Valentine's Day - 2. Mutual Admirers

Elijah and Tiger manage to finally be alone together on Valentine's Day.

"Every time we ordered something else, or if we needed our empty plates taken away, the robot came back and looked at us and smiled on his little screen! And if he got stuck, one of the staff members would give him a smack on the head, and he'd turn around and go back to the kitchen - what a time to be alive!"

Elijah's grin widened, listening to the speakerphone as he tried to make his annoying, curly hair behave itself. He'd expected to get a trim over the Summer holidays and get some nice bangs to hide some of the stubborn acne that occasionally dotted his forehead. Still, the girl heard "about an inch to get all the split ends" and interpreted it as "do whatever you like." Now, it was dangerously close to a mullet - he'd been tempted to cut it all off, but he didn't know what style he'd like. At least mullets were currently fashionable, and his hair would grow... eventually.

"I love that Dad took you all the way to the border for a cute date, and you paid more attention to the robot," Elijah teased her.

"That's not true! Don't say that!"

"I think the lady doth protest too much."

"You're a pill sometimes! Your father was a perfect gentleman. You could learn from his example of how to treat a lady.

"How do you know I'm not a gentleman?" He grimaced in despair as he struggled to downplay the mullet-y look he was sporting. He may need to tie it up again - forever! ... or until it looked better.

"Is this your way of telling me you're seeing someone?" She sounded so excited.

"It's not," Elijah replied quickly, guiltily, his skin under his cheeks heating up.

"Really? I think now the gentleman doth protest too much," she was teasing him now. How quickly she was able to flip the script on him! "You will let me know, won't you? Just because you're down in the big smoke doesn't mean I want to miss out on your first date!"

Oops, Elijah thought guiltily.

"Well, if I do go on a date, I know to take them somewhere with robot waiters," he deflected, being as vague as possible so he didn't feel he was lying to her.

"Ooh, you won't regret it! I can't go out again to a place without them. Your father has set a dangerous bar for himself, and I don't think I'll be ready to accept anything less!"

The Wednesday call home always lasted around half an hour, give or take ten minutes, depending on how much Mum had to talk about. The farm, the family, the gossip in the nearby town in which the main building was the post office, milk bar and service station all in one. Dad quite often got a few words in, but only a little. The only thing Elijah had in common with his father was the surname they shared, and neither one had an easy time talking with the other. It was jarring because Mum would tell him how thoughtful and sweet Dad was with her, and he wondered why he never saw that side of him.

As he chose a white button-up shirt with blue palm trees tucked into a brown pair of chinos he rolled up to make cuffs for the summer heat, he wondered what Mum and Dad would say if they knew their only child was seeing another boy. A non-Jewish boy, no less, on Valentine's Day, a day rooted in Christian tradition. He didn't want to think about it. Aside from Reggie and Owen, nobody else knew - at least, Elijah didn't think so. They had to be careful and discreet because who knew what the school might do if they found out two of its boarders were in a relationship together? Would they even tell his parents?

When Reggie barged his way into the room they shared, he had the thoughtfulness to be kind. "Looking snazzy, Silverman!"

Elijah's mouth twitched. He wanted to believe it. "I hope. Tiger looks good no matter what, but I can't seem to do that myself."

"Maybe you're just not your own type?" Suggested the bespectacled Vietnamese boy. "Maybe you only like jocks."

Elijah laughed out loud. "Maybe. I don't know. I think my type is anyone who makes an elaborate gesture of love."

"So if I did the Admirer X thing, you would have fallen in love with me?"

Elijah's nose twitched. "You'd never do something like that, so I don't have to make that weird choice."

Reggie appeared hurt, but his friend knew he was pretending. "What? You think I'm not a catch, huh?"

"You're cute and make me laugh, but we're better off being best friends. Sorry to reject you on Valentine's Day," Elijah beamed.

