Sweet Beginnings (4/4)
Title: Sweet Beginnings (4/4)
Author: chococoffeekiss
Rating & Warnings: Rated T/PG for language and a little bit of innuendo, Non-Magical American Modern AU
Prompt(s): hot chocolate
Format & Word Count: Chaptered, 1601/approx. 7500
Summary: Love's labors pay minimum wage; Tonks is a barista by day, ninja by night. Remus writes, or tries to. Sirius levels up. Feat. other HP characters doing even stranger things.
Tonks’s face hurt. Her hopes, though, were as high as ever. She stood near the towering Christmas tree in the ballroom of a hotel, holding a tray of drinks - expensive champagne in tall glasses. Her high heels were starting to pinch and blister her feet. People milled around to the sound of popular songs and Christmas remixes.
This was not her kind of party - Jell-O shots and a Guitar Hero tournament were nowhere to be found. The crowd took drinks, ignoring her as if the tray was floating in midair. She ignored them right back, smiling brightly. It was easy; she couldn’t stop.
After Ron had dropped her off, she had flopped onto her bed, pulled a pillow over her face and shrieked until she started giggling and had to have another cup of tea to calm down. It hadn’t helped. Her thoughts were split between that morning and the next and the moment - the party she was at, didn’t seem to exist at all.
She stood out among the gussied up crowd in her catering uniform - a knee-length black skirt, white blouse, and the pair of godforsaken black stilettos she was wearing now. She wobbled slightly in the shadow of the Christmas tree.
Her cousin Sirius ambled up to her, godson Harry in tow. His unruly hair was pulled back into a tail and he was wearing a suit for once, instead of jeans and a t-shirt. He, like her mother, had a brilliant mind for business but lacked that ruthless ambition of the rest of their family.
“Hey, Nymphadora. You can’t kick me when you’re carrying all those drinks, huh? Nice hair, very festive.” He tugged one of her purple highlights. “Finally convinced Remus to come to one of these parties. If I can find him, I’ll introduce you-Minerva! You look fantastic!”
He took off across the room in an ADD blur, leaving Tonks shrugging at Harry, who jammed his hands in his pockets and grinned awkwardly. Harry was a good kid, the child of two of Sirius’s close friends who had been killed in a car wreck almost sixteen years ago.
It was the wreck that had put Sirius in prison. He had been out with three of his friends at a Halloween party - Harry’s parents and their friend Peter, the designated driver.
Peter had spent the party with some shady people possessing even shadier substances, ending up in no state to drive (but attempting it anyway). Sirius realized too late that something was wrong and tried to make their friend pull over but Peter lost control of the car and flipped it over a guardrail. The married couple died of their injuries. Pettigrew pulled Sirius, knocked unconscious, into the driver’s seat and fled.
Lacking any witnesses or evidence to the contrary, her cousin was convicted of drunk driving and negligent homicide. Years later, Sirius’s friend Remus had seen Peter’s mugshot on a news report about a gas station hold-up. After Pettigrew’s eventual confession and a retrial, Sirius was released.
“Nymphadora,” someone hissed. She turned and almost ran into her mother. Andromeda gave her a kiss on each cheek and leaned close to whisper in her ear. She pressed a makeup compact into Tonks’s free hand. “People are starting to talk. You should go cover up that bruise or they’ll think you were on Jerry Springer.”
At one time, this would have been a prompt for Tonks to point out that she didn’t give a damn who was saying what, but right now she couldn’t be bothered.
“Okay. I need to get a few more glasses anyway. Thanks, Mom.”
It was just the excuse she needed to escape to the kitchen.
Tonks set her tray next to the sink on the steel worktop and got to work-pouring champagne and topping off mugs of eggnog with swirls of whipped cream from a can and shaved chocolate. She wasn’t a fan of eggnog but emptied the last of the champagne into her own glass, eyeing the Reddi-Whip can. There were voices coming from the hall.
“No, you need to meet her, she’s great.”
“If she’s working we probably shouldn’t bother her.”
