Buxom Fish From Space (ragdoll) wrote in bonking_tonks, @ 2008-01-20 02:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | bill/tonks, fic |
Fic: Meeting the Challenge (of Dark Eyes & Dancing Hippopotami), Bill/Tonks, NC-17
Title: Meeting the Challenge (Of Dark Eyes and Dancing Hippopotami)
Author/Artist: misfit_ragdoll
Rating: NC-17
Prompt: #62 "Tried to give you consolation when your old man had let you down."
Pairing(s): Bill Weasley/Nymphadora Tonks
Word Count: 10,100
Warnings: none
Author/Artist's notes: Thanks to r_grayjoy, green_amber and katesque for their help and support, and luvscharlie for betaing. twilightsorcery gave me the joke about Tonks's knickers (and the original source is a Questionable Content webcomic). The kitchen!sex scene was inspired by this piece of art which was a commission done for me by lizardspots nearly 3 years ago as well as the film, The Baker, starring Damian Lewis. My original plan was to do something a lot closer to the original story of the song "Layla" (where the prompt comes from) but somehow Tonks, Remus and Bill refused to play Patti Boyd, George Harrison and Eric Clapton for me. So this is what happened instead.
Disclaimer: It's not my sandbox, I only play here.
Bill Weasley was not very happy with his life. He wasn't certain when it had started, only that one day he was perfectly content, and then the next, discontent had started to creep in. He had a good life with a wonderful family, a steady job and a beautiful fiancée. At least he'd had all of those, until things started to change, and then it had all gone to hell. When he thought about it hard enough, he supposed it was a combination of factors. His family was wonderful, he loved them all dearly, but there had been a good reason he'd been away in Egypt for seven years. He'd grown up the eldest of seven with a domineering mother, and there had been nothing like the taste of freedom as soon as he'd been able to escape them all.
Of course he'd returned for the best of all possible reasons: to help Albus Dumbledore fight against the Dark Lord. Bill was clever enough to know that there were more important things in life than personal needs, but there were times when he felt claustrophobic and uncomfortable around his family. His mother was still treating him like a boy of ten, not a man of twenty-five, and he chafed at it. Plus there was family discord, what with his brother Percy the Prick not talking to anyone over the whole matter of Lord Voldemort's return, and his younger brothers, Fred and George, choosing to quit school early and open up a joke shop in the midst of the chaos. Sometimes he envied his brother Charlie's mission to stay on the continent and recruit foreign wizards to their cause. At least he hadn't been forced to move home.
He had a steady job, but he didn't like it one bit. He'd been working for Gringotts from the moment he'd left school, sent to Egypt as one of their fledgling Curse-breakers. He'd worked himself up the ranks to a pretty prime spot, only to be asked by Dumbledore to remain behind in England and take a desk job instead. Bill was proficient at what he did but he was not a desk-bound parchment pusher like his father was. He lived for the excitement of searching through dim and dangerous tombs, rifling through crypts and catacombs, living on the very edge. Not something he could continue to do while his arse was stuck in a leather swivel chair in a stuffy office in the middle of Diagon Alley. Still, he had a duty to the Order and Bill had never been one to shirk his responsibilities. It wasn't in his nature. However, he didn't have to like it.
As for the beautiful fiancée, that was another story entirely. At first the job had at least had the added bonus of one Mademoiselle Fleur Delacour. He'd first seen her as Beauxbatons' champion at the Tri-Wizard tournament, formally introduced before poor Diggory had been killed and everything had gone pear-shaped. Fleur had gotten a part-time job at Gringotts to improve her English, interpreting for the Paris branch of the bank, and it had been hard to miss the part-Veela girl as she sashayed around the office as if she owned the place. Fleur had been straightforward in her interest in him. Bill was used to pretty girls chatting him up and flirting, but never one quite so beautiful or alluring. The relationship had started off well enough — the sex had been mind blowing, her company scintillating— but then he'd brought her home to meet his family and that had been the end of that.
At first, Bill had blamed his mother solely for the animosity and the problems. Until Ginny seemed to have the same harsh opinion of his girlfriend, and his sister hardly ever agreed with their mum. It was easy to fob off the cause on Fleur's Veela roots — women automatically had a hard time around them, just as men automatically got hard — but there was more to it than that. Bill started seeing a pattern emerging, one he couldn't blame on his headstrong mother or strong-willed little sister. When he was around Fleur, it was hard to see any flaws in her, but when he wasn't, he could suddenly see both sides of the situation with amazing clarity. He knew what his mother and Ginny were like, but Fleur compounded the problems by complaining non-stop about his family and their lifestyle: their house, their clothes, their taste in decor, food and even music. There were days when Bill didn't know how she could ever love him seeing how he came from such a shabby and tasteless background.
