”You, not listening? I don’t believe it…”

Lee shook her head and rolled her eyes slightly at Tarin. Though there was a smile on her face. After everything that she had told him, everything that she said she had done and been a part of that Tarin now knew about, the fact that he was joking with her about this…

Lee let out a small, relieved sigh. She had thought that he would be ok with what she had done, but there was still that bit of worry there.

But why did she want to get involved again? ”Most of what Haven does isn’t on the level of what we were doing with Slate, but it still makes a real difference in the world. The kind of mission that Michael was talking about being sent on is by far the exception. Most of what I was doing before I left was a lot of work at the Sanctuary, and community stuff through the Haven building here.

“But that mission Michael mentioned?” Lee continued, her voice definitely not happy. ”It was absolutely necessary. Sam and Shin both told me about it from their end. The man that Michael was after somehow figured out how to remove the x-gene and took it from a girl with a physical mutation.”

Lee explained that what she was wanting to get involved with was smaller scale and that what she’d been doing before she’d left the group had been mostly community outreach stuff.

Again, after everything she’d told him, there was no reason for Tarin to think otherwise.

Then they were talking about the mission that Michael had gone on. The one with the little girl. Lee had apparently talked to her X-Men friends about it. The same ones who had been involved in the situation.

Lee explained that the man that Michael had been sent to stop could…remove X-Genes? Remove mutations…and that man had removed the mutation of a little girl with a physical mutation.

There were people out there who could do that? A person existed, in this New York, who could take a way mutant powers. He and Lee had talked about what it was like for her when she was around adapteds and she had not described it as a good thing. For him though…what would it be like if he didn’t have to keep the spirits away 24/7? What would it be like to not have to worry about things like merges?

Blinking a few times to clear the thoughts from his head, Tarin turned his attention back to Lee, ”That’s awful for a child,” he said, ”It sounded like it all worked out?”

Lee nodded slightly. ”I mean, as best it can considering,” she replied. Well, the girl was technically unharmed, though confused and Sam wasn’t in jail so that was good, right?

Lee stood and just looked at Tarin for a minute, a crease forming between her brows. ”You know that I wasn’t lie or anything about all of that, right?” she finally asked. ”I mean, everything else that I had told you before was already a lot. All of this…”


Lee took a deep breath and shook her head before continuing in a whisper. ”As far as I know, including you now, the number of people on this world who know these details can still be counted on one hand.”

Especially considering that, should Lee have told Tarin? Probably not, but here they were. She also hadn’t seen any of them in years at this point.

”Do you have more questions?” Lee asked, her voice back up closer to a normal volume.

Lee spoke again, frowning and Tarin shook his head, ”I know you weren’t…” he said. ”And I understand why it’s not something you really share.” he added.

Lee went on to say that he was one of only a very very few people who even knew about had happened and Tarin smiled a little tightly, but still grateful, ”Thank you for telling me…” he said. It felt insufficient, but there wasn’t really anything else to say.

Lee asked if he had any other questions, and Tarin shook his head. No, Lee had been just as open and truthful with every answer as she always had been.

”Anything you’ve wanted to know, but haven’t asked?” he said a bit quietly. Lee was constantly sharing things that were hard for her to talk about, it seemed only fair that he give her a chance to ask questions too…even if they were tough to answer.

Lee just gave Tarin a tight lipped but sincere smile when he said he understood.

And then Tarin thanked her for telling him. What were you supposed to say when your boyfriend thanked you for sharing details of your past when you were directly involved in the takeover of foreign country’s governments to improve the lives of its citizens?

”I’m not going to lie to you,” Lee said softly. ”Well, I won’t unless it’s to keep a birthday surprise or something like that. And I couldn’t figure out a way to explain it while not telling you everything that didn’t make it sound like I’m a super villain.”

That said, Lee just blinked at herself then started laughing. ”Wow. My life really has been insane, hasn’t it?” she asked, more of herself than of Tarin.

Tarin didn’t have any other questions, apparently. Not then, though it wouldn’t surprise Lee if he had more once he’d had a chance to process things more. And he was inviting her to ask him questions.

Lee stood in thought for a couple moments. ”What was it that happened that let you finally get free of that cu-that group you were with?”

