Newt hadn't seen much of either Tina or Tolliver in the last few days. This was intentional. He had spent most of the days in the office of his basement, working on his manuscript. He knew Tina and Tolliver were up in the living room together. Nagini and Jacob had started spending more time in the basement to give the two of them some privacy. Bunty had been showing them how to help feed the creatures.
Bunty hadn't been there the day Tolliver arrived but they had met the next day. There meeting had been nothing special, Tolliver didn't pay too much attention to her.
He doesn't pay much attention to anyone but Tina, Newt realized. He was staring at the pages in front of him but his mind had drifted.
"Newt."
Newt looked up to see Bunty coming into the room.
"You said you'd introduce me to the Zouwu today."
"Oh, right," Newt said. He got to his feet and sighed. "Give me a minute."
He left the office and started up the stairs. He was going to ask Tina to help and he didn't know how she would react. Since the day Tolliver had come, they had spent pretty much every second of the day together. Newt reached the door to the living room and glanced inside. Tina and Tolliver were both sitting on the couch. They were turned towards each other and were talking quietly. The smile on Tina's face was genuine and beautiful. Newt had never seen her looking this happy before. As he watched, Tolliver leaned forward and kissed Tina gently. She returned the kiss. Newt wanted to leave. He hated seeing Tina kissing someone. However, another part of him wanted the kiss to end. That part of him won.
Newt cleared his throat and stepped into the room. Tina started, pushing Tolliver away from her.
"Newt!"
"Tina, can I borrow you for a moment?"
Tina stood up. "What for?"
Newt shifted his feet awkwardly and stared at the floor. "I -- I promised Bunty I'd introduce her to the Zouwu and I'd like you there to help me keep it calm."
"Uh -- I -- Sure. I'll come."
Newt looked up to see Tina approaching. Tolliver got to his feet.
"Can I come?"
Newt glanced at Tina. She had turned and was shaking her head. "No, sorry. This . . . No."
Tolliver looked put out. "Alright. Well, hurry up and come back soon so we can finish this conversation."
Tina offered him a smile then followed after Newt.
"I haven't seen much of you recently," she said as they made their way down the stairs.
"I've been working," Newt said. "And you were with your boyfriend. I assumed you'd want to be spending time with him." He was fighting to keep the resentment out of his voice.
"Oh." Tina was silent for a moment. "But I like spending time with you too."
They stopped and Newt glanced up at her. She offered him a smile. He smiled back.
"Come on," he said.
They found Bunty and went to the Zouwu's enclosure.
"Wait here," Newt said to Bunty. He motioned for Tina to come with him. They entered the enclosure and approached the Zouwu. It looked up and bounded over.
"Hey, there," Tina laughed as the creature nuzzled her.
Bunty was standing in the entrance an awed look on her face. Newt motioned to her and she started forward slowly. The Zouwu started reacting to her presence. It pulled back, making unhappy noises, and butted Newt. He jumped back. Tina moved towards it, hushing it soothingly. It began to calm down just as Bunty reached them.
"Shh, it's okay," Tina murmured.
Newt motioned for Bunty to reach forward. She did slowly and the Zouwu pulled away. Newt and Tina shushed it, gently running their hands through its mane. It moved forward hesitantly, slowly pushing its head into Bunty's hand.
When the Zouwu was finally comfortable with Bunty, they left the enclosure and she went back to her work. Newt started towards his office but he felt Tina's hand on his arm. He turned waited for her to speak. She seemed a little unsure of what to say.
"I -- uh -- Walk me back up to the living room," she said slowly.
Newt hesitated. "Alright," he said. They started up the stairs. He noticed that they were walking very slowly. Tina seemed to be dragging her feet.
"Is something wrong?" he asked quietly.
Tina looked up, a mildly surprised expression on her face. "No, why do you ask?"
"You're walking very slowly."
"Oh, no. Everything's fine," Tina said, smiling at him. "I just -- I don't see you anymore and I know that as soon as we get up to the living room you'll vanish again."
"I'm giving you time alone with your boyfriend," Newt said softly. "Isn't that what you want?"
Tina shrugged. "I don't need to be with him all the time."
They had stopped walking and were standing on a step in the narrow stairway.
"I thought you'd be tired of being around me by now. I'm not very good company," Newt said, avoiding her gaze.
"I could never get tired of being around you."
Newt felt himself blush. He glanced at Tina. The staircase was very dimly lit so it was hard to tell if she was blushing too but he suspected she was.
"If anything, being around Achilles is tiring. He's a lot to handle. I start feeling exhausted after a few hours around hi--"
Tina broke off and Newt was afraid that she was going to run away like the last time they had spoken about Tolliver. However, she stayed put. There was a moment of silence.
"I shouldn't be talking about Achilles like that."
Newt shook his head. "It's fine. I'm not surprised you find him tiring." He was speaking without thinking. "Jacob said that Queenie said that he's a taker and you're a giver and--" He broke off as well, suddenly realizing what he was saying.
"I know what Queenie says," Tina murmured. There was a pause. "What does she say you are?"
"A -- a giver."
They slipped into an awkward silence. Eventually, Tina broke it.
