A/N: This has been my favorite chapter thus far in this story, hands down. I hope you like it, too.
Disclaimer: I own nothing… especially not Remus Lupin, who I wish I did own but I don't.
Happy Reading!
The morning light awoke Remus like a poke in the eye. Tonks was bustling about in his room, pulling open curtains and throwing things about. He noticed that she was dressed in a sleeveless shirt that matched her hair and a pair of old jeans that had been cut into shorts. Why she was dressed like this, he didn't know, but he suspected that the rose-tinted sunglasses she had on her head were a sure sign she was going out somewhere.
"Wake up, Remmy!" she chirped, confirming his suspicions. "We have to go soon."
He groaned and pulled the bedclothes closer up to better hide his scarred body. Remmy? Had she really just called him that? Sirius had called him Remmy once in school and Remus had beat him soundly over the head with a pillow. And then the rest of her words clicked in his brain, as if on delay.
"Where are we going?" he asked, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Surely not to Headquarters?"
Tonks laughed and replied, "Nope, we're going on a day trip."
"To where?" Remus sat up in bed, wondering if he was still asleep and dreaming.
"Oh, just a little river down the way. My cousin Freddy called and said that he, his wife Stacey, my other cousin David and his wife Joanne were going boating in the area today and said that I should join them." She paused for effect and added, "I'd have said no if I knew you were going to be here, but I didn't and you are, so we're going."
Remus sat up and rubbed his eyes groggily. He hadn't been planning on doing anything more strenuous than reading his book, but he'd never been boating before. As a kid he'd been afraid of the water, and as a grown man he'd neither known anybody with a boat nor could he afford one of his own. He shrugged. Besides, he figured, it's Tonks' house and he was basically obligated to do whatever she wanted. An involuntary shudder coursed through him at the thought of telling her that, though she probably already figured as much.
"Okay, sounds like a plan," he said. "When are we leaving?"
"As soon as possible." Tonks headed for the door and then stopped, having just remembered something. She turned around and added innocently, "Oh yes, and by the way, they're all Muggles on my dad's side of the family."
Remus' eye twitched. He had no problems with Muggles, of course, but he didn't have any Muggle clothes, never mind boating clothes. When he shared this thought with Tonks she laughed and materialized a pair of Hawaiian swim trunks and a button down t-shirt, complete with white wife beater. She tossed them and he caught it, and his brows shot up so fast he thought they would go into his hairline.
"Er," he said slowly, examining the wife beater. He was at a loss for words.
Tonks laughed, "Be ready in five minutes, will you? We've gotta meet them at eleven."
-
As she instructed, Remus was ready in five minutes and standing in the kitchen, organizing the potion ingredient cabinet. Ten minutes later Tonks came walking in, ready to go, but she tripped in the doorway and fell flat on her face. Remus abandoned his work, hastily stuffed the packet he had been sorting into his inner pocket and ran over to assist her to her feet. He found that he was unable to help but notice that, from her knees down to her sandals (also pink), there was nothing but bare skin.
And she has nice legs, too, he thought, but then scolded himself. But it doesn't matter, he thought petulantly, we don't have a future anyway.
He accidentally expressed his dark thoughts by yanking Tonks up a lot harder than he had meant to. She yelped and fell forward again and he caught her in his arms.
"Oops, sorry about that," he said calmly, and set her back on her feet in an almost mechanical manner. She laughed.
"Let's go," she said. "If you hadn't taken so long getting ready we'd be gone already."
Remus had the distinct feeling that he was being flirted with and, thought he tried to bite his tongue, he shot back, "Oh yes, all my fault. So sorry, it won't happen again, I assure you."
"Good," she said tersely, opening the door.
He paused for a moment to look at her apparel and then his. "I feel like a tourist or something," he said, eyeing his wife beater and unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt.
"You look like a tourist or something," Tonks replied simply as they walked down a flight of stairs towards the garage. "But don't worry, they all do. Now get in the car."
"After you," he said, taking the door and holding it open for her. A flicker of surprise flitted across her face at his act of politeness and she exited the flat, thinking that he would make a very nice doorman. A very good-looking one, too.
Tonks loved her car. She'd gotten it from her father years back when she'd first moved out of the house and into her humble flat. It was a red EJ Holden and, with the exception of her wand, was her most prized possession. Apparently Remus liked it too, as she saw his brows shoot up when he laid eyes on the car.
"Wow," he said, abandoning all polite pretenses. "Where'd you get that?"
Tonks laughed at Remus' unusual manner and got into the front driver's seat. "My old man," she said. "He saved it from the junkyard and renewed it. It was a hobby of his – repairing old cars – and he gave me this as a parting present. It was his first one."
"He trusted you with a car?" Remus said conversationally, though he was clearly taunting her. "After all the stairs you've fallen down?"
"Yes he did, in fact."
