AN: I love the reviews, thank you for those. I may not be able to respond always, but I assure you I read every single one. My constant editing has lengthened this story, we're at 13 chapters as of now, for anyone keeping count. Enjoy and see you on Sunday.

Eric liked watching her work, it was something he learned their first session together. Tris was much less guarded when she was in her element, and he was fascinated with watching the way she turned his spoken ideas into art. He was with her every time that she worked, and tonight she was adamant that they needed to work on the tattoo. It really had been entirely too long, even for a full leg sleeve, and they needed to get some sort of progress done to keep the gossip around the shop to a minimum.

"In a different life, I could see myself doing something like this." He comments as she works on some shading on his thigh.

"Really? I can't imagine you as anything other than a leader." She remarks, not taking her eyes off of her work.

"Why is that?"

She wipes at his leg and then changes her angle to get a more sensitive area, "You're just you. Tough as nails, walking around here like you own the entire faction. Cocky, smarter than hell, intimidating, powerful, demanding," With that remark she looks up at him and grins, "I don't know, when other people look at you, they see Dauntless."

"What do you see?" He asks, and he sees her hesitation.

"I see the person underneath it all." She says carefully, "You're all of those things, but you're also a human. You're funny, kinder than you realize, respectful, even a bit introspective at times. I like who you are."

He watches as stray hairs fall out of her bun and she struggles to push them out of her way without contaminating their sterile space. Without thinking he reaches up and tucks the strands behind her ear. His hand lingers on her face and she smiles at him, turning slightly and kissing his palm.

It's intimate, and she initiated it.

"What about me, Coulter? Still see a Stiff?" She deadpans and he laughs.

"Fuck no, some of the things that we've done blew that theory clear out of the water. You may have been born and raised there, but you were always meant to be here."

"Did you ever think we'd be friends?" She asks as she continues her work.

"Honestly, no, but that's my fault." He admits.

"How so?"

He toys with a string hanging off the hem of his t-shirt, "I didn't like Four, and I lumped you in with him."

"Didn't as in past tense?" She asks and he chuckles.

"Caught that, eh?" He asks and she nods, "I have no current issues with him. We were competitive as fuck during our training class, and I think he's still got an Abnegation stick up his ass, but I don't hate him. He's just not who I see myself spending time with outside of us working together during initiation."

"You sure seemed pissed at him last week when he just burst into your office." She smirks at him.

"He interrupted something much more important, wouldn't you say?"

She laughs and shakes her head, making her hair slip out again and Eric fixes it for her, "You got to finish."

"Yeah, I did." He shakes his head and crosses his arms across his chest, watching as she picks up a different tattoo gun and adds a different color ink, "You should teach me how to do this."

"Tattooing?" She asks and he nods at her, "Yeah I could do that, maybe not tonight since we're both pretty beat, but if you ever want to come in during your downtime I'd be happy to show you. Do you ever draw?"

"I actually do," He admits and she notices he almost seems embarrassed by it.

"Really? Is there anything you'd be comfortable enough to show me?" She asks.

"Yeah, I could bring some stuff in." He agrees and she smiles at him, "What did you think you'd end up doing when you transferred here?"

She hesitates, and he catches the way her eyes fall briefly, but she steels herself and shrugs a shoulder, "I didn't expect to make it once I found out about the cuts."

"Seriously?" He asks and she nods.

"Yeah, did you expect me to make it?" She asks.

Eric thinks about his answer. Initially, when he saw Tris actually standing on the roof that day, he wasn't impressed. She was rail thin, almost wiry in appearance like most Abnegation dependents, but she had a set look of determination on her face.

"I didn't think Number Boy would let you fail." He answers finally.

She stops working on him, turning the gun off and setting it down carefully, "Do you actually think he gave me preferential treatment?"

Eric nods, "He went very easy on you when you first transferred. He almost coddled you, keeping you out of fights when it was an uneven number, pairing you with weaker initiates-"

"He put me against Peter!" She argues.

"I did that. I needed to see what you were capable of." Eric replies.

"A lot of good it did, I spent two nights in the infirmary and you almost cut me." She replies with a touch of anger in her voice.

