Thomas had his hand on Newt's back as his voice shook into his phone's receiver.

"You're sure you're okay mum?" Newt asked as he took a breath.

"Yes sweetie, I'm fine. The fire department said that the circuit sparked and started the fire."

"I-I'm sorry, I should ha-"

"Issac. It wasn't your fault. Your computer is old, we should have gotten you a new one ages ago."

"How's the basement?"

His mom was quiet for a moment. "Uh...it's looked better."

Newt felt heat prick at his eyes. "Okay."

"We can fix it honey okay I promise."

"It's okay mum, don't worry about it I'm just glad you're okay."

"You're coming home later today right?"

"Yeah and Tommy is gonna spend the night, it's a long trip back for him."

"That's fine. I'll see you later okay? I'm going to work out some things with insurance...good thing we replaced the batteries in the smoke detector last week right?"

Newt smiled softly. "Right. Love you mum."

"Love you too sweetie. Bye."

The line clicked as it hung up.

Newt let out a breath and dropped his head into his hands. "Thank god she's okay."

Teresa bit her lip. "Do you think it was-"

"Yes," Newt replied instantly. "I know it was them."

"Whoever the hell they are," Minho scoffed.

"Are you okay?" Thomas asked softly as he shifted his hand on Newt's back. Newt just realized it was there and his chest tightened a bit.

Newt nodded. "Yeah I'm fin-" Newt's eyes widened. "Oh fuck!"

"What?" Teresa asked.

"Lizzy's book, I fuckin left it downstairs because I was looking stuff up and it's probably fucking gone!"

"There's no way they could have known-"

"They probably shorted out your computer!" Thomas exclaimed. "I think some virus can do that?"

"So you don't think they went to my house?" Newt asked and when Thomas shook his head he felt a wave of relief wash through him.

"Why was the kid at your house?" Minho asked. "The one who called you, Chuck or whatever."

Newt shrugged. "He probably just wanted to talk or something, he's not doing too well after Aris was killed. He still thinks it was a suicide, I think he kinda blames himself or something."

"This is kinda fucked," Minho breathed out. "I finally get to see you guys in person and it somehow gets more shitty."

"I don't know how I'm gonna play," Newt sighed. "Everything was on my computer. I don't have anything else."

"We'll figure it out," Thomas said as he finally dropped his hand off Newt's back. "We can check stuff out when we get to your house."

"Yeah okay," Newt breathed out.

"When are you guys leaving?" Minho asked sadly.

Newt shrugged. "Probably in an hour or so, we gotta get back and eat and sleep before Tommy's train tomorrow."

"We're doing this more often okay?" Minho pointed his finger at him. "Like at least once a month."

"I stand by that," Teresa piped in.

"Yes of course."

"And when this is all over we can do random fun shit like go to the mall or go skateboarding or something that isn't as lame as all this shit okay?" Minho huffed as he ran his hand through his hair. "We'll do fun stuff and not worry about people killing us."

"I second that," Thomas added. "We'll do stupid stuff, together."

"We can go to a drive in!" Teresa exclaimed happily.

"And we can get milkshakes and go skateboarding!" Minho grinned.

Newt smiled softly. "I'd like that a lot."

Minho frowned and looked down at his feet. "God this blows more than Thomas does on the weekends."

"Minho! What the fuck?!" Thomas shouted as Minho broke off into a fit of laughter.

"Awe come on that was a good one."

Teresa rolled her eyes but she was trying to bite back her laughter.

Newt found himself laughing too and before he knew what he was doing he was throwing his arms around Minho and jumping on his back.

"Damn Sang, I always fantasized about you riding me but it never played out like this..."

Newt pinched him but squeezed him tightly. "I'm so glad you're not dead."

Minho hooked his hands under Newt's knees. "Don't get sappy on me back there okay?"

Newt could feel heat in his eyes so he just buried his face in Minho's neck and closed his eyes. Newt loved them so much, all of them, they were his best friends and in that moment he was just overwhelmed with just how much he cared about them. He forgot about how he'd been crying over Thomas last night, he forgot about the fact that there was a literal murderer after them and he forgot about the fact that he'd never cared about people this much since his sister and he forgot about how she was dead.

Newt felt hands on his back and Teresa was hugging him from behind them. Minho grabbed Thomas and put him in a headlock and Newt smiled.

"I love you guys," Newt admitted softly.

"Ditto fuckers," Minho grinned as he let Thomas go and Newt carefully hopped down from his back.

"I'd have to agree," Teresa said as he fixed her hair.

Thomas fake saluted. "Moi aussi."

Minho made a face. "Shut the fuck up you're not french."

"I'm shocked that you knew that was French," Thomas snickered, which got a middle finger in his face from Minho.

Newt made eye contact with Thomas then who just smiled softly at him and for some reason it made everything feel okay.

______

"If you play that song one more time I am going to throw you out onto the freeway," Newt threatened as he skipped it. "That's the fifth time and yes I've been counting."

Thomas smiled and played it again. "Come on, it's good."

