Fantastic Beasts Stories

The Simplicity of Chasing His Everything

December is bittersweet. It starts off no different than the other months of the year, and when Newt arrives in New York, everything catches his eye. But nothing more so than a pair of vivid brown eyes that sharply remind him of salamanders. It’s not something he notices straight away, nor something he notices the rest of the morning or afternoon.

It’s not until that evening, during an awkward dinner, that he truly notices the exact color of Tina’s eyes. He only realizes he’s tucked away the information when he arrives home to be confronted by a grayscale version of the woman—Tina’s picture in the paper proclaiming her renewed status as an Auror.

Her eyes aren’t glowing in this photo like they did when I brushed my thumb across her face… is the first thing he thinks, ignoring the heading for eight seconds straight.

(He writes a redundant congratulatory letter when he finally reads the title, and carefully rips out her picture to stick it on the underside of the lid of his case for safekeeping—a reminder of the life he can live with her one day).

Their goodbyes at the docks do something to Newt’s heart that he doesn’t quite understand. A week with a woman with eyes the color of a salamander and he’s already head over heels in love.

He commits Tina’s face to memory and makes two promises—one to her and one to himself. He promises her that he will come back, and he promises himself he’ll see her again. It’s the only way he can make leaving her have some semblance of purpose behind it.

*

Winter drags on, ending in despair. He fails his promise to her. A travel ban from the Ministry has separated them an uncrossable ocean away from each other, much to his chagrin. He writes to her, explaining why he’s in London and not New York, and when winter gives way to spring, things are going well.

But, of course, just when things are looking up, they have to plummet straight back down. A book launch comes and goes, and with it, his fame soars, as well as his wealth. But she stops writing: Tina, his salamander eyes, his crown jewel, his North Star. He doesn’t know what to think.

What did I do? Did I say something? What did I do to deserve this torture? swim around his mind as his head falls in his hands, and he sobs for what could have been for the first time in many years.

*

A desolate spring drags into a desolate summer, accompanied by many requests to meet for dinner by Theseus and Leta. All of them Newt refuses, of course, preferring to wallow in his own misery.

He’s nothing without Tina. She is his everything, the reason he went outside, the reason he appealed for the removal of his travel ban four times—soon to be five.

She is his sun, his moon, the center of his world, of his universe, and he is nothing without her. He is worthless without her words to comfort him.

He’s never felt so lost as he does now.

*

Summer starts to fade, and with it, any semblance of hope. But, Newt decides, staring at his photo of Tina as she smiles back, he needs to keep trying. He’s not a quitter. With his last sliver of hope, he heads to the Ministry for his fifth appeal to have his travel ban removed.

In desperation, he forms a half-hearted plan: get the travel ban removed, buy a boat ticket to New York (and leave his beasts at home—Bunty can take care of them), and find Tina. He’s so desperate that he doesn’t care about how exactly he’ll rectify their relationship. All he needs is to see her face again, drink in the color of her eyes, know that she’s alright.

That’s what keeps him going—besides his creatures, of course. But that’s been a constant in his life, from what feels like since the day he was born. She’s something entirely new. He often lays awake at night and wonders how he ever managed to live without those salamander eyes in his life before he met Tina. She’s everything he could ever want in a lifelong companion, so how can he ever stop chasing her?

*

It doesn’t come as a surprise to him that his travel ban removal is denied once more. He arrives cautiously optimistic, internally weighing his chances of success until Pickett interrupts with his button-playing.

What surprises him is the fact that Leta is there—and Theseus, too. That’s when he realizes that this appeal is different than the others, though he tries to ignore the swirl of emotions (namely hope and fear) in his stomach.

But he pushes through the awkwardness and the tension and the hope and the fear. For Tina, he tells himself as he gives his usual answers to the usual questions.

Then a downright evil man—Grimmson, known beast-murderer—enters the conversation, and Newt can’t count the number of times he withholds himself from hexing the vile man. The Ministry-approved wand-for-hire tries to taint him, pulls his strings, gets on his last nerves.

But, instead of hexing the vile little bugger, he gets up and swiftly exits the room, leaving behind an extraordinary opportunity that—had he been smarter about, or less desperate—he would’ve taken.

For Tina, he thinks, but he’s rattled, and just wants to curl up in his bed and read through her old letters that smell of Queenie’s cocoa, and Tina’s favorite ink—and if tears follow…he can’t say he’s opposed to the idea.

*

Dumbledore tries to coerce him into doing his bidding, but the task has nothing to do with seeing his everything again. Newt doesn’t do sides, he doesn’t fight other people’s wars. So he refuses as politely as possible, inquiring why it has to be him. He’s neither interested in tracking down Grindelwald nor talented enough to succeed if he tries.

After that encounter, he goes home to occupy himself with something other than thoughts of Tina. And as cute as the baby Nifflers are, as happy as seeing Jacob and Queenie makes him, the ache of Tina not being there with him is more powerful than anything he’s ever known.

He wishes she was there, on his doorstep, worrying her lip. That he could gaze at her for a moment until she looks up at him and smiles her beautiful grin that steals all the words he could ever say to her from the rip of his tongue. He would eventually find it in him to walk toward her and almost hug her but stop short, yet she wants his touch, so she throws her arms around him and pulls him into a crushing hug that says everything for them.

Studying the postcard, Newt drinks in the sight of her writing, not giving a damn that it isn’t meant for him. His eyes widen, his thoughts so loud he’s sure anyone within a mile radius can hear them.

*

In all honesty, Newt is actually quite proud of himself for his reaction to seeing Tina again. He doesn’t fall on his knees begging for forgiveness, he doesn’t smother her in an unrequited hug, and he doesn’t collapse into hysterical ecstasy when he finally manages to tell her that he is most certainly a single man, ripe for the taking (in different words, but they mean the same thing).

When Leta interrupts, he’s briefly stunned until Tina pulls him along, and once they escape the Ministry, the mysteries finally start to unfold. But then that damn dark wizard has to come into play and screw everything up! He steals Queenie, breaking Tina’s heart, and he knows she won’t be okay until they get her sister back.

It is that night, when he hears her desolate sobs, that he vows to always be there for her, as long as he can. He vows to do what he can to make everything right again because Tina deserves nothing less than the best he can give.

*

A few years pass by, war looming over their heads, and Newt’s only comfort is his Tina curled next to him in bed, sleeping peacefully for the first time in many nights. He suspects it’s because of his presence, which is a new arrangement, and his only complaint is that she’s stolen the comforter off his bed and somehow wrapped it around her body. He doesn’t have it in his heart to wake her and cover them both, so he simply conjures another one from her bedroom and drapes himself in her scent, falling into a deep sleep himself.

He wakes up later in the night to her intense gaze, and they share a gentle, lingering kiss before she tucks herself into his body to sleep again. He gladly wraps his arms around her, pulling his comforter around the both of them and pressing a kiss to her head.