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[thebloodyglue]

He's getting used to other people being in the house. Charlie is a fairly minimal presence, actually. He spends a lot of time in his room, does his chores, keeps everything tidy. Sabrina is more or less a fixture too, and Newt likes her a lot. She seems like a nice girl, and, if bringing her cat with her is a little bit weird, then at least he doesn't start fights with the cats who actually live in the house, though Gally has done his fair share of hissing.

Newt's set up at the kitchen table with his accounts and a pot of tea. He heard Charlie leave a few minutes ago, but he assumes that he's coming back because he can hear Sabrina moving around in his bedroom. Kavinsky will be out for another couple of hours.

It's all quiet, and calm, and still.
He loves Saturdays like this.

Comments

[signed_sabrina]

Sabrina appears in the kitchen not that much long afterward, and though she does get vaguely shy around Newt and Kavinsky, it has less to do with them and the understanding that she Stays Overnight. She's careful to make sure she's entirely put together, because otherwise it would just be strange.

Salem thinks she's ridiculous, but it's different for goblin cats, isn't it? These two are much more like Ambrose than her aunts or really, any parents she's met.

She pauses, on her way to make tea, and gives a smile with only the tiniest hesitancy in it to Newt. "Good morning."

[thebloodyglue]

"Hey, love," says Newt, looking up at her with a smile, his hair ruffled back from his face. "All abandoned too?"

[signed_sabrina]

"I wouldn't say abandoned, but if I don't put some tuna out for Salem before long, then I'll be the one doing the abandonment," she says, relaxing. "I just wanted some tea first."

[thebloodyglue]

"Come and sit with me for a bit," says Newt, pushing his chair back from the table and standing, stretching out a kink in the small of his back. His knee aches this morning and he shifts his weight a little before he finds his balance. "I'll make you one. Any preferences?"

[signed_sabrina]

"Alright," Sabrina agrees, moving to sit at the table. She smiles up at him. "None, really. Something dark, if you have it. I was thinking maybe I could bring you guys one of the mixes I get to do at Leviathan. One of the mundane ones."

[thebloodyglue]

"Dark," hums Newt, going through the tins in the cupboard and then picking something that he thinks she'll like. "Kavinsky doesn't drink as much tea as I do, but we'd like that. But don't feel like you need to bring us anything."

[signed_sabrina]

"I'd like to do it," Sabrina says. "You both take good care of Charlie, and I'm glad he doesn't have to be in the Home anymore." She doesn't bother to hide the way the sun breaks across her features when she talks about Charlie. "And besides, what else am I going to do with the extras?"

[thebloodyglue]

He's pretty sure that his own face looks like that whenever he talks to people about Kavinsky, and he smiles, a little, as he sets the tea to steep in the pot.

"Well, we definitely won't say no," he says. "And Charlie's no problem. Neither are you."

[signed_sabrina]

"That's good," she says, with some relief. "I was a little worried at first, when he moved out of the Home, but I get to see him just as much here. Probably more, since--" She turns pink. "You know, privacy. So thank you for being cool about that."

[thebloodyglue]

Newt huffs a laugh out of his knees, leaning back against the counter to take some of his weight off his knee.

"I was seventeen when I got here," he says. "And when I met Kavinsky. I can only imagine how I'd have shucking reacted if someone told me I couldn't see him whenever I wanted. Although," he picks up the pot, bringing it back to the table. "We both sort of grew up sleeping in places like the Home, I guess, so it wouldn't have been as jarring for us."

[signed_sabrina]

Dark eyes flicker over the way he seems to get stiff when standing, but she's too busy listening and trying to make her cheeks cool down to really think about it yet.

"My aunts love me very much, but they were very careful about my relationships." Because I had to be a virgin for the Dark Lord. "I guess I don't mind the rules as much, it's better than a weekend at the Academy. But it's been nice to spend time in a house, not full of kids, with more freedom."

[thebloodyglue]

"We're not very good at rules," he says, setting down the pot and a cup for Sabrina and then sliding back into his seat. "To be honest. I leave that mostly up to Kavinsky. He did all the sound-proofing and clunk."

[signed_sabrina]

She's very, very grateful for the tea, not only because it's good, but she has to make herself concentrate on not dropping it. "Oh, the... sound-proofing?"

[thebloodyglue]

He snorts.

"More for us than for you," he reassures her. "But he did both rooms. Just in case." He pauses, lifting his cup to his mouth, eyebrows raised. "Too much information?"

[signed_sabrina]

It really seems to finally strike her that Newt and Kavnisky are very young, and very attractive, and that they definitely would have reasons of their own for sound-proofing. She can't help turning pink across the bridge of her nose, but she shakes her head. "No, not really. I hadn't thought about that. Not that I'm thinking about it right now, I--"

She crinkles her nose.

"Honestly, you would think that being raised in the Church of Night would have given me a better handle on this. Then again, they are obsessed with Puritan fashion."

[thebloodyglue]

"Church of Night? That sounds...fascinating." He settles back in his chair a little. "I grew up in a government facility...long story. Kavinsky went to a really, really expensive school. "And, yeah, we took precautions when we found out how old Charlie was."

[signed_sabrina]

"It's not as glamorous as it sounds, and more emphasis on purity for girls of a certain age than you'd think, considering that the rest is supposed to be do as thou wilt style hedonism."

She gives a little shrug, and takes a sip of her tea. "Well, I'm grateful for that," she admits, her smile curving behind the lip of the mug.

[thebloodyglue]

"Well, if you don't ask me about government facilities, I won't ask you," he says, raising his cup in a sketch of a toast. He smirks. "I take it you're taking full advantage, then?"

If he was a parent, that would be a shucking creepy question but, at the end of the day, there's only three or four years age difference here. And he wants her to feel like she's at home.

[signed_sabrina]

She manages not to choke on her tea, but she's still very pink as she nods. "Um, yes. Full advantage. A lot." She's been here over the past night, after all. "In retrospect, I am really, really glad about the soundproofing."

[thebloodyglue]

The blush is very endearing and Newt finds himself grinning.

"Just be glad Kavinsky's not here for this," he says, rolling his eyes fondly. "He's way shucking worse than me."

[signed_sabrina]

"Way worse how," she wants to know. At least she thinks she wants to know. "I don't think you're too bad. I actually don't know who I'd really talk to about this anyway."

Her fingertips tap nervously on the mug.

[thebloodyglue]

"He just...doesn't have many filters, especially when it comes to sex," he says. "You've seen him. Just imagine what you think he'd be like in this situation." He sips his tea, his eyes dipping down to her fingers on her mug. "You can always talk to us. Me. Him. Both of us. Whatever works."

[signed_sabrina]

That doesn't exactly seem to soothe her or the heat in her cheeks.

However, Spellman perseverance wines the day.

"There is maybe something," she admits. "That it's not like I can get a bunch of books on or anything."

[thebloodyglue]

"Oh?" says Newt, taking another sip of his tea and shifting his position, trying not to push, trying not to make it a bigger deal than it needs to be. "Well, if I can help, I will?"

[signed_sabrina]

"So," she says, just letting it out in a rush for now, "one of the last times I was, um, in charge, like, in control, and I think we both really liked it, but what if it's not... is that normal for mortals too?"

And then she stares into her tea.