Soft snores, and a low heart beat. Tris feels relaxed as she lazily forces her eyes open. She was lying on something so soft, so warm.
No, not something- someone.
Tris tilts her head up and realizes that she'd in fact fallen asleep on top of Four, who had his arm wrapped unconciously around her.
She lays her head back on his chest and sighs as her vision blurs again.
~.~.~
"Wait, right now? You want to come now?"
Tris yawns as she sits up on the couch, a chill in the air. She immediately focuses on Four, who was talking on the phone while sitting on her bed and facing away from her.
She pushes herself off the sofa and frowns as the blanket falls onto the floor. Tris could feel her hair on the back of her neck sticking with sweat.
A shower sounded nice. When was the last time she showered anyway?
"Okay. Who else?" Four asks as he shifts on her bed.
She wonders why he's seated there as she walks over to the drawer filled with her clothes. Longing hits her as she opens it, only to find black shirts and pants. Hell, she even missed the colors of her old outfits.
Tris picks out a pair of leggings and a sweatshirt before grabbing a towel and entering the bathroom without locking it behind her. She makes sure her phone is with her and takes one more glance at Four, who didn't even notice she was up and moving.
When she steps into the bathtub and turns on the shower, she gasps at how cold the water is but doesn't turn away. Tris stands still as she faces the shower head and lets the stream pound on her face until it gradually starts to send warmth back into her body.
She needed to figure out what to do. It was frustrating being in a place and not knowing what was going on, like putting on a blindfold and leaving it up to faith to decide what to do with you.
Or maybe it was just her. She needed control, and here, she didn't have it.
As Tris grabs the shampoo and starts slathering it on her head, she mentally makes a list of any details she knew so far.
They were always being watched. Long enough that whoever took them knew their favorite whereabouts, best skills, size, and their past. Even now, there was no use in denying the cameras that covered every hallway, every corner.
They were underground. That explained the consistent chill in the air wherever they were and the coolness of the walls. Even though the walls were painted, Tris was observant enough to have noticed the chipped paint and stone layer beneath.
They all had no one to notice they were gone. This, she wasn't completely sure. Zeke and Uriah must have been party animals and sociable, maybe their friends would feel their absence. But she did know that she didn't have anyone, Four didn't have anyone, and Zeke and Uriah's mom didn't live with them.
Their 'attendants' knew more than they let on. For one, Tori was just an asshole who was unwilling to help at all and use them for her own amusement. But two, Edward was different. He was young, in love with one of the group members, and sort of easier to ask things from.
And lastly, some of the members from Group A had the same urge of escaping just like Tris, she just needed to find them.
Tris steps out of the shower after wrapping a black towel around her body and reaches for her phone as she remembers that she hadn't replied to Matthew's text. She wanted to sound friendly, but not too friendly.
TRIS: That's good, Matthew. Next time don't follow her.
She rereads her message before quickly hitting send, not wanting to overthink anything. Tris immediately stills when a frantic knocking interrupts her calm peace of mind. She hurriedly closes her phone and slides it far away from her.
Before she can even ask Four what he wants, the door flies open and someone barges in.
"What the hell?!" Tris screeches as she steps back, almost killing herself from slipping back into the tub.
When the door slams closed again, she narrows her eyes when she sees who it is. For some reason, Tris wasn't happy seeing her. She didn't realize she was still a bit bitter after the paint gun game, where she'd taken the flag.
"Christina, you better have a good fucking-"
"Shh, not right now. definitely not right now." Christina tosses the clothes Tris had picked out earlier and sits on the closed toilet seat. "Get dressed."
"Do you mind?" Tris questions as she rakes one hand through her wet hair and clutches the towel more tightly to her chest with the other.
When Christina makes no effort to turn around, Tris sucks in a deep breath and awkwardly adjusts her towel. "What happened?"
"Everything. Just put your clothes on."
"Then turn around, Christina! I'm not kidding!"
She opens her mouth to argue more but decides against it when she realizes Tris wasn't going to move until she couldn't see her. Christina lets out a gush of air and crosses her arms as she shifts on the toilet seat to face the door.
