~Jade's POV~
I shower and come out the bathroom wrapped in a black towel. I see all my clothes and belongings neatly placed on the bed but I see no Four. I walk towards the bed and I hear shuffling from the kitchen. I look up to see Four coming out the kitchen, he stops in his tracks at the sight of me. I smile at him as he slowly makes his way over.
I make sure my towel is properly wrapped as he steps in front of me. He reaches out and tucks a wet curl behind my ear before placing the same hand on my cheek. He gazes at me, "I don't understand how one human being could be so beautiful, inside and out." He says to me, and I giggle a bit as my cheeks heat up. My eyes fall to the floor, "Thank you babe." I say, and he lifts my head up to look at him. "Wait, did I just hear... did you just call me babe?" He asks with the biggest smile on his face.
I step closer to him, "I sure did, haven't I before?" I ask, and he shakes his head. "No, that's the first time. And you don't understand how happy that made me." He tells me, "oh really?" I ask him, and he takes my hand and places it over his heart; it's beating fast. I gasp a little, "Yeah, really." He says, and I get this overwhelming sense of reassurance and happiness. I place my hands on his neck and look into his eyes endearingly. "You really do love me, don't you? This is real?" I ask curiously.
And he wraps his arms around my waist, "yes, by all means. This is real. I don't understand how you can't believe that you're mine and I am yours. And that's not gonna change." He says, and I smile. "Good, cuz I've been starting to believe just that. I'd hate for this to be just some fantasy." I respond, and he places his lips on mine once more. He then lets me get dressed by taking a shower himself, and once he gets out I notice he pulls a me on me. He comes out in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist just as I turn out the kitchen. I stop in my tracks just as he did, and I got chills.
His hair was dripping wet, and each drop slid onto his already glistening body. "You definitely pull off the fresh-out-the-shower look better than me." I say gawking at him. He smiles wide and winks at me. "I'm flattered but, you're so wrong. You don't know how hard it was to fight the urge to just ri-" he cuts himself off quickly, shaking his head. I bite my lip at his words, "No please, finish that sentence for me." I say walking over to him.
He starts scratching the back of his neck, "I don't know if I should. You might get ideas." He says laughing a bit, looking down at his towel. "Oh but wouldn't you want me too? Baby?" I say gliding my hands around his wet torso. I eventually start tracing his abs and v-line, my hands getting closer and closer to his towel but, he gently stops me. "Ooh you kill me." He breathes, obviously trying his hardest to avoid going down that road. "But we really should get down to the training room and continue what we started with Liam and fill in Lauren, since we kinda forgot to continue yesterday." He says, I nod and kiss him.
I head into the kitchen to let him dress, and notice he has apples in his fridge, and I grab one. I stay out of sight and munch on it until I hear his belt jingle, signaling he's decent enough for me to come back. And I come to find out I was wrong, and caught a glimpse from behind just before he pulled his pants all the way up. "You got a really cute butt." I say with a small giggle, taking a bite into my apple. He turns around fast with his mouth wide open, and the look on his face was priceless.
"Don't worry," I put my hands up in defense, "I only caught a glimpse. A really nice glimpse." I say, and I remember something, "and anyways, this makes us even." I remind him, remembering when I had took off my clothes in the middle of the night and tried to slip into bed after, and he caught me. "Alright, you got me there." He laughs, buttons and zips his pants and buckled up his belt. He finishes getting dressed while I grab the same training planning paper, and we head down through the cafe, so Four can grab something to eat. We then head straight to the training room. We search the room for Lauren and Liam but we have no luck.
"Huh, I wonder where they are." I say, and head over to the middle matted arena, just before getting an idea. "Heyy, wait a minute. I've just realized something." I announce. And Four lifts his eyebrow at me, "and what exactly would that be?" He asks, curious. "I realized that, we've never actually fought one another, we've never sparred." I say looking at him determined, and by the look on his face, I could tell he realized that too. "You're right. What is it you're getting at? Do you want to?" He asks me, and I nod.
