Disclaimer: I do not own the Divergent books, movie franchise or any of the characters from it. I do, however, own the plot and characters you don't recognize.
"Spinner, did you really have to break Ponytail's arm?" Hayden groans from across the table. "It was only supposed to be a demonstration. You maimed that poor guy."
Spinner scoffs as she crosses off another name on the initiates' list. "That poor guy touched my ass, Popeye. I'd say he was let off very easy. 'Cause if Eric was there when he did that shit, his dental records wouldn't be able to identify him." She snorts, drawing a little star next to Kurt's name.
"I'd say serves him right." Zim states with a nod of agreement before taking a bite of chicken breast. "No woman should be touched without her consent."
"Oh, give it a rest, lover boy. Sweets is still gonna blow you later regardless." Spinner deadpans.
"Hey!" Lauren exclaims and swats her bicep as a mortified blush forms in her cheeks.
Four coughs awkwardly into his mug, fidgeting uncomfortably beside her.
Spinner bursts into laughter and the corners of Lauren's mouth twitch up into a smile. "Eric's right, we do need to get you a muzzle."
"Didn't know you were into that, Miss Lauren." Spinner waggles her eyebrows suggestively. She reaches over and plucks a piece of steamed broccoli from her plate before popping it into her mouth. "I'm sure Tank won't mind sharing."
"But I would, thank you very much." Zim interjects pointedly. "Like him, I'm a very selfish man when it comes to something that belongs to me." He sends Lauren a hungry look and her blush deepens, causing her to giggle.
Spinner mock gags at their exchange. "Thank God for Eric letting me stay at his place, 'cause that will make me go fucking blind." She throws a hand at Zim and Lauren eye-flirting at the table.
Without looking, her friend playfully flips her off. She chuckles while twirling her pen between her fingers. "So… speaking of Eric, he… he wants me to move in with him."
"You're kidding?" Hayden's eyes widen a fraction.
"He asked you to move in with him?" Four asks, seemingly annoyed, as deep lines crease his forehead.
Spinner arches an eyebrow at him, but chooses to brush it off when Lauren turns to her in a wide-eyed excitement. "Did he seriously ask you?"
"Uh," she pushes back her hair, shifting nervously between her and Four. "Well, he didn't ask me per say. He kinda… told me to...?"
Zim rolls his eyes. "Oh, way to be a real charmer, Eric." He drones in a voice dripping with sarcasm. "I knew he'd screw it up somehow."
"Oi! Don't talk about my Tank like that! He's doing the best he can!" Spinner grabs the muffin off of Four's tray then hurls it at Zim, hitting him square in the chest. He makes an insulted noise at the back of his throat as he brushes the crumbs off his shirt. "You know he's emotionally inept. Anyway, I told him to give me these next two days to think about it."
"I was going to eat that, you know." Four grumbles and sends her an irritated scowl before taking a sip from his mug.
"Relax, Broody," Spinner responds nonchalantly. "I'll give you my extra slice of chocolate cake at dinner later, okay? C'mon, you know you waannt it." She grins cheekily, poking him in his cheek. He grunts and slaps away the offending digit. "I'll take that as a thanks, Spinner, you're awesomesauce."
Shaking his head, Four rolls his eyes as a half-smile perks up one side of his mouth.
"Hey," Hayden suddenly jabs his elbow into Zim's ribs and he jerks around to glare at him in annoyance. "Isn't that Olivia?" He glances over to where the other leader is staring at and he immediately blanches in surprise.
Curious, she turns to see Gale and another woman amble into the busy dining hall. She's a foot shorter than Spinner with golden hair slicked up into a sleek high ponytail and striking honey-brown eyes. She thinks Olivia is gorgeous, and she finds herself feeling strangely inadequate in comparison. She can't blame Eric for becoming so emotionally invested in her. Olivia looks like someone you would move Heaven and Earth for.
"She's really pretty." Spinner says, adopting an almost-convincing aura of nonchalance. Too bad Lauren knows better, and she feels her nudge her sneaker under the table in a way of saying stop overthinking it. "How does she know Gale?"
