Y/N would like to say that when she woke up it was bit by bit, peaceful, slow, calm... whatever.
But it wasn't; torn from her sleep by blinding pain and the agonisingly familiar stretching of her bones, Y/N could recognise when her own body was shifting.

Jolting awake with a breathless yelp, Y/N bolted upwards, the thin sheet that covered her naked body pooling at her waist. Calming from her breathless state, Y/N assessed her situation as Vince had taught her; she was lying, naked, in a bed she didn't recognise, with just a thin sheet to cover her. The bed was big enough that it could hold her when she shifted- which was evidently something she had been doing to try and heal herself subconsciously.

Her bed was surrounded by a billowing curtain, shielding her from prying eyes, and she was still alone even after all her grunting and yells after she shifted and woke up.
Gathering from that, Y/N was willing to bet that she'd been touch-and-go for a while there, and that her healing trance shifts had become a regular occurrence for everyone to be so used to it.

Suddenly, her enhanced hearing could pick up the soft patter of footsteps approaching- realising she was sitting in bed with her chest bare, Y/N clutched the sheet up to her neck.

"Y/N? Are you awake yet?" A somewhat familiar voice called through the partition curtain.

"Come in." Y/N's voice was tender and soft with sleep, yet rough with the ache of disuse.

The swooshing of fabric announced the entry of a figure Y/N struggled to name.
She was tall, with fiery red hair and hazel eyes, carrying a stethoscope and some bandages.

Right- Dr Symons, or Nancy as she insisted everyone call her. And from the basket of supplies in her arm, Y/N could gather what she was here for.

Gently, Y/N grazed her fingers across the bloody bandage which encased her shoulder.
"It's good to see you awake, your family was getting worried. I take it you know what I'm here for?" Nancy's voice was friendly and teasing.

Nodding, Y/N moved over on the bed to allow the doctor room to sit.
"When you say 'my family', you mean...?"

Nancy's eyes sparked as she removed the soiled bandage from Y/N's shoulder, her methodical movements aged with practice.
"I mean the man you view as a father, and the boys who have been driven out of their minds because they couldn't visit you."

"They couldn't visit me?" Y/N's eyebrows scrunched together.

"Your shifts were violent, Vince was scared you could hurt someone by accident, or they could hurt you if they tried to help. And he didn't know if you wanted them to know or not." Nancy spoke as she wrapped a clean bandage around the healing wound.

Y/N sighed, "I think it's a bit too late for that, Thomas isn't very good at keeping secrets."

Falling into a peaceful silence, Nancy worked while Y/N thought. The quiet was nice, with the only sounds being the flapping fabric which surrounded them, and the distant voices giving orders.
Then Y/N remembered what they were doing attacking that train in the first place- Minho.
She had to go see him, find out what they were going to do now that her best friend was back.

"There- all done. When you're ready to leave, there's a fresh set of clothes in that cupboard and your boyfriend left one of his coats for you to wear. Said it was to do with Vince losing your favourite jumper."

Y/N scoffed and smiled, pulling the sheet around her as she swung her legs over the side of the bed- "You give a man one job." She laughed airily.

"Take it easy, Y/N. You suffered a lot of blood loss." Nancy's warning followed her smile.

"I know, I know." Y/N tutted after Nancy's retreating form.
The heavy folds of the curtain sealed her exit.

~time skip~

"Hey, Vince." Y/N's voice was soft but the wind carried it to where she wanted it; her father figure stood stoic by the beach, alone and with concern clouding his eyes.

When he heard her voice, his shoulders fell and he sighed audibly with relief. Spinning around slowly, he opened his arms to her, not hesitating to squeeze her in a hug.

"You scared me, it's never been that bad before. How do you feel? Are you hurting?" His tone held concern, and his eyebrows scrunched with worry.

"Nothing worse than what I'm used to, just a couple of aches and pains. Joint stuff, y'know?" She smiled up at his taller frame, grasping her own arms in a rather pathetic attempt to stay warm. Substantial blood loss had that effect on people.

"Come on, let's bring you to your boys. They've been fighting me every day to come and see you." Vince smirked as he collapsed a guiding arm around her shoulder.

