My mind came back before my body did. I could hear voices below me, but I couldn't move my body or open my eyes.
"She'll be fine. She's really weak and initiation won't help her until she gets some…well meat on her bones." A woman said by my head, with an occasional beeping from a machine. She must be the doctor.
"Don't worry we'll get here there." A man's voice this time. I know that voice. "Even if I have to feed her myself." Gee thanks Eric. Light footsteps are heard retreating, while boots come towards my head. I feel light touches on my face, tracing my cheek, then make their way into my hair. My body automatically responds as I cringe away, scrunching my eyes before opening them. I close them as quick as I open them. The light was so bright, and the room was way to white. I must have found my way into the infirmary. 'Well fuck. I shouldn't have passed on breakfast.' I peek one eye open.
Eric's grey eyes are staring at me, his hand frozen inches from my head. I stare back, seeing something flash in his eyes before it's replaced with their regular cold gaze. Relief? Concern? I ignore it and look down at his hand then back up at him. I sit up in the bed, moving over some so he's not as close. He backs up and drops his hand to cross his arms across his chest. Is that the only pose he knows? I go to rub at my face, but flinch at the touch. "How bad is it?" I ask, stretching out my arms and legs. Everything's so stiff.
"Well you look like a blueberry muffin, but you'll live." He says, giving an amused face as I roll my eyes at him. "You only missed a couple hours of training. You can go watch the rest of grappling, but you're not allowed to join." I look at him with a scowl as he raises an eyebrow. "Oh and Peter's fine. He's still out. If you care." He finishes. I slowly get out of bed, still dressed as before with Eric's shirt and shorts. My feet hit leather, and I look down at my boots. I look back up at him, ready to ask a question, but I settle for a different one.
"And you? Do you care? Is that why you brought me here and grabbed my boots?" He goes to speak but I put on my boots and start to head towards the door. "I know it was you, since you stayed to make sure I'd wake up but," I turn to look at him then, his eyes a mix of annoyance and the same emotion I can't place. "Thanks. I appreciate it. Normally I'm used to waking up where I passed out." I turn to walk out the door, heading down the hall out of the infirmary.
"Ros….Initiate! I need to talk to you before you go to dinner!" He calls out of the room, his voice going back to leader in training mode.
"So you can feed me yourself?" I call back, not bothering to turn around. I find my way to the Pit, luckily not getting lost in the process. I follow the hallway back to the training room. When I walk in, I see Christina and the other Erudite guy named Will sparring with each other while everyone else and Max watched on. Everyone looks up when I walk in, and sighs of relief come from everyone except Drew, Molly, and Edward. Go figure. I walk up to where everyone else is, sitting on the floor between the bear looking guy named Al and Max. I lean my head onto Al's leg, who reaches down and rubbs at my back some before straightening up and watching the sparring couple.
After watching a couple more pairs, we're dismissed for dinner. I nod to Max, letting him know I'll find him after dinner for my 'punishment'. Al helps me to my feet and I get pats on the back and smiles as we flow out of the training room into the hallway. Eric is waiting outside the door, and I motion to everyone to go on and I'll catch up. I raise an eyebrow at him and cross my arms across my chest looking at him. He was still only in his vest so I had to keep my eyes on his, which were grey swimming pools. 'Focus you idiot.' I thought to myself. "You requested my presence?" I asked him as I watched him lean up from the wall and throw something at me. I catch it and take a peek at the vial of blue liquid in my hands.
"It's a pure form of protein. You'll be getting one before every meal until we feel you're…" He pauses, looking down at my frame being swallowed by his shirt. "Plump enough." He finishes looking back at my face.
"Oh I'm sorry, is my tiny body not good enough for you?" I ask, more irritated than normal. "I didn't choose to starve myself, it just happened." I uncap the vial and drink the stuff down. It takes disgusting, but I throw the empty glass as Eric's chest without making a face. "Maybe we should see what everyone else thinks about my sickly body choices." I throw my arms out to my side before ripping off the shirt he gave me and throwing that at him too. The cold air hits my skin, but it makes the bruises from Peter feel better. I start to walk towards the Pit but get grabbed back and pushed into the wall before I round the corner. I come face to face with an equally pissed off Eric.
"Are you out of your fucking mind? You'll be asking for it if you walk out like that." He growled, holding me to the wall with his body. But that wasn't close enough. I pulled him closer by his vest, the heat from his body warming me where the cold wall hit my back. I saw his eyes soften, and I swear they almost rolled back at my next words.
"I'm sorry Eric, do you want me all to yourself? Is that why you care so much?" I asked quietly, almost seductively. What in the world? Where did this come from? He shook his head clear, pressing the shirt back into my chest, backing up a good distance.
"Keep it, and get to dinner." He said, back to his leader in training voice. He walked away before I could respond. I sighed looking down at the shirt. That must have been whatever Eric gave me. I've never acted like that. Hell, I've never been with a boy period. I threw the shirt back on and walked to the dining hall, pushing open the doors to the loud commotion that was dinner. I was looking for Trystan and Zeke, but waving and smiling faces caught my eye before I could find them. I walked towards the group, my fellow initiates, and plopped down as Al and Christina moved over to make room.
"Are you guys sure you want me to sit with you? I hear it's bad to hang out with the help." I say as Al fills my plate with food and places it in front of me. "And you know I can get my own food."
"Girl please. You're one of us, doesn't matter where you came from. Plus anyone that knocks Peter out is friends with us." Christina says with a smile. Al smirks in between mouthfuls of food, and Will looks like he's in pain.