"Olivia is Gale's younger sister." Four answers.
Spinner nods quietly, fiddling with the pen still in her grasp.
Just then, Olivia gazes in her direction as she and Gale enter the lunch line. She sizes her up and down for a brief moment before she offers her a nod of approval and then turns away.
Spinner blinks a few times. "Well, that was unexpected…" She remarks with a bewildered expression. "Did I miss something? Don't ex-girlfriends usually, y'know, automatically despise the current-girlfriends? Isn't that how it's supposed to work?"
"Olivia is married and has a son to take care of." Zim snorts. "I'm pretty sure you're at the very bottom of her priority list."
"You didn't tell me she got married to the guy too!" She exclaims in awe. It's no wonder Eric gets all agitated whenever she mentions the subject of marriage. It still must be a sore spot for him, because perhaps there was a time in his life where he believed it would be with Olivia.
"Sorry, I had other things on my mind like, I don't know, my bleeding nose?"
"Wussy."
"Yeah, Tiny," Hayden draws her attention. "Olivia got married to him in the spring of this year, a little before you transferred to Dauntless."
"I was a bridesmaid at her wedding." Lauren adds.
Spinner glares over at Zim. "You made it seem like it was life-or-death if I told Sweets about her and Eric!"
"I didn't know Lauren even knew Olivia until she told me." Zim quickly argues back.
"It's true," Lauren tells her. "Olivia was my instructor when I went through initiation. I owe to her for shaping me into the person I am today. We've been friends ever since."
"But now you have Spinner. So you don't need anyone else, right, Sweets?" Spinner smiles brightly as she leans her head against her friend's shoulder.
Lauren rolls her eyes with a chuckle. "Of course, Spin."
"Hey!"
"Consider yourself replaced, hippie boy!" Spinner grabs the blueberry muffin off her own tray then chucks it at him. This time he anticipates the attack and he swiftly ducks and it ends up bouncing off a girl's head behind him.
"What the hell?" The brunette shrieks in outrage. She whips around and glares at Zim who is hastily trying to explain that it wasn't him. Fuming, she ignores him and grabs a handful of her pasta. Then pulling her arm back, she throws it into his face.
Spinner cackles at his expression of absolute mortification as tomato sauce oozes down his face and drips onto the front of his shirt.
"Ashley, what the hell is your problem? He didn't even do it!" Lauren snaps angrily at the other girl.
Snorting behind her palm, Spinner uses her free hand to nudge her friend's lunch tray closer to her. Lauren reaches down to grab some of her mash potatoes and then whips it at the brunette.
She smirks as Ashley releases a squeal of horror when it hits the back of her head with a wet smack. Slowly, the brunette rotates towards the Lauren, her brown eyes glowing with anger.
The dining hall goes unnervingly quiet until someone shouts:
"Food fight!"
Then the entire room explodes into complete and total mayhem.
"I'm gonna have mashed potato in my fucking ear for the rest of the month." Spinner huffs as she uses her finger to scoop the food out of her ear and then flicks it onto the messy floor.
She and Lauren sit on top of one of the tables covered from head to toe in foods and desserts. Spinner spits a piece of broccoli out of her mouth then slicks back her wet hair matted with slime.
Mecca and some Dauntless guards had burst into the dining hall thinking it was an attack. Only to be extremely disappointed when it was the entire room engaged in a headed food battle instead. The lieutenant looked like he was ready to have a heart attack. Max had left him in charged for the next two days and so far, he wasn't doing a very good job of keeping order.
He stuck them all on cleaning duty, even the leaders. But Spinner swindled one of the younger kids into doing her part, and then she bullied another so Lauren could relax with her as well. She watches as Four walks by holding a dishcloth over his left eye and the girls quickly dissolve into loud, whimsical laughter. He had gotten pelted with a piece of ham during the food fight and he's been moody ever since.
Four scowls at the both of them before trudging in the opposite direction. "Aw, Broody, we're only playing! But I mean, c'mon, you got hit by flying ham!" Spinner bellows out a hearty laugh, hunching over and clutching her sides. Lauren leans heavily against her with tears of laughter streaming down her cheeks.
