Anything but a Long Shot - Eric x OC
Title: Anything but a Long Shot Rating: T Fandom: Divergent Warnings: Swearing. Forced cohabitation...sort of. Slight obsession. You'll see. Summary: Eric hasn't had a peaceful morning since she started showing up with her ridiculous aliases. He needs to know who she is so he can reassign her. That's all.
Notes: Based off of the prompt from this post "you give me a different fake name every time you come into starbucks and I just want to know your real name bc ur cute but here I am scrawling “batman” onto your stupid cappuccino". I am SO excited about this. I've talked about Quest a lot and this is her debut. It wasn't originally how her story was going to start but I wrote this and @vixenofcourse and I decided it was a better beginning. Enjoy!
“Macchiato for Spartacus!”
Eric sighs. Every fucking time he’s in this place this happens. It’s always something when he’s just trying to get his coffee for the day.
“I’m Spartacus!”
“I am Spartacus!”
He frowns, glaring at the people around him as a couple more declare that they too are Spartacus. Wasn’t it enough that he had to listen to some stupid name every day this last week? Now there were more of them?
He spots her slink forward, smirk in place as her eyes shine with glee. “I believe I’m the real Spartacus.”
The barista, who somehow hasn’t blinded everyone in the vicinity with his hair, grins back. He hands her the cup and she takes it, waving at everyone.
Her eyes meet Eric’s glare and he swears she grins a little wider before winking at him. Her hair is miraculously tied back even though it looks like it threatens to explode in a mess of curls. He scowls back. That just makes her grin wider and before he can say anything, like a demand for her to cut this shit out, she disappears.
He’s only seen her when she comes in. She’s friendly enough with the baristas which means she’s not new. He hasn’t noticed her in any of the initiate classes after him so she’s likely a year or two older even if she doesn’t look or act it. But her attitude is pure Dauntless. He needs to figure out who she is. If only so he can reassign her shift rotation and get some peace in the mornings.
☕️
The next time he sees her, it’s when the name “Jean Valjean” is called out.
“I am 24601!” she calls back as she moves forward. Eric moves to confront her. She dodges around another person, just in time that he’s cut off. She grins towards him before she disappears out the door. Again.
☕️
“Carmen Sandiego!”
Eric looks for her instantly.
He catches sight of her wearing red. She moves forward for the drink and he goes to grab her, only to be stopped as someone steps in front of him.
It’s Four. “We need to talk.”
He shoves number boy to the side but it’s too late. She’s already gone.
☕️
“Misto for Batman!”
Eric’s going to catch her this time. He’s made sure he’s early enough and that Four isn’t in the vicinity. No one else would dare. Not when he’s in this much of a bad mood already.
He’s waiting by the entrance, ready to stop her when she tries to dart through. Somehow, she appears behind the counter. He stares at her, thrown by the change.
She blows him a kiss and grabs the coffee. “See you tomorrow sugar-bear!” She leaves the way she came.
He storms towards her. One of the baristas tries to stop him.
“You can't go back there!”
He shoves them out of the way but she’s gone. There’s no trace aside from the open back door.
“Fuck.”
☕️
It should not be this hard to find someone. A Black woman who goes by various names should be well known. At least well known enough to point him in the right direction to find her. He starts at the coffee shop.
“No can do, boss man,” the bright haired barista tells him. He’s pale enough that the intense yellow of his hair somehow doesn’t wash him out. “Don’t know her name.” He shrugs. “She goes by a different one each day.”
It started as a way to just get her to stop messing around but now…now he’s curious. It shouldn’t be possible for a woman to be able to run around the faction without anyone knowing who she is. Or at least admitting it.
“How do you get her drink order?”
The man shrugs again. “Comes in through the app every day. Sometimes earlier and just asks for it to be ready at a specific time under a specific name.”
Eric scowls. “What’s her information listed as?”
“What?”
“In the system,” he snaps.
The man looks unimpressed but dutifully pulls up the information on the screen. Everyone checks and pays with points that are registered. “Huh.”
“What?”
“Look for yourself.” The bright haired man turns the screen towards Eric. Listed with her many different drink orders is a designation that is simply a series of letters and numbers. Eric glares at the man next to him as though it’s his fault.
“It’s the system!” he backs up, giving space to Eric. “Maybe that’s why she uses other names?”
Eric leaves without another word. It shouldn’t be this fucking difficult.
☕️
He goes straight to administration.
It takes a while before they actually figure out who the numbers and letters belong to. It’s not her.
