Chapter Text
Ba-Boom!
Newt let out a yelp abruptly awake, his legs tangled in his sheets as he rolled over to blink in shock at his bay windows. They shuddered in the winds and as a flash of purple lit up his heaving chest Newt pulled at his damp skin to release himself. After a minute of struggle he swung his legs over the edge of his bed and moaned. He rubbed his hands across his eyes and flinched as the thunder rolled through his room knocking all hope of sleep from his mind. He hated this, the fear that flashed behind his eyes at every thunderous boom, the fear that at any moment a scaly tentacle would burst through his doors and drag him from his bed. Out into the ice cold rain and roaring wind, where they could find him.
The one human the kaiju had communicated with.
The wind picked up and Newt turned his back on the storm padding through to his kitchen to pour himself a cup of day old cold coffee. His eyes automatically drifted over to the workstation on his coffee table. At first he had checked his messages obsessively, swapping emails with Mako, with Raleigh, checking the status of his samples with the lab assistants, and discussing the future of the sciences department with the faceless bosses. But now the messages went unanswered, the calls ignored.
The only message he had hoped to receive had never arrived and Newt found he had no motivation to answer anything less than that.
Newt took a sip of the stone cold drink and winced. He took one large gulp before throwing the remains down the sink, splashing his hands. He slammed the mug on the counter and wiped his hands on his boxers, his skin prickling on his bare chest and legs. Newt sighed. It was colder here in the kitchen and yet his skin burned. He leant on the counter and glared out at his balcony. After a minute or two of staring and trying to ignore the lingering twisting cramp in his thoughts he scratched a hand through his hair, standing straight up with grease. He had stopped showering at some point; in fact he had stopped doing most things.
After the intense high of VK-day and the four days of celebrations after that he gradually found that nothing really seemed to appeal to him anymore. Newt scoffed; victory over the kaiju day, a worldwide holiday with him and Hermann at the heart of it. And what did he have to show for it? A department hovering on the edge of being shut down, a shitty one bedroom apartment, and no fucking Hermann.
He growled and stormed to the windows, throwing the french doors open and grabbing the railing. The wind whipped rain into his flesh and Newt yelled out into the night. Here were no lights on in the street and the wind ran circles around the buildings, throwing itself into a frenzy which pulled at Newts hair and turned the rain to a hail of bullets. For a moment he through about letting go of the railing, about letting himself be thrown up into the air and away from this, away from his stagnation and away from the shadow of his lab partner of ten years.
A car door slammed below him and Newt opened his eyes, unaware that they had even closed. He looked down into the street to see a long black car slide away and around the corner. He shook his head and turned back to his apartment, closing the doors behind him. His skin was so cold now it was numb. Newt walked back to his bedroom and grabbed some clothes. He glanced at the clock, it was 2 am. He considered going back to bed for a few minutes before scoffing and heading for the bathroom.
After a hot shower and a fresh pot of coffee he resigned himself to slogging through his messages. He sent cheerful replies to his friends, congratulating them on their upcoming nuptials and thanking his lab assistants. As he scrolled through the messages he found a string of increasingly urgent sounding emails from Herc. He opened the last one and read without breathing.
Newt,
Look, if you don’t get to this meeting tomorrow the brass is probably going to shut you and Dr. Gottlieb down. It’s at 1400 in the conference room at the shatterdome. Just let someone know you’re coming. I can understand of after everything you went through that you wouldn’t want to go anywhere near the kaiju again but there is an entire team under you two and I don’t want them to lose their jobs because you decided to hide away somewhere. I contacted Hermann but he never said if you were coming.
I hope you make it
Herc
Newt sat back in his chair and let out a shaky breath. His mind raced. He though back to VK-Day and the outpouring of joy in the shatter dome. He thought about the third day after where the brass had made it down and Herc had been in meetings all day. He had taken his lunch in his office that day and Newt had planned to head down to find out what was happening to the department.
He thought about when he had passed Hermann in the corridor.
His friend had been locked in his cabin since the night of the victory. Newt had thought maybe he was just sleeping since he had seemed so exhausted that night, Newt had helped back to his cabin and Hermann had let him. He still remembered the sweet slightly spicy scent of his shampoo as he held him to his chest, and the softness in his face as Newt turned to leave. Newt remembered the last words his friend had spoken to him that night.
