A/N: Okay, little correction of the last chapter. I noticed that there was a part that didn't make much sense (sorry, I wrote it like at 3am). And so here it is: ""Fine, I'll punch you." By the corner of my eye I see movement in my left, but it's too late, Four is already driving his hand to my face, so I act by instinct, I low myself down, and raise my elbow, ending up by hitting Four in his stomach.
I hurt him; I know did because he places his hand on his stomach before he stands up again. But he doesn't say anything, just like yesterday, but this time, I didn't do it on purpose, and to compensate, I feel what I didn't feel yesterday, guilty. "That's how you use your elbow." He says."
Chapter Seven – KO
When I wake up my hand is on Emmett's bed, almost touching his hand. I take it out of his bed right the way and jump out of my bed, feeling a strange fire inside me. I don't remember much of what happened yesterday after I came out of the tattoos store. Tori gave me painkillers because I barely could move, and consequently they made me feel sleepy. I shake my head focusing on the present, I mean, if something had happened yesterday I would remember right? I shake my head – there's no "something" to remember, and it'll never be.
I take a look at the box underneath my bed – which is now a female's box, because I left the male's box in the bed next to Liz's bed, replacing it by the one that was there. There's not much inside it, I haven't had the time to go to the clothes' store yet. Here, on Dauntless headquarters, we have points, and we buy things using these points. The tattoo yesterday cost me two points, but clothes only cost one, well, depending on how much clothes you buy.
I take out a black top and a pair of black elastic cotton skinny jeans, and then I leave to the girls' bathroom. I'm literally surprised when I find Maeve there. She looks tired like she hasn't slept much – if she slept at all - and I remember the guilty look I saw on her face yesterday. Is it possible that she's involved with Eric? A chill passes through me. The simple thought of it makes me want to throw up. I wouldn't kiss Eric ever, not even if I was given money to do it. Although my suspicions, I don't say a word.
"Awake already?" She asks, with a smile. "Thought transfers liked to sleep until the last minute." She rolls her eyes. Please, God, tell me she's not involved with Eric, please.
"You're the one that seems to need a good sleep." I say. She laughs. "Look who's talking… you need one, but in a hospital bed!" She leaves the bathroom, still laughing. All my muscles burn, especially my arms, as if it hadn't been enough to put my whole weight on them when I was hanging on the ledge, the following day I had to shot guns and punch bags. No matter who I'll have to fight with today, I know I already lost.
I open the sink of the shower in cold water, trying to release the pain in my body, but it isn't worth it, maybe I should stop by at the tattoos store and ask for more painkillers at lunch time. As I get my shower I keep on thinking about Maeve and Eric, and decide that from now on I'll pay more attention to her.
When I'm done with the shower – which I have to admit took longer than usual – I dress up as fast as I can, and check my tattoo before I get out of the bathroom, and go grab something for breakfast – Four said we would meet him at the shooting room and practice there in the morning. I lift the corner of the bandage in my wrist. It's still healing, but Tori said it will take a few days to heal, so I don't worry. It's supposed to hurt, but with all the pain I already feel in my arms, I can't feel the pain caused by the tattoo.
Emmett is waiting outside the bathroom with two apples on his hand. "You scared me." He says, sounding upset; I can't see his face in the dark. "I thought you left during the night." He lends me one of the apples and I start eating it, as we slowly walk towards the shooting room. For about fifteen minutes I eat my apple in silence, without daring to look at him.
"Sorry." I finally say, as I throw out the rest of the apple I can't eat, in the garbage can. "I-" I was going to say that I didn't want to wake him up, but that's not what happened. I actually still don't know what happened this morning, when I almost run from the dorm.
He stops when we get to the training room, I'm guessing Four is already inside as there's shooting noise coming from there, and it's not eight in the morning yet. I look at my feet, refusing to look at his face. I see his hand coming in my direction and I tense up. He puts it under my chin and softly presses it so that I look up to him. He takes his hand and puts it in his pocket as soon as my eyes meet his. I feel a smile in my lips, a smile that I did not invoke, and I don't know why it's there.
