AN: Again I offer thanks to the betas – Durayan, Pelirroja, and Gryffinjack.
For anyone wanting to read the outtake mentioned at the end of chapter two, you can find it at the Wolf and Lady LJ. http/community. 3
14 Feb, 7:48 am
"I like it rough, baby!"
The voice was distant in her mind.
Hands were running through her hair.
"It's time to join the party!"
Her legs were pushed apart.
"Oh no you don't!"
The voice was stern and gruff.
A mouth pressed against her neck.
"I can't wait to get inside you!"
Tonks, gasping for breath, opened her eyes. She looked into the face above her expecting to see malicious intent. Instead, she saw worry and fear. It wasn't Darrius LaMont's face that returned her gaze, but rather Remus Lupin's. She sighed in relief.
"Dearest, are you all right?"
"Yes," she breathed through another sigh.
"That's twice now that you startled when I kissed you. Nym, are you sure – "
"I'm fine. I've just had a rough week."
He frowned at her. "Really, Remus," she said, knowing that look all too well. "I'll be fine." To offer reassurance, she kissed him purposefully. There was no way she was going to allow the incident with Darrius to ruin what little time she had this morning with Remus. "How long do you have?" she asked, knowing that he would have to get back to hospital soon.
"Not long," he said, rolling onto his back, pulling her on top of him. "An hour maybe."
She flattened her hand against his chest, stroking the muscles she found. "There is a lot we can do in an hour."
"Indeed. Take a shower. Get dressed. Eat breakfast." He did little to hide the sarcasm.
Playfully, she said, "I like the shower idea. Mind if I join you?"
His eyebrows shot up, full of intrigue. "Why would I mind?"
She leaned up ever so slightly and planted a chaste kiss on his lips. When she tried to break away, Remus took hold of her hand, keeping her in place. The kiss grew deeper and more powerful. The emotion Remus could express in one kiss always left Tonks breathless.
"I love it when the moon is new," she sighed blissfully when the kiss ended.
Remus laughed. "And why is that?"
"Because you are so…tender. I can always tell what phase the moon is in by the way you touch me." His body stiffened slightly, but Tonks paid it no attention. Instead, she kissed his chest and snuggled closer to him.
"Do you mean that?" he asked quietly after a few seconds.
"Um hum," she hummed against his skin, still oblivious to the scowl Remus was making.
"Then what you're saying is that close to the full moon I'm not so tender?" Remus asked, his hand gently stroking her back.
"You are a bit more wild then, yeah," she confirmed, with a waggle of her eyebrows.
"Have I ever hurt you?" Remus asked in a voice very unlike his own.
Tonks rose up to smile at him, only to find him looking concerned and worried. "What's that face for?"
"I just want to know if I've ever hurt you. You said I was wilder close to the full moon. I honestly wasn't aware I treated you differently depending on the phase of the moon."
"Oh, Remus," she smiled. "It isn't like that, so stop frowning at me. If you ever did something that I didn't like, I would make certain you knew about it."
"But you don't like the way I touch you close to a full moon."
"I never said that. I only said it's different." Remus looked away, obviously still worried. She rolled her eyes and sat up farther. "Remus Lupin, you look at me right now." He did, but it was reluctantly. "I love you any way I can get you, and you know it. I was only pointing out that when the moon is new you take things a bit more slowly. You're almost meticulous about it. And right now, after the week I've had, that's exactly what I wanted and needed."
Remus held her gaze. She could tell he wasn't quite convinced. "There are other times when I enjoy your more wild side, as well," she offered. "You have never done anything to scare me or hurt me or whatever else you might be thinking. So, stop worrying about it."
She gave him a quick kiss and waited for him to relax. His arms had grown very tense during her explanation. His eyes darted down to look at the hand he was holding and then back up to her face. The troubled look he gave her was evidence enough that something was still wrong.
"Remus, come on. Don't spoil what little time we have together this morning by fretting about some stupid comment of mine."
"It's not that," he said.
"Then what, because I'd really like you to forget I even said anything."
"Where's your ring?" he asked, taking Tonks totally by surprise.
"My ring?" She looked down at her left hand, the one he was holding. "Bollocks!" she said, snatching her hand away from his.
