Graves arrives at the agreed upon meeting and grill with Seraphine trailing behind him.
"I don't trust her."
"You don't trust anyone," Seraphine points out. "You all have trust issues and that's part of the problem. Let me handle this."
It's not entirely true; he trusts her after all. It's a funny thing, their friendship. It has taken on a mind of its own, developed in ways he hadn't originally planned nor expected.
He doesn't mind it.
"Why?"
"Just ...I don't!"Graves said, suddenly finding the paint speckled floor much more interesting.
The glared at each but Seraphine face softened first. On, Percival!"
No.
Graves looked away, from her eyes.
He couldn't stand that look in their eyes. Pity. God, he hated when people looked at him with pity as if he was weak. He wasn't weak, he wasn't broken, but yet their eyes said he was. It felt like any sense of pride or self-worth got washed away when he got that look. Graves knows why he gets the looks of pity. It has to do with Gellert and he knew about pain, and he didn't need anyone's pity.
What he hated the most was the people that undermined him because of it. Like his accomplishments in his business and finance classes weren't important. Like his opinion didn't matter because he was weak. God, he hated it.
He hated pity and nightmares.
Graves knew about them. He tried to stay awake every day using his work but somewhere along the way, he made the mistake of falling asleep and suddenly he was back there.
Back inside the burning room filled with his family's burning, dead bodies.
And he was the only one standing, the fire unable to burn him, even with how much he desperately wanting it to turn him to ashes instead of seeing this.
He was trailing his eyes between the bodies, recognizing them immediately. His parent. Bodies intertwined even as the flames consumed them both. His younger brother and his wife. A few feet apart, hands outstretched towards one another and never managed to reach each other. Tina, Newt, Seraphine, Golstein. A few feet away from him, their lifeless eyes staring up at him with tear tracks visible on his cheeks. Everyone he ever loved or cared about. Dead. Burning away slowly. And he remained untouched by the flames that was wiping away any evidence of his family.
He wanted to die.
But it wasn't letting him to die. He was just forced to see this.
Forced to be the only survivor, even though he wished to be one of the fallen.
He just wanted to die with the others, not outlive them.
He was aware of himself murmuring the words 'Please, let me die.' Under his breath over and over again but he couldn't stop. He was unable to stop.
He know who it's like to be fear of your own shodow.
The was tired. He wasn't ashamed to admit it.
Everything around him was pressuring him and the burden on his shoulders was almost too much.
He was fooling everyone around him by his cool demeanor. They don't know how tired he was. Physically and emotionally. Dealing again with Gellert was an issue but to stop his reach for him , that was wasn't really alone, he knew that. But he will always feel lost and alone since Gellert took everything from him. He couldn't even look at his parents eyes without sadness or anger, he snapped at his brother the last time he was at his house.
He was still afraid, though he'd never admit it. Afraid that one day Grindelwald would materialise and decide to kill him, slowly, just because he could. That hadn't happened, so far. Graves sometimes wondered whether Grindelwald preferred the knowledge that Graves lived in fear to actually enacting any twisted plot of vengeance. Or perhaps Graves simply didn't matter.
He wasn't sure he could do this anymore.
He was vaguely aware of Seraphine's worried looks he keeps sending towards him, but he was too tired to look at him and reassure him that he was fine. He didn't really want to lie to her.
Picquery and Graves had been friends since their Ilvermorny days. He had watched her fight opposition — because she was a woman, because of the colour of her skin — for years. She was a formidable witch and an even better leader. In fact, he thought that if it hadn't been so scandalously inappropriate, he might have like to ask Seraphina Picquery to dinner. But he was nothing if not practical, so he did not allow that thought to linger.
"You are afraid of her!"
Seraphine leaned back against the office door, the glass cool through the fabric of her dress.
"What?"
Graves growled at his friend, his eyes wide and head whipping around so fast that he looked like something out of The Exorcist.
"You, the director of MACUSA scares of the warlord" Seraphine countered, tone edging towards tease.
"No," Graves replied roughly, lying. Very badly, as it happened, which was relatively unusual for him; Seraphine raised an eyebrow in transparent scepticism, and Graves quickly changed tack. "Maybe ."
