Disclaimer: These aren't my puppets, I just snuck in to play.

Chapter 6

"So, dance lesson, touching, jokes, and an almost kiss. Is that it?" Sirius sat on the arm of the couch. "Oh, and the whole ruddy fate thing. That's what happened then?"

Remus nodded. He raked a hand through his hair and scowled. "I'm such a bloody idiot. I mean, was I supposed to have figured this out by now? I must have been the only one not to see it." Sirius nodded almost apologetically and Remus groaned.

"Remus, its not entirely your fault. The girl's been moping around here since she saw you and she never did anything about it. But yes, you could have been a little more perceptive. Ginny told me that Tonks has been apparently dropping all sorts of obvious hints, lately."

Remus' eyes widened. "You were talking to Ginny about me? Merlin Sirius, leave me some scrap of dignity at least. You know, she probably respected me as a professor once, and now, well I don't think I want to know what she thinks of me now."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "But Remus, I had to talk to her."

"Why?"

Sirius stood up and started pacing in front of him. "Look at it this way. You and Tonks are um…clients! And uh, Ginny and I are your representatives. The reps have to meet, to discuss things and perhaps assist with a merging of the two um…entities (mainly you) that we are representing. So you see, we had to talk."

Remus folded his arms. "Where do you come up with this stuff? You do know you really are stretching it with that one, Padfoot. But I'll humor you, so go on. And what does Ginny's 'client' think of this merging, as you so delicately put it?"

"It is as obvious as Snivelly's giant snout. She's crazy about you. I would think that was crystal clear earlier when she asked you to kiss her." Sirius said, his voice rising with intensity. As soon as he said it, he clapped a hand over his mouth.

Remus smirked. "So you were spying on us as well? I should have known. Oh, that's peachy, Sirius." he said sarcastically.

Sirius decided to avoid the whole spying issue altogether and skip straight to the important part. "Well, I suppose there's no getting around that fact. But the point still remains that you two need to stop pissing about and do something about it."

"Thank you for that encouraging albeit blunt input. But she's just made it perfectly clear that I'm not 'ready' for this or something like that." Remus said wearily.

"Oh that's Tonks' way of avoiding uncomfortable situations. Which really just seems to usually make things more complicated and uncomfortable so I'm not exactly sure why she still does it. Anyway, that fate crap? Forget about it. Its just an easy out for her. All you need to do to make her drop it is sweep her off her feet. Which shouldn't be all that hard in your case."

"What should I do, though? Buy her something? I mean, I have the feeling I'm a bit out of practice in this department. What kind of gift do you think she'd like?"

Sirius looked shocked. "A gift? No you can't buy her a gift. At least, not yet. I mean, unless you're at gift giving status already. Have you had sex?"

It was Remus' turn to look shocked. "What! Sirius, no."

"Then you aren't ready to give her a gift yet. Sex is the committing point. After the sex (unless it's a one night stand), you're in it for a bit. But before that, gifts are too committal. And you don't really want to commit until the sex point is breached." Remus almost laughed out loud at the completely serious tone of Sirius' voice.

"Padfoot, you're logic doesn't really resemble our logic here on Earth does it?"

Sirius looked a bit offended. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Remus just stared at him. "Well, I mean, that can't work every time can it? Its absurd. I don't know a single woman who wouldn't feel offended by that reasoning. So what am I supposed to do if I can't give her something? Would flowers be ok?"

"I suppose those are safe enough. I don't know. Hell, I never really had to think about getting a woman before. They just sort of came and went for me. I didn't really pine after them like you three did. If anyone would know how to land the unattainable, it'd be James. But seeing as he's not here, you'll have to make do with me."

"Thanks Sirius. You've been remarkable help." Remus stood up and walked towards the door. Sirius jumped up to follow him.

"Hey, where are you going?" he asked.

"To buy her some flowers." Remus said as he walked out the front door.

"Tonks! Tonks!" Ginny ran up the stairs.

Tonks was lying on the landing of the second floor, staring up at the ceiling.

"Oh Ginny, I don't want to talk about it." she rolled over slightly so her back was to Ginny.

"Oh Tonks, stop acting like a three year old. You're better than that. And anyway, I have good news. But you'll have to look at me to hear it." Ginny sat down next to her. Tonks sighed but rolled back over onto her back to look up at Ginny.

"What's this great news then?"

Ginny beamed. "He likes you."

"What?" Tonks still sounded a bit disinterested.

"Professor Lupin. Well, Remus I suppose. He's not a professor anymore. In any case, he likes you!"

Tonks sat up slowly. "Do you really think so, Gin? I mean, he's not usually slow on the uptake, so why does it take him so long to get it?"

Ginny shrugged. "I don't know. But I was talking to Sirius and he said Remus likes you deep down, you just need to give him some time to figure it out."

"You were talking to Sirius? Bloody hell, Merlin knows what you think now that you've been infused with Sirius logic. And anyway, I've given him time. What word of wisdom did Dr. Sirius have?"

"Well, there was this whole thing he was trying to explain to Remus about how you and him are clients and we're your representatives and how you two should merge but that was all a bit lost on me." Ginny said, sounding a bit confused.

"That's probably for the best. Knowing Sirius, he was spouting off some gibberish that no one but him would ever fully understand."

"But the point is, he's crazy about you and vice versa, so you two should stop uh, pissing about. So will you give Remus another chance?" Ginny asked hopefully. Tonks smiled.

"Well when you put it that way, Ginevra. Yeah I think I will."

"Good, I hoped you weren't going to not let him take you to the ball tomorrow. It would be a little late to find another date. And knowing how much you still like him." she added with a smirk.

Tonks jumped up. "Tomorrow? The ball's tomorrow? I almost forgot!"

