Newt had been feeling way better lately, luckily. He'd been real off for a while, but suddenly he was sleeping again. It was weird, actually. He wasn't sure what started it. Sometimes in the morning he'd remember a snippet of a nightmare. Or even of a dream, the non-bad kind, one where someone was rubbing his back and telling him everything was going to be okay, that he was safe.
So basically he was, like, functioning kinda normally again. Sorta. As much as he usually did. He never slept enough, or ate enough, and he drank too much coffee, but hey, nobody's perfect.
But with every fixed problem, another one surfaced, of course.
Because now Newt was lonely. With all the bad things that came with the nightmares, which were just repressed memories that wanted to resurface, came the worst thing of all: all that horrible stuff came with some stuff he'd actually enjoyed. And he missed it.
Maybe he could find someone here that was, you know, not an ass, but still had the things Newt wanted in a relationship.
And Newt was at a bar when he found someone. His name was Chuck. He had a cool accent and joked a lot—not to mention was all super muscly and aspired to be a Jaeger pilot someday—so he was totally Newt's type. It was pretty much perfect.
They didn't see each other much as of now. Just fucked occasionally. Newt had kind of hoped for a little more than that, but it still helped with the loneliness a bit, and that was good enough for him.
The downside of Newt's better mood was that Hermann wasn't being almost sort of decent anymore. They were back to bickering again, which was both annoying and comfortable at the same time, if that makes any sense at all. Newt had almost been starting to wonder if Hermann was starting to hate him less, and they couldn't have that.
"Whatcha doin'?" asked Newt. Hermann looked back absently from his chalkboard.
"What do you mean? Isn't it obvious?"
Newt glanced over all the numbers and letters and stuff. "Uh… yeah, it's math mumbo jumbo. I hoped you could explain it in, you know, English."
"Why?" he asked exhaustedly.
"Dunno, I just… hey, you look tired."
Hermann, to Newt's surprise, looked suddenly guilty. Like he'd been hoping Newt might not notice.
"It's just that usually you make it a point to sleep the amount you're supposed to so you can 'think properly'." He finished the sentence in his best imitation of Hermann's accent.
Hermann continued to be silent for a moment. "I suppose I ought to just tell you," Hermann murmured, "or you'll assume the worst."
Newt raised an eyebrow. The worst? What worst, that Hermann actually was fucking random people at night? Yeah right.
"Okay then…" Newt prompted. "What's up?"
Hermann looked timid. "Well… maybe you'll notice that you've been sleeping more soundly for the past couple weeks."
Newt had never even considered that Hermann knew he wasn't sleeping well. God, had he been making noise or something?
"I learned several weeks ago that it is possible for me to make you sleep without nightmares. But it takes a little bit of attention, you see."
"You've been… helping me sleep?"
"Only because I'm tired of hearing you yell half the night," Hermann said gruffly. "But… well, rubbing your back for a while makes you sleep better. But I have to wake up every hour or so to do it again, or you'll start screaming all over again. So, yes. That's out there, then."
Newt felt really bad now. He had no idea Hermann was doing that for him. "Wow, Hermann, that's, like, really awesome of you, but you shoulda just told me. I'm sorry I've been keeping you up. I had no idea. I'll see if I can get sleeping medication or something so you don't have to do that anymore."
"I don't really mind it," said Hermann. "And sleeping medication is quite addictive, and you really don't need any addictions in your life," he added.
"You don't… you don't mind giving me a back rub five times a night?"
"Eight, usually," Hermann corrected. "But it's only every other night."
"But, dude, it's keeping you from sleeping. There's no reason you need to do that for me."
Newt wasn't even sure why they were having this conversation. He figured Hermann would jump at an opportunity to stop helping Newt out.
"I just… I had a proposition," said Hermann.
The words sounded weird coming out of Hermann's mouth. Newt couldn't quite get his head around it, so he stopped trying to. "Okay…"
"Well, you see…" Hermann looked really embarrassed. He set his chalk down on the metal bar at the bottom of his chalk board, carefully cleaning his fingers off on his towel reserved for chalky fingers—though in Newt's opinion, that's what pants were for. "Okay, I just need to come right out with it. You need someone to keep you sleeping, and I need… well, I don't mind the doing it, I only mind having to get up at all hours of the night to do it. So I wondered if… If you and I were sleeping next to each other, if that would be enough to keep you asleep for the whole night."
Newt blinked at Hermann, feeling like he'd just made up what he heard coming out of Hermann's mouth, because it couldn't have been what he actually just said.
Because that would basically mean that Hermann was suggesting… "So you're saying that you and I should sleep in the same bed tonight."
"Just to try it out," said Hermann. "If it doesn't work, we shall think of some other solution. But I need sleep, and you need sleep… as of now, this seems like the simplest solution to our quandary."
