Work Text:
The only sounds are the quiet pitter-patter of rain hitting the thick glass window, paired with the subtle hum of a small junky computer, awkwardly jammed in the corner of Newton’s rather tight living quarters. He sits on the edge of the creaky bed, back slumped over and head hung low, staring at his fingers that twist and fiddle with each other absent-mindedly. His glasses have slid down his nose and remain cracked and smudged from the previous whirlwind of events that he only now has the time to really stand back from. His filthy, blood stained white button-down shirt and tie are hung over a rusty corner post of the bed frame, and his tattoo-clad body is left exposed to the stale, cool air of the Shatterdome, covered in light goosebumps, scratches, bruises, dried blood, and the odd welt, though he can’t quite seem to remember where they all came from.
Newton brings his head into his hands, mulling over every small detail of the last two days that had passed. The adrenaline rush was finally subsiding, but he couldn’t seem to bring his head out long enough to fall asleep. He was exhausted, as he hadn’t really slept in a solid fifty-two hours or so.
He sighed deeply, his mind rushing into his recollection of drifting with his colleague, Dr. Gottlieb. Or Hermann. Or maybe it was still Gottlieb to him. He wasn’t really sure anymore. After drifting together, the two awkward scientists suddenly knew more about each other than they would have ever thought they could. Newton was so used to Gottlieb angrily turning down any attempt he made to get chummy with him and use his first name. Too informal, he always said. Ten years of experience, of course, he was far too educated and important to be on a first name basis with someone like Newton. Which, of course, he knew was ridiculous since he was just as educated and scholarly as Hermann.
He huffed loudly into his hands, pressing his thumbs into temples. He felt his mind wandering back to an image he saw during the drift, of Hermann alone in a college dorm room, hunched over a pile of books thicker than his head, tapping a pen almost exasperatingly quickly against the desk. He looked so consumed with his work. He looked so alone. Newton could feel so many muddled-up emotions from so many different times within Hermann’s life at once while they were in the drift, but it wasn’t until he was out of it and had a chance to think that he could actually make sense of them.
Newton found his mind wandering again, alone in a brightly lit room, or a lab, rather, but it was hard to get a clear view, as all he really had was a first-person view through Hermann’s own eyes. He was sitting in a corner spot on a high stool, elbows leaning harshly into the old wooden counter top. His body warm in the rosey glow of a setting sun against his back, and head groggy with sleep as he had been studying and working, alone, all day long.
Of all the memories Newton had experienced within the drift with Hermann, most of it was either lonely and empty, or full of numbers and memorization and the utmost focus on anything he was doing. It seemed like almost all of Gottlieb’s recollections were studious, as if his entire life was dedicated to nothing but books and school.
Well, all but a few.
Newton had tried to avoid letting himself think about it too much, but there didn’t seem to be anything stopping him at this point, and before he knew it, he was stuck deep within a rather personal memory of Hermann’s.
He finds himself wrapped up in the duvet cover of a rather small dorm room bed, but this time, for once, he wasn’t alone. He feels another warm body press against his bare chest, or rather, Hermann’s, ever so gently. He feels his hands shaking, reaching upwards to stroke the long hair that dangles above him in the dark, nothing but a silhouette.
Newton attempted to pull himself away from this thought while he still could, but another part of him wouldn’t seem to let him. His mind pressed on, recounting as much of the awkward fumble of knobbly fingers as he could find.
He feels a soft hand grace his cheek, and even softer, warm lips place themselves on his. He feels himself shaking, nervousness overpowering his body. A tender voice whispers “It’s okay…” but he feels himself being pulled out of the bed and his feet hitting the cold hard floorboards, a loud creak pressing out of them as the memory seems to slip away.
His brain runs quickly to another, very short image he saved in the back of his head since the drift. Something he himself wasn’t quite sure why he had chosen to remember it so clearly, but yet it was there.
