WHO: Tonks and Charlie (exo) WHEN: 12/4 WHERE: The Burrow WHAT: Tonks and Charlie move her stuff from Ron's' room to Other Charlie's. They also make an "arrangement." WARNINGS: Some innuendo. STATUS: gDoc, complete!
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Tonks had made a post on the network about how crying made you alive. Then people all started to ask if she was crying. Whoops. Except Charlie. He tried to distract her, or cheer her up, or maybe he didn’t notice. She tossed her phone onto the couch in the Burrow’s living room and went upstairs. Ron wasn’t home, which was good, because she had to take her stuff out of his room and move it up to Charlie’s room. She was taking his room because … it had the best view of the garden. Not because it was his. Nope.
She only had more than a few boxes but she had asked the other Charlie to help her anyway. An excuse to hang out again. They made these plans before they got really sloshed. Tonks also made the mistake that night of trying to kiss him (she was drunk!), but Charlie Two was a gentleman and turned her down nicely. At least, that’s what she remembered.
“Locomotor,” she whispered at a box, pointing her wand in it’s direction. The sound of the front door opening and the chiming of the Weasley’s clock alerted her to Charlie’s presence. Tonks hurried to the stairs, “Up here!”
Being in the Burrow on a semi-regular basis again was one of the many strange thing about being in this place. He hadn't been there since he was seven, and, as memory was wont to do, his childhood memories of the place had forgotten some things and exaggerated others, but the general layout he still remembered and he knew generally where Tonks was. He bounded up the steps taking two at a time, the sort of thing that would have earned him a scolding from Gideon (although considering the steps - probably should have earned him a nod of respect because they were narrow enough that it wasn't easy to do, exactly) and he reached the top and offered a quick grin at Tonks.
"My ass is here," he teased her, referencing back to her command on the network. "What do you need help with?"
Tonks held her wand straight up in the air and twirled it. “Not much, just an excuse to get you over here. You can fold my clothes, once we get them into Char...lie’s room.” She fumbled over the name. It was still weird. They were the same person but really? They were just two men who had the same name. They were very different. But Tonks could see a few similarities in them.
She went into Ron’s room and pointed her wand at a box. “Locomotor!” This time she said it with chutzpah. “Get the other boxes, I’ve never tried more than one at a time, and knowing me, I’d drop the and break something.” Tonks followed the box up another flight of stairs, still pointing her wand at it. She called out to him, “I don’t have much, but that’ll change soon, I got a job!”
Charlie couldn't help a laugh there. He was more or less all right with excuses to get him over here. Granted it was still strange being in the Burrow, but he liked the idea of spending time with Tonks, even if she wasn't his Tonks. That had its own level of strange to it because he interacted with his Tonks in one way, and this one - apparently - didn't have that same level of interaction with the other Charlie, or himself - he still wasn't certain how to think about the other Charlie.
He pulled out his wand and cast the spell, following after her with a couple of boxes. It might be risky and he hoped she didn't have anything breakable in them, but it felt as if he had to prove he could carry more than one somehow. He kept his eyes on where she was going, being careful not to bump into her. "Where'd you get a job?" He asked as he slowed at the door.
The room was mostly stripped, only a bed, a truck at the bottom of that, and a chair remained behind. Tonks set the box down on the floor near the bed and flopped down on it, sprawled out like a starfish. “Ooh, such hard work! Ohhhhh my back!” She then popped up to watch Charlie bring the other box in. “The Crashdown. It’s a muggle diner, obviously, everything here is muggles, but it’s got an alien theme. It’s brill, you gotta come see it sometime.”
Tonks waved him in like a air traffic controller to set the box down next to the other one. “I was thinking about working with the police, but I don’t think I’d be able to use magic, considering all the muggles about. Secrecy and all that.” She then pat the spot on the bed next to her, “C’mon, let’s take a break, we’ve worked so hard.” The boxes contained clothes and a few other trinkets she picked up at the thrift store.
Charlie rolled his eyes with an amused expression on his face as he followed her instructions for where to put the box. When the two boxes were in the proper location, he turned his attention back to her, his eyes glancing around the room to take it in before settling on her. At her suggestion he stepped over and plopped down next to her. "You know if this is your definition of hard work, Tonks, we're gonna have to work on it," he teased.
"But alien diner sounds cool. Do you have to dress up or wear one of those green mask things I've seen about town?"
Tonks smiled wide, “Yes! It’s brill. I dress up, in a lime green dress. I would totally wear it outside of work if I had a chance, though.” There were two boxes left, and when Charlie mentioned that this wasn’t hard work, she gave him a Look and called out, “Accio Tonk’s stuff!”
Clothes came flying into the room and an empty cardboard box followed it. Socks and underwear were strewn about their faces and chests. Tonks pulled a sock from her nose and smiled shyly, “Whoopsie. Made a mistake.” She reached over and pulled a pair of underwear from Charlie and hid it under the pillow left on the bed. “Speaking of mistakes…”
"I can totally see that honestly," Charlie chuckled. And he could. He just associated Tonks with bright colors in his mind, even though he had to confess that if he were being honest, this Tonks seemed to make those happen quite a bit more frequently than his Tonks. Maybe there was something about working in the black market that made one lean towards darker colors as a normal way of dressing. Or maybe just his version of the timeline - he wasn't certain.
