A/N: SO HEY I'M BACK WOOOOO IT'S BEEN LIKE A YEAR SINCE I'VE UPDATED ANYTHING
AND I'M SO SO SORRY
Okay I don't know how many of you will still read this, but well, I've gotta finish this, it's been way too long. There'll be more A/Ns at the bottom so please check it out :)
~
A thousand faces stared up at Thomas. His speech trailed to an end on a high, a promise, an assurance of a better future. An assurance of safety, of a family and a home.
He told the story of the trials. His trials. Running, fighting, failing, losing. Rebuilding, regrouping, trusting, learning. He told the story of him. Of his past, his future.
It's a tale to be passed down to the children, then their children. A story of a brave leader and his friends. A story of the leaders, the beginners of the new world. The world post-apocalypse.
But Thomas didn't know that.
He knew only what he saw, in the faces of the crowd. Grim or smiling. Eyes weary, hopeful. But Thomas was positive just as he was uncertain. A thousand hours and dangers later, and he's still wary, still fearful, deep inside, but if there was one thing he learnt it's that they deserved this. After all they'd been through, they deserved peace.
He walked off the stage to the claps of the audience. Stage was really just a stone platform, in this case, perhaps the remnants of a courtyard or a house. Newt greeted him with smiling eyes and a gentle kiss. "See? Everything's good," he said, "they like you, Tommy."
"Not as much as you do," he replied, smiling.
"Well I sure hope not."
~
Thomas had the ring in his pocket for an uncomfortably long amount of time. He swore he would find a good opportunity to give it to Newt, and that was exactly what he was doing, he told himself. With each increasingly normal day that passed, he was getting more and more agitated.
Newt started to worry about him.
"What's wrong?" he asked one night at dinner, over soup and mashed potatoes and (surprisingly good) steak. Thomas paused mid chew.
"What?" he replied, feigning nonchalance. Newt narrowed his eyes.
"You've been jittery for days," he pointed out.
"No I haven't." He put on a smile. Newt raised an eyebrow. "Okay," Thomas sighed, knowing he couldn't hide it from Newt. He knew him well. A little too well, he thought, flashbacks of the previous nights and the words, god, the words that came out of his mouth. He blushed. "Um."
"Forgive me if I'm being rude, but I'm slightly worried about you."
"I've just been feeling a little cooped up, is all. You know, the rain, and stuff." And it was true, it had been raining for days, mostly throughout the day, only stopping occasionally at night. Thomas found it strange; wasn't it common for rain to come at night? But what did he know about rain anyway. There was barely any in the Glade.
And the rain added to his anxiety, because he needed to do something special to propose, and he couldn't just drop The Big Question in the middle of dinner or something. He hid the ring, which he'd gotten from one of the munies, an antique passed down in her family, in his pocket, transferred it to every set of new clothes he wore. He didn't dare put it somewhere in the house for fear of Newt seeing it. She'd wanted him to have it because they saved her family's life. "Luck follows it wherever it goes," she'd said, and Thomas had taken it gladly. Luck was good, he thought. Very.
And Newt had let the subject go, just like that, with only a questioning look every now and then. Thomas always tried his best to look innocent then. He felt a little guilty, but all within good reason, he told himself. Until Thomas started disappearing for minutes and then hours, making excuses Newt could see even he didn't quite believe in. And he was going to confront him about it, he just didn't want this, this heaven of sorts, this paradise, to end. Thomas came back flustered one evening, and Newt's mind immediately went to worst possible scenario. He opened his mouth to say something, but Thomas stopped him.
"I don't know what you think and what I look like, but this isn't it," were his first words. Damn, what he felt must have been all over his face. "Come with me," Thomas said then, almost abruptly in a way too nervous to be the spur of the moment, and Newt was confused, but he did.
They stepped into the cool nighttime air, and Thomas dragged Newt down a familiar path to the top of the hill overlooking their little town. Flickering lights in the trees around them mirrored the soft golden glow of the houses below, in turn a reflection of the stars above. It's so surreal it looks almost man made, like their sky in the Glade, except this was real. This was real, and they were here.
The air was clearer up here, the buzz of the town muted and dimmed by the leaves and the winds and the cicadas that chirped with the twinkling of the stars.
"What's this all about?" Newt asked, still confused.
"Look, I don't know how to do this properly, so I'll just say it. Remember when we first met? Or what we remember anyway. When I stumbled into the Glade and fought Gally at the bonfire, and then when I tried to escape like an idiot. Back when I didn't know anyone, anything. You were kind to me. You stood by my side when the rest wouldn't, and they say I'm the leader but I wouldn't be here without you. We wouldn't be here without you. It's all over now, the trials, everything, and we've found the happiness we deserve. And I hated the whole thing, you know I did, you did too. But you were the one thing that made everything a bit better, a bit brighter, I want you to know that." Newt's eyes followed where Thomas pointed, at the children playing below.
"We did all this. We gave them a home. And I don't know how much of this is planned, but I know for sure that you and I weren't. But that's just it, isn't it? We do the impossible. The unexpected. We were thrown into this but we came out the other side, alive, and with each other. You mean so much to me, Newt. And I know there's practically no point, I mean look at us, but I just have a small question for you."
Newt turned to look at Thomas, heart racing, but he was pretty sure it stopped when he saw Thomas, his Tommy, on one knee before him, a small, rustic looking ring in his fingers. Newt knew his eyes were watering but that fine, this was fine, this was more than fine, oh god.
"Will you marry me?"
