Newt Imagines (The Maze Runner)

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Without another word of explanation, Minho takes off running. Newt has a moment to stare at the dust clouding up underneath the other boy's heels before he starts sprinting too. He thinks he'd like to be caught in this day forever, the sun hot on their backs, both boys laughing raucously as they push themselves further, faster. Maybe Newt catches him after all. Maybe he doesn't. Maybe this day never existed at all. Regardless, it's on his mind on another day, one where the voices win.

Minho wakes in a cold sweat without remembering why. It's still early, but then again, that's just the force of habit. Minho tells himself that he can sleep in, that the pattern of the Doors opening and closing doesn't exist to guide his schedule anymore, but his body can't seem to be convinced otherwise. No matter how long it's been, his mind still thinks that he'll be going out to map the Maze, and so Minho wakes up at the first strains of dawn accordingly.

The thought of plunging back into sleep doesn't tempt Minho in the slightest, so he gets out of bed and heads for the outdoors. No other signs of life can be seen across the feeble beginnings of their settlement, but that's to be expected. No one in their right mind would get up as early as the Runners if they could avoid it.

Minho remembers Newt complaining bitterly about the fact that Minho always woke him up whenever he left for the daily mapping of the Maze. Minho wanted to point out the fact that none of the other Gladers were ever bothered by it, just Newt, like the blond boy had something else compelling him to notice Minho's comings and goings, but he never quite mustered up the courage to speak it aloud.

He wonders sometimes if he should have. There had been days when Minho swore there was a secret being kept between the two of them, some sort of truth that neither of them ever seemed to mention, but the second he even hinted at it, Newt would separate himself in a heartbeat. Minho hadn't wanted to upset his friend, so he'd buried it somewhere deep within himself.

Now, he's without Newt forever, so he has the time for improper speculation. If he could have gone back and done it all over again, would he have opened his mouth? Or was their fate written in stone from the moment the Box first came up, damning both of them to regrets for all time? Minho likes to believe that he can control what happens to him. If he really had control, though, Newt would be there with him. He could live a child's fairytale in which no one is ever truly hurt, and maybe things would be better then.

Minho's feet come to a stop on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. He peers over the edge, staring at the dizzying drop beneath. A memory rises to his mind unbidden, one of the worst ones that Minho has to offer. He remembers coming out of the Maze one day, utterly exhausted, and Alby coming up to him with a haunted look in his eyes.

He also remembers how it had felt to stand in the door of the Med-Jack hut, knowing that he had been unable to save his best friend. How long had he known Newt, then– many months, a little more than a year? All that time Minho hadn't been able to guess at what Newt would have done. Minho always liked to pretend that he must have known Newt before he lost his memories, as something about Newt felt so right that they could only have been together for a multitude of years. After that day, Minho never claimed it again. If he had known Newt for even longer, Minho had even more responsibility to keep him alive.

Now he's failed at that task for good. He has always wondered why Newt would jump, why he'd given up on the world so much that he'd take himself from it. Minho knows now, but he still won't take the leap. The falling would be something, he thinks, but Minho doesn't have the courage to force his feet from the safety of the ground. Minho is a survivor. That has never been a brave thing. Only a sign of cowardice that he would not lay down his life for someone else, some greater cause. Newt could do it, but then again, Newt had always been better than him. That alone is a given fact.