In my Blood

CHAPTER 46 - The Plan

My eyelids flutter open to see the dimly lit room, the shadow of grey clouds casting a dark glow around the room. I lift my head up slightly, and my heart sinks when I see an empty bed.

"Newt?" I whisper, my voice husky. I sit up, looking around the empty room. "Newt?" I call out, louder, the raspiness fading away from my voice. My breathing becomes shallow as I get up on my knees, fumbling around the sheets and looking for any signs of him, my movements becoming desperate. "Newt! Newt!"

"I'm here, I'm here!"

I look up to see Newt opening the creaking wooden door, rushing over to the bed. I let out a long sigh of relief as he pulls me into his arms, cradling me against his body. I bury my face into the warm crook of his neck, nestling in closer to his body. "I'm here, I'm here now," he murmurs. "What's wrong?"

"I just... I didn't know where you went, I thought..." I stammer, my breaths coming out in stuttered shakes.

Newt frowns in worry. "I'm sorry, I won't do that again," he whispers, smiling softly. We stay like this for a minute, cradling each other in the stillness of the morning. "Come on, I think Gally wants us downstairs soon. We're discussing the plan. I think he's actually going through with it today."

"Today?" I exclaim, my a cold shiver running down my spine in nervousness. "Wait, can we just... be here for a minute?"

Newt smiles, his eyes creasing at the edges, as he offers his arms out and I immediately sink into his body. I listen, head on his chest, to the steady rhythmic beating of his heart. 

"Newt?" I whisper.

"Yes?"

I bite my lip. "How long did you... feel like this about me?"

He breathes out for a minute, thinking. "As soon as you came up in the Box, I just... felt something different. Something I'd never felt before. I thought it was just because, you know, I'd never seen a girl before and I didn't know how to react. But... I'd say, I really knew how deeply I felt about you when I saw you again in that WICKED compound, after the Maze. After we hadn't seen each other for days, and I didn't know what had happened to you, and..." he sighs, "...you looked so frail. It was excruciating being away from you. I knew it wasn't normal to feel that way about... just a friend."

"So... we're more than 'just friends' now?" I ask, looking into his eyes with a wide smile. He grins back at me.

"If that's what you'd want... I'd want that more than anything else in the world." 

My cheeks hurt from smiling so hard. 

We both don't speak for a minute; we just stare at each other, our smiles growing with each passing second. I urge my mind to memorise this moment, engrained into my brain forever. Just being here, with him, feeling his warmth pressed against me. His fingertips lightly trail my arm as I push my body forward to kiss him deeply. I hear him groan softly as our kiss intensifies, his hands gripping my waist.

I reluctantly break apart from the kiss, taking a breath. "We should probably go and join the others," I whisper into his lips.

"Probably... yeah..." he murmurs with a smirk, his lips brushing against mine. Nevertheless, we kiss again, our lips moving in synch as I press my body closer to his. I hook my leg over his thigh, our hips pressed up against each other. My hands travel down his torso and my fingers scramble to find the hemline of his shirt, slipping my fingers underneath to touch his warm bare skin. A loader moan slips out from Newt's mouth as we kiss; I can barely contain the fluttering in my stomach. I feel a burst of confidence and find myself moving so my body is completely on top of his, both legs locked around his waist, as he gasps slightly under my touch. I feel his hands travelling, down from my waist to my hips, his fingers slipping beneath the fabric of my shorts and squeezing lightly at my skin. All the while, our lips are still locked together, as if we can't get enough of each other's taste. I allow myself to moan ever so slightly as I gently shift my weight on his lap, feeling tension building in foreign parts of my body that I haven't felt before.