Eric Coulter Imagines

One Night

It is halfway through the afternoon, and finally- finally- initiation is over. Only for today, but still. Eric's just about had enough of loudmouth trainees who think they can run the faction just because they have a halfway decent mile time.

The last of them are filing out now, leaving Eric alone at long last. Look, he likes this job, honestly- it's one of the best chances he has to actually be able to practice his skills and teach the new rounds of initiates how to be better than they are. There's only one way Dauntless improves, and that's by making the new initiates perform at higher levels every year. Through his work, Eric singlehandedly makes sure his faction can survive when everyone else starts to wear out.

Still, he wouldn't mind if the trainees didn't make it quite so difficult. Honestly, it seems impossible for an initiate to be both good and humble. Either they're a complete asshole or they're terrible, and there's no in between. Eric's not about to claim that he was a perfect angel during his own initiation, but surely he was better than this.

A voice across the room distracts him from his thoughts.

"Initiation's going well, then?"

Eric looks up to see one of his closest friends, Y/N L/N, stepping through the door to the training room.

"About as well as one can hope. Some of these guys are nightmares."

Y/N laughs. "Glad to see you're enjoying yourself, then. I was about to start my own practice, but if you'd rather be left alone with your thoughts and perhaps a decent-sized drink, that's fine too."

Eric extends a hand towards the rest of the room. "No, go ahead. It's probably good to have a reminder of what Dauntless are actually like outside of Four, myself, and these two dozen idiots."

Y/N's grin is practically breathtaking. Or, it would be breathtaking, were it not for the fact that they're just friends and Eric definitely has a great lock on his emotions.

"Idiots? I'm starting to think that you're harboring a little resentment towards your dear trainees."

Eric snorts. "Nothing about them is dear. If I could throw all of them off the edge of the Pit one by one, I would."

Y/N arches a brow, crossing the training room towards the rows of targets. The knives are still out from the earlier practice, and she picks one up, tossing it up and down in her hand to gauge its weight.

"Didn't you already force one to dangle off the edge of the walkway with just one hand?"

Eric shrugs a little too quickly. "She was trying to back out of a fight. She only had one tiny little nosebleed and was already giving up."

Faster than an oncoming train, Y/N rears her arm back and throws the knife at the target in front of her. It hits cleanly, a perfect shot. Not that Eric had been expecting anything less, of course. He's grown to realize that Y/N is one of the best damn Dauntless they've got.

"Oh, I'm not saying you weren't justified. I appreciate all things involving initiates and chasms that won't get you fired."

Eric chuckles to himself. "See, this is why you should teach initiation with me. Four doesn't get it, but you do."

He doesn't have to see Y/N's face to know that it's a losing game. Eric has been unsuccessfully trying to get Y/N to run initiation with him for a few years now, but every time he asks, she finds some way to say no. She's busy, or a great job opportunity just came up, or if she tried to talk to someone who wasn't already employed in the faction, she'd lose her mind. The last excuse wasn't the best, but it made both of them laugh, so whatever.

Eric doesn't entirely know why Y/N will never do initiation with him, but it's not like it really matters. Even if she's got a great reason for not wanting to do it, which can literally just be that she doesn't feel like it, Eric still hears the rejection. The fact that he's been harboring feelings for her for a while now, feelings that she most certainly does not return, only makes the whole thing hurt a hell of a lot more.