Newt Imagines (The Maze Runner)

Hearts and Hoaxes

Based on this request: "AU one-shot where Maze Runner characters are in Shadow & Bone. The pairing is Newt x female reader. Minho is Alina Starkov. Thomas is Mal Oretsev. Y/N L/N is Kaz Brekker. Teresa is Inej Ghafa. Newt is Jesper Fahey. He is Y/N's boyfriend and a member of the Crows. Gally is the Darkling. Brenda is Genya Safin. Jorge is the Conductor."

You are sitting with your back against the wall, wondering if you're about to make a terrible choice. It takes a lot to survive in the Barrel, and even more to run it like you do. They call you Dirtyhands, the Bastard of the Barrel, the one person who'll probably be ruling hell when they finally make it there themselves.

The other two people around the table, though, just call you Y/N. They're your gang, the only two people you've got the nerve to trust in an entire city full of traitors and liars. What's funny is that you three are the worst of that lot by far, yet you've called for them and only them because they're the ones who will actually watch your back instead of plunging a dagger into it.

They've been on countless jobs with you, yet for some reason you hesitate now, before you have to explain the latest task before you and ask them to sign away their lives yet again. It wouldn't be the first time you've done the impossible together, but this one is riskier than all the others.

You look at them now, your favorite Dregs. Newt's watching you candidly; he's never had to hide his gaze, not with you. You've yet to see him turn down a dare if his friends are involved, but his fingers still idly tap on the pearl-handled revolvers at his sides. He's a good shot, possibly the best there is.

You're going to need your sharpshooter tonight, you know that. Still, you don't like the thought of risking his life on a hopeless crusade. Newt was a good kid, once, a farm boy who grew up taking shots in between towering rows of corn and tomatoes instead of dodging criminals and convicts like the rest of you. Were it not for the fact that the payout for this job could make all of you kings and queens, you'd never ask Newt to do a job with this many faults. The thought of seeing him finally at peace, eyes closed and heartbeat gone, fills you with far more dread than it should.

Beside Newt, Teresa stares out the window, searching for someone she knows she'll never find. You'll need your Wraith in this job, too, and especially tonight. Teresa deals in secrets, and knows just about everything on just about anyone, yet no matter how hard she searches, she never hears about the one person she wants to find most of all.

You brought Teresa out of an indentured servitude from a brothel down the block, the Menagerie. Since then, she's been nothing if not loyal, but you can tell that her focus always shifts back to those darker days if she's not careful.

One time, she told you about a boy she'd left behind there, a boy named Thomas. She thought she could get him out, and he thought she was betraying them to Ava Paige, the head of the Menagerie. He ran and never forgave her, and Teresa has been trying to find him again ever since.

These two are your right and left hands, the backbone of your gang. As much as you hate to admit weakness, you wouldn't be where you are today without them. Now, you're asking them to risk their lives on a foolish quest that nobody would look at twice.

Nobody, that is, except Dirtyhands.

There is no more time to prolong the inevitable, so you fix each of them with a steely gaze. "There's an opportunity coming up. Dangerous, but the payoff will be more than anything we've ever done before."

Newt arches an eyebrow. "You say that as if it's meant to dissuade us. Dangerous just means fun."

Teresa leans forward. "You've never warned us about danger before. What happened?"