Hiya guys! I know, I know. I'm a day late! I'm ever so sorry.
I've been dealing with uni deadlines and uh. Well, there's no easy way to put this. I've had a flurry of doctors appointments due to a lovely little lump in my chest. Shouldn't be life threatening, so no worries! But it did get in the way of my updating schedule as I was just literally too exhausted to update, which I apologise for! But, I did sleep about 12 hours last night which seriously helped.
Also, fun fact about your writer! I started posting poetry to Tumblr under the name: gottawriteitallblr
So if poetry is your thing, drop by and submit some for me to read!
Anyhow, below is for those that reviewed last chapter so if that's not you, just skip it! :)
Bored411: Newt's mating dance is going to be great to write about, lol. I'm almost excited but also a little worried that I won't do it justice! It's not bad that you get a kick out of their squabbles, I do too! :)
Chlorose99: LOL. I do love building tension between these two. I'm glad you love the story, and if you're really that interested in a sequel, it's bound to happen! :D
Ivana Blackmouth: I'll keep that in mind. ;) I do hope you liked the occamy scene. It'll likely bleed over into the next chapter as well and yay for bold Newt! :)
Guest 4: I'm responding to both reviews from chapter 28 as I didn't update on time! As usual, I underlined bits and bobs so you know which portions I'm responding to. :)
I'm so sorry(not!) :D I can be pretty evil, if I do say so myself. Plus, I can't just give everything away! How would I keep everyone else on their toes? Though I appreciate you noticing the little details of their relationship together. I built those up from my own life experiences which-granted-has made some of my partners wonder why I'm taking notes on how they act/speak.
I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter that much! Though I've never bought one of the vinyl mini figures, which makes me wonder-why do you regret it? It's their eyes, for me personally, man-I can't deal with their eyes. They're too big, and black, and they have no pupils which creeps me out.
So relatable. I can't even tell you the number of times I'd slammed a door shut so hard because I was frustrated with something totally outside of that poor door and it's abilities.
As for Jacob and all of his little...quirks, well I swear he's actually a nice guy? Probably? You'll really get a kick of what I wrote about below.
No worries, I've had the same issue where I forget what a character looks like when I want to add in a sensory detail. I have to stop and go "wait...does she have blonde hair? Did I do that?" That's why I have a separate document for a 'character profile,' where I add in stuff like Hair/Eye colour and their height/weight. I also add in significant events so I keep them in character. Helped me big time with Jacob's pervertedness when I remember she was blonde and that Queenie's blonde too!
Now then, Newt's teasing...well. I have to admit I graced Tumblr for a bit of inspiration on canon Newt and his humour, came from a post called 'Newt Scamander isn't completely a cinnamon roll'. He swoops the swooping evil right into Jacob's face because he thought it'd be funny. He even giggles a little in the script, so I stole from the movie, of course. But I wound up sliding Ara in there since she was already a little peeved with his slight pervertedness under the sheets (ou-lala). I figured it'd help show just how comfortable they actually are with each other when they're in the suitcase.
I hope you have/had fun at Disney! I haven't been in Disney for ages and I feel like I ought to go back at some point, but Universal had so many more exciting rides!
GreyMoonHuntress: Ah! You're also excited for a sequel! Yay! :) I hope you enjoy this chapter too :D
Sunflowette: Oh gosh, I'm happy to hear it! I hope you love this chapter just as much :)
LoveFiction2019/firemadein789/CrystalWolfGuardain967/Guest 17: Thank you guys for reading and reviewing, these do fuel me. :D
Enjoy and happy reading!
"'Least Frank's still here." I muttered, using my wand to shield myself and my levitating buckets from the thundering rain.
He'd always produced it out of unhappiness or stress. As Newt came up to him to soothe him, I imagined he was quite famished by now which might have caused it. Though, the intrusion of an unknown Muggle likely wasn't helping his mood improve.
