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Damn his sense of smell, Hermann cringed inwardly as Newt came bounding across the lab, his long clawed toes scraping against the concrete floor. Hermann cleared a spot on his desk and lowered the bag with their lunch onto it, leisurely unpacking its contents while Newt inched forward, sniffing and tasting the air with his long, glowing tongue. “Fish today. Of course, you already knew that.” In all honesty, he probably knew it long before Hermann reached the lab. “I know your appetite is insatiable as ever, but do try to show some restraint this time. I’d rather not reprint my reports again because you can’t keep your food on your plate.” Newt glared at him, and Hermann assumed it was for the insult and rolled his eyes exasperatedly. “Don’t give me that look. I had to reprint the last one three times because there was catsup—”
Newt didn’t give him time to finish as he strolled right up to him and shoved his face inside Hermann’s jacket. Hermann just froze as he watched Newt sniff frantically all along his torso, making his way upward to flick the tip of his tongue curiously against Hermann’s neck. “Newton, what the devil has gotten into you?” he barked a little more harshly than he had intended.
You smell like Tendo, he thought at Hermann through the residual driftspace. Why the hell were you with Tendo? What were you doing? Was he coming onto you? He took another long sniff at Hermann’s shirt and leveled a glare at him. It smells like he was coming onto you.
Hermann wasn’t even going to argue about how Newt would be able to determine that through smell alone. This was only the most recent in a series of odd behaviors he had observed over the last week or two. Newt was getting very possessive, always needing to know where he was going and what he was doing, and he always tried to nonchalantly drill him for information whenever he came back from somewhere. Even with these developments in mind, it had never escalated to sniffing, and—was Newt growling?
“Honestly, Newton, there’s no reason for you to get jealous. Mr. Choi was in front of me in the lunch line. We exchanged a few mundane pleasantries; that’s all.”
Pleasant? You? That doesn’t sound right at all. Newt made an irritated rumbling sound in his throat, taking advantage of the opportunity to rile him up even in his state of vexation. What were you talking about?
Hermann let out an exasperated sigh. “I'm not leaving you for Mr. Choi, Newton. Even if I was interested—which I most certainly am not—I hardly think he’d be the type to carry a torch for the likes of me. Not to mention he is happily married—”
Be honest, dude, I'm just the only one willing to tolerate you, Newt insisted with something as close to a grin as his new monstrous face could manage. So you’re stuck with me.
Hermann closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with a long, weary exhale. “Don’t remind me,” he grumbled through his teeth, reaching for the contents of their lunch bag again. He didn’t get far before Newt was thrusting his face into Hermann’s ribcage, toppling him back into his desk chair with a surprised grunt. He crawled onto his lap, curling his tails around Hermann’s legs, and just started rubbing himself all over Hermann’s neck and chest. At first Hermann thought that Newt was going into heat again, but the behavior wasn’t even sexual in the slightest, it was just—well, it reminded Hermann an awful lot of the way a cat might rub itself against its owner’s legs.
He sighed again and just laid back in his chair, giving up on trying to talk sense into Newt. “Now what are you doing?”
I don’t like the way you smell, Newt mumbled through their link. I'm fixing it.
“I could just take a shower…”
No. This is better, Newt insisted. This is perfect.
Hermann finally relented and cradled Newt’s anxious form, one hand resting at the base of his spine and the other gently carding through his dark, comfortingly human hair. Newt completed the catlike impression with a deep purr that rumbled through his whole body as he buried his head beneath Hermann’s chin and rubbed and nuzzled his neck. A minute or two into the impromptu cuddle, the heavily armored plates along Newt’s spine lifted up to reveal the soft blue skin beneath, and he twisted around in Hermann’s lap to rub his back and shoulders along his chest. It was a strange behavior from the human perspective, and Hermann made a note to record his observations later, but he had to admit that the way Newt wiggled and emanated a vague ‘mine, mine, mine’ into their mental link was nothing short of adorable.
“Doctor Gottlieb?” Tendo knocked lightly at the frame of the open door. “I found the name of that jeweler I mentioned earlier—” Newt curled into a predatory crouch in Hermann’s lap, growling rather unimpressively at Tendo but nevertheless cutting him off and making him take a step back. “Jeez, alright, I'm sorry! What did I ever do to you?”
“Down, boy,” Hermann mumbled soothingly and not a little bit sardonically, tightening his reassuring grasp at the back of Newt’s neck. He turned his attention back to Tendo with an apologetic smile. “Thank you, Mr. Choi. If you would kindly forward it to my e-mail…”
“Yeah, no problem, man,” Tendo said shakily, eyes wide and staring at Newt, still coiled to spring. “I know when I'm not wanted. Christ.”
A jeweler? Why do you need a jeweler? Newt thought frenetically, becoming unreasonably paranoid again. What, are you buying him fancy gifts now?
Hermann squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath to keep from shouting at him, then said calmly, “I asked him for the name of a good jeweler so I could buy you a ring, Newton.”
Newt immediately stilled in his lap, giving him a wide-eyed look like a stunned puppy. You…what?
“It was going to be a surprise, but since you insist on becoming hysterical once again, I thought it would be kinder to just tell you.”
Tendo watched the strange one-sided conversation from the safety of the doorway, managing to reason out the basic idea of what was going on. “Guess the cat’s out of the bag, huh?”
“It appears that that is the case, yes,” Hermann said, unable to hide the small smile that touched his lips. Newt was still staring at him with that doe-eyed expression, uncharacteristically and blessedly speechless. Tendo gave Hermann a congratulatory little wink and then left them to celebrate in peace, their lunch completely forgotten and left half-opened on the desk behind them.