Notes: Hello friends! Sorry for the delay, but thank you so much for your patience! Also, friendly reminder this a story I'm co-writing with my friend DarkBloodyLilium. She's amazing, and she has some awesome stories besides this one that you should definitely check out. Enjoy :)

Newt POV

I kissed Kai. Kai kissed me. We kissed. I can't stop replaying the moment over and over in my head. I was so giddy after dinner, I could barely sleep last night. She kissed me! And it was amazing! Hmm, I wonder if maybe that's because of her siren magic. Maybe she's just had a lot of practice? I shake my head, dispelling those thoughts. Whatever it is, it's wonderful.

I head down to the enclosures ridiculously early in the morning, telling myself it's because I want to get an head start before we leave for Egypt, but mostly it's just because I can't wait any longer to see Kai. She's sitting on the edge of the pond and is lazily waving her tail through the water.

"Good Morning!" I call to her, grinning. She glances up at me and smiles.

"Newt! Good Morning," She calls back, and I melt a little. I want to kiss her again, but I don't know if she would want that, so I just plop down next to her. Pickett immediately climbs up onto her shoulder. She is amazing with the other creatures, I've never seen Pickett cling to anybody like he does with me. She smiles softly at him and kisses his head. I pout a little because I didn't get one, but I look away before she can see it. I feel her lean against my shoulder, and when I turn to look at her she leans forward and kisses me.

I smile against her lips, happily kissing her back. Kai breaks away a few moments later, giggling.

"What?" I ask her, and she shoots me a fond look.

"Nothing, you're just cute." She replies. "So, what are we doing today?" She asks, bouncing excitedly beside me, and I laugh softly at her enthusiasm.

"I was going to start preparing for our trip to Egypt."

"Aha! You're letting me come with you!" Kai says, grinning delightedly.

"Yes, but if you come you have to promise to be careful and to do exactly as I say. Okay? I don't want you to get hurt." I explain seriously. She nods, equally serious.

"I promise. This goes both ways though, I don't want you to get hurt either." Kai adds, locking her stormy gray eyes on mine.

"Yes, alright. I won't take any unnecessary risks or anything." I say, pretending to be exasperated, but internally, I'm dizzy with happiness. I've never had someone to come along with me on my explorations, and I've certainly never had someone worry about me like this before. I wonder if she'll enjoy this so much she won't even want to leave for Hawaii. I kiss her head, and then we eat breakfast together.

"What's Egypt like?" Kai asks, looking at me with an adorable, intrigued look on her face.

"Well, it can be very warm, and some don't like the sand, although I find it beautiful for some reason," I say, and she looks confused but nods. I laugh sheepishly rubbing my head.

"Sorry, I guess that doesn't really answer your question." I say, and she shakes her head.

"It's okay, I'm still excited to see it," She says, and plays with Pickett. I watch them for a little while, occasionally making notes in my notebook about anything we might need to bring on our trip, and Kai often adds things that I forget.

"I'm still not sure about having you come with me, what if it takes longer than three hours and you get sick again from being out of the water?" I voice my concerns, yet again. Kai rolls her eyes at my argument, the two of us could go back and forth on this forever.

"Newt, I told you. I'll be fine. I can be out of the water for up to six hours, you just insist on not letting me out of the pond for longer than an hour at a time." She says, scowling. I sigh and lean against her.

"I know, I know, but I worry." I murmur.

"I know, love." She whispers, stroking my hair. "But no matter what, I'm coming with you, so get used to it. Now come on, help me finish planning! We're going to have fun, explore, and possibly rescue some magical creatures!" Kai announces, poking me in the side to encourage me to get a move on.

"Alright, alright." I grumble, and the two of us head back to the workshop to start packing. "I need to find my passport, I can't remember where I left it. Hopefully niffler didn't steal it again." I mutter thoughtfully, ignoring Kai's amused smirk. I move around some papers from my desk, but the passport does not appear. Where could that little book be? I feel something tap my head, and I spin around. Kai is standing there holding my passport with a small smirk on her face.

"Thank you," I take it from her, and place a small kiss on her lips. She grins, and looks at around my work space.

"We should really clean this room," She notes, and I glance around the room, frowning. I guess it is kind of messy.

"I suppose we should clean it huh. Alright." I roll up my sleeves, and look at Kai. She ties her hair up, and looks for a place to start. "We could start with the chests, most of them are full of clothes and old books. It'd be good to get them sorted, and they would take up a lot less space." I suggest. Kai gives me a fleeting smile and gets to work opening and upending the trunks. I sit down beside her on the floor and we begin sifting through the old dusty books, the random magical artifacts, and occasional loose potion ingredients.

