4The thunder rained down on their ears and the rain thundered against their roof as Tina rinsed and dried off the apple she'd chosen for a late night snack. She nibbled lightly at it as she picked her way through the kitchen, into the short hallway, and finally into the little bedroom.
A handful of papers were spread about at the foot of the bed, Newt pouring over them with a pencil in his mouth. She leaned against the doorframe as she watched him trace the lines of a page looking for something that seemed to be eluding him, if the furrow of his brow was anything to go by. He was still in his waistcoat, which was hopelessly wrinkled from him spending who knows how long stretched out on his stomach on the bed.
He glanced up when the electric lights flickered and noticed his wife calmly munching her apple on the threshold.
"That's an odd place to eat a snack."
"It's a perfectly acceptable place to eat a snack. Besides, I'm observing the elusive Newton Scamander in his natural habitat and if I ventured too close I might scare him off."
"Ah, I see. And have you learned anything of note?"
"Yes. His feet are on the pillows," she said, pushing herself away from the doorframe.
He chuckled, muttered an apology, and lifted his feet from the offending bedclothes. He watched her as she strode purposefully around the bed to where he lay and promptly draped herself atop him as though he were a lounge chair. She heard him let out a small 'oof' and felt him laugh beneath her.
"Is this my punishment?"
"Mmhmm, you put your feet on the pillows then you become my pillow."
"I don't think I'd make a terribly comfortable pillow."
"I'll be the judge of that."
"Suit yourself," he said, reaching behind him in search of her ticklish spots.
"Okay, okay!" She giggled, rolling onto the empty space next to him.
He grinned down at her and kissed her temple before returning his attention to his notes. For a few moments they lay shoulder to shoulder, quietly engaged in their respective tasks; Newt and his notes, Tina and her apple.
With a sigh, he gathered up his pages into a neat stack before sending them floating towards the chair nestled in the corner.
"I'm too tired to make any more revisions tonight," he said, rubbing his eyes before glancing at the fruit in Tina's hand. "Can I have a bite of that?"
She held it up to him and watched as he sunk his teeth in and tore off a rather large chunk. She gaped.
"That was half my apple!"
"I'm sorry," he chuckled, struggling to keep the piece in his mouth. After a moment, he managed to swallow the bite. "More came off than I was expecting."
She gazed sadly at her snack for a moment before finishing it off and sending it chasing after Newt's papers, where it landed in the wastebasket by the chair. He leaned towards her until his forehead rested against hers, one hand rubbing circles on her back in silent apology. She grinned and tilted his chin so that she could press a soft kiss to his lips, accepting the apology.
"Mm, tastes like apples," he teased.
She snorted and poked him in the side. He crumpled with a surprised laugh as her fingers found a particularly ticklish spot, her giggles joining his as she mercilessly exacted her revenge. A struggle ensued as his hands scrambled after hers in an attempt to pry them from his person as well as turn the attack against her. She yelped when suddenly she was the one being tickled, giggling and wiggling in turn.
Eventually, they exhausted from their game and lay in a tangle of limbs and breathless laughter that didn't seem to want to stop. Every time they seemed to get a handle on themselves, one of them would start up again, which would, of course, set the other one off as well.
With a loud clap of thunder, their lights flickered out.
"Hmm, I think we're being given a sign that it's time to go to bed," he murmured into her hair.
"Oh, well, I suppose we would have to eventually," she replied, snuggling up to him as she settled herself in for the night.
"No concern for the fact that our heads are where our feet should go and our feet are where our heads should go?"
"Not as long as you keep your feet off the pillows."
He chuckled, pressing a few short, soft kisses to her forehead the way he did every night. They murmured their good nights and sweet dreams to each other as the storm crankily blew itself out, leaving them in a comfortable blanket of darkness and the soft pattering of rain.