and saw Remus' head appear at the doorframe. "Tonks?" he whispered, pushing the door open a little further.

She snapped her eye closed again, and for a moment feigned sleep, before she heard a creak of floorboards as Remus moved away, and decided that she should probably confess all. "All right," she said, opening her eyes and looking at him. "I was listening. Sorry."

Remus closed the door behind him and crossed the room, staggering slightly and steadying himself on the bedstead. "It's all right," he said. "Firstly, I didn't say anything that I wouldn't have wanted you to hear, and secondly, I'm so drunk that in the morning I probably won't remember."

She sniggered. "Do you want to get in?"

"What?"

"Do you want to get into bed?" she said.

"Oh," he said. "Is that all right?"

She reached for the covers, but Remus spoke before she had chance to pull them back. "I've still got all my clothes on," he said, with such a look of drunken confusion she wanted to ruffle his hair.

"So have I," she said, pulling back the blankets to show him. Remus nodded. He seemed to think that that made things all right, and took off his new jumper and folded it neatly, placing it carefully on her chair. He perched on the edge of the bed to take his shoes off, before sliding in beside her.

He settled on his back, and stretched his arm out across the pillows, and she shuffled forwards and nestled against his shoulder. "Are you going to be good?" she said teasingly, as he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer and nuzzling her hair. She wasn't entirely sure what she wanted his answer to be.

"I assure you I'm far too drunk to be anything other than a perfect gentleman," he said, his voice drowsy as he kissed her temple.

Tonks turned into his kiss, sliding her hand down his chest and underneath his shirt. "I'm sorry I eavesdropped," she said. "I shouldn't have, but – "

"It's all right," he said, stroking her arm. " Really. I'm just sorry neither of us said anything more interesting to make it worth your while."

Tonks chuckled into his shoulder. She really wouldn't say she hadn't heard anything of interest. Quite apart from the more than really like thing, there was the matter of the list….

"Have you had a good birthday?" she said, trailing her fingertips lightly across his stomach.

"I have had the very best of birthdays," he said, rather too gleefully.

"How much have you had to drink?"

Remus sighed. "No idea," he said. "Too much. We opened another bottle and had about half, so…."

"You should probably be dead."

"In the morning, I daresay I'll wish I was."

"You big drunkard."

Remus grinned and rolled towards her, pressing their bodies together, his hand on her hip, fingers teasing her skin. He kissed her softly and then pulled away, resting on the pillow with a rather glazed expression and a drowsy, lop-sided grin. "Since you're all drunk and compliant," Tonks said, "can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

Tonks bit her lip, wondering if she really wanted to know. She knew that she was being a bit unfair, that if he hadn't had all that Firewhiskey – and when it came to it, if she hadn't – she would never have the nerve to ask, but she wanted to know, and now seemed the best Firewhiskey-inspired opportunity to assuage her curiosity. She took a quick steadying breath. "How many girls have you slept with?"

She looked up, meeting his eye tentatively, but he was grinning at her, an intriguing mix of drunkenness and flirtation. He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, his fingertips lingering on her cheek, and then raised an eyebrow at her. All traces of drunkenness disappeared from his expression, leaving only flirtation so acute it made her insides cave. "Enough that I'm fairly certain I know what I'm doing," he said. She bit her lip harder, barely daring to breath. She wanted him to look at her like that forever. And then he let out a soft breath of laughter that may well have been the beginnings of a snigger. "Not so many that I'm utterly convinced," he added, and then his face crumpled as he gave in to a rather drunken giggle and he looked down, before raising his eyes slowly to hers again, his eyebrows squashing together and dipping in amused uncertainty.

She couldn't help but laugh – partly in amusement, and partly because he looked so damn adorable like that. "Good answer," she said.

"Thank you."

He traced the outline of her face for a moment, lingering on her jaw and watching the path of his fingers intently. When he looked up she met his eye, feeling her lips twitch a bit unintentionally into a cheeky smile. "Don't you want to ask me the same thing?" she said.

"Well that depends," Remus replied.

"On what?"

"On what the number is and if it's big enough to make me feel insecure."

Tonks allowed herself a small chuckle. She'd never imagined that Remus might have any such insecurities, even less that he'd admit it. And yet, she found his admission strangely enticing. "How big is big enough to make you feel insecure?" she said.

"I don't know," he said. "I'll know when you tell me and I feel insecure."

"Maybe you'd better not ask, then," Tonks tittered.

"You'd better tell me now," Remus said, poking her admonishingly in the side. "I think I'm drunk enough to take it."

