Chasing Grindelwald

12:Breathe

NEWT
"Tina!" Newt scrambled to her side and hefted her up, vanishing the clay from his ears to hear if she were breathing. Tina was, but barely; she looked at him, her expression empty. "Please be okay," he begged as he hurried her back to the shed. "Try to breathe a bit slower."

Tina calmed her breathing slightly, still looking a stunned. Her dark eyes searched Newt blankly, like she knew his face but couldn't remember how she knew him. Newt bit back tears as he swiped everything off the desk onto the floor and stretched her out on it. This was the most serious case, unlike anything he'd ever seen; maybe it was because the fwooper was panicking, so its shrieks were louder than usual. Normally, a fwooper song will make you happy and dazed, but Tina seemed to have had a seizure.
"Please..." Newt's voice cracked. With shaking hands, he fed her a spoonful of stewed mandrake and a few mint leaves, and she shivered and shook her head a bit, still giving him that searching look. "Can...can you hear me? Tina!" He shook her shoulders a bit, his voice cracking even more. "Tina, Porpentina, please-"

"I hear you," Tina murmured, so quietly he could barely hear. "Shut up for a second, I have to-" she shivered. "Breathe."

"Oh, Tina," Newt breathed a sigh of relief, but he was still worried and panicked. Tears came to his eyes, a dam threatening to break. "That was so odd, it's never happened before! At least, not that I've ever seen. You seized up, and I don't know what happened, it just-"

Tina cut him off by bringing her hand to his and pincing his skin weakly. With difficulty, he tore his eyes from her gasping face and looked at her hand. Little red bites speckled her arms, and a rash was beginning to spread. Doxy bites. Suddenly, the answer hit him; doxies paralyze. The doxies must have attacked, the fwooper panicked, and the demon fairies ambushed Tina while the fwooper sang. In short, neither had been good for Tina. Newt put a hand to his forhead and groaned; the world was making sense again, and as usual, the world sucked.
He gave Tina a few spoons of inky black antidote, and the bites on her arms started to heal, the redness fading, slowly but surely. Although Tina was breathing noemally again, Newt could hardly breathe at all with the lump in his thoat, and his tears were finally spilling over. He didn't know why he was acting like this, or why he felt the way he did. Tina was fine, after all; nothing to worry abot anymore. But he finally realized something. The thought of losing Tina scared him more than any horrible plan Grindelwald could ever dream up.

"Newt..." Tina said, slightly hoarse. "I'm okay..."

Hearing her voice broke the dam. Newt couldn't help it; he gripped her hands and put his face to the desk, sobbing. Tina sat up, back to her old self again. She stretched and cleared her throat, trying to interrupt him.

"I'm so sorry," he breathed. "I shouldn't have let you feed the fwooper without reinforcing his charm-"

"It's fine, I'm fine," she said softly, her fingers running back and forth and making little circles on his hands. "Newt, I'm okay, really, I am. Please calm down..." She sounded worried and awkward, but Newt couldn't stop. He just felt like...he had broken. "What's wrong?" Tina asked gently, slipping her hand out of his and taking his handkerchief from his vest pocket and wiping his eyes. Newt took a few deep breaths; he was being ridiculous.

"I'm sorry, Tina...it's just....being here. In Hogwarts, again..." He shook his head and dried his eyes completely, looking at her. "I missed this place, but nothing ever went right here. And whenever I saw you on the ground..." His voice cracked and he had to wait a moment to collect himself again. "I thought...that's just one more person I hurt with my beasts. Only...this time...it's different."

"You're right," Tina said. "It's different because I'm okay, and this just happened between us. Besides, I was trying to feed the doxies...stupid of me." Her voice turned bitter. "I just immediately flung myself back into the position of damsel in distress."

"It was my fault," Newt said. "Don't think you're weak, just because you didn't know about doxies. I should have warned you about the fwooper, anyway. Also..." He hesitated. Should he bring it up?

"What is it?" Tina asked tentatively.

"I'm sorry about Leta," he said. "I shouldn't've assumed you'd trust her. Heck, I don't trust her. I just...I don't know. I guess I don't want to think about people I used to know being on the wrong side."

"I know, it's okay, Newt. Just bad timing," she looked down at their linked hands and kept stroking his thumb, then bit her lip.

"What's wrong?" Newt asked, almost whispering.

Tina looked conflicted, but after a few seconds she blurted, "Did you mean what you told Dumbledore?"

"What?" Newt was taken aback.

"About me being one of the best Aurors you'd ever met?" Tina met his eyes. Her doubt was so ridiculous to Newt, he smiled.

"Of course!" He said. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Just...You've been everywhere," Tina breathed. "All over the world. You must have known all kinds of Aurors-"

"Oh, I have!" Newt assured her. "Most of them hate me or have tried to imprison or kill me. Actually, I'm wanted in three countries, I think. Or was it four?"

Tina laughed, and the sound was so rich it made Newt's chest flutter. "You're one of my favorite people to be around, Newt. You know that, right?"

Newt blushed. "I like to be around you, too," he said, but as soon as he said it, the sentence seemed weak. He had just established with himself that he had extreme feelings for her, so why not let her know? "Whenever I saw you..." Newt began, staring at their hands, his voice hoarse. "On the ground, and I thought that... Something bad had happened, I was terrified. More scared than I've ever been. And I've been scared a lot."

"But I'm okay, I'm fine," Tina said soothingly. "You did great with the antidote and everything, and now I'm good as ever."

"I know that," Newt agreed, his face burning. How did he tell her this? He'd never told anyone before, not even Leta. He never even felt like this for Leta. "And I know we told each other we would slow down, but...It's just...being that scared, I realized that I...that I think I might have, possibly, fallen in love with you. I...I love you. So sorry."

Tina blushed and ran her hands to his shoulders. "Why are you sorry?"

Newt shrugged weakly.

"Newt...look at me," Tina whispered. He obeyed. "I love you, too. And I'm just as scared as you are, believe me. We'll get through this, together. And maybe one day we can be together in peace, and we won't have to worry about Grindelwald."

"We will." Newt hugged her. "We'll take care of him, and we'll find Credence and make sure he's safe, and everything will be good for once."

"At least one thing is good," Tina murmured into his shoulder.

"What?"

"Us." Tina kissed Newt gently, and his stomach fluttered again. "Let's finish the job, Zookeeper."

"Of course, Policewoman." Newt smiled, passed her a bucket of pellets, and they went back to work feeding the animals.