FOUR

"I can't stay long. What happened?"

"Natasha's team ambushed us while we were getting supplies at the safe house. Evelyn took a hit to the shoulder, but she's fine,"

"What does she need me to do?"

"Eliminate Natasha," he answers. I stare at him in disbelief. Kill Natasha! Such a thing wouldn't even be possible since I barely am within ten ft of her when she is around. Not only that but she's Tris's aunt. If I kill her then...

"That's not possible,"

"You're close with her niece, aren't you? Use her Four. You're the only one who would be able to get close enough undetected and you know Natasha is in the way of your mother's plans. Don't let your crush on some girl come between what we've fought so long and hard for,"

"It's not about the girl... I need some time,"

"You have a week," he replied and disappeared into the night. How in the world am I going to pull this off?

TRIS

Today is officially the final day of Stage 1. Peter has been in jail for two days, and he's not allowed to get visitors. The initiates keep talking about how happy they'll be when he's executed, and even Molly and Drew have been slandering his name. Friends my ass. Cristina and Will have been distant as well as Al, who is always giving me nervous glances. Since Edward, Mira, Johnny and Lyra are all off the charts, it's allowed him to move up even though his skills haven't improved. I've noticed Eric keeping his eye on him more lately, but I'm unsure as to why. I was planning on asking him during lunch, but Uriah and a few other Dauntless-born stopped me to invite me to a party Uriah's brother Zeke was having. He seemed determined to have me go especially as he mentioned that they were all going to Zip-line which is a Dauntless tradition after completing stage 1.

Cristina and Will were nearby and when I looked their way I could see the disapproval on their faces. For some reason now that I am improving beyond expectation, they don't like being around me. I know a lot of the transfers didn't expect me to be as good as I am but I didn't expect that same jealous behavior from people who are supposed to be my friends. Now I see Eric was right all along. Dauntless isn't about making friends.

"Hey," says a voice behind me. When I turn around, I'm face to face with Eric.

"Hey,"

"Heard you've made quite a bit of Dauntless-born friends. Zeke said his brother invited you to his party,"

"Uriah didn't give me room to decline. But I'm not the party type,"

"How can you be sure if you've never been to one," he replies.

"Something just tells me I wouldn't fit in," I answer.

"You already fit in more than any other transfer. That's why you got invited, and the others didn't. Be confident Tris, you're more Dauntless than meets the eye," he says. I laugh lightly.

"Am I? I couldn't even fend for myself when those Faction-less came after me. I ran away like a coward,"

He steps closer to me and turns my chin, so I'm looking at him. "Don't worry about that, I took care of it," he says with a stern look. His eyes seem so caring but at the same dangerous, and I take a step back as my face flushes.

"You're not always gonna be there to protect me," I tell him.

"I will always be there. Even when you think I'm not watching you Tris, I am,"

I smile. "I hate when you randomly act charming,"

"I'm not good at apologizing." He steps closer and wraps his arms around me in a tight hug. My heart starts racing, and I can't seem to contain my smile as I return his embrace. I lay my head on his shoulder, and he rubs my back gently. "I'm sorry Tris, for everything," he says, softly.

"I'm sorry too, " I reply.

"You should know this may not be the end of me doing something you might not like,"

"Dido...but we'll get through it," I reply.

He laughs. "Now we sound like a couple," he remarks. I pull my head up and stare him in the eyes my heart rate speeding up.

"Is that bad?" I ask.

Eric opens his mouth to speak but unfortunately, the moment doesn't last, as we hear voices and the door opens. Quickly we pull apart and look in opposite directions. "When we finish here meet me on the roof where you took your first jump," he whispers.

I feel half empty now that we've left each other's arms, but it was just at the right time because Lauren and the Dauntless-born are filling in followed by Four and the transfers. As always, Lauren is giving me a dirty glare that also extends to Eric. It's no secret that Lauren hates me and hates that Eric never speaks ill of me, but I would think that she would at least be respectful to her superior.

"You're late," Eric says in his usual cold tone.

