A/N: I'm on a roll. Can't seem to stop writing Divergent fanfics. This one is Uriah/Tris, which to some of you may not make any sense. Well, to be honest, it actually doesn't make any sense. I ship Fourtris as much as the next initiate, but I feel the need to write this one. Uriah has always been one of my favorite character. Okay, now for the story. Enjoy and don't hesitate to review! :)
-Celine-
Disclaimer: Practically everything here belongs to Veronica Roth. You can find this scene (well, most of it. Some of it's still mine.) in Divergent, chapter 17. I only gave Uriah a voice.
Just for a Little Bit
"I still can't believe you guys beat me at the rankings!" Marlene sighs.
The rankings for the first stage of initiation just came up and Uriah, Lynn, and Marlene claim the top three spots.
Lynn pats her shoulder, "You're fated to be third, my friend."
She started to laugh and Uriah joins in, and Marlene too, soon after.
They keep walking when something, or rather someone, catches Uriah's eyes.
A girl, sitting in the hallway, her head in her hands. It's the Stiff, as everyone always calls her.
Tris. He corrected himself.
"Tris?" He calls out loud.
She looks up, Uriah stopping in front of her.
He waves to Marlene and Lynn, telling them to go on. They exchange looks but eventually, they keep going.
"You okay?"
"I had a difficult night."
Uriah recalls someone telling him about the incident at the transfers' dormitory. Apparently a guy named Edward, who came first on the rankings, was stabbed in the eye with a butter knife.
"Yeah, I heard about that guy Edward." He looks down the hallway, watching Marlene and Lynn disappear around a corner.
He grins a little at Tris, "Want to get out of here?"
"What?" She asks, "Where are you going?"
"To a little initiation ritual. Come on. We have to hurry."
She hesitates just for a moment then stands up and jogs next to Uriah to catch up to the Dauntless-born initiates.
"The only initiates they usually let come are ones with older siblings in Dauntless. But they might not even notice. Just act like you belong."
"What exactly are we doing?"
"Something dangerous," he says, eyes full of excitement and just a slight bit of anxiousness.
They reach the Dauntless-born initiates and one of them notices the girl that doesn't belong, standing next to Uriah.
"What's the Stiff doing here?"
Uriah shifts a bit so he's mostly in front of her, feeling the need to defend her, "She just saw that guy get stabbed in the eye, Gabe. Give her a break, okay?"
No one else bothers Tris anymore, but a few of them give her sidelong glances. Uriah stops them with a glare.
They turn another corner and found Zeke, Shauna, and a bunch of other Dauntless members standing at the end of the next hallway.
"Let's go," Zeke says, entering a dark doorway.
The rest of them follow.
"Back staircase, usually locked." Uriah informs Tris.
They keep climbing until finally, they arrived at the top, a few hundred yards from the glass building above the Pit, close to the train tracks.
The train arrives, and everyone jumps in the car.
Uriah gets in first, and Tris follows. She stumbles a little but Uriah grabs her arms, steadying her. He left his hands on her arms just for a little bit longer, before he guides her to one side of the car, and they sit against the walls.
"Where are we going?" Tris shouts, her voice drowned by the wind.
Uriah shrugs, "Zeke never told me."
"Zeke?"
"My older brother," Uriah points, showing Tris his brother.
"You don't get to know. That ruins the surprise! I'm Shauna." The last bit was directed at Tris, who shakes Shauna's hand rather awkwardly.
"I'm-"
"I know who you are. You're the Stiff."
Uriah tensed just a little bit, not liking the way the Dauntless members calls her Stiff.
"Four told me about you." Shauna continues.
Uriah watches as her cheeks blush a shade of pink when Four was mentioned and he tries to ignore the ache he feels. She likes him, he realizes.
"He said you were a Stiff. Why do you ask?"
"If my instructor is talking about me, I want to know what he's saying."
Even though he wasn't from Candor, Uriah can see that Tris is lying.
"He isn't coming, is he?" Tris says, officially making Four the topic of their conversation.
"No. He never comes to this. It's probably lost its appeal. Not much scares him, you know."
The look of disappointment that crosses Tris' face when Shauna says Four wasn't coming makes Uriah's heart breaks just a little bit more.
"Do you know him well?"
Uriah, again, tries to ignore the jealousy that rages within him. Stop. He thought. Stop talking about him, Tris.
Finally, Uriah just closes his eyes and tunes them out. Not wanting to hear another word.
"Here we go!" Shauna shouts and jumps out of the train.
Uriah stands next to Tris in the doorway.
He looks at her face and sees the determination there.
She jumps out and hitting the ground hard and stumbling forward.