He doesn't smile back. His eyes are red, probably from the lack of sleep. "Just don't do it again, okay? Wake me up." He says. I nod, unable to do anything else. We hear steps at the end of the hall so we enter the training room. Four is not the only one there; Lucas has arrived already and is shooting.
"Pick a gun. You know what to do." Says Four, without even looking at us. He's shooting too, today. Both Emmett and me are picking guns from the table and loading them when the others come in. He throws me a glance before heading to his target. I head towards mine too, but I just stand there looking at it, feeling too weak to shoot.
A bullet hits the bull's-eye of my target. My mouth opens, because I'm pretty sure it wasn't me and, when I'm no longer stupefied by what just happened, I turn to the left and watch Emmett, with his back turned to me, replacing his target for a new one and loading his gun again. This was him reminding me he doesn't want me to leave, and then I remember the promise I made myself yesterday at the tattoos store.
I force myself to wield my weapon and shoot.
After the shooting train I barely ate at lunch. I completely sucked this morning and I'm getting really nervous because we're going to fight in a few minutes. Owen and Maeve left us with a rushed "It'll be fine. Just make sure you give some punches too. Good luck."
I go inside the training room, where we trained with the punching bags and sit with the others in a long wooden bench. I look at the blackboard where our names were written yesterday, but it's still turned to the Dauntless-born initiates side, but even this way I can see that they're no longer in an alphabetical order, they're in pairs. Which means Four has already chose who we're going to fight with.
I look for Emmett's hand and squeeze it to call his attention to the blackboard. He reads it in a matter of seconds and then squeezes my hand back. We'll deal with it - It's what he's telling me. I take my hand out of his so that I can turn it into a fist. It helps me when I'm nervous. Four walks inside the room and closes the door.
"Good, you're all here." He starts. "As I said, you're going to fight with each others today, but as you're odd number one of you won't fight. Every day it'll be a different person." Everyday? Oh, no!
Four walks toward the blackboard and turns it around, so that we can see who we are fighting with. I start reading the first two names which are Liz and Andrew when I feel Emmett's arm around me – in some sort of protective gesture - making pressure on my waist – which means he's nervous, or angry. I can't decide as I've never seen an "angry Emmett." It hurts me, but I don't complain before I know what's going on, so I look at him. He has his lips pressed together, forming a thin line, though he is not looking at me – his eyes are still focused on the blackboard.
I follow his eyes, searching for his name. It's right on the bottom and there's no name in front of his name. I don't get it. He won't have to fight, so why is he tensed up? I give him a glare. He hasn't moved – still staring at the blackboard, and his lips are starting to turn white with all the pressure he's making. "Emmett-?" I whisper. He makes more pressure with his hand on my waist, pulling me closer to him, so I'm almost sitting on his lap. "I'll ask Four to-… I'll replace you. Whatever. You're not going to fight with him." He cares me in my right arm.
I, instead, freeze. Emmett's reaction distracted me and I didn't even bother looking at my name, forgetting that if Emmett's not fighting, I am. I search for it, and there it is, second fight, me and Ethan. I take a dry swallow and force myself to say something, but I need to open my mouth several times before I can say something.
"No, you're not. It's okay, Emmett. I was counting on loosing anyway." Plus, I'm already hurt, you're not. I think, but I don't say it out loud, it would only make him feel worse. Emmet might be smarter and stronger than Ethan, but Ethan has been into fights before, and Emmett never got into one at school, so it's better this way.
"Emmett, help me with a small demonstration of the rules?" Says Four. I've only noticed now that he avoids looking in our direction, what is that supposed to mean? That's he's sorry for making me fight with Ethan. Emmett gives him a death look and slowly takes his arm around me. Lucas and Liz sit by my side, Liz taking Emmett's place.