"That's amazing."
"Oh ha-ha," came the sarcastic reply.
Remus ran a hand over the spotlessly burnished red paint and then sat slowly in the passenger's seat, as if he was afraid of breaking the car if he touched it too roughly. "It's beautiful," he murmured.
"Glad you like it," Tonks replied, pointing her wand at the garage door and opening it. She put the key in the ignition and the car roared to life, music coming on out of nowhere and scaring Remus out of his mind.
"I hope you like the Weird Sisters," Tonks said as she backed out of the garage.
"Why?" Remus asked. He doubted that the Muggles would listen to any wizard band like the Weird Sisters.
"Because," Tonks replied loudly, reaching over and cranking up the volume, "When my dad fixed this car up, he changed a few things."
"What kind of things?" Remus shouted over the music, reaching up and grabbing the bar that was conveniently located in case of a sudden stop or a car accident – something Remus thought was quite likely if Tonks drove like she walked.
"He put in a custom stereo!" Tonks shouted, cranking up the volume and bass so that the whole car shook with the music. She put the car in gear and sped down the road, laughing loudly.
-
"That was probably the most degrading thing I've ever heard," Remus said as he and Tonks got out of the car. As it was, he thought he was lucky to be alive and wondered how ever on earth Tonks got her license in the first place. With a shudder, he remembered that she was a witch and probably never took a driving test.
Tonks laughed and replied, "Yeah, well, that's the Weird Sisters for you. Ah, here we are!" Four people were waving at the pair of them. Tonks locked the car and waved back, grinning broadly all the while. "Hey guys!"
The four people approached, all grinning from ear to ear. Remus thought they looked like nice people, even the guy with the lip piercing.
"It's so nice to see you!" a brunette bloke with dark sunglasses said, hugging Tonks so hard that she coughed. "I see you've cut your hair again – I've never thought pink looked so good on someone!"
Tonks laughed and hugged the man in return. "Thanks David," she said. "I'll remember to say that to my boss."
One of the women, a blonde, looked at Remus with an impressed look on her face and he was suddenly glad she was married – she had a very… hungry look about her.
"Who is this, Tonks?" the blonde woman asked. "He doesn't look like another one of your boyfriends."
Tonks and Remus blushed simultaneously.
"Nope, he's not," Tonks replied simply. "Everyone, this is Remus. He's staying at my place for a while until somebody fixes his ma – his roach infestation." The other woman, who had an eyebrow piercing and brown hair, wrinkled her nose. "Remus, this is David, Freddy, Stacey and Joanne," Tonks continued, pointing to the man with the shades, a man with shaggy blonde hair and the lip piercing, the blonde woman and the woman with the brown hair respectively. Remus nodded to each of them in polite acknowledgement and they, him.
David clapped his hands together and said cheerfully, "Well, let's get going, then. We're going to tie up once we're on the river and we have an anchor thrown out."
Remus nodded even though he had no idea what 'tie up' meant and followed Tonks down towards the town dock. Once the others had a good deal of distance ahead of them he murmured into her ear, "What do they mean by 'tie up'? I'm not going to end up tied up to chair, am I?"
She ignored the tickling sensation caused by his breath in her ear and replied, "Only if cousin Tessa gets a hold of you; she has a thing for older men." Remus chuckled, feeling less awkward now that he was in the midst of people who didn't think his tourist outfit was ridiculous. "And 'tie up' means that they're going to throw an anchor out and tie their boats together so we can have a right good party."
"Aha," said Remus, lengthening his stride as they began downhill towards the water.
Muggles walked past in groups and pairs, hardly sparing them a glance. Of course, Tonks received more glances than Remus, as she had pink hair, but he wasn't complaining. He was quite contented at the moment, enjoying the sun on his face and the sea breeze playing with his hair – it was almost like being young again.
-
The day crept slowly by, full of story-telling and cheap beer. And yet Remus found himself laughing genuinely at Freddy's story about the time he and Stacey had had an argument and she had pushed him off the boat, only to find that she had lost the lifesaver. Remus met Tessa, a charming girl of Tonks' age who hit on him constantly, causing Tonks to scowl but also leaving her unable to do anything. Tonks got along well with all her family and shared tales of her doing at work. In front of her family, Tonks was not an Auror but a waitress.
"So I said 'Oh, you think so, buddy?' and I poured the soda over his head. Take that, chum, and we'll see if you ever say anything about my hair again!" Tonks said defiantly, punching the air with her fist. The others, Remus included, roared with laughter. Remus was amazed that Tonks could make up such believable stories and tell them so well. Then again, he thought, Tonks was a pretty amazing person in general.
Tessa turned to Remus and put a hand on his knee, which he found to be more amusing than enticing, and said, "So, Remus, what do you do for a living?"
