#james dashner

because if you think about it: the hero, thomas, ultimately brought down wckd solely because of wanting to save minho - NOT because he wanted to save the world, but just his friend

whereas the villains, wckd and ava paige, WERE in fact working for the greater good, attempting to look for the cure to save humanity as a general and didn't care about a few people dying, as it wouldve been just collateral damage (had they been successful in developing the cure on a mass scale)

i lwk find that pretty neat

newtmas fanart in 2025?? more likely than you'd think <33

I AM NOT NORMAL ABOUT THEM my sweet sweet summer children ++ my first try at stylizing newt and a homecooked meme from an already outdated format bc i refuse to acknowledge the passage of time (see also: drawing characters from a 2010s franchise)

sorry to everyone who followed for other fandoms i regret to inform that i am a Mess and never grow out of love for them so there is no consistency to be had I APPRECIATE U SO MUCH THOUGH pls let me know if you wanna see something in particular thru my ask!!!

Author's Note: I have recently got in touch with 11 year old me and re discovered my love for the maze runner and this character so I'm afraid everyone will have to deal with this for a while. I do feel like I'm about 9 years too late for this fandom but I'll leave it here anyway in case there are any closeted Maze Runner fans still alive and kicking in 2025 🙏

The reader has a vaguely outlined character of their own that I felt for this story so I’m sorry if you feel that’s out of character for yourself!

Trigger Warnings: General things that go along with dystopian media like injury, threat, language, blood, fear, and death/threat of death

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Anthem of the Maze

You arrived in the glade, just like everyone else with no memories and you were pulled out by the boys of the glade, joining the twenty ish boys that had already been there for nearly a year

Y/N gasps as he snaps awake, sirens wailing in his ears. He sharply inhales, desperate to pull what little dusty air there was into his lungs. His eyes dart around the confined space that he now inhabits.

The teen boy struggles to his feet, gripping the metal walls that surrounded to him to pull himself up, working against the current that's pulling both him and the box upwards.

He catches his reflection in the metal walls of the room and softly brushes his shaking hand against it, a pit forming in his stomach as he realises that...he barley recognises himself. His H/C, H/L hair and E/C eyes are completely unfamiliar to him. He watches his own hand stroke his cheek softly to prove it really is him in the reflection.

His mind whirs trying to recall anything that could ease his mind or comfort him but he's only drawing vague ideas of what he's supposed to be thinking. Parents, home, friends, school all are things he vaguely knows the concepts for but now can't understand why or what they mean to him.

Eventually, the box stops abruptly, the force knocking Y/N off his feet and winding him as he hits the cold metal floor again. There's a pause for a few seconds, blaring alarm falling silent leaving only the occasional mechanical clank and Y/N's laboured breathing.

Just after Y/N manages to get himself up and leans on his elbows, two great doors open in the roof and light hits his eyes like a bomb has gone off, completely disorientating the young boy even more than he already is.

There is a sudden surge of light, fresh air and voices. Voices. His head spins as a hoard of teenagers are all mumbling excitedly and examining him like a fish in a bowl leaving him feeling a bit like he'd just been raptured.

"Look at the new greenie!"

"Move shuck-face I can't see!"

"It smells like clunk down there,"

"You don't smell much better dude,"

As his eyes adjust to the light, the pure white environment turns into blurry dark shapes and eventually the figures of young teenage boys all of similar age to him, staring down at him.

Y/N eventually finds his voice, silencing the crowd with a single, stuttered and shaky word, "h-hello?"

One of the boys leaps down from the surface and slams down in front of him, extending a hand for the boy that's on the floor.

"Nice to meet ya," he says, nodding officially, "welcome to the glade."

Y/N barely has time to take the boy's hand before he's hauled up and thrown down on the grass, the sudden movement abusing his already shaken stomach to the point where he thinks he might vomit.

Several more pairs of hands are on him, grabbing at his shirt and trousers, tousling his hair, gripping his arm and grazing his hand all in some attempt to 'help him up.'

"Alright!" The boy who pulled him out of the box calls, "back off, give him space or he'll klunk himself,"

As Y/N's feet hit the floor again and everyone backs off, he finds the time to finally look around at where he'd been put through the gaps that the boys have now created. Grass stretches out far and wide surrounded by tall concrete brutalist walls where vines climb up the middle and then trail off like it can go no higher. His head whips around to look at the whole of his new environment, unintentionally showing himself to the whole circle of boys some of whom snigger and reach out to poke him.

The sudden contact brings his attention back from the glade to the boys in question. There was around 20 of them raging from probably 14-18 all dressed in dirty and fairly worn clothes with dishevelled hair that look like it was cut by their own hand and they're all looking at him with wide, interested eyes.

A taller boy, Alby, says a lot of words very quickly and Y/N does his best to try and catch up, turning the facts around in his head. 'tour of the glade,' 'dinner at 19:00,' 'rules'

"Do you remember your name yet?" is the very last thing Alby asks him.

Y/N looks down and comes to the horrifying realisation that ....he couldn't, he shakes his head unable to say anything and is met with a sympathetic look from the Glade leader.