“It was first assigned to an initiate,” the woman tells him. She looks like she’s been buried in Dauntless for too long. Like one of those vampires he read about when he was a kid. It’s fucking creepy. “It was supposed to have been scrubbed when they became factionless but it says the error was explained and they reversed it. The name’s unassigned until they choose a new one. Unconventional but understandable. Saves us extra work going into the system to change it.”
Eric is trying not to snap. This is not helpful. “How the fuck does this happen? How can there be errors like this?”
The woman scowls back at him. “Do you know how old this system is, Eric? There are a lot of errors! They won’t let us keep paper backups and Erudite keeps delaying the updates!”
He clenches his jaw. “I’ll fix it,” he says. If only so he can get the information he wants. He makes a mental note to force everyone to get outside at least once a month. He might stick around to see if she bursts into flames in the sun. That would be interesting.
“You do that,” the woman says. “Is there anything else?”
“No.”
☕️
He catches her outside the coffee shop. She’s already drinking from a cup, leaning against the wall and watching him as he gets close. He half expects her to take off but she doesn’t. She waits.
“We have to stop meeting like this,” she teases. “People will say we’re in love.” It makes him scowl in response but her grin just widens.
“Who the fuck are you?” he asks.
“Depends on who you ask.”
“Cut the shit. You haven’t used your real name once in there,” he nods towards the coffee shop. “What is it?”
She leans forward slightly, still grinning. “Have you been listening for it?”
“For fucks sake, all these made up names are getting old.”
“You’re getting old,” she counters. “Besides, all names are made up.”
He glares at her. “Who are you?”
“Now that’s the question, isn’t it?” She moves away from the wall, glancing behind him just enough to grin. “Got to go, hot stuff. Got an appointment with the love of my life. Better watch out.” She points behind him.
He’s not falling for that. He’s not. So of course something barrels into him, knocking him down.
“Oh shit, sorry Eric! You alright?”
He shakes off Quil’s hands and stands up. “What the fuck!”
“Sorry,” Quil says again. “Bunch of kids went flying past me and one of them shoved me back. Didn’t see you.”
Eric scowls but ignores the man, racing forward to try to catch her. She’s long gone.
☕️
He’s sitting and waiting. He knows she’s coming. He got there early to catch her and he’s going to make her tell him her name. Her real name instead of whatever bullshit she’s given the barista. Then he’s going to find out exactly who she is. So far all he knows is that she’s definitely made an enemy out of one of the trainers since she was mistakenly marked down as factionless. Not that Eric cared. He beat him for Leadership and Mark has taken it out on anyone he could since. As if a Dauntless was more worthy just by right of birth.
He’s angled himself enough that he can see both the door and the counter. He’s not letting her escape him that easily this time.
So of course, Max comes in and sits directly across from him. The one person Eric can’t order to leave. He’s beginning to think the universe is conspiring against him.
“We need to get ready for this council meeting,” Max tells him. “Gather the-”
Max pauses in time for Eric to realize someone’s slipped in behind him. He feels them lean over him and he recognizes her hand as it places a pastry in front of him.
“Don’t work too hard, handsome,” she kisses his cheek before retreating. Eric turns, reaching for her but she’s already darted out of the way. He’s halfway out of his chair before Max clears his throat and gives him a pointed look.
Eric glances towards her to see her wiggle her fingers at him in a cocky wave.
“A new fling?” Max asks, pointing at his cheek to indicate the mark she left behind.
“A curiosity,” Eric answers as he watches her go, reaching for a napkin.
☕️
He can’t stop thinking about her.
It’s driving him crazy. No woman should be on his mind this much. It’s just the fact that he knows nothing about her. Except that she has a love of her life. That, admittedly, makes him slightly more homicidal if he’s honest. Mainly because he can’t imagine someone putting up with her that much. Then again, how could they really be the love of her life if she’s spending so much time purposefully driving him up the wall, buying him snacks and kissing his cheek?
He still hasn’t found an ounce of worthwhile information about her. No one seems to have any clue who she actually is or where she came from, so how the fuck is she here?
He’s gone for a couple days, checking the recruits on the Fence and those stationed in areas to protect against the Factionless, so he’s already on edge. It takes him a few steps into his place to realize something is wrong.
The apartment is empty but there are things that don’t belong to him scattered throughout. He gets the slightest hint of the perfume that's become increasingly familiar over the past weeks as he walks around. There is an entire series of hair products that he’s never even seen before. His closet is full now with the addition of someone else’s clothes.
He’s not entirely sure how this happened or what’s going on but he’s beginning to think that he might finally get some answers.
