An hour later and Newt and I were sitting on a top bunk in the boy's dorm. Five or six boys napping and another six or seven scattered about, whispering. The others were in the common room or the room the Aris' and my names on it. I sighed, leaning against him, "So much for privacy."

"No one's watching," he said, looking at me.

"No," I agreed, "but they're listening rather intently." I smirked as a particularly nosy boy blushed turning away.

Newt laughed, leaning backward against the wall and sighing. We just sort of… looked at each other before simultaneously bursting out into quiet laughter. Shaking my head, I thought 'shuck it' and placing chaste kiss to his lips before moving to lay down beside him.

But his hands were suddenly gripping at my waist, pulling me closer, flush against his chest. He was smiling up at me with shining eyes at spoke volumes. I attempted a glare, "Not here…" I whispered quietly.

He shook his head, that stupid smile still on his face.

His grip only tightened as I tried to move away. I sighed and gave him an exasperated look to which he only smiled brighter and moved to kiss away the frown. His hands moved up my sides and ghosted over my shoulders, one hand moving around my back to keep me close to him and the other resting lightly against my cheek as he pulled back gently, before more roughly rolling me off of him so were both laid on our sides, looking at one another, the both of us smiling softly.

We were both thinking the same thing. I could tell. He had that look in his eye. The one he always had when he said those three words. But he didn't voice them, simply looks at me and traced patterns into my lower back with a free hand.

It was alright.

I didn't say I loved him either. I just kissed him again.

Newt woke me up as he tried to get out of the bed. "Shuck it, sorry, MaC, just go back to sleep."

"What are you doing?" I grumbled, rubbing my eyes.

"Just standing up, my leg's all cramped up from you laying on it," he laughed, half-smiling at me.

"Sorry"

"Go back to sleep."

"Mmkay"

It was another half hour or so when I woke up again, almost rolling off the bed. I let out a small shriek, clamping onto the bed with wide eyes. Newt was there still. Leaning on the bed frame, he looked up with an amused smirk.

"Shuttup," I mumbled, blood rushing to my face.

"I didn't say anything."

There was a groan from below. Shifting so I lay on the bed, but my head hung over the edge I looked down to the bottom bunk. Tommy!

"Glad to see you still know how to take a nap," Newt said looking down at him.

The boy cracked his eyes open a bit and looked at him. "How long's it been?"

Newt looked at his watch. "Couple hours. When people noticed you lie down, it actually kind of relaxed everyone. Not much we can do but sit and wait for something to happen. There's no way out of this place."

Thomas pulled himself into a sitting position, looking in confusion at the chair that fell down in his face until he traced it up to me. "Hey you," I smiled.

He laughed slightly, expelling air through his nose, cracking a small smile. He looked back to Newt. "Do we even have any food?"

"No," he said, "But I'm pretty sure these people wouldn't go through all this trouble to bring us here, trick us or whatever they've done, just to let us buggin' starve to death. Something will happen. Reminds me of when they sent the first group of us to the Glade. The initial group of me and Alby and Minho and some others. The original Gladers." He said with a not-so-subtle burst of sarcasm.

I laughed slightly.

Thomas looked up to me, confused.

"I came after them. The first Newbie as it was."

Newt laughed, "Yeah, you came and complicated everything… and stop laying like that, all the blood's gonna go to your head."

"Yes, sir," I said with a laugh, but did as he asked and climbed down next to him.

"But how does this remind you of that?"

Newt's eyes were focused on the bricked up window closest to us. "We all woke up in the middle of the day, lying on the ground around the doors to the Box. It was closed. Our memories had been wiped, just like yours when you came. You'd be surprised at how quickly we pulled ourselves together and quit panicking. There were about thirty of us. Obviously, we had no bloody clue what had happened, how we'd gotten there, what we were supposed to do. And we were terrified, disoriented. But since we were all in the same crappy situation, we organized ourselves and figured out the place. Had the farm running within days, everybody with their own jobs."

Thomas looked intrigued, looking up at Newt intently as he asked, "Did the Creators have everything in place already? Crops, animals, all that?"

Newt nodded, still staring ahead. "Yeah, but it took a ton of work to get it all going nice and smooth. A lot of trial and error before we accomplished anything."

"So… how does this remind you of that?" Thomas asked again.

Newt broke his stare down with the mirror and looked at Thomas. "I guess back then we all just had a sense that there was obviously a purpose to us having been sent there. If someone had wanted to kill us, why wouldn't they have just killed us? Why would they send us to a huge lace with a house and a barn and animals? And because we had no other choice, we accepted it and started working and exploring."

"But we're already done exploring here," Thomas countered. "No animals, no food, no Maze."

"Well, yeah," I said, "but it's the same concept."

"We're obviously here for a buggin' purpose. We'll figure it out eventually." Newt said.

"If we don't starve first."

Newt pointed to the bathroom. "We've got plenty of water, so it'll be at least a few days before we drop dead. Something will happen."

"But what about all those dead people we saw? Maybe they rescued us for real, got killed, and now we're screwed. Maybe we were supposed to do something but now it's all been messed up and we've been left here to die."

I shook my head, "Now I'm depressed…"

Newt laughed, wrapping his arm around my waist sneakily as he spoke to Thomas. "You're on depressing piece of klunk, slinthead. Nah, with all those corpses magically disappearing and the brick walls, I'd say this is something more like the Maze. Weird and impossible to explain. The latest and greatest mystery. Maybe our next test, who knows. Whatever's going on, we'll have a chance, just like we did in the bloody Maze. I guarantee it." That… was actually really reassuring and with his arm wrapped around my waist I could almost believe that it would all be alright.

Almost.

"Yeah," Thomas said quietly, "Hope you're right. As long as no Grievers suddenly show up, we'll be good."

Newt was shaking his head as soon as Tommy mentioned Grievers. "Be careful what you buggin' wish for. Maybe they'll send something worse."

"Who's the cheerful one now?" But his voice held no humor.

"You got me," Newt said, "Guess we'll go bother someone else till the excitement begins, better be bloody soon. I'm hungry."

"Be careful what you wish for," I smirked.

He shook his head with a small smile, "Good that."

We hadn't eaten all day. There was no food to be found anywhere. We'd searched time and time again. We were all more than a little angry about that. Our stomachs were churning, growling and flipping, demanding food that didn't exist.

And then the next day, still nothing. Our stomachs, empty, hollow, sickeningly so. And we were weak, tired, hunger seeming to pop back into our thoughts at every free moment. Newt was glaring at the floor, arms over his chest.

However, being who I am, I couldn't just let him sit there, all uncomfortable and angry like that, so I went over and nudged my shoulder against his, leaning my back against the wall and craning my neck to get a glimpse at his face. "Hey," I greeted quietly.

He let out a sort huff of breath.

"Sourpuss," I stated, severely unimpressed with the attitude.

He rolled his eyes, picking his head up to look at me. "What?" His voice was weaker sounding, weighed down by hunger and the exhaustion of trying to keep up the spirits. But by looks of the way he'd ben glaring at that floor I'd say he'd given up.

"We'll survive a few more days yet," I said, "Food or no."

"They better send some food, else all they'll have is out shuck corpses."

"Lovely thought, Newt."

"Like you weren't thinkin' the same thing."

I snorted, attempting to hide my smile. "I wasn't."

He rolled his eyes, though a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. I loved doing that. Making him smile. He needed it sometimes too. Needed someone to pull him out from the darker places in his mind. The ones he sometimes drowned himself in. He needed a reminder of the good things in this life… The good people. "Thanks MaC," He whispered, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

I smothered a smile, and slung my arms around his waist. "Anytime."