"It'll come back to you," he says, "for now I'll give you to Gally, he'll show you around"

Logically, Gally is the first person you really bond with seeing as he's the one that takes you on the tour and has to answer your many questions

"How long have you been here?" Y/N asks as they make their way past the homesteads on their little tour.

"Few months," Gally mumbles, kicking his foot into the floor and pulling up some of the grass, anything to avoid looking even slightly vulnerable.

"Damn," Y/N lets out almost involuntarily, recognising what he said as Gally glares at him softly.

"Yeah well get used to it greenie, you're gonna be here for a while too,"

"Would you stop calling me that?" He asks politely, if a little exasperated, trying to work out what all the words used by these people meant like he'd skipped out on a few classes when he was learning his own mother tongue.

"What'd you want me to call you?" he asks snidely, "shank? shuckface? klun-"

"Y/N."

"What?"

"Y/N," He repeats, "it's my name, remembered it on the way over here,"

Gally's shoulders sink slightly, his body language relaxing realising that the boy isn't trying to be confrontational with him.

"Oh," he says softly, "well, nice to meet ya Y/N,"

"Nice to meet you too, Gally,"

Y/N's gentle smile catches for a moment, infecting Gally's face as he relishes someone in the glade, for once, being nice to him without any prior judgement of his character or perceived notion of his bravado and it was kinda nice. It did have to end though as Gally thinks about what he was doing and stops smiling just as fast as he'd started.

"yeah alright, better get some rest, big day for you tomorrow,"

You would try all of the jobs in the glade with Gally rather liking you helping him out with building work but the gladers all started to realise that you probably had a better use...

Y/N settles in fairly quickly, he tries gardening which proved tedious to him, the same with cooking although he's quite good at it. Gally likes having him around for building, he's strong, works hard and doesn't 'annoy the klunk out of him 24/7,' which is his exact verbiage to Alby when he was asked how Y/N did. Though, he does have to yell at him a few times over petty mistakes and his optimistic, 'can do' attitude makes him want to rip off his own face sometimes.

Clint makes the executive decision that Y/N is far too hyper to be trusted with people's health and/or medicine so he has to forgo his trial with the med jacks, leaving him with very few options left to try.

While he was making his way through the different jobs within the glade, the others, particularly Newt, started to notice something.

He was fast.

It started when Gally left a hammer across the glade and sent Y/N to go and get it and he returned in less than 30 seconds (Gally then thought the guy was messing with him and made him do it again just to prove he wasn't,) then Newt sent him to collect some fertiliser and the boy got there and back on the tail end of a minute, then he chased some chickens back into their pens for the slicers in ten seconds flat with no chickens harmed in the process and by then people were starting to talk.

"We should at least try him" Minho argued that night in the council meeting this caused. Y/N did start to wonder why it was that chasing some chickens had garnered him this much attention to the point where he was now standing in the middle of the room with everyone's eyes on him and them all talking about him like he wasn't there, “what’s the worst that could happen?”

"He goes out there and gets himself killed!" Gally argued, not fully sure why he's scared of that.

"Maybe not! We should at least try him, if we don't let at least one of the greenie's try being a runner we'll never get any new talent,"

"Alby?" Gally turned to now converse with the only person he thinks can back him up, "come on you can't seriously be considering this?"

There's a pause, everyone wondering what their leader was going to say. None more than Y/N who didn't quite know what he was getting himself into.

"....fine, Y/N's runner trial is tomorrow morning."

Everything in the glade works as usual for a long time actually with you going out with the runners every morning and coming back every evening to eat dinner and listen to Gally pester you about whatever it is that was bothering him that day

Y/N shovelled down the plate of food that Frypan placed in front of him, barely able to swallow the first mouthful before Gally threw himself down next to him.

"They need to put a note in that box to send me better damn tools, I've been trying to fix the shucking pig pen all damn day and I'm nowhere near,"

"I have tomorrow off, can't I help you?"

"You don't have to do that," Gally urged even if he was smiling at the offer of help, "you're supposed to rest on your day off"

"I don't mind," Y/N smiled, the chicken he was digging into distracting himself from the fact that Gally was staring at him

Gally recognised his feelings for you early on, despite how closed off he may appear, he's very in-tune with the way he actually feels even if he chooses to present it in a different way. It's not like he doesn't try, he does many times whether it's choosing to sit next to you at dinner, fighting Alby trying to give you a dangerous job, giving you massages when your muscles hurt, staring at you or just having really obscure, symbolic conversations with you that you can't possibly understand as confessions when it just sounds like he's talking about birds or freedom. It becomes impossible, however, to hide it on one particular day…

Minho drags Y/N back through the doors of the maze yelling the for the medics until his throat burns. Everyone in the glade was at their side nearly instantly with Gally clearing the glade faster than he ever had in his life, falling next to you and watching as you bled onto the grass.

"Minho what the fuck happened?!" he yelled to Y/N’s running partner, pulling at his clothes where the blood was coming from, his breathing frantic and hands desperate.

