Eric and I were walking to the Pit where I would be choosing my job and apartment, he was close enough to feel his body heat in the cold tunnel, but I didn't dare close the gap.
We hadn't seen much of eachother since the celebration of the new members, he had taken me back to the apartment and disappeared; a note left on the kitchen counter had said he had gone to Erudite for interfaction relations. I spent the time packing, wondering if somehow this was him avoiding the situation at hand, so I was surprised when he silently joined me.
"What are you thinking of choosing?" Eric asked.
"I'm not sure yet, maybe a tattoo artist, I would love a chance to be creative." I replied. "Did you have a job in mind before you became a leader?"
"Originally, I was part to the squads." Eric explained, guiding me down a path to his right with a hand on the small of my back "I resigned once I had the leadership role."
The 'squads' were what Dauntless called their City Protection, groups which patrolled areas of Chicago, mainly to keep the Factionless from fighting between eachother. They had become more prominent in the last decade or so as the unrest between themselves and the Factions grew; I suppose desperation can lead people to extreme places
"Why did you choose that?"
"I wanted something that wouldn't mean I was cooped up or stuck on the wall."
That seemed right for Eric, no matter how hard I tried I could never imagine him in an office, nor a meeting. Eric, like Tobias, seemed to belong in the training room.
We reached the entrance and Eric turned to me. "We'll talk later, I'll bring dinner."
The canteen held all twelve new members and the leaders, I found Maddie slouched in a chair watching with a sly look on her face, I raised an eyebrow in question.
"What was that?" She asked, sitting up straighter.
"A conversation?" I offered, taking the seat next to Maddie and stealing the apple she was playing with.
"That's not what I meant." She laughed "we'll talk later."
My tone was dry as I replied "yeah, there's a lot of that going around."
"All right, let's get this over with!" Max ordered, hushing the members. "Sasha."
I stepped onto the stage and circled the tattoo designer role, which had a good pay, and seasonal initiation instructor, I really liked the idea, and I could spend time with Tobias.
I went to Eric and chose my apartment which was near his and Tobias's, it had an open plan space with a loft bedroom, and best of all, a balcony.
I waited for Maddie to choose as she was coming to the infirmary, I watched Lynk and Maxine select their jobs, he decided on the control room whilst Maxine would be starting her medic training.
Finally, it was Maddie's turn, she stepped up and chose to be a hair stylist within the most popular salon business in Dauntless, Maddie walked over Eric and picked a place to live, as she left she said something to Eric which made his pierced eyebrow rise.
We watched Ash, who chose to be a cook, and then left for the infirmary.
.:.
I helped Maddie take the boxes to her apartment, a small corner was dedicated to a kitchenette and a double bed was shoved into the other. I placed the two boxes on the bare mattress and grabbed the fitted sheets.
Like me, Maddie was living alone, it was an odd concept to the Maxine, Lynk and Ash as they had always lived in the centre of an energetic community; living alone would be like hell to them.
Maddie dumped her quilt onto the mattress and tackled me. "Do you have anything you want to tell me?"
Grunting, I grumbled into the bedding "no."
Maddie kept herself planted on my back "are you sure? Nothing about Eric at all? Because you never came back the night of the party, you've continued to stay at Eric's despite initiation finishing."
"I want to tell you to stop squishing me with your ass."
"So do you like Eric?"
"I don't even know if Eric likes me."
"It's pretty obvious he does."
"I wouldn't say that."
Maddie laughed.
"Maybe." I sighed.
Wrapping her arms around me, she continued to giggle "this is going to be amazing."
.:.
It was almost dinner once Eric found us, he appeared in Maddie's doorway, since she had propped it open with a box whilst we moved her things into her room, somehow she had acquired much more stuff in the few months than I had and it had taken multiple trips. He rapped his knuckles on the door and waited.
Slowly, we sat up from the bed, I raised an eyebrow.
"Sasha, Max wants a word." He stood patiently whilst I pulled on my boots and hugged Maddie goodbye, warning her not to get too drunk or she'd never find her apartment again.