"Um, Newt? What is this?" Kai asks, holding up a tiny glass vial of yellowish powder.

"Don't drop that!" I yelp, and Kai clutches the vial to her chest, staring at me with wide eyes.

"What is it?" She asks, horrified. I reach over and gently take the powder from her.

"Powdered unicorn horn." I tell her, with a cheeky grin. Kai scowls and slaps my arm.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack, don't do that again." She says, and I stifle a laugh.

"Sorry." I reply, not really meaning it, and Kai shoots me a suspicious glare.

"You have far too many books." She observes. I shake my head.

"You can never have too many books, Kai. Especially when you're taking care of unpredictable magical animals. You never know what might come in handy." I tell her, distractedly flipping through an old transfiguration book from my years at Hogwarts.

"Why don't you have a book case then? And why are there random objects thrown in?" She asks, staring pointedly at a broken stick. I gasp in surprise.

"I thought I lost that!" I exclaim, grabbing the wooden piece. "It's my old wand!"

"How did you break your wand? And why do you still have it?" Kai wonders.

"I don't appreciate your judgmental tone." I reply. "And I'll have you know, this was my very first wand, I'm very sentimentally attached to it."

"Hmmm. Then why did you break it?" Kai asks teasingly, and I flinch.

"I didn't. An auror did." I answer shortly. Kai inhales sharply and places a comforting hand on my back.

"What happened?" She asks softly.

"I was expelled from Hogwarts, the school for witches and wizards, and my wand was broken as punishment. It was the worst day of my life." I tell her, the memories flashing before my eyes as I spoke. Standing on trial before dozens of angry looking witches and wizards in black robes. Professor Dumbledore pleading on my behalf. Watching my wand snapped neatly in half and tossed at my feet.

Kai continued to rub my back, silently offering her sympathy. With an effort, I forced a smile back on my face. "You know, technically, I'm not even supposed to have a wand anymore. Luckily, I managed to find a wandmaker in Italy who was willing to sell me one in exchange for a frankly ridiculous amount of rare blue phoenix feathers." I say, with false levity.

Kai gives me an understanding smile and thankfully doesn't ask any more questions, instead returning to the matter of sorting books.

The two of us work in relative silence for the next few hours, absorbed in studying the curiosities that have been sitting at the bottom of my chests for ages. Kai occasionally shows me a book or an artifact that she doesn't understand or finds interesting, and I happily explain them to her. After about three hours into our cleaning spree, Kai's voice pipes up from across the room and pulls me out of my thoughts, "Hey, Newt?"

"Yeah?"

"What's this?" She asks, and I turn around to see what she's found. In her hands is a dusty golden cup, embossed with a badger crest.

"That's from my school days at Hogwarts," I tell her then point to the badger. "That's the sign for Hufflepuff. It's the house I was sorted into, and stayed in while I attended Hogwarts."

She looks at the cup, and then at me tilting her head a little.

"What are the other houses?" she asks, and I proceed to fill her in on the houses and animals that are for each. She looks excited, and clutches the cap.

"What house do you think I'd be in?" she asks. I think about it for a minute.

"Hmm, maybe Slytherin? But then again, I'm no sorting hat so I could be wrong." I say, shrugging my shoulders a little.

"You think I'm cunning and ambitious?" She asks curiously.

"Definitely. Then again, you are also incredibly brave and bold, so you could be a Griffindor." I answer thoughtfully. Kai looks delighted.

"This wizarding school of yours sounds fascinating!" She says.

"Yeah, it is." I agree, but the words leave a slightly bitter taste in my mouth. Kai freezes and watches me carefully, but when I show no outward signs of distress she relaxes a bit. The past is the past, there's no use getting upset over it. Or at least, that's what I tell myself.

"You know, I think we've done enough cleaning for today. Let's go eat dinner, and we can work on cleaning and packing for Egypt tomorrow." I tell her, and she agrees.

"Would you like to help me feed the others, and then help make our dinner?" I ask her, and she jumps to her feet.

"Of course, let's feed niffler and Pickett first." Kai says, and Pickett agrees from my shirt pocket. I sigh. So much for not having favorites. We gather up their food and I feed Picket while Kai feeds the niffler. I love that she cares so much for the others, but I still wish she wasn't helping niffler with his mischief.

We work together efficiently, managing to get all the animals taken care of in less than an hour. "Wow. I don't think I've ever gotten everything done that quickly before. You are amazing, you know that?"

"I know." Kai says, and pulls me in for a kiss.