AN: An early update. Editing is going well, I may be able to post more often. Enjoy.
When his alarm goes off the next morning, she feels the weight of his arm on her. His breath is fanning over her neck and when he abruptly moves away from her she feels so cold. He doesn't acknowledge the way he'd held her close to his body all night, and there's a part of her that thinks the reasons are deeper than him trying to make sure she didn't leave. She finds his coffee and starts a pot while he's getting dressed. She looks down at the baggy hoodie and joggers of his she's wearing, and he catches her looking.
"I'll bring you some clothes. They'll mostly be training clothes since that's all I can get in bulk without causing suspicion, but I'll get you the things you want as I can."
"Thank you." She says quietly.
"I'll need you to stay here. Don't answer the door unless it's me. Try to stay quiet, and I'll be back as soon as I can be. If you're gone when I get home, I'll know your intent."
She makes him coffee and then he leaves.
Tris walks around the cold apartment and looks at the bookshelf, books are the only thing he seems to keep in quantity. She drags her fingers across their spines as she walks past the shelf and heads into the guest room that he uses as an office. She opens the closet and finds nothing but a locked file cabinet and a weapons vault. She rifles through the paperwork on his desk, finding nothing more than notes he'd made about the fear sims he'd watched the night before.
Next to her name she finds his comments.
Nothing remarkable detected. No anomalies. Decent time, fears are symbolic and trainee moved past them as expected.
There it is, in his own handwriting, him protecting her.
But why?
Sure, he seemed to enjoy their sexual relationship, last night especially when he couldn't seem to get enough of her and they'd repeatedly had sex until both of them were spent. Strangely, she enjoyed it too. She just had to let him lead any type of intimacy that moved past the act, because if she tried anything he'd run.
She's not even sure why she cares.
There has to be something more, some reason he's not taking her directly to Jeanine when he's all but admitted that he works for her. Almost everything Tobias has told her has proven to be true, except that Eric has neither turned her in nor killed her.
She glances at the clock and sighs. By now, her friends have not only woken up to her empty bed, but they've had breakfast without her. They've made it to the training room, and they've likely reported her absence to Tobias.
He's probably thinking the worst.
She moves to his room, finding nothing more than a dresser, two small night stands and his closet and bathroom. She looks through his drawers, finding neatly folded clothing, and nothing unusual. His closet is as neat as the rest, with all of his starched uniforms hung facing the same way.
His nightstand is a little more chaotic. Knives, guns, ammunition and a box of condoms with several missing. He wasn't using them with her, so she wondered if he was sleeping with someone else the way he was with her.
She shakes her head, why should this matter?
"How the fuck is an entire initiate missing?" Max yells, causing Four to jump. Four had interrupted an important phone call to inform him of Tris Prior's disappearance.
"Sir, we have nothing. She has a friend in training who was with her at lights out last night, that said she seemed normal and they'd spent the evening doing their nails and talking." Four replied.
"Did anything happen with this girl? Any romantic interests? Any issues with other initiates?" He asked.
"She seemed to be friendly with most, and as far as romantic interests I believe she had someone." He feels the heat on his face and Max noticed it too.
"The girl is from Abnegation, do you know her? Is there something going on between the two of you?"
Four sighs, "Yesterday, she and I had an intense conversation, which did include our past in Abnegation. She's my ex girlfriend, and I did make an attempt to kiss her during that conversation. She refuted me, and told me she was seeing someone else." Four admits.
"You made a move on one of your trainees?" Max asks angrily.
"Yes sir, it was foolish and it will never happen again."
Max narrows his eyes at his young leader, "I could suspend you for this. You're a leader, she's a trainee. Normally, I couldn't give a fuck, but you're responsible for scoring her. Do not let anything like this happen again, and if you hear anything about the girl I'd better hear from you immediately."
"Yes sir."
"Dismissed." Max barks and Four leaves his office.
He thinks about telling Eric about what he just learned, but he thinks better of it, not needing there to be more conflict between his two youngest leaders than there already is.
