Author's Note: Do I believe in soulmates? No. Will I write a soul mark AU for the sheer angst of it and also the points for Shipping War? Yes. Yes I will. Also I know that Hestia Jones isn't technically an Auror in the books but surprise, this is fanfiction and now she is!

Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

Warnings: NA

Stacked with: MC4A; Terms of Services; Shipping War

Individual Challenge(s): Gryffindor MC; Hufflepuff MC; Short Jog; Seeds; Forehead Kisses;

Representation(s): Auror Tonks

Bonus challenge(s): Middle Name; Second Verse (Ladylike; White Dress); Chorus (Pear-Shaped)

Tertiary bonus challenge: NA

Word Count: 2023

Shipping Wars

Ship (Team): Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin (Technicolour Moon)

List (Prompt): Micro 1 (Soul Marks AU)

Long Night

She'd been about twelve when she'd realised what the words on her ankle meant, when her Mum showed her the words etched on her forearm.

"That was the first thing your father told me, when we were both made prefects in fifth year" Andromeda smiled at the memory, holding up her sleeve to show off, in delicate print, the words 'I knew you'd be here too.' "That's when I knew that this boy I'd been watching from afar and smiling about really was my destiny, no matter how many people disliked it. These were my soulmate's first words to me directly."

Dora traced the words on her ankle.

"What if I don't like my soulmate?" she asked.

"I don't think that's how it works, love," Andromeda said.

"What if I like someone and that's not their first words to me?" Dora asked again, pushing back. She didn't like being told what to do—not by her mum, not by her dad, not by her grandma, and definitely not by two little words on her ankle.

"Well, some people have the last words their soulmate will speak to them on their skin," Mum said. "Besides; you can love someone who isn't your soulmate. It'll just be different, that's all."

"This all sounds ridiculous," Dora sneered. She concentrated on the little words on her ankle. Long night. A long night when? How? Who cared?

She morphed the words away.

"Nymphadora!" her mother said. "Those were important!"

"I don't need them," Dora said defensively. "I'll find my soulmate on my own."

In Hogwarts, it was her least favourite activity. Inevitably, whenever girl talk went on long enough in the dormitories or when they got drunk enough in the common room, someone rolled up a sleeve or the leg of their pants or gently raised their shirts to show off words.

"My parents had their last words to each other," Hestia Jones, whose father was an Auror who had been killed in the line of action during the last Wizarding War, said soberly. "I think I'd like mine to be like that too. I think it's romantic. They went their whole lives together, chosing to be with each other, because they felt like it was right. Not because they needed to."

"I agree," Tonks said. "I like that too."

"But isn't it sad?" Eleanor MacMillan asked. "Only finding out that you're soulmates when it's too late..."

"Maybe you spent your whole life with them, though," Paulina Johnson chimed in. She rolled up her sleeve to show the words, Goodbye, love. A chill went up Dora's spine. "I'm pretty sure that that's what mine are...But my soulmate won't die alone, far from me, I think. That's gotta be something."

They all nodded.

"What are your words?" Hestia asked Tonks, who had been relatively quiet.

"Don't have any," Tonks said. "I do have this though."

She turned her tongue into the forked appendage of a snake, which got some laughs out of the people around her.

She woke up in the hospital. Mad-Eye was leaning over her.

"Oh Dear God, I've gone to hell," Tonks said.

"You're ridiculous," Mad-Eye informed her, getting up from his seat, antsy.

"I'm fine," Tonks said, rubbing her eyes so that her last few memories settled back in. "Blackthorn didn't make it away, did he?"

"No, he's well in Azkaban," Mad-Eye said, plumping down back into his seat. "You got him, Tonks. Merlin, I'm getting too old for this…"

"Retire, then."

"Maybe I will," he said. He took a deep breath. "I'm serious, Tonks. You gave us a fright."

"I'm not dying so easily," Tonks promised. She kicked off her sheets to examine the damage, but the Healers seemed to have patched her up rather well. Someone had changed her into a St. Mungo's robe when she'd been checked in, which left her ankle exposed. When she'd been knocked out, the morph she held over the words on her ankle must have lifted. Mad-Eye was eyeing them.

"Have you heard those yet?" he said, nudging his head towards them. "'Long night?'"

"Plenty of times," Tonks said. "They're just words, people say them all the time. As it turns out, they're only really super useful if you believe in soulmates. What about yours, old man?"

"They were on the leg that got chopped," he said.

Tonks burst out into laughter.

Remus walked in, and sighed when he saw her in one piece.

"Wotcher."

"You made it," he said.

"Of course I did," Tonks grinned. "You'll have to find something a little bit scarier than Lucius Malfoy and his close personal friends in hoods to get rid of me."

"Duly noted," Remus said, just as jokingly. Then he got serious and she felt him pull away from her. It nearly hurt—like the world got a little colder.

"I'll go let Dumbledore know," he said, before disappearing back into the house.

