Chapter Nine

The next day Tavros arrived for work feeling even more exhausted than he had last night. He'd gotten home around one in the morning and it had taken hours to finally stop tossing and turning. Tavros yawned loudly as he stepped into the cool building. It was a couple hours before opening time and he needed to feed the Lemon sharks and check up on the expecting mother. He felt like he hadn't been paying so much attention to his job lately because of Gamzee and all, even though he knew he'd been doing everything. Tavros rubbed his eyes and made his way past the storage room to where they kept all the fish—and then froze.

The door was ajar.

Moving back, Tavros frowned as he looked it over. The knob was bent down at almost a 45 degree angle, definitely broken, and a couple screws were on the floor. It looked like the door had been wrenched open. Tavros felt his heart flutter worryingly.

That's right…he'd locked the door when he'd left…shit. Now they would know somebody saw them and locked them in. God dammit why didn't he think these things through!?

But there was no helping it, so Tavros hurried on to grab some fish and tried to forget about the broken door…and the amount of strength needed to rip it open like that.

Once he was in his wet suit and in the Lemon shark tank, Tavros felt a little more relaxed. This was his area. This was something he knew and understood. He fed the sharks carefully, mindful of his fingers and their sharp teeth. As they swam past him he'd brush his hand over their sides, checking them over to make sure they were alright. The pregnant one was coming along just fine, thought it wouldn't be until next year before she had her pups.

Tavros lifted himself out of the tank, his mind already mulling over what would need to be done. She would require a separate tank, of course, with a shallow nursery area. The pups would be born swimming—something that always made Tavros smile—and there could be 5 to 20 of the little rascals. Tavros would need to alert someone of this so they could start finding homes for them all. Maybe a few of them would be released.

The thought of release brought Tavros' mind back to Gamzee and their conversation last night. He brooded over his friend's words…but where they really just friends? Obviously not—you don't have heated make out sessions with friends. Tavros shook his head, stopping that train of thought. No. Hell no. There was enough going on without him tying his brain in knots trying to figure out what sort of relationship he was in.

Tavros walked into the storage area and shut the door, grumbling when it wouldn't close properly, and quickly changed into his clothes. As he left, his heart sped up slightly. Now he had to talk to Feferi. He hadn't seen her since getting hired, and he only knew from Karkat that she was the only other person aware of Gamzee.

God how the hell was this going to work? She didn't know Tavros knew. That alone would be a huge shock. Not to mention he was accusing her business partner of trying to steal Gamzee. This would never work.

But still, he had to try.

For Gamzee's sake.

Tavros knew where Feferi's office was and arrived there quickly—the only thing he forgot was who's office was right outside hers.

"Tavros, stop a minute, I want to ask you somefin."

Shit.

Tavros was a terrible liar. He always had been since birth. When confronted he'd blush, avoid eye contact, squirm around, basically screaming out to the world that he'd done something he shouldn't have.

"Have a seat." Eridan gestured at a couple of chairs in front of his desk. He watched as Tavros sunk into one, studying him through his thick-rimmed glasses.

Tavros' eyes alighted on Eridan for the first time and his eyebrows shot up. There was a large, discolored bruise decorating the left side of Eridan's face, right under his eye and traveling the length of his cheekbone. It looked recent too—the swelling was only just starting to go down.

"Mind if I ask what you're doing around here? You usually work down in the west wing, right?" Eridan said, his tone polite and friendly, thought a little strained.

"I needed to speak with Feferi." Tavros replied in the same, light tone of voice.

"About?"

He couldn't lie. Eridan would see through it in seconds. Tavros thought fast, and then sighed and rubbed his eyes in mock annoyance, "Some buffoon must've tried to get into the storage room where I keep my extra set of dry clothes last night. The door knob is completely broken and the door itself won't even close." He looked up at Eridan with a weary grin, like they were sharing some sort of joke, "You'd think people would realize that locked doors are out of bounds. They must've been pretty determined to get in there!"

"Hmm. Interesting. Was anyfin missing?"

"Missing? No, I guess they just got the wrong room." Tavros shrugged it off.

"Why were you going to Fef instead of, say, the janitor? I'm shore he could fix it in seconds."

"He's is taking today off—he said he caught a nasty cold." Tavros replied smoothly. It was the truth after all. Though he highly doubted 'taking care of this finned fucker' was an actual illness.

"Oh? Whale then I'll make shore she's informed." Eridan smiled thinly, "But before you go, mind if I ask you one last question?"

"Not at all."

"You use that storage room often, correct?"

Tavros could see immediately by the glint in Eridan's eyes where this question was going, "Yes, I keep my spare clothes in there."

"Then you are of course familiar with the door in the back of the room?"

There is was. He sure wasn't being subtle anymore. Maybe it had to do with that nasty looking bruise… "Yeah, sure. Why?"

"Well, just for the porpoise of curiosity, have you ever tried to open it?" Eridan's tone was innocent and his expression was carefully arranged, but the hunger in his eyes made Tavros' stomach lurch.

"Well," Tavros grinned embarrassedly, "when I first came here I tried the door—just out of curiosity—but it was locked. So yeah, I tried but no luck." He shrugged, "Probably holds more filing cabinets or something equally fascinating."

"I sea." Eridan said softly, and Tavros knew in that instant that Eridan did see. He saw through it all, with those dark eyes of his and small smile, but the charade was still going. He knew. And he knew Tavros knew that he knew. But they smiled pleasantly at each other like this was nothing more than a simple chat among friends.

"Well," Eridan said finally, "I'll make shore that door is fixed."

"Thank you," Tavros stood, "I appreciate it."

"Oh, and Tavros?"

"Yes?"

Eridan's smile was a warm as a shark's, "Pass on my whale wishes to the janitor. He hasn't taken a sick day since he came—it must be something serious to keep him at home."

"I'm sure he'll appreciate that." Tavros nodded to him once and left with his heart in his mouth.