#but enough people have talked about newt. he’s had his turn

[subjecta5newtella]

I’m not in a true tmr mental state so I’ll probably do a lot of linking back to posts I made when I was, but Somebody’s gotta make a minho post and as a certified minho analyst I’ll go ahead and do it. movie minho….I love him and he’s a beautiful man but I don’t feel like he has a ton going on. he’s the hot girl he’s the action hero he’s the end goal for tdc but he’s largely sidelined so I don’t feel like he gets to have a tonnnn of interiority. (see the white boy summer rant here if you care about book vs movie minho lmao). book minho fascinates me though because I think he grows tremendously as a character and I think he has a lot of complexity to him.

book minho still has that degree of cool badass action hero to him, and I think he’s brave in some situations (you do have to be brave to be a runner obviously) but I also think he’s a character who deals with a lot of fear in interesting ways. I think he sublimates a lot of that into humor—“if I don’t see you on the other side, remember that I love you” and “I bet you cried every night missing me” come to mind as manifestations of his very real fear of losing thomas (as well as being spectacular thominho moments). I also think his anger comes from the fear of things he can’t control. I’ve already said this better here and in the fic linked in the post so I won’t try to restate it worse, but it fascinates me.

in terms of arc I think his journey towards being an incredibly loyal character is a really good one. he goes from running away when other people are in danger (the night in the maze) to being completely unwilling to abandon his friends even when it puts him in danger himself (the scene with newt at the crank palace).

also I really wish this had been fleshed out more after the first book but I like his capability to be manipulative. aim high hit low scene my beloved. like yeah it’s fun when he beats the shit out of people but I think there’s a lot to be said for the kind of cleverness that enables him to get what he wants in that scene.

I also just really enjoy his dynamics with other characters, specifically thomas and newt. the newt and minho bickering in tst means so much to me both because it’s entertaining and because it reveals a lot about their leadership styles and what the group needs from a leader in different situations (more on that here). he can be a challenging character to learn to write on more than a surface level because he does have the aforementioned complexities, but once you get the hang of him, it’s really fun to set him loose on those dynamics.

anyway. tldr. this post

so, we've know one another for some time now, tmr geeks. tell me, who is your favourite character and why? i need to know and understand it so bad it hurts— and be as LENGTHY as you want, confess your secrets, i love it.

[yallthemwitches]

Slipping Away

Snape didn't think his life could get much worse---until Lily was falling in love with James Potter right before his eyes. A compilation of 3 particular moments between 6th and 7th year..

(If anyone is curious, I imagine Sirius and Lily are dancing to Fool In the Rain by Led Zeppelin and James and Lily dance to Mambo Sun by T Rex)

Sixth Year

I.The Three Broomsticks was filled to the brim with people. All the Hogwarts houses were present as well as the locals. Even some goblins were seen carrying their own goblets of firewhisky while weaving around at knee height. Severus sat glowering at one of the tables that had been pushed back against the wall to make space for a dance floor. Around him, music burst with a frenetic energy and bodies buzzed to move with it.

He hadn’t wanted to come–the potions NEWTS were coming up and Avery had also given him an extra assignment to create a new curse that would be good enough to get him noticed by the death eaters who had been scouting through the Slytherin house. But he knew she would be here tonight. So he came. 

He wasn’t wrong. Just across the room she stood with a group of her girlfriends in a tight circle. Out of her uniform, she bobbed her hip to the beat making her black corduroy skirt bounce slightly. Marlene McKinnon said something with a smirk and Lily leaned her head back in a laugh. He watched as she compiled her hair on the top of her head in a loose ball and let it cascade down her back in waves. 

He had seen her do this a million times. The way her laugh burst forth. The habit she had to fool with her hair when she was either nervous or feeling a burst of emotion. She used to do those things when he used to talk to her. How could she have learned to do them for anyone else?

Mary McDonald came back from the bar levitating 3 drinks and Lily took hers from midair. Sipping idly, she swerved her body to take stock of the room. She turned about halfway before pausing for a beat and a smile curled up from behind her goblet. Snape jerked his head in the direction of her eyes to see Potter and his friends just across the other way sitting semi-circle at a table that already had a collection of empty goblets. Potter leaned on the back legs of his seat in mid-discussion with his little cult. Sirius let out a barking laugh at whatever was said and picked up one of the goblets to down it with a swift movement. At Lily’s gaze, James looked up, dropped back down into a proper sitting position, and leaned with crossed arms on the table. A small smile pulled at his mouth. 

“I’m imagining it,” Severus conceded. The moment couldn’t have been more than two seconds—there’s no way that with this much bustle and noise…Potter and Lily—his Lily—could be having some sort of moment. 

Lily rolled her eyes and swiveled her body back facing her friend group. The girls talked excitedly to each other and a new song started up. Lily made a little jump and took a long sip from her goblet before setting it on a nearby table. Snape was too far away to hear her words, but he could tell by the change in body language that she was excited by whatever new song was magically blasting into the room. She swayed her hips in time with the beat and with her hands hovering up by her shoulders, snapped along to each drum hit. Marlene snorted and shook her head at her friend. Watching her mouth he could just barely make out Marlene saying, “Merlin Lily, you and that muggle music.” 

Unphased by her friend’s teasing, Lily closed her eyes and mouthed the lyrics to herself. Giving a cheeky wave, she spinned on her heel and walked towards the middle of the dancefloor, still keeping time with her steps. He expected her to stop where others had begun dancing in the middle of the space, but she expertly weaved her way through the crowd and towards the boys sitting on the other side. 

Severus felt his throat dry up. He knew that they had seemed a little friendly these days. It hadn’t been lost on him that she and her friends had started sitting next to Potter and his crew during meals. And after lessons, James would sometimes bound up to keep in step with her, asking about the class. Merely a year before she would have been annoyed by having to talk to the likes of him, but now she let him— even emitting a laugh or two at something he said.  All the years they had spent lamenting about his giant ego and bullying behavior was being thrown out the window the second they stopped spending time together. Mulciber and Malfoy always said muggleborns were supposed to be slimy and disloyal, but she had always been different than that. She was better than the rest of her kind.

Lily stood with her back to him in front of the marauder’s table and continued to sway playfully to the music. Severus craned his neck as far as he could to be able to watch her face. At her approach, Potter sat up straighter and his hand jumped into his hair. Disgusting prick. 

He couldn’t make out her words but he saw the slightest bit of color bubble up on Potter’s face. If Severus hadn’t thought Potter was capable of any other emotion besides being an arrogant prick, he would have thought that he was embarrassed. Potter’s eyes widened a bit, and he spoke something back to her, once again pushing his hand through his hair. Lily slowed her swaying, clearly crestfallen, but quickly pushed past it to perk back up. Sirius turned to James and with a mischievous grin and said something before rising from the table. Lily’s face lit up and she grabbed Sirius’ hand as he followed her out into the middle of the dance floor. 

Snape felt his dinner bubbling up in his stomach. She’s going to dance with Black? He’s almost worse than Potter…

Snape’s only consolation was the look on James’ face. Wide-eyed and pale, James stared blankly at where Sirius and Lily had started dancing on the near-side of the hall. Pettigrew leaned over and started poking James in the face with a smirk and Lupin rolled his eyes and said something pointedly to him, who looked too stunned to hear it. 

Snape whipped his head back to Lily and Sirius. Lily had her arms loosely around his neck and Sirius had his arms wrapped around her. Despite being mid-dance, he could tell that Sirius was holding distance between them, very clearly wanting to establish them from the other dancers who pressed themselves to each other as tight as possible. 

“Potter has his little gang so whipped. He must have called dibs on Lily like she’s some kind of Quidditch prize.” Despite being revolted by the thought, Snape had to admit he was fine with watching Black be more reserved. 

Sirius and Lily swayed together. Despite being a muggle tune, Sirius was able to word all the lyrics along with her. They both continued to dance; belting out the song while the music drowned them out. After a moment, Sirius leaned into Lily’s ear and whispered something with a smirk. He was facing the table where he had left his friends, and his eyes twinkled in the direction of James who had gotten some of his color back but was now carrying an air of frustration and annoyance. Lily leaned her head back and laughed at whatever Sirius’ had said and turned her head to also stare in the direction of the table. Knowing they had his attention, they both simultaneously gave a sly wave and Potter pouted further. 

Lupin leaned over again, and said something curtly to James. James nodded a few times before pushing himself up off the table. He strode over onto the dancefloor and stood next to the two dancers who kept in-tune without hesitation. After some words were exchanged, Lily dropped her arms around Sirius’ neck and Sirius, feigning the air of a dignitary, offered one of Lily’s hands to James with a dramatic bow. Lily rolled her eyes but let James take over in Sirius’ stead.

It was too much for Severus. He already had to watch her dance with one arsehole, and now she was going to dance with the leader of arseholes. He jerked himself up from the table and trudged his way onto the dancefloor. 

By the time he made it to the couple, Lily had snaked her arms around James’ neck and he held her around the waist. They stood much closer than Sirius’ had allowed earlier, with their bodies pressed against one another, and James’ hands making tight contact with her lower back. Both of them had a smattering of blush on their faces and stared at each other with easy eyes. As Snape approached, he watched James lean in close to Lily’s ear and whisper something. In response she scrunched up her face in a playful grin. 

“Can I talk to you?” Severus felt extremely out of place surrounded by flushed and bobbing bodies. He made a quick erratic dodge to not run into another pair of dancers who were whooshing past. 

Neither Lily or James moved out of their embrace. If anything, he could see Lily’s hands tighten around Potter’s neck as she craned around to look at him. 

“No,” she said curtly. She turned back to face James who, despite clearly trying to be on his best behavior, side-eyed him and made a sardonic smirk. 

“Please,” he tried again. 

“Can’t you see I’m trying to enjoy my evening,” she retorted, and started to slowly spin herself and James away from where he was standing. Snape took another step forward and planted a hand squarely on her shoulder. 

“Lily—” But Lily whipped around, removing her hands from James, while James’ eyes narrowed dangerously as he kept one of his hands protectively around her waist. “How dare he stand there like she’s his.” Snape’s mind flooded with anger. 

“She said no, Snape,” James growled out. Around them, people started to stop their reveling to watch the scene unfold. Lily’s friends pushed forward to be closer and from the corner of his eye, he could see that Sirius and Lupin were both standing now with wands in hand. 

“Fine…Fine. Mudblood.” He spat it out at her and turned on his heel. James pulled out his wand, but Lily grabbed at his shoulder, clearly begging him not to react. Snape didn’t look back and stormed out of the front doors and into the rain.

Seventh Year

II. School had started merely weeks ago, but the whole student body was buzzing. When he first heard someone talking about it in the Slytherin common room, he almost vomited on the spot. 

“D’you here? Potter and Evans are together.”

“A head student romance? Bet that keeps their patrols interesting.”

“I heard they saw each other over the summer— Mary told me she even slept over at his—”

“We all knew that one day they were bound to snog, Potter has been after her for years and Evans couldn’t mask her sexual tension with anger forever…”

He didn’t want to believe it. He refused to believe it. But later at lunch there it was. 

They were together. Lily sat leaning into the crook of his arm that encircled her. His other hand rested plainly on her upper thigh and gently squeezed her exposed skin randomly as they both listened to Marlene who eyed them warily but continued with her conversation. 

For head boy and head girl, it was a disgusting display of affection. The Lily he knew would have never been ok with it—he already thought Dumbledore was going mad to let Potter get the head boy position, but now to have him condone this type of behavior?

James lowered his head to whisper something closely in her ear. From even such a distance he could see James’ nose nuzzle against her cheek and Lily let out a giggle. She reached up and playfully grabbed his chin and gave it a little teasing shake before he closed the distance between their lips. 

Sirius and Marlene broke into a mocking applause at their kiss and James swatted at his mate while Lily blushed deeply. Lily leaned into James’ ear and murmured something, and red sprung up around the bottom edges of his glasses. Lily stood and James followed suit, eliciting suggestive oooohhhs and kissing noises from their friends. James grabbed his and her bag and slung them over his shoulder before wrapping his free arm once again around her waist as they started for the door. 

As they walked, Lily spoke to James with an ease not unlike she used to reserve for him. How many times had he wanted to wrap his arms around her like Potter so freely did now? He felt dizzy as he watched James kiss her temple as they departed, with Lily’s face alight with happiness.

III. 

He had gone down to the potions classroom they used to use in the good days. It was the middle of the night, but he had no better option. He had been working on a new potion technique he couldn’t work on in class. He yearned to talk to Lily about it like they used to. Whenever he was stuck on a problem, she always had something wise to say, as though she was like the half he was missing to be a complete person. 

He hadn’t come down here at night often since him and Lily had stopped talking. He knew how special it was for her to have a safe space, and it was his gift to her to let her have it whenever she wanted to come to experiment at night. Sometimes he would sneak out and wait in the hall, just to listen to the cutting of her knife as she sang along to the music she conjured into the room while she worked. 

He had just finished packing his things when he heard footsteps and voices coming from down the hall. 

“Are you sure the Beatles aren’t wizards? Like has anyone point blank asked them?” said a familiar male voice. 

“I think if they were, we would know by now, don’t you think,” he could recognize her voice from a mile away. His heart sank.

Lily and James turned the corner and started walking towards the open classroom door. Severus clutched his potion kit to himself and cursed silently. Sure, he could hide somewhere in the room, but all it would take is one quick sweep and he would be found. 

He stood frozen within the door as he heard their footsteps approach. He closed his eyes and braced himself, but miraculously they had stopped. He heard the shifting of clothing and a soft groan from James. 

“I thought we were supposed to be watching that other corridor,” James whispered. His voice sounded deep and thick. 

“No, I think we can skip it,” Lily responded back. He had never heard her voice sound like that. It was low and melted into the air. He had never thought you could hear desire in someone’s voice, but there was no mistaking it. 

The two went silent save for the sound of bodies moving slowly and soft moans being teased out of the other. He heard a dampened thump and slithered himself up against the door to carefully peer out into the hall. 

James had Lily pinned against the wall. Their lips moving against each other like they were starving for each other. Lily ran her hands through his hair and curled her fingers into tight fists, eliciting a moan from James. He stood pressed between her legs so their bodies fit together as close as possible. One hand was clasped around her upper thigh and was toying with the idea of pulling her leg entirely up and around his waist for better leverage. The action of their bodies together pushed her skirt to dangerous heights, but she seemed too busy to notice. 

Severus felt like he could die at that very moment. He wanted to stop watching–needed to stop watching, but found that he could not. Lily was flushed, mouth hanging open in a perpetual moan as James lowered his head to her collar bone and attached his mouth like a suction. 

“I love you.” It was barely a whisper, but Severus heard it. By the way it came so easily from her lips he knew it wasn’t the first time she had said it either. 

It felt like his soul left his body. His eyes became unfocused and he felt the urge to sit on the floor. She loves him? Loves HIM? No curse could feel as bad as he felt now. Nothing that had ever come before it could compare.How could she be so blind? How could she fall so low?

James removed himself from her collar which was red from his mouth. He looked at her, beaming. “I love you too, Lils. Merlin. I love you so much.”

And their lips met again. James picked her up and she yelped playfully but obliged to wrapping her legs around his waist and using the wall for support. Severus couldn’t watch any longer. He slid to a crouching position and buried his head in his hands. 

After what seemed like ages, he heard some shifting and Lily’s feet touch back on the floor. 

“I think it’s safe to say our patrols are done.” He heard her say with a giggle. 

“So….my dorm?” Severus wanted to snort at how cocky it sounded, but Lily just laughed. 

“What? You’re going to tell all your mates to fuck off so we can cuddle?” She teased.

“Cuddling? Is that what we are calling it now?” He could just picture Potter’s stupid mouth turning up in a mischievous grin. 

He heard Lily laugh and give him a playful swat. 

“Sure, yeah—I’d like that.” She conceded. And their footsteps disappeared around the corner. 

Severus remained crouched despite their departure, unable to move. Is this what hell is like? Is this what I deserve? He thought about all the times Lily smiled at him; all the times they would laugh as they experimented with potions or talked carelessly by the river about everything and  nothing at all. 

She was gone.Taken. Stolen. Each lovely moment with her slipped away from his mind like being crumbled into dust. All that was left was anger. A deep, encompassing hatred. 

He would get her back. Even if that meant killing the person she loved. Even if that meant becoming her enemy to do so.

[that-tmr-girl]

Our Little Secret

Newt and you hate parties so much you sneak off every time for actual fun.

Oral, blow job, vaginal sex, slight overstimulation, praising, aftercare

I've been to a million parties, and they're all the same. The adults will mingle and leave the couple of teens they dragged along to entertain themselves. Of course, there weren't very many of us. Tonight in fact, there was only one other besides me.

Sighing as people talked about who knows what I stepped into the empty hall. With my heels clacking on the floor, I stopped when I heard an extra pair of footsteps behind me.

"I was wondering when you'd get bored of being in there,"I remarked, turning around to face him.

"Bored? No. Not when you have that little, black dress on,"He sighed, walking towards me.

"Your favorite,"I whispered in his ear.

"Yeah? Why don't you remind me why,"He suggested, putting a hand on my inner thigh before tracing small shapes on my skin. As he trailed his hands higher he looked at me as he realized the little black dress was all I had.