"I could be an idiot if I didn't be a bit scare of her!"
Graves' guard was completely down, feeling completely safe with Seraphine, because he flinched noticeably.
"This woman knows about 30 different ways to kill someone with a paper clip," Graves says softly, honestly, completely terrified.
Seraphine laughs it off though, takes it as the joke it isn't meant to be, and says, "She made a good impression on you!"
Graves opened his mouth to protest, but all it took was a look from Seraphine before he became ridged and left the office.
It was bound to happen eventually he mused, she had already taken up permanent residence in his heart and enraptured his soul. It only seemed a matter of time before his body became besieged by her as well. Every moment of his day was littered with unbidden images of her: looking consumed with concentration over paperwork, her laughter echoing throughout his case as he tended his creatures, content features positively glowing in the sun as she followed him on several expeditions to seek out new fanrastic beasts, and recently her flushed cheeks and tousled hair from more intimate explorations into this newly budding romance.
The smell of her, coffee and parchment tinged with a light floral sweetness clung to everything and though he'd never openly admit it , he would often fall asleep holding a jumper that Tina had 'misplaced' some time ago. This unfortunately did nothing to quell the ever growing impulse to be near her, to touch her, taste her.
Tina was... everything he'd ever wanted, all wrapped up in one girl. He'd be disgusted with the level of his own infatuation if he hadn't spent countless nights examining and reexamining it and coming to the same conclusion.
He'd asked Ara about it, as much to stop the ever-revolving circle of thoughts about her as anything else. And, as per usual, Ara had been utterly useless. 'Talk to her', she'd said. Like that was simple. Like that was EASY. Like the scent of her in his nose didn't make all of the thoughts in his head try to spill out, all of them embarassing and some of them very embarrassing.
"Hey Newt!"
Tina stood next to him in front of the evidence board and stretched out his arm. Why did she stand so close?
The man smelled amazing. Amazing. Newt was sure he forgot to put on cologne today and maybe because there was this salty rich smell of sweat but also the sweetness. The pure ecstasy of the sweet smell of Tina… Newt wanted to die.
"Where is your friend?"Tina asked looking specifically at Newt.
The young man got lost in Tina's beautiful, warm eyes. He was sure he will never get tired from having those eyes looking at him that way. He lived for those gazes.
"Probably making someone cry"Newt stated with a smile.
They both took long drinks of their coffees, and Newt noted how Tina had remembered his exact order. "I've just been working on finishing up the third revision of my book. I discovered a lot more about the creatures, like occamies- the females typically have more violet feathers than their male counterparts, but I didn't know that until a few weeks ago. Do you remember the occamy?"
Tina was grinning from ear to ear. She loved how passionate Newt was about his creatures, and how his eyes seemed to shine when he spoke about them. She couldn't help the twinge of hurt she felt though, when she realized Newt hadn't given her a copy like he'd promised that morning on the docks.
"How could I forget? I remember nearly breaking the teapot we kept the occamy in on the way down the case," Tina reminisced, staring intently at Newt. "And I remember going in the case and... and how beautiful it was. And the niffler stealing my shoe buckles, and then Dougal not leaving Jacob's side... and Queenie forcing me to sing the Ilvermorny school song."
They both laughed at that thought. "You are a rather lovely singer, I enjoyed it quite a bit," Newt said, ducking his head down as he realized what he said. "Dougal enjoyed it too."
Tina blushed then, smiling to herself. "My ma used to sing Queenie and I to bed every night. She'd sing us lullabies, and then my dad would walk in and read us stories until we'd fall asleep... my favorite was always Beauty and the Beast. I'd beg him to read it to me every night, but he'd save it for special days," Tina said, a twinkle in her eye. "That's what I wanna do if I have children."
"That's what I want to do if I have children too, my mother was the same. Except she didn't sing, she would only read me stories. I always loved the ones about animals the best," Newt explained. "I guess it was what led me to my future careers as a magizoologist and writer."
Newt looked at Tina oddly and was about to say something when the sound of footsteps immerging on the terrace silenced them.
"Well, I hate to ruin the Romeo and Juliet moment, but I we need to work."
