The following is a teaser for my new Minho/TMR fanfic now currently being put on Wattpad. Enjoy.....
-—-------------------------------------------------
Bang, bang, bang
"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!"
I groaned and squinted in the hazy light leaking through the thin walls of my shack. Who in the hell-
"Shuckface, let's go! I don't have all day." This was followed by another series of thumps on my door. The poor structure shuddered as the unforgiving fist fell on it with unnecessary force. The voice was familiar and I rolled my eyes in annoyance. "Shut up, Minho, I heard you the first time."
"Well you should have responded then," he snapped from the other side. "Be by the East Doors in 10 minutes or we leave without you." I heard his footsteps signaling his retreat.
I growled, mostly from irritation and a little because I'd overslept. Again.
My feet swung over the lip of the thin mattress perched on my shaky bed-frame. My pants and shirt were hanging on the adjacent wall, drying from last night's washing. I reached for them and shimmied into the tighter clothing while muttering obscenities at Minho under my breath.
From my first day here he'd made it clear that I was getting no special treatment for being the only girl in the Glade. I was going to work and pull my weight same as everyone else around here. Which I'd done- that and more. Much more. Hell, I'd even turned down a room in the Homestead. Instead I decided to build myself this homey little shack at the edge of the woods to have some privacy from the guys.
However this just seemed to irritate Minho more. But I didn't shucking care. So, just to really piss him off, I'd had Newt recommend me as a Runner instead of my elected job as a Slicer.
Good thing too- I turned out to be one hell of a Runner. Pretty damn close to being good as the sarcastic king himself.
My fingers methodically tightened the laces on my dusty trainers. I'd need a new pair soon, these were getting worn out. I tied my dark hair back into a ponytail, grabbed my pack and trouped out the door.
As much as I liked to sleep, the Glade in the morning was one of my favorite things in the world. The sun was slowly climbing into the sky, staining the world pink and orange. A gentled breeze ruffled the long grasses and crickets jumped about, annoyed as I passed through their home. It was serene, and about the only solitude I had aside from running the Maze. Which I didn't count as solitude, not when every single step counted and your life could end in a mere matter of seconds.
The Homestead loomed before me, rickety and made of dark slabs of wood. A stark contrast to the bright morning sky. Frypan was standing behind a table underneath the awning. He was always up this early to make the Runners breakfast and see us off. Newt was perched next to him today.
"Hey, Ari." The cook caught my attention. "Running a late this morning?"
"Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes as he tossed me an apple. "My wake-up call was in a little mood this morning."
Newt chuckled at this. "Minho isn't really a morning person."
"Tell me about it," I took a bite out of my apple and bid them both farewell. I broke into a jog, knowing I would never hear the end of it if I was late. The other Runners were already at the East Door but a glance around told me I wasn't the last to arrive. I resisted the urge to groan. Minho had pushed me to hurry when I wasn't even the last one here. I finished off my apple and threw the core to the side.
"Hey, Ari." Thomas came to stand next to me. He was wearing the same blue shirt he always wore, the sleeve permanently stained no matter how many times he washed it. His shaggy brown hair was sticking up in several different direction as if Minho had urged him to hurry just as much me.
"Hey, Thomas. Sleep well?"
"Hell yeah. Especially after yesterday's run."
"Sucks. Minho run you hard?"
He shook his head. "Like you wouldn't believe." Thomas was a newest Runner which meant more often than not he was paired with Minho to run the Maze. It was supposed to be a learning experience but every Runner knew that running with the Keeper himself was hell. Actual, literal hell.
"Alright shuck-faces, slim it and listen up so I don't gotta repeat myself twice." Minho was standing at the head of our group. We fell silent as he listed off the people and which sections we were running today. "Dan: Section 1. Kyle: Section 2. Ben, you're with the newbie in Section 3...."
I heard Thomas exhale a breath of relief for not being paired with Minho today. I shot him a reassuring smile.
"...And Ari, you're with me in Section 8. Everybody got it?"
Thomas gave me a pitying look then and I ground my jaw as we waited for the Doors to open.
