Divergent One Shots (Eric & Tris)

Eighty-Nine-A Camping Adventure 26.5

Eric

I can't believe what she told me, that she was so open about it.  I really don't think she's a threat.  She works in security and does a great job.  She's an exceptional Dauntless.  How could her loyalties be anywhere but here?  I don't think they are.  I think that feeling I'd been having was right.  She's not hostile or undermining the factions.  I think I'll handle each request on a case by case basis.  I will decide who threatens Dauntless from within—not Erudite, not Jeanine. 
I look to her again as we sit in the boat.  She's still eating her sandwich.  I devoured mine in a matter of minutes.  I know she likes it, though.  I think she enjoys food.  It sounds like the plain meals she was used to weren't her favorite and she loves to try new things.  I want to be there with her as she does, introducing her to everything.  The fact that she admits she's different?  I see it now.  I think that's what drew me to her.  I believe that's part of the appeal.  It's as if she's a forbidden fruit and I want her.  If Jeanine knew my thoughts, she'd kill me—metaphorically speaking anyway.  She's at risk.  Anything I want to ask, I've got to do it away from the cottage.  I should ask her my questions now, not later. 
"Can I ask you a few things?" I inquire. 
"Sure," she nods. 
"What did you test for?" I question. 
"Dauntless, Abnegation... and Erudite," she tells me softly. 
"Three?" I ask in shock.  I've never heard of that. 
She nods.  She is different... so different. 
I sigh and look away.  Maybe that's the draw.  I grew up in Erudite and she suits that.  She is pretty smart.  We're both Dauntless... and she's selfless.  I meet her eyes and she's staring at me.  She doesn't look afraid of me.  I see why her biggest fear was Jeanine making her kill her parents.  She's very astute—as if she knows what Jeanine wants to do.  Perhaps without Jeanine, she would've been her replacement... except for the fact that her kind are searched for and tested on.  I feel like I need to know what Jeanine does with those she finds.  She says they're a threat but I honestly don't know what she does there with them.  Prison and examinations?  I don't know.  I probably should find out. 
"What's on your mind?" Tris asks me. 
"Thinking about Jeanine," I admit.  "And you."
She stares at me for a moment.  I sigh and look away from her.  I don't want to scare her.  "I'd never turn you in.  I honestly don't want to turn anyone in," I divulge. 
"Have you ever done that?" she inquires softly. 
"She asked for Myra and Edward," I tell her.  "I told her they were already gone."
She frowns at that.  "I have seen Edward.  I think he's gone nuts. I think that's why he and Myra split up," she tells me. 
"That's a shame what happened to him," I say.  "Nothing like your initiation happened in mine... except our trainer died."
"He did?" she questions shocked. 
I nod.  "Suicide.  He was a fun guy.  I never would've thought he was suicidal."
"Yeah," she replies softly.  She's frowning.  "Same with Al.  Up until the last days, he wasn't that bad.  I honestly think he felt terrible for helping Peter.  I should've forgiven him."
"What did he do?" I ask confused. 
"My abduction fear," she mumbles before taking another bite of her sandwich. 
"He abducted you?" I question. 
She nods. 
"And Peter?" I ask. 
"And Drew, too," she says.  "Four beat the crap out of him but the other two got away.  Then by the next day, Al was gone."
"Why didn't you tell me this?  I had no proof with Hayes stabbing Edward.  If he did something to you, I could've handled it," I say. 
"Four had me convinced you were the bad guy," she tells me in a whisper.  "I'm sorry for misjudging you."
"I would've protected you then.  You should've told me," I tell her. 
"I know that now," she responds softly. 
"What's going on with Hayes?" I ask. 
"I avoid him," she tells me.  "I'd probably be able to beat him now.  I train with some pretty impressive Dauntless."
I grin at that.  I knew she had spunk.  That's why I set that up.  "I'd like to see that," I tell her. 
"It'd probably end up like my fight with Molly," she admits. 
I chuckle at that. 
"I thoroughly enjoyed watching that one," I tell her. 
"Of course you did," she mumbles rolling her eyes. 
"What changed?" I question. 
"Peter ripped off my towel and Molly criticized me," she says unable to meet my eyes. 
I blink in shock. 
"Was he always like that?" I question. 
She purses her lips and nods. 
I sigh harshly.  "I hadn't realized he tormented you," I admit.  "Come to me if anything else happens," I tell her caressing her leg. 
Her eyes meet mine and she nods.
I row us back when my basket is full. I teach her how to clean the fish. I freeze some and refrigerate the others.
"Do you want me to take you back for your stuff?" I ask.
"We could do that," she nods.
I drive her back and tell her it's best that we talk about anything confidential in my truck or on the pond. I drive and we talk... about lighthearted things actually. She's not so different and it feels like this doesn't change much between us other than I know I have to be cautious with her around Jeanine.
I pull up at the campground and park. We climb out and I escort her to her cabin. I notice a large group of Candor members sitting together at the beach.
"Do not many Dauntless come here?" she asks me.
"Normally they do," I tell her. This is weird that we're the only two. But I'm honestly good with that. Nobody from our faction is bothering us or hitting on her. That pleases me.
We step into her cabin and she grabs her bag.
"Should I bring it all?" she asks me.
"If you want," I shrug attempting to hide my smile at that.
"Are you moving out?" the Erudite girl asks.
"Not exactly," Tris replies. "Jana this is Eric. Eric, Jana."
I nod to her.
"I know who he is," she mumbles.