"Did you notice that in all the fight's it's a boy against a girl?" Liz says. "That doesn't seem like something Four would do." I take another look at the blackboard - which I was trying to avoid - but she's right. Liz fights with Andrew, Lucas with Lara and I fight with Ethan. A boy against a girl, in every fight. It's not something I would expect from Four. Maybe that's he's revenge, making me fight with Ethan, but what about the others?
We observe Four and Emmett doing a quick demonstration of the rules. If one gets on the ground and can't get up, the fight is over. If you pass the lines, the fight is over. It's actually pretty easy. Liz gets up leaving the place empty for Emmett, who takes his place again, putting his arm around me and pulling me closer to him. It's good. His burning touch makes the pain disappear.
The fight between Liz and Andrew takes longer than I thought it would. Obviously Andrew is stronger than Liz, but she's smart and Andrew hesitates before every move – Amity is still inside him, and showing it is going to make him loose points in his classification. Four didn't need to say that, it's something we know we have to leave behind if we decide to change faction.
Finally Liz looses, but it was a good fight anyway, Four will sure give her a good punctuation. I try to stand up, but Emmett's arm is still around me, and I didn't notice it, but he kept on putting more and more pressure in my waist as the time passed. "I can still do it." He says. "Replace you." I touch his fingers, so that he'll know I want him to take his hand out of my waist. After a few seconds, he lets me go, turning his hands into a finch, just as I do. "You won't have to watch it for long." I say, as I get away from him. I don't want to hear an answer.
Ethan was already waiting for me as Four was writing the results of the last match in the blackboard. I look him in the eyes, but I don't say a word. "Remember the rules." For says as he approaches to us. "This is not a fight until one of you dies." He's still avoiding me, so he only looks at Ethan while he talks. "We got it. Now let's see if the mute can scream."
Ethan doesn't wait for Four to step out of the way, he starts running towards me, ready to punch me. I remember yesterday, when Four came to me and I lift my elbow, and I think about doing it now, but first, the pain is back, and all my body seems to be too heavy, and second, I don't want to feel guilty again, though I'm not sure I would, as we're talking about Ethan.
It only takes him a few punches in my stomach and a kick in my legs to put me on the floor, then he punches me on the head and I pass out. The last thing I remember is to see Emmett's face turn down and a bit to the right before Ethan's punch hit me.
I'm in the Dauntless hospital when I wake up. I feel a familiar sweet smell in my nose, but I don't know where does it come from, maybe it's from someone who just left. And then I remember the last time I noticed this smell. It was on the choosing ceremony day, when Emmett pull me to the train and I almost hit is chest. Things changed so much since then. Even in that day, things changed. That was the first time he showed he cared about me, when he said he would be waiting for me, and when I felt his burning touch, when he placed his arm around my waist. Now it's something I'm used to. I'm starting to think that if I did the faction test again, Amity might have been a result too, as I'm starting to need physical contact.
There are curtains around my bed, but I can hear voices coming from outside the curtains. I try to hear what they're saying, but someone opens the curtains and Owen and Maeve come in.
"Four told us what happened." Owen says. "Emmett is really pissed off."
"Where is he?" I ask, as if it was his duty to be here with me. But that's not true, he doesn't owe me anything, I nothing but a neighbor for him. I feel the same pain in my chest I felt in the ceremony day, when I thought Emmett would choose Erudite and I would never see him again. I'm still thinking he would've, he never told me what he chose Dauntless.
Nobody speaks, so I can finally hear the conversation outside. "I'm sorry, okay?! But what did you expect me to do, Eric-". It's Four. I'm looking at Owen and Maeve as I listen to Four's words. Panic passes through Maeve's expression when Four pronounces Eric's name. There's definitely something going on between Eric and Maeve, but why would she panic? "I don't care if he told you he wanted to choose. You should've done something! I thought we meant something to you! I thought she meant something to you. She admires you, you know? That's why she feels she can do anything when the rest of us could pee in our pants every time we see you." It was Emmett who interrupted Four. He sure is pissed off; I've never heard him speaking like this to anyone.
