Natalia's POV

..

Natalia glanced at her watch, 0517. Nearly two hours until she had to head to training, fantastic. She needed coffee, badly, but figured she could hold out a bit longer. She sighed, and wondered when she'd be able to sleep through an entire night without having to go back on medication for insomnia; she was exhausted.

Natalia jumped a bit when she heard the door on the other side of the roof slam open and shut. She glanced over to see a figure walking toward the edge was sitting on. She couldn't tell who it was until he was a bit closer, then realized it was the ruthless Dauntless leader that had drunkenly pinned her against the wall the night before. GREAT.

She turned back to stare out at the dark landscape in front of her as we walked within feet of her. She figured he probably didn't even know it was her since she had the hood of her black sweatshirt covering her blond messy-bun. "I just can't seem to stop running into you in places that I shouldn't be, huh?" she asked her leader non-nonchalantly.

Natalia removed her hood and glanced up at Eric, watching him expressionless as he glared at her then shook his head and looked out at the landscape she'd just been looking at as well. He clearly wasn't happy to see her either, not that he ever looked happy.

Actually, he looked like absolute shit. Not a surprise after how drunk he had been the night before. Despite looking terrible, he still was one of the sexiest men she'd ever met. She shouldn't be thinking like that. She looked back to the landscape in front of her. "Where have you been that you shouldn't have been?" Eric asked her, annoyance clear in his raspy voice. Natalia felt a chill down her spine as her eyes snapped back to him. There were bags under his eyes, and his gaze was an intense dark glare.

"Last night?" She said to him questioningly. Eric folded his arms, his glare becoming more intense as he began to speak. "Care to explain what you're talking about?" he asked her, annoyance in his voice. She narrowed her eyes, trying to decide if he was lying, but couldn't tell. Natalia felt a wave of relief upon realizing that it was very likely he truly didn't remember.

Natalia shook her head as her eyes landed on the large thermos he had tucked in his arms. His massive muscular arms that she could see through his black jacket. She was surprised he could even fit his arms into a coat; she wondered what he looked like with his shirt off. No, nope. No thoughts of that. Coffee, yes coffee, she needed coffee.

Natalia stood quickly and walked around her Dauntless leader. "Initiate," Eric said menacingly. "Natalia turned around as she walked backward, "I was wandering in the hallway last night when I should have been in bed; couldn't sleep." She raised her shoulders and continued, "you yelled at me, and I went straight to the dorms." Natalia turned around, only feet from the door she walked as quickly as she could to the stairs, then took them by two on her way down.

She felt a headache coming on; she was tired and hungry. Natalia walked as quickly as she could to the cafeteria to grab a large dark black coffee and hoped that there was a scone she could snag as well.

..

..

Natalia wandered toward the cafeteria quickly after leaving Eric on the roof, her thoughts running even more wild than they had before. He had forgotten? He'd been drunk. Drunk.. Oh thank god.

It wasn't just the fact that she still felt tingles throughout the entire night where Eric had touched her, or that she craved more of it, but the why he did it. Had it been the alcohol? Had he just been toying with her? Or had he actually intended to start something with her? It seemed like he'd been pretty close to kissing her, and of course, she had wanted him to, so badly.

Once she really thought about it, she didn't know much about him, just what she had heard from everyone else, and that he seemed like a royal asshole who glared at her whenever she was around him.

Plus he sure as hell didn't seem like the kind of man that would want someone like her in such a way. He had to have been at least five to six years older her senior, and attractive enough, so fucking attractive, with a high status, a leader for god's sake, to get just about any girl he wanted despite his awful demeanor.

The meeting with Max, and what he had said to her that night. About how Max probably only called her out in front of others because he knew that she wouldn't want him to. She had come to the conclusion that Eric was definitely just toying with her. Which was not only cruel to catch her off guard, but not like her AT ALL to let someone get away with such bull shit. She felt like a moron, letting him have that effect on her and letting her weaknesses show. The biggest issue that she had with all of these thoughts, however, was not his motives, but that she had wondered if she would be so angry about the situation had he actually kissed her. Or perhaps if he had tried more than that, would she have let him?

Once she got to the cafeteria she was thankful to see it was empty again, she grabbed her coffee and a cranberry muffin and decided to walk around the compound instead of heading straight to the roof. She considered going to the training room early but didn't want to risk being even more tired than she already was.

