Burning With the Fire (Eric Divergent Fanfic)

And the Tension Thickens

***Arielle's POV***

Elizabeth left Eric and I awhile ago, going to bed, as she didn't want to face Uriah at dinner tonight. I couldn't blame her, as I don't know how I'm going to be able to face him after he attempted to strangle my boyfriend.

"What's on your mind Ari?" Eric whispers, pressing a kiss on top of my head.

"I'm thinking of taking a page out of El's book and skipping dinner tonight." I chuckle sadly, and Eric goes stiff beneath me.

"We aren't skipping. We'll face him, and tell everyone the truth when they ask, if they do. C'mon, the girls will watch Eve." Eric tells me, and I smile warmly at him.

"Of course a father would have a nickname for his little girl." I chuckle, and we head down to the dining hall.

As we walk, I can't help but notice that the walls of Dauntless are more colourful than ever before.

"I guess we missed all the fun, huh?" I ask Eric, and he nods.

"I'm sure I'd be about as colourful, I don't think a lot of people understand why I'm not six feet under." Eric mutters, the rasp evident in his voice. I don't even have to look at Eric to envision the purple bruising wrapping around his neck, which makes my gut clench involuntarily.

Uriah doing that has killed me. I don't know how to look at him now. If I told Tobias what happened, it could be attempted murder, but I don't think Eric will press it; he did murder a lot of people to save me, and Uriah could argue that he was trying to protect me from Eric.

If I really wanted to be a Class A bitch, I could say Uriah did this all to himself, but that would be so low of me. Uriah was doing what he thought was right, and I did practically jump back to Eric, even after everything he's done. Maybe Uriah isn't in the wrong, maybe it's me.

"Arielle, baby, what are you thinking about?" Eric asks me, and we have stopped in the middle of a hallway that is empty, likely because everyone is down in the dining hall.

"What if I'm the one that's in the wrong, Eric? I have been giving Uriah so many mixed messages, I mean, what if he thought what he was doing was right? What if he was trying to protect me? God, Eric, this is so screwed up." I exclaim, and bury my face in his chest. He wraps his arms around me, giving my body a slight squeeze.

"You weren't in the wrong Arielle. Uriah made his choice. Now you need to make yours."

***Eric's POV***

Seeing Arielle so conflicted is eating at me, and as much as I want to make her decision for her, I can't. Arielle must choose her side, and I have to support her either way.

I know that she shouldn't have forgiven me so quickly, because I'm the King of Assholes and I don't deserve her, but I think we both know that, deep down, we need each other to live, and we will always forgive each other, no matter the cost. We need each other to navigate the dark world we are living in right now, and, most of all, our daughter needs us. Jenevieve will need as much love and protection as possible as this war continues, which means Arielle and I will have to fight to stay together. Not that that's a bad thing. It will be her and I to the end of time, I can promise you that.

We enter the dining hall arm in arm, and, as per fucking usual, the sound level is cut in half because of my presence. There are many eyes that are happy to stare at us, but my eyes only find one person: Uriah.

He is seated at a table with Tris, Christina, Lynn, Marlene, Lynn's little brother, Hector, and Zeke. As soon as our eyes meet, he shrinks into his seat in between Tris and Zeke. A safety net, the little coward.

"Hey, play nice. I don't have the energy to deal with the two of you again." Arielle scolds me, and, reluctantly, my eyes leave Uriah's, and to the food line.

Arielle and I grab a tray, and we load it with some beef stew, a couple rolls each, and a decent sized helping of the chocolate cake. We leave the food line, and we head to our table in the far corner of the dining hall, which is a relatively empty area given so many Dauntless followed Max and I to Erudite. I still regret, to this day, that I didn't do more to stop Jeanine and Max's plan. Arielle always reassures me that I didn't have a choice, but everyone has a choice, always. It doesn't matter how hard the other option is, there is always a choice.

"Marlene is flirting with Uriah. I don't even have to hear it, I can see it from here." Arielle scoffs, and my attention to steered towards Uriah's table, where, as Arielle said, Marlene is specifically reaching out to Uriah, being super smily, and attempting to touch him every chance she gets, as Tris has just vacated her spot, following Four out of the dining hall. That peaks my interest, but I won't be leaving Uriah and Arielle in the same room again for a long while after today, even if it's the dining hall.

I turn my attention back to Uriah's table, and I see Uriah trying to be nice in rejecting Marlene, but she's being oblivious to it on purpose.

I chuckle to myself. I know he's thinking about my sister. He wants Elizabeth, and he fucked it up today when she witnessed him strangling me.

I didn't want Beth going after him anyway, he's a hotheaded Dauntless kid that I want no where near my sister. Great, now I'm starting to sound like the overly protective brother. But, with my father not showing himself and my mother being gone, it's my turn to step up, take care of, and protect my sisters. Arielle will be beside me, hopefully, so I don't have to do it alone.

Shit, I don't know how I did life without Arielle, she's a life line to me. Damn me to hell if I let her get away again.

Hello lovelies! I'm sorry about the wait, and for this being another lame filler :/  but I have a great idea for next chapter :)  I'm just hoping all of you will like it!

Please keep up with all the wonderful comments and votes! They are so appreciated, and, what is equally appreciated, is all of you wonderful readers getting this story to 3400 reads! I love you all so much, and this is huge for me! 

I am beginning the work on the next part, so it should be up soon! (lol, that's a lot of wishful thinking on my part)

Have a wonderful day/night lovelies! xo