Isolation is a way for someone to truly know themselves.

It's funny. Not too long ago, if Tris was offered the opportunity to live in an isolated area, she would've taken it. To her, being alone and not having to interact with others was a great idea. Amazing.

Well, not anymore.

It gets exhausting. And it's scary. You're in this space with only your thoughts, your voice, your sounds. Every movement, every rustle, every creak of the bone- it's yours.

It eventually drives you insane.

And now, more than ever, Tris craved touch. She craved interaction, comfort, and she craved human contact.

She forgot how fun it was to laugh hard with your friends, how helpful it was to confide in others with your problems, and how refreshing it was to love oneself.

If anything, besides the danger and potential death risk- The goddamn place she was in had taught her how to feel alive again. How ironic.

Tris stares down at her fingers as she leans her head back against her headboard.

You're not that different from these 'mood swings' either.

Zeke had been right. Who was she to keep judging Four when she herself had the same problem?

That was something she needed to work on. Look at yourself before pointing out the faults of others.

"You're always thinking, aren't you?"

Startled, Tris looks up at Four, who had droplets of water dripping down from his hair and into the towel placed around his neck.

She didn't even hear him come out of the bathroom.

Tris looks away quickly after making eye contact.

Four tosses the towel on his bed and shuffles over to the fridge to grab a bottle of juice. When he takes a sip, he points to the drawer in between both of their beds.

"Can you toss that to me?"

Tris turns to her side and frowns as she grabs for his key and clutches it tightly in her hand. "Where are you going?"

Four shrugs before gesturing toward the door. "I don't know. I was thinking to go to the training room. I was there throwing knives the whole time because of Shauna, but I wanted to shoot guns or something else."

She flings the key at him without any effort and picks at the stitches of her bedsheet after he catches it and walks over to his shoes.

Just talk it out with him.

Tris nibbles on her lip.

Talk.

She was done talking for the day, she'd spoken with Zeke for how long, a half hour? Not too long ago, that would've been enough interaction for a week. But as she watches Four step through the doorway, her voice calls out, surprising both of them.

"Wait."

Four loosens his grip on the doorknob and turns slightly, an unspoken question dancing in his eyes when she sits straighter.

"Come back."

He takes one more glance behind him before stepping back into the room, letting the door fall closed softly behind him. Even though his shoes are still on, he walks toward her and stands, arms crossed against his chest.

"Is something wrong?" He inquires.

Tris knew Four had waited forever to tell her about his past, but every time he had gotten an opportunity, she'd blown him off. So, they both were free, there were no games, and she was definitely willing to listen.

"I-" She pauses. "Yes, something is wrong."

He stands still for a moment before stepping out of his shoes and seating himself in front of her. She has to lean back to prevent from falling forward when the bed dips so quickly.

"Four." She begins cautiously. Tris tries to choose her words carefully, but it was hard to think with a pair of blue eyes studying her every move.

"I realize... I haven't been fair to you. I come to you with all my little stupid issues, but I never listen to yours." She starts. "And it was extremely selfish of me to do that. You always put me as your priority and I never really did the same."

She observes his face, then frowns when he doesn't meet her eye. "I'm sorry."

Tris interlocks her fingers and sets them on her thighs. "I'm putting you as my priority as well now, and I promise I won't do anything but listen to what you have to say if you ever need to talk to me."

She has to look up after what seems like forever when he doesn't say anything, she didn't expect so much silence. But when she gazes into Four's eyes, his expression is unreadable.

"I don't..." He looks away from her, and she feels her eyebrows knit in worry.

A surge of emotions and wild thoughts flit through her mind, but even though her head was beginning to feel hot with a blind panic, she waits patiently for him to finish his sentence.

When he blows out a huge gush of air from his puffed up cheeks, that only increases her anxiety because she'd come to learn that he only did that when he was frustrated or angry.

Finally, he presses the tips of his fingers to the bridge of his nose.

"Just... don't go after I'm done."

His eyes were shut, and she feels her head tilt to the side. "Done with what?"

"Promise."

"I promise." She repeats in a gentle voice, hoping that her tone was able to hold the reassurance and comfort in her words so he could relax.

Four runs a finger against the water vapor that had formed on the outside of his cold bottle, and Tris watches the water droplets slide around everywhere.

It's only then that she realizes what Four was going to tell her.

