Their first fight is on a Thursday afternoon.

Sure, they've had arguments and debates before, but nothing like this. Eric has been working with Four on the new initiates and he's positive that Four's screwing around with another Stiff. Teddy doesn't care about Four's business and can't understand why Eric's being such an asshole. He's always been a bit of a dick to people he didn't like, but he was going completely overboard, at least in Teddy's opinion. She'd just about had it when he dangled a girl from Candor over the railing just because she'd conceded during the fight.

"They're stupid initiates!" Eric roared. "They need to learn!"

"They're not going to learn if you inject them with fear!" Teddy protested.

"This is Dauntless, we don't have time to train any weak links. We have to weed them out."

"By nearly killing them? Do you even know what it means to be an instructor?"

"Don't fucking start that on me, Teddy! I outrank you!"

"Fuck off, Eric!" She shoved him back. "Don't pull that shit on me. I'm telling you straight up that you're being a fucking dick!"

"Since when do you give a shit about the initiates? Going soft?"

"Fuck you. I care about properly training the next generation in a way so they don't think that their new family is something to fear." He merely laughed at her.

"Fear me? They fucking should. One wrong move from those little shits and there will be hell to pay."

"What the fuck happened to you?" She shoved him again, only this time, he grasped on to her wrists. "What? You get a fucking promotion and you go on a power trip! The world must bow down?" She tried to pull away, but he held on tight. "You know, I've always fucking put up with your bullshit and you being an ass to everyone, but you've got way too fucking far this time, Eric." Something tightens in his chest, but he tries to ignore it.

"Oh, yeah?" He was taunting her now. "You've put up with it? You don't think I've been putting up with your shit either?" She tries again to pull away. "All your fucking nagging and whining and your big mouth getting you into trouble and you whoring yourself out? You're a fucking time bomb, Teddy! If anything, you should be fucking thank me." Her jaw clenched dangerously.

"That's not what this is about and you fucking know it!" He'd hit a soft spot.

"Oh, really? You sure you're not just yelling at me because you can't do your fucking job? Can't get the initiates in line, so I have to fucking resort to it? Is that what you're pissed about? Huh?" He shook her so hard, she would have fallen had he not still had a grasp on her forearms. "Can't do your fucking job, so you have to attack mine? My position, my authority? Careful, Teddy, I could demote you so far you'll never see the fucking light of day again." His face was dangerously close to hers and his voice was so low it rattled her bones. It was like looking down a gun barrel.

"So that's how it's gonna be, huh?" The young woman found her voice again. "I was right, you become the big, bad, fearless leader and no one's worthy of your time anymore. Sorry I thought I could be honest with my friend." He squeezed her wrists even more and it brought out a gasp. He should have been pleased that he had the upper hand, but there was that tightening in his chest again. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?" He growled, determined to prove that he had the upper hand. "You come in here like you're on a fucking mission, determined to undermine my authority like you fucking own me. My position outranks whatever friendship you think we have, Teddy." The way she kept swallowing made him think there was something caught in her throat. And maybe there was.

"Fuck you, Eric." Her voice was soft and it irritated Eric to find his chest tightening even further when she couldn't look him in the eye.

"You don't get to talk to me like that." He shook her again. "I am your superior. And I could chuck you out of this place. 'Cause I know that you don't really belong here, do you?" He was hitting below the belt now. "You think you're so fucking high and mighty aren't you? Still stuck in Erudite with your smart ass ways and your Candor ways of just having to say whatever comes into your fucking head. Maybe you should go hang out with the Factionless, since you can't seem to make up your fucking mind." The air was still and Eric knew he'd gone too far. He waited for her to shout back, to scream at him with words he knew he deserved and more. So when she took a choked breath in and spoke in the softest voice he'd ever heard, his heart sunk into the pit of his stomach.

"Maybe you're right." Teddy admitted, looking down. "Maybe I'm being pulled in three different directions." Then she met his cold stare. "But I chose one. I chose this faction, I chose Dauntless. I chose to be brave. And that's all that fucking matters." Eric swallowed hard at her words, trying to displace the twisting in his gut.

