Chapter Text
Newt sighs in relief, then startles as cheering erupts from above him. He’d somewhat forgotten that they’d had an audience. He glances up briefly, and gives a small smile to his brother, who’s waving enthusiastically. Then he turns back to Lovis, who is in the process of gingerly attempting to sit up.
There’s quite a lot of blood on the man’s face, where his nose had smashed into the ground. Probably a broken nose. Newt hesitates, then offers him a hand. Lovis ignores him, struggles to his feet on his own and strides towards the exit. Newt stares after him for a moment, unsurprised by the reaction, before he realises that he’s still got Lovis’ wand and gives chase.
****
Up on the observation deck, Theseus watches his brother depart the ring then turns back to his fellow spectators. The memory of their expressions during the duel are going to remain one of the highlights of this entire trip.
Summers and Miller are the only ones who are missing a flabbergasted expression, but then they have seen Newt duel before.
‘Nice to know your brother is as terrifying as ever.’ Summers remarks.
Theseus beams. ‘You should have seen him when we sparred last Christmas. He’d just gotten back from a trip in Asia and I’m pretty sure he spent most of it rescuing several creatures from a group attempting to illegally harvest their organs. To hear him tell it a few members of the local authorities insisted on teaching him some of their hand to hand combat style after they crossed paths trying to track the group down.’
Out of the corner of his eye, Theseus sees Graves mouth the words ‘hand to hand combat’, seemingly unaware that he’s doing it, and Theseus has to fight down a grin. Graves is not as subtle about his attraction to Newt as he’s like to think, but Theseus is fairly certain his brother has yet to cotton on. Maybe this incident will give Graves the impetus to finally ask his younger brother directly - anything more subtle will fly straight over his sibling’s head. If not, Theseus might have to take action directly, because as hilarious as it is to watch his best friend pine, at this point it’s just getting ridiculous.
Any nebulous plans regarding that scenario are put on hold as Newt finally reappears on the observation deck. Immediately a loud chorus of applause, along with a few whistles, breaks out. Newt flushes red and moves through the crowd of well wishers, returning to his friends. Pickett promptly jumps from Tina back onto Newt and clings to his shirt collar.
‘Sorry for the delay.’ Newt says. ‘I, um, spent a little while trying to convince Lovis to go to the medic’s wing.’
Theseus watches in amusement as Graves struggles for a moment and then seems to find his voice. ‘For his broken nose? Surely he could have fixed that himself?’
Newt shakes his head. ‘I was more concerned about his ribs, to be honest. The last time I pulled that last move on Theseus, I fractured three of them.’
All heads snap around to Theseus, who shrugs. It’s the truth, after all.
Tina and Graves look fairly stunned. Miller and Summers don’t, but then again, they were some of the witnesses to the fight him and Newt had two years ago, if Thesues remembers correctly.
‘You broke three of your brother’s ribs?’
Newt doesn’t seem to quite comprehend the reason for everyone’s disbelief and replies, ‘He’d already dislocated my shoulder at that point - I couldn’t quite use my wand properly and that was the first thing I thought of.’
Ah, classic Newt. Attempting to explain only to make matters worse.
‘You had a dislocated shoulder and kept sparring?’ Tina squawks.
Newt shrugs. ‘Criminals don’t tend to hold back when someone gets injured. Theseus and I don’t when we fight either.’
‘And that,’ Miller injects, ‘is why the entirety of the British auror department check the availability of the escape routes when the two of you are in the same building.’
Theseus pouts. ‘Unfair. We’ve only ever caused small scale destruction in the Ministry of Magic building.’
Graves suddenly looks deeply alarmed.
Newt seems to find his reaction as amusing as Theseus, judging by the smile he doesn’t quite manage to hide. ‘And we always fixed it afterwards.’
‘But - why? And how?’ Tina asks, and further questions seem to beyond her.
Theseus sighs. ‘The how is easy enough - I taught Newt a lot of the spells and we both started learning hand to hand from one of our parent’s gardeners. I got more training when I entered the auror academy and passed it onto Newt during the summer holidays. The apparition is all him though - Newt’s got a knack for it.’
Newt blushes again. ‘It’s not particularly impressive really - I mostly just practice a lot.’
‘Please. I saw you that one time in Belgium with the dragons -‘
‘Theseus that’s classified-‘
‘and apparating mid-air from one dragon to another most definitely counts as impressive. As well as completely insane but -‘
‘Oh like you’re one to talk, what was it ‘I’m sure that the wards won’t do anything, they’re far too old -'’
‘That was once!’
‘Twice! And both times the building came down around us!’
Theseus opens his mouth to rebut that statement, before he realises that Newt is, unfortunately, completely correct.
‘Oh stuff it.’ he says, throwing Newt’s coat back to him.
He turns back to Tina. ’In answer to the other half of your question - Newt has always had an alarming ability to find trouble, so like hell was I going to let him go travelling alone without him knowing how to defend himself.’
Newt catches his coat but doesn’t move to put it on just yet. ’And I suppose you got no personal satisfaction out of it either.’
Theseus can't deny that statement either, as he derives a great deal of personal satisfaction from the chaos Newt tends to leave in his wake.
Tina looks thoughtful. ‘Perhaps I ought to ask you about some techniques then.’
Newt looks surprised, but his smile of agreement is so brightly happy that Theseus is suddenly, overwhelmingly grateful for the series of events which crossed his brother’s path with the friends he’s made here in America. Well. No. He could have done without the whole Grindelwald subplot, but by all accounts Newt held his own well enough.
It’s then that Theseus has an idea. He debates the merit of the idea for a good thirty seconds, long enough for Newt to notice his silence. Newt’s eyes go wide with alarm at whatever expression he sees on his brother’s face and he takes half a step backwards.
’Theseus,’ he begins, ‘no-‘
Theseus doesn’t let him finish. He lunges forwards and grabs his brother by the shirt collar, snatches Newt's coat back off him and flings it in Graves’ direction, then apparates them both directly downwards into one of the arenas.
‘Theseus!’ his brother yells.
Theseus temporarily ignores him and addresses the observation deck, knowing that his words will be carried upwards by the amplifying charms.
’Miller, Summers, would you care to commentate? My brother and I are going to demonstrate a range of different techniques designed to incapacitate your opponent and you’ll have probably seen most of them before.’
His turns back to Newt. ‘Ready on three?’ he asks.
Newt closes his eyes and takes a deep, calming breath.
‘Merlin save me from idiotic older brothers.’ he mutters, opens his eyes and draws his wand.
Theseus grins in anticipation. This is going to be fun.