part one; memory
the tales of love that blossomed in a war

—————HIM

Tobias Eaton didn't understand some things.
Never understood why he had to wear grey, why he had to buzz his hair, why did he have to be so transparent.
He wanted to be heard and respected, he wanted to have a voice.

His father had a voice— one of the perks of being the Abnegation leader. On the outside, Marcus Eaton was a helpful man, selfless - a true face of Abnegation. At first, Tobias even believed that his father was like that, but when his mother died and the switch flipped in his house.

I am doing this for your own good, his father would always say, holding the leather belt with knifed out holes in front of him. It made him wonder if that was normal in other families, if it was normal for him to be pushed away from everyone else just endure the pain for the greater good.

Hearing the result of his test brought him relief instantly and he didn't think twice about choosing Dauntless.
Four was raging and he wasn't Tobias. He was someone who knew his fear, who knew how to defeat them step by step, repeating the father's words in his mindscape. Four was stronger than Tobias and he kept it this way.

Until he realised that there is corruption everywhere. Alliances made that shouldn't have been made, them being trained not to protect people within the fences, but to attack them, to divide them even more.

Four knew that something was rising and fast and he was doing everything to distance himself from it— he didn't take the offering to be a leader, instead, he cramped himself in a computer's room or with new faction members and watched how the situation was changing.

  He knew one thing— he needed to leave, and he needed to do that now. However, his wishes got pushed with a new handful of initiates, as he developed a closer connection with the woman he hated to talk with. Soon to realise that she was hiding something, his world flipped around not being able to leave her behind. He was going to do anything to make her remember, to help her stop this madness.

Anything for her, who has been silent for long, who has been neglected and put down too many times. He was sure, with the ounce of affection left in his body, drained and bare— he will give it all to her.

—————HER

Wavelyn Thompson didn't like talking about her childhood since there was nothing to really say about it. Her memory wasn't cooperating with her on that one. She knew that her parents loved her and that they would have dinners together and that was all she needed. Or so, she thought.

Wave felt hollow, unbelievably hollow even if she loved the things she was doing— after all, she was free and she could torture the newcomers whenever she wanted to, making them polish the guns until she saw her reflection.

Most of the days she would position herself on one of the abandoned towers and look at the lights that covered the fences— she wondered what was out there, she wondered why her body ached to go in there.

It was deserted there, no signs of life and they were safe in here— she had to remind that to herself. But the longing didn't pass. She never considered herself the extremely curious type, but her eyes gazed behind the fence hungrily.

At the same time, she didn't even realise how her wish to go beyond the fence slowly faded away as long as she spent time with the instructor she seemed to despise so much. It made her realise that it was so much to him that she didn't know, there was so much behind his stern glare, clenched jaw and coffee eyes that looked at her with coldness.

Wave didn't want to leave or even dream of leaving because of him. Because he made this place feel like home for the first time after being hollow.

—————THEM

Wave and Four hated their guts from the moment they got stuffed into the training room together with other initiatives. The number of times she rolled her eyes at him, mumbling that a Stiff was joining them, so probably the pigs were flying in the sky.

He rolled her eyes at her, not understanding her cockiness, her excitement waves that seemed to appear in the strangest and most inappropriate moments ever. He loathed that she thought she was better than him just because she was born in this faction and not a transfer. That burning rage towards her made him become better than her.

Wave could not believe how talented that guy was— he appeared from Abnegation and he was holding a gun as if he was murdering people for his whole life already. Never in her life has she met such a determined man like him since Dauntless were pretty laid back— they knew their skills and they knew how to pursue them.

But no, Four wanted to be the best at everything and he soon became. Four finished first in the initiation process and the only happy note for Wave was that she was second.

That's why, during the next three years, Wave learned how to tolerate Four even if her pride ached everything she would see him. For Dauntless it was important to keep with everyone a decent friendship just so there wouldn't be any violence between each other.

She still hated his guts and he hated her endless smirking. They didn't even realise how hate easily turn into infatuation if you put them in one training room to train the new transfers.

Are the newcomers ready for endless bickering and lingering stares?

—————in which Wave finds herself incredibly attracted to the man who makes her blood boil

or

in which Wave gains her memories back and Four is the only one who can help her

"I think you liked the concept of me being on you."
"I think it's time for you to shut up."
"Want to repeat that? Me on you?"
"Fuck off."
"You didn't say no."