Fourtris Now and Forever: Divergent No War

| c h a p t e r 42 |

I wake up slowly, my eyes cracking open. Immediately, I see Tobias's skin beneath my cheek. My head rests on his chest as it rises and falls slightly with each breath he takes. His hands are wrapped around my small body and I'm almost sleeping half on the bed and half on him.

I don't want to wake him, so I just lay here, taking in the moment. I look at his hair, his deep-set eyes, his hooked nose, his plump lower lip. My fingers start tracing the features of his face. They run through his hair, over his eyebrows, past his cheeks and to his lips. I'm careful not to wake his when my thumb sets on his lower lip.

Gently, I lean upward and press a feather-soft kiss to it. Tobias stirs in the bed and his lips subtly move on mine. I pull away before he fully wakes up. I don't want him to know that I kissed him while he was asleep. That's just creepy.

While my head rests on the right side of his chest, my right hand draws lazy patters on the other side. As I slowly come to the realization that one of my legs is swung over his waist, I stop the lazily drawing on his chest.

I wonder how we got to this different position throughout the course of the night. Strange.

Tobias takes a deep breath, indicating that he's waking up, and his arms tighten around my body.

"What time is it?" Tobias asks sleepily.

Funny, I hadn't thought to check before this. I look over to the clock. It's 11:00. Three hours since we were supposed to be at work.

"11:00," I murmur back. I place a kiss on his bare chest.

He groans, and I'm not sure if it was from the kiss or from being late. I don't want to know.

"Should we even bother going?" I ask him.

"No, let's take the day off. Have some alone time."

I nod. "Okay."

Tobias leans his head to look down at me. I look upward at him and his dark blue eyes meet mine. His hand rests on my bare thigh; the one that is propped up over his waist. It runs up and down and makes him stomach jump due to how close his hands are to touching my undergarments.

"Even in the morning, you're still so sexy," he whispers and I blush deeply. He meets my lips in an urgent kiss. And I let him.

"We really should get breakfast," I murmur as he kisses my neck roughly.

"We have time." And it's true. We have all day.

"But I'm hungry," I complain, a little scared my excuse won't do the trick.

"Fine," he relents, whispering against my neck. He pulls away. "But don't think I plan on continuing this later," he says in a deep voice with a wink. I almost get chills as I hop out of bed. I blush furiously when I realize that my legs are bare. I'm not wearing any shorts underneath the shirt. Only his shirt and undergarments adorn my body.

I run the the closet and grab a towel. "I'm going to take a shower," I announce to Tobias, who is still laying on the bed, staring at me.

"Mind if I join?" he jokes. He likes to say that occasionally.

I roll my eyes and walk away to the bathroom. When I come out, my body is still wet from the water and my hair is pulled up in a pony tail, still drenched from the shower.

I wrap a towel around myself and blush as I realized that I forgot my clothes. I have to go out to get them.

As I walk out of the bathroom, the colder air hits me and gives my skin goosebumps on contact. Tobias is dressed and pulling on his over-jacket. He eyes me longingly and quickly turns back to where he was facing before, a little nervous as to how I would react.

"Forgot my clothes," I explain, slightly embarrassed.

I see the back of his head move up and down as he nods. "I could see that," he says, laughter in his voice.

I quickly go through the contents of the closet and locate the clothes I want to wear today. I pull out a long sleeve shirt with pants and a jacket. I briskly walk back to the bathroom with the clothes in hand.

The last time I was just in a towel with nothing else on was when Peter, Drew, and Molly cornered me and ripped it off. I was exposed, and it humiliated me. Quite possibly the most embarrassing moment of my life. All I wanted to do was go ball up and cry in a corner. My body was most definitely not built for show. I'm bare-chested, pale, and unattractive in every single way. Thinking about how I'm almost bare right now makes me want to cry, so I run the rest of the way to the bathroom.

When I'm inside, I quickly change my clothes and put my damp hair into a pony tail that rests higher up than usual on my head. I take a deep breath at my reflection. What does Tobias even see in me?

My hands run down the path of my hair on my scalp, pushing back the few strands that can't quite reach the hair band. I open up the door to the bathroom and walk to the entrance of our apartment. Tobias stands there with a subtle grin, but his lips don't give away his mood. If you looked at them alone, you would never have guessed his emotions. It's his eyes.

They are the gateway to who he is. I can see the fire, and the laughter, and the sadness. All in his deep blue eyes. They ensnare me sometimes. All I want to do is stare in them all day; see more pieces of him.

"You ready?" he asks.

"More than ready. I've been so hungry that I honestly could eat anything right now."

We arrive at the cafeteria and have a normal Dauntless breakfast. Food, small talk, stolen kisses, more food. "Hey, Four, do you think we could go to the Complex? Maybe do some swimming?" I ask him.

I've only ever been to the Dauntless Recreation Complex once. It's located near the training room and has different activities. However, it is mostly occupied by the children and provides something for members to do on their free time. I've never gone swimming despite the fact I have a bathing suit that Chris bought me. They have a decent indoor pool and a smaller kiddie pool. Both are heated so luckily you can go swimming despite the temperature and weather conditions.

"Definitely. We should change now if we want to go, though," he says.

"Okay, awesome," I reply. I'm not sure whether my sudden urge to go swimming originated from the fact I wanted to or if it was just another excuse to see Tobias shirtless. In fact, I was eager for both.

Fifteen minutes later, I am sitting on the bed in my bathing suit, waiting for Tobias to finish changing. I twiddle my thumbs, trying not to pay attention to how much the black bathing suit makes me look even paler and skinnier. I quickly run to the closet and put on black shorty-shorts and a burgundy tank top. I decided against wearing the black jacket because the walk to the pool was rather short.

I turn toward the bathroom door when I hear it open and I see him. He stands tall, shirtless with his shirt slung over his shoulder lazily. I see the little peak of his tattoo stretching over one of his shoulders. I might have been staring for too long, because he says, "You ready?"

I nod, biting my lip. "Yeah."

He nods and he offers a small smile. "Let's go," he says.

As we walk out the door, he holds my hand. It reminds me of the few times when I was Abnegation where I saw my parents show any affection. They would hold each other's hands at dinner time and I would sometimes see it during random moments. I used to be scared I would mess holding hands up somehow, but I think that when you're around someone you're comfortable with, it doesn't matter. I don't even remember the last time I'd thought twice about how tight or how loose I was holding his hand.

A/N

So, yes, I know this was a very short chapter. I was reading my story back and editing a few chapters when I realized why I lost 2,000 readers in the matter of one chapter. Because it absolutely sucked. So thank you guys for sticking around, it means the world to me. Over the course of the next week, I will be going back and re-writing this book. I need to delete some chapters and re-word things . . . Yeah.

So anyways, thank you all for reading. Your comments and votes make me smile daily.