"The walls were changing," Minho panted, "stupid shank fell and scrapped his leg, I don't get why it's bleeding so much"

The medics get to him fairly quickly and thankfully it's not a bad wound so they can get him patched up easily with only an order to stay off running duty for a week or at least until they say it's healed enough for him to go out there safely.

The damage however, was done, everyone had seen the way that he flipped his absolute shit when Y/N got what turned out to be the slightest of injuries and they started to suspect there was something going on between the two that wasn't really being discussed

He vaguely heard about the rumours whispering around the glade but he can't bring himself to care much as he sticks by your side whenever he can while you recover, trying his best to make you feel better which is when it all comes out...

"What's that in your hand?" Y/N asked as he lay in bed with his leg and ankle rested up on a pillow.

Gally sat beside him, as he had fo the past few days, clutching something in his hand, "I uh...made this." He held out his hand and within it was a string necklace with a carefully carved wooden and stone pendant.

"Ah that's pretty, how long did that take you?" Y/N leaned forward and held it softly in his hand, running his finger over the pendant

"Few hours, needed something to do with my hands," he answered bashfully, pushing Y/N's hand away when he tried to hand it back, "nah, I made it for you,"

"For me? how come?"

"Thought it might make you feel better," he shrugged, "and uh...I wanted to uh...tell you something,"

"Yeah?" Y/N asked, tying the necklace around his neck and making sure it sits nicely against his shirt

"Promise you won't laugh?" Gally asked, a vulnerability in his tone that wasn't there before and wasn't usual for the young boy in front of him.

"yeah...I won't I promise," Y/N assured, a little worried at this point his eyes tracking the other's movements to try and work out what it is the other was going to say.

Gally averts his gaze down to the floor, fiddling with the cuff on his wrist to keep his hands occupied and hs anxiety at bay, "You uh...you really worried me when you got hurt you know," he said, "I thought you got..I thought you got stung or something and I thought I'd ...lose you,"

"Lose me?"

"I ...like you Y/N," he eventually spits out, shuffling uncomfortable in the shocked silence for a while, "I don't ...know much abut what it's supposed to be like but...I know what I feel for you and it's ...different to how I feel for everyone else, I don't wanna scare you off since you're the only one out of all these shuck faces that even wants to talk to me but I feel like I can't hide it anymore. It's okay if you don't feel the same but I-"

"I like you too Gally."

I think generally the two of you are alright. The glade doesn't strike me as a place that's particularly homophobic. You probably catch the odd joke or snide comment from one of the others that's met with either a glare from Gally or a fist fight if it's a bad day but generally I think Alby makes sure that the two of you are fairly left alone and people are generally a bit too scared of Gally to ever cause a major problem over it.

Everyone always says this but it's true, he's insanely protective over you. You could be 6'9 and two years older than him but he would still swing for boys who look at you the wrong way. Contrary to popular belief, he's not violent by nature but he's not afraid to defend the shit out of you if anyone says anything about you or god forbid touches you in some way

It was a small scrap, that was it. Y/N was never one to start fights, everyone knew that, but he was no wuss. Shoving thirty something teenage boys into a confined space for years on end for sure meant that spats would arise especially when, like on this particular occasion, one of the gladers sees another as a ‘push over’

Y/N with his all smiles, gentle optimism, teamworking, puppy dog like persona had attracted the attention of a group of gladers who assumed he would lie down and take anything they wanted him to. This, as they would come to discover, was false.

Gally heard yelling outside the builders hut in the early evening that day, it wasn’t anything he hadn’t heard before so he figured it was just shuckfaces being shuckfaces until he heard one particularly enthused glader yell something along the lines of, “get him Y/N” or “go on Y/N,” he wasn’t quite sure on the specifics but he heard his boyfriends name loud and clear and was instantly on high alert.

He was prepping himself to throw a heafty punch to defend his lover, planning all the ways he’d explain to Alby how it was that the other gladers ended up with a rock shaped hole in his face but when he got there he found that he didn’t quite need to…

Y/N had the glader pinned to the ground, both of them adorned with mud and the slightest of scrapes. Y/N wasn’t actually quite sure when the other boys in this glader's gang ran off like children and left their leader to the wolves but he didn’t very much care either.

For a few moments, Gally doesn’t move, his thoughts working on overdrive as he takes in the scene before him. His boyfriend, who that morning was using the time off cause of his injury to make flower crowns from the weeds in gardens, was currently beating the shit out of another gladers. He considered, for a moment, not getting involved not because he wanted to let you defend yourself though he did, it was more because he found it fucking hot.

Soon Newt arrived, and much to Gally’s dismay ended the little show early, tugging on Y/N’s arm to pull him off and ordering someone to get the other glader to the med hut

"You could have been badly hurt," Gally scolded lightly as he carefully examined the tiny scratches on his boyfriends arms and neck after everything had calmed down.

Y/N took the opportunity to admire Gally, his eyes taking in the concentration of his partner, "you should see the other guy," he joked softly.

Gally couldn't help but laugh quietly, shaking his head, "you're nuts,"

He worries about you a lot, not just because of the fight you had but for many reasons, especially after you head back into the maze after your injury. He makes a point to always give you a hug and wish you luck before you head out, always sending you out with a 'be safe' message

You teach him a lot. He assumed there was nothing he had left to learn, he knew how to build houses, make moonshine and stay alive and that was all he deemed important before he met you.