"We're on time. No one told you to be early," Lauren shoots back. Eric gives her a shocked look and steps towards her. She stands her ground and crosses her arms.

"Let's get one thing straight Lauren. We aren't equals. I outrank you in every way so you might want to check who you're showing that attitude to before trouble comes your way," Eric says harshly. The whole room is silent with all eyes on Lauren. She's clearly intimidated and looks over to Four whose gaze is elsewhere. I bit my lip to keep from laughing. I never thought I would be grateful for Eric's cold tone.

Eric has everyone form a line and tells the first two people to step into the ring so they can fight. I'm the eighth person in line and judging by the people before me, the person I'll be fighting is a Dauntless-born. I'm not sure how any of the Dauntless-born fight but if they are anything like Peter then I have my work cut out for me. Losing the fight doesn't mean you're out, but it does mean you'll be docked points from the board. I'm safe either way since I am one of the top ten, but I don't want to lose this fight. The transfers have been looking at me as if I'm a wounded animal since the ordeal with the Factionless and the situation with Peter. I know they think this means that I am finally giving in to weakness. I need to prove once and for all that I'm not the little stiff everyone keeps wanting to believe I am.

When it's finally my turn to fight, Eric quickly whispers to me, "move your feet." I glance over at my opponent, a big girl named Tracy who has a tattoo of a dragon on her cheek and another of a rose on her neck. I hear Lauren as she says "tear her apart" and gives me the evil eye. The girl and I enter the ring and circle one another. She has a cocky expression on her face as if she's already won the fight and as we get in our positions, she looks at someone behind me and nods. Eric's eyes are filled various emotions, the most being angst. I smile at him confidently, and he rubs his lip and nods at me. There's no way I'm losing this fight.

Tracy charges at me, and I take a side step, tripping her. She falls on her face and some of the transfers cheer. Tracy gets up and charges again going for a punch. I block her and hook my leg with her left one and tackle her down. We wrestle on the group both fighting for dominance, and I keep moving, so she doesn't lock down my legs.

"This isn't a wrestling match people," Lauren calls out.

We break apart, and I quickly stand and jab Tracy's midsection with my foot before she can stand. However, she rolls over, and as I lunge towards her, she tackles my body. I push out of her grasp so she can't lock me down underneath her body.

"Come on Tris," Eric says, cheering me on as some of the transfers clap.

Tracy has stronger upper body strength than lower body strength, and in the end, I am victorious. Lauren is pissed which brightens my mood and Eric even high fives me in front of everyone. I would have preferred a hug, but it'll do for now. Everyone who loses their fight moves down a place on the chart and fortunately Cristina, Will, Uriah, and I all prevail. Molly wins her match, but Drew and Al lose theirs. We are neck and neck with the Dauntless-born which doesn't make Lauren happy. She was expecting all her initiates to prevail against Eric's. As a punishment, she assigns her group a 10-mile run while Eric releases us. Although Eric lets us go, he still expects us to be active throughout the day. He tends to dock points for unproductiveness when he's in a bad mood or to keep everyone in line, so they don't slack off.

Later in the day after slipping past Cristina and Will, I meet Eric on the rooftop. Together we watch the sunset as the train passes by blowing a gust of wind our way. The scene is peaceful, and we sit quietly on the edge of rooftop while my head rests on his shoulder. After fidgeting with his hands for five minutes, Eric finally takes my hand in his and relaxes. I smile while blush but lower my head so he doesn't notice.

"I can feel you smiling and blushing," he teases.

"Shut up," I say nervously. At that, he laughs and gently squeezes my hand.

"It's strange. I always thought it was Rob you liked," he says.

"Why, because I was around him so much at school?" I ask. He nods. "Rob wanted me but I never once shared his feelings. He thought I would come to love him eventually because he was sure I didn't stand a chance with you. He even told me that no matter what my simulation result was, I should transfer to be with him because he wasn't going to relocate since he was an asset to Erudite," I explain.