He sees a younger Gottlieb standing naked in front of a long mirror in a room, eyes sullen and sad in the sharp angles of his face. His porcelain skin stretched across his frail and sharp looking frame, bones jutting out dangerously at his shoulders, hips, and elbows. He is leaning on his cane, and he can finally see the damaged leg that’s always tucked beneath Hermann’s heavy wool trousers. There’s an awful amount of scarring running down his thigh and around his knee where no hair seems able to grow properly. There’s a small remaining amount of fading yellow and purple bruising across the front of his shin, paired with a few stitches intersecting around his kneecap.
And of course, he notices his exposed manhood. Penis. Dick. Cock. Oh man… He doesn’t even know what to call it in his own head; he doesn’t even know how he feels about it. The amount of confusion the drifting caused in his mind was enough to make him sick. It was one thing to see through the eyes of a kaiju, but to see through the eyes of his colleague, to experience his life and memories shooting through him like the most painful electricity, all in the blink of an eye. That was more than either of them had really signed up for.
Newton lifts his head up and shuts his eyes as tightly as he can manage, shaking his head violently to try and clear out what he just ran over. It’s none of his business what Hermann did while he was in school, let alone invade his most personal business.
But there was something so strange about the intimacy it seemed to create within his head. No matter how much he tried to bring himself away from it, he couldn’t get those images out of his head. The way it made him feel to see Gottlieb so exposed like that was… something crazy. He couldn’t have imagined it would have ended up like this when they first became partners in the lab. He never would have guessed he’d start to have a strange sense of longing deep in the pit of his stomach, scratching at him every time he caught another glance at Hermann’s dark hair and steely eyes…
Newton suddenly realized his hand was placed against the front of his rather tight jeans, pressing against a hardness he really wasn’t sure how it got there. He fumbled with his zipper, still internally arguing with himself about his newly arisen feelings for his work partner. He felt the weight of his erection shift out of the fly and out into the open air. He huffed out quietly, debating with himself about acknowledging these bizarre feelings that have building up inside of him for the past twenty four hours.
His horniness got the better of him, and his logical side knew that masturbation often helped him fall asleep easier, so he may as well…
He pressed the palm of his hand against underside of his shaft; gripping his fingers around the rest and tugging upward with a short exhale of relief and pleasure. As confused as part of him was, it felt good to let some of those mixed-up feelings for Hermann come out in the sexual way he wouldn’t let himself even think of before. He pictured Hermann’s slender, boney frame again, his pale back, the way his hips sloped into his groin, his dark hair pushed back from his forehead and neatly tucked around his ear. Newton felt himself losing it, getting worked up over all these strange emotions and pictures in his head. He couldn’t bring himself to slow down, his hand tightening around his now painfully hard cock and wet with precome. He could feel his chest tightening with each passing moment, his other hand pressing into the bunched up bed sheets…
“Doctor Geiszler!” A familiar pompously British and spluttering voice snapped Newton from the moment he was so obviously lost in. He scrambled to grab his pants and stuff his cock back into his boxer briefs, but only managed to make his erection even more visible through the snugness of his underwear.
“H-Her-Gottlieb, what are- how did you-“ Newton stuttered nervously as he felt his cheeks turn the hottest shade of red he had ever experienced, not hesitating to rush quickly down the rest of his body.
Hermann’s exhausted body leaned heavily on his cane, dressed only in a sweat and blood stained dress shirt, wool slacks, and mud-covered dress shoes that were meticulously sharply-polished not too long ago. His dark chestnut hair was a matted mess against his sweaty forehead and his usually steely eyes were heavy with fatigue, but remained focused on Newton’s now rigid and alert figure. His eyes tracing over his intricate kaiju tattoos, something that had intrigued him since the two of them had originally met, although he had only ever seen his forearms and the occasional peek of his lower back and belly from a few of Newton’s ill-fitting shirts.
