Author's note: Some fluff because with the week I've had, girl we've all earned it. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.
Hogwarts: Assignment #3, Culinary Arts, Task #10: Write about something taking a long time
Warnings: NA
Watching Paint Dry
He froze when he heard the front door open.
Oh gosh. This was sooner than he'd anticipated…
"I'm home," Dora called. He heard her keys drop in the bowl they kept by the front door and looked around the empty room he stood in, wondering what his next course of action was. Grab his wand, vanish the layers of newspaper he'd put on the ground, the paint, the brushes… but what about the work he'd already gotten done?
"You're home early," Remus called back. His worry about this unscheduled appearance eventually won, and he tucked his wand in the belt he felt like he was tightening more and more every day before ducking out of the spare room. Dora was in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with her head resting against the fridge.
"No, no, don't worry like that. It's just morning sickness," she said. "I'll feel better in half-an-hour at most, but the Auror Department hasn't the slightest idea what to do with a pregnant Auror…"
"I'm sorry," Remus said.
She offered a meek smile and then frowned.
"Why were you in the spare room?" she asked.
"I…" Remus raked his mind for a decent fib, but as it turned out lying to an Auror was easier said than done and he had nothing to offer here. Well, at least the truth might make her feel better…
"It was going to be a surprise," he clarified.
Sure enough the intrigue of it piqued her interest. She stood up a little straighter and cocked her head to the side.
"What was going to be a surprise?" Dora asked.
Remus chewed his lip and then waved her over. He took a spare tea towel laying on the kitchen counter and tied it around her head, covering her eyes. She laughed but played along as he then opened the spare room's door and led her in. He paused for a minute and weighed his options before spinning her so that she faced the wall to the right of the door—his latest, still fresh, handiwork.
"Okay, you can look," he said.
She pulled the tea towel down and her jaw dropped. The previously frost white, absolutely and completely bare wall that would have once stood before her was now painted a fun and playful forest green—as was the one facing it. On the wall by the window, he'd painted the long and spindly outline of birch trees with striped bark, still waiting for their leaves. He'd cracked the window open, hoping that the draft coming in would help the paint dry. The window frame had already been painted a light, playful yellow. It might be Remus' favourite colour out of all the paints he'd saved after spying the leftovers from Flourish & Blott's latest round of renovations when he'd been in doing their books (after hours and out of sight from all their respectable customers, naturally).
He turned to look at her and the corner of his lips twitched when he saw her dropped jaw.
She turned to look at him.
"You did it?" She smiled. "You talked the landlord into letting us paint?"
"We can paint every single thing in this whole flat," Remus said with a smile.
Dora laughed and she walked towards the green wall. She stopped herself just before she touched the paint and instead clasped both of her cheeks in her hands.
"This is such a good green," she said.
"I know," Remus laughed. "I saw it and I thought it was your grocery-shopping green."
"It is!" Dora said, changing her hair to match the walls to emphasize the point. She laughed and came at him with open arms.
"I might have wet paint on my—"
"I don't care," she said, leaning against him fully and even snuggling against the old t-shirt he was wearing. "I love it. This is so… so good… This is going to be such a nice room to sleep in and read stories in and do all the things."
"That's the idea," Remus agreed, kissing the top of her head. He couldn't stop smiling and he was happy that he could rest his chin on the top of her head and grin away, without her seeing how pleased he was. "And I'm not even done yet."
"Can I help you finish?" Dora asked.
"Umm—yes, if you want," Remus said. "Are you sure you shouldn't rest if you're not feeling…"
"Nope," Dora said, popping her p. "Baby's settled down—I'm better now. Told them we had important things to do."
Remus laughed.
"Then yes, of course you can," Remus said. "You may want to change out of your Auror robes first though, I'm good with vanishing most stains but not paint."
