07 | never knew why a mating dance was needed

THE THREE OF them tiptoed out of the apartment, careful not to wake anyone else. Dorothy, even though she knew that it was the right thing to do, still felt guilt creep into her for betraying three of her friends by smuggling the two out and onto the streets of New York.

Dorothy knew the reactions everyone would give. Tina would be disappointed and distraught, Diana angry, and Queenie would look at her, see into her mind, and hold her hand in comfort. She liked Queenie because the woman understood. Even if she wasn't able to read someone's thoughts, Queenie would still have the ability to understand people. It's who she was.

The two men and Dorothy continued to walk along a deserted street of the city, heading to Central Park. There were many shops around them with expensive jewelry, diamonds, many more luscious jewels. Dorothy looked at the windows, her eyes filling with sadness as she knew that she would never be able to afford such jewels.

Still, she sighed, moving her head away from the enticing jewels. While she didn't have money, she would always have friends and a place to work. Maybe that would be enough.

"I was watching you at dinner," Newt broke the silence, his head slightly turned to Jacob.

"Yeah," the No-Maj replied, not really knowing how to respond to the sentence.

"People like you, don't they, Mr. Kowalski?" Newt asked, looking at the No-Maj while letting his eyes sometimes go to the shadows.

"Oh - well, I'm - I'm sure people like you too - huh?" Jacob sputtered, startled by the somewhat compliment.

"No, not really. I annoy people," Newt shrugged, not too concerned by the fact.

"If it's any consolation, you don't annoy me, Newt," Dorothy spoke, not looking at the British man.

Newt smiled, but he didn't know how to answer. Instead, he continued talking to Jacob, that was much easier.

"Why did you decide to be a baker?" Newt asked him, gripping onto his case.

"Ah well, um - because I'm dying - in that canning factory," Jacob sighed, "Everyone there's dying. It just crushes the life outta you. You like canned food?"

"No," Newt answered shortly before Dorothy took to saying, "Not really."

"Me neither. That's why I want to make pastries, you know. It makes people happy," Jacob finished before pointing somewhere, "We're going this way."

Jacob headed off right with the two others following him. While Dorothy had lived in the city all her life, she was never good at navigating it. Though, that might have been because she never needed to as a child, she always had a servant with her to help.

"So did you get your loan?" Newt continued with the conversation, inching the slightest bit closer to Dorothy.

"Er, no - I ain't got no collateral. Stayed in the army too long, apparently - I don't know," Jacob said uncomfortably.

"What, you fought in the war?" Newt asked, a little hint surprise in his voice. By looking at the No-Maj, no one could ever tell that he used to be in the army. Even Dorothy was surprised.

"Of course I fought in the war, everyone fought in the war - you didn't fight in the war?" Jacob asked, going off on a rant before realizing it.

"I worked mostly with dragons, Ukrainian Ironbellies - Eastern Front," Newt answered.

"That must have been amazing," Dorothy marveled, "I've never seen a dragon before."

Newt smiled at her, and she couldn't help but return it. Though, as they passed another window, Newt suddenly came to a halt. He looked at the jewelry before walking backwards slightly. Dorothy came next to him to see what was going on, and what she saw was Newt's Niffler, attempting to hide as a jewelry stand with his arms outstretched and covered with diamonds.

Both of them stared at the Niffler in disbelief, but Dorothy couldn't help but think that the creature was awfully cute as it did. Sensing their stares, the Niffler turned slowly and made eye contact with Newt.

After a pause, the Niffler was off. It scurried farther into the shop and away from Newt, who had whipped out his wand.

"Finestra," Newt whispered and the glass of the shop window shattered.

"Are you crazy?" Dorothy whispered after him in a hushed voice, "That's going to get us caught!"

But Newt didn't seem to listen as he jumped inside the shop, rummaging through drawers and cupboards, desperate to find his creature. Jacob and Dorothy stared at him in shock, not knowing what else to do.

