Insert Disclaimer here!

A/N: So sorry that these chapters took so long…my beta went on vacation and helped her grandparents move. Isn't she sweet! Hopefully updates are more regular after this. Enjoy! R& R. Thoughts in italics as usual

Remus sighed again and looked, for what felt like the hundredth time in an hour, at the clock above the mantle. Where is she? He worried, I should have never allowed her to have gone alone. He tried to concentrate on the book in his hands, but for once in his life, the words and pages yielded no pleasure. I told her to come here after tea. She's been gone for too long. Not being able to wait any longer, Remus stood up, allowing the book to fall gracelessly off his lap unto the floor. He was about to Apparate when he heard the front door open and close.

"Nymphadora," he breathed in relief as he rushed to the foyer and gathered the young Auror tightly in his arms. He bent his head and caught her lips in a kiss filled with worry and frustration.

"Remus, are you okay?" Her turquoise eyes gazed anxiously on his blue ones after he broke the kiss. He felt her reach her hand up to attempt to wipe away the worry lines from his forehead. "You look a bit peaky. The full moon isn't for another week."

He kissed her again and rested his forehead on hers before saying quietly, "You were gone so long that I became worried. These are such dangerous times." He paused and looked her in the eye, "You went for tea, and now it's after supper time." He kissed her again, this time softly. He sucked her lips as if he would obtain the nectar of life from them.

"Where were you, Tonks?"

Tonks looked at him, all her love for him sparkling in her eyes. "Oh, Remus, I'm so sorry that you were worried. It's just that Mum hasn't seen me morphed for a while. So after her giggling gaggle of friends left, she insisted I stay on. Then she plied me with her special sherry and started questioning me as to why I could morph again."

Remus rained light kisses all across Tonks' face as she talked. "And what did you tell her?"

"That my life has a reason to be colorful again."

Remus stopped and looked at her. "And your mother just accepted that answer?"

"No, she asked me a million other questions. I swear, she would have been a bloody good Auror. Brilliant investigator."

Remus chuckled heartily, "So I guess you told her more than you meant to?"

Tonks nodded her head. "Accidentally."

Remus laughed a bit louder. "Why accidentally?"

"Well, when I refuse to answer her questions, she'll start talking about something mundane, like the weather. Then, in the middle of these regular questions, she'll ask something about 'my gentleman'. Before I know it, the truth slips out, and every time the truth slips out, I groan, and she knows it's the truth!"

By this time Remus' entire body was shaking with laughter. He looked at the utter distress on Tonks' face and laughed even harder.

Gasping for breath he said, "It's the Black in her. Sirius used a similar tactic on me during our Marauder days."

Remus saw a tight smile cross briefly across Tonks' face. "It's really not funny. She made me promise to bring you to dinner next week."

All of Remus' amusement died a short, painful death as he gaped incredulously at Tonks. "What?"

"She tricked me into it," Tonks answered, speaking quickly, "I didn't do it on purpose! But now that she knows about you, she won't be satisfied until she meets you."

"What?"

"Remus," Tonks massaged his face again as his worry lines returned. The tender touches of her hands relaxed him slightly.

"I scheduled it for five days after the full moon. You'll have your strength back by then, won't you?"

"I…I'm going to meet your parents."

Tonks rolled her eyes. "That's why I came home so late, I spent the rest of the evening trying to cancel it after my slip of tongue. But you just don't know what my mother is like. Think about Molly Weasley on muggle steroids."

Remus stepped away from Tonks and rubbed the back of his neck with right hand. "I've never had to meet my girlfriend's parents before. All my prior relationships haven't lasted this long or been this serious."

Remus turned around and took her hand, "What will I say to them, Tonks? How will they react to me?" Remus paused and brought fingers to his mouth so that he could kiss each one before he went on. "What will they think when they see a poor, old werewolf dating their brilliant, beautiful daughter?"

Remus' mind seemed to have dissolved to mush. He couldn't comprehend why Tonks beamed at his words.

"First of all, thanks for calling me brilliant and beautiful –"

"It's only the truth."

Tonks went on as if he hadn't spoken, "I know Mum and Dad will like you just fine. You're handsome." She dropped his hand and raised her palm to cup his face. He turned his head and kissed her palm as she continued, "You're Head of the Order of Phoenix. You were a wonderful professor, and the children adore you. You're patient, kind, a good man, and I love you. You are everything they ever wanted for me, and more than I ever hoped to dream for."

Remus' heart soared at her simple words.

"I love you, Nymph. I never, in my entire life, expected to find a woman like you."

"Nor did I expect to find a man like you. I had thought my soul mate was the bass player from the Weird Sisters!"

Remus snorted, and Tonks laughed at him.

Tonks pressed her body against his, stood on her tip-toes and with her lips a hair's breathe away from his, reminded, "Don't forget you owe me a shopping trip tomorrow."

Remus groaned and barely refrained from rolling his eyes. "Do we have to?"

Tonks laughed again before saying, "I'll never understand men and their aversion to shopping!"

Remus moved his hands from Tonks' hair, running them down her body to possessively grab her hips and whispered, "Should I show you what I don't have an aversion to?"

Tonks smiled and encouraged, "Maybe you should."

Tonks squealed as Remus lifted her up and carried her all the way to their third floor bedroom.