My fists pound against the tough fabric of the punching bag ferociously. I take deep breaths and increase the pace of my punching. The bag swings backward every time it makes contact with my fist.
"Easy, Tris." A low voice grumbles from behind me.
I turn around breathlessly. "Tobias," I wheeze.
He walks toward me and places his hand over my heart. It pounds against my chest aggressively.
"You need to cool down," he murmurs in a soothing tone. He removes his hand.
I take deep breaths and try to slow my heart rate. I look down at my hands. My knuckles are red, swollen, and split in several places.
Tobias nods his head toward the door of the training room. "Let's go bandage your hands."
Tobias wraps an arm around my shoulders and leads me out the door. A piece of me wants to protest, but the other piece of me knows that I shouldn't. Tobias, of all people, must understand why I have resulted to the training room in an attempt to release tension and stress. It has worked though, my whole body is warm and buzzing with adrenaline. I try not to think about how greatly my parents would disapprove of this. I am resulting to violence to release my stress, my tension. Therefor it is self indulgent, selfish.
Tobias and I walk down the halls of the compound in silence. Blue lights are placed on the walls every so often, providing minimal light. The halls are mostly empty, because of a party going on that every Dauntless member attends, and makes a big deal of, too. But Tobias and I aren't really the party type. I can't help but wonder if he went to the training room looking for me.
When we reach the door to his apartment, he turns the knob and ushers me in.
"Take a seat." Tobias says. Tobias doesn't really have any chairs, so I sit on the edge of his bed.
He grabs a tube of what I assume is a bruising cream. It says Helps to relax sore muscles, along the side.
"Where are your bruises?" He asks, unscrewing the cap, and putting some of the cream on his finger.
I bite my lip. "My hips, my lower back, my knees, my shoulders..."
His face becomes flushed and he shakes his head slowly. "Tris," he murmurs.
I place my hands in my lap. He presses on my shoulder, making me lay back on the bed. Once I am laying down on the bed, he lifts up my shirt a little, and sighs in frustration when it doesn't reveal my hips. He pulls the waistband of my jeans down a little to expose my hips, careful not go too low. He runs his hand along the bare sliver of my stomach idly before massaging my hip, spreading the cream in. I can't help but sigh in relief when the cool cream touches my bruised hip.
Tobias's cheeks turn a rosy pink. "How did you bruise your hips, anyway?"
"Stretching." I simply state.
He does the same thing to my other hip, and I resist the urge to sigh, for Tobias's sake.
When he is finished he motions for me to turn over. I roll over on his bed, and press my face into his sheets. They smell like the mint salve he is rubbing on my bruises, sweat, dust, and gunpowder. They smell like him. He lifts the back of my shirt up to reveal my heavily bruised back. He sucks in a breath. It must look really bad. The last time I was this bruised was when I was attacked, but I decide not to mention that because I did this to myself. I now know that is actually possible to work too hard. Especially now that initiation is over, and I don't have to worry about my ranking in Dauntless. And Tobias worries about me. I have absolutely no reason to train so hard, all the time.
"Can I take this off? To finish.." He stutters slightly.
I chuckle. "Are you asking me to undress, Tobias?" I mock.
Although my face is pressed into his sheets and he is behind me, I know he is smiling.
"Only, partially." I grin into his charcoal colored sheets, and sit up slowly to allow him to remove my shirt.
His gentle hands glide along my lower back and grab the hem of my shirt. I slowly feel the shirt rise over my head. I lay back down on my stomach. Neither one of us says anything. The tension between us is so thick you could cut it with a knife. I try to relax a little, because I trust Tobias. Something cool is rubbed over my entire back. Tobias's big, rough hands caress my back gently with the salve, and at one point he lifts up my bra strap to rub the salve on the bruises there. The cream is thick and smells heavily of mint. Slowly, my muscles begin to relax, one at a time. By the time Tobias is finished, I can barely feel the bruises. I sit up a little too fast, and wince when I realize that even though the salve helped, my bruises are still sore. Tobias places two firm hands on my shoulders.
"Careful." He murmurs.
I turn around to face him, and blush when I realize I'm not wearing my shirt. Tobias's eyes drift down to my chest for a moment, and his face turns red. He looks back at my face quickly.
"Can I have my shirt?"
Tobias looks down and realizes he is clutching my shirt. His eyes widen and he quickly hands it to me. "Sorry."
I slip it over my head slowly, so I won't make any sudden movements.
"Let me see your knees." Tobias says. I roll up my pant leg reveal the worst bruise I have ever seen. Both of my knees are splotchy and the bruises are huge, red, and swollen. Tobias gasps.
"This is bad, Tris." He runs a gentle hand along the bruise. "It looks like an active bleed." Tobias shakes his head. "Wow, that's really concerning."
I don't meet his eyes.
"I should take you to the infirmary, you know." He says.
I shake my head vigorously. "No," I say. "Please."
Tobias's eyebrows furrow. "You might of damaged an artery." He sighs. "If it isn't better in the morning, I will take you to the infirmary."
He squeezes some cream from the tube, and rubs it along the uneven, puffy surface of my knee. "Sorry, Tris." he murmurs. "I just really care about you. That's all."
I sigh. "I know, Tobias."
Once he is done rubbing in the cream, he wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me against him. My chest fills with all the infinite love I have for him and I nuzzle my face against his shirt. His warmth radiates off of him and surrounds me. He moves his lips right next to my ear.
"I love you." he whispers.
"I love you too."