"It told me a lot about you. I found out that day that no matter what we did, you wouldn't give up. That's what makes a good Dauntless, Tris, the ability to believe in yourself and believe that whatever you're faced with is not something you're just going to quit on. If you hadn't of made it on the train that night, yeah you would have been cut, those were the rules and you know I would have had to follow them, but I knew you weren't going any damn where except on that train to drive me fucking nuts." He smirks at her.

"I only knew about the wargames because of Christina, she came and told me that night." Tris scoffs.

"Who do you think told her?" His silver eyes almost cut through her.

"You wouldn't have…." She trails off, shaking her head.

"You should ask her sometime if you don't believe me. No, I didn't seek her out and tell her something I wasn't supposed to, but I made sure she could overhear a conversation between Four and me. Contrary to what you may have believed about me back then, I did want you here, because Dauntless never give up or concede and I saw you had that in you."

"Why can't you always be like this?" She asks and he furrows his brow at her, "I mean, you're almost nice." She smirks at him.

"I'm not nice, I'm honest. Unlike your ex, I will never coddle you, you're Dauntless and you earned your spot here. Now, answer my question, what did you see yourself doing here?" He asks.

"You're looking at it. You've seen my portfolio, and you're adding to it daily, art is my passion."

She remembers the way he looked the first time he came in and Tori was unavailable. He had his usual reaction, the foul way he could act when he was slightly inconvenienced, and she'd told him she was just as capable as Tori at touching up a fucking tattoo. She'd all but thrown her portfolio at him, watching him for any reaction, and she could tell when the stress lines on his face started to soften that he was seeing something he liked.

Who would have ever thought it would be her?

"You're damn good." He smiles at her, one of those she rarely sees, and she returns it.

"You're a hard man to impress, so thank you."

She works on cleaning him up, deciding since it's so late that they're at a good stopping point. He'd purposely worn basketball shorts to tonight's session, so people could finally see there really was a tattoo being worked on, and she'd told him she appreciated the thought. He helps her clean up her station, and when they walk into the lobby he actually stays and makes small talk with a couple of the newer artists while Tris gathers her things. She's surprised to see him waiting for her, they'd spent the first part of his session in their normal fashion with him fucking her hard against her table, and it's later than she expected him to want to be awake given he has a busy work day tomorrow.

When they walk out together, he glances over to her, "I guess apartments are still off limits?"

"You're insatiable." She shakes her head at him.

"You assume I'm trying to get you alone for sex, I just don't want the evening to end." He shrugs, "I'm starving too, someone had me work up an appetite tonight." He smirks at her.

"Want to go eat terrible things at the diner?" She challenges, knowing that he has a sweet tooth, but also knowing he has better self-control than she does when it comes to eating junk food.

"Fuck yeah, let's go."

She's surprised when he orders chocolate chip pancakes, copying her order exactly, even down to her coffee order. She watches him scroll idly through his phone, frowning at something and shaking his head as he sets it down on the table.

"You okay?" She asks him.

"I really need to stop checking my work email after hours." He sighs.

"You have a lot of pressure on you, work wise, don't you?" She asks, catching him off guard.

He doesn't spend a lot of time with people in general, outside of hanging out with Peter or Austyn occasionally, or the people he would hook up with in the past, so having an actual conversation with someone he's been involved with for so long is different all around for him.

She's different for him.

"Yeah." He nods and when he sighs she places her hand on his across the small table.

It's another intimate gesture that he's almost certain she has no idea she's doing. He threads their fingers together, and she squeezes his hand gently.

"You know you can talk to me." She prods him and he nods again. His thumb is rubbing soft circles on her hand and she finds that she enjoys it, "How did you manage being a leader right out of your own initiation?"

He chuckles wryly, "Not well. Back then, everything was a competition for me. I just wanted to be the best at something, and honestly, I didn't realize what being a leader actually entailed. To me, it was just symbolism that I'd won, that somehow, I was better than Four. I thought it was cool, but as soon as I became a leader I was scrutinized constantly. Everyone was watching me, expecting me to fail, and I don't do pressure very well. The only friend I really had back then was Roni, and even that was awkward because she expected the hooking up we had done during training to continue and I cut it off immediately. I just wanted to focus on work, and be left alone, and I guess that's how I developed the reputation I have today."

