Newt doesn't even make it back to England before he sends his first letter, which is a full two pages of little updates about all his creatures and ends with an assurance that if he has been too forward she needn't write back.
Tina is thrilled when the letter arrives because somehow in the span of a few short days, Newt became normal, became part of the way Queenie and Tina shaped their lives. She writes back immediately, You haven't been too forward it was a wonderful surprise, and tells him everything he's missed since he left. She tells him about how odd it had felt going back to work in the Auror department just days before they had found the actual Percival Graves held captive in his own house. She tells him about how Graves had railed at Madam Piquery considering that they had spent every day together both before and after and she hadn't noticed. She doesn't write that she misses him, but she does put a teasing sentence about keeping the niffler contained at the end.
Her letter is three pages long.
Newt writes back a detailed recounting of how the niffler had led Newt in a wild chase all over the ship because the captain of the ship had worn his medals one day. I'm almost certain Pickett helped him, he's still mad at me the little bugger, he writes and Tina laughs and laughs because she can so perfectly picture Newt's little frown at the idea that one of his dearest creatures is angry with him. He tells her that Pickett has turned the rest of the bowtruckles against him and that no amount of logic will placate them.
His letter is four pages long.
Tina writes back two letters, one with only two words, Bribe them. The other passes along word about all the meetings, which is a nice way of saying hearings, regarding her actions towards Credence Barebone, how she'd handled Newt and his case, and Grindlewald. She wonders if he can read the exhaustion and guilt in her words because it hangs on her shoulders and Queenie worries about how much it weighs on her.
Her letter is five pages long.
This pattern continues as Newt arrives home, until Tina is sure that the owls who carry their letters back and forth across the Atlantic hate them as the page count finally plateaus at twenty-two pages long. But unfortunately, there is no better way to communicate with an ocean between them, though England has never seemed so close and so far away all at the same time. The letters are so long because Newt and Tina always seem to detail what they've done for a whole week before sending their responses.
Then one day Queenie comes home and tells Tina that she's quit her job at MACUSA to work in Jacob's bakery. Tina makes sure that Queenie's thought this through before she gives Queenie her blessing, more or less because she knows that Queenie is stubborn enough that she'll do this whether Tina approves or not. She spills her concerns into a letter to Newt, concerns about what MACUSA will do if they find out, if Queenie is breaking some kind of law doing this and mostly What if this breaks her heart, she still loves him so much?
It is her heart to break, Newt reminds her gently in his next letter, Besides I imagine that being away from him is breaking her heart faster and more painfully than being next to him every day. Tina's heart lurches at this because there's suddenly so much emotion in Newt's words that Tina wishes desperately that he was here. Or that she was there, it didn't really matter she just wanted to be in the same room as him.
You're right, as usual, Tina writes, but doesn't write that it's been seven months since he left New York and that those months have felt so much shorter and so much longer all at the same time. She doesn't write that she misses him a little more every time, doesn't write that she's almost asked him to visit or gone to visit him more times than she cares to count.
Queenie brings Jacob home one day and Tina feels like she's just been run over by a herd of mooncalves. (She's been using more and more creature metaphors in her life since Newt.)
"What were you thinking!?" Tina hisses after she drags Queenie into the kitchen. Queenie straightens her shoulders and she looks like shining steel all her love for Jacob making her fierce.
"He remembers," Queenie says and Jacob pokes his head into the kitchen.
"How's Newt doing? Has his book come out yet?" Jacob asks as if to prove that he does indeed remember. Tina is so desperately pleased for Queenie and that she has gotten this other sudden friend back that she can't even find it in her to be concerned or angry. She writes Newt immediately, the shortest one she's ever written that simply says, Jacob remembers everything. How?. Jacob and Queenie add a few words after hers to say hello.
I did say that it removed bad memories, Newt explains after he expresses his joy for the fact that he too has regained his friend. Perhaps, despite Grindlewald, Jacob considers his time with us a good memory.
And as if he knew that they have had a happy moment, Grindlewald breaks out of MACUSA custody three weeks later and disappears. Tina sends Newt a tear stained letter, angry tears despite knowing that MACUSA couldn't really hold him for long, mournful tears for the Aurors she'd known that had been killed in his escape, scared tears. She's terrified for Queenie and Jacob, because she loves them and Grindlewald is the type who will kill the people you love, and for herself and Newt, who had been responsible for his capture and possibly put whatever he was planning in jeopardy.
I'm coming. Portkey on Wednesday. Newt's letter lands on Tina's desk on at the end of the day on Tuesday, early enough to give her warning, but not enough time to write him back and try to talk him out of it. Tina waits anxiously in the Department of Magical Transportation for what feels like the whole day before Newt shows up with a person who must be Theseus on the other side of the hairbrush. They stare at each other for a few moments before Newt speaks.
"Bookless I'm afraid. I do hope you'll forgive me."
