Work Text:
An hour away from home
And time's never felt this slow
It feels like a week ago
Do you feel it too?
~*~
1929
The first leg of the conference is only an hour away from home, but Newt nearly turns around as soon as he arrives. He and Tina haven't officially moved in together, which has become increasingly frustrating, and there is nothing he would rather do less than walk away from the love of his life, particularly so soon after she said yes.
He can't help but wonder if Tina feels the same — if time, for her, moves as slowly as it does for him. Every hour away from her feels like a week, and every minute that she isn't by his side feels like a month of drought, robbing Newt's world of the only thing he really needs or wants out of life.
As has become somewhat the norm, Newt is greeted with camera flashes and news reporters as soon as he steps foot in the venue. He answers the same questions he’s answered a million times; he poses for photographs with others in his field. Once the now-familiar whirlwind of publicity has abated, someone leads him to the conference room, where he takes a seat and gathers his notes together, thinking about Tina all the while.
~*~
I bet you went back to bed
My pillow beneath your head
Repeat the last words I've said
I miss you
~*~
Tina wakes up alone. She doesn't like this at all, but Newt has to go to this conference, and besides, they have plenty of time left together — a whole lifetime, in fact.
After getting a cup of coffee, she sits at the table and smiles to herself. Though she was admittedly more than half asleep when he left, she was awake enough to remember him leaving and then, a minute later, popping his head back in. "I miss you," he had said, and she mumbled something about not being ridiculous.
She tries not to think about how adorably rumpled he is in the morning, or how tenderly he kissed her the night before, or how his eyes crinkled at the corners when he’d told her that he missed her already.
She tries not to think about him, and fails.
~*~
You're all I need
So fall back to sleep
~*~
The meeting goes by without a hitch, and Newt makes several valuable connections, but through the pleasantries and exchanges of contact information all he can think about is Tina. He supposes the honeymoon phase will wear off eventually, though he hopes it doesn't.
When he gets back to an empty hotel room, exhausted and more homesick than ever, he hangs up his jacket and changes into pajamas. Just as he's slipping into bed with no expectations of actually being able to sleep, a piece of paper falls out of his pocket. Frowning, he unfolds the note, which is written in Tina's slanted handwriting.
"You're all I need," it says. No signature, no embellishments, just a matter-of-fact statement that sends warmth and fondness and heady exhilaration coursing through his veins.
Smiling, Newt falls asleep.
~*~
Wherever I go, wherever I'll be
Oh I just hope that you're thinkin' 'bout me
And that you don't doubt my love if you're lonely
~*~
"Of course he's thinking about you," Queenie says when Tina drops by that afternoon.
"I didn't say anything," Tina points out somewhat annoyedly.
"Oh, don't be silly," her sister says, coming over and setting a sandwich before Tina. "If your thoughts were any louder I'd need earmuffs."
"I'm not hungry."
Queenie sighs. "Are you gonna do this every time Newt leaves town for more than a day?"
"Do what?"
Queenie just shakes her head. "Eat," she orders, and leans back against the counter, arms crossed.
Resigned, Tina takes a bite, then pauses. "I hope he's not lonely."
"Knowing him, honey, he's pining away more than you are."
"Remember when we used to doubt each other so much?" Tina asks nostalgically.
Her sister pats her rather condescendingly on the arm. "I was the one who got to listen to both of you, Teen. That old sap," she adds with an affectionate smile. “You know he’s been goofy for you from the start?”
"I hope he doesn't doubt my love," Tina muses thoughtfully.
"Oh, dry up," scoffs Queenie. She leans forward and nudges the plate pointedly towards Tina. "He's thinkin' about you. Wherever either of you go. I guarantee it."
Tina frowns, skeptical and still concerned, but she finishes her lunch and bids her sister farewell. She hopes Newt found the note by now and wonders how he might have reacted. Was it too much? Honesty is the best policy, after all. But maybe it was too soon... no, that’s absolutely ridiculous. Bushwa, as Queenie would say. Because they’d had this conversation, about needing one another, their third week together.
He shakes his head vehemently. “Nothing is stupid when it comes to us.”
She gives a watery laugh and looks at him hopelessly. “You can be very romantic sometimes, did you know that?”
“Erm… no.”
“Yeah, thought not.” She raises a hand and pushes his bangs off his face. Then she sighs and takes a step back. “I’m just… upset.”
“Can you tell me why?”
“I…” She bites her lip.
“Tina, when you — if you — can’t let me help you, it… well, it rather hurts me, because I…” He keeps looking diagonally at the ground, then back up at her, then back to the ground. “Because I… I do want — I need you, it’s… you help me.”
Well, he’s certainly come far — they both have — but if he needed her after they’d been together for less than three weeks, it’s highly unlikely that he’d have an adverse reaction to her little note.
Still, she wonders.
~*~
Wherever you go, whatever you see
You're not alone, you never will be
Oh baby just know, wherever you go
That's where I'll be
~*~
The longer he’s away from Tina, the more Newt finds himself reminiscing. One day he takes the train halfway across the state. He has lecture notes and letters to write, but out of nowhere he’s whisked back to their first kiss. He had said then that if there was a place without Tina, he didn’t want to go there, and he means it still.
