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Considering how long it had taken for the end of the world to end, Hermann and Newt needed a break.
They needed at least one day where they didn’t have to be fusing over the whose, whats, and whys of what should become of the K-Science program. Overly wrought with concern about what various governments might try to do with their research, or even if they were going to have a future in this new Kaiju free world. A mild selection of the thoughts that were going through both of their heads as the parties began to die down and the process of moving forward started.
So, for all intensive purposes, a vacation was warranted.
A vacation together as well, obviously.
There were still questions being asked if it was safe for them to be too spread apart right now after the kaiju drift. So it was being recommended that, for the time, they work out some way to continue existing in close proximity to one another. Which just ended up meaning that any vacation plans either party were going to work on had to be approved by the other too. A tedious process, but an important one all things considered. Though it was a requirement that led to a good handful of arguments, this various degrees of necessity to each, it evidently led them to a singular decision.
The beach.
Not exactly the first thing that would have come to an outsider's mind considering their line of work. After all, they were perpetually surrounded by the ocean at the Hong Kong Shatterdome, and it wasn’t a difficult thing to find if they wanted to see it. However it was more the principle of going there than anything else.
Newt obviously had a fondness to it. He’d had an affinity for the sea ever since he was a kid, and despite all the Kaiju chaos it had never really waned. On the flip side, Hermann just wanted to get away. If he had more control he’d have rented a place further inland, but that was just his preference. A preference that could be set aside as long as he got far enough away from the Shatterdome to feel detached from the battles that just happened.
That was the primary thing to get away though. An escape from the reality that was suddenly changing around them, and the horrors they had to experience to get it to that point.
Because, in a twisted way, they may have saved the world, but ended up destroying the one they knew. So much of their lives were put into the Shatterdome that, for all intensive purposes, it was their home. A home which was now going through renovations and considerations on what should be made of it now. They’d come to terms with it eventually, they just weren’t quite there yet.
So in one fell swoop they ended up along the American southern coast. Standing on a beach that few would ever consider vacationing at if they didn’t live nearby, they both breathed a sigh of relief.
The air stung of sulfur and the sky was the sort of murky gray that promised rain, the classic traits of any good beach. Which made it ache of their former home in a certain way that they’d both been hoping it would. Whispering memories of the painful late nights, but not threatening to cascade down on them with the realization that it was all gone. The P.P.D.C may still remain, but how much of it would remain the same in the face of this free world.
As they shambled their way to their respective rooms, on the opposite sides of the house, they both felt themselves being compelled to collapse. Long flights and a long drive were enough reasons in and of themselves to justify this, and it wasn’t one that either of them were prepared to fight off.
So, they each collapse down onto their respective beds. They allowed themselves to slip away into the nebulous void of sleep, while simultaneously trying not to let the usual drip of anxiety that comes with it sink in.
The monsters were gone but their impressions still lingered in their minds, after all. Haunting them with each night that passed, and clawing at the seams of their minds begging to be heard out. Hermann found it easiest to just brush them aside with logical reasoning and fact, though leading up to the trip he couldn’t help but shoot long glances at Newt whenever it would happen. He knew that if his waking world was being suffocated by these howling demons then surely Newton’s was as well. Neither of them were ready to talk about it beyond the safety of a doctor’s office though. At least not behind the small nods they would share whenever Newt caught Hermann staring.
Sometimes it even felt like they were being dragged back onto the edges of Hong Kong. Where the smell of Kaiju blue hung heavy in the air and the rain never seemed to stop beating on their shoulders. It was so overwhelming in the moment, but now it was just a lingering memory. An important one, sure, but a memory nonetheless.
The sort of thing that both men would reflect on in their future lives with a quiet melancholy. Or, more accurately, that was how Hermann was willing to accept these flashes. Fussing over the implications of it would be too much right now. So it just made more sense to him to brush it aside and not think about it.
Just like all the other after effects of that messed up drifting session.
