"There is no way that can be comfortable," was what she heard before a rather tall shadow blocked her sun.

"Mum!" She complained, shielding her eyes.

"Nymphadora."

"You're blocking my sun."

"Well, excuse me for being concerned that my daughter had passed out from heat exhaustion," Andromeda said with a roll of her eyes but took a step back.

"Pretty sure it's not hot enough for me to get heat exhaustion."

She eyed the sky critically for a moment and nodded. Sure, it was nice and sunny and even warm for a change. But there were clouds in the sky. And it wasn't that warm. This was England, after all. It never got that warm. Her mum was just being overdramatic. She thought that was her role in the family, what being a teenager and all.

"Knowing your luck, you'd get it."

"I'm just lying here, not doing anything!"

"You looked like you collapsed on the ground."

"It's cooler down here." She said and then added, "And I'm comfortable" when it looked like her mum was going to point out how she was lying down.

Look, lying with all your limbs outstretched really was comfortable. She was stretched out just enough that it felt good but none of her muscles were strained and as much as her body was exposed to the sun's warmth as possible. A perfectly acceptable position for her. Even if it looked like she had just dropped from the sky.

"I'm sure if you used a chair or even a towel under you like a normal person it would be just as cool."

"But that requires effort she said with a whine.

"Or some forethought."

"Summer isn't for thinking."

"Obviously not."

"You're being mean," she pouted at her mother.

"You're being ridiculous."

"I was relaxing."

"Are you saying that you don't want pumpkin juice mixed with sprite?" Andromeda asked, arching an eyebrow.

Now that made Tonks sit up fast. Pumpkin juice and sprite was definitely the best drink this summer. Discovered completely by accident when she'd tripped while holding a bottle of sprite and the contents went into the bowl of pumpkin juice that had been on the table. She'd drunk it out of spite after her dad complained that she'd ruined the pumpkin juice (it was his favourite drink, strangely enough). She hadn't meant to actually like the damn drink. A very happy accident, for a change. It was delicious.

"Yes please!"

Andromeda snorted and handed her down a glass.

"I really ought to make you sit on a chair before giving you this."

"But you know I'd just sit here and then we'd get into an argument and id end up with the drink anyway."

"You would end up with the drink over you."

Tonks stuck her tongue out at that, something Andromeda just rolled her eyes out.

"Enjoy the sun," she said, going back inside.

"You not staying out?"

"I would rather not get burnt. And make sure you don't either."

Both of them had extremely fair skin. Damn those Black genes. It meant that to enjoy the sun you had to have such a thick layer of sunscreen that it was like another layer of skin and if someone tried to grab you, you just slipped away. Not exactly great if someone was trying to catch you to, let's say, prevent you from falling. Not that she had any experience with that.

"Already slathered in sunscreen."

Getting burnt was very much not on her summer to do list. Can you imagine her turning up to Auror Training bright red and in pain? That was not a first impression that she wanted to make. And her abilities didn't even work on sunburn! She'd tried before. Somehow, she'd made her skin feel worse.

But she wasn't going to get sunburnt this year because she was slathered in enough sunscreen that she was surprised that she wasn't slipping around on the grass. Now that was a funny image. She supposed it was a good thing she wasn't, that sounded like an injury waiting to happen knowing her luck.

This was the kind of summer that she loved. Doing absolutely nothing, enjoying lying back, outside while the sun shined. Which probably wouldn't last very long, knowing the UK, but she was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

Bzzz, bzzz.

Well, she wasn't going to enjoy it of that noise kept going.

Bzzz, bzzz

A bee. Of course, kt was a bee. Why was kt buzzing so loud? Were bees supposed to buzz that loud?

Bzzz, bzzz

And now it was right up in her face. She really didn't need that.

"Shoo, bee," she said, swatting the buzzing insect away as it took far too much interested in the contents of her glass.

That was for her, not for it. The last thing she needed to see was a bee get drunk on sugar and drown in her drink. Could bees even drown? She knew some bees got drunk off rose nectar, she'd seen it a few years ago when her mum had dragged her out to weed. Which hadn't exactly gone well because she had found the only patch of nettles that they had and had landed face first. That had not been pleasant at all.

Bzzz, bzzz.

And this wasn't pleasant either! Seriously, the bee had to go. She was trying to relax here!

"Shoo!"

Was it buzzing louder or was it just her? It was the problem here! Why could it not just go away?

"Ow!"

Tonks jumped up and almost immediately tripped over and faceplanted. It might have been grass and not the patio but the ground was still hard!

"Owwww!"

That was her nose now! Her sore hand clutched at it, making her wince at the two sources of pain. And her nose was bleeding because why not? It didn't matter how many times she bumped her nose, she never got used to that horrible, sharp pain. How her nose wasn't mangled from the number of times she had basically fallen flat on her face, she would never know but something she was very grateful that hadn't happened.

Pain shot through her again and she moaned, getting the attention of her mum.

"What did you do now, Nymphadora?"

"I got stung!"

"By what?"

"I don't know! A bee, a wasp? Does it matter? I got stung!"

And it was throbbing too. She bet that it was all swollen to the size of a snitch or something.

"Of course, it matters, there's different treatment for each one!"

It took a few minutes but soon the stinger was removed from her person and she had a salve thickly applied to the affected area. It was one of those salves that did that weird heating up thing when it came in contact with her skin but it was doing its job. Her skin wasn't feeling tight or itchy anymore.

"How on earth you managed to injure yourself so much by simply getting stung I will never understand," Andromeda said with a long-suffering sigh as she took stock of the various scrapes and bumps on her body.

"Would a 'it's me' help?" Tonks asked sheepishly.