"He's hardly an asset, but Rob could only ever be Erudite. He wouldn't survive anywhere else. He was pissed when you picked Dauntless,"

"I bet. I didn't even see him,"

"I did. I talked to him a little before the ceremony, and he was so convinced that you were going to choose Erudite. He even said he expected you both to be married after initiation. After you choose, he looked directly at me and gave me a death glare," he says.

"Rob's always known I liked you. He's tried his hardest over the years to discourage me about it,"

"Glad to see he didn't succeed,"

"Really?" I ask, lifting my head to stare into his eyes. Eric looks down at my lips then back up to my eyes. I lean in slightly, but he turns his head and coughs, as well as releases my hand. Once again, we are back to square one.

"I like coming up here to be alone and get away from everything," he says, changing the subject.

"It's nice here, very calm,"

"Things will be getting more intense now that we are in stage 2. Usually, this is where lots of people break and don't make it,"

"I won't break," I tell him confidently.

He looks at me and smiles. "I know. You're not allowed. The last thing I want is you Factionless,"

"As if I would ever let that happen. Loads of people would be cheering though if I did become Factionless. Four and Lauren for example, they hate me,"

"They're just jealous. Four is ashamed of Abnegation, and here you are just as good as he was during our initiate year. As for Lauren, she hates any female who steals the spotlight,"

"What was your initiate year like?" I ask.

"Competitive. Everyone was trying to be on top, me most of all. I trained night and day, kept to myself and only focused on being at the top. Four was my biggest competitor, and he annoyed me so much because he didn't care about being number 1 and yet that's what he ended up as in the end. I came in 2nd to him. I took it hard until I found out he picked a position lower than mine. It made me feel superior until Max started boasting about how much he wanted Four to be one of the leaders as well. It pissed me off that he never let it go despite Four declining numerous times. It was a reminder that he was still number 1 and irreplaceable in Max's eyes," he explains.

"That doesn't mean you aren't irreplaceable as well. You have a pretty high position for someone who's only been in Dauntless for 2 years,"

"That's thanks to Jeanine, not because of my skill set. Max never asked me to be a leader, Jeanine talked to Natasha, and she made it happen,"

"I don't think my aunt would have given you the position if she didn't believe you were worthy of it. I think you should give yourself more credit. You're a strong and fearless leader. People respect you,"

"People fear me," he corrected her, with a firm look.

She poked his forehead playfully. "Well, yes but they still respect you. Everyone is always trying to impress you, more so than Four. They take you more seriously. Peter even favors you over Four and the other leaders,"

He smirks. "Hayes is something else,"

"When is his trial?"

"The day after tomorrow,"

"You know he's not guilty, right?" I ask.

"Yes, but it's not up to me alone to decide guilt,"

"Did you check the security cameras?"

"They were no use. There have been issues with the system, so the cameras were out during that time,"

"What a coincidence,"

"Hayes said the same thing. Unless I get a confession from someone, Hayes has no chance,"

"Molly and Drew won't confess. They want Peter gone,"

"You're so sure it's them,"

"Yes."

"Sorry Tris. Without proof, my hands are tied,"

"I know. You've already done so much already for Peter,"

"I didn't do it for him," he says. We look at one another, and once again I rest my head on his shoulder.

"I know," I whisper.

We spent the rest of the evening on the roof talking about life in the last two years. I was happy to find out Eric's never had a girlfriend but nervous when I found out about his past flings. I didn't ask how many girls he had slept with, but he did disclose that Lauren wasn't one of them, which made me feel slightly better. While I initially was over the fear of intimacy the nerves had crept back up inside me and all, I think about is not being adequate to please Eric. While we haven't talked about intimacy with one another and we still don't have an exclusive relationship, little by little I feel that we are growing warmer towards that goal. One never knows what tomorrow may bring and by next week we could be up against the wall making out slowly and in that instance, the temptation to tear off each other's clothes could grow and then possibly happen. I don't know. I don't know how Eric's sexual appetite really is because he's vague with details. I'm not sure if it is fear of judgment that has him still being so closed off, but I am confident that I'll be able to break down his barriers as we progress more.