for you.
Drabble challenge. 290 words. Lily X Tonks. They're murderwives, your honor.
"We're leaving tonight." Tonks paused, wine kissing her lips as she glanced over the rim of the glass. Lily met her gaze steadily. "The longer the boys are here," Lily continued, "the greater a chance we're caught. I can't risk them. I won't." Unspoken: not again. Tonks nodded, setting her glass down. "Suppose I'll pack light, then." A little wrinkle appeared between Lily's brows; Tonks had learned all of Lily's faces, but this one was new. "You have to stay, little Auror." "I am," she insisted. "With you." "Love--" There it was, that word again. Tonks stood abruptly, slapping her palms down on the table as she leaned over it. The dishes rattled. "Make me." Lily stared at her for a long moment, green eyes searching her face for something. Perhaps some indication that Tonks wanted to return to an office full of ghosts. Aurors that Tonks had killed. For her. "Got a taste for it, did you?" Lily said, grinning. Smoke and honey. Tonks laughed and shook her head. "Got a taste for you." Red lips curled over white teeth in a smile that reached her eyes, and Lily pulled Tonks in by her shirt collar, kissed her like a knife in the heart.
For you, Tonks thought, this is for you. Always. All of it, all of me, for you. Come morning, her desk would be empty. Meetings left unattended, tasks fated to remain undone -- all except one. (Arthur had his instructions.) For now, Lily was whispering instructions into her lips -- "we’ll meet Sirius and Remus in Calais, and head east from there" -- and Tonks was practising wand movements as she packed. No one would ever find them. They’d be safe. But more importantly, they’d be free.