”Lee, what's going on?” Rachel chimed in, but Lee ignored her for the moment.

”I felt you getting close,” Lee said, the crease still between her brows as she looked up at Tarin. Even sitting on the trail chair at the bar table, Lee still had to look up slightly.

”I mean, that's normal,” she continued. ”But I knew it was you. I knew it was certainly as though I was watching you walk up, but it was just my siphoning.”

As she finished speaking, Lee went back to paying attention to Tarin's energy. It was hard to exactly pick it out with all the other energy she felt in the bar.

”I didn't know you could do that, Lee.”

”Me neither.”

Lee looked up at him and she was so close Tarin could see that little crease between her brows. They were talking about something completely different, but he could remember another time when she’d looked at him like that in this exact bar. Tarin had reached up and smoothed that little crease away that night, he wanted to do it again, but he thought it might be a little strange to do so given their audience.

Lee explained what was up and it was Tarin’s turn to frown slightly as he tried to wrap his head around what she said. She had felt him approaching and known it was him?

How had she known it was him? Rachel spoke and said she didn’t know Lee could do that, and Lee responded that she hadn’t known either.

All Tarin could think about was the fact that it was super cool that she’d been able to tell it was him.

”How?” Tarin said, a slow smile spreading across his face. ”Want me to go hide and come back again so you can be sure?”

Based on the frown that appeared on Tarin's face, Lee could only guess that he was trying to understand it. She was having trouble understanding it and she had lived with these powers for 25 years.

”I have no idea how,” Lee replied.

Before she could even attempt to answer, Lee smiled as she saw the smile spreading across Tarin's face.

Then burst out laughing at his offer. ”Maybe later, hon,” she replied, taking a sip of her beer. ”But honestly, I'm not sure how. Even with you this close, it's hard to pick out just your energy from all of it.” As she finished speaking, Lee waved her beer bottle in a small circle indicating everyone in the bar.

”Does that mean you'll be able to tell it's me, too?” Rachel asked, sounding excited.

“Is this what the conversation is normally like when I'm off working?” Matt asked. “About mutant powers?”

Lee didn’t know how it worked, but apparently it did. Tarin was still smiling and was honestly thrilled that nothing more serious had been wrong. In fact, Lee was smiling and laughing at Tarin’s offer to hide so Lee could try again.

She said maybe later and Tarin shrugged and took another drink of his beer, a beer that was quickly disappearing.

”Maybe you just need more practice.” Tarin said as Rachel asked if Lee would be able to tell if it was her. That was an excellent question. Tarin wanted to test out the theory right then and there, but Matt spoke up then and asked if all they talked about when he was working was powers.

”What else would we possibly talk about?” Tarin said, ”You have to admit that this is really cool.”

”Maybe, Rach?” Lee said to her sister, her voice uncertain. ”Considering I have no idea how or why I was able to with Tarin just now…”

Lee turned to look at Tarin as he suggested that she just needed more practice with it. ”That would probably help,” Lee said with a nod. ”But like I said, there’s just so much energy here…I’m not sure trying to practice here tonight would be helpful.”

As Matt spoke, Lee turned to look at him with her head tilted. ”Not normally, Matt,” Lee replied. She realized as she thought about it that this probably was the most they had talked about powers with Matt present. Most times, he’d chat then go off to work some more. ”But when powers seem to grow while you’re at the bar, it’s not like it’s very surprising to talk about it.”

Tarin then asked what else they would possibly talk about, and Lee laughed slightly. ”I don’t know, Tarin,” she said, nudging him with her shoulder as she smiled at him. ”You could always bore us all with baseball.”

It made sense that it would be hard to pick out individuals in a space that had this many people inside. Now Tarin was even more curious about Lee’s powers. He knew that proximity and touch made a difference, but he hadn’t thought about what it was like for her to be in a crowd. Was it overwhelming? Lee had mentioned earlier that she’d need a run after all of this, but how did it compare energy-wise to when they spent a night together in close contact? Was that why she could tell him apart from other people? Because they were so often in such close contact?

