Worry. Uncertainty. Self-doubt. Frustration. Confusion. Fear. So many emotions all balled into one, and all Kealey’s very own. It made her stomach turn a bit, and her already throbbing head pound just a little bit harder. Those emotions didn’t seem to go away very often these days, and the blond sighed and tried to concentrate on the school project sitting in front of her on the sewing machine. She wasn’t making progress, and it was her first project assignment with a new professor. It was important, but she couldn’t seem to concentrate.

Shin was home, and all Kealey wanted to do was go out to the living room where he was studying a book or manual of some sort, snuggle up, and read. Or sleep. Or something. It was frustrating though. Every time she went to touch him she wondered if it was going to happen again, that strange transference of emotions that had overwhelmed him to the point of unconsciousness. Or even worse, she wondered if he’d flinch away. He hadn’t so far, and Kealey didn’t think his emotions suggested any kind of apprehension…but what if they did?

The blond sighed as she ran her seam crooked for what had to be the sixth or seventh time and pulled the garment from the sewing machine to start ripping out the stitches. This was getting ridiculous. She was unhappy, and somewhere she knew it was all of her own making. Shin was excellent, perfect in every way Kealey could imagine, and she was still driving herself a little nuts over what had happened in that apartment down the hall. The paranoia had to stop.

Looking down at the fabric that she’d dropped into her lap with her hands, the blond frowned and set the whole mess aside. Her head was bugging her too much to work anyway. Shin would probably call her silly if she brought anything about this up, but if she didn’t get it all off her chest, she was going to drive herself crazy. Crazier than she already was.

Course of action decided, Keaely stood up and padded in her socked feet out to the living room where Shin was studying and dropped down lightly next to him on the sofa.

”How’s the studying?” she asked quietly.

Police academy was hard. There was stuff to learn. He'd expected stuff. But he hadn't expected stuff on top of stuff. Okay. Maybe he had. Still. It was enough to make one pout. All this studying, in addition to college studies and training and X-men stuff and his job at Full Circle. All this stuff.

Kealey plopped down on the couch next to him. Shin found a book mark and marked his place, then tossed the book lightly onto the coffee table and turned to answer her question.

Shin sighed and rested an arm on the back of the couch. "All work and no play makes Shin a dull boy."

Kealey watched as Shin marked the book and tossed it aside. He seemed to be having more luck with studying than she’d had with the project for school. As always though, he was doing too much and when he leaned back and spoke, Kealey smiled slightly and shook her head.

”You don’t take enough time to play.” she chided gently. He’d given up his post as a greeter at the mansion, but that only made his plate microscopically less full than it had been before.

That was a discussion for another time though, and Kealey sat for a moment, awkwardly trying to gather her thoughts.

She ended up sighing, ”My head hurts.” she said, frowning at her knees as she sat on the couch. She let her head drop back against the couch and turned it so she was looking at Shin while he leaned.

“I’m not getting much work done.” she finished lamely, and sighed. She’d figure out the right words, just not yet.

Shin's smirk from her first comment vanished at her second. He didn't like it when Kealey didn't like things. He liked her happy. Because that made him happy. Which made her happy. It was a good situation to be in, that. Because everyone was happy. Her being not happy, and frowning, and drooping her head down and feeling lame... was not her being happy.

Shin frowned. Kealey would soon be frowning more. Because he was not happy about this. And he was not happy about that fact.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" He asked. "I'm here, if you need to talk."

Shin reached out to rest a hand on Kealey's shoulder. He hoped it would be a comforting gesture.

Shin wanted to know if he could do anything to help, and Kealey bit her lower lip, shaking her head. It wasn’t anything he was doing wrong…or that anyone was doing wrong. It was her, and what she was feeling, and how everything was happening. Darn it, she’d even made Shin feel bad. That was the last thing she wanted He reached out and put his hand on Kealey’s shoulder, and she stared at it there for a moment.

”I think it’s still left over from that day in Ghost and Sebastian’s apartment.” Kealey said softly. ”I still feel so strange sometimes, and my head hurts.”

His hand was still there, and Kealey sighed, there hadn’t been any hesitation in the gesture whatsoever. Still, she had to ask. ”How can it not bother you to do that after what happened?” she asked.

It turned out, she wasn't doing so well. Not since she'd poured emotions into him. And... what she asked nearly stopped him cold. Not because it was shocking, no. Because the answer was obvious.

Shin looked Kealey squarely in the eye and answered. "Because I love you."

Why would anything she could possibly do bother him?

"Kealey. We need to figure out how you did what you did, and make you feel better." Shin wagged his free hand's index finger, then pressed it to her lips to stall any protests. "Because I don't like you feeling scared or bad at all."

Shin said he loved her and Kealey nodded her head. She knew that…and she’d never doubted it for a second. He knew she loved him too. His surprise at her question made her feel a little better about the whole situation, because nobody who was hiding their worry would have been that surprised by her question.

He said they needed to find out what had happened that day and Kealey would have interrupted him if not for the finger he put against her lips. Instead she listened, face still slightly miserable at what he was saying. She didn’t like to be unhappy either. There was enough of that in her world without adding to it herself.

Shin seemed to be finished speaking, and Kealey reached out and moved his hand from her lips, holding on to it as she spoke. ”I love you too.” she said.

”And the problem is that I don’t know how it happened that day. I’ve never felt anything like that before” she sighed and looked down, ” I don’t know if it will happen again either...or how to stop it if it starts.”

”I never want to do that to you again. I was so scared.” she admitted.

She didn't know. But he did. And she didn't want to do it again. But she would have to. She was scared. These sorts of things just might be scary.