After hearing he's fought Lauren plenty of times before, it made me curious and a little envious. He shakes his head a little, yet holds his smile. "I mean, I'd rather not hit my own girlfriend, sparring or not." He says uneasily. And I roll my eyes, "oh come on now, you big baby, you know we're not actually meaning to purposely hurt one another. It's for practice." I say and I put my hair up before stepping onto the mat. "No, you don't understand, I physically don't think I'll be able to hurt you. I just can't. I wanna do the exact opposite of punch you so, what makes you think I'm gonna be a challenge?" He asks crossing his arms, and I'm in awe at his words. I bent my neck at him and slowly stepped off the mat.
"I don't wanna hurt you, and by the amount of fights you've seen of me, I'm curious as to why you wanna fight me. I could hurt you." He says shaking his head, "I'll fight for you and I'll gladly fight beside you but, I won't fight against you. In any form or way." He says, looking into my eyes. Making my heart pound in my ears. I couldn't help but smile up at him, before laying my head on his chest and wrapping my arms around him. He engulfs me as well, and kisses my head. "You two are like, always all over each-other and honestly, I don't know how much I can take. Especially with this hangover." A familiar voice says approaching us from behind, my little brother.
"Aww, lil bro can't handle his alcohol." I say releasing my hubby. He rolls his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose, "where's Lauren? it's due time we fill her in and get this training planning finished and ready." Four asks him. "She's still in her room, she's just a little more fucked up then I am right now. But she said she'd be right behind me since she didn't wanna miss out on anymore of the planning." He explains, and I can't help but give him a look. "You slept over at her place?" I ask, and the split second look he gave me before turning nonchalant, sparked millions of questions. "Uh, y-yeah, slept on her uncomfortable little couch though." He stretches his arms, neck and back and Four seems to notice exactly what I notice.
"What happened to your neck Liam?" I ask crossing my arms and lifting an eyebrow. Purple-red silver-dollar sized bruises were plastered all over the right side of his neck. Hickeys to be exact. I heard Four stifle a laugh from beside me. My brother's cheeks go red and he begins to scratch his head.
"I guess you could say both of them couldn't handle their alcohol. We won't press though Liam, let's just get to training planning while we wait for Lauren." I say with a little chuckle. He mouths a thank you my way, "Good idea." he quickly says aloud, and we head to the same table as before and I pull out the paper. We left off on my idea, where I said that instead of regular capture the flag, we could do an advanced version of capture the flag. I add to the paper that we could do teams of four since there'll be less then 15-20 new initiates all together. Each team will be a mixture of Dauntless-Born and transfers.
The team that can work together the best and claim the one and only flag that we, thee instructors place, are crowned victorious and we'll give them their rightful individual ranks. "Hey now, you gonna tell us what you're writing there?" I hear my brother say, and I see that both of them were just watching me zone out while writing. Four seemed to be admiring as always but, my brother was watching impatiently. I check back into reality and flip the paper around so they both could read. It takes them less than a minute, "that's exactly what I was thinking." Four says, and I look to my brother, who was still staring at the paper.
"Do you think we should be the team captains? So we can guide them?" He asks looking at me, and I think about it. "That's a good idea, since there won't be more than three-four groups. It'll make it to where we can be there to lead the transfers and re-direct the Dauntless-Born, and vice-versa if necessary." I say, and I write that down. "And it'll be fun for us instructors. We get to see who's the best instructor. Which will be me of course." Liam says, looking at his nails before straightening his collar. I take one look at Four, and me and him burst into laughter. I hear Liam huff a little, and I look over at him while laughing still.
