Minho’s POV:

I had another day off today. Well, I mean, that's kind of obvious, since the only person I love almost left. Today Newt just kind of lay in bed, even though we were told he could walk while holding on to Med-jack hut walls. One of those which I was leaning on now, trying to persuade Newt to get up and go walk around.

“Newt, C’mon. People are worried about you. They want to see you.”

“I cant since I have to bloody limp along a wall! It's a shucking open field!”

“Well, there's the walls of the maz-”

Shuck, I was stupid. You think reminding him of the job he couldn’t do will help him?

“What?”

“Oh, nothing.”

Newt snorted and looked away. Very easy to anger, sadness, and maybe happiness right now? I only had one moment with Newt that was actually happy, which was the reuniting of us. Alby walked in.

“Hey, Minho, can I see you for a second?”

I glanced over at Newt, and decided he wouldn't die in the next five minutes, then nodded and followed Alby out.

“Okay, what?”

“Well, I think we have an idea to make Newt a little happier.”

“Sure, whatever it is, it can’t make it worse.”

“Good that.”

Alby walked out of the door and returned a few seconds later with Gally and the builders.

“Um, Gally, I know I forgave you, but I don’t think seeing you is gonna make him jump up and down with joy.”

Gally rolled his eyes while the other builders chuckled.

“No, you slinthead. We made something for him.”

How was that going to make him feel better?

“Um, okay. . .”

Another eye roll. Then a motion to another builder.

“Go get them.”

Them? Meaning multiple? The builder returned a moment later holding the most beautiful crutches I had ever seen. They were smooth, polished and almost shining. They had been made out of the most beautiful wood. They were carved smooth, the wood was the color of chocolate, and every centimeter of the wood had been cleaned.The crutches were the exact height for Newt. My heart was bursting with happiness.

“You-You guys did all this for Newt?”

“Yep.”

Alby decided to add to the conversation

“In what two days? Is that right Gally?”

Gally blushed with pride

“Well, uh, we all worked on it together, and worked on just them.”

“You even stopped construction?”

“Yes.”

Gally started to walk away followed by his posse of builders, leaving the crutches leaning on the wall. As he walked away I heard one last remark

“And it was closer to one and a half days, Alby.”

Alby turned back to me

“Still think it won’t work well?”

“No. I think it will work.”

I peeked back in on Newt, who had fallen asleep, his mouth slightly opened.

“Alby, isn’t he adorable when he’s asleep?”

“I mean, I guess?”

Then I had another amazing idea. I mean, I was Minho after all. How could I not have an amazing idea?

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Alby. . .”

I was smiling. Alby looked wearily up, knowing I was gonna ask him for something.

“. . .Yes?”

“Does the med-jack hut happen to have any other patients right now?”

“Uh, no, just Winston who cut himself. Again.”

“Great.”

There were two rooms. Newt had one. Winston had one. I bolted down the stairs into Winston's room. There he was, sitting in his bed, his arm wrapped in a bloody bandage, looking bored. I mean, he had been there, at least, I don’t know, once a week? It wasn’t uncommon for slicers to get hurt a lot. Winston didn’t notice me till I whipped off his blanket, and bolted.

“Hey, what the shuck?”

“Sorry, no time to explain!”

The blanket was trailing behind me like a cape as I ran back up the stairs and to Alby. I held up the blanket like a trophy

“Look what I got!”

Alby let out a breath

“Minho. . .”

“Yes, I believe that is me.”

“. . . Did you just steal that from Winston?”

“Maybe. . . Maybe not.”

That's when we heard Winston screaming at me from his room

“Minho give that back!”

Alby rubbed his temples

“Why? Just why?”

“I had an idea!”

Silence. I kept going.

“We could make this a grand reveal! You know, cover the crutches with the sheet, then walk in, and rip it off. . .”

“Fine, but then you're giving Winston his blanket back.”

“Okay, okay.”

With that, I scooped up the crutches, covered them in a blanket, and walked in. Alby stayed outside the door to watch. Newt was awake now.

