Instinct, edible stickers, black books, and real estate

Chapter 23: Instinct, edible stickers, black books, and real estate
==Meta==
curiumKingyo's "Brown" occurs the night before this chapter starts. So go read it.
==Text==
Hermann faces away from him this morning and Newt contents himself with watching the rise and fall of his back with each breath and the sleepy twitches of his wings.
Newt has no intention getting out of bed until Hermann wakes up on his own. Not when the only thing on his day’s agenda is more packing. He fidgets for a moment before deciding 'on his own' allows for gentle encouragement toward wakefulness.
Experimentally, Newt puffs air at the feathers in front of him and notes how Hermann mumbles something unintelligible and unconsciously adjusts the angle of the leading edge of his wing for a moment, then lets it relax into a neutral position.
God, he is fun to tease. It gets results, too, Newt thinks, remembering the soft touch of Hermann's finger against his lips and, even better, the gentle caramel-flavored kiss. He grins, the contents of his chest feeling more like a gooey mess of chocolates left in the sun than proper organs.
Newt repeats the puff, aiming at a slightly different spot. The wing repositions itself at a new angle. Newt grins. He instinctively knows how to use these properly, but doesn't have the muscles or wingspan to actually fly.
He tries the puff test again and smiles at yet another angle of attack, then startles as Hermann’s voice breaks in on his mental calculations.
"Enjoying yourself, Newton?" he asks. "May I remind you I am not a specimen for study? Especially not at this hour of the morning?"
"Yeah, I am and you can remind me, but that doesn't mean my inner and outer biologist can resist," Newt says with a smile and a shrug before reaching out to touch Hermann's feathers. Hermann's wing shivers in response. "Did you know you automatically move your wings in response to airflow?"
"I’m vaguely aware of my tendency to shift them so I do not become a kite," he answers.
"It’s not that sort of movement. It’s more purposeful, like you’re trying to get lift. It’s pretty awesome," Newt says with obvious admiration. "You’ve got the instincts to fly."
"A fat lot of good those instincts do me," Hermann grumbles. "All of the proper software, none of the proper hardware."
"They're beautiful hardware, though," Newt says as he resumes running his fingers through Hermann's feathers. "It's pretty awesome I get to see them."
"It's not as though I had much choice after our Drift, Newt," Hermann responds. "You knew of my condition, so it became pointless to hide them."
"You make it sound like such a chore to have someone you can be yourself around," Newt replies sarcastically. "You've gotten pretty comfortable being shirtless around me."
Hermann's answer comes with a note of affection in his voice. "Perhaps I've simply resigned my self to the fact I will likely never be rid of you and I should make the best of the situation."
"You don't want to get rid of me. Not when I bring romance in the form of rooftop picnics and chocolate."
"Yes, the risk of discovery and a substance which makes me violently ill," Hermann says with a roll of his eyes.
"It's the thought which counts and you certainly seemed to enjoy it last night," Newt teases. Hermann huffs to cover a small blush.
After breakfast in the mess, the scientists part ways, Hermann heading directly to the lab, while Newt skips off to check the mail and make a caffeine run.
"Dude, I brought you some coffee," Newt calls to what appears to be an empty lab. "Tang Mǐn made you a foam kitten!"
Hermann emerges from the far reaches of his side of the lab, looking slightly sour, to collect his drink. He brightens when he catches a glimpse of his cup. Two baleful chocolate eyes stare back.
"Yeah, it sort of collapsed on the way here. When you see her next, say you loved it and it was adorable."
"Miss Yeung is a reasonable young woman. I don't think she'll mind," Hermann replies.
A bubble pops and a chocolate flake wobbles.
"It just winked at you! Cats do that when they love you!" Newt pipes. "Dude, you can't tell her I killed your kitten. Please."
Hermann rolls his eyes and takes a sip. The two men lean against a desk and enjoy their beverages for a moment or two.
"Mind if I turn on some music while we work?" Newt asks.
"Quietly."
Newt queues up something on his laptop and adjust the volume to what he hopes is an acceptable level. Hermann drinks more of his latte, then cocks his head to better listen.
"I didn't realize Wire qualified as music to you," Hermann says.
"They're no Van Halen," Newt replies, "but I'm capable of compromise."
Hermann snorts and begins working on sorting and packing in the area nearest Newt's side of the lab, causing Newt to smile. It only takes a few minutes before Newt grows bored with shifting paperwork into cardboard boxes and stop to watch Hermann. The man moves quickly and efficiently through his area, touching each object or item of furniture only briefly before proceeding to the next.
"Are you putting color-coded stickers on stuff?" Newt asks.
