Honestly, I dont know where I'm going with this. It's just what my brain wants to write right now.
ooooo
She was to meet him in the training room at noon, but Tris made sure she was ten minutes early so that she could have the home field advantage.
Leadership trainee.
She never would have guessed, back when she fell asleep in her bed back in Abnegation for the last night, that she would ever be leadership material. But that girl was gone, leaving Tris in her stead. She had discovered so many talents already and it would be a fantastic opportunity to explore them further.
Max was quite the smoothtalker, she realized as she had sat in his office for their meeting. But he was right. Tris felt the burning desire to succeed, she wanted her faction to prosper and, most importantly, she wanted to be a part of modeling Dauntless behavior for the others. To prove that she was no longer a Stiff.
It was only because of these reasons that Tris hadn't balked when Max told her that she would be training alongside Eric. Tris had hoped she would be shadowing Veronica, but she did not argue with Max when he placed her in Eric's care instead.
It wasn't ideal. Eric was volatile and Tris had always had a problem knowing when to keep her mouth shut. Her friends had affectionately called it a 'death wish'. She simply didn't see any training session with Eric going smoothly, but she did tell herself that she would try. She would try her hardest to obey his commands without becoming angry, she would try to make the next months go without a hitch as she learned the responsibilities of a leader. But this was Eric she was talking about. Nothing seemed to go according to plan when he was involved.
Tris, already dressed for her physical training session, had only to change her shoes from the heavy black boots she wore around the compound to something more suited to the gym. She tied up the laces to her trainers, pulling tight as she could- she was so small that she was having a hard time finding the correct size in the shops- and found herself with time to spare before Eric arrived.
She decided to start stretching out her limbs first, then if she had time she would raise her heart rate with a run.
From the weeks of physical training she had already gone through, Tris was not in bad shape. Her face was sharper, more angular than ever and she'd lost the delicate look that she had come here with. She looked older, more mature and it suited Tris just fine. She had seen her reflection, it would be burned into her mind with the amount of time she spent looking, and she liked what she saw. Someone brave. Someone strong. Someone fearless.
When she was moving on to her hamsrings, Tris heard a cough come from behind her and jumped up in surprise.
"When did you get here?" She asked in a huff, already forgetting her promise to try and get along with Eric. Who knows how long he was standing there, allowing Tris to give him a good look at her bottom while she stretched.
"Just now," he deigned to answer, raising a pierced brow. "Am I late for your lesson?" He spoke sarcastically, a small sneer on his lips, but Tris didnt miss the way his eyes flicked down to her hips for a long moment.
He had been looking at her.
"What are we doing here, anyways? I passed physical training."
"Not for leadership, you didn't," he chimed in rather cheerfully. "And you barely made it past initiation, you do not have bragging rights."
She pressed her lips together, silently thinking that he was right, but she'd never admit it to him.
"So I'll train harder."
"No, you'll train with me. That way we know you're at your best."
Tris couldn't resist rolling her eyes.
"Because you're the best."
"By definition."
"If your head was any bigger, I don't think it would fit in this room. I think you're forgetting, you didn't come out as number one in the beginning." It was a completely unnecessary comment and Tris knew it, but she couldn't bear to see his ego so inflated.
He bristled, but didn't react as aggressively as she'd thought he would.
"Twenty laps, Stiff. Start now."