Lee wasn’t opposed to his idea with the pizza, it seemed, and Tarin congratulated himself a bit for being funny. It was good to hear Lee laugh.

Lee had turned to him though and the way she was looking at him, and what she was saying, made Tarin damn near forget about the food again. She was so close and she knew exactly what she was doing.

Not one to disappoint, Tarin turned a little so he was facing Lee and reached out to pull her close, his arms around her waist as they had been before.

”Le’s see…” he said, dropping his back down on to Lee’s, ”I think I was right about here…” added before leaning in for that kiss.

Lee grinned as she felt Tarin’s hand move back around her waist, happily letting him physically pull her closer to him. And as he spoke, Lee raised her arms to wrap around Tarin's neck.

”You know, I think you're right…” Lee whispered just before Tarin's lips had found hers.

Smiling into the kiss, Lee let her one hand find its way into Tarin's hair like it had been before they were interrupted, her other arm tightening around his neck slightly to help pull her up, closer to him.

Lee had mentioned going back to the kiss because it had been nice, but now that they had, the longer the kiss was lasting, the more Lee felt like she needed it, needed Tarin. It wasn't to the extreme degree that the need had been there that first night, after the bar.

But it was still there. She needed this, him, and Lee deepened the kiss as she held herself as close to Tarin as she could.

Things between him and Lee were still relatively new in the grand scheme of things, but Tarin had to wonder if it was always going to be like this with them.

The way Lee was kissing him, the way she was holding him to her…Tarin understood how it was possible to completely lose oneself in another person. It happened often, at least to him, and it was like time stood still for those long moments.

As Lee pulled herself closer, Tarin tightened his arms more, that need to be even closer intensifying by the moment. He didn’t trust himself to let his hands roam. They were in a common area of the apartment after all.

Moments, or an eternity, later Tarin realized that there was still food on the counter getting cold. Tarin wasn’t going to repeat his mistake from earlier though and he just barely pulled back, just enough to speak. ”We probably should think about that pizza.” he said against Lee’s lips before resuming that previous kiss.

There. He’d done the responsible thing

Lee's hand that wasn't in Tarin's hair gripped his as she pressed herself closer, the kiss almost growing desperate. Why couldn't she get closer to him, get close enough?

Tarin was holding her to him tightly, but his hands just staying there on her back, not moving. Other than the kiss itself, he wasn't moving.

Until he did.

Pulling away from the kiss, and Lee desperately tried to follow his lips. But she was already reaching up for the kiss, with the height difference and how he was holding her, she couldn't.

Thankfully, Tarin wasn't pulling back far. He spoke, and Lee could still feel his lips moving against hers. But it took a few moments for the words to make sense to Lee, and by that time, Tarin was already kissing her again. Pizza? Pizza could wait. Pizza was still good cold, and this here was anything but cold.

“Eewww! Mum! Gross!”

Children, however, couldn't.

Eyes widening in surprise, Lee's hands released Tarin and she practically jumped back, though she didn't leave Tarin's arms. She had most certainly forgotten both where they were and the fact that Kevin needed dinner.

Kevin, who she could now see but still couldn't feel. ”Well, maybe if you didn't keep sneaking around with your shield up,” Lee replied. She may have been blushing slightly having been caught like that. Though if she was being honest, Lee wasn't sure she would have noticed even if she had been able to feel Kevin's energy.

”It’s still gross, mum,” Kevin informed her as he made his way to the pizza boxes, only lowering his shield out of necessity to get food.

Yeah, the pizza was probably going to have to wait. Lee didn’t seem to have any interest whatsoever in dinner at the moment and Tarin was absolutely not going to argue with her. She didn’t even respond when he spoke, just dove right back in for more kissing. At least until…

”Ewww! Mum! Gross!”

At the words, Lee sprang back and Tarin completely froze. Lee was talking, scolding Kevin for wandering around with his shield up but she was clearly embarrassed and Tarin kind of wanted to melt into the floor.