"Quickly."
Tris grits her teeth in annoyance as she shoves on her underwear and bra, she was uncomfortable with Christina there but eager to know what was so important that she had to come barging in the first place.
"You have nice legs."
Tris throws her towel at Christina. "Turn around!"
She rolls her eyes and returns to her previous position. Not even five seconds later, Tris looks up to find Christina staring at her once again. She could feel her eyes automatically squint into a murderous stare.
"I'm sorry, it's just that you're so pretty, Tris."
She groans as she points toward the door. "Face that way."
"Okay."
It's after Tris has stepped into her leggings and is absentmindedly fiddling with the strings of her shirt that Christina stands and strides over to her.
"Alright, I'm done waiting. Now is not the time to get lost in your thoughts, I'm serious!" She yells as she grabs the towel from the floor and forces Tris to bend her head low.
Her hands are quick as she impatiently blots and flips Tris's wet hair over to securely wrap it.
"I don't understand why you've even forced yourself in here if you're not going to tell me what's going on, you could have stayed out on my bed for all I care."
Christina stands straight after tightening and positioning the towel properly. "Because I want to tell you something that I don't want anyone else to hear."
"Okay." Tris replies while grabbing her phone again and slipping it into her front pocket. "I'm done now, so tell me."
She sighs and looks away as she waits while Christina tilts her head down and plays with her fingers. Tris bites the inside of her cheek, and she's planning to leave the bathroom when she suddenly hears a sniff.
It takes less than two seconds for her to register Christina's teary eyes. Tris instinctively guides her back over to the toilet to make her sit down.
"Who do I need to kill?" She asks, surprised by the concern in her voice.
Christina laughs and wipes at her eyes. "It's nothing. This is completely irrelevant. It's just- I want to go home, Tris. I'm so tired."
And just like that, any sort of bitterness toward her is thrown out the window.
They all were in this together, they were all trying to survive. Tris almost kicks herself for even thinking of having a grudge against anyone and not being the bigger person.
"And I know I sound like a complete loser," Christina continues as she wipes at a falling tear from her cheek, "but I don't want to do this anymore."
Tris watches another tear slip down her face. She grabs both of Christina's hands and waits for her to look up.
"I understand. We all want to get out of here, we just need to figure out how. But stay strong for right now. We'll get through this, Christina. We all will."
Christina gives her a watery smile and Tris reaches up to pull the towel off her head. She shakes her hair, not caring that it was still damp, and hands it to Christina to wipe her face.
"Alright, let's go." She stands suddenly. "Will is waiting."
"Will?" Tris questions. "He's here too?"
"Yes. It's because- well we'll explain once we're out."
Tris follows Christina and frowns when she sees both Four and Will seated together.
"What's going on?"
Will pushes himself off the couch. "I overheard some stuff."
"We both were coming back from the training room and by the intersection of our two group hallways, there were two people standing there and talking."
Tris shifts from one foot to the other. "What did they look like?"
Christina pipes up. "One was a pretty girl with brown hair. The other was wearing-"
"Myra and Edward." She cuts off while glancing at Four. His hair was ruffled and his eyes rake over her face just as hers do to him. "It must've been them?"
He furrows his brows and looks back at Will. "What were they saying?"
"Okay. This is the weird part. The guy... I've never seen him before. He was comforting the girl. She kept saying she didn't want to be next in the games."
Christina flops onto Four's bed. "But he kept reassuring her that she wouldn't be next and that he'd make sure of it." She turns to look at Tris again. "I think... Edward you say. I think he's controlling the games."
Tris bites the inside of her cheek to suppress her hopeless laugh. She thought they were maybe getting somewhere. Instead, she just learned that Edward was giving Myra false comforting sentences to calm her down.
Four turns back to Will. "That's... a good theory. But, sorry to crush your confidence when I tell you that it's wrong."
"What other possible explanation could there be?" Christina throws her hands up, sitting straight again with a raised voice. "We've never even seen him before? How do you both know who he is?"
Tris opens her mouth to respond, when she suddenly looks down at her phone, thinking better.