Tonks grinned. "How would you feel if I said thirty?" she said, biting her lip as she raised her eyes to his.

"Like I wasn't quite drunk enough," he said.

"Twenty?"

"Shaky ground."

"Ten?"

"I could probably deal with ten."

"Well it's less than that," she said. "Quite a bit less."

"Good," he said, grinning and toying with the ends of her hair, "because when I said I could probably deal with ten, I was lying."

He shot her an adorably sheepish glance, sniggering at his own admission, and she lifted her hand to his face, lightly stroking his cheek. "You're very lovely," she said, and Remus' smile broadened underneath her fingers.

"Thank you," he said. "But while we're being drunk and honest," he said, " – or while I'm being drunk and honest – could I put in a request for some more manly adjectives?"

"All right," she said. "How about sexy?"

"Better," he said, "even though it's not true."

"What do you mean not true?" she said.

"Oh come on," he said, rolling his eyes. "I'm a lot of things, but not sexy."

"You are."

"I'm not," he said. "Sirius is sexy. I'm nice. Or docile. Or lovely. Or, on a very good day, with flattering lighting, mildly attractive."

She sighed. "I think you're very sexy," she said indignantly. He made a noise of rather drunken disbelief. "I'm in bed with you, aren't I?"

Remus grinned. "Hmm, yes," he said, shifting closer, drawing his hand up her body to disappear into her hair, "and for the life of me I can't remember why I'm wasting the opportunity arguing about whether I'm sexy or not."

He eased her closer and kissed her, and she sank against him, grateful that he didn't seem at all bothered by her eavesdropping. His fingers ran through her hair, giving her delicious scalp tingles, and then he dropped his hand to her waist, slipping it inside the cardigan she was still wearing and caressing her waist, tracing some pattern she couldn't quite determine over her T shirt. He moved away a little, leaving her lips feeling a little bereft, and trailed kisses along her jaw to her ear before making his way down. "I really am far too drunk for this," he said, chuckling into the crook of her neck, but rather belying his words with actions. He kissed his way back up to her face, letting out the odd drunken chuckle against her skin, and then kissed her affectionately on the nose. He dropped back onto the bed and she turned into his arms and settled against him, giggling along with him as she kissed his neck, his jaw, his cheek.

"Maybe you should sleep it off," she said.

"I think that may be inevitable," he muttered, pulling her closer, and as he sighed, his breath was a warm tickle on her temple. "Do you mind – I mean – is it all right if I stay here?"

She smiled against his shirt collar. "Of course it is. What did you think I was going to do? Kick you out?" She felt his mouth hitch into a smile against her hair.

"Good," he said, "because crawling to my own room now would be a bit undignified, and I fear that's all I'm up to."

She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair, pushing it away from his face so she could look at him properly. Through the darkness, she could just make out the sparkle of his eyes, and she kissed him on the cheek. "Sweet dreams, then," she said, and settled back against his shoulder.

"With you in my arms," he murmured, resting his chin against her forehead, "how could they be anything else?"

Tonks was still smiling when she fell asleep.

She woke up with Remus' arm draped around her waist, her back firmly pressed against his chest. She didn't remember moving, or him curling around her, but she rather liked it, and as she stirred, Remus hugged her to him. She shifted further back into his body, loving how it felt against hers, and then stopped.

Either Remus kept his wand in a place Moody would definitely not approve of, or –

"Remus?" she said, her amusement banishing any early morning grogginess. "Is that...is that what I think it is?"

"Yes," he said, nuzzling the back of her neck.

"Well it's nice to know you're pleased to see me," she said, stifling a laugh not entirely successfully.

"It's an early morning thing," he replied, his voice lilting with amusement. "So don't flatter yourself."

She couldn't resist shifting against him a little, smirking. "And don't do that," he said, arresting the movement of her hips with his hand, "or I'll be forced to do something very ungentlemanly."

She laughed and then glanced over her shoulder to find him grinning. "You seem very chipper," she said, and Remus rolled onto his back, scrubbing his hands over his face and gazing up at the ceiling.

"I think I'm still drunk," he said.

She rolled over to face him and ran her fingers through the hair that was falling into his eyes, delighting in the hopeful spark that inspired. "Good," she said. "I like it when you're drunk."

She pressed her lips to his, tasting sour Firewhiskey on his lips, which she didn't find nearly as off-putting as she knew she should, and slowly drew Remus into a lingering kiss. He didn't seem to mind, and so she gradually shifted on top of him, drawing her legs up either side of his. "So you like it when I'm drunk?" he said, mumbling the words against her lips. When she pulled back far enough to see his face properly, he raised an eyebrow and rested his hands on her hips, tracing faint circles she could barely feel through her jeans.

