Hi all,
This is a contribution to the Eris Holiday Fic Exchange 2016 which can be found on AO3.
It was requested by and written for Feigningintrest, one of my most favourite authors ever.
Thanks to DragonMaster65 for making this possible. It has been great fun participating and I hope you all enjoy this little piece of Christmas fluffiness as much as I had writing it!
Special thanks to giuli miadi black and readwritereview20 for beta-reading! And also, thanks for your encouraging words, mona-rose!

Finally, I'd like to dedicate this to Jamie and her fiancé Nate. Jamie, you will forever stay in my heart!

Finally, this would be the last one, Tris thought as she picked up the last item from her pile. All the other presents, both for him as well as her friends, were already wrapped and lying under the Christmas tree. But this would be the most important one of the evening. It might even be the most important one in their whole relationship. She had saved it for the very end, so she could cherish the moment.

She wondered just how he would react. Would he scoff and think that she was kidding him? Would he smile at her lovingly and be happy about it? Would he cry- Yeah, right, definitely not. Or would he just get up and leave? He used to have a fear of commitment, after all.

Tris shook her head - she could not think of that now. She wanted him to be happy, just as happy as she was, so they could be happy together. She sighed and bit her lip. There were so many possibilities of how he could react - he was impulsive, to say the least, but it was a quality she had come to like about him as well. Whatever his reaction would be, it would take her by surprise. And she just hoped for the best.

Her hand glided over the soft material of the sweat jacket and she smiled as she folded it neatly on her lap. Eric needed a new one badly, he always wore the same one after running in the morning, after working out in the gym - she was tired of seeing it, so she had decided to buy him a new one. And what better way to hide her other more important gift, so he would not see it right away?

Originally, it was not her idea but now that she placed the little object into the sweat jacket and then zipped up the garment, she could not help but grin in pride. That's why Tris had asked Jamie for the idea how to wrap Eric's present. She was also the first to know, since they worked so closely together and she had noticed it before Tris even had any obvious signs. She had to admit that she felt a pang of guilt for not telling Christina but if she had done so, all of Dauntless would know by now. And even though Eric was oblivious to gossip most of the times, through some magical coincidence, he would have found out. So, she was glad that she had confided in Jamie, especially since she always came up with the best ideas for wrapping presents. And this time, her idea had been amazingly brilliant.

Tris could not help thinking back to how Eric and her had started out. She had not wanted to begin the year with Four if she did not want to end it with him. So, they were over before she even went to the big party down in the Pit to celebrate the beginning of the new year. She danced and flirted with several guys that night but only one caught her eye in a special way. Eric was supposed to be her drunken New Year's kiss slash one-night-stand. It was supposed to be just that. But he kept courting her, flirting with her and making sexual innuendos during work, almost resulting in them having sex in his office.

Over the course of the next two weeks, the supposedly cold-hearted Dauntless leader had wormed his way into her heart with small gestures and gifts. He had always hit on her but she had always taken it as him joking and trying to make her feel uncomfortable. It took what supposed to be another one-night-stand and a breakfast together before he confessed to her that he had actually been very jealous of Four when they had gotten together and that he had hoped that one day they would break up, so he could get a chance with her. It did not take long for Tris to come around and soon they came to the conclusion that whatever it was between them was more serious, since they simply could not stand to be away from each other.

Tying the fabric ribbon into a neat bow, she smiled down at the now wrapped present. She had to chuckle at the thought of him seeing the wrapping paper adorned with comic book-style reindeers. He had already cringed when she told him that she wanted to put up a Christmas tree, since he was absolutely not the type for holidays, so she had needed to convince him. Though, convincing Eric was never hard when she surprised him with some fancy underwear or waiting for him naked in their bed after he came home from a long work day. So, she had gotten her way and also persuaded him to have the Christmas party with all their friends at their apartment.

Caressing the neatly packed present one more time, she got up and went over to the Christmas tree to place it with the other ones. She felt a little bit silly when she saw how many presents she had for him, whereas he had only two small ones for her. His presents did not even look like he had wrapped them himself. Tris smiled at the thought of him trying to wrap them - Jamie probably had helped him out. She wondered what he had gotten her. He always gave her small gifts throughout the year, all of them always very thoughtful, like the tea she had enjoyed so much during their trip to Amity. If anyone said he was a romantic, both of them would definitely deny it. He showed how much he cared about her in simple, and yet adorable ways.

They had decided to move into her apartment together, because after spending months at her place, he had pretty much abandoned his apartment already anyway. At first he had been afraid that he would not get the time for himself like he was used to. But to their surprise, they got along very well - when they needed time for themselves, they would go out or one would hide away in the spare room. Christina always joked that they were already an old couple and that only the ring on her finger would be missing.