"What is it? You're not telling us something?"
She looks up at Christina. "Call everyone. We should go to the training room. Not just the four of us, but our group as a whole."
"So you're saying that Edward is another Tori, but for Group A?" Lynn asks, finally looking up from fiddling with her phone.
"Yes." Tris replies.
Everyone was seated in somewhat of a circle on the blue mats except Lynn who had pulled up the table near them and sat on that instead. Tris secretly wishes she hadn't, she was tired of craning her neck to see her.
She was basically sitting back-to-back with Uriah, too tired to move over to the wall to lean on. Marlene sat next to Uriah, Christina and Will were by the wall with Al standing next to them, Zeke's outstretched foot was resting against her thigh, Shauna was seated criss cross beside him, and Four was surprisingly nowhere near her.
Tris couldn't fight off her immediate blush as he'd brushed past her while they were headed toward the training room. They'd slept next to each other, and she hadn't even thought about it until then.
So it sent an unexpected stab of pain when he'd hesitated, then continued walking on after she'd seated herself next to Uriah and didn't meet her eye.
No, she was not just hurt, she was annoyed as well.
"The thing is," Tris speaks again to fight off her frustration and keep her voice neutral. "Edward is a hell of a better person in general than Tori. It's not fair. He's younger, more understanding, and certainly more willing to answer questions than Tori, who thinks she's fucking good at riddles."
"Well, she needs someone to practice on." Uriah answers, trying to lighten her mood. She could feel the vibrations of his voice against her back.
Shauna frowns. "Tori is afraid of the cameras. It seems that Edward isn't."
"Which raises the theory again, that maybe Edward is behind it all?" Christina suggests.
"What was it that they said again?"
Christina rolls her eyes at Uriah. "Edward was hugging Myra, looking 'oh so concerned' as she expressed how she did not want to be next, and Edward being the affectionate partner he is, reassured her that she wouldn't be."
"That's just it." Tris sighs as she pulls on her high ponytail. Her hair had dried enough for her to tie it up in the last fifteen minutes. "He's just reassuring her, but no one really knows."
Zeke looks at Tris. "You got locked in Tori's room before, correct?"
She raises her eyebrows, caught off guard, but nods. "Yeah, and there was a tv that I could use to watch you guys for the first five minutes."
Everyone turns to look at her, and she realizes that she'd never really talked about it. She looks at Four and notices that he was, for the first time in the whole meeting, staring at her. She couldn't read his eyes, but she could tell that he was paying attention, and it hits her that she never went into depth about it to him either.
"The tv," Al repeats, "It just clicked on? And you saw everyone?"
"Well, not- I mean-"
"If you don't remember, it's okay." Marlene tilts her head.
Tris shuts her eyes. "No, give me a second."
She imagines being in the room again. The panic and shock after realizing she was trapped, and the desperateness she'd felt. She'd broken down and felt useless. Revisiting the emotions hit her hard.
"The screen." Tris opens her eyes again. "In Tori's room, there was a screen, it flashed red when the time was up. The door clicked, and after a minute or so it became white again."
"So how did you see us?" Will asks.
"When I went to the screen, it had buttons on the side. Rewind, pause, fast forward, play, the on and off switch, and... I think two buttons that said cafeteria and infirmary."
"Why were you there in the first place? Tori's room." Al asks.
"We were both together. We figured Tori didn't sleep in the infirmary. So we looked around and found her room."
Tris looks at Four in surprise, but again feels a flash of irritation when he still wasn't looking at her. Not only had he finally just talked, he'd mentioned her in the same sentence too. She didn't understand... Was he mad at her? What had she done?
Al stands even straighter, uncrossing his bulky arms from his chest as he scoffs. "You were with her? So you just left her there?"
Four narrows his eyes all of a sudden, showing resentment by his accusation, but Tris was quick enough to notice the way he was momentarily caught off guard. His voice is slow and quiet, but hard. "What did you just-"
"Okay. That's enough. It happened. It's over. Just look at the good in what happened, which was that they both found Tori's room, and there's a screen she can use to see through cameras. Now we know, that whatever we do, Tori can watch us from those two places."
