𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊 | 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘴 𝘹 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

•Before The Maze• [5]

Started: 9/21/23

(Nvm y'all I lied, the new time skip will just be three dots)
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December 15th 2046, 8 years old

"WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE animal?"

Y/N picked her head up and looked at Thomas. "That's random. Red pandas."

Now it was his turn to be confused. They had only learned about them a few weeks ago, so for Y/N to say they were her favorite seemed a little odd. "Why red pandas?"

The girl sat up from her half-lying down position on her bed and leaned against the wall. "Because they're cute." She looked at Thomas with a shrug.

"You say that about everything."

"Yeah, well, I find a lot of things cute."

He looked away with a small chuckle to himself. "Like what else?"

"Seals." Y/N giggled, looking at her friend with a sly smile.

Thomas nodded with a small huffed laugh. He was about to ask her another question, but he felt a weight on his shoulder. It was Y/N, leaning her head on him like she'd done many times before. Yet each time it never failed to make him smile like an idiot.

"What's your favorite color?" She spoke, her voice sounding all nonchalant.

He made a humming noise for a second and looked down to where his hands were fidgeting, "Orange and blue."

"Blue?" She asked like it was unbelievable.

"Yeah? What's wrong with blue?"

Y/N looked up at him from her current position. "Everything in the place is either blue, white, or gray. It's all so. . . sterile."

He shrugged, adding a hmph noise. "I dunno, I just like it. Besides, you asked."

She rolled her eyes, but couldn't fight that. "Yeah, yeah." Y/N sank against his side comfortably. "What else do you like?"

Thomas felt odd; he could've sworn he felt his skin get a little hot. "Huh?"

"What else do you like." The girl reiterated.

"Things you'd think are weird."

She lightly rolled her eyes, shaking her head in playful disapproval. "Like what?"

He felt that weird feeling again, like he was nervous. Thomas didn't quite know what to say—it was as if he was drawing a blank; forgetting everything he knew about himself. "I don't know, just weird things."

Y/N sighed and flicked his wrist for not answering directly, which inadvertently made him stop fiddling to pull his hand away, grumbling something about how it hurt. She tugged herself up off his shoulder and mirrored the way he was sitting; sitting on the bed with her back against the wall. "Does that mean I'm weird?"

Thomas hesitated for a moment, giving a diffident laugh to make up for the lack of answer. "Well, you're pretty weird either way."

She scoffed as if she'd taken offense, but her smile said otherwise. "Gee, thanks."

"You're welcome."

...

Thomas was in his room waiting for the alarms to buzz so he could start his day. He mainly just wanted to see Y/N, even though they had been with each other no more than thirty minutes ago.

When their doors opened he saw Teresa first because her room was diagonal from his, then he went over to Y/N. The three were brought to their lessons as usual. Today in one of their lessons, they learned about a few different types of animals that went extinct due to the Sun Flares.