"We had to go through our fears a day ago. Our fears." He repeats for emphasis. She nods in understanding. Yes, they had gone through the impossible. It was so surreal and crazy that it was too unrealistic to wrap their heads around. She's about to mention how she saw him in her own fears but instantly bites her tongue.

No, this is about Four, not me. Listen.

His voice is a whisper. "I'm afraid of..."

He never finishes his sentence, so she offers him the words to finish quietly. "Your father."

"Marcus." His curt reply is so instant that she almost flinches. Four shakes his head then. "Everything was so real."

Tris crosses her legs and sits straighter. She didn't know what to do with the silence between them, so she decides to encourage him to continue. "Do you want to tell me what you saw?"

Four rubs the palms of his hands roughly on his eyes as if trying to get a disturbing image out of his mind.

"I saw you." He states with monotone after a moment. "You and that monster in the same room with me."

He finally meets her eyes, and she forces herself to keep a neutral face when his eyes are slightly red from being rubbed so hard. "And do you know what the worst part was?"

She slowly moves her head from side to side, and he runs a hand through his hair in irritation. "I was terrified. He came at me with a belt." Four breathes. "I cowered. I heard a snap, but nothing ever hit me."

Tris wills for herself to stay still as he reaches out and wraps his fingers around her wrist. She suppresses a gasp from how chilled his fingertips felt from holding the bottle and takes slow breaths when he traces the side of her wrist.

"When I opened my eyes, you were standing in front of me, and the belt hit you right here."

She watches as his finger makes unhurried circles on her skin and Tris tries to ignore the buzz of electricity buzzing through her veins.

"You saved me." he continues with a low voice.

Tris opens her mouth to respond when he stares at her with some type of clouded emotion but finds she can't say anything.

"I don't know what to think about that." Four suddenly laughs inaudibly as he returns his hand back to his side. "And after I saw that you had blocked him, I felt this... I don't know. I got up and punched him so hard. Then it was all over. I've never stood up to him before."

Tris looks away from his hand, silently wishing he'd touch her again, and studies his expression. She wanted to know what he was thinking, did he like touching her hand, did he feel relieved telling her about his fear? Did she give him the strength to stand up to his father or was she completely looking at it the wrong way?

"Thank you for telling me." She says slowly after a moment. "Is there anything else you'd like to tell me? Do you feel okay? How are you?"

Four gives her a small smile. "I'm fine. But what about you? You seemed upset earlier when you were with Zeke."

We were talking about you.

"It was nothing, really. I was asking for some advice." When she sees that he was looking for her to elaborate, she continues. "I'm a very negative person. Everything that I go through, I let it take over me. I wanted to know how he stayed so optimistic."

He nods as he seems to recall something. "Yeah, they really do know how to control their emotions."

"He said they took you in."

Tris knows what she just said was risky, but she keeps a straight face and watches him sit straighter.

"They did."

"And you were a reserved kid."

"I was."

She uncrosses, then crosses her legs again. "So, why do you do that then?"

"Do what?"

"When you met me... you were so straightforward. But you're not like that."

His eyes squint slightly in question. "Then what am I like?"

"I don't know." She replies, almost in frustration. "You're quiet, closed off, and remote? You don't talk to other people as openly as you do to me."

"Does that bother you?"

"I'm not sure. It's confusing. And it's weird to see you act so humorless when you talk to other people." She stops briefly. "I don't recognize you."

Four rubs the back of his neck. "Yes, I am a very unfriendly and secluded person-"

"I didn't-"

"But it took me a long time to open up to Zeke and Uriah. Anyone. To be able to sit and talk without always being so tense and looking behind my back to make sure no one was behind me." He draws in a long breath. "But with you, I don't know. I immediately felt like I could trust you. So I did."

She holds her breath after hearing this new piece of information.

"Should I not do that, then?"

"Do what?"

"Trust you?"

Tris is silent. She wanted him to trust her, but was she really to be trusted?

"What else did he tell you?" He asks abruptly.

When she doesn't say anything, his eyes narrow.

"Tris."

Her voice is hushed when she whispers. "About Eric."

He stands suddenly as the color drains from his face. "Right. We're done talking."

She feels her voice rise and her fists clench as the calm atmosphere in the room instantly changes. "No, what do you mean we're done? Why is he such a bad thing to talk about?"

Four grabs his bottle and clutches his key after shoving his feet into his shoes.