He was right. She wasn't wearing her ring. Since they weren't officially married, it couldn't be called a wedding ring, but that's essentially what it was. Remus had given it to her last Christmas after a fight they had over the status of their relationship. Shortly after moving in together, Tonks had described Remus as her "husband" to a witch in one of the shops. The witch nastily commented on how she didn't quite believe it as Tonks wasn't wearing a ring and, therefore, must not be in a very committed relationship. It had lead to a fight between them – a fight which they had managed to avoid up until then.
Tonks felt it would be totally acceptable for them to have some sort of ceremony, making things official between them. She even offered to have a Muggle wedding. After all, Tonks' father was Muggleborn, as was Remus' mother. However, Remus pointed out that Muggles required blood tests, and surely even a Muggle doctor would notice something odd in the blood of a metamorph and a werewolf. The idea of a private ceremony was insulting to Remus. To him, it would be as if they were admitting that their relationship wasn't worthy of a "real" marriage. Besides, everyone who was close to them already accepted their status as a couple. Did they really need a piece of parchment to prove they loved each other?
The whole situation left Tonks rather upset, both with the Ministry of Magic and with Remus. Every now and then she would sarcastically comment on it, hoping to goad Remus into changing his mind. Sometimes he would laugh, sometimes he would ignore her, and sometimes they would quarrel a bit. Eventually Tonks let it go, but the hope of marriage never left her.
And then Christmas came. They spent the day at the Burrow with the whole Weasley clan. When it came time to open gifts, Remus quietly slipped a small jewelry box into her hand saying, "I think it's time you had one of these." She took it from him in almost reverence. Time froze as she simply stared at him in surprise. Everyone in the room stopped to look at her with knowing smiles.
"Open it," Remus prodded.
Inside she found a white gold band with three tiny pink diamonds. She couldn't speak. Tears filled her eyes.
"One for the past, the present, and the future," Remus said, his voice full of emotion. He added a soft, "I love you," as he took the ring out of the box and slipped it on her finger. "Now you can flash that at any silly shop keeper who doesn't believe you're in a committed relationship."
She flung her arms around him and kissed him deeply, right there in front of everyone, swearing to never take it off. And now…this morning…Remus discovered it gone from her finger. No wonder Remus looked so distraught.
"I took it off," she tried to cover, "when I fell in the stink bush."
"You took it off before you fell?" he asked.
She thought for a moment. It didn't make much sense to take off a ring before you fell in a bush, especially if you didn't know you were going to fall. "After. When I was cleaning up."
Remus cocked an eyebrow at her. "You wanted to clean everything but your ring?"
"Well, I was afraid it would…er…fall off in the shower." Not a good cover and she new it.
"Nym, how would a ring made to fit your finger simply fall off in the shower?"
Instead of giving him an answer, which she didn't have, she simply smiled and said, "Why don't I just go get the ring." She hopped out of the bed, picked up the ring from the chest of drawers, and quickly snuggled back under the covers next to Remus. "See, I didn't lose it. It was here the whole time."
"I didn't think you'd lost it. I just wanted to know why you weren't wearing it." He paused, waiting for a better explanation. " Dearest, I know you didn't fall in a stink bush. My nose is harder to fool than that. I assume it was something embarrassing that you don't want me to know about, which I suppose I can understand - "
"Remus - "
"But please don't tell me you took your ring off for an equally silly reason. Unless…you really think I'm that dense."
"I don't think you're dense."
"Then how about we try the truth."
With a heavy sigh, Tonks fell back against the bed. She whimpered like a child being forced to do something they really didn't want to do. "I'll tell you, but you've got to promise me you won't go ballistic."
"Oh, that's very comforting," Remus said, rolling onto his side to look at her.
"It was for an assignment. I pretended to flirt with a man so I could get information from him. I can't very well flirt with someone while wearing a wedding ring, now can I?"
"And the whole thing with the soap?"
"Well, it was a very stinky assignment. Smoke and alcohol, not to mention that this bloke…" she stopped and considered her word choice here. "He came on to me. You know."
"Did you get the information you needed?"
