AN: Hello! I'm back to Weds and Sun updates. Editing is still happening, but I feel far enough ahead to be comfortable getting on schedule. Hope you enjoy, and see you Sunday.
He'd asked her about the incident with Four.
She was honest with him, telling him that during that day's one-on-one, where the trainers typically give the initiates their honest feedback on their current training standing, and answered any questions they'd had he actually wanted to talk more about her divergence. The conversation had morphed into him bringing up their past, and asking her about hers. The conversation was okay at first, even necessary since he'd truly hurt her when he left without warning, and when he'd apologized she'd known he meant it.
"He hugged me, and as I was pulling away he brushed my lips with his. I truly think it was more muscle memory, because he was horrified when he did it. He was pretty broken up about hurting Lauren, and I'd told him I was also seeing someone else and would need to have the same uncomfortable conversation. I wanted him to stop beating himself up." She shrugged.
"Yet, you never found time to tell me about it yourself." Eric scowled.
"I didn't think you'd give two shits about my ex kissing me." She replied.
"I don't take kindly to another man touching what's mine." He protested.
"Yours? I'm not your fucking property-"
"You told me it was only me, and I should know every fucking thing that happens with you!"
"You mean, like you're an open book with me?" She replied angrily, "I ask you questions every day, and you either ignore me or tell me to stop asking questions. When do I get to know everything about you?"
He'd shut her up by kissing her, and by the time she was moaning his name, their fight was long forgotten.
Eric managed to avoid Four for almost three days before his fellow leader finally cornered him, and he had barely opened his mouth before Eric was already annoyed with him.
"How'd you know about my past with her?" Four asks and Eric shakes his head.
"I don't have time for a discussion about your personal life."
"You said I just wanted to fuck her again which means you must know something about what's happened between her and I in the past." Four presses.
"You just gave yourself away, didn't you? I've seen the way you look at her, I assumed and you just confirmed it. So, how does it feel to be fucking your initiate?" Eric sneers back at him.
"I'm not, she is my ex, and we've been broken up for years." He argues.
"Really? Is that why you made a move on her before she disappeared? Maybe your aggressive behavior drove her away." Eric smiles at Four and he can see the other man turning red.
"What have you done with her?" He asks.
He resists the urge to smirk. There's not much he hasn't done with her, and he's absolutely sure he's done all of it better than Number Boy could even imagine in his best wet dreams, but he swallows all sarcasm back when he finally answers.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Eric asks as he saves all of the sims he conducted on a portable drive.
"You know what I'm talking about. You monitored all of her sims, and she's gone once that fucked up scanner comes into play?" Four replies angrily. "Did you take her to Jeanine?"
"We were just in a fucking meeting with her yesterday where she asked if we'd had any luck with the investigation. If she had her, why would she be pressing for fucking updates? Why would she talking about having Kang of all people filing a missing person's report since it's a city leader's daughter?" Eric barks.
"I'm a leader just like you. I should know every fucking thing you do." Four replies.
"You are nothing like me. Nothing." Eric growls as he pushes past him to leave the leadership wing.
He doesn't feel like cooking, he just wants to go home and forget about the heaviness of this day. Jeanine hasn't let up at all, and the pressure she's now putting on Jack Kang to investigate Tris's disappearance is signaling red flags that they don't need right now. He thought he could just hide her out until interest in her died down, but he had no idea it would be like this.
He doesn't know what Jeanine is hiding, but he damn sure is going to find out. Tris is obviously important to her, which means she's undoubtedly important to his father.
Maybe with Tris he would finally get his leverage with his father.
He pushes the thoughts out of his mind and grabs two to-go containers for himself and Tris and when he spots a large slice of cake he grabs it too because he knows she's never had it.
"Since when do you eat cake?" Lauren asks as she grabs the only other container.
"Since when do you give a fuck what I eat?" Eric asks as he moves to scan his points card.
"You and I were friends at one time. You don't have to carry whatever it is alone." Lauren says softly and he scowls at her.
"Tell your boyfriend he can fuck off." Eric replies and she laughs.
"We're on a break." Lauren scans her card, "I'm sure you heard he made a move on Tris before she disappeared."
"I don't care about the latest gossip." Eric replies and she notices he's not in such a hurry to get away from her.
