To Save a City (Divergent/Eric) 2 of 3 COH Series

Chapter 7 (Eric's POV)

I wake up in the morning to a dip in my bed. My head is pounding. How many shots did I have last night? I don't know if I can handle drinking with Ryan like that again. I groan, rolling over. I hear giggling and I peek out of one eye to see Hosanna's beautiful face in front of mine. "Did you drink too much last night?" she whispers.
"Maybe," I say still a little groggy.
"Here," Hosanna says pushing something into my hand.
I bring it closer to see she put some pills there. I pop them into my mouth and she puts a glass of water into my other hand. I swallow the pills with half the water and sit up slowly.
"Are you hungry?" she asks. "I made you breakfast."
I look at her shocked. She brought me pills, water, and made me breakfast? "How do you wake up with this much energy?" I ask.
She shrugs sliding a tray onto my lap. "I hope you like it," she says.
"What's this?" I ask.
"A poached egg with vegetables, homemade banana bread, and cold brew coffee," she says. "I hope you're feeling well enough to eat it."
"You made all of this today?" I ask.
"I started the coffee last night since it sits for hours to brew and I baked the banana bread while I showered, but yeah, I made everything this morning," she says.
"You amaze me," I say to myself as I cut the egg and take my first bite.
"This is so good. Probably the best breakfast I've ever had," I say after savoring that bite. I look up to see her blushing with a huge smile on her face. The banana bread is better than the muffins they make downstairs, too. And the coffee, it's the best of everything she makes.
"So you asked what coffee I liked before. This is by far my favorite," I say. Her dimples appear and I can see she loves the compliment.
"I'm glad you like it," she says leaning her head on my shoulder while I eat.
"So, what do you want to do today?" I ask.
"Did you forget?" she asks sadly. I think for a minute. Ellen said something last night about zip lining today.
"What time is it?" I question.
"It's nine. You have about an hour to get ready. You still want to go, right?" she confirms.
"Yeah," I say.  I'm a little hungover but I'm feeling better by each second with her.
I finish my meal actually feeling great and ready for a day with her.  She goes to take the tray away and I stop her hands.  I slide the tray over on top of my nightstand and pull her onto my lap. 
"Thank you for this.  I already feel better," I say kissing her. 
"You're welcome.  I was tempted last night to tell you to consider slowing down but I didn't know your tolerance.  Plus, you looked like you were having a good time with our friends," she says.  The way she 'our friends' is nice.  I've never really had any people I consider friends in Dauntless, now we have so many combined.  I actually did have a good time last night, even with the new members.  Dan actually isn't so bad as long as he stays with Charlotte.  Neil and Ryan are pretty good to hang out with, too.
"I did have fun.  So, who is joining us today?" I ask resting my arms around her shoulders.
"I don't know.  Everyone from last night as far as I know.  Zeke is coming so I would assume half of Dauntless?" she jokes.
"Do you think your brother is coming?" I ask.
"No.  Absolutely not," she says.
I'm tempted to ask why not but then the image of watching his fear landscape pops into my head.  I look to her and she nods her head.
"Don't say anything.  He gets embarrassed so easily," she tells me.
"I won't say a word," I reply gently pecking her lips.
We climb out of bed and I get ready for our trip to the zip line. I get cleaned up in my bathroom and step into my bedroom in a towel. Hosanna is laying on my bed the way I did on hers the other day.
"Did you make my bed?" I ask holding onto my towel.
"Yes," she says.
"Oh," I respond. "You know, unlike you, I don't dress with the towel on."
"Okay. I'm leaving," Hosanna says covering her eyes and rushing out of my bedroom.
"I really don't mind if you see me naked," I call out to her but she's already gone. I sigh. Getting dressed quickly I come out to my living room to see her curled up on my sofa reading a book. I look to my watch.
"Do you want to head down to the train?" I ask.
She peeks her eyes over the top of the book.
