Epilogue

"Have you noticed," Tonks said, still breathing rapidly as Remus rolled away from her, his own sweat-dampened chest heaving, "that we've had sex four times now, and they've all been in the morning?"

Honestly, Remus had been so unaware of anything but Tonks herself and the way he felt when he was intimate with her, that they could have been making love on top of the Astronomy Tower at midnight with a meteor shower overhead and he'd have been as blissfully unaware of it as he had been of the gentle morning sunlight filtering hazily through Tonks' sheer gold curtains. There had been that distraction yesterday of the pencil cracking beneath them when they'd done it on top of The Times crossword puzzle, but even that incident had seemed suspended in time and space.

"We have, haven't we?" He pushed an errant lock of pink fringe out of Tonks' eyes and let his fingers slide through her hair as his thumb scuffed her cheek. "I suppose we'll have to vary things up, won't we? Try it this evening, when you get home from work. We could've done last night, I suppose, but I was a bit knackered from our Muggle weekend."

"Sure it wasn't from all the sex we had yesterday morning?" Features lit with delight, Tonks turned her head to capture his thumb in a kiss. "I wasn't complaining, you know. Just making an observation."

"Ah, but they say variety is the spice of a love life." Remus leaned in to rub his stubbled chin over her chest. "I can't have you getting bored with me already."

"Bored with you?" Tonks laughed. "We've tried shower sex already. Pretty spicy for only our third time ever. I don't think you're in any danger of boring me."

"Good to know," Remus murmured, raising his head just enough to brush his lips languidly across hers. "Could I persuade you to have another go at shower sex, then? We need to wash, anyway, and I'd like to prove that I can manage it without giving you a concussion by bashing you on the shower head."

Tonks' eyes glimmered impishly for just a moment before she cried, "I'll race you" and, with far too much energy for this hour of the morning, especially following drowsy morning sex, she vaulted from the bed, stumbling over the duvet which was half draped across the floor, and disappeared into the adjoining bathroom. Remus was still just pushing himself upright, with a groan, when he heard the screech of pipes through the thin wall, followed by the sudden hard spray of the shower, and then a knocking sound.

"Dora?" he called, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and curling his toes into the thick rug that covered the wooden floor. "You haven't done yourself another mischief, have you?"

"What?" Her face appeared around the doorjamb.

"That noise," Remus explained. "Did you bump into something?"

"No. What kind of noise?"

Before Remus could reply, the knocking sound repeated itself.

"Someone's at the door!" Tonks exclaimed.

She ducked into the bathroom, only to reappear half a second later tying her terrycloth dressing gown around her.

"COMING!" she bellowed, then, catching her toe on the bedroom doorframe, which made Remus wince in empathy, muttered on her way into the living room, "Who the hell's popping in at seven in the bloody morning? If it's work, interrupting my lovely shower sex, I'll hex them to bloody oblivion, I swear..."

Knowing exactly who it was, Remus, with a pounding heart, shimmied into his pyjamas, shut off the shower, and padded through the flat just as Tonks, constantly vigilant, shouted at the door:

"Who's there? Identify yourself!"

"Erm," came a voice from the other side of the door, no doubt bewildered by this form of greeting. "R-royal M-mail."

"Have you got your wand, Remus?" Tonks looked over her shoulder at him, brandishing her own. "This is an all Wizarding building, the Muggle postmen never come here. Could be a Death-Eater trap."

"It's not a trap."

"I've got a letter here for a Miss Nym...Nympha...Nymphydorrie Tonks," said the person outside the flat.

Tonks' eyebrows knit on Remus. "How do you know it's not a trap?"

"Trust me," he said, not quite trusting himself at this moment for what he'd done, or Sirius for insisting he do it.

But Tonks opened the door, and a blue-uniformed Royal Mail officer with bulging eyes thrust a pink envelope at her. "I never been here before. Why haven't you got a mail slot? Why hasn't anyone got a bloody mail slot?"

"Normally owls deliver our post," Tonks replied absently, unaware of the mailman's eyes bulging further out of their sockets as she studied the address on the envelope. "Remus...why did you send me a letter by Muggle post?"

"What's Muggle?" repeated the postman. "And owls? Are you havin' me on, Miss?"

"No, she's not," Remus replied, pleasantly, patting the man on the shoulder. "Thanks for going out of the way of your normal rounds."

Before the postman could say another word, Remus shut the door in his face, leant against it, and faced Tonks. Shewas regarding him from beneath an arched eyebrow.

"Are you going to open it, then?" he asked.

"Why--?" she began, but Remus interrupted.

"You'll know why when you open it!"

"Okay, okay," said Tonks, tearing into the envelope. "I take it this is what Sirius put you up to? Only I don't see how sending me a letter via Muggle post offsets using a contraceptive charm. Honestly, I expected him to make us do it using one of those rubber things. Or is that what you've sent me--?"

Her hand flew to her mouth as she flipped the card open, and Remus' heart lodged considerably far north and west of where it was meant to reside in his chest as she read the few words he'd written.

It seemed a lifetime that she stood there, staring at the card in her hands. He might have worried that the delay in her response was down to her trying to work out how to let him down gently, were it not for the softness in her eyes and the lovely smile that graced her lips as she looked up, taking a step closer to him.

"You mean it?" she asked, breathlessly.

His own reply was soft. "Of course."

She stepped nearer still. "And this is what Sirius wanted you to do?"

" He asked me if I loved you, and I told him yes..." Remus' blood was rushing so in his ears that he could barely make out his own husky-voiced words as he continued. "Then he asked if the same was true for you, and I had to admit that I wasn't sure. From which he, being the quick-witted fellow that he is, deduced that I'd not made full and proper use of Gryffindor courage and told you."

