Work Text:
Hermann had been rented out for three months to update the jaeger programming in Sydney (because apparently that was a job only Hermann could do, not some other equally-capable programmer), so that left Newt in full command of their Hong Kong lab for an entire summer.
An entire summer. Newt had to giggle every time he thought of Hermann spending an entire summer in the hottest place on Earth . He pictured a huge straw hat, short-sleeved button downs tucked into khaki shorts, and those stupid little boat shoes rich white frat boys used to wear back in college. Not to mention the sunblock on Hermann's frowny little frog face. Cute!
If he thought about it too long, Newt’s insides turned all soft and fuzzy, and he imagined he was with Hermann in Australia, on the first of many vacations they would share together after the war (if the war ever ended). He could see Hermann with his legs crossed on a beach chair, umbrella propped up behind him, reading some terrible bodice-ripper romance novel (the kind he pretended he didn’t like, even though Newt totally knew about his collection) while Newt fucked around in the ocean and got sand in places sand should never be.
Every time he thought about it, Newt had to shake himself out of it and refocus on his work.
Without Hermann around to nag him or belittle his science, Newt had approximately three days of unrestrained summer fun before he realized that life without Hermann was actually boring as all hell. He’d rather be on the beach.
Without Hermann in the lab with him, he was totally alone. And Newt did not do well with being alone, like, at all. With no accountability, no outside stimulation, no spite-driven need to prove someone wrong, Newt’s productivity tanked.
But it was whatever. He could totally survive without Hermann around.
It turned out that surviving without Hermann was kind of miserable. Newt lasted two weeks before he found himself with his phone to his ear, feet tapping restlessly on the floor of the lab as he waited for Hermann to pick up.
“Newton?”
“Hey! Hermann!” Newt greeted, wincing at his own volume. “Uhhh, what’s up?”
“Is everything all right? You haven’t blown up the lab, have you?”
“No, everything’s fine! I just, uh. I’m having a problem with one of my write-ups, I was wondering if you’d mind taking a look at it.”
Newt winced again, hoping that Hermann wouldn’t catch him out on his lie. Hermann was quiet for a minute, and Newt tried to ignore the voices on the other side of the phone. He tried not to feel bad about interrupting Hermann’s plans.
“Oh, well, yes, I suppose I could do that.”
“Great! Thanks, man.” Newt scratched the back of his head. “That’s super helpful, I’ve been stressing over it for like six hours. There’s these numbers that don’t make sense, and you’ve always been better with numbers than me anyway, so I thought–”
“Is everything all right, Dr. Geiszler?”
Shit.
“Oh, yeah, totally! It’s all good. Uh, thanks again. I’ll send that over to you in the morning. Sorry for disturbing you, or whatever.”
“Not to worry. It’s just my sister.”
“Oh! Cool. Uh. Tell her I said hey.”
There was bit of shuffling and moving around, and Newt heard a muffled “Dr. Geiszler says hello,” which was answered in earnest by a slightly higher, just as heavily accented, “Hi, Newton!”
“... She says hello. I should get back to dinner. Do mind the time difference if you call again.”
“Yeah! Yeah, right, sure. Of course.”
“Good night, Newton. It was… nice to hear from you.”
A warm, oozy, melty feeling gathered in Newt’s chest, and he was suddenly grateful that he wasn’t the only one missing his lab partner. He grinned to himself, pumping his fist in the air.
“You too. Later, Herms.”
“That is not–!”
Newt hung up the phone and resisted the urge to squeal like a thirteen-year-old girl with a crush. He went to bed feeling better than he had since Hermann had left.
As the weeks went by, ten-minute phone calls turned hours long. They took to leaving the phone on during work hours, bickering like they usually would, the only difference being Hermann’s new favorite pastime: hanging up on Newt as soon as he started talking about anything Hermann disagreed with and calling him back ten seconds after to continue their conversation.
It was almost like normal, and Newt was finally feeling grounded. There were no more elaborate beach trip daydreams or stupid mistakes in his lab write-ups. Everything was going great.