"Mhm. You were just so sure I'd be down here tonight, weren't you?"He smirked.

"Bold of you to assume I was waiting for you."

"Is it now? Because these nights always end the same. With you struggling to walk when it's over."

"Good to know you pay attention,"I mumbled against his lips.

"I always pay attention to you,"He whispered, trailing a hand on my jaw. Still, he didn't move. Not yet. Just move closer and closer until he was almost there before pulling away.

"Come on. We don't want to be interrupted, do we?"He asked, taking his hands off of my body. Without a word I followed him to a few halls down until he pushed a door open. Stepping into the bedroom, he slammed the door shut before pinning me against the wall. Putting my arms behind his neck, we still waited for whoever would break first. Because this was just a game. A complex, game of feelings and lust.

This time I caved first as I pressed my lips against his. Keeping his hands on my waist, he trailed his tongue against my bottom lip asking for entrance. Denying it, he groaned before inching his finger closer to my pussy. Rubbing small circles on my clit, I moaned which he took full advantage of, darting his tongue between my parted lips. I ran my hands through his hair as he gradually deepened in, resulting in me being completely being trapped between him and the wall now.

As he moved his mouth to my collarbone I gathered enough sense to remind him not to leave any visible marks. Not so early.

"Sorry,"He shrugged, though we both knew he wasn't.

"Here. Let my get this off you. It looks better on the floor anyway,"He added, pulling at the sleeveless dress. Tugging it over my head, he allowed the garment to land on his floor before trailing his tongue down my stomach. Barely even needing to see them, he unstrapped my heels to toss them off.

"Why am I the only one not wearing anything?"I pointed out.

"There's nothing blocking my tongue now, is there?"He breathed against my thigh. Pressing a small kiss to my skin, I grazed my hands through his scalp. Giving me a teasing lick, my entire body shuddered at the feeling. He slowly flicked his tongue against my clit, finding an even rhythm. Quietly moaning his name, I couldn't help but push my hips further into him. I could just feel that cocky grin that I was so used to seeing as he plunged his tongue inside of me. Biting my lip to control my whimpers, he hummed causing desirable vibrations. Pulling away, he replaced his tongue with his fingers. While pumping two fingers inside of me, he used his thumb to rub small circles above my entrance. I could feel his gaze on me as I was reaching my breaking point.

"Mhm. You like this, don't you love?"He hummed, curling his fingers. Pulling his hair harder, he knew I was close as he placed his mouth back on me. Sucking on my clit, I reached my climax as I came. Licking everything he could, he trailed his tongue down my thighs to make sure not a drop was missed. As I was coming down from my high he suddenly started sucking on my pussy again.

"Newt, I'm still sensitive,"I warned.

"You already know I'll lick you clean. I'm not wasting your cum,"He said firmly, getting everything he could out of me.

Getting me worked up all over again, he stopped as he had apparently gotten what he needed.

"Your turn,"I said, dropping to my knees. Sliding out of his shoes, he undid his belt but left the rest to me. Unzipping his pants, I yanked them off. Seeing him already hard even though his boxers, I smiled in satisfaction before pulling those off too. Taking him in my hands, I slowly stroked his shaft. Thrusting himself into my hand, I barely increased the pace, pumping from tip to base. "Don't tease,"He pleaded as I started giving kitten licks to his tip. "Me? Tease you?"I asked before running my tongue on the side of his cock. "Would I ever do that to you?"I asked, looking up at him. With his eyes begging for me, I took him in my mouth. Running his hands through my hair, I bobbed my head as I sucked him off. Panting, he made a makeshift ponytail while gently pushing me further into him. Hitting the back of my throat, I sucked in my cheeks. Thrusting into me quicker now, I was almost choking as I increased my pace. Feeling him twitch in my mouth, I hummed. When his breathing was more ragged I knew there wasn't much longer.

Like always I was right as he shot his seed down my throat before pulling himself past my lips.

"Good girl,"He groaned as I swallowed his thick, salty liquids. Licking my lips to get what I could, I greedily sucked the rest of his cum from his hard cock. Trailing it down the side and tracing it back on his tip, his hands made there way to my hair. Still, he restrained himself from pushing me into him.

"Can I please just fuck you now?"He asked.

"What? My throat wasn't enough?"

"No. I want to be inside of you."

"You just were."

"Y/N-"

"Newt."

"Please,"He begged.

"I love when you sound like that,"I admitted, standing up.

"Trust me. I know,"He sighed, grabbing my waist and pulling me against him. Wrapping my legs around him, I could already feel his erection on my stomach.

Roughly throwing me on his bed, he connected our lips before trailing his mouth on my jaw. Moaning at the feeling, I felt his smile on my skin as he sucked on my collarbone, leaving hints of purple and red. 

"Mine,"He breathed out.

"Yours,"I agreed.

Biting down on my neck, I grew more verbal. He did it again, harder, before making his way to my sweet spot.

"Newt. You can't just give me hickey's all night,"I groaned, arching my back.

"But you always look so pretty covered in them,"He whined.

"You're always so needy,"I laughed as he pressed a kiss to my nose.

"And you love it,"He reminded me, as if one was needed. Still, he positioned himself above me.

"Ready?"He asked. I nodded my head, but he gave me the look. The one that said to use my words.

"Yes,"I promised.

Keeping a hand on my shoulder, he slowly lowered himself into me. Whimpering as he stretched me out, he heard and paused. Only halfway inside of me, I closed my eyes as I waited to be all the way around him. After a moment when I had adjusted to his length, I assured him he could move.

Grunting, he pulled out before slamming into me. Thrusting my hips towards him, he kept his hands on my shoulders as he pushed himself in and out of me. Putting my hands around his back, I started leaving deep scratches as he pounded into me. Moaning my name, he intertwined our fingers as he rested his chest against mine. Moving in perfect synch as he shoved himself inside me, he suddenly put my legs around him, forcing his way deeper. Now full on screaming his name, his breathing got heavier with each thrust. "You always feel so good,"He mumbled. Feeling the knot in my stomach tighten, he sang more. "You're so fucking good at this,"He repeated. As my walls clenched around him, my screams of pleasure and delight only grew louder. Biting down on my shoulder to stifle his, with one last desperate thrust we came. Filling me up, nothing in the word was real as white stars clouded my vision.

Pulling out, we both took a second to catch our breaths. Once we did he smiled down at me before pressing a soft kiss to my forehead. Looking at his perfect lopsided grin, something finally kicked in after a moment.

"You didn't pull out,"I said quickly. Before I could panic he pulled a pill bottle and a water off of his nightstand. Sitting up, I took a long sip before managing to swallow the pill with a bit of effort.

"We'll focus on your voice later. Let's just get you cleaned off,"He suggested.

"I wanna sleep,"I grumbled.

"Yeah? Well you can sleep when you're cleaned off,"He chuckled, picking me up. Putting my arms around his shoulder, he took his time as he set me in the bath before running the water.

As the hit water washed over my skin I was more than thankful for him for the thousandth time in one week.

Sitting beside me, I leaned back as he scrubbed my body.

"I really love you,"I sighed.

"I really love you too. Now let me get your hair,"He directed.

Yeah. I love him. I can never say it enough.

[nomoreusername]

My Glue

Pairing: Newt x female reader

Summary: When your brother is killed in the maze Newt is still by your side to support you.

Being a Runner was practically what I was meant to do. Since I first showed up and laid my eyes on the maze I wanted to go in. Being a girl wouldn't stop me from that. That part's extremely relevant to mention because I just so happen to be the only girl here. Of course, just like everything in this place there are a few other details that make it different.

When I came up in the box I had a faint memory of some of their faces. I even knew a few names before they were told. That's probably how I figured out tho my brother was here. While a few Glader's were suspicious of me, which I guess isn't the most uncalled for, when they saw that we're basically the spitting image of each other it sort of became accepted.

We were close. He was my best friend and one of the most important people in my life.

That changed though. The day started out normal. I woke up, had breakfast, got packed for the day, said goodbye to Newt, and was off. That's how it should have remained. Nothing about that was supposed to be different.

On that day though everything was. I left the maze on time along with every other Runner.

He didn't though. Now he's dead, and I'm in the Glade barely holding it together. Of course, there isn't a lot of time for people to notice that I'm breaking. I barely even can because I am always doing something. I'm always running or trying to make myself better. If I can't then I'm asleep.

It's always there though. In the back of my mind the feelings will forever taunt me. I don't even know what to call it. I just know it makes me want to lay on the ground and never get up.

It's Greenie night now, and instead of being with the people that care about me I'm hiding in the Deadheads. Even though I safely could and want to I don't have the energy to cry.

As I laid there and stared at the tops of the trees I heard footsteps. Realistically I knew I should move. I know that I physically can. At the same time I also can't. There's this weight on my body that's forcing me to stay on the ground.

"Hey love,"Newt greeted, stepping towards me. I turned to look at him. He wore a small smile that almost gave me this bittersweet feeling. Despite it being so dark here I could still see the way it shine brighter than any star ever could. Usually, that would be all I needed to get through the day. Making him laugh just so I could see it used to be at the top of my to-do list.

Nothing is now though because there isn't one. As long as I run in the maze that took my sibling from me then nothing matters.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"He offered, taking a seat next to me.

"No,"I admitted.

"Okay. Do you want to talk about anything?"He asked in that same voice that's smooth as honey and causes me to go weak in the knees. That was different now too though. He always sounded softer and just a little quieter.

"No,"I repeated.

"Okay love. That's fine,"He said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I laid my head on his lap and tried not to think about anything that exists, did exist, or even might. I didn't want to think about anything right now. I'm a way I don't think I was. Physically, I'm right here. Mentally, I'm a thousand miles away.

"Do you know what you do need right now?"He asked, now gently running his hand through my hair. I took a minute to try and think, but nothing came to mind.

Thankfully, he knew me well enough to know what my silence meant because he assured me that I didn't have to answer or even talk.

"Thank you,"I whispered.

"Of course. I'm right here Y/N. No matter what,"He promised.

I knew that I had to believe him. He was the glue that kept me together. Whether that included smiling until my cheeks hurt and laughing until my ribs were sore, or just being the reason I kept going, he was the reason for it.

Newt means everything to me so all I can do is be grateful he's here. I don't think I could handle losing him too.

[heliads]

Hello 💕🌸 can you do a Thomas modern au fic when the reader is not well, sad. And Thomas come to her house to shower her «  the boyfriend package » : hug kiss, etc… the reader is adopt sister of Brenda, Teresa is Thomas twin sister. Newt is their best friend (who also had been matchmaker before they dated..) can you do à maximum of fluff please 🥹🥹

'boyfriend checkup' - thomas

masterlist

Being sick is terrible, isn’t it? From the second you felt the first threads of the cold start to clog your throat and nose, you knew it was all over. Mentally, you signed your death certificate: Y/N L/N, passed away today, gone from the most horrific cough known to man. That’s how it felt, at least, yet you’re still expected to get up and act as if nothing was the matter. Those kids with tuberculosis in the Victorian age who got to lie around in bed all day while their parents treated them like royalty didn’t know how good they had it.

Thankfully, you have at least a couple of days to feel better before you really have to be productive. You started feeling poorly on a Friday, barely managing to stumble through class before heading home as quickly as you could. Not wanting to complain and spoil the good mood of everyone excited about their weekend plans, you had tried to tell as few people as possible. Specifically, you hadn’t told your boyfriend, Thomas, but now you’re missing him more than ever.

It’s not like you’re intentionally trying to keep things from him, you just don’t want him giving up whatever fun things he was supposed to do this weekend so he could hover over you. You love your boyfriend more than anything, honestly, but when it took you so long to admit your feelings for him because you were certain he would never like you back, small things like this make it even easier to talk yourself out of thinking he’ll want to know about it. Thomas is the varsity cross country athlete, the popular one. He loves you, and he’ll tell you that as many times as it takes so you believe it, but some part of you will always wonder why.

That’s why you haven’t told him, not yet, although you have a feeling that he’ll find out sooner or later. Your adoptive sister, Brenda, is best friends with Thomas’ twin, Teresa, and they trade gossip like no one you’ve ever seen before. Both of them have repeatedly assured you that Thomas is head over heels for you, but what if he’s not quite infatuated enough to want to drop his weekend plans to take care of an invalid?

As the cold progresses, though, you start to wish that you had bothered him anyway. You’ve shut yourself up in your bedroom with all the lights off, just lying there and reminiscing about the golden days when your nose had worked as it was supposed to. You had taken so much for granted, and now you’re afflicted with a truly terrible fate indeed.

You’re miserable even on a Saturday, which is how you know things have truly taken a turn for the worst. Not even the weekend, the blessed release from work, can lift your spirits. Your best friend Newt was the only one who knew that you were going through it, and he’d made you promise to call him the second you started feeling better so he could plan a friend group movie night or something. Newt’s always the one on top of stuff like that. You doubt any of you could accomplish anything without his work behind the scenes to keep you all organized. He holds all of you together and keeps anyone from straying too far.

You had hoped that Newt would forget that you were feeling down, but it’s half past noon when your phone buzzes with an incoming call from the blond boy. You briefly consider just letting it go to voicemail, but that would alarm him even more than if you admitted that you still aren’t feeling your best.

You end up giving yourself a second or two to put on your best fake smile before answering the call. Thankfully, Newt had elected to go for just a talk over the phone instead of FaceTime, so you only have to disguise your voice and not your expression, too.

Newt’s voice rings over your phone. “What’s up, Y/N? How’re you doing today?”

You’ve never planned on a career as an actress, but when you answer Newt as happily as you can, you start to consider it. You sound chipper and excited, surprising even yourself. “Doing fine, Newt. How about yourself?”

Maybe this is actually doable. Maybe you might be able to convince your friend that you’re fine so he doesn’t do something terrible like try to get involved. Right now, you just want to be left alone to wallow in your dark room until you’re physically forced out of it.

Newt clicks his tongue in disapproval, sending a rush of static crackling over the phone. “Y/N, are you being honest with me?”

You start to sputter in surprise. Hadn’t your ruse been perfect? “What? Of course I am!”

Newt lets out a sarcastic laugh. “Sure thing. We’ve been friends for years, I know when you’re lying. You want to let me know how you’re really feeling?”

“Really, I’m great,” you eke out. “You’re being paranoid, Newt.”

“Am I?” He asks.

“No,” you admit. “I’m still miserable. My head is killing me, and I haven’t left my bed for more than a couple of minutes all day.”

Newt sighs. “That’s what I was worried about. Is there anything I can do? Maybe rally the group to swing by your house to cheer you up?”

“No, honestly. I don’t want to do anything. Hopefully I’ll get better soon, but until then, I don’t want any crowds around.” You tell him.

Newt pauses for a moment, thinking, then asks, “What about just one person?”

You frown. “Are you offering? I thought you were busy all day.”

“I am,” Newt clarifies, “But Thomas isn’t.”

You go silent. Newt, always the perceptive one, sighs again. “You haven’t told him that you’ve been feeling under the weather, have you?”

“No,” you admit, “but I didn’t want to bother him, that’s all. There’s nothing Thomas can do about this. I don’t want him to worry about something out of his control. He’s already got enough on his plate already, you know that as well as I do.”

Although this conversation is happening over the phone, you can picture Newt’s look of disappointed consternation anyway. “No, he would be furious with me if you were sick and I didn’t tell him. I’m letting him know immediately.”

“Newt, don’t you dare,” you admonish.

He just chuckles. “Too late. Texting him now. With any luck he’ll be over within the hour.”

“You’ve betrayed my trust. You’re a terrible friend,” you admonish him, but only half heartedly.

Newt laughs openly. “No, I’m a fantastic friend and you know it. Did I not use everything in me to get the two of you together?”

You giggle in spite of yourself. “You did indeed. I remember you bringing that up many times.”

“As I deserve,” Newt grumbles. “The two of you fought me all the way despite supposedly wanting this. He had better make you happy now, I’m not ruining all of my hard work for a bad cold.”

You smile. “Thanks, Newt. I’m very glad that you suffered so much for us.”

“You had better be,” he says, but he’s laughing when he hangs up.

Seconds later, you get a text from Thomas: On my way ASAP. Might be breaking the speed limit.

You grin and text him back. Don’t get pulled over.

Never, he answers, and he’s true to his word, a knock sounding on your front door about five minutes later. The rest of your family is out of the house, so you have no problems creeping down the hall to unlock the door and let him in.

Thomas swoops in immediately, pressing a kiss to the top of your head before pulling away so he can get a good look at you. “How are you feeling, Y/N? Dizzy? Feverish? You look alright, if a little tired, but let’s get you back in bed at once.”

You laugh. “I’m not dying of the plague, Thomas. I’ll survive standing up for a few more seconds.”

“Yeah, but you shouldn’t have to,” he says. Pausing briefly to leave his shoes at the door, Thomas proves his point by picking you up in bridal style and carrying you back to your room despite your protests, which are admittedly pretty halfhearted.

Once Thomas has gotten you back in bed again, found a glass somewhere to bring you water, insisted on watching you drink all of it, run back downstairs so he could fill it again, and returned, he perches on the side of your bed, gently squeezing your hand.

“Well, Doctor Thomas?” You ask teasingly. “What’s your diagnosis?”