He was never certain how Newton was handling it though. Even if he did try to think it through, none of the conclusions he came to seemed to make any sense for the man. Though there was one thought pattern that kept coming up and making his stomach twist in panic.
Now this was a living nightmare that he never seemed to be able to shake. The gnawing fear that Newton would somehow get swayed by these voices along the way, and harm himself in some way.
He’d seen visions of them a few nights after victory had happened and they just weren’t able to escape him now. A facsimile of Newt standing above him with neon blue eyes. His face a mask of disdain before distorting into an inhuman grin. His flesh barely being able to contain the motion the skin was making. Then the laugh kicked in. A howl echoing laugh that ran through Hermann’s bones the same way a kaiju roar would.
He woke up not long after that image. He’d barely had more than a few minutes to take it in before it was yanked away, but he just couldn’t get away from it now. It felt too much like a warning of what would become of his fellow scientist if something didn’t change. He just hadn’t been able to figure out what needed to happen to cause that change yet.
This was the kind of weight that Hermann found himself waking up with at an ungodly hour. He didn’t remember seeing the image this time, but there was a sort of remaining feeling of fear that reminded him of it. Whatever had happened while he was asleep didn’t matter in the waking world though. So he instead decides to focus on something he can take care of immediately, food.
The two of them together weren’t usually the best at planning things like this that far ahead, Hermann was certain he could normally handle it on his own, which just meant that they’d have to see what they could find late at night. As Hermann began to sit up though, he noticed a figure outlined in the dark against the ocean’s waves. A single light from the inside of the house highlighting them in the black.
It doesn’t take Hermann very long to scramble out onto the beach.
Awkwardly making his way through the sand while trying not to trip without his cane. He was barely able to keep his footing before stumbling to his knees a few feet from Newt’s back. The crashing of the ways and a sudden distant roll of thunder colliding into him as he took deep breaths to center himself.
“Newton, what on earth are you doing out here?” His eyes quickly get drawn to the dull thunder in the distance. The long streaks of lighting painting the sky in a dangerous, yet striking, way.
“Listening to the waves.” He mumbles, arms wrapped around his legs so that he appears to be in the shape of a ball.
“We could hear the waves just fine back in Hong Kong, Newton. That doesn’t justify coming out here in the middle of the night, especially alone.”
“I missed the sand, Hermann. I missed the way it felt under my feet.” Newton leans closer to the water, “It doesn’t feel the same though.”
“How is that possible? It’s the same kind of ground up rocks as–”
“I can feel their feet touching the bottom of the ocean. The coral grinding underneath and mixing together with the fish blood running through the water.” Newt’s nails began to dig into his arms as he drew them in closer. The kaiju were lingering in his head now. Their memories of destruction and death, clearer in his mind than some of his own from his childhood now.
Hermann pauses at this statement. The impressions the kaiju had left on his mind clearly were more whisps compared to Newton’s experience. Going under with such creatures was undocumented up until now, not to mention that he’d gone and done it twice. Hermann just hadn’t anticipated the sort of detailed descriptions that Newt was able to provide with what he was experiencing.
As his eyes darted from the sky, to the waves, and back down to Newton, Hermann couldn’t figure out what to do. No amount of talking would be able to pull Newt away from these kinds of impressions now. Distractions barely were able to work on him when it came to these imprints, so with a double strength connection there was no clear way forward. However, against all of Hermann’s better judgment, there was one idea that he could try.
Once, when Newton was struggling through another low point, Hermann had had to help the K-Scientist with a new tattoo he’d gotten. It wasn't entirely uncommon to practice at the start. Newt often needed help with these kinds of technical aspects of his art obsession. Though in his instance Hermann had a whole look at Newt’s back. At one point even getting distracted by it all and beginning to trace the outline of the oldest tattoo on there.
Newton loved this.
So he just did it again.
Reaching out to Newton’s bare back and beginning to follow along with the various intersecting lines therein. Flowing from eyes, to teeth, and to ever fin he could find. His sight began to get muddled from staring at the patterns for too long, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that Newton began to slowly straighten up with each motion of his hand. His shoulder twitching slightly when Hermann’s fingers would coil around his spine and up to his neck, before going back down to his hip region.