Tris looks over at Lynn, who was now standing as well, looking irritated. A small silence looms after, and when she's sure the hidden threat in her outburst has fully taken effect on them, she sits on the table once again.
With a deep breath, Tris grabs her phone as something to play with since her palms were sweaty and she was nervous.
Shauna coughs. "We're not getting anywhere. There are cameras, we're underground, Tori and Edward know more about this hell, Myra has a relationship... Now we need to think of a plan. We need to trust each other and work together if we want to get out of here."
"Isn't that a rule from somewhere? Don't trust anyone?"
Will looks at Al. "By all means, if you have any better ideas, we'd love to hear them. Clearly, we don't have any at the moment."
"As a matter of fact, I do." He responds as if he was waiting for someone to ask him that all along. "I don't think we should do anything at all. Just go to the games as we should. Because the last time you," He points to Tris with his finger. "tried to do something about it, you were caught and gone for two days."
"And the last time that I went through the games, the last time any of us went through the games, we brushed past death." Tris feels her voice become louder. "Don't you see that there is no safe option? Everywhere screams death. But if you're implying that continuing the games is the safe option, without doing anything else except sit miserably on our asses as we wait for a rescue that will never come-"
Tris stands swiftly, leaving her sentence hanging in the air as she ignores the way Zeke's foot and her phone flies off her leg, and how Uriah has to catch himself with his palms from falling backward. She looks back at Al.
"There's no games, the screen has no time, who knows how long it will take for the screen to display our next mini game. A couple more days? A week? Every second is crucial, and you want to sit around?"
"So you're just going to continue with whatever you think is right, not giving a shit that you're going to die." A statement. She didn't recall ever hearing him swear.
The air was heavy in the room, and she comes to a realization that not only was Al waiting for an answer but so was everyone else.
"I care about you." He strides toward her and grabs her wrist, vulnerability, and despair showcased in front of her. She wills herself to stay still. For some reason she wasn't surprised, she'd known Al liked her, she just never wanted to believe it. "I care about everyone here. I'm not going to watch everyone die. You die."
"Al." Zeke's voice held a warning. Leave her alone.
Al ignores him. "Tris."
You're hurting me. Stop. The voice inside her head screams at him, but she found her mouth couldn't move and she was frozen in place.
His grip tightens even more like a hand cuff on too tight, as if he heard her thoughts and didn't care. "Think about what you're doing, Tris."
He wants her to be like every other girl. He doesn't want Tris to be the hero, he wants to protect her. He thought she was the smallest and weakest.
But she wasn't. She never was.
Despite how angry she felt, she looks at Al with a steady gaze, willing every single nerve in her body to let her speak. "I'd rather die trying, than die without doing anything at all. Whether you join me, or not, because I don't need your protection. I never have, and I certainly never will."
She pulls her hand out of his grasp, knowing very well that even though she tries to hide it, white marks were visible.
"Tris?" She hears Uriah's concerned voice as if it were a mile away, even as she slowly walks backward in his direction.
"Fine." Tris replies, her voice barely audible, her eyes never leaving Al as she rubs her wrist.
Four speaks up with an authoritative tone. "So the plan for right now is to be aware of everything. When we're in the observation room, try to look carefully for any devices or something helpful. When we're free, try and explore more about the area, any little details like the chipped paint and stone. Whatever you find will helpful. Maybe everyone can also try talking to Tori so we can see if there's anyone she trusts more than the other. Text with anything new you hear or find."
Tris finally looks away from Al, and her gaze swipes the room. "The lesson we all learned from me disappearing, is that it's too dangerous to be alone. So we need to stick with someone at all times."
"A side mission," Marlene sums up. "follow whatever the rules are so we don't get in trouble or raise suspicion, but when we're free-"
"Investigate like hell." Will finishes.
"That's it? Play detective?" Al interrupts.
Zeke pushes himself off the floor. "As of now, the plan is to search for clues. When we get more clues, we can think of an actual plan. I don't see why I'm explaining this to you if you don't want to actually do anything."