"There's nothing particularly punishing in this," she said, indicating the card in her hand. A teasing glint had been growing in her eyes, and while Remus found it exceedingly alluring and attractive, he did think that her delay in making the obvious response he was hoping for, was, indeed, quite punishing enough.

"No, not especially," he replied, "but I think he found watching me pace for a good hour while I deliberated the best choice of words just as entertaining as watching me squirm under any other punishment he might have come up with."

Tonks giggled. "I can believe that."

"In any case, just every now and then, Sirius has been known put his own feelings aside and know when something is just a bit too serious to be made a joke of. I'm thankful to say that this was one of those rare occasions."

"You can tell him 'yes,'" Tonks said, her dark eyes, her expression, suddenly serious.

"Yes?"

"Yes, I do love you."

Throughout all that had happened over the last two-and-a-half days, Remus hadn't once paused to think about what it would mean to hear those words. Perhaps some part of his subconscious hadn't dared to push the boundaries of his luck in hope, or maybe he'd just been too busy worrying about her reaction to his admission -- that it would turn out to be too much too soon. It was as though time had stood still, slowed down, ceased to be a part of the universe. There were only Tonks' words, echoing through his mind in the sweetest chime imaginable, her upturned face, watching, waiting, with sincerity and, he thought, expectation -- a realisation that brought him to the conclusion that there was only one possible next step.

Well, maybe two, he corrected himself as he lowered his lips to hers after he'd whispered back to her. The kiss started soft and sweet, full of the weight of feeling from their declaration, and Remus was just beginning to think that there was a logical third step and had begun, as the heat rose between them, to steer them in the direction of the bedroom, when they both started at the sound of a sharp rapping at the living room window.

Grumbling, he extracted his hand from the inside of Tonks' dressing gown and pulled it back around her, then shambled over to the window to find one of the Order's larger owls sitting on the windowsill preening his brown and golden feathers in a manner Lily Evans had coined 'hooty' during one particularly uneventful prefects' patrol in their sixth year. The owl looked pointedly at a reasonably sized package he'd already unloaded on the wide window ledge outside and held his leg out for Remus to remove a letter that was tied on securely.

"Who's it from?" Tonks asked once Remus had told the owl he needed to fly back to Grimmauld for his treat because they had nothing for him, but thanks for making the trip.

"Sirius." Remus unravelled the parchment and read:

Dear Remus and Tonks, (This feels like practice for many Christmas cards to come!)

I have no doubt that this morning's plans went, well, according to plan, and realise if that is the case, I've probably interrupted something by owl I hope I never have the misfortune to in person. However, I always say all good celebrations need a good bottle of bubbly to go with them, though knowing Remus as I do, he'll probably say it's a little early in the morning, but cousin, I recommend you to convince him that if only fools fall in love and if only fools drink champagne at nine o'clock in the morning, logic assumes it's all okay.

A snort from Tonks interrupted Remus' reading. "Sirius A. Black logic, he means."

Remus grinned. "Indeed, but I'm not one to complain about gifts of very fine champagne. We can save it to toast our first night-time sex."

Tonks looked very pleased, but her eyes danced with mischief. "Whatever you do, don't stick it in a Muggle freezer."

Remus tweaked her side. "Actually, I was going to recommend you keep well out the way of the cork, as you sustained so many head injuries during our stint as Muggles."

"Prat." She glared playfully, but allowed Remus to put his arm around her and tuck her comfortably under his arm as he resumed reading.

Congratulations, you two, sincerely. But assume that after this soppy sentimentality on my part, taking the piss shall resume, as normal, bright and early on Monday morning. Which is tomorrow.

All taken care of with Mad-Eye, so don't worry your lovesick hearts about it and make the most of your day.

Snuffles

"Annoying as Sirius can be," Tonks said, "I don't think I'll mind him teasing me about being with you. This was so sweet of him."

Remus nodded, not quite in possession of his voice as he was struck by the enormity of this moment. To have the love of a woman like Tonks was the attainment of a dream he'd never allowed himself to have; to be able to share that joy with the best friend who'd been as good as dead to him for twelve years seemed even more impossible. As useful as spells and charms and potions were, none of that had ever filled him, made him happy and whole, as he felt now. This was magic.

"What's that other paper?" Tonks asked, and Remus looked down as she prized Sirius' note and a second slip of parchment, torn around the edges, from his hands as Remus read his mate's post-script.

P.S. Find enclosed one completed Muggle crossword. At first I thought "English peer about to hold probe into his stock" was innuendo of some sort, but then I sussed it. Never let it be forgot who was the cleverest Marauder.

"Pedigree?" Tonks read Sirius' scrawl -- in ink -- on the newspaper clipping.

Remus scratched his head. "I don't know how in Merlin's name that fits the clue, but it's perfect for Sirius, isn't it?"

"Yep." Tonks rolled up the parchment and crossword and tossed them onto the sofa. Turning to Remus, she slipped her arms around Remus' neck. "But I think you're the cleverest Marauder -- even if you are the one who lost us most of our Muggle points."

She arched up on her toes, and as her lips brushed his, Remus said, "But I can do a wandless contraception charm. Doesn't that count for something?"

"Mm..." Tonks melted into his kiss. "I think that'll come in a lot more handy than all that Muggle training. Only don't tell Mad-Eye."

"No, that'll be our little secret. And Sirius'."

That thought should have troubled Remus, but he found, as he lost himself in kissing the woman he loved, that he quite agreed with her: he wouldn't at all mind being teased about being with Nymphadora Tonks.

The End

A/N: Reviewers will get a hand-written thank you note from Remus for being so kind to follow this story and read such lovely feedback for the past month.

Many thanks to everyone who's followed the story and special thanks, from MrsTater and myself, to those who've been kind enough to let us know they've enjoyed it.