"So are you feeling better?" Owen asks, trying to make me stop listening to their conversation. "Yeah. They probably gave me some painkillers." I say, trying to keep listening to Four and Emmett, but Owen and Maeve launch into a detailed description of their afternoon in the shooting room, preventing me from listening to them. About half an hour later when Maeve and Owen are comfortably sitting on my bed and fighting about which one of them hit the center of the target more times, Emmett and Four come in.
"How are you?" Four asks.
"Mostly bored." I say. "These two seem to have trouble counting."
Emmett rolls his eyes, but everyone else laughs at my bad joke. At least Emmett doesn't look upset, which means Four managed to calm him down. Whatever he said to him, it worked; because even though he tightened his lips when he looked at me, he looks satisfied with something. "It's time for dinner. You two move your asses." Owen and Maeve don't wait for Four to say it again, and stand up. "Heal fast." Owen says, giving one last glance at Emmett before they leave.
"Do you want me to bring you something?" Four asks. "No. I want to eat in the dining room. Can you take me out of here?" It's not entirely true, but I don't want to give Ethan the pleasure to think that I spent a night in the hospital because of him. "Sure. Meet you there then." Something I'm not sure I like about the Dauntless is that they don't really care about your health unless you're nearly dying. That's when they do their magic.
Once Four leaves me and Emmett alone, he sits in the bed, by my side, and puts my hair behind my ear. "You look horrible." He says. I sigh. "When we're finally out if Candor, you decide to start telling the truth?" He doesn't laugh, but he smiles. "Sometimes I think you need to hear it, as apparently you haven't realized it by yourself yet." "Oh, no, I realized that I look horrible already, but that's just my normal look." I say, trying to divert the attentions from what happened today.
"Yeah, right." He says. I don't understand what he means with that.
"So was it truth what you said? Do you want to pee in your pants every time you see Four?" I giggle. I don't know what's with these painkillers, but I better be careful when I take them again. "I think we should go get dinner." Emmett says, standing up and helping me get up. "I can do it. But you haven't answered me." I try to walk but my legs hurts. He sighs and puts his arm around my waist, supporting all my weight as we walk. "Well not all of us are fearless enough at the point to kick Four under the table." I laugh as we enter in the dorm. I don't know how he knew it, but I really wasn't feeling like meeting Ethan in the dining room.
"I'll be back in a few minutes with food. You'll be fine without me?" He asks as he lets me "fall" in his bed, which is the closest to the door. "Sure." He leaves and comes back about ten minutes later with Liz and Lucas. Both Lucas and Emmett carry each a tray on their hands. Lucas gives me mine and goes to his bed. Liz stays next to his bed as they talk. Both me and Emmett stay quiet as we eat. After that Emmett goes back to the dining room to return the trays. I lie down in his bed and when he comes back I'm almost asleep.
"I'll take your bed." He says. I try to stand up. "No… I'll… I can go there." He laughs and makes me lie down again. "What if I lie down by your side?" He whispers. I smile and try to give him space. He sits and pulls me to his lap, then lies down too, so I have my hand comfortably leaning between his shoulder and his jaw line. "If that's your definition of "by your side"… " I don't need to say more, I feel his chest moving as he laughs. "Just sleep, Is." I don't wait for him to tell me again. I close my eyes and feel his finger in my back up and down, and later – right before I fall asleep – he pulls my chin up and kisses me in the forehead.
A/N: Okay, school started today for me, but I managed to finish this chapter. Now it's time for you to give me some reviews and a reason to keep on working in this even with school, unless you don't want it, of course. Anyways, hope you enjoyed it so far, and I remind everyone that I do not own every character or everything about this plot, as it's based on Veronica Roth's books.