Well there. At least Lee had stopped looking so surprised that she had made a very tasty pie and was now simply looking embarrassed at the praise and gratified.

That was much better.

Kevin weighed in on the cake or pie debate, and Tarin grinned. Even Kevin, the toughest critic in the book, agreed that while cake was his preference he would be perfectly happy with pie.

”What about you, Lee? Cake or pie?” Tarin said, working on his crust now that he had eaten the rest of his pie.

Now Tarin was asking her whether she'd prefer cake or pie. ”Are we still talking about for birthdays?” Lee asked. ”If so, I probably would have to say cake.

“I'm general, I think I'd say pie now, I forgot how good they are, it's been so long since I've had pie. Unless there's cheesecake, then always cheesecake.”

”Why do you always give such long answers, mum?” Kevin asked.

Lee looked over at her son for a moment before shrugging. ”Because depending on the situation, the answer is different.” Wasn't that obvious, Lee couldn't help but wonder.

”Whatever mum. It's weird,” Kevin said as he stood up quickly made his way back to his room.

Hmmm. It seemed that for Lee it was cake over pie for birthdays. It appeared that Tarin was outnumbered in that regard.

In general though, she preferred pie, unless there was cheesecake.

Tarin made note. Lee had mentioned cheesecake on their first official date, Tarin remembered, the same time he had mentioned pie. That was twice she had brought it up, and that was significant.

Kevin was back to being a grumpy teenager again and Tarin hid a bit of a smile when he thought Lee’s answer was too thorough. Was there any such thing? Especially when it came to desserts?

And then Kevin was off, heading back down the hall to his room and Tarin shook his head.

”He liked the pie.” Tarin said, looking back to Lee for a moment before standing and snagging his plate and Kevin’s before heading to the kitchen to rinse the plates.

After all, Lee had spent so much time cooking, she didn’t need to clean anything up.

Lee shook her head at Kevin as he left, then saw Tarin doing the same thing and she smiled.

And Tarin pointed out that Kevin had liked the pie. They had both liked the pie. Lee couldn't help but smile wider, happily at that as she watched Tarin gathering up his and Kevin's plates. They had both liked the pie that she had made.

That she'd needed help with to have it be edible when it came out of the oven.

Tarin had made his way to the kitchen at this point, and Lee frowned at her thoughts. She probably needed to explain, didn't she?

Finishing up the last bit of pie on her plate, Lee followed Tarin into the kitchen with it. ”I’m glad you liked the pie,” she started, her voice soft. Unsure how to bring it up.

Pie plates were easy to clean and Tarin was already putting his in the drying rack when Lee followed him into the kitchen with her own plate.

Moving on to Kevin’s plate, Tarin smiled over at Lee when she said again that she was glad he liked the pie.

”It was really good.” he said with a small shrug, putting the second plate into the rack as it was clean and holding his hand out for Lee’s.

”You really didn’t have to go to so much trouble…” he said, thinking again at everything she had done to make sure that our even got made.

”And to think…it almost went uneaten.”

Lee smiled as she handed Tarin her plate when he said, again, that it was really good. And told her that she hadn't needed to go to so much trouble.

”I wanted to make it for you,” Lee told him. And she really had; the idea of making the pie for him had been somewhere in a corner of her mind since they'd been at the restaurant on their date.

”I just…after burning the first one, even though I followed the directions exactly,” Lee grumbled slightly. She'd followed the directions, it should have worked. But as she continued, her voice dropped slightly as her eyes moved to Tarin's hands as he finished washing her plate. ”I wasn't expecting nearly as much help as I ended up getting…”

Lee’s plate was as quick to wash as the other two had been and as Tarin listened to her explain about the pie. How she’d wanted to make it for him.

Shaking off his hands and wiping them off on a paper towel, Tarin turned as Lee explained that she hadn’t expected to get so much help. She looked almost…guilty about it.

Now that the dishes were clean, Tarin stepped up to Lee and reached out his hand to gently tip up her chin so that she was looking at him.

”Thank you.” he said, leaning down to give her a quick kiss.

Yes, it was a little weird. Yes, he was a little uncomfortable with how the knowledge of where Lee had learned to make that pie made him feel. That didn’t change the fact that she had spent ages doing something nice for him

”Thank you for thinking of me, and taking your time to do something nice for my very belated birthday.”

Lee's eyes stayed on Tarin's hands as he dried them after finishing with the dishes. Stayed on his hands as he turned to her. The silence was dragging on. Why wasn't he saying anything? Was the fact that she'd asked Adele for help, that she'd used Adele's recipe as the woman walked her through every step of making a pie that tasted so much like Tarin's mother's that weird? Uncomfortable? Upsetting?

At this point, because he'd been quiet for so long after she finished speaking, Lee was becoming far more worried than curious about what Tarin was thinking.

