Title: Though the years
Author: LupinLovesTonks
Rated: PG13-R
Warnings: Contains language and some sexual situations and innuendo
Summary: She had known him since she was a small child... and dreamed of the day she might be able to marry him... But, would Remus Lupin ever grow to see Nymphadora Tonks as more than the little five year old that would follow him and Sirius around?

Chapter Four
Rewards and Realizations
She slowly peeped around the edge of the tree. Remus was standing in the middle of the trail, absentmindly whistling and studying the condition of his nails. It had only been a week and he already had her walking and breathing quieter and had her... clumsier than ever.

Remus held up five fingers and slowly started counting backwards aloud. She raised her wand and prepared to hit him with the stunning spell. Just as she went to do so, her foot slipped off the damp tree root and the spell shot up into the tree, causing several small birds, a squirrel, and a wildcat to drop out of the sky.

"Good job Nymphadora, I barely heard you that time," Remus chuckled. "However, that was a rather less than graceful display of the uses of stunning spells." He eyed the fallen wildlife with pity and performed the spell to revive them. The creatures fluttered and scurried away.

She didn't understand it. She couldn't understand it either. When she would practice getting around her messy flat at night, not once would she trip or stumble over anything. However, as soon as she got within a fifteen foot radius of Remus, she was amazed at taking two steps without breaking her neck.

Tonks picked herself up off the ground, rubbing the back of her head. "Can we take luncheon?"

"Certainly," Remus waved his wand and the forest faded away into a small empty office. "You don't mind being seen with this old werewolf do you?"

"I'd rather be seen with you than Bridgette," Tonks laughed, draping herself on his arm. "But I was suggesting someplace more comfy than the usual."

"Oh?" Remus hummed. "And where did you have in mind?"

"My place?" Tonks suggested with a smile.

"Again?" Remus said with mock disgust then grinned. "I'd love to."

The two apparated. Tonks ended up in her kitchen, Remus ended up stretched out on the sofa in a relaxed pose. "Showoff," she called. "I have got to learn to do that one day. Then I can just apparate from work to my bed. Save myself the trouble of bruised shins and broken things."

"Mind if I be nosy while you prepare luncheon? I've yet to purose the place," Remus asked.

"Go ahead. I'm not hiding anything... yet." She wasn't completely sure she liked the way he immediately made a line for her room. "Um, Remus, why did you go to my room first?"

She heard some rustling and then Remus peeked out of the room. "If you ever want to truly know someone, explore their bedroom. Which, oddly, is the only room you have clean. Kind of makes me curious as to what you're hiding in here..."

"Psychobabble doesn't suit you Remus!" she called as he disappeared into her room again. "And I'm not hiding anything in there. I'm very open about who I am and what I like," then she added under her breath, "most of the time."

She set to the task of making lunch, taking extra care to avoid chopping off her fingers. Last thing she wanted was to hack a finger off while Remus was around, it would be one of the many things she would consider more embarrassing than her clumsiness.

After a while she couldn't hear any rustling coming from her room, which brought a strong feeling of paranoia. "Re- Remus?"

Almost instantly he darted out of her room and sat directly on her little couch, hands folded in his lap. He look somewhat disturbed and his face was flushed a lovely shade of red. "Remind me, Nymphadora, never to let my curiousity get the best of me. Ever again."

Tonks laughed. "Why?"

Remus swallowed hard and shook his head as if to clear it. "Let's just say I had the sudden and forced epiphany that you are indeed no long a child." He looked across the flat at her then quickly looked away again, his face growing somewhat redder.

"It's about bloody time," she gave a nervous laugh. His behaviour could only mean one of very few things. She would lay all her bets that he'd discovered the shoebox she kept under her bed. That was the only time she'd ever seen anyone that had decided to be nosy rush out of her room as if they had done something unforgivablly rude.

She carried their lunch over to the couch and sat with him. Even when she offered him the food, he took it without so much as looking in her general direction. After the two of them ate, they sat there in silence for a long moment. Tonks lightly put a hand on Remus' arm, he jumped nervously.

"I take it you found the shoebox?" she asked. Remus slowly nodded and chewed on his finger nervously. "Which one?"

He looked at her forlornly. "There's more than one!" He scooted away from her slightly. "It was the one with... pictures and... a certain personal item in it." His eyes scurried over her quickly and he looked away again.

