Despite how most of the previous weekend had started off rough between Robert and Kevin’s school project, Monday morning had started incredibly. The night before Lee had asked Tarin if she could try sleeping with him, completely expecting that it wouldn’t work. And yet, it had. She had woken up with him still there, beside him in bed.

Not only had she woken up with more energy than normal, but it had been a good morning.

A good morning that was going to continue as now that Kevin had been dropped off for school, Lee and Tarin were walking into the park for a run.

The energy levels were certainly different than what Lee would have expected when she’d offered the previous day to run with Tarin. She had far more energy than she had thought she would have this morning, and even though Tarin never admitted that being around her tired him, he had to have less energy than he would have planned on.

Not that Lee would think Tarin would ever complain about, given the reason. Though Lee did hope that he was taking that into consideration this morning.

”I’m good for any pace today,” Lee told Tarin as she got her music queued up. They’d discovered that the days after she’d actually had a full night's sleep, Lee often had to get Tarin to slow his running pace a bit because of her comparative lack of energy. Today though, after that morning, she definitely had enough energy to keep up regardless of the pace Tarin set.

It had been a great morning. After an intense weekend Tarin had been real worn out the previous night and had not expected a knock on his door.

The knock, however, came and Lee had said that she wanted to try sleeping in there, with him. Lee had been concerned that it wouldn’t work and also somehow concerned that if it didn’t work he would be upset.

Tarin had just been happy she had wanted to try. And it had worked! Tarin had woken up this morning with Lee next to him and she’d been more than happy with the way things had worked out.

So happy in fact that they’d made excellent use of the time Lee had saved from having to do her usual wake-up routine.

Now they were running.

If Tarin were truly honest with himself, he was probably a little more tired than he usually would have been on a normal Monday morning after a full night’s sleep.

Lee said she’d be good at any pace today and Tarin couldn’t help the slightly wicked grin he sent her way, ”I’ll bet you are” he added for good measure because why not.

”Maybe a light jog though…I know you’ll probably have to run again later, but I don’t want to overdo it.” Because it was Monday morning, and Mondays usually sucked.

It wasn’t so much the words, but the grin that went with them, but Lee blushed slightly as she focused her eyes on her phone. And focusing, it really didn’t take long for Lee to get music started playing through her headphones, though they weren’t in her ears yet so she was able to hear Tarin’s next, less obviously inappropriate comment.

”If I want to sleep tonight, yeah I’ll probably need to,” she replied as she tucked her phone in her pocket. The hint of a blush still on her cheeks as she looked up at Tarin. ”Though, depending on how we think the rest of the day might end up going, I may put that run off until tonight…”

Tarin just wanted to jog that morning so as to not over do it? Lee nodded. That was probably a good idea after that morning considering that he still had a full day of work ahead of him.

Then Lee grinned up at Tarin playfully. ”Catch me?” she said, the words part question, part challenge. Then she took off running down the path, fairly quickly for the first 20-30 feet before slowing down to more of a jog.

Ah, he’d made her blush. That wicked grin turned more than a little smug as Tarin watched Lee get suddenly interested in her phone.

At the reminder he got his ready too, and fiddled with his taskmaster of a watch to make sure that the run was going to be recorded.

Lee confirmed she’d need another run to sleep that night and boy Tarin was grinning again. If Lee was gonna sleep that night…it seemed like it was going to be a theme for the day.

”Catch me.” Lee said, and took of and Tarin just watched her run a moment before he took of to try and do what she said. Tarin knew that if she wanted, there was no chance he’d ever catch Lee. That didn’t seem to be the game though, and after a pretty sold 30-40 ft of a much faster pace than he wanted to keep for the whole run, Lee slowed down and he came up beside her.

Now that they were moving a bit slower, Tarin put his headphones in and settled into that comfortable pace he’d talked about earlier. His watch wouldn’t be pleased with the mile splits, but it was just going to have to make do with what it got today.

Tarin had grinned again at her comment about if she was going to sleep that night. Depending on what else the day held, how much time they actually got to spend together later, Lee may just decide to forego the run, and the hours it would end up taking to get rid of the energy.

But then she took off, and Lee didn't feel Tarin's energy following her immediately. I'm fact, it took long enough that she had to look behind her to see if Tarin was in fact following; he was, but she'd gotten enough of a head start and there were enough people around that Lee hadn't been able to tell that from siphoning alone.