"His name's Frank?" Kowalski was shocked and appeared to still be getting over having an unknown creature screech in his face.
"I always thought he looked more like a Franklin, but that's just me." His eyes were wide as I nodded and peered at him while Frank's wings kicked up more dirt as he landed. I was beginning to notice just how pale the Muggle was despite how wet he was right now.
"Frank." Kowalski repeated the name to himself and nodded slowly. I raised a brow at that, but slipped my wand back into its holster once the thunderbird had quieted and the hot sun replaced what had been an angry downpour.
"You see, he's the real reason we came to America. To bring Frank home." Newt supplied while he fed Frank handfuls of grubs from his hand.
"Yeah, big beast might as well go home." I nodded as I stepped forwards, bringing one of the buckets of meat with me as I went.
"Might miss him though." I mumbled as the bucket came to a stop next to me and I focused on the meat. The three pieces followed my hand movements, flinging themselves up into the air while Frank took off after them, snatching them up with his beak before he began working on them after he'd landed once again.
"It's for the best." Newt appeared to have heard my mumbling and I glanced him.
I was taking in the way his eyes watched as Frank smacked the meat against his rock, softening it. He looked almost nostalgic despite the fact that he'd been the one to determine we needed to release him back in the wild. I suppose I just hadn't realised he'd be sad to see the bird go.
I glanced back at Frank to see his wings extended right before he seemed to get more agitated and began flapping them aggressively. "No, sorry—stay there—he's a wee bit sensitive to strangers." Newt appeared to have determined what Frank perceived as threat before I had, stepping towards me and extending his arm around me until I was tucked away from whatever he was talking at.
I leaned back from Newt to search for Kowalski, he'd apparently taken a few steps forwards, but now had his hands raised in surrender.
"Here you are—here you are." Newt worked away at calming Frank, using both hands to stroke his beak and face and releasing me from where I'd been corralled without realising.
"He was trafficked, you see. I found him in Egypt, he was all chained up. Couldn't leave him there, had to bring him back. We're going to put you back where you belong, aren't we, Frank. To the wilds of Arizona."
Slowly, I backed away from Newt as he calmed Frank down to the point the Thunderbird felt comfortable enough to go back to tenderising his meat. I watched as Newt took a step back as well while Frank ate the first bit of meat, starting on the next in the same fashion.
I had to admit it was gratifying to see he didn't spend nearly as much time softening the meat I gave him. He spent a good 10 minutes doing it when Newt fed him. Hah. I'm the expert tenderiser-my frenzy paid off, so I now officially had an actual reason to lose my bloody mind with a mallet.
"Newt?" I prompted him with his name and a wave of my hand to remind him that we still had to feed the Graphorns sometimes today. He looked over his shoulder at me, "right, right."
He nodded, going back to shove the bucket of pellets at Kowalski, "take these." Kowalski seemed to be able to only grasp the bucket before Newt leaned down and grabbed up the other two filled with meat.
Fair enough. I mean I was hoping he'd just call the Graphorns; I couldn't get my voice to go low enough for them to recognise me. But if he wanted to carry a bucket or two as well, I wouldn't complain-less work for me!
We walked with Kowalski trailing behind as I took one bucket from his hands, we made eye contact for a short second. But, that was all it took for us to communicate at this point in our partnership. He understood I was waiting for him to call the Graphorns when we neared their enclosure and smiled at me.
He cupped his hands to his mouth and let out a long, low roar, one that was deep enough to call them over before we came to a stop. I glanced back at Kowalski, making sure he hadn't fallen over while carrying the Mooncalves dinner.
He hadn't fallen over per se. Instead, he was attempting to swat away a Doxy that had begun to flitter around his head and it seemed to be having a bit of fun with him. He'd swat to the left and it'd dart away to his right to pull on his ear which left him swaying dangerously.
"Careful there." I warned, watching him come to a stop near us with a bewildered expression as Newt let out another roar, "huh?"
