Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey guys! I'm SO sorry about the long time it took to update. I've been super busy with life and stuff, but now I have a while of vacation so hopefully I'll have some time to write more. This chapter was long and stretched over a writing period of, like, weeks, so it may change styles in the middle. And I made a few Sherlock references (see if you can find them). Apart from that I'm delivereing the news that there will probably be only two or three more chapters to this story. More on that later. Enjoy!

A few days later it was December 31st and Queenie was backing bags.

"Where are you going, exactly?" Tina questioned her, hands on her hips.

Queenie smiled, showing deep dimples in her cheeks.

"Jacob and I are going upstate for New Year's weekend." she said. "Isn't that great?"

Tina frowned. "You should've asked me-"

"-To do what? Let me go? Teenie, you're not really in charge of me anymore."

"I know that!" Tina growled. "I just meant that- argh, never mind!"

She stomped off to her room but returned an hour or two later in a much better mood.

"So." She asked. "It'll be just me and Newt on New Year's Eve?"

Queenie nodded. "Only you two."

"Oh, Okay."

"You aren't going to be all flustered about that?" Queenie asked, slightly surprised.

Tina smiled and ducked her head. "No. Not anymore. Not after Christmas Morning."

"So Newt confessed it?"

"What?"

"How he's in love with you."

"Queenie," Tina laughed, "You really should stop reading people's minds."

Queenie crossed her arms. "I can't always HELP it, Teen."

Tina smirked kindly and didn't reply.

Jacob arrived at five-thirty exactly. He kissed Queenie on the cheek, nodded at Tina and hugged Newt like the old friend he was. Queenie waved goodbye (with a wink at Tina) and the two left with her suitcases.

The apartment seemed jarringly empty now. It was only once Queenie was gone did Newt and Tina realize she'd played the radio almost all day. The sound had registered in their subconscious because they were so used to it, and now everything seemed too silent and too quiet.

There was a bit of tension between the two of them; not because they'd confessed to eachother the night before, but because awkward silences do that even to the closest of friends. And now the clock sounded as though it was ticking loud as thunder, and neither knew what to say to the other.

Newt coughed. "Would you want to-?"

"What?"

Tina winced. She'd interrupted him unnecessarily harshly out of nerves. Why couldn't she just be more calms and collected, like Queenie?

"Oh, I'm sorry if I startled you." Newt said kindly. "I did sort of speak out of nowhere."

"No, it's fine." Tina bit her lip. "I'm just very edgy, you know?'

"So am I."

She smiled swiftly, still nibbling her lip. "So. What was it you were asking?"

"Oh." Newt blinked. "I wanted to know if you'd like to come with me into my case. It's feeding time."

Tina let out a breath. He wanted her to come with him into his suitcase. That was it. She didn't even know what she was expecting, but she felt a little relaxed- and slightly, oddly, disappointed –that that was all he was asking.

"Sure." She said, with a small smile.

Newt nodded slowly. "Right. Good."

He awkwardly crouched over his case, clicking the lock and throwing it open. Tina could see the ladder leading downwards, disappearing from her line of vision into the enchanted case. Newt held out his hand to help her down; she raised her eyebrows and descended the ladder herself. With a sheepish nod and shrug, Newt dropped his hand by his side again and clambered down after Tina, as if by afterthought.

The case was at the temperature of the apartment, so neither of them felt uncomfortable as they hopped off the ladder. Where they stood it was sunny and bright; Tina could even see rays of faux sunshine illuminating a few lazing creatures. She spotted the Niffler dozing in his makeshift nest, surrounded by shiny objects. Hand on her Star of David necklace, Tina decided to let it sleep.

Newt's palm brushed hers; she jerked it away automatically. Looking up, Tina cringed and bit her lip again. Newt seemed surprised and a bit hurt by her pulling away.

"Sorry." She said. "Instincts. I can't help it. Once I almost jabbed Queenie in the nose with my elbow because she put her hand on my shoulder from behind."

He nodded quietly, but didn't try taking her hand again. So Tina reached for him, fingers brushing his, hands clasped in the lightest touch. Almost like butterflies on her palm.

"It's fine." She said. "I-I don't mind. Do you?"

He shook his head. "Me neither."

They'd held hands before, Tina recalled. And hugged, and kissed. Twice. But yesterday night's confessions had made their relationship into something fragile, like delicate spun glass. It was beautiful and Tina thought it was amazing, but neither knew how to handle it properly quite yet. They needed some time to learn how to carry the glass with them in a more casual and knowing way. For now, Tina was just brushing the spun glass surface. And it started with butterfly palms.

"So." She said, after a few seconds of hand-touching silence. "This case- how do you do it?"

"Do what?" Newt asked, glancing at her.

"The weather. The different climates. This whole place." Tina gestured with her free left arm, carefully gentle so she wouldn't disrupt the metaphorical butterflies brushing against the skin of her right hand.