"I'll help." His voice is quiet. "But if anything goes wrong-"
"Then at least we'll have done something." Tris repeats herself from earlier, not looking at Al as she bends down to scoop her phone from the floor. Uriah beats her to it and hands it to her instead.
As the room begins to stir with activity again, Marlene stalks over to Lynn, and Uriah places a hand on her arm Tris's arm.
"Did you get any sleep?"
She nods. "Yeah. Better than I have in a while."
"Good." He sighs. "Tris, what's the real reason you went into Tori's room? I know-"
She shifts closer to him, and he moves his hand from her arm to her shoulder. "There were... These papers. I saw her going through them in the infirmary, and I just kept thinking to myself, I need to know what's inside. So when I was locked in her room..."
"What did they say?"
When she doesn't answer, he gives her shoulder a squeeze.
"They were profiles. Our name, and just a bunch of information about our hangouts and something about our past."
"Your parents?" His voice is gentle.
"Yeah." She whispers. "Everyone's was in there."
"Did you look at mine?"
She meets his gaze. "No."
He frowns. "You know, Tris. I trust you, and I wouldn't have minded if you read it. We all trust you."
"I don't know, it had everyone's personal information. I didn't-"
"I get it. But maybe you should've read them because we don't know if you'll ever have a chance to sneak into her room again."
Tris exhales. "I don't know. I read Four's profile and he got so mad at me."
Uriah looks at her for several seconds, unmoving as he understands the deeper meaning in her sentence, then gestures toward the phone in her hand. "The least you could've done was take pictures."
The moment the sentence leaves his mouth, she slaps her forehead and groans. The thought never crossed her mind. "What the fuck, why didn't I-"
"It's okay, Tris."
"No, I- that's a great idea. I wasn't thinking, I ended up breaking my phone but I should've-"
"Like Lynn said, there's nothing we can do now." Uriah gives her a quick hug. "I better go, Marlene is waiting."
"Yeah." She sighs. "Go ahead."
Tris hasn't even moved an inch when Al comes and blocks her way. "Tris, I'm sorry."
She stands still. "Why are you sorry? You have your opinion, I have mine."
"I know. I was being disrespectful about it though, I didn't mean to be so rude."
Tris shakes her head as she tries to choose her next words. "It's... okay, Al. You don't need to apologize, we're all suffering together."
"Okay. I didn't want you to stay mad at me."
She opens her mouth but Al cuts her off. "I meant what I said."
"About what?"
"About caring about you."
When she stands, still watching him, he gestures toward her direction.
"I like you."
She smiles. "I like you too, Al."
Al hears the friendliness in her tone, and his expression becomes more nervous. "No. You don't understand, I like you. More than a friend."
Time freezes. She looks past him and makes eye contact with Will, who silently asks her if she's alright. She nods, then looks back at Al.
"Al, I like you, but... nothing more than that." She reaches up and lays a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry. I care about you too, I do, but only as a friend."
"I see." He glances at the ceiling. "I understand. It's fine."
Tris waits for him to look back down, and offers him a smile. "Thank you."
She reaches forward to hug him and finds herself holding her breath from inhaling his lemon scent.
After he pulls back, he gives her one last smile and finally leaves. She follows Al with her eyes and notices that when she turns back to look to her right, Four was doing the same. Glaring, actually. Feeling another burst of vexation, she strides over to him.
"There's always something I've done wrong, huh?"
When Four registers that Tris was in front of him, he squints his eyes. "What?"
"What did I do, elbow you in my sleep? Take too much of the blanket?" She continues, mockery dripping from her words.
He looks away as he crosses his arms in bewilderment, as if he wasn't sure he was hearing her right, then meets her eyes again. "Neither."
"Then tell me. Because I'm tired of-"
"Show me your wrist."
"Excuse me?"
His voice lowers into a more gentle tone. "Show me your wrist."
After a moment, she slowly pulls out her hand from her sweatshirt pocket and watches as Four grabs it carefully. She holds her breath while he turns it over in his hand and runs his thumb over the dark marks.
"Piece of fuck." He mutters under his breath.
