centre | newtmas au

3

newt:

Newt wakes up his heart pounding and his palms sweaty, he almost feels like crying, until he realises how stupid that would be. He's safe, it was just a dream.
He promptly sits up and flicks on the lamp beside his bed and breathes deeply, in attempt to calm his nerves.
"Newt?"
Thomas stirs in the bed across from him and looks at the boy with squinted eyes.
"You ok?"
Newt sighs. Great.
"Yeah Tommy, it's all good, just a bad dream."
"Worth talking about?"
Newt almost declines, but he realises how much he actually wants to tell Thomas, he's always had thousands of anxieties and bad dreams that built up on his shoulders, weighing him down. He'd never had someone that he wanted, or could tell. This is good for him, as much as he's trying to convince himself it's not.
"Okay... uh yeah I guess so." Newt says, stuttering slightly.
Thomas, in hearing this, immediately sits up and gestures for him to begin.
"I'm all ears."
Newt hesitates for a moment, starting to think he's being insane. On the one hand, he's disgusted at himself for giving in to Thomas and trusting him so quickly. But otherwise, he's borderline desperate to tell him, he has someone to listen, so why waste the listener by not speaking at all? He inhales.
"It starts with the snow. It always does. The snow, the image, always the same. I'm always sitting, clutching my little sisters hand, watching the snow fall past the window, waiting for the inevitable." He shivers, almost like he's there, young and vulnerable, his heart ridden with fear. He doesn't want to think about it, not now. "This time, it was different. I saw sand, there was sun, everything around me was crumbling, the heat burned my skin. I heard calls, groans even. There was fire." He pushes his mind back to the memories of the dream he had barely minutes ago. "I felt fire enveloping my entire body, and I can bloody tell you, it hurts like hell. Or it felt like it hurt."

Thomas shakes his head. "Imagine living in a world like that. I hate dreams like that, you know? Sometimes they feel they could be real, maybe they are, but they aren't happening to you, and you can't help but feel so insanely lucky."

Newt nods, in silence. He has no idea how to reply to that.
"Get some sleep okay?. See you in the morning." Thomas sighs, turning over to face the wall so Newt can't see his face.
He switches off the light and pulls the duvet up and over his head, and falls back into a numb and dreamless sleep.

thomas:
He lies on his back, eyes fixed on the ceiling. He just finished the book he was reading, about the WCKD organisation, and what he read puzzled him.
Printed on the final page was the phrase ; 'WCKD is good.'
Although a part of him believes these words are brand new to him, he can't help but think he's heard them before. He shakes his head and sits up, and putting his attention to the boy sleeping across the room from him.
Newt lies on his side, his hair over his eyes. His chest is rising and falling as he sleeps, a quiet snoring, like a hum, fills the room.
Thomas sits in silence for a moment, before getting up to shower. He pulls his towel off the back of his chair and grabs his jeans and t-shirt. He has plans to spend the day with Gally, but he's so tired of how ignorant and self centred Gally has become. He never listens to what Thomas has to say anymore, not like he used to. Like something was altered in his brain. But of course, it just could be his personality.
He walks barefoot to a shower cubicle and pushes the dial to turn it on, leaving his hand under the spray to check the temperature, before shutting and locking the door behind him. The pulls off his pyjamas and steps under the shower head, letting the hot water relax his muscles and wash away everything from the previous day.
He hears the door open, followed by footsteps towards the cubicle beside him. The shower turns on, and the room is silent, minus the sound of the showers against the floor, and against their bodies.
Thomas quickly becomes unnerved by the silence and decides he's clean enough, and pushes the dial back to turn off the shower. He grabs his towel and dries himself off, before pulling his shirt over his head and sliding into his jeans. Before leaving the cubicle he hears two boys enter, speaking to one another. He fails to recognise the first voice talking, and he waits in silence to hear the other.
"That Newt kid is so freaky right? I saw Thomas talking to him in the hallway yesterday..." Thomas frowns, praying Newt isn't in the cubicle beside him, so he doesn't have to bare listening to this. Thomas is almost embarrassed that it's his 'friend' Gally talking about Newt like that.
He pushes open the cubicle door, and stands in front of Gally, eyebrow raised.
"There you are!" Gally says, glancing at Thomas.
"Whats that about Newt?" Thomas asks, trying to hide any emotion in his voice.
"Oh yeah. What's with you talking to him? You know we don't concern ourselves with nobodies." Gally says, laughing.
What a dick, Thomas thinks.
Thomas scoffs. "Nobodies? Gally, that's rich coming from you. I don't think he's the only nobody around here if you're the one making stupid remarks about him behind his back."
Gally looks taken aback, and he raises his stupid and overly expressive eyebrows at Thomas.
"Woah. Is little Tommy getting brave now?" Gally adds. Thomas is unsure whether Gally is angry or mocking him, but either way, he's so tired of him.
"Don't call me that." Thomas says through gritted teeth. It sounds wrong coming from Gally's mouth, it sounds laced with malice, its not right. There's only one person he can stand calling him that.
The cubicle door opens behind him, and Thomas wants to scream when he sees who steps out to stand beside him.

