DAUNTLESS (Divergent sequil, no war)

chapter 3

Uriah leads me down a corridor at the edge of the pit, then up a flight of stairs to the computer room. Through the glass I see Tobias. He sits behind a desk, his fingers tapping away at the key pad, eyebrows pulled together in deep concentration. He looks different here. more comfortable and relaxed. I'd never been able to imagine him sat behind a desk working but the sight of it brings me a smile, this is what life will be like, not constant running and hitting people, but hopefully enough of it to keep things interesting. Uriah pushes the door open and Tobias looks up.

"found her," Uriah says, holding the door open for me. Tobias smiles and nods in thanks then Uriah walks of, leaving me and Tobias alone, surrounded by the buzz of computers.

"are you okay?" he asks, more serious than he should be.

"yes, I'm fine, why? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, but I heard about the mix up with your room. Did Eric try anything funny?" despite his calm tone, I can see the anger, burning in his deep blue eyes. An icy fire that could freeze and burn your soul at the same time, if that's what he wanted to do. I count myself lucky that his anger is not aimed at me.

"What do you mean by funny?" I want to tell him what happened, but I don't want him to explode, not at Eric, it would be dangerous. Plus, nothing really happened, he just tried to wind me up a bit.

"I mean anything, anything strange, anything to annoy you, anything." I stare up into his eyes, and as he looks into mine I see nothing but concern, so I tell him about the bed and the note.

I pull back the dark blue curtain and lead him up the stairs by his hand. he insisted on seeing the note. He made no comment on the size of my room, or the posh furnishings I have been given, I don't think he even looks at them. We go into my bedroom and I walk over to the crumpled piece of paper on the floor and pick it up. I hesitate before handing it over and the sit on the edge of the bed. I watch Four carefully. He reads the note several times before crushing it into an even smaller ball and places it in his pocket. He then comes and sits next to me on the bed.

"So this is really what it looked like?" he asks, a smirk plays on his lips. I told him about my fear, I had to. It would have been wrong not to after he showed me his and I had nothing to do with them.

"Yeah, it's pretty much identical, Eric must have paid a fair bit of attention to it."

"or, he asked Max if he could watch it again, looking for some way to taunt you." He places his hand gently on mine and runs his thumb along my fingers.

"Why would he bother? What have I done to him?" I rest my head on his shoulder and feel him shrug. He plants a soft kiss on my head.

After some time we head down to the dining hall for lunch. We can't see anyone so just grab a table for ourselves. I spread the ketchup across my burger and pick it up with my hands, the way I learnt to on my first day here. Uriah and Lynn join us, then later so does Christina, she says that Will isn't feeling well and so had gone to bed. We sit eat and talk. Lynn grumbles that her apartment is smaller than her sisters and then Eric appears behind her.

"If you wanna see a nice first apartment you want to see Tris'." That's all he says, then he walks of.

of course this brings questions.

"what's it's like?"

"is it big?"

"how many rooms?"

"can we see?"

I start by explaining that I wasn't supposed to get that apartment, I explain about the break in and then eventually agree to show them.

Once everyone has finished eating we go up to the glass building, turn right, then make our way to my room. I hold the door open to let them all in.

About 3 hours later and we are still sat in my room. Christina went to check on Will then brought him over and Lynn invited Shauna and Zeke over. We're all just sat cracking jokes and laughing as Lynn gets annoyed again over nothing when there is a knock on my door. I pull my self from Tobias' lap and go to the door, he follows me over, his hand firmly placed on my waist. I'm glad of his closeness when I open my door to find a pierced face on the other side. Despite it being my room it is Four that he addresses.

"I didn't know you would be here." He says, not even looking at me.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I feel so small stood between them, but Tobias is always so careful around Eric, everything he says, his tone, his body language, everything is calculated to prevent any thing from going wrong.

"Did you need anything?" I ask, trying to defuse the tension but for some reason my words seem to escalate it, Tobias' grip tightens and Eric's eyes shift to mine, filling me with a deep discomfort, but I can't look away.

"I was just wondering if you were okay, but you seem to be being well looked after." He turns and leaves. "I guess I'll see you around." He says as he walks. I shiver and sink into Four who wraps his arms around me.

"Why do the scary ones always want you?" Lynn asks through a thick smirk which vanishes the second Tobias glares at her. Shauna gives her a light clip around the ear.

"Not cool Lynn."

People slowly drift off. Eric's appearance killed the mood and soon it's just me and Tobias left sitting on the sofa and I just don't know what to say. So I don't say anything. I take his hand in mine and that seems to be the only prompt he needs. He places both hands on my hips and pulls me onto his lap and for a moment we just sit there, until it becomes too much and I have to close the space between us. I press myself against his chest and bring my lips to his. His hands press me against him, holding me tight. I touch my hand to his cheek and then pull it away when my fingers start to tremble. He removes a hand from my waist, kissing me all the time, and encloses my trembling hind in his own steady one, lending me his strength. Our lips break apart and I run my free hand through his short and spikey hair. He presses his lips to my forehead and let's them linger there.

I don't want to talk about Eric and I don't want to think about the possibility of war, but with everything that has gone on, it seems to have slipped from our attention and we need to do something about it. So I bring it up.

"When are we going to warn everyone?" I ask, trying to sound casual, but the lump in my throat makes it almost impossible.

"We'll go tomorrow night," he sounds so calm about it all it makes no sense! How can he be calm when I'm starting to sweat just thinking about it? I rub my hands along the hem of my dress trying to dry them.

"What will we say?" he senses my panic and pulls me close to him.

"I don't know," he whispers, "but we will think of something." The yawn I have been battling for some time escapes me. "I'm sorry, I'll go and let you sleep." He gets up to leave but I hold onto his arm,

"You... You don't have to leave." I say, nervous but excited at the same time. "You could stay, if you wanted to." I smile, trying to calm myself more that anything. What am I doing? He brings his lips to mine and kisses me softly.

"That," he says between kisses "sounds lovely, but all my stuff is in my apartment and I smell," I ignore the deflating feeling in my stomach and let go of him, now forcing a smile.

"Okay," I say, then look awkwardly at the floor. He plants one more kiss on my head.

"I'll save you a seat at breakfast." He leaves so I sit in my oversized room on my own.

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AN.

please vote or comment, it's the only way to know if I'm any good at this or not and there is no point in doing this if it's no good so please let me know what you think.