"Maybe we'll find something today." Dan said from the back.
"You say that everyday," Ben snorted. "And we never find anything."
A few guys chuckled throughout the group. Then with a huge rumbling noise that shook the very ground we stood on, the Doors to the Maze slowly opened.
"Good luck! Nobody die!" Ben yelled as he and Thomas took the first right. I shook my head as the rest of us separated into different corridors. My gaze focused on the back of Minho's pack as I ran a few paces behind him. He set a fast pace without looking back, clearly not intent on speaking to me at all. Not that I wanted to carry on a conversation with him. He really was in a mood today.
Left and right and left again, we ran on and on. Each wall was nearly identical to the last. I craned my neck to look up at the sun. No clouds in sight. I could already feel the sweat forming on my brow.
Smack
I collided with a solid object that sent me stumbling back a few steps. Minho had stopped suddenly in the middle of the pass. He turned to face me, black hair reflecting in the sharp light.
"What?" I asked him, inspecting my forearm that was now going to be sore from hitting his extremely muscled back.
Minho didn't deign to answer. Instead, with a rough push to my shoulders, he pinned me to the nearest wall. My wrists were trapped at my sides. Ivy tickled the back of my neck.
"I've been thinking about doing this all morning," he muttered, the first words he'd said to me in the Maze, before roughly pressing his mouth over mine.
Yeah, he was definitely in a mood today. And, shuck, I was not going to complain.
I made a small noise, wrists straining against his grip with the need to feel him, touch him-
He let them go and I moved my fingers to his shoulders, his neck, his hair. His mouth was still over mine, slowly and delightfully pulling me into a pit of euphoria. I felt the muscles in his shoulders contract as his hands wandered down my body. His lips smeared across my jawline, down my neck and to my collarbone. He nipped lightly at the sensitive spot causing my breath to hitch.
Then he pulled back, chest rising and falling in uneven breaths. He gazed at me with such a dark intensity that I almost launched myself at him then and there. Instead I pushed the stray strands of hair behind my ears and folded my arms over my chest. "You're such a tease."
Minho broke his intense gaze and grinned at me. "You know you love it."
I moved forward and wrapped my arms around his sturdy frame. His chin rested on the top of my head as we held each other tightly for one precious minute
"I hate this," he muttered into my hair. "Only getting to be with you a few times a week in the Maze. Having to sneak around the other Gladers." He shook his head.
I pulled back to look at his face. "You know it's for the best. We can't have the rest of the Gladers questioning our loyalties- especially your's as Keeper of the Runners."
"I know, I know." He glanced down the passageway and then at his watch. "We should get going. It's a long time before lunch."
We set off at a fluid pace, my mind wandering, certainly not thinking about that kiss. The Maze was a boring place to run as far as scenery went. Every wall, crack and crevice looked the same: all covered in stone and ivy.
"Do you think we're ever going to get out of here?" I broke the silence with my question.
Minho didn't answer at first. He'd been here for three years and I'd been here for two and half. That made us some of the oldest and most experienced in the Glade.
"I've run this shucking Maze hundreds of times, Ari, seen every damn passageway, every-"
"No, no, I know that. But do you believe that we will ever get out?"
"If you're talking about that blind hope Newt and Alby have, then no." His voice was hard. "They think that one day, some wall in here is just magically going to disappear and the shucking exit will be waiting for us."
"It's not blind hope." I kicked a stone with my shoe as we ran. "They've never been in here. They've never experienced the Maze and seen for themselves how desolate it really is."
"But you don't believe we're ever going to get out either." A statement, not a question.
"The Maze messes with your head. We run in circles day after day after day and never see anything different. We of all people know how hopeless the situation is. But when we exit the Maze, we put on a smile and bring them false hope to keep things going. To keep the peace. To keep sanity." I checked my watch before refocusing my gaze on the ground ahead of me. "No, I don't think we're ever going to get out of here. But they can never know that. So I believe to convince them. Because if we ever told them the truth, everything would go up in flames."