Hi guys, so this one wouldn't leave me alone and I have a rough outline of what's to come in the next chapters plot-wise. The content is coming pretty easily to me right now, that's why you get this little heart to heart, so to speak and it hopefully explains a little bit of what's going on for Eric.
For those of you who are waiting for the next chapter of Last Resort, it's in the making, seriously. I just have a bit of a rough time right now in my private life, so I don't want to ruin it by just pushing out anything. I hope you understand.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy and tell me what you think! :)
I do not own Divergent or any of its characters.
Tris was tired. Eric had left the pit pretty early so Christina had insisted on staying a little longer. She couldn't deny that she was having fun in the end. Knowing that Eric wasn't with Lauren had lifted her spirits. Nonetheless Christina had tried to hook up her friend with anyone. At one point she even had suggested Uriah who obviously had found the idea entertaining but Marlene was fuming next to him and Tris had to calm down Christina.
When she entered the office Eric just came out of her office with a bunch of papers which looked like the reports she had been working on the last days. Before she could say or do something he gestured for her to follow him. It was a simple wave of his hand but the way he did it made her roll her eyes. He went around his desk and pointed at the chair, she eyed it and noticed it was her chair and his chair was right next to it. She looked up at him and hesitated for a moment.
"Sit down," he commanded, "I don't bite." Tris moved past him and could have sworn that he added a mumbled 'not yet' under his breath.
She looked at the screen and eyed the stacks of paper on his desk curiously. When he sat down next to her she looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he scooted closer.
"At the end of the week we'll have an important meeting with the other faction leaders. Until then we're expected to create a presentation of all the activities of Dauntless," he explained and pointed to the stacks of paper, "These are all reports from all leaders. We have to go through all of these, divide them up into categories, note done numbers and then sum everything up in a pretty presentation," Eric concluded and Tris nodded slowly. "Okay, let's do this," her eyes lit up in excitement for the new task, "How, I mean, what's the categories then?"
He chuckled at her enthusiasm, "Well, that's up to us." Tris' shoulders slumped a fraction and she looked at him with both her eyebrows raised. "You have worked with these reports the most over the last couple of months, how would you divide them into categories so the other leaders will get an idea of what Dauntless did over the last year?"
Tris gulped, she wasn't used to having a say yet in such matters, Eric did most of the work and she was stuck with paperwork after everything was done. "I'd say, divide them up into factions," she began and thought for a moment, "And then split these up into severity of the incident and what kind of an incident occurred. And definitely how quickly Dauntless were able to solve the situation," she smiled triumphantly. Her smile faded momentarily though when she looked at Eric whose face didn't show praise.
But after a few seconds of thinking he nodded, "Let's do it then."
After some time they were through the first stack and Tris sat back with a huff, "Why don't we do this already while we're working on the reports? I mean, we could easily track this electronically, right?"
Eric pushed the papers into neat stacks, Tris watched him quietly and wondered briefly whether he was tidy like this with everything. He lifted his eyes up to look at her and a smirk spread across his face that made her heart tumble in her chest. "See, I told you I'd need your brains today."
Tris blushed and waved her hand dismissively, "Don't tell me you never thought of that before." He shrugged, "No, I haven't," he smirked, "But now you can think of a suitable concept! For now," he tapped the screen, "You'll key in the numbers while we're going through the reports."
They were almost finished with sorting through the papers and had been silent for most of the time, leaving Tris to her own thoughts. She had thought back to yesterday and couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling of wanting to talk about it.
"Eric," Tris hesitated and squirmed a little under his eyes, he stood on the other side of the table and looked at her in expectation, "Can I ask you something?"
His eyes flickered between her and the papers, "Depends," he replied curtly which didn't help her hesitation at all. She sat down and he went around the table to sit down next to her. He leaned towards her with his elbows on his legs, looking at her expectantly. They had been working together for the entire day, their hands had brushed several times but now that his full attention was on her she wasn't able to articulate what she wanted to ask. Yesterday he had been so close to her, she had thought he'd kiss her then, yet he didn't and she wanted to know why.
She shook her head to clear it, she needed to know and she needed to know now. "Why didn't you... you know, yesterday... before Chris found us..." she stumbled through the words, not finding the right ones and a smile lit up his handsome features. He licked his lips and looked up briefly to the upper corner of the room before he locked his eyes with hers with a serious expression, "Let's not talk about this here," he murmured. She looked at what he had looked at and eyed the camera which was silently watching them.
He got up abruptly and gestured to the papers, "Let's finish this and call it a day. We can start on the presentation tomorrow." She nodded and they set to work again.
A rush of excitement warmed her cheeks and sent a cold shiver down her back at the same time. She couldn't wait for them to be private enough to talk about yesterday. It briefly crossed her mind that it could be something she wouldn't want to know or make her sad but she brushed the thoughts away quickly.
At the end of the day they left the office and went back to their apartments. Eric nudged her shoulder playfully, "My place or yours?" Tris blushed and nudged him back, "My place, I make the best hot chocolate in all of Dauntless." He grinned and followed her to her apartment. She let him in and went straight to the kitchen. He tossed his jacket over hers on the rack next to the door and sat down at the small table.
