The others inside… did not seem concerned at all. They either went back to work or began getting ready to clean up the aftermath of the fight. Jemm looked between the other retreating elves and Imani. "Wait is he okay?"
Imani let out a soft sigh and began towards the door. "He's fine. Just a little… Dramatic."
The two went outside and up to Taru who was only moments away from being a pathetic lil ball on the ground, he's not yet, he's not even trying to be brave though. He was sitting on his hands and knees shaking and gripping at the ground. He's doing his best.

"Aru, you killed it. you can relax now." Imani crossed her arms, though she was speaking softly still, like you'd speak to a traumatized dog. Taru slowly looked up at her with the most pathetic face any elf could make, he looked like he was about to cry. "I know…"
"Then why are you on the ground shaking?" She sighed.
"… I hate fighting those…" He whispered and looked back at the ground.
Imani took a deep breath. "I know, Aru. Come on, you can go back inside now. They need to clean up anyways." She offered her hand out.
Taru didn't budge.
She stared at him for a moment longer before speaking again. "I have plum jelly in my office…"
He grabbed her hand immediately and got up. Jemm flinched from how fast Taru got up.
[he's kinda like a dog…]

Imani's office was just slightly bigger than Taru's. No surprise there, she is the second high elf. Though more than that she deals more with the diplomatic side of affairs. While the High Elves are there to keep the grove safe, they all still have some sort of government-ish job to fulfill, and being 'foreign' herself, she deals with keeping their relations with the other elves strong. Every so often they go to the other provinces to partake in their holidays or just for chatting, she doesn't like going to the northeastern one but she'll gladly go to the northwestern one…
She set the two cups of jelly down and sat across from them, having a cup of tea instead.
Taru sat there very quickly eating his jelly, bro was ecstatic now and Jemm was… just confused. "Aru… are you going to tell him who you are now?" Imani picked her cup up.
Taru froze, ah right, he did just watch him obliterate a fractal… no hiding that now. He slowly took his bite before turning his face away slightly. "I… Apologize for not elaborating on this job… or about who I was. I thought you'd decline or leave once you found out." He spoke slowly. "We can start again now then… I'm Taru… Kiyomizu… I'm the third high elf… and I'd like it if you could be my assistant… both in categorizing paperwork… and taking out fractals. The districts we cover would be the one here around this building and the Forest closest to the exile…"
Jemm blinked, he then looked down at the cup in front of him. Okay well he's being truthful now at least. He's so not a fighter though… Paperwork he could handle but taking out a beast as large as that? Absolutely not…
"I… appreciate it… and I'm glad you think I have what it takes but I'm not exactly a fighter… especially not like you. I mean you were amazing… I mean I don't think I can even affect a fractal with my music…" He shook his head.
"It's… not just fractals." Taru put his arms on the table. "Basically… almost any manor of crime or monsters that the normal patrolers can't handle we would step in for…"
"Though I believe most of your job will be actually getting Aru out of his office to begin with." Imani sipped her tea. Taru made an unamused face. "aaa…" He then looked over at Jemm. "I mean… you won't have to worry too much about fighting and if you ever need to then you'll only have to do a bit to support me… I promise I can handle whatever it is." He nodded.
Jemm looked off to the side a bit. He did take that thing down like it was nothing despite… how he was before and after… and he seems really… really desperate… saying no would be kinda mean… even if he did avoid telling him what it was to start with… Jemm sighed. "Alright dude, I got it… I'll be your assistant…"