With a small grin, Newt scratched his head. "Well. It took a while, and a lot of magic. But generally it thanks to a lot of spells. And my mother."

She laughed. Newt loved it when she did that. He'd been informed by Queenie that Tina didn't laugh all that much. This time felt like a big accomplishment.

She was so beautiful and happy, he wanted to keep her laughing forever.

"That's some pretty powerful magic." Tina said after a few moments. Newt shrugged.

"I suppose."

"Then again, you are a pretty powerful wizard."

He looked at her oddly. "Thank you."

"What?"

"I've just never been called a powerful wizard before."

"What do people normally call you?"

"Oddball."

She gave a snort of amusement. "Well, people are wrong."

Wrong. Tina had said it such a sure way, as though it were obvious that Newt wasn't really strange. As if naturally the others were wrong and had gotten an incorrect impression of him. Newt didn't really care what other people thought. If Tina and Jacob and Queenie accepted him and loved him for who he was, then he was content.

Tina craned her neck to look above her. "So the weather changes in different parts of the case?"

"Um. Yes." Newt grinned softly, ducking his head. Like this, with her head stretching up and his low, she was almost taller than him.

"That's very impressive." She said. "I wish I could do that."

"Oh, it is rather hard."

"I assumed it would be."

Newt let go of Tina's hand. She cocked her head, as if asking why. He grimaced at her surprised expression.

"Sorry." He said quickly. "It's time to feed the creatures."

Tina nodded. "Right."

Newt was secretly very pleased that Tina wanted to help him feed his beasts hands-on. She was a little skittish and wary of them, but that was completely natural. Not everybody could feel as home with animals as he did.

It took them a bit more than an hour to feed all the creatures and make sure they were all in good shape. Newt took Tina to see the Occamies- she was as in awe of their majesty as always. He wished Frank was still there for the zillionth time, but not because he missed him (though he did); Newt knew how amazed and enchanted Tina had been by the Thunderbird last year, and he wanted her to have the opportunity to get closer to one and meet it. Oh, well. He supposed some things don't always go your way.

"Newt." Tina said, straightening from her crouched position over the Occamy nest. "That's all the creatures, right?"

He tossed the last handful of food pellets to the mooncalves. "Yeah, that's all."

"So do you want to… go out to dinner with me?"

"Just… just the two of us, you mean?"

"Well, yes. Because Queenie isn't home and neither of us can cook very easily."

"Oh. Right. Sure."

The streets were already dark, but swarming with people. It was New Year's Eve, after all, and many citizens wanted to spend the night outside until midnight. The darkness and the humanity around them pressed down on the two like a box.

Newt bit his lips and breathed deeply, his fear of large crowds flaring up again. He couldn't see where each person ended and then next one began, everyone blending into one huge mass of pulsing existence. The dark made the whole thing invisible and unbearable. Newt closed his eyes to prevent himself from hyperventilating. His stomach turned as Tina's tight grip on his wrist was the only thing keeping him from clapping his hands over his ears and trying to get away.

"Hey. Are you okay?" Tina asked all of a sudden.

He shook his head, gulping, not really trusting himself to speak.

She took control, leading him firmly out of the midst of a crowd and to the side of the street. There, by a grocer's store and a small coffeeshop, Newt managed to catch his breath.

"Newt." Tina said, worried. "Was that your fear of crowds?"

He panted. "Yes. That was my Agoraphobia."

She fell silent for a second. Then: "You should have told me it was that bad! I wouldn't have taken us through this street! Oh, Newt, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. I wasn't expecting this. I haven't had such a bad attack in years now."

It took a while for Newt to calm his erratic heartbeat. By then Tina had popped into the inches-away coffeeshop and returned with hot cocoa for the two of them, steaming in the chilly night air.

"What time is it?" Newt asked, sitting cross-legged on the pavement and warming his hands with the hot cup.

"Around eight." Tina replied, sipping her cocoa as she settled beside him. "Only four more hours until 1928."

He was silent for a moment longer, then said: "How about that dinner?"

They sat at a nearby restaurant and ate some simple potato pie so heaped up with spices that Newt's tongue burned for ten minutes straight ( though Tina insisted it was downright bland. Then again, she'd ate that pie in a few different occasions). Candles were lit along the sidewalks, illuminating their faces in the softest and gentlest way imaginable. They talked about so many subjects Tina lost track of the conversation as she watched candlelight flicker in Newt's reflective eyes. It seemed as if the two were set apart from the rest of the world, just them and the candles and the food and nothing else.

Then, when midnight arrived earlier than she expected and fireworks exploded in the air, Newt took her hand and held it tight. Not out of fear or concern. Out of affection.

It was that moment when Tina felt that in that evening, the spun glass of their relationship could finally be handled without any fear of breaking at all.