Obviously these weren’t questions for now, but Tarin still wondered.

Matt didn’t seem put out by the topic of conversation, but it was probably a bit rude to dominate the conversation with talk of powers with people who didn’t have any. Lee had a point though, this was suddenly a special situation.

The low blow about baseball wasn’t necessary though.

”Hey now. I think that Rachel and Matt would find it just as interesting as I do that you’re the Mets’ recent lucky charm.” Tarin said, ”That and interdimensional hat magic.”

This kept coming up, but to be fair, Lee was the one who had started this particular conversation.

When she turned to look up at Tarin, she could see the interest on his face as they were talking about this apparent new aspect of her powers. He looked just as curious and excited about it as he had the day that Kevin had gotten his powers.

Apparently the baseball comment was a little too much, though. Before she was able to say anything, Matt chimed in.

“Hey now, there’s nothing wrong with baseball.”

”Baseball?” Rachel asked, staring right at Lee. ”On top of everything else, you’re now the lucky charm for a professional sports team?”

Lee rolled her eyes at her sister as she shook her head. ”Of course not, nothing like that,” Lee said. Just because Rachel now knew some of the things she’d done, that didn’t mean that everything she did was big, and huge, and important. ”The team just seems to do better when I’m wearing Tarin’s Mets hat. Which he brought when he crossed the rift. So now I have to wear it for every game.” As she finished speaking, there was a small smile on Lee’s face because she really didn’t mind wearing the hat as much as the words might have made it sound.

“Wait, on top of everything else?” Matt asked, glancing around the table. “Am I missing something?”

Lee looked at Matt for a moment before turning back to Rachel. ”You didn’t tell him anything?” she asked, honestly surprised.

Tarin had an ally in Matt as far as baseball was concerned and when Matt defended the noble sport, Tarin made a small toast in the other man’s direction with his beer bottle.

Rachel, it seemed, had taken Tarin far too literally and now thought that Lee was actually a lucky charm for the Mets in some official capacity.

Lee cleared things up pretty quickly though and it came to light that while Rachel had mentioned certain things to Robert, she hadn’t mentioned anything to Matt. It was interesting, Tarin thought, that Lee had known Matt for so long, had gone into business with him, and he knew next to nothing about Lee’s background. Tarin supposed it made sense though, Lee had only told her siblings recently. It was also really hard for Lee to talk about a lot of the things they were referencing.

Rachel just looked at Lee when Lee seemed surprised that Rachel hadn’t mentioned any of the things to Matt, ”I figured if you wanted him to know, you’d tell him.”

“Tell me what?” Matt said.

This was not where the night needed to go, not in the middle of a crowded bar. Not with how hard it was for Lee to talk about all of those things under normal circumstances.

”Lee hates to admit that she’s a baseball fan.” Tarin deflected, ”Hey…” he said, ”Do you think that they’d give us tickets if we told them about the interdimensional hat magic?”

It was an obvious deflection, and a poor one at that, but Tarin didn’t want Lee to have to talk about any of those other things if she didn’t want to.

Lee had mentioned once that Rachel seemed to want to know everything about everything, but that she just wanted to know, not to gossip. That statement seemed to have been proven very true, considering she had apparently told Matt nothing, and had barely told Robert more than what he should ask about.

But it was leaving Matt very confused and left out.

And still Rachel wasn’t saying anything about it to Matt. Tarin, it seemed, was trying to steer the conversation back to baseball.

”Well yeah,” Lee replied to him. ”It’s a hard thing for me to admit. You couldn’t pay me enough to sit and watch baseball when I was younger.”

Lee burst out laughing when Tarin asked if they thought they could get tickets becauseof his ‘interdimensional magic’. ”If they believe us, maybe,” Lee allowed. ”But unfortunately, I don’t think that’s likely.”

Tarin felt for Matt in this situation, he really did. The other man had to be confused and at this point he had to be aware that the conversation had purposefully been shifted away from the topic he was in the dark about.

That was something that was just going to have to be taken care of later though. Matt, at least, seemed to take the hint and let the topic go for the time being.

