Aloha darlings! And happy new year! I say we kick it off with a steamy mihnas scene, or what do you think?
Please leave a review when you're done reading, I'd like to know what you think of this one!
And of corse, I do not own tmr or any of the characters!
Enjoy!

Thomas could feel the satin boy's breath warming his already sweaty neck. They were currently standing still, very still, in the middle of the very dark and very frightening forest. They'd been running for fifteen minutes straight before this very unexpected stop. And now Mihno was standing so close that Thomas could hear his heart beating, echoing between the trees. He did his best to hide a shudder and the frightened and surprised smile that followed.

"What are you doing?" he wondered as he turned around to face the other boy, who was currently holding a map, studying it.

"What does it look like, shuckface?" the other boy shot back, clearly not in the mood for stupid questions or funny remarks. The satin boy had a wrinkle between his furrowed brows, his mouth slightly open and his breath a little bit uneven from the running. Thomas moved to stay closer to him, peaking over his shoulder to get a good look at the map.

"We're here," Mihno pointed at a spot on the map, in the middle of the forest. Thomas thought it all looked the same and admired how it didn't look all the same to Mihno. "And here's the first control," he pointed at another spot a few centimeters away from the first one.

Suddenly, a noise from behind them made Thomas jump, biting his tongue in order not to scream out loud. It had been a quiet noise, but it still reached his ears, sending a strong shudder down his back. He turned, quickly, and scanned the area around them, hoping to either see something, or not see anything at all. He didn't know what would be best.

"Did you hear that?" his words came out as a half whisper. Mihno stayed quiet, clearly listening for another sound. And so it came. It was a loud cracking, much closer this time. It was a noise of someone, or something, sneaking up on them, coming closer and closer with every heartbeat. Thomas shuddered again, his heart threatened to jump out of his ribcage and flee out of this maze. Who knew what could be hiding between these dense trees?

As if the creature could hear the question mark at the end of his sentence, it showed itself in a blur of motion, ran quickly between the trees. A blur of darkness, thick and frightening.

So Thomas panicked. His legs acted before his head had the chance to, they carried him over thick roots, broken branches and between trees. He could hear Mihno shouting after him, cussing loudly, and then the footsteps of the other boy.

"Thomas! You bloody son of a bitch! Stop running!"

But Thomas' legs wouldn't stop running, his heart wouldn't stop pounding, his heart wouldn't stop racing. His breathing grew heavier and heavier, but fear still had a tight grip on him. He just kept running, until he wasn't. He kept running until his running transformed into falling. Something heavy had thrown itself over his speeding body, and they were both falling, crashing to the ground, merciless and painfully.

Thomas screamed, a surprised scream, a short scream as he tumbled to the ground with this other creature on top of him, holding him down as he tried to fight his way back up again.

"You… Stupid… Son… of… a bitch!" the creature screamed from behind clenched teeth. As soon as Thomas realized the voice belonged to Mihno and not some hideous beast, he stopped kicking and relaxed his adrenaline filled muscles into the moist ground. The satin boy had twigs in his hair and a grim look in his eyes, his knees on either side of Thomas' stomach and his hands on either side of Thomas' head.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he shouted, a low kind of shouting, an aggressive kind. Mihno's whole figure trembled with rage, a stressed and slightly panicked kind of rage.

"You didn't see that?" he had a hard time breathing, and an even harder time getting those words to leave his lips. They came out as a terrified whisper, one he would later feel very ashamed of.

"Yes, I did," Mihno had lowered his voice and replaced the anger with grumpiness. "It was a stray dog, you shuckface. They camp out in here, lots of them. I guess they like the dampness and the darkness."

Suddenly, Thomas became very aware of how close the other boy was, of the position they were currently in. It took him every ounce of strength he had to prevent his cheeks from blushing and his breath from quickening. Mihno seemed pleased with the situation, as if he could see Thomas' struggle. Slowly, he rolled of Thomas and positioned himself in the damp moss, his back against one of the trees. Thomas himself sat up next to the other runner, careful not to touch Mihno in the progress.

"What's your deal, greenie?" Mihno asked, a hint of amusement in his voice. It seemed as if he had shaken the anger and irritation of, and replaced it with curiousness and mockery. Carefully, the satin boy touched his knee to Thomas', smiling broadly as he did so.