“I-I came to make sure you were alright, I felt something…” His voice softening from alarm to thoughtfulness, Gottlieb scratched at his head with his free hand, much like he did in front of his chalkboard. “… It is peculiar, that after we… ‘drifted’, I have been experiencing some sort of strange… connections to you, I believe.” His voice trailed off every so often as he struggled to find the right phrasing for something so unprofessional and emotional sounding. “I thought I felt a presence in my head once more…”
Newton flinched slightly, realizing that perhaps even after drifting, it had left some sort of open connection between the two of them. He wondered how much of his own memories Hermann had been sifting through himself. “W-well, you know Gottlieb, it’s not uncommon for people to experience strange sensations after drifting with someone for the first ti-“
Hermann cut him short, raising a knobbly finger in the air to pause him. He hobbled forward, his cane clacking loudly against the steel floor. “I felt… you. You were in my head.” His voice was now stern and less unsure. He locked eyes with Newton, unflinching. “I have felt a connection between our memories since then. I know exactly… what you were doing.” His voice impounding on ‘exactly’, pressing his point without being descriptive.
“Y-you do, do you…” Newton glanced downward as their feet, mere inches away from each other. His eyes snapped back up, but hesitating with his response. “I really didn’t k-know-“
Hermann shuffled closer, their noses nearly brushing one another. “You were invading my personal thoughts. You were in my mind, not yours.” His accent rolling his R’s with the utmost poignancy.
Newt blinked, wincing at the harshness in Hermann’s tone. He had no idea he was tapping into his head, rummaging through his memories like an open filing cabinet, and he could sense the amount of discomfort in his voice. And yet... there was something so overwhelming about how close he was to him. Their lips were, what, four, maybe five inches apart? All those emotions running through him, all these new feelings and memories he had bouncing around his stomach like a caged animal… He couldn’t resist, before he knew it, he was pressing his lips against Gottlieb’s, his arms wrapping tightly around his rigid back, fingers pressing into his shoulder blades and crawling up his neck.
Hermann was surprised, to say the least, but not as surprised as he could have been. After feeling what Newton was doing in his own mind, he came looking for this. Hermann had experienced attraction to Newton since the first week they worked together, and after the drift experiment, despite how foolish it was, he felt himself propelled to act on those feelings even more so. He reached up to grasp the back of Newt’s messy, unkempt hair and nearly lost balance on his cane, fumbling to hold onto the handle. Their abruptly passionate embrace was not unlike that of teenagers, awkwardly grabbing and heaving for each other, caught up in the spark of the moment more than anything.
Newton moaned softly against Hermann’s mouth, digging his fingers into his back even harder, prying at the back of his shirt, trying to untuck it from his trousers.
Just as Newt managed to slip his hand into the back of his pants, he felt a twinge in his brain again, similar to what he experienced after the drift. They were Hermann’s emotions, and they felt relieved, warm, and at ease. It was strange and overpowering, Newton felt Hermann’s emotions take over as if they were his own. They sunk deeper into the kiss, their passion reflecting and absorbing into each other like mirrors, magnified by their neural connection.
Newton hastily grabbed Hermann’s collar, pulling him into himself and falling backwards onto Newton’s creaky single bed, rolling over with Hermann lying underneath Newt’s complexly inked torso, gasping slightly with the moment of fresh air they both had.
Hermann’s cane fell to the hard floor with a clatter as he brought his shaking hands towards Newton’s face, stroking a thumb across the rough stubble along his jawline and under his lip. Almost for once in his life, he was at a loss for words, unable to think of any witty and well-educated remark to make about the situation. His eyes travelled back down to Newton’s tattoos, fixated on the bold designs wrapping around his shoulders and chest. He hardly noticed Newt tugging at his pants, fiddling with the small-buttoned fly of his wool trousers, but he certainly felt it once they were open.
“What are you…” Gottlieb sighed out deeply, almost inaudibly. He couldn’t rest all of his hesitancy, despite the fact that so much of him wanted this. “What if someone were to come in, such as I just did a moment ago.” His voice was a whisper, close to Newton’s ear and much softer than his usual sharp tone.
“D-don’t worry, everyone’s either passed out from celebrating, or still is…” His voice trailed off as he looked down to see their matching erections pressed against each other through thin layers of underwear, Newton’s a childishly kaiju-patterned blue and Hermann’s a crisp standard white.
There was a pause of silence as the two were at a loss for words. No need for them, with their newfound sense of what could only be described as telepathy, they seemed to be in perfect harmony with each other. They shifted slightly enough to wedge their underwear down, pressing their hardness into each other.
