Remus awoke to a dull ache in his head. Judging by the light streaming in from the window it was well into the morning. He remained still for a while, attempting to fall back to sleep but even after several hours of slumber, he still felt on edge after the events of the night before. He soon realized that it would be near impossible and gave up on the idea.

He sat up carefully as to not disturb Sirius, whom he observed with envy, seemed to be having no trouble at all sleeping in. It was then he realized that Tonks had already wakened and left the room. He slipped off the bed and rummaged in his dresser for a new shirt. He idly hoped that Tonks had perhaps started breakfast or at least made coffee.

His modest dreams of coffee and toast faded when he came across Tonks sitting at the bottom of the stairs. She seemed lost in thought and he made an effort to make some noise as he made his way down the stairs so she wouldn't be startled when he reached the bottom. She turned to look at him as he approached.

He noticed she was holding his coat in her lap. As he approached, she held it up to him. "Here is your coat back. I fixed it. Or at least I tired. I'm not the best at cleaning spells so it's got a bit of a stain on the front still."

Remus took the coat and unfolded it to observe her work. "Thank you. You didn't have to repair it though. It was enough you rescued me," he smiled warmly at her.

She looked back at him with a pained look. He felt his smile fade as he took a seat next to her on the stair. "Are you- are you alright?" he asked uncertainly. He hoped she wasn't still dwelling on the drowned Death Eater.

She stared down at her lap, her hands folded neatly in front of her, "I know it all turned out alright but it was stupid of me to try to save you all by myself. Any Auror would tell you that four on one is courting death. I should have apparated away to find back up."

Remus was unsure how to respond. Though he was a veteran of quite a few battles, he had never been trained as an Auror. He wasn't sure how to reassure her or if he should even try. Instead he decided to respond with gratitude. "Well I don't mind how you did it. Doesn't change the fact that you saved my skin."

She looked at him, with what he thought was exasperation, "Remus, I am very good at my job. I don't choke. Or at least I haven't before. It was incredibly dumb for me to take on four without even a plan." She paused and continued to stare. For a second he almost thought she was angry but then her expression shifted to one of sad contemplation. He was close enough to feel her trembling. She looked away and started to explain again, "I just know when I saw them with you… I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. I panicked. I thought they were going to kill you and all I could think was I would never see you smile again, never hear you speak. I felt like the world was ending."

Remus shifted uncomfortably. She turned to look at him once more, taking his hand in her own. "I felt that if you died, something in me would die too." She was looking directly into his eyes now. He couldn't look away; he felt like she was peering straight into the core of his being.

"Tonks…" he whispered. He wanted her to stop. He could feel where this conversation was going. What she was about to say that once uttered couldn't be unsaid. He wanted her to stop but he also equally wanted to hear her say it.

"I've never felt this way before. I have never worried about losing someone. Not the way I worry about you."

He couldn't speak. He couldn't breath. He plead with his eyes but not even he was sure if he was pleading for her to continue or to stop.

"Remus, I love you. I am in love with you." Her words hung in the air between them, no longer retractable. They had reached the point of no return.

She continued to watch him, waiting for his response. He was acutely aware that their hands were still entwined. He realized suddenly how often and how easily they had taken each other's hands over the past few days. When did that start he wondered. He couldn't remember. His heart was racing. The sound of it was pounding in his ears. She was still waiting for an answer.

"I'm- I'm sorry," he stuttered. He dropped her hands and awkwardly scrambled up the stairs. "I've got to- I'm sorry- I can't-" He was babbling. All he could think was that he had to get away. He had to go somewhere else. He couldn't look at her. He imagined her face was red with anger.

He reached the top of the stairs and sprinted to an empty room. He needed to be alone, he couldn't go back to their room where Sirius was still sleeping. He needed to think. He needed space to panic. If he could get the panic out of the way then maybe he could make sense of her words and find some way out of the situation. Some way that nothing had to change. Someway where the three of them could stay close friends, some way the three of them could stay together.

He was standing in the middle of the room with his face buried in his hands and his back to the door when she found him. He heard her open the door and make a tsking noise at him. He turned to face her. She was observing him from the doorway with her arms crossed. Her face looked determined. "That was not the response I was expecting," she said sternly. She crossed the room to face him, dropping her arms to her side.

He watched her in silence, still unsure how to respond. Finally she looked away. "Just get it over with. Just crush me. Say you don't love me." Her voice was low and quivering. Her face a mask of pain.

He struggled to find his voice. He stood willing himself to do as she asked but the words wouldn't come.

She was staring at him again. He saw her nostrils flair. "What are you waiting for?" she cried out this time in anger. "Just say it. Say you don't love me so we can move on and forget this whole terrible thing ever happened."

She was glaring at him and he could tell she was seconds away from tears. He took a deep breath preparing his rejection, but as he opened his mouth to speak the words he knew he could not say them. He knew, as he had known in the moment that she had confessed, that he couldn't lie to her. His ungainly flight up the stairs had stemmed from his sudden realization of the truth. That he felt the same way she did and he could no longer deny it.

Years of his own experiences of bitter rejections and their resulting insecurities would not allow him to lie to her about this. Whatever else must come, he could not lie, "I can't," he gasped.

She looked angry enough to strike him. "What the hell is that suppose to mean?"

"I can't lie to you," he admitted. Her eyes widened in comprehension, or maybe disbelief. Now he was the one unable to stop what had started. "Tonks," his voice was wild and desperate. "I am in love with you too."

She looked at him as if she couldn't believe what she had heard. She made an odd noise when she tried to speak.

"But -" he began to explain.

She jumped forward, gathering him close to her, "No but, not yet. I know what you are going to say. Just let me have this moment." She hugged him fiercely and he wrapped his arms around her, feeling a sense of relief and joy. He felt he had let go of something very heavy that he had been holding up so long he'd forgotten when he had started to carry it. He pulled back from her to see her face. She was smiling as bright as the sun. He smiled back and kissed her on the forehead. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, passionately. He returned the kiss eagerly, holding her close.

In the back of his mind, he was reminding himself this would be the only time. Part of him was already preparing the words he had meant to say after. The explanation that it didn't matter that he loved her because he loved Sirius too and had already made his choice. The excuse that he was no good for her anyways. Too old, too poor, too lycanthropic. But all of that was hard to concentrate on with her lips on his own and with the distracting little moans she was making as she pressed into him. His hands wandered, exploring her shape, committing it to memory. She was insistently pushing him back against the wall, her own hands freely roaming determinedly lower.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me!" the outraged voice of Sirius echoed throughout the room. Tonks' eyes flew open and she jumped back from Remus. Remus was thankful he was leaning against the wall, otherwise he was sure he would have fallen to the floor. He looked across the room to the doorway where Sirius was standing, staring at the two of them with the blackest look Remus could ever remember seeing on his face. "Un-fucking-believable," he shouted.

Tonks was staring wide eyed and bewildered at Sirius. Remus moved toward him, his arm stretching out toward him, "Sirius-"

"No." He said harshly and turned, rushing out of the room.