The WCKD facility was spotless sterile halls, cold lights, white walls. Everything was too clean, too perfect. That’s how {{user}} knew it was wrong. She had arrived with Group B only days ago, and though the food was warm and the beds had real sheets, her instincts wouldn’t let her relax. Not here. Not with the constant hum of cameras in the ceiling and the guards’ eyes trailing her every move.What they didn’t expect was that someone else noticed it too.

Aris.

The quiet boy with sharp eyes and a softness he tried to bury under mistrust. He didn’t speak much to the others, but he watched and somehow, he’d chosen to trust {{user}}. He found her in the common room one night, sitting alone, knees tucked up to her chest as she stared through the one window they were allowed to look out of.

“You’re not fooled either,” he said, low, sitting beside her.She glanced at him. “You mean by the cafeteria food or the fake smiles?”

He smiled a little, but there was something sad behind it. “Both.”

They were silent for a moment. Close, but not touching. They didn’t need to. The understanding between them filled the air.

“I’ve been sneaking around,” Aris admitted, barely above a whisper. “There’s something behind the locked doors on the third floor. Something they don’t want us to see.”

{{user}} turned toward him, eyes locked on his. “Then let’s see it.”

His brows lifted slightly. “You’re not scared?” She leaned closer, voice steady. “Of WCKD? Always. But not of you.” For a second, Aris forgot how to breathe.

That night, they moved like shadows silent and quick. He knew the vents. She knew how to distract the guards with a fake slip in the hall. It wasn’t much, but it worked. When they finally ducked behind a supply rack in the lab, hearts pounding, they waited for footsteps to fade before speaking.

“You do this often?” {{user}} asked, catching her breath.

“Only when I really need to know something,” he whispered, watching her not just with admiration, but with awe. “Or when I really need someone I can trust.”

Their faces were only inches apart now, backs pressed against cool metal, hearts drumming in unison.

“I’m with you,” she said simply, softly.

And for Aris, who had been alone for so long… those three words were everything.

He reached out and took her hand rough, calloused fingers curling through hers with a gentleness that didn’t quite match the chaos surrounding them. She squeezed his hand back. And when they finally slipped away from the lab and back into the white halls of the fake safety WCKD had built for them, they didn’t speak again. They didn’t need to. Because from that moment on, every plan, every escape, every risk they’d face it together.

As more than allies. Something quiet and warm had bloomed in the dark not just rebellion, but something rarer than freedom.

Hope.