Gally Imagines

=TWENTY= Trying

You staggered over a log and tried to regain your balance, but you were too tired and fell hard onto the forest floor, gasping for breath and rubbing at your arm where it had painfully struck the ground. You glanced down at your waistline, but it seemed just as thick as ever. You felt sick. How much exercise and no eating did it take to lose weight?! You knocked the back of your head against the ground in frustration, allowing yourself twenty seconds to rest.

You had gotten up at the break of dawn before the other Gladers in order to have some time to try to run off some fat before work, but so far you didn't like how it was going. You were hot and sweaty and dead-tired, not to mention sick to your stomach from the lack of food and sudden exertion. Taking a deep breath you forced yourself up and hauled yourself to your feet, dragging an arm across your forehead, before resting your hands on your still-to-thick thighs as you tried to get your breathing back down to a somewhat normal level. It was pathetic.

~Time Lapse~

You braided your stream-wet hair as you walked into the Glade, smelling the sickeningly tantalizing aroma of Frypan's whatever-you-call-it that was for breakfast that morning. You were ravenously starving, but instead of getting in line with the other Gladers, you turned and headed for the unfinished hut that the Builders had just started work on. It was to be used as an extra storage compartment to keep supplies out from under the rain. You grasped your hammer and lifted a board in place, searching for a nail.

"Here," you heard a voice say from the other side of you.

You turned to see Zart holding up a nail with an amusingly-silly half grin on his boyish features. You took the nail from his fingers and held it to the board, swinging the hammer with as much force as you could muster-which wasn't much. You were exhausted from your morning jog, and weak from hunger, but you were determined to not let it show. You would work just as hard as ever, and eventually have a slender figure too.

"So, uh...Y/N," you faintly heard Zart say. "Do you want to...uh...I don't know...maybe...dance with me tonight?"

The hammer missed the nail's head, as Zart's words sank into your muddled brain, and you realized that he was as good as asking you out. You shook your head slowly, trying to clear the fog as you tried to think of a gentle answer to tell him no, but nothing would come to mind. Finally, you heard yourself answering truthfully, despite yourself.

"No, Zart, I'm sorry, I love Gally. You know that. It wouldn't be fair to him. I'm going to stay loyal to him no matter what. I love him."

You didn't look at Zart's obviously hurt face as you swung the hammer again, missing the nail once more. You sighed and rested your forehead against the plank as you heard his footsteps fade away, and tried to catch your breath. What was wrong with you?! A little exercise shouldn't make you this tired! The sun was beating down, making you hot, and you drug your arm across your forehead, mopping up some of the sweat that had collected there.

"Y/N."

It was Gally.

You turned to see him standing with two plates of food in his hands, staring at you, and you realized instantly-even through your clouded brain-that he had heard every word you had said to Zart. The ever-present concern in Gally's eyes for you was now mixed with an awe, and you realized that Gally now knew that he could trust you to stay faithful to him, even when he wasn't around. And you also realized how much that knowledge meant to him.