AN: Hi again. This is the last of the stories I have finished in my little scattered doc manager of stories and ideas. The crazy thing is that this one was totally PWP when I started it many years ago, but it evolved into a decent little plot, and I finished it at the start of Covid but never published it. Its mostly edited, and you should expect pretty quick updates. Hope you enjoy.
He flicks the ash of the cigarette he's smoking before taking another long drag, exhaling the smoke through his nose and watching it disappear in the breeze. He's not used to being in the back of one of their Humvee's, however with his latest assignment out of the faction he got to know the reality of living in a state of almost constant paranoia. There were layers of fear woven into the tapestry of their city, protected from the outside by a large and heavily guarded wall. He'd seen a lot in his six months away, but mostly he learned about the lengths Dauntless would go through to make sure that no one breeched the perimeter of our city.
He's been a leader for over four years now, and this assignment was set up as punishment, yet he had learned that they weren't only keeping people out of their city, but they were also keeping people in. Every time he would ask why, he was met with vague answers. The truth was, no one knew.
He was unofficially a part of team two thirty nine, one of the toughest groups of soldiers Eric has ever served with. When one of the faction's leaders showed up on the front lines unannounced six months ago, the team had no idea why. It seemed almost laughable that their head leader Max would send their youngest leader Eric Coulter out to the very outskirts of the city, where the danger level was the highest, but there he was in his brooding full glory.
Eric had asked himself the same thing, but he also realizes the only reason he was out there and not sitting in a jail cell in Candor or worse is because Tris Prior pulled him off of her boyfriend's throat before he could actually kill the bastard.
He grabs his bags from the truck and jumps off, exchanging pleasantries with the men and women he'd gotten to know, and even become close with these past six months. There's was a camaraderie cemented by the extraordinary lengths they all went to that kept each other alive.
He and Four have never gotten along, they were a part of the same transfer class almost five years ago and from the start they were pitted against each other because of their similar sizes. Both men were tall, rather lanky, and both lacked the discipline their instructor Amar believed they needed to make it in the warrior faction. He pushed both young men to their breaking points, and soon they were competing with each other for the smallest things – who could lift the most weight? Who could run the most laps? Drinking water, doing a pushup, anything that could be quantified was a competition for the two, and the top two spots flipped between them throughout training.
Until fear simulations, where the former Abnegation shocked them all with his record low four fears. Suddenly, there wasn't a competition for them to split. They'd split decisions on their fights, their weapons training, their physical fitness and their written exams, but Eric's eight respectable fears couldn't beat the other man, and he watched his name get firmly planted in the second place spot. It was a feat that Four wouldn't let Eric forget.
Four was offered the coveted spot in the leadership apprenticeship program, with the knowledge there was already an opening for the team he knew it would be a fast track process to get him trained and in seat. He declined, citing the poor relationship he had with his father, Marcus Eaton who also happened to be the head leader of the Abnegation faction as his reason for declining. Four had asked for time to heal their relationship before being forced to work together almost daily, and he did so knowing there may not be another opening in the near future. His offer went to Eric Coulter, who accepted it immediately and went into the grueling training program to become their faction's next leader.
He and Four kept a healthy distance between them, with Eric refusing to let the now instructor and security team member goad him into anything that would jeopardize his career. He learned to ignore the other man, and to keep a wide berth at all times, and Eric soared to full leader in less than three months, a feat no one had ever accomplished in their faction's history.
Things were going well until the initiation class two years after theirs, when another Stiff transferred to Dauntless. She was unnoticed at first, attractive enough but also someone who didn't necessarily catch Eric's eye as he had assumed she'd never actually make it in their faction.
He was so wrong.
He drops his bag off at his apartment, but decides instead of showering that he would go down to the leadership gym to blow some of this pent up energy off with the bags. Not only has he not gotten laid since right before he left, he also hasn't had a good workout with real equipment in the six months he's been gone.
