December was fully upon them before they knew it. Snow filled the streets of New York; mistletoe hung from doorways; the smell of pine needles was everywhere. Christmas was in the air.

"We don't really celebrate Christmas as a holiday, you know," Queenie chattered one snowy and bright afternoon as she cooked in the kitchen. "Teenie and I, we sort of honor it. But we celebrate Hanukkah."

Newt looked up. "I hate to be an unintellectual, but what exactly is Hanukkah?"

Tina laughed and tucked a loose strand of her black hair behind her ear.

"Jewish holiday. Also known as the Festival of Lights." She explained with a smile, rolling some sort of dough in her hands. "We'll tell you later. Don't worry, Jacob's coming as well, he doesn't know about it either."

Whatever Queenie and Tina were making, it took a whole afternoon. Newt used this time to go down into his case and care for his creatures. He took him a longer time than usual.

"Hey."

Newt jumped, almost overturning a box of leaves. Tina stepped backwards.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you!" she said.

"No, no, it's fine." Newt patted the place beside him, inviting Tina to sit. So she did.

"Listen." She started talking again. "I've been meaning to tell you about those nightmares-"

Newt immediately turned to her, focused. Tina's nightmares were something he found very disturbing.

Tina smiled a little smile, looking slightly like Queenie. "I think I know where they came from. It was the dark, possibly, and… well. That night in the rain, you told me I was compassionate." Here she blushed, obviously remembering how Newt had kissed her that same night. "I started thinking, I wasn't compassionate enough towards Credence."

"Tina-" Newt said.

"Listen to me. And when I started thinking about Credence it sort of all came back to me."

She waved her hand and shivered slightly, despite the warm weather in the case.

Newt reached out and put his arm around her shoulders. Tina twitched with surprise but didn't pull away.

"Anyway." She finished. "Thank you for helping me. I don't know what I would have done."

Newt remembered how peacefully she'd slept as she leaned on him, seeming so much younger and less stressed in her sleep.

"Anything for you." He said, giving her an awkward little smile.

Tina blushed again and looked down, kicking her feet.

"Right." She answered. "Well, she should be getting back up. Queenie'll be real disappointed if we don't try a sufgania."

This time, Newt didn't even bother ask what that was.

A sufgania, apparently, was a round fried ball of dough with a filling of jam and a dusting of powdered sugar.

"It's a Hanukkah food." Tina explained, blowing on one to cool it down and then biting into it.

Newt tentatively nibbled some of the oily pastry. It was very squishy, and his tongue was met by a flood of shockingly-sweet strawberry jam.

"Hmm." He said. "It's… well, different from what I'm used to."

Tina raised an eyebrow, a smudge of powdered sugar above her upper lip. "You can say you don't like it."

"I didn't say that!" Newt replied. Then: "You've got sugar on your-"

Tina raised her hand, positioning it questioningly before her face.

"On top of your lip." Newt told her, pointing.

Tina wiped away the smear and started laughing.

"I'm sorry." She said, as Newt looked puzzled. "It's just you told me almost those exact words when we said goodbye. Last time."

Newt smiled softly. "Good thing we don't have to say goodbye now."

He set his sufgania down on his plate, as if to punctuate his point.

December 18th, this year's date for Hanukkah eve, was on Sunday. Queenie spent the morning frying latkes.

"Potato pancakes." She explained to Newt, grinning at his surprised expression.

"You Jews have such strange food."

Queenie shrugged with a smile. "They taste pretty good, though."

Tina pulled all sorts of things out of closets: an object with nine pipes poking out of it; a box of candles; a few four-sided spinning tops painted with foreign letters.

"Hebrew." Tina said, brushing off dust. "I have no idea how to read it. But… it's traditional."

"Tradition." Newt nodded. "Right. Tell me, when is Jacob coming?"

"Soon enough. We'll have a little Hanukkah party."

"It doesn't count as a party if only Newt and Jacob are the guests." Queenie insisted from the kitchen.

Tina sighed with relief. "Thank god, that means I won't have to wear a party dress."

Newt looked up at her, curious. "I've never seen you in a dress."

"Yeah you did." Tina said. "You know, that one time with Knarlack?"

"Yes, well, that was a bad experience for both Pickett and I so I've attempted to block it out of my memory."

Now that Newt thought about it, he didn't really want to block that time out of his mind. He recalled Tina's discomfort in the club; the way she'd smirked proudly when she'd told him about the people she'd arrested; the sad smile on her face as she'd talked about Credence. Their experience there together may have been slightly upsetting, but it was one of the times when Newt realized how truly amazing Tina Goldstein was.

Tina shrugged, and Newt shook himself out of his little stupor.

"You don't like dresses?"

"Not really." Tina shook her head. "Uncomfortable. Make for very non-useful clothes during an Auror chase."

"I can run in heels and dresses." Queenie remarked. "All you gotta do is have a bit of practice."

Tina chuckled. "Too late for that."

Newt ducked his head, looking at the objects Tina had taken out. Wondering what each of them was needed for.

"Come on, Newt," said Tina. "Help me get out the decorations."

Two hours later, The Goldstein apartment was full of laughter and chatter. Jacob had come exactly at five o'clock, bringing with him some hand-baked pastries and a huge grin.

"How're you doing, Newt?" he asked, hugging his friend. "I haven't seen you for almost a month!"

Newt grinned. "Blame Tina and Queenie- they've been keeping me all closed up in here."

"Like jailers! Say, how'd you face that dark spell a little back? Brr, those were a creepy couple of days."

Newt immediately glanced at Tina. She'd stiffened to the memory of the nightmares that had plagued her during that time, but her happy smile didn't waver.

She was, despite her dislike, wearing a dress. This one was simple midnight blue fabric, though, as opposed to her fancy frock from the Knarlack incident.

"Hey Jacob." Newt said. "Tina and I were just talking about that time in the pub. Remember?"

Jacob chuckled. "How could I forget?! I punched that goblin-man in the face! He had a real sharp nose."

"We drank Gigglewater." Queenie added.

"Meanwhile, Newt and I were bargaining over information about Dougal the Demiguise and evading MACUSA." Tina raised an eyebrow jokingly. "I wonder who was having the more productive day."

Newt sat aside from the conversation now, watching the Hanukkah candles flicker. Tina had explained to him that this was the tradition of the Jewish holiday- to light one candle and a Shamash (lighter candle, apparently) every night for eight days. This was to commemorate the lighting of the Menorah in the Jewish Temple after it had been rescued from the hands of Greek conquerors thousands of years ago.

Newt gazed at the dancing fire. From what Tina and Queenie told him, it seemed there had been a lot of suffering and bloodshed during that incident. All of history was stained with wars and struggles and death. Newt, as the brother of a war hero, hated battles. Hated fighting. Hated hate. That was part of the reason he'd chosen to find Beasts and educate his fellow wizards to treat them with kindness and respect.

"Newt?" Tina touched his shoulder.

Newt turned. "Yes, sorry. I was just… thinking."

"About what?"

"Wars. How the world is full of killings and troubles and misery."

Tina sat down next to him and put her hand on his.

"Not at this second." She said, the light reflected in her shining eyes. "At this second, I'd like to believe there's no struggle anywhere on earth."