She found herself not looking forward to training, as she had been the previous day. She knew that Eric and a few other superiors were supposed to be helping, and if Eric was just fucking with her, well it gave her a strange feeling in her stomach. Fuck.

"Natalia?" she turned toward the voice, realizing she had just walked past the large tattoo parlor, and that it was BJ who had said her name. "What are you doing up so early? Not that I'm complaining," Bj asked her, leaning against the doorframe of the shop.

"I could ask you the same thing," she said, motioning to him with her coffee. He smirked at her. "My sleeping schedule is all out of wack. I've been switching between night and morning shifts this week. Someone has to be up at all time since so many of the members have crazy schedules," BJ explained to her. "You look, sorta tired, though," Bj said questioningly, "not like unattractive tired, you're very attractive, believe me, I just mean. Like sleep. Um"

Natalia smirked at his rambling and walked toward him, "I just couldn't sleep," she told him. "We start learning fighting techniques today, and some of us might start actually fighting.." BJ raised his eyebrow,

"Ahh, you taped up your belly button piercing, though, right?" Wrong.

The answer must have shown on her face, curse her Candor upbringing. BJ chuckled, "not something you should forget to do, come in, I've got tape you can use." She followed him in, knowing that it was important to do so if she didn't want her piercing ripped out. Yeah, that was it, why she was motivated enough to follow him and somehow felt more awake than she had since last night. "So," he spoke with his back to her while walking to his tattooing room in the back of the large shop. "Any more thought on what other piercings you might want? Maybe some tattoos?"

Yes, she had. She knew she wanted a quote on each side of her ribs. A few other tattoos as well, but that was where she wanted to start. As for piercings, she wasn't quite sure yet. She stopped once she got to his room, and he shut the door and motioned for her to sit on the stand. "Want me to do it?" BJ asked her while holding up the small tape roll.

"Nah, I've got it," she lifted her shirt and ripped off a little piece from the roll. "Wait," BJ told her. She looked up at him quizzingly, "you should probably disinfect it and use gauze too, it is a new piercing" he suggested. Yes, she probably should have known that.

Natalia waited as he grabbed the cause and disinfectant, picking up the coffee she'd set next to her and taking a large gulp. "Ugh," she said to herself, the cup was almost empty, and she'd have to go and get more. BJ turned around with the items in his hands and lifted an eyebrow. "I'm out of coffee," she explained.

"Here, take care of this, and I'll grab you more, he told her. "We've got some in our break room." He grabbed her cup and left the room. She took care of her piercing then set the items back in the drawer she'd seen him grab them from, then began to look around the room.

Natalia started flipping through the book on the table, finding some prints that she'd love for one of her tattoos. She considered coming back later that day to get one. Why not?

One of the tattoos she had wanted was a poem by Robert Frost, an old poet from before the wars; Fire and Ice. It was a long one, and she'd always loved his poetry, but that one had always stood out to her, and although it would take up most of her side, it'd be worth the pain.

The others were reminders; reminders of her brother; reminders of her past. Reminders that her life was going to be better while she was at Dauntless.

"Here," Bj had returned with a cup of coffee for her. Natalia explained to him the tattoo that she wanted first, then they picked out the style. After she had taped her piercing, they had gone to the front of the parlor and sat behind the counter talking and drinking coffee. She had planned to leave and go to the roof, but it was nice having a distraction from the things that regularly ran through her head. Like the ruthless Dauntless leaders bulging arm muscles when she was pinned against the wall, or how turned on she had been when he put his arm around his neck. No. Nope, she needed to stop!

They mostly talked about tattoos. He showed her his sketchbook and the list of tattoos he still planned to get. After while she felt relaxed enough with him to talk about the ones that she'd wanted, he wrote them down as she got to the last one, a tiger that sprawled on her back, the tail curling on her side just below the poem she wanted, she felt herself tearing up.

"You want it realistic right? That would look fucking awesome!" Bj was still scribbling in his notepad, "I'll spend some time drawing this out, and the other ones." She nodded. "You have an eye for placement by the way," Bj looked up at her and smiled. "You know, if I do all this work on you, you'll have to stop wearing long sleeves all the time, right?" Natalia laughed. "No I'm serious," he told her with a smile and scribbled a note on his pad. "I'm a damn good artist," he told her. She had to admit she liked him a bit more, confidence was most definitely a turn on for her, "and I like it when people show my work off," he finished with a raise of an eyebrow.

"You just want to see me with my clothes off," Natalia teased him again. He smirked and looked up, "Yeah, well," he shrugged, "also, if I'm going to sketch this all out I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't get tattoos from anyone else until we get through these." He looked down and wrote another note.