Realizing that his arms were still around Lee, Tarin dropped them and stepped back a bit to resume leaning against the counter. If Lee was blushing a bit, his face was on fire.

Kevin spoke again and dropped his shield and Tarin almost wanted to compliment the teen on how well he was doing with that, but god he couldn’t have made words come out of his mouth if he had tried. Not right now. No, he was a having a completely different reaction.

Crossing his arms and covering his mouth with his hand, Tarin tried to stifle the horrified laughter that was trying to bubble forth. Desperately avoiding eye contact with everyone in the room he just stood there awkwardly. What the hell else was he going to do?

Lee had thought that she was blushing, but that was nothing compared to Tarin she noticed when she glanced up at him. His face was bright red as his arms fell away from around her waist and he stepped back.

Kevin went ahead and stated that it was still gross even if she'd known he was coming out of his room, and she just shook her head as she stepped away from the counter and leaned against the wall. Even with Kevin there, space between her and Tarin was probably a good thing.

”Just be glad we haven't done this around you in public,” Lee commented. Maybe that as a potential threat would calm him down about this a bit. Or get him out of the kitchen faster. Lee couldn't even imagine how mortifying that would be; she couldn't remember her parents ever doing more than just a quick hug or kiss, and even that, at Kevin's age, she had thought was gross.

As, apparently, Kevin also thought about more public displays, since he then turned a horrified look at Lee. ”Eww, please don't. Ever.” he said before grabbing his pizza and practically running back to his room.

Lee stepped a little further away and Tarin chance a glance at her and almost lost his composure when she pointed out that Kevin was lucky this hadn’t happened in public.

In all honesty they were all probably lucky this hadn’t happened in public. It had almost happened in public at the bar that night, but Kevin hadn’t been there. Lee had told him she had a tendency to forget where she was and what she was doing at times and well…she definitely hadn’t exaggerated.

At any rate, after Lee said that, Kevin couldn’t get out of the kitchen fast enough and Tarin thanked every deity he could think of that he hadn’t had to participate in any part of the conversation. Was he a coward to leave it all to Lee? Yep. Did he care? Nope.

Kevin’s door shut and Tarin tried to figure out how they’d both missed the sound of it opening in the first place and he just couldn’t help it anymore. He was trying so hard to keep a straight face, literally covering his mouth to try and not laugh….but honestly it was kind of funny. What else were they going to do?

”For the record…I did say we needed to think about the pizza…” he said, positively giggling at this point.

Lee watched Kevin rush out of the kitchen before turning to look at Tarin again.

And laughing, that blush still on her face, as she saw the expression on Tarin's. ”You did…” Lee agreed, still laughing. ”I thought about it for a whole moment, and decided pizza is good cold…” Which, while true, had not been a great decision right then.

”You’re probably right, though, and we should eat. Maybe sitting on opposite sides of the table…”

Pizza was good cold. Lee had a point, and she had apparently thought about what Tarin had said about the pizza, she just hadn’t cared.

That was fine. He hadn’t either.

He also hadn’t technically said that they should think about the pizza now. Now that Kevin was gone and the giggles had passed they were alone in the kitchen again. Tarin’s blush was fading, but he still felt all warm and his heart was beating quite a bit faster than it normally would have been. That had been a hell of a kiss…kisses…

Lee was suggesting opposite sides of the table though and Tarin nodded, ”Probably for the best…” he said, walking over to grab a couple of slices of pizza, deliberately not looking at Lee in the process lest they end up where they’d started again.

Out to the table Tarin went then, moving his backpack to the back of the chair before sitting down to eat.

Tarin agreed that opposite sides of the table would be a good idea. Yeah, Lee couldn’t help but think as she watched Tarin grab himself some pizza and make his way out to the table. Without looking at her once.

Yeah. If Tarin wasn’t even looking at her as he got food, having the table between them was a very good idea. Distance between them was good if they were going to actually eat and keep their hands off each other while they were still out in the common area of the apartment. Because without space between them, the table itself was not going to be a deterrent at all.