"Well, hate to surprise you Remy but I'm twenty-two years old. I'm old enough to enjoy those kind of things if I want." She wanted to laugh so bad at the look on his face, but did her best not to. "But don't get the wrong idea, the guys that took the pictures were not lovers or anything, most of them were actually gay so there was no attraction what-so-ever."

"For some reason that's not very reassuring," Remus gave a nervous laugh.

She patted his leg and stood up. "We need to get back to the Ministry. I'm sure I can actually out-hunt you this time."

888

Her mind was reeling. The stunning spell he'd just administered had taken her completely by surprise. Even more surprising is that it hadn't been Remus' usual mild grade stunning spell, this one had felt close to the top notch stunning spells she knew he was capable of. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought he was intentionally doing so to punish her for what he'd found on their luncheon.

She slowly sat up and gasped for breath. That was it, she was definately going to get him back this time. She looked up into the trees and apparated to a limb high above. Oddly enough, she had found him rather easily... He was in the clearing again, pacing casually and looking somewhat bored. He apparated and then reapparated, looking somewhat confused.

"Nymphadora?" he called.

She closed her eyes lightly. Close your eyes, broaden your mind, concentrate... A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips, as if she was hearing his voice right next to her ear. She could picture it almost clearly in her mind. Jump down from the tree, point her wand, and hitting him with her best stunning spell.

True, she did have a certain advantage due to the fact he seemed somewhat distracted. So maybe she'd actually be able to pull it off this time. She waited until his back was turned and carefully slid down the back of the tree, her feet barely made a sound as they touched the leaves that carpetted the ground. It was her good fortune that a small rabbit got frightened out of hiding and Remus hit it with a stunning spell instead of her.

As far as she knew, he hadn't even noticed she was there yet. She readied her wand and stepped from behind the tree. Both of them pointed their wands at the same time. However, it was her stunning spell that hit it's target. Remus grabbed his chest and eased down to his knees with a wince.

Almost instantly, Tonks felt guilty and ran over to where he was now huddled over holding his chest and panting for air. She patted his back and he pushed her away roughly. "A bit... over-zealous are we?" he managed. "Mild Nymphadora... mild stunning spell... Not one that'll give me a bloody heart attack..."

Tonks picked herself up and sat beside him. "Sorry. I guess I just... slipped." she shrugged slightly. "I finally got you before you could get me. You promised a reward if I ever managed it before my actual final."

He looked at her werily. "I think you'd be able to reward yourself with that other thing in the shoebox. I'm not going to reward you for nearly killing me."

She huffed and gave him a firm shove. "You're an ass, Remus. All this past week you've been promising that if I got you first you would reward me and now you're wanting to retract it because of that damn shoebox and because I hit you a little too hard with my stunning spell. That's bullcockney. And it's just not fucking fair..."

Remus coughed a small laugh. "Oh, so the grown up can use grown up words too?" He looked up at her with amusment in his eyes. Several strands of his hair had fallen in into his eyes. He slowly moved to sitting down and his hand fell away from his chest. He shook his head slightly and sighed. "Permit me, just for curiousities sake. Exactly how many of those photographers were your lovers?"

"None." Tonks shrugged slightly. "I don't really trust guys my age Remus. They're whores. And when I find that one guy. I'll find him, but for now I'm content just using my imagination and the other thing in the shoebox." She batted her eyelashed innocently, feeling her face get a little warm at the admission.

Remus suddenly looked intrigued. "Oh? So you've never entertained a gentleman in your bedroom before or any bedroom for that matter?" Tonks shook her head. "Saving yourself for a certain lad to come around then?"

"I guess you could say that. But most of the older people I know see me as some stupid little kid. I doubt they'd ever... want to..." She had looked away from him. If she wasn't careful she'd end up completely admitting that it had been him that she had been waiting for. It'd been him she was wanting to come around and see her as something other than a child.

"You know, Nymphy," Remus started with a sigh. "Everytime I look at you, I see that little girl that would chase after me and Sirius, begging for our attention. I see the little girl that I carried on my shoulders and told me I should eat badgers instead of bunnies." They both took a moment to gently laugh. "But I also see the sixteen year old that desired my acceptance so much that she was willing to become someone else..."

Tonks smiled faintly. "That's sweet Remy."

"You know what I'm seeing right now?" Remus asked, Tonks looked at him and shook her head. He smiled lightly. "I see an interesting young woman that wants so hard to be that little girl again, so she can curl up with me in my bed, and I can keep the monsters away."

