Newt found Thomas perched on the edge of the world against a backdrop of luminosity and constellations. He was beautiful, like a lone planet wandering the heavens without an orbit, pulling other interstellar objects in with its gravitational attraction.

He looked up then and smiled brightly, causing a nuclear reaction at his very core. "Hey. Fancy seeing you here," he said.

"We've been looking for you everywhere," Newt told him and he blinked in surprise.

"What? Why? Did something happen?" Thomas' eyes widened with concern.

"Yeah... it's Kera. She caught the Flare."

His reaction was instantaneous as he shot up from the ground. "What! That... that was her? Oh, God. Is she going to be okay? Do you know?"

"Not yet... Minho and Teresa are at the hospital right now," he told him.

Thomas' face fell and he looked down as if he were going to be sick. "I should have known something was up. She told me she was just having a stomach bug."

"Hey, it's not your fault, alright?" Newt went up to him and squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.

The boy sighed despondently. "She's my best friend in uni... I- I have so much to thank her for."

"How so?" he asked out of curiosity.

"I didn't think I'd be able to make it through first year but she was there to support me through it," Thomas explained. "And it was also the reason..."

He mumbled the last part out but Newt had heard it. "Also the reason for what?"

A silence filled the air between them, somewhere in the universe the core of a star was collapsing and it would explode in catastrophic destruction. Thomas hesitated, then his dark eyes flicked up to him with a sudden burning resolution. "The reason I started writing to you."

"Writing to-" the realisation clicked into place like the trigger of a gun. "It was you? The letters from the cafe..."

"We had a deal... if I sent you a letter, she'll tell Minho how she felt," he drew away and Newt felt the loss of his warmth. "She's a lot braver than I am."

"It was you..." he whispered, a mixture of emotions cascading over him like a wave, and his heart raced. "It's always been you."

"Yes, it was me," Thomas confirmed. "It was a stupid idea. You probably think they're horrible, I think they're horrible. I never should have done it, I should have stopped. Just getting to know you should have been enough but no, of course I wanted more. Of course, I-"

"I like them."

He blinked dumbly. Newt looked to him, felt his throat constrict and heart quiver in his chest. The cold bit at them but the rush of blood to his head made him hot around the collar. He wanted to touch him again, to give in to the magnetic pull that drew him to the boy.

"I like them," he repeated. "And I like you."

Thomas swallowed, his throat bobbing up and down. "I..."

Newt took a step forward and there was uncertainty in those dark brown eyes that frequented his every waking and sleeping thought. He reached out, took Thomas' face in his hands and crushed his lips against his. He was honey and mint, a shooting star streaking across the sky in a burst of ephemeral radiance. Their breaths mingled, escaping like mist into the restless night.

Thomas took his hand in his as they gazed out at the twinkling starlight above the luster of city lights beneath it. A calm settled over them, a beautiful ethereal feeling that only came with the presence of happiness.

"You know our bodies are made of electrons that can never touch," he said. "They hover at point hundred million meters above each other."

"But we're touching right now," Thomas chuckled.

"It's just an illusion of the human brain to interpret the interaction of our electrons and the electromagnetic field," he told him.

"Well, it's the grandest illusion I've ever known."

"And the best."

Author's Note:

I've been thinking of doing a modern Newtmas for days and just came up for this short story for a contest. I might continue it if people like it though!

Also, am I the only one that can't see Minho with anyone else except Newt, Thomas or an OC? xD

P.S: Don't smoke! It's bad!