She doesn’t appear that entire night and the next day, he goes back to administration. The same woman as before is there and looks just as unimpressed to see him. He feels the same way.
“The system isn’t fixed,” she tells him.
“Who the fuck is in my apartment?” he asks, ignoring the glare she sends him.
She stares at him for a moment before she checks the system. “Well, what do you know,” she looks over the screen at him. “It’s your mystery woman.”
“What?” He grabs the screen and turns it towards him. The same numbers and letters holding the spot of her name stare back at him. The screen gets pulled away from him.
“You want to talk to her, go! And get my system fixed!”
☕️
She’s not there that night either and he heads for the same coffee shop. The same bright haired man is behind the counter. Eric is already preparing for the lack of information.
“There you are! I have something for you!”
“I just want a coffee. Black.”
“Sure,” the barista says. He hands him over the coffee and slides over a muffin.
Eric stares back. “I didn’t ask for that.”
“Nope, but I was told to tell you it’s from Inigo Montoya. She stopped by earlier.”
Eric sighs. The barista just grins at him. Eric glares and takes it. “Where can I find her?”
The barista shrugs. “Don’t know. She’s never told me where she works.”
It’s only once he leaves the place and considers throwing out the muffin that he sees there’s writing on it. ‘You killed my father. Prepare to die.’ there was a lipstick mark next to it. He stares at it for a long moment.
Was she threatening him?
☕️
The threat spurs his search on.
He tears through his apartment, looking for some clue on who she actually is. He doesn’t expect to find roller skates in his closet. He inspects them carefully. They’re Dauntless made and decorated in the same style he’s seen the derby players wear. Finally. A clue.
He heads to the rink with the skates in hand.
It’s mostly empty, still too early in the day for practice and games. Thankfully there’s someone there.
“Hey!”
The person looks a little scared but comes closer. “Yeah?”
Eric holds up the skates. “Who do these belong to?”
They frown slightly before taking one and turning it around, getting a look at it. “These look like Sixteen’s. She’s a savage! Broke the other team’s jammer’s nose in the last game. It was great. How’d you get these?”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know,” they shrug. “I think someone said she moved in with her boyfriend? Ethan? Aaron?”
Eric scowls. A boyfriend? He leaves without another word.
He goes back to his apartment, tossing the skates back toward the closet and heads for the shower. He goes through the motions. Eric doesn’t know what pisses him off more. The fact that she’s somewhere with the apparent love of her life or that he hasn’t seen her in days. The threat doesn’t make sense, not with the amount of things in his apartment. She’s out to drive him insane. He knows it. He just needs to know who she is. He needs to get her out from under his skin.
He gets out of the shower, trying to figure out how he’s going to find her. He needs to find her. He wants to know more. He wraps a towel around his waist and uses another to dry off his hair as he heads for the bedroom. And stops.
He turns to look down the hall, seeing a pile of curls appear over the back of his couch. The towel in his hand drops to the floor as he moves to reach her before she can escape again. She looks over at him, spoon in her mouth as she eats a bowl of cereal. Her legs are crossed under her and she’s dressed in loose pants and one of his shirts. It looks like she’s been there all fucking day.
“What the fuck!”
“Hey handsome,” she says, moving the spoon out of her mouth. She points it towards him. “Look at you all wet and shiny.”
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Issue with room assignments. You don’t mind, right?”
He stares at her for a moment, considering all the ways he can get rid of her and realizing…he doesn’t want to. He wants to break her apart only because he wants to know more. “Who are you?”
“They call me Quest,” she offers with a shrug.
“You’re not…Dauntless, are you?”
She grins at him. “You can’t prove that.”
He should report her. He should drag her to the other leaders and demand answers. Get Candor to bring some truth serum and finally find out what the fuck is going on…But maybe there’s a better use for her. She did manage to infiltrate their faction right under the noses of leadership, that took guts and brains.
“Come on, sit down. You’re hot, all scowly and half naked. Really testing my concentration here.” She pats the couch next to her. He sits down and faces her. Naked or not, he could take her. Especially now that she’s in reach.
“Are you factionless?”
“Nope,” she takes another spoonful of the cereal she’s eating. Her brown skin is a warm contrast against the black she’s wearing and he can spot some freckles now that he’s close enough to really touch her.
He frowns at her answer. “Then what?”
“Nothing,” she shrugs. “I’m not from here.”
He stares at her for a moment. “Then how the fuck do you have a Dauntless ID?”
“It’s not that hard to play the system, especially when you don’t really get questioned. You’re the first person who’s actually noticed.” She puts the bowl down and faces him. “So the question is, what are you going to do about it, hot stuff?”
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