Shin had a 'tough on whine' policy against worrying.

Tight-lipped, he said: "I'm sorry. But you are going to have to deal with it eventually. Because that is how powers work. You learn how they work, how to use them, and if they change, you deal with it. I'm not sure you remember... I don't think I told you. But after a big fight, Luke lost his extra sight. He'd used his powers too much. He couldn't use his powers to see. I told him what I'm telling you right now. 'It'll get better.' ... Actually. I don't quite remember what I told him." Shin glanced away, thoughtfully. He scratched his head. "Might have been something silly about power growths and anime logic. You know anime logic, Kealey." He looked at her, smiling wryly. "Guy gets in jam. Loses. Has to lose, so that he can understand why he lost and get stronger for it. And then he gets this massive new power he has to master. And he owns."

Stupid. A really stupid thing to say. But it was how he said things, and how he thought. "Okay?"

Shin’s response was…different than what Kealey had expected. Honestly, she’d figured that he would join in her pity party, hold her hand, and maybe give her a hug. He would tell her that everything was going to be fine, and that he was going to be with her every step of the horrible way through this path of strange power reactions.

The blond had a feeling that was the case. That Shin would be there for her no matter what, he’d said as much, and proved it numerous times. His answer didn’t speak contrary to that belief either…but it was different than what she’d expected. He’d apologized…then taken a pretty hard line.

Power growths happened. People went blind. People had to learn to deal. People simply couldn’t sit around feeling sorry for themselves because…real life was a lot like anime sometimes.

You had to lose to win. And when you could win, you owned.

Kealey’s eyes were wide by the time Shin stopped talking, and she was staring at him with her mouth slightly open. It was ridiculous, what he’d just said. Ridiculous, and silly, and…amazingly brilliant.

Suddenly, the blond was laughing, the tension that had been building inside of her for the last few weeks melting away with the sound. The blond launched herself at her boyfriend, hugging him tight around the neck.

”Oh Shin. You’re so right.” she said, grin firmly in place once she’d stopped laughing. ”You’re a genius, and I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

"There," Shin grinned, nuzzling her nose with the tip of his own in an Eskimo kiss. He beamed at her. "That's much better. I like this emotion much better. And don't stop singing my praises, please."

On a more serious note, he added. "We'll get through this, you and I. I'll do everything I can to help."

Shin would not run. He was not scared. After all, he loved his Kealey. She was kind of his muse.

Shin grinned, and Kealey felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest. She felt so silly now, after all the drama she’d put herself through over this. Yes. What had happened had been serious. It wasn’t exactly something that they wanted to repeat on a regular basis. It was what it was though, and it was something that they were going to have to deal with whether they wanted to or not.

Shin said that they would get through all this nonsense with powers. That he would be there for her and help in any way that he could. Kealey nodded her head, arms still tight around him.

”I never doubted you. Not for one second.” she said, serious but not dark. “It was me that I was worried about. But that was silly, and I get it now.”

She leaned back a little, and looked at Shin, then she kissed him full on the lips.

“So, what now? she asked. Shin had known all the other answers, he’d definitely know this one.

Shin returned the kiss. He was so glad she was feeling better. It might have been like a record stuck on repeat, but it was true. If he'd been worried about anything moments ago as far as Kealey was concerned, it was that. Now everything was coming up roses. Roses and lips~ <3

>>“So, what now?" She asked him. A very valid question.

Shin considered for a moment, then noted seriously. "We'll have to see if we can replicate what happened. And see if it has had any other effects on you. I don't like the sound of those headaches. I am familiar with that sort of growth."

Replication. The thought scared Kealey, but she nodded her head anyway. Shin was right. In order to figure out how to work with what was happening to her, Kealey needed to figure out how to control it. There was no way to control it, if she couldn’t make it happen again.

But, the question was how? They would figure that out.

Now, the headaches.

Kealey nodded her head solemnly, she remembered Shin telling her how difficult it had been when his powers had changed. It was a little vague, the memory, but he said he was an expert and Kealey believed him with all her heart.

“They’ve been pretty constant. Not severe most of the time…but a dull ache.”

She waved it off, it wasn’t important.

“ How do we recreate it? I think that was a pretty rare situation…”

"Well, contact." Shin offered. "When it happened, I recall we were close." Kissing, in fact. "Perhaps, skin to skin is the way to go?"

Good lord, why did this sound like the start to a dirty movie?

"What I am trying to say is that you probably have to be touching someone to push emotions into them. And maybe you could control what emotions you pushed?" Couldn't she already do something like that before?

Kealey nodded her head. They had been close. Shin had grabbed her and kissed her, and then all of the craziness had happened. The emotions had felt like tangible things, and they had all ran together. She’d simply pushed everything she was feeling into Shin, just to relieve the pressure in her head. He suggested skin-to-skin contact to replicate the original situation. Kealey nodded her head, eager to try, and then realized how odd the whole thing sounded and giggled while Shin explained further. Sure, skin-to-skin contact could be as simple as holding hands, but something about the way he’d looked after he said it was funny.

Kealey had thought about the touching, and that’s why she’d been worried. It was likely that this new thing worked that way. The control…she hadn’t thought about. The relief when she’d shoved everything into Shin’s head had been too profound that day in Ghost’s apartment, and she hadn’t paid attention. Would it be possible to simply push some emotions and leave others in the future? Could she push something then control it? The possibilities were scary and almost endless.

She have a slight nod. ”It took a little bit for things to come back…I was almost numb after I pushed it all away, but I don’t know if that would normally happen…” she explained.

”We’ll have to investigate.” Kealey said, determined. “And experiment.”