Newt didn't know what to say. The whole thing just seemed so strange he didn't even know what to think, really. He had no idea how he felt about it.
But he did know that he felt bad that he was keeping Hermann up, and that he couldn't really think of another way to fix the problem. It was the only idea they had, and as scientists, wasn't it their duty to go to any length necessary to solve a problem?
"Well… okay, I guess we could try it. My bed's kinda small though." Newt wondered if Hermann's was bigger, but he hadn't so much as gotten a single glance into Hermann's room, so he had no idea.
"I'm aware," Hermann replied with a thin smile. "We'd have to be close for this to work anyway, I would assume. We'll make do."
Newt nodded before turning back to his laptop—he told himself that even though he'd rather dig through Kaiju guts all day long, he had to reserve some time every week for his dissertation, and this was his dissertation time, unfortunately. It wasn't that he didn't like writing it—it was more that he liked looking at entrails better.
But he couldn't concentrate the rest of the day. Honestly, he probably didn't get a single thing done in the next five hours. He was just feeling so odd about this whole thing. It made him… it was strange, but he was nervous. Really nervous. He ended up retreating to his room to clean it up a little, as if Hermann hadn't already seen it like it normally was, and he washed his sheets. Hermann was doing him a favor, after all, so the least he could do was tidy up a tiny bit.
It was pretty late when Newt looked over to Hermann to mention the whole sleeping thing and Hermann was already looking at him, as if he'd been waiting for him to suggest it. So they both stood, and Newt walked to his room first. He looked at the bed and thought of something: He usually slept on the right side of the bed, but then if he got into bed now, Hermann would have to climb over him. And even if he waited, he'd be shoving him into the wall. Which would usually seem entirely unimportant, except that, again, Hermann was doing him a favor—albeit one that was awkward for the both of them.
So he got into PJs, and he assumed that was what Hermann was doing too.
Another problem. Newt usually slept in just boxers, but obviously that wouldn't be an option this time. He found a tee shirt and gym shorts and figured that was good enough.
He got under the covers and shoved himself against the wall—after all, fitting two full sized men in a twin bed, even if they were both thin, was going to be difficult. Then Hermann came in, shutting the door behind him. Newt tried not to smile at Hermann's PJ pants, which donned little math problems on them, like 2+2=4 and stuff. They were obviously for kids. God, Hermann was such a fucking derp.
He was setting his cane against the side table when he looked down at Newt and made a face.
"What, wha'd I do now? This was your idea, dude."
"I'm aware," Hermann said. "It's rather silly. Never mind."
"Nah, tell me. After this, there's no reason for us to be awkward about anything ever."
"Well… it's only… well, usually, I sleep on the left side of the bed. But it's of little importance, of course."
Newt actually laughed. "Dude, you know what's funny? I usually sleep on the right side. I just didn't want to shove you into the wall."
Hermann raised an eyebrow. "Then up you get, Newton. We'll trade."
Newt nodded and got up, letting Hermann shuffle into the spot next to the wall. Newt looked down at the bed awkwardly. Did they really have to do this? Surely there was some other way to get him to sleep. Like knocking him out with a bottle. Or fucking gagging him with duct tape so Hermann didn't have to hear him yell. Like fucking anything but this awkwardness that was about to happen.
But it was kinda too late now. There Hermann was in his bed.
He sighed, and Hermann made a mildly entertained face like he knew just what Newt was sighing about, and Newt got into the bed, removing his glasses, then leaned over and turned off the light.
He could feel Hermann against his side. Yup, it was pretty much as weird as he figured it would be. If a single person ever found out about this, he'd never hear the end of it.
Newt turned on his side, back facing Hermann, just because he usually slept on his side. Normally he faced the wall, but he wasn't going to go facing Hermann, so he just went with the other way. Close enough, right.
"So Herms?"
"I'm quite certain I've told you not to call me that."
"It's a compliment, dude. It's supposed to be endearing when someone gives you a nickname."
"You called me that the moment you met me."
"Well… I dunno, I'm into nicknames. Which is why I want you to call me Newt."
"I'll call you Newt around the time that you start calling me Hermann on a regular basis."
Newt smirked. "Fair enough."
There was a bout of silence where Newt tried not to be uncomfortable with feeling Hermann behind him. Strangely enough, what made him most uncomfortable about it was the fact that he wasn't all that uncomfortable with it. If that makes sense at all.
"So what do we do if this doesn't work?" asked Newt.
"We never speak of it again," Hermann said immediately.
"And… what if it does?"
This time there was a pause. "Then we both shall do what we must for the sake of our health, and our work."
Newt smiled into the darkness before saying, "For science."
He could literally feel Hermann rolling his eyes. "You're ridiculous, Newton."
"I know." He was quiet for another moment before he said. "Really though, thanks Hermann. This… is really awesome of you."
"You're welcome."
"G'night Hermann."
"Goodnight… Newt."
