I don't own Divergent.

Tris was paler than usual, looking slightly ill.

She claimed she was fine and that she could go to work, but I wasn't sure I believed it. I'd never seen her face have the sickly tint to it that it now had. It almost looked like she was nauseous.

"I'm fine, Tobias," she said. "Let's get this over with."

As the initiates filed in, the two of us handed them all a gun. We gave them quick instructions on how to operate it, how to load it, and how to fire it. Tris did the demonstration, while I sat back and explained each step she took.

It didn't take long for most of them to figure it out. Fortunately, it wasn't Luella or Lee that was doing the worst. It was a Candor named Cordelia, who had the aim of a person with a broken arm.

"I'll be right back," Tris mumbled, darting from the room.

Unlike her promise, she returned thirty minutes later, looking unusually green. I ran over to her and placed a hand on her waist to steady her.

"I.. I'm going to.. to go see Chris," she said.

I frowned. "Shouldn't you go to a doctor?"

"I'm fine, Four. She'll take me if I need to go. I love you."

"I love you too."

She squeezed my hand and walked away, taking her bag with her. There went my coworker for the day. I was going to have to do this on my own today, which I was completely capable of doing, but it would definitely be lonely.

"Where'd Six go?" Caspian asked. "She's always here."

I shrugged. "She's busy. Now, get back to work."

No one else asked any questions. I kept training going. Most of the initiates needed help, so I helped them. Luella and Lee were picking this up easily though. I was relieved to say the least.

When I sat down at lunch, both Christina and Tris were missing.

Everyone else looked as confused as I did. Neither of the girls ever missed a meal, and for them to be missing one now was strange.

"Where are they?" Zeke asked.

"No idea," I said. "Tris left training because she got sick. Said she was going to see Christina."

"Weird. I've never seen either of them miss a meal."

Will nodded. "It's not like them."

"I'll go check on them," Shauna volunteered. "I'll be back with news."

She returned thirty minutes later, looking slightly shaken up. It was weird for my best friend to be silent at any time of the day—especially when she'd just gone and retrieved information about someone. We were all quiet until she finally spoke.

"They're fine,"

"That's it?" Will asked.

She shrugged. "Yeah. Some kind of girl's day. Tris just has a cold."

"Maybe I should—" I said.

She cut me off. "She's fine, Four. Just a cold. Give her some time alone."

There was something off about this situation—almost like she was lying to us. Keeping a secret for Tris and Christina perhaps. I wasn't going to berate her, though.

That night, Tris came back to the apartment, looking a little healthier than she had earlier. I was thankful for that.

She set down her small backpack on the counter and joined me on the couch, swinging her legs over mine and getting comfortable. I kissed her cheek. Her body was tense and she'd used some sort of perfume that covered her natural scent.

"How was your day?"

I frowned. "It was fine. Yours?"

"Great." she said. "Chris made me go to the doctor. It's just a mild cold with some vomiting. I swear I'm fine."

"Well, I'm glad you're okay, babe."

"Me too."

We turned on the TV, and she quickly fell asleep in my arms. I sighed as I picked her up bridal style and carried her up the stairs. She had definitely been more exhausted recently, which was strange for her.

I was slowly becoming more worried.

The nausea, the exhaustion.

It had to be some illness, right? No one just suddenly acted like that. Especially not Tris. So much had happened since our visit to her house last week—including this.

She sighed in her sleep, rolling over onto my pillow. I smiled at the sight as I got dressed for bed.

After climbing in next to her, I rubbed her back in the comforting motion she loved. And it happened to lull me to sleep too.

The next day, Tris was back at work with me.

She now claimed that she felt so much better, but she wasn't aware that I'd seen her take medicine this morning. What it was for, I hadn't checked, but it looked enough like medicine to me.

We worked the initiates harder today.

At five, we'd woken them up and gone on an hour run around the compound, and then had done a full body workout for thirty minutes. After that, we'd given them a water break and the fighting began. Our pairings worked out to this:

Luella vs. Lee

Anders vs. Wynn

Cleopatra vs. Flint

Zia vs. Parris

Caspian vs. Wanda

Talon vs. Cordelia

Franny vs. Amory

This year we were doing things fairly.