"I can imagine that you have more on your plate than Four's bullshit." Lauren hedges and his grey blue eyes meet hers briefly.
She and Eric were friends all throughout training, having both come from Erudite, and he was a familiar piece of home. They weren't close friends back in their home faction, but when they both found themselves spilling their blood over the coals, they gravitated towards each other.
Tobias Eaton was also a part of their little trio, Lauren had been attracted to the mysterious Abnegation transfer from the start and she was determined to help him out of his shell. Eric was a lot calmer back then, he'd yet to be tainted by the pressures of their former leader.
He was actually free.
Lauren doesn't know when or why Jeanine got her claws into Eric, but it became obvious when he and Four had made it through their leadership training that Eric's curriculum as a brand new leader was different than his.
Four and Lauren shared everything, with limitations on what he couldn't speak about from leadership, and he'd mentioned that Max had taken an immediate interest in Eric, while Four had spent his time between Veronica, Latasha and Harrison.
"Max is keeping Eric one on one?" She'd asked her boyfriend back then.
"Yeah. It's weird, right? It's not just me?" He'd asked her.
It was extremely weird, and it had never changed.
"What are you getting at, Lauren?" Eric asks, bringing her thoughts back to the present.
"Eric, not everyone has an agenda. Sometimes we just care about your wellbeing."
"We?" Eric smirks at her and she smiles.
"Well, me. I care. You don't have to carry it all. You're always alone, it's okay to have a friend."
"Find someone else to rebound with. I'm not interested." Eric replies crassly as he walks away.
Lauren shakes her head. She's not once been interested in Eric in that way, and he damn sure knows that. She got too close and he pushed her away, just like he has repeatedly the past two years.
She sighed and made her way to a table, catching her ex's eyes across the room. He smiles at her sadly, and she averts her eyes.
She can't deal with him right now.
Eric doesn't see her when he walks into his apartment, it is dark and for a few moments he thinks she left. He made his way to the back bedroom that he uses as his gym and he can hear her hitting the bags.
She doesn't turn towards him, but she meets his eyes in the mirror as she continues punching, and he walks around her, assessing her form.
"Keep tension here," He grabs her stomach, feeling the muscles she's worked hard to form, "You're building your core nicely, but you need to use your elbows and knees too. You're smaller, and that will be a disadvantage if you're ever in a situation to defend yourself."
"Do you think I could beat them?" She asks and he furrows his brow at her, "The other people in my class? Could I keep up?"
"You're better than most of them." He admits truthfully and she smiles.
They eat dinner after she's showered and when he finally puts the container of cake down her eyes widen.
"For me?" She asks and he nods, taking their empty containers and walking away. He watches her as he cleans his kitchen, and he notices her patiently waiting.
"Why aren't you eating it?" He asks and she looks over at him.
"I was going to share." She replies.
"I don't eat that shit." He leans on the island and watches her.
"It's so good. I've never had anything like it, so thank you." She says sincerely and he nods, "You really don't eat this?"
He shrugs, "I've had it. I just try to avoid it."
She pushes the container towards him, "I really don't mind sharing."
He relents, taking her fork and eating a bite of the sweet cake, watching her smile at him. They sit there silently, sharing bites of the cake, and when Tris breaks the silence he's surprised at what she says.
"Do you think I would have passed my initiation?"
He thinks about his answer briefly before nodding his head, "Yes."
"Without your help?" She presses.
"Number Boy wouldn't have let you fail."
She hates his answer, and she hates even more than he's absolutely right about it.
"On my own merits, do you think I could have done this?"
He shrugs, "You're dedicated, you've done well with conditioning and fighting, but without someone helping you through the sims you wouldn't have made it here."
"What if she didn't care about divergents?"
He scoffs, "There's not a world where that happens."
"What's so wrong with me, Eric? I've been living here for weeks now, have I shown any signs of anything other than wanting to live and be a Dauntless?" She asks, "If you want to agree with Jeanine that people like me need to be stopped, I would at least hope you'd tell me why. What is so terrible about me?"
He pulls her from her chair so she's straddling his lap and he leans in towards her and kisses her slowly. She pulls away and he sighs loudly, "Stop with the questions."
"I'm okay to fuck, but not to live? Not to trust? Not to fight side by your side?" She presses, ignoring his demand as usual.