"You're infuriating," Newt huffed as he turned down the volume.

Thomas cleared his throat. "Hey uh, do you want to talk about last night maybe?"

Newt felt heat rise to his face. "What is there to talk about you said it was just a kiss, didn't mean shit right?"

Thomas huffed a little. "I say a lot of things Newt."

Newt rolled his eyes, he couldn't stop it. "You don't have to do this."

"Can you just let me talk?!" Thomas snapped. That took Newt by surprise so he shut his mouth quickly.

"Okay," Newt replied softly.

Thomas turned the radio down more. "What I wanted to say was that would you be opposed to it happening again?"

Newt made a face. "Kissing?"

"Yeah and like- I don't know." Thomas actually looked embarrassed now and Newt could relate he kinda also wanted to be thrown onto the throughway.

"I'm confused."

"We're not going to be able to see each other a lot, but when we do we could you know, do that again."

"You wanna get drunk and makeout?" Newt asked as he squeezed the steering wheel tighter.

"I mean we don't have to be drunk."

"And just that? You don't want to like-"

"No labels," Thomas said as he stared at the dashboard.

"Friends," Newt repeated slowly, it almost pained him to say it.

"Yeah friends...that hook up casually."

Newt had no idea even how to react to that. Of course every part of his body wanted that more than anything in the entire world but he knew that he also wanted that stupid label. But of course Newt wasn't that great at making smart choices.

"Yeah, okay," Newt agreed softly.

"Yeah?" Thomas asked again.

"Yeah."

They were quiet for a moment before Thomas changed the song and grinned as he turned up the volume. "This one is actually good. I'll even perform it for you."

Newt shook his head, a small smile going back onto his face like the previous conversation never even happened.

Thomas wiggled his eyebrows as he brought his fist to his mouth as a fake microphone.

Newt tried to keep himself from laughing by staring hard at the road. "What song even is this?"

Thomas ignored him as he started belting out the lyrics.

"I ever tell you how annoying you are?" Newt asked as he finally cracked a smile.

"AND THIS IS HOW IT STARTS, YOU TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF IN THE BACK OF MY VAN-"

Newt shook his head as he rolled down the windows a bit.

"MY SHIRT LOOKS SO GOOD-"

Newt rested his arm on the window and smiled as the wind whipped through his hair and Thomas screamed the lyrics to the song.

Thomas wiggled his eyebrows at Newt again before winking and screaming out whatever part they were at in the song. "USE YOUR HANDS AND MY SPARE TIME WE GOT ONE THING IN COMMON IT'S THIS TONGUE OF MINE-"

Newt shook his head but his chest felt light and he could practically feel his smile pulling on his cheeks.

Thomas laughed then and stuck his arm out the window as he held onto his beanie with his other hand.

Thank WICKED for Thomas.
_____

    Newt let out a breath as he looked at his destroyed basement. It wasn't as bad as he imagined but his extension cords were fried and his desk looked charred and burned. His computer was shot and that chair that he worked so hard to save up for was no longer useful. Newt felt his heart clench as he looked at it. It was ruined, everything down there was ruined. The futon blankets were charred and after some digging in the remains, Newt and Thomas found the sad unreadable pages of Lizzy's journal.

Newt huffed as he sat on the bottom step and dropped his head into his hands.

Thomas carefully sat next to him and carefully put his arm around his back. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Newt said. "Yeah, I'm fine, I just...it's gonna be harder now."

"We'll figure it out okay, we always do right?"

"You guys can't do the pack without me, it would make the targets on your back bigger, essentially taking me out of the question."

Thomas shook his head. "No, you have the biggest target, they know about Lizzy, you have proof."

Newt scoffed. "They better fuckin know about her."

Thomas let out a breath. "Okay I've been thinking, what if Jorge isn't so innocent in all of this?"

"You think he killed people?" Newt asked.

"Well not really, but what if it actually all is a test, like a test to see who can beat the game. What if he's trying to weed out the bad people in the world?"

Newt looked up at Thomas. "You think it's some type of moral test?"

Thomas nodded. "Yeah like that's why we were asked those questions in that weird room and why you can only start the pack by cheating. I think it's a moral compass test and the only way to essentially beat it is to show that you aren't bad."

Newt thought it over for a moment. "It seems extreme, also how are they getting to all these different states?"

Thomas bit his lip. "I haven't really thought out all the details yet but I feel like we're so close to the answer."

"I want to know WICKED's role in all of this because there's no way that they are innocent."

Thomas nodded. "Yeah I agree, they definitely have something to do with it. They wouldn't have bought the game otherwise."

"Do you think we could contact Janson somehow?" Newt asked as he jogged his leg. This whole thing was making him anxious and Thomas' arm around him didn't help at all.

"We could send him an email? Pretend we're students or something."

Newt stared straight at the wall, something was on the tip of his tongue. It was like he was reaching out for a thought that he could just barely brush with his fingertips.

"You're thinking of something," Thomas pointed out.

