After dinner I pulled Tris aside, thinking it better now before it was too late, what if one of us got cut and I never got to the bottom of my thoughts. "Hey Tris, want to go somewhere with me for a bit?" She nodded and let the couples, plus Al take off to do their own thing, following me back up to the shops. "So what's up?" I tried to think of a delicate way I could bring this up, "so that tattoo artist, Tori...does she not like you?" She rubbed her shoulders and bit her lip a little, "what do you mean? I don't think I've done anything to her...so I would hope not." I've noticed when she was embarrassed, nervous or lying she bit her lip and rubbed her arms...maybe this was my way in. "Ok, a different questions, do you know what a divergent is?" I decided to just throw it out there, I could make up some excuse if she didn't or did and was one of the few that wants people like me dead. Her eyes happened to get really big though and I knew I hit the nail on the head. "Wait...how do you-?" "You got sick on your test didn't you?" I cut her off, she nodded, and then I knew, we were both divergent. "What are the odds huh?" She agreed, "well that explains a lot, I guess I still mostly show abnegation from force of habit, but you've shown a few factions, I think I was the only one to pick up on them though..." "Let's go see Tori, I was wanting another tattoo anyway."
Well Tori did give me the tattoo I wanted, but it was a bust for her talking to us, the best we got out of her was that maybe we should steer clear of each other. She said having both of us together could draw attention, or if one of us gives away what we are, the other maybe suffer for it or be caught as well. We promised we would be as careful as we could, but since we've always just been ourselves, we're not exactly sure when we're being Divergent. It's not like we could let our other friends know and go 'hey, could you tell us when we're acting too Divergent, we just don't want to die, thanks!'
Tris and I decided to make time on our off days to talk in private about ourselves and try to figure things out on our own. For now, we just joined back up with our friends and hung out for awhile before climbing into bed, I asked to sleep with Tris again, to which she obliged and I also decided since we shared a secret that was life threatening together, I would share with her a private secret of mine. She cried silent tears and we fell asleep with her hugging me, I think, finally telling someone that I wasn't being forced to, took a little weight off my shoulders and made it easier to sleep that night.
The morning had come but I was ready for it, all my practice would be shown off and I was excited to see where I ranked. The first fight though was Molly and Chris, I'd watched both of them during training and private practice. Chris had decent technique but Molly had power with her height and weight, so I was afraid Chris might lose. "Bump gloves, back up, and ... begin!" Four had a timer with him, as we were given a limit to either take our opponent down, push them out the ring or concede. Molly was beating the hell out of Chris, She had gotten in a few good punches but Molly's strength over powered her, she finally gave and fell out of the ring, putting her hand up. "I'm done...done, no more, please." Eric had walked up, avoiding my guess as he scanned the room, he offered his hand to her. "Ok, here," she eyed it carefully, a fearful leader offering peace was something to be wary of, but I had seen a few soft sides of him and wondered if this was one of them too. He lifted her up and pulled her away from the mat, we followed, noting he was heading towards the chasm. "You alright?" She nodded to him, holding her side, just happy to be out of the ring, he turned them both around to face us. "Good," he then grabbed her forearm, and swung her over the bridge, we all gasped and I reached toward them, the glare he gave me forced me to back up. Four was just pushing through the crowd when Eric gave her an ultimatum. "Grab the rail, now." She did so, since he was letting go of her, she hung on, clinging to the bridge, the water making it difficult to keep a tight grip.
"You have three options, let go and die, decide on factionless and I'll pull you up now, or you can hang there for five minutes. This is a lesson, and the education to come from this will be up to you to decide." I glared at him, but he continued to ignore my gaze, the others began chanting behind me for her to hang on, I on the other hand turned my back to waterfall, kneeling down, I laced my fingers in the grate of the bridge and dropped down next to her. I wasn't going to let this be a lesson she learned alone, she should have never needed it in the first place, this was abuse of power and torture. "Chris, we got this, let's count our minutes down in the Dauntless way," I started and she soon followed. "We believe that justice is more important than peace. We believe in freedom from fear, in denying fear the power to influence our decisions. We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another. We believe in acknowledging fear and the extent to which it rules us. We believe in shouting for those who can only whisper, in defending those who cannot defend themselves. We believe that pain and death are better than cowardice and inaction because we believe in action. We do not believe in living comfortable and safe lives. We do not believe that silence is useful or the answer. We do not believe in good manners or being push over's. We do not believe in empty heads, empty mouths or empty hands. We do not believe that learning to master violence encourages unnecessary violence. We do not believe that we should be allowed to stand idly by. We do not believe that any other virtue is more important than bravery, sir!"
