Always

Family

A second one of the day but slightly shorter.

"Hey, you guys Breakfast's ready!" Jacob bellowed from the top of the stairs to the basement but neither Newt nor Tina paid him any attention as they prepared to sing to the creatures in a futile attempt to soothe them. The nifflers had picked the lock, yet again, and run rampant through several enclosures unsettling everything from a baby acromantula to hippogriffs. Newt had woken up slightly earlier than he usually did with an odd feeling in his gut, a feeling that something was wrong and wove through the house checking everyone was okay, starting with Tina who was curled up on her side facing him and working his way through the other residents. Newt knew he was being paranoid but it was now over a month since Grindelwald's last major incident and usually, when there was a gap in attacks their group was the first to be targeted, they had hardly made friends with the Acolytes. When he got to the creatures he saw what must have set off his senses. Several fluffballs were darting all over the place and many of the creatures were making distressed noises and stamping or lunging for the nifflers. Knowing he wouldn't be able to calm all of them without risking injury to himself, the creatures or the nifflers he hurtled back upstairs and shook Tina awake as gently as possible. He briefly explained what was going on and in seconds they were running back downstairs while transfiguring their clothing into something more practical.

Starting with rounding up the nifflers Tina used her locket to get them out from under the larger creatures paws and hooves and Newt crouched by their cage shining several galleons in the artificial starlight of the basement. Thankfully the shine of both Tinas necklace and the galleons were too much for the tiny creatures and only needed some tempting to jump back in their enclosure. However, they now had around twenty grumpy creatures who had been awoken in the depths of sleep all growling, cawing and stamping moodily.
"Mercy Lewis thank Parcelus it's the weekend" Tina had muttered under her breath at the agitated reception
"Definitely" He had murmured back, pushing his sleep rumpled fringe out of his eyes fruitlessly. A quick lap had shown that this would take teamwork. He shot Tina a shy grin and asked
"Hippogriffs? She had returned it with a tired smile and picked up a bucket of dead ferrets
"Gotta start somewhere"

Now it was several hours later and the stars had been replaced by a pinkish sunrise. Thankfully the majority had calmed down but there were a set few that kept ruffling feathers or growling. So Newt asked Tina
"Maybe we should sing?" Tina looked taken back and stammered
"Sing?"
"I-It sometimes works and honestly I'm running out of ideas, they were more  unsettled than usual but I'm assuming that's due to being woken up"
"Oh, Um Sure?"Tina replied uncertainly "What song?"
Newt racked his brain for a song when the melody of a muggle tune, an American jazz song, that had been on the radio yesterday as he worked entered his head.
"Do you know When You're smiling?"
"The Muggle song? It was on the radio in the office the other day" Newt raised his eyebrows and Tina cleared her throat from beside him and looked up expectantly
"Oh When you smilin'" Newt began and Tina joined in at the tale end
"When you smilin'" they continued in harmony, Newts own accent clashing slightly with Tinas in a surprisingly pleasing way
"The whole world smiles with you" Tina had lost the worried look and had moved so they were facing each other as they sang, the creatures were starting to coo in a reassuring manner. Making a split-second decision Newt stepped towards Tina and took her arms in his before swaying them gently to invisible music. Tina looked surprised but they began to sing again.
"Yes when you laughin', When you laughin'" He span her gently and she giggled in the middle of the line
"Yes, the sun come shinin' through"  The growling was starting to cease and a few of the augerys had started to chirp cheerfully. They locked eyes then continued to sing
"But when you cryin', you bring on the rain'
So stop your sighin' baby, and be happy again" Newt span her again just to hear that giggle once more
"Yes, and keep on smilin', keep on smilin'" They slowed to a halt and remained stood there with a circle of creatures around them with their arms drew up in front of them and sang the final line with shy smiles on their faces
"And the whole world smiles with you" as they finished Tina burst into happy giggles and Newt couldn't help but chuckle too. The creatures were all watching them, completely enraptured and gathered in a circle around them. Dougal seemed to be most intrigued and was watching them with abject fascination.

