Chapter Text
"Dude," Newt Geiszler said, sitting a short distance across from his longtime lab partner with a look of utter disbelief plastered across his features.
"Mmm," Hermann agreed, although he wasn't entirely sure what exactly he was agreeing to; they had both experienced an overwhelming amount of information in an alarmingly short time and it was difficult to say what part of that intel Newton was reacting to at present.
"DUDE," Newt repeated as the helicopter rotors spun to life to take them back to the Shatterdome. He looked about as frazzled as Hermann felt from their Drift mere minutes ago. "I had NO idea."
"About...?" Hermann sought to clarify. The true and terrifying nature of their enemy? The fact that extra-dimensional aliens were undertaking a calculated incursion upon their planet and using gargantuan cloned monstrosities to do it? The reality that they had precious little time to warn the pilots who stood on the mouth of hell with humanity's unguaranteed continuation tenuously in their hands?
"Uh… about… you? I mean, us?" Newt gestured emphatically, waving his hands in the air between them as the helicopter began its ascent.
Ah, that information.
"I just…I thought I annoyed the hell out of you," Newt continued, not taking his eyes off his colleague.
"Oh, you do," Hermann affirmed without hesitation. "Constantly and unendingly. But that doesn't preclude my having romantic feelings for you."
Throughout his life, Hermann had always had a knack for following threads of data to their logical conclusion. His talent for identifying patterns amongst a string that would appear to even the most disciplined mind as random had always elevated him above his peers.
It was only natural, therefore, that his mind sequenced his personal affairs with the same exacting precision, and with every interaction he and Newton had over the years, the extrapolation expanded and shifted, but never veered off course. Even after arguments that left them both flushed and breathless with indignation, the inevitable constant was obvious to him; Newton Geiszler was the only man he would ever love.
He'd ceased trying to hide it at some point along the way, so it baffled him that his labmate, intelligent and inquisitive as he was, had not yet figured it out.
"It’s only…" Newt said, furrowing his brows while he wrapped his ripped and tattered leather jacket tighter around himself, "of all the crap I've learned today, somehow this is the most insane."
"Nonsense," Hermann retorted, with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I've made my feelings for you clear on more than one occasion."
"What?!" Newt sputtered as his voice pitched up with blatant incredulity. "Uh… when?!"
"Plenty of times,” Hermann asserted with perturbed nonchalance. “At any rate, I don't see why it's such a shock to you."
"You don't?!" Newt stared at him.
"Not in the least. I haven't exactly been subtle."
"Are you kidding me?!" Newt shouted, his voice flying up another octave.
"If I recall, I recently confessed to you that I think about you constantly," Hermann said, rigidly folding his arms over his chest.
"No, you said I plagued your thoughts,” Newt shot back. “Not the same thing at all, dude."
"Well, I also admitted that I frequently dreamt of you," Hermann continued.
"Yeah, but you definitely threw around the word 'nightmare' more than once."
“I’ve called you brilliant on multiple occasions.”
"Sure, but when you follow it up with words like 'nuisance' or 'menace' it doesn't really send the same message, you know?" Newt said, running his hand through his hair in a gesture of confused exasperation.
"I complimented your tie the other day," Hermann parried.
"You said it was 'less ridiculous' than my other ties."
It was Hermann’s turn to furrow his brows at their exchange. "Hmm. I'm starting to see your point."
"Are you though…?" Newt sighed.
A beat of silence passed between them as the night-darkened bay of Hong Kong sprawled beneath, barely visible save for the city lights glimmering on its surface.
When circumstances had necessitated their Drift, Hermann had not hesitated for an instant. After holding Newton’s prone and convulsing figure in his arms earlier in a day that seemed to stretch into eternity, he had not questioned his resolve when the possibility had presented itself to share the neural load between them.
He knew what Newton would see in the Drift. Not only pieces of his past and what he’d lived across moments of his life, but also his imaginings about the future, visions tinged in blue of the life they might have together… the life Hermann hoped they would build.
Well, if he could not find a way to properly admit his feelings to Newton, at least he could show him.
He looked across the small space at his labmate, whose green eyes were glimmering with adrenaline and he realized that Newton had been talking the entire time he'd been lost in thought.
“...because I’ve gotta be honest with you here, man, I’ve been, like, in love with you since you sent me that first letter, so I’m pretty sure if you were dropping any kind of actual hint about liking me, I mean really liking me, I’d be the first to-”
Suddenly, Newt’s ranting continuation was muffled by the press of warm lips against his own.
Hermann wrapped his hands around Newt’s shoulders and he could feel the warmth of the other man’s body close to him despite the chill wind that whipped around them. Newt froze for only a moment before parting his lips and allowing him passage. Every nerve in his body buzzed with the sensation of the sudden proximity. Hermann reached his hand up to gently thread his fingers through Newt's ruffled hair.
When finally they broke the kiss, Newt sat in stunned silence.
“You talk too much,” Hermann smiled shyly as he drew back and looked at the floor, his cheeks taking on an obvious blush. "I’ve just… I've never been very good at this sort of thing."
"Not very good?" Newt echoed, the edge of his lips twitching up into an amused smile. "To be clear? You’re a total disaster."
The lights of the Shatterdome came suddenly into view, blindingly bright despite the distance.
“So… uh… you went into the Drift with me knowing what I’d see…” Now it was Newt’s turn to flush with uncharacteristic uncertainty.
Hermann raised his eyes to meet his colleague’s and nodded. “May I be honest with you?”
“I mean, what’s the point of keeping secrets at this stage in the game?” Newt grinned, adjusting his cracked and smeared glasses where the kiss had displaced them.
“I had hoped that maybe in the Drift you might see what I was… perhaps not doing a very good job of putting into words," Hermann admitted, reaching forward to brush a stray strand of hair from his lab partner's bloodied forehead. "That you would see at least a little of what I've never truly had the courage to tell you.”
Newt grinned widely back at him and leaned forward, running his fingers over Hermann's hand. “Good thing we were Drift Compatible then, huh?”
“I never doubted for a moment that we would be,” Hermann said quietly.
The helicopter had begun its descent onto the tarmac and Newt glanced out the window as they neared their final destination.
“We're almost there. We'll talk more about all this later. In the meantime…" he stood up and helped Hermann to his feet. Without letting go of his lab partner’s hand, he raised himself up on his tiptoes, surging forward and kissing the taller man in earnest before drawing back to smile up at him.
“Let's go save the world.”