Daunting Fires (Completed)

26- New

When I get to the dormitory, Cece gives me a bear hug. "I'm so nervous!" She exclaims. I smile a nervous smile and nod. Cece probably passed as she has enhanced her skills exponentially. She used her short height as a plus to get away from punches. I wish I was shorter. Or at least stronger.

But then again, everyone wishes they'd be something else.

I see Jared through my peripherals and step back to hug him, too. "Good luck," he says.

I nod. "You, too."

After more moments of anxiety, Kevin gets up as well and starts babbling about how many of us have excelled and now deserve to be apart of Dauntless.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
We walk into the training room after breakfast to view our scores.

1. Luke
2. Jared
3. Sage
4. Xedalia
5. Derek
6. Roberte
6. Trix
7. Ledra
8. Cecelia
9. Jack
10. Roxanna
11. Piotr
12. Travis
13. Mikali
14. Alex
15. Lotrisha
-------------------

I look away once the line appears.

I cheer along with my new faction. "You're number 2!" I high five Jared and he looks like he's trying to comprehend what's going on.

"And you're number 4!"

"And I suck, but I'm a dauntless!" Cece claps for herself. I look at the score board again. My smile immediately drops.

Some of the names below mine are the names of people who are better than me. Something is wrong. There is no logical way I'm the fourth best initiate.

I see someone through my peripherals glancing at me and then to where my eyes are. It's Jared.

"Well, you have gotten way better."

I shake my head no. "But I'm still not way better than Derek."

"A lot has happened in these past ten months. Just accept it," Cece says while kissing my cheek. "We passed guys! Now we can get dauntless jobs and live our dauntless lives and be dauntless!"

"Let's go celebrate," Trix says. I glance at her and see Jake has his arm around her neck. Darin stands behind them. I wave and he waves back with a side smile.

"But usually they take the initiates for job preference questioning, don't they?" Jake asks.

"Well, one, we're not initiates dumb ass. And two, no, they switched it this year."

And with that, everyone generally walks towards the bar. Everyone but me. I stare down the score board. It disturbs the hell out of me. I mean, I am dauntless now, so everything else doesn't really matter. But that isn't enough to give me peace.

I nearly jump when I feel a cold hand around my bicep.

"Hey, you alright?" Eric looks down at me with his eyebrows knit together.

"Yeah, it's just that... Well, I don't know... I don't think I'm actually the fourth best of all the initiates."

"Oh, come on. Be more confident about yourself."

"No, shut up. I'm not saying I suck. But there's no way I'm the fourth best out of everyone who just passed initiation."

Eric pauses and looks at his feet as he rocks back and forth. "You're fear time was excellent. You only had seven short ones."

We're silent as the voices of people talking around us still fill the room. "Eric." I say slowly.

"Hmm." He doesn't look up though.

"Eric." I cross my arms.

He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. Then he says, "It's not like you were going to fail, anyways."

"What the hell! You can't just do that!" He tries to grab my shoulders but I shrug away from his hands.

"I just wanted to be positive you'd still be here."

"So you put someone who deserved fourth rank below me?"

"Dhal, stop. It doesn't matter! We should celebrate."

"Did you think I wouldn't freakin' make it if you didn't hand fourth rank to me?"

"The hell? Of course not."

"Then what was the point of it at all," I raise my voice and some heads turn to observe us.

"Can we talk about this another time?" He pleads.

"No."

"Then let's go upstairs." I involuntarily follow him upstairs go his apartment as he drags me by the hand. Once inside, I sit on the sofa.

"Dahlia, I'm sorry."

"I'm not stupid. I find out about these things on my own. And I want to know what rank I would have been if you weren't such a goddamn prick!" I make eye contact with him while saying that and I can see a pang of hurt as I say it. "Sorry."

"Yeah. Me too."

"Eric, I'm just pissed that you feel the need to lie and be unfair for me. It interferes with other people's happiness. We're not the only two in Dauntless."

He suppresses a smile and looks down at our hands as he laces our fingers. "Sure as hell feels like it." I sigh and look out the window. I take note of all the beautifully eerie buildings in the distance and try to count them as I have before from Eric's apartment. He told me there were too many for me to count because of my impatience.

I feel something cold slide down my finger so I turn to see what it is. Before I get a good look, Eric starts talking.

"Dhal, I really love you. Like, a lot." I smile at how bad he is with words. "I don't know if marriage is how you want me to show I'm committed, but damn, I'd give up my chocolate cake for you."

I look at the silver band he placed on my finger. It fits perfectly, like I've been fitted for it.

"I tried it on your finger when you were sleeping." Eric whispers. I snort. I look at the engraving on the ring and it says "I'll love you always".

I trace over it with my right forefinger. "I don't care," is all I say, trying to kid of shake him up with nervousness.

"What?" He shifts uncomfortably. "What don't you care about?"

I smile and look up into his gray eyes. "I don't care if it's marriage or kids, or anything." I laugh at the blank expression on his face.

"Well, basically is that was your proposal, it's a yes," I clarify.

Eric smiles widely and kisses my forehead. "Ok."

"Ok." I say laughing in my jittery state.

"You know I never thought I'd ask a divergent to marry me or be with me or whatever this is?"

"Really?" I say, pretending to be surprised.

"It turns out Divergents might be more bad ass."

"Yeah, it's a surprise I said yes to you, huh?"

"Thanks." He says as he pulls me close, catching me a bit off guard.

"You too," I say back to the most amazing man in any faction ever.

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It's been so long!! I'm so sorry, guys! I'll explain that in an A/N later if you want to know why. I hope you all enjoyed it although I didn't edit everything yet. I just really want to let this out right now. Thanks for sticking with me!

All my love,
DL1