The sun still hadn't fully risen so the entire basement was a beautiful array of oranges and pinks, true beauty, but Newt was more focused on the beauty in front of him. Tina still had a wide smile on her face and her hair had pieces of straw in it from the creatures and she looked perfect.
"Everythin' okay Newt?"
"You're so beautiful" Newt blurted out in response before feeling his cheeks heat up exponentially.
"Really? I've been up since four and probably have straw in my hair" Tina chuckled resting her palms on his chest.
"Beautiful" Newt reiterated tucking some of the loose strands behind her ear at the same time as plucking some of the straw out of it. The brunette studied him momentarily and opened her mouth to say something when another voice appeared
"FIDO, TINA, BREAKFAST! FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN YOUR TOAST IS GOING SOGGY!" The circle of creatures broke apart and started ambling to their separate enclosures to reveal Theseus Scamander with his hair perfectly waxed and toast crumbs on his upper lip.
What's he doing here?
"Theseus don't you have your own home to have breakfast at?" Newt asked exasperated.
"Yes but neither Leta nor I can cook so we don't have fresh-baked pastries. So stop being romantic and come have toast" Theseus spun on his heel and began to walk up the stairs. Once Newt thought he was a safe distance away he turned back to Tina, still not letting go and asked
"How is he married?"
"I heard that Fido!" Theseus called over his shoulder as he ascended the stairs
"Smug bastard" Newt murmured causing Tina to chuckle and then reluctantly let go of his arms
"I am quite hungry though" she whispered back making Newt sigh and begin to walk towards the stairs his brother had just ascended. When they entered the kitchen everyone was halfway through their breakfast and eyed them with curiosity. Well everyone bar Queenie who immediately began to squint at the brunette beside him and state the replies out loud.
"Oh Honey 4 AM? Oh, I hope you got them settled alright! Oh, you did! Singing? Does that work? Oh, only you two would dance while you're singing to a bunch of creatures. Aww Newt that's sweet' Queenies responses were becoming commonplace so Jacob asked
"Queenie Sweetheart could you let them fill in the blanks?"
"Course, Sorry" Queenie giggled and then looked at both Newt and Tina expectantly. Newt didn't particularly want to divulge their private moment to the breakfast table and one swift look at Tina made it clear she didn't want to either.
"We're good thanks Queen" Tina mumbled before taking a bite of toast
"You two are no fun" Tina inclined her head and Newt murmured
"That is the word on the street" with a small smile.
"This is a lot to process this early in the morning" Leta grumbled into her mug and Theseus patted her shoulder soothingly.
"Why are you both here?"Newt asked his brother and Theseus sighed exaggeratedly
"I thought I already told you Newton"
"Thee-"
"Fine. Last night Leta and I were talking about Christmas traditions and I remembered us decorating the tree when we were small and I thought- maybe today we could cut down some trees and decorate your house together. Then Leta and I will decorate ours"
That does sound pleasant
Looking to Tina for some frame of opinion he saw the excited grin and the fire in her eyes and knew what to do.
"Sounds great Thee"
"Wait-Really?"
"Yes, I haven't had a Christmas tree of my own since we decorated them together. It never felt right to do it on my own"
"You haven't had a Christmas tree since you were sixteen?" The question came from Jacob and Newt shook his head
"I've decorated my basement and case before for the creatures, I have lots of spells for that but I've never done it for me"
"Well that settles it, We Mr Scamander are going to do it all" Tina stated
"Tee did you bring the ornaments from New York?"  Queenie asked before taking a sip of coffee
"I brought everything so-yes" With his mind drifting back to the Nifflers he blurted out
"Do your decorations have unbreakable charms on them?"
"No?" Tina replied
"We'll need to do that because nothing attracts Nifflers more than baubles and I'm sure you'd rather have your decorations all in one piece by January"
"Of course, a lot of our ornaments are Ma and Pa's" Queenie mumbled

There was a comfortable silence until Jacob said
"We're gonna have to get Nagini before we go, she ain't never done nothing like this"
"Of course honey. It's our first family Christmas and we can't have anyone missin' out" Theseus chuckled and repeated
"A family Christmas"
"Of course. Like it or not we're family"  Queenie answered and to Newt's abject horror to reestablish the message Theseus wrapped his arm around Newt's neck and caught him in a headlock.
"DAMN IT APOLLO"

The women looked on rather unimpressed by the men's childish actions. Over Theseus' unrelenting chortles Newt heard Leta sigh
"Family"
"Yeah, what a delightful mess" Tina replied with the smile evident in his voice
A mess indeed