“Oh come onnnn” Y/N groaned as he lay on the tree branch above Gally’s usual quiet spot, “there has to be something you do for fun,”

Gally shrugs, “We have play fights,”

Y/N raised an eyebrow, “Something a bit less destructive?”

“Like what?”

“Dancing?" he asks, "Singing?”

Gally can't help but let out a dry laugh thinking for a moment that his boyfriend was messing with him but soon realised he wasn't, "No! I'm not good at either of those things,"

“You don’t have to be good to have fun!” Y/N carefully dropped down from the tree as Gally scoffed.

“C’mon” the H/C boy held out his hand for Gally, "dance with me,"

“What- no-“

"humour me," Y/N begged, keeping his hand outstretched, "pleaseeeee"

Gally made the mistake of looking the other in the eye and caught sight of the pleading expression of his boyfriend and, what can I say, he was done for.

"Fine."

A few gladers saw it through the branches of the trees far away, Y/N gripped tightly onto Gally, attempting to teach him some form of tap dance or at leats that's what it sounded like from how heavy footed Gally appeared to be.

"Sorry!" Gally laughed as he stepped right on Y/N's shoe.

“Careful," Y/n smiled as he kept a firm hold on his boyfriend, "there’s a danger of you having fun if you keep this up”

After that he's a lot more receptive of 'fun.' He sings with you round the bonfire (as long as everyone else is joining in and his own voice cannot possibly be heard by anyone other than you,) he brings you more little carvings and creations that he comes up with in his free time, he dances with you in the privacy of the woods and he'll lie in bed with you making up little stories as you run your fingers across his body in an attempt to calm him to sleep.

Gally often has problems with sleeping as you'd expect, his nights plagued with nightmares and sleeplessness meaning he often spent them alone, far away from the homestead so he doesn't disturb anyone else. That was, until you came along. He ever outright asks for your help of course, you often just wake up to find him out of bed so you go and search for him somewhere else in the glade either talking him to sleep, softly rubbing his back or he'll sometimes sheepishly ask you to sing him to sleep.

Y/N slowly made his way over to the deadheads, the leaves crunching under his feet and alerting Gally who sat far in the horizon, hugging his legs close to his chest.

He turned, his shoulders relaxing when he realises it's just his boyfriend and not some kind of threat or one of the other gladers coming to ridicule him for having nightmares.

"What're you doing up?" he called to the H/C boy as he approached.

"I could ask you the same question," Y/N says, taking a seat next to the other, relishing the contact they had even if it was just the tips of their knees

"I can't sleep," he grumbled, closing off his body more than it already was in a desperate attempt to not show his perceived weakness

"Can I help?"

"I don't know," Gally shrugs, his gaze wandering off into the distance and taking in the extent of the glade only illuminated by their soft candles and the rising of the sun. "Just...be here I guess,"

Y/N nods softly and lets them both sit there for a moment, their breaths intertwining into one, comfortable sound

"What will you do?" Y/N asks him, breaking the silence after a while, his head resting on his arm, "when you get out of here?"

Gally just shrugs, "haven't thought about it," he says gruffly which in all fairness was true, he's never wanted to get his hopes up too much if they were just going to stay there forever and he has no idea what the outside world even looks like anymore.

"Oh come on!" Y/N urged, "There has to be something you want to do!"

Gally shrugs again, "what'd you wanna do?"

"Sing," he stands quickly knocking Gally's arm away from him, shuffling his feet then spinning with his arms outstretched, "and dance and eat chocolate and go swimming and run through nature rather than shucking concrete,"

Y/N lurched forward, his hand clasping around his boyfriend's forearm and pulling him up to join him, keeping his hand comfortably on Gally's arm. "And kiss you"

Gally can't help but smile at the boy in front of him, his unwavering positivity on display once again showcasing every reason Gally likes him.

"I love you," the builder said fondly, a distant quality to his voice that sounds a bit like he wasn't supposed to say that out loud because...he wasn't. He'd never said that before and it wasn't something he was planning on saying in case he ended up scaring Y/N off.

"I mean ...uh-"

"I love you too," Y/N replies with little hesitation, his hand finding it's way onto Gally's cheek and his lips meeting his shortly after.

The kiss feels comfortable, gentle as Gally's hands find their way to Y/N's waist and stay there as they live in the closeness between them for a while.

Suddenly, Y/N feels Gally's lips rip away from him as a siren blares its way through the glade in the early hours of that morning. Their eyes show panic for a moment before they realise what's going on.

"New greenie time," Gally announces before making his way out of the deadheads, keeping a grip on Y/N's hand.