"You and all the girls I sent my elaborate gestures of love to today! I guess I struck out everywhere, huh?" Reggie huffed good-naturedly as he flopped down on his bed in their shared room. "Well, make sure Tiges treats you nice on your date. Otherwise, he'll answer to me!" The thought of tiny, nerdy Reggie giving tall, sport-loving Tiger a piece of his mind gave Elijah a fit of the giggles. "What?" Reggie questioned him, grinning. "I have to make sure his intentions are pure and all that."

When Tiger knocked to announce his arrival, Elijah knew that his boyfriend wasn't necessarily the one with impure intentions. The Aboriginal boy could fall out of bed and look handsome. Still, when he spent time gussying up, it took Elijah's breath away. The orange and black streaked fauxhawk that inspired his namesake was neat and presentable; he'd left the top three buttons undone on his emerald green shirt to leave some of his brown chest visible. His black pants hugged his athletic legs. Tiger had a wolfish grin, and Elijah smiled back, covering his crooked, braced teeth with his hand as he often did.

"Hey, lads!" Tiger greeted them nonchalantly, in case anyone was around. "Kirra's rocking up in five. You ready, Eli?"

"Sure he is!" Reggie teased. "Hair ready, contact lenses ready, suntan ready--"

A look from Elijah stopped Reggie from speaking, but he couldn't do much about that vexing look on his stupid face. Tiger slipped inside and gently shut the wooden dorm door behind him so nobody would see him confidently slip a hand around his boyfriend's lower back, grip his cheek with the other, and kiss him with purpose and fervour on the lips. Elijah's heart was too busy bursting with excited joy to remember what a regular beat was. He might have lost his balance if those big hands were not holding him up. He did, however, squeak with indignation when Tiger raised the stakes from a smooch to a tongue kiss in front of Reggie, who groaned.

"Do you have to?" Reggie pushed a pillow over his face and ears so that there was no way the kiss was actually happening.

Tiger winked at a flustered Elijah. "Yeah, because nobody makes fun of my boyfriend except me. Maybe if you did the hair, contact lenses, suntan, and all that jazz instead of being a pain, you'd have a date tonight, Reg."

Elijah was both thrilled and mortified by Tiger's unabashed forwardness. On the one hand, any fear of not looking good for his date was instantly averted - on the other, it was so risky to be so bold, even in the safety of their room.

"Yeah, point taken, now get out of here already," the now-humbled boy mumbled into his pillow before removing it to eye off his friends.

"Maybe next time, Tiger--" As the boys left, Elijah's words caught in his throat as he struggled to regain his composure. "Maybe next time you can save that for when we don't have an audience." Tiger's unrepentant grin only widened.

Kirra was there to meet them at the office. She didn't look very much like her half-brother, Elijah noted. She was lighter-skinned and almost conservative by comparison, with black curls neatly supported by a headband and two white studs in her ears. She wore a nice dress underneath a lovely cardigan. The boys signed out, indicating they would return by the 8:30 pm curfew. Kirra left her signature and contact details. Mr Kingston, the man who seemingly lived for enforcing rules, stressed that this outing was a privilege, not a right, and if they weren't back in time, there would be consequences.

"Yo, what's with that guy trying his best to be a snog blocker?" Kirra remarked on their way out to the car. "Has anyone ever actually enjoyed his company?"

"Nah, I reckon not. He was the one who kept us all in detention on Christmas Eve because he thought someone took Eli's menorah from the tree," Tiger reminded her.

Once at the car, she pulled a small, pretty case from the pocket of the cardigan and then tore it off, showing a far more ostentatious top half of the dress she wore. From the case, she swapped her two white studs for dangling half-moons, and she removed her headband so her curls framed her face. At that moment, Elijah could absolutely see the resemblance between the siblings! Tiger wasn't an anomaly in his family at all - not like Elijah was in his.

"Do you think that was all necessary?" Elijah asked her, marvelling at the transformation.

"It's easier to break the rules this way. I didn't want that geezer to suss that we're not actually going out for a wholesome family dinner," she explained with a wink.

