Eric stormed down the stone hallways of the prison and slammed his fist hard against the wall, his jaw clenched and his bright blue eyes alight with frustration. What more could he do? It seemed no matter how hard he tried or no matter what he did, Alissa would never come to his side. Eric, though loathe to admit it, wanted to cry, but he was far too macho for that, so he settled for beating his fist into a bloody pulp instead, chips of the stone wall burrowed into the bleeding cracks on his fingers.

Eric stopped, panting heavily as sweat rolled down his face. Why, Alissa, echoed the whispers of a broken man. Eric sunk down to the stone floor and leaned up against the wall catching his breath. As he sat there, he thought. Alissa's behavior was so strange. It seemed so incongruous for a Candor, who were normally very blunt and straightforward. But Alissa was often rather quiet. Though she had her sassy moments, she often seemed to be hiding something. Her erratic behavior sort of reminded him of - no. No. There was no way she was anything like fucking Four. No. No no no no no know. Know. He had to know. Sure, she had already been on trial for Divergence, but there was still a part of Eric that held out hope that that was wrong - that his dear Alissa was as normal as they come. But he had to know.

His crazed electric blue eyes led him down the stone pathway back to her cell as his feet marched along in tandem.

"Alissa!" he barked.

Alissa's head shot up with her eyebrows furrowed. "What? Eric? I thought you said you'd be back in two days?!"

"Listen, Alissa, I need to know something," Eric hissed, his voice thick with urgency.

"What, what is it?" Alissa replied, panicked and confused.

"What did you get on your test?"

"What - Eric you know we're not supposed to talk about that!"

"Just. tell. me. Alissa, I need to know," Eric's eyes softened with desperation, "please. What did you get on your test?"

Alissa sighed and broke eye contact. "Dauntless," she whispered.

Eric leaned back, startled. No wonder he loved her so much. She was a Dauntless woman. "But then why wouldn't you let me take you back to Dauntless? That's where you belong!"

"No, Eric, Candor is my home."

"But - why choose Candor when you're fit for Dauntless?"

"Because I felt like living to a ripe old age," Alissa snarked drily.

Eric, despite his doubts, couldn't help but smirk slightly.

"Alissa, what else did you get?"

Back to the eyebrow scrunching. "What? Nothing! What makes you think I got anything else?"

Eric sighed. He was getting nowhere. He leaned his face against the cold metal bars of her cell. "At least just tell me what you did during your test - what choices you made."

"Eric, why?" Alissa pleaded.

"Please, Alissa," Eric hissed her name, "please, for me," he said, tenderly kissing her forehead.

"I-" Alissa's eyes watered. "Fine. Fine," she sighed, "I heard a voice telling me to choose the knife or the meat." Eric nodded, encouraging her to continue. "I said 'nice try,' and went to grab both but it shocked me. Once again, the voice said 'choose'. I said 'why? why should I?' and the voice just didn't answer, which was infuriating. Then the bowls disappeared and I was left with nothing. Next thing I knew there was this big scary dog snarling at me. No one really knows this but I have a huge fear of dogs, so as soon as I saw that beast I took off and ran. I vaguely heard the sounds of a little girl's screams but I just kept running."

Eric furrowed his brow. So far this was sounding much more like an Erudite test result. He was confused as to how she could have possibly gotten Dauntless.

"So then, next thing I knew, I was on a bus next to a guy reading the newspaper - I mean, who does that anymore? Everyone gets their news through the TV these days."

Eric raised an eyebrow. He certainly didn't recall that part from his own test.

"The man was asking me if I knew some guy whose photo he was pointing to in the paper. The guy's photo looked vaguely familiar but I didn't really know who he was, so that's what I told him. The man on the bus starting getting really aggressive, he started shaking me and yelling at me 'Please, please, you've gotta help me, who is he?' I told him, 'I already told you, I don't know, get off of me!' but he wouldn't - he just kept shaking me and shaking me and I got fed up so I broke out of his grip and punched him. Next thing I knew everything went black and I was back in the testing room."

Eric inhaled deeply. Shit. She was definitely Divergent. Despite his plans to obtain power, however, he knew he'd make an exception for her. There was no way he could kill this beautiful woman. No, she was going to rule Chicago by his side. That Eric was sure of.

"Thank you for telling me, Alissa." Eric grabbed her hand.

Alissa nodded, still looking away from him. "I try not to think about my testing day too much. I just remember how nervous I was, and thinking of the boy they called with me who seemed so confident, so sure of his place in society. I was insecure of his security. I still remember that lanky blonde boy -" Alissa paused, eyes widening with realization. "Edwin," she breathed, looking up at Eric.

"You remember me," Eric's deep, rich voice whispered, his face breaking out into a million watt smile that made Alissa's heart skip a beat. "Don't you see, Alissa? We were destined to meet - destined to be together from day 1."

Alissa's shocked eyes looked up at his, her mind swimming with emotions wrought on by these new revelations. Eric's strong hands gently lifted her chin up to his as his lips pressed into her. He began gently, softly, romantically, but soon was kissing her like there was no tomorrow, his passion flowing forth.

Alissa's shocked eyes soon turned lustful as he brought up a key and entered her cell, locking the door behind him and stripping his shirt off, revealing his incredibly sculpted form. Eric gently took off her shirt as he pressed a series of kisses down her body, starting from her lips, then her jaw, behind her earlobe, down her neck, and inching down her torso. Alissa's hands scraped against his muscular abs, slowly pulling down the waistband of his pants. Eric grinned impiously, returning the favor.

Bathed by the dim light from the windows of her cell, Eric and Alissa made sweet love to one another, basking in the presence of two souls who, no matter how hard they tried or how many obstacles fate threw in their way, simply could not resist each other.

"Yes, Eric." Alissa breathed.

"Yes, what?" Eric replied in a playful tone, but also somewhat confused.

"My answer is yes. Yes I will marry you."

Eric's eyes watered as that million watt smile returned. He grabbed the ring from his pocket and slipped it onto her finger as the two lovers continued to demonstrate their pent up passion for one another on into the early hours of the morning light.

THE END

I hope you enjoyed this story and thank you very much dear readers for making it this far! This was my first ever fic, so please like and review; your support means a lot to me! 3