It was a lovely view and lovely place to be altogether, given the company. Tonks was comfortably nestled in Remus's arms with her back pressed to his chest and their legs tangled with each other. The sound of running water and chirping birds made her hum. They were on the bank of a river situated near the woods, not far from the Burrow. Not long after Ellie had left and they have finished their breakfast, Molly had suggested that they go for a walk and had told them about this place. They hadn't been able to reject the suggestion as they both loved water bodies.

The morning's light filtered through the canopy and fell on the river, which made it sparkle like a diamond.

"It's lovely." Remus spoke softly in her ear.

"Yes it is." She replied as she breathed in clear cool air. "I-I am glad that everything can settle between us now." She quietly broached the topic.

"I am glad too. I guess... all this just brought as closer." He said and kissed the shell of her ear.

"And made us stronger. Stronger as a couple. And taught us a thing or two about trust." She picked on the golden light hairs on his forearm.

"Yes but don't expect me to go and thank her for it." He leaned down, placing his forehead on her shoulder. His voice carried a touch of lingering bitterness.

"Let it go, Remus. Whatever happened has happened. Just take the positive out of it and leave the negative behind. War is getting worse and we need 'us' more than ever. All this also taught me how much I need you and how much I have came to rely on you in such a short span of time."

"Me too. I need you too, too much."

"Did you miss me?" She asked even though knowing full well that the answer will be in positive.

"Missed you?" He placed his chin on her shoulder, peering at her. "That's an understatement. It was excruciating one month. I was worried sick. I got a full blown taste of what it must have been like for you when I was underground."

She winced at his comparison. "I am sorry. It must not have been pretty."

"No it wasn't." He leaned forward and placed a kiss on her jaw that now had just a faint impression of the purple bruise. "But don't be sorry. I probably deserved it."

"Can I ask you something?' She turned around to look him in the eyes.

"Anything." He replied earnestly.

"Were you... going to propose Ellie before she disappeared?" She asked the question that had been nagging her for several weeks.

He frowned. "Who told you that?" But before she could have opened her mouth to reply, he interrupted. "Oh never mind, I don't want to know... I didn't had it planned particularly. You see, before all that happened, Sirius gave me a ring to give it to Ellie whenever I decided to propose her. I accepted the ring even though I had no plans to give it to her anytime soon. I thought it was too early and the timing was not right. I never gave it much thought. After Sirius was sent to Azkaban, that ring was forgotten though I had a suspicion that she had seen that ring in my drawer. But we never confronted each other about it."

"But would you have married her?"

He smiled grimly. "What will you answer if I say that had I not met you, you would have married someone else."

She frowned. "Obviously I would have married someone else because we never would have known each other-" She stopped and realized what he had done.

"Exactly. I loved her at that time and I would have married her sooner or later. And if I would have married her, then when we met in 1995, you never would have seen me in that way because I already would have been a married man. And then you would have fallen in love with somebody else and would have settled with him. We never would have loved each other and how can we lose something we never experienced or never had. But things turned out differently. And I couldn't be gladder. If after sixteen years of loneliness, I get you, it's all worth it. What I am trying to say is it does not matter if I had wanted someone else long, long ago because my present is you. I stopped loving her long before I met you."

She leaned back on his chest and requested him to help her take out her sling. It felt scratchy. As he helped, she said softly: "You are right. I am asking silly questions which have no meaning today. Because as you said the truth is that we have wanted each other ever since we first laid our eyes on each other."

"You are bound to be curious. I would have been too." He kept her sling aside on the grass. "Are you able to move it without pain?"

She tried some movements with her hands and replied back. "It does not pains much, just a bit stiff."

"It will be okay." He rubbed his fingers on her forearms and her bare toes curled in the grass. He touched her rib cage and she flinched.

"I am sorry! Did I hurt you?" He immediately withdrew his hand in alarm.

"No, no you just shocked me." She took a deep breath to calm herself.

"But it's not bandaged?" He must have felt it through her t-shirt.

"No... Well this morning, Molly did some complicated healing and placed a magical shield around the burn... so that if I trip or I behaved like my usual clumsy self, it won't get worse. So if you were to hit me really hard there, I won't feel a thing because it is protected."

"Oh well... good... But I have no intention to hit you to check the theory."

They both chuckled lightly.

