Blue Eyed Man

Chapter 9

Tyler is up bright and early the next morning. She runs out of her room and to the breakfast table breaking speed records. She bounces the whole time she eats.

Explaining this situation to Tris last night was... interesting. She nearly went ballistic. She didn't like the idea. But when I explained why I did it she understood. We both understood that we owed it to Eric. We also had to accept that that's what Ty wanted.

Tyler stares at the door for a long time until she thinks I have gotten her signal. She was ready to go to the training room. She wanted to see Eric. I finally give in and take her to the training room where Eric is waiting.

"Morning Death Wish," he greets her with a smile. "Four."

"Eric."

"Hi," Ty says waving slightly. I hate this. I never liked this idea from the moment Eric mentioned the idea. And yes, I know why. My pride doesn't want to let me admit that I'm a little jealous of Eric. Of this relationship they have. Of how comfortable she seems around him.

"Well I guess I'll leave you two to it then," is all I can say as I begin to walk away... leaving her with a man that I once considered a monster.

Tyler's POV

Eric starts me out fairly easy. We start by learning how to punch. He has me do them in the air until finally moving me to a punching bag. He has me wrap a piece of cloth around my knuckles before I start to hit the bag. We work on this for hours. He moves me several times and reminds me many times to keep tension in my core.

We stop at lunch to go to mess hall and eat. We get many strange looks walking in. I see several people whispering to each other as we pass. I don't care. People can think what they want to.

I get a little nervous when he leads me over to the table where the leaders' sit. I sit between him and my dad.

"So my bliss filled little friend," Max starts. That's what he always called me because my middle name is Bliss. "How has training been going?"

All eyes are on me now. I don't really like it. I turn my eyes to Eric as if asking for help. He puts his hand on my shoulder as if to tell me to go ahead, that it'll be fine.

"Good. I mean I can punch now so I guess that's good," I say rather quietly.

"Well that's a perfect start," Max says almost proudly. "We'll have to keep an eye on you. Maybe one day you could follow in your dad's footsteps and lead the Dauntless faction."

My dad bites his lip, but Eric is wearing the biggest smile I've ever seen. I would think my dad would be smiling. Wouldn't he be proud?

After lunch we head back to the training room. We're still improving my punch. I've never seen someone take so long to improve a punch, but by the end of the day, I have pretty much mastered how to punch. Eric says we'll be working on strengthening tomorrow so my punch, as well as other moves, has more impact. He says we won't be able to train all day most days because well, he's kinda got a job as a leader.

I take the cloth off my knuckles and notice I busted several of them.

Ouch.

Now I notice how much they hurt. Eric can see the pained expression on face and takes my hand and lays it in his. He studies it for a second. He puts some type of ointment on them and wraps each individual finger in a band aid. I am shocked at how gentle he is. Everyone has only spoken of how rough he is. Now, he is tenderly and gently holding my hand and wrapping up my fingers. I've never seen a trainer do something quite like this for their trainee. They typically give them what they need but I've never seen one apply it for their trainee.

This day has been incredibly strange. I didn't quite expect training to be like this. I think I almost expected it to be brutal considering it's Eric. Maybe everyone is wrong about him...