Lee had been taking Kevin to the gym for a couple of weeks now as his ‘trainer’. Some of the times Tarin had come, sometimes it was just the two of them. And over all, things had been going well. Kevin had been eager to learn, which was really no surprise; he had been eager to learn ever since he’d gotten Blaine to agree to teach him 6 years earlier.

But Kevin was also paying attention and taking in the things that Lee was telling him quite well. Was she teaching him ‘properly’, how he would be taught had she signed him up for actual lessons? Hell no, because she hadn’t even learned that way. But he was picking things up pretty well, and relatively quickly.

The problem had come earlier that day. Lee had been trying to show Kevin how to do some grapples, but he just wasn’t managing to do it quite properly when she was talking him through it, but because of the angle Kevin couldn’t see properly what was happening when she tried to demonstrate it.

Which had only led to Kevin getting frustrated. And had led Lee to spend the last hour and a half on her laptop trying to find a video of what she had been trying to teach Kevin. And was having zero luck so far because without having been trained ‘properly’ herself, she actually had no idea what to call it in her search.

Sighing in frustration, Lee let her head fall against the back of the couch, her eyes closed. She hadn’t thought teaching Kevin would be this difficult.

Lee seemed frustrated.

She’d also been single mindedly working on something on her laptop for quite a while now and Tarin wondered if it had something to do with the frustrating experience that had occurred at the gym earlier that day.

Tarin looked over at Lee as she leaned her head back against the couch. It wouldn’t be easy training your own kind in the capacity that Lee was trying to train Kevin. It was probably even harder because Lee hadn’t had any kind of formal training.

Part of Tarin wanted to remind Lee that her friend at the Mansion had offered to hook Kevin up with lessons, but it seemed important to Lee that she be the one to teach Kevin right now.

If he was right, Tarin had been working on an idea to help Lee with her sparring problem when she’d gotten into the match at the gym that had ended up recorded.

”You alright? he said from the other side of the couch, pulling his attention from the Mets game on the TV.

”You alright?”

Lee opened her eyes and turned her head on the back of the couch to look over at Tarin. ”I’m fine,” Lee replied softly. ”It’s just…You know when you have a word on the tip of your tongue, but for the life of you, you cannot remember what it is? I just cannot figure out what this grapple I was trying to teach Kevin today is called. A lot of it is done from the back, so he couldn’t see what I was trying to show him. And I can’t find a video that actually shows how to do it.

“But I’m sure that I didn’t just make this move up myself, because Blaine actually helped me get it right, so it’s got to be an actual, proper move in something, right? Yet, nothing!”

As she finished speaking, Lee realized much of her frustration she had been letting out and smiled over at Tarin a little sheepishly. ”Sorry, vent over. How’s your game?”

Yep. Lee was frustrated.

Yep. It was about what had happened at the gym earlier.

She’d been trying for an hour and a half to find a video to show Kevin the grapple throw toss thing she’d been trying to show him at the gym earlier.

Well, if line of sight had been the issue…

Lee asked how the game was going, ”No score, bottom of the fourth.” he said with a shrug.

”You could always toss me around if it would help Kevin see what he’s supposed to do.” he offered before even bringing up the other idea he’d had. ”It’s an option if you can’t find the video.”

Lee nodded when tarin told her the score. Though even she knew that could mean it was a really good game, or a really bad one.

But then Tarin was saying that she could demonstrate on him so Kevin could see and Lee lifted her head to look more directly at Tarin. ”You don’t need to do that, Tarin,” Lee said as she looked at him with a small smile before reaching her hand across the couch to grasp his. ”I appreciate the offer, but I know that the sparring and all isn’t really your thing, so you really don’t need to. If I can’t figure it out, there are a couple people at the gym that I could try asking.”

Lee didn’t like that idea. If Tarin was honest with himself, he’d known she wouldn’t when he’d suggested it. Lee grabbed his hand and he couldn’t help but smile back, ”Still, it’s an option.” even if it wasn’t a very good one.

The Mets were at bat and the batter smacked a line drive right through the gap and took the double. That was something, the game had been real slow and uneventful so far. A lot like most of their trips to the gym. Tarin knew that Lee had a hard time asking other people at the gym to spar because they had a tendency to pull their punches and make it hard for her to actually test her abilities or their limits.

Looking at his hand and Lee’s on the couch for a minute, trying to figure out if what he was thinking made even the slightest amount of sense Tarin finally looked up and said,

”I mean…I might be able to find some…people who could help?” he said a little awkwardly. Despite the fact that he worked in a shop using his abilities all day, every day, Tarin didn’t talk about them much, ”I can pretty much guarantee that they wouldn’t complain.”

Tarin insisted that using him to show Kevin the move she had been trying to teach him was still an option, and she couldn’t help it when her smile grew wider in appreciation. Sure, still an option. But well down the list of possible options.

Setting her laptop on the table, Lee shifted closer to Tarin while still holding his hand in time to see a decent hi. …At least she thought so. In her mind it was a good hit.