Either they needed to have dinner quickly, or Lee needed to go have a long, cold shower.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Lee grabbed some pizza and followed Tarin much more slowly out to the table. Resisting the urge to sit beside him, Lee made her way to the opposite side of the table and sat down.

And thought that it would be a good idea to know how long they were going to have to behave for. Or if that cold shower was actually needed while Tarin ate.

”Should we hurry and eat so we can get to dessert?” Lee asked as she picked up a slice of pizza, her eyes on her plate so she didn’t make the situation ‘worse’. ”Or did you want to have your pie right after the pizza?”

It took Lee a moment to come out of the kitchen and when she did it seemed like she was working just as hard to avoid looking at him as he was working to avoid looking at her.

Man, if they weren’t on the same page here he was going to need to go take a cold shower or something.

Tarin was just taking another bite of pizza when Lee started talking.

At first, Tarin thought that she had asked the same question twice, but that didn’t make sense. Then the pieces fell into place and Tarin just sat there staring at Lee while Lee stared at her plate.

”I’ve always kind of been a dessert first kind of guy…” Tarin responded finally, taking another bite of pizza he wasn’t even really tasting anymore.

”But, if you want pie, we can totally have pie.”

Lee wasn’t looking at Tarin, so she didn’t see him staring at her as she asked about dessert or pie. Or that he continued to stare at her for a while after that. Lee kept her eyes focused on her plate as she ate.

But once he did respond, Lee looked up at him across the table with a wide grin. Maybe that cold shower wouldn’t be needed afterall. That was very good as Lee had definitely felt like Tarin was enjoying the kissing in the kitchen as much as she had been.

”Dessert first sounds like a great plan,” Lee said, setting her pizza down. This was not where Lee had thought the evening would go, well, not this quickly at any rate, but she was more than willing to hold off on cutting into the pie she had actually baked for Tarin in favour of having dessert first.

And Lee was about to ask Tarin how hungry he was or if they should really have dessert first, but she stopped herself by biting her lip and looking back at her plate. They were adults, she told herself as she picked her slice of pizza up again to take another bite. Surely they could control themselves long enough to eat dinner and not completely act like hormonal teenagers.

Lee didn’t look up at him for the longest time, and Tarin used that time to eat his pizza. The reality of the situation was that they both needed to eat, and if they stayed on this topic too much longer that simply wasn’t going to happen.

Dessert before the pie was a great idea though.

Tarin just held her eyes for a moment, then studiously went back to his pizza.

”These slices are awful big though.” Tarin said as he finished the first one. It was New York style pizza after all.

”I really don’t think I can eat two. Especially if there’s pie.”

That was fair, right? ”I’m gonna go put the rest in the fridge.”

They lapsed back into silence as they worked on eating their pizza, and Lee realized that was probably for the best. As was not actually looking at each other at the moment.

Lee’s logical mind told her that it was a little ridiculous that there were times, like this and that night at the bar, that they couldn’t seem to keep their hands off of each other.

But there were other parts of her, including other parts of her mind, that loved that fact. And not even just in the moment. Plus, most of the time, they were able to behave appropriately for being in public.

And apparently Tarin ‘couldn’t’ eat two pieces of pizza that night. Not if there was pie. And he was finished eating, apparently.

”Can you take my extra slice, too?” Lee asked.

”Yep” Tarin said, snagging Lee’s plate as he stood up and headed to the kitchen. Once there, it was a quick thing to gather up the pizza and get it in the fridge where it would be safe and cold for later. As he’d thought several times. Cold pizza really was pretty good.

It was kind of wild how this happened. How sometimes it seemed like he and Lee simply could not keep their hands off of each other. Sometimes when they started kissing like that it was like it all took on a life of its own.

The important thing was that putting the pizza away was quick, but as Tarin made his way back out to the table, he suddenly felt a little bit awkward.

”Pizza is put away.” he said, standing by the table and nodding towards the kitchen.