Lee had tried to put it as delicately as possible when she told Kevin that he needed to call Adele. But, with him asking which grandmother he was supposed to be calling, there was only so much Lee had been able to do to tell Kevin while making it as…not uncomfortable as possible for Tarin.

It still had to be weird, though.

But at least Tarin wasn’t running away? As she had realized that was what he was doing when he’d suddenly get up and leave while they were talking, Lee had also noticed that he had started doing it less.

Though, maybe this time had something to do with her being snuggled against him, making it harder for him to get up.

”You like Texas?”

Lee was a little surprised by this question. She had honestly thought that Tarin would ignore the idea of Kevin going to see his father’s family in Texas.

”It’s fun,” Kevin said, looking around Lee at Tarin. ”But the heat sucks in the summer. Though my younger cousins can be annoying sometimes.

“Oh!” Kevin’s eyes widened slightly as he remembered something. ”Uncle Josh said this year he might let-” Realizing what he was about to say with his mother right there, Kevin caught himself. ”Me go out in the truck with him.” he finished kind of lamely.

Tarin nodded when Kevin pointed out that the summer heat in Texas sucked. ”It sucks, but not as bad as the winters here.” Tarin said. Though, Kevin had grown up here so it was probably opposite for him as far as the climate was concerned.

Kevin had cousins it seemed and like he had several times before, Tarin wondered if his brothers had ever had kids. If he’d had nieces and nephews running around on the other side. The thought was deeply[/u] uncomfortable.

Kevin’s next comment made Tarin laugh out loud though. He couldn’t help it. Tarin knew Lee was going to have an opinion.

”I had just started learning to drive the pickup when I moved to New York.” he said. His Mom had thought maybe it would help if he could do more.

”Everywhere has at least one bad season,” Lee commented. ”And I’d just like to point out that New York City winters are generally nothing compared to Toronto.”

It was actually kind of cute how Kevin was attempting to hide that Josh was planning on starting to teach him how to drive that summer. Like she had no idea what the boys had done growing up. Like she hadn’t heard stories from his father and Josh. And from Adele.

Even Tarin had started learning to drive before he left home. At 14.

Lee just shook her head. ”Josh knows I don’t want you learning this young,” Lee said, making her voice sound frustrated as she just looked at the TV in front of her.

And Lee let those words hang in the air for a few moments to let her son sweat before she continued.

”But I guess someone is going to have to teach you. And I know he remembers I was absolutely zero help when we drove to Vegas.”

New York winters were nothing like winters in Toronto. Tarin knew that the further north you went the worse the winters tended to get, but he had absolutely no interest in experiencing that.

Tarin almost pointed out that the rules worked differently on the farm and that it was actually the safest place to learn to drive…but had just decided it wasn’t his place to do so when Lee spoke again.

Once he’d left Texas, Tarin had never driven again. There hadn’t been any real reason to know how and by the time he could have possibly bought one there was little to no point.

Lee hadn’t really talked about the other Tarin’s family situation mich, and that made sense. It hadn’t really been very relevant to this point, but it sounded like Lee spoke of them fondly. ”Rules work different on the farm…” Tarin confirmed.

Meanwhile, Kevin just stared at Lee, a little wide-eyed, ”I’m going to go call Grandma right now.” he said, like he was scared if he waited too long Lee would change her mind.

Lee couldn’t help the grin as her son took off for his room to call his grandmother about going for a visit over the summer. ”Like there’s any chance I would be teaching him how to drive in the city even if I felt confident enough to be the one teaching him,” Lee said as she made herself comfortable against Tarin’s side again.

”But I doubt we’ll see Kevin for the rest of the night. So what should we do with ourselves?”

And just like that, Kevin was off, baseball game forgotten. Fortunately in all the hubbub the Mets had managed to score another run and they were up 3-2 and Lee wanted to know what they were going to do with the rest of the evening.

Tarin sighed, trying to figure out exactly that. There were still a couple of innings left in the game and things were looking up, but it was Sunday and that meant the next day was Monday.

Deflection was the answer here because Tarin did not think he had mental capacity or energy to decide the course of the evening. Plus, there was something he’d been thinking.

”It’s really cool that Kevin still goes to Texas.” Tarin said, ”Family is important. I never could figure out how to go back or get back in touch. After a while it seemed like too much had happened.”

”I know I haven’t been very exciting today, but I didn’t think spending the evening with me was that horrible of an idea,” Lee teased, gently poking Tarin in the side, hoping to lighten the mood a bit.

Or not.

Not that the topic was weird or uncomfortable for her, but Lee knew that it was very weird and uncomfortable for Tarin. She just listened to start with and…it sounded so familiar that she frowned slightly.

”He never did either,” Lee finally said, her voice soft, glancing up at Tarin quickly before moving her eyes back to the TV. ”He did manage to find Josh’s phone number somewhere. One night, I just got frustrated with him saying he wanted to try to reconnect, but refusing to call, so I grabbed the phone and dialled.”

Lee poked him and Tarin squirmed every so slightly when she did it, then smiled.

