So, here's a little treat. Two chapters in a day. I really just wanted to get this one out there after the tease at the Mats in the last chappie. Enjoy!

That night found Honey again making her way down the eastern corridors, her heart fluttering in anticipation. She'd been fine all day, getting her work done, ignoring Eric the best she could, but now that she was on her way, the girl was giddy. Her arm and knee still ached, but it wasn't much. Four hadn't been trying to hurt her. He hadn't specifically kept from hurting her either, which she appreciated, but his goal had not been to cause her real harm. The man easily could have; effortlessly. He was amazing in a fight. Her stomach dipped a little, thinking about it.

Honey pushed that thought away. Then called it back with a little internal huff. Four wasn't her instructor anymore. She was a full member of Dauntless and on her way to one day becoming an ancillary leader - if what Eric said was to be believed and she thought it must be. There was no reason at all not to entertain thoughts of the tall security officer. With his dark eyes and full lips and long limbs. Obviously, he wouldn't be interested in her, but that didn't mean she couldn't think about it. Maybe it was best not to think about it right now, however, since she was stepping into the old training quarter.

Honey wove her way over to the chalkboard and Dante. He seemed surprised to see her, but before he could comment on it, she told him to put her name in a slot.

His eyes narrowed and he chewed the inside of his cheek. "You sure you want to do that, dolly?"

She just stared at him, silent and stony, until he sighed and turned, writing her up on the board. Kid. Dammit.

"That's not my name," she told him with an expression of consternation. He shrugged.

"They'll know it's you." Honey rolled her eyes and wandered off, finding an empty spot to stretch and warm up in. She wasn't the only one doing so, either. The room was just as busy now as it had been the previous night. People were shouting, laying bets, collecting winnings. Every payout was skimmed by the house and the winner got a piece of that take. Not a bad racket.

"Ellis and the kid!" The name that wasn't hers was called and Honey pushed her way towards it. It was the same ref as the night before and he gave her a kind of down-turned smile that conveyed grudging respect. "Hey, she came back."

"She's so screwed!" someone in the crowd shouted, laughing. They placed a bet against her immediately afterward. The girl saw why when her opponent stepped forward. He wasn't overly tall, nor built, but there was a caginess about him that warned her to be wary. Lean and wiry, with stringy black hair, and a familiar set of rings through his left brow - each two silver dragons coming together, biting into a black bead between them. So, the bassist's name was Ellis. Maybe she'd remember now.

The ref had them square off, then gave them the signal to start. Ellis came barreling at her straight out of the gate. That was his second mistake. Thinking she'd be an easy win was his first. Honey froze, eyes wide as if terrified, then easily stepped aside just as he reached her. She kicked his foot out from under him, bringing her elbow down on the back of his neck as he stumbled, taking him to his knees. She hopped up, planting her own knee on the same spot her elbow had struck, her weight dropping him to the mat completely.

"Point; the kid!" the ref shouted. The crowd around her mat lost it, shouting at her and each other in an incomprehensible roar. Honey quickly jumped back off Ellis, giving him plenty of room to get up. When he did, he turned a seething look of fury on her. Well, no one wants to get taken down by a little kid. Again, the ref sent them off. This time, Ellis circled, planning his attack carefully.

He darted forward, even faster than before and when Honey went to sidestep him, he anticipated it and moved with her. His fist connected with her cheek, followed immediately by his elbow. She reeled back, but he kept coming. This time, he struck her stomach, then her kidney - which made a jolt of color flash before her eyes. He kicked the back of her knees and when she went down, brought his own knee into her face, while grabbing for her hair. He yanked hard, throwing her facedown into the mat and leaving her there.

"Point; Ellis!"

Fffuck! Honey panted out a groan, rolling onto her back. That hurt. Alot. It was initiation all over again. Well, she knew what to do, then. She wiped the blood from under her nose and rolled again, drawing her knees under her. Pushing up, the girl stood and looked at her opponent. He was smirking, sneering superiorly, a cruel gleam of pleasure in his eyes. Oh, buddy; you're so out of the band. She wiped her nose again and looked at the blood, then smirked right back at him. She lifted her stained hand towards the man and motioned him to her with a cocky flick of her bloody fingers.

Ellis's sneer turned into a snarl as he came at her once more. This time, instead of trying to avoid him, Honey launched herself at the man. He swung for her and she hooked her arm through his, using her momentum to swing around like a do-see-do. Their combined inertia spun them both and his feet got caught up in each other. The fighters tumbled to the mat - him flat on his back, her hard onto her side next to him. Honey rolled back, towards Ellis, and brought her elbow down. His nose crunched wetly under the blow.