"Well," Remus said conversationally, calmly removing Tessa's hand from his knee and catching Tonks' smirk in his peripheral vision, "I am currently unemployed due to an – occupational hazard."
Joanne raised her pierced brow and asked, "What kind of occupational hazard?"
Remus made up a lie on the spot. "I have – er – weak knees and a bad back. It makes me useless for lifting and manual labor and, as I have a degree in mechanics, renders me useless."
Stacey made a sympathetic noise.
"Well if you can't find a job, you can work at my law firm," Stacey said, and laughed.
"Thank you," Remus replied politely. "I'll keep that in mind."
Tonks roared with laughter and blamed it on the beer, though Remus knew better – she'd only had half a bottle thus far.
-
Once the two boats, one thirty feet and the other fifty, were 'tied up' and anchored, Joanne went about making lunch. Tonks took Remus up on the bow of the fifty footer and showed him the view.
"Isn't it amazing?" asked Tonks, slipping slightly on the salty, slippery bow and grabbing his arm for support. She let go quickly and straightened up, turning the other way to hide the color that rose to her cheeks.
"It is nice," he replied quietly, admiring the sparkling water. In his hand was his Hawaiian shirt, which he had spilled his beverage on and had removed for the purpose of cleaning. It was now sopping wet, though the smell of liquor had been removed by magic when none of the Muggles were looking. "It's very… refreshing."
Tonks nodded, a lock of pink hair falling into her eyes, which she had decided were better off brown for this trip. She brushed it away impatiently, her eyes fixed on the horizon.
"I'd better hang this up," he said, holding up his shirt. "I don't think this is very Me." he plucked the beater away from his skin and laughed.
Carefully, as to avoid falling, Remus walked along the bow until he reached the very front, and pinned his shirt on the railing with a clothespin that Joanne had given him. As he straightened up, a bout of wake came from a passing speed boat and rocked the fifty footer. The boat was so large that it did not rock much, nor did it bother any of the owners, but Remus hadn't acquired 'sea legs' yet, and stumbled backwards. Tonks gave a shout and his legs gave out from underneath him when they hit the rail, sending him backwards over the edge of the boat and into the water. Tearing her sunglasses off and throwing them into the boat, Tonks cursed when she heard the splash and made to run to the edge of the bow. On her way over, she slipped on the wet fiberglass and toppled over the edge as well, giving a loud shout as she did so.
She hit the water with a splash to rival Remus' and when she surfaced, found herself bobbing in the water next to the werewolf.
"How nice of you to drop in," he said conversationally, jerking his head back to move his graying hair from his eyes.
Tonks laughed and spit out a stream of salty water. She shook her head, spraying Remus so that he laughed hoarsely. She bobbed there in the water, grinning, pink hair matted down on her head and plastered to her forehead, and he couldn't help but think –
"How can any one person be so endearing?" His eyes widened and he sank beneath the water, scolding himself for even thinking it, never mind saying it. He couldn't believe he'd said it; he was supposed to be over her and he'd blown his cover.
A pair of hands reached down and pulled him to the surface by the collar on his soaked shirt. It was her, of course, and she looked both bewildered and amazed by what he'd said.
"What did you just say?" she asked, eyes wide, as if she hadn't heard him correctly.
He stared at her, guilt coursing through him at the prospect of lying and at the prospect of telling the truth. Either way he would lose. Whether she knew or not, he would lose. He continued to stare at her, expressionless with water dripping down from his hair, which was hanging down his face, and off the tip of his nose.
"Nothing," he lied in a low voice he knew wouldn't convince her, but he couldn't bring himself to act. "I said nothing."
She narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to speak, her hands still clenched on his shirt, and then Joanne and David appeared on the bow of the ship.
"Are you two okay?" Joanne asked loudly.
Tonks stared at Remus for a moment longer and then pushed his head under water. When she pulled him back up, through his spluttering and gasping she hissed "I'm not going to forget this" and let him go. She swam up to the swim platform of the boat and climbed up the ladder. Remus could hear her cheerfully say, "Sorry, Remus fell in and I went after him."
Remus let the air out of his lungs and went back under the water, hoping that he might drown.
-
For the rest of the time, Remus and Tonks acted as if nothing had happened. However, a dread filled him like a sleeping drought, acting quickly and staying long-term. He didn't want to face Tonks, because he knew what she would say – that he was supposed to be over her and he couldn't stay with her any more. And to think, he thought bitterly, I was just beginning to enjoy myself.
In the loo, he moodily dried his Hawaiian shirt with magic and tore off his white beater. It was dripping wet, and drying it with magic would probably raise suspicion anyway. He pulled the Hawaiian shirt on and buttoned it all the way up because he didn't much feel like having to deal with Tessa hitting on him when he was vulnerable to attack. Once he'd hung his beater out to dry he joined the rest of the crowd on deck.