Until Newt’s phone started going off like crazy in the middle of the night, five weeks before Hermann was meant to return.
Until Newt saw the kaiju alert issued for Sydney flashing across his screen.
Until Newt called Hermann to make sure he was okay.
And Hermann didn’t pick up his fucking phone.
Newt jumped out of bed and wiggled into the first pair of jeans he saw. He called Hermann again, listening to the dial tone ring out as he booked it down to loccent. There wasn’t much they could do from Hong Kong besides get another jaeger ready if the ones in Sydney all went down, and that wasn’t even in Newt’s wheelhouse. But loccent was the best place to get news, especially during an active kaiju attack.
Normally he and Hermann would watch the damage unfold in the lab, but Hermann wasn’t there, and Newt didn’t do well with being alone.
Loccent was almost deadly silent when Newt ran in. Everyone from J-techs to janitors was frozen in place, watching a category three kaiju destroy Sydney. Newt wandered over to Tendo’s station on instinct. The other man didn’t even look away from the news; he just cleared a space on his desk for Newt to perch on.
“They’re calling it Kingfish,” Tendo offered.
“Like the bird?” Newt scoffed as Kingfish started grappling with Lucky Seven. “It’s got a nice ring to it.”
“If you say so. You gonna try to get samples from this one?”
Newt shrugged, redialing Hermann’s number. Instead of the dial tone, he got sent straight to Hermann’s voicemail. A hot flash of panic spread through his chest, and he called again and again, each time as fruitless as the last.
Tendo gave him an odd look, but Newt hardly noticed. His eyes were glued to the image of Kingfish’s heavy body tearing through an office building as Lucky Seven advanced. He sent out a silent prayer that no one was inside. While he was at it, he sent one out for Hermann, too. Just in case.
“You all right, brother?” Tendo asked, nudging Newt’s leg with his elbow. “You’re looking pretty shaky.”
“Hermann won’t answer his phone.”
Tendo was silent as realization dawned on him, and he looked at Newt with the saddest face Newt had ever seen on his usually good-natured friend.
“I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you,” he said. “He’s most likely watching the news from inside the ‘dome just like we are.”
Newt shook his head. “His phone’s off, or– or I can’t get through, or something. Something’s off, I know it. If he were in Sydney’s ‘dome I would’ve got to him by now, he would’ve picked up the phone just to let me know he was all right, he knows I get panicky, he wouldn’t–”
“There’s no reason for him to be outside the ‘dome at all, man. You know how many people are calling loved ones in Sydney right now? I’m not surprised you can’t get through.”
Newt shook his head again. Kingfish roared in defiance behind him.
“I gotta go,” he said. “I gotta go, I can’t– be here right now, I can’t–”
“Go take a walk around the ‘dome,” Tendo suggested. “Clear your head a little bit, see if Gottlieb picks up eventually. I’ll come find you when Kingfish goes down, all right?”
Newt nodded, did as he was told. He walked for a hallway and a half, listening to Hermann’s stupid stuffy voicemail over and over. Hearing his lab partner’s voice helped him go from anxious to downright pissed.
“This is Dr. Hermann Gottlieb. Leave a message and I’ll get back to you shortly. Dr. Geiszler, if this is you, I assure you, whatever it is can wait until work hours.”
“This can’t wait until work hours, you– you sanctimonious bastard! There’s a kaiju tearing its way through Sydney right now and you’re not answering your phone.” Newt argued. He was well aware that he was arguing to no one, but it still made him feel better to get his anxiety off his chest. “What the fuck am I supposed to do, huh? Wait until Monday fucking morning to check whether you’re alive or dead? Pick up your phone!”
He called again. Voicemail.
“Hermann, you condescending pseudo-British Alan Turing wannabe fanboy asshole , answer your goddamn phone!” Newt let out a frustrated groan. “Fuck you, man. You suck. And your math sucks too! I bet it’s not even right. You know what? Actually, fuck this. Be dead, for all I care, maybe I’ll finally get some work done without– without you fucking screaming at me for shit that doesn’t matter. Fuck you.”