Ginny laughed. "Don't worry. It'll be fine. By the way, how'd the dancing go?"

"Let's just hope they don't go into waltzing. Other than that, I think I'll be able to let us both survive."

Remus was walking through the muggle supermarket at the end of the street. He hoped there would be flowers there. And he hoped the few pounds he had would be enough.

"Excuse me. Um, do you have flowers here?" he asked a young man who was stacking cans of soup.

"Over there." The boy pointed and Remus walked over to the display. There was a counter and a woman stood behind it, arranging a bouquet.

"I'd uh, like to buy some flowers." Remus said as he came up to the counter. She smiled at him.

"All right, and who would these flowers be for? Mum, girl, or boy, sick friend, or something else?"

"Well, for a um, girl." Remus answered, his face growing red.

"Girlfriend, friend, lover, wife?" The woman turned, starting to survey the buckets of individual flowers behind her. She looked back at Remus.

"Let me guess. They're for a friend. But for a friend that you wish was something more. Am I right?" she gave him another friendly smile as he nodded sheepishly and his face grew redder.

"What's she like?" the woman asked, playing with a stem of baby's breath.

"Well, she's independent, sweet, funny, she's innocent and very cute. Um, she's a little clumsy, but on her, its very endearing. I just want to tell her that I-well that I appreciate her and that I-that I like her. A lot." he finished lamely, his face now a very deep crimson.

"Roses. A few white ones, some pink…a few red ones, this color's nice." The woman picked a few rose stems out of buckets and placed them on the counter. Her fingers worked quickly as she rolled them up in green tissue paper and then in cellophane.

Remus watched, a bit worried and a bit bemused. The woman pointed at the little rack on the counter. "There are note cards there if you'd like to write her a message. I'd suggest this one." She pulled out a card with a picture of a couple dancing together. Their happy faces glared up at Remus with their ridiculously white teeth and cheerful expressions. They looked like they were both excellent dancers and that no one ever ended up with their feet stepped on when they were dancing together. Not that he ever really minded Tonks stepping on his feet.

He glanced at the other cards on the rack. They all had rainbows or flowers or small woodland creatures, none of which was something he could see sweeping Tonks off her feet, much less any other woman he knew. With this selection, he figured muggle girls must be a lot easier to impress.

Remus finally chose one with a girl bunny getting a bouquet from a little boy bunny and he hoped to God that Tonks had a sense of humour still.

"All finished!" the woman presented him with a beautiful bouquet.

"Um thank you. How much will that be?" he asked nervously. He didn't want her to have gone through the trouble of making it if he couldn't even afford it.

"Don't worry about it, love. This one's on me. Go get her, tiger!" The woman winked and handed the bouquet to Remus. He smiled and thanked her numerous times before leaving the store. He walked back to Number 12 wondering what to write on the card with the furry little woodland creatures.

At dinner, the table was unusually quiet. Everyone seemed very preoccupied with their food.

"So are you two ready for the ball tomorrow night?" Molly asked towards the end of dinner.

Tonks looked up. "Yeah I suppose so." She smiled. She was really looking forward to it.

Molly looked wistfully out at the table. "I remember the first time Arthur took me to the Auror Ball. Its not just for Aurors you know, the whole Ministry is there usually and other distinguished people. I felt so glamorous, my mother had bought me new dress robes for the occasion. And your father," she turned to look at Ginny, "He was so handsome. It was only two years after we'd left Hogwarts." She sighed and Arthur put an arm around her, pulling her close and kissing the top of her head.

"And now Bill's going, and you two are going. Oh its going to be lovely!" She and the children got up and started clearing away the dishes.

Tonks glanced over at Remus. He was smiling and she thought for a brief second that he had been smiling in her direction.

As the rest of the people at the table started to disperse, Remus took hold of Tonks' arm and led her out into the back yard.

"Here," he handed her the bouquet. "These are for you. Look Tonks, I'm sorry about what happened earlier. I hope you like them. I just uh, wanted to let you know how um, honored I am that you uh asked me to go with you. I really-Merlin this is a bit harder than I thought it would be-I really like you, Nymphadora. There. I've said it. And now that I've thoroughly embarrassed myself in front of you, shall I be ready to go at 6:30 tomorrow?" his face had turned a familiar shade of red again.

Tonks smiled at him. "That would be lovely, Remus. And uh, thanks for these. They're beautiful. I uh, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." Remus felt his heart melt as she smiled at him.

He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She tried to move closer to him. He smiled. "Tomorrow," he whispered in her ear. She looked up at him and pouted.

"Why not now?" she asked, a little offended. He nodded towards the window. Sirius was standing there with his thumbs up. Ginny and Hermione were next to him, giggling together. The twins and Ron were behind them and they could even see Molly looking their way from the sink. Tonks sighed as she leaned her head against Remus' shoulder. They both chuckled slightly as they heard catcalls from the window.

"Tomorrow then. But you owe me, Remus Lupin!" Tonks said, pointing her finger at him.

Remus took her arm and escorted her inside. "But of course." he said as he kissed her hand.

Later that night, Tonks was sitting in her room arranging the flowers Remus had given her, in a vase. She pulled the card off the little plastic holder and read it. She started laughing.

It read:

"Dear Tonks,
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
This card's crap,
but the flowers are for you.
Love, Remus."

She lay down on the bed, barely able to contain her excitement for the next day.

A/N: Gah, this chapter made me a bit angry. pish tosh, oh well, hope it wasn't too bad. Cheers for your lovely reviews. And I know, I know, I'm totally dragging out the kiss thing for as long as possible. A bit evil, but that's the way things have to go sometimes. I promise there will be SOMETHING in the next one (which will most likely be the last one as well, depending on how I break up the last bits). Cheers for reading!