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It was a complicated situation, and Fleur had nobody but herself to blame for it. One would think that by now, she was used to rejecting men - given the fact that they threw themselves at her at any given chance, and not to mention that she was completely uninterested in them. One could assume that she was even good at rejecting men, by now. But when her arguably handsome, yet ridiculously confident coworker Bill Weasley had asked her out two weeks ago, she had seen no other option than to blurt out "I'm seeing someone," and deal with the consequences later.
If only it were that simple; if only there were no consequences worth mentioning. Naturally, the kind man, who was honestly quite a good friend by now, had been very apologetic and consistently kept asking her about her supposed relationship. It was mere fluke that her fellow order member Tonks was trying to shake the rumor that they were dating an older man.
Fleur would've never asked Tonks to be her fake partner, if it weren't for the damn 'end of the world party' that Sirius Black had decided to throw at his childhood house.
Fleur wasn't good with elven wine. She was even worse with firewhiskey. But ever since joining the order, after being actively recruited by Charlie (who had super interesting theories about dragon behavior by the way), Fleur had felt like an outcast. And a party honestly seemed like a great way to get to know the people you might die defending any day now.
It made sense at the time.
It made sense until she was five firewhiskeys deep and Tonks asked her about her fruity (raspberries and cloudberries) earrings and they started a very serious discussion about the obliviousness of men (read: Bill Weasley).
The opportunity had presented itself flawlessly, as Tonks complained about the rumors that they were dating their cousin's boyfriend. Rumors they couldn't exactly disregard for that reason, seeing as Sirius was an escaped convict and the two men didn't seem very public with their relationship in general.
So, in her drunken stupidity, Fleur might've suggested that they faked a relationship - just for a little while, to make their respective problems disappear. It wasn't like it was going to make anything worse, was it?
Except now, as she found herself sitting at the Leaky Cauldron, in the middle of a war, with this unfairly attractive person, who had really taken 'putting on a show' to heart.
Now, this was news to Fleur, but Tonks could flirt. They were really going for it, presumably because of the audience (Bill and Charlie Weasley with company) - but Fleur was fully flustered, and had not accounted for this possibility at all. How does one deal with a fake date that is unintentionally (or intentionally?) making you blush? Pretend to not speak the language? That seemed like a solid out. Yes. Acting clueless. Good one.
"Je suis désolé, mon anglais n'est pas bon," (I'm sorry, my English isn't great) Fleur managed, taking another sip of her butterbeer despite knowing it would do nothing to help her situation.
"Did...?" Tonks sputtered in response, their eyebrows raised and hair shifting into an adorable shade of peach. "I literally don't care. French is good. French is... I can work with French."
Were they... Blushing? Mon Dieu, that was an unfairly charming and adorable way of doing so. And look, if Fleur could speak French and have Tonks flustered no matter what she said, that was a win in her book. Especially if they had no idea what she was saying.
"La pêche est une belle couleur sur toi. C'était ridiculement chaud," (peach is a great color on you. That was ridiculously hot), she let herself blurt out, earning a grin from her peach-haired fake date. A smug grin. Hold on a minute...
"Tu penses que je suis chaud?" (You think I'm hot?) Tonks finally asked, their hair turning back into a gorgeous bubblegum pink, with that confident stupid grin glued to their face. It took Fleur a whole fucking moment before realizing that:
- Tonks was speaking flawless French, and
- Tonks had fully understood what she just said
So, Fleur wanted to sink through the floor. No, actually, she wanted to get her hands on a goddamn time turner and go back to accept Bill Wesley's date proposal because it couldn't possibly be as bad as this. But alas: she had no time turner, and the floor seemed pretty solid.
Fuck. She wasn't good with butterbeer either.
And she was at a complete lack of words.
"That's cool.. That's.. I can work with that," Tonks finally grinned, far too confidently, into the very awkward silence and closed the distance between the pair - with a kiss that ensured Fleur never again regretted the way she carelessly rejected Bill Weasley two weeks ago.