Oooooh Frankenstein, what a surprising and intriguing pick from Lee! With the misunderstood creature, the real monster being his creator, and all the letters. A classic. It sent his mind reeling over all the good science fiction short stories he had read in his life, and all the serotonin that came with.

He gave Lee two big thumbs up and a stupid grin.

Then Tarin gave a quote and he turned the dual-thumbs up manic grin on him.

”Nice one!” He said.

Then he wandered over to stare at Kevin imploringly. He did not glance down at the phone screen. Teenage boys deserve privacy. You don’t want to know what they look at. Yes, even when their mother is present.

He got his attention with a cough, then inquired: ”Favorite book?”

now he was second guessing his pick, oh he liked count of monte cristo, wait no, he liked Dracula, but wait, where the red fern grows… he tried to calculate his percentage of like to find a clear winner, and found other titles that detailed him further. But he was still asking Kevin a question. And Mary Shelley was so cool.

Tarin even went as far as to quote from Frankenstein, and Lee couldn’t help but smile at him. Not only was he able to quote from the book, but it was a great quote. Even though she had been able to identify with the monster when she had read the book in her teens, hearing that quote again, Lee realized that in some ways she was more like Frankenstein’s monster now than she had been when she’d first read the book.

But then Shin was moving over to where Kevin had ‘hidden’ with his phone. And asking Kevin what his favourite book was.

Lee honestly wasn’t sure what her son would say because she hadn’t seen him with a book that wasn’t required for school in a couple of years at that point.

Kevin looked up at Shin briefly and shrugged. ”The Graveyard Book,” he said simply before turning his eyes back to his phone.

Lee just stared at her son for a moment. He was a smart kid, but he seemed to spend most of his time that wasn’t at school, the gym, or doing homework on the computer, so the fact that he had a book he could just throw out like that was a little surprising to her. Surprised in a very good way.

Shin, as it turned out, was brave enough to approach Kevin and ask about his favorite book.

Kevin answered off the cuff and Tarin stared at the kid for a moment. It was another Giaman book, one that Tarin was familiar with, in fact.

The book was about an orphan raised by the ghosts in a graveyard. Tarin had read the book, found it a bit on the nose for himself, and set it aside in favor of Gaiman’s other books, which he had liked much more.

For Kevin though, the book made an eerie amount of sense and once again Tarin got the feeling that Kevin was far more keyed into things than he let on.

”Excellent pick.’ he said, then turned back to Lee and Shin, ”Anything else we need to see?”

>>the graveyard book.

Oh wow, another Neil Gaiman book, wasn’t it? Funny how that worked. Popular authors, racking up the hits. He had never read it, but he knew the author. Knew the general gist… some kid, raised by spirits after his parents had… aww.

Tarin thought the book was an excellent pick, ‘aww’ moment completely ignored.

Kevin had to have been, what, 5 or 6, when Tarin had rifted away? Right? Most of his life. It was sad. But what can you do? You remember the good and try and live with the bad… but what else did they need to see?

Shin thought it over for a few seconds. They’d done the library. Short of walking the stacks, what else could you do? Get everyone a book and a library card? Insist Tarin ride the sliding ladder like he were a grown up child? No.

They’d done dorms, he had shown them where teacher offices and classrooms were, he had explained the living room and kitchen situation, but he did not think he had actually shown them those things…

Shin nodded, and quickly showed them the kitchen students could use, and the living room area with TV and a few old and used game systems. Kids were snacking in both. It was a quick tour. What else can you say?

‘This is a kitchen. Food is for everyone, but be respectful and don’t leave nothing for everyone?’

‘Don’t be a butt?’

‘Be kind, please rewind?’

Did they even have VHS any more?

Once the light speed tour of those areas were over, and he had shown any of the other things he had neglected in the mansions (hey there’s bathrooms over here, guys, these are important!), he said

”That concludes the indoor tour. The only things left are the grounds. We could walk, or did you want the aerial tour?”

He had been thinking on something big enough to carry a few folks. Mostly, he could just do the shard cycle with the sidecar for mom and son. Elevate them a few hundred feet, and just hang out with Tarin on ground level to talk. You could see a lot, up there. He was certain unless Mama T wandered out and had to speak with him, everything would be fine.

Mama T was an adapted. Cancelled powers if she got close. But she knew enough to steer clear of him if he was using his stuff.

From above, they’d be able to see the hedge maze in full, the basketball courts, the forest where the mystics had invaded, and likely any leftover scarring on the grounds of the mansion from the invasion. Hrm. And anything else he had failed to mention. Did they have a pool yet? Who knew?

Lee had never heard of the book that Kevin had mentioned, but apparently Tarin had. And thought that it was a good choice as well. With a title like that…Lee was going to have to ask Tarin about that later.

