A/N: Hello! Another chapter up! As usual, reviews are welcome!
Remus groans as he wakes up, the light from the window shining on his face, as his joints give off cracking sounds at every move he makes. His head is pounding, and his muscles are aching from the previous night's transformation. He finds himself on the comforts of the bed of the extra room across his original room, when he clearly remembers falling asleep on the floor in front of the fireplace after playing ball with Snuffles. He has Sirius to thank for levitating him up to the bed until he transforms back into a man.
He looks at the clock hung on the wall above the door. 11:42am. He sighs as he struggles to find a comfortable position he can relax in. Just as when he is about to fall asleep again, he hears a faint knock on the door. He groans in response, when he remembers Tonks staying in Grimmauld Place the whole night last night, as he remembered Moony smelling lavender and vanilla last night not far from where he is. He struggles to sit up and he croaks, "Come in."
Tonks, with her hair purple tied to a small ponytail, enters, as quietly as she can, a tray with a plateful of food in her hands. She looks down at her feet as she carefully walks towards the bed, probably trying her best not to trip over Merlin-knows-what. She closes the door with her left foot and lays the tray down on the table beside the bed. Remus smiles at her and she smiles back, sitting on the edge of the bed beside him. She gently strokes the side of his face with her fingers.
"How are you feeling?" she asks softly. Remus takes her hand and kisses the back of it.
"Like shit." he responds. Tonks winces, and Remus immediately regrets his response.
"Right, sorry, shouldn't have asked." she mumbles softly. Remus sighs and smiles at her. "Did you at least get some sleep last night?"
"I did," Remus nods. "Did you?"
Tonks looks down and shakes her head. Remus reaches up to her heart-shaped face and she leans to his touch. She takes his hand and intertwines her fingers with his. "I tried morphing again last night when I heard you howl." she admits softly.
Remus blinks and pulls her gently so she can lie beside him. She faces him and rests her hand on his bare chest, gently tracing small visible scars.
"Dora…" he whispers. Though he had continuously expressed his dislike over what Tonks is trying to do for him, a small part of him somehow wished she would be successful, so that even as Moony, he would still be with her. Tonks, however, shakes her head, her eyes filling up with tears.
"It was painful, Remus," she says, her voice breaking as hot tears begin to flow down her face. "And that was me barely morphing my human limbs into wolf limbs, and I gave up because of the pain. And I thought about...how you had to endure so much more…" She is unable to continue as she sobs, and the sight of it is breaking Remus' heart.
He is struck of how someone like her can possibly care for whatever pain he is feeling in his transformation as a werewolf. He looks down at her racking body, as she shushes her and holds her tightly against his chest, letting her sob for as long as she needs. He presses his lips on top of her head as she starts to relax. Remus gently pulls away, enough so he could see Tonks' face red and blotched with tears. She sniffles, and furiously wipes the tears away from her face.
"I'm sorry." she says in a small voice. Remus kisses her forehead gently.
"It's okay." he murmurs softly. Tonks repositions her head so she can look at Remus' face, his eyes wearing that of a tired expression, but his eyes still sparkling and his mouth still curled up to a smile, and it was as if he is glowing in front her despite how tired he may be feeling. She begins to wonder how someone so tired and weary can still be so charming?
She sits up, and carefully carries the tray of food on the bed. "Here, I brought Molly's food from yesterday. I asked Sirius' help to heat it, just to be safe as I can probably burn the whole house if it was me who had done the recooking." She lets out a small chuckle and he smiles.
He eats while he listens to her tell a story of her small argument with her older cousin not long ago. "So what I did, I morphed myself to look exactly like him, hair, facial structure, Merlin, even body! I repeat everything he said which I thought will set him off, but instead he kept on telling me that his mouth doesn't look like that of his nose isn't that pointy! I'm a metamorphmagus, for Merlin's sake, I become whatever I see!" Remus starts laughing, as Tonks tries his best to imitate Sirius' voice. "Leave it to your brilliantly vain cousin to turn your prank around, yeah?"
Remus laughs and shakes his head. "So where is he now, then?" he asks.
"Told me he'll be off to Flourish & Blotts," she answers him. "He's been going on about going to Diagon Alley for weeks. I wonder why he only thought of actually going there now."
Remus takes the glass of water to finally finish his meal and sighs, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Tonks smiles and takes the tray off his lap, placing it back on the table beside his bed, and faces him once more. Remus leans forward, gently pulling her by her waist as he presses his lips against hers. She wraps an arm around his neck, kissing him back gently, unsure if what she's doing might be hurting his post-transformation body.
Tonks lets out a small moan as Remus bites the bottom of her lip, and as he explores her neck with his lips, Tonks digs her fingers in Remus' scalp, gathering a handful of his greying-sandy brown hair. Remus adjusts her so she is straddling him, and Tonks presses her hands against Remus' chest as she readjusts to capture his lips once more, kissing him more fiercely and passionately.
Remus' hands move up at the back of her shirt, slowly moving upward at the bare of her back, when—
"Tonks, Moony, I—" Immediately, at the sound of the door opening and Sirius' voice coming in, the two pull away from each other, with Tonks falling off on the spot of the bed beside Remus, hitting her head on the headboard as Remus winces, watching her recover. Sirius catches himself in a fit of laughter that echoes in the entire hall, as he leans on the doorframe of the bedroom.
