Title: To see the smow fall once again

Characters: Thomas and Minho

Disclaimer: The characters belongs to James Dashner

Notes: This is the english translation of my fic Pour voir la neige tombée une nouvelle fois. Lot of angst, but it has a happy ending. This fic will have 3 chapters. I did the translation myself so if there is any mistake, it's normal. Thank you!

He took one more picture. The framing was perfect – Thomas sitting on the picnic table covered in snow, reading a book while big snowflakes were falling from the sky. Just perfect.

Still deep into his reading, the young man didn't even notice that his friend once again took his picture. Minho had a ton of similar photos. In his defense, Thomas and snow were the two things he loved most.

He remembered it like it was yesterday. The first time he met the one who would become his best friend, it was snowing. The Murphy family, for an unknown reason back then, had moved out during winter. When Minho had seen that a little boy his age had just arrived in the apartment block and was playing around in the snow in the common courtyard, he hadn't hesitated and went to greet him. After all, he was just a seven years old boy trying to make some friends back then.

A bond immediately formed between the two of them. As cliché as it may sounds, Minho has always had this deep intuition that this encounter was fate.

That day, after making the biggest snowman ever, they had watched the snow fall from the sky. Together. The snowflakes were big and the courtyard was covered in snow. They had been laying down next to each other, looking up at the sky. Thomas's laugh and especially his smile were engraved in his mind. It was such a precious memory for the Asian boy. Since then, one of their favorite activities in winter was simply going outside to watch the snow.

13 years later and they were still together, totally inseparable. They never left each other. They had spent their whole schooling together and were now in college. They were always together, no matter what they were doing. They had always went to the same classes, did the same activities… At that time, they had started running together and were now in the cross-country team of their school. Minho was now doing a degree in photography while Thomas was in literature, but they still spent all their free time together, may it be going out, going to a student party, or in one of their room, playing League of Legends or even just in silence while Thomas was reading and Minho was editing his photos…

And even if they now had a small group of close friends, nothing came close to what they had. At least, Minho thought so.

Leaving his thoughts, Minho saw from the corner of his eyes Thomas closing his book. Letting a small smile forming on his lips, he put away his camera before breaking the silence. "It's a book for one of your classes?"

"Yes!" Thomas answered with the same excited tone the Asian knew too well. Whenever his friend talked about a book, nothing could stop him. He was passionate. Minho was the only one who loved hearing him ramble about his favorite stories again and again. "We have to do an analysis with a partner" the brunet continued. "And I'm with a new student. Her name's Teresa. She's wonderful! And so intelligent, she can see small details in a text that makes a big difference! I'm so lucky to work with her."

Looking away, as if remembering an image, he added "She's also so beautiful…"

Minho felt his heart fall to pieces. The ground underneath him seemed to disappear as his world was being shattered. He always knew this day would eventually come. That one day, Thomas was going to fall in love. And that he was not going to fall in love with him.

He never knew when his feelings towards his best friend changed. They may have always been there, Minho couldn't tell. But the truth was that he was madly in love with Thomas. For so long. And those few words were breaking him, despite all those years of mental preparation. It was apparently impossible to prepare ourselves to see the love of our life loving someone else.

"Someone has a crush" Minho teased, even if repressing his true feelings was the hardest thing he had ever done. Holding back his tears was unbearable. His eyes were burning and an intense pressure was forming in his head.

To make things even more painful, the young man saw his friend blush and look away from shyness. Exactly like a teenage boy in love would have done.

"Yes, maybe" Thomas admitted, obviously not noticing the immense sadness in his best friend's eyes. "I wanted to talk to you about it, but I didn't really know how… I would like to ask her out after our assignment…."

Minho tried not to choke on his next words. "So, do it? What's stopping you?"

Thomas blushed even harder. In other circumstances, the Asian boy would have found it cute. "Well, I'm kinda scared she'll say no. And I'm just unsure… I never dated anyone… unlike you."

Ah yeah… Rachel. Before he realized his feelings for his best friend, Minho had a girlfriend, Rachel, for few months. She had ended up cheating on him with a dude named Aris. It hadn't affected him much however since when he had discovered it, he already had realized he wasn't in love with her.

"Ask her anyway. If you do nothing, you're going to miss an opportunity. Don't be scared shank! What's the worst that could happen?"

Minho wanted to hit himself. He was being completely hypocritical. He was telling Thomas to do exactly what he should have already done ages ago. And even if his mind was telling him that he could have lost his best friend by confessing, his heart was telling him he should have done it anyway. Because right now, the pain was just too much to handle.

But it was too late. And since he only wanted Thomas's happiness, he had to accept he wanted to be with someone else, even if it meant he would have to suffer.

"You're right" Thomas said confidently. "What's the worst that could happen?"

That night, Minho cried himself to sleep.

...

What was bound to happen, happened.