"You guys go ahead and keep laughing, just know you won't be laughing when I grab that flag and my team wins." My brother says, and I shake my head. "I'm sorry but uh, your team is actually the last team on my mind when it came to winning this competition." I say, and I realize something, "and anyways, I'm gonna make it rule where the instructors can't touch the flag after it's placed. An initiate has to take it." I write my rule down, regardless of the faint mocking coming from Liam. I look up at Four, "I'm pretty sure your teams is gonna win, since you've been instructing longer then we have." He shrugs his shoulders, even though I could tell he was fighting back a smile. "No offense but, I feel like Lauren is gonna take the cake on that, she's been instructing just as long. Plus, she trained us Dauntless-Born alone." Liam tells us suddenly, I furrow my eyebrows. "Okay, what happened to your team winning? You were quite confident." I question, and he stumbles on his next words.
Me and Four just look at each other and laugh. "Yeah yeah whatever, back to the training planning. Now how do you plan to rank the other teams? You said by the amount of different colored paints They get hit by?" Liam says, just as a little someone takes a seat next to me, in front of Liam. "Don't mind me, keep talking while I manage my hangover." Lauren says, slumping back in the metal chair, running a hand through her slightly frizzy hair. I study her appearance and the first thing I notice, is the same thing I noticed when I first laid my eyes on Liam. I widen my eyes at the table in shock for a split second before remembering what Liam had asked.
"Uh yeah," I nod, and continue, "since we're gonna be there to watch and guide our own teams, we'll come together at the end and assign a rank for each and every single one of them accordingly. Starting with the winners and then so on." I respond proudly, while writing down exactly that. I sense eyes staring at the side of my head and turn to see Four slouched back in his own chair, looking at me. Admiring me again, actually. Lauren laughs a little, "What?" I ask curiously, questioning her laughter and now her gaze. "Oh nothin, it's just," she rubs her eye, and stretches a little, "you're starting to sound a lot like someone." She says in-between a yawn.
I quirk, "who?" I question, and both Lauren and Liam look at Four. "Me." My beloved says, with a grin plastered on his face. I smile wide and laugh a bit, "am I really?" I ask in disbelief. My brother and Lauren immediately nod their heads, and I look at Four. He just nods once, confirming it.
"What you said, sounds exactly like something I'd say, especially when I'm in you're so called 'instructor Four' mode. It's adorable honestly, soon I'll have a mini female version of me." He says, pinching my cheek from across the table. He turns the pinch into flat palm cupping my cheek, and I place my hand over his. Returning his sweet gaze. "You two are really cute together y'know." Lauren blurts, and I smile at her comment. "And uh, I'll have you know, I'm better at spotting love then I am at being in it. And when I see you two together, all I can sense is love. And I'm happy, for the both of you. I've never seen number boy here happier and I'm just, overall glad that you choose to come to Dauntless." She tells us, and I could tell from just her tone that she meant what she said. And I could also tell she was more than grateful for my presence here, considering it played a huge role in her big Eric-sized wake up call.
I squeeze her hand just a bit, "thank you Lauren, I'm glad I did too." I say looking at Four, my brother and then back to her. "And Lauren, I love you but, I don't want to hear any of that. When it comes to what happened with Eric, that? Had nothing do with you and your emotional ability. You can be in love, and you can care about someone, and you can communicate with someone. You know who can't though? That dip-shit in the infirmary. And I know out of all people, I shouldn't be saying this but I want you to know," I pause, "I think Eric's a complete and utter idiot for doing what he did to you. You're an amazing girl and an even better friend." I say to her, and she squeezes my hand back with a smile on her face. "I have to agree with my sister on this one. How he treated you, is merely despicable." Liam says, and he seemed to be in a trance while making eye contact with Lauren. "I'd never, not in a million years, do what he did to you." He adds, and my eyes bounce back and forth between Liam and Lauren. Only because they stayed there like that, even after Liam finished his sentence. Lauren smiles at my brother, and her eyes glisten with a certain glint. A glint that didn't need explaining.
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-November 17th-
~Jade's POV~
I wake up and the first thing I notice is how empty the bed I was in felt. I open my eyes and notice I'm back in Four's apartment. Or, I mean, our apartment. I sit up, yawn and stretch and I recall last night. After an hour more of training planning, -which mostly consisted of filling in Lauren-, we went our separate ways.