Lee promised that she wouldn’t lie to him unless it was for surprises and Tarin smiled, this were absolutely appropriate times to withhold information.

Lee really didn’t need to explain herself and Tarin hoped she knew that, but Lee was kind of doing that anyway. She also seemed to realize now, just how incredible her life sounded. Tarin couldn’t help but chuckle. ”Now you realize.” he said, ”I’d have never thought of you as a super villain though. Super villains don’t do the things you’ve done.”

The conversation had moved on though, and Lee definitely took the opportunity to ask something big.

Yeesh.

In all honesty, Tarin hadn’t thought that Lee would ask about that of all things. It had been years since Tarin had really even thought about that day, and just stepping through that door in his mind made him wince a little bit. Still, Tarin had offered and he leaned down against the counter on his forearms, looking at his hands as he fidgeted with his fingers.

”I guess it all kind of came down from the inside, and it all happened really fast.” Tarin said.

”It took you about fifteen seconds to figure out that telling young people that relationships were outlawed was an absolutely idiotic idea. It worked for a long time though, getting caught in anything like that was a nightmare.” he said, shuddering a bit at the memories.

”Anyway…a couple of the older kids had been seeing each other for a long time. Everyone covered for them because they were just…meant to be?” Tarin shrugged. ”For whatever reason it was worth the risk to help…or at least look the other way. ”

Tarin was quiet for a minute. ”We moved around a lot, never stayed anywhere very nice or for very long. Mostly old buildings that were sitting empty and waiting for a developer to buy them up…” it didn’t seem like important or relevant info, but it mattered later.

”One day, they were out and something happened with one of their powers. SUPER got involved, but…” here, Tarin pulled his eyes up from his hands to look at Lee, ”They couldn’t follow the rules, or one of them stopped the other from following the rules and they came back to where we were staying.”

Tarin paused again, gathering his thoughts. ”Leadership was not happy. It was even worse then because everything came out. People were turning on each other, they kept picking random people to punish.” his hands were shaking now, ”Eventually they killed the guy…” Tarin couldn’t say their names, ”She went ballistic. She had fire powers and suddenly everything was so hot, and so bright.”

”The building went up like kindling. It was old and there weren’t sprinklers and most of the fire escapes were broken or missing. Pretty much all of the leadership was just gone and so was she. That’s when SUPER showed up. They were snagging people as they ran…. I still have no idea how I managed to get away. How any of us did.”

Taking a deep breath, Tarin looked back up at Lee, ”Like I told you before, I ran into a few people I’d known a few times, but nobody ever talked about any of it. Once it was all over it all seemed so…wild that we’d all stayed and let them do those things. It’s not a very good story….” but it was true, and Tarin had told it, even if he was a little clammy and felt like he’d run a mile.

”Anything else? We’re on a roll.”

Lee listened silently as she looked at Tarin. There was no way that she was going to interrupt this story; he had barely even been able to acknowledge verbally that this had happened. But she reached out her hand to lay it on the counter near Tarin’s if he wanted to take it.

It was quite a story, though unfortunately not overly surprising. It didn’t matter that relationships weren’t ‘allowed’. You get that many people, especially young people, together and there were going to be relationships.

And god, of course one of them had stopped the other from following ‘the rules’. Lee hadn’t even known Tarin at the time, and she hadn’t let him near the knife that night. That entire weekend. If that couple were ‘meant to be’ as Tarin said, even if they weren’t, how could they have stood by and done that?

Lee didn’t even need Tarin to continue the story to know the answer. But he did and it only got worse.

Finally, Tarin was finished and asked if she had any other questions. ”God…” Lee breathed as she looked at him, squeezing his hand gently. ”Not that I can blame her for how she reacted, but I’m so sorry you all had to go through that.” Yet another thing for her to hate about the so-called ‘leadership’ of that group.

”So that’s why you’ve never really had any kind of serious relationships, then?”

Tarin nodded when Lee pointed out that she couldn’t blame the girl with the fire powers. ”Me either…nobody did anything to stop what was happening. We all just stood there glad that it wasn’t us, and hoping we wouldn’t get singled out.”

Was that why he hadn’t had any serious relationships?