He ignores them and continues walking.
"You two are terrible, you know that?" Gale chuckles and brushes away a piece of lettuce off her shoulder.
Behind her, Olivia wrinkles her nose in distaste as she pulls out a long string of spaghetti out of her ponytail. "Boy, do I not miss this." She laughs slightly. "My year, we had food fights every other week. We literally drove our old leader insane."
"Well, this is my first one." Spinner surprisingly says to her with a broad grin.
Olivia looks at her for a moment before she returns her smile. "And what do you think?" She asks.
Spinner rubs some mush from her cheek with a small nod. "It's was pretty neat."
"Watch out for this one, Vi," Gale snorts, elbowing her sister gently. "She's trouble with a captain T. I saw how all this started, Firecracker." She waves her hand around the disaster area that is the dining hall.
"My bad, y'all, I couldn't resist."
"I can see why Eric loves her so much." Olivia says, smiling. But she can see hints of remorse hidden in the corners of her mouth. She actually feels bad for what she did to him.
Spinner's lips kick up into an awkward smile, unsure of how to respond.
"Uh, Vi, let's head back to my place so we can get this gunk off ourselves. See you later, girls." Gale waves as she loops her arm through Olivia's, then quickly starts towing her away.
"It was nice meeting you, Spinner!" The blonde tosses her a smile over her shoulder. "Take care of him!"
She slowly raises her hand up to send her a little wave, still wearing her uncomfortable smile. "Seriously, what the fuck?" Spinner mutters to Lauren out the side of her mouth.
"Olivia's a friendly girl." She says then gives a shrug of her shoulders. "But she can be a real bitch when she wants to, or if you piss her off enough."
"Well, she's hot, so I'd tolerate it. As long as I got to ride that pretty little face all night long."
"Oh God, I didn't need to hear that!"
"Consider it payback for letting me sleep in you and Zim's dried up coupley love juices."
Lauren rolls her eyes in exasperation. "Oh, give it a rest. You're moving in with Eric tomorrow."
"Hey, I never said yes," Spinner hastily interjects. "I just told him it wasn't a no."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Lauren sends her a confounded expression?
"Don't worry, Sweets." Wearing an easy smile, she leans in and gives her shoulder two tiny pats. "Tank gets it."
"At least one of us does…"
Later in the control room, Spinner minimizes her email to Geo as she spots Eric's flashing name.
She's just talking in depth about Hayden's theory while throwing in her own ideas. Hopefully Geo will go for it. They both know that while he's tremendously smart with a near genius IQ, Jeanine is far more brilliant than the world can see. She developed the Aptitude test, the serums, many pharmaceutical drugs, etc. No one knows the extent of Erudite leader's knowledge. But they know enough to coin her as someone you definitely don't want to cross.
She quickly finishes up her email then sends it off before opening his chat box.
Eric Coulter: What's this I'm hearing that you broke an initiate's arm and caused in a food fight in the cafeteria?
She rolls her eyes.
Petra McCall: Alright, who blabbed this time? Was it Sweets again?
Eric Coulter: It was Zim. He emailed me a little while ago and told me what happened. Now, why did you break an initiate's arm?
Petra McCall: He got all handsy with me during a demonstration. So, I wailed on him as punishment.
Eric Coulter: You should've broken both his legs too. He's lucky I didn't get my hands on him.
An adoring smile graces Spinner's face.
Petra McCall: Oh, I know you would've dealt with him, babe. ;-) So, are playing nice with the other soldiers while you're out there?
Eric Coulter: These soldiers are all a bunch of pussies. I don't know what the fuck Max was thinking when he picked these guys.
She can almost visualize him scoffing and rolling his eyes. Her own soften.
Petra McCall: It's only for one more day, Tank, and then you'll be home with me.
Eric doesn't respond for a couple of minutes after that, but she patiently waits for his reply. While allowing him time to process her words, she works on building the patrol squadrons. Just as she's finishing up on group number three, Eric's chat box screen pings. She glances up and reads his words with a huge, blushing grin.
Eric Coulter: I'm glad you finally see things my way, Red.