"I just told you to fucking stop asking me questions." He commands as he slides his hands under the hoodie of his that she's wearing and touches her warm skin. He lifts it over her head, pressing his lips to hers once she's bare up top.
"I wish you'd just answer me. Just one question, please?" She asked as his teeth dragged against her neck.
"One."
"Why do you hate people like me?" She asks as she pulls his shirt over his head.
"I don't."
It's all the answer she gets before he stands up and she wraps her arms and legs around him as he takes them to his bedroom.
The ringing of his doorbell interrupts them, and he rubs his hands up and down her sides, stopping to grip her hips as she continues to ride him.
"Don't you dare stop." He murmurs as he pulls her down to him and kisses her hard.
He grabs her ass and helps her slide up and down his length as they continue to kiss, and his doorbell rings again, repeatedly.
"Fuck." He growls and he pulls at her bottom lip with his teeth before breaking apart, "I'll be right back."
She moves off of him and lays on her side facing him and instead of getting out of bed, he pulls her in and captures her lips with his. She wraps her hand around his length and he moans into her mouth, and he's just about to position her leg to slide back in when his doorbell rings again and is followed by repeated knocking.
"Two seconds for me to get rid of whoever the fuck this is." He presses his lips to hers before getting out of bed and hastily sliding his sweatpants on to check his door. He sees Max on the other side, and he quickly heads back to his room.
"More than two seconds?" She asks and it takes everything he has to not leave Max out there and stay in here with her.
"Yeah, I'll get rid of him, wait for me and be quiet." He says and she nods as he shuts the door.
He opens the door and gestures for Max to come in, and Max raises his eyebrows when he sees Eric's disheveled hair, swollen lips, nail marks on his chest and he's obviously trying to hide his crotch by holding a pillow up to it.
"Did I interrupt?" He asks cheekily.
"Yes." Eric replies simply and Max shakes his head.
"I tried calling, at least I know why you didn't answer. I just wanted to let you know that Jeanine is here, she's waiting in my office. Can you finish up whatever you need and head down?" Max asks with a chuckle.
"I'll be there as soon as I can." He replies as he shows Max the door.
"I'm certainly not going to cock block you, take your time, I'll show Jeanine sims until you get down there."
Once Max has left and Eric locks his door behind him, he heads back to his room and takes his sweatpants off before crawling over her body.
"Do you need to go?" She asks breathily as he kisses her neck and moves against her.
"Not until we're done." He replies huskily as he lifts her leg and slides inside of her again.
He's not done for what seems like a long time, until she's panting his name and boneless beside him, and his sweaty body is pressed flush with her back while his racing heart slows down.
"Damn Tris..." He breathes out before pressing kisses to her shoulder.
"Will you be home soon?" She asks.
He presses his lips to her neck, before nodding once, and then pulling her up and into his shower with him.
"It's been over an hour, Eric." Jeanine says nastily as Eric finally drops into a chair across from her at Max's conference table.
"I was busy." He replies, running a hand through his wet hair.
"I don't have time to wait for you to finish screwing someone, when I tell you to come, you come." She says, and her red lips curl up into a smirk.
"I come when I want to come, and how I want to come. Tonight, I wanted to come inside of someone while she couldn't say anything but my name. You decided to show up, unannounced and on my personal time. I wanted to finish, and I would love for you to hurry this up so I can finish again." Eric replies.
"You disgusting little pig-" Jeanine started and Max slams his hand on the table.
"Enough! It's late, and I don't have time for this shit. I have a wife to go home to, and apparently Eric has a guest, so let's make this quick."
Jeanine looks annoyed, but only for a moment, before she reaches into her briefcase and pulls out a thick folder and several vials of orange liquid. She hands Eric and Max a stapled packet of paper, and then a vial of liquid.
"What's all of this?" Max asks.
"A breakthrough." She smiles widely.
She goes on to explain that this was a long-range mind control serum, and that it could be controlled via a secure program. The serum would live idly in the person, and once it was activated the person would be controlled by the program. It would last as long as the program was active, anytime they decided to turn it on.
"How do we get this to every member of our faction?" Max asks after Jeanine explains her plans.
"We tell them it's necessary. It's a vaccination, or a tracker in case we lose a soldier, or really anything. They don't question us, they do whatever the fuck we tell them to do." Eric replies and Max nods his head.