“We did it didn’t we Newt”
He remembered his reply, a twist of regret in his gut.
“We sure did Hermann.”
He wished now that he said more, maybe if he had said something about the storm that burst and broiled the back of his mind then maybe he wouldn’t be sat in a drafty apartment all alone.
He remembered how his stomach flipped as Hermann called him Newt, and the affection and wonder in his voice. Newt moaned as he thought about Hermann in that fucking corridor. His eyes had not met Newts when he greeted him with a friendly “What’s up buddy?” and he had not spoken. He just shrugged and scuttled past Newt as fast he could. At the time Newt had simply though Hermann was in one of his moods, maybe he was as worried as Newt had been about the future of their work, excited about the possibilities the victory had given them.
But that was it wasn’t it. He had been thinking of a future that included them both whereas Hermann had apparently been planning to disappear four days after VK day in the dead of night and without so much as a goodbye to his partner.
Newt’s stomach turned and he got up from the console to pour himself another coffee. He had dressed himself in a simple black t-shirt and his most comfortable too long jeans. His bare feet sunk into his carpet and Newt sat down on the floor. He had tried not to but his mind would not stop replaying the weeks after he left the shatterdome. He had planned to stay until they kicked him out but after two days of sitting in his lab staring at the empty spaces Hermann’s things had occupied he too fled the dome.
He had packed a bag and picked up a newspaper from a street vendor outside the dome. He found his apartment, the first listing on the page and called immediately. And this is where he had stayed.
At first he tried to carry on as if everything was fine, as if he didn’t feel a sense of overwhelming sadness at the back of his mind. Occasionally he would send an email off to Hermann hoping to get a reply. He had left no contact number so luckily there were no pitiful late night drunken calls but after two weeks of nothing he had given up on the pretence of acting like he didn’t miss him. Another week and he gave up on emails altogether. As the bureaucracy deepened around his department and he was given more and more confusing answers he gave up asking the shatterdome for help to find his friend.
He eventually resorted to trying to send his thoughts, his feelings of loss through the link he was sure was still between them and yet he still felt only pain and sadness.
Tears began to roll down Newts cheeks and he sniffled, rubbing his hands across his face. He was being pathetic. If Hermann had wanted to see him he would still be here. He had obviously just been waiting for his chance to lance himself of the biologist. For a moment Newt had considered perhaps he had died but he had discarded this scenario because he was certain that he would know.
He just would sense it if Hermann was gone forever.
Newt put his hot mug against his chest and wrapped himself around the warmth. He had left his glasses on his bedside table and so he was free to rub his face into his arms to wipe away his tears.
Yes, he was pathetic. What else was there to call a fully grown man who had fallen in love with his co-worker almost nine years previous and who was sat on a rented apartment’s floor crying because he partner didn’t secretly love him back after all?
It wasn’t like Hermann had ever given him any inkling he felt anything more than grudging respect for his work.
Ba-BOOM!
The entire flat lit up with blinding purple light and Newt scrabbled across the floor to press himself up against his kitchen counter. He pulled his knees to his chest and closed his eyes. Tears dripped down his cheeks as he tried to calm the panic thundering in his chest. The lightening storm must have been directly above him at this point because the rolling thunder came immediately after each flash and his floor shook with the force of the storm outside. Newt yelled out as the deafening roar tore through him and he covered his ears. He felt fear building at the back of his mind and he began to moan to himself.
“Nononononono”.
Another flash of light and Newt shuddered. Except this time after the thunder had its way with him the rumble didn’t stop and Newt opened his eyes? Lightning flashed again but this time Newt wasn’t hiding. He was heading to his door. Someone was pounding on it from the outside and Newt ran his hand across his face pressing his body to the wood throughout the wave of thunder. The door vibrated with the force of the other person and Newt hesitated.
He felt trapped. His only options were to face the fury of the storm or to face the fury of his mystery visitor.
Newt cowered as the lightening flashed again and reached for the lock. He had only realised it for a second before he was flung backwards. The storm boomed overhead and Newts heart leapt to his throat.
Stood in his doorway, soaking wet and bright red in the face was Hermann.