So! The fun begins with the movie next chapter! Are you excited? I hope so!
As for one review way earlier in this fic, I couldn't figure out a way to pull that classic Newt scatterbrainedness with Ara and I finally figured it out! She may or may not be around for a bit in New York...something to do with Customs but I won't drop any more hints :)
I hope their relationship is still progressing at a realistic speed but I figured I'd throw in Newt's POV so we didn't just get Ara overthinking everything by herself.
I never discussed the kiss with him after we'd freed the demiguise that I'd come to know as Dougal but we certainly didn't have any more problems being very near each other. It was as though we'd unofficially become married, cooking for one another in the mornings and evenings, and looking out for the case as though it were our only child...though I seemed to burn less food than he did.
In all honesty, it was bizarre. Incredibly. Bizarre. And I had no idea what it meant to him or if it even meant anything to him.
Newt and I didn't quite find an appropriate time to actually discuss what we'd done. Things just sort of flowed from one problem to the next, and I didn't really know how to even go about discussing that with him...I don't think he knew how to either.
Sometimes I'd catch him staring at the scars on my shoulder when he was supposed to be writing his book. I knew he felt guilty, that much was obvious when he thought I was asleep or I wasn't looking. But I wasn't sure why he would, I understood that the creatures came first and we were all that was standing in the way of Wizards exploiting them.
It felt like the last two weeks passed us by in an odd emotional blaze that consisted of drawn out silences and sentences that were never finished. Sometimes we'd end up staring at each other with this searching look but I don't think either one of us could force out a word. However, I knew something exciting was going on when our old professor, Albus Dumbledore arrived in Equatorial Guinea about 2 weeks later.
"Ah, Miss Maximae." I stood from where I'd knelt over to inspect a particularly dirty Nundu cub, he looked to be entirely alone in the world with such large eyes. I wasn't even sure how he got here considering they were native to the east coast of Africa rather than central.
"Professor?" I raised a brow, watching the older wizard with suspicion before I knelt back down to the cub. I wanted to check it's age because otherwise, there was a good chance I'd be dying tomorrow of a deadly disease thanks to this little thing. This was the entire reason I was curious about it, no one really knew much about these thanks to the fact that they killed almost everyone who met them.
"What brings you around here?" I'd appreciated his skill in school but he needed something to come all the way out here. The last time I had seen him, he actually enticed me to come find Newt by telling me the exact office in which his brother worked in...he was crafty.
"Ara? Who-" Newt's head popped out of the case, peering at me with his wand drawn until he recognized the professor.
"Ah, perfect. Just the two people I wanted to see." He was happy enough to see us though, a small smile over his bearded face.
"What can I do for you?" Newt came all the way out now and walked over to me, as I looked back at the cub who seemed to be rather taken with me (thankfully)...otherwise I'd be dead. I really needed to watch myself when we were in hot climates, I seemed to do the most idiotic things.
My lips formed a straight line as Dumbledore took another step forwards, and the cub didn't appreciate it. The skin around it's neck puffed up, forming a spiked collar and I stilled my hand as it hissed at him. This little tyke did not like Dumbledore.
Maybe it was the beard? I was starting to think he'd been on his way to be sold when he fell out of the poacher's hands. Whether by accident or death, I wasn't 100% sure and I didn't want to find out.
"Ah, sir. Please stand back over there." Newt noticed right away as I moved back from the cub slowly.
"My apologies. I was hoping to discuss a proposition." Dumbledore stopped in his tracks, raising his hands slowly as if to say he didn't any harm to the cub.
"No worries." Newt nodded, as I glanced over my shoulder at him. I was expecting him to be making eye contact with Dumbledore but he seemed to only be comfortable to do so with me right now.
"And what is this proposition?" I raised a brow, regarding the professor with some amount of curiosity.
"Well, Hogwart's is lacking a proper Care of Magical Creatures book and I'd decided I knew the perfect pair to help such a cause." He resumed his smiling, as though this was supposed to sweeten the offer. We would have taken it even if he was only offering to pay us a single knut total but I did have questions about him already knowing we'd be here together.