Even Jeanine looks impressed.
"I like it, your faction is consistent in their vaccination process, this shouldn't be questioned at all." She replies.
"What testing has it gone through?" Eric asks.
"Full. We've used the factionless, along with our usual group, and we've found one other fascinating perk of this serum." She taps her red nails on the table.
"Well, what is it?" Max asks.
"It doesn't work on divergents."
"How would you even know this?" Eric asks and Jeanine looks smug as she turns her attention to him.
"Because when the mind control is activated, it does absolutely nothing. We thought it was a flaw, however it only failed on two people in all of our test groups, and both were proven to be divergent."
"Proven how? Your stupid machine hasn't worked properly since you started this." Eric scoffs.
"I have my ways." She smiles.
"If this will expose the divergent, does that mean we can stop the search party for the Stiff?" Eric asks.
"Absolutely not, we still need her, and whenever we find Miss Prior, we'll be able to find exactly what it is that she's been hiding." Jeanine replies.
"I still don't understand why you're so focused on this one girl. What makes her special?" Max asks.
"I've been doing my research, all you need to know is that she's important to it, and I need her in Erudite." Jeanine says, "Do I have your cooperation?"
"Of course." Max replies and then he turns to Eric, "You'll find her. I'm taking you off of training, and any other projects. Your one purpose is to find her and get her to Erudite."
"I understand." Eric replies.
Jeanine stays for a little while longer, and when she's ready to leave she asks Max for a moment alone with Eric. Once Max shuts the door behind him, she faces the young leader.
"Do you truly understand your assignment?"
"Find the missing Stiff." Eric replies.
"Eric, I think you need to take this a bit more seriously. We are incredibly close to making this a reality, and you, at twenty years old, have an opportunity of a lifetime. When this government is ours, you're going to be an equal part. It's what you've wanted, right? The approval of your father? To be better than the boy Max picked for leadership over you?"
"What the fuck are you talking about, Jeanine?" Eric asks angrily.
"Do you think I don't know what your weaknesses are? We've all seen your fear landscape, we know you want your father's approval, and we all know how much you hate yourself for finishing second to Tobias Eaton. A Stiff." Jeanine says and Eric can feel his anger level rising, "You wanted to beat him, but you couldn't, could you? He was always better than you. He got the better scores, won the fights, and I bet he even got the girls. You hated that, and you still hate him, so if you want to prove I made the right choice in bringing you into this, you'd better find that girl. I'm letting you know now, if you don't do exactly what we want, you won't live long enough to regret it. Do I make myself clear?"
For the first time since becoming involved in this, he can see just how ruthless Jeanine is.
"Crystal." He replies slowly and Jeanine nods once before walking out the door.
He sends a text to his father, asking if he'd be able to meet with him soon to discuss the assignments he is receiving on his behalf via Jeanine.
As usual, he's met with silence.
She's asleep when he gets home.
She smells like his body wash and shampoo, her sleep shirt is one of his own t-shirts, her underwear the standard initiate issued, and her skin pale against his dark sheets. He takes his shirt and pants off, stripping down to his boxers and moving towards her in bed. His lips press to her neck, his hand tangling in her hair as he moves it away, and her sigh lets him know she's awake now. She turns toward him, pulling his face to hers and pressing their lips together.
They kiss for what feels like hours, and when he moves to lie on his back he pulls her on top of him, wrapping her in his arms and enjoying the warmth and weight of her against him.
"What's wrong?" She whispers.
"Nothing." He replies and before she can protest he speaks again, "Everything."
"What can I do?" She asks and he shakes his head and sighs, and she rests her chin on his chest as she looks up at him, "Do you want me to go?"
"Absolutely not."
"Are you ever going to tell me why?" She asks.
He flips their positions, and when he's hovering over her she knows the conversation is over. She doesn't mind it at all, especially when he's buried deep inside of her and he's moaning her name when he slams against her. She wants to hate him, she wants to run screaming from his apartment and tell anyone who will listen that he's holding her against her will.
Except that he's not forcing her to stay, she's choosing to stay, and she loves everything that they do.
This time, when he's swiveling his hips to hers, and their damp skin is sliding against each other, her name is a whisper from his lips as he comes, and his next words are almost a plea.
"Trust me."