Stumble Across the Fire (Divergent Eric fanfic)

Four & Eric

 ***Arielle's POV***

I am curled up on the couch reading, and I jump through the roof when Eric walks in quietly, but slams the door. He left maybe twenty minutes ago, and he's gone from a happy and enjoyable person to be around to a walking ball of anger. Someone really must have pissed him off.

"Who pissed you off?" I ask, not moving from my spot on the couch. He walks into the kitchen and begins pouring our drinks and setting the table, without a word. "Eric?" I ask again, and he looks up at me, ready to snap, but his eyes soften when he sees the concern in my eyes.

"Corey." Eric mutters, and I nod. I place the bookmark on the page I neglected to finish, and place the book on the glass coffee table. I walk towards the table, and stand beside Eric, watching him finish setting my place.

"What did he do? You were fine when you left twenty minutes ago." I ask, and he sighs, rolling his eyes.

"He was grilling me about you, and called you some things I wasn't happy about, okay?" Eric snaps, and I just look at him. 

"Like what?"

"Things I will not repeat. If he mentions it again, let's just say he may lose a limb." Eric says angrily, and I cross my arms over my chest in frustration. Eric looks up from setting the table, and his eyes are storming in uncertainty. 

I remain silent. My willingness to out-stubborn him is high. And I'm willing to bet it's higher than Eric's.

When he sees I am not speaking again, he looks down to his combat boots in defeat. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you. Let's eat and go to bed." Eric suggests, and I nod, as no more words are needed. We both don't say anything, as we both decided, silently, to agree to disagree.

***

The next morning, I am up before Eric, so I leave him to wake on his own. It's Saturday, so we both have no where to be, unless Eric is called in for important leadership stuff.

I look back to his sleeping form, and I smile warmly. Seeing him shirtless, in my bed, sends my stomach fluttering with the butterflies, and causes heat to rise to my cheeks and other female parts of my body. He is one of the best eye candy around, that's for sure.

But then I am reminded of how much he needs his sleep. He has night terrors, and of what, I will never know. As soon as I wake him up, he pulls the tough man act and says it was nothing. As much as I know it is everything but nothing, he refuses to let me in. I push and prod, but everyone knows that is the absolute best way to get nothing out of Eric. He hates being nagged, and I hate to admit it, but I do nag him.

I leave my apartment as quietly as possible, for Eric to sleep in. I make my way to the dining hall, and it is about half full, and fairly quiet for being so. Everyone must have a hangover, it is the only reason I can think of for quiet.

I find Tobias sitting alone at his usual table, so I decide to join him, given I haven't seen him for a couple days. As I sit in front of him, he smiles widely at me, hugging me over the table.

"It feels like I haven't seen you in forever. How's your grown-up life?" Tobias asks, and I chuckle. He basically summed up my new life perfectly.

"Well, it has only been a day in my new apartment, and from what I can tell, it's going to be a pretty fun 'grown-up' life." I chuckle as I bite into my apple. The bitter taste hits me first, but the sweet juice of the apple hits me soon after. Spartan apples are the only apples Dauntless serves, as they are named after famous ancient greek warriors. I have read many books on them, and it is absolutely fascinating how there were so many wars in such a small area and time. But then again, I am happy we don't live in that era, as women were seen as merely objects, and slaves were a common thing among their society.

"Elle, there's a party at Zeke's tonight, you and Eric should come." Tobias suggests, and my jaw drops. He actually just willingly invited Eric? What the hell?

"You are actually consenting to Eric coming to the party? What happened to the old Four?" I ask, and he just smiles, shaking his head at me.

"Well, I think Eric would string me up by my balls if I asked you to go with me." Tobias says, and I double over in laughter. It's so true that it's funny.

"Yes, there is that." I say in between my laughs. "But who will you go with?" I ask once I've caught my breath.

"I'm sure Zeke will have an array of girls at the party, so I'm not concerned. And no matter what, I'll figure out some way to get laid." Tobias says confidently, which sends me into another fit of laughter.

"Okay, Mr. Overconfidence." I tease, and he rolls his eyes.

"So that's a yes?" Tobias asks.

"Um, duh! Zeke's parties are my favourite!"

***

That night, I have managed to settle on a pair of black jeans with a charcoal tank top, black t-shirt, and a red and black flannel. I leave my hair au natural, because I really don't feel like fighting with it tonight.

As I am just finishing my eye liner, I hear a knock on my door.

"Come in!" I shout, knowing that it's Eric. Sure enough, I hear his heavy footsteps cut across the living room and down the short hallway to the bathroom I am currently in, putting away my eyeliner tube.

"How can you make simple look so fucking good?" He whispers, and I smile to hide my oncoming blush.

"You tell me." I reply as we walk hand in hand through the living room, towards the door. I let go of his calloused hand and throw on my black chucks. Shutting and locking the door behind us, I grab Eric's hand once more.

"Should I dare you to chug a bottle again? Maybe something even stronger?" Eric teases, and I shake my head at him, trying extremely hard to keep the smirk off my face.

"You can deal with the consequences. Wherever we stay tonight, it will reek of puke, because I get a nasty hangover." I remind him, and he just shakes his head.

"Seeing you drunk and giggly will be well worth the stinky apartment, Arielle." Eric says, and I chuckle, continuing to shake my head.

Kind of a sucky chapter, sorry about that, but the next one is the party! Yeah!

Have a good night/day lovelies!