"You seem very sensitive to how people perceive you."

"I am." He agrees.

"Why put that type of pressure on yourself?" She asks.

"I was a kid, Tris. We were having major issues with Erudite back then, and here I was, a fresh eighteen-year-old leader who came right from the faction we were at odds with, and I needed to prove my loyalty was here. I needed to prove I was Dauntless, and back then I had an entirely different outlook on what being a Dauntless was about." He admits.

"Do you think it changed who you are? The pressure?" She asks quietly.

"A diamond is just a chunk of coal that did well under pressure," He quips, squeezing her hand and she laughs at him.

"A diamond, huh?" She grins at him and he wiggles his eyebrows at her, making her giggle.

"I have to try to keep up with you. I mean, your shine is pretty fucking bright." He replies.

"Yeah, but yours is flawless." She replies, meeting his eyes and smiling softly.

"You make it hard to follow your rules, Prior." He replies.

"How so?"

"It's times like this, when it's not about being physical, but we're just talking and getting to know each other, that's when it's hard to stop myself from crawling across this table and kissing you."

"Coulter, order ready, Coulter." The voice over the loudspeaker breaks their moment, and he gives her hand a squeeze before sliding out of the small booth to grab their meals.

She watches him walk away, missing the warmth from his hand immediately, and wishing he would have just broke the fucking rule.

Watching him actually eat a late dinner full of carbs and sugar was fun, and they spent most of their time laughing at each other, sharing little parts of their lives that they wouldn't have known about each other had they not started this thing. For the first time, she learns that Eric is an only child, born to parents who were older and not planning on having a child. He'd lost his father when he was only twelve, and then his mother had passed right after he had transferred to Dauntless, and he had learned about it on visiting day when she never arrived.

"Eric, my gosh, I can't imagine." Tris said and he smiled briefly before taking her hand in his.

"Tris, your hand is fucking sticky, did you even use a damn fork?" He asks.

"You saw me use a fork, asshole." She tries to pull her hand back, but he brings her fingers to his lips, slowly dragging his tongue around them, and then sucking them slowly into his mouth.

"Asshole, huh?" He asks lowly as he presses kisses to her fingertips.

"People can see us, Eric." Tris says as she rubs her thighs together.

"I don't care." He continues to press kisses to her hand, "I want to take you somewhere."

"Where?" She asks.

"You'll find out when we get there."

Eric pays for their dinner, even when Tris protests, and he grabs her hand and practically drags her out of the restaurant. They run through the halls, hand-in-hand, until he's gotten them to the train platform where he realizes he should have stopped so she can get a coat. He shrugs his own off and wraps it around her, and then pulls her flush to his body.

"How is it already cold out here?" She asks and he laughs.

"It's Chicago, it's never not cold."

They jump onto the train, and he pulls the heavy door shut to keep the wind out. They're not on the train long, and when she leaps out behind him she realizes where they're going.

"We're not." She says when she looks up at the Hancock building.

"We totally are." He replies and she actually jumps up and down, grabs his hand and drags him to the electrical panel to turn the elevator on.

Once they're safe inside, she pulls him close to her and presses her lips to his neck, before pulling his ear down to her mouth, "Ever have sex in this elevator?"

"I've never had sex in any elevator." He admits.

"You are going to now."

He finds himself reacting to her commanding tone, "Are you asking, or telling?"

She cups him through his pants, feeling him twitch against her, "You know the safe word."

"I do."

"Use it if needed." She commands as she lightly drags her fingernails along his shaft through his pants, and she smiles when he shivers at her touch, "Do you like me telling you what to do, Eric?"

"I do."

"Will you do anything I tell you to do?" She asks.

"I will."

"Stop the elevator." She commands and he presses the emergency stop button, "Take my pants off, Eric."

"Your boots too?" He asks as he rubs her legs.

"Yes."

He pulls the zipper down slowly, and carefully pulls each of her tall boots off of her long legs, and he presses his lips to her creamy skin as he slides her pants down.

"Did I tell you to do that?" She asks and he takes a breath in.

