Cruel//Eric Divergent

11~ Connecting

➖Addi's POV➖
I wake up in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room, definitely not the dormitory. I'm in a double bed in a large room, and I can hear noise coming from the other side of the door. What happened to me last night after I talked to Eric? Eric! Did he bring me here? Wait where is here? I decide to actually get up and look around, instead of just speculating from the bed. My feet hit the cold concrete floor and I instantly want to either have socks or jump back into the warm bed. I make a run for and yank open door with the slightest hope that there is carpet on the other side. Instead I find Eric.
"Oh, Addi, you're up. Sorry you just fell asleep on me and I didn't want to wake you but I didn't want to leave you were Peter could get to you or anyone and you lo-" Eric begins to say, but I can tell he's nervous for some unknown reason, so I stop his rambling.
"No, thank you, that was really sweet of you. By the way, where am I?" I ask with a soft smile.
"Uh, you're in my apartment, I thought it was safest for the night," Eric says while looking at his feet. There's something comforting seeing him not fully dominating, it makes me feel safer and in a way warmer. I simply smile at him again before looking around awkwardly, not sure of what to do.
"Hey, um, do you want some breakfast? I have my own small kitchen with cereal and coffee," Eric says and finally meets my eyes.
"Sure, that would be nice," I say in return and follow him as he walks too his left a few steps and starts the coffee machine. I see a clock behind him and audibly gasp when I see that it's almost 10:00am.
"What about training, aren't we meant to be there?" I ask Eric.
"No, we're doing war games tonight, so no training today," he says and hands me my almost burning hot coffee which I decide to blow on. We stand in silence while we drink our coffee, but it's no longer awkward now it's comfortable.

I look away for a moment and I can still feel his eyes burning into the back of my head so I turn back around and giggle. He looks flustered that I realised he was still looking at me but eventually joins in my laughter with a small chuckle and a grin.
"I like it like you this, you know, when you're not being all rigid, when you're just being natural," I say without thinking it through.
"I like being this way," he says, surprising him more than me even. When we finish our coffee and I say goodbye to him and thank him again, telling him I'll see him tonight.

I walk slowly back to the pit, feeling like my friends may be there on their day off. I don't see anyone immediately so I decide I want a new tattoo. I want something that signifies how far I've come since I came to Dauntless and I have the perfect idea.

➖Eric's POV➖ {the night before}
Addison had fallen asleep about 15 minutes ago with her head snuggled into my chest, leaving me to think about the deep part of her past that she just shared with me. I can't believe that anyone, led alone her own brother, would be sick enough to do that to her. Having here in my embrace warms me, along with the thought that for once, someone came to me for comfort, instead me making them run to someone for comfort after I've hurt them. I know that we can't stay here, someone will see us and get the wrong idea, but I do not what to take her back to the dormitory. So I have 3 options:
1- Wake her up
2- Take her to the dormitory
3- Bring her back to my apartment
I don't want to wake her, she looks so peaceful in her sleep, so option 1 is out. I don't want to take her back to the dorms where Peter can get to her, so that's out as well. Guess I taking her to my apartment after all. I wake back to my apartment receiving many weird glances, making me gamer at people until they look away. I finally make it back and struggle to unlock the door for a bit, which results in a lot of cursing which I hope doesn't wake Addi.i manage to unlock the door and walk into the bedroom, tuck her in and then I leave the room and collapse on the couch.

