No Better Version of Me Than When I'm With You

Chapter 9

"Beautiful, aren't they?" Newt murmured.

"Yeah, they sure are."

For several long moments they stood in silence, gazing at the slow-moving, peaceful jellyfish. Then Thomas looked over at Newt and his best friend looked back at him, a ghost of a smile on his face. "Ready to go see some penguins?"

For the next couple of hours he and Newt wandered the aquarium that only got busier as the day went on. It wasn't long before they were standing before a large tank of sea turtles with families and students on field trips surrounding them. Despite the crowds, though, Thomas still felt a sense of singularity, as if he and Newt were in a universe of their own as they milled about the other people. Once, Newt got jostled by someone walking by and stumbled sideways into him. Automatically he grabbed his hand, locking their fingers together to hold him up. He stabilized quickly, but neither of them let go after that, letting their fingers stay loosely intertwined as they made their way back to the front of the aquarium to find the stingrays.

By the time they found their way to an empty table at the aquariums cafe with an overpriced sandwich and drink for lunch, Thomas studied Newt once more. He took in his relaxed posture, neutral expression, and noticed the dark cloud that had hung over him for days had finally gone away. He was coming out of his episode, and while he may not feel fully better, he knew he'd distracted him enough from his own mind to enjoy life again.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Thomas asked before taking a bite of his sandwich. The bread was drier than the desert.

Newt's gaze flicked back to his from where they'd been wandering around the cafe. "I'm glad we did this."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Think we both needed a day to get out of the house for a bit - after everything." A wry chuckle huffed out of him and he shook his head slightly.

"Wasn't sure you'd want to come," Thomas admitted, "really glad you did, though."

Newt's genuine smile at his words, in all its crooked glory, was enough to make the whole day worth it.

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"Y'know. . .I think it's time we do something about the ceiling." Newt commented the next Friday evening over the rim of his mug of tea. His hair was tied messily half up to keep it out of his face, as he still had yet to get a haircut. Thomas thought the longer his hair got, the more he liked it. He knew Newt was annoyed with it as he could only just tuck it behind his ears at the best of times, but several of the strands that he'd attempted to tie up refused to stay in place, and fell across his eyes. He reached over and pushed the stray hair back, and Newt shot him a grateful glance.

"Now's as good a time as any." Thomas finally replied, agreeing wholeheartedly that they needed to do away with the popcorn ceilings. It was old and cracking and full of dust they could never quite get rid of, not to mention it stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the moderate improvements they'd made to the house like painting the walls something other than off-white. "I've wanted to get rid of it as soon as we moved in."

Newt chuckled, nodding as he sipped at his tea. "I know you have. And now that we're relatively settled here and fixed all the really important stuff, it's time."

"You sure you don't want to fix up the garden this weekend instead?"

Newt considered for a second, his expression darkening briefly. He shook his head, "We've already started the cleanup, so it shouldn't be too hard to get it back into something workable within a couple of weeks. Let's call around and find someone who can get the ceiling done."