"I wanted to talk to you . . ." she said slowly. ". . . about Queenie."
"Yes," Newt prompted.
"I -- Do you think she's alright?" she asked.
"I'm sure she's fine," Newt assured. "We'll be able to rescue her eventually."
"But when? How long am I expect to wait? This is my sister we're talking about, not just some random person who we need. And what about Credence?" Tina said. "I mean, we're just sitting here, wasting time that could be used to search for them. Why can't we just go? Why aren't we doing something?"
"I know how you feel, Tina," Newt said quietly. "I know this must be frustrating for you but we can only be patient. Dumbledore knows what he's doing."
"He's not doing anything!"
"Shhh . . ." he soothed. "I know it seems that way but he is working." He paused. "You need to trust him. He believes that if we tried to move against Grindelwald now he would kill us all, and Queenie and Credence would probably die too."
Tina didn't respond. Newt glanced at her, studying her intently. They were standing on the same step and, since Newt was hunched over, were nearly eye to eye. He studied her face, admiring her features and the way her hair framed them. His eyes traveled up to her eyes. She was staring back at him.
"Tina?"
Tolliver's voice floated down the stairway. Tina broke the eye contact and looked up the stairs.
"Coming," she called. She offered Newt a smile and hurried up the stairs.
Newt sighed and slowly followed her. She vanished into the living room but he slipped up the next flight of stairs and made his way to his room. He pushed opened the door and nearly bumped into Jacob.
"Oh, sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't know you were here."
"No, it's fine," Jacob said. He noticed Newt's face. "Are you okay?"
Newt looked up. "Of course."
Jacob frowned. "No you're not," he said, shaking his head. "Come on, what's wrong."
Newt sighed. "I -- it's -- it's --" Newt stammered. "Why is it when Tina's talking with me we're always having a serious conversation about what upsets her and she's nearly crying but when she's talking with Tolliver she's always happy?"
"Because Tolliver wasn't there. He didn't see what she went through. I don't think he even knows what she went through. She doesn't want to tell him about it," Jacob said.
"But then why does she talk to me about it?"
"Because you know what she went through and she trusts you. She knows that you'll protect her and do everything you can to make her feel better."
"But I only manage to make her feel worse," Newt pointed out. "She's nearly always upset after a conversation with me."
"I know, but that's only for that moment. She usually looks a lot happier a few minutes after the conversation because she's talked things through and understands them now. When she talks to Tolliver, she's just pushing all those emotions and negative thoughts away but when he leaves, they all come back to her and she's left miserable."
"How do you know?" Newt demanded.
"I can see it in her eyes," Jacob said. "And you would too if you would just stop studying the creatures in your basement and study the two of them for a bit."
Newt frowned and sat on the edge of his bed. "I don't want to study them. I hate seeing them together. They're always touching and he's always kissing her, even when she clearly doesn't want to be kissed. I hate the way he looks at her and the way he almost never says anything to the rest of us. He only has eyes for Tina and he seems to act like she needs to be with him every second of the day. It makes me --" He broke off, realizing what he had just been saying. He could feel the anger bubbling up inside him.
"You know, there's a word for that feeling," Jacob said. Newt stared at the floor, avoiding his friend's gaze. "Are you going to admit it, or am I going to have to say it for you."
Newt raised his fist and let it fall heavily to the bed beside him. "Alright. I'm jealous. I -- It's just, after I left New York, I wrote to Tina as often as I could. I loved reading the letters she sent in reply and I didn't understand why they just stopped one day. I didn't know what I had done wrong. The next thing I know, you and Queenie show up at my house and she tells me that Tina thinks I'm engaged and so she started dating Tolliver.
"We went and found her but she was so cold to me. Once I figured out what was wrong I was able to explain the mistake and it seemed like everything was going to be fine. Then we lost Queenie and Tina was miserable. I did everything I could to comfort her but she kept pushing me away. She finally started to open up to me and Tolliver shows up. I hate how she's so happy with him. I hate it."
Newt was crying but he didn't care.
"She's not really happy," Jacob said. "If you'd just look at her you'd see that her happiness isn't genuine. I saw her reaction when you asked her to go help you. That was the happiest I'd seen her since Tolliver showed up."
Newt shook his head. "It's no use. I can't compete with Tolliver. He has so much to offer her and I've got nothing. She's chosen him and she loves him. She doesn't love me."
Newt was staring at the floor so he didn't see Jacob shaking his head sadly.
Jacob sighed. "If that's what you want to tell yourself then fine but I think you should try to watch Tina and see how she really feels about Tolliver."
A/N: This is a kind awkward ending but, without the author's note, the chapter is exactly 2000 words long and I couldn't resist ending it like that. Besides, I need to go to bed. I hope you enjoyed. Please vote and comment.
Please pray for me / wish me luck because I've got a really stressful performance tomorrow afternoon. We're going off campus which is always a hassle and we're going to this church to perform, both the Chorale and the Wind Ensemble. Apparently, the whole program has been structured very strictly and the whole thing is going to be recorded so I'm really scared we're going to mess up.
Anyway, have a good day!
Bye!