Just something floating around in my head. Fan fiction has changed over the years and I've learned some new terms. I'm pretty sure Eris is my OTP.
oooooo
In the days after becoming a full Dauntless member, Tris Prior feels lost. Rapidly rising to number one through her success with the fear simulations, she couldn't help but to look back and wonder if she would have fared so well if she had truly been Dauntless instead of Divergent.
Would her friends still be avoiding her if she had placed near the bottom of the class, as they had obviously expected her to? Would she have even made the cut?
What-ifs plagued her mind as she sat alone on the roof, drinking lazily from a bottle of beer. It tasted awful, but was no worse than the bitter feeling of utter loneliness that encompassed her entire being.
Faction over blood.
Though her faction was treating her as if she didn't exist, thoughts of her mother comforted her as much as they could with the other woman living in a whole different world. She was probably turning in for the night, completely unaware of whether her daughter had passed initiation or was now among the factionless. As Tris was learning to do, her mother was moving on as well.
And now what did she have, if not her family? Good prospects for a career?
Tris scoffed and took another swig of her drink while she eyed the remains of the six-pack. Two full bottles remained, the rest held only a small amount of foam in the bottom. She was well on her way to becoming drunk, a Dauntless vice she had never indulged in before.
Honestly, Tris didn't see what all the fuss was about. Drinking so much had gotten her lost in her own thoughts and she was actually more agitated than when she had begun. From her perch on the rooftop of the Dauntless compound, the starry night should have been peaceful, yet Tris found that every nerve in her body was buzzing, as if waiting for something to impede on her solitude.
From somewhere far off, the whistle of a train blew, breaking the silence. She didn't know the train schedules, not by heart, but she thought it must be nearing eleven already. She hadn't realized that time had passed so quickly, though she reminded herself that she was no longer a dependent and did not have to follow curfews.
Tris grew excited, as she had always had a small fascination with the trains. Their speed and strength was something she admired and she would never forget how her heart pounded as she readied herself to jump from one of the cars back to solid earth.
Though she debated on taking a small trip, just enough to get the adrenaline pumping, Tris recognized that her reflexes were perhaps not up to par after her night of drinking. She stood at the edge of the building, watching lights approach from the train in the distance as the whistle blew once more, reluctantly keeping her feet planted on the concrete.
In just several short moments the train blew past with such speed that the wind whipped her hair violently around her face, making it sting her cold skin.
She reveled in the sensations of being so near to the great machine. At this distance, her eardrums ached from the noise, she even felt the ground rumbling beneath her feet as the steel wheels ran across the slightly corroded rails. It was so unlike any moments she had experienced in her previous life that Tris thought she might never tire of it.
A flash of movement to the left caught her eye, even in her current drunken state. It moved too quickly for her heavy eyes to follow, but she turned away from the train to the rooftop behind her to investigate and it took a few moments to process what she found.
For a moment, Tris was sure Eric would just walk away, his stiff nod the only thing said between them. What could he possibly have to say to her anyways? They hardly spoke during initiation, and when they did it had hardly been friendly. She briefly recalled staring into his cold gray eyes as he instructed Four to throw knives at her.
Coaxing her face into what she hoped was a blank expression, Tris eyed Dauntless' youngest leader. The weather was turning colder and he wore a black leather jacket Tris had never seen him in before. Though it hid much of his physique, the jacket made him look wider and more imposing than his usual attire. Coupled with his signature sneer and the shadow of a light beard across his face, Eric looked much older than her, though he was only two years her senior.
"Having a pity party for yourself? Were you going to jump?" He spoke loudly, to be heard over the quickly passing train.
Tris scowled, unable to help herself. Jumping down from the ledge, she stalked towards Eric with her already poor temper fuming.
"Hardly. What would I need pity for? I passed initiation. Number one, remember?"
To her surprise, he let out a cold laugh.
"Yes. I remember watching all of your little friends slowly turn on you these past few weeks. They think you cheated. Are they right?"
"Of course not," Tris replied, hoping her voice didn't shake. In all actuality, she had wondered the same thing. Did her divergence give her an unfair advantage over the other initiates?
Eric simply smiled, if you could call his satisfied smirk a smile. He seemed to realize that that particular seed of doubt had already been planted inside her mind.
"Would Four say the same? We all saw your fear landscape- it was quite telling. I don't think we've ever had an initiate that used those particular means to get to the top."
"How dare you-"
He caught her wrist before her hand connected with his face, still looking as smug as ever.
"Trying to slap a Dauntless leader, Stiff? Did I hit a little too close to home?"
"You don't know anything about me," she snapped, jerking her hand away to get out of Eric's grip. He held tight, squeezing so hard that she was sure her skin would bruise.
This was the Eric she knew, though his actions took her by surprise. When he lowed his face to hers she smelled a hint of alcohol on his breath, suggesting he wasn't entirely sober either.
"I know more than you think," he whispered in her ear, his breath tickling the sensitive skin.
She froze at his words, but only for a moment. There was no proof Eric knew her secret- she had done enough to ensure that she wouldn't be targeted, though it had proved difficult to remain completely under the radar, even with Four's help.
"Nothing to say? Did I break you?" He laughed without mirth and squeezed her wrist a little tighter until a gasp escaped her lips.
She wanted to tell him to let go, but the words died on her lips as she gazed into his eyes. They were not cold as they usually were, but lit with a fiery anger and another emotion she couldn't place.
"You think you're special because you placed first?" He practically spat the words at her, accusing her. "You only made the first cut by pure luck. Others were sent to the factionless while you stayed because of sheer dumb luck. You don't deserve to be here."
Her temper flaring again, Tris brought her left arm up too quickly for him to block, and managed to strike Eric with a solid blow from her balled up fist.
"You're pathetic," Tris growled, watching carefully for his retaliation.
What she didn't expect was for his mouth to come crashing down on hers with such force that her knees buckled. The only thing that kept her standing was the grip she had on Eric's leather jacket. His lips moved against hers for only a moment before he drew out another gasp by biting her bottom lip with force enough to draw blood.
When he drew back, he didn't wait for Tris to respond to her first kiss.
"Pathetic? I'll show you pathetic," he rumbled, pushing her backwards. She stumbled a few feet, the back of her legs hitting the ledge of the roof.
"Eric," she whispered, wondering if she had pushed him too far. Did he mean to kill her? It would be easy enough to make her fall look like an accident. She had been drinking heavily on the roof, alone.
He grinned wolfishly as he licked a bit of Tris' blood off his lips.
"See you later, Stiff... or not."
Eric didn't give her a chance to respond before he pushed her again- over the edge until her body was in a free fall.
She did not scream on the way down, but watched the edge of the roof where Eric stood, laughing almost hysterically for someone usually so stoic.
They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die, but Tris found the opposite to be true. Time around her moved in an accelerated state, leaving her no time to catch her breath, to think about her family, her friends, her mistakes. She simply watched the dark shadow of Eric's form grow smaller as she fell further towards the ground.
It wasn't until she met resistance that she realized she'd been tricked. Springing up several feet, Tris bounced on the net beneath her- the entrance she had used when she entered Dauntless for the first time.
Stories above her, all she heard was laughter.