Tonks sighed. A different welcome would have been lovely. Now all she could hope for was that she'd make it down to the kitchen without accidentally rousing that awful portrait…

Then, seized with second thoughts, Remus barged back into the entryway and wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips to hers with unforeseen (but nevertheless appreciated) gusto and strength. Tonks was surprised, to say the least, but not too surprised to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him closer, closer, closer…

She wasn't sure who remembered about breathing first, but she certainly didn't pull her arms down when they broke the kiss. Remus' hands were resting on the small of her back, where his thumb was rubbing satisfying circles.

"Don't be late again," he said. "I was worried."

"Okay."

"Okay," he agreed. He nodded again and then walked off—maybe to go find Dumbledore for real this time.

Tonks was so distracted that she tripped over a trick step on her way down and woke up her lovely great aunt.

"Can I tell you something?" Sirius asked, sitting across from her at the table. She'd taken to bringing him food from the outside world that he'd missed while he was in Azkaban. Tonight they were having Chinese food.

"Is it a secret?" Dora asked.

"Technically speaking, yes," Sirius said, before stuffing another chicken ball into his mouth.

"Are you allowed to tell me this secret?" Dora asked again, more seriously this time.

"Only maybe," Sirius admitted. "But it's for someone's own good."

"Alright," Dora said. "What is it?"

"Don't give up on Remus," Sirius said.

"Why not?" Dora asked. Merlin knew she had plenty of good reasons to.

"It's complicated," Sirius said. "I just know you can't. Please."

"Okay, okay. Calm down, weirdo," Tonks said. She twirled more chow mein around her chopsticks. "I won't. He's… he's hard to give up on."

"I know, he does it on purpose," Sirius said. "The important thing is not to let him get away with it."

She and Hestia were, considering the fact that they were sitting in her bathtub fully dressed and raving like madwomen, quite wine drunk.

"I don't get it," Tonks said. "I don't understand why he took that job. Damn Dumbledore for sending him to the werewolf colonies."

"Fuck Dumbledore," Hestia nodded. She took another drink of wine, and Tonks rested her head against the back of the tub, pushing back against the shampoo bottles that lived there.

Tonks said, "You know, maybe I'm wasting my time."

"You're not," Hestia chimed in. "He's so sweet to you. So kind, so soft, so thoughtful. And clever, so clever. Witty and intelligent, not just one. Nothing like your usual brand of idiocy. And he's handsome in that oddly specific way you like."

"The oddly specific way I like," Tonks nodded. She reached out and took the bottle of wine from Hestia, took a drink, and handed it back. "I just… I wish I had a sign to confirm that I'm not crazy for believing in us. That's all."

"You're not talking about those soul marks, are you?" Hestia asked. "I thought you hated them!"

"Hate them I do, but they sound bloody useful," Tonks grumbled.

"You love him," Hestia said. "Isn't that enough?"

"Fuck, you're right," Tonks said. "I so do. And it should be enough."

Finally, finally, she understood what Sirius had been going on about nearly a year ago.

It was no wonder she'd never noticed it before; it was small and tiny and on a hard-to-see place on his back, even with his ribs. It was underlined by one of his scars, which did even more to hide it away. It blew her mind that there was a single inch of his skin that she'd never seen before, but there was his soul mark. Wotcher, it read.

"I've always known," he said, pulling his shirt down. "I've always known it was you. I just couldn't bear what it meant…"

For the first time in her life, Tonks was happy to hear someone go on about those damned marks. She wasn't particularly shy about it either, seeing how she threw herself at Remus and all.

"You don't have a soul mark, then?" he said one night, while she burrowed against his chest.

She thought it over for a second. His first words to her had been something incredibly polite along the lines of 'hello' or 'pleased to meet you.' Those weren't the words she'd grown up hiding. So while she was sure that she could bring back those two little words if she tried, she wasn't sure what they'd gain from it. She knew who she was, and she knew who he was, and she knew what they could be together. That was good enough. And in the event that those two words were the last she'd hear from him...

"No," she said, closing her eyes. Some things weren't useful; she'd learned this a long time ago. What was good and useful for now? Snuggling up against her husband. "I don't need it, I have you."

Kingsley stood in their flat's doorway, antsy. Tonks had seen him this way, buzzing with action and energy, a thousand times before. But this was one adventure she wasn't following him on tonight.

Remus lowered Teddy back into her arms after kissing the little boy's currently turquoise hair.

"Be careful," she said, cradling the baby to her chest. "Both of you."

Remus smiled down at her—not in a happy smile, but in one of those sad but steady and reassuring smiles he mastered. He put a hand on her cheek, gentle as ever.

"Try not to worry, it's going to be a long night," Remus said quietly, kissing her forehead.

Her blood froze over. For all she knew and for all she cared, hell froze over. Her heart stopped beating and something inside her snapped, just as the universe had snapped into place tonight for their strange climax, the strange stalemate Voldemort had brought the world to, to take place. And to take…

"Okay," she said, as calmly as she could. She readjusted the baby against her chest. "I love you."

Remus smiled, and followed Kingsley out the door.

"Remus?" she called softly. He turned around quickly, attentive as ever.

"Wotcher," she said simply.

He froze for a second, his hand moving to that strange, strange spot behind his back. He chewed his lip for a second, but only came back, kissed her, touched the baby's hair, and backed away again. He looked at her one last time before Apparating away.

And then she closed the door.