He grins and plays along. “Not terrible. I recommend bed rest, and maybe also letting your boyfriend know when he needs to take care of you.”

This last bit is delivered with increasing passion, and you’re left sheepishly smiling at him. “Alright, maybe I should have told you in the first place, but I just didn’t want you to worry.”

“Worrying is my job,” Thomas says, “I am excellent at it. Also, if I think you’re not telling me when you need extra love, I’ll worry even more than usual. The only way to keep me from worrying is to let me know when you’re sick or hurt. Deal?”

“Deal,” you agree, and smile when he kisses your cheek.

“You should get some rest,” Thomas urges you. “Here, I’ll close the door so the noise from downstairs doesn’t bother you.”

He moves to stand, but you reach for his hand and he freezes at once. “Stay with me?” You ask hopefully.

“Of course,” he smiles, and, careful not to disturb you, climbs into bed next to you, lying down on top of your blankets to keep his street clothes off of the mattress. You curl into him, letting your eyes shut as the steady beat of his heart lulls you to sleep. Once you wake up, you’ll feel better, and be more open to conversation, but for now, both of you are quite content with the silence. Peace is good for both of you.

requested by @hope92100, i hope you enjoy!

maze runner tag list: @rogueanschel, @ellobruv, @retvenkos, @neewtmas, @mayfieldss, @hiya-itsamber, @gods-fools-heroes, @23victoria, @w1shes43, @imwaysthelastchoice, @fadedver

all tags list: @wordsarelife

[greyeyedmonster-18]

i can see you (up against the wall with me)

(i haven't slammed repeat on a song in awhile, I Can See You from Speak Now (Taylors Version) is a certified banger and this...slipped out.

please enjoy a slytherin! sirius, wolfstar au)

-

Remus had initially approached this Herbology assignment as a business arrangement, nothing more, nothing left, completely annoyed and frustrated at being paired with Sirius Black. But in a NEWT class so small, many of his classmates dropping out after sixth year and realizing the work required and that Herbology wasn't, in fact, an easy O as they had anticipated, leaving the class nearly empty.

Just Remus

A few Hufflepuffs, a Ravenclaw by the name of Turpin.

and Sirius Black.

With his stupid handsome face and dark curly hair and casually cool, effortlessly aloof expression. Sirius looked as if he had never worried about a damn thing in his life and Remus pulled at the threads of his uniform every opportunity he got. Though, it was much harder to do so with his arms elbow deep in a potted plant, Sirius beside him writing up the report due within the next few days.

"How does the soil feel?" Sirius asked.

"Like soil, bloody disgusting..."

The corners of Sirius's mouth turned up slightly, not even enough to make a crease in his face. Barely there. But Remus saw it, and oh.

"Clay, sandy, loam..."

"That's a made up word," Remus said, trying to focus on kneading the bottom of the plant gently to check for any stray moving roots or insects, cursing himself for taking Herbology in the first place. Even if the years of gardening with his Mum had paid off finally.

"We've been learning about loam for two weeks."

"I said the word sounded made up, not the concept," Remus countered and the corners of Sirius's mouth twitched again. He shook his head and Remus's heart flipped, watching a stray dark curl fall out of the ponytail Sirius was wearing and fall in front of his eyes.

Oh.

"So conceptually, is it loam or...?"

"Clay loam," Remus told him, gently setting the plant back in the pot, and wiping his hands on a nearby towel. He watched as Sirius's eyebrows drew together softly, as he concentrated on the questions in front of him, writing out each word carefully in neat cursive. Despite wanting it to be a business arrangement--Remus assuming the worst from a boy in Slytherin with the last name Black who scarcely spoke to anyone in school and hadn't given anyone a reason to trust him, half of his peers walking around with marks on their arms--the plan had failed miserably. Not only did Remus realize Black was exceptionally adept at Herbology, but he was pleasant. He was easy to work with. He was exceptionally good looking and Remus found himself staring every moment he could, desperate for more. Imagining what it would be like to have Sirius's clipped fingernails and broad hands palming the back of his neck and touching his hipbones.

I’ve been watching you for ages and I spend my time trying not to feel it

Remus was beside himself, and delusional, trying to find excuses to talk to Sirius once the business arrangement was over, and feeling foolish as he did so.

Except.

Sirius would brush past him in the hallway, a broad shoulder skimming against his during passing periods and Remus wanted to taste the aftershave on Sirius's neck.

Sirius would send him whisper smiles in Herbology.

In Potions.

Every opportunity for a glance in each others direction became an opportunity for a secret smile, or a wink, grey eyes twinkling with nothing but trouble. Thats all Sirius Black was. Trouble. Not someone Remus wanted to mix himself up with in his final year, in the beginnings of a war. There was already talk of secret societies being orchestrated by Dumbledore; already reports in the Daily Prophet and resources for people who wanted to help. Remus knew he already had a target on his back as a werewolf, people unsure whether to trust him and getting involved with Sirius Black wouldn't help the cause any.

But then Remus would look up from his textbook in the library, and see Sirius Black at a table alone, looking straight back. A quick tilt of a dark eyebrow, asking--no daring-- Remus to move. Remus tapped his fingers on the desk, not breaking eye contact, the two engaged in the staring contest of the century, both determined not to break. He was just about to swallow his pride, his ego, and surrender to bravery when Sirius stood up from his table, casually walking over to Remus, silver and green tie loose around his neck, somehow still managing to look refined and not disheveled like the rest of the population.

Remus opened his mouth when Sirius got within earshot, to attempt a greeting. A hey. A I'm losing the ability to control myself. A stop looking at me like that, please.

A what would you do if they never found us out?

Sirius put his hand flat on the table, looking down at Remus, tilting his head to the side, "Hey."

"Hello."

"We make a good team."

"What?"

"We got an O on our Mimulus aurantiacus."

"Oh. Yeah," Remus said lamely, scooting back in his chair to avoid having to strain his neck to look up at Sirius. It was too close, it was too much. Remus could see every dark eyelash and the beauty mark below Sirius's left eye; his crooked eyetooth and the planes of his face and the warmth of his skin. Remus would put money on Sirius's expanses skin being able to keep him warm, thaw every chill in Remus's body, imagining what it would be like to be pressed into a mattress underneath Sirius.

What would you do if I went to touch you now?

And then Sirius gave him that smile, the corner raising higher than it ever had and Remus's breathing hitched at the sight. This boy was beyond intoxicating, more potent than any shot of firewhiskey had had ever taken.

"Don't want to talk to me anymore, Lupin?" Sirius asked, as teasing tone in his voice, "Project over and you can't be seen with me?"

"I..what...do you want to talk about?"

"I don't. Not really."

"...So I should...mind my own business?"

"Not that either," Sirius said, and bent down lower, leaning all the way across the table and Remus could feel his face flush. It was late enough that the library was nearly empty, close to curfew and students had mostly cleared out. Madame Pince was likely in the back and closing for the evening. And then there was Sirius, with his lips skimming the shell of Remus's ear as he spoke. "Can you be quiet, Lupin?" he whispered.

"I think so."

What would you do if we never made a sound?

"Good, because Merlin knows I have not stopped thinking about you," Sirius said, standing up once more. "I'll see you outside."

I can see you, waiting down the hall for me.

The next day, Remus turned the corner out Ancient Runes, instantly spotting Sirius leaning one shoulder against the wall, his expensive leather bag over the other. The whisper smile that first caught Remus's attention flickering, as if the other boy was unable to stop it at the sight of Remus, both of them remembering the night before.

An abandoned hallway, just shy of the library, hidden behind tapestries and staircases, the two of them ignoring both bells of warning for curfew.

One of Remus's hands above his head, plastered to the wall with the rest of of his body as Sirius kissed him roughly. Endlessly. Wanting to steal every attempt at conversation and word Remus could possibly offer and Remus let him. Sirius Black did not kiss nice and Remus wouldn't have had it any other way.

I can see you, up against the wall with me.

It was bold.

Exhilarating.

Remus finally answering Sirius's eyebrow of a dare and pushing robes off the other boys shoulders, throwing them to the ground, their feet caught in a heap of dark fabric. Stepping on toes and unable to get enough of each other.

"How quiet can you be, Lupin?" Sirius asked, his voice low. His hands on the buckle of Remus's belt.

"Very."

"Let's see about that..."

They keep watchful eyes on us

It's best that we move fast and keep quiet

Remus inhaled as he walked by Sirius with his friends, shoulders brushing, fingers touching for the tiniest of moments, the two of them lost in a fantasy together. Sirius cocked his head to the side, just enough for Remus to see the deep red bruise on his neck poking out of the top of his shirt collar.

What would you do, baby, if you knew? That I can see you.

[hermannsthumb]

Hey hey could you write something about newt confronting his middle school bully a la this post: https://10001gecs.tumblr.com/post/729455540321779712/my-high-school-bully-reached-out-to-me-and-asked

(post) hmm i wonder who sent this in after we talked about it in discord 7 months ago... allusions to non sfw behavior at the end !! (edit also literally seconds after i posted this i realized this ask says middle school and not high school like i wrote. sigh.)

-----------------

“Oh, shit,” Newton says. “Hermann, do you see that guy?”

He’s doing some strange, jerking head motion over the ambiguous vicinity of Hermann’s left shoulder, and it takes Hermann a good few seconds to realize Newton wants him to turn around and look at the fellow in question. He puts down his sandwich with a small sigh: he waited two hours for Newton to wrap up his work so he would have company in the mess hall for lunch, lunch which will continue to evade him, he supposes.

But Newton kicks his shin under the table as he cranes his neck around. “Newton,” he snaps with a startle. It wasn’t hard enough to hurt, but—offended at the mere principle of it—he hits Newton’s own shin back with the end of his cane. Newton is too preoccupied with attempting to hide the entire upper half of his body beneath their table to put up a fuss.

“Don’t be so obvious about it,” he says to Hermann. “Be subtle, subtle. Yeah, perfect.”

There’s no one exceptionally exciting over Hermann’s shoulder when he turns back about painfully slowly, or at the very least no one he can see causing Newton to get as worked up as he is. It’s the usual gaggle of personnel they see wandering about the Shatterdome with them. “Ugly blue shirt,” Newton whispers, “and a stupid beard.”

Hermann spots him after another glance through the food line—a stocky, unassuming man waiting with a tray in his hands, though admittedly Hermann can’t find anything particularly offensive about his shirt or his facial hair, not even by Newton’s standards. “What of him?” Hermann says.

He doesn’t recognize the man, but that’s hardly surprising. There’s been plenty of new faces about the base recently after the latest round of Shatterdomes shuttered their operations and sent their skeleton crews to Hong Kong as a last resort. Hermann expects he might be one of the transferred ranger recruits. He lacks the, ah, soft disposition of Newton and Hermann and their more technologically-inclined ilk, and is certainly built large enough to hold his own in a jaeger.

“I think I know him,” Newton says.

This is not that surprising either. Newton has a curiously long list of ex-partners spread throughout the various networks of the PPDC, partially because the instability of their employment at any given base up until recently (or, indeed, the instability of their expected lifespan) is not conducive to long-term relationships, and partially because Newton’s personality is not conducive to it either. Hermann envies the people who have had the means to escape Newton: he himself has had no such luck. “Another poor soul you’ve scared off?” he says, and takes a bite out of his sandwich more aggressively than he intended.

“Ew, man, gross.” Newton makes a face at him. “No way. He’s a total asshole. He used to make my life hell.”

Hermann swallows his mouthful of sandwich. This admission, on the other hand, is surprising. Newton doesn’t usually make his dislike of people unknown, especially not to Hermann, and Hermann had been under the assumption he was familiar with the full roster of Newton’s ‘enemies’—most of whom are academic rivals of some kind (though certainly none surpass Hermann’s high ranking in that particular category), and all of whom Hermann had Googled obsessively after being made aware of their existence. “Sounds a bit like the whole 'taste of your own medicine' cliche,” Hermann says.

“No, come on, I'm serious, I mean actual hell, just ‘cause I was out about being into dudes,” Newton says. “Whatever bullshit you can think of—stole my shit, made fun of my glasses, pushed me around, called me lots of really creative and exciting slurs. Really original content. He flushed one of my notebooks down a toilet one time and I got in trouble for it. Just—you know, stupid, immature, homophobic jock-vs-nerd bullshit.”

More than slightly alarmed, Hermann shoots another glance over his shoulder. The fellow with the beard has moved ahead in the line and Hermann has a much clearer view of him now. He’s most certainly at least twice Newton’s size, if not larger, and Hermann doesn’t like the idea of him treating Newton in such a physically aggressive manner by any means (to say nothing of the other half of the harassment he received). “When on Earth did that happen?” he says. “The Jaeger Academy? You reported him to—someone, anyone, I hope.” And if not Hermann is more than happy to do so now.

“Oh, no,” Newton says. “It was back when I was in high school for a year. Before I skipped twenty grades, I mean.”

Hermann relaxes his shoulders, which had grown quite tense. “Ah,” he says. As a child he was unfortunately quite familiar with schoolyard bullies himself.

“His name is something stupid, like Chad or Chet or something. Not actually, but you know what I mean. I used to stalk him on Facebook when I was in grad school to make sure his life still sucked shit. He got divorced the same month I got my fourth doctorate. Really poetic. Oh, fuck.”

He ducks back beneath the table. Evidently he isn’t fast enough, because when Hermann turns, Chad-Chet-something is staring intently at the empty space Newton inhabited seconds prior. If the wide-eyed surprise that flashes across his face is any indication, he has recognized Newton in return.

“He’s coming this way,” Hermann says to the rustling somewhere in the vicinity of his ankles. It must be filthy down there. He hears Newton curse, though given the alarming way the entire table wobbles, it may be because he’s just hit his head on something. “Would you like me to make up a lie and say you’ve gone off somewhere? Or I can stall for a bit, and you can—I don’t know—crawl off.”

“Newt?” Newton’s former classmate says.

Newton rises back up slowly, his hair in significant disarray. Hermann fantasizes briefly—not for the first time—about going at it with a comb. “Heyyyyy, man,” Newton says. “What’s up?”

Newton’s classmate had been squinting at him with a small frown, but (to Hermann’s immense surprise) he begins to smile. “It is you, that’s wild! I don’t know if you remember, but we went to school together—like, fifteen, twenty years ago. We were in the same homeroom.”

“Oh, totally,” Newton says. “Bradley?”

“Seth.”

“What’s, uh, what’s brought you to Hong Kong?” Newton says.

Seth looks down pointedly at the empty chair positioned between Newton and Hermann. “Mind if I sit here?” he says, and though neither of them respond, he drops his tray down with a small clatter and follows suit. “I joined on with the PPDC last year, and I was stationed in Seattle up until a couple weeks ago,” he continues, confirming Hermann’s earlier suspicions. “I’m still getting used to everything. I heard there was a Dr. Geiszler working at one of the labs here somewhere, but I had no idea that was you. Did they just throw you over here too?”

Newton has gone a little red in the face, as if he’s bottling up a great deal of shouting, cursing, and possibly crying, and Hermann is somewhat impressed at his restraint in not making a scene. He feels a small surge of protectiveness for Newton (despite everything) and steps in not-very-smoothly to help him. “Newton—Dr. Geiszler I have been stationed here since 2020,” he says. “I’m Dr. Hermann Gottlieb.”

“Hermann’s my lab partner,” Newton manages to say. “We get along really awesomely. We’re, like, pretty close. Seth and I went to high school together, Hermann.”

“Mm,” Hermann sniffs. “So you’ve mentioned.”

He does not bother hiding his disdain, and Seth is astute enough to notice and jump to the logical conclusion of precisely the conversation he’d interrupted: he gives them a small, embarrassed grin, and an exaggerated shrug of his shoulders. “Yeah, I was kind of an asshole back then,” he says, “but you know how teenagers are.” He picks up his tray and stands. “Anyway, I’ll leave you guys alone. We’ll have to catch up later, Newt? Maybe dinner?”

“Totally,” Newton says.

“I should hire someone to kick his ass,” he says to Hermann as they watch Seth find a seat with some fellow rangers—similarly fresh faces, Hermann presumes them to be his crowd from Seattle—across the mess hall. “I bet I could bribe another ranger into it, just go a littttle too hard in on a sparring match. Maybe knock out a few of his teeth. Ugh. Like I’d ever get dinner with that dick.”

“I got dinner with Seth,” Newton announces in the laboratory a week later.

“I wondered where you were last night,” Hermann says, feigning disinterest as he squints at his computer screen. In truth he’s rather peeved at Newton over it; they’ve had a long-standing arrangement as dinner companions for several years at this point, and he’d waited for Newton at their table in the back of the mess hall for an hour before he finally realized he was being stood up and stormed off to his quarters. He’d debated tossing out the extra chocolate pudding cup he had stolen as dessert for Newton but decided to eat it instead, imagining with relish the whole time how upset Newton would be if he found out. It made him feel a little bit better.

“Oh, yeah, sorry I ditched you, I kinda forgot,” Newton says. “I was on my way to the mess and he kinda accosted me out of nowhere and offered to buy me noodles downtown, as an 'apology'. Not gonna turn that down. I made sure to run up a bill. But, dude, you’ll never believe this.”

“Mm,” Hermann says.

