It hurt her to think of him as being so lonely, so trapped. She wanted nothing more to wrap her arms around him and never let him leave, never let him go back to those people and their world. "Lucius.." She sighed, forcing herself to brush her hatred of the bureaucrat aside, "Lucius is.. An abominable little blond snake, sure, but he is also a devoted family man if nothing more. I'm not saying you should be so open in trusting him, I'm just saying.. Your loyalties might not be the only ones wavering. If given a choice between his family and his Master.. Who knows where Malfoy would truly go?" Tonks actually felt herself go cold at the word Killed, and she fought back a shiver. The thought of Rodolphus on the losing end of a battle.. Tonks shook her head. She didn't want to think about it. Wouldn't. "Yes, you do. Here. You always have a future here, with me."
Tonks blinked when she saw him frown and stopped over his question. Slowly she smiled reassuringly, trying to bite back a laugh over how cute he was being and leaning closer to him, stroking his hair behind his ears, "No it doesn't bother me. Neither the fact that you're old or my uncle- and, really, are you? I don't think your wife and my mother think of themselves as sisters anymore. Hell, I'm not even sure they consider each other human. Besides. I never really thought of you as my uncle. I only have one other uncle, after all, so who am I to say what they're like? Though from what I hear everyone has that one rich perverted uncle that gets drunk all the time," She grinned at him then, eyes bright with a wicked gleam as she took her time considering him, "Oh hey, look at that. I guess you'll just have to do, Bella and my mother or not." Tonks shrugged then rolled her eyes dramatically, "Besides, look at their family! The Blacks. Frankly, at this point I think they're all genetically the same person! All those cousins and things. Really, I have my father and his influence to thank for me not coming out some genetic mutant with bizarre superpowers!" Tonks sneezed and her eyes flashed green, "Sorry about that. And as for age, oh sure, you knew Merlin personally. You may be an aging fossil but you're my aging fossil!" She laughed again, smiling at him with a cheeky grin, "And you look great for one, and hey, you have the maturity of a man one sixteenth your age. So really, does a number really matter?" Sighing against him she draped her arms over his shoulders languorously, leaning close to him and brushing her lips against the skin next to his ear, "And who, exactly, says I want to be protected from guys like you? Who says I don't want to be touched?" She smiled against him and pressed a kiss against his skin, "Just you try to keep that from happening and see what happens to you."
Tonks laughed in outrage then, pulling back to try and glare at him, "Well good to know my utter confusion was good for a laugh! Priceless, even! You gave me a serious bloody case of the heebeejeebies, you did. And then when you called me by my-- By that name? Cor I thought I was going to just have a heart attack. And you were just enjoying every minute of it, weren't you you prat?" Even as she grinned she found it harder and harder to try and sound outraged at him, especially with what he was doing to the back of her neck. Tonks actually had to fight not to swoon, purring contently until she realised what she was doing. She looked to him in adoration, feeling her heart skip that familiar beat in her chest over what he said. The Death Eater whose memory protected her from Dementors and the Auror who gave him strength. "We sure are a strange pair, aren't we?"