Four with me and Lauren with my brother. And for some reason, I have this strange feeling they spent the rest of the day together, just as me and Four did. And speaking of so, my next thought was automatically of Four, and where he might be, considering how empty his side of the bed was. I roll over onto my stomach, which I inevitably end up with my face buried deep into his side, his pillow. 'Sss' I take in his scent through my nose, feeling my heart rate pick up yet calm at the same time.
I groan out loud, hating the fact I didn't wake up before he left. Just then, I hear the faint sound of keys and the door open and close. I sit back up excited, even though I held a pout on my face as I clutched onto his pillow. We meet eyes, "why the long face? I brought breakfast." He says to me, just as I notice the tray of breakfast he sets down in between us, he sits. "I woke up and you were gone so, now I'm sad. My favorite part of everyday is the very beginning, waking up in your arms. And I didn't do that this morning so, you get sad Natalie today." I say still pouting, I realize my hair is messy and run a hand through it.
He lifts my head up, and does his signature curl tuck before placing his lips onto mine. I melt at his touch and the sadness I was just feeling, melts away with me. He pulls away, "I'm sorry for leaving you alone. But I won't accept sad Natalie. I'll do absolutely anything to make sad Natalie go away." He says, and we laugh a little together. "And I'll make sure to remember that, since I love waking up with you as well. I just figured I'd get us some breakfast so we can eat alone together." He says, and I smile down at the food. "Thank you." I say, and I kiss his cheek.
He smiles, "you're welcome." And kisses my cheek as well. We talk for a while before eating breakfast together, he got me pancakes while he got himself some waffles. While he wasn't looking, I stole a piece of his waffle. But I think he noticed since the next time I looked down at my plate, a huge hunk of pancake was gone. I looked at him suspiciously as he quickly chewed and swallowed.
"You thief!" I say after a gasp, and he starts laughing. "I could say the same to you, you stole mine first." He says, and I just roll my eyes. We finish up, get ready and we head out. And to our surprise the first people we see walking in the same hallway is Tris and my brother Miles, hand in hand. "Well aren't you two adorable." I say walking beside the couple, with Four on the other side of me.
He entwines his hand with mine. "Well good morning sis, how come we didn't see you two at breakfast?" He asks, "oh, um, Four brought our food back to our apartment, we just finished eating." I answer. And both my brother and friends eyes widen. One in utter surprise, and the other in complete terror. Miles jaw drops yet you could tell he was suppressing a smile.
Tris on the other hand quickly shifted her eyes to Four and frowned, even though a smile was plastered on his face. I frown a little as well, recognizing the vibe Tris was beginning to give off again. "Did you just say, 'our' apartment?" Miles asks, and I realize what I've done. "Yeah, I asked her to move in with me." He says from beside me, and I run my thumb over the hand that's still in mine. "And I said I'd love too." I say, looking up and to the side at my Four.
At my Tobias. The love of my life. "I'm happy for you sis, for the both of you." He says to the two of us, and we thank him. "Me too. Couldn't be happier." Tris says, in an unfamiliar tone. The words themselves were nice but, she made them come off foul.
Not to mention the clenched jaw. "Thanks Tris." I say, and I put the slightest bit of firmness in my voice, in attempts to grab her attention. I succeed and I raise my eyebrow at her, questioning the sudden one-sided tension. She looks away fast, "let's go to the pit for a little ya?" She asks quickly, walking away and releasing my brother's hand. Miles furrows his eyebrows, as does my boyfriend as they follow behind her in confusion.
But not me, no. My mind was as clear as can be. In fact, the puzzle pieces were coming to together very nicely. I followed behind them with so many thoughts and so many emotions running through my heart and head. Only because, I've finally realized what's been going on with Tris.
I'm not the only one that's in love with Four.