centre | newtmas au

18

Thomas
He wakes up, his alarm blaring, painfully aware that he has to go back to the control room. He feels suddenly anxious, worried that maybe Newt was dumb enough to starve himself or get lost within 24 hours of arriving.
He attempts to convince himself that Newt really isn't that stupid, but something still feels off.

He pulls on a clean shirt and jeans, slides on his trainers and pushes open the door, the hallway outside his room already in full swing. Long white lab coats and clicky black shoes fill the hall.
Everyone seems to be rushing today, in a hurry to be somewhere, to do something, although he isn't aware of what. There's nothing in his schedule for today that's of any importance.

He starts to walk in the general direction that everyone else seems to be walking in, like a lost lamb, until a friendly nurse who Thomas is familiar with grabs his arm.
"Where do you think you're going?" She whispers, tightening her grip on his wrist.
"W-woah, steady. I was just following everyone else, I have no idea what's happening"
The nurse sighs. "You and Teresa aren't to follow them, Paige and Jason say so. I'm sorry, it's for the best."
Thomas' heart jolts a little bit in his chest, with anxiety or curiosity he isn't sure. He wants to know what could be so important that he isn't permitted to attend, because he knows almost everything about this organisation now, what could they possibly be hiding from him and Teresa. Especially Teresa. There's no one who believes that WCKD is good more than she does.

"Just go straight to controls, and don't get in the way."
He nods, wriggling his wrist out from her tightly locked fingers that enclosed it.
"I'll be good."
The nurse nods, smiles and turns on her heel to leave.

Newt
The humidity feels sticky and clings onto his skin, and the beads of sweat that rest on his forehead, slip down the side of his face and slowly drip from his jaw and chin.
He is uncomfortable, exhausted and anxious.

He is surrounded by foreign land, an almost complete stranger, and he slept for almost no hours at all. He misses whatever he had before, because although he possesses no memories of his previous life, he is sure it must have been significantly better than this. Or at least he hoped it was.

God, he hated this place.
He hated watching the sunrise because it was exasperating, feeling that it had only been a few minutes since the sun had set, he hated the heat, he hated the walls and the grass, but most painfully, how utterly alone he felt.

Sure, he had Alby, but you can only go so long with a person alone before you want to eat their bloody brains.
He wondered how Alby had managed to be completely alone for so long, and not climbed up one of those stone walls and jumped right off.

Newt found being in the presence of only one other human being insufferable enough, he could not imagine being in the position that Alby was before he arrived.
If he was grateful for one thing, he was grateful he'd never have to be completely alone.

"Rise and shine Greenie!" Alby says, extending a hand to help Newt to stand.
Newt covers his face from the glaring sun and grips the other boys hands and pulls up his weight so he is standing.
"Cheers"
Alby nods.
"Sleep okay?"
Newt shakes his head. "Absolutely shucking terrible, actually."
Alby pauses and flashes his pearly white teeth, swivelling his body to face him.
"What'd you say?"
"Shucking?" He shrugs "Yeah, I'm not so sure where that came from."
"I like it, has a nice ring to it." Alby says with a wink.
Newt feels a small rush of adrenaline whizz through his veins, which creates a buzz across his body. He visibly shudders, and prays Alby didn't see.

"Want something to eat?"

Thomas
Thomas sits at his computer, gnawing at his thumb, the skin slowly becoming raw and painful.
He sits uncomfortably in his chair.
He knows the look in Newt's eyes and the way he is acting. God, he knows it almost too well.
It's the same way Newt acted when they started getting closer, when it had seemed like maybe there was a different kind of energy developing between them.

He wishes he could be with Newt, as he always does, but this time he wishes to prevent what he is most fearful of;
Newt falling for someone else.

His heart feels weighed down in his chest as he imagines Newt looking at Alby and talking to Alby the way that he used to look and talk to Thomas.

But there's nothing Thomas can do except watch it all unfold in front of him, so why should he care so much?

He minimises the screen and slides off his headphones, placing them neatly over the monitor.

"You okay?" Teresa asks, resting her headphones around her neck and twisting in her chair to face him, with a face of genuine concern.
He grabs an apple from the desk in the middle of the room, sits down in his chair and puts his feet up on the desk, taking a large - and extremely obnoxious - bite out of it.

Teresa sighs, shakes her head and pulls her headphones over her ears.
"I can't help you if you act like this Tom." She says, without facing him.

He breathes deeply. "I know"
She takes another deep sigh, and proceeds to click loudly on her keyboard keys, and tap her foot on the floor.

He stops paying attention for a while, focusing on the apple in his hand, living in the moment, or whatever.
He hears Teresa make a sound, but he can't tell if it's an exclamation or a sigh, so he blatantly ignores her.
But this is made difficult when she starts yelling at him in his head.

"Jesus christ Teresa, WHAT?" He yells, dropping his apple in the process.

"I just thought you should see this."

i literally HATE this chapter, but i promised to post something so ; here u go <3
love u, thanks for 2.7k