Newt Imagines (The Maze Runner)

Monopoly at Midnight

TMR Modern AU

You should have known from the very beginning that this was going to end badly. Look, the idea is better in theory. It always is. After all, what could possibly go wrong during game night?

The answer, as it turns out, is everything. It was Minho's turn to decide what game would seal the friend group's fate for the evening, which is never a good sign. Last time it was his choice, he forced everyone to undergo a dreadfully long session of Twister. You don't think Newt's leg has been the same since.

Ah, well. Your prophecy is sealed. Minho has refused to so much as say the name of what game you'll be playing tonight, opting instead to issue out wicked cackles of glee whenever one of you asks. All he's let slip is that the lot of you should put aside a significant amount of time for what is to come. That sounds like it's going to involve a fair amount of pain and suffering, and at this point, being sentenced to years in a medieval torture device seems like a far more efficient method of ending your days.

You suppose you could always just skip game night and get back your treasured hours, but everyone knows that's not an option. To show even the slightest sign of flinching under fire means that you'll be brutally roasted in group chat and hallway alike for years, possibly even decades.

No, you must go through with this. This doesn't mean Minho won't escape without at least an earful or two of complaining, though. He has his role (torturer number one) and you have yours (critic most vocal). Besides, if you're being honest it's kind of fun to suffer with your friends. Any decent friendship has to be borne on at least some sort of shared trauma. Otherwise, what's the point?

Thus the afternoon ends with you rolling up to Minho's place of residence. The chooser of the game must be the host, tradition dictates. Otherwise the messes were astronomical. Your little gatherings have cultivated their own sort of lore over the months, strengthening with time until breaking the rules is something akin to a mortal sin worthy of the strictest punishments.

So it goes. As it turns out, that's just the sort of fun that you happen to like the best. No matter how difficult life gets, how much work you have or how much it feels like you'll never be able to get through what you must, you can always count on your friends to lift your spirits. You would follow them to the end of the world. Forget that old saying about jumping off a bridge if your friend took the plunge first. For them, you'd dive off the tallest tower, take the most treacherous risk. You know that they would save you every time.

That's why you laugh about what is to become of you, but in the wholehearted sort of way that warms your spirits even as you feign complaints. In the end, you couldn't be happier to be here. These are your friends, your newfound family. You couldn't put them to the side if you tried.

Truth be told, there's one amongst your numbers that you're excited to see more than the most. Your friends have always been your favorite people on this earth, but that difference goes the extra mile when it comes to the blond boy currently walking up Minho's driveway with a smile like the sun.

You're not sure when you first fell for Newt, but oh, you couldn't shake that sort of heartsick hopelessness if you tried. No, Newt is what matters most to your skipped heartbeats and jumping pulse, end of story. He has this way of making you feel extraordinary, even on the days when you don't want to think about a single thing connecting you to anyone else. You could come up with a thousand reasons to hate yourself only for Newt to brainstorm a million more to love yourself.

No, there has never been anyone for you like him. It's a shame, then, that he doesn't seem to feel the same way. Newt knows the perfect thing to say to keep you from falling apart, the perfect smile to wear. He is perfection incarnate, except for one characteristic which threatens to fracture apart his entire image in your eyes. Were it not for the fact that Newt will never see you as someone along the lines as a sister or a particularly close friend, he could be flawless.