A/N: Just letting you know ahead of time, this will be Four (Tobias)/Eric (in that order) with a slight bit of Four/Tris and possible allusions to Peter/Al and Christina/Will. There will be smut between two men, and in fact there is some in this first chapter: this is a slash fic! I may add other pairings later but that's the gist of it. In so far as ages go, keeping to canon, all Initiates are 16, however I'm going with the movie's ages for Four and Eric (24) because I'm using more of the movie's universe than the book's. I.e. Eric is blond with tattoos on his neck and his eyebrow pierced.
Disclaimer~ I do not own, more do I claim to own any characters, settings, or franchises depicted herein.
It was a day before The Choosing; a fresh batch of recruits, both Dauntless born and those stupid and bold enough to think a transfer from their old faction would be anything less than hell would be on their way come the next day. Eric looked self satisfied and Four could already tell the blond was thinking up new ways to make them sweat, bleed, and cry: or maybe all three at the same time.
"What do you think this years' gonna look like?" He asked himself more than the other, glancing at his hands, rough and callused. He dropped them at his sides as if he had suddenly lost interest in them. "Wonder if we'll have any Stiffs this year."
Four made a noncommittal noise in his throat, not about to take the bait. Besides, the chances of an Abnegation born transferring were damn near nil. If his father hadn't had his belt and the repetitive excuse of helping him, he doubted he would have left either. But he couldn't change the past. Dauntless made him face his fears. Of course it was always easier knowing he wouldn't have to stare them in the eye. His dad would be in Abnegation and he would be in Dauntless; their paths would not cross. And should they ever... Well, Tobias wasn't a helpless victim anymore because Tobias didn't exist. Tobias was weak. Four was strong. He was Four now.
"Spar with me," Eric said suddenly and Four sighed. He had known it was coming. It was usually how things between them started.
"Eric-"
"Come on. Unless you're afraid."
"The only thing I'm afraid of putting you out of commission. You can't exactly train when you're sleeping," Four said with a cocky smirk. "And we both know who's going to win here."
Eric's face shifted into a snarl for a brief second before relaxing into a cool state of calm. It was the calm before the storm. Before his cruel mind and intelligent lips could let loose what would surely trap Four into fighting with him anyhow. Eric was good at getting what he wanted. Erudite had served him a little too well in that. "I'm always improving. Dauntless leadership doesn't stay at the same level one day from the next." Eric's eyes were blown with lust and adrenaline. This appealed to Four.
Their couplings were rarely any different than their sparring. Always felt good at the end.
Eric knew he had won out when he saw Four's eyes trace his body, lingering at his crotch, tented heavily against his pants, and sliding appreciatively over his backside. He led the way into the training ring and they both stood close, not bothering with the starting space that most opponents afforded one another.
They were both offensive fighters, their guards held up loosely as they circled and closed in on each other.
Eric went in with a punch to the gut that Four sidestepped. Four went in for a leg sweep that just barely missed the mark. Eric was an impatient fighter though; it was something that worked against him, even for all his smarts. He dived in for a full-on tackle. This time instead of dodging it, Four waited for the other to be just close enough, mere inches before impact, before half dropping his own body onto the stiff mat and wrapping his legs around Eric's own, taking them both down.
Eric's head bounced off the floor as his ears rung and he blinked away blurriness. His body ached from the collision but if he took too long then Four would have even more of an advantage. Four had him in a hold, his arms trapped under him and his legs effectively rendered useless under the other's. His head was free though and he knocked it into Four's jaw, flipping their positions when the other recoiled.
It wasn't a very good tactical decision to pin the other with his full body, leaving one arm unattended, but it was all he had time to do in the split second he had gained.
Four used that same free hand to punch Eric in the face, enough to daze, but not enough to bruise. This pissed Eric off to no end though. Four was going easy on him. It was unacceptable. Four had an opening for his throat and he didn't take it. The thought repeated itself over and over in Eric's mind.
He's going easy on me. To Eric, that was the same as being spat on and told he wasn't a worthy enough opponent to fight. That he was weak and below him.
The anger drew him into a frenzy and another rush of adrenaline had him flinging Four off only to straddle him and punch him over and over. The face, the chest, the gut; there was no real target in mind.
Four drew up his knee and drove it into Eric's side, reversing their positions and holding the other down. Eric grunted at being restrained, his legs once again pinned, his arms held down, and a shoulder keeping him from headbutting the other once more. All he could do was bite the other like an animal. But that wasn't fighting. That was desperation. And desperation meant fear.
He tried forcing the other off of him, but Four wasn't relenting. He struggled some more, grunted with the exertion, growled, yelled, and then stilled.
