Tarin couldn’t see Lee’s blush, but he was definitely blushing again as she spoke. He’d been a little more coherent than that, but not enough to make a real difference.

Lee continued speaking softly and Tarin listened with a little pang of…something. This particular thing hadn’t ever happened to Tarin before, the utter and complete lack of any sort of control over his feelings or actions…

”I wouldn’t know…not like that…” he said quietly, closing his eyes for a moment and pulling Lee close again.

But at least it wasn’t weird and he couldn’t help but smile when Lee said that whatever all that was, was happening more with him. ”Definitely taking that as a compliment.” he said.

Tarin didn’t know if this sort of thing was normal, didn’t know whether it just happened like Lee said, because he had never felt something like that before. Was it actually weird, she just didn’t realize it because she had been with so few people in her life? Lee had never even considered that it might not be normal for people to feel that much of a desperate urgency to be with someone.

Though things hadn’t gone further than making out because of Lee’s intense issues with her powers at the time, this, what she and Tarin had just felt, and forgetting that the whole rest of the world even existed had been happening to her since the very first night that she had walked into Matt’s bar.

It had happened with Kevin’s father, and Lee couldn’t remember him saying that it was weird. It had happened with Blaine, but he had absolutely no experience in that to draw from.

And it was now happening with Tarin, though it was something he had never felt before, something that he had been wondering if it was weird.

”Definitely taking that as a compliment.”

Lee had been beginning to spiral into worry, but Tarin’s voice brought her back to the moment. ”Good,” Lee said softly, turning her head to kiss Tarin’s throat. ”Because as embarrassing and inconvenient it can be at times, I think it’s a good sign…”

Lee got so quiet for so long after he spoke that Tarin started to worry that by admitting what he’d admitted that he’d done something wrong. Lee almost always had something to say when he said things like that.

She didn’t seem upset though.

No, in fact, when he said he was taking the whole thing as a compliment she turned and kissed his neck again.

When she finished speaking, Tarin had to shake his head and chuckle a bit. It was a bit inconvenient at times, but at least so far whenever situations like this had happened they’d been somewhere to do something about it…otherwise things would have been real uncomfortable. Something to keep in mind, he supposed.

”Worth it every time.” he agreed simply.

Lee smiled when Tarin spoke. ”I sure hope so,” she said, her own tone was teasing. ”If it’s not worth it, then what are we doing here?”

Grinning, Lee kissed Tarin’s neck again, then started kissing her way up to his ear. ”Though, every time we’re here,” Lee whispered in Tarin’s ear now. ”No matter what it is we’re doing, I think is worth it.”

It was true, even the occasional night when they’d be going to bed, just laying there and Tarin would fall asleep but Lee realized she had too much energy and would have to get up and leave…Even those times she thought were worth it.

Now it was Lee’s turn to tease and Tarin just smiled, there wasn’t much to say about that.

Lee kissed his neck again, and Tarin squirmed just a little, then significantly more as she kissed her way up to his ear and whispered.

Now that Lee had moved it was easy for Tarin to turn his head and kiss her lips, so he did. Tarin kissed Lee just as slowly and thoroughly as it had been urgent and needy just a little while before.

When it seemed appropriate, Tarin pulled back and rested his forehead against Lee’s, similarly to how they’d stood earlier in the night.

”I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again whenever you want to hear it. No matter where we are, no matter what we are doing, my favorite place is with you.” Was it a bit over the top? Maybe, but in a night that had already been entirely over the top it felt appropriate.

Lee smiled, and maybe even giggled slightly when she felt Tarin squirming under her kisses. But then Tarin was turning his head and kissing her. Lee’s eyes slipped closed as she returned the kiss, her hand sliding up from Tarin’s chest to rest gently on his cheek.

This kiss was nothing like the kisses they had shared earlier that night. Nowhere near as passionate, urgent, almost desperate to feel each other, to be with the other.

Those kisses had been powerful, intense. Amazing.

This kiss was just as amazing in completely different ways. It was slow, and lingering, and while not passionate in the same way, Lee could still feel Tarin’s feelings in the kiss.

But then Tarin pulled back, his forehead resting against hers as he spoke, and Lee blushed. ”I…” Realizing the words that were about to come out of her mouth, Lee leaned in to give Tarin another kiss. ”Me too…” she whispered against his lips.

Lee kissed him again and returned the sentiment and Tarin just smiled. Pure contentment was a good description for how he felt at that exact moment and for a little bit he was perfectly content to just lay there.

But…and normally it would have taken an act of god for Tarin to even think about moving but…there was pie. Pie that Lee had made herself that was just sitting in the kitchen and waiting to be eaten.

”For example…” Tarin said, giving Lee another kiss, this one quick.

