The next morning I woke up, Newt was already gone. With a sigh, I got dressed and decided to check up in the blacksmith hut or whatever it was called. Something about Newt was off and I wanted to know what.

When I walked into the hut, the heat immediately blew in my face. A man with a beard was bent over a table, hammering on a piece of metal. He wore big glasses, in case something would fly into his eye. Once the man noticed me, he stopped working and removed the glasses.

"Yes?" He asked, looking up and down at my body.

"Is Newt here? The blonde-."

"I know who he is." The brown-haired man interrupted. "He was here a few minutes ago."

"Well, where is he now?" I asked once the man didn't continue.

"Searching for something."

"Searching for what? And where?" I frowned. Why would Newt not be working?

"In the mountains." The man simply explained. "I can't tell you what he is searching for."

I sighed and tried to think about something Newt could be searching for in the mountains, but couldn't think of anything. I told the man goodbye and walked into our own hut again.

~

At dinner, I still hadn't seen Newt and I was getting quite worried. What if something happened in the mountains? Or he fell? What was he searching for?

"Where's Newt, Nora?" Minho interrupted my thoughts.

"In the mountains."

"What?" Minho chuckled. "What is he gonna do? Climb the Mount Everest?"

My face darkened. "I don't know what he's doing there, okay? I'm just worried that something happened." I snapped.

"How long has he been gone?" Logan carefully asked.

"Since this morning."

Then my eye caught the familiar blonde-haired boy walking past us, toward the blacksmith. In a rush, I roughly got up from the table and ran after him.

"Newt!" I panted once I stood in the hut.

He spun around as his eyes opened wide. "You're not supposed to get in here, Nora!" His face turned red.

"What have you been doing the whole day?" I questioned, moving my arms on top of each other.

"I was in the mountains. Now leave!" Newt put something behind his back.

"I was worried about you! Don't you get that? You could've told me where you were going!"

"I told you to stay in bed! Why didn't you listen?"

With sighed as anger took over. "You can't always decide things for me!" With that, I walked away before things got worse.

I felt so bad for yelling and arguing with Newt again. With tears streaming down my face, I looked through all the drawers of our hut. I felt guilty. Guilty for everything the past days. All the snapping and arguing, while Newt only tried to take care of me.
After a while, I finally found some pens and started drawing on my wrist. The butterfly. Quickly I drew one and imagined it as Newt. Hoping it would help, I put all the stuff away and looked at my wrist, but then gasped.

There was something next to the butterfly. An infection of the Flare. The same one I had before the Safe Haven. It all made sense. The snapping and arguing weren't just my period. I would have to take the serum every few months, so with tears in my eyes, I searched for Vince. It was the second time I took the serum, but I knew I would have to take it over and over again.

"Vince!" I panicked once I saw the man. "I need the serum."

Vince looked at me in confusion for a few seconds. "Get Thomas." He ordered to someone who stood next to him. "Bring him to the Med Hut. We'll be there too."

Vince took me with him. I was confused about the fact we had to get Thomas. Why? When we arrived at the Med Hut, Thomas was already there. A middle-aged woman took some blood out of his wrist before inserting it into another syringe.

"Why Thomas?" I sat down on a chair.

"His blood doesn't just cure the Flare for a few months. It destroys it." Vince explained. Shocked I stared at Thomas. My breathing hitched. Why didn't anyone tell me about that?

"So after this, I will never have to take the serum again?" I carefully asked.

"Yes." Thomas nodded. The woman walked over to me and gave me a nod, motioning at my wrist. My eyes widened and I tensed up, but still rolled up my sleeve. I felt Thomas stare at the butterfly or maybe even the cuts around it. I bit my lip when the woman inserted the needle. I winced slightly at the pain and let out a relieved sigh when it was over.

The woman started cleaning up everything and Vince walked away, but Thomas stayed. "I'm- uhm, I'm gonna go." I hesitantly got up, hoping Thomas wouldn't ask anything about my wrist, but he did.

Thomas rushed after me. "What's with the butterfly?" He asked, trying to keep up at my firm pace.

"It helps me." I casually said.

"With what?"

Suddenly I stopped right in my tracks, making Thomas bump into me. I turned around and looked him in the eyes. "With hurting myself."

Thomas' eyebrows furrowed. I bit my lip. I literally just told Thomas one of my secrets without even thinking about it. "Hurting yourself?" Thomas repeated in confusion.

I sighed and rolled up my sleeve. "You see those cuts?"

Thomas inspected them for a few seconds until I roughly put my sleeve back down. "So you did that?"

"Yes," I grumbled.

"Since when?" Thomas kept asking. He always kept asking and it was annoying me.

"Before the maze," I muttered.

"Did you stop?" Thomas kept holding eye contact.

"I'm trying." I simply replied. My heart started beating faster when I realized it might've not been a good idea to tell Thomas.

Out of a sudden, Thomas hugged me tightly. I couldn't remember him doing that to me. Surprised and hesitantly I hugged him back.

"Are you okay now?" Thomas asked once we let go.

"Yeah. It's just Newt, he's been acting quite... strange." I shrugged.

A grin formed on Thomas' face. "It's worth it." And with that, the boy walked away.

A bit upset by everything that happened in just half an hour, I walked back to our hut and got ready for bed. Newt wasn't there. I lay down in our bed and crawled under the blanket, so almost my whole body was under.

~

About half an hour after I lay down, Newt walked into the hut. I didn't feel like saying anything, so pretended to be asleep. I heard Newt climbing into the bed and lying down next to me. He let out some grunts and sighs.
I tried hard to fall asleep, but somehow I couldn't.

"Nora?" Newt whispered after ten minutes. I bit my lip and didn't respond. "I know you're awake." He added.

"What?" I snapped again.

"I can't sleep like this."

"Like what?" I sighed but didn't face Newt.

"I'm not next to you."

"You're right next to me, Newt." I whisper-yelled, forcing myself to close my eyes and trying to fall asleep. It didn't work.

When Newt suddenly wrapped his arms around my waist, I slapped his hands away from me. I was angry at him for suddenly leaving and acting so strange. I wasn't supposed to cuddle.

"I don't want this right now, Newt." I decided. Newt sighed loudly.

"Yes, you do. You can't sleep either." Newt argued. It was true, but still. He couldn't just make things up by cuddling me.

"You don't know that." I quietly snapped.

"But it's true," Newt spoke before pulling me into his arms again, so my head was on his chest. Newt buried his head in my hair. "I'm sorry that I left without telling you." Newt started. "But I had my reasons."