He's instantly jealous of Thomas. Jealousy was something that he'd felt before of course but after living with the gladers for so long and having everyone know about the two of you, he had very few worries that any of them could potentially take you from him until...Thomas came along and he knew nothing about what his intentions could possibly be. He sees you talking to him a lot seeing as you were the one that was tasked with him giving him the tour on one of your off days and it drives him to distraction

Gally's attention wavered from the guy he was sparring with in his own make shift fight club as he watched Y/N lead Thomas around his welcome party. He was so distracted, that the other guy managed to get an edge on him, pushing him back to a soundtrack of the gladers going 'oooooh.' He didn't care much about this guy, he had a new plan now so he shoved the poor guy back right into where Y/N and Thomas were walking, knocking the new greenie down.

"What'd you say greenie?" he asks, "wanna take me on?"

Y/N raises an eyebrow at him as everyone starts chanting for Thomas to join the fight. As the two started to spar, Gally found himself looking up a lot for Y/N's approval, to see if he was impressing him which distracted him long enough that Thomas managed to get him down. He fell at Y/N's feet, his cheeks flushing with embarrassment as his boyfriend shook his head and walked away.

"You didn't have to do that," Y/N tells Gally later when the other eventually finds him sitting on one of the logs by the bonfire.

"Do what?" Gally asks, wrapping an arm around his boyfriend.

"That...power play thing you did there," he laughs softly as he wipes some of the dirt from the fall off of Gally's face softly with the pad of his thumb, "all it did was get your face planted,"

"I got him in the end," the builder pouts somewhat defensively.

"you mean after looking for me to see if I was watching?" Y/N asked playfully, leaning into his boyfriend's grip, "you didn't have to try and impress me baby, I know you’re a good fighter,"

Gally doesn't respond, keeping his eyes low, unable to dispel the rumour that he did that entirely for Y/N's approval.

"look at me," Y/N took two fingers and turned Gally's cheek to pull his gaze into him, "you have my attention okay? I'm yours, always."

He nods and rests his head against Y/N's softly, the two taking the rest of the party to spend time by the fire while everyone else fawned over the new member of the glade.

He was a little bit more comforted after that with his jealousy subsiding but he still didn't trust Thomas even if he couldn't pin point why. When Ben came back stung, he threw his arms around you and didn't let go for a long time only repeating, "I'm so glad you're okay," because it dawned on him that it could have been you

His sleeplessness got even worse and he spent most of the day glaring over at the new greenie, hating the atmosphere that he brought to the glade. That morning he hugged you for a few seconds longer than usual, anxiousness building in his chest as he watched you run off into the maze with Alby and minho after Ben got stung and sadly, that anxiousness would became 100% justified.

"They should be back by now," Thomas turns to Newt, voicing his own anxiety which was unfortunately, overheard by Gally.

"Don't you think we know that Shank?!" the builder snapped, not waiting for a reply before storming over to the doors of the maze, watching, waiting.

Soon, everyone's there, waiting to see if or when the three would come back. Gally stands with his hands on his knees staring at one spot in the dead centre of the corridor, willing Y/N to come back and whispering under his breath, "come on Y/N, come on come on,"

Gally felt like his heart was going to give out when the walls sarted moving with an ominous grinding sound, actually making him whimper out a quiet, 'no.'

When three figures did eventually round the corner, everyone started screaming. They noticed that what was slowing them down was the need to carry their leader down the corridor.

Gally nearly tears his voice out screaming for Y/N to just leave him, come back to him, just run. fucking. faster. In the end, however, it's no use and it looks like the walls are going to close. Just before they do, Thomas slips out from everyone and forces himself in between them in some poorly judged attempt at a rescue mission that ends with a lot more yelling and the slamming shut of two large concrete doors.

Gally's legs give out almost immediately, sending him to the floor in complete and utter shock as everyone else stands there staring at the place where they'd been, reeling from everything that had just happened.

What the fuck just happened?!

He stays there completely unable to move at all. He sits with his back against the walls just staring down at the grass in what looks like shock. At first, some of the gladers try to convince him to come away or come for dinner but he lashes out making people just leave him be. Newt, knowing it might be hard for him, brings him dinner so he can stay there and then leaves him too.

There's an eerie silence, the sound of the walls slamming shut on the four in the maze still sounding like it's echoing even twenty minutes later. Gally's back burned as he leaned against the hard concrete of the walls, his eyes locked on the floor in a sort of trance like state as his mind replayed what just happened.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and heard one of the gladers try and speak to him but it sounded like they were distant, under water almost as he couldn't process what it was they were saying to him.

Wordlessly, Gally's hand found itself on the glader's chest, forcing the other guy backwards and away from him. He wasn't even fully sure who it was that he'd pushed until he looked up through tears to find that it was Frypan.

He tries to open his mouth to apologise for the shove but...nothing comes out and he doesn't try too hard to force it. Frypan just nods at him, walking away and leaving the young boy to his grief.

Gally can't bare to go back to their room or their bed, that would just cement to him that Y/N was gone and most likely, never coming back. So he stays right there where he last saw him, sitting in the pouring rain crying into his knees.

Slowly, Newt approached causing Gally to immediately try to appear defensive. Just as he's about to snap at the second in command to piss off or ask him want he wants, Newt puts one hand up in surrender and uses his other one to slowly place a plate of food down at Gally's feet.

"Try and eat something," is all he said softly before he turns and starts walking back to the homestead.

