Mad, she decided. Absolutely mad. Stark raving bonkers, this one. Had to be, no other explanation. He was laughing. Here she was ready to start treating the man as though he was ready to break at any minute and he started laughing on her! Clearly, total nutter. A lunati- Wait. Once again she had to wonder if he was absolutely insane or had the strongest nerves and will of anyone she'd ever met. Tonks didn't even think the most hardened Aurors she knew could take to everything this man had been through with such strength and force of will and come out smiling and still so full of hope and such sheer.. joy for life.
Tonks choked, "My cousin knows how to make tea without setting fire to the building? Okay, back up. The fact that you go fluffy once a month I can handle, but now you're just asking for too much. Still," she leaned back, eyeing him, the revelation of things still refusing to sink in, "I was just wondering why you yourself weren't in MLE. You've got a hell of a wand and I can certainly vouch for your proficiency with stunners, not to mention your being with the old Order. It's a shame, this whole thing against werewolves. Ministry's loss, you'd be an amazing Auror."
Mad, she remembered, nodding along. "Oh, certainly. Why I was just.. Sitting around the other day wondering whatever happened to Pneumonia parties. Really, those need to come back. Never had a blood infection myself so I can't quite much vouch for their enjoyment levels but it absolutely sounds like a real hootnanny from where I'm sitting." The only thing that astonished her above everything else was how absolutely good humoured he was about everything, joking and brushing it off. Vaguely she wished she could ask him if he'd really become so desensitized to everything, if he'd really stopped being so affected by it all.. But they were still just strangers and despite how well he'd taken it she still felt like a beast for dragging such painful things from him. She wasn't here to interrogate him, after all. "Even with your.. Condition, do they still treat you at Mungos? How do you heal from all of this after the moon's passed?" She congratulated herself silently on her brilliant maneuvering away from the subject. Fantastic. Swerve straight from painful transformations into hospital stays and broken limbs.