"Zeke told me you beat the fucking shit out of him because he almost killed a girl. That's a good thing, Four."

When he doesn't turn around, she hops off the bed and follows him to the door.

"Four, what the hell? Why-"

"Because I couldn't bring myself to stop." He fumes as he whirls around so swiftly, she has to physically force herself to stop before she rams into him. "I was so angry, I couldn't control myself."

Tris has to remind herself to breathe. Her face was so close to him, she could feel each heavy and frustrated breath tickle her cheek. She remembers Zeke.

He's just scared of being like his father.

"Four." She says softly. "You're not like him."

"You don't know how he's like." His response is terse.

"You told me. You said he's manipulative and heartless."

Tris feels her cheeks become hot when he takes another step closer with his brows drawn together. Her breath hitches as he leans forward so that his mouth is close enough to brush against her ear.

"You don't know enough."

When he pulls away, he opens the door, and Tris takes a step back in order to regain her composure. When her mind clears, her fire returns.

"Would you ever hit me?"

He pauses in step.

"No."

"Do you enjoy giving pain to innocent people?"

His posture is rigid as he looks back at her.

"No."

"Is that not enough to tell you that you are not like him?"

"I didn't care if Eric was even alive. I just kept going."

"He deserved it."

Four shakes his head.

"You know what? I wouldn't have cared either!"

"Well we'll never know for sure, won't we?"

When he steps out the door and slams it behind him, Tris runs to grab her cell phone and shoes, then follows him.

She wasn't going to let him walk away, except his strides were so fast, she'd never catch up.

"Four!" She calls out, but he doesn't falter.

Tris gives up. She stops and lets her hands fall to her sides.

"Fine. Then I guess I'm just like you." She calls out, her voice incredibly firm and enraged.

He stills. "Tris, you are-"

"Do you remember my first game? I went against Peter?"

He turns and opens his mouth but she only cuts him off.

"Yes, he shot me twice. Yes, he hurt me to the point where I had accepted death. But I shot him twice, too. I kicked and punched his bullet wounds. And do you know what else happened? I laughed. I enjoyed it."

She takes a step back as he takes one forward. "So don't tell me what I am and am not like if you can't take what I'm telling you."

With that, Tris swings toward the direction of their room and walks the few steps to open the door before he could reach her. When she grabs the knob and twists it with force angrily, she gasps in pain as it doesn't budge.

The door was locked and she didn't have her key.

Tris grits her teeth in resignation as she waits for Four to return to her side, but instead of unlocking the door, he waits for her to look at him.

"Four, just unlock it."

Her phone vibrates and she reaches for her phone. It's an unknown ID but the message Hey, it's Myra flashes across her screen clear enough for both of them to read, and she bites her tongue.

"Who's Myra?"

Tris turns to look at him finally. "Unlock the door."

Four narrows his eyes but she only shoves her phone back into her pocket. "That is so irrelevant right now, just open the goddamn door."

Tris becomes still as he grabs her arm and pulls it toward him. He drops his key into her open palm but before he can pull back, Tris catches his hand. She squeezes her eyes shut and draws out a long breath.

"We need to stop."

"Easier said than done. Arguing seems to be a must every time I talk to you."

"So does you walking away."

"As if you haven't walked away from me plenty of times."

"I'm trying to make amends."

"Amends for what?" Four steps back, letting her hand fall.

When she doesn't answer, he shakes his head in frustration.

Four suddenly grabs back the key from her hand, unlocks the door, walks into the room, and falls limply onto his bed. He uses his arm to shield his eyes and lets out a large exhale.

Tris closes the door behind her and stares at him from the doorway. They both are quiet for what seems like hours until she finally breaks the silence.

"Why is this so hard?"

"I don't know." He sighs.

They're silent again, and if Tris didn't know any better, she'd think Four had fallen asleep.

"We said we'd stop fighting." She says as she massages her forehead with her hand.

Four removes his arm from his eyes and frowns. "I know."

Tris feels her phone vibrate with another message and grabs it. This time, the message wasn't from Myra.

MATTHEW- Hey. I gave Myra your number again. You were right, she came back to our room about 20 minutes later.

MATTHEW- She wasn't too happy I'd been following her but wouldn't you follow your roommate in the middle of the night?

She contemplates on responding before finally exiting. Tris would deal with it later. Besides, she didn't get their numbers to become best buddies, only to discuss things in a formal manner.