With a gurgling shout of pain, he rolled to his stomach, hands moving to cup his broken nose. She followed, rising only enough to drop herself onto his back, flattening him against the mat.

"Point: kid!" Honey rolled off him, but as she went to stand, he released a furious bellow and grabbed her ankle. He yanked her towards him, hooking his arm around the joint as he rose to his knees. His hand shifted to grip the side of her foot and Honey instantly new what was about to happen.

"Hey!" the ref shouted in alarm. The girl pushed up with her hands, towards her attacker, and kicked with her free leg as hard as she could. Her heel slammed into his mouth, crushing lips against teeth and splitting them open. The shock from the blow loosened his grip enough that when the ref grabbed his arm, she was able to slip her boot free and scramble away.

The ref hauled Ellis to his feet, giving him an angry shake. "None of that hole shit here, fucker!"

The bassist shoved the other man into the crowd, who held fast, caught up in the display of violence before them. Blood was running freely from his nose and mouth, his eyes were black with rage. He charged her with vicious intent. Honey dropped to the mat, scissoring his legs between hers and rolling to bring him down with her. His hand shot out, snatching The girl by the shirt, tearing it as he pulled her under him. His body was heavy against hers, pinning her torso to the mat.

"I'll kill you, you fucking bitch!" Honey believed him as his fingers wrapped around her throat and squeezed. He leaned in close, his blood dripping onto her face, his wide eyes boring into hers. They were empty black pits of murderous intent. The girl grabbed his stringy hair and yanked, pulling his head down to hers, snapping her jaws at him.

Ellis pulled back from her, easily breaking her hold. Her hands', anyway. Honey's teeth held fast and he screamed as two of his eyebrow rings and a bit of his eyebrow stayed in their grasp. He let her go, grabbing at his face, more blood pouring from the new wound. Honey pulled her knees into her chest, then kicked out with all her strength, hitting him in the sternum full force with both heels. As he fell back, she popped to her feet, fury and adrenaline surging through her.

"You're gonna kill me?" the wild girl screeched, kicking him hard in the ribs. He curled on his side in anguish and she kicked him again, in the stomach. Then again. "You're gonna kill me?!"

Strong arms wrapped around Honey from behind to pull her away and she yowled like a wild cat, kicking and struggling.

"Stop! He's down!" a familiar voice shouted in an unfamiliar tone. "Honey, stop!"

Honey shrieked one more time, fierce and furious, then slumped back against Four's chest.

As she sat in a dark, quiet, chilly hallway, somewhere in the east corridor, nursing the bottle of water Four had given her, Honey wished she hadn't been so out of it with anger. Not for Ellis's sake, because fuck Ellis. But so she could have appreciated the feel of being wrapped in Four's arms, her back pinned to his chest. That was probably the adrenaline talking. There was a well documented correlation between high stress situations - particularly those involving violence - and sexual arousal. Not that she was aroused, but the thought of his lanky body against hers was certainly a pleasant one.

She was leaning back against the cold, rock wall, her knees drawn up as close to her body as possible with how her body hurt. Four was crouched in front of her, watching her sip the water, concerned and protective. Too bad he hadn't been there with that protective attitude two minutes sooner. Then the girl might not be sporting pale purple, finger-shaped bruises on her throat. The blood smeared on her face and neck and staining her snowy locks would still be there, though, but it would only be her own.

"You calm now?" Four finally asked, his voice a soft baritone that reverberated off the stone walls.

She nodded. "Calm as the marsh."

"Good," he nodded in return. The expression on his face was so familiar: firm and serious, but solemn, like he was about to deliver bad news. Honey recognized it from gun range, so many months ago. "Don't come down here again."

"Oh, is that an order?" she asked tersely, her face pinched in anger at the command.

"Yes."

"Yeah, well, I don't have to listen to you anymore," the girl declared, defiant, if somewhat immaturely. "So you can shove your orders."

"Honey, why do you do this to yourself?" His brows were low over his dark, deep eyes, full of question and concern.

"I didn't do anything to myself!" she snapped. "That asshole tried to strangle me!"

"You know what I mean," Four insisted. She thought she might, but that didn't mean he was right about her. He didn't even know her. "You don't have to prove anything."

"I know I don't," Honey agreed sharply. "Maybe I just like it. Maybe I like to fight, is that so weird? Isn't that a Dauntless kind of attitude?"

He nodded, but didn't look happy about it. His lips looked poutier than ever, all pulled down into a frown like that.

"I'm not some kind of delicate flower, Four; you know that," Honey insisted. "I was doing fine until that dickhead lost his frickin' mind. Hell, I was doing fine when you pulled me off him!"

