Pairing: Next x fem!reader
Trigger warning: Alcohol, drunk Newt, jealous Newt
Summary: Newt is struggling to admit to Y/n that he has feelings for her, so on bonfire night he decides to get a little bit of help.
Newt sometimes wondered why he was appointed second in command. It's not that he didn't like it. Sure, it was a lot of responsibility having to help run The Glade, but that wasn't something he couldn't handle, and unbeknownst to him he was the glue of the Glade. He wondered because he didn't view himself as anything particularly special. Why not Gally, or Minho? Sure they were both hotheads, but they could get people to rally. Of course Newt didn't view himself as anything lesser, he wasn't insecure, just didn't quite see himself as special. He was equal to everyone in his mind. Just another Glader.
And unfortunately, when you're pinning after the only girl in The Glade, being "just another Glader" doesn't help you much. And that was another thought Newt ranggled with on the daily.
Y/n. The perfect balance kind, quirky and mischievous, and Newt wasn't the only one after her, not by a long shot. At first when people started to proclaim their quote unquote, "undying love" for her, she turned them away gently telling them they were very kind, but she didn't feel the same. But after the first half dozen she started to get impatient. If any boy (besides maybe Newt, Minho, Chuck, Alby or Thomas) got anywhere near her she sent them away with a withering glare, and continued doing what she was doing, and reasonably so.
Newt and Y/n were friends, so at least he knew she cared for him, just not in the way he wanted her to. Apparently, Minho had had enough of watching Newt stare at her while she worked, or ate, or talked, or really anything, Newt could have watched her for hours, but Minho took the snap.
Minho was eating dinner with Newt and telling him about the maze, various patterns they'd already been over dozens of times before, both were starting to loose hope about ever getting out, much to Alby's chagrin, but Minho went over it with Newt every day anyways. Or Minho was trying to. "So we ran section 8 today, and Thomas seems to be adapting pretty quick— Newt, are listening to me?"
Newt was staring at Y/n as she chatted amiably with Chuck and Thomas. She laughed at something Chuck said and Thomas gave ruffled her hair with a fond smile. Despite the brother sister type of relationship they seemed to have, Newt felt jealous cloud his vision quick as quicksilver.
As Y/n busied herself swatting Thomas's hand away, Newt busied himself clenching his fists and sending Thomas a cool look. Minho slammed his fork down, causing Newt to snap out of his daze, and a few boys to raise and eyebrow at the keeper of the runners.
"Alright that's it, shuckface! If you don't tell the shebean soon, I'll tell her myself. If you're gonna be pissed at Thomas, it better be for a reason better than this." he said.
Newt looked at Minho warily, knowing full well what he meant. "Tell her what exactly?" he asked with feeble hope that Minho meant something else.
"You know very well what. I'm tired of you gazing at her like she's the shuck sunset while I'm trying to talk to you." Minho snapped, crumpling Newt's hopes like a ball of paper. Newt sighed, knowing he was probably right. "Besides, if you don't make a move soon, Thomas will. And then where will you be?"
Newt scowled, teeth grinding together audibly. "You think Tommy likes her?"
Minho scoffed, if he would have had more hair he would have flipped it. "Yeah, Thomas and every other guy in this shuck place. Do something soon, or I will."
As it turns out, Newt did find a way to muster up the courage. Or alcohol dosed Newt did. It was bonfire night, meaning Gally was in an okay-ish mood, which meant Gally's special drink. No one knew what was in it, just that it made them feel "alive". Newt was never one to want to get wasted, but he figured if he was going to spit out how he felt to Y/n, he might as well not remember her rejection in the morning.
"Bottoms up." he muttered too himself, gulping down some of Gally's drink.
Y/n sat on a log beside a clearly intoxicated Minho. Normally, she could put up with Minho and his antics, but when he got drunk he got a little too flirty for her taste.
"Hey Y/n, I think something's wrong with my bed," Minho shrieked out a giggle like an intoxicated hyena. "You aren't in it."
Y/n thunked Minho on the head. "Go bother Thomas, you twat." she said with an eye roll.
Minho skipped off in his drunk stupor, but was quickly replaced by someone else. Newt slung an arm around the girl and sent her a grin.
"'Ello, love." he slurred. "You had some of Gally's drink yet?"
Y/n groaned, hand immediately flying up to pinch the bridge of her nose in frustration. How had someone gotten Newt drunk? He never drank, not once in the two years she'd known him. "Can't say I have." she said. "Have you?"
Newt held his fingers very close together for the girl to see. "Maybe a teeny bit." He giggled.
She stood up quickly, and offered the lanky blond her hand. "Come on, let's get you to bed."
Newt took her hand and stumbled after her towards the homestead. Most Gladers slept in hammocks, but being second in command has the occasional benefit, such as a room in the homestead, and staying away from the cult of Gladers who enjoyed practicing spirit summoning rituals (God knows where they'd learned them) in the dead of night.
After bumping into several walls, and tripping over multiple stairs, a severely exasperated Y/n managed to haul Newt into his bedroom.
"Go to sleep, Newt. You'll feel better in the morning." That was a lie. The only thing he would have in the morning was a pounding headache and a world that appeared to look like a giant pinwheel of death, but she needed to convince him to close his eyes for at least a few hours. A pout appeared on Newt's face as Y/n moved for the door.
"Don't gooooooo." he whined, a childish look of abandonment crossing his morose face.
"Alright." Y/n murmured. She sat down on the floor next to his bed, and after some convincing, got Newt to try and fall asleep. She sat in silence for a few minutes. After a solid forty five minutes or so, she assumed he was asleep, and quietly crept towards the door, but before she could slip through the door and back to her hammock, the girl heard a quiet whisper waltz across broken silence.
"I love you" murmured from Newt. Y/n smiled softly at his now sleeping form.
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