He hears Newton made an impatient little shuffling noise behind him. Then Newton is stomping over and grabbing onto the back of Hermann’s desk chair to spin Hermann around to face him. He boxes Hermann in, one hand on each armrest, and (with nowhere else to go) Hermann folds his arms across his chest and scowls up at him. “Fine. Go on.”

“So,” Newton begins gleefully, “it turns out he’s also gay now. Or I guess he always was, which explains the divorce thing, but you know what I mean. He said the reason he treated me like shit was because he was jealous of me for being out, and also because he thought I was infecting him with my gay cooties or whatever since he wanted me soooo bad. What a jerk.” He drops his arms away from Hermann’s chair. “Anyway, we boned.”

Hermann sits up quickly and nearly collides with Newton's abdomen. “What?”

“Eh, don’t worry,” Newton says, “it’s not like I’m into him or anything. I’m gonna hold that grudge forever, sorry, he’s not hot enough to make me forget all that, even if he isn't an asshole anymore. I know what I’m doing. It’s all part of my awesome revenge plan: I’m gonna string him along and then dump him hard after he gets a taste of what it's like to date someone as cool as me.”

Hermann is of two minds: the first is that Newton’s plan is abysmally stupid, and the second, that he can’t help but be relieved that Newton is not earnestly subjecting himself to a relationship with a man whom he’s professed to hate. Loathe as he is to admit it, Newton deserves—Hermann grits his teeth—better. “How exactly do you intend to ‘string him along’?” Hermann says. “And why would you even want to? He hardly seems worth the effort.”

“Number one, by being hot and charming as usual,” Newton says, and rolls his eyes at Hermann’s loud scoff. “Shut up. I’m irresistible. He’s already trying to get me to go out for coffee with him today. Can you believe how clingy he is? So desperate. Ugh. And number two—” He shrugs, and something uncomfortable simmers within Hermann’s chest at the sight of the light blush rising to his cheeks. “I meeean, I don’t know, dude. The hate sex was kinda doing it for me. I guess technically I was the only one doing the hating there, because I’m irresistible, but it was still pretty hot.”

Being treated to details of Newton’s sexual proclivities is not a new experience for Hermann, as Newton seems to think it both constitutes daily small talk in the laboratory when their work gets slow and something Hermann genuinely cares to hear about, but Hermann finds himself bristling at it now. He wasn’t aware such an, er, act, spurned on by hatred, was even a possibility with Newton—that Newton would enjoy it. Could they have been finding more constructive outlets for their mutual dislike throughout all these years? Simply embraced the fiery passion of it all? Certainly Hermann has crafted list after list of increasingly erotic ways he could shut Newton up, but it is the first time he begins to wonder if Newton might not have done the same.

He forcefully turns his chair back around to hide his face from Newton. He is flushing, his skin hot beneath his collar. His computer screen swims in front of him. “That’s lovely to hear,” he says, after far too long of a silence. “I’m glad you—enjoyed yourself. Best of luck with it all.”

“Right,” Newton says, after too long of a silence of his own. “Uh, I’ll be back in an hour-ish.” He adds, mockingly, “We’re getting coffee. I’ll bring you back a muffin and tea or something.”

Once Newton has gone, Hermann drops his head into his hands with a small groan.

[just-a-casual-newtasaur]

I’m sorry

I’m sorry (Newt x Reader)

Word Count: 1001 words

Warnings: SPOILERS!!! peeps getting hurt, violence, someone getting electrocuted

Summary: when you fly your way to Crank Palace you find Newt, less than happy to return with you.

you sit on the floor of the berg, looking down at the price of paper clutched in your hand. Thomas and Minho’s eyes are latched onto the note as well, their friend’s last goodbye.

you breath in very deeply, and stand up, your legs still shaking. “Right, we need to go to, wherever they’ve taken him”. you can feel Brenda and Jorge looking at you, something between pity and exasperated swimming in their faces.

“y/n-”

“-no, we’re not going any further without Newt” you fold your arms and sit back down, crossing your legs. Jorge opens his mouth to say something but Thomas cuts him off, “don’t try and argue with her, she won’t budge”

*

“He said- very pointedly, I might add- to tell you guys to get lost”

you fold your arms across your chest, “we’re not going anywhere without Newt.” Minho and Thomas nod and stare stonily at the guards.

“Did you not hear what I said?”

“Your jobs not done” Thomas takes a step towards the guard.

“Yeah, so if you want your money, you better take us to him”

the guards sighs and mutters darkly. “come on then, I’ll take you to your friend”

you step over rubbish, mud and suspicious looking scarlet patches. there are shrieks and shouts that sound like they came from a strangled animal.

the others are looking around warily but you stride after the guard, not even stopping when you stepped into a pile of mud, splattering yourself with mud.

eventually you reach a run down bowling alley, with cackling laughter echoing from it. the others are talking quietly behind you. “..I just have a bad feeling.” you spin around to face her. “don’t come then, but I’m getting Newt back if it’s the last thing I do.” Brenda looks slightly taken aback but there is understanding in her eyes.

you push your way into the building, Thomas, Minho, Brenda and Jorge close behind you. your eyes scan the room, as you step over people muttering to themselves or else hitting each other over the head all the while grinning.

then you spot him, even in the dark you recognise him. you speed up your pace and the others hurry to catch up. you’re so focused on making your way towards him that when his voice echoes around the dark room, “I told you bloody shanks to get lost!” the others stop behind you, and you keep your eyes on the boy. “Newt, listen to me-.” you step forwards, one hand outstretched. “y/n, listen to me, turn around and leave, now”

“Newt, please-.”

“y/n, stop”

“Newt-.”

“y/n” he turns around, his dark eyes dancing in the small blinking lights of the building, and a launcher gripping in his shaking hands, “y/n, please, I don’t want to hurt you.”

your heart sinks down to rest, somewhere around your navel. your mind is spinning, broken only when Newt’s voice tears at the air.

“I am a Crank Minho! I am a Crank! Why can’t you get that through

your bloody head? If you had the Flare and knew what you were about to go through, would you want your

friends to stand around and watch? Huh? Would you want that?”

“No, I wouldn’t” your voice comes out soft, but makes Newt turn his head, “but I would have thought maybe you would care enough for a goodbye”

his gaze softens, “If that’s all you want, goodbye y/n”

you shake your head, as though trying to clear it, “no…no” your voice is so quiet it’s more of a whisper “no Newt, I don’t want a goodbye, I don’t want to leave here without you”

“you have to”

“no”

“you have to”

“no I don’t”

“y/n, don’t make me hurt you”

you feel as though you must be wearing a look similar to being hit over the head. “at one point, you said you would never hurt me, you promised” you take a deep breath of forced calm, “but I suppose that means nothing to you now”

it was Newt’s turn to look slightly stunned. “I’m sorry.” his voice was less than a whisper, and his eyes were sparkling, whether with tears or anger, you could not tell.

he raises the launcher in shaking hands, still mouthing those two words, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

and then there’s a fizz of electricity and a blinding flash of light. your limbs jerk around, and you see the others bend over you, shouting something that cannot penetrate the ringing in your head.

he had done it, he had hurt you. you do not move as arms carry you out of the dark bowling alley and back into the berg. a blurry face bends over you, while you mouth one word, Newt.

you blink rapidly, the world fuzzy and distorted. you sit up straight looking around and startling Minho who has evidently just woken from a doze in a chair nearby. despite yourself, you fond yourself hoping it was all a dream, that Newt’s soft voice and protective arms would comfort you any moment now.

but judging by the look in Minho’s eyes, you know it wasn’t a dream. Newt was gone, and you may never see him again. your hands ball into fists and you fight the urge to scream. Minho leans over and puts a hand on your shaking arm. the touch only reminds you more of the boy you had left and you snatch it away, hissing angrily, “don’t touch me.”

the boy clasps his hand in his lap, looking down at them. of course Minho has known him better, if not, longer than you had and was no doubt upset. but you’re too full of emotions that fight their way out of you.

you twist around and scream into your pillow. scream your voice hoarse. scream until your sobbing. you wish you could sleep but you know you won’t be able to. not with those two words weaving their way around your head.

I’m sorry.

[multifan2022]

Golden Lies 9

PART 1 PART 8

Masterlist

~

You thought it would've been harder to find the small ragtag group. But it really wasn't, the boy from 8 was loud and yelling most of the day. So loud that while they were walking, they couldn't hear you following behind them. You listened to them talk, slowly forming a plan on how to take them on. Who would suffer most and who would die quickly. 

“It's amazing, they are so oblivious she's right behind them and they have no idea!” Caesar said laughing as he watched. He had never been so intrigued by the games before. He wanted his little goddess to win, so much that he had the little butterfly sitting on his desk. This alone spoke to how amazing the people thought you were. Caesar VERY rarely every showed such blatant support of one specific tribute.

It didn't take long to learn that the only one who wanted to slowly kill Beck, was like he said the boy from 8. That solidified the plan in your brain, the two girls would die quickly but the boy would suffer. He would suffer for as long as you could stretch it. You would get revenge for Beck. 

Night fell after an entire day of stalking, they were looking for you, without knowing that you were right behind them. It was clear they only made it this far because of their alliance with the careers. A small camp fire was made as they argued about whose turn it was to stay awake. 

In a twist of fate, it was the boys turn. 

The two girls fell asleep almost instantly but you still waited. Watching as the boy's eyes opened slower and slower, until he too fell asleep. An hour or two after he fell asleep you walked slowly putting your machete away. Two of the throwing knives you had left were pulled out. 

Both lodged between the Axis and Atlas of their necks, spinal cords severed instantly. They died with very little to no pain and almost instantly. Their cannons went off and you were already standing behind the boy from 8. So when he jumped from his place, he didn't even have time to notice his teammates were dead. 

The handle off your machete slammed into the side of his head, hard enough to knock him out. You went through the bags gathered around them while you thought about how you were going to kill him.

Impalement? 

The blood eagle?

Death by a thousand cuts?

But when you pulled out a knife used to cut fish, one that had fish scales on the handle and 4 engraved into the blade your mind was made up. So you put the knife, green apples, and a few bottles of water into your bag. Cleaned off the throwing knives and put them away. Then drug the boy far into the woods, the opposite way of the cornucopia. 

You knew you were going to need a lot of space to keep the others from hearing him. Somehow you got him into a sitting position, then used a cuff knot to secure his wrists. Then another knot with a separate rope around and through the cuff knot, and over a thick tree branch. 

