and the stream runs in circles from the chasm to the core

[lumenrelegandus]

Who: MULTIPLE THREADS! Expected: there are some plans. Unexpected: how would I know?
When: Right after this-with flexibility. All sparked by this after this.
Where: The Clinic
Format: [hates choosing] Whatever I start with, do your own thing!
What: Tonks visitations. Lupin's return. Shirley in da house. Trepkos the Grouch. AND MORE.
Warnings: Ow ow

Comments

[sonvisage]

[Walking in just long enough to make sure that certain people are here. She's a little stiff, purposeful and quiet as she searches the rooms, only glancing through doorways - she won't hold eye contact.]

[wotchesyou]

[ She is sleeping peacefully in her room. The peacefulness is forced. Either Hermione had given her a sleeping potion or someone else had. It puts her beyond the realm of dreams.

So beyond the realm of dreams and so deep is her sleep, that Tonks doesn't even stir when her door is opened. Tonks is resting on her side in a semi-fetal position. Her left hand is tucked underneath her head with her right hand resting on her bed on top of her wand.

The sleep is what she needs. ]

[sonvisage]

[Lingers just a moment in the doorway once she realizes that Tonks is asleep. Lingers longer than she means to as she ponders sleep and all the discomfort it brought her during her own stay in the clinic. (Sure, the view was nice, and the waking hours not so bad at all, but the dreams - the hallucinations - and the bed she was confined to? Yeah, not on her list of things to revisit.)

Are there nightmares below the semblance of stillness, not-Nymphadora? She doesn't know that the potion has nullified that option, and so she's (perhaps falsely) moved to make inquiries on Dora's behalf.

Like where she was staying in the Outlander Block. It's not difficult information to obtain, but it's irritating to learn that the room has been turned back over to the landlady, and that no one really knows (or cares) what's become of her possessions.

Perhaps it's the recent loss of her own that spurs this as well? Maybe.

A little over two hours later she returns with a swath of dusky pink fabric over her arm. Slips in, leaves it on the foot of the

[lumenrelegandus]

[Tonks has calmed down enough to actually dismiss him from her side. He checks back almost hourly, but doesn't disturb her; waits until she calls for him.

When he can't get his own mind together, as ever, he focuses on others. Check on patients. Check in with staff. See what he's missed, what he needs to fix and do. Clinic (in presence) and dojo (via forge). Make up for lost time.

(If he can ever make up for that lost time.)

He's leaning over a recently vacated bed for one last check of energies when he feels her and straightens to look.

Throat tightens, heart thuds-but he doesn't try to speak to her, doesn't try to approach her.

It means something that she came. Respect that by giving her freedom also to leave.]

[sonvisage]

[Her gaze is already averted, but she stops, draws a breath and slowly allows her eyes to find his. She offers a nearly imperceptible nod, and an even less perceptible smile (blink and you'll miss it, Loop).]

[lumenrelegandus]

[He was always in love with Dora. The whole time he'd been in Anatole, including the time he was with Io. He'd never stopped loving Dora. …Which meant loving Tonks now that she was here did not necessarily stop him loving Io, either. Because the whole time he had, really, loved both.

But much as he wanted to go to Io, put his arms around her, let them rest upon each other's shoulder as they'd both done before, he only smiled slightly back.

It wasn't fair to her. He'd made his feelings dominant in that one defining moment. Henceforth they didn't matter. Not as much as hers. He wanted to keep her in his life but that was for his own sake, not hers. She knew she could have him back-in altered form-whenever she wanted. She would claim him so if ever again she wanted to. He had no claim at all.

He returned the smile; then, with visible deliberation, ducked his head back to what he was doing. Knowing that when he raised it again she would be gone.]

[impossibly]

[ When she leaves, River follows her home, like a stray cat. ]

[sonvisage]

[She's too preoccupied to notice, at first. So River will have the run of the Outlander Block, a quick (especially annoyed) stop at Ramen ya Soba, as well as two dress shops. And finally, back to the clinic.]