"Don't worry, I won't let anyone ruin your blank canvas," Natalia knew she was flirting with him at this point. "A dream come true for any tattoo artist, and any man," he put his notebook on the counter. "So, tell me, which of these are purely for design and which ones are personal?"

"Well," Natalia took a long sip of her almost empty cup. "I've always loved the poem," she explained and looked at the paintings on the walls. "As for the others, nearly all of them have a reason behind them. The most important of them all is the tiger, though," she glanced at him, not sure if she wanted to let him in just yet. She could tell he'd be a good friend, but there were some doors she didn't necessarily want to open up to her friends. She looked up to hear commotion in the hallways, reading the clock hanging on the wall she realized it was the time most went to breakfast.

"It's uh, my favorite animal," Natalia smiled at him. "Listen I promised I'd meet up with everyone a bit early for training," she hadn't, but she wanted to go anyways. "I'll see you later today?" he asked her, she nodded and walked backward towards the door. "You better have at least some of these drawings done for me!" BJ nodded to her before she turned and strode out the door.

...

..

Natalia was on the same mat she'd been on with Jacob and Daniel the day before, stretching, and glanced at the clock reading 0708. She couldn't believe that was just the day before; it seemed like so long ago. She had been in the training room for almost half n hour and had spent the time in between that and leaving the roof in the cafeteria, talking to a man named Will who worked in Dauntless's infirmary.

She had found out that he was a girl named Christina's boyfriend. Dauntless was a small faction, and over the week before she had begun to see faces she recognized everywhere. Many glared at her, but some took the time to talk to her, like Will.

She realized once he explained that she was pregnant, and had been trying to get people to call her "Tina," for over a year, and was the girl she'd been introduced to as Max's assistant the week before. He told her that he knew Matthew and hoped that he'd want to work in medical under him, to which she told him that her cousin might like that very much. Dauntless was a small faction, and over the week before she had begun to see faces she recognized everywhere.

A few of the Dauntless-born initiates had shown up at the time that she'd been there. One of them being Thomas who gave her a mean glare as he walked in the few Dauntless men that she didn't recognize.

"Hey Natalia!" she heard Jacob's voice behind her. She crossed her legs on the mat and turned her head to his voice, seeing that Daniel, Jacob, and Callie were with them. Natalia hid her scowl; she didn't want to deal with Callie again.

To her dismay, however, Callie plopped down right next to her. Natalia didn't look at her but instead scanned the other faces in the room, all of the distracted with their stretching and conversation. "Hey I gotta piss, come with me," Daniel said to his friends. "Are you a little girl?" Mac asked him, "can't go by yourself, bro?" Natalia looked up to see Daniel punch his best friends arms and motion to the two girls sitting on the floor. "Ahh," Mac said and nodded his head, he turned his head and narrowed his eyes in a dramatic show of understanding. Daniel pushed him toward the locker rooms.

Natalia still didn't look at Callie sitting next to her but heard her sign. "Listen..." Callie began, "this may be hard to believe, but the only other girl-friend I have is Tiffany. And she's not doing so hot in the initiation, as you saw on the board yesterday, she's dead last. And of course, she's been taking it out on me. She says I've been spending so much time with Mac and Daniel lately, and she's upset about it. She had snapped at me during our run after I chose her as a partner knowing she'd slow me down, and, well I sort of took my anger with her, out on you."

Natalia looked at her; Callie was sitting with her legs and arms crossed, one of her eyebrows raised as if she was waiting for a response. Was that an apology? Natalia didn't bother hiding her smirk. She and Callie were sorts of alike, as she had few female friends as well.

Natalia saw Tiffany behind Callie's back, walking toward another mat with one of the male Dauntless-born. Callie had turned to look as well. "That's David, he's second to last, they both sort of suck." Natalia's smirk grew, "perhaps you should have gone to Candor?" she told Callie.

Callie looked back to her, "yeah no thanks," she told her nonchalantly. "So, does this mean we're good?" Callie asked her. Natalia noticed she was attempting to mask how sorry she really was by changing her voice.

"Only if you don't ask me about my past," Natalia told her. Callie frowned and narrowed her eyebrows, "I guess," she told her unsurely. "And you give me a few strikes too; I don't have many female friends either." Callie's smile returned, a look of relief on her face.