"Sure, we can go," she says reaching in my drawer for a new bookmark. I love that she knows me so well, that she knows everything about my home, where I keep things. That she's so comfortable here most of the time.
She sets the book down on my coffee table and reaches a hand out to me. I take her hand and we walk to my door together. As I lock up, I hear Ryan open his door down the hall. Mia steps out giggling. She turns to see us, smiling and waving.
"Good morning, Eric," she says.
"Morning," I respond.
We meet them at Ryan's door. "Thanks for breakfast," she says to Hosanna hugging her.
"No problem," Hosanna replies hugging back.
We turn to the elevator and I ask Hosanna quietly, "You made them breakfast?"
The elevator door opens and we enter.
"Yes," she responds shrugging. "Max came to my door this morning. He said he could smell the banana bread all the way from his apartment so I let him in and ate breakfast with him. I didn't know he has an addiction to banana bread. After that, I figured I had a whole loaf and plenty of other extras so I took some to Lydia's and Ryan's places before waking you up. I gave what was left to Max though. By the way, he says you're a very lucky man."
"I'm wondering how she does all that after going out last night," Mia comments. "We slept in."
"I said the same thing to her this morning," I admit.
"So, I was thinking that maybe we could all get together and have dinner at my place tomorrow night," Hosanna asks Mia.
"Oh, that sounds so fun. I can't cook though," Mia responds.
"That's okay, you could set the table or something," Hosanna jokes.
"Yes, that would be great," Mia says elbowing Ryan.
"Yeah, if the rest of your food is half as good as your breakfast or coffee for that matter, count me in," he agrees.
Hosanna looks to me. I laugh, "Do you even need to ask me? But I'll help you cook."
"You can cook?" Mia asks.
"Not as good as her, but yeah, a little bit," I admit.
"This I've got to see," Mia says. "You two really are perfect for each other."
Hosanna smiles at her friend. We exit the elevator and walk down towards the tracks. There's already a group gathered waiting for the train. It's mostly her friends from last night with a few other older members. I see Zeke and Shauna together and a couple Dauntless born newer members. Neil is here too with Ellen and Thomas, the guy that works in the control room who helped me when Hosanna got attacked.
All four of us make our way to the front of the group, I think Ryan and I do so out of habit to get on our train car. I smile at the thought of the last time I got in the train with Hosanna, how I just somehow knew she'd be our next leader. I can hear the blare of the oncoming train's horn in the distance. It soon comes into view and we're running to catch it. Hosanna jumps on first and I follow shortly after. I see Ryan grab onto the next door and help Mia in. I take a seat along the wall and pull Hosanna down onto my lap, wrapping my arms around her. Ryan pulls Mia on his lap but she's straddling him. She kisses him and I see him smiling.  I don't think that I've ever seen him so happy before and I'm pretty sure I've never seen him with a girl in my last year here. I'm glad he found someone and I think about what Hosanna said before about their age difference. Maybe it doesn't matter if they're happy together. I start to wonder when her birthday is.
"Hosanna?" I ask.
"Hmm?" she says turning to me.
"When's your birthday?" I question.
"It's always the week before the Choosing Ceremony. It was April first," she says.
"So I just missed it," I state.
She nods.
"If your birthday was just before the Choosing Ceremony, you just turned sixteen?" I ask.
"Yes," she nods.
"I'm almost two years older than you?" I ask surprised.
She grins, "When's your birthday?"
"June twelfth," I say.
"You're turning eighteen and I just turned sixteen?" she asks. I nod. "Does that bother you?"
I thought it would, but it really doesn't.  I love her, no matter what her age is.  "No, it doesn't bother me," I say kissing her.
We spend the remainder of the trip holding each other. She remains on my lap while I kiss her and nip at her ear and neck a bit making her laugh. My arms are around her and she has hers around mine. I love the feeling of her fingers stroking my arms.