➖Addi's POV➖ {present time}

I walk into the tattoo parlour already having come up with something I want.
"Hi, I'd like a tattoo done," I say with a polite smile to the lady at the counter which I then realise is Tori, the lady who did my Aptitude test.
She leads me to the back room without saying a word. Well that's weird.
"You were the one who did my Aptitude test, aren't you? I need you to explain more about, you know, um-"
"Yes, I know what you mean, now sit and I'll talk," Tori says cutting me off. I describe the tattoo I want as she prepares the needle and wipes my shoulder/back with an alcohol wipe to disinfect it.
"Look, I don't know much more about being Divergent than you do. I do know that it's extremely dangerous for anyone, apart from another Divergent, to find out about what you are. It ends with death. My brother Georgie was like you, during the second stage of training he got really good, really fast. The day of the final test all the faction leaders gathered in his testing room. The next morning his body was at the bottom of the chasm. They said it was suicide, but Georgie was happy, he had a girlfriend and was going to be ranked in the top five, he wouldn't of killed himself," Tori says quietly and quickly had the needle and her steady hands create the tattoo.
"Well what do I do?" I ask actually worried for once.
"You stay out of the way, and don't get close to any leaders," Tori says sharply. Oops, I'd managed to both those things already.
"Tris is Divergent as well, stuck together, help each other survive," Tori says while putting a sticky bandage over the now finished tattoo. I pay and thank her, walking out to the cafeteria for lunch. Lunch is ready but I'm still pretty early so once again I can't see any of my friends as I walk around with my tray of food. I do however see Eric, sitting by himself in a corner, for some reason not at the leaders table. I decide after a moment to just walk over to him, and if he's polite I'll sit with him, as I don't know or like anyone else in the cafeteria right now.
"Hi, how ya goin'?" I say with a small smile, watching in amusement as he looks up in surprise.
"Good, uh, would you like to sit, I mean if your friends are here or you don't want to sit with me that's ok," he says while rubbing the back of his neck nervously. Aww that's cute.
"Of course I'll sit with you," I say with a giggle while placing my tray on the table. He smiles at me, which I'm surprised by as anyone could see him smiling.
"Smiling in public? What if people think you've gone soft?" I ask him smiling.
"I don't know, I can always kick someone's ass if I need to," he says while still grinning at me. We talk for about 15 minutes about random things before the conversation turns serious.
"Addi, what did Peter say to you yesterday? The truth," he asks with a somber expression.
"He- he said that he knew about the "incident" in Amity, I don't know how but he does. He thinks that I'm not actually good at fighting, and that I'm just, uh..." I say but can't finish my sentence my cheeks already crimson red from embarrassment.
"Addi, that you're just what? What did he say to you?" Eric says more harshly this time.
"He said that I was probably just fucking one of the leaders," I say while looking down at my tray, refusing to make eye contact with Eric.

He doesn't speak for a while so I force my eyes to look up at him. When I do I am surprised to see him glaring murderously at the table where Peter is now sitting at with his minions.
"I'm going to kill him. He can't just say that to you!" Eric says in a loud voice while banging his fist against the table causing other Dauntless to glance over at us curiously.
"Hey, hey it's fine, I don't care what he thinks," I say in what I hope is a soothing tone. It seems to be as he visibly relaxes. We lapse into silence and occasionally I see Eric glare at Peter before looking back at the table again.
"Hey Addi, do you want to come with me to get a new tattoo?" Eric asks after a few minutes.
"Sure I'd love to. You know I actually got a new one today?" I reply while standing up to throw away my left overs.
"Really can I see it?" He asks looking at me trying to figure out where it is.
"Nope, it's all bandaged up, you'll have to wait for another day!" I say while smiling innocently at him. He looks disgruntled but nods his head causing me to laugh. We walk onto the tattoo parlour and I see Tori, remembering her telling me not to get close to a leader. Damn, she's going to to have a fit. Eric walks over to her quietly tells her what he wants then walks over to the chair while Tori sets up. I drag over a stool and sit next to him.
"Want me to hold your hand just in case it hurts too much for little Eric?" I say in a baby voice to him. Eric simply glares at me, but grabs my hand anyway. Oh.

Even long after Eric's tattoo is finished and we part ways to get changed and ready for war games, I'm left wondering, why did holding his hand feel so nice?

Guys I'm so so so so so sorry I didn't update... Anyway this is a filler cause I have a whole chapter planned for war games and it was meant to be this one, but I felt like I was rushing it so I kept writing about her day and eventually it got too long to include anything else so yeah. Also I'm going back to school on Tuesday and my parents have started to take my devices off me at night again😤 but so that means that even though I know what's happening in the next chapter I may not be able to write and update for a while again...
Anyway love you, you got me to 7k?! What?!
Linny😇