"The Doxy?" His bewilderment only grew as he stared at me and I sighed. "Well-the thing you just tried to swat? It has a nasty bite." I surmised motioning to the mischievous speck as it rounded his head once more before flying away after I gave it a dirty look.
"Ah—here they come." Newt mumbled, dragging my attention back to the pair of Graphorns that were slowly approaching. It didn't take me long to hop the fence of the enclosure and approach them slowly.
"Wait," I furrowed my brow, strolling forwards and leaning side to side in an attempt to spot the foal out of fear it'd been one of the creatures to escape. I stopped moving at the feeling of something rough tickling my right exposed ankle as it hung in the air behind me and looked back.
"Oh, thank goodness." I breath a sigh of relief as the foal sniffed my ankle curiously before attempting to find any hint of treats I might have in my pockets by routing through what it could at its height.
"Alrigh-alright! I don't have any for you, you know that." I crouched down slowly until I was at its height. It's large black eyes seemed to narrow at me in disappointment that I'd actually bothered to appear without any treats for it.
I leaned in a little closer as it seemed to almost huff, "that was supposed to be our secret. What do you think would happen if you give us away?" I whispered conspiratorially, nodding towards Newt who seemed to have...hugged Kowalski's arm? That was odd, but Newt was sort of odd as a whole so I shrugged it off.
"Shh." I whispered to the foal who seemed to catch my meaning and took a lazy seat on its hind legs, waiting for me to present it's treats. I gave it a small smile as I reached into my trouser pocket for the treats I always kept in my pocket.
It took me a second to pull out a crumbly cake of sorts without dropping any of the crumbs as it disintegrated. It consisted of some flour, blood, and other miscellaneous bits that were nutritious for the young as they grew. Glancing over my shoulder first, I made sure Newt was distracted before I offered it to the foal with my hand flat.
I'd had a horse as a small child and learned quickly that leaving any fingers sticking up might be interpreted as a particularly fleshy part of the biscuit. It's smaller tentacle's wrapped around the majority of my biscuit and slipped it into its mouth. Newt didn't approve of my hand feeding it as he felt doing so would 'make them expect that all humans carried treats in their pockets'.
"Ara?" I glanced back over my shoulder at Newt who was now motioning for me to come away. He was about to feed them and I nodded, the adults didn't like having us around when they ate-somehow it equated to possible competition.
"Alright, make sure you eat your dinner." I mumbled, stroking the foal's boney head before standing up and skipping towards Newt with a bit of a happy smile on my face.
"Yes, that's right. Rescue, nurture, and protect them," Newt nodded at the Muggle with a proud looking smile when I rejoined them. "And I'm gently trying to educate my fellow wizards about them. I've already got one student." I raised a brow while vaguely smiling, considering the term student for his relationship to me.
"Careful, or you might lose her after the next time you decide to tease her with a particularly distasteful creature." I snorted, pulling my wand out to begin throwing the meat out for the Graphorns. Magic helped me not get trampled in the process, learned that quickly after I narrowly escaped the enclosure with my limbs intact.
"I think she'd stick around regardless." Newt appeared to be daring me to disagree with his sly little grin, so I simply rolled my eyes and turn to focus on the Graphor-
Kowalski stared at Newt for a moment before he chuckled a little, "you sleep with all your students? I mean with your looks, that's probably a good way to ge-"
My mouth dropped open, utterly appalled as I cut him off. "We don't sleep together." I shook my head roughly, quickly holding up my free hand.
"But...I thought you two were...uh. Never mind, sorry. Forget I said anything." Kowalski frowned suddenly looking a lot less pale and a lot more red while I focused on flinging the meat into the Graphorn's enclosure with my wand out of its holster.
"You thought we were what, exactly?" Newt peered at Kowalski, looking a lot more curious than I liked. I bit my lip in an effort to force myself not to interrupt the Muggle again.
"Ah...just, uh. Well..." Kowalski had issues forming words as he resorted to just motioning at the two of us. I shared a mildly confused look with Newt who did the same to me before we both glanced back at him and waited until he could form a proper thought.
