Something different to start off with.
Alec's POV
Alec walks into the dorm with Noah and Bree. The night before had been crazy, they were dragged by Dec and Hugo to the Pit and had watched it come alive. It wasn't until a few hours later when Issy snuck off, away from the Pit. Alec was worried for his sister, even more so now they came to Dauntless. Even when Alec had asked her to wake him up at night if she couldn't sleep he had know she wouldn't wake him. Back in Erudite their old Professor used to say that Issy was Alec's flame, his spark to ignite the wildness inside of him. Alec was Issy's tidal wave, her caution to override her anger. He just doesn't want her getting hurt. This morning when he had got up and was heading for the showers Issy was just coming in with her sketchpad in hand and she had sat on his bed after she had put her pad away. When he had came back fully dressed in jeans and a jumper, she was fast asleep under his quilt. 'Sleepless nights must be catching up with her.' He thought as perched on the edge of his bed, gently brushing a strand of hair out of her face. Alec turned to Bree and Noah at the bunk next to his.
"I'm off to lunch now." He called out quietly. "When you leave check on her but don't wake her up, god knows if she'll get anymore sleep after today." Carefully, he stood up and left the dorms.
With his hands in his pockets, Alec strode into the dining hall and to their table. On one side sat Eric, Dec, Zeke, Tris and Shauna and on the other sat Uriah, Hugo, Four and Cody. Alec plopped himself down in between Hugo and Four.
Declan looks up confused. "Where's Issy? I haven't seen her all morning."
"Sleeping." Alec answered as he grabbed Hugo's coffee of him and grained it. Alec flashed Hu a grin as he snatched it back.
"Sleeping?" Hugo repeated bewildered.
"Yeah, she came in this morning just as I was off for a shower and when I came back she was fast off." Just then Noah and Bree came in hand in hand. Bree sat next to Tris and Noah sat opposite her next to Four and Cody. Alec looked at them with a raised eyebrow. "Still sleeping then?" He asked, shoving a chip from Dec's plate into his mouth.
"Sleeping like the dead." Bree grinned. "She's cute when she sleeps though."
Declan turns to Eric. "Is it possible for people to be nocturnal?" The table laughs as Dec bats Alec's hand away from his plate, missing Eric's answer.
Issy's POV
Slowly, Issy's eyes fluttered open. For a moment she wonders where she is until it clicks that she's in the dorms. Confused at the silence of the dorms she checks her watch and chokes in surprise. 18:27. She's slept for the whole day. No wonder she feels refreshed. Issy gets up and goes to a sink to splash some water onto her face. Looking in the mirror Issy notices the black bags under her eyes have gone down. She changes out of her crinkled clothes and puts on a pair of dark grey ripped jeans, a red tank top and the baggiest hoodie she owns. The sleeves are longer than her arms but it is just so damn comfy. Issy combs her fingers through her hair, ruffling it casually before leaving the dorms in search of food.
When she enters the dining hall Uriah is the first one to spot her and soon the whole table erupts in cheers. Issy waves silently as she walks closer. When she sits between Alec and Eric down her leg brushes against Eric's. She folds her arms on the table and places her head on top.
"Evening sleepy head." Alec nudges his shoulder with hers and she lets out a small yawn. "If you're still tired then why are you up?"
Issy opens her mouth to answer but her stomach rumbles loudly, earning chuckles all round. "That's why."
Declan studies her as he piles food onto her plate. "Is that my hoodie?"
"No."
Declan doesn't look convinced. "Are you positive you haven't been in my flat and nicked a hoodie."
"Positive and I don't even know where your flat is." She pauses, backtracking her thoughts. "Actually no, that's a lie. I saw you one night pissed out of your face, lip locked her a real life Barbie doll."
Zeke, from Declan's right, furrows his eyebrows. "Did she have like, three inches of makeup on, really high heels and look like she had a boob job."
"Yes to the first and second, the third I didn't notice but she did cackle quite a bit." Declan cringes when Zeke and Hugo, who flanked him, simultaneously turn to look at him. Zeke and Hugo share a look behind Dec's back and Zeke smacks the back of Dec's head with Hugo copying him soon after.
"Dammit Declan! I thought you had promised to stay away from her." Hugo starts ranting at his older brother but Issy blocks it out. She closes her eyes for a second as the three of them start to bicker. On the table someone moves and the bickering stops.
"Guys!" Someone hisses, it sounds like Noah.
