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"Delusion?" I repeat "You mean you haven’t…" I raise my eyebrows "Oh Oh I just assumed…" That because I am so absorbed by him, everyone else " He looks away His cheeks are bright, like he’s e, you know," he says He takes ertips cold and his pal I pro to do with his kindness

He kisses me between the eyebrows, and on the tip of my nose, and then carefully fits histhrough my veins instead of blood I want hio

His hands shift to e He pulls back with a puckered brow

"Are you hurt?" he asks

"No It’s another tattoo It’s healed, I just…wanted to keep it covered up"

"Can I see?"

I nod, ht I pull my sleeve down and slip my shoulder out of it He stares down at ers over it They rise and fall with my bones, which stick out farther than I’d like When he touches ed by the connection It sends a thrill through

He peels the corner of the bandage away His eyes roaation, and he s "On e over the tattoo and pullsles from my throat "Only…partially"

He nods, his s He lifts his eyes to mine and unzips his sweatshirt It slides from his shoulders, and he tosses it onto the desk chair I don’t feel like laughing now All I can do is stare at hirabs the hem of his T-shirt In one swift motion, he pulls it over his head

A patch of Dauntless flaht side, but other than that, his chest is un He looks…uncomfortable

"I don’t invite many people to look at ine why," I say softly "I mean, look at you"

I walk slowly around him On his back is more ink than skin The symbols of each faction are drawn there--Dauntless at the top of his spine, Abnegation just below it, and the other three, smaller, beneath them For a few seconds I look at the scales that represent Candor, the eye that stands for Erudite, and the tree that symbolizes Amity It makes sense that he would tattoo hie, and even the syin, like I did But the other three?

"I think we’ve made a mistake," he says softly "We’ve all started to put down the virtues of the other factions in the process of bolstering our own I don’t want to do that I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest" He clears his throat "I continually struggle with kindness"

"No one’s perfect," I whisper "It doesn’t work that way One bad thing goes away, and another bad thing replaces it"

I traded cowardice for cruelty; I traded weakness for ferocity

I brush over Abnegation’s syertips "We have to warn them, you know Soon"

"I know," he says "We will"

He turns toward me I want to touch him, but I’m afraid of his bareness; afraid that he willyou, Tris?"

"No," I croak I clear my throat "Not really I’m only…afraid of what I want"

"What do you want?" Then his face tightens "Me?"

Slowly I nod

He nods too, and takes uides my palms to his stomach His eyes lowered, he pushes my hands up, over his abdoainst his neck My palle with the feel of his skin, smooth, warm My face is hot, but I shiver anyway He looks at me

"Someday," he says, "if you still want me, we can…" He pauses, clears his throat "We can…"

I smile a little and wrapthe side of ainst my cheek, as fast as my own

"Are you afraid of me, too, Tobias?"

"Terrified," he replies with a smile

I turn my head and kiss the hollow beneath his throat

"Maybe you won’t be in my fear landscape anymore," I murmur

He bends his head and kisses me slowly

"Then everyone can call you Six"

"Four and Six," I say

We kiss again, and this tiether, his arm around my waist, my hands on his chest, the pressure of his lips on mine We have each other memorized

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

I WATCH TOBIAS’S face carefully as alk to the dining hall, searching for any sign of disappoint and kissing and eventually dozing until we heard shouts in the hallway--people on their way to the banquet

If anything, he seehter now than he was before He smiles o in first, and run to the table I share with Will and Christina He enters second, a minute later, and sits down next to Zeke, who hands hio?" asks Christina "Everyone else went back to the dormitory"

"I just wandered around," I say "I was too nervous to talk to everyone else about it"

"You have no reason to be nervous," Christina says, shaking her head "I turned around to talk to Will for one second, and you were already done"

I detect a note of jealousy in her voice, and again, I wish I could explain that I ell prepared for the si

"What job are you going to pick?" I ask her

"I’ initiates," she says "Scaring the living daylights out of them You know, fun stuff What about you?"

I was so focused on getting through initiation that I barely thought about it I could work for the Dauntless leaders--but they would kill uess…I could be an a a transfer would helpyou would say Dauntless-leader-in-training," sighs Christina "Because that’s what Peter wants He couldn’t shut up about it in the dorm earlier"

"And it’s what I want," adds Will "Hopefully I ranked higher than hiot about the to be impossible"

"No, it isn’t," she says Christina reaches for his hand and laces her fingers with his, like it’s thein the world Will squeezes her hand

"Question," says Christina, leaning forward "The leaders atching your fear landscape…they were laughing about solad my terror amuses them"

"Any idea which obstacle it was?" she asks

"No"

"You’re lying," she says "You always bite the inside of your cheek when you lie It’s your tell"