Hoisting him into a standing position was another challenge. But you managed to and secured that around the tree. His legs were then tied together so it would be harder for him to kick at you. When you were done you stepped back, satisfied with your work. You climbed the tree, finding a comfortable spot to sit and rest. Just waiting for what would happen next. 

~~~~

Newt Pitwillow, the district 8 male tribute, jumps awake as the sound of birds chirping near him. He's disoriented, his head hurts both inside and out. His muscles feel stretched and strained. His shoulders are screaming at him to relax but he can't. Blood is slowly dripping down his arms alerting him to pain in his wrists. 

A voice somewhere above him scared him as he looked around, finding you sitting in a tree. "Ah, you're finally awake.. I didn't think I hit you THAT hard." You smirked at him while cutting the green apple into slices and eating it off the blade. "But now that you are awake, the games can continue.. I'm sure this grew very.. boring for those watching." 

Newts breathing picked up as he watched you hop down from the tree. Every step you took towards him increased his heart beat. "Why.. Why are you doing this!? Where are the others!" He screamed as you stopped just a few steps away from him. 

"Well.. The careers are at the cornucopia, far away from us. And the two girls you were with are dead. Don't worry I killed them quickly, unlike you I normally have a conscience. "You kept eating the apple with a smile on your face as you enjoyed the panic and confusion on the boy's face. It brought you a sick amount of joy that this was going to be far more painful than what he did to Beck. 

"If you killed them like that, then why am I here!" He yelled trying to pull at his arms, but they were secure. You laughed and pointed up at the knots with your knife "You like that.. Learned it at one of the survival stations.. Don't think this is how they thought we would use it but hey.. Live and learn right?" Newt started kicking and struggling again, his legs raising combined to try and lash out at you. 

You let him continue to wear himself down, knowing that eventually he would stop fighting. And when that came he looked at you with tears in his eyes “Why.. Why do this? Why not just kill me?” Casually you tossed the apple core to the side, walking over to the bag by the tree. Drank some water before pulling the fish knife out and turning back to him. “Because.. It makes for a good show.. People like pain.” 

“Oh we are hearing the same words repeated back to him that he said to that poor little boy from 4! What a turn of events from our little goddess!”

"Shes turning into the Goddess of Death and I am. Living. For. IT." The other broadcaster said as he smacked the table to show his enthusiasm.

You watched the color drain from his face as he remembered having said that. “Only your pain.. Well.. It's about to be a lot worse than his was.” You stepped forward holding the knife up so he could see it. “Recognize this? I'm going to assume you took it from one of the tributes from 4, because it has their number on it. It's for cutting fish. It solidified my choice when I was thinking about torture methods.” 

“You see, years and years ago, a victor from 9 wanted to open a small training center. He thought because of our strength from the fields, if we could just train a little more we could have some more winners. It was a nice thought, he filled this huge room with books. Some of those books were about forms of touture our society doesn't use anymore.” 

Goosebumps raised on Newts skin as the cool metal skimmed his arms, the calmness in your voice only scaring him more. “Eventually I outgrew the normal books teens read, right? So I read up on these, the one I really wanted to do to you.. I don't think I have upper body strength. It's called the ‘Blood Eagle’. It's when you open someones back and remove their ribs from their spine, pulling their bones and skin outward to form a set of “wings,” and remove their lungs from their chest cavity.”

“My god.. That's gruesome. It would've been amazing to see, I'm so excited to see what she has planned.” 

“But like I said, I don't think I have the strength to snap your ribcage away from your spine. But I have something else in mind, something that will kill you slower. Put on more of a show, I'm sure you understand.” You said nodding with your lips pursed before smiling. You didn't know how to feel, that weird part of you had completely taken over. Maybe it was just your survival instincts on full blast, but then why hadn't you killed Newt immediately. 

Because you wanted revenge, and that was what confused you. But you boxed it away inside your head and focused on the matter at hand. “SO instead of breaking your bones, I'm going to flay you..” The smile that took over your face as you stepped towards him was chill inducing. Newt was scared, the people of the capitol were perched so closely to the end of their seats that one stiff breeze would push them off.

The mentors in the training center where shocked. They had seen a lot of things happen, a lot of mental breakdowns. But none like this, they were use to the ones where someone shut down. When they curled into a ball and cried until they died. This was scary, it was like looking at a completely different person.

Even just the way you stood was different, the tilt to your head, the look in your eye. You didn't seem like you. They were nervous that you would win, but you would be insane.

Back across town, Walking back into the groups large penthouse was Seneca Crane. All it took to convey the sucuess of his trip was a smile and a nod. The same smile that was paused and stopped on their wall. They would find a way to get this image printed and hung here as soon as the morning light filled the sky. The same smile was shared between all the men.

They had found her..

The one they would ruin.

~

~

~

@avis15 @liballer @avoxrising @notplutos @asapkyndall @wolfstarfate

[mysticaldeanvoidhorse]

Together Always

Gally x Reader

The Maze Runner

Part 3

That night Gally didn’t sit by you at dinner. In fact you didn’t see him until almost time for bed. You were going to walk toward the hut but he came out of nowhere yet again.

“Can I talk to you for a second?” He asked shyly. He led the way to a private space.

“What is it?” You asked without malice. You knew that he was a complicated person and whether or not you were mad, you couldn't show it otherwise he would never open up.

“I wanted to apologize for today. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I was worried for you and I got scared you would get hurt, then you fell….” He let out a breath.

“I am sorry that I scared you. I just wanted to fix something and show you that I can do the job. I am not very strong or overly handy with the tools and this was something I could do so I wanted to help. I knew it wasn’t very safe but I knew I could do it.”

“And I appreciate that. But there are plenty of projects you can help with like that which won’t require you to do anything too dangerous. I can’t have you getting hurt. Not on my watch.”

“That wouldn’t look good for a keeper if one of their people got hurt, I get it.” You mused, trying not to sound hurt.

“What? I mean yes that wouldn’t look good but I could give a shuck about that. I can’t let you get hurt, that terrified me today. The very idea that you could even potentially get hurt, I just panicked.” You saw the fear on his face and you couldn’t help but smile.

“Careful Gally, someone might think you care.” You teased softly.

“I do care.” It was your turn to be shocked. “You are my friend, right?” He asked so hopefully it almost broke you.

“Of course we are friends, Gally. Good friends I hope.” You both let out a sigh of relief.

“I really am sorry.”

“I forgive you Gally. I hope you can forgive me too.”

“Of course,” He said quickly.

“It really is sweet that you care so much” You said without any trace of teasing.

“I do care. A lot. And that scares me too.” He said, brushing a piece of your hair out of your face, his hand lingering on your skin.

“I care a lot too. And it is scary, but that doesn’t mean we have to be scared.” You whispered. He just looked at you, then your lips. You held your breath as he leaned in. You did too. So close, then,

“I am glad you are okay and we are okay.” You were disappointed that he didn’t kiss you, but you knew that he needed to figure out his feelings as he moved slowly and didn’t know how to let people in. But you would wait. He was worth it.

A month later, you had figured out a routine; you helped the builders but that wasn’t your job. In fact you were more like a floater helping out wherever needed you most. You mostly stayed with the builders but not permanently not wanting to give Gally a heart attack so you would help Newt or Frypan or whoever else depending. You liked moving around as you liked hanging out with your friends. The month flew by, and you and Gally were friends but nothing else happened. It was hard but you knew if he wanted to make a move he would and it would have to be him to initiate. You would just be ready whenever he did.

Another month, another Greenie. The poor kid was terrified and it reminded you of your first day. You helped Newt show him around though you noticed Gally didn’t like it. He never said anything but you had gotten to know him well enough to read him. That night the poor Greenie didn’t know what hit him. Literally. It was his turn to fight Gally. You encouraged him, telling him you had done it too. He seemed surprised at that. Inevitably Gally won, and he came up to you immediately after. Your opinion was the only one he cared about. You knew he would win, and when you handed him his glass of his special drink, you ‘cheersed’ him.

“Congratulations”

“Poor kid isn’t that big. Hope he can make it.”

“He seems sweet.” Gally bristled at that.

“Still small and not that strong. You have to be tough here.”

“That’s true, but no one bet I would make it, and I am surviving.”

“Yeah but you are strong.”

“And I made friends with the right people.” You bumped against his arm. He just blushed at that.

“True. You wouldn’t have made it without me” You just rolled your eyes.

“Wow, and he’s humble too.” He just laughed and somehow you ended up with your arm around his waist and his around your shoulders. You couldn’t say that you hated the development.

“I can’t say that I am happy that I taught you how to joke around.” You said, looking up at him. He just smirked and leaned down to whisper in your ear.

“You know you love it.” It sent chills down your spine.

“Hey love birds! Give it a rest for two minutes, would you?” Minho shouted from across the fire, causing everyone to look at you both. Your cheeks turned red and you turned into him, as a safe place. You had no idea just how much he loved that. To prove that, he pulled you closer and said,

“You’re just jealous, Minho! Besides, we would probably have a lot of girls coming, you just scare them all away” The boys all laughed at that, probably too hard, as they all had had a few jars full of Gally’s concoction. He held you close and whispered in your ear. “Want to get out of here? I need to show you something.” You just looked up at him and gave a confused smile. He smiled confidently, and pulled you away, grabbing your hand and never letting go.

You neared the hut where everyone slept but he stopped you.

“You have to close your eyes.” You just looked at him skeptically. “Trust me?” He asked, stepping closer.

“Always.” You looked at him. He blushed and had you turn back around. He then covered your eyes and walked you the rest of the way.

“Okay you can open your eyes.” You opened them and saw that there was a building you haven't seen before.

“Is this the secret project you have been working on?” You asked, turning around to face him. He just looked at you sheepishly.

“Yes.”

“You finished?” You asked, getting excited.

“Yes. Want to see the inside?” You lit up and grabbed his hand, walking inside.

“Wow, it's beautiful!” You said, seeing the small room that was a mini house. It had a bed, bathroom, and small amenities. “You have been working so hard on it. It turned out amazing!” You said turning back around to see him.

“You really like it?”

“I do! It’s beautiful. And you worked so hard on it.” He had been working after hours on a secret project for the month and had gotten some of the other builders to help, but no one would tell you what the project was.

“I wanted it to be nice. And I wanted you to like it.”

“It is, and I do.”

“Good. Because it’s for you.” You stopped. He looked nervous, but you had heard him right.

“Are you serious?” You couldn’t believe it.

“You needed a space away from all the other guys.” He placed a protective hand around your waist. This had been a topic for awhile. You had gotten a space in the corner but it was far from perfect.

“So you built me my own space?” You wanted to cry.

“Yes,” He said, blushing. You just grabbed onto him and hugged him tightly. It wasn’t your first hug, but it was the most special. He held you back just as tightly, afraid it wasn’t real.

“I can’t believe it. Thank you so much, I don’t deserve this. Or you.” You said the last part with a blush.

“Other way around sweetheart.” You looked up into his eyes at the nickname. Neither said anything, you just held his face and he held your waist. After a moment he leaned in, and you held still, not wanting to scare him away again. He got close then whispered.

“I wanted to give you something. Show you that I care. I know that I don’t come across well, that I seem tough and that I don’t have feelings but the thing is, with you, I have too many. I really care about you.” This was the most open and honest he had been and you were so thankful.

“I don’t need anything, but I appreciate it. You are a person who has feelings like everyone else. I might be the only person who knows that but I do. Like I said, I don’t need anything, I just need you.” With that he closed the distance and kissed you. It was amazing. Definitely worth the wait.

[serenefreakgeekao3]

Apricity

[Table of Contents]

[A/N] Thank you for your patience! A bit of a filler chapter, but a necessary glue to any story. Wanted a bit more interaction with the boys, so here is what we have!

CHAPTER FIVE, Contemplation

Weeks 2&3

Perhaps you were a bit too hasty in setting your goal for the future. Some Gladers, you’ve heard, set goals such as being able to finish a run in the maze without being breathless- or, perhaps, finish building a storage shed all by themself. No, you just had to decide you’d be the one to kill the Griever.

Although, you reasoned with yourself, it’s not like you’d rather anyone else risk their life in such a way. At least you knew how to deal with one, for the most part. Sure, the only way they had died in the books had been from being crushed between a few stone traps in the maze, or falling down off of the edge, never to return. But you could work with that. Well, one of those options, anyway.

The next half of the week had been a bit of a blur for you. You had difficulty remembering how to act properly with these people, whom you’ve suddenly grown shy around. There was no outward reasoning for this- aside, maybe, from the talk you had with Thomas on your first day off of work. You could tell the thought was eating him up inside, but you couldn’t exactly remedy the situation. What were you to say? You had tried acting normal, but it came off as stilted and worried your friends.

You were truly at a loss.

All of this, combined with the fact that you were trying for the life of you to remember anything else. It was like the memories had stopped returning to you after that dream. And, sure, you knew the books. You’d read them once or twice and had watched the movies a few times. But out here, where the artificial sun was shining, and the giant walls smelled of salt of all things? It was hard to correlate those stories with your real life. Your new life.

Then there was the fact that there were obvious differences between the books and the now. Five whole years. You honestly couldn’t believe it, how had it taken Thomas this long? He was even a runner! Wait… How was he a runner?

You blinked a few times, returning to yourself in the present. The day was… Sunday, you think? It was lunchtime, and you were surrounded by most of your friends- excluding the runners. Newt sat across from you, holding your hand the entire time you had been zoned out, trying your best to reconsider your plan or remember any other details about the books that might aid you. You couldn’t think of any. But maybe if you knew more about this timeline…?

“Newt,” You whisper out, trying to catch his attention. The reaction was immediate, his head snapping toward you and leaning in slightly as if giving you his undivided attention. There was a hint of worry in his eyes, accompanied by his hand fidgeting lightly with your fingers. The rest of your table talked amongst themselves, laughing boisterously- none taking notice of your quiet call.

“Yes?” Newt bends forward a bit more, practically leaning over the table. “Do you need anything?”

“I was just wondering,” You hesitate here, biting your lip as you reconsider your next course of action. But, what harm could there be? “I was just wondering how Tommy became a Runner?” You felt Newt freeze in response through your connected hand, watching as his whole body turned rigid. He slowly takes a deep breath, and when he finally exhales his fingers resume their movements against your hand.

“Now, [Y/N],” He bites his lip and your eye is immediately drawn to it. Why was that so sexy, was he distracting you on purpose? “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but the Runners are already full up enough as it is-”

“Oh!” You bark out, immediately throwing your head back and laughing. Newt’s fingers stop fidgeting in your hand, but you tighten your grip on him unconsciously, not wanting to lose contact. Your other hand raises from under the table, shaking back and forth in emphasis. “No, no,” You attempt to control your laughter and breathing, though while still chuckling finally you get out, “No, I just want to know the story. If he had to take some kind of test or if he had to wait a certain amount of time?” You shrug, letting an easy smile fall across your lips to try to ease tensions- though Newt seems to have relaxed his shoulders already. “I just can’t imagine him doing anything else, honestly. That boy is constantly moving.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Newt agrees easily, a half smile playing across his lips as he leans back slightly, resuming a relaxed posture. “He definitely wanted to be a Runner immediately. We had a hard time keeping him pinned down back then, always antsy to run into the maze. Half of us were afraid we’d just wake up and he’d be gone one morning.” You smile, picturing Thomas younger, wondering if he was more restless than he was now. Likely so.

“Did he ever run into the maze before being a Runner?” Newt laughed, shaking his head as he answered easily.

“No, surprisingly. I won a lot of bets the day Minho finally relented and let him train to be a Runner.” You laugh again, turning your head to spy a few people looking in your direction before looking away just as quickly. You meet Newt’s eyes again, leaning forward onto the table.

“So how long did it take before he was accepted in, then?” Newt seemed to ponder this for a while, scrunching his eyebrows in a cute way that distracted you long enough that it surprised you when Newt spoke again.

“A couple of weeks, maybe? It was hard keeping track of time back then, it wasn’t exactly our topmost priority.” He shrugs nonchalantly, though keeps his smile directed toward you. He suddenly leans forward once again, surprising you slightly with the spontaneity of it all. “Is there a reason you’re asking all of this? What’s this sudden interest in Tommy’s past?” He hums, though you can see a playful glint in his eye that shows a lack of true understanding about your intentions. You force your smile to stay, tilting your head to the side as you think about an answer. Finally, you lean in closer as well, his face inches from yours.

“I don’t think it’s a sudden interest at all, actually.” You can see his face lax slightly, losing the smile on his mouth but not from the eyes, and even watch as his gaze drops to your lips for a split second. He leans back just as suddenly as before, clearing his throat lightly. Was there a hint of a blush there?

“So,” Newt stutters out, then raises a fist to his mouth and clears his throat, his blush deepening on his face. “So, any other-”

“[Y/N]!” Your name is called across the dining area, Gally standing with another builder off to the side, obviously ready to get back to work. You jump up, grabbing your tray and smiling down at Newt.

“I guess we’ll have to pick this up another time, then.” You could feel disappointment taking hold, having finally witnessed Newt getting flustered and being pulled away from him immediately. You take your time getting your tray together, waiting for a response from Newt that doesn’t seem to be coming. He’s still staring up at you, something in his eyes that you don’t recognize, but silent. You decide to take your teasing a step further.

Stepping out from the bench, you circle the table as if you’re heading to take your tray back before stopping right next to Newt. You lean down close, your face once again inches from Newt’s own, and can spy the light playing on his light brown eyes, sparkling pleasantly. His blush is back, lighting up his cheeks so prettily, and you can’t help but lick your lips before whispering, his eyes tracking the movement before resting there on your lips.

“I’m also interested in your past, as well,” You could feel a barely-there smile light up your face, and hovering over Newt’s form like this, it felt like waves of warmth were cascading off of him into you. “That is, if you’re willing to share, sometime.” You watch as he licks his own lips after, transfixed by the sight. It’s quiet for a few moments too long as you hear your name called out again. Disappointed once again, you begin to pull away before suddenly Newt grabs your arm quickly, holding you still.

“Anytime,” He whispers back, his voice slightly hoarse, and the truth shines in his eyes. Nothing you did could help the smile that lit up your face, and as Newt finally releases you, he grabs his own tray and walks with you back to the kitchen.

“You and Newt seem to be getting pretty close.”

Gally’s words surprised you, having been working in silence the majority of the day. You were sweating, working harder today than most of your other days, but Gally has been working alongside you every step of the way. It seemed as if he didn’t quite trust you yet to be on your own, but you weren’t really complaining. Having a friend nearby while working made the day go by quicker, even if in silence. Well, usually in silence.