Turning around he sees Ara standing a few feet away from him.
"You are late"Graves crossed his arms.
She burst out laughing. The cackling sound was so rare and delightful that Graves almost forgot to be angry.
"For the Merlin's love Graves. I was busy with other things."
An excuse.
''Where have you been?''Newt asks, looking as innocent as he knows how, but in Newt's case, an innocent expression only increases the chance that he's guilty of something.
'' Somewhere''
Newt just frowned harder, raising his eyebrow higher. "Really?"
"I didn't do anything," Ara said defensively.
"Really," he said again.
The Goldstein sisters both snorted while Newt just continued to give her a disappointed look that with a deep-set frown on his eyebrows that mirrored Graves's.
"I can't believe this," Ara said throwing up her arms nearly hitting Tina as she did so. "You really want me to do something?"
"Go threat someone and find out something "
"No, it'd be against my moral compass"
Newt snorted but didn't diffuse the less than the amused look on his chiseled face." Your fucking moral compass is a roulette wheel " he said softly.
Graves grunted at that, seeming in agreement. Ara glared at him.
"Hey!"Ara was looking upwards, twisting her head around and back, eyes scanning the ceiling.''Why do you hate me?"
With a heavy sigh, Newt unfolded his crossed arms, looking both sad and tired."You know I don't. But I think you need to talk to him."
"Why me?"
"What are you talking about?" Graves asked from the side as others watched with curiosity.
"Stay out of my business," Ara says with a face like she was scandalized as she looked at Graves.
"It my business "Graves says"You messes up with my case"
"Your what?"
"What did I say about orders? "she demands, her eyes wild like fire. Graves has always admired that about her.
They exchanged challenging stares, and all the people on the floor can see the sexual tension between them.
"For Merlin's pants follow me." Graves said to the woman standing in the room.
Without another word, Ara walks toward Graves' office with the man after her. After he closed the door to his office, turning to face the woman standing in front of his desk.
"I don't trust-.."
"When I ever not give you a reason to trust me?"She cut in, frowning at the man as he moved around to the other side of his desk. He shook his head, holding up the offending object for both of them to see.
"Would you like to answer alphabetically or chronologically? "He interrupted loudly, placing the empty film canister on his desk with conviction. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. "Look I know that you have your own secrets and...
"Merlin's pants, do you never shut your mouth?" Aria asks, slamming the books in front Ara her shut.
"Why, do you have a better use for my mouth?" Graves asks, leaning forward with a smirk.
An awkward silence filled the air and Ara took the time to study the man. He was a pureblood wizard. He was sharp, dexterous, and very unpredictable. She was not disappointed. People had warned her of the director ; of his beauty and how he could manipulate any situation to his advantage.
His eyes held the fierce stubbornness that made most everyone (except Ara, of course, because someone had to stand up to him) tremble; his regal jaw was set just this side of arrogant. She felt an overwhelming desire to touch him for no man ever looked him in the eye with such defiance. She liked it.
The man can't hide the grin that spreads inside of him. Seeing the hunter squirm like some afraid kitten helps. He watches the woman in front of him. She is dangerous, strong. Hard. But with that smile around her mouth that had gone straight to his cock.
''Caligula'' Ara merely arched an eyebrow. "The man that Newt wants to me talk with''
''How do you know him?''Graves moved forward, leaning over her, into her personal space.''And who do you know that he will help us?''
She held his gaze unflinchingly, emerald green, and pitch black. "Well enough to know he wouldn't kill me''
"I understand that you have no reason to trust me," Ara began.''The man was forced to do some... unpleasant things in order to survive, like me''
''When you will meet him?''
''With a lucky maybe in three days!"
"I will come ome with your graves chimed in.
Ara glared at him but held her tongue. She crossed her arms across her chest, fingernails digging into her flesh.'' "Fine''
"Why you are you helping us?" He said, because he was still intrigued by those blazing, green eyes.
"I own Newt!"She states bluntly. He doesn't know if it's a lie.
Instead of answering, Graves gives him an excellent impression of her's bitch face.
"I've got red in my ledger, and I'd like to wipe it out."
"Can you?" He whispered.
