STEPHEN.
His brows are furrowed in concentration while he fiddles in the dark with only the light of a small torch. A small click sound makes him grumble satisfied but there's shuffling to the right and he doesn't need distractions, he needs-
"Stephen? What the bloody hell are you doing?" Newts sleepy voice is obnoxiously loud in the silence of the night and Stephen shushes him angrily.
"Be quiet, mate. You'll wake 'em up."
"Wake who up, what are you even doing?"
He shushes him again and waves with the thing in his hand. Newt, now curious and awake, scoots closer and looks at the small metal thing that is in his friends lap. He blinks a few times confused before he recognizes it.
"Is that a beetle blade?!"
Stephen starts grinning and turns to him. "Yep. Built it myself."
"Built it yourself." Newt mumbles and touches the bridge of his nose. "We talked about that, remember? No experiments, not after-"
"I almost blew up the homestead, I know, I know." Stephen rolls his eyes as if it's not a big deal. This guy, seriously."But look, if i can figure out how-"
"No. No beetle blades, no experiments, no almost blowing up the glade."
"That was one time-!"
"Twice actually."
Stephen bites his lip from letting out a delighted laugh at the memory of how the gladers ran around in panic. It's not like he hadn't had it under control. As if he would blow his family up. Accidentally.
Newt must read that in his eyes because he throws his hands up.
"You're insane. I'm not taking any responsibilities for anything that happens tomorrow."
Stephen gives him a kiss on the cheek and let's him to back to sleep, still grinning and enjoying that he always gets his will. He has that kind of power over his friends and he'll use it.
-----------
The next morning is surprisingly calm. Newt keeps eyeing Stephen curiously, who only has a small smile on his lips and helps planting a few seeds.
It's the screams from the bathrooms that let Newt close his eyes for a few moments. He doesn't even need to look at Stephen to know that he laughs into the dirt and tries to hide his amusement that his little beetle shocked some of his friends half to death.
Stephen has to serve the injured for their whole recovery, not that it bothers him much. Even though everyone swears at him under their breath, they all keep the things that he built.
Because it's Stephen. No one can't really be mad at Stephen.
"Come on, mate. Cheer up. Let's have some fun in this shuck place, alright?"