I see Ryan standing, pulling Mia up as well. I peer out the window to see the Hancock building coming into view. "Baby, it's time," I whisper in her ear. She stands up and pulls me with her.
"The train is not going to slow down," Ryan warns the girls.
They nod and get ready to jump. Hosanna goes first and Mia follows after her. Ryan and I glance at each other and jump a moment later. It looks like Hosanna is laughing trying to pull Mia up from the ground. Actually Mia is laughing, too.
"That was a fail," Hosanna says still chuckling.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Mia responds wiping gravel off of her pants. "I hope the rest of the group didn't see that."
I turn my head to see several people on the ground, mostly the new members. "You're not the only one who fell," I point out.
"Good, now I don't feel as bad," Mia replies.
Everyone gets up and we walk in a large group to the Hancock building.  Neil, Ellen, and Thomas come up to the front of the group with us.  Zeke approaches from the other side with an arm around Shauna.  "Hey," Ellen says to Hosanna.  "I figured your brother would be here."
Before she can open her mouth, Zeke says, "It's Saturday.  He's probably working right now."
"Oh," Ellen says.
"Besides, he never really comes.  I think he gets bored with this," Shauna comments.
Hosanna and I keep our mouths closed.  Let them think what they want.  She intertwines her fingers with mine.  It's probably hard for her to stay quiet but it's nice that she doesn't pick on him about this. 
I'm actually looking forward to this.  It's been a while and I've never been with friends before.  We enter the building and I see some lights on.  I look over to Zeke in question. 
He shrugs, "I came earlier and turned on the power.  Did you want to walk that many stairs?"
I laugh, glad not to have to make that trek again. 
Zeke looks to be counting everyone in the group as they all file in the doors.  "I wasn't expecting this many people," he says.  "I hope I have enough harnesses."
"Can't you put two people in each?" Ryan asks. 
Zeke nods.  "We could.  I've only done that a few times though," he says.
"Why don't we have couples go down together?" Ryan suggests. 
I smile.  That actually sounds more fun.  Hosanna and I get into one of the elevators.  She presses the button for the top floor while the rest of the elevator gets packed with people.  She turns around and wraps her arms around me, resting her chin on my chest.  She stares up at me smiling as we ascend in the elevator.  I can feel the movement as we go up, getting ready for that feeling of falling down.  I'm quite excited to be going down strapped to her.
I bend down and kiss her lips gently. I feel like we're being watched so I glance up to see eyes on us. Nathan is watching us in the reflection on the wall. I didn't even realize he was coming. I kiss her again harder sticking my tongue in her mouth roughly, just to make sure he stays away from my girl, claiming her as mine and also because I want to. She responds with my same eagerness. I pick her up and push her against the wall. She wraps her arms around me and I suddenly wish we were alone. I put my hands on her cheeks as I continue to kiss her. When we finally break away for air, the elevator door is opening. I can feel the gust of wind hit us from the hole in the ceiling. I turn my head to see everyone filing out of the elevator and up the ladder to the roof. I look back to Hosanna to see her tying her hair up. I lace my fingers with hers and lead her to the now empty ladder. I hold it in place and she climbs up. I try not to stare at her body as she climbs but fail miserably. She gets to the roof and holds the top of the ladder down for me to come up. I arrive up the top rungs to see a huge line formed. Mostly everyone is paired up but there are a few individuals like Thomas and Nathan. I smirk at that. He's not coming anywhere near my girl. A big gust of wind hits us and I encircle Hosanna with my arms to keep her from falling over. Ryan and Mia are up next. I signal Hosanna to watch her friend. Ryan steps in first with Mia climbing in the harness in front of him. Zeke tightens the top, midsection, and legs for them then connects the harness to the pulleys. He pulls them forward and I can hear Mia laughing loudly over the wind. Zeke releases them and Mia gives a huge scream as they take off down the line. I feel Hosanna moving in my arms. Is she laughing? I smile. That was pretty funny. We wait a while for everyone else to go down, the only people left will be Zeke and Shauna.
