A/N: Hehe... Is today not Friday?...
I am so so sorry but things got in the way. Honestly I was about to update the other day but I couldn't. And I know I haven't replied to most reviews and PMs, but like I said, things were on the way. I promise I'll try to reply to them in a while...
Oh, and I changed the Will character to Eric for OOC reasons...
Disclaimer: I do not own Divergent.
Something freezing is on my forehead and it is giving me a horrible brain freeze. I try to place it away, but a warm hand grabs mine softly and keeps it back in place. "Shh... Stay still." I hear a voice whisper. The voice is soothing. And the hand brushing my hair gently is calming.
I open my eyes and find Tobias. The looks in his eyes is of worry and concern. I thought he is angry at me.
"How did you find me? Why were you there? I thought you left." I croak out. My voice is low and coarse. I really need some water.
"I heard your scream." His voice is calm.
I grab the ice-pack from his hand and press it lightly to my forehead. "But you were angry at me."
He shifts uncomfortably. "I couldn't really leave you alone in pain, could I?"
I contemplate on whether I should ask him my next question, but it somehow slips out of my mouth, "Are you still angry at me?"
He looks away. "My feelings are none of your concerns." I cringe at the cold tone and the deadly calm voice he uses. It is cold and it pierces through me like how the splinters of The White Queen's mirror pierces through Kai's heart.
It is only now that I realise the dark blue sheets I am on, the plain white walls and the musky smell around me. I am in Tobias's room. Something churns in me when I realise that I am lying down on his bed and even though there is a hint of concern and worry in his eyes, I can see a gleaming glint in it. They look almost predatory.
"You think it would be a bad idea if I sit up?" I ask, starting to feel uncomfortable.
"I'll help you."
Tobias grips my shoulder with one hand and holds my head steady with the other as I push myself up. Pain rushes through my lower body in sharp bursts, but I try to ignore it, stifling a groan. He rests his knee on the mattress and leans over me; taking the ice pack from me, his fingers brushing mine, and holds it against my head himself. I put my hand down, too eager to relax my arm to object.
"You really should just rest here for the mean time. I'll take the floor you can take the bed."
The selfless side of me tells me to object and just walk the few distance to my room, but breathing in the air around me I decide to change my mind. I find myself wrapped in a comfortable and calming smell. It smells like detergent and something heavy, sweet, distinctively male and totally Tobias.
He pulls out a few pillows from his cupboard and a big blanket, arrange them on the floor and lies down with his back facing me. I try to put myself to sleep but too many questions are running in my mind- all of them concerning Tobias.
I prop myself up to see if he is asleep. He lies on his stomach with one arm around his head. His eyes are closed, his lips parted. His dark brown hair covers most of his face and I watch him as his back expands and contracts. I soon find the deep and stable breathing of Tobias lulling me to sleep.
I wake up to the loud and constant sound of running water. I wince as my back and lower abdomen screams in pain when I try to sit up. Yesterday, the ache was more to constant throbbing deep inside and it wouldn't hurt that much as long as I don't place too much weight on it. Now, it even hurts when I just try to move it slightly. I hope it'll die off soon. The bathroom door opens and Four walks in, a towel in hand and his hair glistening with shower water. I feel a thrill in my stomach when I see the line of skin that shows above his belt as he lifts his hand to dry his hair. As he walks towards me, I consider closing my eyes and pretending to be asleep, but then our eyes meet; and it's too late.
"You're good?" He asks with a placid face.
"Okay." My voice sounds tight. I wish it didn't.
Tobias sighs and sits at the foot of his bed with the towel hanging on his shoulder. He reaches his fingers to my forehead and lightly place them on the bruise. His face remains placid as he examines the swell. His eyes shifts from my forehead to my eyes and I find myself getting lost in the blue orbs. His burning gaze is so intense that I feel myself slowly melting under it. My skin starts to wrinkle like dried leaves and my eyes starts to water like melting ice.
He blinks his eyes and looks away. "Let's.. get you down for breakfast." Tobias says coarsely clearing his throat a few times.
"Umm... Tobias?" I ask nervously.
"Yes?" He asks with his head tilted slightly to his left side.
"I want to say.. sorry for yesterday? That I screamed at you. I was.." I huff out a sigh. "-I was just angry, I think? Well I was angry because I felt like you're burdening yourself with the troubles of helping me and that you shouldn't. And I was like, making you feel all stressed out and all and you were like... You were doing so much for me and I couldn't do anything to help you back so it's like... You were burdening yourself too much and it is not right and I was trying to tell you... You know?"
I watch Tobias nervously as a small smile slowly shapes his lips upwards. Soon, his lips are pulled up to a small grin and I can see a peak of the whites of his teeth showing out. I anxiously watch him and find myself looking down, I don't have any ideas how he is going to react to this; and he is already creeping me out.
He suddenly bursts into fits of laughter and I find myself wishing to sink down this bed or the floor like how Michael Jackson does in his Ghost's movie.
"Seriously Tris, you never fail to amuse me." I dare myself to look at his face and I see that there is not one single trace of anger in his face.
