Saturday couldn't come fast enough. Tobias hadn't felt this impatient before, a result of the indifference that had overcome him after his mother's death. With nothing to be happy about and nothing to look forward to, he had never had reasons for impatience. But that was changing now, and while it had just been a little restlessness after the first ball, the emotion had grown after the second one. More so because of his nightly meeting with Beatrice, he suspected.

He didn't know what to make of that. At first, he was annoyed that his heart beat faster and his palms got sweaty when he thought of her. What was that for? He never sweated. His heart never stumbled. Those reactions betrayed him, betrayed who he thought he was. How could a girl, small in height and fragilely thin, shake him up like this? It scared him, yet at the same time, he craved to have more of this - to have more of her.

That's why he was up early in the morning to oversee the arrival of contestants. He wondered how many of them would be back, yet only one really mattered to him. What if she wasn't among them? What if she had failed, and he wouldn't be able to see her again?

It was snowing again today, so he decided to wait inside by a window that allowed him a good view of the patio where the five bowls had been set up. Jeanine, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen.

The first few girls arrived during the morning, most of them in groups of two or three. Apparently, they stuck together to increase their chances to make it through the tasks. He wondered when their liaisons would start to crumble apart. They had to at some point. In the end, they were rivals, all aiming for the same goal: to marry him. They were hungry for the power he didn't even want to have.

Some actually pulled a gemstone out of the bowls, what always resulted in giggles and hugs. Some threw something into the bowls, others just had to go near them and reach into them. And sometimes, the bowl wouldn't give them a gemstone, but a piece of charcoal instead, which resulted in shock and tears.

Zeke found Tobias sitting beside the window overlooking the castle grounds at noon.

"Here you are. I was looking for you, the queen asks for your presence at lunch."

"Tell her I'm not hungry."

As if on command, Tobias' stomach grumbled. He coughed, trying to cover it, but it didn't work. Not with Zeke.

"Yeah, definitely not hungry."

Zeke rolled his eyes, something nobody else ever did this openly, and grinned knowingly. Was he being this obvious?

"Just tell her I'm not hungry. Please."

"Alright, I will."

Zeke left, but returned with a bowl of potatoes and vegetables later. He wordlessly passed it to Tobias and then left him again to his observation.

He had started to walk up and down the room when he finally spotted Beatrice and her friend in the distance. He even bumped his nose against the glass as he tried to get as close to the window as possible and shook his head in disbelief about such ineptitude.

They looked tired and cold, and they were moving so slowly through the whirling snow. But he could see them better and better the closer they came. He pressed his hands against the glass to be able to look at them approaching the Abnegation bowl together. It was just the two of them standing next to each other in the patio now. Beatrice pulled something out of her coat that looked like a simple stone. He wondered what was so special about it that it held the power to make her either pass or fail this week's task. Jeanine had refused to give away anything about the challenges the girls had to face.

Beatrice looked at her friend, who took hold of the stone with her. They held it above the bowl and let it drop in unison, maybe at the count of three or some other hidden clue, and it dissolved in a ball of light that disappeared soon after and left two items in the otherwise empty bowl: a white gemstone and a piece of charcoal.

He held his breath as he watched them talk urgently, and he was left uneasy when they each picked up something and went into the castle without him being able to see who of them now held the gemstone.

Since he wasn't allowed to meet the girls before the ball and he was sure Jeanine was lurking somewhere downstairs, he didn't dare to go looking for her. He didn't want to meet his stepmother, as she'd only give him more orders for the night: what to wear, how to behave, when to engage in more small talk and to remember the steps when dancing. No, he'd have to wait until the evening came.

But time yet again was a strange thing. While it had stopped the moment Beatrice had stepped into the patio, it slowed down as soon as she was out of sight, and he was left to wait once more.

There was no need to stay by the window now, so Tobias decided to find Zeke and exercise a bit with him. His guard had happily resumed training side by side with him this week.

By the time the prince dressed for the ball, his nervousness returned. Zeke's knock at the royal dressing room even made him jump. What was it about her that did this to him?

"It's time to go down, your girls are awaiting you in the ballroom," Zeke informed him, failing to hide his amusement at the prince's reaction to his knocking.

"I'm ready," Tobias said, mostly to convince himself.

"It might be of interest to you that Beatrice asked Shauna to take care of an injured dove she picked up somewhere in Abnegation while she's away for her next task," Zeke stated casually.

