Nalby ficlet - Rare TMR ships week - Day one/two - beginnings/canon
Their first meeting doesn’t exist anymore. It’s a collection of photographs, stored in an archive box. A video recorded on security cameras. A thorough analysis conducted by scientists.
Their first meeting has been turned into nothing more than a clinical report.
As the two orphan boys initiate contact, both are lost and lacking parental guidance; a transfer mechanism leads subject A5 to turn to one of the older boys for protection. Interestingly, the subject chooses to approach one of the children that look most difficult to approach and that would be least likely of settling into a caregiver figure. The psychoanalysis says nothing of the relieved smile on the blond boy’s face; it says nothing of the warm glow in the older boy’s eyes.
The shared blanket is retold as an example of the Ben Franklin effect. The way the British boy stops crying as his black friend hugs him, the way he stops having nightmares when his bed is transferred next to the other boy’s highlights the buffer effect of social support and may be further proof that positive social interaction might be a potential way to reduce impact of the VC321xb47 virus on the brain.
As the mindsweep protocol is engaged, there’s no one to remember the blush tainting a British boy’s cheeks as he hides his face in the crook of a black boy. There’s no one to remember the way both their hearts were beating madly, before settling down, playing in unison.
The Maze can steal so many things from the Gladers. Take away their hope, take away their lives.
Still, the Maze won’t steal what matters most; the Maze won’t steal what was. It won’t erase them from the world. Alby won’t have that. He won’t let anything destroy what they’ve built by dint of hard work and close cooperation. He won’t let anyone steal the evenings with the other lost boys. He won’t let himself forget any moment, any part of their lives.
Each of these moments accumulate like shards of glass that are worth a thousand treasures.
Some moments, he values more than others, though he wouldn’t admit it to anyone.
The day the Box brings a boy with long thin limbs and golden locks of long hair. The way this beautiful boy looks at Alby, the way the world shifts and everything falls into place as their eyes lock. The way Alby’s breath pauses as he hears the boy croak out his name, raw from screaming.
Blurry images rush through his head when he watches Newt, a mess of emotions he can’t pin and sort out, that both don’t make sense and feel natural and evident. There’s a smile, a reassuring warmth, a body settled next to his in the dark.
He gestures for Newt to place his hammock next to his, for his first night. Neither of them has to fight against nightmares.
He engraves these first hours in his mind, thinks about them again and again, holds on to each detail.
He turns their first meeting into an act of resistance. A moment of eternity.
