Tonks entered the estate as she did from time to time. Ever since her mother had moved there, she had tried to space out her visits. Things had changed too much, and she still hadn't gotten used to Andromeda's new attitude… let alone the fact that she was now also her boyfriend's partner.
That's why, although she hadn't fully distanced herself, she had been sleeping at the tavern lately. At least that way, she kept the business running.
She followed the usual path to the center of the small village, hoping to find her mother, maybe greet the girls. But then something caught her eye: a large crowd gathered in front of a notice board, almost identical to the one at the guild… or rather, the original one. The strange thing was that they weren't human. And even stranger, the crowd vanished in an instant, leaving behind two people. Or… was it three?
"Red?" Tonks called out, raising her voice in surprise as she approached.
At that moment, I had just finished kissing Gemma deeply in farewell, and I turned toward the pink-haired woman with a smile, holding our two-year-old daughter in my arms. Tonks frowned at the sight of the little girl.
"Kidnapping toddlers now?" she joked sarcastically, but she paused when she noticed Gemma slowly walking away, waving. "Wait… Gemma?"
"Hi, Tonks," I greeted her, while my daughter hid in my chest, peeking curiously at the newcomer. "Let me introduce you to Ruby, our daughter."
"She's already born?!" she exclaimed, completely thrown off.
She froze. Accepting that her boyfriend had a child with another woman had already been hard at the time. But that from one day to the next the child not only existed, but was already a two-year-old girl? That was too much. Sure, she had been away for a week… but even so, it made no sense. She recalled the missions and began connecting the dots, but it didn't help.
She noticed some strange details in the girl… and in me, too. That fleshy thing wrapped around my arm, that texture she couldn't stop associating with the aliens from that mission…
"What… how…?" she began to stammer, but didn't have time to collect her thoughts.
"Nymphadora," said Andromeda, approaching with a smile that widened when she saw me. She was also surprised to see Ruby, though not nearly as much as Tonks.
"Mom!" Tonks said, noticing something in her expression. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Oh… he asked me not to," Andromeda replied, understanding the reproach.
Tonks looked at me now with a mix of anger and confusion. To her, the birth of Ruby wasn't a small thing. And not knowing until now didn't sit well
"I wanted to give you time to process it…" I said, gently stroking Ruby, who was still observing the women curiously while clinging to me, cuddling against my chest. Her long, scaly tail was still wrapped around my arm. "In the end, I didn't tell you before you arrived, but… I think it's better this way. If you'd met her as a newborn, it would've been harder. Now it's easier to handle."
Without saying more, I approached Tonks and held Ruby out to her. Tonks stepped back, bewildered. What she saw was a beautiful little girl… but with a serpent's tail instead of legs.
And then, when she looked at her directly, Ruby opened her mouth. Her expression changed: from a sweet little face to a bizarrely symmetrical mouth with four fangs emerging from her lips, which seemed to harden and sharpen. Her tongue, long and pointed, hissed into the air.
"Ahh!" Tonks exclaimed, stepping back as her hand instinctively reached for her wand.
Her experience with aliens had sharpened her reflexes. She nearly followed the basic rule: shoot first, ask later.
"Tonks, don't be like that, you'll hurt her feelings," I said mockingly, fully understanding her reaction.
"What happened to her?" she finally asked, realizing there was no acid, no fangs flying toward her, and that the creature before her had no intention of devouring her face. She was just… a very strange, monstrous little girl. The question of what the hell had happened didn't leave her, even as she managed to relax a bit and cautiously moved closer to take a better look.
"Nothing, she was just born this lovely. Just like her dad," I teased with a shameless grin.
"You weren't that cute when you were born either," Andromeda chimed in naturally, joining the teasing.
Tonks rolled her eyes at the comments, though the doubt still twisted inside her. But she didn't have time to ask anything else, because at that moment, almost without warning, I placed Ruby in her arms. The discomfort was immediate.
"Actually, it's great that you both arrived," I said, ignoring her tense expression. "I just finished the first phase with the elves and figured it was a good time to visit the Black house. Tonks can watch Ruby while we're away. Gemma needs a break."
I gently caressed my daughter's head, now cradled in the arms of a completely rigid Tonks. Ruby was being held half a meter away from the pink-haired woman's body, so I stepped in to gently nudge her closer until Tonks had no choice but to hold her properly. Her arms were visibly trembling.
"Wait, what?" she reacted just as she felt Ruby's tail trying to curl itself around her.
"But I haven't spent time with Ruby yet… and she's grown so much," Andromeda said wistfully, looking at her daughter. Once the shock wore off, the truth was Ruby was adorable. And her maternal instinct only grew stronger by the second.
"Hold on… I never said I'd take care of her," Tonks said, uncomfortable, feeling like things were once again spiraling out of control. She had barely started to understand what was going on.
"Come on, Tonks, she's my daughter. You can't just leave her lying around," I said with an accusatory look. "She's a sweetheart… and she doesn't bite anymore."