"Really?" I raised a brow, studying him for a moment. I was looking for a crack in the facade of where he somehow knew all of this before I did.
"Truly, Miss Maximae." His smile didn't diminish, much to my disappointment. I glanced back down at the feeling of a rough tongue on my fingers, to find the cub had calmed himself down.
"Well...we accept." Newt elected to respond as I paid more attention to the cub than to the wizard. One could kill me while the other wouldn't dare, and that made one significantly more important to me.
"Lovely." Dumbledore declared as I slowly moved my hand out to allow the cub to rub himself against it if he wished too.
"Where are you off too next then?" Dumbledore actually looked excited for us when I'd glanced at him before I turned my attention back to the Nundu cub.
"Possibly South America to see the Peruvian Vipertooth." Newt murmured to the man, I nodded slowly.
"Fascinating." Dumbledore seemed to agree. I wasn't paying much attention to either Wizard right now, instead I was trying not to scream out of excitement that the cub had taken to me so well.
This opened entirely new avenues of study, no one could get this close to a Nundu that hadn't been stunned or killed. They generally grew to be gigantic leopards that moved silently despite their size and whose breath caused diseases that were strong enough to kill off entire villages. Nundus had never been subdued by less than a hundred skilled wizards working together...until now anyways.
"Excuse me." I mumbled as I moved to slowly pick up the cub, I was hoping I could take it to it's new enclosure because otherwise it'd surely perish out here by itself. It wasn't even meant to be in this region, much less as a newborn by its self.
NEWT POV.
In some part of my head, I knew I should have been paying more attention to Dumbledore but I couldn't force myself to drag my eyes away from Ara as she slowly scooped up the cub. The witch had me enthralled in some manner as she carefully made her way down the ladder, I watched her go down until the blonde wisps of her hair were finally out of view.
"Mr Scamander?" I realised that Dumbledore was attempting to speak to me, gaining some of my attention.
"Hm?" I glanced back at him, choosing to move my eyes to the side of his head out of habit. Eye contact was something I didn't enjoy with most people, their eyes were just simply uninteresting to me. They could speak, so why would they need to see my eyes? Creatures communicated with their eyes, and I had to see them to be able to understand them.
"I was wondering how you and Miss Maximae had gotten along." He repeated whatever he'd said as I glanced between him and my case, waiting for Ara to return.
"We get along well." I mumbled to him, I appreciated the offer but I was more concerned with my companion.
She was careful with the creatures and she cared about them as I do, it was a fresh breath of air compared to most muggles and wizarding folk. Sometimes I considered that the only reason she'd gotten so close was because she took the time to understand me, just like she had with our creatures. Unfortunately, however, I never found the right moment to discuss our...connection with her.
"I am happy to hear that." I forced my eyes back to the side of his shoulders when I heard her muttering to the Niffler she'd named Aurelius. I'd imagined she was slowly coming back out of the case which gave me some amount of relief. I didn't enjoy letting her out of my sight after she'd been taken in Switzerland.
"So, shall we discuss the terms?" Ara came to stand near me but she wasn't close enough for me to feel her. My eyes swept over her quickly, noting the way she'd kept her hair up in a bun on the top of her head with some twine she'd found a few days ago. She was inventive.
"If possible." I glanced back at Dumbledore who nodded. His eyes told me that he knew more than he let on but Ara cleared her throat, distracting me from focusing on that.
"Uh...right this way." I motioned jerkily back to the case with my hand. I think I liked this better when it was just Ara and I but we could do with any extra income possible. She was inventive but neither of us couldn't create food out of nothing.
Dumbledore had finally left after we'd all signed a contract he already brought with him, which left just Ara and I again. I enjoyed the time with her best but I wanted to talk to her about the fact that I'd kissed her. She made it difficult and I was starting to think she'd master the ability to distract me in our time together.
"Ara...I-" I started to try and speak to her again when she hissed.