She saves telling him about her meeting with Olivia for another day. She kind of wants to enjoy their little moment. Then smiling softly, Spinner sends him a smiley face and a little red heart.
"Aaachoo!" Spinner sneezes into her sleeve, causing her dark sunglasses to slip down her nose. She tilts her head back and emits a miserable groan before addressing the room. "Alright, the new patrol squadrons have been made, but only thirty of you will get a spot." She announces to the soldiers sitting at the dining hall tables. She holds up a finger before retrieving her little pack of tissue papers out of her pocket. Fishing some out, she blows her nose loudly before speaking again. "So the names will appear on the screen behind me. And if you don't see yourself in a squadron, it's because you suck and need to re-evaluate your entire existence."
"Jesus, Tiny, way to be nice." Hayden snickers from his seat, while Zim shakes his head with a small chuckle.
"I'm too sick for nice. Fuck their feelings." Spinner grumbles as she wipes her runny nose. "Okay, bitches, watch the screen for your names. Oh, and please wait until you're outside to have your manly cry of the month if it turns out that not only didn't you make the cut, but after today you will always be seen as simply mediocre. Thank you and good luck, guys!" She ends with an exaggerated smile before names and pictures appear on the screen.
'You're mean when you're sick.' I comment, feeling sorry for those who didn't get a spot on any of the five patrol groups.
Spinner just pushes her sunglasses back up then grins at the crowd of rejected men filing out of the room, no doubt that her words are definitely haunting them as they go.
A few seconds later, someone outside of the doors releases a loud, masculine sob.
"Are you not going to unpack?"
From underneath Eric's blanket, Spinner shakes her head before blowing her nose. "I'm waiting until he gets home so we can figure where to put my shit." She says, tossing the tissue into the trash bin beside her. "I mean, at one point in my life, I use to live with like, ten other people. So, I know what it feels like to have someone crowd your space, you know?"
"Aw, look at you being considerate already." Lauren teasing her with a grin and playfully swirls her index finger in front of her face.
Spinner scrunches up her nose in embarrassment as balls up her used tissue and then throws it at her friend.
Lauren squeals with a laugh, ducking out of its path. Then Spinner lets out a frisky growl before pouncing on top of her. "Hey-ow! Get off, Spin, you're heavy!"
"Nope!" Spinner grins, popping the p just as someone kicks the door. "He's here!" In her excitement, her legs end up getting tangled in the blanket as she's scrambling off of Lauren. With an alarmed cry, she crashes to the floor in a heap. "…ow…" She groans.
There's another kick at the door. "Dammit, Red, hurry up." Eric's annoyed voice sounds through the metal.
Lauren quickly rolls off the couch then detangles her from the faux-fur. She grabs her arm and pulls her to her feet, lifting a hand to tame her wild wavy hair. Spinner still hasn't gotten around to cutting it yet. Eric had developed a habit of playing with her hair; catching him on nights he thought she was asleep.
She kind of likes it.
When Lauren steps back from her, she smooths down her tank top and shorts. Sniffling, Spinner looks at her with sore, hooded eyes. "How do I look?"
"Sick as a dog."
"Let's hope Eric finds that sexy. Can you open the door for me? My body still feels kinda broken."
Chuckling, Lauren shakes her head and then crosses to answer the door. She opens it and Eric walks inside then drops his duffle bag and holster where he stands. He kicks off his boots into the corner and his eyes land on the four cardboard boxes stacked against the wall. They shift to capture hers. "Why didn't you unpack?"
Flushing with heat… or perhaps a fever, Spinner shifts her weight from foot-to-foot. "I wanted to wait for you… so we can figure out where to put my stuff..." She mumbles awkwardly before lifting her hand and coughing into her fist. "Sorry," she wheezes slightly. "Somehow I caught a fucking cold."
"I can tell. You look like shit."
Lauren grimaces from behind Eric, burying her face in her hand and shaking her head in weariness.
Hurt stabs at Spinner's insecurities, especially the ones that had resurfaced after her meeting Olivia. She thinks the blonde is a total bombshell compared to her.
