ꋊꄲ꓄ ꋬ ꒒ꄲ꒦ꏂ ꇙ꓄ꄲꋪꌦ- ꋬ ꋊꏂꅐ꓄ꂵꋬꇙ ꇙ꓄ꄲꋪꌦ

ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 10:𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔗𝔞𝔩𝔨

In summary, working in the castle sucked. After he left Newt he went to the administrator and told him he no longer was needed, and the next day when he woke in a cot next to Minho the approval was nailed to the door. He had been moved to help the other boys around the castle which he found was scrubbing floors, cleaning clothes, and washing dishes. He had made sure not to go within 5000 paces of Newt's door since the incident, Minho had given him space surprisingly and tried to stay normal. It all was a big schedule that Thomas could deal with. 

On this day he carried a pile of linen sheets, scratchy and fermented with unnatural scents. As he came back from the laundry room, the thoughts that he had been begging to be pushed away crowded the mental wall created. He didn't want to think of Newt's pink lips; he refused the thought of what would have happened if he hadn't pulled away. He had heard from Aris that Newt hadn't come to any family dinners or gatherings and despite the drama, he still cared about the small prince and felt horrible about hurting him. He knew it had to be done though; feelings (that he totally didn't have by the way) for Newt would only further complicate things and he wasn't gay... he really wasn't.

"Dude"

The sound of a voice made Thomas jump almost dropping the tower of sheets. Minho stood just behind him carrying pillows.

" What the hell Min!" Thomas snapped " Don't sneak up on me like that"

Minho rolled his eyes and ran his fingers through his dark hair " T,  I literally just called your name like four million times but you were all off in La La Land dance'n with unicorns and shit that you ignored me."

Thomas glared at him and Minho glared right back, it was often like that with them two. This was common and it made Thomas feel strangely calm knowing that nothing had changed between them.  Frypan told them they fought like an old married couple, and Thomas couldn't help but agree, he and Minho had been friends for so long that it seemed they knew everything about each other. Thomas had been the first one told when Minho came out as gay and Minho had been the one to volunteer to help around the house when Teresa needed Thomas. Minho was his brother and even though they shared no blood there seemed to be no need. They were family and family took care of each other. 

" Ya'know Min I think you have become even more intolerable since you and Aris have been hanging out"

That shut him up as he looked down trying to hide the growing color in his cheeks. Thomas almost smiled at being so proud of himself. There wasn't much that could embarrass the boy and Thomas could pride himself in knowing all of them. 

"Soooooo" Thomas drawled dragging out the word " Did you want to ask or say something."

Minho contemplated that for a second, he seemed to have forgotten what he needed to say. Finally, after about a minute he snapped his fingers,

"Ah-ha," He said triumphantly " Got it."

Thomas was quite relieved because those blankets were heavy and he was not in the mood for being snapped at by one of the supervisors for not working. Minho looked around suspiciously before leaning closer to him and whispering in his ear.

" Have you heard anything on the upcoming ball, like anything we need to report?"

Thomas shook his head, the upcoming spring formality ball was to be held in the middle of next week and they had been instructed to oversee it. Janson hadn't told them exactly what his motive was and Thomas had a sneaking suspicion that they wouldn't know until the upcoming day. 

Thinking of the ball... dancing and anything like that had made him super uncomfortable. He had tried to convince himself that it was that he couldn't stand romance, but eventually, some crazy part of his brain registered that it was the fact that it only made him think of Newt.