This is an idea that got stuck in my head after I saw an edit that said, 'Dear Hazel, I'll look after Augustus for you, if you look after Tobias for me. Love Tris,' and it just stuck and I couldn't get it out of my head. I'm not too sure about this, because this is my first crossover as well as being my first Divergent and/or The Fault In Our Stars piece. I really hope you enjoy it.
Hazel looked around and sat up, wrapping her arms around herself as the blankets fell to her waist. She shivered as a soft breeze wafted across her skin, effectively chilling her to the bone. She looked across and saw that the window was open and she sighed, crossing the room and pulling it shut. As she returned to the warm comfort of her bed, she noticed the note sitting on her bedside table. Switching on the light and pulling the covers around her, Hazel picked up the small piece of paper so that she could see the small, almost delicate handwriting.
'Dear Hazel,
I promise I'll look after Augustus for you, if you look after Tobias for me.
Tris.'
Hazel set the note down, her heart racing. The dead couldn't communicate with the loving – it just didn't happen. But somehow, she knew that this Tris, whoever she was, was an friend, even though she was obviously dead, if she was promising to look after Augustus, and she would never get to meet her in this lifetime.
Hazel smiled gently, tilting her head upward and closing her eyes. She wondered who this Tobias was, but she silently vowed that she would find him.
Augustus woke slowly and then suddenly he was awake, sitting up and looking around him in curiosity. He moved to swing his legs over the side of the bed and found that he was strong again, like he was the day he met Hazel. At the thought of her, Augustus looked around eagerly, all thoughts of where he was leaving his mind to make room for Hazel.
"Augustus Waters."
Augustus turned at the sound of the soft, feminine voice, turning to face a girl standing a few steps away. She looked a little like Hazel, except her hair was long and blonde, worn loose and spilling across her shoulders. She had a tattoo on her collarbone, of three birds facing her heart, as if they were flying into her heart.
"Who are you?" Augustus asked.
The girl smiled gently. "My name is Tris Prior."
"Obviously you know my name." Augustus said. "Where am I?"
Tris didn't say anything for a long time – she just stared at him sadly. Then, sadly, she said, "What was the last thing that happened before you woke up here, Augustus?"
At this point, Augustus really didn't want to think about what his last memory was – he just wanted to know where he was, where Hazel was and what the hell was happening, but he thought back nonetheless. He suddenly remembered the feeling of having a hard time breathing and he heard Hazel's voice, echoing In his head; "Not being able to breathe sucks," and it did, Hazel. It truly did suck, utterly and completely.
Augustus took a step back, looking up at Tris, who was watching him sadly as he said flatly, "I died. That's the last thing I remember. I'm dead. I died."
Tris nodded sadly as Augustus sat on the bed. "I'm sorry, Augustus."
Augustus looked up at her. "Hazel? Is she okay?"
"She's not okay, but she's dealing." Tris told him.
Augustus nodded and looked down, his palm resting on his thigh as he looked around. "So this is it, then? This is death."
"This is it." Tris confirmed, just as Augustus had a thought. He rolled his jeans up his leg and instead of seeing the familiar prosthetic leg that he had become so accustomed to, he saw skin covering flesh and muscle and bone. Almost cautiously, Augustus reached out and brushed his fingers across the skin, half-expecting his leg to disappear, a prosthetic one replacing it. When nothing happened, he rolled his jeans back down and leaned back on his hands, looking up at Tris. "So death can even fix my leg, then?"
"Apparently so." Tris replied, pushing blonde hair out of her eyes. Augustus studied her for a moment before he asked, "So how'd you get stuck with babysitting duty?"
Tris smiled. "I wouldn't call it babysitting duty. But, to answer your question, I volunteered. It's part of a promise I made."
"What promise? To who?" Augustus asked, already kind of knowing the answer, although it was a little more than slightly impossible. He'd never met this Tris Prior when he was alive, but maybe Hazel had.
"To your Hazel Grace." Tris replied. "I promised that I'd look after you."
"What's his name?" Augustus asked and Tris' brow furrowed in confusion. Augustus smiled gently. "Obviously, if you promised to look after me, Hazel looks after someone for you. So come on, out with it. What's his name?"
"Tobias." Tris said, moving to sit beside him on the bed. "Tobias Eaton."
"You must really love him." Augustus said. "If you're agreeing to look after me, just so that he'll be okay."
"I didn't want to leave him." Tris said quietly. "That's the last thing I wanted to do."