It's finally our turn and Hosanna can't stop jumping up and down excitedly. I get in the black sling first and she climbs in after me, her back to my chest. I wrap my arms around her for a moment to pull her flush with my body but we'll keep our arms loose so we can take off the harness later.  As Zeke tightens the straps around us, I kiss behind her ear.  I can feel her shudder under my touch and it makes me smirk. She turns to me smiling so big that must hurt. I kiss her cheek. She faces forward as Zeke readies us to go down.
"On the count of three," he shouts over the wind.  Hosanna nods. "One... two... three!" He releases us and I can barely hear her laugh over the sound of the wind rushing past us. I can feel her body shake with it against mine though.  She spreads her arms out as if we were flying.  I reach out to her hands threading my fingers through hers.  I tuck my face in closer to her neck, a few strands of her hair flying past my face. I look out at our city, our fingers intertwined, and wonder what it's really like beyond that fence and how we're going to save everyone within from the craziness of my aunt.  I think about how the wars left most of this city in the ruin I see and I don't want Hosanna anywhere near fighting like that.  I push these feelings aside and think about the beautiful girl beneath me, how I love her and would do anything for her.  I enjoy the feeling of her body against mine, our fingers holding on to each other, how my cheek grazes her neck.  I enjoy the moment of free fall, the wind blowing past us.  I love her more than anything and being together like this is making this moment unforgettable. Every moment with her feels like a dream, one I never want to wake from. We start to slow down, the ground coming closer. I can see our huge group in the distance, some readying to catch us. Hosanna is whooping and cheering, the group responding to each and every one of her shouts. I start to laugh at how excited she's getting. That was pretty fun, especially being with her. We come to a stop just above the human net readying for us.
"How do we get down?" Hosanna asks me.
"I've got it," I say reaching back to loosen the harness. I pull on each cord, releasing them separately and grab onto the line.
I reach down and kiss her again. "You can go first, baby," I say. I pull back slightly to give her some wiggle room to shimmy out of the harness. She pulls her body out of the black sling and jumps down laughing as she lands. She whoops and rolls over, joining the group to catch me. I let go when they're ready, landing right near my girl. I climb off and pull her aside to wait for Zeke and Shauna to arrive.
"That was amazing," she tells me. I can feel her shaking.
"Are you alright?" I ask.
"Yeah, never better," she says smiling.
I hold her hand up for her to see. She laughs, "I did that when we went skydiving, too," she whispers quietly into my ear. "I guess I shake like this when I get really excited."
I smile sinisterly. "That's good to know," I say.
She makes a horrified face and slaps my chest playfully. "Not funny, Eric," she frowns.
I can hear Zeke crowing in the distance. "Come on, let's join them," I laugh pulling her to the human net. She grabs my wrist and I grab someone else's forearm. Zeke and Shauna jump down together. "That was even better than going at it alone," Shauna says enthusiastically.
"Just like sex," someone jokes. We all laugh. I see Hosanna blushing at the comment though.
We walk back to the tracks, getting on the next train quickly. We sit with Hosanna's friends in a different car this time and they talk a bit. She's seated between my legs, our fingers laced together. I look at our left hands while she talks and rub her finger wondering if she would wear my mother's ring.  Would she say yes if I asked? It's probably too soon though. I've been in love with her forever but I don't know how long she's loved me. She just turned sixteen, too. A month and a half ago, she was only fifteen—that's hard to believe. She's so incredibly young. Would she be ready for marriage? Would she want to be tied down to me forever? I hold her tighter, wrapping my arms around her chest. I don't want to think about that now. I just want to savor what time I have with her and hope it never ends.

*****Thanks so much for reading!*****

Words of Wisdom:
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."
‭‭1 John‬ ‭4:18‬ ‭NIV‬‬
"And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3:14‬ ‭NIV‬‬