Just The Way You Are: A Ronks Story

Pig

"Happy Thanksgiving!" yelled Sirius, wearing a turkey headband. Sneakers was dressed as a turkey, and the feathers glued to her costume shook as she walked. 

"Happy Thanksgiving!" answered Tonks, sneakily extending her finger towards the pumpkin filling Remus was mixing. He slapped her hand away.

"No. That's for later."

Tonks, not one to give up, plopped onto one of the stools, and rested her chin on the counter, resolving to take her next chance to strike. "When do we eat?"

"Later," was Remus's answer. 

"How will I make it?" moaned Tonks, dramatically falling off the stool and hitting the stone floor. She lay there for a moment before she got up, shaking spiders out of her hair. "First the cockroaches, now there are spiders..."

"You know you still have to wait, right?" Remus pulled a pair of oven mitts onto his hands, and opened the oven.

"I get credit for trying, at least, right?" 

"Yeah, sure." Remus picked up the homemade pie crust and dumped the filling in. "Besides, the filling won't taste good cold, you know that, right?"

"Well," said Tonks sheepishly. "Uh, I know that."

"You do?" asked Remus, smiling. 

"Yes!" Tonks.

"We have a bigger problem than pie filling," said Sirius. His face was red. "I, uh, forgot to get the main course."

Tonks's hands flew to her hips. Sirius had made a big show out of saying that he would serve the best dinner ever -- only  to completely forget about it. "Siriuuuuuus!" wailed Tonks.

"Okay, well, what do you two want for thanksgiving dinner?" Remus popped the pie back into the oven, and sat down at the table, aiming to avert an argument. 

Tonks and Sirius locked eyes with each other, and at the same time tried to talk over each other. "Bacon!" screamed Tonks, at the same time that Sirius yelled, "Baloney!"

"Those both aren't even valid answers!" protested Remus, picturing about fifty slabs of bacon topped off by baloney. He quickly waved the image away, shuddering at the thought. "You know, we could always have pizza."

"Pizza!" cried Tonks.

"No," said Sirius. "I made a big show about Thanksgiving, and so I have to follow through with it. Do you get it?"

"Um, yeah," said Remus. "We'll just leave you to make... whatever you're going to make." Remus grabbed Tonks's hand and started up the stairs. "Sirius, tell me when the oven timer goes off."

"Roger that." Sirius saluted his friend.

"But I want to see what he makes!" whined Tonks.

"You'll see," said Remus, pulling Tonks after him. "You'll have to eat it. So hope it's good." Remus was trying not to think about past Thanksgivings with his family. They didn't really get along with him. But when Remus was a kid, he had loved Thanksgiving, and every year it had been perfect. In fact, his parents had tried to convince him to stay with them. But he had refused, saying that it wasn't right that him, their grown son, had to live with them.

They had had a fight about it. It had been last Thanksgiving that Remus had walked out on his parents. He still felt guilty about it, and he had received a Thanksgiving card from them the previous night. But Remus didn't have the guts to open it.

"Microsurgery hurts, I think."

"What?" asked Remus. The taste of blood filled his mouth.

"You're going to chew your lip off." Tonks stood on her toes, peering at Remus's face.

"Uh, okay. Weird," said Remus. Tonks narrowed her eyes and looked at him.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm just lovely."

Tonks put her hands on her hips "Are you sure?"

"Yes. Very sure," said Remus.

"You're sure you're sure?"

"I'm sure I'm sure."

"You're sure you're sure you're su--"

"Tonks!"

"Fine. But are you okay?" asked Tonks. She grabbed Remus by the shoulders and looked into her eyes, stretching up to her tallest height, which wasn't very tall, and shook him. Remus removed her hands and shook his head.

"Tonks, I'm fine, you have to understand that."

"But you don't look fine." Tonks frowned.

"I may not, but I am. So shut up," Remus stormed into the living room. Tonks wandered over to Sneakers's bed.

"Well, it's just you and I, Sneakers. Two lonely people in a lonely world." Sneakers whined and pushed her nose against Tonks's hand. "But of course you have your puppies, so you're never really alone."

"Wuf!" Sneakers hopped out of her bed, and raced over to her leash.

"Oh. You want to go for a walk?" asked Tonks, mildly annoyed that Sneakers was so dependent. "You know, you're not a puppy anymore, take yourself for walks!" Tonks cracked herself up. Sneakers whimpered. "Okay, okay, I'm coming." Picking up the leash, Tonks clipped it onto Sneakers's collar, and opened the door. "I bet you would be all right with bacon. What kind of Thanksgiving dinner is baloney?"

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Sirius was faced with the dilemma of finding a good dinner within three hours. "A lot can be accomplished in three hours," he told himself. "Just because I failed them before, doesn't mean I have to now. I can cook. I am amazing, responsible, and an idiot for getting myself into this mess at all." While he talked, the animagus rummaged through the cabinets. "There has to be something good in here. Something like..." Sirius trailed off, running out of thoughts. "I don't know what I want to serve. I'm going to have to face the embarrassment of making a terrible meal. Tonks will make fun of me for the rest of the year.

Author's note: Y'all know that Sirius drops dead before the year's over. (Nah, he gets KILLED, tragically! Oh, that evil woman!) But anyway, back to the story :)

"I guess I could 'accidentally' slaughter Andromeda's hamster. Oh, wait, Lord no. didn't it used to be Tonks's?"

Yes, Little Hamster is back.

"I wouldn't want her mad at me. But would she even notice if I cooked the hamster real good, threw it into a frying pan, and--" Sirius suddenly buried his face in his hands. "Oh, who am I kidding? Tonks would obviously know that I cooked her former pet!" Tonks herself suddenly strolled into the kitchen. "Tonks!" cried Sirius.

Tonks jumped, completely unaware that her cousin was there, and speaking to her. "Whaaaat?"

"Tonks!" sobbed Sirius. "Nobody gets me like you do!"

"Well... um... thanks?" Tonks scratched her head. "No one does get the Real Sirius more than me. He's an idiot, and no one but me sees that."

Sirius scowled at her. "Yep, you're the only one who gets me that way."

"Oh, I'm not the only one." Tonks leaned on the counter, smiling.

"Nice," said Sirius. "Listen, you have to help me."

"Why?" asked Tonks.

"Look... I hate to admit this, but... I have no idea about Thanksgiving dinner! I've never cooked before IN MY LIFE!"

"Really?" asked Tonks.

"Yes," said Sirius. "So will you help?"

"Okay," said Tonks. There was a pause. "So... um... what do I do?"

"Help me think!" cried Sirius.

"Oh, okay," said Tonks. "How about ham?"

"Tonks, you're a genius!" Sirius ran to the fridge.

 "Poor pig," said Tonks, trailing behind him.