She was quiet a moment, analyzing what he'd just said. "You know Remus," she said quietly. "All the sweet talk in the world isn't going to make me forget you promised me a reward."

Remus gave a mock scoff but laughed anyways. "Alright, within reason, my little obsessed fiend," he tapped the end of her nose and looked mildly shocked when an indention was left. "That was not nice."

She fixed her nose and laughed. "How's about a kiss then?" Remus leaned forward to put a peck on her forehead, but she stopped him. "Nah-uh. I meant, a real one." She scrunched her face slightly. "One like the grown ups do. It's within reason. Not like I'm asking for sex."

Remus opened his mouth to say something but then simply chewed on his bottom lip as he looked around the clearing. He looked back at her and sighed slightly. His eyes softened and his pose relaxed.

Tonks closed her eyes when he reached up and lightly put a hand to her cheek. His hand was warm and softer than she would have imagined. The hand on her cheek brushed back through her hair, which was long straight and a violent pink that day. Then she felt it, or rather them.

His warm lips on hers. She entwined her fingers behind his neck and soaked in the feeling of Remus' mouth, lips, and tongue playing a slow gentle game with hers. The sound of a low groan reached her ears just before Remus made the kiss somewhat deeper. She could feel both of his hands in her hair, his thumbs barely grazing her temples.

She could tell he was holding back, keeping the kiss reserved as he best could. She could also tell that he wasn't wanting to hold back. It would be up to her to make the next move, she knew, because part of her knew that he was still somewhat too shy to do so. She roughly grasped the front of his robe and made the kiss much deeper, pouring all she was feeling toward him, into it. At first Remus seemed to want to resist but started returning the kiss with the same eagerness as she had. In fact, as the moments passed, Remus seemed to becoming to most eager one.

Tonks could feel her mind slipping into a slight euphoria as she felt her back come in contact with the mossy grass of the forest floor. Remus' hands were now gently roaming down her body, exploring the curves of her hips and breasts. She'd had lads that had done the same thing to her before, but they had never made her skin tingle with excitement the way Remus' ministrations were. And in her past, she had been repulsed by feeling a hardening male anatomy against her thigh, but with Remus it only made the tingling in her skin intensify.

Then, suddenly, Remus stiffened and Tonks gasped with shock as he tore away from her, leaving her with a sudden coldness. She slowly sat up and propped herself up with shakey arms. Remus was crouched down, his back to a tree. He was panting heavily and his eyes were on her intently. She searched his face, wanting an explaination for why he'd stopped.

All she could see was the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. She couldn't remember him ever looking more like a cornered animal in her life. Then she realized he looked like a vicious cornered animal. Or perhaps she was misreading it and he simply looked like an animal that had been teased and abused in the past and was preparing to attack if she dared to do the same thing.

No, no, her senses were telling her that her other interpretations were very wrong. Not a cornered animal or an abused one. But what she was seeing in his eyes was definately an animalistic instinct that he was trying to repress. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, a small voice whispered a single word: desire.

Finding her voice, after a few hard swallows, Tonks sighed shakily and asked, "What's wrong?"

"I realized, I was doing something wrong..." he replied quietly, with a slight growl to his voice. "You're twelve years younger than I am Nymphadora Tonks. You were five when we met. I was nearly in my last year at Hogwarts..."

"So, what are you trying to say? You still see me as a five year old...?"

"Yes... I mean, no... I don't know..." he closed his eyes and sighed heavily. "I just don't feel right." He cleared his throat and, after opening his eyes, he stood up. "I think perhaps we should call it a day Nymphadora. Only two more days and you have your stealth finals, so we only have two more days to work on that clumsiness."

She nodded slightly. There was no more use in pursuing their conversation. He'd already thrown up his walls to the point she knew it would be impossible to get him to even acknowledge their kiss, much less what it had done to both of them.

Here's a sneak peek of the next chapter:

Her fingers twitched slightly as a slow smile went to her lips. Some sick part of her mind was now wondering exactly how accurate Remus had been that one day, when he'd told her how werewolves react to the scent of a woman. He'd obviously desired her earlier. If he could pick up on that scent again, would it drive him mad to the point he wouldn't be able to hold himself back?

It was only four days until the full moon. She very well remembered an advanced studies book she had read about werewolves. The closer it got to the full moon, the strong their wolf senses got. With a sneaky grin, she tiptoed over to her door and unlocked it.