It was a nice drive in Kirra's shiny silver Honda Fit. Though Elijah had expected Tiger to sit in the front seat, he was pleasantly surprised to find his boyfriend ordering him to the back seat. On the road into the city from the southeast suburbs, Elijah enjoyed the unrestrained affection - having his hand held, his hair played with, sharing loving looks without fear of being seen. Tiger and Kirra did most of the talking, catching up about school, work or home gossip. Kirra cooed when Tiger leaned over to peck Elijah's cheek.

"You kids are too cute," she blew them a friendly kiss in the rear-view mirror. "We're about to head past the markets, so tuck and roll. I'll be back with Steve by eight in the same place to drop you back home, so don't be late and don't get anyone pregnant."

It wasn't as if he'd never been alone with Tiger before. Just on Monday, they'd snuck into the back of the library, Elijah sitting cross-legged on a pillow on the floor while Tiger splayed out on a beanbag beside him. He'd read through his novel as Tiger sketched something with his grey lead and pad, creating gorgeous art based on a mental snapshot with his eidetic memory. Every now and then, Tiger's black hand stroked his arm, plucked at one of his brown curls or even prodded his ticklish ribs when he wasn't getting enough attention. It was lovely.

But it wasn't quite what Elijah wanted in the end. He'd read gorgeous, beautiful stories between men and women, full of passion, excitement, and intensity! But how could he live that life at school? Kirra and Tiger were so open with everything. Nothing was strange about her little brother cuddling and kissing another boy in the car with them. That wasn't Elijah, though. As the two walked hand in hand through the night market together, he did his best to be in the moment as Tiger laughed and chatted and bought him a lovely fried potato curled around a stick. Still, his boyfriend eventually noticed the weight on his shoulders.

"Hey, why the frown?"

"I'm not frowning," Elijah chirped quickly and merrily, overdoing it.

"Naaah nahnahnahnah, I know something's up. Don't you fib to me on the special Valentine's date I worked so hard to arrange," Tiger teased him.

Elijah bit his lip, knowing he couldn't hide his feelings. "It's just... I want more," he confessed, his voice barely above a whisper, probably not even audible in the market's noise around them. "I feel like we can't really be us, you know? I want to hold your hand in public or... kiss you, maybe. Not just sneak off to the library."

Tiger stopped walking, pulling Elijah to a halt with his hand on his shoulder. "Really?" he asked, his face softening. "You want that?"

"Yeah," Elijah breathed, closing the distance between them and leaning into Tiger's warm body. "I want to be with you, Tiger. Not just secretly, but openly."

A slow, satisfied smile spread across Tiger's face. "I admit, I'm thrilled to hear that. I know we're a couple, like -- but uh, I don't know all the rules and stuff. What you want. What you're comfortable with?"

"I'll tell you soon."

Elijah wasn't ready to stop the extended hug, visible in the middle of the market for everyone to see. It was strange - exciting! The night market bustled around them, the smell of food and incense filling the air, and they stood for a long while, holding each other close, their bodies pressed together, Tiger gently swinging Elijah left and right to the music that played. Lights between the stalls cast a warm, golden glow over the crowd, and laughter drifted on the breeze. He didn't want this feeling to end, but soon - way too soon - Kirra would return to take them back to the dormitory.

"So," Tiger murmured, nuzzling his face into Elijah's neck, "where to next, cutie?"

"The gardens are just a stone's throw that way," he pointed to the left.

"Ooh, the thick plottens," Tiger remarked, tugging his boyfriend along.

Their walk through the crowded market had been filled with laughter and chatter, but the moment they left the noise behind them, Elijah felt a calm wash over him. The sun hung low in the sky as it began to set, casting a soft, orange glow over the lush greenery and intricately carved stonework. They wandered down a path lined with tall, gently swaying trees rustling in the breeze. The air was cool and crisp, carrying the scent of flowers and the sound of water trickling down a nearby fountain.

"You know," Elijah looked longingly up to the few clouds above in the dimming sky. "I've always wondered what it would be like to sit on one of these benches, just...you know, watch the stars."

Like they do in the books, he thought privately.

Tiger's black eyes sparkled. "I think that sounds like a lovely idea," he replied. "There won't be any stars before we head back, but let's sit over there and pretend."

