This is my entry for the annual Eris holiday fic exchange organized by DragonMaster65. Enjoy!
I do not own Divergent or any of its characters.
It was eerily quiet. Usually there would be noises from the other side of the office. But not today and there had not been for the last four days. Not since they had had this awful accident. In retrospective it was not even so bad, but it was enough to keep him bed-ridden until he recovered.
Tris felt bad since Eric had offered to accompany her to Candor after she had complained about taking the long trip alone; it was freezing cold and to top it off, after some mild sleeting in the morning, it had started full blown snowing by the time they had to leave.
Eric had been grumpy to say the least and as usual didn't have a problem with showing his disdain when all of a sudden a deer popped up out of nowhere and crashed straight into their car. Tris was usually on top of these kind of situations, but this time she seemed to have blacked out, since the next thing she remembered was how he was nudging her awake.
The radio already to his mouth, he was talking fast, alternating between shouting at someone on the other line, asking whether she was okay, and all the while he was grimacing, holding onto his leg.
Needless to say, they had not gone to Candor, instead they had spent an evening in the infirmary. She herself got away with a cut on her forehead and was allowed back to work the next day. Whereas Eric was not as lucky and he had to keep his fractured leg up. At least the last few days and probably just after Christmas.
With a sigh, she switched off the laptop and got ready to leave the office, when her phone vibrated for the umpteenth time. Rolling her eyes, she roamed over the messages of her mother telling her to be careful on her way. Whereas the multiple messages from Eric made her smile, feeling sorry for him and how bored he had been during the day. Sending a text back telling him to go out with Max, she pocketed her phone. Before she left, she watered the plant on Eric's desk; she would be damned if she let it die while he could not take care of it.
Sitting on the train, looking out the window to the snowy scenery, her phone vibrated again. She clasped her hand over her mouth to refrain from laughing out loud. Max had sent a photo of him enjoying a cup of glogg, while Eric sat in the background eating cotton candy, flipping the bird with a grumpy expression on his face.
Just when she was about to knock at her parents' door, she received another message. This time it was Eric telling her that the cotton candy was a weak substitute to getting drunk on this whole fucking shitty cheery festivity and that having to take pain killers sucked.
Her mother greeted her at the door and stepping inside, Tris almost teared up at the sight of the modest Christmas tree which they had set up despite their Abnegation upbringing. While her parents prepared for dinner, Tris sent a photo to Eric of herself with the tree behind her. Stashing away the phone into her bag, she went to the table for dinner and only looked at it again afterwards.
Eric had sent her various texts, describing how agonising his evening out with Max had been with all the gruesomely happy people in the Pit. What made her chuckle to herself however was the photo of Frank being dressed up as Santa with children in his lap, looking absolutely unenthusiastic. She replied with a lot of laughing smileys and made her way home.
She was just raising her hand to knock again, when the door opened and she screeched enthusiastically, "Merry Christmas!" and shoved a big, soft bag of cotton candy into Eric's face.
With a scowl on his face he mumbled, "Oh, fuck off," but left the door open for her to enter.
She grinned at him despite the murderous glare he shot over his shoulder. He grumbled something nasty under his breath with a series of grunts while he made his way back to the couch. He flopped down and motioned for her to sit down.
"You know, using the crutches, you could actually get somewhere," she pointed out and huffed, opting to sit down next to him on the couch, the fort of pillows he had made just too inviting.
"I had to move around on crutches all night long…"
Tris rolled her eyes at him. "It's only just past nine, you big baby."
"I'm suffering, Tris," he whined, trying to get into a comfortable position with his leg propped up.
"I bet you're close to dying already," she mocked him.
"Why did I invite you again?" he asked but Tris ignored him. Instead she pulled out of her bag a neatly wrapped package and handed it to him. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "What? Why?"
"Merry Christmas, Eric! You're not supposed to ask why," she said and thrust the present towards him.
He took it from her hands and looked at it for a moment as if he had never received a present in his entire life.
"You have to open it, you know," she encouraged him and laughed when he flipped her off half-heartedly.
He sat up and quickly unwrapped it and looking at the cover of the game, he grinned. "You either want me to stay home or you're just too scared to play it alone," he stated before he smirked at her.
"You told me how good it was playing a bit at Max', so yes, I thought we could play together." She smiled, content to having made the right choice by the way he turned it over to read the back. "I know you've enjoyed my company for the last couple of weeks." She nudged him when he scoffed and winked. "No denying it."
He stared at her for a moment as if lost in thought. "Um..." He put the game aside and brushed his hand over his mouth quickly. "I have something for you too."
"Oh?" The surprise in her voice was not even fake as she did not expect him to have a present for her at all.
With a grunt he heaved himself to the side of his couch and hid the present behind his back when he faced her again. He took in a breathe as if to say something but decided against it and handed her the present without another word.
While she unwrapped the notebook and fountain pen, he watched her. The smile that broke out on her face at seeing his presents, made him sigh in relief.
"At first I had thought about giving you what you truly desired for quite a while." He grinned but when she only frowned at him, he pointed at himself. "Me." She laughed and he stuck his tongue out. He eyed her nervously as she took a closer look at the pen and when she didn't say anything, he nudged her. "You like it?"
She managed to finally nod and sighed in content, "Yes."
He was relieved and had a sudden urge to explain, so he said, "I know you like to take notes and drabble around your notes, so I thought-"
He didn't get to finish because she threw her arms around him. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he breathed in and smiled. She hugged him for a long moment until she leaned back. Before she made to move away, she kissed him on the cheek.
It took him by surprise but he quickly recovered and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips. Her hand reached up to cup his cheek and he mirrored her gesture. They looked at each other for a few more seconds before he dipped his head forward to capture her lips once more.
When they finally broke apart, he mumbled, "I had planned to watch some horror movies with you." She chuckled at him and he laughed as well. "But right now, I don't think I'll be able to concentrate on them."
She giggled at the predatory look in his eyes. "How about we do watch those movies and visit your parents tomorrow? Like last year." Chuckling she bent forward to brush a kiss against his lips. "She already thought we were an item anyway."
He laughed out loud. "Yeah, she'll like the idea. She'll say, I told you so," he said, mocking his mother's voice.
She smiled at him, entwining their fingers. With her other hand she grabbed his shirt, pulling him to her and kissed him. "What in the hell took you so long?" she whispered.
"I didn't know you felt the same-"
"Yeah, like it's not obvious enough that I've been crashing on your couch for the past weeks," she teased him.
"Thanks for being here, especially today." He smiled, wrapping his arms around her and leaned back, pulling her with him. "I mean, I probably would have done something similar. But without you it would have been a lot more depressing."
She cuddled up to him and kissed the tip of his nose while she reached over his chest for the remote control. "Now onto this trash Christmas horror movie marathon I've been waiting for this whole week!"