"Moony she's driving me crazy," Sirius Black groaned before taking a swig from the bottle of Firewhiskey he held in his left hand, the pleasant burn doing nothing to ease his suffering.
"So, you keep saying but what are you going to do about it," his old friend asked raising a greying eyebrow at him over the book he held in his hands.
"What can I do, she's so young, has her whole life ahead of her. What could she possibly want from an old dog like myself," he asked running the hand not clutching his bottle tiredly through his thick onyx curls.
"Pot calling the kettle back, much Padfoot," Remus chuckled turning the page of his book carefully.
"It isn't the same and you know it, Tonks is your mate, your other half, and the age difference isn't as large as the one between her and I," Sirius groaned.
"I see he's still debating the pros and cons of shagging Hermione," Tonks quibbled as she stepped into her and Remus's living room.
"He is, how are the kids," Remus asked quietly as his wife settled onto the couch beside him, her body moulding against his as she slipped under his arm.
"Teddy is out like a light, didn't even make it halfway through his new dragon book. Hope and Andy were a bit fussy, but they just needed feeding, your daughters are greedy little buggers," she groaned rubbing her sore breasts.
"You don't have to breastfeed we can use formula," Remus soothed gently.
"I know we could, but I want to do it this way at least until I return to work, my tits are already producing the milk, the adorable devils might as well drink it while I'm here," she replied.
"Cousin as much as I love you and my goddaughters, I really don't want to listen to you talk about your breasts," Sirius commented dryly.
"Yes, you'd much rather talk about Hermione's wouldn't you cousin," she challenged.
"It's so wrong, she's only twenty-five," he moaned.
"She's a consenting adult is she not," Tonks asked plainly.
"Yes, but I'm turning forty-five this year, surely as the older adult I shouldn't lead her on, she'd be better off with someone her own age," he argued.
"You know as well as I do that in our society twenty years is nothing, not when we can live well into our hundreds," Remus countered.
"It's wrong, I've known her since she was a teenager, she's my godson's best friend," he groaned.
"Did you have deviant sexual thoughts about her back then," Tonks asked, Sirius blanched.
"Of course, I bloody didn't she was a child," he told her angrily thinking back to the first time he had met the then bushy haired thirteen-year-old witch, a girl who had stood in front of his godson to protect him from a "murder", who had howled to draw Moony away from her friends, she had flown on Buckbeak despite been terrified of heights and had helped save him. He'd felt admiration for the little know it all, thought she was a good friend for Harry to have but he'd never felt attracted to her not then at least. He'd first felt attracted to her much later when the tiny firecracker of a witch was in her early twenties; with bouncing brunette curls, a gorgeous figure and an intelligence to rival all others. She was the perfect package, beauty, brains and a cracking personality and the ability to crack jokes that would make him laugh for hours; how could he not be attracted to her
"You're not a bad person Padfoot, you are allowed to be happy," Remus told him gently.
"I am happy," he argued.
"Don't you want more though, love, a family to call your own," Tonks asked quietly.
"I have a family," he argued.
"You have us, our children, Harry and his children but Sirius don't you want your own," Tonks asked cautiously.
"I did years ago before the first war. I fancied myself falling in love and having children of my own, but I spent twelve years in prison for a crime I didn't commit, I spent years hiding from the ministry largely confined to a home my family once tortured me in. I then fought in the second war; the time for having my own family is gone," he told them, taking a large gulp from his bottle.
"Hermione wants you Sirius, you can have everything you wanted, a family of your own with her," Tonks told him with tears in her eyes.
"Sirius the war has been over for eight years, it's time to stop punishing yourself and live," Remus spoke, his amber eyes locked on Sirius's grey pair.
"How am I supposed to do that; I'm a mess," he confessed with a dark chuckle as he looked at the vice he held within his hand.
"You're not as broken as you think you are, Hermione wouldn't be trying to pursue you if you were truly unfixable, she's smarter than that," Remus informed him.
"I'm not one of her problem causes, I don't need fixing," he told them.
"Your right you don't need fixing, and you aren't one of the welfare cases she takes on at the Ministry, you're the man who took her in when her whole world fell apart, who put her back together and who she's grown to care for, to love," Remus told him.