"Show me?" He asked softly. She immediately stiffened and he hurried to complete. "Don't feel compelled to do so. But if you are hiding it from me because you are afraid of my reaction, then please don't. It won't change a thing."

She turned and leaned sideways. After pondering a bit, she answered. "You want to see here, out in the open?"

"Nobody comes here, I am pretty sure. Still I can throw some privacy charms."

She nodded her approval.

After he was done, he turned to her as his fingers fiddled with the hem of her tshirt. "Shall I?"

She took a deep breath. He was going to see her after about almost a month. Everything aside, she had been anxious of their reunion as well. She had missed him in more ways than one. And now when he was going to see her... First time she truly experienced why he was so sensitive about his scars. "Go ahead."

Sensing her nervousness, he drew in for a deep kiss. "Don't worry." And then with tender care, he peeled off her t-shirt.

And immediately sucked in a shocked breath as soon as the fabric left her body. She closed her eyes in mortification.

"Oh Dora..." His voice broke which made Tonks open her eyes and peer at him through her sea green fringe. He had tears gathered at the corner of his eyes and a look of utter anguish on face. She swallowed the lump in her throat. "It must have hurt so badly..." Even though she wore no bra for the same reason as before, not even once his eyes left the burn marks. She looked down and felt sick. Her left side of the stomach and ribs were covered in gruesome red welted marks. "I am so so sorry you had to go through it all alone."

"It's okay. It's... alright. It doesn't hurts now."

He withdrew his eyes from the marks to look at her face. He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand and she leaned into it. "You are so brave."

"It-it won't always look like this, Poppy was cent percent sure..."

"I don't care Dora, I don't care about scars and marks... as far as you are not in pain, I don't care for any of it. You are beautiful."

She smiled timidly. "Can I put my shirt on now?"

"I-" He hesitated. "-if you don't mind, I would like to hold you like this actually..."

She smiled and her hands went to his shirt buttons. "Then it should work other way round as well." Together they shrugged off his shirt as well and both their clothes lay next to each other in beautiful mess.

He drew her close and hugged her as well as he could with their position and her arm. He drew small circles on her lower back and she shivered both at the feeling of his hands and a blast of cool air. Her nipples hardened and his eyes flicked to them but he made no further move. He pulled away and she snuggled into him with her naked side pressed into his bare torso.

"I have always wanted to make love to you in a river, beach or lake..." He spoke in the skin of her cheek and a pleasant chill traveled down her spine at his words.

"I don't think with my injuries it will be a good idea..." She said with some disappointment.

"Next time." He said and she smiled at his promise.

They touched each other with slow caresses and tentative touch, which soon turned more heated. He cupped her breast in his palm and she gasped in his mouth as he devoured hers.

"What about... making love on the bank of a river?" She suggested in a whisper as her hand stroked the thin trail of golden hairs at his abdomen and felt the way his stomach quivered under her touch.

"It sounds no less appealing." He kissed and nibbled her neck as his hand squeezed her breast gently.

With hand at the nape of his neck, Tonks urged Remus's mouth back to her lips. She sucked his lower lip in her mouth as she felt his tongue stroking the places it could reach in her mouth. She felt like she could be like this forever- especially after the hellish month she spent away from him. His one hand caressed her back while the other played with her nipple. She herself couldn't stop tracing his torso and back.

His one hand slowly trailed down to her jeans button and snapped it open, slowly unzipping it as well while she adjusted her hips to allow him better access. Tonks buried her hands in his hairs and clutched it tightly as his hand slid under the waistband of her knickers and felt her center. They both exhaled sharply at the contact.

"I love how..." he spoke with difficult as he palmed her heat; his hand trapped down there. "...how ready you are for me... always."

"I love you." She spoke against his lips as she unbuttoned his trousers and slid her hand in, mimicking his movements.

"God, I have missed you." He groaned out as she caught him in his hands: hard and warm. It was two way pleasuring and she loved it. Could she ever get enough of this man?

Her eyes fluttered close as he grounded the heel of his palm in right places and in answer she sped up the movements of her fingers. ''What did you missed?" She moaned out as his finger slid inside her.

There hands explored each other most erotically but not once did their eyes left each other's face.

