Saiki K x Maze Runner AU

Chapter Five: Diseased

 The light shining through the entrance of the glade felt as though the gates of heaven had opened up for the two boys. Stepping through, they immediately felt the hot sun on their face, and they heard the bustling of boys in the middle of the glade. Kuboyasu, who was still carrying Hairo, collapsed to his knees after safely putting the boy down. Saiki never thought he'd be so grateful to see this place again. After taking a few breaths, they walked toward the huts, exhausted, sweating, and disheveled. They wondered how long it would take the other gladers to notice they had returned.

One boy noticed their arrival and dropped his things, staring at the three in shock. "They're back..." the boy took a few steps back. "Hey! They're back! They're back!" He ran towards the other boys and soon the three were swarmed. They were welcomed back with open arms, shocked faces, congratulatory pats on the back.

"BUDDY!!!" Saiki flinched, knowing whose voice that belonged to. "Where is he!? Where's my buddy?!" Nendou pushed through the crowd, Kaidou behind him.

'Good grief...'

"BUDDY!!" Nendou yelled out once more when he spotted Saiki in the middle of the crowd, immediately engulfing him in a hug, lifting him up off the ground. Saiki grunted at the mere strength Nendou had, but he didn't have it in him to fight back. "You made it! I can't believe it!" He laughed happily. For a brief moment, Saiki couldn't help but let a small grin slip out, but it was quickly diminished when Nendou squeezed him a bit too hard.

Then Kaidou came forward, he looked at them as if they weren't real, like they were only figments of his imagination or as if this whole situation was a dream. "Aren..?" He spoke to the purple haired boy and Kuboyasu, who was handing off Hairo to the med jacks that came to his aid, looked at Kaidou with an expression of relief. For as long as they had both been in the glade, neither of them had ever thought it was possible to survive in the maze overnight– being that the two had explored it countless times with each other in daylight.

Saiki was finally freed from Nendou's iron grip when they (including Kaidou) had spotted Hairo being carried off– his condition was in shambles. The usually high energized, boy full of life, was now deprived of any color in his face and was barely recognizable besides the fiery red color of his spiked hair. "Hey... What's wrong with Hairo?" Nendou asked, voice a bit quieter than usual. His question wasn't answered and Saiki wasn't going to touch upon it– at least not right now. It was something he himself didn't quite understand yet. So he figured Kuboyasu should be the one to explain it, since he was there when it happened.

Saiki slipped out to let the three converse with each other so that they're all caught up– he'll make sure to talk to Nendou and Kaidou later, right now he had other plans.

Finding Toritsuka wasn't too difficult, in fact, he had been right where Saiki suspected him to be. Leaning against the wall outside of Saiki's shared hut with Kaidou and Nendou, Toritsuka shook his head, sliding down onto the ground as if he was giving up on something. "Toritsuka." The boy flinched when hearing Saiki's call, and he stood back up abruptly looking around as if he had only imagined his voice until his eyes landed on the boy. "..."

"..." He stood in silence for a few moments before speaking. "Nope. Not happening. I'm not dealing with this again."

'...what?' Saiki lifted a brow. Was he not happy to see he survived?

"Ah, you must be confused." Toritsuka shook his head, as if what he just said was obvious. "Well, you see, you're totally dead. I saw you go into that maze, everyone else saw you go into that maze, so this is just another figment of my imagination– or you're a ghost." He then started laughing, but it wasn't a genuine one and if it wasn't for the slight twitch of his eye, Toritsuka could have pulled off being at least slightly sane. "But if you're a ghost, you're probably just gonna disappear on me anyways, so go on, go ahead." with one hand, he began to shoo Saiki away like he was some wild animal asking for a snack.