When she circled back to the room he'd cracked open the other box of paint to show her the nice, soft, buttery yellow he'd been planning to paint another wall in. Of course, then she wanted to see every shade of paint he'd rescued and brought home—the lavender purple, vibrant orange, poppy red, turquoise, sky blue, lime green, hot pink…
"Who would just throw away colours like these?" she asked, dipping her fingers in the pink paint curiously. The ratty jeans and old Puddlemere United t-shirt she was wearing were accenting her baby bump, and she'd shortened her hair down to a deep eggplant peach fuzz to keep it out of the way.
"Someone who doesn't have a wife who talks about colours like they're living things, presumably," Remus said. And who's rubbing off, he might have added.
She looked at him and stuck out her tongue. He stuck his back.
"Rude," she said.
"I was raised by wolves," Remus said.
She burst out laughing and waved him off, inadvertently sending pink paint flying towards the wall he'd just finishing painting a base coat on earlier.
Immediately she gasped.
"I am so sorry," she said all in one breath. "I'm so—Merlin, you do all this work and get this all ready and I'm not even here for five minutes before I wreck it…"
He dipped his fingers in the orange paint and threw it at the wall so it joined her splatter.
Dora gasped again before bursting out laughing. When she turned to look at him, she had a blush on her cheeks.
"I like your way better," Remus said. "Although I think we need to close the door if we're going to be doing this."
He took Dora's laughter as a yes and shut the door, flinging more paint at the wall on his way back towards her. He wiped his fingers against his jeans to get rid of the orange.
"Purple next?" he asked.
"I'll do blue," she nodded.
They splattered paint on the wall (and each other) to their heart's content—only stopping because Dora pointed out that they needed music to get this done, and he agreed. Once the Weird Sisters were blasting through the room, they resumed and splattered away. They both slowed down at around the same time, as the wall's rainbow evolved into a satisfyingly colourful and messy and beautiful canvas they were both pleased with.
He felt the paint on her hand squish against his fingers when he took her hand.
"Want to do the leaves on the tree while we've got all the colours out?" Dora asked.
Remus was going to say that he'd been planning on using the green to do that, but what was the fun in that? The rainbow-leafed tree ended up being much more fun and much more interesting, which Remus wasn't surprised about. When Dora was with him and her smile and her laughter rationalized the world in such simple and beautiful ways, he wasn't half as hesitant or anxious as he usually was. Wherever she wanted to put colour and however she felt like turning the world on his head, he supported it. It had taken him a while for him to be bold enough to even think of these things—just like it had taken him a long time to find his place, to find his family and the love of his life. But she made him brave and they were making a family now. He hoped the baby would make him even braver.
They dipped their fists in pain and pushed them against the walls until the birch trees too were dotted with leaves, as full as they'd be on the summer solstice.
"I can't wait to see it when it's done," Dora said, looking around the room.
"It'll take time to dry," Remus said as he packed up the paint and brushes.
"I can wait," Dora said, easing herself down onto the floor.
"You're going to sit here and literally watch paint dry?" Remus asked, amusement hinting into his voice.
"I may as well," she said. "Come sit with me, time will fly."
"It'll take a really long time," Remus clarified warningly.
"So does making a baby, we're already waiting," Dora said, leaning back so that she was laying on the floor looking up at the ceiling.
Remus smiled. Maybe they'd finally be able to breach the subject of baby names today, or he'd finally guess the answer to that riddle she'd asked a week ago…
"Alright," he said. "But let me grab you a chair or a pillow or something—you are making a baby."
"Deal," she said. "Will you bring snacks too?"
"Of course I'll bring snacks," Remus scoffed. "I mean, we'll need something to do if we're going to literally watch paint dry."
Stacked with: MC4A; Shipping Wars; Hogwarts
Individual Challenge(s): Rainbow Focus; Gryffindor MC; Hufflepuff MC; Seeds; Baby Mine; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Family); Themes & Things B (Joy); Themes & Things C (Painting/Drawing); Themes & Things F (Courage); True Colours; Rian-Russo Inversion; In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux
Word Count: 1588
Shipping Wars
Ship (Team): Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks (Technicolour Moon)
List (Prompt): Winter Micro 2 (Setting Porn)