"No," Tonks admitted, begrudgingly. "It was a total bust."
"So then, why didn't you want me to know about this?"
"Because I didn't want you to get angry. You have a tendency to be very…possessive about me," she said, hesitantly. "Look at the way you are about Zach, and he's just a friend. I can only imagine how crazy you would get if I told you I was actually going to willingly flirt with another man."
"Oh, I don't know about that. If it was an assignment…"
"He was a young man, Remus. Younger than you. And we were in one of those pubs with the loud music that gets you all worked up."
Remus pursed his lips.
"I know you better than you think I do. Regardless of how much I love you, you still think you're too old for me."
Remus smirked. "You're right."
Tonks looked a bit stunned. "I am?"
"Yes. I wish I could let it go. But I think I will always hold some sort of a fear that one of these days you will realize who you have attached yourself to and…you'll want out."
Tonks rolled to face him, sliding one of her legs between his, fitting their bodies together rather intimately. "And I guess it doesn't help much when I forget to put my ring back on after assignments, huh?"
His fingers stroked her hair. "Just promise me that next time you'll magic the ring to look different, rather than taking it off entirely."
She kissed him meaningfully. "Promise." The kiss deepened as arms and legs intertwined.
"I thought you were going to take a shower?" she panted out as Remus began kissing a path down her neck.
"I'd rather do this instead."
9:04 am that same morning
Standing in the kitchen wearing nothing but her bathrobe, Tonks quickly buttered some toast. "When do you think you'll get away again?" she called out to Remus, who was busy getting dressed in the bedroom.
"Not for at least a week. Full moon is the first. I still need to make sure Andrew has a place to transform, not to mention a supplier for his potion," Remus said, walking up to the counter and fixing them both a cup of coffee.
"There's no full moon in February?"
"No, and we have a Blue Moon in March. Another wonderful turn of events for Andrew," he said sarcastically, crunching into his toast. "Thanks for this."
Living with a werewolf, Tonks had learned very quickly about the phases of the moon and all the terminology that went with it. A blue moon meant that there would be two full moons in one month. For some reason, the second transformation in a month was more painful and difficult to get through than the first. It usually only happened once a year, and this year it was going to be in March.
"Did you tell him about the blue moon?"
"Whom are you talking about?" Remus said after swallowing down his bite.
"The new guy. The one you're working with."
"Andrew?"
"Yeah. Did you tell him about the blue moon?"
"Yes I did, on my first visit with him. His wife asked how long they had until the next full moon and I explained that there wouldn't be one until March. Why?" He took another bite of his toast sending crumbs falling down his front.
Tonks brushed him clean. "I dunno. I guess if it were me…if I had just been told that I was bitten by a werewolf…"
"What?"
"Well, lycanthropy is bad enough, isn't it? But to find out right away that your first two transformations are going to be right out horrific…well…"
"Every transformation is horrific," Remus corrected.
"Yeah, but blue moons are worse, right? Maybe you should have waited to tell him about that."
Remus thought for a moment. "I was as tactful as I could be, Tonks. I found it to be important information, given the circumstances. It wasn't as if I was being rude about it."
"I didn't say you were, but I am surprised that you mentioned it so quickly. Especially since the wife was there. That might have been what got her all riled up in the first place."
The frown on Remus' face grew heavy. "I hadn't thought of it like that."
Worried that she might have said too much, Tonks took his hand and offered a final suggestion. "But you know, based on how hateful she was towards him, I doubt there was any thing you could have done to soften the blow."
Remus didn't look too convinced, but he smiled anyway. "That reminds me, I need to get some information together to take to Andrew." He kissed the tip of her nose and brushed past her.
Tonks sipped her coffee and watched Remus gather up a few of his things. Books were always a favorite of Remus', and he had more books on lycanthropy than anyone should be allowed to have - werewolf or wizard. He flipped through a few, making odd faces and mumbling to himself about the content. Tonks made out phrases like, "Oh, not yet. Maybe next month," and "Where was that one with the diagrams?" She smiled at his fastidiousness and held back a laugh.
The sound of a knock at the door broke the moment for both of them. "I'll get it," she said, putting down her coffee. "You go on talking to yourself." Remus didn't seem to hear her last comment.