“Pfft. She won’t mind.”
Tonks turned around, one whipped-cream smudged fingertip in her mouth as two people walked in through the open door - Sirius, followed by a man in a dark suit.
“Hey, Tonks, I finally found him. He was hiding in the bathroom-“
She looked from her cousin to the other man and stopped breathing. He must have been thinking the same thing she was because for a second, he didn’t move, and she stared into the very same pair of gray-green-blue-brown eyes that she’d been thinking about all day.
“Remus, this is Andi’s daughter, Tonks. That’s her last name, you can’t call her by her first or she’ll put you in a headlock and make you apologize with her fists of fury-“
He wore a bemused grin and was shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Dora, this is Remus. I’m sure you remember me telling you about his books. I’ve known him for a long damn time-“
Her mind had put it all together before she realized what was going on.
Of course she remembered that name. He was Sirius’s friend, the writer - the one he talked about constantly, who she’d never met. The one who got him out of prison.
“Remus Lupin. I’ve heard all about you.”
---
“I wish I could say the same,” he said, sure that he’d never smiled so much in one day.
The purple bruises around both of her eyes matched the violet highlights in her hair and a cut bisected her lower lip. It was definitely her, his girl from the coffeeshop.
Sirius frowned. “Yeah, I’ve told you about her. She’s the one who does the kung fu fighting. We jumped out of an airplane, remember?”
They were clearly related - she had the same shaped eyes, but the manic gleam in Sirius’s was, in her eyes, a sort of prepossessing earnestness.
…And the motorcycle suddenly made so much more sense.
He started to put together everything he had heard with what little he knew, and he liked her more every second.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said with as much solemnity he could rally, and she looked like she was about to burst out laughing, all grin and dimples. It must have hurt - her nose was probably broken.
She closed the distance between them and he thought she was going to shake his hand but instead, she grabbed a handful of his shirt and kissed him on the lips. It was a vivid, electric kiss, not quite indecent but not very innocent either. She tasted like Moët et Chandon and Reddi-Whip, and pulled away with a thrilling hint of reluctance and a daring smile.
Just a little crazy, he thought through a haze of endorphins.
“Nice to meet you, too.”
Dora Tonks (he was going to find out her real name, come hell or high water) picked up her tray of champagne glasses and walked out without another word.
Sirius stared after her, his head tilted to the side like a confused dog. Remus could all but hear the gears grinding. He cleared his throat.
“She seems nice,” he said to the empty room. One of Sirius’s deep-thought frowns appeared. He was about to figure it out.
“I’m just going to go, now...” Remus backed toward the double doors. Sirius blinked.
“Well, son of a-“
He slipped out the door and followed her without hesitating this time, catching her elbow as she weaved through the crowd of uptight literati.
“This is an interesting development.” Tonks gave him a sideways glance as she passed her tray off to the redhead he’d seen at the coffeeshop. She laughed - a bubbly, bright sound. “So, Remus, how do you feel about going out?”
“With you? I mean, of course, with you…When?”
“Right now.”
“Right now?” he echoed.
“Did I stutter?” she said, and caught his arm, pulling him through the crowd, down a quiet hall and out a back door to the loading zone for the hotel kitchen. Her shiny black bike was parked there.
“Where did you have in mind?” he asked.
“I dunno, maybe you could bring me a drink for a change? Something warm.”
“I think I’d like that.”
“I know I would,” she said quietly, with a suddenly shy smile.
He still had her hand in his and they were both shivering.
Tonks looked at the motorcycle, then at him. “Have you ever-“
“Of course I have. But…not recently.”
“Ah. I’m sure you’ll be fine,” she said, giving him an appraising glance, and he had the feeling they weren’t just talking about the bike. “Well, let’s do this.”
He laughed. “I haven’t done this in a while. You should know the risk you're taking.”
“What fun is life without a little risk-taking now and then?” Tonks said, giving him a little push toward the motorcycle.
Remus considered this. “I’m not much of a gambler, but the odds do seem to be in my favor tonight.”
The smile she shot him was very promising.
