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Thomas is weird. He’s smart, and the others like him, but he’s still weird.
He’s always kept away from them, and sometimes after he speaks he looks around like he thinks someone is going to come and get him.
Maybe they have.
He’s really the only kid here Minho hasn’t tried to get to know. Well, and that girl who’s usually with him.
“Minho, stop staring at Tommy, he won’t want to talk to us anymore if he thinks you want him dead.” Newt smacks him lightly.
“Why do you think they keep us separated?” Minho asks. Newt shrugs.
“Some experiment? They’re always doing tests on us.”
“That’s a weird experiment.”
Minho doesn’t get to really meet Thomas until later, and they get along immediately.
They sneak up to the roof, just them, and as they stare at the ground, legs swinging, Minho has to ask.
“What do they do to you? They take our blood a lot, and we have to go to lessons, but I never see you there.”
“I do the same thing, mostly. I’m just… alone. And they do scans of me a lot. One of them shocked me once. It hurt a lot. I can’t remember why though.”
Thomas looks so frustrated by not remembering that Minho almost wants to laugh. Thomas is good, though, he behaves and does what he’s told and if they found a reason to hurt him, then maybe it won’t take much for them to hurt anyone else, either.
“Do you do anything fun?”
“No. I have some games on my tablet, but I don’t use them much.”
Minho bets he has the same ones.
“Me neither. You’ve met Newt, right? He’ll like you, you should come and eat with us sometimes.”
“I’m not allowed to. They watch me.”
They get caught sneaking back inside.
Minho doesn’t see Thomas for a long time after that.
“Thomas!” He’s gotten taller. He’s got a bruise on his face, though it’s not dark enough to be too recent.
“Hey, Minho.”
“Do you know what’s going on? Why are they taking kids for more tests?” Thomas shrugs, biting his lip. That’s not good for him, doesn’t he know that? They’ll give him the bad-tasting chapstick and he’ll have to use it until he stops.
Minho reaches out and stops him before he’s caught.
“You don’t want them to catch you, do you?” Thomas shrugs again. He looks tired, like he hadn’t slept last night.
Or the night before that.
“Are you okay?”
“No, but there’s nothing you can do.” Then Dr. Paige calls Thomas away, and he follows, like he always does.
Minho keeps an eye on Thomas after that. It’s not too hard, because suddenly Thomas is allowed to join them for meals and talk.
Sometimes he says things that are a little strange, but mostly they’re ignored.
“Lina, if I may borrow Minho?”
“Of course, Ava.” Dr. Paige *never* comes personally for anyone in their section. He always sees her with Thomas or Teresa.
“Minho, as Thomas’s friend, I’m sure you’ve noticed he’s struggling a bit. He spent years with only doctors, Teresa, and myself for company, and now he’s not sure how to act around the rest of you.”
Minho might not be as smart as Thomas is--he’s not getting the private lessons, or the whole isolation thing--but he knows there’s more to it than she’s saying.
“We’re moving you into Thomas’s room. He requested you specifically. There’s already a bed set up for you there. Thomas won’t be there now, he’s in the labs for some testing. Your normal schedules will be followed.”
“Even for the rest of today?” Minho asks. If he focuses on that, she might not figure out that he thinks something else is wrong.
“Well, not for today, of course. Today is for you and Thomas to get used to sharing a room and arranging things the way you want them. If you need help with that, just let someone know. Nine-year-olds moving their own furniture is a good way for someone to get hurt.”
Minho is ten, but he lets that go.
“We will, Dr. Paige.” He promises. “When will Thomas be back?”
“No more than an hour. You won’t have to wait too long.” She leaves him in Thomas’s room--his room, now, too.
His bed here is bigger than the bunk beds he shares with Newt. Maybe Newt will bunk with Alby now, or use the top bunk as storage.
There’s nothing to do in Thomas’s room. In the dorm, with all the other boys, they have games and a little fridge for snacks. Thomas doesn’t have any of that. There’s his tablet, on the nightstand, but Minho doesn’t think he uses it.
He ends up taking a nap until Thomas gets there.
“Minho?”
“Hi, Thomas. Doctor Paige came and got me, she said that you needed a roommate.”