"Like, that." Kowalski pointed a finger at us, nodding.
I raised a brow, "like what?" Kowalski groaned and pointed at Newt and me again, stabbing his finger at us in the air.
"That! That thing you guys just did."
I stared at Kowalski for a good minute before sharing a look with Newt during which I wondered if he'd cured the Murtlap bite, but caused another ailment (like insanity) to arise at the same time. Newt shook his head after a moment, informing me that he hadn't done anything differently than he'd written about in his notes, so he was just as at a loss for reasons as I was.
"What did you have to drink at dinner, Jacob?" I posed the question softly, hoping that if I used a honeyed voice he'd be less likely to get aggressive when he was disoriented as he was. Perhaps he'd dabbled in a little alcohol? It couldn't have done his body any good in this state.
"I had water, look that doesn't matter. Do you two date anyone?" He groaned at us, shaking the bucket of pellets at me to which I raised a brow. I shook my head anyway though, crossing my arms over my chest despite the inclusion of my wand.
"No." Newt answered softly, studying the Muggles expressions intensely.
"Why not?" Kowalski raised a brow, motioning to us for an answer.
I simply shrugged, hard to pick up a relationship as a female that travelled alone with another male. Especially one that wasn't related to her. Though I'd come to realise that being alone with said male without any romantic connections to another person often messed with one's head. It made you start to...feel things that you normally wouldn't. I'm sticking to that story, mind you.
"Why would I need to?" Newt seemed to have come to the conclusion that he had everything he wanted already, not including a romantic companion.
"Uh...the Brits do know about um," he swallowed, a great big gulp sound travelled across the quiet to greet my ears. I raised a brow, gawking at the round bloke that seemed to be turning into a tomato before my very eyes.
"What?" I glanced at Newt, but my companion appeared to be just as confused as I was.
"You know." I stared at the Muggle once again. I was primarily confused about what exactly the British were supposed to know as he gestured at Newt with his hand in a circular motion. Did they know how to roll?
"To roll over?" I tilted my head as he shook his head, "to roll..." I thought for a moment, cataloguing all the possibilities, "the die-ta-to take a chance?" My brows furrowed when he still shook his head.
"Come on, you know." Kowalski turned to Newt while waggling his brows as though this explained his bout of lunacy.
"To fold clothes." Newt attempted, tucking his hand under his chin in thought when Kowalski groaned and smacked his hand against his head. "To ride a Kelpie!" Newt declared, as though he'd cracked the code and I gawked at him now.
"How is this," I mimicked Jacob's wave of his hand in a circle to Newt who frowned at me, "riding a Kelpie? He doesn't even know what a Kelpie is!"
"He might." Newt rolled his eyes at my exasperated mimicry, gesturing to Jacob, who stood there like he couldn't believe he was surrounded by idiots. "He's already ran into a Murtlap, whose to say a Kelpie is too farfetched?" I pursed my lips at that, he was right.
I turned to Kowalski in case I was wrong, he did seem to interact with creatures that most Muggles had the good sense to stay away from. "Do you know what a Kelpie is?" I raised a brow as he groaned again, shaking his head.
"I didn't mean anything like that! I meant do you know how to bend her over a barrel and show her the 48 states!" Jacob cried out, dropping the bucket by his feet with a loud clatter, seemingly frustrated with Newt as he shook his hands at him.
"Well then," I mumbled as I drew back from him. I was confused and rather offended that he'd actually said such a thing about me.
I reconsidered his words for a moment once the confusion had passed and snorted despite the confused glance Newt paid me. He meant sex. Of course! No wonder the poor bloke was so awkward and red-faced.
"There's no need to shout at her about the 48 states. And why would I show her the 48 states? Ara likely already knows about them, she's clever. I'd just point her towards a map instead of a barrel." Newt digressed, sounding a bit tetchy as he narrowed his eyes at Jacob.