"Well, I know a lot of people who don't fucking appreciate your fucking attitude. And I'm one of them. Now, I've tolerated your ways for a long fucking time now but I've fucking had it, you hear me! Now, I don't wanna hear another fucking word about the way I run things." He finally shoved her away. He noticed her fingers caressing the end of her sleeve tattoo. The band that wasn't closed, the arrow. "Now, will that be all, Bell? Or do you have something else to say to me?" She swallowed hard and couldn't meet his eyes.

"I'm sorry for the intrusion, sir. It won't happen again." And there was that soft voice again that took Eric by surprise. To know that she was so loud and vocal and then to see her soft and quiet; a walking contradiction, it shook him to the core. And before Eric can say anything, she's out the door, letting it shut gently.

The following months aren't easy on either of them. They're in meetings together once a week to go over tactics and to discuss the initiates. And every time Teddy voices her opinion, Eric feels the need to disagree with her. At first, it took the other leaders and division frontmen by surprise. Eric was always the one to agree with her, understanding her logic before she could even explain her reasoning to the rest of the division. They were always a good team. But now, they were entirely out of sync and it was taking a toll on the entire faction. And now, whenever Teddy speaks up at the meetings, everyone tenses up, whether they realize it or not, waiting for Eric to derail her until she's back to the drawing board. It makes training difficult for the instructors and the meetings even worse.

Eric's demeanor was even worse than before, taking his anger out on the initiates more than usual and even snapping at fellow leaders and other members of the faction. Max tried to understand it all, that Eric was smarter than almost anyone out of the entire faction and he was strong and had a low tolerance for those he considered idiots, often becoming bored with people who couldn't quite follow his train of thought. And that boredom made him downright dangerous. But Max had seen Eric alongside Teddy since the beginning. They were mentally and emotionally compatible, when one of them moved, the other moved with. It's what made them such a good team. So he couldn't understand what had caused them to act this way.

Everyone was used to Eric calling someone out on their ignorance or their lack of proper planning or bad techniques given during meetings, but everyone was also used to him sticking up for Teddy even when she wasn't around, or her sticking up for herself and voicing her opinions when someone tried to call her out. She made a good division leader due to her ability to not take things personally, to back her opinions with good research and to call others out on their arrogance just like her best friend. So everyone who had once seen that aspect of their relationship was flabbergasted by the complete 180 the individuals seemed to take.

"I would have thought, judging by your haggard appearance, that you must have stayed up all night working on this presentation." Eric commented one afternoon. "But you must have been neglecting your duties in favour of something else to give us such a shitty presentation on the new combat training." There was a tick in her jaw as everyone hesitantly turned to look at Eric, his expression practically daring her to retaliate.

"I apologize for it not being up to your usual standards. Hopefully it'll be better by the next meeting." Well, no one expected such soft, tame words. But that was only the start of it. It seemed to go on for months. Everyone tensed up when they walked into a room. Whenever they ate in public, people stared in anticipation. The initiates cowered in fear when their instructors screamed at everyone but each other and even when they were apart, the people around them were waiting for something to happen. Eric took his anger out in the gym while Teddy opted for drinking nearly every night.

"Coulter!" Max had been pissed at him lately, and he had no idea why.

"What?" He grumbled out.

"I need you to get some signatures from Teddy." He typed away on his tablet, sending him some documents, and Eric could hear the pings from his own tablet of the notifications upon receiving them. Before Eric could growl out his refusal, Max held up his hand. "Don't argue with me on this one. I don't want any trouble, but everyone else is tied up for the day. You need her signatures and then you need to notarize them. And then she's going to give you some documents that I need and I don't want them sent electronically." Eric lifted his pierced brow. "She called out today, so you should find her in her apartment."

"Oh, she called out, did she? Fucking figures."