“I didn’t think it’d be happening so soon.” Thomas doesn’t seem to know what to do with his arms. “Do you want to move anything? I don’t really mind where things go.”
“We could move our beds closer together? They’re pretty far apart.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
Minho opens the door and asks a passing guard if he can help them--they usually didn’t like to, but would agree in the barracks--and after a few minutes of moving the beds and nightstands, they’re arranged so that both beds are in the middle of the room, with the nightstands between them.
“Don’t you have a class or something?” Thomas asks eventually.
Normally it’s a lot easier to talk to him.
“Not today. Doctor Paige said we have a break from our schedules for the day.”
As the week goes on, Minho starts noticing more about Thomas. Sometimes he can’t sit still, and other times he’s working on something and forgets about everything else. He mutters to himself as he works, not always in English. He doesn’t like anything touching his elbows other than his clothes, and the few times Minho has seen them, they’re covered in bruises.
Minho’s had bruises like that before, from blood tests, but never that many at once.
Thomas will ask questions, but only of certain people. Dr. Paige usually answers. Others don’t. He does everything they say, and comes back with more bruises on his elbows and in other places, too, from getting into and out of scanners.
(Minho thinks that some of them are from people, not objects. But Thomas won’t tell him anything.)
The more people he’s around, the more quiet time he needs to readjust. He doesn’t like having too many people around him.
That one is the most helpful.
Instead of trying to get Thomas to come and eat with all of them in the cafeteria, he tells Newt to bring Alby and Gally back to the barracks for lunch.
“He’s an odd one, isn’t he?” Newt says, quietly, when they’ve split for lessons. “You said he hasn’t spoken to you much, but he seems to know you very well.”
“He’s like that. He picks up on everything. I think it hurts him, sometimes.” Minho still doesn’t know why, but if this helps, then they’ll keep doing it.
It takes a few months, but Thomas finally seems to fully adjust to having Minho around most of the time.
“I like your friends.” Thomas tells him one night, after they’ve both been woken up from a nightmare that Thomas won’t talk about. “They’re funny, and I like their plans.”
“They’re your friends, too, Thomas.” Minho says. “They like you, you know. You’re quiet around them, but they don’t mind. You could help with the plans, if you wanted.”
“I… I don’t want anyone to get in trouble. If we go through with them, I don’t know what they’ll do.”
“It’s a trip outside, what’s the harm in that?”
“They keep us inside for a reason.” Thomas says quietly. He refuses to tell Minho anything more, and he thinks about the night on the roof. How it had been almost a year before he’d seen Thomas after that.
What had they done to him?
“Thomas, what do they do to you?”
“Testing, like you. Normal stuff.”
Minho doesn’t think it is.
“Thomas, why doesn’t WICKED let you stay with us?” Gally finally asks one day.
“They thought I was special, I guess. Once I asked, a few years ago, and they told me it would be a year before I was allowed to meet any of you.”
“Wait, you knew about us?
“A little. I hardly even saw anyone else. Even Teresa, and her room is right next to ours. I don’t think I was supposed to meet you yet, honestly. I think their plan was for Teresa and I to work together, like we do now, and then later we’d meet you. Minho kept trying to talk to me, and that ruined that.”
“Tommy, you were really alone?” Newt, who is always worried about his little sister in the girls’ barracks, recently discovered he can’t even go see her anymore when he sneaks out at night. He’d told Minho between lessons, because Thomas doesn’t know about her yet. Newt needs someone else to look after, and Thomas is exactly the kid who needs it.
Minho doesn’t know why he doesn’t like the idea of *Newt*, his best friend, taking care of Thomas.
“Yeah. I only knew the adults. Dr. Paige is assigned to me, and that’s why she was allowed to move Minho from here.”
“We should have snuck around more.” Newt mutters. “We might have found you.”
“You don’t know what they’ll do if you’re caught. They probably know about it.” Thomas says. “You don’t have to sneak out, this is okay.”
“Come to our lessons with us, Thomas.” Alby says--well, more like orders. He and Newt are mostly in charge of the barracks, and Minho and Gally by association. “What are they going to do?”
By the look on his face, it’s nothing good.
“Are you that bloody scared of them, Tommy? You told us they do the same things to you as to us, what’s so bad about it?”
