Forgive me, Internets, for I have delayed. It has been three weeks since my last update.

OKAY! SO, Life got complicated in a way that is distinctly unpleasant for me and probably not that interesting for you. But all is well because, YAY! Another chapter! Read up you ravenous literary fiends!

Chapter 4

He had almost decided that the chasm might not be such a bad place to go swimming by the time the training day had ended. Z had been in rare form today. Where did she even store that much manipulative energy? Goddamn it all to hell in a handbasket. Someone used to say that all the time when he was a kid. He couldn't for the life of him remember who it was. He desperately hoped he could conjured up their hopefully erection-killing face. Still no god, today. Eric should know. He'd checked in about every two seconds today.

First there had been the normal little snipes. Just harmless crap that he wouldn't have given the time of day six months ago.

But then… Then she'd upped her game after lunch.

Immediately attaching herself to Four she'd giggled and teased and smiled at him for the rest of the five fucking hours they were legally obliged to be in each other's presence. She was doing it on purpose, she had to be. There was no way that Four was that interesting. He'd seen her eye rolls at some of the shit that popped out of Four's mouth, she found him as intellectually deficient as he did. And yet there was the smiling and the banter across the training floor and, fucking goddamn it, the touching.

It was that more than anything that put him at the precarious edge of reason that he found himself swaying at now. It was just little things, Four poking her shoulder or bumping her hip as they stood by watching the initiates grapple. But then after the recruits had limped back to the dormitory, clean-up had been almost too much to handle.

Four had actually had the audacity to grab her hips from behind. Sure it was to move her out of the way so he could open a drawer in the equipment table, but jealous-rage-beast-Eric didn't know any fucking better. All it knew was another male was touching his stuff. It kept snarling "mine" at the back of his head until Four starting making sounds to leave. Relatively normal Eric had check out for the time being, probably caught up in reliving all the times Zenia had dropped something that day. The door closing behind Four snapped the brittle control that Eric had been reigning his emotions in with. They were alone. And it was time for a reackoning. Mine, it snarled again as it stalked towards her idiotically turned back.

Well, that had gone immensely better than she had hoped. Maybe after a couple of days of that Eric would be more receptive to her phase two efforts. She smirked again, realigning the throwing knives on the equipment table.

Sure, she was soaking wet from the constant barrage of simmering glares Eric sent her all day, but nothing three or four not-so-quiet times in the shower couldn't fix. Mrs. Terrance was just going to have to fucking deal with the screams. The door shut signaling Four's departure. She couldn't even be bothered to feel bad about using his little soft spot shamelessly. It was for the greater good after all. The greater good of Eric pistoning between her legs, those eyes boring into her- suddenly she was ripped around and greeted with a full on look straight at those glorious smoldering eyes.

Her eyes widened at the intenseness of that look and the inescapable there-ness of his body in her personal space. God, if he'd only lean in a fraction they could be touching and she could rub herself against something to ease the ache.

"What the actual fuck was that, Z?" His voice low and dangerous and demanding. She got her arousal under control and looked straight back into his eyes

"What are you talking about, Mr. Stick-up-his-ass-all-day?" She added an impertinent smirk just to piss him off.

"You know exactly what I'm fucking talking about. Four's about as interesting to you as a door knob. And suddenly you're best pals or something? Are you fucking him?" The question took her completely by surprise. Was that jealously she picked up in his eyes? Right there behind the rage and thinly veiled arousal.

Holy shit, that never even occurred to her as an angle.

All she wanted to do was piss him off by putting everyone's attention on Four. That's what had tipped him last time, wasn't it? Her eyes widened as she asked

"Eric… are you jealous?" He guessed it must have been a combination of the stress of the day and those damn lips of hers whispering his name that finally snapped his self-control

"Insanely." He growled before crushing her between himself and the work bench, devouring those infuriating lips. She moaned breathlessly at the contact her hands going to the back of his head to get him closer. He was lost, gone on possessing her tantalizing mouth.

Holy fuck, how had he gone this long without tasting this, her tongue willfully battling with his own. His light grinding turned deep and slow when she bit his lip and his hands snapped to her slowly undulating hips. He left her mouth for air and a taste of that soft expanse of neck below her stubborn chin. She gasped for air or ecstasy or he didn't know, everything she did seemed to make pleasure race through his extremities.

"Ah, Eric." He growled in her ear at the sound of his name again and thrust against her hard just once to punctuate it

"Oh god," she moaned, tilting her head back and letting her eyes close "what are we doing?" She had to ask, just in case there was a little bit of cold, reserved Eric sitting in there waiting to spoil the fun. Lucky for her normal Eric had taken a sick day, leaving impulsive, very aroused Eric in charge.

"I'm about to fuck you right here in this room on Four's precious equipment table. And then I'm going to drag you back to my apartment and have you until you can't remember the name of a single other male you've ever met." He growled staring straight into her eyes. He pushed her against his delicious hardness again.

"Mmmmm, yes!" She moaned again, eyes falling shut.

The only thing that made his blood race faster than her moans was the unmistakable, witches-burning-in-oil sound of some random training area door screeching open. They both tore their mouths away from each other staring wide eyed into several dark entrance points at once, assessing where the impish ruiner of all things fun could possibly have come from.

"Hey Z, are you still in here?" Four was shouted across the area, boldly adding one more intergalactically death-worthy offense to Eric's "Reasons Why Four Must Die" journal.

"Oh shit-" Z hissed out still distractingly disheveled by his kisses. Damn straight, the still hard part of him growled. Now she had a growing look of panic thrown in with the lust and he could feel it seeping into his brain as well.

Reflexively he sprung away from her and then everything went black.

"Z?! Are you okay?" Four shouted jogging across the training area to the store room opening.

Zenia suddenly appeared in the door way looking affronted that he would even assume the gigantic crash he'd just heard was her dying in a fiery mess.

"Pfft! Yeah? I just ya know… dropped some knives." She said nonchalantly, suspiciously holding the door mostly closed. Four used his height and tried to look over her for the real reason for whatever wasn't right here. He caught sight of some rumpled black fabric…

"What?" She snapped loud enough to make him jump. Oh god, she didn't…

"Z, you know I'm your friend and I wouldn't trust my back with anyone else on a battlefield." He began gently.

"Yeah, so?" irration was growing in her voice and he knew that was always a sign of impending meltdown, but he just had to say it…

"If you've messed up Max's limited edition stealth battle body armor again, I can't protect you this time."

"Four, I…"

"He only keeps it down here for one week out of the whole training period, and I swear to god if you've defied all mathematical probability and nicked it somehow, AGAIN"

"Four-"

"Wall duty was a bitch, Z! I won't do it again! I can't!"

"FOUR!" the haunted look in his eyes vanished at her shout.

"I seriously just dropped some knives, and not into Max's suit. What did you need by the way?"

"Oh, uh, my damn pocket has a hole in it and I think my room key's fallen out somewhere in here today."

"Oh yeah, one of the trainee's found it while they were lying on the floor in agonizing defeat. Here." She reached into her pocket and removed the antiqued piece of metal. "I completely forgot to give it to you. My bad."

"Great! Thanks! See ya later, Z." He waved as he turned around and left the training area after one last meaningful look between her and the suddenly closed door of the storeroom. God she was getting weird.

Muwahahaha! I AM AN EVIL GENIUS!