Newt felt guilty almost as soon as he hung up the phone. Of all the times his mouth ran off without consulting his brain, now had to be it? He let out a sigh and redialed Hermann’s number.
“Okay, actually, I’m sorry for that last one,” he said. “I didn’t mean it. I’m just worried, man, I don’t know what I’d do if you got hurt. I– I mean, it’s just, everything’s been kinda miserable without you around, and I know it’s, like, a war and everything, I know, but you’re the only thing that makes this shit bearable. I really don’t know if I could do this without you, man. I–” Fuck, this was getting a little more sincere than Newt wanted. “Look, ignore all that, just call me as soon as you can, I’m kinda losing it over here.”
It was only after Newt put his phone back in his pocket that he realized he’d been wandering around aimlessly the whole time he’d been ranting into Hermann’s voicemail. He had just begun making his way back towards loccent when he heard Tendo calling out to him.
“Geislzer? Where the fuck are you, man?”
Newt let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. His shoulders sagged, and his head fell, and he glanced at his watch.
Twelve minutes. It’d felt like hours.
“Here!” he called. “Is it down?”
Tendo rounded the corner and grinned, holding out his arms. “Kingfish is history, baby! The shelters are evacuating now, doesn’t look like there’s any casualties.”
“Oh thank fuck,” Newt breathed. “Any major damage?”
Tendo shrugged. “Less than you’d expect from a cat three. Any word from Dr. Gottlieb?”
“None.”
“I’m sure he’ll be in touch soon.”
“I sure fucking hope so,” Newt replied. Kingfish’s demise was a weight off his shoulders, but Hermann’s silence still unnerved him. “That bastard better not be dead or I’ll kill him myself.”
“You sound married already,” Tendo laughed. “I guarantee he’d say the same thing about you, brother.”
Newt sent Tendo a halfhearted glare. “I begged you not to bring that up again. I was drunk, and you forced that confession outta me.”
“Everybody in a fifty mile radius can fucking see it, man. It is not on me if that shit gets out, you remember that.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Newt replied. “Fuck you, man. I’m not that obvious.”
“The only person who can’t see it is Gottlieb.”
Newt groaned. “We’ll see if that’s still true after he opens his voicemail,” he said. “God, I’m an idiot, Tendo.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you, man. Seriously. He’s blind to it.”
“I guess so.”
~*~
“Okay, okay, wait. You still haven’t told him you’re not dead?” Vanessa demanded. “After he basically told you his existence is meaningless without you?”
Thankfully, Karla and Vanessa’s flat had been on the other side of Sydney than the kaiju attack. Their building was untouched, and they’d exited the kaiju shelter with no more than a headache (and, for Hermann, an ache in his leg and ten missed calls). Now, they were in Karla and Vanessa’s living room, and they were dealing with Hermann’s problems in order of importance (as deemed by Vanessa).
First, they were going to dissect every second of every voicemail Newton had left while they were huddled in the kaiju shelter. Then they would craft the perfect response (without Hermann’s help, as they had both decided that Hermann was useless in affairs of the heart).
After that, they’d let Hermann loose in the lab to figure out how the hell he mis-predicted a kaiju attack by an entire day.
Hermann frowned to himself. “He said no such thing.”
“He told you he ‘couldn’t do this’ without you,” Karla said, air-quotes and all. “This being living.”
“And I did send him a message,” Herman continued, ignoring his sister. “I let him know we were all right.”
“Oooh, lemme see!” Vanessa said, grabbing the phone from where it was carefully placed on the coffee table. Hermann rolled his eyes. Vanessa clicked her tongue disapprovingly, and Karla let out a sigh. “Look at this, hon.”
Karla’s eyebrows shot up as soon as she looked at the screen. She began reading the messages aloud despite Hermann’s protests.
“‘We are all right.’” She looked up at Hermann and frowned. “What the fuck, Hermann? He pours his heart out to you in three separate voicemails and you reply with ‘we’re all right?’”
“He insulted me for almost half of it,” Hermann argued.