“They most certainly are.”
---
Author: chococoffeekiss
Rating & Warnings: Rated T/PG for language and a little bit of innuendo, Non-Magical American Modern AU
Prompt(s): hot chocolate
Format & Word Count: Chaptered, 1601/approx. 7500
Summary: Love's labors pay minimum wage; Tonks is a barista by day, ninja by night. Remus writes, or tries to. Sirius levels up. Feat. other HP characters doing even stranger things.
Tonks’s face hurt. Her hopes, though, were as high as ever. She stood near the towering Christmas tree in the ballroom of a hotel, holding a tray of drinks - expensive champagne in tall glasses. Her high heels were starting to pinch and blister her feet. People milled around to the sound of popular songs and Christmas remixes.
This was not her kind of party - Jell-O shots and a Guitar Hero tournament were nowhere to be found. The crowd took drinks, ignoring her as if the tray was floating in midair. She ignored them right back, smiling brightly. It was easy; she couldn’t stop.
After Ron had dropped her off, she had flopped onto her bed, pulled a pillow over her face and shrieked until she started giggling and had to have another cup of tea to calm down. It hadn’t helped. Her thoughts were split between that morning and the next and the moment - the party she was at, didn’t seem to exist at all.
She stood out among the gussied up crowd in her catering uniform - a knee-length black skirt, white blouse, and the pair of godforsaken black stilettos she was wearing now. She wobbled slightly in the shadow of the Christmas tree.
Her cousin Sirius ambled up to her, godson Harry in tow. His unruly hair was pulled back into a tail and he was wearing a suit for once, instead of jeans and a t-shirt. He, like her mother, had a brilliant mind for business but lacked that ruthless ambition of the rest of their family.
“Hey, Nymphadora. You can’t kick me when you’re carrying all those drinks, huh? Nice hair, very festive.” He tugged one of her purple highlights. “Finally convinced Remus to come to one of these parties. If I can find him, I’ll introduce you-Minerva! You look fantastic!”
He took off across the room in an ADD blur, leaving Tonks shrugging at Harry, who jammed his hands in his pockets and grinned awkwardly. Harry was a good kid, the child of two of Sirius’s close friends who had been killed in a car wreck almost sixteen years ago.
It was the wreck that had put Sirius in prison. He had been out with three of his friends at a Halloween party - Harry’s parents and their friend Peter, the designated driver.
Peter had spent the party with some shady people possessing even shadier substances, ending up in no state to drive (but attempting it anyway). Sirius realized too late that something was wrong and tried to make their friend pull over but Peter lost control of the car and flipped it over a guardrail. The married couple died of their injuries. Pettigrew pulled Sirius, knocked unconscious, into the driver’s seat and fled.
Lacking any witnesses or evidence to the contrary, her cousin was convicted of drunk driving and negligent homicide. Years later, Sirius’s friend Remus had seen Peter’s mugshot on a news report about a gas station hold-up. After Pettigrew’s eventual confession and a retrial, Sirius was released.
“Nymphadora,” someone hissed. She turned and almost ran into her mother. Andromeda gave her a kiss on each cheek and leaned close to whisper in her ear. She pressed a makeup compact into Tonks’s free hand. “People are starting to talk. You should go cover up that bruise or they’ll think you were on Jerry Springer.”
At one time, this would have been a prompt for Tonks to point out that she didn’t give a damn who was saying what, but right now she couldn’t be bothered.
“Okay. I need to get a few more glasses anyway. Thanks, Mom.”
It was just the excuse she needed to escape to the kitchen.
Tonks set her tray next to the sink on the steel worktop and got to work-pouring champagne and topping off mugs of eggnog with swirls of whipped cream from a can and shaved chocolate. She wasn’t a fan of eggnog but emptied the last of the champagne into her own glass, eyeing the Reddi-Whip can. There were voices coming from the hall.
“No, you need to meet her, she’s great.”
“If she’s working we probably shouldn’t bother her.”
“Pfft. She won’t mind.”