He wasn't giving up. Dauntless did not give up. He had to wait on the other. Had to wait for Four to deliver to knockout blow.
But it never came. Four simply shifted his hold, his head buried in the crook of Eric's neck, breath leaving him in harsh pants. He wasn't going to show the other man up by giving him what he wanted, a fight that ended with him no longer able to fight back; instead he was going to give the other what he needed. "It's over." he said.
"Not until-" Eric started and was cut off by lips closing over his own. The shock had the blond not reciprocating at first, but only a few seconds later he was kissing back passionately, a dance of tongue and teeth that took practiced skill to avoid causing the other to bleed, a careful toe of the line between intense and aggressive.
Eric bucked up, his erection still in full swing and Four ground down, their hardness meeting and causing Eric's eyes to roll back and his head to draw back against the mat, delicious sounds coming from his throat.
No one else was in the training room, and even had there have been, they would have known enough to make themselves scarce. Eric never took too kindly to having what he wanted snatched away. Besides, two strong Dauntless fucking in the open wasn't an uncommon occurrence, be it a strong man atop another, two fierce women, or those of the opposite sex.
"Nice to know you're gonna fuck me on the same mat the new recruits will be training on," Eric said with a smirk, voice slightly breathy.
"Something to remember me by," was Four's reply as he dived back in for a kiss. Eric was stunned into silence when Four didn't bite or nip, just licked and drove his tongue into his mouth, the silken appendages moving something akin to a choreographed dance than a fight for dominance.
"Mmmn," Eric hadn't meant to let the sound escape, but it had. He hated the fear that arose when the thought occurred to him that Four might be disgusted at the sound, but they were unfounded as it instead riled the other up, starting back up the rutting from before.
Four's mouth moved from Eric's own to the tattoos on the man's neck, sucking and biting. If the ink weren't so dark there would have been a mark. Four was careful never to mark Eric, as the other was still a Dauntless leader. No one was crazy enough to confront the man, but too much talk wouldn't be good.
He stroked his fingers gently over his brow piercing and face, causing Eric to raise said brow and chuckle over the sentimentality. "Definitely an Abnegation born." Four rolled his eyes.
"But a Dauntless now." Blue eyes peered into his own dark ones as if they were searching for some thing, and having found it, he initiated a kiss, not unlike the one Four had just given him. With his other hand, Four had easily undone both his and Eric's button and pulled both zippers down. Eric was biting his lip when the brunet took him in his hand and began a harsh stroking rhythm, turning perfectly, thumb caressing the sensitive head in a way that drove him insane.
He didn't even register Four ridding them of the fabric that came between them, tossing it somewhere to the right.
Four didn't relent with his ministrations, but when enough pre-come had collected, he rubbed it onto his finger and slid it inside of him. Preparation was always Four's prerogative; he never took him without it. This wasn't the first time though, they had been physical in more ways than simple sparring partners since the time that they themselves were Initiates. So he spurred the process along, taking two of Four's fingers and sliding it into himself, groaning at the sudden stretch. It was on the cusp of uncomfortable.
The brunet continued to stretch him, adding another finger and reaching inside for the bundle of oversensitive nerves and finding the mark; it made Eric's vision white out and his strong thighs shake.
Unashamed, he spread his legs wider and Four slipped between them, removing his fingers to replace them with something longer and thicker. Eric gasped as he felt the transition, his opening stretched over Four's cock as the man pushed in to the hilt, eliciting an expletive from them both.
He didn't stay still too long, just a few seconds, before he was setting an intense pace, nearly pulling all the way out just to push all the way back in. Eric's lips glistened with the same moisture that dripped from the corner of his mouth and down his chin. His eyes were more black than blue, blown wide with lust and rolling back as over and over again as Four repeatedly hit his prostate. His voice was betraying him, letting loose all the sounds he wished to contain, but he could hardly find it in him to care when Four was inside him, making him feel nothing short of bliss.
Eric's legs wrapped around Four and Four lifted his hips, delving impossibly deeper. Eric wasn't in the frame of mind to kiss; in fact that quietly brilliant mind was clear of all thought, so Four opted instead to kiss his neck over his throat, lick the shell of his ear. "God," Eric had nearly screamed when Four had pressed his thumbs over his hardened nipples, pinching them and then setting soft apologetic kisses upon each in turn. "Fuck, Four," Eric ground out, too lost in sensation to catch Four return that that was exactly what he was already doing.
Long and drawn out was their thing, but Eric was already coming, his untouched cock spurting across his own chest and stomach, his walls narrowing and his voice rising. With a few more powerful thrusts, Four felt himself go over the edge, clinging to Eric who ran his blunt nails down his back and releasing all he had inside the blond who received it with a loud groan, hot come spilling inside him.