They had gotten engaged briefly. When Bill was alone with Fleur, he wanted to give her the moon, the stars and the sun, so proposing had been easy, the rosy picture of a cosy little cottage with a happy, loving family all too alluring. However, cracks began to show in their relationship almost immediately. He couldn't take the constant tension between his fiancée and his mother, or his little sister, and was not afraid to tell Fleur about it. They'd begun to fight regularly, Fleur's Veela glamour no match for Bill's loyalty to his kith and kin. One last row had led to Fleur throwing his ring back in his face and storming out, leaving Bill feeling gutted, but also strangely relieved.
She'd come back to their flat only to pack up her things. Bill suspected she was hoping for a reconciliation, but he refused to take the bait. It was over and he was far more stubborn than Fleur ever bargained for. It took him a few weeks to actually break the news to his family, his mother being the last to know. He really had not wanted to hear 'I told you so' from anyone, least of all Molly. Of course, she had started in on him within a day or so, coming up a litany of names of what seemed like 1000 eligible witches far more deserving of his favours, in order to ease his broken heart. Bill didn't bother to tell her that he was more than capable of pulling his own birds if he really wanted them.
One of the names Molly seemed to bandy about more than others was 'Nymphadora Tonks'. His mother had a soft spot in her heart for the pink-haired Auror, and seemed to have an endless supply of reasons Bill should go out with her, and an endless supply of ways to make it happen. He and Tonks had been friends for years, and he enjoyed her company, but that's as far as it had ever got and was as far as it would ever go in his estimation. Tonks was someone he could get pissed with, argue about Quidditch with, or moan about terrible dates to. She'd been the shirty little Hufflepuff who'd driven him to distraction while they'd been at school, forever testing his patience and being sent to Professor Sprout for detention. He was convinced she was not girlfriend material, no matter what his mother thought.
"What about Nymphadora?" Molly suggested once again before an Order meeting at Number 12, Grimmauld Place. Bill was glad they had been able to get their old headquarters back after Sirius's death. He wasn't so glad that his mother hadn't let up on the same line of interrogation as before. His mother was clearly as relentless as a Crup when it came to not letting go, and as predictable as the sun coming up in the morning.
"What about her?" Bill asked with a shrug, not really wanting to go through this same discussion again.
"Why don't you ask her to go out?" his mother continued, watching as the young Auror went to remove her cloak, somehow managing to knock over the cloak rack in the process. "She's a very nice girl. Pretty, down to earth, clever, good sense of humour..."
"And thoroughly besotted with Remus Lupin last time I checked." Bill snorted. It was hardly a secret that Tonks fancied Lupin, although whether the feelings were mutual was a point of gossip amongst most of the Order members. Remus Lupin kept everything close to the vest, so for all Bill knew, he and Tonks could've been secretly married and no one would have been the wiser. Well, at least Lupin would've kept that secret. Godric knew that Nymphadora Tonks couldn't have kept her gob shut about something like that if her life had depended on it, and given the current attitudes towards werewolves, he supposed it most certainly might.
"That as may be, but I hardly think it's a consideration anymore," Molly said cryptically, then went over to help Tonks extricate herself from the pile of cloaks, coats and scarves she was tangled up in. Bill frowned as his mother gave him a pointed look, indicating he ought to come over and be chivalrous. He chose to ignore her for the moment, turning his back to set up chairs for the meeting, intent on blocking out any such consideration from his mind. Tonks? It was simply absurd.
Still, he was curious as to what his mother had meant about Lupin. Had he and Tonks split up? Remus wasn't at the meeting today, but that meant nothing. Dumbledore had said something about sending him off on a mission. Bill began to grow annoyed with his mother for bringing up the idea of going out with Tonks yet again. For some reason, he couldn't stop thinking about her, or convincing himself that there was absolutely no merit to his mother's suggestion. He found himself sneaking glances at her, watching her as she sat at the table, looking forlorn. Her hair was no longer its customary bubble-gum pink, but a mousy shade of brown, her normally bright eyes swollen and red-rimmed as though she'd been crying recently. She looked paler than normal, and thinner too, and she leaned on her arms wearily, as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders. Every once in a while, she'd shift in her seat or chew at her short, ragged nails, looking for all the world as if she was holding back more tears.
When Tonks rose to her feet to fetch herself some tea, nearly taking the tablecloth with her as it caught on her sleeve, Bill watched her carefully. Without thinking, he started checking out her figure; she was slim and far less curvaceous than Fleur, although hardly boyish looking. Bill liked the way her long-sleeved t-shirt clung to her chest, showing off her tits, and she had a lovely pert arse which even her worn jeans couldn't hide. Why hadn't he ever noticed these things before?
He didn't like seeing her so miserable. Usually Tonks was one of the most positive, upbeat people Bill knew. Her upset must have had something to do with Remus or the lack thereof. Poor Tonks. Bill convinced himself to talk to her after the meeting, just to make certain she was okay. Perhaps take her out for a drink. But, just as a friend, nothing more.