Lee's eyes were still on Tarin's hands as he started to raise one. Lifting it up to her face. Lee honestly didn't think she'd be able to look at him if he was upset.

And then his fingers were on her chin, lifting her face. And she did look at him.

”Thank you.”

Lee's spiralling worry stopped dead in confusion as Tarin was leaning down to kiss her. Lee returned the kiss more out of reaction than conscious decision at that moment because it was over before her brain had broken out of the confusion and caught up.

Then Tarin was thanking her again once he had pulled back. Lee just looked at him for a moment before she broke out laughing, throwing her arms around him in a hug.

”Oh god…you're welcome Tarin,” she said, the relieved laughter still in her voice.

Lee really had been so worried, hadn’t she?

Tarin could see it in her face and the way that Lee almost seemed surprised that he was kissing her. It almost made Tarin feel bad, even though he knew he hadn’t done a single thing to cause her to feel that way.

Tarin finished speaking and as Lee looked at him for a moment he wondered if he had said something wrong…but then she was laughing and throwing her arms around him.

All Tarin could do was laugh in surprise as her arms tightened around him and he wrapped his arms around her tightly as well.

”You have to stop worrying about how I’m going to react to things Lee.” he said, resting his chin on the top of Lee’s head.

”You were absolutely willing to convince me that pie, that you spent so much time baking, came from a can on the off chance that I might be upset…”

Lee hugged Tarin a bit tighter when she felt his arms wrapping around her. And buried her face in his shoulder slightly when he said she needed to stop worrying.

”When you said it tasted like your mom’s, I kinda panicked,” Lee admitted in a whisper. ”I had called to just figure out how to not burn it and was going to try again with canned filling. I didn’t even think they might taste similar. So yeah, I was willing to.”

Lee pulled back to look up at Tarin with a small, lopsided smile. ”I mean, for me even that’s an accomplishment. And I didn’t want to risk ruining it for you…”

Lee explained herself and Tarin sighed just a little bit as she basically described exactly what he had thought.

When Lee pulled back and continued to speak, Tarin looked down at her and returned her lopsided smile, shaking his head.

”Lee. Nobody has ever put out that kind of effort for me.”

God it was hard to put these kinds of things into words. ”I wouldn’t have even known…you told me yourself how hard it is for you to ask for help. But you did it...for me.”

Here, Tarin did frown a bit, ”Of course it’s uncomfortable, but it’s not going to go away.” he said, ”I’m fine, and I will tell you if I’m not. Okay?”

Leaning down for another quick kiss, ”Now admit that your baking foray was an absolute success.”

No one, ever. That was not overly surprising considering everything that he had told her, all the stories about his life since leaving home. That’s why she had wanted it to turn out as perfectly as possible. Not the reason that she had wanted to do it in the first place, but the reason that the first pie had not been even remotely acceptable. Not when Tarin had gone literal decades with no one caring bout his birthday, with no one wanting to put effort out for him.

Then Tarin brought up how she’d told him it was hard for her to ask for help, yet she did. Lee blushed again. ”Well, I doubt I would have been able to keep this a surprise for the weeks it likely would have taken me to figure it out on my own,” Lee replied, sounding a little sheepish. If it had been something she could keep a surprise, she definitely would have worked on it on her own.

Lee nodded as Tarin continued speaking. ”Ok,” she said softly before returning his kiss.

And the blush came back. ”I…” Lee blushed even darker. ”I mean, no one seems to have food poisoning, so I guess it was, wasn’t it?”

”As persistent as you are…I doubt it would have taken weeks.” Tarin said, ”But I’m still glad you did it.”

Lee tried…she really did try to admit her success with the pie. Tarin truly believed that she had tried. There was just something in her that couldn’t…

Tarin chuckled softly and shook his head, ”Almost…” Tarin said, leaning down again for a quick kiss. ”Try again.” he said.

Tarin had far more faith in Lee’s ability in the kitchen than she did. Probably because she hadn’t actually attempted cooking very much since he had been there. What cooking had been done had been largely Tarin. When he hadn’t cooked and they hadn’t gotten take out, it was normally just simple things like sandwiches or cereal.

”I may be persistent, Tarin,” Lee said, and while her tone was joking, she meant every word she said. ”But you haven’t seen me burn water yet. It’ll happen. And saying weeks was probably being generous.”

Then Tarin was laughing, and kissing her, and saying to try again. ”What do you mean ‘almost’?” Lee asked as she looked up at Tarin. ”Didn’t I say I guess I was?”

”If you manage to burn water I think I’ll be impressed.” Tarin said, ”And I don’t care anyway.”

His confidence was unshaken. Nobody could actually burn water, could they?

Lee also seemed to think that what she had said was enough.

”You did.” he admitted, ”But I wanted to hear you say, ‘I did a good job and made a very good pie.’

Looking down at Lee for a moment he frowned ever so slightly before he asked, ”Why is it so hard for you to be proud of yourself?”