Divergent One Shots (Eric & Tris)

Seven-Childhood Love Remembered 2.2

Tris

I wake with a start in the morning from my phone buzzing.  I reach over to see a new message from Eric.  It says:

'Knock, knock.'

I chuckle and wonder why he's sending me a knock, knock joke.  So, I respond:

'Who's there?'

I giggle as I send it. 

'Eric,' he replies. 

'Eric who?' I grin. 

'Eric is at your door.  Are you going to open up or not?' he questions and I jump out of bed.  I check my hair in my mirror before I rush to the door.  I run my fingers through it and get them stuck in my curls from last night.  I untangle them as there's an actual knock on the door.  I open it and he's really here... with breakfast in hand.  My heart melts at the thoughtful gesture. 
"Good morning," I say.  "What brings you here?"
"I didn't see you at breakfast," he shrugs.  "I thought you might be hungry."
I smile at him, "Thank you."
"You're welcome," he grins. 
"Do you want to come in?" I ask. 
"Is Christina here?" he questions. 
"Of course," I respond.  "Good girls don't stay the night with their boyfriends."
He chuckles lightly at that. 
"She should be completely out, though.  I didn't even hear her come in last night.  She probably closed the club," I tell him taking the bag from him and looking inside.  There's a plate with eggs, bacon, fruit, and a muffin.  I sit down on the sofa and take the utensils and plate out removing the lid.  He sets a cup of coffee on the console for me.  "Thanks," I grin. 
"No problem," he replies. 
"So... how's the rumor mill?" I question. 
He winces. 
"That bad, huh?" I question taking a bite of eggs.  They're still warm and he salted them. 
"Apparently, I should've sent a guard to walk you home.  There's all sorts of stuff going around about us.  Plus, Four being taken into custody doesn't help matters," he explains. 
"Eh, let them think what they want," I shrug dismissively. 
"That doesn't bother you?" he questions. 
"I'm sure whatever is being said is untrue," I tell him.  "Why would I care what other people think?  I just don't want to hear it.  I especially don't want to hear what other lovely things Peter Hayes has to say about it.  He has the special skill of knowing exactly which of my buttons to push."
"Why Peter of all people?" he questions confused. 
I glance at him and then back at my plate.  I know I flush heavily when I admit, "Because he's the only person in Dauntless who's seen me naked and he tries to use it against me."
I glance back at him and he blinks. 
"Why has Peter seen you naked?" he questions almost stumbling over the words. 
"Let's just say that next year you may want to separate males and females rather than birth factions," I tell him vaguely.  I put another bite of eggs in my mouth and Eric puts his hand on the fork stopping me from eating. 
"What did he do?" he questions. 
I finish chewing the bite and shrug, "What didn't he do?"
"Tris," he says tiredly. 
"Which time?" I question. 
He closes his eyes and grits his teeth.  "All of them," he tells me as evenly as he can. 
So, I list off what Peter did to me in order—spray painting my bed, shoving me out of the train during Capture the Flag, confronting me in the dorm when I was just in a towel and ripping it off of me, reading the false Erudite article about my parents in front of everyone in the dorm, and having Al and Drew hold me down while he touched me before he tried to throw me in the Chasm. 
I realize I'm staring down at the plate.  Eric's hand is still on mine.  I wiggle the fork out of his hand and he removes it.  I put another bite into my mouth and glance back up at him.  He's rubbing his eyebrow with one hand. 
"Why didn't you say anything?" he questions softly. 
"I don't know," I shrug.  "I was constantly being threatened.  Peter was always in my face.  It was leagues different from my childhood.  I just assumed this is what Dauntless was like."
I eat a strawberry and look back at him. 
"That is not what Dauntless is like," he tells me gently. 
I continue with my food eating more than I normally would just because he went to the trouble to bring it to me. 
"I think Peter and I need to have a chat in my office on Monday after I handle the situation with Four," he says. 
"Why?" I question. 
"Because I'm going to take care of this," he tells me firmly.  "If there's ever another situation like any of those, I want you to come to me."
I make an uncomfortable face at that. 
"Fine, go to Lydia then.  Wendy could even get it handled.  Just get it taken care of.  We don't want our members to feel threatened here.  Dauntless may have fighting but it's a safe place.  We fight to protect, not to bully and overpower," he explains and I meet his eyes with mine.  I feel a caress to my cheek and I turn away flushing. 
"Will you get it handled in the future?" he questions me. 
"Okay," I whisper. 
"You're a beautiful girl and some men may try to take advantage of you.  I pitted you up against Peter hoping you'd find a way to take down his massive ego.  I wasn't expecting him to get a foothold to see how he could overpower you.  I regret putting you two together," he says. 
I meet his eyes as he speaks and all I keep hearing repeatedly in my head is him calling me beautiful.  I break eye contact once more and I reach for my cup of coffee sipping it.  I lean back against the sofa realizing his arm is now around me.  I stop moving and I can't focus on anything but the feeling of his arm against my shoulders. 
I shakily sip the coffee again and we remain side by side in silence. 
I hear Christina get up and go to the bathroom quietly.  I overhear the shower turn on and think that she probably must've not stayed out as late as I thought. 
"So... what are your plans today?" Eric questions. 
"I'll probably shower when she gets out.  She'll most likely beg me to go shopping with her until I cave... that's probably it," I shrug forgetting that his arm was resting just near my shoulders. 
"You're not a shopper?" he teases. 
"Not really.  I only shop when I have a need," I admit.  "Christina, on the other hand, will shop any day of the week whether she has the points or not."
He chuckles at that.
"You can come over to my place to hide out if you want," Eric offers. "You could even use my shower if you feel so inclined."
I look to him surprised.
