"Ooooh! Look who is up." said a someone I knew all too well, but it took a moment to recall as to what had happened.

"Brought you a packed meal from the cafeteria, comrade." She said while I was still trying to open my eyes to see properly. My duster was draped on my body, as I lay leaning against the wall.

'That justifies the stiffness' I realized.

But what shocked me more was the fact that Rose looked different, more arranged and calm. I guess the rest had done her good. She looked collected.

Good thing we could work out a bit more now.

And she'd had enough time to probably take a bath and change her clothes.

'How long had I been asleep?'You probably missed the breakfast, and definitely missed the lunch. Its four in the afternoon and I thought that you'd probably be hungry so here." She said passing the packed plate to me.

Astonished I was rendered speechless.

' Why would she do this?'She never had to. But she did.

'Thanks ' was all I said, all the while coaxing myself to remember all that mama had taught me. It had been days, weeks perhaps years since people had acted towards me without a reason. This right here was just genuine friendship and I couldn't help the fluttering inside me.

Yet again that acceptance, an ease.

RPOV

Seeing him finish the meal made me realize that my decision to bring him the larger meal had been correct. He had completely ignored all meals of the day as of yet and now sat cleaning his plate to the last bit of soup and bread crumb.

'Oh comrade!'

"So when do we begin practice today?" He questioned, appearing surprisingly calm, the hunger and tiredness wiped of his face in moments.

"Half an hour, what do you say?"

"Alright." He replied briefly, before swiftly standing up, packing his things and leaving the gym while I made my way to catch up with my friends.

Mason, and Eddie finding me protective of Lissa had now taken her in their league, as a result of which she was never alone and even Christian kept an eye on her.

She was priority and it was a topic on which Christian and I agreed.

But it was due to her that he sometimes made an effort at socializing.

Seeing them in the frontal patch of the compound waiting for the train to arrive, I recalled that they had plans to go to the city to do something fun.

And thus I tagged along.

"Hey Mase,... Liss,... Eddie, Christina, mind if I join you?" I said jogging towards them. Little did they notice Adrian, who had been following them not so subtly.

"Hop in." Eddie replied witha smile on his face and Mason remained stupefied in surprise for it had been over a week since we'd had proper and direct conversations.

I was the one to turn him down. Shut him out, but was now realizing that I had probably over reacted misreading the situation. Thus wanted to uphold our friendship and apologize for my out of place behaviour.

Grinning whole heartedly, it was easy to lose myself with this group, Christina had been the one to come up with the plan with Eddie, it was the first time we'd been out in a common place with people of all factions, since the initiation and I had expected it to feel different or weird.

Surprisingly it was none. It was just the same. What had changed was people's perception towards me, towards us.

The once scaredy abnegation was a scary Dauntless.

'Atleast for now', my couldn't help but add.

Christian and Lissa were all chummy and stuck together much to everyone's amusement, specifically when they said that there was nothing going on between them and they were just friends, while Christina kept passing me amused glances, while all I did was smile and laugh shaking my head knowing about stuff all too well.

Lissa often talked about Christian as did he. But I didn't know if they were just trying to keep things low or actually this oblivious to the attraction between them.

It was in the central market place where I broke away from the from the group making an excuse of personal work. Mason looked worried but, Christina convinced him that it'd be all okay and off I went.

The excuse, meant exactly that for I wanted to feel the familiarity that was once known to me and part of my daily life. I walked down the very alley I had traversed atleast a million times till day.

The sight of the grey houses a welcoming relief to my eyes. An unexpected feeling swept over me, eyes filling up with tears as I almost ran to the place I once called home, only to find it locked.

She still went to work everyday. Anything had hardy changed.

I could almost cry at the moment but then I recalled as to why I'd made the choice I had made.

Putting my hand in my pocket, I felt the smooth surface of the stone, one of the many in my collection, that I carried around to keep me grounded, and set out on my worn out course, that led to the faction less section, breaking into a slight jog. Reliving the best moments I'd have.

All saw, dirt and not arranged surrounding, the misplaced things and people, wreakage, but amongst all of it lay a harmony, the feeling to coexist freely and communicate openly.

I had seen one factionless help the other even when they lacked in the basics of life.

I had seen a factionless mother still care for her toddler, while she starved.

Seen an old woman be helped by a kid, completely unrelated to her.

And these sights were heartwarming.

This serene moment lasted for mere minutes, before a man ran into me accidentally, tripping onto the rough path and falling, still staggered and struggled to get himself up and ran away, as if he was running for his life.

What piqued my interest was an Erudite woman, who urgently moved down the same path , the man had travelled , not moments later as I stood in the shadow, contemplating if I should follow.

Something seemed off and I just drove headfirst into the situation, trailing the suspicious woman who when caught up with the man, spoke something to him quite smugly that made him squeal before she simply slit his throat.

Placing him back on the ground oh so carefully, she turned around as I stood frozen at my place, it was when she noticed my stupefied form and advanced towards me, that years of habit kicked in, and knowing the region all too well, I ran, ran for my life was at stake and the familiarity did pay off.

I ran until I reached the rail track, eagerly for the train, and as it arrived I jumped on it, standing in the extreme corner hoping that I'd lost her. I had looked behind me eversince I began running and was now paranoid. With my back against the coach's wall, I sled down, and took a breath of relief.

But on closing my eyes all I saw were the lifeless eyes of the unknown victim staring back at me.