"I did what was right," he shrugged nonchalantly.
"Did you see Harry offering her his spare bedroom when Ronald cheated on her, did you see Neville, Luna or any of her other friends going out of their way to make her laugh, did anyone else sit with her for hours while she cried, take care of her when she was drunk, or portkey to France for her favourite dessert just to make her happy," Tonks asked.
"Nobody else was in the position to do any of that, everyone has significant others and children, it made sense for her to move into one of my spare rooms, she couldn't afford the rent on a flat by herself," he told them.
"Padfoot, you cook together most nights, you go out to bars together, you read books together, you bloody live together, you've practically been dating the girl for the past two years," Remus told him.
"We're just friends," he argued.
"I'm friends with Charlie, never snogged him though, it's not something one commonly does with a friend," Tonks goaded.
"The first time wasn't on purpose we were stuck under Enchanted Mistletoe," he reminded them.
"I believe you've known the counter curse since sixth year when you were forced to snog James under it," Remus smirked.
"So, you willingly snogged her two Christmases ago," Tonks asked, Sirius reluctantly nodded. How could he have not snogged the girl; six months post her break up with her ex-fiancé, six months of the pretty brunette lounging around his house in the tiny shorts and camisoles she liked to sleep in, six months since her scent; coconut and jasmine invaded his home, making him crave the gorgeous witch. How could he resit her; staring up at the mistletoe her chocolate eyes wide and doe like. a tiny "'oh' had escaped her parted rose painted lips, her cheeks flushing darker, they'd already been flushed from the eggnog she had drunk. She had been dressed in a ridiculous flashing penguin jumper which clung tightly to her perfect breasts. Her eyes had flicked nervously from his eyes to his lips but despite her nerves he'd smelt her excitement, a salty scent mixing with her coconut and jasmine. Under the mistletoe she had been a forbidden fruit and he hadn't been able to resist leaning in, his lips touching hers, tasting her for the first time, she was intoxicating she tasted sweet like the butterscotch candies she was always sucking.
"It was only meant to be the one kiss, I just wanted to taste her," he murmured.
"How's that working out for you," Remus asked his voice full of amusement.
"You know exactly how its going she's driving me crazy," he replied, thinking of the kisses they had shared since their first, her hands tugging at his hair, her back arching as he kissed, licked, and sucked the column of her throat, tasting more of the forbidden fruit. It was getting harder to pull away from her with each kiss she stole.
"It must be so difficult to have a willing woman trying to get you into bed," Tonks spoke sarcastically.
"You have no idea how difficult it is I have enhanced senses little cousin, I can smell her arousal, I can hear her when she touches herself, when she calls my name as she comes," he told them.
"Then why the fuck are you invading our house when you could be with her right now," Remus asked tiredly.
"I was trying to get you to convince me that sleeping with her is a bad idea," he replied quietly.
"Only if its just a shag, Hermione is worth more than that. If you are looking for a quickie go find a whore in Knockturn Alley. If you want to pursue her seriously, be in a committed relationship with her then we fully support and encourage you, " Tonks told him, Remus nodding in agreement at her side. Sirius took another swig of his drink, frowning down at the now empty bottle.
"I have to go," he told them rising unsteadily to his feet.
"Go where," Remus asked wearily.
"Hermione," he told them pulling his ebony wand out of his pocket, he smiled at the couple before apparateing with a pop to his and Hermione's flat.
"Sirius you're home," Hermione spoke quietly from where she sat at the kitchen table, a steaming cup of tea before her.
"I've been a idiot," he told her striding towards her.
"You have," she agreed.
"Hermione, I'm a broken man but for some reason you think I'm worth something," he whispered to her.
"You're not broken," she told him, rising from her chair to walk towards him.
"I'm not whole or perfect," he confessed.
"Neither am I, I have scars both mental and physical, nobody is perfect Sirius," she whispered her hand rising to crease his cheek.
"To me you are perfect," he told her leaning down to kiss her.
"Your perfect to me too," she sighed as their lips connected. He wasn't sure what she saw in him, but he wasn't going to waste another second with her; he was one lucky old dog and he'd stay with Hermione for as long as she'd have him. Maybe one day they'd have their own family together but for now he was happy with his witch in his arms.