"Jacob..." I pursed my lips, suddenly feeling not entirely comfortable with mentioning the possibility of Newt and me having sex. "I'm sure he knows about that." I nodded at him, as he peered at me for a moment before looking I'd uttered the words of the Gods into his ear.
"What do I know about?" Newt glanced between both of us as Jacob let out a long sigh.
"Good gravy, I thought you two were eunuchs or sumthin. Anyway-and I'm sorry for talkin' bout indecent things like this in front of you." He gave me a genuinely sorry look as I shrugged.
"You do recall that I pretended to be a man for a few years right?" I snorted lightly, hoping to diffuse the tense feeling in the air between the three of us right now.
"Right." Jacob pursed his lips at that, looking as though I'd desecrated his mother's grave by pissing on it.
"Oh, he meant sex." Newt noted quietly as Jacob blushed again at my words and glanced to Newt. "I'm well aware of copulation," Newt mumbled, shrugging with his shoulders tight.
"Yeah. That. My point was that if you uh. Liked having it, maybe you'd want to meet a nice girl y'know?" He shrugged, suddenly becoming quite awkward again while Newt shook his head. I wasn't sure Newt had ever considered anything like that in his whole life, though I noticed Newt had begun to blush as he stared at the ground.
"No, she's nice enough and I'm not sure this is entirely appropriate." Newt appeared quite bothered as he motioned to me.
I began to feel the need to leave this particular conversation with the way it looked like it was going and intended to do so quickly. I grabbed a hold of the bucket near Newt's feet and began backing away from them, Newt frowned at me as I went.
"I'm going to go feed the Hippogriff and uh. Maybe take him into the Mooncalf habitat?" I shrugged, jerking my thumb towards Kowalski, who was still looking even more red if that were possible.
I'd already had a good mental image of all the habitats and their whereabouts. I mean I sort of had too, otherwise I'd just end up wandering about and relying on Newt for everything.
I'd just been with Jacob and the Mooncalfs. They were quilling and he seemed comfortable enough for me to go feed the Hippogriff-which went fine. I'd just intended to actually go and check on the other animals, to mentally mark them down as present or missing. So how did I now find myself in the more temperate habitats?
I was a little frustrated with my disorientation, but a soft cry dragged my attention closer to a large nest that held all the occamy eggs. They weren't supposed to have hatched so soon, I thought but at the same time...we had sort of been distracted for the last couple of days.
"Ara?" I nearly jumped half a metre into the air at the sound of Newt's voice behind me and spun around with my hand over my head, "merlin!"
He gave me a small grin, "sorry. I was just over trying to get Pickett back into his branch."
"Didn't want to go, did he?" I snorted, shifting my body a little to face Newt as he held up his right hand, "not quite ready. I suspect he's still got his cold."
"Uh huh." I raised a brow with a small smirk, not believing his excuse for one second. Pickett always 'had a cold' just like Newt always claimed he 'didn't spoil him.'
"He might!" Newt flustered, moving his hand back to his shoulder to allow the bowtruckle to cling onto his vest once again. I opened my mouth to tease him this time, but another soft cry pulled both of our attentions back to the nest.
"Did they?" I posed my question half aloud as I stared at the edge of brown twigs. I was worried that I'd actually missed the birth of our occamies whilst being lost in New York City.
"One did." Newt confirmed, sounding just as regretful as I felt about missing such a sight.
"Oh," I sighed and pursed my lips as I strolled closer to the nest. Four occamies sat in coils, speaking their own little language to each other as I sighed. Damn it. We were missing two, and I didn't even get to see their births!
"We're missing two of them, then." I pursed my lips, not entirely focused on my companion as he came to stand next to me.
"Er. Actually, we're missing only one." He murmured near my ear, forcing me to realise just how close he was standing when I felt his breath on my neck. I stiffened ever so slightly, suddenly aware of every hair on my forearms as they raised.
