The Safe Haven (A Newt x Reader Story)

Chapter 1: Working in the Safe Haven

    The early morning sun baked on your neck and back as you pushed your already aching body harder and harder to get chores done. You were chopping countless logs of wood by the minute. It seemed like the wood stack next to you hadn't gotten any smaller since you started at four in the morning, especially with it now being close to 6:30 am. You took a moment to set down the ax and wipe the sweat that had made a home on your hands and face. You stared around though and saw many of the other girls congregating, siping on a refreshing morning beverage, just now waking up. They were cheerful and gossipy, not a care in the world about having to help out around here. Not saying all the girls around here didn't do work. It just seemed to always be a certain few that seemed to bypass their ways out of chores. 'Lucky sluts'. You thought in your head. These few ladies were never asked to do any chores because they never seemed to do them right, they never got it done in time, or complained and moaned about it all day long. Everyone became tired of dealing with them and let them be. You had to admit though, a drink of any kind sounded delightful to you right about now. You hadn't realized it up until now, but you hadn't had a sip of anything all morning, and you had been sweating off every droplet of water that seemed to be left in your body. You needed something, anything to drink right now.
    With your best interest in mind, you took a pause from your tiresome job and walked over to the shack that was made for Frypan, your island's personal chef you like to call it, and intended to get yourself a beverage.
"Mornin' Fry." You spoke as you leaned on the counter top and gave your old buddy a nod. You have known Frypan for years now. Even back in the Glade, he was your pal.
"Good morning, sunshine. How we doing this morning, eh?" Frypan inquired genuinely.
"Not too bad. I could really use a drink though." He shoots you a glare after you say this to him.
"This early in the morning you're going to start drinkin?"
"No no no," you laugh off, "A drink of water, Fry. I'm not that down in the dumps this morning."
"Ah," he nods, "coming right up."
You decided to take a seat on the grassy ground and take in the hard work everyone was doing this morning, pardoning the few lazy shunks to your left that seemed to be whispering and giggling about something. Many buildings were being erected this week. With so many people here now, we need a place for everyone to sleep, so we've been attempting to make a hut for everyone, or at least some buildings with multiple rooms for people to get their privacy and sleep in it. You were proud of your community. You could see Thomas, Minho, and Newt all carrying multiple pieces of wood to erect the buildings with. You grinned at them, a genuine happy grin that came with a warm feeling in your heart. Those boys were your everything. Thomas and Minho felt like brothers to you and Newt, well, he felt like more. That's all you could explain it as. You always knew he felt like more to you than a brother. It never felt fitting to call him a brother to you, but you never allowed yourself time to elaborate on how much more you felt. Now that you're in the safe haven and away from danger, maybe it was time to really think about your feelings for Newt-
"y/n!" You shot up out of your trance and glanced up to see Frypan standing next to you in the grass, glass of water in hand.
"Oh, thank you, Fry." you spoke, reaching up to take your ice cold water and quickly downed it as quickly as you got it.
"Whatcha starin' at over there?" Frypan inquires teasingly as he sits down next to you.
"What?" You say as your voice breaks a bit, "Nothing, I'm just enjoying the view. Is that okay?"
"Pft, yeah nice view of Newt's ass." You spit out your water and begin choking very loudly on it. Everyone around began shooting you daggers and staring your way to make sure you were okay.
"Frypan *cough*, I have no *cough* idea what you are talking about" You managed out in between coughs.
"Please, it's very obvious you have a thing for Newt, y/n" He bumps your shoulder and gives you a teasing grin.
"I do not-" You began to testify, but realized it was probably no use. Shyly, you lower your head. "Is it really that obvious?"
"Hm," he thinks for a moment, "I don't think for Newt, but Thomas, Minho, and I have all been talking lately, and we all see it. You just look at him differently than us."
"Hmph, how is it that you guys can figure out how I feel before I even can?"
"You're not that hard to figure out, y/n. You're kind of an open book whether you intend to be or not, or maybe it's just that we've all been stuck with each other in close corters for years and we unfortunately know everything about each one of us. We've gotten very familiar with each other's screams and night terrors by now. Scary" Frypan shudders dramatically, "I never want to share a room with any of you again, no offense."
You laugh him off and begin to stand up, "None taken man. Ditto."
With that, you walk off and say your goodbyes for now to Frypan and make your way over to your ax and wood station. You sigh as you see how many logs are left to be split. At least 75 logs layed stacked in a neat pile next to you. 'This is going to take me shucking forever' But just looking at it and dreading it wasn't going to make the pile any smaller. You began to get back to work, heaving each swing as hard as you could into each log three times to split it into three small pieces, small enough to use for firewood. It was tiresome, it was back breaking, and it felt like it was killing you, but it needed to be done. Swing after swing after swing. You panted heavily and began to see double. Blurry vision made you start to miss your swings and when they landed they didn't puncture through because your body was so weak. The sun seemed to have gotten at least ten times hotter than it was an hour ago. 30 logs in and your muscles burned, but you didn't want to take a break because you wanted the rest of your evening off to yourself to just relax. Just as you swing back above your head with the ax, your vision went dark, and you couldn't feel a thing.