“Thomas,” Minho cuts in, “Show them your elbows.” Thomas shoots Minho a look, but rolls up his sleeves anyway.
“That’s from bloodwork and testing they do on him.” He explains, when Thomas doesn’t. “We’ve never had anything like that.” There are other bruises there, too, like he’d been strapped down or something.
Gally, Newt, and Alby exchange a look; Thomas is pulling his sleeves back down, so he doesn’t notice.
“It’s okay.” Or maybe he did. “It’s normal.”
When they try to sneak out, they don’t take Thomas. He promises Minho he’s not going to tell WICKED anything.
“Did Thomas tell you everything?” Gally’s struggling against the guards holding him.
“No, but we have been watching. You really think we didn’t know about your sneaking out? You’re clever, but not enough to outsmart the cameras.”
Right. Cameras.
Of course WICKED knew everything. When didn’t they?
They put in him a room with this--this thing, rubbery and with metal legs and he can’t escape. He’s strapped to a table, and the thing’s got blades attached to it.
He’s going to die.
WICKED is going to kill him.
Are they making the others watch? This was his plan.
It’s gross, and slimy. He knows he’s screaming, but he can’t hear himself over the whir of the machinery.
There’s a saw inches from his face, and he can’t stop staring at it.
It stops spinning, stops moving, right before it touches him.
He’s… not dead.
Or maybe this is just another test.
The thing backs off, retreating to the pod.
Minho waits for someone to come unstrap him, but they don’t.
The thing comes at him a second time--he doesn’t know how long it’s been. As it drapes over him, dripping slime and *loud* and with sharp objects held close to his body, he screams himself hoarse.
But it backs off again.
The third time, he’s sure they’re not going to kill him.
By the fourth, he’s mostly just disgusted by it.
What point do they have to prove?
He was scared, now it’s just… dumb. He’s not even screaming anymore, he can’t, anyway. His throat is too sore.
The fifth time, it gets closer again, closer to killing him, but it’s stopped before it does.
Who’s watching this time? Gally? Alby? Someone who wouldn’t be scared for him until it got that close. Wouldn’t show it.
Minho falls asleep--or passes out, he’s not really sure--still strapped to the table.
He wakes up in his own bed. Thomas isn’t there.
What time is it? Is Thomas in lessons? Does he even know what happened?
That they almost got out?
They’d been so close. They thought they were so close.
The door opens, and Dr. Paige steps in.
“Minho, I’ve been rethinking this arrangement.” She sits on Thomas’s bed. “I’m not sure you’re the best person for Thomas to be listening to.”
“No, please, I can help him.”
“Help him escape?”
“No. He didn’t help at all. He knew about it, but he didn’t want us to go.”
“Oh, I know all that. He told me. After your attempt, not before.” Thomas doesn’t like being around people, but Minho doesn’t think he’ll survive being alone again. If they move Minho back to the barracks, they’ll probably also stop Thomas from seeing him at all.
Minho can’t let that happen.
“Do you want to stay here?”
“Yes,” Minho says. He’s not leaving Thomas.
“Then behave. No more escape plans.” She gets up to leave. “Oh, and Minho? As punishment for not telling us what you were up to, we made Thomas watch the Griever. Your other friends, too.”
Well, he’d figured that out. But Thomas--Thomas hadn’t done anything.
The door opens again, and Thomas clears the relief off of his face when he sees that Dr. Paige is there.
“I was just having a talk with Minho, Thomas. A few reminders, that’s all.” She smiles, but it’s not genuine.
“Yes, Dr. Paige,” Thomas says, not looking at her. She reaches out to put a hand on his shoulder, but he pulls away.
“I’ll see you in the morning, Thomas.”
Thomas drops his things on the bed--not organizing them as he usually would--and almost jumps onto Minho’s bed.
He’s very careful not to touch him, though.
“You were--you were so scared, Minho. I could feel it. I usually can’t, that far away. Too much glass, and space, but I could feel it.”
“What do you mean, Thomas?”
“I’ve always been able to do it. I just kind of… know what other people are feeling. And especially you, because I’m always around you. I don’t know how much they know about it. I haven’t told them because I don’t want them to do more tests on me.”
