Chapter Two
Tris
I wake up before Tobias the next morning, which is rare. I don't really know why, but I have to move. I am full of a kind of drive, like if I don't move I will explode. Anxiety, fear, and frustration all combine into a kind of intense anger. I will not let the initiates see me as weak. I am not weak. I am strong.
Some how last night made me different, I feel more confident, more dangerous. I go into the living room. The sun is coming up over the city and I can see the buildings sparkling in the distance. I think about the Choosing Ceremony. How many of them are going to make the decision to leave their family's behind like I did? Are they going to know what they are truly choosing? I think back to that scared little Abnegation girl. I don't know her anymore. Lost to the events of the past year, slowly replaced by the girl that stands here now.
I look around the room and see the punching bag hanging in the corner. I shake out my muscles and begin to punch the bag, slowly at first, but then intensifying my strikes. It's too quiet. Not really thinking about Tobias asleep in the next room, I turn on the stereo. The music begins and I let the beat drive me. I lose myself and begin to play over all the events of the past year. Eric hanging Christina over the Chasm, Peter, Drew, and Al violating me and trying to kill me, my father's face when I betrayed him and chose Dauntless, Four yelling in my face when I lost it in Lauren's fear landscape, Caleb helping Jeannine during the Erudite attacks, Tobias lost in the simulation. What's a little Stiff like you going to do about it? Rage takes control and I don't even hear Tobias come in the room.
"Tris, Tris!" I feel his hands wrap around my wrists, pulling me back from the bag. "Stop. Your knuckles are bleeding. Just stop." He has an almost scared look on his face. Maybe I'm scarier than I think I am.
"What?" I snap back at him, breathless and angry. I wrench my wrists from him and step back, shaking a little.
He just stares at me for a moment, before he speaks again, low and quiet. "Are you ok?"
"Fine, I just...I don't know." I punch the bag one last time in frustration. I turn and head to the bathroom before he can speak again. I feel him watching me on the way out. He has only seen me like this a few times. Once, when I faught Molly during initiation, and again, when I was fighting with him while he was under the simulation. I start the shower and hope the water will wash away whatever this is.
When I get out, Tobias is sitting on the bed waiting for me. He pats the bed beside him for me to sit. I halfway sit, halfway collapse beside him. He just gives me an understanding look. He knows I am not someone who likes to talk about it.
"Thought I would have to pry you out of bed this morning." He says trying to lighten the mood. He knows I'm not a morning person. He smiles slyly, "You were up so early, we have a little time..." His voice trails off as he begins kissing down the side of my neck. I relax a little at his touch. A sigh leaves my mouth as he slides his hand up my thigh. He presses me back down onto the bed and continues to explore my body with his hands. His fingers find all the right places and I moan, my eyes rolling back arching my body towards his.
His mouth finds mind and I open to allow his kiss. He presses his body down on top of mine. Our kisses become passionate, hungry with desire. I know we need to get ready for the initiates, but my mind is becoming lost in a haze of passion and lust. He squeezes my hip and begins to slide my panties off. "Tobias, we have the initiates coming today."
"Um hm.." He breathes against my breasts.
"Tobias, we have to stop." I say a little more insistently, grabbing his hand and pulling my panties back on. He lets out a frustrated breath and collapses on top of me. I giggle and a wide smile spreads across my face. I ruffle his short hair. He looks like a pouting child. "If your a good boy today, and don't make anybody cry, we can continue you later."
"That's not fair, Tris. You know I'm going to make someone cry." He says grinning at me. With that he jumps up and heads for the shower. I go into the living room and finish getting ready in the small mirror by the door. When he comes in a few minutes later, skimming shower water off the back of his neck with his hand, I think about the first time I stayed I his apartment the night of my attack.
I can't help but smile at him. He made me feel safe then, and he still makes me feel that way now. I would have never made it without him, literally.
"What?" He says smirking at me, his eyebrows raised. "Change your mind?"
"No." I say. "Tobias, you are horrible. Is that all you are going to think about now?"
"Who says it wasn't already?" He winks at me and all I can do is laugh.
"But seriously, we need to talk about initiation."
"Ok, but can we do it at breakfast? You have caused me to work up quiet an appetite, young lady." He says in his best serious voice.
I agree and we head down to the dinning hall. We laugh and talk about what kind of transfer we will get, making bets about who will jump first, or have a gun pulled on them by Tobias. We both laugh thinking about the look on Peter's face when Tobias did that to him last year. When we get there, Will and Christina are already there.
