*Oh my god! It's been so long since I've last updated I can't believe it. I think I need to speed up with writing because I'm literally only on chapter 6 and I'm running out of chapters now ughh. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter- Minho and Romana finally get something established.
4.
(154 days ago)
'Rise and shine, sunshine.'
Slowly and acceptingly, she opened her eyes to find Minho standing in front of her. She stood up. It wasn't as if she was going to resist this anymore. When the Keepers had agreed to a plan, she knew it was unlikely for them to change their mind. Especially when a betrayed Gally and infuriated Minho were added to the mix.
Romana stood up and away from the door so Minho could open it. His expression was indecipherable. 'Still being unreasonable, I see,' she muttered, but still, he didn't answer her.
'I regret that you have to die, but you know you deserve it.'
'Yeah? Well, remember to whisper the same words in my ear as I lie dying- or as you recover my cold, dead corpse from the maze,' she simply said, holding out her arms for him to tie behind her back. Minho wished he could take back his anger and his tendency to rush into bad decisions, but he couldn't. He could only hold her by the ropes on her wrists as they walked out into the clearing, just before the gates of the maze.
The Keepers were holding out long poles, all awaiting her arrival.
Minho cut her binds, and took her supplies, tossing them into the maze.
'Any last words?'
She raised her eyebrows, and an ugly laugh came out from her lips. 'You were all very accommodating and exceptionally considerate. I hope you enjoy this last conversation with the last girl you will ever see. Remember that my death will be at the cost of all your conscience.'
Romana's words were poisonous and bitter, but her tone was nonchalant.
She looked at each and every one of them, but her stares towards Minho and Gally were the longest and hardest. Her glance at Minho proved to be affecting his conscience. There was a miserable tint in his expression, and she began to wonder how much he regretted lashing out in the heat of the moment.
'Keepers, get ready.'
She took a step backwards towards the maze and laughed shakily. 'There's no need for that. You should save your energy for mourning me,' then she looked towards the maze, fear lacing through her bloodstream. 'I've never been one to condemn myself, but… if it takes an impact on your conscience…'
Romana turned and stepped into the maze. Picking up her supplies, her back slowly disappeared at the turn of the maze.
An unearthly silence settled over the crowds. If her willingness to walk into the maze did not faze them, her last words did. Minho, for one, knew for a fact that she would never survive out in the maze when she knew nothing of the routes. He also knew, for a fact, that he was the one who would be most responsible for her death.
Was he going to let it all happen? Did their exchange in the cabin mean nothing at all?
Romana slowed to a jog, and eventually a walk. She stopped suddenly, dropping her bag onto the floor with a loud 'clunk'. With her hand on the wall, she supported herself, and let the tears flow out. They were not quiet tears, but loud, noisy and hysterical sobs that forced their way through the top of her throat, squeezing through her lips.
She let herself calm down, and picked up her bag again, searching for the exit of the maze.
The sun had perhaps shifted to the west when she thoroughly gave up. She sat down on the floor and said her last prayer. Romana let the exhaustion overcome her.
Suddenly, a creaking sound woke her.
It was a Griever.
She stood up, not bothering to collect her supplies, and just ran. The Griever was hot on her heels, and she only managed to evade it- but not after it made a deep cut on her shoulder. She hissed in pain, wondering why she was censoring herself in an area where she was alone.
Sighing, she let herself fall to her knees. Just take me.
'Hey shuckhead! Over here!'
What is that voice?
The Griever changed directions, and she found her eyelids falling close
Romana would not let herself fall into this trap. It was a devil's trap- she knew that if she stepped into the welcoming arms of the darkness, she would perish. She was going to save herself- because she knew that in a world like this one, she could never depend on anyone to save her. It was futile to expect a hero. She could only depend on herself.
Placing an arm on the walls of the maze, she felt around and walked, even though she could no longer see through the red haziness covering her vision. She followed her instincts and walked, knowing that she was going to arrive in the Glade if only she kept going.
And eventually she did. She also walked deliriously into a tired, panting Minho, who simply grabbed her wrist and pulled her back into a cabin. 'You are such a piece of work,' she could hear before she made it to the bed and drifted off into outer space.
XXXXX
She was drifting in the dark. She wondered if this was it- was this afterlife? Would she be stuck here forever, floating in a void that went on and on and on?