Newton slid himself downward, unbuttoning Hermann’s shirt and placing his lips along his pale exposed skin as he went. His neck, his collar, his chest, his ribs, his stomach… He lowered himself slower with each kiss, sensing the tingling anticipation in Hermann’s mind.
“Would you just g-get on with it!” Hermann huffed impatiently, beginning to drum his thumb along his knuckles. “Your inability to work towards a deadline in the lab really should not have an effect here.” He furrowed his brow, attempting to appear stern and unimpressed, using his best “headmaster voice”, as Newt frequently referred to it as, but a small smirk curling up from the corners of his tightly buttoned lips gave him away.
“Aw c’mon,” Newton returned a smirk, raising his head while lightly resting his chin on Hermann’s hip to look at him. “You think you can run laps around me in the lab with that thing, Hermann?” He motioned towards the dark wooden cane lying on the floor.
“I never gave you permission to use my first name, much less without my title.” Hermann continued his unimpressed farce, raising an eyebrow. “Perhaps you will have to earn it, hm?”
Newt grinned from ear to ear, almost worryingly so. Without a word, he enthusiastically ducked his head back down.
Hermann let out a loud gasp, clutching his fingers at the back of Newton’s head with one hand, the other placed firmly on the side of the bed. He closed his eyes, letting his head fall back into the cold pillow as he focused on the waves of pleasure rippling upward.
Newton was focused on earning his prize, contemplating every technique he’d picked up during his “experimental phase” in college. However, he was actually somewhat surprised by the size of Gottlieb’s cock. He never would have guessed he had something this impressive hidden away under his grandpa trousers. But then again, he didn’t know about a lot of things before all of this.
Newt chose to hasten his pace, wrapping his tongue around Hermann’s shaft and sucking quicker and harder with each motion, feeling Gottlieb’s muscles tighten and push harder into him.
“Y-you really seem to know… w-what you’re… doing…” Hermann managed to stutter between gasps of bliss and satisfaction. “But I’m afraid I-I can’t--”
Interrupting himself, Hermann exhaled loudly as he came, clutching at the sheets underneath him while his hips jutted upwards into Newton’s chin. He flopped back down into the bed, his dirty shirt stuck to his skin with sweat and his bad leg trembling.
“So uh,” Newton started smugly, wiping his chin clean of the mess he’d helped to make. “Do you think I’ve earned it now? I mean, I’d say that was fairly quick, even for me--”
“Don’t you ever run out of shrewd things to say?” Hermann muttered flippantly, lifting himself up. He wiped away a stray piece of dark hair stuck to his sweat-drenched forehead. “But yes, I suppose you have earned it, considering the deal I seem to have made with you. Although I highly doubt that particular method of ‘earning it’ would be considered commonplace.”
“Mhm, but this isn’t a ‘commonplace’ situation, Hermann!” Newt lowered his voice facetiously, mocking Gottlieb’s habitually studious language and tone. He sat up, sitting on the edge of the bed and rubbed his own thigh, feeling mirrored twinges of pain from Hermann’s.
Hermann leaned forward, rubbing his long slender fingers in tight circles along Newt’s upper thigh. “If I had known you would have somehow inherited my issues, I would have been more cautious about the drifting process.”
Newton smiled blushingly “It’s not that bad, just a bit sore really… But uh, I don’t suppose you could fix something else that’s starting to hurt a bit too?” He glanced sheepishly at his open pants, his cock poking out the top of his overly snug briefs.
“Ah, yes, well I should reciprocate the favour, as you did…” Hermann’s voice trailed off again as his eyes wandered back down to Newton’s tattoos, leading down to his crotch.
“Hey man, don’t think of it like that…” Newton rubbed an idle hand on the back of his neck. “I just, y’know… you knew what I was doing before…”
“How far do they go?” Hermann interrupted, placing a finger along one of Newt’s ribs and tracing a line down towards his hip.
“They uh… hah… I have a few down my legs… but there’s still a bit of room I’ve been saving for a few more.” Newton flinched as Gottlieb dragged his finger over the tip of his exposed cock, tugging at the edge and allowing the full length to fall out of the tight fabric.
