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Newt calls him Dr. Gottlieb for like a month. At the most. Honorifics aren’t really Newt’s thing, and it especially feels weird for a guy that is barely half a year older than him. He drops the “doctor” without even really noticing, and Gottlieb scowls a little bit but doesn’t say anything. He continues calling Newt Dr. Geiszler for almost a year, until about the fiftieth time Newt shouts that he hates being called “doctor” and then he reluctantly gives into calling Newt “Geiszler.”
And then they stay on a last name basis for about, what, three years? Gottlieb starts asking him to at least use the “doctor” in public, and Newt amiably refuses to do that. Gottlieb seems to think it indicates disrespect, but mostly Newt just likes pissing him off. The guy is way too uptight. At this point, Newt has grudgingly admitted - only to himself - that Gottlieb is sorta smart. Not as smart as Newt, of course, but not bad. And definitely leagues ahead some of the idiots they are made to work with. If he only he wasn’t such an asshole.
Sometime in the third year, Newt realizes he kind of likes how much of an asshole Gottlieb is. And also that a fair bit of his stiffness and dignity is a front, and that he has the most dryly viciously sarcastic sense of humor in the world, and is maybe deserving of the title genius. Calling him Gottlieb starts to sound ridiculous, and Newt doesn’t even notice that he has started using Hermann’s first name until the other scientist freezes and glares at him. Hermann nags at him for about a year to stop calling him that, but when Newt shows no sign of abating, his protests gradually fade, until the few he does voice mostly seem to be on principle. He still gets all bitch-faced when Newt calls him by his first name in front of strangers though. And Newt still finds that fun.
Hermann is stubborn as fuck, and has to be the only person in the entirety of the world that is more stubborn than Newt, so it isn’t until sometime in the fifth year that he begins to slip and call Newt “Newton.” The first time he does that, Newt grins until it feels like his face is splitting, and Hermann looks at him disdainfully, then seems to suddenly realize what he just said, and turns kind of pink, and hastily corrects himself with a “er, that is, Dr. Geiszler.” The next few days Hermann reverts to the full title, but it still feels like a victory to Newt, and sure enough, after about a week Hermann is starting to call him Newton again. And it’s only a few months later that he gets to enjoy the pleasure of hearing Hermann call him “Newt.” Admittedly, the first time Hermann uses his nickname is when he’s shouting at Newt for something or other - so a bit of kaiju blue dissolved part of one of Hermann’s blackboards, whatever - but once again, it feels like victory.
The next two years are when everything begins to go to hell in the kaiju war, and he and Hermann are being shunted from Shatterdome to Shatterdome, and most of the time he really only sees Hermann at conferences where they are both treated as idiots for being opposed to the Coastal Wall program. Newt does get to see the prime occasion of Hermann and his dad screaming at each other - not that they know that Newt is there - which is actually way less fun than he would have expected, particularly when Dr. Gottlieb Sr. refers to Newt as a crackpot and Hermann fiercely defends him. There’s a sort of grim camaraderie in these years, but not much friendly interaction. But it’s sometime during this time period that Newt starts calling him “Herm” in his mind.
He doesn’t actually call him that out loud until shortly after he’s seen the glory of Hermann snarling “Well, then, I quit, you spineless, cock-sucking moron,” at some aggravating bureaucrat that tells them to either get with the program or get out (but in nicer language) - and uh, wow, who would’ve known that was such a turn on - and storm out of the room, his cane clacking furiously. Newt grins and simply says, “Same,” and then runs after him. They’ve both agreed to join Marshall Pentecost, who is probably the most intimidating man in the universe, closely followed by Hermann’s dad, at the Hong Kong Shatterdome for the resistance. Newt is up early setting up in their new, noticeably smaller lab, and he’s feeling irrationally good, when Hermann storms in - he’s been storming non-stop for at least a month now, and will continue to do so for a solid two weeks - and Newt smiles at him, greeting him with “Mornin’, Herm!” Hermann stops dead, glares at him, and says “Absolutely not.” But that has never done much toward stopping Newt in the past, and isn’t particularly effective now. He does manage to refrain from calling him by the nickname in public…mostly. Especially after the Tendo Choi incident. His shins hurt too much to not learn from that.
About two months after the Breach is closed, Newt, as casually as possible, as if he doesn’t at all notice what he’s doing, calls him “babe.” As in, “Babe, do you know where my socks are?” Herm absolutely does notice, and narrows his eyes at him, and stares at Newt for what has to be at least an hour, then tosses Newt’s socks at him and goes back to what he was doing. Newt is absolutely sure that is a victory. About another two months later, Herm off-handedly calls him “love” and this is a particularly British thing to say, but is not at all something that Hermann Gottlieb would ever say, and it does funny things to Newt’s heart. It probably is a victory, but for Hermann, not Newt.
After this, Newt makes it a pet project to come up with increasingly ridiculous pet names, mostly just to see how far Hermann will let him go. Herm lets “darling” go by without reaction, and Newt suspects he actually likes that one. “Sweetheart” gets a raised eye-brow. “Pumpkin” elicits an eye-roll and Newt mentally vows to never say that again because it’s awful. “My hot science beefcake” makes Hermann cough up tea, and also Newt is utterly unable to say it without dying laughing. “He of the magnificent cheekbones” causes Hermann to say “damn right” without looking up from his computer. “You skinny fucker” doesn’t even really count because it’s just true. “The kaiju to my blue” makes Hermann laugh at a time when he hasn’t been able to muster even a smile in about a month, so that one definitely sticks around. And then Hermann wins when he smiles at Newt lovingly and says “my kaiju grrrroupie,” and after hearing Hermann say that disparagingly for years it’s like suddenly realizing he was saying “I love you” all this time and Newt was just too dumb to realize.
Newt doesn’t stop making up silly nicknames, mostly because he likes to, but he’s no longer doing it as a competition. Really, Hermann works just fine. Hermann Gottlieb and Newton Geiszler, because it’s gotten to the point where no one in the world can say one without thinking of the other, and that is exactly how it should be.