Hermann nods. "Black labels can be disposed of. White labels indicate my personal property. Any other color marks things the PPDC indicates it wants back."
"Neat. Can I borrow your method and have some of those stickers?" Newt asks, hand outstretched toward Hermann who passes over roughly half of the sheets in his hand. "Thanks! This'll really speed things up and I need to get a move on if I'm going to finish in time."
"When I finish, I'll assist with your belongings," Hermann says, adding, sotto voce, "You clearly require all the help you can get."
Twenty minutes later, Newt appears beside Hermann. "I need more of those stickers. I'm out," he says. At Hermann's responding raised eyebrow, he protests, "I have a lot of stuff, dude! What else do you think I'd do with them? Eat ‘em?"
Around midafternoon, Hermann clears his throat while standing directly behind Newt, making him jump. "Where should I begin?" Hermann asks.
"Uh ... well .. I haven't started on the list Tendo sent me, so maybe you could hunt that stuff down," Newt answers as he rubs the back of his neck in embarrassment. Hermann sighs and opens Newt's email on his own tablet to view the list. "Did you just hack into my email?" Newt squeaks.
"I ... ah ... took some time while you were out yesterday afternoon shopping for 'romance' to upgrade the security and encryption protocols on your tablet." He puts on a smug grin. "I only needed three attempts to guess your email password."
"You broke into my personal files," Newt responds levelly.
"I didn't bother. I only installed and upgraded software and reset all of your passwords." Hermann's smile grows wicked. "If you ask nicely, I may even tell you what they are," he says.
Newt sputters for a moment then sobers. "This is about what happened at the UN."
"Yes, it is. I don't like someone with the resources of a government poking about in my life and those of my friends," he answers. "I suspect you won't mind, but I took the liberty of asking some associates to secure our records and take a look at our American friend."
"You need to let me peek at that black book of yours someday," Newt says.
"No, I don't."
"Uh ... so, what are they doing?" he asks a little nervously.
"They are locking down everything and anything they can reach. School reports, personnel dossiers, court files, medical records ... . I don't like the way a United Nations representative knew so much about supposedly secret actions and used them to directly threaten you. I'd prefer to starve him of information sources than face off against him, while he is fully-armed, in the press."
"What if your friends get caught?"
"They won't be."
"You seem pretty confident."
"I trust them with my life."
Newt's jaw drops. "That's serious coming from you. I almost feel better that there are even more people poking around in my life now. Though now I'm totally fine with poking around in those hidden folders on your tablet," he says.
Hermann blinks forcefully. "Why am I not surprised at this revelation?"
"Well, don't get all ruffled," Newt replies as Hermann fixes him with a glare. "I couldn't get into all of them: only the ones with the pictures of Dietrich's daughters." He slaps a final sticker ('green') on an instrument tray and says, "C'mon, let's give this up for the day and go to sleep."
On returning, Newt flops, exhausted, onto the bed. "Dammit," he says, "we have a lot of stuff."
"Correction: you have a lot of stuff," Hermann responds. "Some of us are less burdened by material things."
"Well, the new house is big enough for everything." At Hermann's glower, Newt throws up his hands to shield himself. "Not that I'm bringing everything! I don't need all the lamps, for one. It's full of big windows and there's a huge deck for sunning yourself. There's an elevator for getting upstairs so you don't need to worry about stairs. We'll have to manage a bit of a hill down to the dock and the beach, but the yard is pretty flat and there are supposed to be nice breezes off the bay."
Thinking about the new house makes him tremble with excitement. The pictures he’s seen have been gorgeous and the deck perfect for the container garden he wants to start. Some flowers, maybe some vegetables. Ooo. Maybe they could put in a fruit tree or two. He adds researching appropriate plants for the environment to his mental to-do list. Maybe they could plant blackberries. He misses those.
"Marvelous," Hermann's droll response shakes Newt out of his reverie. "You will still need to keep your samples off the floor in shared spaces," he continues, "I do not fancy slipping."
"The lab’s got non-slip floors. I picked the tiles out myself. All the slippery stuff will stay in there."
"I somehow doubt you will refrain from bringing work 'home' with you."
"Okay. Maybe just a little. But only the stuff that needs constant monitoring."
"Such as yourself."
"Don't lie. You enjoy that part," Newt replies, snuggling closer to his grumbling bedmate.
==Meta==
For the first time, I cut an instance of Newt sticking his foot in his mouth. It was a weird experience.
Tang Mǐn is an adorable OC Hong Kong Shatterdome barista I've borrowed from artificiallifecreator. ALC also wrote most of the exchange about the coffee critter, with some minor edits from me.
I'm almost sorry for the sticker joke. But not really. Fun fact: I've never seen IASIP.
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