Eric had come so hard he was dazed and Four's softening dick was still inside him. He let his head drop down onto the mat, uncaring that it bounced once, and tried to regain some semblance of a regular breathing pattern.
Four had let his full weight fall onto the other, his member slipping from inside him. Come dripped out onto the mat, slowly leaking out from Eric who still could not form words. It was a full five minutes later until either of them had come down enough from their post coital bliss to dress and haphazardly wipe the mess they had made.
"Bye," Four said to fill the silence. They never really talked much afterward. Eric looked at him, his eyes moving up over his form and turned away, walking down toward the door.
Four watched him leave and felt a heaviness in his chest that he promised himself he wouldn't allow. He couldn't help it though. He wasn't just one thing. It was the curse he bore as a Divergent. He could not be one thing. Logic told him Eric and he could never be. His heart told him it had to.
A few minutes later he left to go to his own room and sat on his bed. His mind flashed with images of the other. He was being too sentimental - he knew - but knowing did nothing to stop it. He wanted to hold Eric. Had wanted it for nearly eight years.
The sky decided then to darken and rain, as if it sensed his turmoil and wanted him to drown in it. It had rained the day he left Abnegation, running away from a fear he could not triumph. But Dauntless didn't run. They faced their fears or died to them. He couldn't face his father. He would never be able to. The man believed he could beat the Divergence out of him.
If only it was so simple.
He knew he should get some sleep but his mind would not rest enough for him to do so. When Four looked out of the window he realized the rain had stopped. Odd, he thought. It had just started and it was pouring. It had seemed like it would go on all night from how it had looked. He stood up and touched the glass of his window which he had thought would be cold. It surprised him by being warm and the sun in his view was setting, lighting up the sky with oranges, reds, blues, and purples.
His eye caught movement reflected in the glass and honed in on the figure that made it to him before he could whirl around. He felt rather than saw the brow piercing, warm breath ghosting against his neck.
He turned around to see piercing grey-blues. They looked softer somehow.
Simultaneously they moved for a kiss, deep and passionate, and ended up on Four's bed. Four shifted so he was leaning over Eric. "Eric..."
"Now you're not gonna get all mushy on me, are you?"
Four laughed but said nothing. His heart was pounding so hard it ached, or maybe it just ached in general. His mouth had been mere moments away from saying something he could never take back.
"Something like that," he whispered, a false sarcastic grin in place.
"Well don't. We can never be. I don't love you and you don't love me. We're Dauntless. We don't have that luxury. And you'd do well to remember it."
But hewasn't just Dauntless.
He wished it so though. "Now c'mon. Wake up."
"Wake up?" Four blinked and they were on a rail, dangling from way up above and Eric was walking away while he clung for dear life, miles above the ground.
Four shot up out of bed. It was dark and he had fallen asleep. It was still raining, the sound of it deafening against the windowpanes... So it was just a dream. He had fallen asleep and dreamt. Too bad his dreams were all too real.
Dream Eric was right. It could never be. He was Divergent and the other Dauntless. In the end, it was him against the world, and that meant Eric too. Especially Eric. If the man ever found out, he wouldn't hesitate to kill him.
But maybe it would be okay. He would rather die by his hand than any other. Eric would not look away when his finger pushed the trigger. And maybe he would mourn him in his own way. Quiet and secret. But he would still have an irreplaceable home in his heart then, right?
"I'll go up and meet the Initiates, that leaves you with the net." Eric had been saying. There was a cruel smirk on his face and Four was sure he would be pushing the cowards in.
Four sighed and took his place by the net. He would do the business of hauling shaken Initiates from it and letting Eric give the rude awakening that if they weren't good enough they would find themselves factionless.
It had been at least fifteen minutes, and unless Eric had dramatically extended his welcome speech, someone should have jumped. It was moments after this thought occurred to him that he heard echoes of Eric's voice, impatient and booming.
"Today Initiate," echoed all the way down and Eric readied himself. Hopefully the initiate would land in the net. If not then he would have to try and catch them. He had no control over whether they missed the hole completely or not though. There had been some nasty accidents before.
Mere seconds later a girl had fallen back-first into the net looking ghostly pale, yet she hadn't screamed on the way down. Four took an unconscious step back when he realized she was from Abnegation. In his nearly seven years as a trainer, no one from Abnegation had chosen to transfer to Dauntless. No one but him.
