Lee had an excellent point about the weekend having been long and it feeling like a good idea to just hang around the apartment and not do much.

Lee reached up to straighten his cap and Tarin grinned.

”Sounds like a plan to me.” he said, leaning forward to snag the remote and hand it to Lee.

And that’s pretty much how the day went. No more surprise, violent visitors, no more depressing school projects or perilous documentaries, no more talks about the dark spots in the past that had been so present over the last few days.

Just a nice, relaxing day. Together. Kevin even emerged from his cave every once and a while.

Now they were finishing up a movie that they had both seen before that had a nice, predictable, happy ending.

As things wrapped up, Tarin yawned and stretched a little, checking his watch. It was wild how fast the day could pass when you were doing nothing.

”I guess I’m tired”

The rest of the day was simple. Nice. Sitting on the couch watching TV with Tarin. Kevin came out off and on, but for the most part the rest of the day was just them spending some quiet time together.

As the most recent movie came to an end, Lee heard Tarin yawn and she glanced over. ”Has it really gotten that late?” she asked. Lee wasn’t tired yet, but her energy was low enough that she thought she’d likely be able to sleep that night without going for a run first.

”Happened fast…” Tarin said, glancing towards the darkened windows. It had been nice, just spending time together and watching movies.

”I think I’m going to crash…” he said, ”I didn’t run today so I want to make sure I go tomorrow…”

Studying Lee for a moment, and despite the multiple conversations they’d had on the topic he still said, ”You going to be alright?”

It sure had happened fast, hadn’t it? But Tarin was saying he was thinking he’d head to bed since he wanted to make sure he went running in the morning.

”Sounds like a plan,” Lee said with a smile. ”I should be around to go with you in the morning if you’d like.”

But then Tarin just sat there looking at her for a couple moments before speaking. ”Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, then leaned toward him and gave him a kiss. ”Have a good night.”

Oh good, Lee would be around to go on the run with him. Lee often ran with him in the mornings and it was one little routine that they’d established that he really liked. It hadn’t been something he’d ever really thought about before, but running with a partner somehow made it easier…especially when that partner was so easily able to keep pace.

”It’s a date.” Tarin said, with a smile.

Lee pointed out that she was fine, and even though he was reluctant to leave her, after a quick goodnight kiss and another smile, Tarin said ”You too” he pushed off the couch to go and get ready for bed.

Lee’s smile widened when Tarin said it’s a date for the morning. This was something that Lee had never thought would be part of her life. Well, not in the way it had become. Before meeting, getting to know Tarin, Lee would have never even considered herself running for any other purpose than to get rid of excess energy.

Was running with Tarin in the mornings having any of the normal health benefits that everyone else would get from running such as increased endurance, but it was still nice to go do with Tarin.

Once Tarin was out of the room, Lee sat and flicked around on the TV some more. And she had been telling the truth when Tarin asked if she was alright. After everything that had happened that weekend.

But she’d be better if she didn’t have to spend the entire night alone, whether she was awake or asleep. Lee sat there for five minutes, chewing her lip as she examined her energy level and thought. Was this something that had a chance of working tonight? Except for that very first time, in Maine, when she had crashed, this had always taken practice.

Deciding to try it, Lee shut the TV off, then went around making sure the lights and everything were off for the night. Then she went to get ready for bed herself. Plaid pj pants and a light, long sleeve shirt rather than her normal boxers and tank top in warmer weather.

Quickly and quietly over to Tarin’s bedroom door, Lee knocked gently. Hearing a ”Come in,” from the room, Lee opened the door and slipped in, standing just inside the doorway. ”Would I be able to try sleeping with you tonight?” she asked, only slightly self-consciously.

It only took a few minutes to brush his teeth and get ready for bed, the routine pretty much hadn’t changed since he was a kid. The only difference was that now that he had roommates he’d taken to sleeping in pajama pants and snagging a t-shirt on his way out of the room each morning.

As it was, he had gotten his phone and watch set up to charge, climbed into bed, and was just starting to close his eyes when a quiet knock sounded. Instantly and significantly less tired, Tarin flipped on the lamp on the bedside table and said ”Come in.”

Lee entered the room a moment later and Tarin sat up, head tilted slightly at what she was wearing. Then she asked a question and he smiled at her for a moment before standing up, ”Of course, let me grab a shirt.” It was only fair, after all.

It only took a second and then he was back in the bed, getting situated on the far side up against the wall, patting the empty space next to him with another grin.

Lee smiled when Tarin said of course she could, and she made her way further into his room slowly, closing the door behind her. Though she made sure to stay out of Tarin's way as he was getting up to grab a shirt.

And, as much as she really liked the view as he moved around his room without one, Lee couldn't help her smile from growing since that was the first thing he'd thought to do.

” Thank you,” Lee said softly as she stepped closer now that he was pulling the shirt on and climbing back into bed. ” There's no guarantee that this’ll work tonight, but I wanted to try…”

As Lee finished speaking, she climbed into bed herself and started getting comfortable. Only to stop moving when she saw how far away, right up against the wall, Tarin was laying. ” You don't have to be all the way over there, you know.”

Lee climbed in the bed and got situated and Tarin just couldn’t stop smiling. No, this wasn’t the first time that Lee had been in here, but something about this just seemed…different.