'You were right,' a voice chuckled, but the tone was not amused- it sounded way too forced. 'You were spot on, you know. I don't know what to say. I really shucking thought you betrayed me. I trusted you. I really thought you were sent here to destroy us. But now I'm not so sure anymore. You nearly died out there and I know it's all my shucking fault-'
She moved her fingers and squeezed his hand.
'Holy klunk, did you just- Romana! Romana, wake up!'
Groaning, she slowly sat up in the makeshift bed. 'You're a bastard, you know?' she mumbled. And before she could say anything else, he had taken her in his arms and kissed her once again. Tiredly, she kissed back only to falter and nearly collapse.
Frantically, he pulled away and placed her down on the bed again. 'Shuck, I'm sorry. I mean, you're a shucking bitch sometimes, but I still…'
The words would not escape his lips but they both knew what he wanted to say.
She chuckled. 'Don't say that, you won't mean it yet.'
He raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms in front of him. 'How do you know I won't?'
'You'll just be saying it because you've never had anyone to love and I was the first to come along. You'll be saying it because you think that you love me. But you might not- in fact, there's a 99% chance that you don't. So don't say it and get my hopes up, Minho, and just let it be. What will be, will be. Don't make it like last time, where you promised me and completely let me fall apart-'
'I didn't promise-'
She rolled her eyes. 'Oh please, if kissing me like that wasn't promising me that you at least trust me, then what is it? If making me believe I could trust you in an enclosed area with my clothes off wasn't promising me that you'd stand by me, then what is it?' she paused and swallowed her fear, 'And it might have been in the heat of the moment- it might have been lust, but you came back for me and I'm alive. So I think… something matters.'
He sighed, and looked over at her. 'I don't know how this happened, but shuck, you managed to shucking make me care for a shank like you. So you're held accountable for whatever actions I decide to act on because of you.'
'Yeah, sure, I'll just get banished because you decided to save me.'
He grabbed a clean t-shirt and threw it at her, which she caught with a smile on her face.
She pulled off her blood-caked shirt and pulled on the new one, wincing as the blood stuck to the shirt. 'How's Gally?' she asked quietly, not daring to look at Minho.
'What's he to you?' Minho asked rudely.
She glared at him sternly.
'He's my friend.'
'Not anymore,' he answered shortly. 'He doesn't seem to want to be your friend anymore. In fact, he hates your shucking bones now.'
Romana swallowed the sob that was building in her throat. 'God, Gally, I'm so sorry.'
Minho frowned. 'You called me a bastard, and you're sorry for keeping secrets from him?'
A smirk made its way across her face in spite of the pain she was feeling. 'Why, are you jealous?' she asked teasingly.
A possessive look dawned over Minho's face. His voice was strange and husky. 'Why would I be jealous when,' he paused to pull her up so they were on the same level, 'I've got you right where you want to be and he's out there pining, being frustrated because the girl didn't choose him?'
And then he kissed her again.
When she finally pulled away, she was trying hard not to look flustered.
'So what do you propose we do now? They still think I'm out there dying,' she asked casually, raising her eyebrows and leaning back into her pillow, away from Minho.
He smirked over at her. 'Do what we do best. Just go along with it.'
And then, he picked her up and slung her over his shoulders. She gave a protesting cry. 'Is this how you normally carry an injured person? Because it's very considerate,' she said, completely unamused.
He shrugged, and replied with just as much sass. 'I normally just drag them around on the floor, actually. Is that what you want?'
That shut her up efficiently, lying limp over his shoulder. 'You are exceptionally light. What does Frypan feed you? You need to get some meat on your bones.'
'Shut up, Minho,' she mumbled. 'The good meals are always left for you guys. You're runners- you need more energy, apparently, and frankly, I don't quite disagree with that either. I think I've always been quite thin anyway. Does it matter?'
'Would've appreciated more curves,' he grinned.
She rolled her eyes in exasperation. 'Well, nobody's got time to care for them, you arse. Besides, it's not as if you've got any options to choose from so you'd better be appreciative.'
'Yes, yes, now play dead,' he demanded, giving her a smack on the back of her thighs.
Romana grumbled something about him being a bastard before letting her eyelids drift close. It was then they both realised how tired she was. She had spent the entire day running through the maze without training beforehand, evading Grievers and the god-knows-whats in the maze. It had to be at least a little exhausting for her.