She set to work and felt his eyes on her back the whole time. He remained quiet and when she looked at him over her shoulder he smiled. "So?" she inquired trying to sound casual about it and froze when she heard him shuffle to his feet. Pouring the hot chocolate into two mugs she didn't dare look up when she handed him his mug.
Blowing on the hot liquid she sneaked a glance at Eric who drank from his cup and was looking down at it seemingly contemplating on what to say. He let out a long sigh and took a big gulp from the chocolate, "You know how Max can be a real pain in the ass, he's absolutely the best in whatever he does but he can be really strict about everything." His eyes flickered briefly to her to see her nod in agreement. "Well, he mentioned several times before you.. before this round of protégés went into training that..." He obviously struggled with what he was going to tell her and Tris listened intently. It wasn't like him to not be blunt about what he had to say and it worried her. "Neither of us is supposed to start something intimate with any of the protégés, Max doesn't approve of it and he was very clear about it."
He looked up at her and Tris nodded unable to say anything. She suspected that there was more and waited for him to continue. He raised an eyebrow at her, "This will stay within these walls," he warned, "Got it?" Tris suddenly felt really warm and wasn't sure whether she wanted to hear the secret he was about to tell her. "Lauren..." he trailed off and gulped looking away, "Max would be absolutely furious if he found out," he shook his head, "After the event with all the leaders Lauren slept with Max' protégé."
Tris' eyes widened at the confession and her mind tumbled at the mixing emotions. On one hand she was now pretty sure that Eric didn't have anything with Lauren but on the other hand she feared what this would mean for herself. He sipped at the chocolate and chuckled all of a sudden, "When I moved into leadership training she became a full-fledged leader and..." he hesitated and grinned bitterly, "We had a one-night-stand. Max found out and threatened to kick us out if this didn't stop."
Tris gaped at him, she knew they had a past but never knew the details. She watched him finish drinking his cup and it seemed he didn't have to say anything else. Tris set down her mug and looked at him in confusion, "So... Lauren was with you the last nights because..."
"Basically she needed a shoulder to cry on. She was drunk and Jason didn't exactly fight her," he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "She needed a little distraction..." His eyes locked with hers and widened, "Not that kind of distraction though!" Tris chuckled at his immediate rectification of what kind of a distraction he could have meant. He looked at her opening his mouth to say something but closed it again biting his lip.
The silence between them stretched so she raised her eyebrows at him, "I take it you don't want to do the same mistake again?" He rubbed his face and sighed heavily before he took her hand and sat down. Pulling her sideways into his lap he wrapped his arms around her loosely, looking up at her he set his lips into a thin line, "I'm sorry, Tris."
"I really like you," he whispered and her heart skipped a beat at how openly he admitted it. His hands wandered subconsciously to her waist and squeezed a little. "But I'll try to keep my distance from now on until your training is over." His hands betrayed his words as his fingertips brushed the bare skin between her shirt and her pants. Tris had to suppress a sigh and looked down at his worried eyes. "I hope that's fine with you," he almost pleaded with her and she couldn't help but smile at this new soft side of his that she had never seen before.
She huffed sadly, her shoulders slumped and she cast him a wry smile, "What am I supposed to say if my superior says no?"
He hugged her closer and buried his face in the crook of her neck, "What would you do?" His voice was desperate and his breath was hot against her skin. Tris had to blink to focus on the situation at hand and rested her hands on his shoulders. Her fingertips brushed lightly over the bare skin of his neck, she smiled when he shivered. She was surprised at how steady her voice was when she spoke, "I would listen to my heart."
It seemed to lift a bit of the weight off his shoulders, he relaxed and she felt his fingers draw lazy circles on the small of her back. Heat rushed up her neck as she felt him place a soft kiss to her throat hesitantly. "Eric, what are you doing?" she whispered.
He placed another kiss to her throat and mumbled against her skin, "I'm listening to my heart." Tris drew a shaky breath and tightened her grip on his shoulders as his lips brushed softly against her neck, "What does it say?"
"That I need a taste," the low tone of his voice sent goosebumps all over her body and she leaned into his touch. He placed a few more kisses to her neck and then leaned back to look up at her. She felt her eyes close at his sensually parted lips and wanted to have a taste as well. But he leaned further away and furrowed his eyebrows, "You make me feel special in a way that no one ever made me feel yet. You seem to be one of those rare people who can actually see right past my attitude. I know I'm not an easy person to be with."
Tris let out a breath she hadn't noticed she was holding and tried to smile at him. "I want to be with you so badly, Tris, but I also don't want to mess this up," he gulped nervously, "Max told me he wants me to follow in his footsteps as the head of Dauntless."
She jumped off his lap with a huff and scowled at him, "This is about your career then, huh?" He jumped up, towering over her he glared at her, "No!" His face softened immediately when she flinched away from him and he took her hands in his gently, "Not primarily," he admitted, "Listen, I don't want neither of us to end up factionless because of this!" Cupping her cheek he stared at her working his jaws nervously. Hugging her to his chest he kissed her forehead softly before he stepped away from her.
"We'll figure something out," he promised before he left her apartment, leaving Tris more confused than she had been before.