An unexpected Christmas Eve ✔ (Divergent Fourtris Fanfiction)

Chapter 3

Fluffy Christmas cuteness ahead! ;-)

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"Okay, so how do you usually go on at Dauntless? The presents are next, aren't they?" I ask eagerly. I had forgotten about it for a while during dinner, but now I want to see what it is that he has picked for me.

"Impatient, mh?" Four grins.

"You have to excuse that, but in Abnegation we don't get presents very often. At Christmas, each child gets a small one until we're eight, but after that we're supposed to be old enough to not need it, or even want it, anymore. And we always got them in the morning of the 25th, so that Christmas Eve would be more about Christmas and less about the presents."

"I know."

I look at him in surprise. Why does he know? It's not very common to know about another faction's holiday traditions, unless you're a transfer, because usually it's frowned upon to talk about it. Once again, I wonder if he was a transfer, too, like me, but then he's an instructor already at his young age, and he looks so at home in the training room that it seems as if he's grown up in there.

"Well, like I said, at Dauntless we open our gifts at the Christmas parties after Dinner, and that would be now, in our case. Minus the people, the alcohol and the music."

"And the tree," I add. "So you start." I pick up my present for him. "Merry Christmas, Four!"

"Tobias," he mumbles.

"Sorry?"

"That's my real name: Tobias. Four is just a nickname."

For the first time ever, he has revealed something personal about himself, and he gazes down at his hands nervously before he looks up to meet my eyes again. I've never heard anyone call him by his real name, not even Zeke, Shauna or Lauren, who seem to be his closest friends. So why does he tell me?

"Then I'd say 'Merry Christmas, Tobias!'" I correct myself, and he smiles softly.

"It's nice to hear my name again."

I hand my present over to him, our fingers touching for a heartbeat. His hands is warm. We stay like this for a second too long, and then I watch him unwrap the packet carefully, fighting with the shoelace for a moment because I've accidentally knotted it too tightly. But in the end, he opens it and his eyebrows shoot up.

"Wow, a radio! Does it work?"

"Of course it does. Do you think I'd give you a broken radio for Christmas?" I chuckle.

"No, not really," he shakes his head, laughing, "but you have to excuse me, I usually get my Christmas present from Zeke."

He switches on the radio and a happy grin spreads across his face as music comes out of the speakers. Again, it's not the best quality, but he doesn't seem to mind.

"That's the Dauntless radio channel. They sing this song every year in the cafeteria."

"You can also tune in to the other faction's channels."

"Really? That should be interesting. Usually, our radios are modified to only receive one signal."

"That's what I thought of earlier."

We listen to the song first, and after it has finished, Tobias switches through the channels, finding every other faction's programme.

"Thank you, Tris, this is really a great present."

I'm so happy that I've picked the right thing out of the many things in this house, and his content smile is the best about it all.

"So now you'll get your present, but unfortunately, it's just for tonight. You won't be able to take it home with you."