23 fluff
newt leans back in his chair as he crumples up his piece of scrap paper. he aims for the garbage can that rests on the yellow line down the middle of the lab, shoots, and scores. he lets out a cheer and throws him arms in the air, only to hear hermann scoff moments later from his own desk.
“what?” newt says, because he’s bored, and he suspects hermann is too. “like you’re such an athlete.”
“i’m a mathematician, newton,” hermann replies in a tone of voice that’s meant to suggest he’s only giving partial attention. “half of earning a degree in maths is competitions in calculating trick shots. not that what you just did what a trick shot by any means.”
newt stares for a long minute, not sure if hermann is messing with him.
“prove it,” he says, and before the second word is even out of his mouth, hermann balls of a piece of paper and throws it into the garbage can without looking.
newt’s mouth drops open, but he closes it again quickly before hermann can see, not that hermann has looked in his direction since this conversation began.
“i’m not going to play HORSE with you,” hermann says, and there’s amusement in his tone now, so newt crumples up two more pieces of paper to add a little weight and control, and then chucks them across the lab.
they hit hermann on the shoulder, which is pretty satisfying even though he was aiming for his head. hermann sighs and puts down his pencil and finally looks up at newt.
“what will convince you that i’m telling you the truth and to let me go back to work?” he asks. “non-dominant hand? eyes closed? from the top of the ladder?”
“yes,” newt says, and hermann’s eyebrows rise. “i know you didn’t mean all of those combined but yes.”
hermann rolls his eyes, but he stands up and grabs his cane and some paper. newt’s pretty sure there’s some kind of satisfaction in his expression, though, because really newt is goading him into showing off, isn’t he.
“what happens if you miss?” newt asks. “what do i get?”
“you get to annoy me without complaint for the next hour,” hermann says as he climbs his ladder. “but i’m going to make it and you’re going to leave me alone.”
newt scoffs loudly.
“the probability of you making this shot is zero, but you go ahead,” he says, because he wants to see hermann seethe.
“taunting me with inaccurate terminology and hyperbole isn’t going to throw me off,” hermann says, though newt can tell his jaw is clenched.
“hyperbole?” newt asks as hermann takes aim, closing his eyes. “isn’t that that one type of graph?”
“shut up,” hermann says calmly, and then he throws the balled up paper, and then his eyes fly open as newt kicks the garbage can to the side so that the paper doesn’t land in it.
“you didn’t establish any parameters,” newt says, shrugging and grinning.
hermann doesn’t say anything. he climbs down off of the ladder. he walks over to his desk. he crumples up a piece of paper and he throws it at newt’s face, and this time he doesn’t miss.