~time skip~

Vince had left her alone once they reached the closed entryway to the bunk tents.

Tepidly, and with nerves the size of pythons wriggling through her guts, Y/N sighed before parting the entry to the tent. The space she walked into was not the same as she remembered- everything was packed, ready and waiting in boxes to be transported; where, Y/N had a fair idea. Navigating her way through to near-empty floorspace, Y/N smiled slightly when she spotted them: Newt, Thomas and Frypan stood together facing one bed.

Their backs were to her, and no-one had noticed her coming in.

"Well then," her voice cracked as Newt spun to stare at her, "what did I miss?"

Newt took two great paces and reached for her, gathering her frame into his arms and laughing slightly as he spoke, "Shut up, you idiot."

"That's ironic coming from you, idiot," she teased as her arms clung around his neck. In return he simply graced quick kisses to her forehead, nose and lips- as if reassuring himself she was actually there.

"Seriously guys? Not two minutes together and you're already back to the flirty insults? It's been three days not years, get a grip." Frypan threw at them as he jogged over, ready to hug Y/N next.

"Fry, still keeping my boys in check I see?" Y/N kissed his cheek as she hugged him tightly.

"Just trying to hold them together, girl."

"Thomas! I see you've been busy gossiping." She went in for yet another hug, shaking him out of his stupor.

"That was not my fault." he denied childishly.

"No, it never is, is it?" she whispered conspicuously.

"I did not miss your sarcasm-"

"Yes, you did." she cupped his cheeks and wiggled his face side to side.

"Fine. Yes, I did." he caved.

Another voice suddenly interjected from below them, tired and familiar, and stealing Y/N's breath from her lungs, "So did I," Minho spoke from the bed.

"Minho!" Y/N gasped, the tears of joy she'd been trying to control finally bursting through, "You beautiful, beautiful idiot. I missed you!"

She collapsed at the edge of his bed and fell on top of him in a instinctive attempt for contact with her best friend. Pained gasps escaped them both, but stopped neither. "I missed you too, babe."

"Careful Minho," Newt's fake 'jealous boyfriend' act came, but was quickly interrupted by a joyous smile at seeing his two favourite people together again.

"I think he's figured us out, Y/N. We may be forced to elope now."

"God, imagine us trying to survive alone together. We'd kill each other," She laughed and he joined.

He retorted quickly; "Not before making some damn good memories together."

"Obviously."

A calloused hand enveloped her uninjured shoulder, gently tugging her away and standing. Newt's eyes were filled with questions and Y/N suddenly knew what he wanted; intertwining her hand with his, she let him lead her out of the tent after a quick goodbye. After all, her boyfriend deserved an explanation.

~time skip~

"I was born like this, it's simply a gift in my family, something I was taught to hide and to control by my mum. We used to be hunted and weaponised before the world went to shit, but now hiding is simply a habit. People don't really tend to take the news easily, so I only showed Vince and he helped me to assist in the fighting whilst remaining concealed."

"So this, this is your normal? Your world?" Newt spoke softly, without judgement.

"No, no of course not. My family is my world, protecting these people is my world, you are my world. My gift is simply something that helps me stay safe trying to navigate it."

"But it hurts, right? To transform?" He was confused and curious, which dragged his eyebrows together, forming a crease which made Y/N want to reach over to smooth out with her fingertips. She forced her hands to keep still.

"Each time a little less, but yeah. It hurts." She shrugged.

He blew out a breath. "Ok."

"'Ok'?"

"Ok. You're still you, and I still love you. So long as you don't start turning into a furry beast mid-sex, we'll be good." A hint of a smirk spread across his lips, and his shoved her gently with his shoulder.

"Oh shut up," she laughed and kissed him, dragging him to stand up with her, "Come on, we've got work to do now Minho's back. Don't think I haven't noticed the boat being loaded up."

"Ready to sail away with me then, my love?"

"In an instant, my love."

A/N
Feel free to leave some head-canons for this AU in the comments, I would love to see everyone's ideas of what could happen in this sort of universe haha

Hope you enjoyed!

Lyra xx