“He called you ten times!” Vanessa yelled. “He must have been worried sick about you, Hermann. I don’t know what I’d do if– if Karla was in danger and I couldn’t reach her.”
Hermann resisted the urge to point out how broken up he would be if anything were to happen to Newton as Karla reached over and plucked the drink out of Vanessa’s hand. They were celebrating not having died, and Vanessa had always been a bit of a lightweight.
“That’s enough for now, dear,” she said. Vanessa just nodded and wiped her eyes. “Newton replied, almost instantly, ‘What the fuck, Hermann?’ with eight question marks, and then asked why you didn’t answer your phone. He also called you a selfish bastard, but then he apologized for it, so I’m not quite sure where you want to go with that.”
“Ignore it,” Hermann dismissed. “He’s an insufferable man-child.”
“And the love of your life!” Vanessa crooned.
“Does it count if it’s one-sided, though?”
Vanessa nodded. Hermann looked to Karla, who nodded as well.
“All right then. Go on.”
Karla rolled her eyes. “After he apologized for insulting you, the self-proclaimed love of your life said, ‘If you got any voicemails, ignore them. They aren’t important.’ But he didn’t capitalize a single word. And then he said, ‘On second thought, definitely don’t listen to them if you want to keep having any respect for me.’”
“Assuming I had any to begin with,” Hermann scoffed.
“Funnily enough, that’s his next message,” Karla laughed. “‘Assuming you had any respect for me to begin with, ha ha’ with a colon and a forward slash ‘meh’ face. And, of course, in between all these messages he called you several times, which you ignored, though I can’t imagine– Oh! He’s calling again!”
“Answer it!” Vanessa said. “Oh, I can’t wait to meet your Newton, Hermann. I bet we’d get along famously.”
Hermann rolled his eyes. “Like a house on fire,” he said. “Which is why you will never get the chance.”
“We’ll meet at your wedding. Probably before that. Rehearsal dinner, and all.”
“You will do no such thing.”
“I will do such thing. Try to stop me.”
Hermann opened his mouth to protest, but Karla cut him off.
“Ladies, stop arguing!” she said, holding up the phone. “I’m about to answer this phone, and neither of you can stop me.”
Hermann’s stomach jumped to his throat. “Karla, don’t–”
“Oh, Karla, yes!” Vanessa clapped her hands.
Karla put her finger to her lips and grinned when Newton picked up the phone. Hermann thought he might vomit.
“Hermann! Oh my god! I can’t believe you–”
“Not quite,” Karla said, “but close.”
Vanessa giggled, and Karla shushed her. Hermann put his head in his hands, resigned to the whims of his sisters. Vanessa laughed again when Newt swore to himself.
“Uhh, hi. I’m sorry, is Hermann there?”
“Oh, no, he passed out almost as soon as we got home,” Karla said. Hermann glared at her, and she stuck her tongue out in response. “It’s Karla. I’m Hermann’s older sister. Maybe he’s mentioned me.”
“Oh! Karla, right! I thought you were twins?”
“Technically I’m still four minutes older.”
“Oh, right, right.” Newt cleared his throat. “Well, I was just, uh, calling to make sure that, um, everyone was safe.”
“I appreciate the thought. You’re Hermann’s lab partner, right? Dr. Geiszler?”
“Uh, yeah! That’s me. Call me Newt, though.”
“We’ve heard a lot about you!” Vanessa chimed in.
Hermann reached across the sofa for his phone, but Karla sent him a glare that could curdle milk. Karla was just about the only person who could make him feel cowed, and she used it to her advantage.
“We? Am I on speaker phone?”
“My wife, Vanessa,” Karla explained. “She desperately wants to meet you. And yes, you are. We were curious to see who was blowing up my dear brother’s phone.”
“Shit. I– God, that’s embarrassing. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to–”
“Don’t worry about it!” Vanessa said. “Hermann talks about you all the time!”
“Oh! Hah. Good things, I hope?”
“It’s kind of a mixed bag,” Karla said. “I think you’re good for him, though. He’s always had such a major stick up his arse.”