Rachel nodded when Lee pointed out that she couldn’t have been paid to watch a baseball game when she was younger, ”It is pretty impressive that you’ve gotten her to willingly watch baseball, she wouldn’t even watch our brothers play…”

Tarin shrugged, ”I think it was totally pity at first.” he said, ”And trying to be a good roommate.” Well it had been, hadn’t it?

As far as free tickets was concerned, ”It might be worth a try…”

Lee shrugged. ”That first time I put a game on, I think you’d had a bad day,” Lee explained. Not out of pity, but definitely 100% for him. ”I told him I was just going to do some paperwork, or fall asleep while Tarin watched the game. But then he started explaining things to me which kept me awake for long enough to discover that baseball might just be interesting after all.” As she spoke, the more teasing and playful her voice got.

Tarin still thought that trying to get free tickets because of the interdimensional magic was a good idea.

”Though, even I have to admit that they really turned the game around yesterday once I did put your hat on,” Lee said, turning back to Tarin. She was smiling happily a lot tonight, and it didn’t seem to be wanting to go anywhere. ”That was around the time Robert left. Maybe that had something to do with it, especially after that whole visit managed to happen without even a threat of violence.”

“Wait, Robert your brother?” Matt asked, glancing at Rachel before looking back to Lee. “He’s violent?” [/font]

”So…pity.” Tarin laughed when Lee tried to make it sound a bit better for his benefit.

Lee at least admitted that once she’d understood a bit more about the game that she had found it interesting. ”I think I have Kevin hooked too.”

Lee was so happy tonight and it was kind of infectious. It wasn’t that she was usually dour or overly serious, but carefree would have probably been the wrong word too because Lee was constantly thinking about everyone and everything all the time. Here, right now, she seemed relaxed.

Tarin had to laugh when Lee pointed out that maybe Robert leaving had as much effect on the outcome of the game as the hat had and Matt seemed shocked that Robert was violent.

”At least where I’m concerned,” Tarin shrugged, ”Either that or I just have a very punchable face.”

Tarin laughed and reiterated that her putting baseball in at first had been out of pity, and Lee shook her head slightly, leaning back against him casually.

”Oh, you've definitely got him,,” Lee confirmed. ”If he wasn’t interested, we’d never see him when the game is on. But he’s actually out and watching with us half the time.”

Matt was shocked by the idea that he thought Lee had said Robert was violent. Though Tarin confirmed that at least towards him, Robert did have a tendency toward violence.

”Oh, the threats have definitely been a two way street over the years, Matt,” Lee replied. ”I can’t remember how many times over the years I’ve threatened to beat him because he was being an ass. At least I’ve only had to actually hit him the once.”

And, Lee couldn’t help but think, hopefully the concussion it gave him didn’t wipe out the lesson that incident should have taught him.

”I’ll count it as a win.” Tarin said when Lee explained that the fact that Kevin joined them at all meant.

Then they were talking more about Robert and Tarin just shook his head when Lee brought up how tense things had been between the two of them and for how long.

”I still can’t believe he did that.” Rachel said and Tarin shrugged.

”I’m pretty sure that my very existence makes him angry, so I cannot be all that surprised.”

Still, the fact that Lee had actually hit her brother was not something that fit the whole carefree tone of the evening.

Lee frowned as Tarin replied to Rachel. That…was probably a very accurate statement regarding Robert’s opinion of Tarin. Hopefully things would start relaxing now that Robert knew some of the things that she had done, what she was capable of.

Lee wasn't going to hold her breath, though.

Lee crossed her legs and took another sip of her quickly emptying beer as her foot started bouncing. ”So Matt. Before my powers became the hot topic of conversation, I was wondering how Rach had managed to get you to sit with us tonight,” she asked as she grinned over at him. ”What’s she threatened you with? Must be pretty major to have kept you here this long.”

”Oh, it's not that bad, Lee,” Rachel said, trying to wave it off as unimportant.

“Right…” Matt replied. “Even Tarin probably knows already that that's complete bull, Rachel.”