“Hey, Newt.”

“Hello.”

Oof. Talk about a cold shoulder. I didn’t let that affect me though.

“Well, I came to show you something.”

“Is that what you're holding?”

“No it’s not, sherlock.”

Newt looked down. Shuck, I’m a slinthead. Time to change the subject.

“Well, you wanna open it? It’s from the builders.”

“I can’t exactly get up to open it.”

“That's fine. I’ll open it for you.”

I pulled off the sheet, and showed Newt the crutches.

“A-Are those crutches?”

“Yep. the finest crutches in the glade.”

I handed them to Newt, and watched as he felt the smooth bark.

“. . . You wanna try ‘em out?”

“Sure.”

I helped Newt out of bed, and leaned him against a wall, before handing him the crutches, one in each hand. He already looked slightly happier now that he had a way to get around. I helped him practice a little in his room, making sure he didn’t fall. At first he was a little unsteady, but he got the hang of it. While Newt kept walking around his room with the crutches, I went back out into the hallway to talk to Alby.

“Looks like you were right. It did make him happier.”

Alby glanced into the room at Newt.

“No kidding.”

We stood there, both thinking of what it would be like if Newt wasn’t here right now, before Alby spoke again.

“Now you get to give Winston back his blanket, and I have to get to work.”

I groaned, but picked up the blanket, and headed down the stairs. When Winston saw me, he glared until I gave him his blanket back.

“Why do you even need a shucking blanket if you cut your arm?”

Winston looked indignant

“Well I’ll have you know-”

I never got to hear Winston’s reason, because it was cut off by a crashing sound. I ran back out of Winston's room, and saw Newt trying to get back up from the ground.

“Newt, what happened?”

Newt smiled and let out a laugh. Man, I missed that laugh.

“I tried going down the stairs. It didn’t work.”

I smiled and shook my head.

“Yeah Newt, it didn’t.”

I scooped him up, being careful of his leg, and brought him up the stairs and into his room.

“I think you’ve had enough practice for today. Maybe tomorrow Alby will let you go out to see some of the others. Chuck’s been asking about you.”

As I lay Newt down, he had a faraway look in is eyes

“Yeah. Yeah, maybe I will. . .”

This time, I sat on the floor, and watched Newt, until I couldn’t stay awake any longer, and slumped into the wall.

Minho’s POV cont. :

I woke up with the light from the one window streaming right onto my face. Well, at least I knew it was morning. It looked nice out, which was good because today was when I was taking Newt out to see some people, and to get some fresh air. But, I mean, what if some of the gladers were mean to Newt? You know, made anther comment like that one. . . that one that started this. Well, if they did, I would personally deliver them to the grievers. I stood up, wincing, as the floor squeaked and creaked. I started slowly walking to the door, trying not to make too much noise, which I later found was impossible, since each step let out a loud creak. After a couple steps, I was done. Shuck it. I just bolted for the door. That didn’t work. I turned around and saw Newt was in fact sitting up, and what's more was coffing on all the dust I just kicked up. The sunlight was coming through the window, catching the small pieces of dust in the light. Already a kind of beautiful scene, right? Light streaming through a dusty wooden hut. . . then it got better. Newt was sitting up, and his blonde hair had caught in the light, making it slightly glow around the edges. Newt was even smiling! I could have stared at that scene forever except Newt still wanted to use his crutches. I helped him out of bed, gave him his crutches, and let him walk. I stayed next to him, just in case he fell. Then we got to the stairs. Newt would not fall down again. So, I did what anyone would do. I picked him up.

“Up you go Newt.”

Newt let out a surprised yelp

“Hey put me down! I can walk. . .”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“So, I could have walked down the stairs!”

We had reached the bottom of the stairs and I put Newt down.

“What? I can’t carry my boyfriend anymore? You wound me.”

Newt rolled his eyes and started walk-limping out the door with his crutches.

God, I really hope no one says anything. . .