𝑸𝒖𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒎 ❦ 𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒔 𝒙 𝑭𝒆𝒎 𝑶𝒄

❦- 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 .09 -❦

"You're kidding, right?" I ask Chuck, who is standing in front of me, his arms crossed over his chest.

"No! Mari, you have to come see this!"

"I don't want to see Clint bloody amputate Thomas!"

Chuck groans at my protest, reaching out and grabbing my wrist, pulling me in the direction of Thomas, Jeff, and Clint.

"Chuck, do you want me to puke on you?"

"You're not gonna shucking puke, hurry up."

We come to a stop at the homestead, I see Thomas sitting in one of the hammocks that are out the front of the poorly built building, Jeff is kneeling down in front of him, and Clint is leaning against one of the wooden poles that help keep the building stable.

"THOMAS!" Chuck screams, making me jump from shock. Thomas looks in our direction, a smirk plastered on his lips. Why is he smiling? Isn't he scared? I know I would damn well run away if I had to get my arm amputated.

"Hey, Chuck." Thomas greets the kid, his expression softening as his gaze flicks between me and the younger boy. "I've got an audience, do I?"

Chuck scoffs, "You're not the big hit you think you are, buddy." Chuck's unexpected insult causes a snort from Jeff, the sound bringing a slight smile to my face.

"Good one, kid." Jeff applauds.

I place on of my hands on my hip to make myself more comfortable, "So, what's going on? Is this amputation happening or not?"

"Yes!" Clint jumps from his place, no longer resting on the wooden pole.

A sigh chimes from Jeff, shifting my attention towards him. "No, no one's getting anything amputated, we need all the attached limbs we can get."

Chuck groans, throwing a silent tantrum. I have to admit, he is a weird kid.

"I think I'm okay, thanks, Jeff." Thomas states as Jeff begins wrapping his wrist with a gauze. "It doesn't hurt as much as you think it would."

I raise an eyebrow, "What even happened? How'd you get hurt?"

Thomas looks at me, his smile no longer evident. "Gally." He states dryly.

I can feel my muscles tense, my jaw slightly clenching as I begin to walk over to him when he looks away from me, making it clear that he's not going to give me any context. "What did Gally do?" I question, demanding more information.

I can feel everyone's eyes on me as I crouch down next to Jeff, they feel like they're burning into my soul, waiting for me to make a wrong move. When Thomas doesn't answer I turn to Jeff, my eyes widening at him as I wait for an explanation.

"Gally!? Gally- uh, Gally learnt he has hands?" Jeff panics, his face twisting as he speaks.

"Gally learnt he has hands?" I repeat, not completely understanding what Jeff is trying to get at.

Jeff drops his face into his hands, "Thomas got too close to the maze doors and Gally pushed him." My eyes shoot up to Thomas, searching for conformation. Thomas nods.

I hum in acknowledgement, "I guess you shouldn't have gotten that close, not in front of him at least." I stand up, no longer interested in the situation. If Gally really did do that, he would have had a reason.

Thomas stands up after me, stopping Jeff from any further inspections to make sure his wrist is okay and begins to walk away.

When I see Chuck follow the boy, so do I, I'm genuinely curious about what's going on, and what Thomas is doing.

"Where are you going!?" My tone heightens at the last words of my question.

"Going to find Gally." Thomas states, his voice dripping was irritation. "Would you like to join me, Lynnie?" He doesn't bother to slow his pace for me, instead he actually speeds up.

Gally? No, that can't be good. Just as Thomas had, I quicken my pace, hoping to get in front of the boy. It takes a hot minute but once I do get in front of Thomas, I stop and face him, stopping him in his tracks with a jolt.

"What do you need from Gally, Thomas?" I question, knowing whatever he's going to do can't be good.

Thomas looks down at me, meeting my eye line. "I'm going to find out what his problem with me is."

I feel my gaze harden as he speaks, my eyes narrowing, my lips pressing into a line. "No." I know for a fact if Gally doesn't like Thomas he won't take that conversation well. "If you go over there, you're going to start a fight. You've already been in two, you don't need to be in another one."

I can almost feel the heat radiating off of Thomas, he's making his anger obvious, that's not a good thing in this place.

"That doesn't matter, Lyn. I can handle myself." I see Thomas' hand reach for mine out of the corner of my eye, luckily, he realises what he's doing and pulls it away before he can take my hand in his.

By now Chuck's cheering, I'm not sure what for though. He's bouncing up and down from what I can only assume is excitement. I mean hey, at least I can keep him happy.

"Let me speak to Gally." I request, straightening myself to make me seem more confident. "He won't have such a violent reaction if it comes from me."

Thomas sighs, looking around the Glade before meeting my eye line again. "If you do this and I find out that Gally has any sort of 'violent' reaction towards you, I swear, I'll kill him."

I hear some sort of 'Oooo' sound come from Chuck which almost makes the corner of my lips curl into a small smile. I should hate Thomas for make a threat like that towards Gally, but I don't. It actually, makes me feel something, something I'm not familiar with. The sense of safety? Comfort? could it be ease?

I shake my head, knowing Gally would have to be stung by a Griever a hundred times before he does something like that. "He won't. I know he won't."

"You trust him?" Thomas asks, one of his eyebrows risen higher than the other.

"I trust him."

"Okay," Thomas nods, still looking down at me, towering over me like some sort of giant. "Just, be careful, yeah? I'll be right behind you."

"Thomas, with all due respect, Gally's one of my best-friends, I don't need you trying to protect me from him like you did with Hank." I cross my arms over my chest, trying to appear tougher than I am.

Thomas snickers, leaning down to match my height, his face now meeting the level of mine, "I think I'll stick around, just in case. That sound good, Lynnie?"

His features are immaculate, I've never notice how much they stand out before, his long, lushes eyelashes make his brown eyes pop, he has dimples at the corner of his lips when he says certain words, he has a few freckles on his cheeks, some bigger than others, his nose has a slight curve, the end of it pointing up like a pig. It's kind of cute, actually.

"Sounds good."

A/N

HEY GUYSSS, so I actually wrote this chapter a while ago BUT I only didn't publish it so I can get ahead of my chapters!

I hope you enjoyed it!

Take care of yourselves, I love you all!

- Ava x