Tonks was happy, today was the day she got her freedom back. Became independent again. No longer did she have to have a bloody babysitter. She was allowed to out in the big, bad world on her own. Even if Dawlish was still grumbling about it. She still couldn't get used to that but apparently mollycoddling Dawlish was here to stay. You get caught and tortured by a demented aunt once and suddenly you needed protecting.

'Knock, knock'

That was the front door. Tonks would get it but she was currently in her underwear. Something nobody needed to see. Especially now when she didn't fill it in any of the right ways. Or could be bothered changing her body to do that (though she doubted she could do such a big change when her hair and eye colour were still giving her difficulties).

She heard the door open and she thought someone came in but she wasn't paying any attention. She was currently trying to find her thick jumper. They had woken to frost this morning and she refused to freeze while on patrol. Dawlish would have her in bed with a thermometer and soup before she could blink.

"Tonks! Get your arse down here!" Savage called up.

Who was he giving her orders? She stomped down to the kitchen to give him a piece of her mind when all thoughts of that flew her mind-

"Kingsley!" she said gleefully, engulfing him in a hug. "What are you doing here?"

He was supposed to be guarding the Prime Minister! This couldn't be any further from London!

"Not happy to see me?" he teased as he lifted her off the ground.

Oh, she had actually missed that!

"I can't exactly see you at the moment," she said, her voice muffled by his broad chest.

Was it even broader than the last time they'd seen each other? When did he get the time to work out?

Suddenly her legs were dangling in the air as he held her in front of him, one of those stupid grins of his on his face. There were snickers from behind me which she did not appreciate.

"Very funny, Kingsley," she said in an annoyed tone, wiggling her legs in an attempt to reach the ground.

The snickers turned to outright laughter. She turned her head and glared at her two colleagues.

"Shut up, you two."

At least that made them be quiet but it didn't remove their amused looks. Which were far too amused in Tonks' opinion.

"Down please," she added, turning her attention back to Kingsley.

He smirked at her. "But you're so cute in the air."

"Don't make me kick you," she threatened, looking pointedly at his crotch. "My feet are at the perfect height."

Funnily enough, that got her standing on her own two feet again. She'd have to threaten his lower parts more often if it meant he'd actually listen to her.

"You're mean," Kingsley complained. "I should just go away and leave you here."

"What are you even doing here?"

She honestly thought he got no time off. Or barely no time off. Kingsley was one of the few people who didn't run the Prime Minister the wrong way.

"I had some time off and your team here said that you had some free time."

Tonks whirled around to face the guys. "I do?"

That was the first she was hearing of this. Wasn't she just getting ready to do a shift (by herself!)? Or had everything that had happened recently actually scrambled her head?

Dawlish coughed and nodded. "Yep. Savage here is taking your shift. You have his."

Tonks tried not to groan. Savage had the early morning one tomorrow. That was almost not a fair trade off. But hey, she got to hang out with Kingsley for the rest of the day. That was something.

Her gratefulness did not prevent her from narrowing her eyes at Dawlish who couldn't meet her eyes. If this was more of him being overprotective...

Before she could say anything, Kingsley was dragging her off towards the door. Tonks managed to snatch her coat from the rack before Kingsley unceremoniously had them outside, slamming the door shut behind them. Tonks winced. The neighbours were not going to be pleased about that. They'd ready had several disgruntled notes about coming in at all hours of the night and day.

"So, how are things going?" Kingsley asked as she struggled into her coat.

Pitting the right arm in the right arm hole would make life an awful lot easier, wouldn't it?

"Dawlish is being weird!"

Because if that wasn't news, she didn't know what was.

"This wouldn't have something to do with you being captured would it?"

That made Tonks stop and give him a suspicious look. How much did he know? How did he know?

"You know that sort of thing goes around the office quickly," Kingsley chided her, reading her expression accurately.

Tonks raised an eyebrow.

"And Dawlish filled me in," he added guiltily.

"See? It's weird!"

There was no way that the Dawlish of before would have ever reached out to any of her friends if he was concerned about her. Hell, she hadn't thought he could feel that emotion before this!

"He's just looking out for you. Being protective," Kingsley said gently.

"Exactly! Weird!"

This was Dawlish after all, didn't he get that? Dawlish should be snappy, rude, abrupt, uncaring not, not whatever this was!

Kingsley just shook his head at her. Tonks pulled a face; she knew she was right here. The world was out of balance with Dawlish being so nice to her. It made her feel uncomfortable. Unsettled. And she'd had more than her fair share of that this year. She didn't need it coming from work too.

"Anyway, he said you've been moping around."

Moping? She didn't mope! No, definitely not. Moping was for lovestruck and angst-ridden teenaged girls, like what Ginny and Hermione were currently doing. She, Nymphadora Tonks, an Auror, did not mope.

"I haven't been moping, I've been annoyed."

Kingsley just raised an eyebrow at me. It was a lot more dramatic with his shiny bald head - which she'd have to crack a joke at soon. She was sure he's missed that over the past few months. Not that she was in a joking mood much. But if I didn't, he'd think something was wrong. There were too many people who thought that recently.

"Uh huh."

That was an unconvinced tone if she'd ever heard one.

"You would be too if people thought you were going to shatter like glass!"

"But people have been scared you'd do just that," Kingsley said bluntly.

That brought her up short and she gaped at him.

"Excuse me?" she spluttered out.

What were people thinking of her?

"It's just that everyone's been worried about you," he said in a gentler tone. "Between Sirius' death and what happened between you and-"

"Don't even go there," she warned.

Kingsley gave her a long, probing look before nodding slowly.

"Okay then."

Tonks breathed a sigh of relief. He linked his arms with her.

"Come on," he urged in his normal voice. "Let's have some fun."

"The last time you said that we managed to start a karaoke competition in Diagon Alley," I reminded him.

That had been hilarious and incredibly embarrassing. Also, no shop owner in Diagon Alley had good singing voices.

"Not that much fun."