Natalia and Callie both turned to the loud laugh as another small group of initiates walked into the training room. The laugh had come from Justin, walking and smiling with Shaun, another Amity-transfer on his left, Andrew on his right, Matthew on andrew's other side. Matthew was smiling, but when his eyes met his cousin he raised an eyebrow and glanced to Callie and back as if to ask her if she was okay. She nodded that she was, making him smile.

After a few minutes Mac, Daniel, and Jacob returned to the rest of their group joined up with them. Four, Uriah and Lauren showed up shortly as well. Once the rest of the initiates showed up, as well most of the Dauntless who would be helping them, Four told them to continue stretching and take a few laps around the room while they waited for the remaining people.

Natalia chose to jog alongside Callie and Mac, who talked the entire time. Eric showed up half-way-through their third lap, a silence pouring over the initiates and most of the Dauntless as he walked up to speak the trainers. He said a few words to them then folded his arms and glared out across the room. It was amazing how one man could not only change the mood of a room but instill a sense of fear in so many without doing anything. He was clearly a threat to anyone who crossed his path.

Natalia focused on her jog, trying to pay attention to Callie and Mac argue about how soon they would begin to fight. When she glanced back to the menacing leader, she found him glaring at her with dark eyes. He still didn't look so great, but a bit better than he had when she'd run into him on the roof. She focused back to her friend's conversation and tried to shake it off.

After a few more laps Four called them all to meet up in front of him. Four, Eric, Uriah, Lauren, and a few others stood on a mat that was raised a few feet from where they stood so that they could see everyone. "Listen up!" Lauren yelled to the small crowd, "today we're going to try a method of training we've never tried before. As you can see, there are quite a few Dauntless here to help out. They will be splitting up into small groups with you." She scanned her eyes over the crowd, her arms folded and her voice stern. Beside her Four spoke up, "pay attention to what they say and don't fuck off. If you are caught not training, you'll be punished."

Natalia and her friends were standing on the far left side of the crowd, closest to the main entrance of the training room. So when an another small group of Dauntless, they were the firsts to snap their heads to the door. Four men walked in, one of them Natalia recognized instantly as Troye, who waved his hand to the trainers. "Sorry, we're late! Won't happen again, promise!"

Natalia glanced back to the leaders, noticing a few heads around her did as well. Eric and Four were both glaring at the men, Lauren rolling her eyes and Uriah and the others smirking. She looked at Matthew beside her, who had his head locked on the men at the door as well. His gaze, however, made both Eric and Four's glare look like they were the happiest people earth.

Natalia felt her eyes widen; she'd rarely seen Matthew angry, and by gods, the look he was giving them was menacing. She looked back to the small group that had walked toward them, and were only a few feet away, to figure out what he would be so upset about.

Natalia sucked in her breath as she locked eyes with the man who had been in her dreams just that morning. Michael. No. No. No. She had hoped she wouldn't run into him so soon. Michael looked at her with confusion. "It was my fault, and I'm sorry really, continue!" Troye shouted to the trainers then turned to Natalia, who still had her eyes locked on Michael. "Hey Natalia, how is a fine girl like you this fine morning?" he whispered flirtatiously, although the trainers were speaking among each other so the room was quiet enough that many people around them heard him.

When she didn't reply to him he spoke again, "Um, you guys alright?" he motioned to them. Michael folded his arms and glanced to Matthew for a short second, then back to her. "How, why, are you here?" he asked them. Natalia noticed that tone was full of confusion, a bit of hurt, and a bit of anger. Natalia shook her head. After going so long without seeing him, missing him yet being so angry with him, she didn't know what to say.

"Wait, do you guys know each other?" Troye asked them and motioned to the three of them. At this point, most of the crowd was whispering among themselves but were obviously listening to the small group. This time it was Matthew who spoke up, "No," he said sternly. "We don't know each other," he stepped in front of Natalia and turned his back to Michael.

Matthew glanced from Natalia to the stage. She noticed that he was clenching his jaw, a bad habit she had as well, but she'd never seen him do it before. Matthew was obviously furious with Michael, yet he didn't know everything, and she knew she should angry be too. "Nope," Natalia glanced to Troye, "we don't," she said simply, then turned her focus to the stage.

"Are you done wasting our time?" Eric snapped angrily to them. His glaring eyes were on Natalia, but she could tell as he narrowed them that he was curious as well. The men behind her murmured, and Four began to explain what they'd be doing for the day again. Natalia turned her gaze back to Four, why couldn't she just have a normal day?