"Can you wipe out that much red?" His composure remained impassive, but as he gazed into her eyes he could see pain and hate swirling round them.
"Of course not"Ara said, voice low in tone. Graves' mouth shut with an audible click of his teeth. "I've been a killer for longer than I've known Newt, Graves. So much blood but not enough of time."
Graves looks at her hard. It's his job to read people and Ara feels like an open book under that gaze. Still,she does not look away. She stares blankly into Graves' brown eyes: no defiance, no challenge to call his bluff, no emotion at all. The man looks away first.
"What about you?"
What are you talking about-"
"Gellert Grindelwald." Ara interrupted.
This was not a conversation he wanted to have. "Are you trying to tell me something?" he asked, chuckling, trying to affect a tolerant amusement that he did not feel.
"Plase dont tell me that you are after Grindelwald just for justice"the warlord laughed, dry and humorless ."You want revenge!"
Graves coughed lightly. This conversation was going nowhere. He needed to figure out the best way to end it.
"Did you think you were being subtle?" Ara continued, with a disdainful lift of an eyebrow."You being hunted by him and his face, his voice , his action. The only thing you can see is his face not only in your sleep but even when you are at your work, with friends or family or alone, which is the worst part of the day...You want Grindelwald be behind of the murders to fed your hatred and your anger toward him but we know both of us what he is not!"
"Ara," Graves started in on the conciliation, in hopes of placating and facilitating an end to the madness, "I don't know what you drink or take but I want to inform you that.."
"Come one ,Graves"Ara hissed."Admit it, you want him dead. After all he takes anything from you..."
"Shut up, Red." he took another step in warning but the defying expression remained on Ara's face.
".Close your mouth" Graves took another step, pressing Ara against the wall.
Their chests touching, the woman inhaled sharply, wide eyed. He swallowed and Ara followed the movement of his adam's apple with her eyes. A flush danced on the top of his cheeks and Ara wasn't sure if it was from her words or because he was being touched.
"Admit it." the woman breathed out with a shining stare.
"I'm warning you, Red-"
"For the pants of Morgana"She chuckled in a self-deprecating manner,"Being selfish for once in your life"
"Leave." the director ordered in a firm tone, walking away from the table.
"Admit it."
"Red." she smiled in reply, seeing Graves' face burn.
"Admit..."
"What do you want me to say!"He demanded, cutting into her and watching her minute wince at his foul language. "That i want him dead?. That because of him I lost my life? That he hunt me in every minute of my freaking fucking life?"
Her blue eyes caught his, and for half a second he saw her sorrow, raw as though it had been cut straight out of her heart and presented to him.
She hadn't felt this way in years, and yet to let go of it, wrapped tight in Graves' warm, strong embrace, well, it certainly beat going to a shrink. He followed right after, the tightness and welcoming warmth of her too much for him to handle in such a state, and she felt water trickle down her shoulder, felt his body quake beneath her hands. Slowly, she turned him over onto his back and slipped off of him, pressing her lips to his salted cheeks, his nose, forehead.
"You're alright, Percival. You're safe. You can let it out," she promised against the skin of his neck, nuzzling the soft skin there. He shuddered and held her tight once more, and though he never openly sobbed she watched the tension leave his body as the minutes passed, a strange resolution setting his face after they'd laid together for some time.
"I want him dead!"He finally resolved some minutes later, his fingers absently running through Ara's soft hair.
"How did you knew?"
Ara reached out and took Percival's hand in her own, the gritty sand sticking between their fingers as they linked, grinding, uncomfortable, but also perfect.
"Do you know what empathy meaning?"She said softly.
"The ability to understand and share the feelings of another."Percival's voice was barely a whisper, something for the wind to carry away, but Ara heard it as though it were shouted, felt it reverberate inside his chest.
"We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes- this debt we pay to human guile; with torn and bleeding hearts we smile."Ara informed."You and I are the same. We had been tortured, beatten up, killed and other monsterous things with the result to become monsters."
"Nice speech ."Graves leaned forward. "But none of that answers my question."
Oh hell. Ara moved over to the floor-to-ceiling windows and rested her head against it, looking at New York beneath her.
"No, I didn't"Ara crosses her arms.