Pretend? Hadn't they done enough pretending? Elijah kept his objection to himself as Tiger led them down the path, their steps breaking the near-quiet of the inner city green block until they came to a small clearing with a round fountain at its centre. Sitting on a weathered stone bench, they nestled close together, their shoulders touching, their hands intertwined. The water danced and sparkled when it rose above the stretched shadows of the nearby brush, and at the right angle, Elijah could see a little rainbow.

"So yeah, penny for your thoughts?"

The lanky brunette exhaled. Words were his speciality, but he couldn't find the right ones now. "I just-- you know. Want to see the stars with you. Not just here but-- in everything. But because of the way things are, we can't. Not just-- the way things are, but..." Elijah paused, and Tiger waited patiently for him to finish expressing himself. "The way they are because of me. I don't know how you're so patient with me. Or sometimes, I don't even know why you like me. I'm not... good-looking... like you are. I don't play sports or paint amazing landscapes. I didn't even get you a Valentine's Day gift. So we're here, and it's so nice, and I love you, and it sucks because I don't think I'm good enough."

"You love me?" Tiger turned his head to grin.

"I--" Elijah had perhaps let too much slip, and he covered his mouth as he grinned. "You would only hear that part."

"What part - that you love me?" Tiger repeated obnoxiously. "Ha-ha! You love me."

"That doesn't make this any easier!" Elijah objected.

"Hey Eli, I love you too." There was no space between them, but Tiger somehow got closer.

"Why, though?"

"Okay, I'll offer a rebuttal." Tiger's flippant attitude seemed a little inappropriate when Elijah was pouring his heart out, but the bookworm always found it charming. "How come you get to decide what I feel? How come I'm not allowed to think you're cute as a button? How come we have to like the same things? Eli, do you even remember how bad my poems were?"

Elijah had to laugh. The quality of the cryptic poems Tiger wrote him was never the point - it was what they represented.

"I know you don't love art or footy or wrestling. So what? You always make me feel like I'm interesting when I bore you to death talking about that stuff. Same as I don't always follow your stories' themes and prose and expositions, yeah yeah, but I love how much you love it. And yeah, okay, I do wish we could be a normal couple. I don't like sneaking past old Mrs Pope into the library to hang out, either. But that's just how life is right now. And hey, the stars in the city aren't a great view anyway. Come down Lake's Entrance way on the school holidays, and I'll show you what the stars really look like. We'll tell people when you're ready - whatever, that's fine. Just don't spend our date worrying about me. I'm happy."

"You love me too," Elijah was no better than his boyfriend. That was the most important thing.

"Yeah, was there ever any doubt?" Tiger screwed up his nose. "I didn't become Admirer X on a whim, y'know. I've been in love with you the whole time."

"Sorry."

"No sorry needed. But I still forgive you."

"You're sure you're okay with everything?"

"Yeah."

"Promise?"

"Promise." After a moment, Tiger spoke again. "Plus, you did give me a nice Valentine's gift." When Elijah's brow furrowed, Tiger beamed. "You, goody two-shoes, broke the rules to come out here with me!"

~ 

Elijah's heart was still racing from the time he'd spent with Tiger once he was back at the dormitory. He entered his shared room with Reggie, who looked up from the comic book he was sketching... and he laughed, eyes bugging behind his glasses.

"Silverman! What did he do to you?"

"Huh?" Elijah frowned, now suddenly paranoid.

"I guess the date went well, huh?" The Vietnamese boy tapped himself on the part of his neck that met his clavicle.

Elijah suddenly panicked, remembering the bout of affection between their lengthy chat and hopping back in Kirra's car. An uncoordinated scamper to the mirror on the wall of his wardrobe later, and he gasped in alarm. How could Tiger be so short-sighted? More so, how could he let his stupid boyfriend do this to him?? As bright red as Elijah's face and neck flushed, the lovebite peeking from his collar was even redder.

"Looks like I have to defend your honour after all," Reggie giggled wickedly.

Despite Elijah's embarrassment... he grinned proudly, not hiding his braces with his hand as he usually did, tracing the mark on his neck with a neatly trimmed fingernail.