Initiates were paired by strength, confidence, and size. For example, someone who was five foot wouldn't be fighting someone who was six foot. So far it seemed to be helping.

This year we'd gotten three Amity, one Abnegation, five Candor, and five Erudite. That added up to fourteen initiates, none of which had left or been kicked out yet.

Plus the Dauntless-borns, we'd have over twenty new members if training kept going the way it was right now.

The winners of the fights had been:

Lee

Anders

Flint

Zia

Caspian

Cordelia

Franny

The fight between Luella and Lee had been the closest. They'd gone back and forth many times, both showing hesitance to be violent to another. That was something else they needed to work on.

Tris approached me at the end of training today.

"Hey," she said. "I'm going to have a sleepover with Chris."

"That sounds fun. Any specific reason?"

"No. I just miss spending time with her. I'll be home tomorrow, I promise. I love you."

"I love you too."

And she was gone.

Zeke caught me in the training room, taking out my frustration on a punching bag. I was a little pissed right now.

He approached me slowly.

"What's keeping you up at one in the morning?" he asked. "Tris?"

"She's with Christina. Again."

"Maybe she's just feeling spontaneous?"

"Zeke, she sees Christina everyday. She told me that she missed her. There's something she isn't telling me and—and I think it's important."

He raised an eyebrow. "How important?"

"Very. And I'm going to propose, but what if she found the ring? What if she doesn't want marriage, Z? What if she leaves me and runs off to someone else, and then I'm left there—"

Zeke handed me a beer. "You need to stop thinking about the what ifs, Four."

"I can't," I sighed, taking a drink. "I can't lose her and that's what it feels like right now. Like she's drifting away."

He sat me down, putting on his 'serious Zeke face'. I hadn't seen that in a very long time. Not since we'd been initiates together three years ago. Not since Amar had died—been killed. He'd been killed by Erudite for his Divergence.

"I think you need to talk to Tris, Four."

"How? What if she gets mad at me for asking?"

"Why would she?"

I frowned.

"Exactly. Now, when are you planning to propose, anyways? And where?"

"The ferris wheel," I said, shyly. "I was thinking of doing it on Friday."

"The ferris wheel?"

"It's stupid, Z."

"So am I, but here we are."

"Fine. She—during the capture the flag game, we climbed the ferris wheel together. And I fell in love with her there, I think."

He just laughed, making me blush.

I took another drink of my beer. "How are you and Shauna doing?"

"Great. It's getting more serious. I think marriage may be in the books eventually."

"Uri and Marlene?"

"In a fight at the moment. Y'know, typical couple things."

We spent most of the morning joking about our lives and teasing one another about past mistakes, just like we always did. It was nice to have a best friend like him. I never felt pressured to reveal myself to him. He'd never asked for my real name or anything about my past, and I didn't ask about his unless he brought it up first. Boundaries were important.

When work came around later, I was drunk, unfortunately.

Uriah, Christina, and Tris took us back up to my and Tris's apartment, where they pushed us down on the couch. They gave us water and blankets and then went back to work.

Most of the day was truly a blur.

I was only conscious for about four hours of it in all. Zeke was doing about as well as I was—except his beer was coming back up.

When the next morning rolled around, I had the worst hangover.

It felt like I'd been thrown over a cliff, beaten a few times, and had been blinded by the sun. I was in pain to say the least. Between the throbbing headache, the annoying light sensitivity, and the alcohol now exiting my body, it was not a good day.

But I did manage to go to work.

Zeke had been taken back to his apartment by Shauna, who wasn't mad at me in the slightest for letting him drink. Tris, however, was pretty mad at me.

"You got drunk? At one in the morning?"

"It was a mistake," I groaned. "I won't do it again."

"Tobias, you knew you had work!"

"I was trying to make up for you leaving me! I was in the training room taking out my loneliness on a dumb punching bag."

Tears suddenly welled in her eyes, until she turned her back on me.

"Tris?"

"I'm okay," she said. "I shouldn't have gone to Christina's. I'm sorry."

"What? No, don't be sorry. I'm clingy; that's all."

"No, no, you don't understand."

And she left me alone, slamming the door behind her.

I groaned and fell back onto the couch, taking a drink of the water she'd given me. There was definitely something up with her, but everytime I confronted her, she ran off like that. It was really getting weird.

She went to Christina's again that night.