Dying Tigers: A Strange Love Story

Meetings - Part 3

The following day the rain had finally cleared, showing a bright blue sky, and I was knocking on Tareiji and Jareka's door, toting a bag full of paperwork. It was wrenched open rather forcefully by a grinning Tareiji. The way he draped himself in the doorway just oozed playfulness and possessiveness.

" 'morning!" He greeted, and disappeared from the doorway as quickly as he had appeared, leaving the door half open. I wasn't sure if that his way of inviting me in.

"Come in." I heard Jareka's answered in a level voice from somewhere inside, as if he'd heard my silent question.

I stepped inside and found Jareka sitting on the couch, looking over his shoulder at me, and Tareiji rustling around in the kitchen by the sound of grocery bags I heard coming from that direction. A small chess set sat on the coffee table with the pieces sitting in the middle of the board.

"Are you settling in okay?" I asked.

"Yes." Was Jareka's terse reply before he went back to reading the book he was holding. I remembered the bookshelves and glanced over to see them already over half full of books, with a couple movies in the mix as well. Where on earth had they found so many books so quickly? And who was paying for them?

"Do you like reading?" I asked, trying to get some casual conversation going so I wouldn't seem too strict and business-only by going straight to the purpose of why I had come. Being a manager required a lot of personal interaction. We'd be spending a lot of time together and I wanted them to feel comfortable around me.

"Yes."

Another one-word answer from Jareka cut off my attempt at casual conversation. Tareiji appeared in the room before an awkward silence could settle.

"We both read a lot." He told me happily.

"Where'd you get all the books?" I asked.

"We spent yesterday shopping for them!" He flopped down on the couch, leaning on Jareka's leg to peer over the top of the book he was reading. "There're so many book stores around here!" He sounded like an excited child again and I tuned out his continuing babble as I noticed the strangely intimate contact he was making with Jareka. They had admitted they slept together when I'd first met with them, but even so, Sterts was right. They didn't exactly scream "couple", but there was definitely something that struck a person as subtly odd about the way they behaved around each other. The way they touched each other so casually wasn't exactly sexual or flirtatious. The only comparison I could make was to the way some people twist their rings around their fingers or play with their hair when they have nothing else to do with their hands. It seemed more habitual and unconscious than anything else. It was almost like they treated each other as extensions of themselves, the way they touched so thoughtlessly. But if they hadn't flat out told me they were bed partners, I might not have ever suspected it.

"So why'd you stop by?" Tareiji asked abruptly, drawing my out of my musings.

"Paper work." I told him, gesturing at my bag.

His eyes lit up.

"Paper work that makes things official?" He asked, crawling over Jareka's lap to lean over the back of the couch towards me.

"Yes, and a few questions about the type of work you'd like to do, so I can find suitable projects." I rooted through my bag to pull out the file folder with the papers I needed them to fill out.

Jareka closed his book and laid it on the table, neatly sliding out from under Tareiji in the process. He pulled a pen from the drawer under the table and leaned back, hand extended for the file, which I handed over.