"You do?" Tris asks surprised.
"Sure. He's Jeanine's son who defected," she replies still looking through her microscope.
"Nephew," I correct.
"Whatever," she shrugs dismissively.
"Are you having trouble with guys in here?" Tris asks her.
"Nope. I'm a nerd. They're not interested," she replies quickly.
"Well, one of them was a problem for me yesterday. Eric says some others were behaving threateningly so I'm staying with him," Tris explains.
The Nose looks up in surprise. "Well, it's Amity after all," she responds.
I snort in reply. "We're not having sex," I tell her rolling my eyes.
"Sure you're not," she laughs.
"Do you always talk to faction leaders like this?" I question.
"Oh," she says in response. "I hadn't realized."
"We're... we're not..." Tris stutters.
"We're friends," I clarify but I notice the blush covering her face. I hadn't perceived that she had such a reaction before.
"Uh huh," the Erudite replies.
I see Tris grabbed her swimsuit and phone cord.
"See you around, Jana," I tease.
"Have fun in Amity," she replies to us.
I escort Tris out.
"She was nicer the last time I talked to her," she replies.
"Disregard her behavior. She's just jealous that you're getting all the male attention," I tell her.
"What do you mean?" she questions.
"She's not very pretty and they're ignoring her. She's jealous of your negative attention," I explain putting her bag into my trunk.
"I'm not very pretty either," she protests.
"Stop being so modest. You're gorgeous," I disagree.
I open her door and she's gaping at me. I walk around and climb in.
"Are you coming?" I ask when she's still standing outside.
"Y... yeah," she says getting in.
She's quiet on the return. We arrive back and I start a fire to smoke some of the fish.
"You want to swim?" I ask.
"Can you do both at the same time?" she inquires motioning to the fire.
"This'll take like three hours," tell her. "I just didn't want to leave with the fire going."
"Oh," she nods. "Sure."
She goes upstairs and changes. I get the fish situated over the fire on a skewer and having them hang down. I brined them briefly while we were gone. I put some foil over the coals and put some applewood chips on the foil to smoke. I'll check this periodically.
I run up to change and she's still dressing. I put another pair of trunks on and open the door. She's in the bathroom putting on sunblock. I immediately step in there and start applying it to her back. I like that this one is mostly backless. The others had several straps I had to navigate around. I recall helping my sister with this and putting this on Tris is nothing like that. When I finish with her, I start on myself and she puts some on my back. I glance at the front of her suit. It's a two-piece halter top with bikini bottoms. She looks incredible in this one and I have to deliberately keep looking away.
We grab some towels and head outside. I check the fish to see it's fine. I see her setting her towel down on the chair. She kicks her sandals off and digs her feet in the sand. I can't help but look at her again. She's so beautiful.
I'm kind of shocked that her Erudite friend was so bold in her words earlier. She almost sounded Candor. Tris was uncomfortable with what she said. I wonder if it was the subject matter or me. I'm assuming the subject. She's uncomfortable with touch and intimacy. It's got to be that. I decide to test my theory. I walk over beside her and touch her shoulder with one hand and toss my towel to the further chair. She looks up at me with her crystal blue eyes. She's not uncomfortable with me touching her. It's got to be intimacy.
"Come on," I say taking her hand.
She follows me easily. Yeah, she's fine with me. The girl's assumption is what bothered her.
We walk through the shallows, slowly acclimating ourselves to the water. We get out deeper and start swimming together.
"Did you already know Jana?" she asks me.
"No," I shake my head.
"But she knows you," she mentions.
"That's like everyone in Dauntless knows Max, but Max doesn't know everyone," I point out.
"True," she nods.
"She made you uncomfortable, didn't she?" I question.
"That she assumed such a thing about us? Yes," she nods.
"What's your fear exactly?" I inquire since we're talking freely about it.
"Intimacy," she says softly. She flushes and doesn't meet my eyes.
"Is it a Stiff thing?" I ask.
"I think it may be common with former Abnegation," she shrugs. "Any sort of touch was taboo. It makes sense to me that something so personal is not really like a screaming fear. It's more like an internal panic and discomfort."
I purse my lips and nod at that.
"Were you laughing at my fear?" she asks bashfully.
"We all were," I admit. "It wasn't like a humorous kind of laugh. I think your fear kind of made us all uncomfortable. Yours was the only one like that that got an actual emotional response from us. The rest were expected. Yours was unexpected."
"Yeah. My fears are weird," she says.
"No different than mine or anyone else's," I disagree.
"Really?" she asks surprised.
"You have fewer than most," I point out.
"How many do you have?" she asks.
"I had twelve in initiation. I knocked it down to eight during my leadership training," I divulge.
She grins at that.
"I think you've also lost some," I mention.
"I think so, too," she nods.
I pick her up and she chuckles. I toss her backward playfully in the water and she's laughing. Yeah, she's not afraid. We mess around splashing each other for a while.  We swim together and I'm thinking about how at ease I am with her.  I notice how she's behaving with me. She's very casual as she climbs on my back and wraps her arms around me. 
"I've never had a friend like you before, Eric," she tells me gently.  "I've never told anyone the things I've told you."
I caress her arm and tell her the same.  I'm not sure if this is a friendly gesture or more. So, I wait. I observe her for a signal at what she wants.