"No ma'am."

"Then don't."

"Yes ma'am", he replies, and when he feels her pushing down on his shoulders, he lets himself fall to his knees and she uses one of her feet to push him against the wall. Once he's there, she walks over to him slowly. He watches as she puts one of her legs onto his shoulder, pressing her core to his face, where he can smell her sweetness and feel her wetness through her panties. She rubs against him and he breathes her in.

"Do you like this?" She asks as she continues to move against him.

"Yes ma'am."

"What would you do if there was no fabric between us?"

"Taste you." He replies.

"Do it now."

He moves to pull her panties down, but she puts a strong hand on him, "I didn't tell you to do that."

He can't stop himself from shivering against her, and when she presses her core against his face again he presses a wet kiss to her center, swiping his tongue against the fabric, then pursing his lips to suck on her clit through it.

"Can I… can I touch you?" He asks.

"Ask me nicely."

"Please Tris, may I touch you please?"

"You may." She says and he puts his hands on her ass and pulls her as close as possible to him. She can feel the warmth of his mouth against where she wants him most, "Oh god, that feels so good baby."

"May I please take these off?" He asks.

"No. You will make me come with them on," He moves his hands toward her center and she actually slaps them away, "You will use your mouth only."

"Yes ma'am." He pants before diving back in.

All he can think about it making her come, fulfilling her demands while being forced to only use his mouth. He wants to taste her, but he focuses on what he can taste through her soaked panties. She undulates on his face, causing him to struggle to breathe, but he loves it. He can feel her shaking against him, and he knows she's close, but suddenly she pulls away.

"Take them off. Now."

He rips them off and yanks her towards him, forgetting their game as his head hits the wall of the elevator and he pulls her to his face.

"Fuck my face, Tris." He says and she moves against his mouth as he devours her.

"Eric… I'm going to fall…"

"I won't let you." He says before diving back in. His grip on her leg and ass are almost as tight as hers on his hair, and he keeps encouraging her to move against him. He is determined to only use his mouth, and when he feels her shaking against him he grips her harder as she rides out her orgasm, calling his name repeatedly.

She doesn't know how it happens, but he moves quickly and pushes her against the wall.

"Lick my face." He commands and she does as she's told, tasting herself all over him. He manages to push his pants down, and she feels him rutting against her, his cock sliding between her folds.

"Condom, Eric," She pants out and the few seconds it takes for him to find one and roll it on feels like days.

When he slams inside of her she lets out a load moan, relishing in the way he stretches her, "If you'd kiss me you'd taste more."

"I can't…"

"Tris, you can, you can trust me baby, please."

She buries her head in his shoulder and he drops the issue, instead focusing on her in his arms, and the way she feels against him.

"Oh god Eric, like that." She whines and he adjusts their angle just slightly and she's coming apart. It's all it takes, as he empties inside of the condom while she quivers around him.

She feels herself sliding down the wall and Eric helps to bring her down gently before he flops right on the floor next to her, laying his head in her lap, where she continues to pull his gelled back hair apart, running her fingers through to free the strands.

"Why do you always mess with my hair?" He asks.

"Because I want to see what it looks like without all of this gunk in it." She makes a face at him.

"It's not gunk, it's gel." He argues.

"Gunk." She retorts and he huffs at her.

"You're lucky that I like you. Anyone else who tried to touch my hair would be walking around with less fingers." He replies and she rolls her eyes at him.

"I'm not afraid of you anymore. You totally just let me order you around." She smirks down at him and he pulls one of her hands out of his hair and bites her fingers, causing her to laugh at him.

"Of course I let you order me around, it was fucking hot. I'll take orders from you anytime you want, Prior."

"Take me ziplining, Coulter." She says and he playfully bites her fingers one last time before kissing them and then sitting up. He helps her up, and they both get dressed before starting the elevator again to get to the roof.

Once there, he shows her how the two-person harness works, and he climbs in first on his back, while she crawls across him, laying on top of him facing him. He fastens all of the straps, checking them many times over before unhooking them from the hold line and they start flying through the night sky. They throw their arms out, and when Tris threads her hands with Eric's again he smiles at her as they fly through the night sky. She only releases him to grab the brakes and they work together to exit the harness once on the ground.