Tarin shrugged, looking down at Lee’s hand holding his on the counter, ”For a long time I was just trying to figure out how to live on my own, had to figure out places to stay and get a job…” It had taken a while because he’d had to start from square one. ”I was also real scared that someone that SUPER had picked up would be helping them round up anyone who had gotten away. I know things were bad with SUPER, but now sometimes I wonder if the folks at the top exaggerated things too. The kid that came out to the island to try and recruit me didn’t seem like the boogeyman.” Still, it had been enough that Tarin had decided there and then that he was leaving.

This wasn’t what Lee had asked about though, ”When you’re with someone, you eventually want to know things about them.” Tarin said, ”And while I can do a pretty good job listening…when it came down to it I either had to lie and try to keep all of that straight or tell the truth.”

He sighed, ”Despite the evidence you have to the contrary, I’m not entirely socially hopeless and it was just easier to keep things mostly casual…but that wasn’t really me either.” another, slightly awkward shrug.

”Plus, the very nature of what I can do tends to really freak most people out. Add it all together and…yeah.”

It wasn’t just what had gone on with that group that had caused Tarin to never have a serious relationship. There were a whole lot of reasons. Lee nodded. Taht made perfect sense the way that he explained it. She knew how hard it was to find work and a place to stay when you had absolutely nothing.

And it had been easy to keep things ‘casual’. Though Lee had never done that, she knew exactly what Tarin was talking about. ”You’re right,” Lee agreed softly as she looked at Tarin. ”Even if something starts, relationships can’t really survive when you can’t be yourself, or they don’t accept you…” She’d learned that the hard way 20 years ago.

”I doubt they were exaggerating much about SUPER,” Lee said after a few moments. ”Well, maybe they were making up what SUPER was doing, but based on what some of the spirits around at the time had said, I doubt the danger was exaggerated.”

Tarin just nodded when Lee spoke. ” Eventually it gets to be too much.” Tarin said, thinking back with a sigh. ”It doesn’t matter though…” .

As for SUPER, Tarin nodded to what Lee said, ”By the time I left, I knew that they were snatching mutants off the street and doing things to them in labs. I’d met a few spirits who confirmed it. I’ve wondered more than once if they’d wanted an easy way to get rid of that kid and an excuse to come after me in a real way.” Tarin said, ”He didn’t seem to know anything about any of it, and I was not in a good place. I still don’t know how I got on their radar, but here we are.”

It was cathartic to have someone else know that little piece of what he’d been through. He felt kind of raw when he thought about it, and it was still really hard to remember, but it was something that someone else knew now.

There was so much more, and a lot of it was far more personal to him than the story Lee had asked for, maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to talk about.

”So, anything else you want to know or should we just head home?” The run had stretched longer than usual, but Tarin still had time to get home and get ready before his appointments for the day started.

Tarin didn’t know how he had gotten on SUPER’s radar, but somehow he had. Lee looked down at their hands on the counter, watching as her thumb ran over the back of Tarin’s hand.

”Sometimes,” Lee said quietly, slowly. ”The best way to hide is to be what everyone expects: a fake pretending to be the real deal.” It had worked on this side years ago, at least. Except for when he went out of his way and revealed himself to be a mutant, that is.

”Or,” Lee continued, glancing up at Tarin’s face before her eyes returned to their hands. ”Maybe it had to do with you going out to that island? I can’t see, or even sense that they’re there, but I wouldn’t want to be out there.”

Again things were quiet between them, and Lee just watched her thumb rubbing on the back of Tarin’s hand until he asked if there was anything else she wanted to know. Lee was surprised with how much Tarin was actually opening up today. In the past, even after she’d shared a lot, Tarin had never been this forthcoming.

As Lee realized a question that she did want an answer to, simply out of curiosity, a smile grew on her face. Lifting her eyes to Tarin’s again almost nervously, Lee quickly licked her lips before speaking. ”How long have I been your favourite place?”

”That was honestly so smart.” Tarin said when Lee pointed out how hiding in plain sight had worked well for this world’s Tarin.
”And something that wouldn’t have ever even occurred to me. Though, I did think by having the shop it might be one of those ‘if this guy was a threat would he really just set up shop and proclaim it?’ Type of things.”

”Not that anything I actually do is all that impressive.” No, in reality, most of his fear about SUPER had likely been paranoia. It was still a puzzle why they’d wanted to recruit him in the first place because Tarin still didn’t buy a bit of the ‘make the world a better place’ schtick.