~
Silver bells rang across the field, accompanied by the quiet shushing of summer breeze.
It had taken weeks to plan and organise everything, and sure, it's unnecessary, a hassle, but they wanted something official. Something to mark not only their relationship with, but the end of an era, a century, and the beginning of a new time. Something to hold on to, an occasion to treasure, to look back on and remember not only each other but their friends that were with them, their sacrifices and courage, for them to get this far.
They wanted it to be perfect.
Where the sky met the grass, there were dots of white, pillars and branches of silver and gold. They didn't have much in terms of resources, and it may not be as grand, or as majestic, as what was typical, but that was okay. Through the forest, trees were marked with white lace and gold, dangling from branches ribbons like flames. At the foot of an old maple tree, birch and ivy formed an arch.
It was an experience, if anything.
Anxiety, excitement, and a serene, kind of teary, feeling, bloomed in Thomas' chest as he walked down the path, to his place in front of the arch, a wistful smile on his face. He wasn't allowed to see the decorations, everything, as they were being set up - it was going to be a surprise, a gift from everyone to them. He wanted it to be good, to be perfect, and as he looked around, he realised that he didn't know what he meant by perfect, but it was, nonetheless.
The first things he noticed were the flowers. So many flowers. Golden petals marked the path to walk down, and around every pillar, lining every tree were different flowers, different shades of the same tones. Daffodils and peonies and beautiful stalks of gardenia, arranged in a simplistic way that could only be described as artistic. Vines with small white flowers curled against pillars and trees, like morning dew on branches at dawn.
And they said, during a wedding, you should always look at the couple's expressions.
And they were right.
Newt was dressed sharp in a black suit, eyes on Thomas' as he walked down the same path. He smiled, softly, and it brought Thomas back to the Glade, to the sunlight shining through a ceiling of leaves and shared secrets and laughter in the depths of the forest. They'd come this far, and this was surely the ending they deserved. No more death, no more suffering. Just peace, and happiness, in their purest form.
(A/N: I'm looking at you, JDash.)
As Newt reached his place beside Thomas, Thomas began to speak. They didn't want a priest, or someone to marry them, to read the vows, because they wanted to do it themselves, to tell each other their truest feelings and to speak to the audience about everything that's happened.
And he did. He spoke about their journey, their friends, what they did and the heroes they are, and how without them, he - hell, none of them - would be where they were now. Then of Newt, and how he gave them hope in the darkest of times, how he was strong for the rest, for him, despite his own weakness, how he almost lost him but was ever so thankful he got him back. He didn't know what he'd do without him. "...so thank you, my angel. I love you, and I will always love you."
And when their lips met against the claps and cheers of the audience, a sweet, sweet feeling bloomed in Thomas' heart, blossoming with every beat of his heart until he couldn't help but smile. Because Newt wasn't just his boyfriend anymore. No, he was his husband.
...
Hours later, as the sky turned orange then pink then black, Thomas lay in his - their - bed, an arm around Newt and fingers in his hair, a lazy smile on his face after what began with I can't wait to get this suit off you and ended with holy shit, that was... damn. He let his thoughts drift, thinking of their wedding, goddamn, their freaking wedding, how did he get so lucky? And began to speak.
"I still don't know what I did to deserve you," he said, and hummed when he felt warm lips on his neck, "but hey, I'm not complaining. In my earliest memory, I was scared, troubled, surrounded by monsters and strangers, and I thought, there had to be something good in that mess of a situation. I mean, every cloud has a silver lining, doesn't it? And now, I've realised - it was you. It was always you, and it's always going to be you. Because Newt, in this dark, dark world that we're in, you're my silver lining."
FIN.
~
A/N: The flowery vines are Stephanotis by the way, and it's Victorian meaning is marital happiness. I googled this shit okay.
So yeah. That concludes everything I guess, this journey that I've been on for like more than a year??? to write this. I didn't intend for this to be nearly as long, but hey, there we have it. Now as I said, I don't think or expect many of you who followed me/read this from the very very start to still be, well, into it, but whether you're new or you've been following this, a million thanks goes out all of you for supporting me and for giving me feedback on what I've written. Looking back, TBH, there are parts I'd like to rewrite and such from the first bits, where my writing wasn't that good, but I want to leave it as sort of a documentation of my progress? If that makes sense. IDK.
Another million apologies for dragging this on for so long wow I'm SO SORRY. But on another note, I can't believe this fic has gained as much popularity as it did, like, I literally just wrote it because of Page 250. And people have actually cried, holy shit, that's actually amazing.
So another thing is that I don't know if you care but at this point, I'm kinda out of the Maze Runner fandom (whoops), though I still ship Newtmas and stuff like that. So, I probably won't be writing anymore Newtmas/TMR related things, and IDK I'll probably write some Supernatural/Teen Wolf (though I'm not THAT into Teen Wolf anymore either) fics (and maybe Homestuck). And more when I watch/read more things I guess. Yeah. I'm working on some right now so look forward to that if you're in those fandoms too? I guess.
MORE THINGS. I'm sorry I'm dragging this A/N out for so long:
1. I'll be posting a ton on my Instagram so you can follow me there if you want to, at thewinterangel (and my graphics/edit account hyraxth)
2. More writing/edits/shitposting on my tumblr, angelofwars
3. I think I wanted to say more but I forgot ._>
So that's all for now, and thank you so much for reading, voting, commenting, anything. The Wattpad community is amazing and I've met so many friends on here. You guys are the best.
As always, you can dm me any time to chat/whatever. I'll be happy :)
Until next time!