She sets her jaw and gives Eric an icy stare that has him grimacing with faint regret. "Thanks, Eric. That was really sweet of you to say." Spinner sends him a fake sugary sweet smile before she wipes the expression from her features. She sizes him up and down as she makes her way past him. "Let's go to the training room, Sweets. I feel like kicking the shit out of something worth my time-"
Eric groans in frustration, seizing her elbow before she can walk any further. "Wait, I didn't… I didn't mean it like that-" He blows out a rough sigh then reaches up to unzip the chest pocket of his heavy jacket. He digs inside for a few seconds before pulling out a small white paper bag. "Here." He shoves it at her then releases her arm.
She fumbles to catch it. "What's this?" Suspicious, Spinner holds it out in front of her between her index and thumb.
"Medicine." He grunts back, looking off to the side. "It's what I use whenever I'm sick."
"And who told you I was sick?" She shoots a pointed look at an incredibly sheepish Lauren. "Nevermind, I think I've found my answer." She rolls her eyes then looks from the white paper bag to Eric who still refuses to meet her gaze. Love floods her chest and her face softens with adoration. "Thank you, Tank."
Eric scoffs. "Whatever."
"Well, I'm gonna get going. Four and the others are waiting for me in the Pit." Lauren tells them as she's putting on her boots and then shrugging on her jacket. "I'll see you two tomorrow." She waves with a knowing smile and wink before she leaves the apartment.
Silences reigns for a moment then two until Eric speaks again. "Gale told me you met Olivia." He grounds out her name as if he has to force himself to say it, her betrayal still surely burning him to his core. "Did she say anything to you?"
"No, we just talked about the food fight." Spinner replies gently, choosing to leave out the part about her picking up on his obvious love for her.
She isn't in any rush to hear him say it back. She's trying to take things between them one day at a time. And Eric admitting that he even cares about her is more than enough.
"She seems nice and she's really pretty too," Spinner shrugs. "Again, my feelings are the same, Tank."
Eric doesn't say anything for a long moment before he lets out a gruff sigh. "Which box do you wanna get started on?" He asks instead and she lets it go because quite frankly she doesn't give a damn. She loves him for the man that he is, broken, ruthless, angry and all.
"Don't you wanna get settled in first?" Spinner questions as he shrugs off his jacket then tosses it on the couch. "This can wait until-"
"I'd rather get this over and done with." He tosses back impatiently and she blinks at his harsh tone. Eric makes a face, closing his eyes for a moment before reopening them, and then releases a tired sigh. "I had a long day. Let's just sort your shit out now."
Spinner offers him a half-smile then walks over to him. Sliding her arms around his torso she gives him a loving squeeze. "Welcome home, Eric, I missed you…" She sighs happily in his ear.
Eric's body stiffens for a minute until he steadily relaxes against her. His arms come around her and he tugs her greedily to him. "I can get used to hearing that every day." He chuckles lowly in her hair, inhaling deeply.
"Good." Spinner pulls back and smiles. "Love you."
His fierce devotion glows in his eyes. "Yeah, yeah." He smirks with a smug expression. Just as they're leaning in to share a kiss, her ePhone rings from her backpack.
They both freeze.
"Man," Spinner whines. She unwraps her arms from his neck then places her palms on his chest, leaning into him. "Hold that thought." Pecking his lips quickly, she slides over to her bag before digging out the device and then answering it. "Hello! Hello, V?"
"Spinner, are you able to meet us at the Hub? It's about your email. I think we should all talk about it in person." Geo says and she can hear Venus and another deep voice she faintly recognizes shout their greetings. He quickly shushes them. "Anyway, Spinner, can you?"
"Uh…"
Spinner feels Eric's menacing presence looming behind her. She slowly rotates in his direction and catches sight of his disapproving scowl. She offers him a bright smile. "Can my Tank tag along too?"
Geo chuckles through the receiver. "The more, the merrier."
Her smile widens, letting out a cough and a tiny sniffle. "You can count us in! Right, babe?"
Eric's facial expression says the complete opposite.
This should be interesting…
Hope you guys enjoyed this fun little chapter!
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Love, Peace and Tranquility.