He's surprised to see the gym in use when he gets there, and he just leans against the wall to take in the view. He shouldn't be watching her right now, but he can't help himself. She's down to a sports bra and a pair of tight boy shorts, her long blonde hair braided into two buns on each side of her head, because she loves a bad ass princess from an old movie trilogy. Her icy blue eyes are following her opponents every move, just like he taught her. Her long legs are tense and glistening with sweat, her arms finely muscled and flexed as she blocks the blows from her sparring partner. Her full breasts are barely restrained by her bra, her taught stomach shows the cherry blossom tattoos he would love to run his tongue around. Her ass is a thing of beauty, he has no idea how many fucking squats she has to do regularly to keep that perfect peach shape, but he'd love to watch it bouncing on his dick.
She finally sees him standing there, and to her credit she doesn't react, but the blush he sees crawling up the pale skin of her neck tells him she feels his presence the same way he feels hers.
Tris Prior was a willowy eighteen year old when she transferred from Abnegation almost three years ago. Tall, thin, with no muscle mass to discern. She tore her Abnegation robes off and jumped first down the rabbit hole, which got the attention of many of Dauntless, but other than that she seemed unremarkable.
How things had changed.
Tris gained weight and muscle mass almost immediately with the change in her bland diet and an actual training regime. Eric soon learned through overheard conversations that she had kept her full breasts tightly wrapped under her clothes due to an awful habit she'd been forced into by her mother while a dependent in Abnegation. When a young Beatrice Prior has developed into her womanly body earlier than most, she was told it was distasteful for her to flaunt her body, and her young mind was warped into believing that she was too worldly for her faction.
A beautiful woman like her was told it was wrong to garner attention. Tris Prior was made to stand out.
Eric watched from afar as her new friends helped to build her confidence. While Tris didn't seek out male attention, she did listen to her new female friends and she began to shed the years of brainwashing from her former faction.
She also seemed entranced with her trainer Four from the very start. Eric had assumed the two had known each other while in Abnegation, and he was right about that, and although he knew the instructor shouldn't be involved with an initiate, he didn't say a word. Eric may have been intrigued by Tris and the transformation she was going through, he had no reason to care about a woman who likely wouldn't even make it.
Not only did she make it, she finished first, and she excelled during her time on the leadership apprenticeship team and then later full leadership training. Eric also learned the attraction he felt for Tris wasn't one sided, and the two had begun a flirtatious friendship while working in close quarters during her time in the apprenticeship and later her leadership training program. The only problem with their flirting was that she was in a long term relationship with Four, and even though Eric hated the bastard, he didn't feel like jeopardizing his job over a hookup with his coworker. Until one evening, the usual playful flirting turned into something more, and Eric and Tris had sex right on the mats in the leadership gym.
Four's hatred of Eric predated Tris, and he couldn't stand watching his girlfriend interact with his enemy. The two competitive men often got under each other's skin, but once the normally mild mannered instructor began to suspect the young leader was making a move on his girlfriend their verbal arguments started turning physical. He and Eric would often push and shove each other during altercations, but the last fight had gone further than anything they'd ever had before. Word had gotten back to Four about Eric's encounter with Tris, and he came looking for blood. Eric needed to be pulled off of Four when the young leader had his hands around the instructor's throat, his blackout anger may have allowed him to kill the other man if it weren't for Tris stepping in.
Both men were sent out of the faction on assignment indefinitely. Eric thought about Tris a lot during that time, and he'd hoped the rumors of her finally dumping Number Boy's ass were true. He was coming home as a man on a mission, and that mission was to figure out what the fuck was going on between him and his fellow leader.
She had definitely gotten under his skin.
"Again!" Tori shouts, rising from the mat. The slightly older woman is his fellow co-leader, along with Harrison, Veronica and their head leader Max. Once Tris was promoted into full leadership last week, she rounded out their team.
Tris returns to her fighting stance, and he watches the two women quietly. Tris is good, even though she spent most of her initiation under Four's tutelage, she adapted to the same fighting style that the leaders use easily.
"Stop." He finally calls and both women turn to face him.
"What do you want, Eric?" Tori asks as she pulls her dreadlocks into a bun.
"Her," he gestures towards Tris, knowing the double meaning behind his answer.
"You've been out in the field for months, do you think it's a good idea for you to spar with her?" Tori argues.
