For Sara

[thebloodyglue]

He'd almost been surprised when she'd replied to his ad. He's still in the planning stages, but he figures if he can get someone in on the ground floor, someone he can work with, then that'll make everything easier. He'd arranged to meet her at the coffee shop on a day that he's not working and he's sitting at one of the tables, with a coffee at his elbow and his sketchpad open, working on logo ideas. He's chosen the name GLADERS' GARDEN DESIGN.

He thinks it'll work.

Comments

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

It's exactly the kind of work she wants to be in. She needs to keep up with farm work so she can keep working the cane fields. She needs to stay fit, if she's going to take care of Cid.

She enters the coffee shop and looks around, she's expecting some grizzled guy with a beard and big-knuckled, callused hands. She's not expecting a kid.

[thebloodyglue]

The shop's pretty quiet in the middle of the day and, when she walks in, Newt looks up. He stands, head tilted slightly as he studies her for a moment.

"Sara?"

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

At the sound of her name, she looks at him. "Yeah. You're Newt?" There's a little extra stress on 'you're,' like she plainly doesn't believe it, but her face is as neutral as she can manage.

[thebloodyglue]

"Newt Kavinsky," says Newt, ignoring the tone and giving her a warm smile, reaching out to offer his hand. "I was shucking stoked when you called. Can I get you something to drink?"

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

"Coffee's fine," she says, but she grips his hand firmly and shakes. "No offense, you look a lot younger'n I thought you would."

[thebloodyglue]

Newt gestures to the girl behind the counter for a coffee and shakes her hand firmly before gesturing for her to sit.

"Yeah, I know," he says. "But I'm most of the way through my degree at Barton and, honestly, there isn't much about growing things that I don't know."

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

She nods and sits opposite him. "Well, I run a farm, back home. Got some chickens and a whole bunch'a cane. I'm not an expert at growin' things, but I learn quick, and I'm good for manual labor, if you need it."

[thebloodyglue]

"Definitely will," says Newt, grinning. "The plan at the moment is mostly maintenance, with a garden design and landscaping off-shoot once we get ourselves established. Sound like something you'd be into?"

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

"I'd be willin' to give it a try if you are," she says. "I'm no stranger to hard work, so just point me at what you want, and I can do prob'ly do it."

[thebloodyglue]

"I can't pay more than flat minimum at the start," says Newt, glancing at her. "But you'll be getting paid before I do? And as soon as we're established, I'll put it up, if everything's going well?"

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

She nods. "That all seems fair. Early business, you wanna make sure you can afford the hired help. You don't know how much business you're gonna get. It's smart to be cautious early on." She's impressed he's got that sort of level-headed foresight, and she wonders how old he is after all.

[thebloodyglue]

Newt nods.

"It'll probably mostly be lawns and hedge trimming," he says, smiling and shaking his head. "Nothing too fancy at first."

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

"I'm not a fancy gal, you might've noticed," she points out. "There is a nice little house I'm lookin' at, though, hopin' to buy it. The property's not so bad, and I've been tidying up the edges with a natural rock wall. None of that carved-stone bullshit that looks like the rocks are made outta plastic."

[thebloodyglue]

"Oh, shucking hell, a woman after my own heart," says Newt, a wide grin spreading across his face. "We bought our house because I fell in love with the garden, no joke. My husband thinks it's because of the garage, but..." He shakes his head.

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

That has Sara smiling. "You're married? How old are you, if you don't mind me askin'?" She supposes it doesn't matter, but she'll ask anyway.

[thebloodyglue]

"Eighteen for another month or so," says Newt, smiling. "We only just got married, back in January. Felt like the right thing to do."

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

She nods. "Good for you, then," she says, and she means it. "I'm not sure marriage is ever gonna be right for me, but that don't mean I can't appreciate other's happiness."

[thebloodyglue]

Newt nods. "We do okay," he says. "How long have you been in Darrow?"

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

She thinks about it for a moment, trying to remember exactly when she'd arrived. "About a month, actually," she realizes, and frowns at that. She's been here a month, with still no sign of Cid, and no suggestion that she's leaving any time soon. She takes a breath and shakes her head. "I keep waiting for something to happen, but I guess it won't, will it?

[thebloodyglue]

"It's been over a year for me," says Newt, taking a sip of his coffee. "What's your world like?"

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

"It's not so different from here," she says. "For the most part, anyway. Technology's a little different here, though. Older." She shrugs, not giving too much information. "It's alright. I'll get to see what the world was like the year I was born, is all."

[thebloodyglue]

"I don't remember when, exactly, I'm from," admits Newt. He'd got a lot of things back, but not that. "I know that I was born in London, but I don't remember much about it."

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

"What d'you mean?" she asks, curiosity taking over. "Why don't you remember? Or . . . do you not remember that, either?"

[thebloodyglue]

"Before I was here, I lived somewhere called the Glade. I didn't remember anything before the Glade..." He shrugs. "Recently, I got back a lot of the things that WICKD took from me." He realises that that won't mean anything to her. "World in Crisis Killzone Department."

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

"They intend for it to sound evil?" Sara asks, a little alarmed by how . . . on the nose the title sounded. "Because it sounds evil."

[thebloodyglue]

"We didn't know about it until it was too late," he says, rubbing his forehead. "But it was pretty shucking fucked up."

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

"What're you, shucking corn, or something?" she asks, tone tilting towards amused. "Why d'you keep saying 'shucking' like it's a cuss?"

[thebloodyglue]

"Put a clunk load of teenaged boys in a glade together and they'll figure out how to curse," he says, laughing. "Even if they don't remember a single real curse word between them."

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

That has Sara grinning, a rare enough sight in itself. It sheds years from her face. She leans back in her seat and laughs a little.

"Fair enough, I guess," she says. "So, none of y'all knew anything about yourselves? Because of that 'wicked' place?"

[thebloodyglue]

"They took us, took our memories and dropped us in the Glade," says Newt, with a shrug that says that, if he'd ever had any angst about it, it's done now. "Fresh starts. I was thirteen, give or take."

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

Sara nods thoughtfully, a frown creasing her brow. Then she leans and rests her fingertip on the logo he's been working on.

"Gladers? That what you called yourselves?"

[thebloodyglue]

"That's all we knew," he says. "There was the Maze and there was the Glade, and we belonged in one and we mostly tried to stay the hell out of the other."

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

"What's so bad about this maze?" she asks. "I mean, other than that it's a maze, and mazes are bastards."

[thebloodyglue]

"It was all an experiment," he says, shrugging. "A lot of us had immunity to a disease they ŵere trying to cure. They wanted to see how strong we were, I guess."

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

"They couldn't just, I dunno, run blood tests, or the like?" She's not a huge fan of experimentation. When TK had first popped up, people had thought it was the beginning of superheroes, like in all the old comics. But it was just another fact of humanity. Some have blue eyes. Some have black hair. Some are TK.

[thebloodyglue]

"Apparently not," says Newt, with a shrug. "I mean, I'm the control group, so what do I know?" He wrinkles his nose. "That's something you ought to know, if you're going to be working for me - I'm not usually around on the first couple of days of the month. Hospital appointments."

[cutyouthefuckinhalf]

She nods, sipping her coffee. "It's no never mind to me, so long as I have a work model to follow." She'd been handling the farm alright after her sister died, so as long as she knows what the day-to-day is, what she's supposed to do and where she's supposed to go, she'll be fine.