"Ava." Eric watches her stir in her bed, the Erudite nurse still locked within sleeps comforting lull. The turn is all he gets before she becomes still again, he leans down over her, the bed sinking slightly from the pressure of his hands on it, distantly he could feel the bullet hole in his thigh throb, "Ava." He repeated more firmly, face directly above hers, lips twisting up into a smirk when her eyes snap open. Sleep is replaced by unmistakable terror before the events of the previous night seem to come back to her.
Fright, followed by remembrance, and then anger washes over Ava. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly, her hands balled into fists at her side as she looked up at Eric, "Your proximity is disconcerting and inappropriate, please get out of my room."
"No." Eric replies, enjoying the twisting of emotion in the green of her eyes. Her fire was strong, it was to bad she hadn't chosen Dauntless, she would have been fun to break during initiation, "We need to leave. Now."
It is then that Ava looks around her room, noting the dawn light just beginning to flood in through the blinds. Her nails were digging bloody crescents into the palm of her hand as she controlled an almost unbearable urge to deliver a sharp slap to the side of Eric's face. A reddened hand print would look good there, her mark on him whereas she still bore the ugly bruise of his mark around her wrist. She settled for rolling in the opposite direction of him, tossing her legs over the side of her bed, fingers rubbing gentle circles into her temple, "Where are we going?" She mumbles derisively. She saught out the heat she felt the night before and was pleased the fever had broke.
"We aren't playing twenty questions right now." Eric says from behind her. He moves across the floor, his boots heavy against the wood. He watches Ava turn to follow him with her eyes, one of her hands threaded through her unruly hair. Her interest settles on the bag he rummages through extracting dark clothing from within, and carelessly tossing it at her, "Put these on, skirts and heels aren't going to help you at all out there."
With an indignant sigh, Ava grabs the clothing, examining the black pants and long sleeved sweater. The jacket however made her snap her eyes back in Eric's direction, "I can't pose as a Dauntless." She says with a sneer, "Anyone in Erudite that sees me is going to know who I am."
"That is why no one will be seeing us." Eric informs, speaking as if she should have already known that, "Stop stalling, Erudite. Get dressed, we are leaving now."
Ava wants to protest but she is looking at Erics retreating form before she can even open her mouth. She was flustered now, angry that he kept giving her orders, angry that she kept following them, and angry that she couldn't even begin to understand the puzzle at hand. Despite all of that there was still a tickling of excitement in the pit of her stomach...she was leaving Erudite and would probably never come back. She had fought against her desire to leave for so long, and now a ruthless Dauntless leader was pretty much forcing her to do what she had wanted to do, long before she knew who he was.
When she is dressed, she takes a moment to adapt to the odd feeling of the tight pants that hugged her lower body from her hips down. Movement was fluid, unrestricted. The sweater was thin tight, and dipped down lower then anything Ava had ever worn. She felt like a different person in the clothes she wore, her eyes lingering on the lab coat hung on an armoire door longer then necessary before turning and leaving her bedroom of five years behind. Her eyes meet Eric's instantly, a moment of silence while his eyes roam over her in a way that makes her uncomfortable, "Take your hair out, you look to much like yourself."
Her eyes narrow and she is rough on herself, violently untwisting her red hair from the elegant bun it had been in and whipping the rubberband in Eric's direction. The projectile doesn't even make it halfway towards its intended target, not that she had any illusion that it would, "Who else am I supposed to look like? It shouldn't matter anyway, no one is going to see us, right?" Her voice is full of malice, but the murder in her eyes doesn't even phase Eric.
His smirk is meant to infuriate and it does its job nicely, Eric appreciating the way her breasts heaved in anger with her uneven breathing. She looked exactly as he'd imagined she would in Dauntless attire, her red hair around her in waves that would never be accepted in Erudite, not prim or proper enough, "Get those boots on, you're taking to much time." He expects her to lash out again but she doesn't, moving stiffly to pull on the heavy boots, "You can move faster then that."
"Shut up Eric! Just shut up!" She snarls, fastening the last pair of laces into a tight knot, "I'm making a really stupid decision right now, and against better judgment I am going to try to trust you."
"You don't have any choice but to trust me, Ava." Eric says flippantly, his eyes mocking her. He gets serious again, his eyes turning steely, "We'll eat when we are on the train."
"Train? They don't stop..." Ava thought aloud, panic gripping at her. He didn't honestly think she could jump did he? "I am not going anywhere." She suddenly says, Eric's eyes narrowing dangerously, "Not until you tell me where we are going."
"We are going to Amity." Is Eric's answer, his voice low in his throat, teeth grit in anger, "Enough stalling, let's go."
"I can't do this." Ava's voice is soft as she stands on the platform, her eyes looking passed Eric at the train in the distance, closing the space between itself and the platform too quickly.
"Don't think, just do." Eric instructs, his body tensing as he prepared for what he was going to have to do. He was starting to doubt his plan as he looked at Ava's frightened eyes. She had to be able to do this. If a stiff could pull this off, Ava should be just fine. At least that is what he told himself. She had fire but it was subdued, she wasn't Dauntless, not in the way Tris was. The thought of the Abnegation divergent brought anger to his eyes and he had to force himself to rein it in, "Get ready to run."
"I just said I can't do this." Ava repeated, more firm this time as she looks at Eric.