"What do you think, Stiff?" He asks, looking at the former Abnegation.
"I think after my being in this faction for going on three years, and especially now that I am officially also one of your co-leaders, you can use my fucking name, Nose." She growls.
He can feel his dick twitching in his loose gym shorts. He would love to shove it right in her smart little mouth.
"Tris, you think you can handle me?" He asks.
"Do your worst." She retorts.
"I'm heading out, try not to kill her." Tori looks at Eric warily, "See you downstairs later for drinks?" She asks Tris.
"I'll let you know." Tris replies.
Eric tapes his hands while Tris jogs in place, and when he moves to his fighting stance she almost mirrors him.
"Did you miss me, Princess?" He purrs.
"Not one fucking bit." She lies.
They circle each other like predators and when he jabs quickly towards her ribs she blocks him before kicking him hard in the shin.
He shakes it off, lunges towards her and tries to take her legs from beneath her. She twists out of his way, wraps her legs around his torso and uses her weight to bring him down to the mat.
"Damn," He breathes out. Her heated core is straddling his chest, giving him a fantastic view of the promised land.
"I bet you missed me, didn't you?" She teases.
"Nope" he replies. She never secured his arms so he bring his hands to her inner thighs and pinches her hard.
"Fuck that hurts!" She yells as she squirms off of him, "You fight dirty."
"Trust me, Princess, no one is going to fight clean when you're out in those streets." He replies.
"What happened out there?" She asks, resting back on her haunches.
"Nothing you'll ever want to see," He replies in a low voice, "Again." He commands.
She jumps up and gets back into stance, they circle each other for seconds before Eric pounces again, this time successfully catching her off guard, and landing a hard punch to her side.
"Son of a bitch," She screams, before kicking him hard in the calf, causing his leg to buckle.
She attempts once again to push him down but he jumps up quickly, wrapping one leg around her and bringing her down on the mat.
She bites the inside of his thigh and he lets out a yelp before jumping off of her, "You fucking bit me."
"Trust me Princess, no one's gonna fight clean out in those streets, isn't that what you just told me?" She barks back.
God, he wants to fuck her.
They spar for almost an hour, taking turns bringing each other to the mat, fighting dirtier as they go along. She kicks out at him, and he grabs her leg, bringing her down to the mat with him on top of her. She's squirming against him, and his body immediately reacts.
She's a former Stiff, who just made it into full leadership a few weeks ago, and before their hookup over six months ago he has never once shit where he eats. But the way she looks up at him, with her chest heaving, her lips slightly parted and the sweat glistening on her pale skin, he doesn't give a fuck. He grinds into her, expecting her to kick him away from her, but she bucks her hips into him, moaning slightly.
"Who's dirty now?" Eric growls, looking down at her.
"I am." She breathes out.
"I know you are," He purrs next to her ear, running his tongue around the shell, "I remember what happened the last time we were in this position on this very mat."
"Get off my girlfriend you bastard." Four calls out as he bursts through the door. Eric jumps off of Tris and stalks over to the other man.
"Who the fuck summoned you?" Eric growls and Four pushes his chest. Tris runs over to the two men.
"Enough, both of you," She pulls Four away from Eric, "You need to be at work, Max is already watching you. Go now."
"Yeah Number Boy, you shouldn't be in the leadership gym, get your ass out of here." Eric adds.
"I have every right to be here, I finally accepted Max's offer for leadership."
"Enjoy your down time in the apprenticeship, Tris got the last opening." Eric snarls.
Four chuckles wryly, "Max made a spot for me. I'll be starting fast track training in a few weeks so watch your fucking back." Four growls at Eric, and Tris can tell that Eric is taken aback by the comment.
"Get out, you're supposed to be in the control room." Tris pushes Four towards the door, and he finally exits.
"Why did no one tell me that they made a fucking spot for him?" Eric roars and Tris flinches at his tone.
"I didn't even know." She says quietly.
"I don't believe that for a fucking minute." Eric replies. He doesn't wait for a reaction, instead he pushes the doors open and lets it slam loudly behind him as he leaves.