Tonks turned around, one whipped-cream smudged fingertip in her mouth as two people walked in through the open door - Sirius, followed by a man in a dark suit.
“Hey, Tonks, I finally found him. He was hiding in the bathroom-“
She looked from her cousin to the other man and stopped breathing. He must have been thinking the same thing she was because for a second, he didn’t move, and she stared into the very same pair of gray-green-blue-brown eyes that she’d been thinking about all day.
“Remus, this is Andi’s daughter, Tonks. That’s her last name, you can’t call her by her first or she’ll put you in a headlock and make you apologize with her fists of fury-“
He wore a bemused grin and was shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Dora, this is Remus. I’m sure you remember me telling you about his books. I’ve known him for a long damn time-“
Her mind had put it all together before she realized what was going on.
Of course she remembered that name. He was Sirius’s friend, the writer - the one he talked about constantly, who she’d never met. The one who got him out of prison.
“Remus Lupin. I’ve heard all about you.”
---
“I wish I could say the same,” he said, sure that he’d never smiled so much in one day.
The purple bruises around both of her eyes matched the violet highlights in her hair and a cut bisected her lower lip. It was definitely her, his girl from the coffeeshop.
Sirius frowned. “Yeah, I’ve told you about her. She’s the one who does the kung fu fighting. We jumped out of an airplane, remember?”
They were clearly related - she had the same shaped eyes, but the manic gleam in Sirius’s was, in her eyes, a sort of prepossessing earnestness.
…And the motorcycle suddenly made so much more sense.
He started to put together everything he had heard with what little he knew, and he liked her more every second.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said with as much solemnity he could rally, and she looked like she was about to burst out laughing, all grin and dimples. It must have hurt - her nose was probably broken.
She closed the distance between them and he thought she was going to shake his hand but instead, she grabbed a handful of his shirt and kissed him on the lips. It was a vivid, electric kiss, not quite indecent but not very innocent either. She tasted like Moët et Chandon and Reddi-Whip, and pulled away with a thrilling hint of reluctance and a daring smile.
Just a little crazy, he thought through a haze of endorphins.
“Nice to meet you, too.”
Dora Tonks (he was going to find out her real name, come hell or high water) picked up her tray of champagne glasses and walked out without another word.
Sirius stared after her, his head tilted to the side like a confused dog. Remus could all but hear the gears grinding. He cleared his throat.
“She seems nice,” he said to the empty room. One of Sirius’s deep-thought frowns appeared. He was about to figure it out.
“I’m just going to go, now...” Remus backed toward the double doors. Sirius blinked.
“Well, son of a-“
He slipped out the door and followed her without hesitating this time, catching her elbow as she weaved through the crowd of uptight literati.
“This is an interesting development.” Tonks gave him a sideways glance as she passed her tray off to the redhead he’d seen at the coffeeshop. She laughed - a bubbly, bright sound. “So, Remus, how do you feel about going out?”
“With you? I mean, of course, with you…When?”
“Right now.”
“Right now?” he echoed.
“Did I stutter?” she said, and caught his arm, pulling him through the crowd, down a quiet hall and out a back door to the loading zone for the hotel kitchen. Her shiny black bike was parked there.
“Where did you have in mind?” he asked.
“I dunno, maybe you could bring me a drink for a change? Something warm.”
“I think I’d like that.”
“I know I would,” she said quietly, with a suddenly shy smile.
He still had her hand in his and they were both shivering.
Tonks looked at the motorcycle, then at him. “Have you ever-“
“Of course I have. But…not recently.”
“Ah. I’m sure you’ll be fine,” she said, giving him an appraising glance, and he had the feeling they weren’t just talking about the bike. “Well, let’s do this.”
He laughed. “I haven’t done this in a while. You should know the risk you're taking.”
“What fun is life without a little risk-taking now and then?” Tonks said, giving him a little push toward the motorcycle.
Remus considered this. “I’m not much of a gambler, but the odds do seem to be in my favor tonight.”
The smile she shot him was very promising.
“They most certainly are.”
---