After reading all morning, she eventually finds his third bedroom is being used as a gym, so she decides to shed the hoodie and joggers and run on the treadmill for a while. She's in her zone, listening to music on Eric's iPod that she found in the room, when she sees him in the doorway.
His eyes trail over her, finding her in nothing but a sports bra and boy shorts. She slows her pace, bracing her feet while the machine slows down. She's winded and sweating, but it doesn't stop him from stalking towards her, and when he kisses her it's pure fire.
"Who are the condoms for?" She pants when he has her pressed against the wall and is buried inside of her.
"They're old." He breathes out.
"Are you doing this with someone other than me?" She asks and he leans back and pulls out of her, carefully setting her back on her feet.
"Why do you care?" He asks.
"Because you're not using them with me." She points out.
"You're on the serum, all initiates get it." He argues.
"That doesn't protect me against diseases that haven't been eradicated. Are you sleeping with someone else?" She asks.
"Stop asking me questions." He growls at her.
"If you're fucking someone else, with or without protection, I deserve to know. It's basic respect." She says firmly.
"Oh yeah, who else are you fucking?" He growls.
"I already told you, no one but you." She replies.
"How many before me?" He asks as he trails his mouth over her skin.
"Why does it matter?" She asks.
"Because you know exactly what you're doing, and that's not something Stiffs learn. I know Number Boy didn't teach you any of the shit we've done." She can feel his leaking erection rubbing against her stomach as he presses her against the wall.
"I've been with more than just him." She replies vaguely.
"Since being here?" He asks and she shakes her head, "How then?"
"I was never a good Abnegation, and maybe I went a little wild when he left me there without a damn word." Tris growls.
"He broke your heart." Eric replies sarcastically.
"No. He woke me up. He showed me exactly what I didn't want in a relationship." She spits back.
His icy eyes bore into hers, "No one but me. While we're doing this, you're only with me. Do you understand?"
She nods, "Yes, but do you abide by the same rules?"
He kisses her again, and she can feel one of his hands moving until it settles on the back of her neck. She can feel his thumb rubbing against her, and for the first time since their arrangement started she sees something other than anger in his eyes.
"Only you." He finally replies.
It's more than she expected to hear, and she pushes him towards his weight bench and he sits down compliantly. He's not prepared for her to straddle him and sink down, taking him deep inside of her.
"Fuck." He breathes out and she rides him, with him sloppily kissing her as he grips her hips, "Keep doing that..."
She feels him spilling inside of her as their tongues tangle together, and this time it's him who holds her in place while they slow their breathing.
When he goes back to work, she sees that he left a bag of clothes and training manuals for her to study, and she makes herself comfortable on his couch.
Tris had given him more than the week he'd asked for, she'd actually given him almost two, and Eric knew that she was getting antsy.
So was Jeanine.
Her blonde hair is pulled into a severe ponytail, slicked down perfectly without a hair out of place. Her red lips are turned down in a frown, and tonight she seems to be in a foul mood, "You still haven't found a body?" Jeanine asks and Eric shakes his head, "Did you find anything on the cameras?"
"Nothing. She disappeared in the middle of the night, and she managed to avoid the cameras." Max replies.
"Which means she had some sort of idea that her divergence was about to be exposed." Jeanine replies sternly.
"Or she's dead. The girl left, we have yet to see her on cameras, we don't even see her leaving the dorms." Max replies.
"You have cameras in those dorms, don't you?" She asks incredulously.
"They often malfunction, and the initiates are usually to blame. They don't take kindly to being watched, so they tend to find creative ways to get them to stop recording." Max sighs.
"It sounds like you need to get a better grasp on your initiates," Jeanine replies before turning to Eric, "You were the one who monitored her sims, did you see anything at all?"
"No, but she left before I could really get a better idea of what she may have been hiding." Eric replies.
Jeanine's frown gets deeper, "Two Abnegation transfers in two years, do you think she may have known Tobias Eaton and followed him here? Has he been questioned about her disappearance?"