"Okay." Eric replies with a shrug, "Then don't do it. You can stay here." He turns his body on the platform, the sounds of the train filling the air as it drew near. He started running without even regarding the Erudite. The pain in his leg was excruciating, it took everything to force the feeling into numbness as he moved. Without a hitch he pulled himself onto the train car, his palm flat on the door panel, the heavy metal sliding open to let him step inside. One hand still gripping the outer handle he crouched down and looked out. Ava was running, pushing herself hard. He glanced up, realizing she had very little time to catch up, "Let's go Ava." He demands with a harsh tone.
Her chest is tight while she runs, her lungs protesting viciously within her ribs. She doesn't think she can do it and it's nothing but a surprise when she's taking hold of Eric's outstretched hand, the other grasping desperately at the handle on the car to help pull herself up and she is being pulled into the train with a harsh jerk. She stumbles and falls to her hands and knees panting, heart racing. A laugh escapes her lips but it is one of hysteria as she falls over and lays on the cold metal ground. When her heart no longer feels like its about to explode she slowly pulls herself up into a seated position and finds Eric.
He is resting by the now closed door, a knee drawn up with an arm slung over it, the other stretched out fully. He had discarded the bag he carried on the floor, his blue eyes locked on Ava's form. She was disheleved, a wild look in her eyes, "Not bad Erudite." He comments.
"Screw you!" She snaps, "That was stupid and dangerous and-"
"Shut up." Eric interrupts, his tone leaving no room for argument, "You aren't dead not even injured, stop complaining. You can't really say you didn't enjoy that rush, can you?"
"Nothing about that was enjoyable." Ava replies, her breathing reaching a calm, "I didn't choose Dauntless, because I am not fucking Dauntless!"
"Not yet anyway." Eric's smirk is unrestrained, the double meaning in his words meant to rile her more and he is rewarded with a glare that would slice him to pieces if it had the power. It is immensely satisfying to know he could get under her skin so easily, "Besides, that dirty mouth of yours suggests otherwise, Erudite do not speak like that."
A glare is all Ava can muster as she moves around a bit, finding a comfortable spot. He was right, she couldn't deny it. A mild curse here and there was common, but highly frowned upon. Her mother used to say that using that kind of language was a reflection of a lazy vocabulary, utter horseshit, but whatever floats the Erudite boat. Silence befalls the sole occupants on the old train car, Ava's mind turning to Amity. She had an aptitude for Amity but she regarded and thought about it as much as she did her Dauntless result, next to never. That was where her sister, Helena, was.
Helena would be twenty six by now. Ava hadn't seen her in years, not since she had her visiting day during Erudite initiation. Helena had showed, happy and bright and excited to see the sister she had left behind, but Ava had not been to receptive. Faction before blood, and as a divergent Ava had to embrace it or risk exposure. Not one of her proudest moments, in fact it had broken her heart, "My sister is Amity..."
Eric had watched Ava as she disappeared into her mind. The way the light in her eyes shut off was clear indication she had momentarily left herself. Flickers of emotion would flit across her face at random intervals. Once they got to Amity things were going to get rough, Eric wasn't going to have a problem with the locals, it was those hiding among them that would be an issue. Four and Tris, whom he knew would be there, were not going to be welcoming, "Yeah, I know that." Eric replies, "Don't look so surprised, I've had a few days to get my research done."
"You are unbelievable." Ava shakes her head and when she speaks again her voice is full of annoyance and accusation, "That's how you knew these damn clothes would fit, you had access to all of my records."
"I had access to a lot of things. That's how I got your residence," He studies her for a moment, a wicked glint in his eyes, "But I didn't have to look at your growth chart to figure out your size. I got a pretty good idea when I had you between my legs."
Ava stares at him before she speaks, managing to keep a blank face, "You're a pig."
"I am a man." Eric grins at the stone faced Erudite, a hand grabbing the bag and extracting a couple of cereal bars. He throws hers at her with unneeded force, watching it smack her square in the chest, her eyes and hands scrambling for the offending object.
"You're an ass." Ava grinds out, her hands working to open the packaging, biting and chewing the cereal bar with anger, never breaking her harsh glare on Eric, who only seemed amused. The bastard. "Are you going to tell me why you're doing this? I'm beginning to think this is some form of torture with an unclear objective. I fail to see any reasoning for this."
Eric looks at Ava with a darkening glare. He wasn't ready to tell her the whole story. Explain to her every detail of Jeanine's plans and how they had begun in a lab with Johnathan Storm present, almost two decades ago. He told himself this was how he would secure a future, how he would survive. The moment Ava had walked into that pod and her eyes met his he had recalled the last conversation shared between himself and her father, he had only been eleven years old, the day before the renowned scientist vanished. It had been one of many off record, completely against the rules, like the lollipops had been.
It had ended in one simple order, hidden in Eric's mind from prying sources by a serum Dr. Storm had developed. When the time comes, protect my children. Even if it meant defecting. Eric made his choice when it became glaringly obvious Ava was divergent. He was loyal to Johnathon Storm before he was loyal to Jeanine Matthews, leaving him with only one option to choose and only one reason as to why. "Time will tell you everything you need to know." Ava snorts and Eric sneers, "Don't like it? Jump off the fucking train."
This time Ava throws the rest of her cereal bar at him, getting to her feet with haste, "I hate you." She hisses, satisfied that the bar had hit his shoulder. She stomps away from him, towards the opposite end of the car.
"Very mature." Eric rolls his eyes, watching her as she leans against the wall near one of the small square windows, watching the city roll by. Ava Storm was going to be a pain in the ass, with a slow smirk turning his lips he knows he is going to enjoy playing with that fire. Knocking the discarded cereal bar away from him, Eric leans his head back. It was going to be a long ride.