But then Tarin was speaking again, and Lee looked over in confusion at first. He knew people? People who could help her show Kevin the move? But Tarin had told her, a few times, that he’d pretty much kept to himself until…

Lee’s eyes widened slightly in surprise as she realized what he was talking about, what he was suggesting. ”What?” she questioned. ”How? Would that even be safe?”

Lee seemed confused by what he was suggesting and Tarin tilted his head a bit, watching as she thought things through.

Lee had questions and Tarin shrugged It was already awkward talking about what he could do and how it all worked. This was Lee though and since she knew…something about his powers already it wasn’t quite so bad explaining to her.

Was it safe though? At that, Tarin actually did frown. ”I wouldn’t suggest it if it wasn’t…not with you and Kevin involved. Why wouldn’t it be safe?”

Lee just stared at Tarin as he told her that he wouldn’t suggest this idea unless it was safe. Lee nodded hesitantly. She hadn’t seen many spirits herself, not very many considering the number of years she had been with Kevin’s father, considering the things that they had been through…

And Tarin was asking why it wouldn't be safe for him to ‘make a spirit available’ for her to demonstrate to Kevin the move she’d been trying to teach.

”Anytime he, because there was a fight,” Lee was trying to explain, her voice quiet, her sentences not necessarily complete. ”When things were bad enough that he got ‘help’...I don’t think the bodies were ever in one piece…”

Oh.

Well.

A few moments passed and Tarin realized he was staring at Lee. What she explained was…a lot. It was still so weird when this happened. When Lee knew things about him that he knew he hadn’t told her, or things about his abilities that he didn’t even know. Sure, she’d been wrong a few times, but it was still every bit surreal.

”Well.” he said finally, ”I can understand why you’d be concerned then.” he said, trying to figure out how to phrase things in a way that might make sense.

”I…can’t say I have ever been in a fight like that…” Honestly, the only times he’d found himself in a situation where spiritual help was justified, he had used them defensively.

”But I also haven’t had any issues with them not doing what they’re asked to do.”

Tarin just sat and stared at her for what felt like forever after she told him about the spirits that she had seen, or just known about, used for fighting. As the seconds ticked by, Lee’s eyes dropped down to their hands.

Finally Tarin spoke, and Lee looked up at him as he explained. That…That did seem reasonable, and the times that Lee was thinking about were really life or death situations, with people trying to kill them. This wasn’t going to be anything like that.

But also, it at least seemed like Tarin had better…control over his powers? In a way, he kind of had to if he’d only had two merges his entire life, right?

The idea definitely made Lee nervous, there was no question about that. But Tarin seemed confident that it would work and be safe. And, Lee realized, any times that Tarin had actually talked about his powers, not simply been shocked by what he’d heard about that hadn’t occurred in his life, Tarin had always sounded quite confident.

”We can try it,” Lee finally agreed. ”But we need to try it first without Kevin around.”

Well, that hadn’t been what he wanted.

”We don’t have to…” he said levelly and a bit awkwardly, ”Doesn’t bother me or anything and I get why the idea would bother you. I didn’t think…”

Bases were loaded now, but there were also two outs. It was either going to be a very good at bat or a very bad one.

”Sorry…”

Lee shook her head and squeezed Tarin’s hand as she looked at him. ”You don’t need to be sorry,” she told him honestly. ”It’s…Just a strange thing to wrap my head around.”

Lee’s phone rang, and she took a quick glance at it to see who was calling. Then she did a quick double take before looking back at Tarin. ”I trust you, Tarin, so if you say it’s safe. But I’ll be right back.”

Leaning in, Lee gave Tarin a quick kiss before grabbing her still ringing phone as she stood up. ”Hello?” she said as she quickly made her way out of the living room, closing her bedroom door behind her.

Tarin nodded when Lee said he didn’t need to be sorry. He kind of felt like he should be though. It was hard for Lee to wrap her head around because apparently all the interactions she’d had with his powers were terrible. Different person, different situations, same kind of power thing.

Man, that kind of sucked.

Lee trusted him, but did he trust himself? Had it been a good idea to bring this up? What if she was right and what he was suggesting was dangerous and he didn’t even know it?

Lee was getting a phone call though and going to answer it out of the room.

Was it the same kind of thing that he did when he needed to walk away for a minute to figure out how to handle something? To avoid talking about something that was difficult?

Tarin sat there for a few moments after Lee left before he realized that the batter had hit a double, driving in two runs.

Tarin pulled his hat down over his eyes for a minute and sighed in frustration before turning his attention back to the game while he waited for Lee to come back.

Normally, Lee didn’t bother to leave the room when she got a phone call. Not that she got very many calls, especially in the evening. And normally, she would have ignored a call during the conversation that she and Tarin had been having. Weird as it was a topic of conversation, it was important.

But this was also important, because when she had looked at the phone to see who was calling, Lee realized that she hadn’t actually spoken to Adele in over a month, and normally she was calling the woman more frequently than that.

Even with promises to call the next day, it was still almost ten minutes (apparently Kevin hadn’t been calling regularly again, either) before Lee was making her way back to the living room.

”Sorry about that, Tarin,” Lee said as she sat down beside him again. ”But like I said, I trust you, so if you think it'll work, we can try it”