Remus frowned. "I'm sorry. God knows I never meant to make you miserable - but does that really sound like the right reason to you? Because of what people think, and because you need something to go right? If we were meant to go right, I think we would have. Don't you?"
He felt horrible. For all of it. And part of him just wanted to gather her in his arms and tell her that yes, they should be together and forget. . . but. There was always a but, or a reason, or an exception. Nothing had ever been simple, and Remus didn't want to fix something in the moment only to have it be worse in the long run. More painful, harder, more complicated.
"You don't have to switch anything, Tonks. I can't really either. We can take time, see where we stand, and go from there." And maybe fix whatever it was that was broken between them that let them get this far gone, this quickly. Or find out that it couldn't be done. Remus' nature and experience made him think the latter was more likely. But a part of him couldn't help but hope for the former, too.
He gave in, reaching to take her hand at least. "I'm sorry, Tonks. Let's not call it friends then - though I'd like to think we were and can be that, too. Let's just take time to think things through better, and pretend we're. . . starting again? And see where it goes and talk about it on the way. Does that sound. . . livable?"