Hazel didn't know what it was that drove her to Chicago. All she knew was that she couldn't stop thinking about that note she'd found just under a month ago, from a mysterious Tris, promising to look after Augustus if she looked after someone named Tobias. So with much pleading, her parents allowed for her to go.
And the day after they arrived, Hazel sat in her hotel room, the note her pocket seeming to weigh a ton until she couldn't take it anymore and she got up, walking out of the hotel and down the street. As she walked, she passed a young guy sitting on a bench. She noticed that he was holding what looked like a note in his hands and he looked upset.
Hazel paused, turning towards him in concern. "Hey, are you alright?"
"I'm fine." The guy muttered, looking up at her. Then, his dark blue eyes widened and he stared at her, as if he knew her from another lifetime. Then, finally, he asked, "Hazel Grace Lancaster?"
"Yes . . ." Hazel said, confused as to how he knew who she was.
Without a word, the guy passed her the note in his hands. Hazel smoothed out the crinkles in it, her eyes skimming the handwriting was a replica of the delicate hand on the note in her pocket.
'Tobias.
Look for a girl with short brown hair and nose nubbins. Her name will be Hazel Grace Lancaster. I made a promise to her in return for a promise. Let her fulfil that promise.
Tris."
"You're Tobias?" Hazel asked.
Tobias nodded. "What promise did she make you?"
"She promised to look after someone who means a lot to me, if I looked after you." Hazel replied, looking at him sadly.
"Don't look at me like that." Tobias said, turning his face away.
"Like what?"
"Like I'm a wounded puppy." Tobias replied.
Augustus stared out the window. "So I can see whoever I want, whenever I want, if I just concentrate and look through this window?"
Tris nodded and Augustus thought of Hazel. He could easily recall her; easily see her behind his closed eyelids. He opened his eyes and the image in the window flickered to a girl with a slight frame and short brown hair, lying in a hospital bed. A young man was sitting in the chair by her bedside and although Augustus couldn't tear his eyes from Hazel, he asked, "Is that him? Tobias?"
Tris nodded, her eyes fixed on the image in the window, quickly committing the sight of Tobias to memory. Somehow, she found it within herself to say, "Yeah, that's him."
Although it only felt like days to Tris and Augustus, six months had passed since Hazel's trip to Chicago, where she met Tobias. Time passed differently in Heaven – the two had spent most of their time watching Hazel and the months had somehow just flown by. They had watched as Hazel did what she'd vowed silently to do in her bedroom – she looked after Tobias. But as time went on, the tables turned. As Hazel slowly became sicker and sicker and then was admitted into hospital, it was Tobias who looked after her and kept her company in her long days in the hospital. And then, as Tobias sat in the chair by her bedside, watching her take her final, shallow breaths, he whispered a thank you to Beatrice Prior, for even in death, she was watching over him and keeping him safe. Being his guardian angel, right to the very end.
Tris moved to stand in the doorway as the heart monitor next to Hazel's bedside let out a long, continuous beep, signalling the end of Hazel's life. Augustus turned away from the window and with his concentration broken, the image in the window flickered and then faded out.
"Gus." Tris said, her eyes flickering to the bed he was sitting on. Augustus looked from her to the bed, eyes widening slightly as he saw the outline of a slim girl on the bed. He watched as, slowly, the girl's features filled out, revealing short brown hair and soft curves.
"Hazel Grace." Augustus breathed, reaching out and brushing his fingers across her cheekbone. Hazel stirred, her eyes opening and widening as she saw Augustus. She breathed his name and sat up, smiling as he brushed hair out of her face and said, "Hello, Hazel Grace."
Hazel hugged him tightly, pressing her face into his shoulder and breathing him in – he smelled exactly the same in death as he had in life. Smiling, Hazel opened her eyes over Augustus' shoulder, catching sight of Tris standing by the door. She carefully detangled herself from Augustus and moved towards the blonde-haired girl. "Beatrice Prior?"
"Just Tris." Tris said, and smiled. "And thank you. For looking after Tobias."
"Likewise." Hazel said, looking over her shoulder at Augustus, who grinned at her. Tris took a step back, a small smile playing across her features. "I'll let you two get back to your reunion. Goodbye, Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters."
"Tris?" Hazel asked, moving after her. Tris turned back to Hazel, her eyebrows raised in expectation as Hazel said, "Tobias will find his way back to you, Tris Prior. I know that much."