"I don't believe it." Issy knows for a fact that is definitely Four, she heard him enough over the last few months to recognize his voice anywhere.
"Draw on her face." That's probably one of the Pedrad brothers, judging by how close it sounded she'll say it was Zeke.
"Draw on my face and I don't care who you are, I will kick you where the sun doesn't shine." Her voice is muffled slightly by her sleeves.
"Yeah right." Zeke scoffs.
Issy opens one eye and looks at Zeke. "Is that a challenge Ezekiel?" The table 'ooohs' and laughs as Zeke scowls. Issy smirks in his direction as she unfolds her arms and pulls her plate towards her, nodding her thanks to Dec.
"It's still bugging me," Declan picks at her plate despite the food still on his plate. "Are you sure that that's not my hoodie?"
"You probably have one similar as I bought this in the men's section."
"Why?"
" 'Cause men's hoodies are far more comfier." Tris pipes up from the other side of Hugo.
"Right?"
During the rest of dinner, Issy eats quietly as the others laugh around her. She pauses chewing when Eric's leg brushes against her own again. The first time was accidental on her part but then he had begun to do it purposefully, going by the small smile on his lips. As her friends start to discuss what to do with the rest of their night, Issy's leg starts to unconsciously bounce repeatedly as she loses herself in her thoughts about something she's debated about doing since arriving at Dauntless. She chews her lip and tenses up. 'Do I really want to make that change?' Before she can make a decision Eric's hand grabs her leg and pins it down, his thumb starts to move in circular motions on her skin, taking full advantage of the rips in her jeans. With his other hand Eric calmly takes a sip of his coffee, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. Issy relaxes and shoots him a meek smile. His thumb stills before hesitantly tapping out Are you alright? in Morse Code. Her smile strengthens, she didn't know he knew Morse Code. Subtly she moves her hand under the table, half listening as Dec jokes with Zeke and Alec about something, and taps out her reply on the top of Eric's hand. I was just thinking whether or not I should die my hair. His response is immediate. Don't you dare! Their conversation might not be out loud but Issy can feel the stern command radiating off of him and with a quick look to his face she notes how his lips are pulled into a firm line and how his eyes are glaring holes into the table. For some reason, Issy feels oddly pleased with herself and can't stop the smug smirk from making its way onto her face. His hand squeezes her leg warningly and she pushes the smirk from her face, schooling her emotions.
Happily full of food, she pushes the plate away and refolds her arms on the table, replacing her head on top. While she watches the banter bounce back and forth across the table her lips twitch up when she realises Eric hadn't removed his hand from her leg and his thumb had restarted its circular motions, not that she minded either way. Jason had appeared suddenly and her side on the table had to move up to make room for him. Eric gripped her leg and slide her towards himself until she was more or less pushed up against his side. Warmth seeped through her side and she unconsciously leaned into it. Issy elbowed him as a pleased smile made its way onto his face. Just like Issy had, Eric schooled his emotions on his face. That didn't stop the small twinkle shining in his eyes.
"Alright, Alright!" Jason called out, cutting over her thoughts. Apparently no one could decide what they wanted to do. "How about us guys go to the roof and you girls do whatever you wanted to do?" Most nodded their nodded their heads in agreement but Zeke and Four had a shift to do in the control room. Both men told the group that they'd keep an eye on them now and then.
The group had split off from each other. Alec, Cody, Declan, Eric, Hugo, Noah and Uriah had followed Jason up to the roof while Bree had pulled Shauna, Tris and Issy to the Pit as she decided she had wanted to do something different with her hair. They had just walked past the tattoo parlor when a thought popped into Issy's mind, stopping her in her tracks. She turned back and looked at the store. The door was open and Issy could hear music pouring from the shop. Issy sped back to her friends and pulled on Tris' arm just as she was about to enter the salon.
"Hey, just letting you know that I'll be in the tattoo parlor. If I haven't rejoined you by the time Bree's done, I'll still be there okay?"
"Yeah, sure." Tris smiles.
Issy grins as she walks straight into the tattoo parlor, winking at Tori as she heads to Josh. Josh is sat at his work station doodling on a bit of paper. He glanced up just as she came to a stop beside him.
"Hey Golden Eyes, another tattoo already?"
"Nah, I want something different. Maybe after though."
Josh raised an eyebrow at her until a look of understanding flashed through her eyes. "Different? Well then, you're gonna have to talk to Bud about that. I only do tatts." Josh flashes her a smirk as she strolled over to where Bud was. She leans against the wall as she watches Bud put his needles away.