The rest of the day passed without anymore incident, they got a lot more of the papers put away as well so they began on the way back home. Once they got in Taru immediately vanished to his room.
[Okay… so he's very private… figures I mean we did just meet each other…] Jemm just kinda… stood there awkwardly. He had no clue what to do. Taru came back out, he had changed looks, like how he was when they first met just… calling him that would be mean. "Are you going somewhere else?" He tilted his head.
Taru was going to speak but stopped. Shit. He completely forgot about this whole living with someone else thing now. Walking out randomly dressed extremely fancy looks weird!
"Ah… Uh… So uh…" he turned. "When I was wasted what did I tell you…" He pressed his fingers together. Jemm crossed his arms and hummed. "Something like… you hate your job… you hate your boyfriend… you have no friends…"
"Okay so back up one, that boyfriend I mentioned… how do I explain this without it sounding weird." He scratched the back of his head. "So… it's kinda an arranged thing… so I have to go out with him at least once a week to keep up the agreement our families have…"
that sounds weird.
"Do you like him?" Jemm tilted his head.
What.
"Huh?" Taru blinked. "N… No… he's an asshole who constantly says the gods wasted looks on me why would I like him? he thinks he's all that cause his family poured all their money into him and the only reason we're together is cause they want us to make essence for a powerful elf." He waved his hand.
Jemm opened his eyes just slightly, staring at him with a concerned expression. It wasn't an unusual notion unfortunately. Because of the way essence is made it's hard to really arrange two people together… but if you push them together enough eventually they might like each other. Two elves with strong magical capabilities would make another with even stronger magic… it's always about how strong ones magic can be. A high elf would obviously be an amazing choice when they can use as much magic as Taru can… no mater how disgraced they seem.
"Is… that what you want?" Jemm quietly spoke.
Taru turned towards him and he had closed his eyes. "… Well… I want to be able to connect with someone… I doubt I'm actually able to though. I don't really care about strength or anything though if that's what you're worried about. If you train long enough you can do whatever you want." He turned back towards the door. "I'll be back later… you can leave the door unlocked- Oh right… your room is over there." He pointed to a door. "Make yourself comfortable okay?" he waved and walked out.
"Yeah…"

Taru sat at the table tapping his foot, what a nice place. He didn't even know this place was here… though looking at the prices of stuff… he prefers his drinks cheaper. "You actually showed up… wow." He looked up as another elf approached him. Tall, long hair that was tied back, dark blue horns that went out from the sides of his head and bent up. Pluto Myrica, son of some innovative magical tech guys. Really they're just trying to copy the stuff made in Overseer's Peak and failing. Their failures are just selling cause no one knows what they're supposed to be. Taru rolled his eyes and looked back at the wall.
"You could at least say hello. Honestly you're still so mannerless." Pluto sat down across from him, putting one leg over the other and crossing his arms. "And could you stand for once to not dress… like that. It's bad enough you have that many piercings and then on top of that you dress like a commoner with even worse taste."
Taru's eye twitched.
He ordered when the waiter came by, no, he did not ask Taru what he wanted. So they both simply had the same thing. Once the meal was done he simply got up and left without another word, leaving a wad of bark and silver for payment. A usual end of how their 'dates' went. Taru slammed his head on the table, letting out a long groan before standing up. He drank both drinks though before he left, he wasn't letting those go to waste.

He stepped outside and stared up at the sky, the dual moons were both full and in view, maybe that was a sign of good luck. Though good luck was never the case for him… Taru turned as someone approached him, he had noticed him inside eating alone.
"Hey pretty thing, looks like you're having a sad night, I bet I could make it better…" He leaned in. Taru squinted and his eyes drifted away. People always mistook him for… many things when he was dressed differently from his work appearance… Not that he cares. He turned back, putting on a forced smile. "You're right sir… I'm sure you could~" He reached out and grabbed his collar. "Why don't you lead the way then?"
I hate this
I hate acting like this
But if it gets me closer to proving what i want
Then I don't care…
It's not like he even knows who I am, I'll be gone before he wakes up anyways, I always am.

Taru sat up, staring down at the other for a moment before he got up and pulled his clothes on, he then quietly left. Wow, this guy left money in his pocket. Should he be flattered or offended?
He slowly pushed the door open and turned to slowly close it. Jemm was most likely asleep. If he wasn't he was not going to explain why he was coming in this late looking so disheveled… He slipped his shoes off and quietly walked down the hall, taking his earrings out and undoing his hair as he walked. He dropped his rings and hair tie on the night stand and pulled his horn rings off as well. He didn't bother changing clothes again, he simply laid back and rolled into his blanket.

Such intimate contact isn't needed for elves. He knows that. They can go their whole lives without ever touching one another and be completely fine. Honestly, he would much rather that instead of doing this every time someone so offers him.
Though who would want a meaningful connection with him… Most people don't want to even talk to him normally when they find out who he actually is. If one of these stupid one night stands can actually give him a connection that he wants then he doesn't care.
Once I make it… and I have that connection… can I just leave like she did… would they truly care about me staying around? I mean I don't need to make anyone else, it would be mean to bring another to life when I can barely keep myself alive… yet I doubt I'd leave such a thing with another… Trusting a piece of myself with someone else like that… would be scary…