Tris ignores him and jerks her hand away. "If you want to be left alone, then tell me, Four."
He returns his arm to his side. "I don't want to be left alone."
"Then what?"
Four starts walking, ignoring her, and Tris catches up so they're going the same pace. He doesn't speak again until after they've made their first turn in the hallway.
He rubs his eyes as he changes the subject. "I'm not sure if anything was helpful today."
She's quiet while they walk, and she runs her fingers against the cool wall like she usually did as they turn another corner.
"I feel like we definitely needed to let the group know everything we'd learned, but the plan sucks."
Tris slows down her pace as they turn the final corner to their room. "It's a reasonable plan. We barely have any information. Besides, the real planning is for the two of us."
She looks over at his figure, not letting him escape. "Why were you ignoring me?"
Four glances down at his feet. "What makes you say that?"
Tris pauses in her step and looks at him in disbelief. "You didn't sit next to me, and you didn't make eye contact with me at all, is that not trying to avoid someone? I thought we were good."
He frowns. "I just didn't sit, there's nothing much to it."
Tris pauses, almost convinced that she really was making a big deal out of nothing when she suddenly catches the uncertainty in his eye.
"No, I know something was bothering you. You were going to sit with me until something happened."
She shakes her head when they finally stop by the door. Already seeing the disagreement on his face, she continues. "We just talked about trust with each other. I don't want to fight. Don't keep things like this from me. If you're feeling something, then let me know, Four."
Both of them stand, facing each other.
"Tell you what I'm feeling." He repeats.
"Yes. Stop bottling away everything." She answers, willing him to be truthful. She waits, and Tris is almost sure that he isn't going to say anything at all until he finally exhales.
"I felt," His voice is soft. "guilty. I couldn't function after you disappeared when I left you. I felt, that you were lying when you told me beating up Eric was fine. I felt, that you were afraid of me because I couldn't control myself like my father couldn't. I felt, serene when I was able to sleep next to you today."
Four stares at her with a heavy gaze. "And I felt, like I wanted to kill Al when he confessed his feelings for you. Because whatever he said, is the way that I, feel about you."
Tris didn't realize she was holding her breath until he finishes, so she draws in air through her lungs sharply. Could he hear the loud frantic beat in her ears? The sound of her blood rushing through her head with each pulse? Or notice the way her hands were trembling?
No, she couldn't feel that way. No relationships in the games. She wasn't going to try to fall in love here, it was so dangerous.
But her heart disagreed with the logical side of her.
There was no denying it, she'd already fallen for Four. Hard.
She felt like she was going to double over from how intensely her stomach was giving her butterflies. Tris knew he was waiting for her, so she meets his careful stare with a sudden boldness.
"Then show me." Her voice is low as she steps toward him, wanting him to end her hesitative thoughts. "Prove it. How do you feel about me?"
Four stands motionless, watching her with an unreadable expression.
Then all of a sudden, he moves forward, grabs a hold of her face with both his hands, and slams his lips into hers.
Tris gasps when she hits the wall behind her, and it takes only a second for her whole body to go into a complete frenzy. Never in her life, had she ever felt so many sparks of electricity course through her veins until this moment. His touch sent sensations she never knew she was capable of feeling.
Her mind was freaking out and all she could see was a hot white beneath her eyes, but her body was different. What it screamed was desire, and the way it moved, showed no trace of nervousness whatsoever. Her hands automatically slide against Four's body until they find his scalp, and her fingers instinctively curl into his tousled hair, evoking a low moan from him.
Her legs were slightly shaking. As if reading her mind, he grabs Tris beneath the thighs and hoists her up, tilting her head to deepen the kiss as she wraps her legs firmly around his waist.
She's so sure her lungs are going to burst when he finally pulls away, breathing as if he's run a marathon. Tris forces her eyes open, gripping the wall behind her as support to help her stay upright when he lets her go with one arm.
She didn't know what to say. In fact, she didn't want to say anything at all. Tris wanted him to stop fiddling with the knob and come back to her.
Finally unlocking the door, Four carries Tris inside and slams it shut behind him. He sets her down to the floor.