”it would also be my favorite place to be if we were back at the table, dressed and eating pie…”

As the room lapsed into silence, Lee lay there with her eyes closed as her fingers started trailing along Tarin’s skin again. This really was very nice, Lee thought as they laid there. Even with the energy, Lee thought she’d be happy to just lay there with Tarin for hours.

But then Tarin was speaking, and Lee leaned up to look at him in surprise. ”I don’t doubt that, but you’re actually suggesting that we get up and get dressed?” she asked him. ”Because normally when we’re like this, you call things like clothes stupid.”

Tarin did have a point, though. She had baked the pie for him and instead of eating it they were still just laying in her bed. And Kevin would likely be out looking for pie soon, too.

Heaving a dramatic sigh, Lee gave Tarin a quick kiss ”I guess we can move your favourite place back out there…”

Lee leaned up to look at him and Tarin momentarily decided that he was an idiot and that staying right where they were was definitely the correct plan of action for the night.

She had baked a whole damn pie though…for him and it was just sitting out there lonely and forlorn.

”Objectively speaking…clothes are stupid.” Tarin said, ”Especially when they have a ridiculous excess of buttons.” his face showed exactly what he thought about that.

Lee seemed to understand where he was coming from though, even if just a little bit and she sighed and gave him a kiss and said that she supposed they could have the pie. She seemed disappointed though.

”Nobody has ever made me a birthday pie before…” he said, ”I just want to try it when it’s fresh…”

Lee laughed when Tarin commented on buttons. They did tend to make things more difficult to remove in a hurry. ”At least until it gets too cold for the tank tops, no buttons,” Lee informed Tarin with a kiss.

”Nobody has ever made me a birthday pie before…I just want to try it when it’s fresh…”

”Well, I've never heard of a birthday pie before,” she said as she reluctantly climbed out of bed. ”Knowing my luck, if we let it sit for too long, it'll go rock hard.”

…And her clothes were scattered. Honestly not surprised, she didn't actually remember half of the clothing being removed. But rather than deal with all of that, Lee made her way to her dresser to grab a pair of pyjamas.

”Thank god.” Tarin said, when Lee said that there would be no buttons until winter. But there would be in winter? That was something they were going to have to problem solve when it became relevant, for sure.

Lee hadn’t heard of a birthday pie before, but then she was climbing out of the bed and Tarin just laid there and stared.

It absolutely stood to reason that she was going to have to get up to get dressed, but man, they weren’t in the habit of getting up and trying to do things…except for that one time at the shop and Tarin had studiously avoided looking when Lee got ready to leave that day.

The pie would be fine. Pies were not in the habit of getting hard when they sat out for too long.

”Is it too late for me to change my mind….” he said, voice just a little bit faint.

Lee had pulled a pair of boxers and a T-shirt out of her dresser when she heard Tarin speaking again. ”Change your mind?” Lee asked. ”I thought you wanted your birthday pie?”

Head tilting slightly, Lee slowly made her way back toward the bed. ’Why, did you have another idea of what we could do instead?” Lee said softly as she came to a stop beside the bed.

Lee did like the idea of Tarin changing his mind about pie, of her just crawling back into bed with him. But she also knew they wouldn't be getting up any time soon if she did.

Still…

Tarin was pretty sure that there was a clause in the Geneva Conventions regarding situations like these. Probably in the fine print. Somewhere.

What exactly was a man supposed to do in a situation like this? His girlfriend had baked him a pie for his birthday. His favorite pie. It was sitting uneaten. Surely not eating the pie was a bad idea. HOWEVER said girlfriend was here right now. Like this. It made the pie really difficult to think about.

Realizing he’d just been laying there staring, Tarin dragged his eyes up to Lee’s, clearly a bit in crisis.

”Uh…” he said, ”I have to be honest. I have absolutely no idea what the right answer is.” He said, completely torn between dragging Lee back into the bed and letting her put on those stupid clothes she’d gotten out.

Lee had asked Tarin a question, a few in fact, but he was just laying there looking at her. Staring. And definitely not at her face.

Lee was blushing at this point, and was about to ask her questions again when Tarin's eyes finally moved up to hers and he spoke.

”Oh Tarin…” Lee said, laughing softly as she sat on the edge of the bed. ”There isn't a ‘right’ answer. I was just surprised. But if we do go have some pie, I'm planning to come back here after…”

Oh, there hadn’t been a right answer.

That was good, Tarin supposed as Lee sat down on the bed. To his credit, Tarin kept his hands to himself. If he didn’t, the pie would absolutely not get eaten in a timely manner.

Lee pointed out that regardless of whether or not there was pie she was planning to end up back here and Tarin grinned.

”I mean…when both options are a possibility it would be ridiculous to just not have pie. Right?” he said.

His clothes were far less strewn, and he didn’t have anything else in Lee’s room to wear, so getting dressed was a fairly simple…if stupid matter.

”Pie time.” he said with a grin.