Work Text:
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newt isn't the biggest cuddler, but gosh, for you he would hold you for days.
it took him a while to warm up to it: your arms around him and your fingers between his whenever you got the chance. the first time he realized you were an established cuddler was a couple months into your official relationship after a long day of chasing after dragons.
"newt," your mumble escaped the feathers of the pillow your head was smushed into and found his ears.
he turned his head away from the sleep shirt he was about to slip over his bare torso. "yes?"
"come lay with me," your words were almost indiscernible.
"i need to go write down some stuff about the dragon's from today first-,"
"please?"
your eyelids drooped over your tired eyes. your limp limbs fell over the bed you two shared (although it seemed to be strictly yours with how little newt was in it). your arms and legs were ships in the sea of blankets. and your sonorous raspy plead wouldn't let him deny you.
he slipped the sleep shirt on and slowly made his way towards you.
you turned on to your back, grabbing his hand and pulling him down to lay with you. newt stiffly laid where he had fallen. he laid his head on your slow rising chest. his legs tangled themselves between yours. his hands balled themselves into fists and sat at his side.
"relax, sweets." the whisper left a smile on your lips. "i won't bite, i promise."
you arms wrapped around him. your left thumb ran through the canyon of his spine. your right hand snuck it's way over his tense hand. you massaged relaxation out of it and held his hand comfortably firm as to refuse him to let go.
newt only blinked at the blurry folds of your clothes that were so near to his eyes. he could practically see the individual threads and their journey throughout your clothes.
his eyes traveled up to your smiling features. you appeared to be the most relaxed he had ever seen you. no clenched jaw or squeezed eyes or scrunched eyebrows. only a soft grin and naturally falling lids that melted him.
he finally let out a breath he had been holding and did his best to relax his tight muscles. he wrapped his free arm around your waist. his hand found warm comfort under your torso. your heart beat bounced slowly in his ear. exhaustion seemed to roll over him like a wave as you pulled the blankets over you two.
you were aware that newt wasn't the fondest of hugs and snuggles, so you denied yourself whenever you had the urge to pull him into your arms and whisper comforting things in his ears.
however, the longer you two spent time together, the more often you indulged yourself.
it was a lot of little things at first.
coming into newt's workspace while he was working after a day of you two being apart. you would wrap your arms around his shoulders and kiss his cheek and the crook of his neck.
he would always be startled initially. he'd be stiff and sit as straight as possible. but after a glance at your tired smile he would relax his shoulders. "hello," his greeting would be quiet and raspy from working for so long and not talking to anyone.
"hi," your smile would leak through the vowel and infect his hypothalamus. the warmth of your words would brush over the hairs on his neck and make them stand as straight as he sat.
and the more you indulged yourself and he saw how happy it made you, the more he was tempted to enjoy it and initiate.
it would be the smallest of actions. ones that most wouldn't think twice about. but knowing newt so well, these "small" actions were giant leaps that brought warmth to your cheeks every time.
you would be sitting at the table, eating a bowl of oatmeal that had been drenched in brown sugar and berries. your eyes would be trained on the words and moving pictures on the daily prophet from that morning.
newt would come out from the hallway, rushing around to find his things before heading off to work or to search for a creature last minute.
getting up to wash your dish, he would stop you, wrapping a single arm around you (his other hand was full of his case and coat and dozens of other things he'd need in the day), wishing you good bye and a good day at work. a drunken-on-dopamine smile would sew itself into your features at the action as he rushed out the door.
and he always, always held you when you were down. he soon found it to be the only thing that really calmed you down.
he'd find you with a crease between your brow, shoulders as high as they physically could be, and tear stained skin.
he'd linger for a moment, taking in your distraught figure. "what - what happened?"
your sobs of nothing but random incoherent syllables smashed together would throw the option of words out the window, bringing him to wrap his arms around you and sit while you cried into his shoulder.
your arms would eventually make their way up the mountain of his body and make themselves comfortable on the cliff of his hips.
he holds you tight as your heart beat slowly calms and your gasp return to small hiccups. he would drag (practically carry) you over to your shared bed. his fingers would fly through your hair and his thumb would rub circles into your skin. he would lay with you until sleep finally found you and gave you the much needed rest you deserved.
regardless of his reactions and his general discomfort with physical touch, newt finds warmth and comfort in your touch specifically. despite his ever stiffening muscles, he loves when you brush his cheeks with your fingertips or subconsciously drew shapes into his forearms.
and he loves being able to find the confidence to hold you, which is a rare occasion for him. you love holding him and he loves being held by you.
but the moments where he can have an arm around your shoulder or waist were his special pleasures. times when you rested your head on his chest and let your eyes fall shut to the sound of his heart stuck out to him the most because of the rarity.
and you had to admit, you loved them a bit more as well.