newt:
Newt isn't sure whether he should be angry at Gally, or grateful to Thomas for defending him when the day before he would have been fighting him, not for him.
"Thanks Tommy." Newt whispers, walking to stand beside Thomas. "I appreciate it, but I don't want you getting your bloody arse kicked."
Thomas breathes out through his nose, his shoulders tensed, Newt notices.
"But they're assholes, how can you just let them talk about you like that?"
Newt, slightly reluctantly, places a hand on Thomas' shoulder.
"I've got used to it, my skins as tough as leather. Leave it alone, Tommy."
At his words Thomas relaxes, though the determination is still written across his features. Newt, relieved he no longer has to play peacemaker, brings his hand back to hang by his side.
"Aw, are you two buddies now?" Gally teases, mock pouting.
"That's it." Thomas says, lunging at Gally, his fist in front of him. Newt jumps after him, trying in vain to pull him back. He's too bloody late. Thomas' fist connects with Gally's cheek, causing him to clutch his face and wince, before retaliating and connecting to Thomas' nose.
Gally's friend, Newt thinks is called Zart, jumps between the boys, pushing his hands out to their chests, in a movie like attempt at separating them.
"Thomas." Newt says, pulling at his arm.
Thomas turns to look at him, a small trickle of blood coming from his nose.
"We're getting you out of here."
Newt suddenly feels his chest ache, just a tiny bit, looking at the anger on his new friends face. All that for him? Newt shakes his head quickly with his eyes closed, trying to best to shake off, or at least ignore the fact that, even for a second, he cared about Thomas.
Thomas picks up his pyjamas from the floor, where he threw them. They're wet from landing on the floor of the shower cubicle he'd just exited.
"No worries, I have some to spare." Newt adds, feeling bad about what Thomas did for him. After all, It's his fault that Thomas got in a bloody fist fight.
Thomas walks in front of him, his head hung, his eyes focusing on the ground.
Newt doesn't say anything until they're back in their dorm with the door locked, with Thomas dabbing his nose with a tissue.

"Tommy..."
Thomas looks up sheepishly, not maintaining eye contact.
"What was that all about? Why me?"
"I'm sorry. It's my fault, as usual."
"Hey, I never said that. I'm just curious why you would fight on behalf of a person you detested less than 24 hours ago."
Thomas pauses to sit down at his desk, resting his arms on his knees.
"I've never hated you, Newt."
Newt is sure his face displays a mixture of disgust and confusion, all in one.
"You're a bloody convincing actor then Tommy."
"When was I ever directly rude or mean to you?"
Newt hesitates, about to open his mouth to make yet another of his pointless remarks. He realises Thomas has never done anything to harm him, other than maybe be a bit of a prick.
"Oh."
"Yeah, right." Thomas says, almost sighing. "Its those high, stone walls you've built around yourself. Not one person can make it over without being brutally attacked or being ignored. You've been so deep in the centre of your own maze, you haven't noticed others attempting to get to you."
Newt feels his eyes well up with tears. He looks at his hands.
"You remember that time I sat with you at lunch in your first week? You were alone at a table, looking like you could shit yourself at any minute, so I went and sat my ass down beside you and all you did—"
"I told you to go away." Newt adds, finishing his sentence, his voice shaking slightly.
"Damn right you did."
"I'm sorry. Really. I'll try to climb out of my own arse for starters."
"Looks like a plan." Thomas says, with a smile.
Neither of the boys want to say anything in that moment, so they just sit there, in silence.
After a moment, Newt speaks.
"Thank you Tommy."

wee woo there u go another chapter for my one reader xx
i kinda hated this at first, still lowkey do, but its ok, and i love them so its cool. (jojo if u ever see this hey i love u)
- lexi