"Oh Newt! I'm so pleased to see you!" Tina blurts out, completely forgetting that she had promised herself that she wasn't going to lose it, before she throws her arms around Newt and hugs him tightly. Newt sets down his case awkwardly before he hugs her back. "Completely forgiven that you're bookless."
"I'm pleased to see you as well," Newt says. Theseus coughs not so delicately as he wanders over.
"Is this a common American greeting?" Theseus asks lightly and Tina laughs as she holds out her hand.
"Nice to meet you Theseus. Newt's told me so much about you," Tina says as Theseus gives her a firm handshake. Theseus makes an intrigued noise and spins to face his brother. Newt gets a look on his face like he's been dreading this moment.
"Good things I hope brother?" Theseus asks with a wide smile. Newt grumbles incoherently before he turns to Tina with his eyes looking particularly soulful.
"I was ferociously worried when I heard. I convinced Theseus that I needed to tag along on his portkey so that I could see you. Are Queenie and Jacob okay?" Newt asks brushing her hair away from her face like he had when he'd left and Tina nods even as her heart leaps.
"Convinced is one word for it," Theseus murmurs, eyeing the two of them carefully like he's trying to figure something out.
"Queenie and Jacob are fine. Desperate to see you though. They've-We've all missed you so much." Newt blushes slightly and ducks his head, but Tina sees how delighted he is which is only surpassed by how thrilled Theseus looks at Tina's declaration.
"I'm glad." Newt and Tina smile at each other for a moment before the harried transportation wizard forces them all out into the hallway.
"You're both coming for supper and I'm going to pretend I have no idea what that suitcase is," Tina says as she escorts Theseus to Graves' office. Theseus coughs to cover up a laugh and Newt blushes.
"I've replaced the locks," Newt mutters delicately. Tina smiles at him.
"Excellent! Then it should be easy to have a quick glance around during Theseus' meeting," Tina says because Newt's letters are full of updates and she wants to see the creatures for herself. Newt looks even more delighted by this then he had by the invitation to dinner.
"And here I was concerned that Newt would be bored during my meeting," Theseus says dryly.
"I don't know if I've ever seen Theseus happier to learn that I actually have friends," Newt says after they have been in the case fore a half hour as Tina coos at the Occamies. Tina smiles up at him. It seems as if the letters have destroyed any kind of barriers or awkwardness that might have still existed between them.
"Did he not get a clue by our frequent owls to each other?" Tina teases and Newt chuckles.
"Well the last real friend I had was Leta," Newt trails off with a hint of awkwardness.
"Leta's loss," Tina says quietly. Newt gives her a soft smile from under his fringe.
"Theseus was furious when he met me in England. Couldn't imagine that your ministry couldn't even be bothered to arrange a portkey for the man who helped capture Grindlewald." Tina winces at that even though she'd tried to petition one for him from Madam Piquery, to get his case out of New York faster she'd argued. Piquery had focused the manpower that would have required on the rebuilding and cover up instead.
"I have enjoyed our conversations very much Tina," Newt says. Tina had almost forgotten how Newt had seemed to bounce from one conversation to the next, he was almost poetic when he wrote poetic enough that Tina sometimes forgot that he was writing an encyclopedia.
"Me too."
"There is one thing that I haven't told you in the letters. I thought it a bit forward and was hoping to smooth it over with my book." Newt won't look at her so Tina climbs up and brushes her knees off.
"I love you Newt Scamander," Tina says because she knows how she feels and because Newt will dance around the subject for the rest of the day if she lets him. Newt looks at her like he's just been bowled over by an erumpet. "You became my dearest friend and bared your soul to me in your letters, how could I not fall in love with you?"
"I'm of rather the same opinion." It's such a Newt thing to say that she almost laughs, but she's too happy to care.
Then Newt's fingers are on her cheekbones and his palms on her jaws and his fingers on her lips and they are kissing. Kissing right there in the middle of Newt's case, where she had first seen Newt in his element.
"That was-" Newt breathes after they part and Tina grins up at him.
"Marvelous," she says before she reels him back in for a few dozen more kisses. She has several months to make up for, several sentences in his letters that made her want to kiss him, several knowing looks and hugs from Queenie, several extra creature shaped pastries from Jacob.
"I fear our letters are going to get even longer now that we'll have to include paragraphs on how desperately we miss each other and wish we could be back here in this moment," Newt whispers as he runs his fingers through her hair. Tina laughs.
"Those poor owls," she whispers back and feels like her face is going to hurt tomorrow because she can't remember the last time she's smiled so much. Newt laughs and nuzzles her gently.
"Very hardy creatures owls. Bred specifically for long journeys with heavy cargo. I'm certain that they can handle our letters."
"We'll have to keep page count under thirty-five though. My conscience will never handle more than that." Newt gives Tina a smile and a few more kisses before he agrees.
England has never seen closer than it does now.