Whenever You Want Me.

"Eventually soulmates meet, for they have the same hiding place."

~Robert Brault.

The ground was crusty with sawdust, bird droppings and feathers of every hue: tawny, snow white and inky black.

He hadn't expected to find her here, sitting by the window on the icy flagged stone floor in her leather MACUSA coat and the same pyjamas he had seen her wear in New York.

Her dark bob was sticking out in all directions like a restless nundu's mane and her usually fiery salamander eyes were bloodshot, staring out at the black lake and the hills surrounding Hogwarts...hills that seemed to go on and on forever, encapsulating them in a world of their own.

Her face was a little red and blotchy like she had been crying recently and the dark circles underneath her eyes matched his own.

Even then, Tina Goldstein was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Watched by what was surely over a hundred pairs of curious amber eyes, Newt made his way across the owlery amidst the hooting and the flapping of wings, approaching her not dissimilar to how he would a wounded animal.

The owlery, it had been his childhood hideaway when the world became too much – and now Tina's refuge too.

Despite the tragedies and horrors that had befallen them and those closest to them in the past twenty four hours, something about the pair of them unknowingly having the same hiding place gave him a warm fuzzy feeling deep inside.

But now wasn't the time nor place for fuzzy feelings, because...Merlin, they'd lost so much.

He wasn't sure what he should say to her, or where he should even begin to express his sympathies for Queenie's decision to join Grindelwald.

Newt wasn't exactly good with people. Even with the best of intentions, he usually ended up saying the wrong thing altogether which, at best, resulted in him annoying everyone.

But for some reason the urge to be there for Tina Goldstein after all they had lost overwhelmed, at least for the moment, any internal-qualms over social awkwardness that he had so readily cultivated after thirty years.

She understood him didn't she...Tina would know that his concern was only for her welfare.

"I - uhhh, was wondering if you—umm needed anything after yesterday, someone to lend you an ear or something? Only if you want to of course", Newt mumbled, rushing the entirety of the sentence out in a way that had him internally berating himself for sounding like a schoolboy talking to the girl he fancied for the first time.

His ears pinkened at the thought and how, if he was being honest, it wasn't all that far from the truth.

"Hey", Tina whispered quietly, looking up at him with a watery humourless smile in greeting. She shuffled over giving him enough space to join her at the window.

Usually she would detest even the mere thought of anyone seeing her this vulnerable.

She was an auror, a protector. It was her job to maintain the balance of justice and defend the defenceless.

But after yesterday, keeping up the appearances didn't seem all that important anymore.

She had failed Queenie, the only family she had left. She had failed to stand by her sister when she needed her most. She had failed to love and support her even when she had promised her parents on their deathbeds that she would do just that...look out for Queenie no matter what.

But Newt...the wonderful English man she had never seen coming until he had rooted himself firmly in her heart, Newt wouldn't be fooled by any facade that she would put up to make herself appear tough.

Tina knew that would see right through her mask to her broken heart that lay still 'tick-ticking' in her chest.

Wordlessly, Newt took a seat next to her. Almost immediately, he could tell from her demeanour and the way that she curled in on herself, her chin on her knees, that Tina didn't want to talk as he had suggested...at least for now.

But that would be alright, he wasn't really one for talking either.

In a moment of sheer boldness (or possibly insanity), similar to when he had touched her hair before departing New York the previous year, Newt reached out across the stony flag and lightly touched her hand.

His warm and calloused freckled fingers touching her cool porcelain ones.

Tina glanced up at him, hearing the words that he either didn't have the courage or feel the need to speak.

(Perhaps, he thought she would understand his communication better in this way).

It didn't matter though because she heard him loud and clear:

'I'm here for you, whenever and if ever you want me'.

Please leave me a review! Hope you are having a lovely day wherever you are

Pearlydewdrop xx