h 3.00 a.m. – The Flirting

"It's your bloody Marauder blood making you speak like this, isn't it?"

Tonks gulped a glass of painkiller potion Remus had prepared her (renouncing to his herbal tea), and laid it down, inviting him to fill it up again.

"I think you've had enough of this." He objected, pushing the pot aside. "If you drink some more, I'll have to rename it Tonks-killer."

"But I need more." She tried to reach out for the steamy pot, but Remus refused to let her take it. "Have you ever been told that you're really boring at times?" she groaned, failing her last attempt to get the pot.

"A couple of times." He confessed quietly. "But never by my own pink-haired nemesis."

She pouted in her best prima donna attitude and gave him an insolent glare.

"What's with my hair?" she barked. "You always make observations about my hair. I can't understand if it's 'cause you like it or all the contrary."

Remus studied his nails displaying a big interest in them. Toying with her patience was cruel, but just fun, and even if he knew she would payback, he really couldn't resist.

"I just think it's a bit… You know," he glanced unsurely at her spiky head. "A bit unfeminine, maybe…"

Although the light was very dim, he could distinctly see the tips of her hair turning a fiery hue of red; he hoped, on the other hand, that she couldn't see he was trying not to jeer.

"A bit… A bit unfeminine?" Tonks stuttered, her hoarse voice seemingly struck down in her throat.

She sounded dismayed – even hurt, perhaps – and for a split second Remus wondered if he hadn't exaggerated. After all, he would be offended if she would accuse him of looking unmanly.

He had never had the impression she cared much about her looks (which made a lot of sense to him, because she was pretty enough to afford it), and he hadn't expected such an emotional reaction. Besides he thought he'd caught a glimpse of glossiness in her eyes.

Had he really brought Nymphadora Tonks on the edge of tears?

He watched her take a hand to her mouth and emit what sounded horribly like a sob. He couldn't see her face, because her hair hid it, but her shoulders were definitely shaking.

"Look, I… I was just kidding, Tonks…"

Her shoulders trembled more visibly, but when she finally looked up, he realised that she wasn't crying. Tears did fill her eyes, in fact, but only because she was struggling to keep herself from bursting out laughing.

"I can't believe you bought it." she taunted, and the pink in her hair had never been so vivid. She had to take a few deep breaths to steady herself. "But you so deserved it."

"Yes, I really did." He agreed, and found himself nicely infected by her laugh. "But it's not like I was very believable, was I?"

"I have to concede I was scared, for a moment…"

"It's never been a mystery that I like your hair." He told her earnestly, feeling he owed it to her. "Of course, there are other and possibly more remarkable things in you, but your hair is just," He shrugged. "Fine."

Tonks nodded, smiling as her eyes faded from dark brown to ice blue.

"I wonder what could be more remarkable than pink hair to a man like you." She wondered.

"Your eyes are just amazing." He said, staring into them, and he had never been more sincere in his life. "The way they are now, I mean, not because they change every now and then. Your true eyes."

"I need to remember to change them before we're out in the field, then," she said, feigning a serious tone. "Wouldn't want you to be distracted because you're admiring them too insistently."

Perfect consciousness that she was kidding did not keep Remus from feeling hot round his ears.

"I didn't dare ask you, but thanks, you don't know what it means to me." he quipped, and grabbed his wand to summon a jug and couple of clean glasses from the cupboard.

"I didn't think of you as the flattering type, Remus." She said, while fresh water spilled from the tip of his wand to well into the jug.

He didn't look at her. He just smiled and filled the glasses.

"How indecent of an old werewolf…"

Tonks rolled her eyes and grabbed her glass so brusquely that she tipped half of the water.

"Shut up, you're not old!"

"But I do look like I am." He insisted.

"You don't."

"I do."

"You don't."

"I do."

"You don't."

"I do."

"You don't fancy me."

"I do."

There was a moment of awkward silence, during which Remus stared at her in daze with his jaw dropped, then his whole face fell as he – too late – realised her trick. She narrowed her eyes with a very self-satisfied smirk, her hands joined under her chin, leaning forward over the table.