You look up at Gally with a squint from where you were kneeling, hammering a nail into a floorboard on the porch of the homestead. He stood there, arms crossed with a stern expression. You blink a few times, then lower your gaze once more to the work you’re doing. You wait until you finish your hammering before finally responding.

“I’ve always been pretty close with Newt.”

“Not that close.” You look up again to see him looking off in a different direction and follow his line of sight toward the farmlands. You wonder for a moment what he means before you remember what happened during lunch, and the fact that Gally had been waiting for you while you spoke so closely with Newt. You stand slowly, placing the hammer in your tool belt and brushing your hands off.

“Is that a problem?” Gally looks back at you with a quirked eyebrow, laughing inwardly as his chest shakes.

“What, you think I’m jealous?”

“I don’t know what to think?” Gally smirks, leaning against the wall of the homestead, nodding.

“Ah, so there is something going on between you two then?” You hesitate, frozen. Shaking your head, you try to laugh to play it off.

“What? No, I never said-”

“You don’t have to say it. It’s plain as day.” You blink a few times, unsure what to say before he finally pushes off of the wall, shrugging. “I don’t mind at all. I don’t think anyone out here would mind besides Thomas.” He begins his descent down the few stairs of the porch, walking off toward the Builder’s shed. You hesitate, then hurry to follow, your mind racing.

“What do you mean, Thomas would mind?”

“Well,” Gally wags his head back and forth, as if in thought. “I mean, everyone knows there has always been something between the both of them. They never made it official or anything, but they slept next to each other every single night since Thomas got here. They spend every second they are able to together, and always consult each other before deciding anything important.” He shrugs again, and you struggle to keep up with his fast walking pace.

“But,” You stutter slightly, shaking your head in thought. “I sleep next to them both?” Gally laughs, nodding along.

“Yeah, I noticed that too.” You both finally arrive at the shed, and you take a step inside as Gally holds the door open for you. As the door finally swings closed, Gally just smirks at you- though you couldn’t help but notice a slight bit of discomfort, or pity in his gaze. “I’m just saying. They act a lot like how Ben and I act together.” He walks forward a few steps to close the distance between the two of you, roughly placing a hand on your shoulder. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt, kid.”

“I won’t-” You cut yourself off, biting your lip. You could feel your eyebrows draw down in disappointment, taking in a deep breath. Finally, you instead say, “I’m not a kid.” Gally just laughs in response, taking his hand back and busying himself with what was on the nearby table.

“Sure, you’re not.”

A few days have passed, and it's your day off once more. You couldn’t be any more thankful that Thomas happens to have the same day off as you, being able to spend more time with him. You almost hated the fact that he was a Runner- gone for most of the day, the only real time you have with him being during dinner and the small time after before bed. But that time was spent not just with him, but with your entire friend group. And Minho tended to demand the majority of the attention for himself.

Wednesdays, however, meant that you had an entire day with Thomas- the majority of which all of your friends were working their own jobs. You weren’t even worried about the pressing issue- well, that’s a lie, but you definitely try to put it out of your head for a day. But, is that bad? Putting this off for a day when you know how to get everyone out? Shouldn’t you be trying your best every day to get out? Do they even want out?

“[Y/N]?” You’re startled out of your thoughts by Thomas, who stands in front of you where you sit on the bench at one of the dining tables. He’s bent in half at the waist, leaning to the side with his head tilted as if trying to meet your downturned gaze. You lift up quickly at his acknowledgement, trying to smile toward him in a friendly way and put everything you were thinking about behind you. You could tell Thomas didn’t quite buy it, his face with a sad smile and his posture drooping.

“Hey! I was just waiting for you!” You smile brighter, swinging your feet over the side of the bench to stand up and move toward Thomas. However, he moved over toward you at the same time, and as you finally gained your footing, you tripped trying to stop yourself from taking a step forward. You fall into Thomas, his arms immediately circling around you to keep you stable.

“Woah, hey,” Thomas laughs, and the sound of it alone warms your heart. “I was just seeing if you wanted to hang out again today?” He seems to realize belatedly that his arms still encircle you, then drops his arms quickly before raising a hand to the back of his head in embarrassment. You feel the loss of his arms prominently, wishing they could’ve stayed a little longer. “No pressure, though!”

“Of course I do!” You lean in closer to Thomas, almost falling over once more in your attempt to minimize the distance between the two of you. “I’ve been so distracted lately, I could really use a break from my own brain.” Thomas looks you up and down, a barely-there blush lighting up his features. His skin was more tan than Newt’s own, so his blush wasn’t nearly as apparent as the pale boy’s. This only made you feel more determined to see it light up his cheeks. And chest, it looks like, as the blush begins to travel down into his lightweight shirt. You startle, quickly drawing your eyes back up to meet his, hoping you weren’t caught checking him out. “I’ve also been wanting to spend more time with you, I feel like we never see each other.”

Thomas practically jumps at your last sentence, throwing his hands out theatrically. “Yes! That! I feel like that too!” He suddenly wraps a long arm around your shoulders, turning you to the side and pulling you along with him. The move was a very Minho-style thing to do, though you suppose it’s only right considering he spends the majority of his time with him. “And last week was fun and all, running around playing games, but I didn’t learn nearly as much about you as I wanted to. I wanna know everything about you- like, what do you think about Gally’s drink?”

“Gally’s drink?” You couldn’t help the laughter bubbling up from inside your chest, shaking your head at the random question. “That’s what you ask?”

“What?” Thomas sounds defensive, but you can still hear the smile in his voice. “You work pretty closely with Gally now, right?”

“That doesn’t mean I’m drinking his concoction when I’m at work.” You playfully smack his chest with the back of your hand, and the two of you come to a stop near a large tree on the outskirts of the Deadheads. There’s a bench sitting under the tree that Thomas takes a seat at- you hadn’t really noticed the bench was here before, not really having a need for it, but it’s a rather cinematic position once you take a seat next to Thomas. You could practically see the whole Glade from here- minus the Deadheads behind you.

“Sure, sure. But you work with Gally, and the only things I really know about him are that he likes to wrestle and he makes that drink. So I was just wondering, I guess.” Thomas shrugs, and you try to keep up with the line of thought, but end up giving up in the end. What does it matter how he got to the conclusion, anyhow? Might as well answer.

“Well, it’s…” You trail off, biting your lip in thought. You couldn’t find a polite way to say it, eventually settling with, “It’s strong.” Thomas’ boisterous laugh draws your attention, and you face him with a smile. Your chest burns with pleasant feelings, and you can’t believe you are sitting here, staring at Thomas- having a conversation with Thomas. The book character.

“Strong?” He asks, raising a hand to wipe a nonexistent tear from his eye. “That’s all you have?”

“What?” You shrug, unconcerned about his incredulity. “It is.” Thomas continues to laugh for a moment, and you bask in the sunshine that is this man. This was a good idea, you think to yourself, to take a break from your constant pressing thoughts. Eventually, you realize that Thomas has stopped laughing and is instead staring directly at you, just like you are with him. His smile is soft and lovely, and you can’t look away.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Thomas whispers, and you lean forward ever-so-slightly to hear him better, though the only sounds surrounding the two of you currently were the light ambient mumbles of far-off Gladers. He leans forward in a mimic of you, but you can’t tear your eyes away from his dark brown, swirling eyes. They were almost hypnotic, in a way. “It almost felt like…” He trails off for a moment, and you’re desperately wondering what he was trying to say before he finally continues, “It almost felt like we were waiting for something. For someone. And now that you’re here, I feel like I’m not waiting any more.”

You chuckle awkwardly, finally looking away from the boy as you feel your cheeks flush. You open your mouth, shaking your head in disbelief as you try to come up with anything to say. Just as you’re beginning to voice your sentence- something that you weren’t even quite sure of before it came out- Thomas ends up interrupting you, taking one of your hands and fidgeting with it.

“I know, I know. I sound ridiculous, everyone always says so-”

“No,” You interrupt quickly, turning your gaze to meet his eyes once again. He had been eyeing your joined hands as he spoke, but as you look at him he also looks up, and you can see the hope sitting there plain as day. “No, not ridiculous. I understand what you mean, I-” You hesitate, unsure how to continue without sounding like a crazy person. You knew he was waiting on you, considering they all should’ve been out of here by now? Or, maybe not waiting for you specifically, just something that you know how to do. It was still a bit confusing, and you shake your head in frustration. “You’re not ridiculous.” You end it there, letting your gaze drop to the grass once again. Thomas is quiet for a few beats, before he finally speaks up, his voice a whisper.

“Are you okay?” Out of all of the questions you’d expected, that wasn’t one of them. You lift your gaze to his once again, studying the concern lying there. His fidgeting of your fingers is slower, but still present as you sit there contemplating what to say. You bite your lip as you think, and watch his eyes track the movement.

“If you knew of a way out of here, would you do it?” Thomas nods immediately, meeting your eyes with an intense and serious expression.

“Of course, I would. Immediately.”

“And bring everyone with you?” He nods again, his brow furrowing.

“Yes, of course. Everyone.” You hesitate, taking in a deep breath as you remember back to the skittering and harsh metallic sounds of the Grievers.

“Even if it was dangerous?” Your voice is barely a whisper- barely there enough that you’re almost surprised Thomas had heard it. He doesn’t answer you right away, but his expression changes just slightly enough to know that he understood what you said. When he finally does speak up, his voice doesn’t hold any bit of blame or suspicion that you thought it might.

“Why are you asking that? Did you remember something from Wicked?” You immediately scan the area around the two of you quickly at the sound of their name, looking for those tiny red blinking bugs that like to listen to them. Seeing none, your shoulders relax slightly and meet Thomas’ eyes once again. He hadn’t moved his gaze, but he seemed understanding and patient as you looked around. You sigh, shaking your head, trying to put off an air of confidence with your lie.

“No, I don’t remember anything else. I just–” You sigh again, pulling his hand lightly where you two are joined, “I just don’t want to see you get hurt.” You watch his gaze soften, immediately taking what you’ve said to heart. It feels weird to be believed so easily, especially amidst the pain of having to lie to these people again and again.

“I won’t,” Thomas whispers, pulling you in by your hand as well, then wrapping an arm around you to hold you close. He presses his lips to your head, mumbling against your hair. “I won’t get hurt- I won’t leave you guys behind.”

You were working again, a few days following your day off, and you’d finally slipped up. Now granted, ‘slipping up’ when you’re a builder tends to mean something far worse than accidentally destroying a crop or dropping a bucket of milk in the mud. You were on the ladder, Gally holding it steady below you, as you cleaned out the gutters of the Homestead. You could hear a commotion below you, but you ignored the general yelling and enthusiasm of the builders below you. It was toward the end of your shift, and you were just hoping to get this job done with time to spare. That might’ve been your first mistake.

It was a series of unfortunate mishaps that led to the ultimate conclusion. The builders were making a ruckus below you, one calling your name and distracting you from your job. You glanced down just in time to watch Gally punch the guy’s arm, likely admonishing him for distracting you- a habit of his, making sure no one distracts whoever is working on the ladder. Unfortunately for you, however, when you turned to look, a few globs of the slimy leaves that fill the gutters fell onto your feet and the ladder rungs below you- with you none the wiser. You reach back up, trying your best to reach the last little bit as you feel a slight slip of your boot.

Mistakably sure of your footing, you stretch to your tip-toes, just as you hear your name get called again. This time, by Gally. The shock of hearing his voice causes you to jerk toward him harshly, your foot slipping out from beneath you. You fell- not very far, mind you- down toward the ground. Gally was there to catch you, as was another builder who stood nearby, but the velocity of your fall caused the three of you to tumble into a pile on the ground.

Groaning was heard from all three of you as you all pushed to sit yourselves up, sighing and glancing around. You’re confused as to what happened, looking up to the ladder that still leaned against the Homestead. The builder to your side begins laughing as you finally spot the bit of slippery gunk on the ladder rung, realizing your mistake. You begin to laugh as well, and Gally just huffs out a heavy sigh, as if both relieved and annoyed at your antics. Gally is the first to push himself up, offering a hand to the builder and helping him up first.

Gally’s offered hand to help you up was likely the only reason you didn’t fall straight back down onto your butt. You cry out as pain shoots up your right leg, hissing as you look down. There’s no blood, and nothing obviously bent out of place. That was a good sign at least.

“You good?” Gally grunts out, scanning you with his eyes as he does his own little once-over. You nod, holding in a grunt as you focus on applying the majority of your weight onto your left foot.

“Yeah. Well- I mean, my right ankle is killing me.” Gally’s shoulders relax, meeting your eyes with a nod.

“Alright, probably just a sprain. Let’s get you to the Medjacks.”

Gally was right, of course. He’d likely seen his fair share of injuries, considering his position in the Builders. You were resting on a cot in the Medjack’s hut, your leg raised and resting on a pillow, an ice pack sitting on top of it. You were told to just chill there for a while until the swelling went down, then they’d wrap the foot and send you on your way. If you were honest, you were a bit bored. They’d had Chuck ferry your food to you, so at the very least you didn’t miss dinner, but you did miss the company you usually kept. You wondered if Thomas and Newt knew where you were, if they were worried about you or whether they just moved on with a shrug. You couldn’t picture them not caring about-

Your thoughts were interrupted by the loud, booming echo of laughter- an unmistakable sort. Minho walked through the Medjack’s door, clutching an arm to his chest while still laughing with good humour. He peeked behind him through the door one last time before taking a few more steps inside, his laughter dying down, but grin remaining firmly in place. Clint approached him, sighing with exasperation.

“I thought I’ve said it enough times today, no visitors-”

“Ah, Doc’, don’t deny a bleeding man!” Minho jests playfully- that is until he extends the arm clutched to his chest. You suck in a breath, seeing blood soaked into his shirt and covering his entire forearm.

“Minho- shuck it, what happened?” Clint is quick and methodical, dragging him over to a nearby bed- the bed next to your own- and immediately dragging over an empty bucket along the floor. He begins to pour water on his arm, the bucket catching the water as it falls to the floor, cleaning off the wound as Minho hisses.

“Ah, you know. Shucking around in the Deadheads again.” Clint huffs out an annoyed breath, glaring up at the injured man.

“I told you lot to stay away from those brambles. I said you’d get yourselves hurt, and look at you now.” You relax slowly as Clint continues to wash away the blood, and you realize the injury isn’t anywhere near as bad as it had looked originally. He had a small but deep wound on his arm, and likely just took his time getting back here.

“I wasn’t over by the brambles, Clint.” The Medjack glares up at him, obviously disbelieving. “Swear on it! I was not near those brambles.” The way he says this makes even you narrow your eyes toward him, and somehow Minho catches you. He eyes you for a moment, a smirk lighting up his face as he winks toward you. “We just found another bit of them. Off to the side, a little.”

“Remind me, how are you a Keeper, again?” Clint mumbles under his breath, obviously not expecting an answer as he grabs ahold of some gauze and a bandage wrap. Minho scoffs out a laugh, shrugging a shoulder.

“Seniority?” You laugh at the unexpected gibe against himself, meeting his eyes once again. You watch him theatrically scan your form, his eyes lingering on the cold pack sitting on your ankle. “So, what happened to the Greenie?”

“You should be more worried about yourself,” Clint answers immediately, his voice tired. It seemed like an automatic response, and you wonder how nosy the people in the Glade really are if his automatic response to asking about someone is to keep the details away. You hold back a laugh as Clint’s back is turned, meeting Minho’s eyes with a shrug.

“I slipped off of a ladder, sprained my ankle. Nothing too bad, all things considered.” Minho nods, but you see something in his eyes that causes you to hesitate. There’s nothing there that recognizes this as new information, almost as if he’d already known coming in here. That wouldn’t be too surprising, considering they’re all friends with Gally, but does that mean that Thomas and Newt do know?

Minho is somehow able to stay quiet long enough for Clint to finish his bandage. Minho keeps his eyes on you as Clint mumbles some sort of excuse and moves away from the two of you, giving you both a sense of pseudo-privacy. Minho’s face relaxes just slightly enough that you begin to think he’s not being playful anymore.

“They’re worried about you, you know.” Minho’s voice is quiet when he speaks, proving your theory. You blink a few times, taking in his words before finally tilting your head in confusion. “Newt and Thomas. They’re worried.”

“No- I mean, yeah,” You sigh, nodding, “I knew who you were talking about. Why are they worried?” Minho’s smile spreads, but purses in a way like he’s trying to keep from smiling and failing miserably.

“Because you’re in here. They keep trying to visit you but Clint won’t allow it.” You laugh at this, shaking your head in disbelief.

“But all that’s wrong with me is a sprained ankle?”

“Oh, trust me. They know.” Minho rolls his eyes, then turns his head to glance toward the close exit to the building. You’re quiet for a minute before finally asking the question on your mind.

“Why won’t Clint let them visit?”

“Because,” Clint interrupts, suddenly appearing beside your bed and lifting the ice pack from your foot. “As you said, all you have is a sprained ankle- I don’t need the leaders of the Glade making a circus of my hut. It just needed to be iced for a few hours, and now I’m going to wrap it and you’re going to go out there and calm everyone down.” You laugh as if this is a joke, but the laughter dies down at the look that Clint gives you. You turn your head toward Minho, hoping he at least would assure you that Clint was joking, but Minho’s raised eyebrows say something else entirely.

“Calm them down? Are they really that worried?”

“I had to post two people outside of my door so that I would stop getting interrupted,” Clint answers your question that you had technically asked Minho, and you look back toward him with amazement. A few moments ago you had thought that they’d both forgotten about you- now you’re hearing that they’re practically tearing the door down trying to get to you? Over a sprained ankle?

“Did you like your dinner at least?” Minho’s question seems out of place, and you furrow your brows as you glance at the empty dining tray and back to him.

“Yes?” You draw the word out as a question, tilting your head toward him once again.

“Well, good. Newt spent enough time trying to jam as much of your favourites onto it as possible. I think he might’ve threatened good ole’ Chuckie to make sure he didn’t steal any of your food.” You laugh again, this time in disbelief, and shake your head. You’ll have to speak with Chuck later to figure out exactly what happened there.

Clint finishes wrapping your foot, guiding you to stand and holding out a meticulously carved cane. You use the cane gratefully, nodding at Clint with thanks. He lets you know that you’re free to go, but asks Minho to stay an extra second, saying something about keeping away infection and wandering over to his wall of cabinets. You decide to wait for Minho, intending to walk out together, however your eyes follow Clint along the cabinets as he opens up multiple different ones, obviously searching for something. Clint grumbles under his breath about reorganization, meanwhile, Minho is speaking animatedly about something or other that had happened in the maze. That is to say, you would’ve been paying attention if your eyes hadn’t zeroed in on the cabinet Clint opens next.

Multiples of tiny bottles, practically glowing blue with syringes lying underneath them line this cabinet, and Clint closes it quickly as if he probably shouldn’t have opened it. But you recognized it. You didn’t think you would at first glance, but it’s definitely hard to mistake. Grief Serum. So they had the medicine that would save their lives if they ever had been stung by the Grievers, but do they know that? Did they realize what they had lying in wait in their cabinet? Better yet- could you use that to your own advantage? The scariest part about fighting the Griever is knowing about its sting- the variation of the Flare that could kill if not treated properly.