As he picked a the food slightly, Gally can't help but consider what the glade will be like now Newt will have to take over from Alby and ...Y/N was gone forever.

He's still there the next morning when the doors start to open, shaken awake by the sound and everyone rallies around them upon Chuck's request to see if the four of you were still alive.

He stands there biting his nails as the walls start to open again, almost not wanting to let himself get his hopes up when he knows the possibility of Y/N coming back was slim to none.

The pit in his stomach widens as the walls open to an empty hallway, an empty space where his boyfriend stood the night before. He turns, defeated about to finally make his way back to the homestead when he hears Chuck calling for him

"GALLY!"

He whips his head around to see what the big deal was when he sees it...four figures racing towards the entrance to the glade. He has Y/N swept up in his arms before he even knows what he'd doing, his head spinning as he buries his face into his boyfriend's shoulder.

"fuck fuck fuck fuck," he sobs into Y/N's shoulder, his hands gripping him so tightly they're probably millimetres away from drawing blood, "don't you ever do that to me again you hear me?!"

"I'm okay I'm okay I'm okay..." is all Y/N repeats, his own fear and panic from the night they faced leaving his body as he's held by the person he loves most, "I'm here Gals, I'm okay"

Gally didn't know what to do with all of the fear that he felt, he'd almost lost you and all he could think to do was find someone to blame, someone to keep you safe from and that, unfortunately, ended up being Thomas.

He was fucking pissed when he found out that you went with Thomas and the others back into the maze which led you to have your first ever argument as a couple

Y/N followed his stroppy boyfriend out of the council hut and chased him down as he stormed through into the deadheads.

"Gally! Gally where are you go-"

"The hell were you thinking!" Gally turned, snapping at him before he can even register what's going on, "You barely survived a night in the maze and what you just run back in there on his order?"

After he'd recovered from the slight shock of Gally's swift turn, Y/N folded his arms defensively, "We found something Gals, actually really found something!"

"You could have died out there."

"Oh come on-"

"No Y/N!" He cuts in, "First Ben gets stung in broad day light, then Alby then your new best friend kills one of them, those things are clearly fucking angry with us and this is making it worse! You had no idea what could have happened when you followed him through there!"

"I have no idea what's going to happen if I stay here!" Y/N argued, "I'm trying to help us Gally!"

"No! You're trying to get yourself killed by trusting him!"

"Thomas isn't dangerous!"

"Really? Cause everything started going wrong when he showed up!" Gally flailed his arms around in a way that would have almost been comical if Y/N wasn't slightly pissed.

"Correlation doesn't equal causation,"

"Oh slim it with your fancy words Y/N I don't care"

Y/N scoffed in almost shock, "why're you talking to me like that?!"

"Because you're being insane!"

"No you are!" he argued, "We can't stay here forever Gally!"

"It won't matter anyway if you carry on like this!" Gally spits, "I just hope your new boyfriend's worth dying for."

"Gal-" but he was gone before Y/N could get another word in, storming off performatively to some other part of the glade.

You shake your head, having to walk away to calm down which brought you to the mapping room thinking it would be empty. It was there however, that you found Minho and Thomas

"Congratulations" Y/N sighed as he threw himself down on the seats on the outside of the room, "On becoming a runner, I think you'll do good with us,"

"Someone should tell that to Gally," Thomas mumbled making Y/N laugh softly

"He's..." Y/N sighed slightly, "I'm sorry about him..."

There was a silence for a moment as Thomas worked up the courage to ask the question he's been toying with for the last few days.

"Hey what's the---what's the deal with you and him?"

Y/N laughed softly, looking down and letting his hand carefully play with the necklace that Gally made for him, "He's my boyfriend if that's what you mean,"

Thomas didn't quite know what to sat after that but it didn't matter very much seeing as both him and minho were soon running out of the hut and towards where the girl had woken up.

Through all the commotion, Y/N pushed through the crowd of gladers and towards the river were he found Gally, sitting staring down at the light ripples.

"Hey," Y/N spoke softly, making a move to sit down next to his boyfriend. He carefully nudges his knee against Gally's, a quiet display of peace among the two.

When he got little more reply than a side glare, Y/N sighed, "come on Gally don't be angry with me anymore okay? It's done, lets move past it,"

"What if you'd have died,"

"I didn't"

"Can you stop being so fucking casual about this!" He yelled, his body finally turning to face Y/N, "I could have lost you!"

"You sound like a broken record Gally," Y/N sighed, reaching out to touch his boyfriend's face, a part of him shocked that Gally let him touch him, "I'm here, I'm fine and I can take care of myself"

The other boy bit his lip softly, his gaze averted downwards seeing as he knew that he'd give in even if he accidentally caught Y/N's eye for a second.

"But..it's my job to look after you,"

"And you do," he says sincerely, "but sometimes you have to trust me too,"

The pair made up, they always did. They watched the stream run under their feet and rested their head upon each other until the sun slipped beneath the walls and a gentle chill began to cut through the air.