When the front door swung open, she was torn out of her musings and she turned around, smiling at Eric as he shrugged off his vest and sauntered over to her. His trademark scowl was in place but when he looked at her, it momentarily lifted into the handsome smirk she adored so much.

"How was your day?" She asked after he gave her a peck on the lips.

He snorted and rolled his eyes before he turned away, "Fuck this day! Thank god, it's over!" He rumbled as he stripped off of his clothes, leaving them spread over the floor and headed for the bathroom. "Fuck this Christmas spirit! I hope, it will be over soon!"

The disappointment of his harsh reply vanished quickly when he stood in the doorway to their bathroom, completely naked and looking over his shoulder. Raising an eyebrow, he called, "You're joining me, or what?"

She did not need to be told twice, so she took off her clothes as well and joined him for a long shower.

Completely sated, Tris sagged against the tiles of the shower with Eric's head buried in the crook of her shoulder. Breathing heavily, he growled deeply and bit her neck affectionately, "I'll never get tired of the feeling of being inside of you."

Tris grinned as she ran her hands over his shoulders. Trying to recompose herself, she grabbed the shower head and brought it between them to clean them off. Gently, he placed her back on her feet and let her rinse him off. Although, it seemed that Eric was not so interested in getting out of the shower too soon. He kept travelling his hands up and down her body, admiring her firm breasts, toned stomach and lean hips, "God, you're sexy," he growled and kissed her, slowly and passionately.

She chuckled as he pressed himself against her, "And you, my dear, are insatiable!"

He smirked and grabbed the shower head from her hand. Placing it back, he took the shower gel and lathered it generously over her body. He laughed when she rubbed her body playfully against his and to her delight he unconsciously stuck out his tongue, biting it between his teeth as he looked down at her. They cleaned up each other thoroughly before rinsing off and finally left the shower.

She would never get tired of this highly seductive man.

After finishing the last preparations for the evening, Tris went into the bedroom to find Eric standing in front of the closet mirror and gasped. She had never seen him dress up like he did now, it was still rather casual, but the black pin-striped button-down shirt with matching black suit pants looked amazingly good on him.

"Wow, when I said we should be dressing up, I didn't think you'd actually comply," she grinned as he self-consciously picked his short hair into place which he had gelled at the top of his head.

He grinned at her through the mirror and shrugged nonchalantly, "Thought you'd like me in a suit."

She went over to his side and admired him. Purring, she ran her hand over his biceps, feeling the strong muscles work underneath the fabric as he kept forcing his hair into place, "You do look handsome," she bit her lip and pouted, "But now I'll have to find a matching dress."

He turned towards her, pulling her possessively against him and murmured back, "No need for that, I'll tear it off in a matter of seconds anyway."

She slapped his chest playfully, "You may do just that," she laughed as his eyes lit up in excitement, "After everyone has left! Until then I want to look pretty to match you."

Frowning, she watched his gaze become distant for a brief moment before it broke out into a genuine smile, "You will always look pretty to me."

Slapping his hand away from her behind for the umpteenth time this afternoon, Tris chided Eric, "Stop it, you can unwrap this present later tonight, Eric!"

He complied by taking his hand off of her and buried his head in her neck, which was bare due to the hairstyle she had chosen for the night, and inhaled deeply. Capturing her between the counter and himself, he pressed himself against her back and whined, "I just can't resist, baby!"

She pushed him away and cleaned off her hands quickly before she turned to leave the kitchen after having brought back all the dishes from their living room. The kitchen was a mess but she would need to take care of that later or the next morning - and Eric lusting over her, probably meant the dishes would have to wait. But she could not blame him, after all she had chosen the shortest black dress in her closet, the piece of garment running barely to the middle of her thighs.

She swatted his hands away yet again before she stepped into the living room, beaming at everyone already sitting around the Christmas tree, "So! Let's find out who did and who did not behave throughout the year!" She announced and ignored the snort from behind her, "Let's unwrap the presents!"

Everyone cheered at her and she entwined Eric's fingers with hers to drag him into the circle of their friends. Leisurely, he sat down in the armchair in the middle of the already crowded living room, dragging Tris onto his lap.

Jamie reached over and pulled the present with the reindeers out from under the tree. After quickly checking the sign and grinning knowingly at her fiancé Nate, she handed it to Tris, who sent her a glare. She felt Eric shift nervously beneath her when she turned to him on his lap and she was glad that he had not noticed the exchange.

