Tobias x Reader

Chapter 7: Dauntless Flames

After Four dismissed us, Michael, Galen and I headed down to dinner in silence. Galen and I being too scared to confront Michael about his lack of effort. Our silence continued as we ate and I was growing uncomfortable with it. I looked up to see Galen's eyes fixed on his plate of food which he had barely touched and Michael staring at my hands. Both of them looked just as uncomfortable as I felt.

"Okay, cut the shit," I said tossing my fork down, "There's a problem here and we all know it."

Galen nodded but didn't bring his gaze up from his plate. 

Michael almost convinced me that he was confused with the look on his face, "What do you mean?" he said, pretending as though he had no idea what was going on. He gently set down his fork and looked at the both of us.

"You know what we mean, Jackass," Galen said aggressively, surprising even myself, "You heard what Eric said about only ten of us making it to be Dauntless members. You're scaring the shit out of us. We're your friends, we don't want to see you become factionless."

I nodded, "Eric noticed that you hadn't been putting forth much effort," I said in a low voice, "That will put you low in the rankings and that's the last thing you want."

"I know," Michael said slamming his fist on the table causing John, who was sitting at the table next to ours, to turn his attention to us, "I just didn't think it was gonna be this hard. I'm struggling over here."

"No one said it was going to be easy," Galen said in a low, soothing voice, "All of us are struggling just as much as you are."

"It doesn't seem like it," Michael said in a frustrated voice, "I saw how (y/n) was handling that gun and I saw how easy you made punching that bag look. I come from the peace faction, I've never thought I'd have to ever fire a gun or fight someone."

"I come from Abnegation!" I exclaimed, "As soon as I picked up that gun my immediate thought was about what my family would think."

"Every time my fist connected with my bag I thought of how pointless I thought fighting is but that didn't stop me," Galen nodded.

There was a moment of silence where Michael sat there looking deep in thought and Galen and I stared at him before Galen slapped the table lightly.

"You know what we should do?" He said brushing his dark hair out of his eyes, "We should go get tattoos."

"Why?" I asked, staring at him in a confused manner.

"It'll symbolize how we're ready to leave our old factions behind and begin something new," Galen said grinning.

Michael grinned back, "Yeah," he said with a determined look on his face, "Let's do it."

I leaned back in my seat slightly feeling uncomfortable with the idea, "I don't know," I said slowly rubbing the back of my neck, "You guys should just go with out me."

"Come on," Galen said, "Come get tattooed with us."

"Or are you too Stiff  to go and get a little ink on your skin?" Michael said grinning challengingly.

I set my jaw and stood up defiantly, "You're too stiff to even punch a leather bag full of sand," I poked him in the ribs.

He winced but kept the grin on his face, "That's a low blow, Stiff."

"I'll show you stiff," I said nudging him lightly with my elbow, "Race you there!" I yelled and ran out of the dining hall.

As I ran, I turned to see the two of them grinning and running after me. I put on a burst of speed and ran all the way to the tattoo shop. I got there almost a minute before they did and laughed when they jogged in, already out of breath.

I walked over to a spot where there was a stack of drawings and started to flip through them as the boys caught their breath. Michael walked up behind me and looked through them with me occasionally pointed at one he thought was cool and putting it aside to hold on to. Galen was nearby looking at a different pack and pulling out random ones that he liked. I, on the other hand was having a bit more trouble finding something that I wanted permanently drawn onto my skin.

Michael left me with his stack of papers and went over to Galen to see what he was going to get, leaving me by myself. I continued to flip through the pages until I came across a picture of the dauntless flames with the word brave inside of them. I picked up the page and saw that when shadows ran across it, the realistically drawn flames almost seemed to move. I immediately knew that this is the tattoo I wanted.

I walked over to a man who was so heavily covered in tattoos that almost all of his skin was covered in ink. He took the drawing and asked where I wanted it. 

"Where would it look best?" I asked him.

The man scratched his chin as though in thought and then said, "It would look nice on your shoulder blade."

"Then that's where it's going," I said.

~time skip~

Michael, Galen and I left the shop grinning and talking animatedly to each other.  Galen kept lifting up his shirt to admire the design that sprawled across the left side of his chest and Michael kept rolling up his sleeve to show the scorpion design on it.

"Where's your tattoo?" Galen asked, "We haven't seen it yet."

"Sucks to be you," I said teasingly, "Should have paid more attention when I was getting it."

"Where is it?" Michael asked, "You can at least tell us that."

I laughed, "I got the Dauntless flames on my shoulder blade."

"Why can't you show us that?" Galen said lightly punching my arm.

"Because I would have to lift up my shirt and I really don't want to show everyone my bra," I said ignoring Michael and Galen's look of exaggerated disappointment, "Maybe I'll go get a tank-top so you can see it tomorrow."

"Your tattoo or your bra?" Galen asked grinning. I laughed, darted forward and punched his arm a little harder than I meant to. "I deserved that," he said, rubbing the spot on his arm where I had punched him.

Michael was laughing uncontrollably and had to stop and catch his breath. When he had finally stopped laughing he jogged back up to us and high-fived me.

We headed back to our dormitory and saw that almost everyone was in there already. We settled down and turned in for the night feeling happier than we have in what felt like a very long time.