Tobias felt the dread fall off him as he realized what this meant. She had made it. He would dance with her once more tonight.

Upon entering the ballroom, he immediately looked for her. His heart stopped for a moment as he spotted her. She looked stunning in her deep blue dress that accentuated her pale skin and gray-blue eyes. She wasn't as strikingly beautiful as some other girls, but she was by far the most interesting of all. While the other faces were nice to look at, hers was the only one his eyes were searching for in the ballroom after every dance he did that night. Whenever their eyes met, she smiled, secretly, as if nobody else was allowed to see it, and he smiled back the same way.

He waited all night to dance with her. Although there was no other girl he wanted to dance with, he kept her to look forward to.

When it was finally time for him to a ask her for a dance, he was both relieved and tense at the same time.

The ensemble played a slow waltz, and he walked up to her and forced himself not to take his eyes off hers as he asked, "Would you do me the honor?"

She accepted his hand without hesitation, a sparkle in her eyes she hadn't had the week before. Or maybe he had missed it because he hadn't dared to search her gaze more than a few times while they had danced.

This week's dance was different. She glanced up at him every so often, and he did his best to catch her eyes as they moved across the dance floor. Whenever their eyes met, they held on to the connection longer than they had before.

Beatrice was no longer wearing gloves, and her delicate hands lay warm in his hand and against his shoulder. He wanted to tell her how much he liked that, but he didn't know how to. Nice words didn't pass his lips easily, and he had to get used to the taste of them. But he wanted to, for her.

"You look good," he whispered half-way through the song.

He saw her flinch a little, hardly noticeable, and he wondered if he'd said too much.

But then a rosy blush appeared on her cheeks.

"Thank you."

Tobias noticed how her thumb moved on his shoulder, back and forth. The movement was so tentative that he wasn't sure if she was aware of it. He didn't dare to look into her eyes. Instead, he spread his fingers wider on her shoulder blade, touching more of her than before, and pulled her a little closer, equally cautious. He held his breath as he waited for a reaction and was reassured when she let him inch her closer to him as they swayed to the music. He exhaled when she looked up at him and, at the same time, gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze that was impossible to notice for anybody else. But he did, and it made him flex his fingers to caress her shoulder. She reacted by shifting her hand in his and caressing the back of his hand with her right thumb.

Tobias wished the dance would last longer, yet he also wished he was alone with Beatrice. It was daring to exchange these little gestures in the middle of the dance floor, bordering on what was socially acceptable. He was sure, even if somebody noticed their little touches, they wouldn't say a word to him. That, at least, was one of the benefits of being part of the royal family. Yet, holding hands didn't feel close enough anymore.

"You'll hear from me later," he whispered as the song ended and they had to part.

"I'm looking forward to it," she replied, the color in her cheeks an indicator that she was speaking the truth.

"Meet me at the top of the highest tower at midnight" Tobias wrote and folded the paper neatly before he put it into an envelope and sealed it. He hissed as he accidentally guttered sealing wax onto his thumb. Since when was he this clumsy?

He waited for Zeke to come to his chamber, like he had ordered him to. When he did, he handed him the letter.

"Just make sure she'll get it as soon as possible."

"Done."

After his guard had left, he realized he had forgotten to sign the message.

"Meet me at the top of the highest tower at midnight" Beatrice read and folded the paper neatly again before she put it into her pocket after Shauna had given it to her. The empty envelope slipped through her fingers and fell to the ground. Since when was she this clumsy?

Christina looked at her with wide eyes.

"Aaand? Is it from him?"

"Yes. He wants to meet me at midnight."

It didn't matter that the message wasn't signed. She knew whom it was from anyway.

"Oh, that's so exciting. I wish I could come with you."

"Sorry, but I will go alone."

Christina couldn't suppress a laugh upon seeing Beatrice's serious expression, "Of course, silly. I wasn't planning to be your chaperone. You can kiss until your lips are bleeding."

"Do you... Do you think he's going to try to kiss me?"

"After what you told me about your dance, I'd say that's be the next step. I mean, I wasn't there to witness you two together, but if he caressed your shoulder and pulled you close to him, then a kiss is where it goes from there."

"I've never kissed a boy before," Beatrice admitted. "What if I do it wrong?"

"You won't. Just do what your instincts tell you to do and you'll be fine. Now let's hurry and make you look decent. I'll help you with your hair."