But if she was expecting him to blush at women's knickers, even Tonk's knickers, she really didn't know him very well. He shook his head, grinning even wider, as he plucked a pair of socks of his shoulder. "Never just say 'accio stuff', Tonks, You know that's dangerous. What if you had a bludger in your room? Where would we be then? I play seeker, not beater!"
Tonks laughed and took the socks from his hand. “I say accio stuff all the time, sometimes you get some good stuff in the process.” He wasn’t weirded out by her underthings. Eh, her Charlie wouldn’t either. If it were Ron, now, that would be different. He’d treat her knickers like a jellyfish and avoid it as if it would sting.
She took a deep breath, “I wanted to apologize for trying to kiss you the other night, when we were drinking. I have a lot of stuff on my mind and I just miss… I miss human contact. I mean, I slept in Charlie’s bed not too long ago and that was nice, but …” Her lips made a thin line as she ran out of things to say. “And with Remus being with someone else…” She realized he didn’t know-- “Remus is the father of my child, see. I’m kind of blocked off.” Tonks looked down at her wand a little nervously. She was never nervous with Charlie but the subject matter made her feel stupid.
Charlie shook his head laughing, but the laughter lightened as she changed the topic, and he tilted his head towards her, raising an eyebrow as the apology startled him slightly. He hadn't been offended, and he'd thought that had been pretty clear at the time, but at the same time she'd been drunk, and they hadn't started the evening with the intention of ending up in bed, so he wasn't about to take advantage of the interest and risk her regretting it the next day. It wasn't like when his Tonks came over, and the intention was pretty clear at the get go, no matter how much alcohol might be imbibed over the evening.
And he hadn't realized some of the other stuff. Like Remus. Which was a little startling, but maybe a conversation for another time. There were at times these reminders of just how different their worlds really were.
Charlie reached out a hand, and put it on hers. "Hey, no worries, right? It's -" he considered. "I get it. Human contact is good, and I wasn't offended by it. My Tonks and I at home have … an understanding … and sometimes we take advantage of that, but you and I didn't have that, and you'd had a lot to drink. I just didn't want it to be something you'd regret later. I don't mind being kissed. Especially not by you. But I didn't want it to be odd later. So, let's not made it odd, yeah? We're good."
Tonks tilted her head and looked down at his hand on hers. “An understanding?” It was like a lightbulb went off in her head. “I just … I don’t regret it, I just didn’t want you to think that I was in love with Charlie or something. You or the other one. I just wanted something familiar and you felt like it.” A small smirk crawled onto her face, “We don’t have to have that or… would it be … okay?” She let out a hissing laugh now, a little embarrassed by her clumsy words.
"Yeah, okay, the thought occurred to me, and I definitely don't want to be the stand in for me. Cause," he paused and wrinkled up his nose. "This whole thing is weird enough without that."
But he could pretty definitely relate to wanting something familiar. Maybe it was why he was spending as much time talking to her as he was. For all she was different from his Tonks, she also felt more familiar than basically anyone from his family did. While he was grateful they were all here on one hand, on the other, the fact that they more or less knew each other meant that he ended up feeling a bit more alone with them all here.
"If we Accio a beer right now do you think one would show up?" He grinned, feeling almost as if they both needed one. Although a more reasonable mind, and Charlie was in possession of one even if he didn't always use it, suggested they probably should be sober for this conversation and the grin faded out as he continued. "Yeah, so, at home - well things are a lot different, which you've probably gathered - and I don't see Tonks that often honestly. She has her stuff, and I don't ask alot of questions about it, cause it's easier to not know with Uncle Gideon being an Auror. But she isn't put off by my bullshit and she calls me out on it. We're friends. And sometimes we're friends that fuck. But I don't do relationships, and neither does she - sometimes we just want something…" he searched around for the right word and then figured that hers had been a good one "Familiar. I guess. So that's what it is - for clarity's sake."
Tonks nodded, agreeing that it was weird. He was Charlie and he felt like Charlie but he definitely wasn’t Charlie. There for a minute when they were arguing, Tonks felt that maybe she was so upset with Charlie because she loved him. More than a friend. But after crying over it and rewinding it in her head so many times, she knew it wasn’t true. She was just misplacing things again. Like when Sirius died, she turned to Remus. And fell for him. Without Remus, she turned to Charlie. But she knew him since she was a kid and never felt that way before, why would it start now? Especially when both of the Charlies were acting so different?
“Make sure you accio a capped bottle of beer. And watch out for your nose.” Tonks rested her head on Charlie’s shoulder. “Do you… do you want that here? Because I could manage to do that. The only person I want to be in a relationship with is with someone else. I have a lot of aching in my heart and I think a little human contact, something a little familiar could make it lessen.” She sat up, “I wouldn’t expect you to take anyone’s place. I mean, you’re fit and we’re friends,” from other timelines, ”so I think… it’d be good for us.”