"Watch your fucking tone, Coulter." Max growled, catching Eric by surprise. Max had never spoken to him like that, not even as an initiate. "Teddy's been running herself ragged these past few weeks, training the TAC force and covering shifts at the Wall because of the bad weather." It was well known that Dauntless and Amity both were having a rough winter, with record-low temperatures and bad storms coming in from the north. The Factionless weren't a problem, as they stayed in during these months, but those assigned to the Wall were getting sick from being outdoors and Amity was having a hard time with their winter harvest. Eric hated winter. It got unbearably cold inside the compound, which was why he tried to stay inside his apartment unless absolutely necessary. "Tori and I gave her the weekend off to catch up on some sleep, but I need these documents today. So while I'm gone, I need you to get this done." Eric's jaw clenched.

"And if I refuse?" Max's eyes narrowed.

"Well, then you can take my place with Four at the Abnegation council meeting." The younger man huffed at the head leader's smirk and headed down the familiar path toward Teddy's apartment, leaving Max smirking behind him. His knuckles rapped three times on Teddy's door and he waited, his patience waning with each second she didn't answer. He pounded a few times on her door and there was still no answer. He tried barging in, only to be surprised by finding the door locked. Odd, she'd never bothered to lock it before.

"Bell, answer the door!" He pounded a few more times. "Bell, answer the fucking door! I need your signature!"

"You could have just asked nicely." Eric whirled around at the croaky voice to find the small woman peering at him with what would be classified as boredom. But Eric knew better, what others saw as disinterest, he saw as composure. She didn't want him to see right through her. Her voice was croaky and she looked exhausted. Her skin was dangerously pale, with no color gracing her cheeks save for a splash of pink on her nose. Her green eyes looked sunken in, with bags emphasizing her exhaustion. She was bundled up in a thick black jacket and it was only after she invited him into her apartment and shrugged out of the coat did he see how tiny she looked. There's that familiar tightening in his chest that hadn't been felt in what seemed like years, but knew was only mere months. He hated himself for wanting to take care of her.

The red had faded from her hair, leaving it all a deep brown, falling to her waist in loose curls and she'd gotten a new tattoo along the tricep of her right arm. It was a long flower that started at her elbow and ended just under her shoulder, the petals spreading along the pale skin. There are a few more piercings in her ear and they sparkled in the white winter sunlight that littered her apartment.

"Max needs your signature." Eric pulled up the documents that had been sent to him.

"And he needs the other papers." The young man nodded once and she left the room to retrieve them. She hands them to him and gets to work on signing the documents she needs to.

"Where were you? Max told me you had the day off." He tries not to appear to interested, merely inconvenienced at having to wait.

"Infirmary."

"What? Can't handle a cold?" Teddy spares him a glance before going back to reading through the documents.

"Outstanding appointment." She allows. "Birth control." He lifts a brow.

"Ongoing research?" He can't help the question and he mentally kicks himself. He's surprised when she smirks.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" The croak in her voice is teasing and it appears she realizes it too late as she looks back down to complete her task. "Uh, no, actually. I scrapped that project." She tries clearing her throat and it ends in a cough that sounds painful. "Wasn't necessary."

"Now you sleep around for the fun of it." She tries not to flinch, but Eric sees it right away and he regrets the tone he took. He didn't mean for it to come out that way.

"Isn't that how it's supposed to be?" He doesn't answer.

"Are you having fun?" He finally asks. And then it's her turn to be silent.

"I wasn't ever having fun," she admits. "Not really. It was all rather...boring." She clears her throat. "I kept thinking there was some equation, some formula, a precise-." The young woman breaks off as she realizes she's talking too much, giving herself away, as if she's excited to be talking to someone about something other than training or work. "Never mind. Doesn't matter."

"It matters to you." She shrugs and then it's silent, uncomfortably so on Eric's part. And then she hands him back the tablet and he notices the arrow around her wrist is closed.

"You finished it." He gestures to the tattoo. Her right hand goes around it and twists gently as she nods. "What got you to do it?"

"I got rid of the bow." And somehow, the metaphor makes sense to him.