”Anything else we need to see?”

Lee thought. The danger room would probably be good to show Tarin, but considering Kevin hadn’t actually wandered off yet, that wasn’t an option at the moment, because even though she knew Kevin would quickly learn about its existence, Lee didn't want him to know right off the bat.

And it wasn’t like they could see which exact classrooms Kevin would be going to since he hadn’t even been signed up for classes yet, never mind having gotten a schedule. ”Not that I can think of,” Lee replied.

But Shin finished up the remainder of the tour with the kitchen and living room before taking them outside.

And suggesting an aerial tour.

Even if the grounds had been large enough to warrant a helicopter to see it all, Lee doubted that the mansion had a helicopter that could be used for such a trivial matter. Which left…

An image of Shin flying into Central Park on those shards that he created flashed through her mind. And while it hadn’t really even fazed her that day, now, with the idea of being on it, Lee felt an anxious twist in her stomach.

”I’m good,” she replied, then looked at her son. ”But if you want to go, have fun Kev.”

Lee had barely even finished speaking before Kevin was turning to Shin in excitement. ”Aerial? Wait, does that mean you can fly?”

Once they’d seen the common areas, which were really nice, Shin announced that it was the end of the indoor tour.

Tarin absolutely had to admit that despite his initial misgivings, the mansion had turned out to be really cool. It sounded like the kind of place, with the kind of people that he had thought he had found when he’d gotten to New York.

Shin was offering an aerial tour of the grounds now and it took Tarin a minute to wrap his head around what Shin had said. How would they do an aerial tour? Did it have something to do with the other man’s abilities?

Kevin asked the question first, and Tarin just watched, waiting to see what happened.

”I can fly,” He confirmed.

The motorcycle made of shards, complete with sidecar, materialized in an eyeblink. He had reached “full charge” a while ago.

He climbed into the driver’s seat, and looked to Lee for that final nod of approval.

—

Once the approval was given, and Kevin was seatbelted into the sidecar, Shin began the ascent. He left Tarin and Lee on the ground below, to talk amongst themselves.

—

After a couple minutes of flight, Shin landed the shard motorcycle gently back on the ground by Tarin and Lee. He got out, and once everyone was free of the vehicle, he dismissed it into nothingness.

”How did you like the tour?” He asked Kevin.

Shin confirmed that yes, he could fly, and a moment later a motorcycle with a sidecar appeared. Well, that was at least better than what Lee had been envisioning, but it didn’t entice her to take up Shin’s offer of an aerial tour.

Kevin, however, was stoked. Living in Manhattan with Lee for a mother, travel by any form of vehicle was the exception, not the rule. So not only was Kevin excited because this was a motorcycle, but it was also flying and mutant powers combined with it.

Into the sidecar Kevin climbed - it didn’t look like Tarin was very eager for an aerial tour either - and after Shin made a last look over at Lee to make sure she was alright with her son being in a flying motorcycle, they were off.

Which left Lee and Tarin alone on the ground. Turning more toward him, Lee looked up at Tarin as she entwined her fingers with his. ”Any thoughts or questions while there’s no one else around?” she asked.

-----

A few minutes later when the motorcycle landed, Lee turned a smile toward Kevin as he reluctantly climbed out of the sidecar. ”It was so cool mum!” Kevin exclaimed, practically bouncing where he stood. ”Can I do that more when I’m going to school here? Please?”

Lee gave Kevin a slight smile. ”I’m glad you had fun, but I’m not sure flying motorcycle rides with Shin is a normal thing around here,” she said. ”If he gave all the students rides, I doubt he’d have time for anything else. But it would of course be his decision.”

Shin could actually fly. Well that was pretty cool, Tarin wondered what kind of flying it was for a brief moment before a motorcycle with a sidecar appeared from thin air.

Okay, that was pretty cool and Kevin was predictably thrilled by the development. Lee must have really trusted Shin because she didn’t even hesitate to let Kevin climb into the thing and take off with the other man.

”That…is not something you see every day.” Tarin said, watching as the two took off into the sky.

”Any thoughts or questions while there’s no one else around?”

Tarin shrugged and took Lee’s hand, glancing down for a moment before looking back up at the flying motorcycle.

”It's been a long time now, but it still surprises me sometimes how different things are here.” he said.

”It seems like a great place. I know they’ve had their problems, but could there really be anywhere safer that isn’t just home? ”

--

Soon enough Shin and Kevin returned to the ground and Shin asked how Kevin had liked the tour.

The answer was, a lot, and Lee was trying to give the kid reasonable expectations for flying tours around the mansion. As one would.

Tarin couldn’t help but smile at Kevin’s enthusiasm though. It was a far cry from the mess at Kevin’s current school the other day and that was definitely for the better.

