Song of the Chapter: Smile by: Mikey Ekko (I'm freaking obsessed)
Contingent- Chapter 10
I walk through the halls of the Dauntless compound. It's silent at this hour; most of the Dauntless don't wake up until eight a.m., but I walk through the place now from Tobias' apartment, to go awaken the initiates for their first day of fight training. The weekend had gone by quickly, and busily, most of the time spent on Tobias helping me move into his apartment. We'd also gotten Mackenzie settled in some, the spare bedroom in Tobias' apartment was made her own. Decorated with pictures and dressers, and she's inevitably discovered that pink is her favorite color. She's opened up a bit more with everyone, and now says a little more than three words a day, and especially talkative with Hector. Eliana visits whenever she can, which isn't often because most of the times she's having to go out with friends so it won't look too suspicious that she's disappearing all of the time.
As I eventually make it to the transfers' dorm, I flick the lights on, and most of the initiates wake up with tired groans. My eyes search for Eliana, and when I find her she's staring at me. I only nod a little before turning and leaving. I go to the cafeteria, picking breakfast for Tobias, Mackenzie and I before wandering back to the apartment. When I enter, the room is silent other than a distant sound of running water. I look towards the bathroom to find the door cracked only a little, and the lights are on. I watch the steam as it runs through the crack between the door and the door jam. I smile. Even the slightest things he does to get out of his fears, or conquer them. It's not that easy for most people, but for Tobias, it seems to be apart of his daily life. I'm glad I finally get to see that.
I tear myself away from my thoughts, and place the bag of muffins that I'd picked up as well as drinks on the table before heading to Mackenzie's bedroom. I knock on the door lightly, an Abnegation habit that I've never been able to get rid of, before walking in. I find her sleeping soundly between the sheets of her bed. I smile as I walk up to her quietly. I crouch down to her level and lay my hand on her arm, shaking a little. "Mackenzie…" I whisper in a sing-song voice, and her eyes flutter open. She smiles a little toothy grin at me. "Good morning…" I say, and she sits up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She pushes the pink and purple butterfly comforter down and moves so her legs are swinging off the bed. She wraps her arms around my neck in a hug as she smile.
She releases my neck a minute later, and we both stand together and I take her hand in mine. We walk out into the main room where Tobias stands shirtless, drying his hair of any left over droplets of water. He lifts his head, and drops the towel onto his dresser when he spots Mackenzie and I. He smiles and walks over to us. Gently, he places a kiss on my cheek, because he tries to refrain from kissing me when Mackenzie is around, before swooping the tiny girl up with one arm, and holds her against his bare chest. He smiles at her, and moves her hair out of her face. "Why good morning sleepy head. You always seem to wake up easier with Tris," Tobias tells Mackenzie which makes me laugh. It's true, and she laughs also as a deep shade of pink covers her tan cheek, and she looks down to the floor, shy.
"Well, at least someone listens to me when I ask them to get up," I say, as I look pointedly at Tobias, which makes Mackenzie giggle some.
Mackenzie nods a little before responding, her voice still sleepy, "good morning Four," she says. Tobias looks at her strangely, but the smile never leaves.
"You can call me Tobias when we're alone," he tells her and she only shrugs as she blushes again.
"Okay, Toby," Mackenzie replies teasingly as she laughs again. Tobias walks her over to our bed, where he stands her on the bed, but his hands remain on her waist as he smiles at her.
"Toby, hm?" He asks her, and she places her hands on his shoulders, before nodding giddily as she laughs again. "Yeah, that'll work, only for you though," he tells her and she smiles proudly. Though she doesn't talk much, her expressions are shown easily.
Though I hate to ruin their moment, I know if we waste anymore time, we'll be late. "Alright… Come on, go get some breakfast, and maybe Toby here can get you're clothes out for you Kenz," I say and she smiles. He lifts her from the bed and places his her on the floor, he kisses the top of her head before letting her go to the table to eat. I watch her as she digs through the bag of muffins for the chocolate one that I always get her, before turning to Tobias. I wraps my arms around him and smile, "and good morning to you too," I says, pressing my lips to his cheek.