"Do you-"
"Just shut up." She interrupts before he can get another word out. Tris pulls him to her so that their lips meet again, and she doesn't have to open her eyes to know that he is smiling.
He walks backward while holding her close by the waist until they've both reached his bed. Tris keeps an arm around his neck as he lies her down.
She was too scared to let go. Too scared to be reminded of the situation she was trapped in.
"Tris-" He tries to mumble. She doesn't budge and kisses him harder. Realizing she wasn't going to listen, Four rests an arm on both sides of her head as he moves his lips against hers in a feverish manner. All she could think of was Four.
She wanted to inhale him as if he was a drug because she was so addicted to him. She wanted to be lost in this moment forever, safe away from the games.
But he turns his head so he could finally talk after being interrupted by her twice. She makes a sound of protest, but he only chuckles against her cheek.
"Tris, you need to breathe."
"I'm perfectly fine." But the way she could barely speak coherently proved otherwise.
He laughs breathlessly and brushes a light kiss on her lips, a gentle caress, before resting his forehead on hers. He blows out a gush of air that tickles her face. Four finally looks her in the eye-
-and his eyebrows immediately furrow. He raises a hand to wipe at her eyes with his thumb.
"You're crying." He whispers.
Tris moves to hide her face, embarrassed that she was suddenly breaking down, but Four catches her hand and places a kiss on her palm. He brushes a piece of hair that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear.
"Tris, are you okay?"
When she exhales, her breath comes out shaky. "For one fucking moment, I forgot that we were stuck in a place where we could die any second."
He moves aside so that's he's propped up on one elbow, facing her.
Tris laughs bitterly as she swipes at her cheek. "Sorry, I keep telling everyone that we're going to find a way out, but I-"
A tiny sob escapes her, and she covers her mouth quickly.
Without a second to spare, Four scoots closer and wraps his arms around her, pulling her tightly against his body. He waits patiently until all that's left are her little sniffles.
"Tris, I'm going to make you a promise, that I swear I will keep to the best of my ability."
She doesn't respond, only uses her sleeve to cover herself.
"I promise and I swear, that whenever you are by my side, I will keep you safe. So please don't be scared. Trust me."
"I do." She croaks.
Tris tries to bury her face in his shoulder to hide her incoming tears, but he shifts so she can't.
"Fuck." He murmurs as he wipes at the wetness beneath her eyes with a small smile. "Am I that bad of a kisser that you're crying?"
Tris laughs lightly at his attempt to cheer her up and shakes her head. "Sorry."
Her phone buzzes, and even though she chooses to ignore it, Four moves back so she can answer it.
MYRA- Tris, I need to meet you in twenty minutes at the entrance of the cafeteria.
"You should go." He tells her before she can say anything.
She nods and texts back with an 'ok', then tosses her phone to the side.
"Do you want to take a small nap for the mean time? Drink some water?" He turns to sit up but she immediately grips his arm.
"No just- don't leave me."
Four slowly lies back down and watches her, taking in every beautiful detail of her face.
Tris feels herself blush but doesn't move, because even if she did, Four wouldn't allow her.
"Thank you." He finally says.
"For?"
"For choosing me."
Tris places a hand underneath her cheek in thought and lowers her gaze to his stomach.
"Choosing you? I don't know what you're talking about. It was never a competition."
Four shakes his head at her incredulously. "You don't get it? I'm not the only one that-"
"-you're an idiot for even worrying. I only care about a guy with a number for his name."
When she removes her hand from her face and tilts her head up to look at him again, he's the one that can't stop kissing her.
A/N Hello, hello, hellooo!
Follow, fave, and REVIEW because shit just went down, and the moment you've all been waiting for has happened-
The motherfucking kiss.
Sorry for not updating in a while, I'm extremely busy with my AP freaking summer notes which is so fucking thick, and I didn't even choose a summer reading book... it's unbelievable. I'm a little more than half way done, so wish me luck, because my school starts August 14.
I don't know when the next update will come, but I can promise you that I will not abandon this story.
Love you guys so much! Thank you for everyone who has reviewed and enjoyed the story so far! Bye!