Tobias
We sit down at our normal table. Still talking about some of the happier times of last year. I don't want to bring up training yet. Seeing Tris so happy, makes me wish we had more of those, happy times. She laughs remembering Uriah spraying paint all over his face and in his mouth after Capture the Flag. He was trying to spray it in Tris's face and it back fired.
"You two look...happy." Christina says, a knowing grin spreading across her face.
"What?" Tris says, embarrassment spreading across her face. I glare at her to drop the subject, knowing Tris is becoming more uncomfortable by the minute.
Will clears his throat, "So, you two ready for today? Decided to if you are going to tell them about the two of you?"
I don't respond. We haven't really discussed it. Tris only took the job two days ago, and with the events of yesterday and the way I found Tris this morning, I haven't really thought about it.
"I don't think it will hurt to let them know we are together." I say, but Tris doesn't look like she agrees. "You don't think we should?" I ask, a little more hurt playing in my voice than I intend.
"Its not that I don't want them to know," she says quickly, catching the tone in my voice."I just worry that they won't see me as strong, if they think I need you to protect me."
Everyone is quiet for a minute. Zeke and Uriah sit down next to us.
"You. Need protecting?" Uriah laughs. They must of heard us when they were walking up.
"Yeah, I don't worry about you needing protection. Now, needing protection from you, that's a different story." Zeke laughs. Tris laughs too. She looks a little more relaxed.
"What are they going to call you? I mean Four has his nickname that's kind of scary and badass. You need one too." Christina says. I grin at the thought Christina still finds me a scary badass with all the stuff Tris tells her about us.
"I think I want them to call me Six." she says giving Christina a mischievous grin.
"I knew it!" Christina squeals.
"Knew what?" Uriah says confused. "What the hell are you so excited about?"
"Nothing" I say flatly, before Christina has a chance to elaborate. Tris looks at me relieved and squeezes my hand. "Time to go get the net ready. They will be here soon." Tris and I get up and tell everyone bye before we leave.
We head to the net and make sure everything is secure. We work most of the morning getting the room ready for the initiates. By the time we head back to the dinning hall for lunch it is a fury of Dauntless excitement. The drinking has already started and I know it is going to be a long rest of the day for both of us. We fight our way through the crowd to our usual table.
"So, Six are you going to tell them about you and Four?" Zeke asks. I like it that he is trying out her new name. It makes me feel proud of her, knowing that she overcame one of her fears, especially knowing I was the one she overcame it with. I squeeze her hand under the table and smile at her.
"I think I want to be the one who tells them." I say, locking her eyes with mine. She opens her mouth to object, but I don't let her. "I want to see the look on the guys' faces when they know that they can never have her."
Zeke nods in approval. Christina just 'ahs". Lauren rolls her eyes at me, and shakes her head.
Uriah grins and nods at me, "Geez Four, its not like we didn't already want to be you when I was initiate, now you gotta rub your hot-ass girlfriend in their faces too?"
The table erupts in laughter. Tris blushes. She is still so insecure about why I am with her. I am still amazed every time it happens that she can't see what I see. It will never make sense to me. Everything about her amazes me. Her eyes, her body, the way fear doesn't shut her down, it just wakes her up. Every time I have been broken she has picked up the pieces of me and made them whole again. Why wouldn't I want the initiates to know how lucky I am?
I hear cheering from the Pit and I know it is time to go. They will be here soon. We fight our way up to the net. Some drunk guy tries to grab Tris's ass on the way there. I tun around ready to punch him, but see Tris's elbow connect with his nose and hear a sickening crack. She broke it. Blood runs down his face and she grabs him by the collar of the shirt making sure he knows not to ever do it again. We reach the net and she has a look of absolute triumph on her face.
"What was that about?" I ask her. I cant help but smile a little, after all, it was pretty funny. And to think she is worried about them taking her seriously. God help the first one that doesn't.
"Don't look at me like that Four." she snaps.
"No problem, Six." I say straightening my face and looking up to the roof.
I can see her smile out of the corner of my eyes. She straightens up taller, standing with her feet apart and crossing her arms in front of her. The birds tattooed on her collarbone peeking out of the v of her shirt, the fourth one, the one closest to her heart, barely showing. Her eyes flash with that familiar spark. Anticipation waking her up. She looks so beautiful. She is fierce. She is Dauntless and she is mine.