The warlord's eyes shot open.
Her body reacted before hee mind was fully awake: Ahe sat up, launched to the side on the bed and rolled on the soft rug, scooting to the far back of the bedroom, near her wardrobe where she had abandoned her twin set of guns the day before.
Blinking to situate herself, while her heart hammered in her chest, she heard it again: The noise of someone forcing the front door.
Ahe straightened up. The light switch to the living room was all the way across the room, near the door, something she hated more than he'd ever admit out loud - warriors were not afraid of the dark. It didn't matter how much trauma she had tied to the creatures that lurked the night, she was not afraid of the dark.
She had a little yellow nightlight in her bathroom, the door left ajar to illuminate her bedroom. Very carefully she inched closer to the door and closed it with a soft click, pulling his bedroom into full darkness.
She then grabbed one of the gun and tiptoed to the bedroom door, unlocking it and quietly opening.
A chill ran down her back when she noticed the front door was fully open now, a mouth straight to the dark corridor of his building. Ara's hand tightened around the handle of the gun, but she kept it low for the moment.
There was another noise, now to the other side of the room, toward the kitchen and she quietly moved closer. In the dark she could see a dark form and while, rationallym.
Just as she took a step closer, the person turned around and walked forward, meeting straight into her chest.
She let out a startled gasp and kicked their feet from under them, making the person fall on their back on the floor with a groan. Before Ara could take in the whine, she was already pressing her knee to her throat, sword high in her hand, pointing toward his chest.
"Ara…?" Newt groaned, confused, "what the Merlin pants are you doing…?!"
Her grip loosened up, but she didn't remove her knee from her neck, trying but failing to connect the dots.
"What are you doing here!?"
"You're hurting me…" He whined and he scrambled back, dropping the gun and hitting the kitchen's light switch. White light spilled onto the living room, allowing her to take in her friend
"What the fuck ,Newt!'
"Yes, me, idiot" he rubbed his neck and pouted at hee, but accepted her open hand. She pulled his up and then planted both hiee hands on his shoulders when he swayed forward and almost face planted her chest.
"I thought that you were with your witch!"
"And you tried to kill me," Newt pointed out, shaking his head
"I am so sorry that i Thought you were a maniac murderer who tried to kill me!"
"No one is so insane to broke into a house knowing that you are inside it!"Newt snorted, pushing her hair away from her face
"Thank you!"She shrugged, unbothered by the words of her friend.
"You were supposed to be with your girlfriend!"She scoffed."What happened?"
FLASHBACK
Tina snuck a shy look at him. "Well? How do I look?"
He struggled to get his words out for a moment or two, before eventually coming up with, "Beautiful. Simply beautiful." He'd stood up and taken her hand, looking right into her eyes. He was inches away.
"Are you sure? It's not too much?" she turned her attention back to her beau.
"No. You look wonderful." he assured her, kissing the back of her hand, prompting a smile from Tina.
"Shall we get going then?" Tina looked up at him, noticing his eyes sparkling in his smiling freckled face.
"Yes, yes. But first…" he moved a hand from behind his back. A hand that held a bunch of golden yellow flowers. "I…I heard they were your favourite." he said shakily, handing them to her, still grinning.
Tina's smile threatened to take over her whole face. "Yes. Yes, they are. They're beautiful. Thank you." she lifted herself onto her toes to plant a kiss on his cheek and he blushed a little as a result.
"Shall we, Miss Goldstein?" he asked with a smile.
She grinned and looped her arm through his. "I think we should, Mr Scamander."
END FLASHBACK
She made a weird face like 'You have a girlfriend!"
Newt sighed. "Yes.."
He replied and she giggled. Newt exhales and rubs his eyes with one hand."She's just... beautiful, first of all, tall glass of water and all that. But she's confident, she's damn smart, she's sweet and I just... I don't know what the Merlin to do with myself,"
She was livid."Roses are red, violets are blue. Guess what, my bed has room for two."
"Ara" Newt cries.
"Twinkle twinkle little star, we can do it in my car."
" Shut up"He murmured.
"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, I can make you scream."
Newt gave her a half-amused half insulted look and threw a pillow at her.