“Really quite fascinating…” Hermann mumbled softly under his breath, looking up through Newton’s cracked lenses. “Perhaps you’d like to show me the full piece?”
Newton laughed nervously, but put on a smug face and stood up to tug the rest of his skinny jeans and tight underwear down to his ankles, kicking them into the corner of the tiny room. He held his arms out, flexing his biceps to show off the extremely detailed kaiju etched into his skin, bulging out slightly where his muscles protruded. “You think they’re cool, huh?” He raised his eyebrows tauntingly, pleased with himself, although his face remained flush red as he was very much aware of the fact he was standing stark naked in front of his lab partner.
“I find your tattoos to be rather garish and outlandish, but yes, I suppose they are ‘cool’.” Hermann said the last word with a slight bit of annoyance, but he found himself amused by Newton’s eagerness to show off. He could sense his pride in his body of art work, and through their connection he seemed to share a small sense of that pride. “Now, how do you suggest I go about taking care of your ‘issue’, hm?” He rested his hands into his lap, eyeballing Newt intently like a specimen on the table.
“W-well…” Newton suddenly found himself slightly self-conscious, dropping his arms and hunching over to cover just how utterly exposed he was. “I’d like it if you could… do the same?” He flinched anticipating a snarky answer.
“Dr. Geiszler, as much as I--”
“Seriously dude, just call me Newt, you have me naked in front of you, you can drop the formalities.” He flopped down to sit beside him, crossing one leg over the other out of modesty.
“Very well, Newton. As much as I would like to do the same for you, I’m afraid I’m not quite capable of that sort of physical manoeuvring, as I’m sure you are aware of.” Hermann tapped a thumb against his bum leg.
“O-oh yeah… Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, wow, uh, I’m sorry man, I didn’t really think of that…” Newt lowered his head slightly, feeling a little thoughtless.
“It’s no matter.” Hermann said crisply, using a hand to grasp Newton’s bare thigh and pull his crossed leg back down, exposing his crippling erection. He grasped his hand around the shaft, swiftly pulling upward and using his thumb to smear a small amount of precum downward.
“Hey! You’re n-not too bad at-- ah!” Newton gasped loudly as Hermann picked up speed, surprising him with his proficiency. Newt pushed his head into Hermann’s shoulder, nuzzling his nose and lips into his neck. He kissed him softly, groaning quietly as he felt himself losing it again, except this time was a lot better than on his own.
Hermann turned his face to Newton’s, kissing his nose and working his way to his lips. The kiss turned more passionate as Newton reached his own finale, snogging and gasping as they kissed sloppily. Newton’s one free hand reached across to grab the edge of Hermann’s shirt, pulling him even closer into himself just as he came, gasping aloud against his lips. His come hitting his stomach, running down to his thighs.
“Wow…” was all Newton managed to say before falling backward into the bed, arms spread out at his sides as he panted heavily, staring at the metal ceiling.
Hermann grabbed Newt’s dirty shirt from the corner post and mopped up his stomach. “Now, was that sufficient reimbursement?” He grinned, facing away from Newton so as to not reveal his self-satisfaction.
“Reimburse… Man, you need to relax a little.” Newt huffed, grabbing the back of Hermann’s shirt and tugging him back to lie on the bed beside him as well. “That was great… I just kinda wish that… could have happened sooner.”
“Hm, yes maybe. But perhaps it will happen again. I consider that to be sufficient.” Hermann no longer hid his grin, smiling from ear to ear as he began to laugh at the situation that had just unfolded.
“Again? Yeah, yeah, let’s do that again sometime… That’d be awesome.” Newton’s face reflected the same sort of slap-happy grin as Hermann’s, joining in on the laughter. “That would be pretty great…”
The two scientists were now completely exhausted of any spare energy they had left in them, and quickly dozed off into a fast sleep, Hermann tucked around Newton’s arms.
The noise of the Shatterdome faded slowly around Newton’s quarters as the rest of the crew and staff eased off their celebrating and went to their own rooms to sleep. The world was a much happier, worry-free place now, and a lot had changed in the past fifty two hours, but Newton and Hermann couldn’t be happier.