"What does he want to speak to me about?" I rolled my shoulders which had become sore from laying at an odd angle "I thought we still had a few more days before we began training for our jobs."
"A senior leader recently died." Eric explained "Max wants to offer the role to new blood."
"How?" I hadn't heard of any of the Dauntless talking about it, and with the amount of gossip that flew around the dining room, it would have been expected to be mentioned at least once. "I haven't heard anything."
"Accident, Max is keeping it quiet out of respect for the family's wishes ." There was a finality to Eric's response, I pursed my lips, it felt like a lie, but I had no evidence to prove otherwise.
The offices were up on the topmost level of the Pit, under a frosted glass ceiling and surrounded by metalwork and walkways, Eric directed us towards the office at the end, and knocked. Only moments later, a deep voice called for us to come in.
It seemed strange to see Max in an office, typing away on his computer at a frustratingly slow pace, I took a seat at his direction, watching silently as he finished what he was doing.
"Sasha, I'm here to discuss a recent job opening that I think you'll love." Max explained, closing down the document on the screen. "Usually our youngest leaders our in control of our initiation training, interfaction relations and placement of new members, though recently a position has come up in a different role."
"What role is that?"
Eric had briefly explained what roles Dauntless Leaders take on, usually one is in control of defence, one in transport and infrastructure and one in food and utilities, and each time they have a proposal it needs to be presented to Max and discussed whether Dauntless would implement the changes.
"We are looking for someone to control our defence, they assign patrol and wall rotations, assist with training and ensure that the armoury has exactly what we need. We believe your skillset and experience is exactly what we need for the future."
Frowning, I looked across the room, there were two large screens, however they weren't displaying camera feeds, just the Dauntless emblem. "Wouldn't a better choice be a Dauntless-born, or a more experienced fighter?"
"We believe your aptitude is more suited for the role."
I held in a scoff, my aptitude would get me killed if Max knew about it.
Discreetly, I glanced over at Eric, who had chosen to stand by the door, his hands clenched into fists before he let the uncurl.
"Well it sounds very interesting but I don't think I would enjoy it, I think that Lynk would be more suited to the role." I stated "he has more experience with combat and would have a better report with the commanders."
Max nodded with a smile "well I can't say I'm not disappointed, I would've enjoyed having you as a leader, but I respect your decision. I will give you a few more days for if you change your mind."
We walked out of the office in silence, the meeting left a bad taste in my mouth, my experience was very little compared to Lynk's or the other Dauntless borns, so why was I selected? Being raised Abnegation firmly taught you that fighting was wrong, how would that contribute to the factions defence?
"So why did Max really want to offer me the job?" I asked as we took the rickety metal stairs back, Eric stepped off the walkways into one of the tunnels, I recognised we were heading back to his apartment, I was dead on my feet and wanted to go to bed. "And don't say it's because I was top in my class."
"Because you're a good strategist and level headed, you made conscious choices in your fear landscape and continued in initiation when many thought you'd wash out." Eric explained, "plus in the past two years both Abnegation transfers came top of the class, I guess Max thinks it'll be an assett to have in the higher ranks, he tried to recruit your brother last year."
"So initiation isn't just about ranking?" I questioned, everyone spent so long fighting to survive initiation, we never had time to consider it as anything else.
Eric nodded. "It's designed to reflect how capable an initiate is, everyone first thinks it's about brutality, and to an extent it is, but a good member is someone who actually thinks about their actions."
The door to his apartment swung open, Eric offered me foil wrapped plate. "It should still be hot."
I unwrapped a cheeseburger, studying carefully "no pickles?"
"No pickles." he confirmed.
I took a bite before taking a seat at the breakfast bar, he slid the ketchup across the counter and unwrapped his own dinner.
"So I moved your things into your apartment whilst you were at the infirmary." Eric explained.
"Oh."
"But I did keep some clothes here."
"Oh."
"They're in my dresser."
I met his eyes.
"Well, if we're going to do this, my bed is bigger and comfier than the spare room."
I remained silent for a moment, a smile turning the corners of my lip "Which drawer?"
Hi everyone, this is just a filler while I tweak a few things, hope you liked it. Who liked the gif?
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