I watch him as he peeks around me to Mackenzie, who's oblivious to our presence, before he kisses my lips. He pulls away a minute or two later with a smile, "good morning," he whispers and I smile too. "Go on and get dressed, I'll get Kenz ready," he says, and I nod, and sadly he pulls his arms away from me. I go to the dresser and pick out black leggings, a dark red tank top, and a black sweatshirt with a small 'Dauntless Flames' symbol on the top left corner. Something comfortable, because I'm sure I'll be fighting today. And I go to the bathroom to get dressed. I pull my hair into a ponytail before slipping my combat boots on.
When I exit the bathroom, Tobias is now fully dressed, and Mackenzie is presumably in her room getting dressed. I take my muffin and coffee from the table, and eat quickly before tossing the bag and wrappers in the trash. And just as I finish Kenz comes out of her room, dressed in all Dauntless black. I smile at her, and she smiles too, and we all leave. We take her a few doors down the hallway to Hana, whose Zeke's mother. Once Mackenzie is dropped off, Tobias and I head to the training, our hands entwined together. It feels like everything is going alright for once.
"Why hello you two," Uriah says goofily, as he and Zeke enter the training room together to help Tobias and I finish hanging the punching bags for training. We've decided to the Dauntless born and transfers together, but the actual fights will take place separately because quite frankly, the Dauntless born would crush the transfers.
The initiates begin to file in soon after we get the last bag hung, and they stand there waiting, most of them talking to each other. "Alright!" Zeke yells, to get them quiet, and most of them do, but it is practically impossible to silence everyone in Dauntless.
"We'll work on offense for the beginning part of the week, and defense on the other half. Fighting isn't all about strength, so those of you who're smaller will still actually have a chance," Tobias explains. And we go on to explain ways to stand, how to keep your balance, and where and how to hold your fists.
Eventually, Uriah and I are in the ring as demonstrators, and Tobias and Zeke explain a few attacks as we move. Once we're past the warm up, and begin actually fighting some, I take off my sweatshirt off and toss it to the side of the ring, so I remain in a tank top, as my body begins to exhaust. I listen to the initiates as one or two of the males whistle as I walk back to Uriah. I turn my head to glare at them and I find that one initiate in particular is smirking. An Erudite boy, Jake. He wears glasses, though I wonder if it's for the typical 'Erudite vanity', or if he actually needs them. I also find that he's one of the tallest in the group, only a few inches shorter than Zeke and Four. His green-hazel eyes stand out when the rest of his features seem to be sort of bland. I try to ignore the daring look on his face, as he tests my patience, but instead I look to Uriah, whose eyes are wide. Then I look to Zeke and Four, who're behind him. Zeke has a large grin on his face, nearly laughing if he weren't supposed to be professional, and Four, who has arms crossed over his chest, but his hands are clenched into fists and his chest heaves in anger. He glares at the boy who whistled, who is oblivious to the events he'd caused, and just smirks. As protective as Four is, I'm surprised he hasn't said anything yet, or punched the kid, but instead he's trying to keep his cool. The room is silent for awhile, other than Uriah and I's exhausted breaths, but I look to Four and smile.
Soon enough, Zeke begins the lesson again, and Uriah and I demonstrate, Four stands, trying to calm himself down enough to continue. "Alright, go ahead and start practicing with the punching bags, for now, try to just maintain your stance and having your hands and arms in the correct positions, we'll be going around a correcting anything," Zeke says, but when the initiates seem to remain still, he waves them over to the orange punching bags. "Go!" He says, and the initiates scurry away. Once they're all away, Zeke, Uriah, and I all surround Four, who still looks angry. "The hell is wrong with you? I'm not the scary one, you are, and they don't listen to me!" Zeke jokes, and Uriah laughs. No one else does. I take a seat on the edge of the ring as usual, some I'm a similar height to the guys who surround me.