"Hmm," she said, pressing a kiss just below his ear and making him squirm, just a little bit.

"Because I'm easier to take advantage of?"

"I don't want to be the one to break it to you, Remus, but you never exactly play hard to get."

Remus rolled his eyes and grinned. "I know," he said, and as his hands slipped underneath her T shirt and slid up her back and over her skin, he eased her to him. "I always was a shameful tart."

And as his lips covered hers, she couldn't think of anything except how good his hands felt against her skin, and how much she liked the way he moved beneath her, and how desperately intoxicating his kisses were. She pulled away a little, aware that she was breathing somewhat heavily and kissed his cheek, making her way to nibble his ear. Remus let out a low rumble of approval and shifted to press his lips to her neck.

"Nymphadora!" her alarm shrieked. "Stop dreaming about Remus and get your lazy arse out of bed!"

Tonks stopped. So did Remus. He sniggered quietly against her neck, and Tonks sat up, biting her lip and wincing with embarrassment. "Is there any chance you didn't hear that?" she said, and Remus laughed, his whole body shaking and sending some quite pleasant sensations through her.

"No. Sorry," he said.

"Oh."

For some reason, her 'oh' sent Remus into freshly rapturous peals of laughter, but somehow he still managed to find a way to pull her to him, and having her lips on his seemed to soon make him forget that he'd found anything amusing at all.

"Unhand the werewolf and get to work!"

Remus pulled away, laughing. "You'd better do as the lady says," he said. "She sounds mean. You don't want to make her angry."

"Do I have to?"

She offered Remus a petulant pout, and then whacked her alarm with her wand rather forcefully, as if it was its fault she had to go to work. The alarm offered her a derisory snort, and then fell silent, and Tonks snuggled down onto Remus' chest.

"I thought you had to go to work?" he said softly, his fingers toying with the ends of her hair.

"I've got five minutes," she said, hugging him tighter.

He held her for a moment, and then pulled away a little, dropping his chin onto his chest so he could look at her. "I like this," he had softly.

"What?"

"Waking up with you."

Tonks lifted her head. She'd been about to say something flirtatious and glib about how it was difficult for any wizard not to like a situation that involved having a witch wriggling around on his lap, but his eyes were soft and sincere, and so she settled for a "Me too," and he smiled.

"Last night," he said, lifting an eyebrow. "Did I do or say anything I should know about?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"What do you remember?" she said, and his forehead wrinkled as his eyebrows dipped in thought.

"Not a lot," he said. "I didn't wake up with the desperate urge to apologise, though, which I normally do if I've done something I should know about."

She rolled her eyes, thinking how very Remus it was to wake up with the urge to apologise. "You did – well – you did say that you didn't understand what I see in you."

"Oh well that's true," he said, glancing at the ceiling. "I don't."

"Well," she said, slowly. "It's this."

"What?"

"This," she said, waving over him vaguely, not entirely sure how to explain it. "That's what I see in you."

Remus frowned at her in utter, adorable, befuddlement. "Am I not understanding this because I'm drunk, or for some other reason?" he said, and she laughed.

"I'm not sure I can explain it any other way," she said. "It's you. That's what I see in you. Just you."

"Oh," he said, but the confused crease between his eyebrows remained.

"You haven't the faintest idea what I mean, do you?" she said.

"No," he said. His eyebrows twitched upwards in a helpful, hopeful kind of expression. "I am drunk, though."

She smiled at him and then pulled him in for a kiss, which certainly seemed like something he was more than capable of understanding. "I've got to go to work," she said, with great, aching, reluctance. "Why don't you stay here for a bit?"

Remus murmured his agreement, and reluctantly she slid out of bed, staring down in dismay at her sleep and Remus-crumpled clothes. She was about to collect her things and slink off to the bathroom when Remus caught her hand, turning her back towards him. "Tonks," he said, squeezing her fingers. "Thank you. I had a really lovely birthday."

"Of course you did," she said. "You ended up in my bed with me writhing around on your lap."

Remus laughed quietly. "I mean it," he said, and then grinned. "That was just the icing on the cake."

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and cheered enthusiastically for an upped rating. Today's review bribe is, of course, birthday treats. Romantic Remus lets you give him a gift and writes you a touching thank you note, Sexy Remus starts a food fight with less than honourable intentions, and Mischievous Remus insists on a strip-tease, saying that if you don't, he will ;).