"Theres...only four her-" I motioned lightly at the nest, turning my head slightly to peer at him and stopped. He was holding a single silvery egg in his hand, holding it out to me.
"I've been keeping him close. He's the last one to hatch and...I wanted you to see him." Newt ran a hand through his hair, holding his wand steady against the dirty blond strands.
"He still hasn't hatched?" I raised my brows, bringing my hands up to grasp the egg with a careful touch.
"No. He hasn't." Newt shook his head softly and I could see his eyes studying my every move from the corner of my eye as I brought the egg closer.
"I wonder why not," I mumbled, inspecting the egg for any imperfections as I held onto it. All of his siblings had, so why hadn't this little guy? I could feel a steady heart beat against the shell, he wasn't a stillborn. Perhaps he was just shy, or a late bloomer.
"Maybe he-" Newt began but the egg quickly silenced him as a crack suddenly formed. I let out a quiet gasp with a small smile lighting my face whilst the occamy inside the egg decided he needed an audience to make his entrance into the world.
Apparently the extra incubation time did him well as his beak made short work of cracking the egg open while we watched on in awe. He mewled softly, blinking once as Newt and I gazed at him with slivers of his egg cracking and falling to the ground beneath us.
"It seems he just needed you." Newt noted with a soft whisper next to me and I simply grinned, too enthralled with the wee creature coiled in my hands to speak.
"He's perfect." I declared, offering him to Newt as I knew he considered himself the 'mummy' to all his creatures. We both agreed that mums ought to be the first to hold their children but to my surprise he shook his head.
"You don't want to hold him?" I raised a brow as my grin shrunk into a frown, confused with this new change in his personality.
"No, uh. He-he's yours, if you want him. Of course." Newt took a step back, motioning at the pair of us with an unsure smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
"I'd love to have him." It didn't take me long to grin once more. I turned my gaze downwards, away from the Magizoologist and back to the little creature I suddenly had under my wing. A soft tug at my hem of my trousers reminded me that this wasn't the only creature I had depending on me.
Oh shite. I hope Aurelius is ready to share.
My next update goal is: April 4th, 2019.
Alright so...there were questions from the reviewers above which I'd love to answer!
But...they are spoilers for this story and it's upcoming chapters/sequel.
So stop bloody reading if you don't want to hear about them!
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Alright! You can't say I didn't try, it's on you now, mate.
So, this is mainly to Guest 4 as she had the most questions about the sequel, but it should answer everyone else's as well. :)
After this whole movie thing, I'm thinking they'll just go ahead and go after the Peruvian viper dragon thing. It'd definitely help build up the relationship, y'know? But I also have to consider the fact that with Credence's whole 'lets destroy New York because I'm angry', Newt gets deported back to the UK. He's also basically on a watchlist afterwards. I've yet to think of a way to deal with that since the mooovie doesn't even touch on it! The bastards.
The lion-cub-thing will be used when they're recapturing the creatures, actually! I'd planned on having a scene where the little guy got a bit curious and ventured out into the world where they end up finding him! :)
Speaking of the recapturing the creatures scene, I am ever so sorry but I haven't decided on keeping Jacob or ditching him! If I keep him, I promise it'll be for comedic purposes, so please don't tear out your hair! It tried so hard to grow on your head and it likes it there. (Mine's been constantly falling out, *sigh*)
As for le marriage, well...probably not but I'm not giving it away right now! They're so bloody awkward that I feel like Queenie or Dumbledore would have to smack them over the head with a newspaper and go: 'COMMITMENT. THINK ABOUT IT, YA BLOODY IDIOTS.' Plus, it'd definitely keep Theseus's mind off of possibly pursuing Ara.
I do hope to continue on to a sequel, I really do and with how this is going, I'm thinking I will! So no worries on your wishes affecting me like that. :)
But! This is all I'll give away this go around as I like to keep my readers wondering! You guys do come up with some brilliant ideas in the mean time between chapters. :)