Dauntless Initate ||Eric Coulter||

|XV|

"What do you think your brother's reaction would be, if he knew that we were about to fight?" Eric asked as the two of them lit up the training room a bit, as Tempest scoffed at his question.

"That is an easy question. He would call me a hypocrite for a full three full hours, then he would try to beat you up." She said easily and he laughed a bit.

"We go until one of us can't anymore?" Eric asked and Tempest raised her eyebrows at him. "What? It was the rules during initiation." He said and she looked at him.

"You conceded." She pointed out and he sighed a bit, and he nodded at her words. "So, we go until one of us can't anymore, and needs to concede." She ruled and he nodded a bit.

She took off her jacket to free her arms and walked into the ring. "Wait a minute... how is this fair to you? You just drank a flask full of alcohol." She pointed out and Eric shakes his head a bit at her.

"No, no I didn't. The flask was empty when you handed it back to me." Eric said and stepped into the ring and she studied his face quickly but not seeing any lies there at all, either. He held up his fists, and she cracked the knuckles on her right hand, before she held her fists up. "New tattoo?" He asked as she nodded, before she ducked the swings that came at her, one, two, three.

"Nice try." Tempest stated with a smirk, as she punched at his head and she just barely missed his head.

His fist got her in the stomach as she winced, and felt the crushing pain of her own expectations, weighing down on her again and again, and again.

She caught his next punch in her hand and his surprise was briefly clear in his eyes, right before she was flipping him over quickly. Eric's back hit the ground and he coughed, as he was winded and Tempest backed up a bit.

"Not a big fan of kicking people, when they're down?" Eric asked, in a hoarse tone and she shakes her head. "Once a stiff always a stiff." He said as she was nodding.

"Yeah, it would seem like that is the general way to describe Abnegation and their initiates and members, both current and former." Tempest stated and suddenly Eric was literally right behind her, and she tensed up.

He had a hand on her arm and it freaked her out, as she looked at the arm and flashbacks began to flood into her mind. The fear took over and all of a sudden, she heard a crack and a shout, that snapped her out of it.

She looked around quickly and dropped her head down and saw that Eric was holding his nose, which was bloody and broken. "Oh god, I'm sorry." She said and he shakes his head at her, and he stood up. She backed up a bit, as he looked at her.

"You won the fight again." Was all he said, and she sighed a bit.

"Come on. I'll find the medical supplies and just see if I can patch up your nose." She said, and he looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "My dad liked to go for the face, unless it was a special occasion. Then it was a belt. But I am actually willing to bet, that you knew that already."

Eric nodded awkwardly, as he followed her and used his shirt to stop the blood from hitting the floor, as it was now gushing out from his nose.

Tempest managed to get the medical supplies and she sighed at the broken nose. "Unless you want to reset your own nose, I'm doing it." She said and he shrugged. "All right, hold still." She said and he chuckled at the accidental callback, until he grits his teeth tightly together to stop a shout of pain at the sudden pain, as she reset his nose. "Ok the hard part, it's done." She said and he nodded.

"Ow." He said simply and she chuckled, as she looked at the black eye that she had given him. "It's okay, your brother, he nearly beat me half to death last time too." He pointed out and Tempest sighed quietly.

"Yeah, but he didn't just do it, just because about something, that he felt panicked about his surroundings. I'm not quick to anger, unless something is so immorally wrong that if I stand by and watch, it would destroy me. I also, tend to panic at the smallest of things." She muttered, as a very quiet sort of admission of guilt.

"Hey, it was my fault, all right? You got freaked out by something, but you aren't the one to blame for that. I gave you no warning, and you reacted." He said and she packed up the supplies at least in her mind, efficiently. "Look, you need to shut off your Abnegation and selfless-oriented brain to listen to me for once." Eric snaps and Tempest puts the stuff away with a sigh.

"Am I the first Stiff that you have actually liked?" She asked suddenly, Eric looked over at her, with a small sigh.

"Yeah. But I'm glad that it was you that I met, because if I didn't meet you... then my opinions would have probably just stayed the same, with the same bias against Abnegations in the faction system." He said and she'd look over her shoulder at him, and he was studyin' a tattoo that took up a lot of room on her back. "What's with the wolf?" He asked finally and Tempest's eyebrows raised, as she turns around and put her jacket back on.

"Teamwork. The wolf used to run in packs before the world was destroyed all around us, and that was kind of... a way for Four and I, to be able to relate to each other. We had to work like an team, if we wanted to stay sane." She said and Eric nodded.

"Fair enough." He murmured and Tempest zipped up her jacket and she heard loud Dauntless shouting, as she shakes her head.

"I wonder how many of the other initiates are completely drunk right now." She muttered, as Eric raised his eyebrows at her words.

"They aren't initiates anymore remember?" He said and she shot a glare at him. "What? Just thought, that I would remind you." He points out as she made an obscene gesture in his direction, causing him to laugh loudly at it. "You're hilarious." He said, as she shakes her head.

"Yeah, whatever." She muttered and hopped up onto her bunk, and rolled over to face the wall.

"What are you going to pick for your job tomorrow?" Eric asks, as Tempest snorted at his words.

"No idea. Hell, I am not even sure what I like to do. Maybe I'll be a tattoo artist? I don't know." She mumbled, as she shook her head a bit at the silence of the dorms. "You're going to train to be a Dauntless Leader, aren't you?" It was obvious to her already, she spoke it anyways. "Don't answer that, I think that I already know." She muttered, as she shuts her eyes and curls up on her bunk. But as she did so, she just felt a single tear fall down her cheek, and for the first time in a long time, she didn't understand why it fell.