But how will they open up to me if I don't even talk?

She pushes those thoughts aside and looks up to see Four staring at her. Her cheeks get warm again as he examines her face while drawing his lower lip between his teeth in thought.

Even though she wants to look away and hide, she stares right back. She was always watching Four and studying the features on his face and body, but she never realized how uneasy it could make you feel because you really don't know what the other person is thinking about you.

"You blame yourself for your parent's death, no matter how much people tell you otherwise."

She frowns at his words but nods.

"As much as I disagree with you, I stopped arguing with you about it."

Tris feels her expression harden as she realizes what he's getting at.

"The same way, I know. I know there are traits in me that are just like him." Four presses his lips together. "The reason why I stopped trying to convince you that you had nothing to do with your parent's death was because I knew you wouldn't listen. The only person that can make that decision is you."

She looks down to play with her fingers before looking back up at the ceiling in resignation. Her voice is quiet when she answers, "Understood."

Tris stands suddenly and drags her feet over to the sofa with her phone clutched in her hand. As she sits down, she leans against the armrest and brings her knees up to her chest.

She places her phone strategically on her right so that it doesn't fall through the space between the cushion and reaches up to free her hair from its ponytail. She shakes her head and sighs in fatigue.

Tris feels someone sit next to her and is rewarded with immediate warmth when a blanket is thrown over her body. She pulls it more tightly to her and exhales as the silence looms between them. She looks over at Four and almost blushes at the fact that they were basically sharing a cover.

"Myra was that girl making out with Edward, remember?"

The corners of his mouth turn up and Tris can't help but smile back. She liked it when he smiled.

"Oh, I remember. If I recall correctly, you were horrified."

Tris rolls her eyes. "I wasn't horrified. Just..."

"If you say you're not used to seeing people-"

Tris extends her left leg and kicks him before he can continue. When she brings her leg back to her chest, Four tilts his head. She sighs and glances down at her phone.

"A few days back, I couldn't sleep. I went out and ended up at the cafeteria. I ran into Myra there too." She tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. "We had a small conversation. I asked for her number and told her not to talk about our meeting. I don't want to risk anything."

He draws in a long breath. "I know that's not the first time you've left the room, Tris."

Tris presses her hands to her cheeks, not knowing how to respond. She opens her mouth but he interrupts her.

"How do you know you can trust Myra?"

"She's dating Edward." She replies while interlocking her fingers together to stop from fidgeting. "I figured, no one knows about her sneaking out to be with him at night, so if she ever does turn on me, I could use that against her."

Four gives her a raises brow. "So you're placing your trust in someone who makes out with her provider?"

Tris kicks him again, but this time, leaves her leg stretched out. "I just know, okay? Trust me."

"I do."

She looks down again to hide her face out of guilt.

"So do you think Myra can help us?"

Tris nods. "Yeah. Tori won't tell us anything, but Edward was pretty helpful that day we met with him, so maybe-"

"You can ask Myra to ask Edward about the games, right? I don't know. Tris, how did Edward and Myra even know each other? Start from there. Remember he was so protective of her? Do you think he knew her before the games?"

Four leans his head back. "I don't think you should text unless it's extremely important. I'm pretty sure they'll be able to see our texts. Meeting up would be safer because there aren't cameras in every hall."

Tris is quiet for a moment. When she looks straight at Four, she wears a frown.

"You shouldn't."

"Shouldn't what?"

"Trust me. You asked me earlier if you should trust me. You shouldn't."

"And why not?"

"What do you mean, why not? I've gotten Myra's number and had it for a while. I sneak out. I try to figure out how to escape on my own instead of telling you-"

She stops talking when she sees Four fighting off a grin.

"Why are you smiling?" She asks, clearly not getting what was so amusing.

He opens his mouth, then chuckles. "I don't know. If I take this the wrong way, we're just going to end up fighting again."

Tris exhales a deep breath as he shrugs and continues. "You know, we met a little more than a week ago."

"But trust is something we should work on since it's kind of a life or death situation."

"Look, I'm not going to get mad at you for not telling me. It happened. But if you're going to finish telling me all this and then sneak out again without telling me about your plans in advance, then we have a problem."

Tris grabs her phone from her temporary hiding spot and holds it up. "Okay, I'm thinking of texting Myra right now, and I'm thinking I should try to talk to her. Since there are no games, I wanted to use all the time we had and try to figure out why we're here."