"He wasn't the only one who lost it," the broody man pointed out. Her lips pinched together tightly, eyes stormy. He was right; she had snapped at the end there. He rested a hand on her knee, large and warm and reassuring. "He's not going to be the only one who tries to really hurt you. If you keep coming here and you let them get to you, it's going to change you inside."

Her stomach felt hollow as his words sank in. If that person she'd become after she'd taken Ellis down the last time was an indication of just how much she could change, then Honey knew he was right to be worried. She hadn't just been angry or vicious, she'd wanted to punish him. She had wanted to make him bleed and scream and just tear him apart. She might have even wanted to kill him. That made her feel sick, now.

Four seemed to see or maybe sense the suffocating feeling of dread that washed through the girl before him and squeezed her knee, brushing his thumb back and forth over the material of her pants comfortingly. She took a long drink of the water, hoping that would somehow help quell the tumult inside her gut. It didn't. She took a deep breath and held it a moment before letting go.

"I'm not gonna let that happen," Honey told him, meeting his gaze. His eyes were somewhat dubious - caring, but still skeptical. She pulled a corner of her mouth up in a semblance of haughty confidence she didn't quite feel just yet. "C'mon. I'm a fast learner, right? I get knocked down, I get back up."

She laid her own hand over his, patting it lightly, then left it there, mimicking the movement of his thumb with her own against his warm, smooth skin. He sighed, somber and weary. Looking at their hands on her knee, Four lifted his thumb across her fingers, brushing it over her knuckles lightly. A confused jumble of sensation surged through her. Honey's skin prickled where he touched it, her palm suddenly hot against the back of his hand. An anxious fluttering of heat low in her belly somehow made her pulse ring in her ears. Then he lifted his eyes to hers again and it all intensified ten fold.

"You need to be careful," he told her, quiet and low. She nodded, unable to speak.

"Hey, kid; there you are!" Dante's voice shocked through the girl like an emergency siren, making her jerk against the stone at her back. Four pulled his hand away, resting it on his own knee now, and looked up as the bald man approached the pair. "Is she okay? Shithead didn't really fuck her up, did he?"

"No, she's fine," Four assured him in his usual brusque tone. Dante came to stand over them, arms hugging his middle with a relaxed sort of posture.

"Good. That fucking guy," Baldy shook his head in disgust. "Should have let her really go to town on him. Fucker deserved it."

Her former instructor only shrugged. Dante looked down at Honey with a mixture of displeasure and admiration. It was the latter that caught her attention. He was impressed?

"Ya did good, sugar," the man said, certainly sounding impressed. "Came to bring you your ticket."

He bent forward a bit, offering her a slip of yellow paper. Slightly perplexed, she reached up to take it. "What is it?"

Baldy laughed. "It's your winnings," he told her jovially. "You really cleaned up. Keep coming back and making me profits like this and I'll fucking marry you."

Honey's eyes rounded as she took in what was written on the tag in her grasp - a point transfer order. Apparently, people had bet quite heavily against her, so the house take had been substantial. The amount of points constituting her cut was more than the combined total of all her monthly allowances since she'd joined Dauntless. A lot more.

"Seriously?" she squeaked, drawing another boisterous laugh from Dante.

"I thought you might want this, too," he grinned down at her, offering out his closed fist. She turned her hand upward dazedly, holding it under his to accept what he held. He dropped something small and warm into her palm. She stared at it for a moment, then looked up at him, closing her fingers tightly.

"Thanks."

"Alright," Dante nodded in approval. "Take it easy the next couple days, huh? See you later, Four."

As Baldy walked back the way he came, Four frowned at Honey in disapproval. That lift was back in the corner of her mouth, this time less haughty, but more genuine.

"I'm starving. You want to get something to eat?" She waved the ticket blithely. "My treat."

After buying a somewhat reluctant Four some very greasy food and a beer that she really thought he could use, they parted company on a much more amicable note than they'd joined with. Honey made her way through the Pit from the bar, Four's jacket zipped securely around her. He'd given her the garment to cover her ruined shirt. Such a gentleman. It smelled like him; far more pleasant than she'd have expected, given how sweaty the Dauntless tended to get and how very gamey most of the men (and some of the women) seemed to be. She was heading for a parlor with a bright purple neon sign. The girl had never been in there, but the color of the glow spilling from it had always caught her eye.

Inside, a woman whose skin was very nearly as black as her clothing was busying herself wiping down counters. Her hair was the same shade as her shirt, as were the dozen or so studs set into her ears and face. The whites of her eyes and her teeth when she smiled welcomingly were the only break in the darkness. She looked like a walking shadow and Honey found her absolutely stunning.

"What can I do for you?" the woman asked in a pleasantly smooth voice. Honey reached into the pocket of Four's jacket and pulled out the bit of blood-stained silver Dante had given her.

"First, you can sterilize this."