It was a great thing to have Lee back in the shop. Things simply hadn't ran slowly without her. It was nice having someone to manage the other aspects of the shop as well, even if he did threaten to change things that Tarin felt compelled to keep the same forever.

Lee was also very good for keeping Tarin on his toes as far as presentation was concerned. Left to his own devices the shop had fallen into incredible disrepair for the short amount of time Lee had been absent. When she was there, she wasn't afraid to tell him to get up off his duff and make the place presentable for customers.

That's what he was doing...grinning in Lee's general direction as he bagged up the trash that he'd gathered from around the shop. "You know...one would think this would be a pretty trash free type of profession."

That said, Tarin hefted the trashbag Santa-style and made his way to the back door of the shop that was only unbolted to allow trash access to the alleyway in the back. Outside he went into the alley and towards the dumpster, hefting the bag and grinning at the satisfying thud it made on the metal. Making a show of dusting off his hands, Tarin turned to go back inside. There were still more chores to do.

With her visit at KP finished Syn decided to walk around the city for a bit. Much of it had been repaired from the various Stalker raids and mutant hold-outs. People were out and about to include several obvious mutants. Syn decided to keep exploring and headed down one of the alley's.

There wasn't anything special that she noticed. At least not at first. Mostly there were just several big dumpsters for the stores and apartments. That's when she heard something fall into what sounded like an empty dumpster. Syn looked in the direction of the sound and saw a man. He must've just thrown something away.

The man wasn't very tall. In fact Syn was almost the same height as she approached him. She wondered if he worked in one of the shops in the area. The man didn't take notice of Syn so she announced herself. "Hi there. Do you work around here?"

He was so close to the door...so close to the inside and Lee when a voice made Tarin stop in his tracks. It was a distinctly female voice and Tarin thought about two things as he turned around to greet the woman walking towards him.

The first thing Tarin thought, even more upon seeing the woman, was that nobody who looked like that should be walking around this part of town alone at this time of day. The second thing Tarin realized was that, like Lee, this woman might not be worried about it because she was more than confident in her ability to protect herself.

"I work in this shop." Tarin said, jerking his head towards the door, "Is there something I can help you with?" he said, hoping that Lee would hear and come outside. Tarin couldn't help but think about what had happened the last time he was alone with an attractive woman that wasn't Lee. He backed up a step subconsciously with the thought. "What's a girl like you doing in an alleyway like this?"

The man turned and looked Syn over. That part was obvious. He then stated he worked in one of the shops and gestured towards it with his head. He wasn't losing eye contact and Syn liked that. "What sort of shop is it? It's aa bit hard to tell from the back side of the place."

Syn watched the man take a step backwards. To this Syn stepped forward a step. She was by no means trying to intimidate the guy but she wanted to see his reaction. "I was just wandering around and thought I'd explore some."

"It's a Medium shop." Tarin said absently, watching the woman as she stood in the alleyway and sized him up even as he sized her up. This was a damn difficult situation. It would be utterly rude just to leave the woman standing outside, but then again he was putting himself in a compromising position simply by standing where he was. Why could Lee just wonder where he was and come outside.

She was just walking around? Checking things out."It is kind of hard to see from out here...that's why people usually walk around out in front of the shops instead of the alleyway behind them."

The woman advanced a step even as Tarin backed up and Tarin took another step back, almost into the shadow of the door frame. There was no way that he was going to have this situation misinterpreted if Lee walked up.

Tarin looked at the woman again, one eyebrow raising almost to his hairline, "Do you wander around the alleys of New York City by yourself alot?"

"A medium shop? What's that?" Syn really didn't know what the man was talking about. Hopefully he would be kind enough to enlighten her. She also hoped he didn't do it in a demeaning way or he'd be in trouble. One thing about Syn is she dislikes to be made fun of.

The man took yet another step back from the girl. Was he really that paranoid? "No I don't always walk around the alley's but I wanted to find different ways to get places. I'm just getting to know the city better." She tilted her head off to the left just a bit. "Is there a reason you keep backing away from me?"

"A medium shop." Tarin replied offhandedly, then turned his full attention back to the woman in the alleyway, "I'm sort of a bridge between the world of the living and the world of the dead." Tarin paused again then said for simple emphasis, "In short, I see dead people."

The woman was watching him closely, and Tarin frowned slightly as he looked back into the shop. Then the woman did something that Tarin really didn't expect. She asked him why he kept on backing up from her.