“Ha, yeah! Yeah, he does!” Newton laughed, and Hermann’s face burned with embarrassment. What he’d ever done to deserve this treatment, he couldn’t fathom. “Hey, uh, dumb question. Hermann hasn’t– he hasn’t mentioned any voicemails, has he?”
Hermann’s head shot up, and he shot Karla a pleading look. Vanessa covered her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. She grabbed Hermann’s arm and grinned at him.
“He cares about you a lot,” Vanessa whispered.
“I care about him too,” Hermann whispered back.
Karla rolled her eyes at the both of them and turned her attention back to Newton.
“No,” she replied airily. Hermann easily recognized it as her lying voice. “He hasn’t said anything about it to us.”
“Great! Great. So Hermann’s– uh, everyone’s okay?”
“Yes, we’re all safe. Hermann’s leg was bothering him after we left the shelter, but it’s nothing new.”
“That’s good. I’m glad he’s all right. That everyone’s all right. Is it okay if I ask what happened? I– I mean, I figured Hermann would be in the Shatterdome.”
“He stayed the night with us,” Vanessa said. “We had to go to a kaiju shelter a few blocks away. Apparently Hermann’s predictions were off. He’s all bent out of shape about it.”
Newt laughed. “I can imagine. Uh, look, it’s pretty late here, and I– I can imagine you have better things to do than talk to me, so. I’ll, uh. Will you tell Hermann I called? I mean, I’m sure he already knows, but–”
“Of course,” Karla said. “We’ll tell him. Thank you for your concern.”
“It was lovely to meet you, Newt! Hopefully we can do so in person soon.”
“Ha! Yeah, that’d be pretty cool. I’ll, uh, let you guys go.”
“Bye Newt!”
“Bye Karla, bye Vanessa!”
Karla hung up the phone and handed it back to Hermann, a smug look on her face.
“Newton called. He said to let you know.”
“I despise you.”
“We love you, too,” Vanessa said. She wrapped her arms around Hermann and buried her face in his shoulder. “You have to go back, don’t you?”
Hermann sighed. “Yes, I do. My numbers were off for months, and I didn’t even notice.”
“It’s not your fault,” Karla said. She leaned over and put her hand on Hermann’s free shoulder. “Mistakes are human. And it was only one day.”
“Yes, but my mistakes cost lives,” Hermann argued. “But thank you for trying.”
Karla shook her head. “You’ve always acted like the whims of the world were your responsibility. You can’t control it any more than I can, Hermann.” Her voice got soft all of a sudden, and Hermann already knew what she was going to say. “Like Mother. I know you still think you’re at fault somewhere.”
“This is different,” Hermann said. “I am responsible for this. This is my only responsibility, the one thing I do to keep people safe. There is no room for error.”
“Yet there always will be,” Karla replied. “Please, Hermann. This is not your fault.”
Hermann nodded, though he didn’t believe it. Vanessa clung to him tightly.
“I’ll miss you, Hermann. It was so nice being all back together again.”
“You two are always together.”
“It’s still better with you around,” Vanessa said. Karla nodded in agreement. “We’ll miss you.”
“You should come visit more often,” Karla chimed in. “It has been nice to have my little brother around.”
Hermann ignored the bait and replied sincerely, “Of course. I do miss my sisters, after all.”
“Ugh, go to bed,” Karla insisted.
“You get mushy when you’re tired, Herm,” Vanessa agreed. “We could all use some sleep.”
Hermann had been in his bedroom for only a few minutes before Karla knocked on his door. She stood in the doorway after Hermann beckoned her in, and she frowned at him.
“You’re going back tomorrow, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Hermann said. “I’ll have to.”
Karla nodded. She came by his side and sat on the bed next to him.
“I think you should stay here.”
Hermann turned to her, eyebrows raised. “With you and Vanessa?”
“In Sydney.”
“Well,” Hermann said with a shrug, “the heat is good for my leg.”
“I wasn’t talking about that,” Karla replied. “I don’t like you living alone.”