Lee pointed out that it had actually been her that had made the first step towards the other Tarin reconnecting with his family and it made a lot of sense. It appeared that the Tarin Brooks of both worlds struggled with reconciliation. This one had just managed to find someone to take the plunge for him.

Lucky bastard.

This was a weird train of thought though, and dwelling too long on the specifics kind of made Tarin want to shiver, so he went back to the first thing that Lee had said.

”Well, good, and you’re anything but boring. I was thinking that I was boring because I don’t have any good ideas regarding things to do. I’m terrible company tonight.”

”Well, if I’m not boring for having no ideas, how are you boring for the same thing?” Lee asked, raising an eyebrow as she turned to look at Tarin. ”And I have to argue that you’re not terrible company. How could you be considering I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now.”

Reaching a hand out, Lee lightly clasped one of Tarin’s again as she watched the game for a minute. ”Maybe this is a sign that we should just call it an early night and head to bed when the game’s over?”

Tarin shrugged and smiled down at Lee again as she turned to look at him, ”You can’t convince me tonight was fun.” he said, trying to figure out exactly what he was actually trying to say.

”But…thanks for listening I guess. Thanks for trusting me.”

He could get behind Lee’s other idea for the night and Tarin smiled again and checked the game. Still 3-2 going into the 8th.

”You believe in signs, huh?” he said, ”I think I like that idea.”

Lee smiled back up at Tarin. ”It doesn't have to be ‘fun’ for it to still be the exact place, or the exact person you want to be with at that moment,” she told him sincerely. And it was true; it definitely hadn’t been a fun night, some of the conversation had been very uncomfortable, but Lee couldn’t think of anywhere she would have rather spent the evening.

Then he was thanking her, and Lee leaned up to give Tarin a soft kiss before pulling back to look into his eyes. ”Honestly, Tarin, any time,” she said, her voice soft. ”And of course I trust you. We wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t. It might not be as vitally important because of my powers anymore, but having the trust still is…”

When Tarin turned to look at the game, Lee settled her head down onto his shoulder. Then shrugged slightly when he started speaking again. ”Maybe more so than when I was younger,” Lee admitted. ”Or maybe I just want to wake up beside you in the morning.”

It was very hard for Tarin to wrap his head around someone wanting the whole mess that came along with him. Lee did though. She never pushed beyond what was reasonable, but she was always there and happy with anything he wanted to share.

The trust was honestly even wilder. Tarin knew that a solid portion of that came from the confidence that Lee had in herself and her abilities, but she did trust him. Had trusted him for a while. He wasn’t saying much, but he was matching Lee look for look and taking in everything she said.

Lee said that she believed in signs, at least to larger degree than she had when she was younger, and as she snuggled into his shoulder, Tarin had to think that he did too. If there weren’t signs. If the universe wasn’t looking out for us somehow, how had he ended up here? How had all of the little pieces fallen into place so perfectly that the worst night of his life had led to the quite possibly the best, and so many more since with the potential for even more.

Lee spoke once more and Tarin shifted this time so he could kiss Lee. It wasn’t a long kiss, too much of that would not be conducive to the sleeping part required for the waking up together in the morning part. But still.

”I like the sound of that even more.”

Top of the ninth and it was a home game. Three more batters. ”We don’t have to finish the game.”

Tarin didn’t say anything in response to what she was saying about her being there to listen, about the trust she had in him, about how necessary it had once been for her to trust people because of her powers. But he was looking at her the entire time that she spoke, so Lee knew that he was hearing her, knew that he was understanding what she was saying.

Maybe not fully believe it, Lee knew because of how he had been indoctrinated growing up, but he understood.

And Tarin not only liked the idea of waking up beside each other, but he even said that they didn’t have to finish watching the game. Lee smiled as she leaned in to kiss Tarin again. ”I guess that means we should head to bed, then, doesn’t it,” she asked, her smile growing, turning almost giddy.

Again Tarin thought, all of this kissing was not conducive to sleeping for a couple of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that too much physical contact made it hard for Lee to sleep.

The way she was smiling at him though, that gut punch of a grin, had him reaching out to grab the remote and turn off the television. He didn’t even notice that the other team had two on base with two outs.

Nope. There were much more important things on Tarin’s mind. Finding Lee’s hand and standing up to pull Lee to her feet, Tarin grinned, “Let’s go.”

The grin was still on her face as Tarin took her hand and pulled her to her feet off the couch. Part of Lee’s mind marvelled at how, so many years after realizing that this was even possible for her to sleep beside someone that it would still feel so special.

The rest of her was just ridiculously happy that they were going to bed together.

It really didn’t take long for them to get ready for bed, and a few minutes later Lee was climbing into Tarin's bed wearing a T-shirt and pyjama pants.

Rolling on her side so she was facing Tarin, Lee smiled. ”It’s kind of surprising just how happy being able to do this makes me,” Lee whispered. ”I’ve known it’s been possible for longer now than the time I thought it was an impossible dream, and yet…”