To her surprise, Anaxagoras Garcia stood in the hall holding a lovely bouquet of fresh flowers. "Good morning," he chimed, brightly.
She offered him a smile. "What are you doing here?"
"I knew you'd be alone for Valentine's Day and thought that these might help ease the loneliness."
"Oh, Zach" she sighed, touched by his thoughtfulness. "You didn't have to do that."
"De nada Every beautiful woman should have flowers given to her on a day like this. Besides, I needed an excuse to come and see you. I have missed you."
"Thank you," she said, taking the flowers from his out stretched hand. "But you see, I'm not really…alone." She opened the door enough so Zach could see Remus on the far said of the room. Looking over her shoulder at Remus, she could tell that he wasn't too pleased to see Zach, or the flowers, at the door.
"Mr. Lupin. Remus," Zach faltered. "I did not know you would be home." Very softly, just loud enough so Tonks could hear, he added, "I'm sorry. I just wanted to check on you."
"It's all right."
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine."
"You are okay then?"
"Yes."
"You saw the healer?"
She nodded, "Bruises all patched up."
Even more softly, Zach asked, "And did you tell him?" His eyes darted up to look Remus.
"I told him enough."
"I already worry," he whispered. "Since it makes almost two weeks that I last saw you…"
Tonks felt a hand on her shoulder. "What are you two whispering about?" Remus asked from behind her.
"Oh, just…work. Zach and I have been on different assignments, so we haven't seen much of each other."
"I see," Remus said, looking a bit skeptical. "Those are lovely flowers."
Zach gave a genuine smile. "I did not realize you would be home today. I should not have intruded."
"It's all right. You didn't know," Tonks said, hoping to smooth the tension she was feeling from Remus. "But Remus has to leave soon, so if you wouldn't mind…?" She left off the end of her sentence, hoping Zach would take the cue.
"Not at all. I'll leave you two alone. Adios Dora – Remus."
Once Tonks shut the door, Remus gave her a rather unsettling look. "Flowers?" he said questioningly. "Why would he bring you flowers?"
"He was only being nice."
"Either that or he's interested in you."
"Oh, Remus. Stop." She brushed past him and headed into the kitchen where she placed the bouquet in a vase.
"What were you two really whispering about?"
"Work, just like he said."
Remus cocked an unbelieving eyebrow at her. "I heard something about a healer."
"Yeah…er…" Tonks stammered. "This last assignment, the one that didn't go so well, I er…I got a bit banged up. Just bruises and the like."
"Are you all right?" Remus said, stepping close to her and looking her over as if to inspect her for any remaining wounds.
"I'm fine. Really. It isn't anything to get worked up over." She closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Considering our activities last night and this morning, I think you would have noticed if I had been seriously injured."
She kissed him slowly, feeling the smile forming on his mouth as she did. She pulled him against her tightly, marveling at how perfectly their bodies fit against each other. Tonks was never sure if they truly did fit just right, or if she unconsciously morphed her body so it would fit against Remus. Either way, she loved being held like this.
When the kiss finally ended, Remus leaned down slightly and sighed against her neck. "I love you."
"You'd better," she teased.
"I wish I could spend all day with you today."
"I know."
She felt his hands slide down her back to her hips as he pushed away from her just enough to look into her eyes. "I'm not sure when I'll be able to get away again. The moon is waxing and Andrew still has so much to learn. I sometimes feel as if I'm racing against the clock."
"I understand, and I don't want to add stress to the situation. Just go and do what you need to do."
"But it's Valentine's Day."
"Yeah, and I got a right good Valentine this morning, or don't you remember?" She gave his bum a loving squeeze.
"How could I forget?" He kissed her again, slowly, as if trying to lock the feel of her lips into his memory.
"I love you," he said when they finally broke apart.
"Me, too," she smiled.
"I'll see you after the next full moon then," he added, gathering up the things he had selected to take to Andrew.
She chastely kissed him again, not wanting to drag out the inevitable. "'Till then," she sighed before he Disapperated.
AN: A special thanks to lady tavington for allowing me to steal the idea of Tonks having a pink diamond from her.