“I’m not alone.”
“But you feel like it, don’t you?”
Hermann didn’t respond. He didn’t know how to. It was true he felt at peace with his sisters more than any other family. There was a sense of familiarity in their actions, predictability in their words. The three of them worked together like a well-oiled machine. The certainty was freeing: no second-guessing, no doubting, no wondering. Hermann knew Karla and Vanessa as well as he knew himself, almost better. They knew him the same way. It was peaceful.
There was no peace with Newton — at least, nothing like what Hermann felt with Karla and Vanessa. There was no peace, but there was familiarity in their arguments, in the subjects they didn’t talk about, in the sore spots they refused to poke at. There was no peace, but there was the anticipation of the next blow, the sweet thrill of being matched, word for word, strike for strike. There was the buzz of discovery (in their work, in themselves, in each other). It was exciting. Newton was exciting.
Hermann had always preferred action over inaction.
He didn’t know how to explain that to his sister without sounding like a basketcase.
“No,” he said instead. “I don’t.”
“Stay here with us.”
Hermann paused. He thought of Newton. He always did.
“I can’t.”
Karla gave him a soft smile. “I know.”
~*~
Newt walked into the lab two days later with a coffee in hand and his phone to his ear.
“Bullshit! There’s no way you need that much,” he said. “It’s only like six hours by helicopter, dude. No, no, I’m sorry ma’am, I just– I, uh, I’ll call you back.”
Hermann stood at his desk, slowly unpacking a box of personal effects he’d brought with him to Sydney. His hair was mussed (not in a fun, sexy way, but in a dead-tired, overworked kind of way), and there were dark circles around his eyes. His cane was propped up against the chalkboard behind him. Newt just stared at him, so relieved to see him unharmed that his whole brain short-circuited.
“Good morning, Dr. Geiszler,” Hermann said. “It’s been a long two months, don’t you think?”
“Uh, yeah,” Newt agreed. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m unpacking.”
“No shit, Sherlock. I thought you were supposed to stay in Sydney until September.”
Hermann scoffed. “I could hardly stay there after Kingfish showed up early,” he said. “I’ve got to figure out where I went wrong, and unfortunately it seems as though I can’t work efficiently without you breathing down my neck, so. Congratulations, Newton, you’ve officially ruined me.”
Newt ignored the thrill that went through him at Hermann’s little confession, but he couldn’t help grinning like an idiot.
“Hey, home sweet home, right?” he said. “It’s nice to have you back, Herms.”
“Thank you, Newton. I admit that it is a relief to be back in Hong Kong,” Hermann replied. “My sister and her wife are great fun, but they can be a bit… tiring. Not to mention the weather. Dear Lord, the sun.”
Newt laughed. “Not a fan?”
“I feel like I’ll be sunburned for the rest of my life.” Hermann groaned, and Newt muffled a laugh. “I’ve spent a fortune on sunscreen. Karla’s fully adjusted to the climate already, she was absolutely no help.”
“Did you have a good time at least?”
Hermann nodded. “My sisters are my closest friends.”
Newt let out a wistful sigh and perched on the edge of Hermann’s desk despite his protests. Hermann sent him a glare, but Newt ignored it. If Hermann really minded, he would have pushed Newt off his desk years ago.
“I wish I had siblings sometimes.”
Newt had had a happy childhood, but being so far ahead of kids his age had seriously stunted his emotional and social growth. Hence the everything about him.
“It’s like– It’s like built-in friends! Like you and Karla,” Newt continued. “I would have loved a little sibling.”
“They’re a pain,” Hermann said, “even when I like them. Especially when I like them.”
“Sounds like you, Herms! Cranky but cute.”
“Well, I didn’t say all that.” Hermann turned to his chalkboard, but not before Newt noticed the blush covering his cheeks. “Run along, Dr. Geiszler. I’m very busy.”
“Yes, yes,” Newt replied in his best rendition of Hermann’s accent, “very busy indeed. Quite busy.”