"Well, thank you. I've never had real friends before." I say as they beam up at me, except Will. I roll my eyes at him, knowing his Erudite curiosity was getting to him. "Alright Will, spit it out before you have a heart attack." I tell him, which he smiles.
"Weren't you born factionless? Was it hard? Did you guys really beat up and steal weapons from Dauntless guards? Do you guys have an underground system that you use? Where do you guys sleep and eat? Are you guys planning on overthrowing the factions?" Will asks a mile a minute. I shake my head and giggle as his eyes widen in curiosity.
"Slow down Will! Geez let the woman eat and answer one at a time." Al spoke up for me then. I patted his arm in thanks as I finished chewing my food and swallowed
"Okay. Yes, yes, no, no, and the last two I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you." I said before taking another bite of meat. Will's eyes widened before we all burst into laughter. After a couple moment of eating in silence, Will broke it by asking more questions. "What did Eric want?"
"They're giving me something to make me fat." I said as I scowled at my roll. "I mean you guys can be honest, am I that bad?" I asked, standing up to pull up my shirt some to show off my extremely flat and bruised stomach. They all gave a face but shook their heads muttering how I looked great and I was so fit. "You know, you guys are terrible liars." I had an evil thought, and my face must have said the same, because I got question marks on everyone's face.
I grabbed Al's shoulder and jumped onto the table, getting stares from the people around me. "HEY DAUNTLESS!" Everyone looked this time, and when I looked over and Eric, he was seething with anger. I pulled his shirt off which left me in shorts and a black bra, getting catcalls and wolf whistles from around the room. "DO I LOOK THAT BAD?" I asked, turning and posing in a way I probably shouldn't. I heard whoops and 'Hell no's!' from around the room, not daring to look back at Eric, but looked down at my friends who were slack jawed.
I jumped off the table, giving a smile to my new friends. "I'll see you guys at lights out." I said as they smirked and waved at me. I left the shirt off and could feel the stares of everyone on me as I headed out of the dining hall. I felt callous hands grab my elbow and pull me from the dining hall, slamming me against the wall once we made it out. I was met by a boiling Eric.
"What did I say?!" He roared, which made me flinch a bit. But I was still on a high from the dining hall, so I stood tall and sent his anger right back.
"I'm sorry sir I didn't know I was your property. And again I say, why do you even fucking care? You're my trainer not my boyfriend." I stared at him for a while before pushing off the wall and brushing past him, walking the way towards the leader's offices. I could hear him growl and a slam behind me, but I didn't bother looking back. I threw the shirt back on once I was approaching Max's office. I took a breath before knocking on the door.
"Come in." Max said. I opened the door, and he looked up from his desk to see me. "Ah, Rose. Come in and we'll get started." I closed the door behind me, seeing the cart of cleaning supplies near me. Well thank goodness I wouldn't have to carry everything. I sat in one of the chairs in front of his desk while he searched through his desk. "You'll start with my office, and make your way down the hall. Once you finish with the last office, you'll come back up and keep going. If you do one office a night, you'll only do everyone's twice when initiation's over. If there's someone still in the office when you enter, you have to wear these." He hands me 2 black pieces, which resemble ear plugs. "Its little speakers, it plays music so you can't hear any conversation that takes place. You don't have to wear them tonight, but you will after today." I nod and place the pieces in my pocket. "I'll give you keys for the offices just in case you get there and they locked up for the day." At this Max looks uncomfortable. "I'll let you get to it now. Once I'm done here you can be done too. I don't expect my office to stay clean." He lets out a small chuckle and turns back to his papers, gesturing to the cart behind us.
I stand and head to the cart, grabbing the spray bottle and a rag and start cleaning the items and counter next to the walls. I just finish cleaning everything off and pull out the broom when Max sighs and grunts at a piece of paper. I look over and his eyebrows are scrunched up and he's holding his head on his hand. I walk over a bit, "Anything I can help with Sir? Maybe a pair of fresh eyes?" I ask as he looks up, thinking about it.
"Maybe. I shouldn't be showing you this, but it's a guard report from the last sweep of…" He clears his throat, "The factionless section. They said they found an area that looked suspicious, but it doesn't match up on the map." I walk over to him, looking at it upside-down before he spins it and hands it to me. I recognize it instantly.
"I know this area Sir. And I remember this sweep. I used to stay here." I grab a pencil from his cup, drawing on the map that accompanied the report. I fix the lines, crossing some out and adding new ones. Once I finish, I hand it back to Max. "This area is where they swept." I point to the old lines. "And this is where they meant." I point to my new lines. "We made a booby-trap in case they wanted to destroy our things. They usually do. Which is what threw them off." I shrugged and pushed the papers back to Max, who frowned. He looked back down to the paper and started to write while I went to sweep the room.
I had just finished the room when Max sighed again, turning off the computer next to him. "It's late. Time to be done for the day." He spoke standing up. I looked at the clock on his wall. Midnight. Fuck. I put everything away, wiping my hands on a clean cloth. Max lead the way out, locking the door once I was out. "See you tomorrow Rose. Can you find your way back?" He asked and I nodded. Once I left the hallway, I let my shoulders sag, rubbing at them as I made my way back to the dorm room. I was exhausted.
Once I entered, I remembered I had to still fix my bed from this morning, but was surprised when it was already fixed and made. I looked over to where Christina, Al, and Will were laying and it was Al who looked up and smiled at me. I mouthed a thank you and kicked off my boots, plopping down on my bed. I barely pulled my blanket up all the way before I was already asleep.