"Hey Iss," He says without turning round. "What can I do for ya?"
"Can I get a piercing?"
Bud beams at her, his teeth showing as he smiles. "Where?" In response, Issy sticks her tongue out at him and Bud barks out a deep laugh. He motions her to follow him to a smaller room off of the main shop. The walls were dark grey, red and purple. In the middle of the room is a station similar to the tattooing ones in the other room. There were different types of studs on display along the lower parts of the wall with pictures of bizarre and crazy piercings. He motions to one side of the wall where some smaller piercings are. "Choose a stud and the come sit down." He pats the chair next to him. Issy looks over the studs until one catches her eye and she grins mischievously. The metal was dark grey, almost like gun metal and the head of the stud was mainly black with FUCK OFF in bold white lettering. She snatched it up and skipped over to Bud, jumping into the chair. Bud looks at her curiously, almost cautious. "Do I need to be worried?" She smirks, plopping the stud into his hand and he groans. "If I get shit from Hugo from this, I'm holding you responsible." He points a finger at her and she laughs in delight.
"Oh, it's gonna piss him off so much! I can't wait."
Bud lightly smacks his forehead, grumbling under his breath. "And here I thought the Pedrad brothers were bad." He puts on a pair of plastic gloves and places her tongue in this clamp thing and Issy watches in wonder as he brings this metal rod closer to her tongue. Bud later explains that it's a needle even if, in Issy's opinion, it doesn't look like one. She sits as still as she can as he sticks it through her tongue and brings it back out again. Its an odd feeling as she sits there with this long needle in her tongue. Bud then puts her chosen stud in her tongue before releasing it from the clamp. Issy listens as he explains how to take care of it and what to do if it starts to swell. Pleased, she rolls her tongue in her mouth before slowly rolling her tongue outwards. She repeats this action as Bud clears up. "When are you gonna tell your brothers?"
"I don't know, I might wait and see if they notice. Is it noticeable when I talk."
"If one is looking, yes."
"Thanks Bud!" She claps him on the shoulder before walking into the main room. Josh is by his usual station, currently tattooing Lynn. Shauna, Tris and Bree are stood watching them, adding in their thoughts now and then. Bree looks up and beams in her direction as Issy bounces over, jumping to a stop. Josh peeks at her from the corner of his eye while he finishes up. Issy was pleased to see it was one of her designs that Josh had put into a folder, he was serious when he suggesting labeling it Golden Eyes. It was only a small tattoo, only five words that came to her one day during training. Respect Existence or Expect Resistance. Josh incorporated loose chains around the words joining it with another of Lynn's tattoos below it.
"So whatcha get." He says as Lynn stands from the chair. Everyone looks at her expectantly as she grins, sticking her tongue out at them. Lynn and Josh laugh out loud, Bree wriggles her eyebrows suggestively, Tris smirks and Shauna grins.
"Oh, I know someone who will have a love-hate relationship with that." Shauna copies Bree as Tris shoots her a 'shut up' look.
"Whoever it is, it's not their body to control." Issy adds dismissively as she rolls her tongue again.
"I bet they wish it was!"
"Shauna!" Tris hisses and Shauna holds her hands up in surrender.
"Anything else?" Josh cuts through before Shauna can say anymore. Issy thinks for a moment, she doesn't know if she has enough points to do so. As if Josh was telepathic he spoke up. "People have took a real liking to your designs already. Some are even asking when new designs will come in. That means there's enough to get another tatt if you use the points that's been added up from that?"
"Yeah," Issy nodded her head slowly. "I'll think I'll do that." Knowingly, Josh hands her a spare pad and she quickly converts her design from her head to the paper. It was a poem from before the war that Issy likes. The font was rough like claw marks and scratches.
I was raised
to run with
the wolves
and I will
not stop just
because you
told me you
can't stand that
I am
WILD
"Awesome as always Golden Eyes."
Issy sits into the chair and raises her hoodie and top up. She points to the round scar on her right hip that she had gotten from when the dart hadn't retracted and fallen to the floor. "Right here please Joshie." He smirks and shakes his head as Issy childishly waves her hand at her friends. "Night night." As Josh started her tattoo she heard Bree explain what Issy meant as her eyelids fluttered close.
Moments later, she is shaken awake by an amused Tris. "Bree wasn't joking was she?"