"Well." Tarin said, casting another glance inside and trying to come up with an answer that was truthful but not the real answer. He failed and looked at the woman again, "Well, frankly. My fiance is inside and I'd hate for her to walk out here to find me talking to an attractive woman. So I'll just keep my distance. Besides, these days you can't trust anyone at first glance Miss. You never know what a person can do."

Someone who can see dead people huh? Now that's interesting to know. Syn wasn't quite sure if she wanted the man to see any dead people while she was around. Depending on what dead people he might see he could very well be overwhelmed considering Syn's past. "That's very interesting but who would want to see dead people?"

When the man mentioned his fiance being inside the shop Syn made half an effort to look into the shop. She couldn't see anything or anyone without getting closer. Her attention returned to the guy when he commented about how people aren't always what they seem. "You have no idea how true that can be." Syn paused for a moment. "So are you and your fiance mutants or just yourself?"

Tarin almost laughed out loud when the woman asked who exactly would want to see dead people. "Not me, that's for sure." Tarin said, no small amount of irony lacing his voice. "Believe me, they're not the most friendly bunch for the most part, and they've caused me more problems than I'd really like to talk about right now. Suffice it to say that your question kind of hit the proverbial nail on the head kid."

The woman was so curious...or so nosy. One of the two, and Tarin instinctively moved to block her view when she tried to look around him and into the shop. He was a big strong protector type after all....NOT.

The lady asked the million dollar question and Tarin sighed, shaking his head and running a hand through his hair before casting yet another look towards the inside of the shop...why couldn't coincidence ever work in his favor?

"I never said I was a mutant." Tarin said, a half suspicious look on his face as he carefully responded to the question, "That guy on TV isn't a mutant and he can see spirits. Maybe I'm just a bridge between worlds. As for my girl, you would have to ask her if you want to know. I've learned my lesson the hard way a couple of times that it's best to let her tell her own business if she wants it told."

Lee was sitting at the counter trying to sort through the papers, bills, and whatnot as she tried to bring the ledger up to date. Or, at the very least, get it to make sense to her. And, even though the shop had been closed for the evening, Lee was still sitting there because she had been able to actually talk Tarin into cleaning the shop, something that it seemed he had largely neglected while she hadn't been around.

Finishing with a stack of papers, Lee looked up and tried to see into the back of the shop. Tarin had gone out a while ago to dump the garbage, but she hadn't seen him come back in yet. Frowning, mostly because with where she was positioned behind the counter, she really couldn't see much of anything, Lee called Tarin's name. Not getting a response, Lee stood up to head back there herself, calling Tarin's name again.

He wasn't in the back room, and the door to the alley was still propped open. Frowning even more, Lee walked over toward the rarely used door. Just in time to hear Tarin's voice.

"My fiancée is inside and I'd hate for her to walk out here to find me talking to an attractive woman."

Lee stopped dead, blinking. His fiancée? When in the world had she agreed to marry him, well, at least agreed after coming back to New York? Glancing down, Lee saw that sure enough the right he had bought as her engagement ring was still safely on her right hand rather than her left.

As she stood there and listened to Tarin speaking to someone out in the alley, she tensed when the woman asked if she was a mutant too, or if it was just Tarin. Luckily, like he went on to say about telling her business, he seemed to have learned his lesson about saying he was a mutant.

"I don't see how anything about me would be relevant to a discussion in a back alley," Lee said as she finally walked out into the shadows the tight buildings caused, her eyebrow raised at Tarin. "And who's this?" She went on to ask, turning her eyes toward the woman he was speaking with. At least there was a decent, comfortable amount of space between the two of them.

The man sounded nervous about seeing dead people even though he's done it who knows how many times. It must really creep him out still. "I can imagine there are alot of them who are upset." Syn smirked slightly but quickly let it go hoping the man didn't see it. She knew there were lots of dead people who were probably very upset and many of them were killed by her.

A change of disposition flipped on like a switch after Syn asked about the couple being mutants. He become a bit defensive and immediately made mention o fnever stating he was a mutant. On the other hand he did say Syn could ask his fiance.

Speaking of which a woman stepped out into the alley and jumped right into the conversation. She was short but Syn liked her black hair even if it was dyed. Syn smiled at the woman. "I'm just a passerby. Your fiance stepped into the alley I happened to be walking down so i started a conversation with him. By the way congrats to you on your engagement." Like clockwork Syn went into her mind games and turned the point of focus from herself to the man and woman.