A plan begins to form in your head finally- something that you’ve been waiting for this whole time. You didn’t know what you would do with all of the information you’d been remembering before, but now it was all lining up. As Minho continues to drone on obliviously, you nod along and prepare to distract yourself long enough to settle Thomas and Newt’s nerves once you leave the building, but your mind races with this newfound knowledge. You finally knew how you would save the Glade.

[petrichor-idyllic]

Hi! I was wondering if I could get a Brenda x Fem!Reader where Brenda is sort of the Reader’s gay awakening and the boys all tease the Reader about her crush on Brenda?? All when they first meet her please. Love you! Hope you’re doing well 🥰🥰

YESSSS FINALLYYYYYY.

Brenda is easily my second favourite character. I feel like my favourite is obvious at this point. Ik people hate on her in the books (and love her in the films) but I think she was an interesting character.

Definitely a crush of mine so I'm happy to actually write for her.

Though, this one is a bit shorter because writing dialogue from the movies for every single fic is seriously starting to slow me down lol- I'm doing this bad boy from memory. And since this is a simpler idea that takes place in a short space of time- less words, yanno. Hope y'all understand.

AWAKENING

MASTERLIST | BRENDA MASTERLIST

SUMMARY: See above. Movie based fic.

WARNINGS: Inappropriate language, the Scorch, no actual romance because the prompt is all about teasing and you being a disaster gay, mention of Newtmas because even if Tommy doesn't see Newt that way- it's pretty much canon that Newt had a thing for Thomas. WICKED being WCKD because movie.

The boys were thrilled when a girl showed up in the Glade. They thought that they'd finally have a shot at flirting and maybe even get somewhere with it.

Luckily, Alby was there to shut that down real fast.

And you took no interest in any of them.

You liked them plenty enough. Minho's protective and funny. Newt's realistic. Frypan is a good cook and keeps spirits up. Thomas is brave. Teresa is... there.

Teresa. That's an interesting one. She's pretty by any means, but you never really liked her. She distracted Thomas and clearly has different views to the rest of you- which became obvious when you escaped WCKD into the Scorch.

Dealing with Cranks and losing Winston was a tough blow. And now you have Aris, who is quiet but smart and a useful addition to the group.

So when you broke into a factory to escape a lightning storm (where Minho nearly died), you face a bunch of chained up Cranks.

The next thirty seconds or so are pure chaos of unbridled screaming and fumbling of lights.

"I see you've met our guard dogs," an unfamiliar voice says, the grinding of a door startling you all as you back into a huddle.

The girl has short hair and casual clothes, not that much different to the ones you used to wear in the Maze. Minho yanks you behind him.

"Stay back!" He shouts, but the girl weaves through the infected, seemingly completely unfazed as she reaches you.

"You guys look like shit," she scoffs, smirking. You stand on your tip-toes, peaking over Minho, your heart skips a beat when she makes eye contact with you.

Her smirk grows and he eyes flicker before she turns around.

"Come on, follow me." She pauses, looking over her shoulder. "Unless you wanna stay here with them."

Thomas takes the lead, as per usual, and you all cautiously follow, desperately trying to avoid the walking corpses.

She tells you all her name and monologues about the factory and some guy called Jorge without even looking back at you guys.

"No one's come out of the Scorch in a long time- you've got him curious." She looks back, making eye contact with you. "Me too."

You feel warm, looking away and stumbling slightly over a rise in the floorboards, which leads Newt to having to catch you.

It's awkward as you walk into a large office room, a man looms over a desk as Brenda gets his attention. He turns and starts speaking, but you can't seem to focus as Brenda takes a seat a few feet away from you.

You've never been attracted to anyone before, but as Thomas talks to Jorge, your gaze is locked in the girl sitting on the sofa.

She's confident, sarcastic and seemingly playful, whilst also completely remaining in control.

She notices you staring, smirking at you and looking you up and down. You immediately look away, your face burning, eyes cast at the ground.

Oh God.

She's hot.

Are you... gay?

You'd never considered it before, especially when Teresa came up and you didn't feel anything for her. But I guess she just wasn't your type.

Your type is apparently sarcastic street rats who could probably kill you with their bare hands.

Figures.

Though, you probably should've figured it out when you spent the only life as you remember surrounded by boys and didn't fancy a single one.

Is this the gay panic Newt spoke about when Thomas appeared?

You look at Newt, who is already looking at you, squinting. He looks between you and Brenda before grinning.

And that's when you all get grabbed.

Brenda stands up, grabbing the back of Thomas' neck and scanning it. Brenda's face drops as she stares at the machine.

She looks at you, guilt crossing her face for a second.

And then you get tied up.

Hanging from the ceiling as you all desperately squirm, shouting at Minho to shut his mouth as he makes relentless sarcastic comments, which just further dampens your mood.

"Yanno, (Y/N)," Newt snickers, "I don't think I'm a fan of your new girlfriend."

"Huh?" About four different people respond.

"Shut up, Newt- now is not the time," you try and pull yourself up, fiddling with the restraints keeping you air-born. But it's no use.

"Yeah, well, it's not like we have anything bloody better to talk about."

"The shuck's he on about?" Minho grumbles.

"Nothing." You dramatically cross your arms, which is actually quite a comedic sight since you're upside down.

"She has a crush on our kidnapper."

"What?"

"What?"

"Come again?"

They all look at you- well, they attempt to. Frypan is unvoluntarily slowly spinning.

"I don't! Newt's just... bored?" That's the best you could come up with

"Bored?" He barks a laugh. "You were totally checking her out, shank."

"I wasn't!"

"You were."

"I was not!"

"You absolutely were."

"She is pretty cute," Thomas says, and you inwardly cringe, not wanting to seeing Newt or Teresa's reaction to that one.

"Yanno," Minho says, "that makes way more sense. You like shuckin' girls; I knew it wasn't me."

"Shut up, Minho," at least three of you say.

"So, how exactly are we gonna get out here so (Y/N) can get herself a girlfriend?" Minho continues.

"(Y/N)'s girlfriend is the reason we're tied up," Frypan corrects.

"Can we please not call Brenda my girlfriend?"

"Too late."

"For shuck's sake."

That's when Jorge returns, asking questions about the Right Arm and nearly sending you plummeting into the abyss below.

So, you come up with a plan to escape.

"Minho, put your back into it, dammit!" You shout as he tries to push Teresa.

"I'm- Shuck! I'm tryin'!"

It's actually disastrous.

How you all managed to get out of the Maze alive is an absolute mystery to you.

Somehow, miraculously, you manage to force Teresa onto the platform surrounding you. And then Janson's whiney voice comes through a loud speaker.

So, it becomes a mad rush to escape.

Which then goes terribly when one of Jorge's men attacks you.

Thomas manages to hold his own, but when the man gets his gun back, you're on the verge of accepting defeat.

It's been a long day.

That's when a gunshot rings out and the guy's body hits the floor. You all look up to find Brenda standing there, gun in hand.

She looks directly at you. "You okay?"

You feel small and fuzzy under her gaze. You're starting to understand all the fuss the Gladers had about women.

You nod, stiffly and awkwardly.

"Okay, come on, we gotta move." She waves you all towards her, and it takes you all a second but you follow.

"Hey, maybe your girlfriend isn't so bad after all," Minho jokes as he slips past you, taking the lead.

"Shuck off, Minho- she's not my girlfriend," you whisper-yell as you storm after him.

"Yeah, a girl can only dream, right?"

This was pretty fun to write, but sorry for no actual romance, unfortunately after this there's a dramatic group split and then nothing really slows down until the end of the film and I simply could not bring myself to do another entire movie piece. So, just a fun little unserious one-shot.

I hope this is satisfactory for now, aha.

And I hope you enjoyed :))

[nomoreusername]

Caption Gally (part 2)

Pairing:Gally x female reader

Summary:When Minho gives away the truth, you realize something you never could have imagined.

As much as it kills me to admit my life revolves around Gally now. I need to get revenge on him for kissing me. I won't stop until I find something that gets under his skin and haunts him at night. I'm not being dramatic either.

"Y/N, why are you so obsessed with this?"Minho groaned.

"Because when they go low I go lower. Besides, it gives us something to talk about during a run,"I pointed out.

"As valid as your first point is you already always talk about him. You both have something to say about each other. All I ever hear is 'Gally gets on my nerves. Y/N keeps making me look weak in front of Greenie's. Gally complains about me. Y/N isn't picking up on the fact that I like her,' and-"

"What?"I asked.

"What what?"He asked quickly.

"What was your last statement?"

"Gally complains about me."

"After that."

"What what."

"Minho, what do you mean he complains that I don't pick up on the fact that he likes me?"I asked.

"I never-"

"Stop lying before I make sure my life revolves around torturing you. What are you talking about?"I repeated.

"Well, he may have had a bit too much to drink one night, and he may have told me he likes you in a romantic way,"He admitted.

"Holy klunk. How long have you known this?"I interrogated.

"Six months, give or take,"He shrugged like this was a casual conversation.

"Who else knows?"I asked.

"Just me, and Newt, and Ben, and Winston. Okay, a lot of people were there,"He confessed.

"Newt knew? And not even he told me?"I asked in disbelief.

"We were sworn to secrecy, but you're so obsessed with him that I ruined that,"He said, as if any of this was my fault.

Then again I can't blame Gally for falling for me. I would too.

"I am so-I don't even know how I feel about this,"I groaned.

"Sure you do. You just ranted about him for our entire run."

I was about to ask what he meant when I looked to see we had indeed left the Maze. Was Gally really on my mind that much?

Before I could get to lost in thought I heard Gally ordering around Greenie. I didn't think about what I was going to do next. I just acted.

"Hey, Gally,"I exclaimed, turning him around to face me. "This is for making me think about you all the time,"I snapped, slapping the back of my head. "And this is for being too chicken to tell me how you feel about me,"I continued, punching his arm. "And this is for making me realize how I feel,"I finished, smashing my lips against his. He froze in shock before I pulled away.

"Instead of complaining about me use some common sense, and pick up on my hints. I will see you at dinner. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get mapping,"I stated, walking away. All he could do was stare as he tried to process what had happened. I'm sure he'd get there soon enough though. He's not braindead. Just oblivious.

[funnyp3rson]

Shooting Stars-Part 4

Alexis:

After lunch, Chuck was walking alongside her, talking about the bonfire.

"Every month a new Greenie will come up from the box with a klunk load of supplies for the month ahead." Chuck explained "This month, it was you. So tonight we'll have a bonfire to celebrate a new glader, again, that's you."

She nodded along as he spoke. "Wait. So when will I get to try out for the jobs?" She questioned.

"Tomorrow."

She nodded, her gaze wandering past the lush green grass to the maze walls. They terrified her, if she was to be completely honest. But the presence of people was a refreshing reminder that she was very much not alone in this. She had often wondered how they'd made such a successful community within the midst of the chaos they were trapped in, well, maybe successful isn't the right word but she'd learnt within the two days she'd been there, they don't make unnecessary sacrifices.

Chuck turned to her and stopped, noticing her thoughtful expression.

"You okay?"

She jumped at the sound of his voice, being too caught up in her thoughts.

She smiled. "Uh- um, yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

He slowly nodded and started walking again, motioning for her to follow.

******** ********

Newt rested his head on the wooden pole, green vines caressed his face as he sighed. He looked down at his calloused hands, deciding to take a break from picking tomatoes. Leaning up again, a pain shot up his leg. A small curse left his lips and he limped towards Clint.

"Hey, did the medication come up by any chance?" He asked, his leg relaxing slightly as he came to a stop.

Clint looked up worried. "Um, not sure. We haven't gone through the crates yet." He looked at Newt's leg.

"Why? 'Sit hurting again?" He asked. Newt nodded, his face slightly contorting in pain as he tried to shift his weight onto his other leg.

Clint sighed and patted Newt's back before heading to Alby. Newt smiled slightly, knowing he was going to feel better soon enough.

Suddenly, hoards of boys rushed past him, bumping into him.

"What the f-" He said being cut off by Alby's shouting.

"Move outta my way!" Alby shouted, pushing past everyone.

To the boy's surprise, she lay on the floor unconscious while Chuck was knelt next to her, gripping her shoulders and trying to wake her. Newt pushed his way to the front, another jolt of pain shot up his leg with each step.

"Chuck, what happened?" Alby asked, his tone taking on a calmer one.

"I-I don't know, she looked a bit out of it then-" Chuck started.

A gasp of air suddenly came from her, her chest heaving with each intake of air.

"Alexis.... m-my name, it's Alexis!" She spluttered.

"What the hell." Newt muttered under his breath.

[loyal-house-of-lupin]

Escape in Paris

Flufftober; Lost pet meet cute

Pairing: Remus Lupin x Newt Scamander | WC: 4.167 | Tags: time travel, first meetings, fantastic beast canon divergence, flufftober day 1

Summary: Remus is on a mission in Paris. To find an Obscurial that a surprisingly large amount of people were interested in. Including Gellert Grindelwald of all people. As if fighting Voldemort wasn’t enough, he now had to deal with Grindelwald as well.

When in Paris, he stumbles across a Kappa. A Japanese water demon that should not be roaming its streets. Just when he is about to ensure the Kappas safety, he all but walks into a handsome stranger. One who seems to know what he’s doing when it comes to creatures. The unexpected meeting has piqued his interest.

A/N: I know this is a very weird pairing. But this one-shot is part of a bigger fic that I have yet to write. I'm commited to finishing my other ongoing fics first. However I love this idea so much I had to write something. Which basically means; Remus joining the cast of Fantastic Beasts and where to find them. And me rewriting most of those movies (besides the first) because I was annoyed at all the lost opportunities.

(You can also read it on AO3 if you prefer!)

Remus straightened his coat as he arrived in a changing room of a small clothing store. He'd been warned about it, yet it was a bit strange. When he'd been travelling around in his twenties, it wasn't trough official port key. Apparently, there were official ways for visiting other countries. And this shop was one of them. He left the changing room and couldn't help but glance around. It was still a bit strange to walk around in 1927, let alone in a different country.

Though there was one thing he'd noticed. While the muggle world had changed drastically between the nineteen twenties and ninety-nineties, the wizarding world hadn't. Sure, there were a few things different. His band shirts were definitely a no go, even those from magical bands. But it had been easier to fit in then he thought. It was still suits, dress shirts and robes. With a little smile he nodded at the tailor before walking towards the back door of the shop. There stood a statue. It looked like a dancing girl with flowers in her hair. But he knew that to look for. The wand in the holster. The animal that looked like a dodo but was a diricawl. The plants that looked like simple bushes but were Mallowsweet. He touched the hand of the statue and he heard, more than saw, the wall change. Carefully he moved towards it and entered the Wizarding part of Paris.

It surprised him, strolling through the streets, how much wizarding Paris looked like muggle Paris. Though looking back at history, maybe it wasn’t. Paris was an old city. And he wouldn’t be surprised if Wizards already lived here before the statute of secrecy. Which meant that Wizarding Paris and Central Paris was very much alike. Especially, he realised, since World War two hadn’t happened yet. Which was one of the strangest realisations he’d had since travelling to the past.

He passed by clothes and potions shops. A little café of sorts. One that was selling ingredients and stalling them in a way that made him quickly turn the other way. The chatter of wizards and witches around him soothed him. If he wasn’t on a mission it would’ve felt like a great vacation. Unfortunately, he wasn’t on vacation and he did have someone or well, something, to track down.

 He wasn't sure what he was looking for exactly. As usual, Albus his description had been very vague. He should've been used to it by now given how long he was part of the Order. Though this time it was also his own curiosity that got the better of him. Besides, for now, he was without clear plan or direction. So, when Albus had come to him with talks about an obscurial, he'd been curious. Even more so when he realised Grindelwald was involved as well. looking for the same obscurial. It was also clear that he wasn't the only one Albus send this way. The man is brilliant in nudging and dropping hints in such a way, people sprung into action. But in this case their goals aligned.

He wanted to know more about Grindelwald. For some reason Albus wanted him here as well. And the other person Albus send this way. It was curious, being in the middle of history. He knew about the huge battle between Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Knew Dumbledore won and Grindelwald was locked up for the rest of his life in Nurmengard, if he remembered correctly. But if he were to be honest, he didn't know much else. Most of his life the treat and fear had been about Voldemort. Not much of Grindelwald was talked about. Maybe it would've been better had they learned from past mistakes. Which wasn't something the wizarding world in general was good at. Well, he would figure it out as he went.

It was clear something had happened rather recently. As Remus walked across a little square, damages were visible. Though the wizards and witches seemed hardly bothered by it. Some were waving their wands around fixing debris. Others were hexing the brooms to swipe the streets. He could just make out some burn marks on the street. The next thing he did notice during his stroll worried him. There was a very obvious trace of water. Which shouldn't be there, given the temperature and sun that was out. He'd seen it before. When he'd looked after one of the creatures during his teachings in 1993. The creature had been part of the obstacle course and had once attempted to escape its habitat. He was pretty certain most people didn't recognise it or knew what to do if they encountered one. Besides from his students, who’s parents weren’t even born yet. Which was another, very strange realisation.

He quickly dashed into a little shop that sold beasts to get a cucumber before trailing the puddles of water. He turned a corner and noticed a few things. First, there was a little fountain. It was only filled with water, for now. Close by was the creature he'd expected to find. A Kappa. However, those things weren’t what surprised him. Those things he'd expected to be there. He was, however, a bit surprised by the fact there was another person there. They were standing with their back towards Remus. Most that he could see was a long blue-greyish coat, brown curly hair and a rather big, brown suitcase that was carried. Most of all, the stranger was dangerously close to the Kappa. Which could mean trouble.

"Careful there," he said, loud enough to be heard but hopefully not loud enough to scare the stranger. The stranger straightened and turned to him. Remus couldn't help but to notice the beauty of the man. It had been a while since such a thought had crossed his mind. But he couldn't help it. He also noticed that the other wasn't looking at him. He groaned and rubbed his face for a second. He was in France. The French generally refused to speak English, whether they were capable of it or not. He learned a bit of the language. But only the very, very basics. Not enough to explain that a Kappa was dangerous.

"Bloody hell, I don't even know what the word danger is in French," he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He should've thought about this before going to France. How was he going to communicate? Ask questions? Get himself understood?

"It's... It's fine. I don't speak French either," came the, very British sounding, reply.

"Oh," he commented a bit stupidly. He hadn't expected that. "Well, that makes it easier. Careful with that. It's a- "

"Kappa, I know." Once again Remus was surprised by the response. He hadn't expected anyone to know. Which also changed his perspective off the situation. What was the man doing exactly? Especially with a case like that? He looked around with a bit more suspicion. Sure, Kappa's weren't friendly creatures. But he wasn't going to let someone traffic it.

"Alright. And what are your plans with it? Is it yours?" he questioned. He still had no clue what had happened out there. Or why there was even a Kappa in the middle of Paris. It was not the place for such creature to be.

"No, it isn't mine. I saw its signs and was worried why it was out here and not in the water," the stranger replied. His way of speaking was a bit odd. More as if he was explaining things to himself, words coming quickly, his sentences losing strength at the end. Yet he seemed certain of what he was saying. Even though he looked a bit nervous. He hadn't looked at Remus once and was fidgeting with his coat pocket.