No no, it definitely was not going to become a recurring thing. Shin waved THAT idea away. If you have one student a ride on a flying motorcycle, they’d ask for another, and someone else would ask for one too, or something bigger and flashier, and before you knew it, mice were eating cookies or something.

Shin shook his head. ”Your mom is right. I bet you love hearing that. Probably about ten times a day.” Shin smiled.

Okay. Was that everything with the tour? Had they missed anything?

”Well, Lee. Tarin. Kevin. Does that cover it all? What do you all think of the mansion?” Shin asked.

Was there anywhere safer than here besides home? Lee could think of many. But none of them were in New York. And while a lot of things had happened in and around the mansion, Lee knew that at the very least Sam and Shin (she didn’t know any of the others all that well personally) would do everything that they possibly could to protect the kids here.

”You’re right,” Lee said, agreeing with him.

---

Lee held off on answering Shin’s question about what she thought of the mansion. She was pretty sure that Shin had a good idea what she thought. She wouldn’t be thinking of sending Kevin here for school if she thought it wasn’t a good place.

”This place is so cool!” Kevin exclaimed, then looked at his mum. ”Why haven’t you brought me here before?”

Lee just looked at Kevin for a moment. ”You were a little young,” Lee pointed out. ”And you haven’t gotten your powers yet, so it wasn’t like there was a rush.”

Having said that, Lee then turned to look at Shin. ”I think that probably covers everything that we need to show Kevin at the moment. Anything else can wait till later, I think.”

”There more to see?” Kevin asked, looking back and forth between his mum and Shin. ”What else is there to see? Why can’t I see it all now?”

Lee had things well in hand again, so when Shin asked if there were any other questions Tarin just looked at her. Besides the fact that he was just tagging along for the tour to see what the Mansion was like, Lee would have thought of way more and way better quality questions than him.

Kevin was bouncing off the proverbial walls now though and he was wondering why it had taken so long for Lee to bring him to see this place.

He also latched onto something in the last half of what Lee had said about anything else waiting until later.

Tarin didn’t know what Lee was talking about either, but figured she hadn’t really meant to peak her son’s curiosity…it had just been an off handed comment in case there was anything that they had missed. Right?

Now there were two curious people looking between Lee and Shin.

Kevin was all for the mansion, seemed, thought it was the pinnacle of hotness, the tops of sweet, badass to the max. So cool! He wondered why his mother had never brought him there before, and—

Lee spoke to Kevin, then looked at Shin.

>>> ”I think that probably covers everything that we need to show Kevin at the moment. Anything else can wait till later, I think.”

He nodded. He clocked her. Understood.

Kevin was distraught by the fact he couldn’t have everything then, and there.

Shin suppressed a Willy wonka reference about someone who wanted the world, wanted the whole world… didn’t care how, they wanted it now.

What if Kevin’s power was blueberry transformation? Unlikely, given his parentage, but, what if…?

They would roll him around the mansion like a boulder. How would one even train someone to utilize that?

….Well, he supposed obstacle courses….

Shin kept his mouth shut. Lee had things well in hand. For all of two seconds.

”Good things come to those who wait?” He ventured helplessly. He tried again. ”Save a few surprises for later, yeah? It’ll be all the better when you do.”

he looked to Lee. Shrugged.

There were no walls to lean against for additional support. Halp.

He would need to work on this, for Michael.
Pushover dad is pushover.

Kevin caught on to what Lee had said about saving other things for later. With him not knowing what was missing from the tour, it made sense that Tarin didn't have anything to say.

Thankfully, Shin kept quiet about the danger room. Definitely no reason to tell Kevin about that yet.

When Shin was finished speaking, Lee just fixed Kevin with a look. ”Well, I had thought to wait to have you see the infirmary until the first time you got hurt, but if you insist,” Lee said, then turned to make her way back inside. ”I’m sure that you're sure for a shot that DocProf can give to you while we’re here.”

”What?” Kevin said, clearly not happy by the direction this had suddenly gone. ”No, it’s ok mum. We don’t need to see that now.”

Both Lee and Shin were playing something about The Mansion close to the chest and while Tarin wasn’t going to point it out to Kevin, he was curious. He’d have to ask later though because if Lee was going to all of this trouble to get Kevin off the trail, she really didn’t want him to know about it.

In fact, Lee was so committed to the whole thing that she gave Kevin the option of heading to the infirmary for a shot.

Kevin suddenly changed his mind about seeing any more on the tour and Tarin had to turn away just a little bit to chuckle while pretending to look out over the grounds.

”He never stood a chance.” Tarin said quietly to Shin hopefully so neither KEvin nor Lee would hear.