Newt’s POV:

The moment I step outside with Minho, I feel like a weight was taken off of my shoulders. It felt so good to be outside again. It was a nice day, and a little breezy. The wind was cool as I felt it on my face, and in my hair. I lifted my head to the sky and took in a big breath of fresh air. I felt Minho’s hand on my shoulder

“Ready to start walking?”

I nodded and started awkwardly hoping forward with my crutches, Minho following, at an incredibly slow pace to stay with me.

“Where do you want to go first, Newt?”

“I don’t care. Take me somewhere, anywhere, everywhere.”

Minho chuckled and took about half a step in front of me, and started leading me to where the builders were working on an interesting wood sculpture that might be a bench. Gally looked up, and walked the couple of steps between us.

“Hey, um.”

Why did he look so. . .

“Newt, I’m sorry about what I said in the meeting the other day I really didn’t want you to jump and-”

Gally blurted all the words out at once.

“Gally, slim it. I forgave you a while ago, and that wasn't what pushed me over the edge.”

Minho walked up to me, and squeezed my shoulder.

“Hey, Gally. I wanted to thank you for these crutches! They’re amazing!”

“Th-Thanks!”

Gally walked back to his work, and me and Minho kept moving. One walking, one doing an awkward dance of limping, hoping, and walking. Bet you can guess which one was me. The next person we saw was Chuck. Well, heard, then saw. We were just walking aimlessly, and we heard a scream.

“Newt!”

Then we saw Chuck bolted towards me, and slammed into my stomach. I swear I could feel the crutches dig into the dirt from the force.

“Hey, Chuck.”

Chuck was crushing my ribs.

“Newt, Newt where were you?”

I looked over at Minho. Doesn’t Chuck know? Minho shook his head, so I improvised.

“Um, I got hurt, so I was in the med-jack hut.”

“Bu-But, they wouldn’t let me in!”

Minho stepped up to Chuck

“Yeah, because they didn’t want you to worry about anything.”

Chuck looked confused

“Wha- but, then why-”

Minho looked stressed

“Hey, Chuck, I’m sure you have work. How about we catch up during dinner?”

Chuck nodded, but plodded off anyway. Minho let out a breath

“Minho, did you not tell him?”

“Well. . .”

I gave him a look.

“Minho, tell me.”

“Well, I actually didn’t tell anyone.”

“Who knows then?”

Minho counted off on his fingers.

“Alby, Gally, the two med-jacks, and I think that's it.”

Okay, I don’t know how I feel about that. Happy that no one will pity me? Or sad that no one knows? I don’t know, and I don’t care. That seems like my new motto for everything. I don’t care. Me and Minho kept walking. Then we saw Alby, standing with his back turned. Minho turned to me, and put his finger to his lips, before sneaking off. I leaned on my crutches and watched as Minho snuck up on Alby. Minho tapped Alby’s shoulder, and then at the last second, changed positions so that Alby couldn’t see him when he turned. Alby turned, and looked around, before seeing me and waving. I smiled and waved back, right before Minho tapped Albys back again. I saw Alby turn and see a laughing Minho, then both of them started towards me, one looking annoyed and amused, the other laughing his head off. Again, I’ll let you guess who’s who. By the time they got to me, Alby had stopped looking annoyed, and just looked happy.

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“Well, Newt! I see you decided to get up.”

I nodded

“Yeah, Minho’s been taking me around the glade.”

Alby turned to Minho

“Geez, thanks Minho.”

Minho walked over to me and put an arm around me, before kissing my cheek

“It’s the least I can do for my Newt, and it’s actually kind of fun.”

Alby chuckled, before walking away, waving from behind his shoulder.

“Hey, Minho. When is it lunch?”

Minho looked at the sky

“Hmm. I’d say a couple hours. I think we missed breakfast.”

Minho must have seen my look of despair

“But that doesn’t mean we can’t get some food from Fry! We can have brunch!”

I nodded

“Thanks Minho. I don’t think I’ve had food for a couple days, and the last food I ate was a tasteless lunch.”

A tasteless lunch I ate before jumping.

Minho smiled, and started walking towards the kitchen, and I followed.

Minho’s POV:

We got some food, and I let Newt take the lead as I carried the food, one plate in each hand. I had gotten a ton of fruit, not wanting more of Frys cooking, but Newt seemed eager for it. His plate consisted of a stack of square-shaped waffles, a few berries, and bacon. I wasn’t really paying attention to where we were going, so naturally I was surprised when I looked up and saw a million branches and leaves filtering the sunlight.