"Well, well, well…"

Remus shook his head incredulously, nibbling at his bottom lip.

"I… Cannot believe I fell for that." he murmured, but he knew she could see his eyes glistening surreptitiously.

Sporting the clear and unmistakable expression of someone who was far too aware of the situation, Tonks grinned mischievously.

"Or for me?"

Remus was not sure if it was normal he was feeling his back pressed onto a wall, if the closest one stood at least three metres behind him.

"Let's not make a big deal out of it, Nymph-"

With a promptness he wouldn't have expected, she took her wand from somewhere Remus didn't have the time to discern and pointed it at his throat threateningly.

"Dare say that," she warned him. "And you'll wish you never met me."

He gave her a half smile.

"What if I already do?" he retorted, half jokingly, half seriously. Tonks snorted and withdrew her wand.

"And you think I'd believe this after you admitted you're crazy for me? Nice try, but no way."

"Crazy for..." He could distinclty feel his cheeks flush. "You made me say what you wanted to hear!"

He knew it wasn't exactly the truth, but she didn't need to find out, especially because she already seemed self-confident enough, for his tastes.

Maybe, after all, he'd let slip a little too much.

"And you didn't even try to deny it." she pointed out, matter-of-factly.

Remus sighed, and yet couldn't seem to brush that grin his lips bore away.

"This admitted but not conceded," he stated carefully. "I might still regret having met you."

"Why would you?" Tonks asked in genuine astonishment, as if he'd just told her he wanted to marry Buckbeak. "Everyone says I'm such a lovable girl…"

"Perhaps this is the problem," he continued slowly, never dropping that barely hinted smile as his eyes refused to rise upon her. "Perhaps you're so lovable that you compromised the plans…"

Tonks blinked blankly. Very lovable, indeed, Remus thought.

"What plans?"

"The altogether hypothetical fact that I might fancy you, doesn't imply that I wanted to."

"Ah." She pursed her lips, apparently pondering the question. "So I hypothetically made you fancy me?"

"Give or take some circumstantial and totally unwilling condescendence from me," Remus adjusted the jug next to his glass, feeling vaguely uncomfortable. "Basically you did."

He couldn't believe he was blaming her. And what was he blaming her for, by the way? For being a brilliant – sweet, funny, beautiful – witch with a heart-melting problem with clumsiness?

"I made you fancy me." she repeated, furrowing her brows at him. Girly flirtation shone through her gaze.

"Yes."

"Made you as in 'I made you eat mud'?"

"Yes." He confirmed one more time.

"Hypothetically." She remarked, a small grin stretching her soft lips. Remus grinned in return.

"Of course."

"Charming hypothesis."

Her smile was gentle, and yet that shade of unhidden sultriness made it irresistible, hypnotising, and he honestly wasn't sure the attraction he felt toward her was not due to some kind of magic. He felt goose bumps rising all over the upper part of his body, and another quite pleasing sensation in the lower.

He swept certain thoughts away with the same celerity and worriment he would have used to chase away a Dementor and quickly prompted a bold face.

"Thank you."

Thoroughly oblivious to his inner turmoil – or more probably uncaring – Tonks bent further toward him to stop a scarce inch from his face. A girlish gleam of mischief flashed in her eyes as he fixed her, swallowing hard, bewitched by her tantalising closeness, wondering why, all of a sudden, the room felt so unbearably small and hot.

Caressed by the golden glow of the candles, Tonks licked her lips and smiled in a way that had nothing to do with girlishness.

Sexy. It was sheer – and very feminine – sensuality.

"And in this big net of hypothetical suppositions," she inquired huskily, occasionally glancing down at his lips. "What would hypothetically happen if I hypothetically fancied you back?"

TBC

A/N: Thanks for reading, you must be very brave or very sick if you've been able to read till here. Whoever leaves a review gets a kiss from either of our two lovebrids (even both, if you want!). Reviews make me, Remus and Tonks very happy and eager to come back soon. ; )