The creatures that now hung onto him like a rotting branch from a thriving tree were plastered all over his skin. Ensuring that no matter what he would do they would always be there in the background. An inescapable force at this point, that he wasn’t even sure he wanted to escape.
Yet with the way Hermann drew his hand over his back, it made him ache.
There was something in it, something so earnest, that all the quiet whispers of pain he’d been experiencing since the rescue of the world poured out. Starting slowly with a few rolling tears, before morphing into full on shaking sobs at what all was gone.
The world’s ecosystem had been burned through with kaiju blue, and humans had treated it even worse than before with the impending apocalypse. Hope didn’t seem to make sense in this strange new world they were being left in. Especially from someone who had been obsessed with the very creatures that had brought on this mass destruction.
So he cried.
For all the parts of the world that were now lost.
For all the people who had been smothered out via collapsing buildings or kaiju steps.
For everything that had once made sense to him, and now needed to be stripped away for this new world at their fingertips.
It was just all too much for him.
A cocktail of pain, and panic, and fear mixing together and banging at the back of his head for weeks. He needed the catharsis so bad, but there was never a good time. He always needed to wear his plaster smile and accept that there was no going back.
But Hermann understood.
Hermann was feeling the exact same as him now.
Because in a world where the kaiju were no longer a threat, where would they each end up?
Realistically it didn’t make sense that they would be able to stick together through it all. They always were meant to be in different fields. They’d just been pushed together out of convenience. But after all this time, could they really make it out there on their own now?
“It’ll be okay, Newton.” Hermann soothed, continuing his motions over his companion's body. Ensuring that each stroke made sense with the outline, but also was able to provide the most amount of comfort to him. “I’m not going to be leaving you any time soon.”
“And when they assign you back to the European division?” Newton choked out between gasps for breath. His voice hitching along to the shaky sobs he couldn’t seem to get under control.
“I’d like to see them try at this rate. They’ll be too worried about splitting us up to be able to assign us anywhere too far away.”
“You know that can’t always be true, Hermann.”
Finding the tracing motion no longer effective enough, Hermann knew he had to take drastic measures. There was one ace left up his sleeve. All he could do now though is hope that it would land properly. Stopping his fingertips in their tracks, Hermann instead decides to lean forward and lay a delicate kiss on the back of Newt’s neck.
Gasping from the new sensation, Newt turns his head to the left to get a better look at what his scientific partner was doing. “Hermann?”
“Sometimes it’s easier to show what you mean than to say it. Though I’d hope my message would be clear enough now.” Watching as Newton continues to gawk at him, tears still escaping his eyes though the sobs appear to have calmed down, he goes on. “Scientifically it would be ill advised to split us up for our own safety. Anyone that understands the magnitude of what we’ve done will understand that. However, we both know there is more than that going on here.”
A cautious silence settles over the both of them for a brief moment as neither is certain if they're ready to hear the next part. They’d both figured it out a long time ago, after all. It just sort of felt inherent to their relationship as colleges now. Though to speak of it beyond that strange repertoire felt, wrong.
“I love you Newton.” Hermann finally gets out, “No amount of bureaucratic ineptitude will ever be able to change that. And from now on they won’t be able to split us apart, understand?”
Jaw still hanging slack from the shock, Newton musters up a small nod as a reply. Unsure whether or not he should continue on sobbing from the joy, or laugh from it.
Hermann fixes that issue for him quickly though. Wrapping his own arms around Newt’s back he begins running and kisses up and down the man’s neck and cheek. With no sign of stopping anytime soon.
He was too relieved to finally have the obvious out in the air.
So they both mutually decided to sit there like that. Holding and kissing one another until the sunrise began to creep up on them. Though now it didn’t feel like an ill omen of uncertainty, but rather an actual hopeful look at a new day.