𝑊𝐸 𝐹𝑂𝑈𝑁𝐷 𝐿𝑂𝑉𝐸 

𝐼𝑁 𝐴 𝐻𝑂𝑃𝐸𝐿𝐸𝑆𝑆 𝑃𝐿𝐴𝐶𝐸

- 𝑟𝑖ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑎, 𝑤𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒

*＊✿❀○❀✿＊*

IN the Glade, things continued the same way they had before, when no one had found out about Melanie's suicidal actions.

Newt didn't leave her side for a second because he just wanted to be there for her with all his understanding. Melanie was just getting her daily ointment applied by one of the paramedics.

“It looks like you can go back to your hammock for the night,” they said, putting the ointment back with the other utensils. She smiled somewhat gratefully and exchanged a look with the blonde who was sitting on a chair.

“That’s great news,” he said enthusiastically, beaming at her. The medic then left both of them alone with the conscience of having done a successful job. Newt then took a seat next to Melanie.

"How are you?" he asked.

"Better." She swallowed slightly and looked at him gently from the side, appearing uneasy for a moment because she was mentally struggling. "Will you allow me to ask you something?"

Newt's face was honest but amused. "Of course, love," he nodded, "Whenever you want."

Melanie took the courage that was gathering within her and redeemed it like a kind of voucher. "What did you mean to tell me yesterday when you said you didn't want me to end up like you?" She had chosen her words carefully, afraid of awakening in him things he had ended.

Newt's smile disappeared in the blink of an eye. First and foremost, perhaps he regretted saying it and that she had actually heard it. After everything that happened, he looked at her first before deciding to pretend that sharing things with someone made things better. "I jumped too," he said in a voice so indefinable it could break glasses, "I landed on my leg, and now I'll be reminded of it for the rest of my life every time I walk."

Actually saying this was also not easy for him. But the assurance that it was just Melanie and him made up for it all. She nodded cautiously, keeping her eyes on him before standing up and hugging him.

This time her arms rest on his back and her head rests on his heartbeat. He gently returned it and stroked her head. There was so much gratitude in her that she wouldn't be able to express.

"I think it's so special that our scars will always remind us of each other," she murmured into his chest with a sigh.

"A commonality." He winked at her as soon as they parted and he watched her blush. Grinning, she poked him gently in the side, enjoying how happy he looked when she would never forget what had broken inside him when he found out about James.

Amused, he fled from her and her pricking, which created a game and she accepted the challenge. So Melanie ran after him, would simply suppress her pain for such unforgettable moments if she had any. Newt intentionally let her win by slowing down and looking back at where she had gone. Plus, he had to take care of his leg anyway.

She gently grabbed his arm, but accidentally flew over a root, causing both of them to fall to the ground. Melanie caught something with her arms next to his head. However, both were now so close that they could feel each other's breath on their skin, which left a pleasant tingling sensation.

For a vague amount of time they just looked at each other with smiles on their faces, as if it didn't matter what else might happen. "I like you, Newt," she said, one of her many thoughts that had no embarrassment or doubt.

She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, embarrassed by the unusual proximity. As soon as she wanted to sit up again, unsure about her statement, the blonde boy on the grass had placed his hand on hers. "You know I like you too, Melanie," he said seriously. Clearing her throat a little, she let go of him and tried to control her heartbeat, which was so full of euphoria that she thought she was under some sort of intoxicant.

I can finally recognize what signals my body is sending to my brain and vice versa. I can see how I feel and it's so beautiful that it makes all my sadness go away and I think it could last forever.

Newt sat up slightly and looked at her worriedly, brushing a thin strand of hair from her cheek with his thumb. "Is everything okay, love?," he asked. "Did you hurt yourself?"

"I'm fine." She looked back at him, smiling, not mentioning that it was precisely because of him that she was having such a hard time breathing.

Lost in thought, he smiled too, just stared at her from the side and silently sent his gratitude to the vastness of the universe for every extra minute he had with her. Every minute he wasn't sad because he had lost her, but because he was still able to have her here. He hoped she would finally see how beautiful she was too.

“Would you have told me about it like that at some point?” Her voice sounded confident, so much different than at the beginning of her time in the clearing. A change that also seemed to be noticed.

"Someday maybe - yes." He sat up fully, finding this conversation very important. "Especially so you don't feel alone anymore. That you know I understand you, right?" Newt waited for an emotion to flash in her eyes. "My reasons may have been different, but they were the same thoughts."

Even if it wasn't entirely appropriate, Melanie felt a feeling comparable to happiness. She would never have dared to dream of finding someone who understood her so deeply and with whom she could talk about such profound things.

A person who everyone needed and who always existed because soft souls can be found everywhere, like saturated clouds that first have to rain down on the earth in order to be able to shine in full white again.

“My fear always told me things like that, Newt. And I was so naive that I believed it because no one proved me wrong," she said, probably doing him an injustice because he had always done exactly that, it just hadn't gotten through to her. It had just passed through her so easily, maneuvering others into suffering because they couldn't do anything to prevent it.

“Hey,” he took her small face in his hands, “it’s over. Everything will be different now. Thomas and me: we are here. Just like everyone else. By now you should know that your fear is not your friend, otherwise it wouldn't have taken you away from us."

Melanie felt her eyes watering from all the truth he had let her know. He gently stroked her face, liking the way her hands moved to his own. "You're so beautiful, Mel. I don't know why you should be told otherwise."

I think I'm dying and my heart disappears into his because it's no longer mine. It hasn't been for so long that I can finally explain where these wonderful feelings in me come from. All that warmth.

-'๑'-

That morning Melanie stood in front of the mirror again and looked at herself with such beautiful sparkling tears strewn across her face. I think that's good. That I let out everything that has stuck with me for too long and I can finally let go of it. "Why are you crying, Mel?" Newt asked worriedly, wiping the warm, large tears from her cheeks because he had noticed how long she had disappeared into the washroom. She flinched slightly, feeling so caught and ashamed at the same time.

"There are some old thoughts in my mind and I'm waiting for them to finally go away, Newt," she replied, keeping her eyes on her reflection because she couldn't move.

Newt closed the door, took all the time in the world for her and came closer. "That's okay," he said, making it clear to her that a procedure doesn't happen overnight and that it can go backwards as well as forwards.

Anyone who feels such immense darkness
in the form of shattering sadness
must have once been
so irrevocably and endlessly happy
that it feels as if it has been robbed of one.
But you will find it again,
find it again,
find it again,
find it again
and it will be fabulous,
a satisfaction
to which there is
absolutely nothing to add.

"Let me help you, Mel. You can find again what you lost," he said, wanting nothing more than to show her what it was like to be happy.

That she didn't have to fulfill anything special to be able to feel it. That she just had to have faith, because Newt would be here, and it would heal him too when he saw the unique changes that were going on in her that not everyone was able to master.