Split Apart

Chapter 5

Four frowned at me. "Did you hear me, Tris?"

"I did." I said quietly, still allowing the proposal to sink in. "He's asking for another chance." I thought, "He wants me back."

"Well, what do you say?" He asked, his thoughtful eyes looking down at me with radiant hope.

"Why?" I met his gaze. His brow furrowed.

"Why what?" He looked utterly confused.

"Why now?" I persisted.

"Tris, I don't know what you're trying to say." He gave me a bewildered expression.

"Why are you asking now, when I'm starting to move on?" I said, studying his face. "Why not before?" I whispered.

"I was waiting for the right time." He looked away from me. "The right answer to what kept bothering me every night."

"And what was that?" I asked out of pure curiosity.

"If we both were missing something." He looked back at me. "Those questions that I asked you this morning were questions I had puzzled over every night."

I waited for him to continue.

"I told you once before what I saw in you, but let me start again, so you'll understand better."

It required no more of him to convince me. Something inside of me had changed at his request. I now identified it as the hollowness he had spoken of earlier today and the hollowness he shared. It brought comfort to me that we were not the same, but one whole. A whole that could not be without its other half.

A whole that shared more than physical objects.

My answer did not waver when I spoke. "Yes, I'll join you for breakfast tomorrow."

He did not give me his small grin, but an entire smile that went from ear to ear. It brought the same smile to tug on the corners of my lips.

"Shall we head back?" He gestured to the way in which we came. I longed to stay here with him and only him. Though, things are never as anyone wants or wishes.

I nodded at him and walked along his side. Stealing a side glance at him, I noticed the black ink of a tattoo curling on his skin under the collar of his jacket. "If I had not ran out of his apartment after the final simulation would I have been able to ask him of his tattoo?" I questioned myself.

We reached the celebration just as Christina and Will were preparing to announce their news. On a stage I had not noticed was there, stood Will and a frantic Christina. Her eyes were darting around the room until it rested on me, calming a bit. As Will commenced his speech I looked toward Four who was leaving the room.

"Where are you going?" I grabbed his wrist, obviously surprising him. He quickly regained his composure.

"I have no reason to be here." he said as if he was bored.

"Isn't your girlfriend being here enough?" My question called upon a smirk to his features.

"Girlfriend? Sounds nice. If only I had one." He sighed, mimicking being glum. I raised my eyebrows.

"Just stay with me until the end." I ordered him.

"Of course." He returned to my side. "Anything for my girlfriend."

I laughed at him, which made him grin at me. I'd never seen this version of Four, sarcastic and carefree. Then a thought came to me, "This is not Four, but Tobias."

"Tobias." I murmured under my breath. The name brought a stirring into my stomach, familiar and wanted.

I looked toward Four and whispered into his ear.

"Tobias."

He glanced at me with a tender expression. The stirring came again just as Christina's last words were heard over the din of Dauntless cheering.

"We're also expecting a baby."