Issy shook her head and smiled. Issy looks to Bree and for the first time notices the slight red tint her hair has. Issy's eyebrow scrunch up as she walks up to Bree and twirls a few strands in her hand. She realises it's not the light as some of the strands in her hand are a dark shiny red and the others are black, her natural hair colour. A smirk makes its way onto her face. "Isn't Noah's favourite colour red?"
Bree grins back as she playfully pushes Issy into Shauna and runs out of the shop. Shrieking with laughter, Issy, Shauna and Tris bolted after Bree. Shauna quickly took over the head of the group as they rounded a corner, shoving Bree into the wall as she took the lead. Shauna led them through Dauntless dodging past its members until they came to the large room with the net in. None of them slowed their pace as Shauna led them to the other side of the room, slamming a door open and racing up the stairs. Finally they burst through the door at the top puffing and laughing as numerous heads snapped to them. The guys had set up a small fire pit and were sat around it with bottles in their hands but they were smart enough to have bottles of soda instead of alcohol by a fire.
"What took ya so long?" Jason called out over the fire.
"Someone," Bree playfully glared at Issy as she walked over to Noah and sat down next to him, leaning into his side. "Decided to get another tattoo." Issy flipped her off as Tris sat on Bree's other side and Issy sat next to Tris, nearly opposite Jason and next to Alec. On the other side of Alec was Eric, Hugo, Uriah and Shauna in between him and Jason. Filling in the gap between Jason and Noah sat Declan and Cody. The girls got handed a bottle each while Uriah shoots Issy a confused look.
"How many tatts do you have?" Uriah asks, catching the attention of everyone else.
She flashes them a grin over her bottle. "Seven."
Jason almost chokes on his drink. "Seven?! Even I don't have that many!"
"Where abouts?" Shauna wiggles her eyebrows at her and Issy laughs.
"No where like that." Issy pauses as her grin turns mischievous. "At least not yet." The girls laugh loudly as her brothers choke and wheeze on their drinks. "Nah, they're um, where are they?" Issy confuses herself for a moment as she mentally locates all of her tattoos. When she remembers, she counts them off with her fingers. "Back of my neck, side of my neck, collar bone, left wrist, left rib cage, right hip and my lower back." She takes a swig as most of the guys look at her amazed. She decides she doesn't want to want until they see the piercing themselves so she tells them. "Oh! And a piercing."
Hugo coughs. "A piercing? Where?"
Once again Issy grins. Like she did in the tattoo parlor, she sticks her tongue out at them. She smiles as most laugh and cheer at her boldness but she hears a sharp intake of breath somewhere on her right so she turns, expecting it to be Hugo. Instead she subtly freezes under Eric's intense stare with his eyes still on her piercing. Issy quickly retracts her tongue and his eyes follow it, lingering on her mouth before flickering up to meet hers. Her face heats up as she looks away, taking another sip and her eyes catches Shauna's eyes as she turns. Shauna wiggles her eyebrows again and Issy rolls her eyes but she also blushes again. People chatter around her as she observes quietly. Alec's shoulder nudges against hers and her eyes flicker up to him. He holds out her sketch pad and her new pack of pencil crayons that she had bought with a smile. She beamed up at him as she took them. Issy shuffled as she folded both of her legs to the left and placed her bottle down beside her. Flicking through her pad, she finds a spare page and starts to doodle as she listens to the conversation around her. Five minutes later and in the corner of her page are all five of the faction symbols drawn roughly and rather small. Issy stares at them until an idea comes to mind and she starts to draw it. She begins to pull out her crayons once the basic outline is finished, softly adding colour and blending it together until she's happy with the outcome. Her drawing takes up most of the page and each faction is represented in some way. On the edge of a cliff stands a large tree with some of its roots coming out of the rock face and its leaves flaming bright in the sky. Besides the tree is a silvery-blue waterfall that crashes into large weighing scales made from grey stone. Water fills up the higher scale while it splashes out of the lower until it fades into nothing. As her mind refocuses on the world around her instead of her drawing, she frowns as she hears silence. Issy looks up from the page and is surprised to see everyone staring at her with mouths open.
"What?" Issy asks as her eyes jump from each person, their expressions all the same. When they just blink at her she asks again. "What is it?"
"You were, um," Cody starts. "Singing under your breath."
"What? Singing? I don't remember singing. . ." She scratches the back of her neck as they stare at her. "What was I singing?"
"You honestly don't remember?" Uriah questions and she shakes her head at him.