Minho eyes the distance between them. “Contact makes it worse.” He guesses.
“Yeah. More intense. You’re usually pretty calm, so you help a lot. Gally’s angry a lot, or at least upset. I can’t always tell. Newt and Alby are pretty calm too. I don’t know if just that I’m more used to you, but--” Thomas cuts himself as he starts rambling.
“Thomas, it’s okay. I was scared, but they didn’t hurt me.”
“You’re still worried. What did Dr. Paige want?”
“She was going to move me out.” Thomas’s face drops, and Minho can read him more easily than he’s been able to the whole time he’s known him. “I tried to convince her not to. Thomas, I’m not leaving.”
“You don’t know that,” Thomas whispers. “Minho, you don’t know what she’ll do.”
“I’ll sneak back, every night.”
“They’ll move me.”
“I’ll find you. Always. I won’t stop looking until I do. I’m not leaving, Thomas, they can’t make me. Newt and Alby will help me. Even Gally will help me. I’ll find you, always.”
“That’s a big promise for an eleven-year-old to make,” Thomas says, slowly. “Why?”
“You’re my friend.”
“You’re not allowed to be that scared again.” What Thomas is doing could technically be called a hug, but it’s more like he’s curling around Minho.
“I’ll try not to be.” He’s seen how easily Thomas gets overwhelmed.
There has to be something he can do.
In his free time, Minho starts reading about meditation. He knows WICKED blocks access to a lot of things, but it seems like they’ve deemed meditation mostly harmless.
Thomas skips lunch for a few weeks, but eventually, he meets Minho at the barrack doors again.
“I’m sorry for avoiding you.” He tells Gally, Alby, and Newt when he sees them.
“You had a good reason, Tommy,” Newt says.
What reason? Thomas hasn’t told Minho anything.
“I can’t imagine they were very happy with you for not telling.” Oh, so that’s what he meant.
“They made him watch, too,” Minho adds, quietly. He doesn’t like talking about it. “The first time they did it. That one was the worst because I thought they were actually going to kill me.”
“It wasn’t pleasant to watch, but we know we have to be more careful now,” Alby says. “If Minho doesn’t want to talk about it, we won’t. What have you been doing, Thomas?”
Thomas tells them a little about his lessons--some of them sound weird, different from theirs, but of course, WICKED is going to give Thomas different lessons.
They want him to be separate from them.
Minho talks to Newt about it before he says anything to Thomas. Newt’s usually pretty good at this kind of thing.
“Newt, I’ve been looking up mediation, that sort of thing. I think it might help Thomas.”
“Help him how?”
“Well, he’s… he can feel other peoples’ emotions. He felt how scared I was, and that’s why he finally told me. He doesn’t know how to block it. It’s why he gets overwhelmed so easily.”
Newt nods. “That makes sense. He does pick up on everything, even things we don’t say.”
“He says he can’t get thoughts or anything.”
“I’d believe him. Sometimes it’s less about the thought itself than what emotion comes with it.”
Minho doesn’t know how Newt knows all this.
“Have you talked to him about this?”
“Not yet, I want to help him but I’m not sure this is the right way.”
“Ask him if he wants to try. The Psychs have done a little with me, and I might be able to give him some tips. I’m guessing we’re keeping this quiet?”
“Yeah. He doesn’t think they know.”
Minho probably shouldn’t even have said anything to Newt, but it’s too late now.
In the end, Newt asks before he can. Later that day at lunch, Newt pulls Thomas aside and talks him through… something. A breathing exercise, he thinks, but he’s not sure from just watching.
“Thanks for looking all that stuff up for me, Minho,” Thomas murmurs that night, sitting cross-legged on the floor. “Newt told me it was your idea.” He tilts his head just slightly.
“Do you want to try with me?”
“Sure.” He hadn’t really thought about it, but if helps Thomas, he’s going to do it.
Slowly, they’re able to bring more people into their circle. Siggy, who is always hanging out around the kitchens, and even the girl, Teresa.
“Maybe we should try eating in the cafeteria again,” Alby says. “You know everyone thinks it’s strange we eat in here.” Thomas flushes, and he’s not quick enough to hide it from Minho.