He helped her from the net and she was breathing heavily when he asked her her name. "My name. It's-"
"If it's a hard one you can change it." Tobias hadn't been a hard name but he had been afforded the opportunity to start over, so he would give it to her in kind. Just like all the Initiates before her and even he himself. His own trainer let him become someone else: someone stronger.
She hesitated, eyes not making contact while she stared at her feet and then looked about the stone room that led to the training hall. "Tris," she finally settled on and despite her plain and weak outward appearance, Four felt a fire burn within her. He figured he would keep an eye on her like his trainer did him. She had potential.
"First Jumper: Tris!" He yelled and that triggered another jumper, though from the ungraceful way he had landed, Four was almost certain Eric had pushed him in.
They kept coming: one after the other after that. The rest of them had opted to go with their real names, though he hadn't really offered the alternative. After the last jumper had made it, a girl with dark hair and a brooding demeanor that would fit right at home, Eric had jumped. Four felt the urge to help the other man out of the netting, but of course he didn't. Eric would be pissed and feel disrespected, so instead he caught the attention of all before him with his eyes. He could pretty easily tell the Dauntless born from the Transfers. The Transfers flocked together, standing close and whispering excitedly.
"Dauntless born, over there, Transfers, you're with me," Four said and Eric stepped close. Part of him wanted to shove the blond away, didn't want him so close that he could feel the heat of the other's body near his own.
But Eric liked messing with the Transfers: his version of giving them a hard time. It was more than a little sadistic and made Four wonder of the state of his mind to feel for someone like him. He would not say love. If he said it out loud then it would be cemented. "I guess we can we what they're made of," the blond said.
Tris' eyes had been trained on the brunet trainer the whole time. There was something unshakably mysterious about the man. She wanted to know more. Biting her lip she gave a noncommittal affirmation to whatever Christina had said and again let her gaze fall on the man who had helped her from the net.
"Well I didn't have to play Catch the Falling Initiate this year," Four said in response. Eric smirked, gaze roving over the man and caught the eye of another who was doing the same. A mousy looking Stiff. It was odd to have a Stiff as a Transfer Initiate. As far as he knew - and as a Dauntless leader, he knew - there hadn't been a single Abnegation Transfer since Four.
Her gaze was mostly on the side of curious, with just an undertone of attraction. It wasn't innocent enough to simply be admiration. Neither was it a lustful gaze that begged for a quick fuck. She was previously Abnegation after all. She would want something more than that.
That thought made his brow crease. "I'm Four and I'll be your trainer," the brunet turned, waiting for Eric to do the same but was met with silence. "And this is Eric." he said when he realized Eric was not going to.
Eric was focused on the Initiate. Her auburn hair was in a bun as plain as her grey clothes. Her skirt was long and as uncomplimentary as the rest of her. Add to that she looked weak and her face was plain. What would Four ever see in her, beside a reflection of his old faction? She was still looking at Four, her eyes glittering now that she had been given a name.
"Four? As in the number Four?" Another Initiate spoke up. She had short dark hair, olive skin, and was standing near the First Jumper.
"Yes." Four answered simply, his face in no way amused.
Still she pressed on. She was obviously from Candor. Idiots didn't know when to shut up. "What happened, one, two, and three taken?"
"What's your name?" he asked instead as he approached, and the playful look in her eye withered. She didn't look him in the eye either when he stood a full head over her.
"C-Christina." her voice was neither self satisfied or joking. She was scared. It made Eric grin.
"Well, Christina, here in Dauntless you'll learn to shut your mouth." Christina flinched, something fearful and cowardly that bothered Eric, but it was Four who had been affronted so it was in his hands, and he wasn't making a big deal of it. Besides, the First Jumper was looking at Four with wide astonished eyes, and he was certain Christina wouldn't be making any more jokes about his name. At least not in front of him, anyway.
Eric followed behind Four who led them through the training area, which was self explanatory, and to the living quarters where Four cracked a snarky joke of his own about Christina being right at home with everything in the open.
Walking through, most of the Transfer Initiates started to look a bit squeamish. The beds were on hard metal frames, adorned with rust. They were dirty, old, and haggard. Their blankets were little more than reflectors. The showers were close quarters, same with the toilets, with no divisions of any kind. There was no comfort, no privacy.
"Are these the rooms for the girls or the boys?" Someone asked.
"Both." Four answered. "I hope you're not shy. Because you'll shower, eat, sleep, piss, and shit with your fellow Dauntless."
Quiet until now, Eric stepped forward and observed the Initiates. "We've got new clothes for you. Clothes fitting for Dauntless. And then you'll burn your old ones. You're Dauntless now. There's no changing." A chorus of nervous chatter sounded. He caught whispers of fear and homesickness. What-ifs of leaving and going back to their old factions too. There was no leaving. But they would learn that soon enough.