"Aurelius, calm down. Its just a cut, silly." The sound forced my head to jerk over to her at the preparation table, the Niffler had begun clicking in a panic as she held her hand.
"What did you do?" I mumbled as I practically ran to her, grabbing her hand to inspect the damage. She hurt herself often enough that I'd stopped having a near stroke but that didn't mean I enjoyed it.
"I was just cutting up the ham but my hand slipped." She seemed apologetic enough as I leaned closer, eyeing the nicely sized chunk of her finger that was missing and the blood was slowly dripping from it.
"You-you need to be more careful." I sighed, looking up at her face with the intention to lecture her somehow. My eyes strayed to the remains of when I'd been too careless with her, the three scars stretched over her neck and shoulder. I tried my best but the wound's were contaminated with magic to the point she'd always have those scars.
"Its not like I try to slice myself up." Her whine came off as a petulant child, forcing a smile out of me as I laughed a little but my eyes wandered back to the scars.
"I should hope not." I nodded, staring into her eyes again.
"You know, I don't blame you for them." Her voice was so quiet I almost wanted to ask her to say it again but I didn't. I just stared at her for a little longer.
"I promise." She seemed to find me amusing as she smiled at me, squeezing the hand I was still holding. The sharp cry from Frank, distracted me once again which reminded me that I needed to tell her about the side trip to America before we'd be on our way to Peru.
"We won't be going to Peru immediately." I started with my eyes darting around the room for something to wrap around her hand before she sealed it up herself. She was talented in more ways than one...stop that, Newt. Thats improper to think of her right now, she didn't give you any evidence of such intentions with you.
"Why not?" She sounded like she had a feeling it just wouldn't be that simple anyways. She knew me too well. Ah! A clean rag, perfect.
"Its time that Frank got back to his home." I declared, grabbing the rag and wrapping it tightly around her hand. It fascinated me that no matter how closely I worked with her, I was always taken back at how soft her skin was.
"You're right." She sighed a bit, making me wonder what was going through that head of hers when I realised I still hadn't let go of her hand.
"Ara, we need to just talk about the..." I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't force myself to say kiss and i'd started off so strongly.
"Kiss." She finished quietly for me, I nodded with my lips pressed together. I was nervous, I wasn't sure if I should apologise for forcing that on her or if she'd found it enjoyable. I was too distracted by the feeling of her that I couldn't even recall if she'd returned it. I opened my mouth to say something else when her attention left me and she bent down, taking her hand with her. Of course.
"What is it?" She was speaking to the Niffler again. I eyed the little bugger with a small amount of annoyance as he clicked at her, I realised he was fond of her but I needed to talk about this with her, I needed to know what it really meant to her.
"I'm fine, see?" Ara held out her hand to him as he inspected it. The Niffler seemed to eye me for a second before speaking to her again in way that only Ara understood. It was fascinating but irritating at the same time.
"Honestly, he wouldn't just let me keel over." My eyes searched over her figure again in some attempt to understand her feelings towards me. She didn't seem repulsed by me, if anything she was just as comfortable to sleep near me like she was before. We'd spent a week together in this workshop while we'd tracked down another Erupment only for her to find a Nundu cub. I was starting to feel like danger was attracted to her every move.
India wasn't my favourite destination by any means, I didn't appreciate the muggle that had offered us his help. He paid too much attention to her and when we'd finally found him back at the village the next day, he was too concerned for her well-being despite me claiming to be her husband. I felt like I needed to establish some sort of dominance, like he'd been dabbling too close to what was my territory. Though I was happy we'd found the Occamies when we had, otherwise I feared that they'd have been taken by the bloody Americans.
"Right so. Off to America in the morning then?" She raised a brow, watching me as I realised I'd let my thoughts run away with me again. I glanced at the Niffler who had found a comfortable spot on her shoulder and was watching me as well.
"Right." I murmured. I found myself being sucked back into her eyes and vaguely wondered if she learned to do that to me or if it was just an innate talent of hers.