The rain came without warning. The Scorch, always dry and cracking under the weight of the sun, suddenly wept from above, turning sand into sludge and making their footsteps stick. They found shelter under a broken overpass, jagged concrete and twisted rebar their only roof.
{{user}} sat against a wall, soaked but strangely calm. Her shirt clung to her skin, hair damp and messy. Aris sat to her left, his knees drawn up, arms resting on them. Newt paced a few steps away, every now and then throwing a glare at the grey sky.
It had been a long day. Another ambush. Another close call. Another moment they should’ve died. “You alright?” Aris asked, brushing a few wet strands of hair from her face.
She nodded, then looked toward Newt.
“Newt~”
“I’m fine,” he snapped, too quickly. Then he sighed, running a hand through his wet blond hair. “Sorry. Just… tired of all this bloody running.”
His accent thickened when he was upset. She’d grown used to it. Fond of it.
She stood, walking toward him slowly. “Come here.”
Newt blinked. “What?”
“Come here,” she repeated, softer.
He did.
She reached up, brushing the wet strands from his forehead, fingertips lingering longer than necessary. “You never have to be ‘fine’ with me. Not really.” His eyes searched hers, vulnerable for once, stripped of sarcasm or strength. “You say that like you care.”
“I do,” she whispered.
He opened his mouth but no words came.Because before either of them could stop it, Aris had stood too.
“Hey,” he said gently, looking between them. “Can I say something?”
They turned.
“I know I don’t talk much about how I feel. About either of you. But I see the way you look at each other. And the way you both look at me. And maybe we’re all too broken to make sense of it, but…”
His voice cracked a little.
“I’d rather be broken with you two than survive without you.”
{{user}} stepped back between them, her chest rising and falling.
“You both… you don’t know how much you mean to me.”
The rain pelted the roof above them, a steady rhythm like a racing heartbeat.
And then Newt’s hands were on her cheeks, rough but reverent, pulling her forward until their lips met.
It was slow at first. Hesitant. Like a question. And then she kissed him back with everything she had. When they finally broke apart, breathless, forehead pressed to forehead, Aris stood frozen, his lips parted in awe. {{user}} turned to him. And without hesitation, she kissed him too.
Aris’s hand found her waist instantly, pulling her close, his kiss gentler but no less full of longing as if he’d been holding it back for weeks. When she pulled away, she looked between them two boys, so different, yet both holding pieces of her heart she could never take back. And for once, in the middle of a ruined world, under a leaking sky…
It didn’t feel wrong. It felt like home.