Two months later, as he was editing a photo, Minho received a text from his best friend.

Ever since Thomas had mentioned Teresa, he basically only talked about her, to Minho's despair. Each day, it became harder and harder to be around his friend. Even worst – Thomas didn't seem to notice how distant Minho had become.

So, when he saw that his best friend had just sent him a message, Minho almost wanted to ignore it and continue was he was doing. Curiosity got the best of him however and he took his phone.

He should have ignored it.

All in caps, Thomas had written "SHE SAID YES!".

His world, already on the verge of collapsing, collapsed for good. He ran out of air, the pressure in his chest was too strong, he was choking. He was trapped in his own body, unable to move. An intense sadness was eating him alive and without noticing it, he felt to the floor.

He didn't acknowledge his mom entering the room, alerted by the noise, too busy trying to breath. But a hole was in his chest, how would he be able to breathe again?

"Minho! Minho!" his mom exclaimed while taking him in her arms. "Breathe, my baby boy, breathe."

It was another panic attack. He didn't have them too often, but often enough to be seen by a therapist. If she didn't know what caused this one, his mom knew how to help him. "Call Thomas" she told her husband as he walked in his son's room.

This temporarily pulled Minho out of this abyss he was falling into. "NO! NO! NOT THOMAS! NOT THOMAS!"

If his best friend was indeed the solution against his panic attacks, this time, it would only make it worst.

His breathing was getting harsher as he tried to fight the invisible force that squeezed his throat. He started shaking, not in control of his body anymore.

"Okay, not Thomas" his mom said, softly caressing his hair, completely devastated to see her little angel in this state. "We'll call Newt, okay?"

Minho didn't say anything. He couldn't. He was dying inside.

"My poor boy. My poor little boy" she whispered while whipping away the tears that started falling on her son's face.

She felt helpless. She could only wait, her husband already gone to phone Minho's friend.

Luckily, Newt arrived quickly. The Korean was still breathing heavily while shaking uncontrollably. The young blonde slowly approached him and changed place with the boy's mom who thanked him for coming so fast.

Taking his friend into his arms, Newt began to talk to him. "Hey shank, it's me. Don't know what's happenin', but you gotta breath, okay?"

Feeling that Minho was registering his friend's arrival by leaning a little more against him, he continued "Yes, like that, do like me."

Fortunately, Newt knew how to deal with it. Normally, it's was Thomas who helped Minho with his panic attacks, but the boy with the strong accent had to replace him few times when he couldn't come. Strangely, only his two closest friends were able to calm Minho.

Taking his face in his hands, Newt forced the boy to look at him. He could see the distress in his friend's dark eyes. " 'm here Minho, 'm here. Breathe in ... breathe out ... Everythin's fine, okay, everythin's fine…"

He had never seen his friend in such a state. It was way beyond a simple panic attack – not that panic attacks were simple to being with. He could feel that a deep sorrow had invaded the boy. The only thing he could do was to be here with him while wondering why Thomas wasn't in his place right now.

After a while, Minho managed to regulate his breathing, his throat not fighting against him anymore. His heart was back to a normal rhythm. But the void inside him was still there. His world was shattered.

Tears flowed uncontrollably. He took refuge in Newt's arms even more, putting his ego aside. He couldn't care what people would think of him anymore, he just lost the most important person in his life.

"I lost him… I lost him…" he repeated between sobs.

"Wait, wait, what are you talkin' about?" Newt asked, totally lost.

Minho gestured towards his phone sitting on his desk. The blonde stood up and forced his friend to lay on the bed before taking the phone and joining the young man, taking him once again in his arms. The latter was still crying. Newt felt helpless. How could he alleviate such sadness?

Opening the phone, he immediately understood. "Oh, Minho, I'm sorry…"

"I lost him, I lost him, I los-"

"No Minho! You haven't lost your bloody best friend! Look at me."

He had used his authoritative tone so Minho had no choice but to obey.

"Listen to me carefully Minho. Thomas will always be there, okay? Yes, he may have a girlfriend now, but he's still your best friend!"

Newt knew how much Thomas was important for the Asian boy. The brunet had once told him that before meeting him, Minho never had any friends. The young blonde had quickly understood that the idea of losing Thomas was one of Minho's greatest fear. Loosing Thomas was going back to this loneliness. It was losing this unique friendship they had. It was losing the only person that truly understood him. This fear was maybe disproportionate, but it was no less real.

"Okay? Thomas's always goin' to be there…"

"I-I love him…" Minho whispered with a weak voice shaken by sobs.

The blonde's heart ached. He of course knew about his friend's feelings towards the young brown-haired man. It was so obvious that only Thomas wasn't aware of it.

"I know Minho, I know…"

Newt knew that no matter what he could say, he would never be able to relieve Minho's pain.

Hope you liked it and stay tuned for chapter 2!

-Safr2n