"And what will be the the first thing you ask her?"

"How she knows Edward."

Four nods. "That's right." He gestures toward her phone. "Why didn't you plan anything earlier in the morning?"

Tris shakes her head. "I wanted... I needed to talk to you. About anything you wanted. Not me."

He gives her a small smile. "Oh wow, look at you. So considerate."

"Yeah. Although, that didn't turn out as smoothly as I imagined."

"It's alright. We're working on it."

Tris studies Four's expression. Soft, and vulnerable. Nothing like the cold and intimidating man she could see in an instant. She closes her eyes and wills for herself to save the sweet expression into her memory.

"Already so sleepy."

"I'm not-"

"Go to sleep. Seriously. I know you didn't sleep. A nap won't hurt you."

"The point of starting right away, is to start right away."

"And the point of a nap, is to sleep for half an hour or so."

Tris opens her mouth to snap back but ends up yawning instead.

"Oh, what did I tell you?!" He laughs. Tris grabs the blanket and snatches it away from his legs, leaving him exposed to the chilled air. He grabs it back and ends up pulling so hard that she shrieks as she's pulled right along.

The next couple seconds are a blur as Tris feels her body fly forward. She extends her arms in front of her to catch herself but ends up completely falling flat onto Four's legs. She smacks his arm hard enough for it to burn and pushes herself back up.

"Sorry." He tells her as he rubs the spot she'd punched him. "I didn't mean to pull that hard."

"Oh shut up, I know you enjoyed it." Tris replies.

She keeps a straight face as she realizes what she said and waits for Four to react.

"Huh, you're right, I did."

This time, Tris laughs when she topples on Four's chest. Her heart was racing and her mind was getting light from how close they were, but she doesn't push herself away.

When Tris looks up at Four, they both become quiet. Her eyes rake over his facial features, his smirk, his tousled hair, his mysterious cloudy eyes, and she thinks back to the top of the Ferris wheel. That was the last time she'd been able to stand so close to his face. When she was able to study him as he was distracted by the height.

But this wasn't anything out of the ordinary. They were close again, and he was distracted.

Just for a different reason.

"Did I ever tell you that I like the color of your eyes?"

Tris hums. "I don't recall."

"Well, I like the color of your eyes."

"Thank my parents."

Tris looks away suddenly as she remembers her mom and dad. How the fucking hell would he thank them?

Four's voice is soft as he realizes they'd reached a touchy topic. "Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Prior."

"You know my last name?" She asks with a hushed voice so that he wouldn't be able to hear her voice shake.

"I saw your profile, I remember."

Tris lets out a sigh just when there's suddenly a low buzz. She feels her phone vibrate and chooses to ignore it, but Four was already waiting for her to check who it was.

MYRA: I know we're supposed to keep it low-key but a confirmation you're alive and well would be appreciated.

TRIS: I'm alive, Myra.

She tosses her phone to the side as soon as she's finished and purses her lips together. Yes, everyone was alive except for Rita, but no one was well, whether it be physically or emotionally.

"I just feel like we haven't been as productive as we could have been these past couple days. We were actually getting a lead on something." Tris confesses a second later.

"And then you got stuck in a room." Four points to the blank screen. "I realize that you really want to escape, we all do, but... one thing at a time. Maybe you getting kidnapped was a warning because we were getting a lead."

Tris feels sudden fear as he finishes his sentence. Someone was always watching them.

She knew. Disobeying the rules was going against everything the games wanted them to do.

But if they ever wanted to get help. If they ever wanted to break free.

It was worth the risk.

"We'll just have to be more careful. That's all we can do at this point."

Four doesn't say anything. He doesn't need to, because Tris already knows that he agrees.

A/N- Fuck, clearly I suck at schedules. I'm so sorry guys, I have summer school, and I completely underestimated the amount of work we could receive, it's ridiculous.

I mean, if one day of summer school=one week of regular school, obviously there'd be a lot of work.

I'm just dumb.

Anyway, hopefully, you guys liked this chapter. I'm an idiot and I don't know how to use my brain to think creatively which is why it takes forever for me to write... but I'm trying.

Review, follow, favorite, I don't know lol. I'll update as soon as I can, but I will not abandon this story okay!?

I love you guys, see you again later. And thanks for the past reviews! Thanks so much.