"I even have my own library," he says motioning to my stack of romance novels. "You could borrow one."
"Alright. She'll be in there for an hour," I admit.
I pack a small gym bag with a couple pairs of extra clothes since I might go to the gym. I grab an extra tube of toothpaste, toothbrush, and comb from the closet and follow Eric out.
"You know, this won't do anything for the gossip going around," I point out as I lock up.
"I don't care," he shrugs. "Besides, it's usually fairly quiet this early in the morning."
He escorts me up to his apartment even though I know exactly where it is. All members know where leadership resides for safety reasons. Although, I've never been here before. It is very quiet throughout the Pit. It must've been the cafeteria buzzing with activity because it's sparse here.
We take the elevator up to the leadership level and arrive at his floor. We step out of the elevator together and I hear his keys jingle as he selects the proper key. He opens his door and lets me enter in first. He has a massive window covering the entire wall of his living room but it's not as large as I'd have thought. I've seen Max's apartment and it's substantially bigger. I walk in further and survey the seated area. He has a sofa, two chairs, a couple of end tables, and a coffee table. I see a small kitchen with a peninsula. There are high bar stools pushed in over there and a space for a dining table but nothing in that space. I look back to Eric and he's watching me. I notice the bookcase he wasn't joking about and I drop my bag gravitating toward it.
"You weren't kidding," I say with surprise lacing my voice.
"No," he shakes his head and I glance back to him. "It's why I chose this place."
"Good choice," I nod thumbing through the books.
I hear him open a closet down the hallway and I continue to examine the book titles.  He does have some romance.  There are several sci-fi as well.  I see mysteries and educational...
"I put a towel in the bathroom for you," he says coming back down the hall. 
"Are you saying I smell?" I tease with a grin. 
He laughs lightly, "Not at all.  You smell just as intoxicating as last night."
I meet his eyes with mine and he's serious.  I abandon my examination of his books and gravitate towards his bathroom.  I see his pristine bedroom as I pass—bed made, luxurious but masculine decor throughout.  I continue back to the bathroom—the room with the light he left on for me. It's just as clean and extravagant.  I can tell it's been used recently.  It smells like him in here.  While Four has a slight masculine scent, Eric actually permeates his.  He always smells really nice.  I even noticed during training whenever he walked into the room. 
I shut the bathroom door and pull out my toiletry bag I use at the gym.  I set out my toothbrush and toothpaste and also grab my clothes.  I set the bag aside and turn on the shower.  I remove my clothes and set them directly into the bag before stepping into the shower. The water feels magnificent on my skin. He has one of those rain-shower heads and I feel like I never want to leave—the water droplets hitting my skin gives a sensation of what I imagine a massage to feel like. But I shake out if it and grab my shampoo pouring a dab onto my hair and foaming it up. I wash my hair, then condition. I scrub my face and body. I quickly shave and afterward rinse off. I stand in the water for a few more seconds just letting it relax my body with it's delicate magnificence before I force myself to turn off the taps and squeeze out my hair. I grab the towel he left me. It's so fluffy and soft that I feel like I'm being dried by a cuddly stuffed animal. Christina has a few on her bed and when we hang out in her room and talk about boys, we usually snuggle with them and use them as pillows.
I break out of my reverie and finish drying myself off. I dress for the day and comb my hair. I squeeze out the water once more before I brush my teeth. I clean up the mess I've made and hang up the towel. I come out with my bag in hand to see Eric reading a book on his sofa. I can't help but think he appears incredibly Erudite in this moment. He looks up to me and his gaze softens.
"What are you reading?" I ask intrigued.
"A murder mystery," he tells me.
I grin at that as I set my bag near his door. "That sounds interesting," I reply.
"It is," he shrugs setting it aside.
"Is this what you do with your time off?" I question sitting at the other end of the sofa.
"Sometimes," he responds. "I try to get out of the compound whenever I can. I miss the sun. Dauntless can be too dark at times for me."
"Yeah. My apartment only has two small windows in our bedrooms. And they're like half windows at that since we're technically at or just below ground level," I explain.
"Yeah," he nods making a face. "My first apartment was like that. Zeke still has it. When I moved out, Shauna moved in."
"No way," I say disbelievingly.
He shrugs and nods. "He would've roomed with Four but he wanted a single. He needed a roommate and so did I. All the others were decided so we shared. It was nice making a friend but I kind of let him hang out more with Four. I didn't want to get in the way. It's clear he doesn't like me for some reason. I've got Ryan and some other friends to hang out with anyway but Zeke and I used to be closer when we roomed together."
"So, you didn't come up here right after initiation?" I question turning on the sofa to look directly at him.
"Nah, it was kind of a competition for that first week until he quit. After that, I just stayed there until my full promotion," he explains.
"So... if you get out of the compound, where do you usually go?" I question intrigued.
He grins at me, "Wherever I want."
I make a motion to elaborate and he sighs. So he tells me about how he goes all over town listing off a few places. Sometimes he goes zip lining when he hears of a large group meeting there. "I heard that the apple orchard is opening this weekend," he mentions kind of hesitantly.
I smile in response. "I used to go with my family every year to pick apples," I tell him.
"So did I when I was younger. You want to go?" he offers.
I meet his eyes with mine and see that he's completely serious. "Okay," I agree because that sounds wonderful.
"Let's go then," he shrugs and rises.