Their sugar and sex high remains as they start walking back to the compound, where she jumps onto his back and he carries her most of the way.

"Tonight has been fun, thank you." She says to him, resting her chin on his shoulder and he squeezes her legs where he's holding her.

"Yeah, I have to admit, it's fun hanging out with you. You're so low-key, you like the same stupid shit I do, I'd totally do this again." He replies.

"Good, it's a date." She wraps her arms around him and kisses his cheek.

"Where's the second date, m'lady?" He asks and she smiles against him. She loves his good mood, and the unguarded side he's showing her.

"So I've been to this club before, Austyn has taken me a couple of times, I was thinking it would be so much better to go with someone I'm… um…"

"Spit it out, Prior." He prompts.

"It's just, I don't know…"

He adjusts her so she swings around to his front, and she has to keep her legs wrapped around him so she doesn't fall. Her arms wrap back around him and he keeps his wound around her back, forcing her to look at him.

"Tell me."

She can feel his breath fanning over her face and she's finding it hard to breathe, "I think it was outside of Amity, it was just different, I mean very open, sexy." She says.

"I've heard of those clubs. Are you and Austyn more than just friends, Tris?" He asks.

She shakes her head, "No. We almost were, but I didn't want to ruin what we had. He is my best friend, outside of Christina, and I couldn't take a chance of losing that."

"You did with me." He retorts, and he wishes he could take those words back.

"You and I weren't close like Austyn and I were before we started this. This thing with us started as sex and evolved. Austyn would have been opposite, and if we tried something like what you are I are doing and it didn't work, I'd potentially lose him."

"What happens with us if this doesn't work?" He asks, and again he wishes he could reel his fucking words back in.

"I don't want to think about that." She admits.

He doesn't try to kiss her when he leans in, instead he goes straight for her cheek and holds her against him.

"So, about that club you want to go to…." He trails off and she grins at him.

"Are you going to put me down first?" She asks and he laughs as he lets her slide down his body and back onto her feet. She threads her hand with his and pulls him along so they can get closer to home.

"It's a sex club outside of Amity, they don't ask questions, and it's a pretty free and open environment. I just thought if we went there, we may not have to sneak around so much, and we could just have fun." She says.

"Just with each other, right? It's not one of those places where we're expected to swap partners or anything?" He asks.

"I mean, I'm sure it happens there, but it never seemed to be expected. I've only been a couple of times, and really it was more a curiosity than anything. No one made me feel pressured to do anything." She shrugs.

"Sounds fun to me, we should go tomorrow." He replies.

"Can you handle two late nights in a row, you old man?"

He yanks her to a stop by their clasped hands and pulls her against his body, "Old man huh? I'll show you just how old I am." He grins wickedly at her and bites her neck.

"You'll have to catch me first." She squeals as she takes off running, catching him off guard for several beats before he finally takes off after her.

He easily catches her and when he does she jumps right back onto his back so he can give her a ride back to Dauntless, and the two continue talking the entire way back. They put some distance between them once they are back in the faction, but he still walks her to her apartment with his hand brushing hers the entire time.

"Text me when you get home?" She says as he's walking away.

"You know I will." He says softly and she watches him for as long as she can before he reaches the corner.

When he looks back at her, he smiles quickly before disappearing, and she smiles as she unlocks her door. Once she enters the dark apartment, she heads straight to her room to change, and she hears the beep of her phone alerting her of a text.

E: I can still smell you on me.

T: If you were here you'd see me blushing.

E: Don't. I love the smell of you. I love the taste of you. I love everything about you. You have no idea.

She looks at the text, her fingers hovering over the letters, trying to find the right response. All she can focus on is the line of the text where he says he loves everything about her, and the butterflies in her stomach threaten to take flight.

E: I had a great time with you tonight. Looking forward to tomorrow. Get some sleep little lady, I plan on wearing you out tomorrow.

T: I had so much fun. Goodnight. XO

E: I finally get my kiss. Back atcha babe. XO

"What are you doing to me, Eric Coulter?" She says quietly as she finally falls into bed.