Apparently he didn’t need to be as far away as humanly possible for this to work though, if it worked at all, so Tarin scooted off the wall a bit and got more comfortable. There was plenty of space, after all. ”No touching, right?” he said, just for clarification purposes.

”I didn’t even know this was a thing we could do.” he said, knowing that talking wasn’t conducive to sleeping, but unable to keep from saying something.

Tarin just looked so happy as she crawled into the bed and got comfortable that Lee couldn’t keep the grin off her face. ”Eventually,” Lee said as she turned her head to look over at where Tarin was settling in much closer than he had been but not touching. ”But for now, yeah, no touching.”

He hadn’t even thought this was something that they’d be able to do? Without a single comment or complaint, Tarin had thought that because of what her powers were that they would never be able to share a bed while they slept and had simply accepted it?

”When I was younger, the idea of doing this was terrifying,” Lee explained. ”But we can, if my energy is low enough that I can sleep. It’s just….practice doesn’t seem like the right word, but that’s the closest I can think of. I need to practice falling asleep with someone so close, to be siphoning when I fall asleep. Which is why there’s no guarantee it’ll work tonight.”

”Okay,” Tarin said contently when Lee confirmed that touching wasn’t a thing to do, at least not for now. Maybe eventually though.

Lee explained that when she’d been younger she’d been afraid to do this, but that now it was a thing that could maybe work. But maybe not.

”Either way, I’m glad you wanted to try.” he said, then snuggled down into the blankets. ”Hit the light?”

When she confirmed that there couldn’t be any touching if there was even a chance of her managing to fall asleep there, Lee didn’t see any momentary flickering of emotions before his contented ‘ok’. No disappointment, no sadness. Just acceptance that this was how it was and would be, and happiness that it was even happening like this.

”Of course I want to try, silly,” Lee said, actually rolling her eyes at him. ”Why wouldn’t I want to eventually spend the night in bed with you every night I’m able to fall asleep?

“But,” Lee continued, her voice growing more serious. ”If I’m not here when you wake up, it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with my powers and the fact that it’s been so long since I’ve done this. Understand?”

After waiting for his answer, Lee leaned over and gave him a quick, soft kiss. ”Good night, Tarin,” she breathed before reaching over to turn the light off and then getting comfortable in the bed.

Tarin didn’t know why, but the fact that Lee had wanted to do this specifically made him really intensely happy. Maybe it was the of course.

Had she rolled her eyes at him?

And now she was reassuring him that if she couldn’t sleep and was gone it wasn’t his fault. ”Understood.” he said, still kind of grinning like an idiot, wondering again why Lee was so concerned about his feelings on this matter. If it didn’t work out she was going to be the one awake and on her own. That dimmed the grin a bit.

Then he was getting a goodnight kiss and Lee was turning off the lights. ”Night Lee…”

The light was off and even if he didn’t have powers like Lee’s, Tarin knew she was there and it was just such a content and comfortable thing that in next to no time, once the initial excitement had worn off, he was fast asleep.

The happy look on Tarin’s face before the light was turned off just made Lee that much happier that she had decided to try doing this that night.

Light off, Lee quickly grabbed her phone off the table beside the bed and set the alarm for 8 hours from then before putting it back screen down. A random not fully conscious arm flail toward the annoying noise couldn’t turn the alarm off if she couldn’t touch the screen after all.

Then Lee snuggled down under the blanket beside Tarin. Close to him though not touching. Closing her eyes, a happy smile still on her face, Lee was acutely aware of the fact that Tarin was there because of her siphoning. And though part of her wanted to reach out and touch him, to physically feel him in addition to feeling his energy, Lee refrained. It was going to be hard enough to fall asleep without the extra energy from contact.

Lee lay there for quite a while, her eyes closed, focusing on her breathing as she tried to relax into sleep. Tarin, on the other hand she was sure, had already fallen asleep. His breathing was slow and even and he hadn’t said anything or really moved since he had said ‘night Lee’.

Finally, Lee gave up on focusing on her breathing. Turning on her side, her arm tucked under her head as she curled up. Letting out a sigh, Lee listened to Tarin’s breathing as she looked over at him in the darkness, trying to see what his face looked like right then in the dark. And when she couldn’t actually see it, Lee tried to imagine the relaxed, peaceful expression she was sure was on his face as he slept.

Slowly, very slowly, Lee began to drift off. And eventually she fell asleep. At some point during the night her free arm, the one that wasn’t folded under her head, reached part way out toward Tarin on the bed.

Tarin didn’t dream that night. It wasn’t a bad thing, it was just a thing that was. In fact, Tarin slept so soundly that when an alarm straight out of the 80s started to go off the next morning, he almost thought he was back in his childhood bedroom. Blinking in the somewhat early morning light, he picked his head up and started grinning like an idiot again, because he wasn’t alone.

The alarm, as it turned out, was Lee’s and she was still there. Sleeping. He sighed a little bit, Lee was never this relaxed when she was awake, and maybe it was a little weird, but she was so pretty when she was asleep.

Weeks ago, Lee had fallen asleep in the shop while he’d taken a shower and Tarin had let her sleep. He hadn’t known what that would mean for her though, and things had been rough when she’d woke up. It had also taken three calls from Rachel before she’d been able to wake up.

He should have asked about this last night, Tarin realized, if he should try to wake her up. It was decision paralysis because the last thing he wanted to do was startle her and end up with a fist in his face. Maybe he could wait just a little longer…