Before Thomas {A Maze Runner Fanfiction}

S1-Ep15: A Blanket of Stars

Newt was about to give up his search when he finally found Elizabeth at the West Wall. She was curled up in a ball with her face towards the ground, most likely huddling with the cold. As he got nearer to her, however, he realized that her whole body was trembling and every so often she emitted a fragile whimpering sound.

"Elizabeth?" he kept his voice low, so not to startle her. She made no immediate response, but her body stiffened when he stood over her. He tentatively reached a hand down to touch her shoulder, but when she flinched, he drew away and crouched beside her instead.

"Elizabeth are you okay?" No response. Newt took the blanket from his shoulders and draped it around her and she sat up and pulled the corners of the blanket closer. It was dark enough so he couldn't see her features, but he realized that she'd been crying. He felt a sharp pang in his heart; perky, joyful Elizabeth was crying. He hadn't seen her cry before, and watching her now--with her shoulders shaking and the little hiccups she made--he decided that he never wanted to see her cry again.

Wordlessly, he wrapped his arms around Elizabeth's frame, pulling her closer to him. With the blanket around her, she leaned in and leaned her forehead into his chest. They sat like that for several, terrible seconds until she sat up in his arms and stopped sniffling. His arms were long enough that she remained trapped in his embrace, but instead of trying to break away, she sat there defeated. Newt hated to be the first to break the silence by talking, but he had to say something.

"What happened?" he asked. Elizabeth sighed, and he half-expected her to avoid the question, but she answered it.

"I feel really lonely," she said. Not a true explanation, but it was something to go off.

"I understand, I get that way too," he said truthfully. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." Elizabeth shook her head and Newt let his arms fall. He lay his back on the grass so that he was staring up at the night sky. After a pause, she joined him, and offered him half of the blanket. It was warm from her skin and damp from her tears and the dewy grass. They lay so close that their sides were pressed together. Newt felt that strange ache in his stomach again, and was overcome with the urge to take her in his arms again. The need to feel her closeness, to smell the perfume of her skin and the soap from her hair. To feel his skin on his and the weight of her body...

He was thinking irrationally, of course, but bloody hell if he couldn't stop thinking about her. Every time he closed her eyes she was there. Damn, when had he turned into such a sap? He knew the reason, but it was too hard to admit. She was his friend, for klunks sake, and friends didn't go around professing love to each other.

"Newt?" her voice broke his focus on her proximity. If she wasn't such a girl, he would probably be feeling tired again by now.

"What?"

"How did you know I was out here?"

Newt laughed weakly and brought his hands behind his head. She had to shift away so his elbow wouldn't hit her face.

"That shank Minho woke me up. Apparantly he and Zart saw you running and got concerned."

"That was nice of them," she said. She turned her face to look at him, aware of how close their bodies were. His skin was pale against the grass, and he stared upwards, his eyelashes silhouetted against the night sky. Those boyish freckles dotting from his neck to his ear. She remembered the sticky feeling of Chris's tongue on her eye and that spark of loneliness hit her again, tainted with terror and disgust.

"It's so hard being the only girl here," she said. Newt looked at her and she went on. "Girls need other girls so much, just like men need other men. I can live without them, but it's so hard. A girl would understand me on a deeper, more emotional level than the guys here, and a girl would be able to help sort out feelings and rant about menstrual angst. I hate that it's so messy and inconvenient here." Elizabeth's nose wrinkled. "Sorry," she apologized, as if remembering her present company.