Just The Way You Are: A Ronks Story

Stars, Pink Birds, and Flying Cabbages With Halos

Above: A good song.

"Sirius!" Tonks shot into the living room. "Let's make slime!"

"No can do, Nymph. I'm old and weak." Sirius was reclining in a chair, wearing sunglasses and drinking lemonade and eating M&Ms.

"You're not old if you're eating M&Ms," said Tonks, flopping down beside Sirius. "And you didn't even share with me!"

"Take it," shrugged Sirius, handing her a party-size bag. "There's more where that came from. And it's all MINE!"

"Not now it isn't," said Tonks, privately resolving to find the M&Ms at the first chance she got. "You've got someone else looking now.

"Not you!" groaned Sirius.

"Yes, me!" Tonks stood up straight, placing her hands on her hips. "I will look for them and keep looking 'till the end of my days!"

"Let's just make slime," said Sirius.

"Okay," agreed Tonks. The two headed down to the kitchen, where Tonks combined glue, contact solution, a dollop of aqua-colored paint, and ten shakes of glitter. Thinking again, she turned the container upside-down again and added an extra shake for luck. "Now, we mix!" she announced. "Do you want a turn?" asked Tonks generously. "I know you're kind of tired of seeing me mix all the time."

"Can I have a spoon?" asked Sirius.

"Um, what?" Tonks stared at him.

"I said, can I have a spoon? I don't want to get my hands all gluey, and contact solution painty. Or glitter combined with gluey, I mean, glue, and contact solution, and--"

"Okay, I know, I know!"

"Now that I'm older, I have to be the mature one. You just have fun, young one."

Tonks blinked, clearly in shock. "Um, okay. If you're sure." Tonks mixed the solution with her hands until she had a stretchy ball the size of a tennis ball. "Want to squish?" she asked Sirius, hoping to bring the reckless Animagus back.

"That's okay, I'll watch." Sirius sat down on the floor, sighing heavily and mumbling about how his knees and back were killing him. Throwing his head back and resting it on the cabinet behind him, Sirius closed his eyes and groaned, sticking his tongue out of his mouth. A very confused Tonks took her slime out to the porch and gave it three comforting squishes. She then pulled it back as far as it would go until it snapped in half. Snapped slime always made her feel depressed. She didn't know why she even bothered doing it.

Tonks walked around the yard in circles, snow making a crunching sound under her feet as she walked. It would be Christmas soon, and she would have to make up with her mother or risk being excluded from the family in following Christmases.

The golden retriever waved hello from where it was trotting across its own yard and smoking a bubble pipe.

"Tough life?" it asked.

"Yeah. Very tough," said Tonks. "I have a friend, a cousin, really, and he's thirty-five, but is acting like he's eighty-five. He says he's got one foot in the grave already. How are your friends doing?"

"Don't got them," said the dog roughly. "Don't got them, and don't need them."

"But everyone needs a friend!" Tonks forgot she was holding slime, and the glittery blob flew through the air, landing in a patch of wet grass. Tonks chased after it, picking it up and wiping rocks and grass pieces off of it.

"I don't," said the strange dog. "Now, leave me be."

Tonks shrugged. "Oh well." She walked back to the porch and sank down onto the bottom step, tapping her feet on the crunchy snow mixed with grass. That was a comforting sound to her. Tonks loved the sound of crunchy snow.

That was how Remus found her when he went out to check on her. Sitting there, dreamily squishing a cold ball of slime.

"Remus!" squealed Tonks. "I missed you!" She hugged him. Remus caught her right wrist, directing the slime away from him.

"Next time, drop the slime," he said.

"Okay." Tonks pulled a Ziploc bag out of her pocket and dropped the slime into it. Sealing it tightly, she placed it back in her pocket. Remus cringed, thinking of what would happen if it got out. He decided to let those thoughts go.

"Remus?" asked Tonks.

"Yes?"

"What would you consider old?"

"Um, a tree."

"No, like, how old. An age." Tonks looked up at Remus, her chocolate-brown eyes filled with concern.

"Uh, let's see." Remus sat down on the porch step. Tonks copied him. "Hmmm." The werewolf drummed his fingers against his thigh. "Seventy. Why?"

"Sirius says he's got one foot in the grave."

Remus nearly laughed out loud, but caught himself. Instead he made a strangling noise and tried to turn it into a cough. Tonks looked down, hurt, and let her hair fall over her face. "Sorry Tonks," chuckled Remus, hugging her. "Sirius isn't going anywhere anytime soon. He's just messing with you."

That did not repair Tonks's feelings, and she said, "But he wouldn't make slime today, even when I offered to let him mix. And he loves mixing, and he always complains about me hogging the mixing job."

"Oh that's how the slime came to be," muttered Remus. "Curse the large quantity of glue, contact solution, paint, and sparkles in this house."

All this was making Tonks unreasonably sad, and so, without a word, she got up, and went back inside, slamming the door behind her. Sighing, she trudged up to bed, and pulled a blanket and a pillow over her head.

Remus found her, and gave her a hug. "Don't worry about Sirius. He still likes you, okay? He's just going through a weird phase."

Tonks gave him a small smile, peeking her head out from under the pillow. "A VERY weird phase!"

Author's Note: Let's welcome Avalon and Churro Storch! Two amazing lizards! I'll post pics when they wake up! (Oh, and they're all MINE.)

"Right," said Remus. "So calm down."

Tonks did, and then sat up. "What time is it?"

"Eleven forty-five."

"Oh. Then it's still early. Leaving me time to learn to skateboard before dinner!"

"Lord no." It was Remus's turn to bury his head in a pillow. "Wait, where are you going to get a skateboard?"

"Sirius found a ton in the attic when we cleaned it out!" Tonks raced away. Remus fell back against the headboard, misjudging the distance between him and the pillow, resulting in seeing stars, pink birds, and flying cabbages with halos.