Lee caught him staring and Tarin just shook his head. It wasn’t something he could explain with mouthed words.

Kevin ventured a guess towards what Lee was getting at and Tarin watched and listened as Lee gently corrected him. He’d gotten the what, but not the why.

The why was brilliant. Lee had realized that she might be outmatched in the speed category and been smart enough to accept the potential limitation and turn it to her advantage.

The other woman had pressed forward fast and harder and Lee had used that momentum to throw the other woman and end the fight.

”Wow.” Kevin breathed.

”Wow…” Tarin echoed.

”Wow.”

”Wow…”

Lee glanced back and forth between Tarin and Kevin, the sheer admiration both on their faces and in their voices in response to why she had done what she had done at the end of the match.

She blushed. “What?” she questioned, eyes still moving between the two. “It’s not really that surprising a decision, is it?” She didn’t think it was. A lot of fighters, a lot of styles of fighting used the opponent’s momentum against them, didn’t they? Not that she’d ever officially trained in any actual style of fighting, but it was common enough, wasn’t it?

”But it was so smart, mum.”

If he hadn’t been so damn impressed with everything Lee was saying, Tarin probably would have been feeling awful smug again. Things were getting to a point where Lee wouldn’t be able to deny the sheer awesomeness she had put on display.

Lee spoke and Tarin rolled his eyes, just a little bit.

Kevin spoke, and Tarin nodded, ”Kevin is absolutely right.” he said ”Sometimes the smartest thing a person can be is honest with themselves. You realized that you were at a potential disadvantage and had the ability to recognize that fact and even turn it to your advantage. You already said she had more formal training that you did…so that must meant that it was just sheer, undeniable smarts.”

There really wasn’t much else to say, so Tarin looked back to the game at that point, hoping he hadn’t said too much.

They were ganging up on her now. To compliment how well she had done during the sparring match…

Ok, maybe it was smart, but like Lee had agreed with Michael before they had started, what was the point of training if you weren’t going to train the same way that you fought? The same way that would keep you alive when you actually had to fight.

”Alright guys, I get it,” she said, shaking her head slightly. “And Kevin, since I know that you’re going to keep watching the video anyway, I want you to really think about what we did. Why we may have decided to do what we did and if you think either of us made mistakes, what we could have done instead.”

”Ugh mum!” Kevin groaned. “You’re giving me homework for this?”

”You’re the one who wanted me to start training you, mister,” Lee pointed out. “And you wanted to start right away, so yes, I am.”

”Fine…” Kevin sighed in the way that only teenagers seem to be able to. Then he stood up and started making his way back to his room. “My friends won’t believe that you’re actually going to teach me to fight like that.”

”Your friends?” Lee questioned, turning to look at her son.

Kevin stopped, turning to look at Lee like what he had said was obvious. “Yeah, they’ve all seen it. Zack is the one that sent it to me.”

Lee didn’t say anything, just let her head fall back against the couch as Kevin left the room.

There was, it appeared, strength in numbers Tarin decided as Lee finally acknowledged that what she had done was at least smart.

It wasn’t extraordinary, or incredible, or any of the other things that obviously came to mind when one watched that video, but it was something.

Kevin and Lee went back and forth for another few moments and Tarin concerned himself with the game. Then Kevin was up and and walking towards his room as he pointed out that it was his friend, Zack apparently, that had sent them the video of his fight.

All of Kevin’s friends had seen the video, after all.

The door shut down the hall and finally Tarin turned to look at Lee across the span of the couch as Lee dropped her head back and he couldn’t help but wince again at the bruise that seemed to be darkening by the minute now.

”You really should have some of that ice on your face.” he said, ”Otherwise you’re not going to be able to talk tomorrow.”

Only after Kevin's die had closed did Lee hear Tarin speak again. And say that she should have ice on her face too.

Lee took a deep breath before grabbing the bag of vegetables she had on the leg and held it to her jaw. A part of her her had wanted to fight the idea, but Lee knew Tarin was just trying to help. Plus, Lee realized once she had the bag in place, it really did feel like a good thing.

”So what was that look for earlier?” Lee asked, referring to when she'd mouthed the question ‘what?’ to him while Kevin had been thinking.

Tarin nodded, satisfied for the moment as Lee
moved one of the bags from her leg to her face.

”So what was that look for earlier?”

”That look was because I was impressed Lee, and I wanted to hear what you said next. I don’t know a thing about fighting, but you were moving so fast and your head was able to keep up with your body.”

Most of the time she’d kept up. A few of the hits she’d taken had been brutal, and Tarin remembered how stiffly she’d leaned forward earlier.

”What about your ribs?” Tarin asked, frowning slightly as he tried to remember the video.

”You can take deep breaths?” Rib injuries had always been tricky. You couldn’t always tell how bad they were until it was too late.

”Also…” he said voice soft again, ”That was a bit more than sparring.”

The look had been because he was impressed? Lee blushed slightly again even as Tarin was asking about her ribs, if she could take deep breaths.

Lee really wasn’t used to this kind of concern, not the specific questions like this that Tarin asked to see just how badly she was or wasn’t hurt. But she had promised weeks ago to let him help her like she’d been helping him.