Eric suppresses a scowl and keeps his expression neutral, "I'll let Max field this one, Four and I don't make a habit of having personal conversations."
"I've questioned Four, and yes they knew each other. They were young lovers back in Abnegation, and he thinks she may have come here to be with him. He admitted that he had made a move on her the day before she disappeared," Max says and Eric jerks his eyes over to his head leader, "he apparently tried to kiss her but she had thwarted his advances, saying she was seeing someone else. We have no idea who she was seeing. Her friends knew nothing, so our best guess is it was someone out of the faction and she left to be with them." Max finishes.
"Then we find her. I've studied her aptitude testing and I'm not satisfied that she truly got Dauntless. I also found a file that was deleted where her sim shows a much different outcome, one where the birds that attack her disappear into ash. That is a huge anomaly." Jeanine says and Max glares at Eric.
"You never told me that." He accuses.
"I never knew. Four must have tested her without me." Eric lies and Max nods.
"It's a possibility, if the boy had feelings for her he may have tried to protect her." Max sighs, "I'll need to suspend him pending an investigation."
"She's been gone almost two weeks, why are we putting all of this effort into one transfer? So what if Four tried to bang his ex? And are we sure the deleted file is truly hers? Was she easily identified?" He asks, knowing that anything they recovered wouldn't have necessarily shown it was her. He had taken every precaution to mask her, especially knowing that nothing was truly ever deleted, and a savvy enough technical person could find the file.
"No, we cannot see it's her, but it's her same fear of birds." Jeanine says in an exasperated voice.
"Then we may be chasing a bad lead. I can definitely follow up with Four, you both know I'd take great pleasure in finding that bastard broke our faction laws, but if he's not hiding anything it'll look really fucking bad to suspend one of our leaders without real merit. We've got initiates stabbing each other in the eye, fighting at the chasm, you know real life or death scenarios and we're turning the other cheek. We go after Four for a girl who may have left over a stupid boyfriend when she realized she chose the wrong faction and we pull out all of the stops? Wrong message."
Jeanine looks livid, but he sees the defeat in her usually ramrod straight posture, "You're right."
"I know I am. Give me a couple of days to see what he knows, and if I suspect anything l'll bring the bastard to you myself." Eric offers and based on the smile on Jeanine's face he knows she's pleased with his plan.
"Very well. Now, talk to me about Uriah Pedrad." She says to Max, changing the subject.
Eric realizes things are getting close.
"So, you make a move on your fucking initiate and she disappears?" Eric asks.
Four cringes internally, realizing that his conversation with Max has now made its way to Eric. It was hard enough explaining to his head leader that he'd tried kissing Tris the night before she disappeared, and it was even harder explaining it to his own girlfriend, whom he loved with his entire heart. Now, having Eric give him shit was about to push him over the edge.
"How does Lauren feel about that?" Eric presses.
He'd told Lauren a few days after talking to Max, and as expected she was hurt by it. All of the promises he'd made that he was over Tris were as good as lies in Lauren's mind, and she'd asked him to give her space and let her be.
He hated that he'd hurt her.
"I bet she was pissed. A former Erudite is going to analyze the fuck out of a situation like that." Eric presses.
Four refuses to acknowledge him, they're both leaders, and he damn sure doesn't need to answer to him. He watches as Eric lounges back in his chair and props his feet up on a table.
"Where the fuck is she?" Eric asks angrily, and Four continues to click through the footage he's studying, "Are you deaf, Stiff?" Eric bellows and the handful of employees on shift in control room all jump at his tone.
"They can do their jobs a lot easier if you're not in here screaming." Four says as he rewinds the footage he'd been studying.
"I'm not screaming at them, I'm screaming at you. Max wants to know where she is."
Four turns towards the other man, "You mean Jeanine wants to know where she is. Do you think I don't see her in yours or Max's offices almost daily? Why does she want Tris?"
"Jeanine being in our faction has dick to do with you losing an entire fucking initiate." Eric barks back, "It's all of our responsibility to find her. You're a leader, fucking act like it."