Uriah follows shortly, landing perfectly.
They run toward the Hancock building, getting closer and closer, and finally pushing through the doors with everyone else.
At the elevator bank, everyone stops and so do Uriah and Tris.
"Do the elevators work?" Tris whispers quietly to Uriah.
Zeke, who apparently heard, rolls his eyes, "Sure they do. You think I'm stupid enough not to come here early and turn on the emergency generator?"
"Yeah," says Uriah. "I kinda do."
Tris grins as she watch Zeke puts Uriah in a headlock and rubs his knuckles into Uriah's skull. Uriah smacks Zeke in the side and he lets go. The sight of Uriah's disheveled hair makes Tris grins more.
The elevator doors open and they all pile in, members in one and initiates in the other.
Lynn stomps on Tris' toes on her way in, but Uriah is too busy staring at his reflection, fixing his hair, to notice.
"What floor?" Lynn asks.
"One hundred." Tris says.
"How would you know that?"
"Lynn, come on," Uriah glares at her, "Be nice."
"We're in a one-hundred-story abandoned building with some Dauntless," Tris retorts. "Why don't you know that?"
Lynn stays silent and jams her thumb into the right button. The elevator zooms up and it finally reaches the one hundredth floor.
"I wonder how we'll get to the roof from…" Uriah's voice trails off.
There is a gaping hole in the ceiling and the Dauntless are climbing up an aluminum ladder through it. Uriah climbs and Tris follows.
The powerful wind made her lean against Uriah to keep from falling over and Uriah feels his heartbeat quickens just a little bit at the sudden closeness.
Uriah points to something. Zeke is preparing the slings for the zip line and all Uriah manages to say is, "Oh my God."
Tris can only nod beside him.
Shauna gets on first and the Dauntless whoop as she hurtles toward nothingness.
Everyone else forms a line and somehow Tris ended up in front of Uriah. They wait for seven other Dauntless and finally it is Tris' turn.
Zeke helps her into the sling and secures her straps.
"Ready, Stiff? I have to say, I'm impressed that you aren't screaming and crying right now."
"I told you," Uriah grins. "She's Dauntless through and through. Now get on with it."
"Careful, brother, or I might not tighten your straps enough and then, splat!"
"Yeah, yeah, and then our mother would boil you alive." Uriah replies.
"Only if she found out." Zeke then says to Tris, "Ready, set, g-"
He releases her.
"She got some guts." Zeke says.
"Yeah. She's got to have some Dauntless blood in her." Uriah says with awe.
Zeke looks back at his brother and folds his arm in front of his chest, "You like her, don't you?"
"N-no, I don't."
"You stuttered."
"I did not."
"Whatever. Your turn, lil' bro." Zeke says, gesturing to the zip line.
Zeke grabs Uriah and secures him inside the sling. Without warning, he releases Uriah and shouts, "See you down there!"
"You are so dead, Zeke!" Uriah's voice is faintly heard.
Uriah lets out a not-so-Dauntless scream and it goes on and on until he finally stops and the Dauntless members catch him with their arms.
They head back to the compound after everyone arrives. Tris walks beside Uriah, their hands almost touching.
Once they arrive, Uriah leads Tris away from everyone else, puts his hands on her shoulders and looks straight into her eyes, "Are you okay now?"
Tris nods, "Thanks to you."
She grins and adds, "I had fun today."
"Me too." Uriah smiles, "Wait here."
With that he ran off into the cafeteria. Tris waits and after a minute, he's back with something in his hand.
"What's that?"
"It's cake. Dauntless' chocolate cake." He says, giving the plate with a huge piece of cake to Tris, "You can't find it anywhere else."
"Thanks." She smiles and takes a bite.
She sighs in delight, "Oh, this tastes wonderful."
"I know. It's my favorite thing about being Dauntless." He grins at her. "Unlimited supply of chocolate cake."
They talk and laugh and share the cake until nothing was left.
Finally Uriah stands up and offers her hand to Tris, helping her up.
"Thank you, Uriah." Tris says, "I really did have fun today."
He merely smiles, "You said that already."
"I know."
"Listen, Tris. Know that I'm always here for you. Whenever you have a hard time, whenever you have a problem, I'll always be here with a slice of chocolate cake, okay?" He ends with a smile.
She hesitates only for a moment before she steps up and hugs him, "Okay."
Uriah hugs her back, not wanting to release her anytime soon. But he knows he couldn't keep her to himself forever.
"I gotta go." Uriah finally releases her, "See you around, Tris."
And he walks away from her. Knowing that he can't be with her. But that didn't stop him from wishing. Just for a little bit.