I had stared at him the whole time, his eyes also never wavering from mine, he no longer had his normal rude expression on him, but the one that was there I couldn't figure out. "Time - pull them up." I pushed the others to go for Chris, I could help myself, even though my arms were shaking the whole way up. Once I reached the top rough hands yanked me up and pulled me away from the others I didn't have to look to know who it was, he shouted over his shoulder back at the others. "Back to fighting, next match." He continued to drag me away, nothing Four said made Eric change his mind, so he took the others back to the pit. Eric pulled me up and down corridors, I had lost track of where we were, until I saw colors glass up ahead. We didn't go up the stairs, he made us stop at the bottom. "What the hell was that back there?" He spun on me, anger in his voice but something different in his eyes. "You threw her over, she was weakened from a fight. I wasn't and I could barely hang on, Christina is more brave than I am...you reminded me of that the other day. I didn't recite the Dauntless oath for fun, I wanted you to know that in a way I get why you would want to teach her a lesson that way, but I wanted you to know the reason we joined Dauntless was to stop people like you...reasons why you punish are similar reasons to why I would stand up for Chris and whoever else. You said I was vulnerable the other day, but compassion goes along with being a soldier, otherwise why did I sign on to become a protector of this city if I didn't even give a shit?"
A low growl came from him and he stalked up to me, trapping me between himself and the wall behind me. My breath caught in my throat and I had to slow my breathing to not freak out; I didn't liked being touched or this close unless it was my choice. His left forearm lean against the wall above me, his face close to mine, I thought I stopped breathing during that time. "You're not vulnerable...you were right, I don't know what was happening...and as much as I want to be cruel to you like the others, I can't bring myself to...something about you pisses me off but...interest me at the same time." Now I know I stopped breathing, what I thought was going to be either a ruthless tongue-lashing over my behavior or he using his strength to overtake me right now for whatever purpose...both thoughts went out the window. I chanced a look up at him, our eyes meeting, his normal steel eyes, almost looked softened and brighter, furrowed brows and a scowl replaced his usual smirk.
I used my hand to push on his chest gently, confused at the odd feeling building in the pit of my stomach. "Then get to know someone and show interest in them, maybe you'll learn something instead of your usual asshole approach." A small, almost not visible, smile appeared on his lips. "Maybe I will take you up on that, but I'll try if you do..." I looked at him confused, unsure of what he meant. "I want you to fight first tomorrow," I went to nod, having no issue with that, until... "I want you to fight Peter." My stomach sank, and I was sure the color drained from my face, I fell back against the wall behind me. "Look, I don't know what happened between you two, but what I saw in that room, was not the same girl I saw fighting that sandbag, or during training. You need to take back whatever he took, gain that control...if you want help, I can do that for you." Instinctively I rubbed the forearm Peter dared kiss when he attacked me, it had become a nervous habit for me over time. "I won't prod you, I just want you to succeed, but fighting him may get the better of you and could effect your ranking...I don't think for someone with your skills, well it wouldn't be fair...and I can't have you go anywhere right now, while I'm trying to figure everything out."
I nodded, he was right, I could potentially freeze up trying to fight Peter...and that could put me out to factionless. "Come on then." I followed him, this time memorizing where I was going and how to at least get back to the colored dome, from there I knew I could get back down to the mess hall and everywhere else I knew from there. He came up on a door that was locked, to which he had a key. "Where are we?" He unlocked and pushed the door open, allowing me to go in first, "my room, but I also have a lot of work out equipment in here, and there won't be any distractions." I wanted to be nervous, waiting for the feeling of being left alone with him, a feeling I get around Peter to spring up and make me want to bolt...but it wasn't coming, this feeling was excitement and intrigue, and I wasn't scared at all.
A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, it will get longer, promise - review/rate!