When Remus sat down at the table Tonks looked briefly at him while she laughed at David's joke about the lawyer and the police officer. Her eyes flickered quickly from the dark brown they had been to a crystal blue and then back in less than a second. Remus' eyes widened in alarm, all dread and awkwardness momentarily forgotten. Surely she was not purposely metamorphosing here, in front of all there Muggles…? The thought alone made Remus want to contact the Ministry and he wondered why he hadn't jumped up in terror.
Quickly, as nonchalantly as possible, Remus wrote her a note on a napkin, making brief eye contact with her and giving her a meaningful look. He figured that if she was going to metamorph, she probably wasn't doing it on purpose and needed to be alerted about it. Pronto. He put the note under her glass and slid it over to her across the small table after making sure that nobody was looking at him. Tonks, without taking her eyes off of David, who was now telling a story about a time he and his family had run out of gas right in front of a railroad bridge, lifted her glass and drank from it. It was then that she noticed the napkin with writing on it stuck to the bottom of the glass with condensation. Curiously, she pulled the napkin off the glass and read it. Her eyebrows shot up and Remus was overcome with relief. Why, he was not sure, but he was and he was glad.
"Hey David, can I use the loo?" she asked conversationally. Remus was impressed by how easily she spoke, not betraying her alarm.
David nodded, not stopping his story, and Tonks left. Remus began to stand up, but then sat back down. If he left with her he might look suspicious, and suspicion was the last thing he wanted right now. Yes, he thought, staggering his pursuit was the best thing to do.
When Remus finally did stand up he went up the ladder and went down inside the boat through the port hole at the top, which was not seeable by those on deck. He ducked down inside the forward cabin and knocked on the door of the loo. Tonks poked her head out and when she saw it was him, grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him in. Once she closed the door Remus discovered that the loo felt a lot smaller now that two people were inside it. He felt slightly claustrophobic and unbuttoned his top button on his shirt to allow more air, wishing that there was more space for him to breathe in. Not an inch separated the two of them. Tonks sat down on the lid of the toilet and put her face in her hands.
"What's the matter, Tonks?" Remus asked worriedly. "You didn't notice that you changed?"
She shook her head and removed her hands from her face. Remus cringed when he saw that her eye color had changed yet again, this time to a bright violet. "It happens when I'm getting sick," said Tonks miserably. "Like a warning of sorts."
Some warning, thought Remus sarcastically. "How do we stop it?" he asked urgently.
She rolled her eyes at the ceiling and her eyes flashed back to bright blue. "Essence of belladonna," she said. "I don't suppose you have any on you?"
When Remus shook his head Tonks groaned loudly and clamped her hands over her ears, which had begun to go all pointy like elf ears. Remus couldn't help but allow a smirk to flit across his face at her expense. The combination of blue eyes, spiky pink hair and elf ears reminded him alarmingly of the fairy tale nymphs he'd read about as a child. Not to mention the name Nymphadora, which couldn't have fitted better at the moment. Tonks saw his smirk and wasn't amused in the slightest. On the contrary she looked alarmed, and Remus couldn't blame her – if all these Muggles saw her like this there would probably be a lot of memory modifying and memos to write to the Ministry. And as much as Remus found the paper airplane memos to be amusing, he didn't want to spend his day writing them. Suddenly he remembered something.
"Wait," he said excitedly, causing Tonks to start, "I do have essence of belladonna!"
Tonks stood up so fast that she rammed right into him. Struggling to hide a blush she stammered, "Y-you do?"
"Yes, oddly enough. Hold on a moment…" Remus unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt and reached his hand inside the inner pocket, feeling around for something. He pulled out a small, square packet labeled "Essence of belladonna".
Tonks' eyes lit up at the sight of it and she grabbed it from him excitedly, tearing the top open and sticking her fingers inside to fish out the substance within. Just as Remus was beginning to button his shirt back up again the door opened. Both Remus and Tonks looked up in alarm, thankfully with Tonks' eyes and ears back to normal, to see Stacey standing there with her mouth agape. Her eyes widened as she looked from Remus with his shirt half-opened to Tonks with her thumb and forefinger fishing around in the square packet.
"Oops!" she said quickly, and shut the door again with her hand clamped over her mouth to suppress a bout of giggles.
Tonks and Remus faced each other, both with mouths hanging open, and realized just how bad they must have looked crammed together in the loo, not an inch between them. Remus flushed in embrassment; how he would look Stacey in the eye after this, he didn't know. Tonks, on the other hand, gave a weak laugh and opened the door. She roughly pushed Remus out and closed it again, giggling, so that she could set herself right in peace.
A/N: Meh, I decided to end it there because I'm both lazy and at a loss for how to end the chapter. And I figured I'd end it on a light note and leave the confrontation for next chapter.
Though I wouldn't mind my own Lupin in a Hawaiian shirt. Heh.