"What's going on?" Newt asked as he put you down in a chair, sitting on the floor with his head leaning against your leg. You ruffled his hair and he looked up and grinned.

"You made her a Runner without consulting us?" Gally roared. You jumped a little, wincing as the act pulled your stitches.

"Gally, you may be a Keeper, but you're the Keeper of the shucking Builders," Minho argued. "This decision didn't involve you, and you have no right to be mad. Y/N helped save our asses, and she's even better than Newt."

"Hey!" Newt said, pretending to be offended. "But Minho's right, Gally. Y/N's a good Runner."

"But she's a girl!" Gally yelled. "She'll mess everything up!"

You tried to get up, but Minho forced you down.

"Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I'm weak!" you cried angrily. "And I'd make a hell of a lot better a Runner than you, anyway."

"Look, greenie," Gally said mockingly. "My problem is that you're the only girl. You've been here a few days, alright? I've been here three years. Are you trying to say you know better than me because you can hide behind Newt?"

"That's not what she's saying!" Newt argued. "And why are you being so biased towards Y/N? Stop being such a shuckface, Gally!"

Arguing escalated until everyone was shouting at someone for something.

"I feel like shit," you whispered to Newt. "I shouldn't've started all this."

Newt looked up at you, his messy hair brushing across your legs and giving you the urge to giggle loudly. "It's not your fault. But it's getting tiring."

"I agree," you nodded. You cupped your hands around your mouth. "Hey, slintheads! Slim it!"

Everyone, even Gally, shut up.

"Please, stop arguing, I don't want to cause any fights." You turned to Gally.

"Gally, I know the Glade is a hard place to live. I'm sorry, and I'm trying to respect you, but I can't if you can't respect me. Alby and Minho, if you actually have a problem with me being a Runner that's fine. Everyone else: I may be a girl, but I'm not weak, and I had no choice to be here or be the only exception. Got it?"

"Just so you know, I don't have a problem with you being a Runner," Alby called. "If those two slintheads you hang out with think you're good enough, that's enough for me."

"Y/N, I made you a Runner in the bloody first place," Minho laughed. "Of course I don't care."

But Gally still wasn't done. "Sure, Y/N comes along and you all think she's some kind of hot genius, whatever. But there is no escape from the Maze! We're shucking stuck here, forever, and we may as well die!"

Newt flinched violently at Gally's words as the trouble-stirrer stalked out of the Council Hall.

"Hey," you said soothingly. "Gally was just being... Gally." You winced at the poor wording. "Don't let him get to you, okay?"

"What if he's right, Y/N?" Newt asked, pain raw in his voice. "What if there's no escape?"

"Don't think like that," you stared directly at him, making sure he got the message loud and clear. "Now, come on, it's getting late. I need to sleep."

"You go on ahead," Newt said flatly. "I've got some second-in-command stuff to do."

You shrugged, too tired to question him.

- - -

The whole night, you tossed and turned anxiously, trying to figure out what was worrying you.

And finally, as daylight broke upon the Glade, you realised.

Newt's broken expression.

His flat voice.

His shattered soul and his easy surrender to hopelessness.

"Oh shit," you cursed, swinging out of bed, not even bothering to change out of Newt's oversized shirt that was your nightgown. "Bloody, shucking, shit, shit, shit."

You sprinted to the kitchens despite the pain in your side, where you knew Minho would be, wincing as some of your stitches tore.

"Minho, where's Newt?" you asked, panicked.

"Morning to you, too-"

"Where is he?" you screamed. Minho took in your unchanged appearance. Your messy hair and your stricken expression. And he realised too.

"Shit." He got to his feet, leaving his food behind. "Where could he be?"

You remembered what Gally had said. About killing yourselves.

"The Maze," you realised. "Oh, this is bad."

"You're not going to be able to run fast enough," Minho stated. "You're injured."

"Then pick me up and let's go, Dad!" you cried, exasperated. To your surprise Minho did so, and sprinted through the doors of the Maze.

You heard fast, rushed breathing very close.

"Turn left," you instructed. Minho did so, and you saw, lying on the floor...

"Newt!" you screamed, jumping out of Minho's arms and running to him. He was cold, his leg at an awkward angle, looking to be broken in several places. He didn't respond.

"Newt!" you cried again, letting a hot tear drop onto his face. "Newt, don't you shucking dare die on me!"

Minho hung his head. "Y/N, I think-"

"No!" you shook your head. And suddenly, you admitted to yourself why you couldn't let him die. "We live in a Maze where nothing is normal, nothing has any hope, and you were that hope! I love you, okay? I've loved you ever since you pulled me out of that bloody box, I've loved you and I didn't shucking tell you and now you're dead-"

"Oh my God, no way," Minho breathed.

You looked down, and saw him staring at Newt's chest. You gently placed a hand on it and felt, slow but steady, a heartbeat.

"Minho, you need to get him to the Medjacks," you pleaded. "Please."

Minho scooped him up without a second thought and you followed him out of the Maze.

- - -

"Y/N, you need to sleep," Minho begged.

"No," you said weakly, curling up in the bed you'd pushed right next to Newt's.

"Y/N," he tried again gently. "You've eaten two sandwiches in the past two days, slept nothing, and you haven't moved."

"I'm not leaving Newt," you argued stubbornly.

Minho sighed. "So, you love him?"

In any other state, you would've denied it. Said you'd screamed from an addled mind state. But weak from hunger, and delirious from lack of sleep, you told him the truth. "How could I not?"

Minho chuckled. "We've never had a girl, so we wouldn't really know, would we?"

You laughed as well, but humourlessly. Sadly. "Yeah, and me being the shucking idiot I was, I never told him. I wasn't brave enough to tell him when he was conscious, and now..." you let your tears fall again. "And now, Clint and Jeff say h-he m-might not e-ever w-wake up..."

You burst into full-on sobs. Minho sat next to you on the bed, and pulled you up against him, hugging you tightly. You went rigid.

"Relax, Y/N," Minho laughed. "I'm not making a move on you. You and Newt belong together. But you are my best friend. And I'm going to make you feel better, okay? Because that's what best friends are for."

You relaxed, crying into his shoulder. He rubbed your back.

"For the record, he likes you back."

"What?" you snapped your head up, almost whacking Minho on the chin. "No. H-he wouldn't..."

"I do," you heard a weak voice. You turned around to see Newt barely awake, barely alive.

"I love you, Y/N."

please continue to read, vote and comment !!