She nodded as she took a few deep, obvious breaths. “Ribs are fine,” she replied. “I think I just tweaked a muscle when I did that throw.”

”Also…That was a bit more than sparring.”

At this, Lee did look a little sheepish. “Yeah…before we started, she said trains like she’d fight, which I agreed to, though I didn't know she was a mutant at the time.”

A tweaked muscle. The look Tarin gave Lee was just a little bit deadpan. She’d be lucky if she hadn’t tweaked all of them.

”Your head?” he added. ”With a recent concussion you should really be careful about head injuries. No double vision? Nausea?”

He paused for a minute to think, knowing that Lee probably knew everything he was telling her, but he just couldn’t help himself. ”You’re going to hurt tomorrow.” he said, but then he smiled, it was impossible not to.

”But that really was…cool.”

Lee said she hadn’t known the other woman was a mutant until they started to “spar” and Tarin shook his head again, ”I don’t think you’re going to need to worry about finding people to fight you after this.”

He was worrying more about her, about how she was doing after the fight. Lee gave him a small smile and reached her hand out to grab his. Despite the ground rules she had set. She could tell through her siphoning that Kevin was safely in his room. ” My head is fine, Tarin,” she said softly, giving his hand a squeeze before giving him a playful smile. “You can always check yourself later.

Yes, she was likely going to hurt tomorrow, Lee thought. But then Tarin was saying again that what she’d done had been really cool, and she blushed again. “I don’t know, it’s not like there’s many mutants in the gym, they still may not after that showing…”

”I just might.” Tarin said squeezing Lee’s hand back before pulling his arm out of the no-man's-land in the center of the couch. Tarin was still looking at Lee through slightly narrowed eyes, trying to figure out if there was anything he’d missed. It had been a long time since Tarin had had to work through something like this for himself or someone else and he didn’t want to leave anything out. If Lee insisted on getting herself hurt like this, she at least needed someone around to make sure she didn’t do any permanent damage.

Lee was insisting she was okay though, so there wasn’t much else he could do. At least not right now.

As for the gym, ”I think every macho guy with a chip on their shoulder is going to show up at that gym over the next few weeks and try to pick a fight.” Tarin said, giving Lee a bit of a look, ”Make sure you’re careful who you let in the ring with you.”

He’d had an idea about how he could help Lee with her sparring problem, but she’d solved it before Tarin had a chance to flesh it out…literally and figuratively.

Pulling his eyes from where they were still trying to take inventory of all Lee’s injuries, Tarin fixed them on the baseball game and couldn’t help but grin, ”Despite the fact that neither of these teams is the Mets, I do appreciate the gesture.”

Lee smiled when Tarin squeezed her hand and said that he might just check her out later.

But her face fell slightly as Tarin continued. She hadn’t even gotten to that thought yet, but it was true, wasn’t it? “Ugh, that’s not the kind of sparring I’ve been trying to get,” she told him then took a deep breath. “Guess it’s a good thing I won’t be doing any sparring for probably a month, then, isn’t it?”

”Despite the fact that neither of these teams is the Mets, I do appreciate the gesture.”

”What?” Lee exclaimed, her voice overly dramatic. “You mean, I’ve been suffering through baseball, and it’s not even the right game?”

Lee said she wouldn’t be sparring for a month probably and Tarin’s posture loosened a bit. He hadn’t even realized he’d been tense, he realized as he nodded in acknowledgement.

”Hopefully by then any hype will have died down.” Tarin said, then couldn’t help but laugh a little, ”Until Kevin and all of his friends start showing up every time you try to work out, expecting lessons.”

As for the baseball game, ”The Mets and the Giants are both orange and blue, so it’s not the most outlandish mistake to make.” Tarin said, tapping his ball cap, ”But the Mets home jerseys have stripes. They usually also abbreviate them as NYM on the score.”

Spying the remote on the coffee table, he leaned forward and snagged it, ”Mind if I change it?” he said.

Lee laughed with Tarin when he brought up Kevin’s friends wanting lessons too. “Well, the good thing with that is Kevin knows that there’s no training in the house, and his friends’ parents would have to bring them to the gym, so I’m doubting that’d happen. Thankfully.”

But at least Tarin understood how she had gotten the wrong game on the tv, even if his hat did bear the logo. “Honestly, how am I supposed to keep track with how many teams there are?” Lee teased. “But go ahead. If I have to suffer, you should be enjoying the game at least.”

Lee didn’t seem to be worried about Kevin’s friends showing up to learn how to fight. Tarin thought that Lee was maybe underestimating the tenacity of teenagers who had given themselves a mission.

Time would tell.

Lee seemed willing to watch the Mets game, but she did not seem excited.

As for keeping track of the teams…there really were a lot.

”All you really need to keep track of is your division. That’s only five teams. The rest doesn’t matter until the offseason and a vast majority of each division doesn’t make it. You just watch the games and enjoy. I won’t get into the two leagues yet.” The fact that there were two leagues with different rules and positions was definitely too much for now.

Looking over at Lee again, trapped on the couch with all her ice packs and bruises, Tarin sighed just a bit.

”I didn’t say it had to be baseball.” he said, ”You’ve been through enough.”