Holding out the present to him, she grinned with excitement, "Merry Christmas, baby!"

He scoffed silently, the concept of Christmas was clear to him but he preferred to give her presents whenever he felt like it, not when he had to. And receiving presents was always a pain with Eric. Even though he loved every single one of her presents, he did not want her to spend too much on him. Reluctantly he took it from her and gingerly placed it on his lap. She smiled affectionately when he stuck out the tip of his tongue while he set to work to unwrap the first present of the day and his first ever Christmas present from her.

A small smile crept up on his lips when he saw the black sweat jacket with the decently spread red stripes. He chuckled and looked up at her, a playfully accusing tone in his voice when he asked, "You do hate my favourite jacket a lot, don't you?"

Tris bit her lip, barely able to contain her excitement and nudged him sheepishly, "Try it on."

His eyebrows furrowed briefly before he complied wordlessly and slowly pulled down the zipper. Her heart started beating faster in her chest and she smiled nervously, waiting for him to finally find the actual gift she had hidden in the jacket.

Eric had pulled down the zipper and shifted Tris to sit on the arm of the chair next to him. He was about to get up in order to put on the jacket when he stopped dead in his tracks. The room was completely silent and everyone was watching him as all emotions drained from his face and he stared at the item in the open jacket.

He looked up at her with an unreadable expression on his face, "Tris?"

She gulped and tried to smile through her nervousness, "Uh huh?"

Looking down at the jacket, he reached into it and pulled out the tiny sweater that was hidden in his present which had matching colours with his new jacket. He grabbed the small piece of garment and looked up at Tris again, his voice flat despite its bite, "Are you fucking serious?"

She felt tears sting her eyes at Eric's lack of emotions and she whispered helplessly, "Yes."

There was a ghost of a smile on his lips but it was gone so quickly, she was not sure whether it was even there or she had imagined it. He held the baby sweater up with both hands in front of his face and studied it for a moment before he put it aside on the other side of the armchair.

Tris almost fell off from her perch on the armrest when he suddenly got up with a heavy sigh. Her heart sank when he strode away.

Everyone cast her sympathetic glances or frowned at Eric walking away from Tris. No one dared to say anything.

After a few strides, he stood in front of the Christmas tree and when he found what he was looking for, he picked up the present that Tris had eyed earlier. Stoically walking back to Tris, her heart skipped a beat when he stopped in front of her and held out the tiny box to her. She looked up at him and back at the box. When she did not do anything, he shook it lightly in his hand, pursing his lips. She slowly reached out and accepted it with shaking hands.

"Open it up," was all he said in his very intimidating gruff voice, the one he barely ever used around her anymore.

She complied immediately, letting out a shaky breath through her nose. Feeling her heart race uncontrollably, she slowly unwrapped the gift under his ever quiet stare. When she was done, he did not let her have a proper look at it, he took her hand pulling her up instead. She almost tripped but he caught her and she fell against him. When she looked up at him, she could see that he was trying to suppress a grin on his face.

Before she even began to register what was about to happen, she heard her friends around her gasp as Eric slowly went down on one knee, his eyes never leaving hers. He kept her hand firmly in his as he smiled up at her and she felt her whole body tremble with all the emotions that ran through her all at once. She searched his face for any indication that he was joking, that he was not serious - she needed someone to pinch her in order to prove that this was really happening.

"Tris, you know I'm really terrible at expressing my feelings. But since you have stepped into my life, I experienced so many wonderful moments with you. I'm sorry, this comes so late because as soon as I fell in love with you, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you." He gulped as tears rolled down her cheeks and she covered her mouth with her free hand. He let go of her hand to quickly open the box and offered it to her. And when he took her hand again, she felt his hand tremble just like her own. He took a deep breath and then time seemed to stop as he asked, "Will you marry me, Tris?"

Her breath was almost gone from the sheer excitement about Eric's proposal and when she tried to answer, she was only able to croak out in a meek voice, "Yes!" A sob escaped her, mixed with a laugh and she squeaked out, "Yes, Eric, yes!"

He got up and, standing in front of her, he let out a shaky breath only she noticed as he took the ring from the box and gingerly placed it on her outstretched ring finger. Snaking his arm around her waist, he drew her close to him and looked into her eyes with a genuine smile on his face as their friends burst out cheering loudly. He leaned down and kissed her, and it was the most passionate and tender kiss they had ever shared.

After a moment he leaned back and looked at her lovingly, "I'm going to be a father?" he mumbled and Tris nodded. She had to laugh out loud when he stepped back from her and fell on his knees again, wrapping his arms tightly around her thighs and kissed her belly.