"Are you bloody serious?" Tonks shouts, sitting up on the bed, giving her and Remus a safe distance.
"As a matter of fact, I am Sirius!" Sirius says, winking at Tonks who rolls her eyes.
"Padfoot, as much as I am thankful for your company last night, I would have appreciated it more if you have...er, knocked on the door." Remus tells him, feeling heat coming up in his face as his cheeks turn into a furious scarlet. Tonks looks up at him sheepishly, the back to his smirking cousin who is still leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest.
"I thought you said you were off to Diagon Alley." Tonks adds.
"Yeah, that was before I went to shower," Sirius tells him. "And before I heard some moaning and smooching inside this room." Sirius smirks and both Remus and Tonks groan. "Seriously, both of you, we're wizards—and witch—the least thing you can do before you start snogging and shagging is to chant silencio and lock the bloody door!"
"Perhaps, Padfoot, if you heard those kinds of sounds, you would've known better than just to barge in!" Remus exclaims, massaging his temples with his fingers.
Sirius shrugs. "Had to see it to believe it." he says, wiggling his eyebrows. Tonks groans and shakes her head.
"Bloody hell, Sirius, grow up." Tonks mutters. Sirius laughs and waves his hand dismissively.
"I'm off to Flourish & Blotts, will pick up a few things for Harry from there. Any of you want anything from Diagon Alley?" He gestures at Tonks and Remus, who shake their heads respectively. "Right, resume snogging, you two. I'll catch you later!" Sirius sings, winking one more time before closing the door behind him.
Remus looks at Tonks, who has become so fascinated with the hem of her shirt. He sighs and takes her hand in his and she looks up and smiles at him, her eyes, once again, changing from the emerald green she is sporting for the day to Remus' blue ones. He chuckles and kisses the back of her hand.
Tonks sighs and moves her body so she is completely facing him. "Remus, I really must ask...and it has been bothering me since last night." she starts. Remus sighs and tucks a few loose strands of her purple hair behind her ear.
"Dora, if it really means that much to you to morph yourself into a wolf every month, we can always ask Sirius to teach you how to be an animagus." Remus tells her. Tonks frowns, furrowing her eyebrows as she shakes her head.
"N-no, that...that was not what I was going for, actually." Tonks says, looking away from him. Remus tilts his head, still looking at her. She clears her throat. "I mean...I just really want to ask...what...er, what are we…" She looks up and gestures between the two of them. Remus mouths an 'o' and Tonks nods.
"Well," Remus starts, looking away, not knowing where he will go from here. "I...I'm not really good at...well, this." He gestures between the two of them. "Being a werewolf and all, I never really had that opportunity to have a, er, a serious one. Everyone runs away as soon as they find out, ashamed and afraid of me. So I...I never really..." He trails off, and risks looking at her, and he finds her still looking at him, with a sparkle in her eyes he cannot quite explain.
"But I've told you a thousand times since the moment we met," she tells him softly, lifting his chin up with her finger so he can look at her, her eyes changing into her natural stormy-grey eyes. "I don't care. This is not your fault. You are a gentle, intelligent and caring man—even handsome!"
And it was true. The moment Tonks had learned that Remus was a werewolf, during one of their Order meetings when Snape had given him a cauldron of Wolfsbane while he was still trying to get to know the beautiful woman who had captivated his eyes the moment she walked in the room, she had dismissed it almost immediately. When he had asked about it later that night, he clearly remembers her telling her the same thing, "I don't care that you're a werewolf—it's not your fault, and that's not who you are." He figures that perhaps that was the moment he had started to fall in love with the beautiful, kind-hearted, klutz Auror.
Since then, she had never failed to remind him that she doesn't care, as if his furry little situation is not a big elephant in the room to be discussed.
He lets out a soft chuckle as she smiles, stroking the small scars on his face gently with her fingers. "Being a werewolf twelve times a year is nothing compared to the gentle and kind man that you always are hundreds of times a year." she continues. "So, please, Remus, please stop beating yourself up over it."
Remus smiles and kisses her forehead, allowing his lips to linger there for a moment before moving down to capture her lips softly. "Thank you," he murmurs against her lips. "Thank you, Dora."
Tonks smiles and removes the fringe covering his eyes. "So...er, I guess it's really safe to tell you that I...I really fancy you, you know." she tells him in a small voice. Remus chuckles, cupping her cheek with his hand.
"I really fancy you too, Nymphadora." he replies. She scrunches up her nose.
"Now that you called me by my first name, I might just take back what I said about fancying you." she says, an amused smile forming in her lips. Remus laughs and opens his mouth to say something, but instead, he lets out a yawn. Tonks laughs loudly.
"'M sorry." Remus mumbles, lying back down, pulling Tonks with him so she is now resting her head on his shoulder as she drapes an arm over his torso. He wraps an arm around her waist and his other arm is wrapped around her shoulders protectively.
"Thank you, my love." Remus whispers, pressing a soft kiss on top of her head. Tonks hums and moves her head to give Remus a soft kiss on his lips.
"Rest now." she whispers, and Remus allows himself to sleep beside the woman he loves. This isn't so bad, after all. He thinks, as he allows himself to drift off to sleep.
