Their Life

Summer on the Lake

Why on earth did I accept this challenge? Tina thought. They had hardly made it halfway, but she was already exhausted. Deciding that she couldn't go further without resting, Tina rolled on her back and floated on the water. She heard Newt's splashing come to a stop.

"Tired already, Tina?" he called teasingly.

Tina rolled to face him and started treading water. "I didn't realize just how long this lake was."

"Do you want to rest here or would you like to get out of the water?" Newt asked as he swam over to her.

Tina rolled her eyes. "Out of the water," she said sarcastically. "Really, Newt. We're in the middle of the lake. We'd have to swim all the way back to get out of the water."

"No, we wouldn't. We can go to that island there," Newt said, pointing to something behind her.

Tina turned and saw the island he was talking about. It wasn't much more than a large rock sticking out of the water with a few plants growing out of it. 

Without saying anything, Tina began swimming back in the direction they had come from. She could see Queenie and Jacob sitting on the distant shore, watching as their two-year-old daughter, Madeleine, splashed in the shallow water.

Reaching the island, Tina pulled herself out of the water and leaned against the warm rock. She watched as Newt climbed out of the water before diving back in. He did this several times, each of his dives was perfect.

Eventually, he joined Tina in sitting on the rock.

"This is where I learned how to dive," he said. "The water's nice and deep and there's no rocks or reeds in the way."

"Well, you're very good at it," Tina smiled before closing her eyes and leaning her head against the rock. The day had been hot when they started swimming, making the water a cool relief. However, it had gotten slightly cloudier, making it pleasantly warm rather than boiling hot.

"I'm so glad you're here," Newt said presently.

"I'm glad you invited us," Tina said. She glanced at him and smiled. "It's been such a long time."

"Yes," he agreed. "It has."

Tina sighed. "I wish I hadn't stopped writing. I was just so busy that I didn't have time to respond to your letter for several days. Then it always felt like it was too late to respond."

"It's not your fault, Tina. We were both really busy. I struggled to find time to write as well. It didn't help that I couldn't figure out what to say."

"What do you mean? Your letters were always so interesting and detailed," Tina insisted.

"It used to be easy to write. I don't know why it got so hard. The letters ended up sounding like --" Newt broke off suddenly and Tina thought she saw his cheeks turn pink. "I mean odd," he muttered. "They sounded odd."

Tina smiled slightly as Newt moved to sit next to her. Leaning her head back against the rock, she sighed contentedly. She was very aware that Newt's shoulder was only an inch or two away from her own.

They had their backs to the shore where the Kowalskis sat. All they could see was the lake in front of them and the woods on the opposite shore. As Tina sat there with Newt, she could easily forget about the people on the shore. It was easy to believe they were alone on the lake, with no one around for miles.

"Tina?" Newt murmured.

"Hmm?"

"Tina, what should you do if you like someone?"

Tina opened her eyes to find Newt watching her carefully.

His question annoyed her. He can't mean me if he's asking me, she thought. Then again, he's never given me any reason to think he likes me. I just assumed he does because I . . . love him? 

Tina's cheeks grew warm but she pushed away her thoughts and said, "How should I know? I guess you should talk to them and tell them how you feel." She shrugged. "Why are you asking me? That's a question better for Queenie. She knows people."

Newt blushed. "I did ask her."

"Well?"

"She laughed and told me to 'kiss her and see what happens'."

"I suppose that's one way to do it," Tina laughed.

Newt stood up and stretched. "Well, we've been sitting here long enough." He reached down and helped Tina to her feet. "You know," he said, "Queenie does know people. I've decided to take her advice."

Tina raised her eyebrows and started to ask what he meant. Before she could finish her sentence, Newt pressed his lips to hers. Tina gasped slightly. Returning the kiss, her arms snaked around his neck while his slipped around her waist.

Newt pulled back and chuckled. "Queenie was right, as always."

Tina laughed. "Just remember, the race isn't over. You haven't won yet."

She pressed another kiss to his lips before diving into the lake and swimming towards the opposite shore, leaving a startled Newt on the island behind her.

Tina turned around and called to him. "If you want to kiss me again, you'll have to catch me first."

Newt laughed and dived in after her. She tried to swim away but he caught up to her quickly, pulling her into a hug and kissing her. "I love you."

A/N: And I'm back. I came up with this one-shot during the first week of January while I was at the beach. (Yes, the beach. I live in Kenya.) The pool was really cloudy and I started thinking that you could never know what might be down there. Obviously, there was nothing but it was fun to imagine that there was some sort of creature hiding in the deep water, waiting to grab the legs of anyone who went near it. Then I thought that Newt would love the creature that was down there so I decided to write a Newtina one-shot that had to do with water. It took me forever to finish because school started.

I was trying to come up with a name for the Kowalskis' daughter. I'm terrible at coming up with names so I decided to use 'Madeleine' which is actually one of my middle names.

Anyway, vote, comment, and leave suggestions for future one-shots if you have any you want to see written.