"Why am I amusing to you?" I ask, the fear in me still evident through my voice.
Tobias shakes his head and whispers out, "You're too cute", obviously not for my hearing because he looks at me bashfully when he sees the angry sparkles in my eyes. "Did I say that out loud?" He asks.
"Yes." I cross my arms across my chest and give him a stern look.
"Alright. I am sorry, okay?"
I tap my chin and pretend to think. "You forgive me first."
He leans his face close to mine and pecks my right cheek. "I forgive you. Now you forgive me back?"
I roll my eyes and try to not let the heat rise in my cheeks. The cheeky smile playing on his face is really not helping me though.
"So when are Marcus and Johanna coming home?" I ask Tobias as I shove a spoonful of the egg which Tobias fried into my mouth.
"I'm not so sure. Tomorrow or the day after." He pushes the bacon in his plate to and fro with a crease on his forehead and a frown on his lips.
"What's wrong?" I ask him.
Tobias looks up at me with the frown still evident before shaking his head and looking back at his plate. "Nothing, I was just thinking."
"About what?"
"About..." He shakes his head abruptly and throws off all of the frown evident on his face.
"Have you ever had any friends? Because you're a really nice person to be friends with." He asks.
"I did have this friend back at the orphanage. Her name was Susan, Susan Black. She had a brother and apparently, he is some famous author right now."
"Why doesn't that brother help her out? You know, like get her out of the orphanage and bring her to live with him."
"Well..." Jeanine doesn't really works that way. "Things are somehow a little bit complicated back at the orphanage. It is not easy to handle some things and stuffs like that..."
He puts his fork down on his plate and leans closer to me, who is on the other side of the kitchen island. "Have you seen any of Christina's friends?"
"Friends?" I scratch my forehead and try to rack my brain. "I think there was this one piercing filled guy with tattoos all over him who drives a blue car the other day."
"How did you meet him?" He asks with excitement in his eyes.
"He.. came here the other night."
"What night?" He asks quizzically.
I know that I should stop feeling uncomfortable talking about the night, but you don't just lose the awkward feels in you in a blink of an eye. "The other night. You know? The night when I got-umm... When I was..."
Tobias's eyes widens and he exclaims an "Oh!". He bites his lower lip and sink back to his chair. "I.. am very sorry I brought it up-"
"No." I quickly say. "Don't fret about it."
"So.. do you have any friends?" I ask, trying to change the topic.
"Yeah... Marlene, Matt, Zeke from my high school, Lauren from the Princeton Unis and that Al gardener. He's a really nice guy." My insides cringe. "We've never had any other gardener other than him since we started nursing it and he's taken a very good care of it. That's all of my friends I guess." He shrugs his shoulders. "I am not exactly the friendly type."
"How come I've never heard of any of your friends other than Marlene and Matt."
He smirks at me. "Probably because you are just a maid."
I fake a pout. "That hurts, Four."
"Really now blondie?" He teases back.
I laugh out loud. It is easy for me to be happy whenever I am with Tobias. He somehow wipes away all of the bad dreams and makes me forget about them; creating a utopia especially for me.
His dark pupils starts to dilate slowly and they seem to get nearer and nearer to me. I realise the hard grip on my waist starts to get tighter. His lips slowly forms a sadistic smile.
"What's wrong.. Tris?" He asks mockingly. The smell of sage and lemon grass starts to wrap around me. Something glints from my peripheral view, a knife. His lips smirks at me and I scream as blood trickles down my stomach.
The pain is sharp and powerful, but I can't move. I try to find a way to numb the pain, but each and every inch of move I make sends pain into my stomach. I close my eyes and fight back the tears threatening to spill.
"And that, is how I do my work." I can barely hear. The world is starting to close in around me. I feel dizzy, light-headed. I am loosing to much blood.
I scream for help. Just anyone to come and help me. I cry out in pain as the rain drops start to fall and spills water onto the holes in my torn skin. It prickles the cuts on my bare legs. I try to lift myself up, but something holds me down. Warm hands. They are big like Al's, but warm; radiating a calming aura.
"Stop! Don't move. You're loosing too much blood." I look up into the eyes which mirrors a brilliant night sky. I've only seen them once...
"Tris?!"
"Tobias?" I croak out. I can barely see his face. Just those two eyes and a silhouette of his head.
"Shh... You're safe now. Just calm down and stay still"
The knife in me pulls itself out and I spring up and scream.
I look around me and find myself back in my room. I feel my asthma getting me back. I gasp for air and quickly grab my inhaler. I fit the mouthpiece into my mouth and take in a deep breath as I press the canister. I try to hold it in for ten seconds and fight back the urge to gasp in more breaths and cough out my exhale. The torturous ten seconds pass and I release my breath slowly.
I drop my head into the plushy pillows. So my saviour had deep blue eyes. His name was Tobias... Tobias is the one who saved me...
How did he find me? Why was he there? Did he saw Al?
My heart skips a beat when I realise one big thing...
He saw me naked.
Why must things be this way...