They saw the Niffler appear, scurrying over Newt's shoulders in an attempt to climb somewhere higher and escape the man's clutches. Newt, though, jumped onto a desk after him, but the Niffler was on top of the crystal chandelier. The man reached out and tripped, and Dorothy gasped as she saw Newt and the creature dangling from the chandelier.

Out of the corner of her eye, Dorothy could see Jacob nervously looking around the street, trying to check and make sure no one else was there watching them. Dorothy, too, turned her head for a split second to check before hearing a crashing sound.

Quickly, she looked back to the scene with Newt and Niffler, seeing that the chandelier and fallen and crashed to the floor. Straight after, the Niffler immediately began to scurry away, Newt hot on its tail. They continued to chase each other before finally standing on a jewelry case that couldn't hold their weight, crashing against one of the windows and creating a large crash. Everything stopped.

No one moved, Dorothy feeling herself become stiff as she looked around, her heart beating in her chest. Jacob, too, took a step back, afraid to move anything. If no one heard them before, they were definitely alerted by then.

A crack appeared on the window, then, and they all watched as she crack spread across the pane of glass and the window burst open, causing many shards of glass to fall to the ground, along with Newt and the Niffler.

The Niffler only stayed still for a moment before continuing to run, wanting to continue his life of crime, but Newt too gathered himself quickly and pulled out his wand.

"ACCIO!" Newt said more loudly than his last spell. The Niffler suddenly sailed backwards through the air toward Newt. As he flied, his eyes widened at the fact that he had many jewels inside his pouch, and they all went flying out. The three humans ducked because of the jewelry, diving to try and reach the creature.

Passing a lamppost, the Niffler stretched out an arm, spinning around the pole and flying onward and toward the window. Quickly, Newt shot a spell at the window, making sure that it turned sticky and trap the Niffler.

"All right? Happy?" Newt asked the Niffler. He pulled the creatyre from the window, and Dorothy could hear many police sirens in the background.

"One down - two to go," Newt ignored the sirens, placing the Niffler underneath his coat.

Police cars began to show up, and they quickly walked out of the cars with their guns aimed at the three. Jacob raised his hands in surrender, but the two wizards stood frozen.

"They went that way, Officer..." Jacob tried to play, his voice shaky.

"Hands up!" the officer yelled, ignoring Jacob. The Niffer then decided to poke out its little nose and squeak.

"What the hell is that?" another officer yelled in alarm once they saw the creature.

Jacob's face suddenly turned to terror, pointing behind the officers. "Lion..." he squeaked out, almost unable to speak.

And then, the officers turned around, their eyes widening in fear as they saw the animal stalking towards them.

"You know, New York is considerably more interesting than I'd expected," Newt muttered to himself, grabbing onto Dorothy and Jacob before Disapparating away.

________________

When they reappeared, the three of the were in a frost-covered park. They all hurried away and across a bridge, when they were almost bowled over by an ostrich, which teared past them - running for its life. Dorothy looked back at it, alarmed, before hearing a large rumble in the distance.

Newt brought out a protective headgear out of his pocket and handed it to Jacob. "Put this on," the wizard told him.

"Why - why would I have to wear something like this?" Jacob asked, taking the headgear in his hands.

"Because your skull is susceptible to breakage under immense force," Newt informed him, not looking at the No-Maj.

The British man ran off, leaving the others. Jacob, terrified, put on the hat and him and Dorothy raced after Newt.

The three of them entered the half-empty zoo, all out of breath as Dorothy placed her hands on her knees and bended over slightly. "I was not made to run," Dorothy muttered, causing the others to chuckle at her.

She looked around at the zoo, seeing that the outer walls had been demolished and a large pile of rubble lied at the entrance. Then, another bellowed roar echoed around the brick building. Newt handed another body protector to Jacob.

"Okay, if you just, uh, pop this on," Newt told him, uninterested in keeping a conversation with him at the moment.

"Okay," Jacob muttered.

"Now, there's absolutely nothing for you to worry about," Newt said in an unconvincing tone.

