"I missed you Tris, I - I felt empty without you. "
"Shh Tobias. I'm here now, and I'm not going anywhere. "
Tobias looked into her reassuring eyes and took her hand; a few minutes past, they stayed just like that. Just holding her hand - feeling her delicate fingers laced between his. He stared at her for a while, trying to memorise the plains of her face. Every line and every crease. Every scar that represented what they had been through. Then his eyes drifted down to her collar bone - they rested on the three birds that represented her family. Two deaths and one traitor.
"Never leave me again. Promise? "
"Promise. "
Tobias woke up. He shuddered with cold. He was lying on his bed, in his old room, in what used to be the Abnegation sector of the city. His sheets were pushed in a heap at the end of his bed and when he tried to lift his head up, the sweat soaked pillow case stuck to the back of his neck. This happened every night - she always entered his dreams. Sometimes she would yell and scream at him, telling him that she would never forgive what he did to Uriah. How he abandoned him and betrayed Zeke. Other times she would run towards him and tell Tobias that she loved him and was sorry for leaving. For sacrificing herself for her brother. Brother, Tobias thought the word with disgust. Caleb was no brother to Tris. He was a traitor. No. Tobias couldn't forgive Caleb. Tobias didn't have Tris' forgiving nature - to him, Caleb would always be a traitor. That was final.
Tobias rolled out of bed and changed into Abnegation grey. Even though there were no factions anymore, today Tobias wanted to lose himself. Sometimes, he thought to himself, the Abnegation had the right idea. Forget about yourself, let people forget about you. Be selfless. Be brave , Tobias added to himself.
"Be brave Tris, be brave, " his voice was hoarse, and barely audible. He subconsciously touched the back of his neck with his hand. After the war, Tobias had got a tattoo of one bird. To represent the love he had lost.
There was a knock on the door, and before Tobias could answer, the door swung open. In marched Christina, dressed in Candor black and white with grey Abnegation shoes.
"Oh good, you're awake. I thought I was going to have to wake you. "
"Leave me alone, " I muttered.
"Come on Four, It's been over a year, " her voice softened, "I know what your going through, I really do. But Tris wouldn't have wanted this. "
"I-I just can't let her go, not yet."
"I'm not saying forget about her, I'm saying live. She gave her life for you - for all of us. The least you could do is live your life in honour of hers. Make her sacrifice worth something." She stared up at me, her brown eyes beginning me to understand. "Four - Tobias, all you've managed is to shut yourself off from the rest of us. We can't help you if you don't let us in. "
She turned then to walk off. But she hesitated, "Believe me, I know what it is like to shut people out. " With that she walked out the door.