Four pushes Eric's feet off of the table and leans toward him, "You can sit here and put on whatever show you want, but I'm not buying your shit. The only thing you're right about is that it's all of our responsibility to find her, but I'll be damned if I'm going to sit back and let you turn her into another one of Jeanine's lab rats."
"Just let me know if you see her." Eric says as he stands and moves to leave the room.
"No." Four replies.
"This is coming from Max-"
"I'm sick of you blaming Max for your own shit. You want her for Jeanine, and I'll be damned if it's happening on my watch. If I find her, she'll go nowhere near you." Four spits.
"You just want to fuck her again, don't you?" Eric replies without thinking and Four can't mask his surprise. Eric stomps away before he has a chance to reply, and Four realizes that Eric knows more about Tris than he'd expected.
She's asleep when he gets home, casually laying on his couch, wearing his hoodie with his blanket hanging half off of her. He picks it up and lays it across her, and she doesn't move.
He's quiet as he moves into the kitchen, where he finds a foil covered plate waiting on the counter for him. He eats as quickly as possible, reading through email on his phone, and he's surprised when she sits next to him.
"What time is it?" She asks and he shakes his head.
"Late." He replies.
She can barely keep her eyes open and he watches as she lays her head on her arms at the counter. He puts his plate in the dishwasher and then carefully lifts her off of the stool.
"What are you doing?" She asks as she snuggles into his warmth.
He walks down the hall and puts her in his bed, tucking the blanket under her chin. He smooths her hair away from her face and his hand lingers on her skin, softly caressing her before he abruptly turns towards his bathroom to get changed.
He's giving her whiplash with his wild mood swings.
When he crawls in bed with her, she pretends to be asleep. She feels him pull her closer, and he wraps an arm over her as he spoons her. He's warm, and solid, and his breath washes over her in warm waves. She moves her hand slowly, before taking a risk and trailing her fingers over his bare arm. He moves slightly, and it causes her to shift towards him.
His hand is warm when he cups her cheek briefly, before moving it to the back of her head and pulling her face towards his. His lips search hers, his tongue softly touching hers as he moves so he's hovering over her. When they break apart she sits up and pulls the hoodie of his that she's been wearing over her head, exposing her bare chest to him. His touch is surprisingly soft again, his hand tracing around her breasts, cupping their weight in his hand before he kisses his way down her chest. When he takes a nipple in his mouth, she arches against him, and he feels her fingers raking through his hair.
He eventually pulls her joggers off, leaving her bare, and when he sheds his boxers he hovers over her again. Tris notices he's not frantic, he's taking his time and she's enjoying his rare show of actual affection with her. He eventually leans back on his knees and before he can move she speaks.
"Can we try something?" She asks quietly.
His head is scrambled, this isn't what their arrangement is about, but when she sits up completely and moves towards him, kissing him as she tries to get him where she wants him, he forgets himself for a moment. He eventually gives in, and when he's sitting with his back against his headboard and her straddling his lap, his lips never leave hers as she sinks onto him.
She wants him.
"You always feel so good." The admission slips from his lips without thinking and she kisses him again. He doesn't try to change their pace, he only moves in rhythm with her, and he feels the familiar quiver of her muscles around him as she chases her release.
"Eric," She whispers as she throws her head back. He kisses her exposed throat and he feels the exact moment when she falls apart.
His hands are gripping her as he helps her to ride out her bliss, and when he follows behind her over the edge it's her name that he pants. They're wrapped around each other, and when she begins to come down she tries to move, knowing he has no interest in touching her once he's gotten his satisfaction.
He holds her closer.
His warm lips press against her shoulder, then her neck, and then up to her lips. When they finally break apart, he rests his forehead against hers, breathing evenly.
"Eric?" His name is a question from her lips and he closes his eyes and holds her closer, "What happened today?"
"No questions. Not tonight. I can't, Tris." He breathes out softly.
She doesn't protest, instead she rests her head on his shoulder as his fingers trace up and down her spine.