"Tell me - has anyone ever believed you when you told them not to worry?" Jacob asked him incredulously.

"My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice," Newt informed him, and Dorothy nodded in approval.

Newt picked up his case and the other two followed, Jacob stumbling over the rubble and debris. They stopped at the entrance of the zoo, hearing a loud snort come from within

"She's in season," Newt informed them, his face full of distress, "She needs to mate."

"Lovely," Dorothy commented, making sure that she was the only one who could heart it.

They stalked into the zoo, making sure to keep as quiet as possible, not wanting to disturb the massive beast. Newt took out a tiny vial, pulling out the stopper with his teeth and spit it to the side before dabbing a spot of the liquid onto each wrist. Dorothy and Jacob looked at him, and the strawberry blonde couldn't help but pull a face of disgust.

"Erumpent mush - she is mad for it," Newt said, sending a small smile to Dorothy to try and make up for the pungent smell. He passed Jacob the open bottle before heading into the zoo.

Dorothy watched him leave, sighing, before returning her attention back to Jacob. The two walked in after Newt, making sure to stay far enough away so that not to disturb the beast. She saw Newt step in front of the creature, moving around in a circle as the creature and him locked eyes.

She watched him move, stopping before placing his foot in front, zig-zagging its way back to his other leg, not letting go of the eye contact he had achieved with the creature. It took her only a moment more to realize what he was doing.

Newt was performing a mating dance.

She turned away from the scene, having an eternal argument with herself before sighing, "Why the hell did I choose the guy who performs a mating dance?"

And then she gasped, shaking her head. Dorothy shouldn't have said that. She barely knew the guy - he was a criminal! But, he was fairly cute, the other part of her would argue, and very caring for his creatures.

Dorothy shook her head again, knowing that it would never work. He was going to leave, to go back to Britain and probably never return, and she would stay in New York. The city was her home, where she was born, where she lived, where she had met friends. They lived two different lives, and they would never get together.

And when she turned back, she saw a guilty looking seal behind Jacob, that cheekily ran away. Dorothy looked at the two, and they knew, they all knew what had just happened.

The creature started to charge towards the smell of Jacob, who wailed and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction. Dorothy stepped out of the way, landing herself into Newt, who grabbed onto her and steadied the woman before running after the creature - Dorothy following.

"Repar -" Newt began, but his wand was snatched by a baboon, who ran off, clutching his prize.

"Merlin's beard!" Newt said, and Dorothy ran to catch up with him. Seeing that his wand was gone, she reached into her pocket to find that hers too had been stolen, and it had only been confirmed when she saw another monkey holding it with a smile.

She saw Newt run off as she went the other way. Chasing the monkey, and tackled it, fighting against the animal that was much stronger than she saw. Dorothy grunted, taking her wand and trying to snatch it from the monkey's grip, but failing miserably.

She wouldn't hurt the animal, no, that was cruel. But, she did hold the bottom of her wand, silently saying a spell and watching as the body of the monkey froze. Dorothy huffed, trying to catch her breath, then reaching for her wand.

Once she was up from the ground, she muttered a spell, letting the animal move around again, running away from the scene to see the creature still chasing Jacob, Newt only just recovering from his own quarrel with the baboon.

She ran up only to see Newt fling his open case across the ice, watching as the creature slide down inside it, mere feet away from Jacob. Dorothy caught up to them, out of breath, as she looked around at them.

"Good show, Mr. Kowalski," Newt complimented in his special way, and Dorothy nodded, still trying to control her breathing.

"Call me Jacob," the No-Maj told him, and the two shook hands before Dorothy hugged Jacob, glad to know that he was alright.

Newt then opened his case again. "Well, two down - one to go," he told them. "In you hop."

And the three of them went back inside of the case, smiling at each other with a sense of pride, knowing that another creature of Newt's was safe. Though, what they didn't know, was that Tina Goldstein had taken the case that they were inside and was taking it to MACUSA, which would be the ultimate decider if they lived or died.