Lee pointed out the island again and Tarin noted again how uncomfortable the whole idea of him having spent time out there made her. She might have been right, but it was still interesting that she seemed to take so many of the other things he told her in stride, ”Why does it bother you so much?” Tarin asked, ”Is it because more highly concentrated areas were a problem for the Tarin on this side?” he thought for a moment, ”I know this sounds absolutely crazy to you, but it felt safer there. Like, even if someone came for me, at least I could put up a fight.”. They’d talked about it before, how it had been a dark time, and that Tarin hadn’t particularly liked who he’d become when he was out there. He wanted Lee to at least understand though.

The quiet stretched a bit, and though it wasn’t uncomfortable Tarin couldn’t help but wonder what else Lee would want to know. When she did speak, it was a much easier question to answer and Tarin grinned.

” Since the bar.” he said. ”Before we even got back…” he said. ”You ever have one of those moments where you just know you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be?”

As soon as he said it, Tarin felt his face flush a bit. That had been a bit much when Lee had just asked a simple question, ”But yeah…right about then.”

”Not that anything I actually do is all that impressive.”

Lee smiled a little sadly over at Tarin. ”That’s what you think,” Lee said softly. ”Butyou have no idea how impressed I’ve been hearing about what you have, and haven’t, done with your powers, Tarin. And given the right situations, you could make quite an impact…”

Tarin was curious why she was so disturbed about the idea of the island he’d spent so much time on in his world, and Lee thought about it for a moment. ”I think that’s part of it,” Lee admitted. ”But also, just the thought of all those people buried there…I think it’s probably just like some people are creeped out by cemeteries, but because I know that spirits are real?”

Did that make sense? Lee hoped it did. As did his comment about how he’d actually felt safer out there. At least after the initial day or two when things had been…difficult between him and the spirits. ”I can understand that,” Lee replied. Knowing that you had access to use your powers when things went wrong certainly helped things. ”It still wouldn’t have helped how you being out there looked to others, though.”

”Since the bar?” Lee repeated, her voice barely a whisper. As Tarin continued speaking, a smile spread across her face. And she certainly noticed the flush that began to lightly cover his face.

That had been so early in the time that they’d known each other. Barely a week. But how much had they shared already at that point? Likely far more than many other couples after years. And they hadn’t even been a couple at that point.

”It can be kind of scary, thinking that the things that have happened were supposed to happen like that,” Lee said. ”But yeah, I know those kind of moments…”

Tarin shook his head when Lee said that she had been impressed, apparently very impressed, by how he managed and used his powers.

”Really? he said, ”but I don’t actually do anything other than make sure things don’t happen.”

Lee explained that it bothered her that all those people were buried there and Tarin kind of looked at her for a few moments. ”It’s hard for me to think about it that way.” he said, ”I guess I’m just kind of…used to it, but that makes sense.” It was definitely a better thing to say than, ‘I hadn’t thought about the fact that all of the bodies of those dead people were literally underfoot.’

As for the rest, telling Lee how he’d felt at the bar, actually admitting that he’d thought that way that fast. He’d just kind of said it, grinning like a fool, but now that the words were out there, Tarin kind of wished he could take it back, say something less wild. They’d just talked about being honest though. Thank God she was smiling. She was also talking about how scary thinking about things like that can be. Yep. Definitely scary.

”I’m sorry…” he felt compelled to say, ”I know that’s weird. I just…” Tarin paused for a moment, ”As soon as I realized maybe there was a chance, I didn’t want to be anywhere else.”

God. That wasn’t any better was it?

Lee just looked at Tarin steadily for a moment. ”With some powers, it’s more impressive to be able to not do something than it is to use them,” she said, thinking about city wide illusions and other wild things that had happened over the years.

Now Tarin was apologizing. Lee shook her head as she squeezed Tarin’s hand. ”Don’t,” Lee said gently. ”You don’t need to apologize. With how quickly we learned so much about each other…

“Other people may think it’s weird after such a short time, but I thought we’d already decided we don’t care what others think. Though, if I had actually listened to feelings instead of trying to convince myself otherwise, maybe we both would have known there was more than just a chance before that night…”