"Sh!" Newt hissed as he closed his eyes and bit his lip. They were quiet for a moment before Newt gasped. "Oh my god- Tommy follow me."

Newt got up quickly and sprinted up the stairs. He could hear Thomas behind him.

Newt hooked the corner and flew into his room. He dug his hand through his dresser and yanked out the note he had gotten a while back.

He hopped on the bed and spread it out. "Okay look, this is the letter I got in the mail."

It was the white page with the words STOP LOOKING printed on it. He grabbed his UV light off his dresser that was happily keeping his plants alive and waved it over the page. Right under the stop looking was another set of numbers like the one Jorge and his sister left.
Newt grinned as he showed Thomas.

Thomas' eyes widened. "The fuck is that?"

Newt shrugged. "I don't know, but I knew this had to be something."

"Yeah wow. That is something."

Newt let out a breath and traced his finger over it. "I knew there had to be something more to this letter."

Thomas furrowed his eyebrows. "I don't even think this is a threat."

"What?"

"I don't think this was meant to be a threat."

"You don't think so?" Newt asked as he shifted a bit on the bed.

Thomas shook his head. "I think this is like...help."

"Well who the hell would be helping us?"

Thomas shrugged. "I have no idea but I feel like a threat would come off differently you know, I mean clearly they know where you live. Also people who are threatening you don't really hide what's probably a hidden address in their threats you know?"

"Well what if it's a trap?"

"This isn't a movie Newt."

"Well it kinda is! It's got the plot of one!" Newt frowned as he looked at the letter. "We gotta figure out the place this is referencing to."

Thomas nodded and yawned. "Can we do it in the morning before my train? My 1975 cover songs in the car exhausted me."

Newt huffed out a laugh. "They made my ears bleed a little bit."

"Shut up, you loved it."

"Don't be using those strong words, switch out loved with hated."

"Bitch!" Thomas gasped as he tackled Newt onto the bed.

Newt yelped as he fell backwards.

His phone buzzed then and he shoved Thomas off of him so he could see who the text was from.

Newt audibly gasped as he read it. "Bloody hell."

"What?" Thomas asked as he scooted next to him to look at the screen.

"Teresa and Minho are a thing."

"I knew something was going on between them!" Thomas exclaimed.

Newt rolled his eyes. "Yeah slow ass, I knew ages ago."

"That's crazy..." Thomas shook his head. "Damn Ki and Del, who woulda guessed."

Newt snorted. "Everyone."

"Everyone besides me."

Newt turned his head to face Thomas. "You're just slow."

Thomas smiled softly before leaning forward a bit and bumping their noses together. "Do you want to makeout?"

Newt's heart physically skipped a beat and his stomach twisted. "You can't just say shit like that out of nowhere Tommy."

Thomas stuck out his bottom lip. "Please?"

Newt rolled his eyes but there was no actual anger out of it because hell of course he'd kiss Thomas. "Sure you loser."

Thomas moved his head barely an inch forward and connected their lips.

Newt felt dizzy again and he knew this was such a goddamn bad idea but then Thomas was slotting his hand against Newt's hip and pulling him closer so gently as if he was asking permission Newt would have had to be made of stone to resist it.

Thomas smiled against his lips. "You gonna make me do all the work?"

Newt felt his cheeks heat up before Thomas was kissing him again and he forgot all about it. Newt remembered to kiss back that time.

He let his hands clutch onto the front of Thomas' shirt and Thomas tugged at him again. Newt got the message and carefully rolled on top of him.

It was so nice, so so nice and Newt decided that he didn't care if Thomas broke his heart because they got to do this.

They kissed for so long Newt lost track of the time. Newt's shirt was bunched up around his chest and Thomas' lips were swollen and it was honestly the best thing Newt had ever seen because he did that.

Thomas smiled up at him as he rested his hands on his lower back and pressed another soft kiss to his lips.

"You know, you're not too bad at that."

Newt lightly rolled his eyes. "Shut up."

"Don't you mean shut the bloody hell up?"

"I actually hate you."

Thomas let out a laugh and shook his head. "I never imagined in a million years I'd be in your bed making out with fuckin Sang from the game."

Newt let out a breath. "Yeah and what's that supposed to mean?"

Thomas laughed again. "Well I didn't think you'd be hot for starters."

"Wow I'm hurt. Minho sure had high hopes for me."

He thinks I'm hot. He thinks I'm hot.

"Yeah Minho had a little man crush."

Newt bit his lip. "You're hot too you know?"

"What?" Thomas asked, he looked a little taken aback and suddenly Newt wanted to die.

"You're hot too...I've never told you that...I didn't want you to think that you aren't."

Thomas was quiet for a moment, Newt could only feel the rise and fall of his chest and his own heart hammering out of fear that Thomas was going to throw him off.

The opposite happened, Thomas hooked his arm around his waist and flipped them over. "I decided we're going to makeout again."

When Thomas kissed him again, his heart flew up into his throat because label or not, he'd rather have Thomas like this than not have him at all.