This is a small little one-shot about Tris and Tobias meeting before becoming Dauntless. Not really romantic, but fluffy.
"Mommy?" six-year-old Beatrice called, walking down the alley.
She had gone on an errand with her mother to drop some medicine off at an elderly Candor woman's house. While her mother went inside, Beatrice was told to stay put on the sidewalk, but she had wandered off into a tiny back road behind the Merciless Mart. Beatrice was frightened, but, in her six-year-old innocence, was fairly certain someone would come out and help her.
The alleyway was long, very long, and Beatrice had been stumbling clumsily and tripping over the cement for quite awhile. She had started to cry a bit, sniffling and whimpering quietly. She had a few scuffs on her hands from tripping on the cracked pavement.
She couldn't see either end of the alley. Fear settled in her stomach as she started to see abandoned boxes of trash, rags, and a pile of what looked like bones. Beatrice walked faster, a strangled cry rising in her throat. She closed her eyes for a moment, but long enough for her foot to catch on a large chunk of tar jutting out from the street.
Beatrice tripped, landing face-first on the ground. A few tears dripped down her cheeks. She couldn't even bring herself to sit up, she was in so much pain.
She slowly raised her head to see a shoe. Confused, she sat up and saw a boy in Abnegation clothes looking at her with cold blue eyes. He had dark hair, almost black, and there was a small patch of light blue on his left iris.
Beatrice huddled herself into a ball defensively, blinking up at the boy. She realized he had been crying too. His eyes were red and slightly puffy.
"Are you okay?" Beatrice asked, her voice squeaky from crying.
The boy looked at her. His eyes were still hard as he brushed away tears.
"I'm fine," he said. "I just... fell."
"Me too," the little girl said. Then she smiled and exclaimed happily, "Oh, I can help you!" She picked up a sharp stone and cut part of her sleeve off. She then handed it to him with a smile.
He looked slightly confused, so she added, "It's a bandage."
"Oh, thanks..." the boy said. He looked closer at her. She had a pretty face (despite the scrapes on her forehead) and sparkly blue-gray eyes. Her long blond hair was tied in a knotted bun on the top of her head and she had the same Abnegation clothes as he did.
He wrapped the cloth around his hand, although he knew that wouldn't help the bruises from his father and the gash in his heaart, giving the girl a small smile.
"I'm Beatrice," the girl said. She smiled, waiting.
He looked at her for a moment and said shortly, "Tobias."
Beatrice looked behind her and said, "I need to find my mommy. Bye, Tobias!"
"Goodbye," he said quietly, watching her go. He slowly turned the other way and started walking home, where he knew his mother's screaming and his own pain awaited him. He hoped Beatrice had a better life than he did. She seemed too sweet and fragile to endure his lifestyle. He wasn't sure anyone could handle it, not even a Dauntless.
Tobias roughly pushed down the cry of exhaustion and frustration that had built up in his chest over the past three years. He would let it out, someday, and show his father that he really was good enough. Tobias knew it, his mother knew it, and the girl, Beatrice, knew it too. Tobias would prove to everyone that he was good enough. Someday. He really, really would.
Well, I thought that that was cute. I also thought it was kind of cool to have them meet each other at moments of serious vulnerabilty. Sorry it was short. I thought it might be over a few hundred, but noooo. I had to be so lazy and make it six hundred. Oh well. Please forgive me.
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