Waiting Four You

Chapter 23 (Tobias)

"Come on, Stiff." I say to her hoping that she realizes that it's to help her stay strong. "Let someone else stand there and take it."

"Shut up, Four!" She snaps back angrily. Thankfully she at least remembers not to say my real name.

I hear Max say "Hmmm" in my ear as if he's making connections that I don't want him to make. I know that he's still conspiring with Eric somehow otherwise the pair wouldn't be constantly trying to make my life as a leader miserable. I don't want either of them to make trouble for us, especially while she's still an initiate.

I make a quick decision that I hope won't make her too mad at me. The third knife I throw hits her ear. It's a small nick at the top, and it's the fast healing cartilage.

The glare she throws at me is murderous. I must have made a huge mistake. She doesn't just look pissed, she looks furious.

"I would love to stay and see if the rest of you are as daring as her, but I think that's enough for today," Max states before turning to me. "Well that should scare them, huh."

I think - I hope - that means he's not suspicious of me anymore.

Max touches her shoulder and gives her a smile. "I should keep my eye on you."

I watch blood trickle down her ear on to her neck and feel sick.

The room empties, the door closes, and I wait until the footsteps disappear before starting towards her.

"Is your-" I start to reach for the side of her head.

She continues to glare at me. "You did that on purpose!"

I sigh heavily, "Yes. Max was suspicious, and I couldn't let him find out. He's been making my life a living hell, and I don't want him doing anything to you to get to me all because I won't follow his ways. He was destroying Dauntless before I got here, and now I'm in his way of what he thinks the ideal Dauntless looks like."

"You were taunting me. Acting like a bully."

"Tris, you're from Abnegation. We act our bravest when we're being selfless. I wasn't taunting you. I was reminding you why you had to continue." I pause waiting for her to say something. "I'm sorry, Tris. I wasn't trying to hurt you."

She sighs. "We can talk about this later. I should probably go calm Christina down before she starts plotting your death."

Her comment drags a small chuckle out of me.

"I love you," I say. It's been a while since I last said those words. I'm pretty sure that this is the second time I've said it to her, and I feel bad that I haven't had many chances to say it between then and now.

Tris smiles, "I love you too. I'll see you tonight."

With that, she exits the room heading off to find her friend.

Sometime around midnight I hear her slip into my apartment.

"How did it go with Christina?" I ask.

She sighs loudly, "When I got to her, she was telling Uri about it, so I had two hot heads to cool instead of just one. I don't even know when Uri even found out that she knows about us, but I assume that she told him that before starting on about what you did."

I laugh knowing that both of them are too afraid of me to actually do anything. "What were they plotting?"

"They didn't get that far. I caught them at the end of Christina's explanation."

I chuckle before pulling her onto the bed. We kiss, and our clothes don't exactly last long. As I'm kissing down her chest, I notice a bandage over her heart.

"What's this?" I ask her gesturing to the bandage.

She smiles knowingly, "Take it off."

I peel away at the bandage. Underneath is a tattoo. The tattoo isn't big, but it touches me in the best way possible. I kiss around the red ink of the heart before moving to the black number four in the center of it.

"I keep the bandage on since there's no where private to get dressed," she explains. "I don't want the others to accidentally see it. I only told Tori that I wanted the number, but she added the heart anyways."

Between kisses, I say, "I love it."

The next morning we are both still exhausted, but initiation won't wait for us, so we push past the exhaustion from our long night to get ready and head out separately for breakfast.

Tris is against Myra today, and that fight is over as fast as it starts. It only takes one hit for Myra to drop unconscious. I don't exactly see what that Erudite boy who hangs all over her sees in the frail girl.

I should really stop thinking of them by their past factions. They will all be Dauntless at the end of this because I made sure that the rankings were only to decide the order in which they choose their future jobs. Why am I having so much trouble this year dropping their old factions? Last year it was easier.

Today I fight Al, and I already know that it will be one of my easiest fights unless I can get him to actually try.

As we stand in the ring, I look at the hulking boy. He's big and slow, so I know that he wouldn't actually be able to land a hit, but I actually want to see him try.

"Al," I say to the boy. "I want you to actually try in this fight. You won't be able to hurt me like you did Will in that first fight. I can't assess your skill if you just drop as soon as you get hit."

A forlorn look crosses his face. He feels the same way I did during my initiation, but I was too determined to survive to give in to those feelings. I couldn't risk becoming factionless for more reasons than just Tris.

"I know what it's like to worry about hurting others," I quietly admit to Al hoping that the rest don't hear me.

I don't know if I got through to him or not, but I can't keep talking when the fight needs to start so that the day can be over.

I get into a defensive position across from Al, and am not necessarily surprised when he doesn't do the same. Fighting someone with absolutely no will to fight doesn't sit well with me, but I knew it would happen when I eventually got to him. One punch to the gut, and Al drops deciding to concede. It is disappointing, but at least he has the courage to keep to his morals instead of bending to the will of Dauntless like I did.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"Earth to Four," I hear Zeke say.

"What?" I ask.

"You were completely spaced out," Shauna

"Sorry," I reply. "There's just been a lot going on the past few days."

"Marcus?" Zeke asks.

I sigh, "Not just Marcus. Max and Eric are at it again. I'm just worried what will happen if they figure us out."

"I'll watch the cameras, you know that. I always make sure that I have the transfer dorm and training room on my screen. She's just as much my family as you are."

I give Zeke a weak smile before checking Tris's usual table. She looks over her shoulder at the same time, and our eyes meet. I quickly glance back down not wanting to be caught by the wrong eyes.