Newt couldn’t see it, but he knew Hermann rolled his eyes. He smiled to himself and made his way to his side of the lab.
They worked as they always did; Hermann was boring as usual, working diligently at his chalkboard, writing and rewriting equations in some pattern Newt didn’t understand. Newt sent about a million emails to the heads of science at Sydney begging for their leftover kaiju samples, but preserving them was expensive, and nobody had any money left.
Every so often, Newt would mumble something to himself, or think of something he had to tell someone immediately or he’d go crazy, or throw a wadded up piece of paper onto Hermann’s desk just to hear him sigh at him. Twenty minutes of Newt alleviating his boredom by messing with Hermann would lead to a five minute argument during which they would trade a few insults that didn’t matter and threats that didn’t mean anything.
Lunchtime came and went, and neither of them ate (unless you counted Newt binging on Takis as he stressed over how many exclamation points to use in his email while still remaining somewhat professional), and they settled into a quieter routine.
It was nearing five when Hermann spoke up for the first time that afternoon. (Hermann wasn’t usually one to start conversation, especially not in the beginning of their friendship, but Newt had no problem taking on the responsibility himself.)
Of course, it was just Newt’s luck that the thing Hermann wanted to talk about was the same thing that kept him awake at night despairing his own stupidity.
“Newton, I– I hope I’m not remiss in mentioning, but– I felt I should address the voicemails you left on my phone the other day,” he said. He furrowed his brow when Newt cringed, but he pressed on. “May I ask you a question?”
Newt would rather die, but he wasn’t about to tell Hermann that.
“Yeah, shoot.”
“You said– You said you didn’t know what you would do if I got hurt,” Hermann repeated. There was a light blush high on his cheekbones, and Newt wanted to melt into the floor, it was so adorable. “And that you couldn’t do this without me.”
“Are you just gonna repeat it back to me or are you gonna ask your question, dude?”
Hermann scowled at him, but Newt didn’t care. If he acted like a big enough ass, Hermann would never guess his true feelings. Probably.
“What did you mean by that?” he finally asked.
Newt shrugged, ready to play it off like nothing. Totally hetero, bro.
“I mean, you’re like my best friend, dude. For all our arguing and shit, I like having you around. I really don’t know what I’d do if you got hurt,” Newt explained. “And, yeah, I missed you when you were gone. Sue me.”
Hermann gave Newt a little smile. “I found myself missing you as well.”
Newt grinned. “Well yeah, I’m fucking amazing.” Hermann rolled his eyes. Newt’s grin didn’t falter. “Why’d you ask?”
“No reason,” Hermann said, voice light and airy. Newt knew what Hermann’s lying voice sounded like, so he just raised an eyebrow. Hermann sighed and caved in. “Karla had me half convinced it was something else.”
Newt swallowed hard. He talked to Karla. She’d listened to the voicemails. And she knew. She’d known the whole time. And she’d probably told Hermann. Hermann, who was now desperately asking Newt to deny the rumors, just for his peace of mind.
He forced out a laugh and almost cringed when he realized how fake it was. “What else could it be?”
Hermann nodded. “I said as much to Karla. She’s always been a romantic.”
“Ha. Aren’t we all?” Newt chuckled. Desperate to change the subject, he said “Look, I’m fucking starved, man. Have you done enough work on your math stuff to allow yourself dinner?”
Hermann looked over his chalkboard with a frown. “No, I haven’t.”
“Bummer. You gonna come anyway?”
“I really should keep–”
“Do we have to have the argument again?” Newt asked, hand on his hips.
Hermann rolled his eyes. “Honestly, Newton, to be lectured on taking care of myself by the likes of you, a man who consumes more sugar than the average hummingbird, is laughable.”
“Yeah, but I don’t do that to punish myself for making mistakes,” Newt replied. “C’mon, I heard there’s cashew chicken in the mess hall.”
“Well. In that case…”
Hermann wiped his chalk-dusty hands on his cute nerdy sweater and met Newt’s gaze, a smile tugging at his lips. Newt grinned back and thought that, maybe, everything would be okay.