“Hey, just because they want to eat where it’s loud doesn’t mean we have to.” Gally folds his arms over his chest. He’s hit a growth spurt recently; he’s finally the tallest in their group.
“We don’t have to join a loud table.”
Minho and Newt are still the only two who know about Thomas’s ability to sense emotions.
“Thomas, we don’t have to.”
“No, it’s okay.” Gally doesn’t seem to care, but Alby is watching them carefully.
That day, at least, Thomas seems fine.
“It was okay, Minho. It’s a lot easier than it was before. The mediation is helping.”
Later that year, watching Thomas laugh with a group of boys down the table, Minho almost wishes it didn’t work as well as it does.
Thomas has been spending more and more time with Newt, lately, working on techniques and focusing on figuring out what *he* feels compared to what *others* feel.
They still spend every night together, but it’s not the same.
He wants to be the one talking to Thomas all the time, making him laugh and sharing his food.
Not Newt or any of those other boys.
Thomas was his friend first!
Minho knows he’s too old for this sort of thing, but he wants to have Thomas all to himself.
“Minho,” Thomas says that night. “If you want to spend more time with me, you just have to ask.”
“I know.” He shoves his face into his pillow. It won’t matter, Thomas will still feel his embarrassment, but it makes him feel a little better. “But you should have other friends, too, not just me.”
“I do. I’m friends with Newt, Alby, Teresa, Aris, and Rachel. You’re still my favorite, Minho.” He can hear Thomas crossing the short distance between their beds. “You’re the only one I think I couldn’t live without.”
“Don’t say that, Thomas.” He answers, if only because he feels he has to. When Minho sneaks a glance at Thomas’s face, he knows that he gets it. That little half-smirk, the one only Minho saw for the longest time, and his eyes bright.
Minho wants him to stay like this, happy and bright-eyed and his, forever. No more tests, no more lessons, just… them.
They shouldn’t have to worry about that, anyway.
The next few months are wonderful, after that. Thomas always sits next to him at lunch and sometimes when it’s too much, he’ll hold Minho’s hand. Then he starts holding Minho’s hand just because, and that’s nice too. Teresa teases Thomas till he’s red in the face, and Newt makes jabs at Minho about his ‘boyfriend’ in lessons. No one else seems to really care. Dr. Paige watches them a little too closely, and Thomas won’t hold his hand when she’s around, but he knows Thomas is still afraid of being separated again.
WICKED has to know. They have cameras everywhere, they know everything. They won’t split them up, because that would be bad for everyone.
Minho should have known better.
Thomas rounds the corner, Teresa trying to hold him back, wide-eyed and panting.
“You betrayed us!” Gally yells, before anyone can stop him. “You were working with them!”
Thomas doesn’t say anything. He knows he’s not going to convince Gally otherwise.
“Minho--” Thomas reaches for him, and even though he’s not supposed to, Minho steps out of line and grabs him tightly.
“It’s okay, Thomas. I know you wouldn’t do it if you didn’t have to. I believe you, okay? I trust you. I’ll be alright. I promise.”
“They’re splitting us up.”
“I’ll find you, always. I’ll find a way back. I’ll know you, anywhere.” Minho promises.
He pulls back a little. He knows Thomas can feel everything he is, so he tries to push good things forward in his mind.
“When you find me… how will you know?”
“I’ll know.” He will. He will know Thomas everywhere, he’s sure of it. Thomas might be the one with emotional powers, but he’ll know.
“I’ll find you.” He promises. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, but he slides a hand up to Thomas’s face. “I’ll find you, and I’ll know you. You’ll know me.”
When Thomas doesn’t pull away, Minho kisses him softly.
He’d thought they would have more time.
“I’ll find you, Thomas.” He leans his forehead against Thomas’s. “We’ll find other again.”
They don’t separate, simply being together.
Teresa pulls Thomas back, gripping him too tightly.
Thomas’s face, full of the worry and fear he tries so hard not to show in front of WICKED, is the last thing he sees.
There’s something--someone--he has to find. It’s the only thing he’s sure of, aside from his name.
That means he has to get them out of here.
“I’ll take the Maze,” Minho says, glaring at anyone who would disagree.
Minho doesn’t break his promises.