"You have no idea." Tarin said, eyes locking on the woman's for the first time as he hoped he passed on the intensity of the words. Spirits usually weren't just upset, they were usually bitter, distraught, angry, heartbroken, to date, Tarin had never seen a happy spirit. The best he'd been able to settle for was the woman on the Empire state building, and the best Tarin could say about her was that she was bitter and resigned.

Tarin heard Lee's voice, calling him from inside the shop and then she was quiet. Tarin cursed inside his head, then cursed again, almost out loud. Why couldn't she simply just come outside? He and the woman spoke for a few more minutes and then there it was. There was her voice, Tarin wanted to turn around and run to Lee, and strangely part of him wanted to keep running and bolt the door between them and the woman standing in the alleyway.

Tarin was so caught up in his feelings that he almost missed Lee's question, and the tone of her voice. One thing Tarin didn't miss, however, was Lee's quirking eyebrow and it made him think about what she had said as she walked outside.

"She was asking questions that I'm not comfortable answering for you Lee." Tarin said, taking another step away from the other woman and moving closer to Lee.

The woman was talking now and Tarin could almost feel the blood draining from his face. It probably would have been impossible for the stranger to insert the word "fiance" into the conversation any more than she did and Tarin vaguely wondered how Lee would react, considering the fact that they'd never really decided that they were getting married again. More than anything, Tarin had been attempting to establish the way things were as he put space between himself and the lady in the alleyway.

That being thought, Tarin simply stood in the alleyway, feeling a little dumb and gave Lee a helpless kind of look, shrugging his shoulders and trying to ignore the feeling that something bad was about to happen.

Lee nodded almost absently when Tarin told her that he wasn't comfortable answering questions about her. He better not be, she thought to herself, considering what the question had been, even if they hadn't repeated it since she came outside. Lee was far more interested in the fact that Tarin almost seemed to be inching toward her, though.

Then the woman was speaking, explaining it seemed about why the two of them were out there talking. But when she brought up the word 'fiancée', and then congratulated them on the engagement, Lee couldn't stop the surprised look she turned toward Tarin.

"Fiancée?" She asked, her eyebrows raised. Yes, she had been planning on talking to Tarin about that already, let him know that she had heard, but hadn't been planning on doing it till they were back in the shop. Now that this woman had brought it up, though, Lee had to say something, or Tarin would think it was acceptable to continue going around talking about her and introducing her as his fiancée.

"And you just randomly walk down New York City alleys?" Lee asked, her eyes turning back to the woman. "Not exactly the smartest thing to be doing, you know."

Syn smiled seeing that she had added another spark to what was coming across as an obvious uncomfortable situation between the couple. From the other woman's tone the man had over stepped a boundry somewhere. Was he so nervous talking to Syn that he had to call the other woman his fiance? Either way the scene was rather delightful at the moment.

She focused on the woman as she asked Syn the same kind of question the man had already asked. With this situation Syn didn't mind repeating herself. Afterall, it was starting to get interesting. "I like to know how to get to places by using different routes. So sometimes I'll take the back way." Syn half shrugged her shoulders when she was told that it wasn't a smart thing to do. "I'm fully capable of taking care of myself so I'm not worried about anything."

Taking a moment to ponder the situation she continued. "So do you see dead people too? I would imagine it would be stressful if both of you saw dead people all the time."

This was going downhill fast, and Tarin started to wonder if he could do anything right as far as Lee was concerned. When he told someone she was mutant, she got mad...when he told someone they were engaged....she got mad. She hadn't said anything, but Tarin could tell by the way she looked at him that she was mad.

Apparently they weren't engaged. They'd never actually talked about it, and obviously Lee wasn't putting two and two together that he was uncomfortable enough in the situation that he'd felt the need to lie to the other woman. Fine, they weren't engaged. Tarin crossed his arms and leaned against the frame of the door.

The lady was pushing it now and Tarin was seriously tempted to simply wish her a pleasant evening and shut the door in her face. The lady asked if Lee saw dead people too, and Tarin was done playing the polite Texan, "She asked what kind of shop this was. I told her a Medium's shop. She's come to all the other conclusions on her own...well besides the engagement one. You'll have to forgive me for that one though. Force of habit." Tarin paused and kept his arms crossed, "Don't worry though, I won't make the mistake again."