Just as I finished that sentence, I saw Ruby very slowly start to lean toward Tonks' exposed collarbone. Her human mouth gave way once again to that strange jaw, with hardened lips, symmetrical fangs, and a long, pointed tongue. All very smooth. All very subtle. She shot me sideways glances as she did it.
"Thhh!" I hissed at her, giving her a gentle flick on the head with my finger. "No. You don't bite Mommy Tonks."
The girl paused a bit, letting out a little lick on Tonks' skin before returning to her human face like nothing had happened.
"What the—?!" Tonks reacted, gritting her teeth to stop herself from dropping the child after the unexpected tickle. The situation was getting way too weird, but even so, there was something more urgent than yelling. "I'm not 'Mommy Tonks'!"
"She's my daughter. And you're my woman, so like it or not… you're her mommy," I replied casually, rolling my eyes. "You'll be the mother of every one of my children, whether you like it or not."
"I never agreed to any of this!" she protested, almost on the verge of tears, though with that half-comical tone of someone who's just been handed a massive responsibility out of nowhere. For her, alien invasion? Acceptable. Being a mom…?
"Too late, you already took my dick. Besides, get used to it… you'll have your own soon enough. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take your mother on a date to her parents' house," I said as I stepped back, taking Andromeda's hand, who aided in my escape with an alarmingly natural grace, flashing her daughter a mix of pity and amusement.
"Wait, don't you dare leave!" Tonks shouted, running after me with Ruby in her arms. Even if she had wanted to let go, it was already too late: the girl had latched onto her tightly. "Don't you run away! I don't want this! And what was that about biting?!"
"Don't worry, Tonks. You'll be fine. I already taught her not to bite her mommies. If she gets hungry, just give her some blood or meat," I explained without stopping. "Ask the merchant, or get the usual from the restaurant… no fat. And don't worry if she looks expressionless, that's just how she is. You might see some changes… she's developing human mimicry. It's normal if her tail starts looking like legs. If you're unsure, ask Gemma. Catch up while you're at it."
Tonks kept chasing me until I disappeared with her mother. She couldn't catch me anymore. She was so overwhelmed, so angry at me, that for a moment she forgot she was holding a demon(Me) spawn.
She looked at Ruby. Her head hurt. She had no idea how to take care of kids. Much less one this strange. Her first instinct was to look for her mother, or Andra, or Eileen, and hand her off. But then she saw her looking at her.
She felt the tail wrapping around her arm, the tiny hands clutching her clothes, those red eyes—very much like mine, though lighter and cleaner—locked onto hers. The child didn't blink. Or if she did, it was so fast or so slow it felt unnatural.
Tonks sighed. She was trapped in a dilemma. She couldn't be mad at this creature who, despite everything, was adorable. It was undeniable she had inherited the best of her parents. Even the tail… well, the tail had its charm. It brought back memories of murderous aliens, which stirred up a mix of nostalgia, discomfort, and… something she couldn't quite name. Tenderness, maybe. Until Ruby licked her again with that long tongue
"What am I going to do with you…?" she murmured, not expecting any answer beyond the girl's fixed stare and the gentle rubbing of her head against Tonks' chest.
Tonks held her a bit better now, resigned, and started walking through the village toward Gemma's house. She hoped to find her there… hoped to talk… hoped to give her back her daughter. Because, as sweet and twisted as Ruby was, Tonks still wasn't ready to be a mom. And it wasn't just uncomfortable—it scared her. She was afraid of messing up and accidentally hurting the child.
In that moment, while walking, she stopped abruptly as something hit her.
"Son of a bitch!" she shouted in the middle of the street. No one responded; they were all NPCs. Then she looked at Ruby with a raised eyebrow. "Your dad is a bastard," she told her with renewed anger. She had just realized I could've left a clone instead of all this, and that dumping the child on her might've been a punishment—or a forced adaptation method. "Your daddy deserves a kick in the balls, doesn't he?" she added while lifting and lowering Ruby slightly, as if making her nod. "Yeah, he totally does."
She laughed a little. The scene was absurd, but the child's calmness had something hypnotic. Maybe… maybe it wasn't that bad.
Until Ruby bit her clothes again. With surgical precision. No skin contact, but thoroughly soaked in saliva.
"What is it? Still defending your father?" she asked in an accusing tone. "Your daddy is bad news."
She considered teaching the girl a little about the true nature of her father—maybe as petty revenge. But then she felt the child squeeze her chest with those tiny hands… and bite again, right over her nipple.
Tonks didn't think Ruby was a pervert like her dad—though with those genes, anything was possible—but then it clicked.
"Are you hungry?" she asked tentatively.
The pressure of the bite and grip on her nipple intensified.
"Alright… let's go eat," she said, resigned, changing course toward the restaurant. But then she froze again as she remembered my words, with a disturbed and worried expression."You drink blood?"