"Did you not see that guy looking at Tris?!" Four bursts, though his voice is quiet, it's evidently angry. The sound of fists colliding against the leather of the punching bags now surrounds the room, masking our conversation.
Zeke just stares at him, before laughing, and Uriah joins him. I look at the brothers questioningly. "Are you serious?" Zeke asks laughing. "You can't possibly tell me that you think Tris would possibly like some dork of an initiate over all your…" Zeke trails off when gesturing to Four, unable to find a word.
Uriah points his hand in the air, as if he's gotten some amazing idea. "Masculinity; all of you're Four-ness," Uriah says dramatically and Zeke laughs before nodding in agreement. Four looks at them impossibly. "Like, seriously, man, I'd turn gay for you…" And leave it to Uriah to say something like that, but it manages a laugh out of all of us.
After Four seems to have calmed down, Zeke and Uriah leave to go watch initiates and leave Four and I alone. I smile at him. Though I don't want to really show any kind of affection in front of the initiates, I wrap my arms around his neck before intertwining my fingers on the back of his neck. His hands rest on my waist. "Relax, okay? I love you, so there's nothing for you to worry about. Just ignore them," I tell him reassuringly, and though I want to kiss him and tell him that it'll all be okay, I can't right now. So instead I just walk away. Pacing in front of the initiates, I watch for any mistakes in their stance. As I get towards the end of the line of initiates, I find Olivia. Though her stance doesn't look to bad, her hands are dropped which is an easy way for the opponent to get a punch or two to your face.
I stand there, my arms crossed as I watch her. Her punches seem to be slow, and she doesn't pull her arm back fast enough. She's aware that I'm watching her now, and though she seems to stand taller in her stance, but she never fixes her hand. She doesn't even know about the problem. "Face me," I say, and she turns towards me. Though she looks confident, she also looks scared. "Now act is if there's a punching bag in front of you. Punch, and do just as you did when I wasn't here." She's hesitant for a moment, and I watch her expectantly. Finally she does, and though her punches are quicker, her face is wide open. She punches once, twice, three times, just against the air in front of her and as she pulls back from her third punch I bring my hand up to her face, but I stop right before my fist hits her cheek. If I didn't stop, that would've been a nasty bruise, because she's not protecting her face. I raise my eyebrows to her, but she still ignorantly doesn't correct her mistakes. I watch her brown curly hair, which waves down in front of her face. "Before I tell you anything else, get your hair up. If you want to beat your opponent, you'll have to be able to see them first," I tell her, and quickly she pulls a black hair tie off of her wrist and puts her hair up into a ponytail. "Now, do you know what you're doing wrong?" I ask the girl, who only seems to be about my height.
She scans her stance for any problems, before she shakes her head 'no'. I realize that the only way she'll ever fix the problem, is if she fixes it herself, not if I tell her what to do. So, into a stance myself, my hands in front of my face, my legs spread apart, as I bounce on the balls of my feet steadily. "See it now?" I ask her, and I remain in my stand for another few seconds before I stand regularly. She scans herself once again, before lifting her hands up in front of her face. I smile at her, and she smiles back proudly. I nod a little approvingly before walking away. I find Zeke and Four only a few feet away who were watching me. They smile.
"You did well," Four tells me and I smile, and nod as a thank you, and they leave Uriah and I to finish scanning them. Once all mistakes are corrected, they're dismissed for lunch, and we spend the other half of the training day correcting more mistakes.
A/n- This is just a fun chapter to get to know a few of the initiates, but I really loved writing this one! :) I haven't been getting as many reviews on this story, like only 1 or 2 a chapter, and don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for them. I'd just like to get a little more feedback, so could ya'll do that for me? It'd be great! And I hope you liked the chapter! But anyway, please please please check out my story Last of Us. The final chapter is posted today, and it is now completed! I want to thank everyone who reads anything of mine, and I love hearing what everyone has to say. Good or bad. So, yeah, before this gets too mushy, I'll go. Bye guys!
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