Charlie barked a laugh, it was good advice all of it. He could hardly imagine his mother's reaction to having an uncapped bottle of beer come flying out of the kitchen, up the stairs, spewing beer all over the place and 'making the entire place smell like a brewery Charlie Weasley!' He could almost hear that voice, although maybe it was also partially his Uncle Gideon's voice. The memory of his mother's voice was really far away, even if she was right here.
"Beer and noses are not good combinations," he shook his head. "I know this from uh, a friend," he grinned.
He pulled back so he could look at her. He didn't think that she was wishing he was her Charlie, he didn't think but he didn't want to be a replacement. She couldn't be a replacement for his Tonks either, 'cause they were super different. But something comfortable, familiar? He hadn't had a lot of that, and Charlie didn't typically spend a lot of time over-thinking encounters with women, and he tended to take at face value what they said.
It might be a mistake (although he hoped not), but he leaned forward to pull Tonks into a kiss.
When he laughed, Tonks smiled widely, a genuine smile, one that she hadn’t felt in some time. Making people laugh made her happy, it was why she didn’t mind it when people laughed as she tripped over her own feet or knocked over displays at the store. It was why she made her face change into Mad Eye Moody’s or a duck’s to amuse Ginny. She liked making people laugh. And she hadn’t heard it in awhile. Things were quiet around these parts. (Or far too loud, if you want to mention the screaming match she had with Charlie awhile back).
He looked at her and she wanted to backpedal, say she was sorry, that it was a bad idea. Tonks just liked the idea of no-strings-attached-sex. And as for a relationship, well her heart belonged to someone else, so it wouldn’t make sense to get shacked up with Charlie. Before she could say anything though, her was pulling her close and pressing his lips to hers.
Tonks smiled against his lips for a second, a small giggle between them. Then she kissed him back, feeling a warmth grow throughout her body. It was nice. It was what she needed. Perhaps not need-- but definitely wanted. Her laundry was still strewn about their laps. She didn’t care.
Charlie slid a hand up around her neck, leaning in a closer and letting the kiss linger, even as it snuck into the back of his mind that they were at his parents house, the door was open, and not unlike the cottage with Uncle Gideon and Uncle Fabian there, it was maybe not the ideal location to do anything more than kiss Tonks, and maybe not even the ideal location do do that. That wasn't so much over-thinking as it was just facts. He pulled back just enough, to catch her lower lip with a nip again, and then pulled back the rest of the way.
"I kinda want to pull you into my lap and let you sit there for a bit," he said. "But maybe not where my Mum, who just recently met me, specifically, could come round the corner. At least, not this time. You should come over, sometime. There's nobody to do that where I'm at."
When Charlie pulled back, Tonks looked at him with half-lidded eyes and gnawed on her bottom lip. “That was nice and unexpected.” She tilted her head and hooked her leg over his for a second, “That sounds like fun. And isn’t getting caught exciting?” Tonks did realize that it was a bad idea for Molly to catch them, she respected the other woman and Charlie’s wishes to not sully her view of him. She moved her leg back to sit next to the other one and straightened out her skirt.
She cleared her throat but was still grinning stupidly. “The cottage is empty besides you, isn’t it? I could pop by later tonight...” Tonks couldn’t help it, she waggled her eyebrows at him, taking his hand in hers.
Charlie grinned, because yes, it wasn't as if he'd never done something half hoping he'd get caught, and he liked that Tonks got that about him. At the same time, maybe not this for a variety of reasons that were more serious than he really wanted to get into. Getting caught with Tonks would likely make people think things that weren't necessarily what they wanted thought, and that would just make this exhausting - which was kind of the opposite of what he was pretty sure either of them wanted.
"It's empty beside me, yeah." He couldn't resist, he leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss. "If you're planning on coming by, then I'll be enticed to stay in tonight."
Tonks was surprised by the quick kiss but obviously couldn’t stop smiling. It had been some time since she got any kind of romantic attention. And even though this Charlie was slightly different, he was still Charlie and it felt natural.
She held up her pinkie. “Link yours with mine. We’ll promise not to tell anyone. I’m good at keeping secrets.” She just didn’t want anyone to get this back to the other Charlie. He’d be … she didn’t know how he’d react. Better that he didn’t.
Charlie laughed, and did as bid. Pinkies locked together he shook his head at her. "This feels like we've snitched cookies from the cookie jar and we don't want Mum to know, which is so not what I'm hoping to snitch tonight," he smirked.
She gave him a scandalized look. “Shut up! The pinkie promise is sacred. And … Charlie!” She was a little flustered. Tonks swatted at him with her free hand.
Charlie ducked out of her way laughing. He stood up and headed for the door, looking back over his shoulder to tease: "There's still a box or two Tonks." He leaned back in, and lowered his voice, raising his eyebrows with a smirk: "Unless you're going to accio those like you did your knickers."