centre | newtmas au

9

thomas;
Thomas stares at the ceiling in the dark, his blanket lying across his knees. He focuses on his breathing, he had just woken up from a nightmare, the images of the deceased lying on the ground of the scorch burned in his brain. He wishes he could tell Newt, but Newt lies in a room with others far along the corridors from him. He debates going to wake Newt, but just because he's having a bad night doesn't mean Newt needs to have one too. He lets him rest.

The next person he thinks to tell is Teresa, but he thinks she'll be too cynical and tell him he's stupid and he shouldn't be worried over what he can't fix. Something like that. He want's to reach out and ask if she's awake, but the prospect of speaking to someone in his head still freaks him out majorly. He's got closer to Teresa over the 2 weeks he's been here. They're in the exact same situation, they're in it together. And, of course, they're connected at the mind. He sighs and rolls over on his side.

'Tom' A muffled whisper in his head. He pulls it forward into his mind.

'Hi Teresa. Can't sleep?' He pushes out, unsure wether she got the message.

'Yup. Feels like I'm permanently awake around here. Good job, by the way. That was crystal clear'

Thomas smiles to himself in the dark. 'Thanks. I wanna stay and uh...' He pauses 'chat, but I want to try and sleep now. Goodnight.'

'Night Tom. Sleep well.' He feels her presence go, and the connection fizzle out. He pulls the blanket up to his chin, flips his pillow and closes his eyes.

He wakes up to a knock at his door, a member of staff telling him to wake up. He pulls his body out of bed and pulls on a clean shirt and trousers, shoes and socks and leaves his room for breakfast in the canteen. He spots a familiar WCKD worker, high up in the department who is approaching him.

"You and Teresa have a meeting with Ava Paige, Janson and members of the team we need you to meet. 8:30 sharp in the conference room."

Thomas nods and checks his watch. It's only just passed 7:45. He has plenty of time to go and speak to Newt.

He enters the canteen, and notices his friends sitting at a table in the centre of the room chatting amongst themselves. Newt sits on the end, a space empty beside him. He stares at his cereal intently stirring it around in the bowl. Thomas smiles and shakes his head, while walking to pick up a few pieces of toast. As he goes to sit beside Newt he notices a boy sitting alone at a table across the room, with only a tall glass of orange juice in front of him. He is asian, with short and dark spiky hair, in a slight quiff at the front. Thomas notices how large the boy's biceps are. He cant help being a little jealous. Although, that's beside the point. He recognises the boy, and feels bad for him sitting alone. But he decided against approaching him as the boy has a quietly bitter expression settled into his face, a look of discontent and suppressed anger.

Thomas slumps down into the chair beside Newt.

"Hi, Sleep well?" He asks the entire table, but mostly to Newt. He really only wants to be comforted after his nightmare, and he want's this question to open a gateway to the conversation, because he feels awkward just bringing it up.

"Hey Tommy. It was alright, I guess. You?"

"Had a nightmare, always kinda shit. But, other than that okay."

"Are you almost ok to leave? We can go talk about it somewhere..." Newt looks around the room and at the people, "That isn't here."

Thomas nods. "Almost, meet me outside my room in 5 minutes. You know where it is right?"

Newt nods, while standing and grabbing his bowl. "See you then."

Thomas watches Newt walk and pour the remainder of milked soaked cereal that lies in his bowl into the bin. Thomas quickly butters his toast and eats it, chatting to Frypan in between bites. Five minutes passes quickly, and Thomas is on his way to his room. He turns the corner and see's Newt leaning on the door arms folded, his hair flopping over his eyes. Thomas is instantly filled with an intense feeling of happiness and he smiles.

"Hey"

Newt looks up and waves, with a smirk.

Thomas walks over to his door and pushes it open after scanning his thumb to unlock it.

"Wow Tommy. You must be important we don't have those on our doors." Thomas punches Newt's shoulder playfully, with a laugh.

"So... bloody nightmares eh?" Newt says sitting down on the end of Thomas' bed and gesturing for Thomas to come sit beside him. "Talk to me."

"You saw the dead bodies in the scorch too right?" Thomas says, apprehensively, looking up through his eyelashes at Newt.

"Oh bloody hell yeah, don't remind me." Newt visibly shudders. "It's shit, it's really shit. I can't believe this all happened and we knew close to nothing about it. Makes me feel sick to my bloody stomach."

Thomas exhales. "I woke up, completely awake, because all I could think of was how many lives were overcome by this virus. I need to help Newt. I'll do whatever I can."

Newt grabs his hand and squeezes it tightly. "I'll follow you in whatever that may be Tommy. I promise you. There's no one on this earth, at this point in time, that I trust more than you, and I have no doubt the others will follow with you too." Newt flushes a little and pulls away his hand quickly after speaking. "Sorry... That was.."

Thomas cuts him off. "It was what I needed to hear, really." Thomas squeezes his hand back, before standing. "I have a very important meeting I'm told I can't be late for."

"Ah, yeah, alright." Newt replies awkwardly standing up from the bed and sheepishly grinning.

"Thanks for... you know... getting it." Thomas adds, pushing open the door for Newt.

"Anytime Tommy, anytime."

Thomas closes the door and heads in the direction of the conference room, stopping outside the door. He hears talking inside. One of the voices belonging to Ms Paige, his principal.

"He'll want to protect them." She says. "Thomas is a loyal boy, if he's anything."

Thomas freezes.

"Their memories will be long gone, they'll forget him." Janson adds. "He'll forget them too."
"I have a funny feeling about him and Newt. I think there's something strong between them that they have yet to realise. We'll leave it as long as possible. We need to focus. One the maze and only the maze." Ms Paige adds. Thomas feels the tension in her voice.
The maze? He wonders, his blood icy cold in his veins.
He knocks on the door.
"Ah, Thomas, good boy. 8:30 on the dot. Come right in."

hi this is so terrible but happy summer! loads of love <333
*unedited and not read through, lmk it theres mistakes*