As Tarin ran to catch up with her, Lee smiled, speeding up again slightly as she felt him coming up behind her.

But when Tarin did catch up, once she felt him running beside her, Lee looked over and gave him a grin, slowing down again to let him set the pace and matching it. Yes, Lee thought as she finally put her headphone in to listen to the music she had started a while ago. This was a great morning.

Running had always been something that Tarin had enjoyed. Even when he was first learning how to actually do it for longer distances, the rhythm, the breathing, the tactile feels of his footfalls on the pavement had always felt like a balm for whatever was going on in his head. When he ran, it was easy to go somewhere else and just focus on the task at hand.

It was really cool to share that with someone. Lee was being downright playful and as serious as the weekend had been, as many tough topics as they’d tackled, the fact that she seemed so damn happy made things even better.

Settling into the pace a bit more, maybe speeding up just a touch, Tarin smiled over at Lee.

A couple glances over at Tarin as they ran, Lee could see that he was quickly settling into running. And looked happy, relaxed. They really hadn’t known each other that long by anyone else’s standards, but with having started out with Tarin being in as bad a place as he’d been, and with everything they’d shared, they really had gotten to know each other well, quickly. In addition to just how natural and comfortable things had felt being together from that second day on.

Other than when it was just the two of them alone in a room, Lee didn’t think she had ever seen Tarin as relaxed as when he was running. And it was certainly the only time she ever saw him look relaxed when out in public.

Sure, it was highly unlikely that anyone else would notice that he wasn’t relaxed when he was out, he had his calm, casual, blend in with the crowd facade too well practiced for people to notice. But if Lee looked, she could see how Tarin’s shoulders looked looser, not as tensed when he was running. And his face…Led couldn’t think of any way to describe it other than Tarin’s face actually looked relaxed when he ran compared to looking like his facial muscles were making it look like he was relaxed. They were minute differences, and Lee wasn’t even sure some hypothetical other person who knew Tarin just as well (because from everything he’d said, he had never shared as much about himself as he had with her) would be able to see the differences.

But Lee was glad he was able to relax like this when running. They just needed to work on it being more often, not simply when running.

Seeing Tarin smile at her one of the times she glanced over, Lee’s small contented smile widened. It had been a great morning, and Lee had a feeling it was going to be a good day.

Now that they were settled into a good pace, the run was moving along nicely. An easy pace had been a good idea and in all honesty after a mile the split wasn’t all that bad.

Totally worth it. Totally worth it on multiple levels.

At the 1.5 mile mark and fully in stride at this point, Tarin ran through the schedule for the day in his head. Mondays were pretty set in stone, generally speaking, and he’d had confirmation from most of the appointments so it was unlikely that there were going to be any gaps in his schedule.

That was too bad and for the next little while, Tarin just focused on the music and the run. The weather was beautiful and the company was excellent. It was pretty much a perfect run on what was shaping up to be a pretty perfect day.

They may not be running as fast as they sometimes did, but rain was still seeing a decent pace. It was always hard for Lee to tell, though; since her energy level was different every day she came out running with Tarin, she found it difficult to judge the speed and distance based on how she felt, her exertion level, how she felt at the end. Because there were days she didn't feel it at all, or barely, when they ran hard for three miles, and there were other days she had trouble making it two at a slower pace.

Though, Lee wasn't sure how she would be feeling when this run was finished. She was feeling good now, no issues whatsoever keeping pace with Tarin. Not their other activities from earlier in the morning, while providing Lee with more energy than she normally had in the morning, they hadn't lasted as long as those other activities generally did.

Suddenly, Lee's music cut off as her phone started ringing through her headphones. Frowning in confusion as she didn't normally get calls this early (the people who actually knew her knew that she was not generally chipper yet at this time), Lee pulled her phone out of her pocket as she continued running.

Only for worry to immediately wash over her as she saw it was Kevin's school calling. Tapping Tarin's shoulder as before coming to a stop, Lee answered the phone. ”Hello?”

”Hello, Lee Smith?” the woman on the other end waited for confirmation before continuing. ”This is Mrs Vargas, the vice-principal at yoru son’s school. Kevin’s ok, but there’s been an incident with another student. I need to ask you to come in so we can discuss this as it’s rather serious.”

”An incident?” Lee questioned, the worry definitely not having gone anywhere. ”Kevin’s only been there for an hour. What kind of incident?”

