The Ecstasy of a Yes

Dedicated to lostinthought1304 for requesting this prompt on Tumblr!...

"First time THOMAS kissed Brenda because it has always been the females kissing him, not the other way around."

Thomas rubbed his hand together nervously as he paced inside of the bedroom he shared with Minho. The sun was just beginning to set in the distance which meant that dinner would be started at any moment, which naturally, would mean that he would have to face Brenda.

Brenda.

He was trembling just thinking about it. He had somehow gotten it through his shuck head that Brenda really liked him and had planned on asking her out. Well, the most you could do with going out with someone in their new-found paradise was basically just hanging out a lot more and switching job schedules to be with each other.

Anyway, Minho had helped him concoct this master plan to ask her out... which had ended up failing miserably. (Thomas tried to convince himself that Minho - who had never seemed to like Brenda much - had not sabotaged him, but the odds didn't seem to be in his favor.) He'd been waiting outside the building she lived in (one of the many that the Immunes had worked on building since finding their paradise) with a blue wild flower in his hands, running lines to himself about how this was going to happen.

And naturally, of course, as soon as she had opened to door, he'd been tripping all over himself to get out a clear word. She'd laughed and told him to calm down, and then accepted the flower with the prettiest smile on her face that Thomas had ever seen. Her eyes twinkling, she'd linked arms with him and then began to drag him down to the make shift hospital they had set up, where she worked.

Thomas, feeling like he was about to float away, had followed her, thinking over the plan.

"Remember, just be smooth. And no trying to seduce her, either. Your seductive faces suck."

"What!? My...seductive face!?"

"Yes, Thomas, I've seen you use it on her before. It just makes her think you have a head ache. Anyway, when you get a chance, just ask her real nicely, Brenda, would you like to go out with me?"

"That's it?"

"Yes, shuck head, that's it. And make sure you do it outside that wild flower patch by the river! Good luck, and don't screw it up."

Thomas had done exactly like Minho had told him to until... He had opened his mouth to ask her out. And then he just felt like an idiot. He had managed to gasp out something along with lines of, "Uh - do you want - um... Gooutwithme!?" before failing epically by stepping forward and tripping.

Down the hill.

Thomas groaned just thinking about it and what came next. Maybe, if Minho hadn't interrupted, Thomas would have been able to brush it off and pull of the endearing clumsiness look, but sadly Minho had intervened.

His friend had come running up with a smirk on his face before saying to Brenda, "Look, he's trying to ask you out. Say yes before he murders himself and gets his Runner panties in any more of a twist."

Thomas, blushing red, looked up at Brenda. Her eyes had gone wide, almost nervously, and then she busted into hysterical peals of laughter.

He just got up and left, cheeks flaming red.

All this had gone down about two hours ago, and until then, Thomas had managed to stay holed up in his room, locking Minho out as a punishment for embarrassing him.

Now it was dinner time, and Thomas considered himself truly shucked.

"Hey, shuck face!" called a familiar voice from the outside. "Slim it with the pity party and get out here before all the good food is gone for the day!"

"Go away, Minho!" Thomas snapped, burying his face in his hands. "I deserve to starve!"

"I happen to know for a fact that Brenda desperately wants you to ask her out," Minho supplied nonchalantly.

"Liar." Thomas rolled his eyes and went back to feeling sorry for himself.

There was a pause outside the door until Minho said, "Okay, listen. I know I act like a shuck head most of the time, but I really do care about you Thomas. Brenda genuinely likes you and you should ask her out. Better yet, just kiss her during dinner. Everyone already thinks you two are an item anyways, so why does it matter?"

Thomas sat on his bed for a moment before standing up and putting and ear to the door. "You mean that? She doesn't hate me for being a loser?"

Minho chuckled. "I promise."

With a dramatic sigh, Thomas pulled the door open and was met with the grinning face of his best friend. "Ready to go get the girl?" Minho asked laughingly.

"I think ready is a bit of an overstatement..." Thomas said nervously. "Why do girls have to be so difficult? Why can't we all just have like... I don't know... a way to know who likes us and who we're meant to be with? That would make life so much easier."

Minho laughed and linked arms with Thomas as they walked down the hill towards the center of their little town. "I don't know, buddy. I do not know."

~page break~

Thomas was so nervous he could feel his stomach doing flips inside of him. His portion of dinner sat untouched in front of him as he tapped the table with his fork impatiently.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

"-Thomas!" shouted a voice from the other side of the table.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Distracted, he watched Brenda walk into the dining hall, smiling and laughing with one of her friends. God, she looked so pretty...

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

"Thoooomas..."

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

He wondered briefly if maybe Brenda was going to see him and just burst out laughing again like she had before. That wouldn't go over too smoothly.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap-

"THOMAS!"

"What!?"

Minho glared at him. "If you don't stop tapping, I'm going to confiscate your fork and impale you with it."

Thomas made a face. "Ew."

"Exactly. Now stop twitching about kissing her and just go do it!" Minho exclaimed, pushing Thomas out of his seat. "Go! Go!"

"Fine, fine, I'm going," Thomas grumbled.

God, I can face a night in the Maze, Grievers, WICKED's trials, the Flare, and yet the thought of kissing a girl still makes me want to wet myself with nervousness. Some leader I am.

He approached Brenda from the back, where she was chatting with one of the women who worked in the kitchen helping prepare the meals with the limited supplies they all had.

"Brenda?" Thomas whimpered quietly, his voice breaking. He cleared his throat, face turning red, and tapped her on her shoulder.

Brenda turned around smiling, her pretty eyes twinkling. "Thomas!" she exclaimed happily.

Before he could change his mind, Thomas leaned forward, in front of the whole building, bringing himself centimeters from her lips.

Suddenly, it was like a million tons of pressure slammed into him.

I have no idea what I'm doing! I've never had to think about kissing a girl - they always kiss me first! Oh my god, what if I do something wrong? What if she hates me!? What if -

And then his lips met hers and all he could think was wow. He heard the people around them begin to cheer as Brenda smiled into the kiss and shifted so that she was standing on her toes. It was nothing like electricity and fire works and all that crap that people wrote about because no - it was much, much better.

It felt real, and right, and completely and utterly Brenda.

"That's my boy, Thomas!" Minho shouted from the crowd.

When he pulled away only a few seconds later, Brenda's face was flushed and she was wearing a pleased grin, slightly reminiscent of a smirk. "Why didn't you just do that earlier!?" she laughed as the cheers began to die down.

Thomas shrugged and smiled timidly. "So you don't hate me?"

Brenda laughed again. "Thomas, I will never hate you. And to answer your question, yes, I will go out with you."

Not knowing how to deal with the ecstasy of the yes, Thomas just grinned and kissed her again.

Thanks for taking the time to reads this! And I take all Maze Runner prompts and requests, so feel free to leave one in a comment.

Dani ;D