"And what were you planning to do with it once you found it?" he wondered, glancing from the Kappa to the man.

"Well for now take it with me. Better than leaving it here in the middle of Paris," the reply was matter of factly but it irked Remus quite a bit. Was he dealing with a poacher here? He shifted his stance and moved his hand closer to his wand.

"In that suitcase?" he wondered, nodding towards the suitcase in the male's hand. That seemed worryingly small. The man nodded. "I don't think I'll let you."

"Excuse me?" the man still didn't look at him but sounded surprised and confused.

"Listen. I know Kappa's aren't exactly friendly. They can seriously hurt humans. But if you know how to deal with them, it should be fine. And I can take it somewhere it can live in peace," he explained. Hoping it wasn't going to end in a fight. But was prepared for it anyway. "I'm not going to let you lock it up in such a tight space." He purposely avoided making any assumptions. Maybe the other did mean well, then Remus didn't want to accuse him. But if it was a trafficker, it was of even greater importance the other didn't get a hold on the Kappa.

It remained silent for a surprisingly long time. Or maybe it just felt that way to him. His hand drifted towards his wand as his eyes roamed over his opponent. He hadn't moved much. Just shifted his stance a bit to hold his suitcase with both hands. Eyes were on Remus his face but never really looking at him. There was also a little frown there.

"You're protecting the Kappa," came the question. Remus opened his mouth but closed it again. That wasn’t the response he'd expected. He expected a defence or even a shot back at him. Not this.

"I-yes, of course. It might be a creature but that's not a reason to treat it horribly," he scoffed. Even when he was teaching, he tried to keep the creatures in a good environment. And maybe a part of it was also wishful thinking. If other beasts and creatures could be treated better. Then, maybe, one day, werewolves could too.

"I just. Hadn't expected that," the man replied, hand carefully touching his breast pocket. "Not the normal reaction. But I promise it isn't a small space in my suitcase. There is a lot of room in there. I look after several beasts. They all have their own place and environment they thrive in. I’m making sure they are well enough to be released. And if they can't, I'll keep them safe." Remus wished he could believe that. But besides Hagrid and Charlie Weasley, who would look after them like this? Or was he just being too suspicious? Especially since there was, seemingly, nothing threatening about the man in front of him.

"I-I can show you. I mean I have this little pond inside the case. I do have better access to a beautiful lake at home. But it would be better to get the Kappa back to Japan as soon as possible. Take it back to its kind. I don't know when I have the opportunity though. But I can make it comfortable until then," the man continued to talk. He shifted his suitcase around and eventually placed it on the ground. As if he was ready to show Remus. Curiously, and a bit weary he looked at the suitcase. Then something else that drew his attention from the corner of his eye.

"Watch it!' he let out. Quickly reaching out and grabbing a handful of blue-greyish coat. Heart beating in his throat as he yanked the man closer. Just in time that the Kappa missed him.

"You alright?"

"What-yes?" Came the confused reply. Remus carefully moved the stranger a bit to the side before letting go. Eyes on the Kappa that was now partly bowing and moving with great difficulty.

"Sorry. It just reached for you, remarkably quickly considering how much water he already lost," he tried to explain his actions.

"As long as there is water in his cap, he'll be fine and able to move. A bit slower than usual though. The moment it dries out is when it's stuck. It is the reason why it usually lives in large bodies of water and doesn't come out of it often. It was cruel the way it was kept. From what I understood from onlookers it was kept in a little bath. That's no place for it. No wonder it is looking for a bigger body of water," the man replied and Remus turned to look at him slightly fascinated. Compared to a lot of the previous professors, he thought he knew quite a bit about creatures and such. They weren't they highest priorities of people. To hear someone this knowledgeable was... refreshing.

"So, you... Have a body of water for it. In there?" He wondered, nodding towards the briefcase that was still secured despite the scuffle. Maybe he shouldn’t trust a stranger this quickly. Though on the other hand, the suitcase sounded like a better option than dragging a Kappa around himself.

"Oh yeah, let me just." The man mumbled a bit as he moved a step away and placed the case on the ground. Curiously Remus watched as it opened and... it looked like there was just a big hole in it. It was a bit dark, difficult to see what was happening. He glanced at the Kappa, it was still at the same spot, before looking back. He couldn't help but be a bit nosy. The lid of the suitcase was fully pinned with pictures and news articles. He wasn't able to see them clearly or ready what was on it. But the main picture was clearly of the man with three other people. One slightly stout but broad smiling man, a beautiful woman who knew how to present herself, a confident looking woman more dressed to not stand out, and the handsome man who was currently taking the stairs down into the suitcase? Remus blinked a few times as he stared at the hole the other had just disappeared into. At least he hadn't lied when talking about it being not small on the inside. He just hoped that they were looked after well and not locked up in there.

His gaze turned to the Kappa again and he noticed that it had finally managed to right its head. It was clear that, for now, it wouldn't pose much of a thread. Though he still preferred it if it was off the street. He was about to reach in his pocket when he heard a sound akin to meowing. Quickly he glanced around, worried that there was another creature running around. Instead, he was able to just get a glimpse of something jumping out of the case. At least it confirmed that there were other creatures in there and they were, obviously, not locked up. Though he hoped it wasn't a natural occurrence for them to escape because that could be troublesome.

"Well, hello there," he said softly, crouching down to look at the animal. It was easy to recognise what it was, a kneazle. It looked like a cat but had the tail of a lion. They were brilliant beast and said to be able to recognise if someone was trustworthy. He'd always teased Sirius about it after Crookshanks helped him in 1993. Stating that it was obvious that Crookshanks was only half a kneazle if it considered Sirius trustworthy. Though he had to admit, the animal had been right to trust Sirius and distrust Ron's rat. Something practically the whole wizarding world, including him unfortunately, had been wrong about.

His soft smile turned a bit into a grimace. Sirius. He'd been dead for almost a year now but it still hurt to think about him. After everything they'd gone through, to lose him so quickly after they reunited. It left a huge hole in his heart.

A wet, rough feeling against his hand turned his attention back to the present. The kneazle was licking his hand, clearly not happy it wasn't having his undivided attention.

"Oh, my apologies. I should've known not to be distracted," he chuckled and patiently waited for the kneazle to continue licking him. Once it was done, he carefully reached out and started to pet it. Apparently, it was the right decision as it calmly sat there to enjoy the pets. Once in a while he glanced up, keeping an eye on the Kappa. But it seemed as if moving was too hard to do. It was staring at the fountain almost longingly.

"I do have a pond that it can stay in. It's not perfectly fitted for a Kappa but once I got a moment, I can give it some attention and improve it. But I do believe it's better than leaving it-Milly!" The man had started to talk. First it sounded far away but eventually his head stuck out of the case again. There he'd spotted Milly, what he assumed was the kneazle laying there as if they were royalty. He chuckled softly as he continued his petting duty. The man looked at the kneazle with an exasperated expression and he had to bite his lip not to laugh. Last thing he wanted was make it seem as if he was laughing at the man.

"Really now? First Teddy keeps getting out, now I have to worry about you too?" The man commented and held what looked like a staring contest with the kneazle. He had no idea who or what teddy was. But the image of the other running after all different type of creatures was an adorable one.

"Need some help with the Kappa? I got a cucumber? I can use a part to lure it towards the suitcase and you can lure it further in to it?" He asked, turning the attention back to the problem at hand. He noticed the surprised look he received but it quickly morphed into a smile and a nod.

"I think that's a good plan. Though we might need to add some water to his head, otherwise it won't be able to move. I think." Remus completely agreed with that sentiment. With a soft apology he stopped petting Milly and got the cucumber out of his jacket. He grabbed his wand and wrote his name on half of the cucumber.

"Why are you doing that?" Remus looked back at the question and found the other staring at his name. He shrugged a little.

"Well, the Kappa is originally from Japan. It is believed that if you write the name of a family member on a cucumber before sending it afloat, it will protect them from harm while swimming," he explained. He knew he was looking a bit embarrassed, cheeks heating up as he looked back at the cucumber. "Though right now I think we're the ones in need of protect so, I theorized, why not put my own name on it? Maybe it does nothing but, hey, what's the harm in it?"

He broke the cucumber in half and handed the part without a name to the stranger. He seemed to hesitate for a second before taking it. To his surprise, the other reached for his wand as well, following Remus his example. If nothing else came from it or if it did nothing at all, at least Remus learned the man's name. Newt. For some reason it suited him.

"Alright. Let me add some water to it then lure him towards you. Be ready," he said with a little nod and a last pet of Milly.

Carefully he moved towards the Kappa, half of the cucumber in his outstretched hand. It was clear that he got its full attention. The movements were slow but its head turned towards Remus. He raised his wand and softly whispered 'aguament'. He made sure he used small movements and as little force as possible. Not wanting the hit the creature with a water jet, but just a tiny sprinkle of water. Enough to make it move again.

He breathed out slowly as he watched it succeed. It was interesting to see the Kappa slowly becoming livelier. Getting up with clear movement towards the cucumber. Remus shuffled back until his shoe hit the suitcase. There he held the cucumber and waited patiently. Waited until the Kappa followed. Slowly moving it until it was above the suitcase. Once it got close enough, he let the creature have it. Carefully moving away to the other side of the suitcase as the Kappa devoured the snack. Once it was gone it looked up again. For a moment Remus was worried it would come after him. But then it seemed something distracted it. It was difficult to interpreted the movements of the creature. The movement of its head, the stalking slow steps it was taking. He wasn't certain what it meant. He held his breath, waited and watched. The Kappa moved forward and... Slowly entered the suitcase.

He released his breath and sat down on the ground, posture sagging in relieve. It worked! They managed to get the Kappa safe and away from the streets of Paris. It felt like a little win, even if it was pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. A soft yelp left his lips as Milly decided she'd been patient enough. She'd jumped on his lap and if she had a face, she would've impatiently glared at him. He reached out and carefully started to pet her again.

He had no idea how long he sat there. But if he were to be honest, he didn't mind it one bit. After the hectic time he had the last while it was nice to take a moment to breath. Even if it was, literally, on the streets in Paris, of all places. He heard sounds coming from the suitcase. He couldn't place most of them, but it didn't sound as if Newt needed his help. It felt... intrusive to just enter the suitcase without permission. So, for now he stayed where he was.

Not long after, Milly jumped from his lap and stretched herself. Her huge, fluffy tail wacked softly against his leg a few times, making him chuckle. She took a few steps around the suitcase before entering it. He was intrigued by the kneazle. He knew they were considered smart. Had she heard Newt call out for her and agreed to come back? Had she decided to come back in on her own terms?

It wasn't long after that Newt reappeared.

"It will do! It seemed as if it was content being in the pond for now. Luckily, I got enough food to keep it calm and Dougal will keep an eye out for it," Newt explained as he was climbing out of his suitcase. Remus had no clue who, or maybe even what, a Dougal was but decided against asking for now. With a little groan he got up from the ground. Shivering a little as finally the cold that had seeped in through his clothes caught up with him. He watched Newt crouch down and close his suitcase again.

"Uhm, yeah. Well. So," Newt commented and it sounded like he wasn't the only one who didn't know how to proceed from here. He hesitated. But eventually decided to just quench his curiosity.

"I'm sorry I have to ask. Wh-"

"Newt! Your animal - creature - thing!" Suddenly a voice shouted from the entrance of the street they were standing in. He turned around and saw a man standing there. Hands on his knees, breathing heavily, pointing towards their left. The man looked remarkable like the man from the picture from Newt's suitcase. "Freddy? I think? It went that way!"

Before Remus had really a moment to register what was happening, he was almost pushed to the side. Frowning he turned around just in time to see Newt sprint at a surprising high speed by him. He couldn't help but to shake his head and chuckle. Newt apparently knew his creatures well and Freddy? Or was it Teddy? Had, in fact, escaped. Within moments Newt was around the corner and out of sight. Attention fully on the escaped creature.

"Hi! So sorry about that. That animal is a cutie but is really good at nicking all the gold and silver around! I've seen him do it!" The other man told him, between heavy puffs of breath. “Sorry, got to go or I'll lose them! Nice to meet you!"

Before Remus had a chance to reply the man had picked up speed again. He rushed forward and halted at the entrance of the street. To his left he saw the man disappear into another street. For a second, he hesitated. Should he follow? He didn't know either of them. Had nothing to do with their reasons of being in Paris. He sighed and decided against it. Maybe it was time he continued his own search as well.

@flufftober :)

[fang-and-feather]

Fandom: Ikemen Vampire

Rating: G

Category: F/M, M/M, Multi

Relationship: Arthur Conan Doyle/Isaac Newton/OC

Prompt(s): Festive from @polyamships

Summary: Isaac wasn't used to people celebrating his birthday, or even remembering it. Why would this year be different? Maybe because he had two lovers who would never forget him, right?

IkeVamp Masterlist / General Masterlist / AO3 Link

Isaac wasn’t used to celebrating his birthday. Everyone was too busy with Christmas. He couldn’t say that people didn’t remember it was his birthday. Some people did, but only on passing, as they usually had their own Christmas plans, and if they did something, it was always in the middle of their celebrations.

He sincerely wasn’t expecting this year to be any different, despite the big change there was in his life a few months ago.

It was still November and he was already worried, as he watched Reina and Arthur talking about plans for Christmas, as they hung decorations in the dining room, while he had gone down for a late breakfast. Everyone apparently working in other rooms.

Isaac wasn’t listening much to what they were saying, just a few words, enough to make out what this was about. Besides, they had a glint in their eyes, and talked excitedly but low, like two children planning a prank.

Of course they would make plans. They probably already had their own traditions from the years they’d been together. They would try to include him now, of course, but not go out of the way to change things just to accommodate him, right?

And he didn’t want them to have to, but a part of him hoped they did.

He understood a few reasons why people celebrated Christmas. He understood that the two of them had been together for years before him, and had a hard time building a tradition that pleased both, when they had very different ones individually.

Isaac also understood the need of the two of them having something that was especially theirs as a couple. Because, although they were three now, the two were still a couple. As were him and Reina and, as strange as it still felt, him and Arthur.

What would they have built if it had been the three of them from the beginning, instead of Arthur and Reina having a couple of years to build something on their own?

Would Arthur be feeling the same if it had been him and Reina instead?

Of course not! That was Arthur he was talking about. Arthur would have walked up to them and made a teasing remark before asking what they were planning.

Or Arthur would make a casual suggestion as his way of asking if you had plans.

He would probably have already guessed everything you might be planning, anyway, and would find a way to get himself involved.

Sometimes Isaac wished he could be that assertive. Right now, though, he didn’t even have an idea of what he wanted.

Why was he even thinking about it now! Christmas was still a month away and he didn’t even know what exactly they were planning.

Maybe they were making plans for Christmas Eve only. Or was he being too hopeful?

Isaac could feel himself heating up, he wasn’t sure if it was his anxiety or embarrassment at such needy thoughts. When had he turned so needy?

“Hey, Newt!” Arthur turned to him, and Isaac quickly looked away, now really embarrassed at being caught staring. “You’re so red. Not thinking of anything naughty, are you?”

“I’m not like you.” Isaac protested.

“Maybe not, but you were moaning so much this morning. I can’t help but hope you were dreaming of me.” Arthur reached out playing with a lock of his hair.

“I-I know nothing about that! But if I was dreaming of something I’m sure it was with Rei.”

“Told you!” Rei skipped over to them, sitting on Isaac’s other side.

“So, Isaac, do you have anything in mind for Christmas? We thought of surprising you, but we would rather we decide together.”

“You already have plans, don’t you? Things you used to do without me. I could just join you on that. I don’t have any particular Christmas traditions myself.”

“What about for your birthday?” Arthur asked. “Anything in particular you want?”

Isaac’s eyes widened as his heart sped up. Arthur and Reina laughed and he found himself blushing again.

“You were worried we would forget, right?” Reina leaned in to kiss his cheek.

“Who do you take us for, Newt? We would never forget our boyfriend’s birthday.”

“Well, we haven’t been together for that long and…”

“I think nearly ten months is quite long.”

“Besides, what time has to do with it? You’re not getting in the way of our plans, Isaac. We want to include you, in any way you find comfortable.”

“Of course we would like to share our plans with you, but that would be an exchange. We want you to have something to share with us too.”

“So, if there is anything you want for your birthday, don’t hesitate to tell us. Unless you want us to make that a surprise. Because I have a few ideas.”

“No!” Isaac had a very good idea what kind of things Arthur had in mind. “I’ll think of something.”

Arthur and Reina chuckled.

“That’s quite a shame, luv.” Arthur kissed his cheek. “If you change your mind, you know you just need to ask.”

“That’s not going to happen!” He protested, probably even redder than before. He couldn’t get used to Arthur saying these kinds of things so casually, somewhere anyone could walk in on them.

But as much as it was embarrassing, his lovers didn’t fail to make his heart race and his body warm up in ways he would never admit. Despite their teasing manner - especially Arthur's, - after all this time, even Isaac knew their interest in him - be it in his company, his opinion or in sharing things with him - was genuine.

Isaac wasn’t used to so much affection, but he couldn’t deny how he loved it and sometimes craved it to a shameful extent.

“Think about Christmas and your birthday, though, okay?” Reina hugged him. “We’re really looking forward to our first together.”

“Though, I still think we need…” But whatever Arthur thought, he was cut out by a powerful voice from the hallway.

“Aren’t you two done in there?! I hope you’re not playing around while everyone else is working.”

Isaac froze, looking at Arthur, who was so close they could have kissed if one of them made a wrong move. He wasn’t ready to everyone to know he and Arthur were together yet. Thankfully there were more voices in the hallways and Theo didn’t walk in.

“We’ll be done in a minute!” Reina shouted back.

“Well, get moving then, or we’ll leave the rest of the work for you.”

“Sorry Newt. Seems like our little rendezvous will have to wait.” Arthur stood up. “Or would you like to join us? It’s not our own private tryst but we would love your company.”

Arthur offered him a hand, but Isaac wasn’t sure if he wanted to join everyone.

“Or you can wait a little and help us decorate mine and Arthur’s rooms. But we won’t mind if you don’t want to.” Still, Reina also stood up and offered him a hand.

And Isaac took their hands, letting them pull him to his feet. It wouldn’t be so bad with his lovers. It never was.

“Fine. I’ll go. I would like to spend more time with you too.”

“Thank you, Newt. It will be more fun with you.”

Both of them leaned in and kissed his cheeks, while intertwining their fingers with his.

None of them made a move to leave, knowing they couldn’t walk out like that. Until Arthur finally let go, giving Isaac a peck on the lips and positioning himself on Reina’s other side.

Isaac looked forward for some time alone with the two. Maybe he wouldn’t mind some small decorations in his room. It didn’t matter what they would do for his birthday, as long as they did it together. But he would make sure their first celebration together would be worth remembering.

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