"My deal?" Thomas swallowed.

"Yes, your deal. Like, what's your problem? Why so scared?" Mihno bounced their knees together again, painfully slow.

"I'm not scared, its…" Thomas' breath caught as Mihno permanently rested his leg towards Thomas' own, leaning in a bit closer so that Thomas could feel the heat radiating from his body, making his heart beat a little bit quicker, much to his own surprise. What was happening to him? Not that he could remember much from before, but this seemed like something he would not forget. This whole I'm—interested-in-boys thingie. It annoyed him, the impact the other boy had on him. Not because he was a boy and Thomas himself was a boy, but because of how he didn't really seem to have a choice in the matter. Mihno had him under a spell, a wickedly strong one as well. Thomas felt pathetic and exposed, like he was falling too hard to fast, like the satin boy was playing with him, nothing more and nothing less. "Admit it, you would've done the same thing if this was your first time in the maze," Thomas found himself saying, grasping for a reason to change the subject.

The satin boy laughed and leaned in even more, now their shoulders were touching. Thomas' skin was on fire underneath the thin fabric of his light blue runners shirt.

His breath caught again, but Mihno didn't seem to notice.

"I klunked my pants the first time I was alone out here. Got lost as well, didn't find my way back until nightfall," Mihno suddenly shifted, leaned heavily away from Thomas, who immediately started to ache with longing. As soon as he had leant away, he leaned back again, positioning himself as close to Thomas as he could actually be, their entire sides were touching. The only difference was that Mihno was holding out a hand towards Thomas, the map placed inside his closed palm.

Thomas took it, unsure what to do with it.

"And now you're the one who got us lost, which means it is your job to get us un-lost again. Good luck, shuckface," and with those words, Mihno closed his eyes and leaned his head against the thick tree trunk their backs was propped up against.

Thomas felt cheated, but said nothing. Instead he just opened up the map and spread it out over his legs. It took him near a minute to recognize the place Mihno had pointed out as their position before, or at least what he thought was the correct spot. He then guessed they'd taken off south, running not more than a few hundred meters.

"I found it," he said out loud in order to wake the runner up. Thomas held his finger to their current position and watched Mihno's face, expecting a smile to break out and some warm words to pour out of his friend's mouth. The satin boy did smile, but it was not warm. It was mocking. And the words that poured over his lips were not nice, they were rather harsh and even more mocking than his smile.

"Are you sure?" Mihno laughed, and Thomas felt his patience break. They were lost in the middle of a huge, and quite scary, forest, and all his shuckface of a friend could do was laugh at him? Instead of answering, Thomas pushed the map into Mihno's lap and leaned his head against the tree trunk, looking up towards the small piece of sky that was visible between the treetops. It was already a few shades darker than it had been when they had left the school, and Thomas found himself questioning why they had to have these practices after dinner, so close to nightfall. Maybe that was coach's way of urging them to do this whole thing as quick as possible, a kind of threat. Do what you're supposed to do, as quick as possible, or you'll be trapped in the maze as the night falls. Thomas really didn't want to stay here as the forest grew even darker than it already was.

"Slim it, greenie," Mihno said, his voice lower and softer than before. It was a dangerous kind of soft, a voice a hunter would use in order to make his victim believe that everything was all right when it was in fact close to being killed. Even with this knowledge, Thomas felt himself stepping right into the trap.

Even softer, the satin boy placed a hand on Thomas' jaw, forcing him to look in Mihno's direction. The touch stopped Thomas' heart from beating, stopped his lungs from breathing.

"Think, greenie," Mihno said once he'd forced Thomas' eyes down on the map again. His voice was darker now, with a sharp edge to it.

Suddenly, Thomas was hit with the urging feeling to touch the satin boy, touch him like he supposed he'd never touched anybody before. He wanted to explore the other boy's features, feel the lines in his face, run his fingers through that satin hair and steal Mihno's breath just like the runner stole Thomas' own. The thought scared him, scared him senseless but was so intriguing as well. Exciting.

"Think!" Mihno urged, his voice stronger now. They were even closer, their faces only a few inches apart. The air between them was trembling with heat and excitement and fear.

Thomas couldn't think. All he could do was lose himself in the moment.

And he did.