"What an asshole," Christina had been saying as they moved through the line. They already had been embarrassed by having to change in front of one another after learning that their new home was practically made up of four brick walls. There wasn't a hint of comfort to be seen. "Can you believe he said that to me?" Will and Al agreed that it was uncalled for while Peter, a few paces ahead of them, made note that she had it coming.
Tris observed Four. He and Eric were far off down the hallway awaiting their arrival. She then turned her eyes to the contained fire pits they were to toss their old clothes into and unconsciously gripped her dress tighter. Every piece of who they were was billowing up in thin tendrils of smoke. A large part of her questioned if the excitement of Dauntless had been worth leaving her mom and dad in Abnegation.
It was true that she had wanted to ride the train and climb the walls and do everything a Stiff wouldn't. But was it really worth it?
Before she knew it she had stepped up to the pit. She didn't have time to linger, not with the line steadily pushing behind her, but it wasn't easy to drop her clothes in. She did, of course. Four had already made an example of Christina - of people who didn't do what they were told to do, or supposed to do, and she didn't want to be next.
They were all dressed similarly, tight fitting black pants that somehow breathed and moved like a second skin and a black tank top.
The tour ended with them in the cafeteria which was unnerving in how packed it was. Christina saw the spot next to Will and Al, and least pleasant of all, Four, which was quickly becoming her least favorite number.
She moved to walk in another direction but everyone else looked no less inviting and she didn't want to squeeze in next to a stranger; what if she bumped into someone? They'd surely rearrange her face. "How about we sit here," and of course Tris would seem dead set on having the two of them near the man.
Eric was nowhere in sight, thankfully, though he hadn't done anything. Yet. It was her upbringing in Candor that let her see past façades. He was worse, some way, somehow. It was always the quiet ones anyway.
Tris picked at her hamburger, not quite sure how to go about eating it. Abnegation didn't eat hamburgers, as Will so delightfully pointed out. "What textbook did you swallow," was Christina's contribution, which ultimately prompted talk of their old factions.
Four had been trying his hardest to ignore them but then Tris went and opened her mouth, reminiscing of Abnegation and her family and all he could think of was his father and the belt coiled around his hand, poised to whip the Divergence out of him for his own good. "Stop talking about your old factions!" he yelled. "You're Dauntless now." The group chanced a glance his way them quieted. Tris on the other hand didn't seem put off.
"And what about you? Were you a Transfer or a Dauntless born?" The question had been innocent enough he wasn't going to reveal he was from Abnegation. All he could think of was them finding out immediately that he Marcus' son. That he was Tobias: the boy who fled to get away from the beatings. They would ask if it was true. Try and form some type of camaraderie. But he wasn't like them.
They would soon enough become Dauntless. Just one type of thing and he would be stuck Divergent. "What makes you think you can talk to me?" he rebuffed instead. It was so much easier to push people away than to let them in.
Eric looked over the railing and watched the Initiates dine. Loud chatter filled the room, echoing off the walls. His gaze passed over Four who usually dined alone, only now he was talking to the First Jumper. Despite whatever he had said that had quieted her friends, she went on and even had the audacity to smile at him. He wanted to jump over the railing, slam his hands onto the table and demand to know what she had said and why she was saying it.
Because if she thought she had something in her that would interest Four, she had another thought coming.
Max examined him, followed his eyes, and laughed. "That eerie green monster is showing, plain as day."
Eric didn't take too kindly to the insinuation that he was jealous. They weren't a thing. But there would be hell to pay if whatever they were stopped because of that girl, who was a third of their age younger. They were grown ups and she was a little girl trying to sneak into the party.
They waited in plain view and the Dauntless born got the cue, slamming their cups up and down onto the table; the Transfers looked around confused at first but then did the same. Eric let Max do the talking and of course the man went for theatrics. All he cared about was the man down below who was currently peering into his steel cup as if it held the answers to all his unanswered questions. He caught Four looking at Tris when she had stood up with the rest of the Initiates and grit his teeth, his mind shifting into attack mode the way it did against an exceptional opponent. It made no sense though. She wouldn't make it into Dauntless. She would be factionless sooner or later.
She was neither a rival nor a threat. She wasn't worth his time, nor was she worth Four's notice. Yet she had it. And he could feel the stirrings of anger beneath his calm seas.
No one but him had ever drawn Four's notice. Four and he were something like rivals: if rivals fought and fucked. But Four wasn't looking at her like he looked at him. There was something else to his gaze. Eric didn't know what it was, but he did know he didn't like the First Jumper one bit.