"I missed you smile..." His finger slowly caressed her inner walls delicately while his lips kissed the corner of her mouth. As she rubbed his tip enticingly, she saw it in his face the efforts it took him to control himself. The heat was building but none of their movements were rushed. They wanted to savor each other thoroughly. "I missed your mindless chatter... your aura... I missed you lying next to me...completely naked..." As he said, he added a second finger inside her. She bit her lower lip hard; hard enough to leave a mark as his tongue darted out to stroke her lips lazily. "I missed your warmth." He pulled his fingers as far he could and pushed them back with force. She gasped and her head lolled back. This presented her neck in front of his mouth. He pressed tiny little wet kisses on her neck.

"Remus..." She moaned his name as she felt herself throbbing over his fingers. She couldn't take more. She needed to feel him inside her for real. She had waited too long... and this time there would be no doubts or nagging worries... "I am ready for you... please take me."

At her request he pulled out his fingers and she watched from the corner of her eyes as he wiped his fingers on the grass.

"Lay down love." She withdrew her hand with a shaky breath and laid down on her back, feeling the soft moist grass tickling her. Her already sensitive skin, burned with desire. He adjusted her carefully so that her injured arm would stay out of the way of their coupling. "You are so beautiful... " He whispered as he bent down to kiss her belly button. Tonks could see the sincerity in his eyes and knew that he wasn't just saying so to make her feel better. She felt a rush of love for this kind and generous man who always saw the best in everyone.

His mouth reached up to her breasts and stayed there as he licked, sucked and nibbled her nipples. "So soft..."

She ran her hand through his hair and scratched his scalp, knowing well that he loved it. After it got too much to bear, she urged his mouth back to meet hers in a fervent scorching kiss. Their heated kiss was a sharp contrast to the cool air hitting their bare skin. Her hand reached down and she tugged his waistband down; taking the hint he pulled away from her mouth to quickly divest them of their bottoms.

Once she was completely naked, he eyed her up and down with lust, his eyes lingering on her breasts and wet center hungrily. It looked as if he was capable of shagging her rotten just though his eyes.

"You know..." He said in a husky voice as his finger carefully traced the cut on her thigh. "If only I could paint, this would have been my favorite scene to capture... My love lying... naked on the green grass under the sky..." His voice murmured as she writhed with desire under his lustful gaze. "...So open and wet for me...those beautiful breasts rising and falling with each breath...your eyes, your hairs... your long legs and damp center... so beautiful... so ready for me..."

As he described her, Tonks became conscious of each body part under his scrutiny. Only Remus knew how to make love in more ways than one.

Slowly he lowered himself, adjusting his weight carefully on his elbows and rubbed his erection over her center which made her shudder and bite her lip.

"Remus please... I want you... in me right now..." She whispered somehow. He rubbed his chest over breasts and carefully entered her with slow movement. "Oh...love... I have waited so long..."

After that no words were exchanged other than usual moans and encouragements.

Later they lay beneath a conjured blanket on the soft, cool grass; curled comfortably around each other. A soft haziness had covered her mind, giving a soothing sensation of peace.

"Do... do you want to have my mother's pendant?" Remus asked quietly, brushing his lips against her temple.

She hesitated and answered: "I... um... I think you should keep it with you as your mother's last souvenir..." She didn't want to refuse directly but she did had some qualms about accepting the thing. Ellie had been wearing the piece for more than sixteen years and in some sense, it did belonged to her, it was gifted to her after all. Immediately acquiring it just seemed wrong in Tonks's mind. She just hoped that Remus would understand.

"Alright." He spoke and then smiled reassuringly. Tonks released the breath she had been holding.

"Everything is going to be fine you know." She said. She felt the urge to mention, to assure him that everything was fine between them and if it was not, it was soon going to be, because they just loved each other too much to stay apart.

"I Know." He rubbed the bare small of her back with his hand and pulled her closer. "I know love... I have faith in us."

As she cradled his head with her hand to deepen the kiss he had initiated, she couldn't help but reflect on the truth in Minevra's words about a little more in the world.

There were thousands of problems waiting for them, outside the boundary of woods; but they would emerge from it holding hand and combining their strength to combat whatever came their way.

Well, here it is. This story is done. Complete. I would love a review now.

Or if you'd rather wait for the epilogue. Do keep an eye for the epilogue :)

Thank you