Axolotl scientists! Slight color variant under the cut.

Imagine you get on the train. You’re heading home. Sitting across from you is a guy, just reading. He’s wearing a leather jacket. He’s got tattoos peeking out from under his sleeves and up over his shirt collar. He’s got a visible scar on his forehead

He’s wearing thick-ass nerd glasses. His t-shirt has Godzilla on it. The book he’s reading is on some kind of advanced bioengineering, dog-eared and marked to hell. He’s got a pen in one hand and is obviously ready to scribble in it some more

He’s got a scuffed skull ring on his pinky and a shining wedding band on his ring finger. There’s a scarf draped around his neck, green and white, patterned with dinosaurs, and a matching hat on the seat next to him. Both are obviously handmade. The hat has a pompom on it

“i’m not playing truth or dare,” hermann scoffs, taking another sip of his beer and leaning more heavily against newt’s side than he intends to, probably.

they’re up on one of the shatterdome observation decks. the party itself had been bigger, not because of the occasion but because there were drinks and music, and it had wound down to the people newt actually considered his friends.

he thinks about telling hermann he has to play truth or dare, because it’s newt’s birthday and that’s what newt wants, but at the end of the day he doesn’t want to demand or dare hermann into anything. he doesn’t want the rules of a game to force him to tell the truth, either.

“what about never have i ever?” newt asks.

 hermann frowns thoughtfully and then, miracle of miracles, he nods.

“okay, okay,” tendo slurs. “never have i ever... made out with a cis dude.”

“jumping right to it, huh?” newt asks as mako and hermann take sips of their drinks.

“what else is this game for?” tendo replies with a wink. “you’re up, mako.”

“never have i ever...” mako sticks her tongue out and scrunches up her face as she thinks. “had surgery. can i use that? am i mean?”

newt takes a sip of his drink, as do tendo and hermann, and he pats mako on the arm.

“stop exploiting me,” newt says. “no, i’m just kidding. never have i ever had a dick. wait, shit, no one’s done that one.”

“debatable,” tendo says. “you don’t know what words i use. or what i have in my bedside drawer.”

“oh,” mako says, “then maybe i should drink too.”

“i changed my mind,” hermann says. “i don’t want to play this game either.”

thanks anon, I’m a sucker for some engagement shenanigans of all sorts <333

------

Hermann’s been doing his research online, trying to find the perfect ring. Everything seems to fall short, or he doesn’t understand what makes each ring so special. Honestly, if he has to go through one more website to research ethically sourced diamonds he thinks he’ll have to call off his entire relationship. Ethically sourced diamonds are fantastic, but he doesn’t even want to buy something with a diamond.

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The first time Hermann sees Newton’s back, he’s startled.

He’d known, on a certain level, that Newton doesn’t have any tattoos back there, but there’s a difference between knowing this and seeing the sudden shock of pale skin, punctuated only by a few stray tendrils of ink and what look like a few hundred freckles.

He loves the view instantly.

It feels almost silly, certainly a bit nonsensical, because if Newton isn’t wearing a shirt then of course his torso is completely uncovered, but something about the clean skin at his back seems more naked for the lack of ink. It seems more vulnerable, devoid of armor or protection, and Newton lets Hermann see it. It feels both sacred and immensely satisfying.

[a little bit of not sfw below the cut]

Maybe the weather took a sudden turn, or maybe the air quality’s particularly bad that day, or maybe Newt just forgot to take his goddamn medication that morning, whatever. He’s been a tiny bit wheezy all day, but is that any business of Hermann’s? Absolutely not. Newt’s fucked up bronchioles are his own business, thank you very much

Except then they get to arguing, which is fine, and then they get to shouting, which is fine, and Newt’s getting a little wheezier, which is fine, actually, and then he starts coughing between making points, but he’s fine – And Hermann’s looking at him sort of funny, like, are you okay, or…?

And then Newt has to break for breath mid-sentence, which ends up coming out something like, “Okay, you listen, if I have to—[gaspCOUGHRATTLEwheeeeeeeze]—tell you one more time–”

Hermann forgets the argument entirely in favor of trying not to panic and demanding what the hell kind of fucked up biological contaminant Newt has surely released into the air from one of his specimens

He’s trying to decide if they should lock down the lab or call medical or lock down the lab and then call medical when Newt holds up one finger and shambles his wheezy ass over to his bag, which he jams his hand into, pulls out an albuterol inhaler, takes a couple of puffs, takes a minute to cough out all that gross congestion, and then–

goes right back to yelling at Hermann, except twice as fast as before (beta-agonists, amirite?)

Except Hermann’s still not picking up the argument, because now he’s on about “Do you have asthma? You have asthma and you didn’t tell me? You have asthma and you didn’t tell me and you continued shouting at me while having an asthma attack?”

Newt tells Hermann he needs to chill out. He does this between puffs of a second dose from his inhaler, so it’s not as reassuring or cool as he seems to think. Hermann doesn’t chill out

After that, whenever Newt is wheezing and refuses to stop what he’s doing and use his inhaler (it makes his hands shake, which means he can’t do some of his work, so he tends to hold off on using it as long as possible), Hermann marches over to his coat, yanks out the spare inhaler he bullied medical into giving him, and hucks it at Newt’s head. Occasionally from point blank range