”That is something I would rather discuss in person, Ms Smith. When do you think you can make it in today?”

”I’m on my way now,” Lee said before hanging up and looking up at Tarin. ”Sorry, something happened at school,” she told him, the frown on her face deeper now. ”They won’t even tell me over the phone what it’s about.”

They were just past 2 miles when Tarin felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see that Lee had stopped. Jogging a couple more steps to slow to a walk, Tarin turned and made his way back to her to hear one side of a conversation involving something to do with Kevin.

Lee didn’t look happy about whatever she was hearing on the phone call and she said she was on her way before she hung up the phone.

Still working a little on catching his breath, Tarin nodded when Lee said that something had happened at Kevin’s school and they wouldn’t tell her what was going on.

”Back home, or do you have what you need to go straight there?” Tarin asked, feeling a bit useless and awkward, ”Anything I can do to help?”

Why couldn’t they have just told her what this was about so she knew how urgently she needed to get there? ”I’m going to head straight there, I think,” Lee said, part of her mind catastophying what this ‘incident’ might have been. The woman on the phone had said that Kevin was alright, but there were all kinds of things that could have happened while him still being ‘ok’.

How many times in her life had she said she was fine, she was ok, even though the world was falling apart?

And Tarin was asking what he could do. ”I really don’t know,” Lee admitted. She had never gotten a call from the school like this before, so she didn’t know what to expect so how would she know what Tarin could do to help?

Though, him simply being there, being around, would help. ”I don’t want you to miss work, though, and I don’t know how long this will take.”

Lee said that she was going to head straight to the school and Tarin nodded again, he was good at that in this situation and not a whole lot more.

It did not take a mind reader or even someone with a functional level of emotional intelligence to tell that Lee was upset and worried. It made sense, something serious enough for a school to call home on a kid of Kevin’s age was generally a cause for concern. Especially when they wanted a meeting as soon as possible.

Lee didn’t know what to ask him to do, was concerned about Tarin missing work, and didn’t know how long things were going to take.

Well. The best thing to do was probably work down that list. Checking his watch for the time, Tarin shrugged, ”I’ve got a few hours, I can tag along and wait outside, or just wait at home until you get back. Whatever you need.” There were still options there, but they were a bit more constrained.

Also, he was going out on a limb here, but he hated to see Lee so worried.

”I’m sure he’s safe. They’d have told you to get there, not asked you to come when you could if he wasn’t.”

Lee nodded when Tarin said that he had a few hours before he had to be at the shop. And that he could either wait outside or at home. Yeah, that sounded good.

”Thank you,” Lee said as she grabbed Tarin's hand and started them walking in the direction of Kevin's school.

Lee walked in silence at that point for a couple of minutes before glancing over at Tarin again. If it looks like it's going to take a while, I can text so you can wait at home,” [/font] she said, then gave him a small, tight lipped smile. ”I really do appreciate this, Tarin. Cause you don't have to do this…”

Oh, hey, that had worked out well. Lee grabbed his hand and they were heading off in the direction of the school. Squeezing Lee’s hand reassuringly, they walked towards what he assumed was Kevin’s school. It was one of the things about New York City, a lot of the schools were within walking distance, especially in this borough.

Lee spoke again and Tarin looked over and down at her as they walked, ”Whatever you think.” he said first, then, ”I want to help.” It was better than sitting around useless at any rate, not that he’d be much help in this actual situation. All that was going to be between Lee, Kevin, and god help any administrator that wasn’t acting in Kevin’s best interest.

Considering the heaviness of the weekend and the main topic of conversation throughout, Tarin had a sinking suspicion he knew what this was going to be about. Lee probably hadn’t thought about it, and Tarin didn’t want to put ideas in her head without knowing any details, so he just walked in silence waiting to see if there was anything else Lee wanted or needed from him.

Lee smiled at Tarin when he said that he wanted to help. Even though it didn't really look like there was anything he could really do at the moment except simply be there.

”Still, thank you,” Lee said softly, dining Tarin's hand a squeeze back.

Kevin's school really wasn't all that far from where they had been, yet to Lee or felt like it took forever to get there.

But finally Lee saw Kevin's school further down the street. Still holding Tarin's hand, Lee closed her eyes and took a couple deep breaths as they continued walking and the nervous worry slowly fell off of her face, though the crease was still between her brows.