“Um, Newt, where are we going?”

Newt didn’t stop walking

“The secret spot.”

Oh crud. The spot I sobbed and thought of him dead. Okay, act normal. We reached the alcove, and I ducked, and went in first, setting down the food, then went back out for Newt. I took Newt’s crutches, and he leaned on me, as we ducked under and into the little room. We both just ate for a minute, taking some time to get the edge off our hunger. We talked about stuff, completely avoiding the obvious thing we needed to talk about. I decided to start edging towards that subject though.

“You know Newt, I came here.”

“When?”

“After,”

I hope I don’t need more explanation.

“After, I ran here, I thought. . . I thought that I could be with you here, even if you weren’t. . . here. I know, I know it's stupid. . .”

Newt grabbed my hands

“Min, baby, it wasn’t stupid.”

We sat there in silence, both trying not to break down.

“Hey, Newt, I have an idea.”

Newt looked up

“What?”

I grabbed two nice, big, fat leaves from the floor of the shelter, then ran out the entrance and down the path a bit, and found a charcoal stick from a campfire we had here a while ago. I came back to Newt with both. Three directions for what to do for my idea.

“Draw a heart. Write your name in it. Switch leaves. Go.”

Newt and I did so, then switched leaves.

“Newt, now we’ll always have a piece of the glade, of this spot, even when we get out. If one of us gets separated from the other, we’ll still have these.”

I knew this was a stupid, stupid idea. Newt looked down at his leaf, then backed up at me, and hugged me.

“It’s perfect.”

“The idea was really stupid. . ..”

Newt pulled back with that grin of his

“Not the idea, you shank. You.”

I blushed, then we were kissing. God, I was waiting for that. Newt was back. Newt was here to stay. I hope so.

“Newt, you know we have to. . .”

He knew what I was going to say

“Do we? Do we though?”

“Yes, Newt. We do.”

Newt looked back down at his hands, which were busily breaking the charcoal stick into smaller and smaller bits. When he spoke, he was still looking down at his hands. His voice was quiet and shaking

“I-I don’t know why. No, no, that’s a lie. I do know. It was everything.”

“Everything?”

“It was everything. Everything and nothing at the same time.”

“So that’s why?”

Newt shrugged.

“Newt, you can tell me.”

Newt looked up from his stick and at me. His face had fresh tear streaks. When had he started crying? Just now?

“Minho, I couldn’t feel, I couldn’t see, I couldn’t hear. It was like I was already gone. So how could it make it any worse by doing it?”

Much worse. So, so much worse. Incredibly, uncountably worse. Instead, I just moved over to Newt and wrapped my arms around him. Newt buried into my chest, as if he could escape the world that way. We stayed like that, silent, for a long time, just hugging each other. That was, until the silence was broken

“Minho?”

I looked down at Newt

“Yeah?”

Newt had a bittersweet expression on his face. It was a smile, but a look of despair put together. Did I want to hear what he was going to say?

“It-It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. I was supposed to fly. To fly away. It didn’t work.”

“Why didn’t it work?”

I wanted to hear this. Maybe.

“Be-Because I landed. I didn’t fly. I didn’t leave.”

I know sweetie. I know you didn’t leave. I know. That's all I’ve been thinking and hoping for, for the past couple days.

“Maybe that is because there is an exit.”

This had nothing to do with it, but he needed to believe that. Newt began to cry again

“I-I know Min, I try to think that, but-but I just c-can’t help it sometimes. My mind just starts I guess, then it keeps going and going and I can’t stop it. . .”

I grabbed Newt’s chin, and forced him to look at me. Oh, god. The sadness in his eyes right now, the tears streaking down his face. I kissed Newt then. One of the first couple times I kissed him after. . . the incident. I felt Newt’s wet cheeks and lips on mine. I would protect Newt. I reached over to the two leaves we made, and found the one with my name on it. I gave it to Newt.

“Newt. Promise me that whenever you feel that way, and I’m not around, look at this. If you still feel that way, well, hold this when you go.”

My voice broke, and I looked away as I started crying, my tears falling onto the leaf strewn floor. Newt looked at the leaf and managed a smile.

If he feels that way again

If he does it hold it when you go

How did my heart manage to keep breaking over and over again?

“So you’ll do it?”

Newt nods

“Always and forever.”

I nod and stand up.

“Let’s start heading back.”

I realized Newt still hadn't said he wouldn't do it again.