Four/Tobias Eaton Imagines

Something More

Something in this room is driving you mad. You can feel the weight of it pinned directly between your shoulder blades like a knife, following you relentlessly no matter where you go. You can pace back and forth across the training room, you can traverse the whole of the Dauntless complex, but you still know it's there, he's there. Watching. Waiting.

Four.

It is not an aggressive stare, this, it does not make you afraid, far from it. Four is not a threat to you, nor, you think, he will ever be. He is simply looking, simply observing, but for some reason that act has the power to completely throw you off kilter.

Maybe it's because he is only ever looking at you like this. Yes, that must be it. Four is an instructor, he has the responsibility to watch everyone here to keep them from harming themselves or others, but something is different when he's around you. Instead of passively observing, he's well and truly looking at you, like he likes what he sees and wants to see more, too.

You try to put it out of your mind. Four is not your concern here, or not so anything more than the fact that he's one of your initiation instructors and you're trying not to get dropped before you enter the faction properly. It's not Four's fault if you get distracted by his attention. It's not Four's fault if it only ever leaves you wanting something more.

As time goes on, though, and that something more never comes, you start to chafe against the constant pressure of his attention even more than before. He treats you differently than the other initiates, but only slightly, only ever enough to make you dream of the possibility of something changing down the line. He'll never give you more than the time of day, but from the way he won't ever stop his constant affiliation with you, you can't escape the idea that maybe, just maybe, he wants that something more just as much as you do.

The end of Phase One of Dauntless initiation draws ever closer, and Four fails to act on anything he may or may not be feeling. You could be wrong, of course, he could mean nothing by his ever present attention, but you're not willing to take the risk of letting a small something fade away and be forgotten once initiation is over.

If Four will not do something, well, then, the burden of acting on these impulses falls to you. Tricking an initiation leader into revealing his hand won't be the easiest task in the world, but you're not one to back down from a challenge. Four should know that, seeing as he's so inclined to marking your every action. He should know that you would provoke him like this, and he should have seen it coming from quite far off indeed.

You need one more person in your scheme to get under Four's skin. You find your target with ease— Thomas, a dark haired boy also in your initiation class, close enough to your rank that you won't have to worry about keeping him close but just enough below that you'll be able to drop him without needing to fear retaliation. Thomas is fast, smart, strong, all the things that would perhaps give someone like Four cause for concern. In short, he is perfect, and so the plan is laid.

Next morning, you ask Thomas if he wants to spar together the next morning, just to practice. He nods readily; you're one of the best people here, it's why you thought Four started paying attention to you in the first place, up until the point when he stayed there in your corner even when you made mistakes. The two of you head to a fighting ring near the side of the training hall, and if you specifically chose the one right in Four's line of vision, well, no one needs to notice that but the two of you.

You jump up and down, trying to get some blood back into your muscles. Across the ring, Thomas does the same. He grins at you, evidently proud that you've chosen him of all the other eligible fighters. "Hope you aren't looking for a victory, Y/N, because I'm going to kick your ass."