“As you wish,” Newt answers, startled by her urgency. He carefully covers her hands with his own, as though she is made of spun glass, and she might as well be. “I’m here, Tina.” He pauses. “Where else would I be?”
“Anywhere but with me,” she says in a small voice, staring down at the pavement.
Newt gapes. “Anywhere but with you? Tina, if there is a place without you, I don't want to go there.”
The truth is, ever since Newt returned to New York, he and Tina have hardly ever been apart. They’re a package deal at this point, and it has almost always been the case that anything involving one automatically involves the other. He has accompanied Tina to Auror conventions; Tina has rescued him from several more disastrous book signings since all the ones back in 1927.
Wherever she goes, that’s where he will be. And that is a promise.
~*~
I saw you in Thompson Square
The wind playing in your hair
And then down in Dallas where
You've never been
~*~
Tina goes to Puddingstone Place about a week into Newt's trip. They've just built another section, called Thompson Square, and she watches from the outskirts as they host a small ribbon-cutting ceremony.
For a second, she thinks she sees Newt in the crowd and her heart leaps. But it isn't him; it's some other man with messy auburn hair ruffled by the wind. The sight and disappointment are so upsetting to her that she forgets why she came in the first place and ends up back at Eagle & Eagle. This is upsetting to her as well, seeing her boyfriend’s face plastered all over the bestsellers list, and when somebody recognizes her and asks after Newt she produces a lame excuse and walks away.
It’s ridiculous to be pining this much over a stupid magizoologist. (Her eccentric magizoologist.) It really is. She’s just waiting for Sophia to slap her in the face. But Newt makes her happy, has always made her happy, and she’d forgotten exactly how much a part of her life — part of her — that he’s become over the past couple of years.
The conference takes Newt to Dallas, Texas. He swears, walking around one day, that he sees Tina, but the tall woman turns around and very clearly isn't his fiancée. It plunges him into a bad mood, resulting in several less than pleasant exchanges that end in his publicist pulling him aside halfway through a book signing to thoroughly chew him out.
“I know you miss your wife,” she says exasperatedly, “but you really need to pull it together. You've got a public image to maintain, and it's taken over a year to charm your audience into believing you're approachable.”
“Fiancée,” Newt says. “She's my fiancée.”
His publicist heaves a long-suffering sigh. “Really not the point. Come on then,” and with that he's dragged back out to the real world.
~*~
And now everywhere I go
It feels like I'm coming home
I'll see you in a month or so, but until then
You're all I need and all I see
~*~
Dear Newt,
I don’t know when this will reach you, as I’m sure you’re very busy. I hope you liked my note. It wasn’t too cheesy, was it?
Write me back when you get a chance. I know you’re probably meeting lots of interesting new people and doing important things, but don’t forget about your fiancée back home!
I miss you.
Love,
Tina
Dear Tina,
I am very busy, but when I heard that an owl had arrived from you I believe I thoroughly sabotaged any reputation I may have earned as a respectful, responsible professional. (I cut a lecture short and Disapparated on the spot. My publicist was none too pleased.)
Your note was easily the highlight of this dismal trip so far. That, and your letter. Tina, you are never too cheesy for me. You are, in fact, rather perfect. I hope things are going well for you at MACUSA. It is miserable here without you.
I will see you in a month or so. But until then... you are all I need.
Love,
Newt
P.S. I would sooner exterminate my own creatures than forget about my fiancée. You do know I bought that ring three days after we first kissed, don’t you?
~*~
Wherever I go, wherever I'll be
Oh I just hope that you're thinkin' 'bout me
And that you don't doubt my love if you're lonely
~*~
When Newt steps onto the train platform a month after he left, he has about two seconds to scan the crowd before there’s a familiar dark-haired blur hurtling towards him, the person to his left gets pushed roughly to the side, and his arms are suddenly, gloriously full of Tina.
“Hello,” he says, pulling back to look at her. “Did you miss me?”
~*~
Wherever you go, whatever you see
You're not alone, you never will be
Oh baby just know, wherever you go
That's where I'll be
~*~
1930
They’re married on Scamander Island. Newt holds Tina close as they dance just as they had at Tina’s first ball, drunk on one another and overwhelmed by the emotion of everything that has brought them to this place — the fears and doubts and worries, the tears and fights and battles, all of which have only strengthened them in the long run. Tina thought for so long that she would be alone, that everything good in her life would surely leave. Her husband was the first and last person to prove her wrong.
“You are not alone,” Newt murmurs into Tina’s ear. “You never will be.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re stuck with me now,” she quips, smiling radiantly.
He pulls her in, and his eyes are shining with something indescribable, but which Tina feels bone-deep and intoxicating. “Wherever you go —”
“That’s where I’ll be,” she whispers before he can finish, and seals the promise with a kiss.
~*~
Oh baby just know, wherever you go
That's where I'll be
~*~
I sent Fennethianell a preview as usual, and she sent me this. Comparable to the drawing from chapter 53 of Then Will My Love Linger On :)