An Initiates Baby

Chapter Three - Coded

I circle the winners name of the current match, I sigh and turn back to the mat.

"Eric and Stiff, into the mat." I said, feeling uncomfortable to call him Stiff even if he's from Abnegation, but he insisted, maybe he'll change it soon. They both get up onto the mat and get into their stances, I can tell from the both of them that they're both wanting to win this match, it's just down to who can get to that weak spot first.

Eric goes to lunge first but Stiff is faster, dodging it and hitting Eric in the jaw. It's almost like a blur of punches and kicks, and eventually Stiff pins Eric down and punches him in the nose, rendering Eric unconscious, I sigh, to myself and circle Stiff on the board before getting his help to take Eric to the infirmary, I send Stiff back to the training room whilst I hang around, waiting for a nurse or doctor to come.

My head turns when Eric groans as he comes to, it didn't take him long to come to.

"Hey Killer, I'm waiting for a nurse to come around so I can leave you to them." I said as I move around to get a look at his damaged face. He groans again, keeping his eyes closed.

"Perhaps you should do some work on blocking and looking for advantages in fights." I say, giving him a tip to win fights.

"I tried okay." He snaps and I look at him, feeling anger rise.

"Fuck this, I'll leave a note." I say, walking over to a desk covered in files and sticky notes, I write on it quickly 'transfer initiate fights' and leave it at that, and stick it at the end of Eric's bed.

Before I fully leave I hear him again

"Wait, I'm sorry." I hear him, it's so quiet I almost miss it, I stop for a second, the feeling coming back but the anger comes back again when I remember why I'm leaving, I continue out the door and back to the training room.

"He's awake" I say to Amar who nods and circles the last name of the day, we send the initiates off so can re-rank them. The Stiff comes at third, Eric at fifth, I frown a little, as I notice the ones at the bottom, in the red, if they don't up their rank by the end of this stage, they'll become factionless.

Later on, I'm in the Pit, grabbing some food before I head over to the tattoo shop to help Tori again, I look around for a seat, I notice Eric is out of the infirmary and sitting with some other initiates and Dauntless-borns, his face is cleaned from blood with a few stitches here and there, the new healing cream must be working a treat for him.

I walk over to a spare table and eat quickly, wanting to meet Tori and get to work. I grab the apple from my food and leave the tray on the table, knowing someone would clean up later, and snatch a bottle of water from the stash beside the food and head down to the tattoo shop.

Tori doesn't have any customers when I get there so we hang around the shop for a while talking about the initiates.

"So is there any promising people?" She winks at me, and I laugh, knowing her double meaning. 

"There's a bunch of good initiates in the group, it's just weeding out the ones who'll end up factionless." I say, sighing at the end, that was the toughest part of initiation, knowing you'd have to kick someone out into the night, fending for themselves with the other factionless, leaving them to starve and survive without order.

"Let's not think about that." Tori says with a smile, "Is there any hotties in the initiates?" She asked with a giggle, I blush.

"I can't answer that! I'm their trainer." I state, smiling at her. Then we hear someone clearing their throat, Eric raises his eyebrow at us. He scratches the back of his neck.

"I was wondering if I could get a tattoo?" He asked and I nodded and turned to face him.

"Sure, got anything in mind?" He nods.

"It's kind of weird, but I want to kind of get tracks on my neck, two on each side, here and here." He uses two fingers and directs them down his neck. I nod.

"Come over and we'll get the machine started." I wave him over, leaving Tori to talk to customer who's getting a piercing. As I get the machine set up to do the pattern he wanted, he laid on the chair as I set it so he'd lay down.

"I'm noticing a pattern here." I smile at him, "Am I going to end up your personal tattooer and piercer?" I ask, joking around. He cracks a smile.

"Maybe." He laughs. I check the machine again.

"So, am I stopping at the end of your neck or shall I go down to your collar bone?" I ask him, he debates for a second.

"Let's go down to the collar bone." I nod and set the machine up.

"This will sting for a few seconds and then you'll get used to the sensation, it'll probably take around 10 minutes altogether but it's quicker than the traditional way." I explain, "Keep still." I instruct as the machine starts, "I'll be right back, I've got to grab some ointments and covers." As I walk away, I feel his finger nudge mine, making me smile to myself as I gather the stuff to keep his tattoo clean over night as it heals.

I put it all in a ziplock packet and as I get back to him, it's on its third line, I nod to myself.

"Looking good Eric." I say and watch as it continues and finishes. I quickly cover it in the lotion and bandage it, before giving him the all clear to sit up, and hand him the rest in the bag.

"Uh, check it every 1 and a half hours or so and apply lotion to keep it moisturised and it should be all clear by tomorrow to show off." I smile at him. I step back to let him get off the chair and steps off, standing in-front of me. He's just look at me and I'm staring up at him, he's a good 6 or 7 inches taller than me.

"So, are you coming to this party at the bar tonight?" He asked and I raised my eyebrow.

"Should an initiate be going to a bar that could be prohibited?" I tease him, watching his cheeks slightly turn pink.

"I might be around." I say coyly. He nods, and with a small smile, leaves me to clean up.