Family of two

12 -Improvement

Eric

They had unpacked everything that had been in the package and now Eric was studying the instruction.

"...take A and B and put C in the middle, but before that make sure to put A-1 and A-2 also B-1 and B-2 into the position shown on picture 11..."

Why couldn't they give their instruction in the right order? Looking up from the instruction he could see a happy Teddy bouncing up and down between the components.

"What are these for?" Teddy hold up a plastic bag with the screws and other items.

"We need them to fix everything together." Mia explained.

As soon as she finished the sentence Teddy was already on something else.

"What are these?"

"That are tools, Teddy. And that is a screwdriver. We will need it later."

"When will we begin with my bed, Eric?" Teddy now looked at him.

"As soon as I'm finished reading this."

"But you already read it. You read it and then you read it again. Why are you reading it again now?"

Eric could hear Mia snickering. He glared at her.

"Because, I do study it thoroughly." Eric replied with all the dignity he could muster. He wished this thing was a weapon, any weapon. He wouldn't care. He would dismantle it within seconds and put it together just as fast. He didn't want to look like a fool in front of Mia.

"What sorowly?"

"It means doing things good. Like I told you to brush your teeth. Not just rushing with that tooth brush of yours all over your teeth in a hurry liked you tried to get away with this morning."

"I brushed my teeth good!" Teddy exclaimed.

"Not before I watched you the second time, you didn't."

"That's because I wanted to play already."

"See you admitted it." Eric grinned at Teddy who huffed.

"You read good now?"

"Yep. Let's get started." Eric got up from the floor and caught Mia smiling at them and he felt himself smiling back. Now that he finally understood this manual his mood had improved. Since he was certain he wouldn't make a fool of himself.

One hour later Eric would have lost much of his good mood if not for Mia. Whenever he was close to losing it she would made fun of the situation and in the end he somehow found himself laughing with her. He liked the way she made him feel more secured. Ever since he had become leader he always feared to lose the respect of the faction so he acted harshly to make it clear to everyone that he wasn't to be messed with. There were always those who would try out how far they could go. They would watch for flaws in his performance, backtalk to him or follow his command a tad bit more slowly than others. So it had become second nature to him to nudge that harshly back right at the beginning and to not to let anyone see when he was struggling. He liked that Mia was different. After Mike and Jack she was the first one he felt he could be himself with, flaws and all without being judged. She was kind and had a nice sense of humor.

"We did it!" Mia exclaimed happily after Eric had finished the last screw.

"We did!" Eric couldn't help but smile proudly on his handy work and Mia beamed right back at him.

"You did it?" Teddy came bouncing back in. He had left sometimes during their work getting bored with the lack of progress and retreated in the living room to draw pictures. Now he was jumping up and down on the mattress, full of fresh energy. Eric was smiling down at him, when something light hit his head. He looked over to Mia was struggling keeping her face straight, but she had her hand around more of the light tiny things that had been in the package as a safety against damage.

"Did you just threw something at you leader, Mia?" He asked sternly. "You know that it is a punishable crime, right?" He saw Mia gulp before he lunged for her and then she shrieked when he tackled her.

.

Mia

"He tickled you? Eric?" Her friend Jane looked at her like she lost her mind. "Are we speaking of the same person here?"

Mia huffed: "I told you he is actually a nice guy."

"No, you told me he was good with Teddy – which I could see for myself, when he stopped by. But he didn't give of the vibe that he is the type to be joking around with."

"Now you know he is."

"I'm trying here Mia, but I can't picture it in my head. It was easier picturing him hanging that initiate over the chasm."

"That was years ago. People need to get over it already and none of us was there so we don't know the whole story behind it." Mia defended Eric.

"And what about the incident in the training room some weeks ago?"

"Which incident?"

"He stormed into the training room already mad as hell and picked up a fight with one of the fence guards. It was a few day before you told me you run into him in the hallways."

Oh. It must have been the day someone tried to take Teddy away from him. Mia had put together every little piece of the puzzle, but she couldn't tell Jane her conclusions. No one seemed to know Teddy from before and when she first saw him he had no clothes his size. Apparently someone had lent him theirs. As strange at is was, she thought Teddy must be from another faction and Eric didn't want anyone to know. Apparently he had to fight for Teddy at Candor that day, maybe against Teddy's original faction. She hadn't probed Eric about her guess yet, since she wanted him to do so willingly in his own time. She could see that he had a hard time trusting people and he was very protective of Teddy.

"He must have been really angry than. You can't condemn him for that." Mia replied simply. "Everyone has the right to have a bad day."

"A bad day? If I have a bad day I snap at people not beat them up, Mia!"

"Maybe, but he didn't beat up some random guy strolling down the hallway. He went to the gym to get it out of his system. He is not the only Dauntless to pick up fights when angered."

Jane gave her a long look. "You like him." She finally said. "Just admit it."

"Fine! I like him, okay." Mia looked at Jane pleadingly. "Can't you give him a chance?"

"He is really cute with, Teddy... and he looks hot.... But Mia if he hurts you..."

"He won't!"

Happily Mia dug into her meal. "You're the best!"