skull-bearer:

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Newt knows he’s whining, but doesn’t care,

Hermann flatly refuses to look at him, fingers flying over the keys; “Because it is none of your business, and my private life;”

“But we’re-” Newt waves a hand between them, “You know- you should have told me,”

Hermann sighs, shives his glasses up his nose, “You are refusing to let this go, aren’t you?”

“You’re Europa Flyby!” Newt is nearly shouting- “I’ve loved your stuff since, like 2010-“

Hermann pauses, fingers still over the keys, “Is that a joke?” He looks up at Newt, and his eyes are cold and angry, “Do you think this is funny-“

“No!” Newt blinks, “Dude, seriously- I’ll get Dad to send you a photo, I even made a poster for Saturn Icerings, it was so good I’d have sent you one but I kinda got embarrassed, you were- you’re stuff was like a crazy subculture at school- we were swapping your youtube vids-“

Hermann is still looking at him, his shoulders slowly falling back from the sudden tension, eyes softening and getting- soft, “You really liked it?”

“Yes!” Newt wishes he could hammer that in, “You rock!” A thought hits him, “You were making them when you were coding the Jaegers? Seriously?”

Hermann hesitates, “Yes, I needed- I had to have- something else to do. Just- nothing but the code; I thought I might go mad- I just- needed it-“

He’s apologising, like he should have been doing nothing but code- not eating, sleeping or- anything but the code; and yeah, Hermann probably believes that but- shit-

“Hey- no- no-” Newt kneels down next to him, at this angle, he can see the synthesisers and electronic notes on the computer, “Seriously, half the acadamy was listening to your stuff; I think we all needed to be- somewhere else.”

“Like Pluto,” Hermann gives a weak smile,

“Oh man, I loved Long Orbit, was that your voice? The whole point of view of being found and made a planet then not a planet and watching comets come and go-” Newt catches his breath, “It was awesome.”

It’s a bit weak, but Newt doesn’t know what else to say,

But when he looks up at Hermann, he must have said the right things, because Hermann is looking down at the keyboard and his fingers and lax on the keys, a soft, happy smile on his lips, “Thank you,”

“No problem,” Newt grins, “What are you working on?”

“Perhaps something more down to Earth,” Hermann leans over, “Perhaps amphibians,” he presses his lips against Newt’s forehead.