Stardust - Thomas - Maze Runner

Chapter 3 - Sunsets

Selena could feel Thomas' eyes on her while she worked, trying to clean up and put away everything she and Mary had used for the serum, but, for the first few minutes, he didn't say anything, busying himself with watching Brenda as she slept. He noticed the way she was breathing a little easier now, her chest raising up and down rhythmically and Thomas was grateful to see her resting after everything they had been through. She did deserve a break anyway and, if he couldn't recall the last time he had actually had a full-night of sleep, he was pretty sure Brenda hadn't been able to relax for quite a while now too. So, in a way, Thomas was glad the two of them - and the rest of their friends waiting outside - would have, at the very least, a little while to rest.

Looking down at Brenda, Thomas almost missed the way Selena was finally done with her work and, if it hadn't been for the fact that she had whispered his name to grab his attention, he probably wouldn't have even seen her leaving the tent.

"I'm done here." Selena said, her voice low as she nodded toward the table she had been working on, probably trying to be as quiet as possible as not to disturb Brenda. "I'll leave you two, okay? If you need anything, you can look for Mary, but considering how well she's responding to the serum, I don't think we're gonna have a problem at all."

Thomas only nodded at her, his eyes finally leaving Brenda's form to fall on Selena instead. As she stood there, in front of him across the room, Thomas took a second to look over at her properly for the first time ever since they met and she pointed a gun straight to his face. He could see the way her long red hair was pulled back from her face in a ponytail, a little messy, but enough to keep most of her strands away from her face as she worked, probably. He could see her fair skin, littered with freckles, a little more highlighted by the faint blush of her cheeks - he didn't know her at all, but, judging by the way she looked, Thomas was pretty sure the hot sun of the Scorch had punished her light skin quite a lot. Now that she had taken off her lab coat, Thomas could see the way her long sleeved shirt and black pants hugged her body tightly, showing off a form that had been mostly hidden underneath the heavy coat she had been wearing when she and her friends had attacked him and his friends on the way up to the mountains. She was a pretty girl, Thomas could see that much, but, as she stood there in front of him, almost as if waiting for a reaction from him, Thomas felt as if there was more to that girl than what he could see and, probably, it had something to do with the way her deep brown eyes dug into his, harsh and cold and very much suspicious but still, somehow, almost begging to be warm... Warm and kind and happy, in a way Thomas was pretty sure she had felt before, but hadn't in quite a while.

"I'll, hum... I'm gonna leave." Selena mumbled and Thomas almost blushed, realizing he had probably been just staring at her for quite a while if she had suddenly decided to just turn away from him and leave.

"Selena." Thomas called out for her, watching the way the girl stopped dead in her tracks, looking over her shoulder toward him. "Thank you."

"No problem." She nodded at him, smiling just barely as her lips tugged a little at the ends. "I'm glad I could help."

And something in her words must have snapped something within Thomas because, suddenly, he was letting go of Brenda's hand as he stood up from his place beside his bed to cross the room toward Selena. Reaching a hand over toward her, Thomas grabbed her gently by the arm, once again, stopping her before she could properly leave the tent. This time, however, she was already holding up the flap of the entrance with some of the sunlight from the outside coming inside the dark tent as she froze, surprised by his touch. She turned to look at him with wide-eyes.

"What?" She asked, her voice a little uncertain and sounding smaller than Thomas had ever heard it before and, suddenly, he realized he was probably intimidating her somehow.