Another waking up which meant that her first glimpse of the world in the morning was, yet again, Remus' chest and she was not complaining about that. Particularly because there was nothing covering it. Yum.

A chuckle reverberated through his chest, making her blush.

"I said that out loud, didn't I?"

"You did," Remus agreed, giving her a gentle squeeze. "You dreaming of chocolate or something pastry like?"

Of course, that's where Remus' mind would go when he heard the word yum. Tonks didn't know why she would think anything different.

"Nope," she replied, propping herself up on his chest on her elbows and started to trace a pattern on it with her fingertips.

He shuddered almost imperceptibly and tried to grab them but she was too quick. Their hands scuffled a bit before Remus finally managed to grab hers. She would claim that she let him.

"I was thinking of you, actually. Your chest, to be exact."

That made him drop her hands and now it was his turn to blush. Which was wholly unsatisfying because only a faint pink tinge touched his cheeks. Unlike her bright red face and stupid hair.

But she saw an opportunity and decided to take it. It wasn't often that she got to tease him, after all. Especially to the point of embarrassment. She had honestly forgotten how sweet a flustered and embarrassed Remus was and she would rather like to rectify that.

"It's a nice chest," she continued, trailing her fingers from his collar bone down.

Remus grabbed her hand again, to stop her from going any further. Tonks didn't think that she would ever get tired of him doing that. She loved the way he grabbed her hands. The way his massive hand basically swallowed hers. How he held hers in a comforting grip that wasn't restrictive. How warm his skin was. How the calluses rubbed her softer skin. Yep, they were nice hands.

"I do not have a nice chest," he chided shaking his head and giving her a good morning kiss.

Which briefly distracted her, she wasn't going to lie. Especially when both of them got a bit grabby. Unfortunately, her stupid alarm clock interrupted them just as her hands were dipping below the waistband of his pyjamas. That thing only existed to ruin things; she was convinced. A good sleep, a lazy start to the day, sexy fun times - it ruined all of those.

Remus turned it off before she could chuck it across the room. Probably for the best. She wasn't sure how many Reparos it had left in it.

Sweet sweet silence. Who even made alarm clock alarms that annoying anyway? Someone with something against sleep, that's who.

"You really should be getting ready for work," Remus finally said when it became apparent that she was not going to move any time soon.

"Five more minutes," she grumbled right back.

Whoever got out of their bed exactly when the alarm clock went? Not her, that was for sure. So, she snuggled right back next to Remus, determined to relax for a few more minutes. She had hit the snooze button anyway. Unfortunately, Remus was of another mind and bodily swung her out of bed. Briefly flailing, it took her a moment to realise that she hadn't ended up on the floor and Remus was still holding her quite firmly on his lap.

"You suck."

Another chuckle through his chest. It had to be the best feeling in the world.

"I may suck but I know for a fact that your colleagues and boss would definitely not appreciate it if you were late to work today."

Tonks groaned at the reminder of her having to go back to work today.

"They suck too."

"I'm sure they don't."

"Dawlish is one of them. They certainly do."

"Kingsley is also one of them," Remus pointed out.

"Well, he sucks as well."

"I'll be sure to let him know."

Tonks mumbled something I response and tried to slip into bed again but Remus' extremely firm arm prevented that from happening. Had she mentioned that he also sucked? A lot of things sucked this morning.

"Come on," Remus tried to coax her. "I'll make you some scrambled eggs on toast."

Now that was something that most definitely didn't suck.

[xxxxxx]

"So, how was work?" was what she was greeted with as she came in the door.

Tonks didn't answer for a moment as she was briefly disoriented from arriving in Remus' house instead of her flat in Hogsmeade or in London.

"It sucked."

She knew it was going to suck. That's what happened when you were barely in the office all year, you felt like an alien when you returned. Relationships had changed, dynamics had changed, people had left and you were completely out of the loop when it came to office gossip. Which, you know it, sucked. Of course, the whole debacle at Hogwarts didn't help either.

Maybe she shouldn't have said that without explanation because Remus automatically went into "Protective Wolf Mode" as she liked to call it. This involved Remus bristling in indignation, his eyes flashing and him wanting to be close to you. Maybe even a growl but Tonks knew that she hadn't sounded distressed so the growl didn't happen. Pity, it was pretty sexy.

"What happened," he asked, a hint of steel underlying his voice.

Mmm. She liked that. Bad Tonks! No getting distracted. Remus was trying to be nice.

"Oh, nothing in particular," she told him, sighing heavily. "Just feels like I'm new and the office freak again."

Remus frowned at her wording but she didn't know how else to put it.

"You have been basically away for a year."

"Yeah, and that sucks too."

Hogsmeade Duty hadn't exactly been thrilling after all. Except for that incident with Bellatrix but she wasn't going to bring that up. Being away from the office really should be more boring than being in the office. It had to be a rule or something.

"Well, what would make your day suck less?"

See, that's the Remus she lov-liked. Liked. That's the Remus she liked. The proactive one. The one who could come up with a plan no matter how small.

"Dunno."

She was quite happy being in his arms to behinds- which she had made no effort to move from, by the way.

"How about hot chocolate?"

Tonks had to smile at that. Remus' solution to everything.

"Sure," she easily agreed, just wanting to leave her day behind her. "Haven't had that in a while."

That made Remus stop and state at her.

"Now, that's just a travesty."

"Not my fault!"

"No one stops someone from making hot chocolate."

Actually, they kind of did. Especially when that someone was someone you didn't want to think of and hot chocolate made you think of them and therefore you never wanted to make hot chocolate. Of course, Tonks voiced none of this and just shrugged instead.

"Pretty sure I just lived off coffee this year."

"Travesty, a travesty," Remus repeated, shaking his head as he bustled around for everything that he needed for his hot chocolate.

"Yeah, well, blame work."

"It really does suck."