Tris gave her a small smile and then disappeared, leaving Hazel alone with Augustus for the first time in over a year. Hazel turned towards him, a small smile playing on her mouth as she sat on the bed with him, looking up at him as he placed his hand on her hip and leaned towards her. She grasped his shoulder in her hand as his mouth met her own, kissing slowly, lovingly and almost lazily because they now had all the time they wanted. For the first time, they didn't worry about how much time they had left with each other, because they had eternity.
When she returned to her own piece of heaven, Tris focused on Tobias. Immediately, her own window flickered to him. She watched as he exited the hospital she recognised as Hazel's, climbing into his car and starting the engine. She watched as he drove, his hands easily guiding the steering wheel and gear stick to where he wanted it. From the angle she could see him from, it was like she was sitting in the passenger seat and the very thought of getting that made her heart ache. From that angle, she could the way the setting sun glinted off the blue in his eyes and outlined the hard shape of his jaw, set hard with grief. He managed to maintain his concentration, even though his nerve had to be in shreds by this point, Tris was sure, until his fragile hold on his concentration snapped and he glanced down, just as someone else came racing towards him from the opposite direction, slamming straight into his car. Tris sucked in a quick, dry breath in shock and the connection between her and Tobias snapped. Desperately, she tried to focus on him again, but she couldn't re-establish the connection. Nervously, Tris got up and sat in a chair in one corner of the room, closing her eyes and focusing on Tobias. When the connection that allowed her to see him refused to re-establish itself, Tris forced herself to face the facts. The connection to the world of the living could only be established through one of the dead to one of the living. The point was so that the dead could still feel a connection to those they had loved when they were alive – without that connection, it wasn't completely unreasonable that they would go insane, cut off from the healthiest and most addictive drug in existence – love. There wasn't much point in being able to access the dead with the window – if they wanted to talk to someone who had died, they could just venture outside their room.
Tris knew there was nothing wrong with her concentration – she'd been dead for a little over a year and much of that time had been spent watching those she loved. If she couldn't access Tobias, it meant that he'd been killed in that head-on collision.
Almost as soon as she accepted it, Tris noticed an outline on her bed. As their features filled out, she noticed the broad shoulders, the full lower lip. Tris leaned forward, studying Tobias as he slept. Although in the crash he must have broken a few ribs, suffered internal bleeding, broken a leg and fractured his skull, he appeared unharmed, his skin unmarked. He slept peacefully, his arm draped loosely across his stomach. She didn't even think of waking him – he would wake when he wanted to, just as she had when she awoke here.
Finally, he woke, eyes fluttering open and blinking a few times, before opening fully to reveal dark blue eyes. He sucked in a quick breath and reached to press his palm against his chest, over his heart, while he sat up on the bed, looking around. He caught sight of Tris and his eyes widened, dark blue meeting grey.
"Tris." Tobias breathed, leaning forward. Tris moved off the chair she was sitting on to sit on the bed with him, smiling as his hand came up to rest on her cheek. He took in her features that were exactly as he remembered, except her hair was long once more. He slipped one hand into her long blonde hair, tangling his fingers in it and bringing her mouth to his. He felt her gasp into his kiss, her hands sliding up his chest and wrapping around his neck. Tobias pulled her closer, his free arm wrapping around her waist and feeling her shirt ride up her back as his arm moved across the small of her back, the feel of her bare skin against his arm after so long making him feel more alive than he could ever have thought possible.
When he finally allowed himself to release her, Tobias rested his forehead on Tris', staring at her closed lids as he breathed, "I missed you." Tris' hands were fisted in the front of his shirt as she slowly opened her eyes and looked up at him, a small smile playing on her lips as she said gently, "I know, Tobias."
She caught his smile as he kissed her again, his mouth warm and soft against her own. She gripped his shoulder tightly and kissed him hard, feeling him smile against her lips and hold her tighter. When they broke apart, she looked up at him and said, "I love you."
"I know." Tobias said, earning him a smile from her as she reaching up to kiss him again, fingers sliding across bare skin, familiarising themselves with each other, taking their time in committing each feature to memory because it wasn't just them fighting against the world anymore. It was them in their own little piece of paradise, trying to see if in life, in death, they were the same person, disregarding whether their hearts were beating or not.
The answer to that question was simple.
In life and in death, Tobias Eaton and Tris Prior were the same people. Death didn't change people; it only made the people they loved while they were alive all the more precious to them and this applied more to Tobias Eaton and Tris Prior, and Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters than anyone else in Heaven and Earth.