"It was a song from before the war." Hugo answers her. "You had it on your phone, I just can't think of they name."
"How did it go?"
"Arms to the ground, Far from the rivers –" Hugo quietly sings.
Issy takes over from him as she remembers the lyrics but not the title. "Grace in our tears, High on a fever, Somebody heal me from my pain, Ooh, I'm reaching closer, My stars dive lower, Filling up lost memories. Holes in the sky, Pierced by the fire, Somebody tell me this is real, Ooh." She clicks her fingers in realization. "Holes In the Sky, that's it." She hums the rest of the song, swaying slightly with a smile on her face.
"Hey Dec! Check this out!" Alec gets up with her sketch pad and walks over to Dec as talking resumes. Issy hadn't even realised he'd taken it but she was glad that she wasn't the center of attention any more.
Eric shuffles closer to her when Alec sits next to Declan and leans in, smiling. "You're a good singer Issy. You should sing more often." She's blushed more times tonight than she's been comfortable with and Eric's words do nothing to hinder that as she blushes again and looks away. For the rest of the night the others spend their time passing her pad around, complementing her work and she doesn't stop blushing when they jokingly ask her to sing a song for them.
The Next Evening.
The morning after the night on the roof and their second and final day off before Stage Two starts the twins decided to spend the day with Cody, Bree and Noah only. Looking back on the days since Initiation started Issy realises that its never just been Alec, Bree, Cody, Issy and Noah, there would always be accompanied by Dec and Hugo or the older Vince brothers and their friends. There wasn't a day by themselves so before any of their other, older friends could find them they quickly ate breakfast and spent the day on the net talking and laughing. She supposed if any of her older friends or brothers wanted to find them they would have already but they allowed them to have the day to themselves before they were thrown back into initiation.
It wasn't until around six o'clock when Hugo, Will and Uriah pop their heads round the door and practically drag them from the room. When either one of the initiates asked what was going on all they got back was "You'll see." with a wicked grin. Confused, they allowed the three men to drag them into the Pit where Tris, Tori, Marlene, Josh, Eric and Bud sat at a large round table where they could see the whole room. Even more confused than before, the initiates sat down at the table. Noah and Bree sat next to Tori, Cody was guided by Will to the seat next to them, Hugo shoved Alec into the seat between him and Josh and Issy was wedged in between Eric and Bud. Bottles slid across the table to each of them and they took it, wary of the gleeful grins on the members' faces. Issy sipped her drink and that was when she heard it. Laughter. The booming type that bounces off of walls and it was getting stronger, louder and closer. The gleeful grins turned absolutely evil and Issy wasn't the only one that choked on her drink when she caught sight of a grumpy Declan leading an even grumpier Four, an unamused Jason, a pissed off Zeke and an embarrassed Blake. It was what they were wearing that made everyone laugh at them. They were head to toe in a bright glittering pink ballerina costumes fitted with the tights, the hair bands on their heads and the massive tutu around their waists. They were soon followed by Christina, Lynn, Shauna and Lauren in ugly overbearing clown costumes with the cheap makeup, the awful wigs and huge shoes. A hand tapped on Issy's shoulder and she leaned back until Eric's head was level with hers. A slim black object appeared in his hands as he held it out to her and she grinned.
"Max had me check this through. I found nothing dangerous on it so you can have it back." He said with a smirk on his lips as she took it from him. "I hope you don't mind that I copied nearly all of the videos and photos of Dec embarrassing himself and emailed it to myself from your phone." Issy laughed and shook her head. She opened up her phone and immediately starting filming the scene before them. When Declan caught sight of the phone in her hands he sighed and rolled his eyes. She stopped filming as Four came closer and quickly snapped an image of him scowling in pink. Issy fiddled about with her phone until she sent it through an email address to one ECoulter. Something from Eric's pocket pinged and he took out his own phone. His face lit up with the most mischievous glee Issy had ever seen. His eyes were brighter than she had seen when he looked up at her grinning widely. "If you haven't gathered by now, this is the consequences of The Bet we all made on whether you or Alec would win a fight."
Issy snorted into her hand. "I bet you're overjoyed that you were on the winning side, huh?"
His grin softened into a warm smile as he leant back in his chair. "I had no doubt that you would win that day." Issy blushed and looked away. Eric's laugh in her ears made her blush even more as she turned her attention back to the commotion, tightly gripping her phone.
The song is by M83 if anyone wanted to know.