Stories of Our Life [Volume 1]

7: "Did You Just Kiss Me?"

Today, Tina had decided to help Newt with his creatures. This was her fourth time helping him ever since he came back after nearly a year since they last saw each other. On the day after he came back, Tina had decided to help with his creatures, admitting that she did miss them despite her denials. That earned a cute pout from Newt that made her laugh and her heart melt.

"You didn't miss me?" He had asked her, pouting as he led her to see the bowtruckles.

Tina laughed and shook her head with a teasing smile. "Nope, never ever. I only missed your creatures!" she replied, though inside, she was literally yelling 'I missed you with my entire being, Newton Scamander!'. If only she had the guts to tell him.

Tina walked down the steps that led to Newt's wonderful paradise after hanging up her coat on the stand by the door. It had been a very exhausting day for her and she knew that spending the rest of her day with Newt and his creatures would definitely get her energy up and running. In truth, this was just a lousy excuse to get close to Newt more. She closed the lid above her and exited the small shack where Newt usually keeps his herbs and foods for the creatures. She stepped out of the door of the small shack and inhaled the air of Newt's wonderful wonderland.

She walked down the steps and began to find Newt. She found him with the erumpent, who had just given birth a few days back. She found him playing with the little erumpent as its mother slept in a corner of its enclosure. Tina smiled as watched him play, leaning against the wooden entrance. Suddenly, Newt looked up with a smile. That smile made Tina's insides turn and her face heat up and is likely to explode. The man in question stood up from his kneeling position, dusted off the dirt on her pants, and then shooed the baby erumpent away to its mother. Tina giggled as she watched Newt flail his arms about to get the baby erumpent to go back to its mother. When it did, Newt joined Tina by the entrance.

"Well," Tina chuckled as Newt came to stand beside her, "that was something."

Newt chuckled as well. "Yes, it is. Seems like that little bugger is kind of energetic. I expected it to at least sleep for a few weeks."

Tina nodded with a smile. "So, where do we start today?" she asked as they left the erumpent enclosure.

"I'll let you start with the occamies today since they're your favorite," Newt replied as they neared his shed. Tina smiled at that and nodded. They entered the tiny shack. Tina began getting the buckets for the food while Newt started picking leaves and chopping meat. He dumped each in its respective bucket. Newt handed Tina the small bucket of dead insects for the occamies and the bucket filled with the pebbles for the mooncalves. They both went to work straight away.

Tina headed to the occamy nest. It had gotten slightly bigger over the year. When she arrived, the occamies perked up at her presence. Tina smiled and placed the bucket with mooncalf feed on the ground and reached a hand into the bucket of insects. She pulled her hand out, which was now holding a dead cockroach. She was internally cringing but, hey, she can do it. The occamies began moving about wildly at the sight of food.

"Alright, alright, calm down!" Tina cooed as she tossed the roach in the air and watched it be caught by one of the occamies with its beak. The rest who didn't get to get it seemed to whine (if they could). Tina chuckled and took another dead insect, a small moth this time, and tossed it again. She did the same thing over and over until she knew there was one occamy who didn't get an insect.

It was the occamy she helped find and capture.

She named it Macy, after the name of the department store they found it in. Yes, Newt had given her the chance to name it when they both came down here on Newt's first day back.