'If you hadn't survived…' he said quietly so only she could hear, 'If you hadn't survived and I had been carrying your cold, dead corpse…'
He didn't finish the sentence- he didn't need to.
She wasn't unconscious, she just wasn't moving. And as she lay there not moving, she kept thinking about how this happened. In a million years, she would never have thought he would save her. Sure, she knew he liked flirting with her. Sure, she knew he seemed overtly friendly with her sometimes. But when had he started caring for her?
Or does he?
He was increasingly pleased by having her in his arms. It felt right, even though he had just went against Alby to get her back from the maze. Minho had never broken the rules.
'What's this, Minho?'
'Found her just outside the maze and brought her in. Patched her up and brought her here- her shoulder's sliced in almost straight to the bone,' he said gruffly, obviously exaggerating a little bit, like he always did. He patted her on the thigh again (to be fair, it was the only place on her that he could reach), to which she let out a slight growl to. He smirked in response.
He not-so-gently dumped her into the beds at the ().
Clenching her jaw, Romana made a note to get back at Minho for his lack of care, especially when he knew that she was hurt. She realised how much of a task pretending to be faint was- there was nothing she wanted to do more than shift around right now.
'Have you got anything to do with this?'
Minho rolled his eyes. 'Why would I have anything to do with this?'
'You know you're not fooling me, right?' Clint scoffed. 'She gets banished and you're the one who carries her back. Do you think I don't remember when that shank first arrived and you ended up ripping her dress up? And that she was constantly wearing your clothes?'
He could not stop himself from rolling his eyes again. 'She changed into my clothes once,' he said dryly. 'There is nothing going on between us, as far as I'm concerned. I tend to act a bit macho in front of girls after spending 3 years in the company of shuck-ugly boys, so slim it, slinthead.'
Clint simply raised his eyebrows. 'Whatever you say, Minho, you're the boss,' he said sarcastically. 'If you want to shuck around with the chick and completely ignore all the warning lights that came with her, it's fine by me. It's your life, not mine.'
Minho kept quiet. This conversation had obviously not gone the way he had planned, and now he was the one getting embarrassed. He genuinely hoped that Romana was not hearing this (which was kind of a wishful thinking on his part, since he was the one who told her to play dead). And then suddenly, 'Then what do you want me to do?' he asked, his tone slowly building up to a shout. 'Leave her to die outside when you all know she ain't done nothing wrong?'
Clint laughed. 'You voted for that. And if I remember correctly, you were the one who voted for banishing her. And you were the one who dragged her out after finding that tattoo, so I don't really understand where this sudden love for her comes in.'
'Ya think I don't regret that every day, do ya?' he asked, calming down just a little.
Romana wondered, as she listened to him, if his dialect changed when he talked to different people. Stopping a smile from spreading over her face, she couldn't help but think of how she did the same thing and wonder if they were made for each other. Holy shit, when did I ever get this cheesy? I need to get a grip on myself.
'Shut up, both of you,' she groaned, unable to keep herself quiet anymore.
Minho immediately rushed to her side. 'Are you all right?'
Romana gave him a weird look, mouthing, 'What?'
He shot her a look.
'Should I get Alby?' Clint asked.
'Yes,' they both chorused at the same time. Clint stared at them for a moment before shaking his head and walking out to look for Alby.
She tilted her head to the side and raised one eyebrow. He rolled his eyes and sat down next to her. 'Did you forget that you'd seen me 5 minutes ago and I was only pretending to be fainted?' she asked incredulously. 'Or has your acting become so incredibly amazing that even I wasn't able to read that you were pretending to be concerned?'
'I thought we agreed to go along with it,' he grumbled.
She crossed her legs in front of her and sat up. 'It's quite hard when your shoulder is a tad bit away from bleeding out and your guy decides to just dump you like a piece of trash onto the floor. It's kind of distracting, you know,' she replied, with an equal amount of sass and sarcasm in her voice. Sarcasm is the lowest form of humour, she suddenly remembered, but it didn't faze her.
'You better have a good reason for this.'
They turned to a pissed off Alby at the doorway.
Romana simply shrugged. 'You said you would leave me alone if I found my way back alive. Besides, what are you going to do, really? Banish me again?'
