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CHARACTERS: thomas and teresa
LOCATION: teresa's room, backdated to a week after the jump.
WARNINGS: none!!
SUMMARY: bunking in teresa's room!! also discussion of "wtf is up with this ship"
NOTES: potential maze runner spoilers, proceed with caution y'all.

[ there's a room for him, but it's far up above hers. thomas doesn't like it. he doesn't like being isolated, and he doesn't like having his own room. in the glade they'd all slept so close. he'd slept with chuck just next to him, the steady rhythm of his breathing always there to lull thomas into sleep. and thomas needs that, really. all he does at night is lie away and think about what he saw in the changing.

so he shows up at teresa's door with his blanket and his pillow. he can see two beds, same as his room, and immediately feels embarrassed about his armful of bedding. ]

I was going to ask if you minded sticking close.

[ as if it's a strength in numbers thing, and not a thomas not wanting to be alone thing. ]

Promise I don't snore.

[ an awkward attempt at a joke, hitching his blanket up higher, so it doesn't trail along the floor. ]

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[ teresa doesn't like it either; it feels like that night in the dormitory where they had separated her from all of the gliders. except no one here is stopping them. she thinks about staying in his for the night, but he's already there like he knew what she was thinking — well, didn't he?

she opens the door, a relaxed (and know-it-all) smile on her face as she lets him in. her hair is dry and thick, falling in messy curls and a long-sleeved shirt hanging from her shoulders. ]

You better not.

[ shutting the door behind him, she follows him back inside and sits on her bed with one leg pulled up underneath her. she understands too well not wanting to be separated, especially after months of being essentially on her own (not that she couldn't handle it, it was just better this way). ]

People disappear or get lost around here all the time, Tom. I don't want to be worried about you too.

[ tom's heard a few stories. don't go wandering, don't go where it's not light. it's a little like the glade, except they don't have walls. they have a maze, but no one's running into it except for-- ]

There's a woman who takes people out into the ship. She hasn't gotten lost yet.

[ evasively, like thomas knows teresa isn't going to be thrilled with thomas wanting to go with her. ]

I never got lost in the Maze.

[ though talking about the glade isn't easy. thomas knows now. he knows enough to feel guilty, to know why gally had hated him on sight. they're so far removed from it, but thomas still thinks about it, pores over it again and again, won't let himself forget. ]

This isn't the Maze.

[ she hurls back immediately, pleading almost, because of course she knows what tom wants to do. under normal circumstances (whatever those are), she would have wanted to go with him — in fact, she tried. and what happened? she was lost for weeks in the hallway literally minutes before she got back to the pods.

teresa wants a clear, thought-out plan of action before taking on the ship again. ]

And you can get lost, trust me.

[ her eyebrows flick up as her gaze falls to her lap, her fingers pick at the sleeve of her shirt. ]

[ thomas is still standing just inside the room, clutching a pile of bedding. he feels like--

not a kid. he doesn't really remember what that's like. but he feels young, immature, and hurls the blankets onto the spare bed like that will take care of the problem. there's so much he doesn't know. he'd just started figuring things out in the glade, and now he's here, and it's like he has to start from scratch. ]

Did you get lost?

[ it's a shrewd guess, even if thomas doesn't like it at all, doesn't like the idea that she'd been out there. he still thinks this is the maze. or a maze, if not the maze, but he's saving that argument for later, really. ]

[ it's a guess, but he's right and probably knows when her bright blue eyes snap back up to his. she doesn't really want to discuss her failures, or that she was maybe wrong about something. but it's tom, and she relents with a sigh. ]

Yeah. It was weird, almost like everything stopped — I don't even remember being hungry, but it went on for days. Maybe weeks.

[ she remembers being led around in circles, endless hallways that seemed to stretched for forever. and there was no one around. she didn't even know that the ship had stopped somewhere — that, she really regrets not being able to explore. it was almost like the ship kept her there. she knows that this ship tends to have a life of its own, much like the maze. ]

I know what you're thinking, Tom. It could still be WICKED, right?

You can't know that it isn't.

[ he saw himself designing the maze in the changing, but not this. but that doesn't mean anything, does it? he could have just not seen enough. but there's no grievers here to trigger anything else, so tom just has to live with that uncertainty. ]

And you came back. You survived.

[ just like thomas had. a night in the maze, a day ( a week? ) out in the ship. thomas can feel her uncertainty, doesn't know what to do with it, how to classify it. ]

I know.

[ it was her best theory since she arrived, even if it's slowly being proven wrong. teresa thought she was onto something with another code, the numbers written on the walls, but it was too random. she thinks about sharing all of this with tom, but there was still so much else to consider first.

then another small smirk tugs at her lips. ] Don't I always?

[ tougher than most of the other gladers, right? if she remembers what he said. he already knows she doesn't need protecting; she needs a partner in crime (so to speak), not a knight to defend her. ]

It does feel like a trial. Every month something seems to get thrown at us.

[ teresa pulls up her other leg onto the bed, bringing her knees up close to her chest as she watches tom. ]

[ he sits down on the edge of the bed to keep from pacing. thomas is all restless energy, bursting with a thousand questions and no real outlet for them. his eyes linger on teresa's mouth for a split second before he looks away, embarrassed, the flicker of intent burning right down the connection before thomas can do anything about it.

mortifying. is it ever not going to be mortifying? maybe when he learns how to control it, but for now thomas just keeps kicking it aside, trying to focus. ]

Do you think someone's watching? Do you think they're watching?

[ the they is significant, thomas' tone going dark. ]

[ when he sits down there is something in teresa that relaxes, calms down because he is. teresa has been trying to figure out if the ship felt different solely because tom was here — and if she felt so sensitive because it. they did have an inherent understanding of each other...

but she stretches her legs back out, focused on answering his questions. or attempting to at least. she doesn't like to admit she has been here so many months without gaining much information. then again, it took the gladers almost two years to make progress before tom showed up. ]

Yes, someone is watching, but... I don't know if it's them. Or someone related to them. Because why would they need to hide if it is?

[ he just wants to sit down and pick at this, try to untangle this place, puzzle it into something he can understand. he smooths his hand over the pillow, frowns at it. ]

Who else would be watching though? Who else is left?

[ thomas still thought this was the maze. a part of the maze. ]

[ teresa is the same way, and tom should know that. but she's been here longer, thinks she has more pieces of the puzzle. even if they aren't exactly lining up at the moment. ]

Who knows. We don't know how far WICKED can reach. Maybe if we remembered... [ tom went through the changing not her, he at least saw more than she did. all she had, still, was the memory once written into her arm that WICKED is good. ]

I think we should focus on getting out. Find the pattern again.

Edited 2014-06-01 02:58 (UTC)

[ if they remembered. it always came down to that, all the things they didn't know, the gaps and blank spots in their memories. thomas makes a frustrated noise, pushes his pillow aside. ]

I'm going to join that exploration team. They're like Runners.

[ with less running, but still. ]

If there's a pattern, that's probably where to start looking.