It all started with the stray cat.

Newt Scamander didn't like cats very much.

Strange, coming from someone who loved magical creatures so much, but for some reason, he couldn't really bring himself to like them. They just didn't seem very friendly.

Luckily for Newt, not many people had cats in New York City, so he didn't really have to deal with them much when he was visiting the Goldsteins (or, more specifically, Tina).

But from the moment he saw a stray one, he knew today wasn't going to go as planned.

It was black, with the creepiest yellow eyes. Newt walked briskly past it and cursed under his breath.

Newt got to the front door of Queenie and Tina's apartment right as it started to rain.

Well, there goes our plan for the evening, Newt thought miserably. He almost considered turning around, and then remembered that the civil thing to do would probably not be to blow his potential love interest off.

He was planning on taking Tina for a walk around New York City, but even with an umbrella, the storm was so bad he couldn't even see across the street clearly, not to mention it was becoming increasingly cold out.

Newt decided to knock on the door, and a few seconds later, the door was opened by- Queenie. Oh... I thought she would have been at work, Newt thought, then realized that may or may not have been a bad thing to think around someone who could read minds.

"Aw, honey, do you really hate me that much?" Queenie gave Newt puppy dog eyes.

"Of course not, I just-"

"Like Teen more than you like me? Yeah, I figured. It's okay, though, I knew you'd be kind of disappointed."

"About the rain?"

"No, silly- Oh, it's raining?"

"Yes, Queenie, the rain. What else would there be to keep us from our walk?"

"Funny, I never noticed it was raining."

"Queenie."

"Oh, sorry, what I was going to say was that Tina's got a cold and probably shouldn't be going out right now."

The thunder crashed and made Newt jump a little. Queenie chuckled, then yelled, "Teenie, Newt's here! Do you want to say hello before I leave?"

Newt gave an exaggerated sigh of relief when he heard the "leaving" part, and Queenie gave him an exasperated look.

"Sorry, sorry," Newt mumbled, laughing quietly. Bothering Queenie was fun.

"Sure, I guess." Tina's voice was slightly nasally. She came out of her bedroom in her pajamas with her hair slightly ruffled. Newt had to admit it: she looked absolutely terrible.

"Newt!" Queenie exclaimed.

"Not in that way! Why would I ever even think anything about that? She's sick and she looks it, that's all I'm saying!"

"'She' is right here, you know," Tina stated, still very stuffy-sounding.

"Sorry, Tina," Newt said, then turned to Queenie. "Now, I think Queenie should be leaving now, or she'll be very late to- well- wherever she's going."

Queenie gave an exaggerated eye-roll, and walked out the door. "Bye, guys," she said, then called over her shoulder, "You'd better not take Tina out in her condition, Newt. If I find out you do, you'll be in trouble."

"And what exactly will my consequence be?" Newt inquired.

"You will be grounded from seeing Tina ever again."

Well, we certainly wouldn't want that, Newt thought, then blushed deeply, knowing Queenie probably heard him.

"Newt, if you don't want me in your head all the time, you should probably stop thinking so loudly," Queenie called as she shut the door behind her.

Newt was now feeling very awkward. With Queenie gone, there was no one to make sure the conversation didn't come to a screeching halt like it just had, and Tina obviously wasn't very good at these things, either.

"So, there went our plans for tonight, huh?" Tina asked.

Newt replied, "Yeah. I wonder if the rain caused your cold...?"

"Rain-? Oh, look, it is raining!"

"How ignorant can two people possibly be?" Newt muttered.

"Sorry, what?"

"Nothing, nothing."

Awkward silence ensued again.

"So..."

"So... Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Well, the only thing I can think of is to make up the loss of our date- er, not a date- I don't know- a hangout-? No, not that-"

Newt was slightly terrified by this. Would it have been a date? Or were they too platonic for that? He began to panic. Date or not, he loved being around Tina. He would prefer it to have been a date, but what if she didn't feel the same way? But why would she have called it one if she didn't want it to be date? Maybe she knew he wanted it to be a date, but didn't feel the same way, but didn't want to come off rude? Then again, a walk around New York could hardly be considered a date. If this was how relationships were, Newt wasn't sure he wanted to be a part of one. But with Tina, it might be worth all the trouble. Oh, how he hated this feeling.

"Newt, are you okay?" Tina asked, breaking him out of his panic.

"Tina- yeah, I'm fine," Newt babbled, fidgeting with his hands.

"Was it something I said?"

"No, you're fine, it wasn't that at all."

"What was it then?"

"It was nothing," Newt said. But then, the Queenie inside him woke up and asked, Why aren't you telling her? Be honest for once! What's the worst that could happen? To which the rational Newt responded, Um, maybe things will become awkward between us and she won't want to be my friend anymore?

"Actually, it was something you said-" Newt stopped when he saw Tina's face. She looked slightly hurt, and Newt rethought his entire plan- or, rather, Queenie Newt's plan. It wasn't even much of a plan. What a great strategy, Newt thought. Newt swore silently and continued.

"No, Tina, it wasn't a bad thing, either. It was more of something that made me question our relationship- oh, dear. That didn't sound right at all. Well, it's fine, it isn't anything like that- oh, Merlin, this is not going as planned- Well, what I wanted to say was that if you wanted our walk to be considered a "date", I'd be fine with that. Just because you had brought that up earlier and at this point it's too late to take back any of what I'm saying and if you don't feel the same way can we still be friends please?"

As a very insecure person, Newt was feeling very insecure.

"Oh, Newt," Tina gasped a little, "of course I feel the same way! Why would you ever think I wouldn't?"

"I don't know, I guess I'm a bit insecure sometimes- oof, Tina-!" His thoughts were interrupted by a very emotional Tina hugging him very incredibly hard.

"Thanks, Newt," Tina breathed.

"What on earth for?"

"For making our "date" up to me-"

"Oh- well- you're welcome-"

"And to be honest, I would love to kiss you right now- oh, that was a bit forward of me- but- sorry- you were supposed to make the first move-"

"No, no, it's fine-"

"But-"

"Wait- did you say you wanted to kiss me?"

"Yes...?"

"I would love to do that as well," Newt admitted.

As they leaned in, Newt could tell this was going to be a very awkward kiss. Of course, he had never really kissed anyone for a very long time, and he didn't know what Tina liked or if she had ever kissed anyone either, and began to panic again. He could feel her heart beating from her embrace, see the sweat on her forehead- wait, sweat?

"Hold on, Tina?"

"Yeah?"

"You're sick."

The stray cat he saw on his way home didn't even phase him.

A/N: Hey, y'all! It's late and I need to be getting to bed soon, but I'd just like to say thanks for reading! Also, all of the characters are property of Warner Brothers or JK Rowling or whoever legally owns them; they're not mine. Neither is the cover art. Remember to request ideas for future one-shots!

-baylishmaylie

I'm also on wattpad: @baylishmaylie :)