"Come on big guy," Y/N patted Gally's shoulder as he rose to his feet, "let's get some rest"

You two were fairly okay after that with only a few more spats whenever he got a little bit too aggressive with Thomas. You had however, noticed that he was a lot more hot and cold as of recently, even more than he already was. One moment he was sassing you about trusting Thomas again and the next minute he was holding onto you so tightly you felt like you were struggling for breath.

If there was any anger he felt towards you still after that, it was instantly forgotten by the time the grievers got to the glade. He barely let go of you and even if he did he never let you leave his sight. You couldn't help but feel though, that you should be out there helping your fellow gladers rather than hiding and so that's exactly what you did ...

As the hard stone walls ripped apart again, all the gladers fell into silence, disbelief. It lasted for approximately three more seconds before orders were being barked around the group and a nauseating mechanical sound in the distance.

Y/N felt a hand grip onto his wrist, firm and grounding as his head began to spin. Gally runs, speeding off towards the other side of the glade and gripping onto Y/N’s wrist so tightly the poor boy felt like his wrist was about to break as they weaved their way through the Glade and eventually settled in the box.

He pushed his boyfriend down into the box only then giving the H/C boy time to hold his painful wrist, "Jesus Gal," he spoke, "d'you have to drag me like that"

His boyfriend rushed over, calming slightly due to their new found safety, "I'm sorry," he mumbles out, taking hold of Y/N's wrist and kissing it softly.

"It's alright," Y/N soothed softly. He opened his mouth to speak again but he's cut off by screams of their fellow gladers breaking through the air, "we have to help them."

Y/N sprung into action nearly immediately, pulling himself back up towards the doors of the box before he's pulled back down by the back of his belt, landing back down in front of Gally, "Gally wha-"

"You're not going back out there are you crazy?"

"Gally I have to! We protect each other that's the rule!"

"But-" Y/N was gone before he could finish, rushing out into the glade and doing his best to help the other gladers find hiding places, avoid grievers and even fight off a few

The next thing he felt was a sharp pain in his stomach as the tail of a greiver swung around and launched him into the air. He eventually hit the roof of one of the huts, sending it tumbling to the ground in a pile of rubble around him, a beam landing straight into his head and knocking him out cold.

Gally found you shortly after that, ignoring his fear and running through the griver infested glade to get to you. He was pissed beyond measure after that, deeming the whole thing Thomas' fault which led to the swift punch to the face that Thomas received after the griever attack.

He'd seen you hurt before, of course he had, but this was the first time he'd seen you out cold from an injury, lying there believably dead and bleeding and that terrified him. If it wasn't for the fact that he had his hand pressed against your pulse, he would have had a completely breakdown right then and there. He personally carried you to what was left of the med hut and stayed with you for a lot of the night, only leaving to do some more screaming and somehow take control of the whole glade.

Y/N woke up slowly, his eyes focusing on what looked like what remained of the med hut. His head spun as he tried to sit up, pausing for a moment to just stare down at his lap to let his vision focus again.

"you're awake," he heard from the doorway, turning his head to see Gally pushing open the cloths and rushing towards his bedside.

"What happened?"

"Everything's gonna go back to normal now," Gally reached forward and softly kissed Y/N's forehead, "I promise,"

"What're you talking about?" Y/N asked but before a response came, a loud commotion started out into the glade, "What's that?"

Gally's gaze quickly shifted from the door to his boyfriend, an almost guilty look on his face, "I'll be...I'll be right back stay here," he said before rushed out back through the cloths.

Ever defiant, Y/N pushed himself up and out of bed, pushing through the cloth and out into the slightly intense sunlight.

"Gally," Y/N rushed after him as fast as his slightly fragile body would take him, arriving at the doors of the glade right as Theresa's hands were being tied back to a pole, "what's going on?"

"Y/N!" Theresa called, Y/N was actually quite sure that this was the first time the girl had ever even looked at him, never mind referred to him by name,"You have to talk him out of this he's being insane!"

"What the hell is going on?"

"This place is what's insane Y/N," Gally speaks lowly, almost like he's trying to convince him of something, "I don't wanna cross anymore names off that wall, especially not yours"

"Gally this isn't the way to do this," Y/N tries to argue but he's quickly cut off as Gally yells again, sending his already fragile head spinning.

"Look around! Look at our glade! This is our home!" He gestures around at the smokey huts and materials strewn across the grass, "this is the only way."

“Gally c’mon this is ridiculous,” Y/N spoke, his own voice at its low tone still aggravating his head ache, "I know this is a mess but turning on each other now is the last thing we need"

“I know you’ve had a blow to the head just now but do you not see that you’re being insane?!” Y/N couldn't help but flinch back slightly as Gally's voice rose, "They're not one of us! Tie him up." he barked a command that fell on deaf ears.

"Did you hear me?! I said tie him up!"

The uprising was fast.

Y/N watched as people he cared about split in half into groups, leaving or staying. He considered it for a moment and truthfully, he had no clue what he wanted, neither option seemed great. There was stay in the glade with Gally and get mauled by grievers or there was leave and potentially get mauled by grievers just a few meters away from the glade with the tease of freedom.

He softly rested a hand on his boyfriends back, feeling how tense he was even just with one hand, “Gally come on! Either we die in here or we-“

“Die out there!” He argues, pushing Y/N's hand off of him as a reflex though, he did seem like he regretted that the second that the touch was gone

“Or maybe not! Come on Gal this could be our chance!" Y/N backed off towards where Thomas and his little revolution were standing, he kept his boyfriend's hand in his hoping that he could pull him over with little resistance but Gally breaks their contact real fast, their hands breaking apart feeling like a tear in the fabric of their world.

Gally averted his eyes from Y/N knowing that, sooner or later, he'd give in if he held that eye contact, he surveyed the gladers that were standing in front of him, one betrayal stinging a lot more than the others, “Good luck out there with the grievers,”

Y/N’s heart sank as he heard those words and hears the quiet scampering of some of the others off into the maze behind him. He wanted nothing more than to yell that Gally was being stupid, grab him by the wrist and force him to come with them but…he couldn’t.

Newt tapped him on the shoulder, forcing his gaze away from his boyfriend and urging the two to run deeper into the maze.

And they did

Gally didn’t handle your absence well at all. He turned and surveyed what was left of the gladers, feeling betrayed and having to bite back tears. The only reason he wanted everything to go back to normal was to keep you safe and….now you were gone.

The other gladers were shocked that you came along with them with Newt occasionally shooting you confused glances as you sprint through the maze for the very last time as if wondering whether or not he'd imagined you leaving Gally or if that actually did happen. He was even more shocked when you absolutely busted your ass trying to protect all f them from the grievers, yelling that you'll hold them off while they got the door open.

Walking through the control room felt...off. At every new thing that you saw, you turned to point it out to Gally who, no matter how many times you looked for him, was never there.

You had to be physically restrained by some of the other gladers to stop you from going over to Gally when he'd been stung, your struggling only getting more and more frantic.

"Just let go!! I can handle this!"

"No Y/N, he's been strung he's dangerous"

"Oh fuck off he wouldn't hurt me!" just as he spoke, Y/N turned his attention back to his boyfriend of two years who, throughout all the commotion, had now pulled a gun on them. The gladers all collectively took a small step back almost instinctively, even Y/N who stared froward, a confused and hurt look flashing across his face, "Gally....?"

"Gally.." Y/N made moves to slowly inch himself forward, his eyes flicking between the eyes of his boyfriend and the loaded firearm currently pointed at his chest., "We're done, we can go. we're free."

It all happened fast, way faster than Y/N could process as Thomas distracted Gally, a bullet was fired, Chuck jumped in front and...Gally was on his knees

Y/N yell cut through the air. His ears rang with the force of the gunshot, his own voice sounding muffled. The gladers all released their hold on him to fall by chuck's side or cover their mouthes in shock but Y/N's legs took him to his boyfriend before he'd even registered what was happening.

"Gally!!" his hands trembled as they moved from Gally's chest to his face to his stomach, desperate to workout what to do as blood stained the clothes of the love of his life and the spear stuck out of him like a flagpole, "baby stay with me please, I got you,"

You sob over his body until you're forcibly dragged away from him by guards, kicking and fighting them just like Thomas did to stay closer to Chuck

He hardly registered the large mechanical door opening as he stuck by his boyfriend, keeping his hand tightly wound against Gally's. He fought, hard against the soldiers holding him but in the end he just broke down, letting himself be overpowered and dragged through the doors with the other gladers and out into the blinding light and chaos of the outside world.

The air outside was heavy, thick with sand and heat somehow so different to the glade despite the fact they were merely a mile away.

As he was forced into the helicopter, he finally lost sight of Gally's body eventually just turning his sight down to the floor knowing he wouldn't be able to look Thomas or Minho or any of them really in the eye.

His stomach lurched as the helicopter rose higher and higher and the grey haired man said something he wasn't quite tuned into. He turned his head away from all of the gladers and out of the window, feeling some of their eyes on him, he couldn't face any of their stares, not right now. As he looked out, he saw the place they'd been in clear detail below them, the maze and the glade turning into a smaller and smaller spec the higher they got.

They'd been there for three years, their whole life revolved around those four walls and now they were watching it from above like gods. His eyes studied the arial of the glade, their home for the past three years, taking in what was now the burning remnants of their supposed prison that they were desperate to escape from and the Maze walls that he'd spent a lot of his life running and realised...he just wanted to go back.

Author's Note: I'm not entirely sure if Gally is out of character or not, I tried to combine his character in the films of the big tough guy with the scared, kinda pathetic boy that he is in the books so I hope I did that some justice. I saw a quote someone wrote about the books that said something like that “Gally’s a character that seems obsessed with making the ‘right decision’ and really just wants someone to listen to him” so I tried to go for that energy.

I was also pretty inspired by a couple of other pieces dystopian and apocalypse media like the last of us, his dark materials and the hunger games for this series so if anything about it seems familiar that's why

I may edit this as time goes on as I feel that it could be written a little bit better

Let me know if this is any good by the way! I do have the rest of the trilogy kind vaguely planned out for this pairing and I had fun writing it so if that's something you wanna see let me know!!