Tarin nodded his confirmation that Tony had come from the underground fighting scene. And Rachel and Matt had that somewhat shocked look on their face again, but this time it was aimed at Tarin. He did not particularly enjoy the attention.

Matt and Rachel were missing context, but the context probably wasn’t going to make it any less weird.

Lee pointed out that Tony was a good partner because he didn’t pull punches and couldn’t feel pain because he was dead.

Matt and Rachel still stared.

”It’s not as weird as it sounds.” Tarin said, shifting his feet a bit uncomfortably and taking another drink of his beer.

”It was just something I could do to help.”

Both Matt and Rachel were starting across the table at them like this was the weirdest, most bizarre things they had ever heard.

Sure, it had been very weird for Lee to start with, but that was because she had had so many negative encounters with spirits.

”When Tarin gives a spirit energy to become solid like that, solid and physical enough to spar, it looks and feels just like another person. Well, feels like another person with the exception that I don't feel any energy from them which is very weird for me. But otherwise you can't really even tell.”

Lee then turned back to Tarin. ”Energy wise, tomorrow would be perfect. It would give me an outlet so I can sleep tomorrow night without having to run.”

“Sleep tomorrow night “ Matt asked incredulously. “You can't seriously be thinking about pulling an all nighter after drinking, then having a fight like that, Lee.”

This was her fault, Lee knew. Though she hasn't exactly hidden the fact that she was a mutant from Matt except during the Registration Act, she also hasn't really talked about it much, either. Or really explained her powers to him in much detail.

”Matt, I never sleep after being here,” Lee explained. “Never have. I get energy from everyone around me, so with how many people crowd into bars, I end up with too much energy to sleep. Imagine having two energy drinks back to back. That's kind of how I feel right now. Only I won't crash in six hours or whatever.”

Tomorrow? Tomorrow would be fine, Tarin thought as they stood there having two completely different conversations with two completely different impact points. ”Works for me.” he said.

Lee explained his powers really well, and Tarin was relieved he hadn’t had to do it. It was weird, and the easy chat and banter from a little while before had been replaced by all of this talk about their powers and weird looks from Rachel and Matt. Lee kept having to explain herself too..

It really was kind of a lot.

Now Matt was asking about Lee’s sleep schedule and she was explaining how it worked for her with extra energy, how she felt like she’d had two energy drinks and it wouldn’t wear off.

”She’ll go and run for ages.” Tarin said, ”And she covers a pretty impressive distance too.”

All this time Lee had known Matt, and the other man didn’t know what being in a bar did to Lee. Tarin found himself curious why she’d never said anything because it must have been hard to handle sometimes after working in the bar.

”I had no idea.” Matt said, still a bit surprised by this most recent revelation.

She was going to spar with Tony the next day. Lee nodded, glad to have a more enjoyable outlet for the excess energy she had from being at the bar.

Tarin apparently felt the need to further prove her ‘amazingness’, though, as he told Matt and Rachel about her runs. ”Two to three hours is not ages , Tarin,” she said, turning to him as she shook her head slightly. ”Especially not when everyone else is sleeping.”

Matt still seemed to be completely surprised by all of the explanations about her powers. Lee shrugged. ”I mean, people's sleep habits aren't generally normal conversation. And when I started working here, it didn't take me too long to figure out a decent schedule for myself. I think I only completely crashed once.

“I found that if I ran for about three hours before taking Kevin to school, then was able to settle down by about noon, I could get a few hours of sleep before picking Kevin up.”

Tarin hadn’t been trying to make a big deal out of Lee’s running, it was just the simple truth. Ages could have been slight hyperbole, Tarin supposed, but most people would have considered 2-3 hours a significant amount of time.

And indeed, Tarin could see the surprise on Matt’s face again, this time was just just somewhat impressed surprise though…not the mix of horror and shock Tarin had gotten when Lee had explained about Tony.

Lee continued to explain how she’d managed to work things out when she’d worked at the bar regularly and how she managed to only crash once. Tarin frowned a bit at that, Lee had explained what it meant when she crashed.

”So you mean to tell me you were functioning on a few hours sleep the whole time you were working here?” Matt said, “You should have said something.”

Tarin wanted to step in and explain that sleep didn’t really work the same way for Lee as it did for other folks either. That she didn’t get rejuvenated and wake up ready to go if she got a lot of sleep. In fact, unless someone was there to give her a boost, waking up was a struggle for Lee. It wasn’t his place to share though, so Tarin just tightened his arm for a moment while she explained.

Lee shrugged slightly when Matt asked about how much sleep she'd gotten while working in the bar at night.

”The days that I did sleep, yes,” she confirmed. There had been a lot of days where she hadn't even gotten that for one reason or another.

It had taken her explaining her powers a couple times and seeing her first thing after waking up for Tarin to really understand what sleep didn't do for her. But Matt has never seen her in the morning.

Except he did, once.

”Do you remember when we went to the bank when you were buying this place? How tired I was?” Lee asked. When Matt nodded, she continued. ”That was after a full 8 hours of sleep. It doesn't make me feel rested, and my energy is lower when I wake up than when I fell asleep.”

Tarin nodded as Lee explained more to Matt. Surely Rachel had known all of this considering the fact that she’d lived with Lee.

It was still a bit uncomfortable to Tarin to think that Lee had to spend all of that time alone, but she hadn’t ever mentioned it being a problem for her and if it wasn’t a problem for her it shouldn’t be a problem for him.

More so, it still shocked Tarin that in all that time, Rachel had never offered to help Lee in the mornings. It hadn’t ever felt appropriate to ask about, but Lee had seemed so surprised when he had offered the first time that Tarin wondered if anyone had ever done it before. It didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things though, Tarin was just glad he could help.

”It's just like anything else Matt. Everyone has to trial and error things out when they get a new schedule. Lee’s schedule just means more awake time.”

It wasn’t all that difficult.

“I do remember that,” Matt said thoughtfully as he looked at Lee. “At the time, I had just figured it was just because it was early and the fact that you were pregnant making you that tired. Though that does explain why you seemed more awake and yourself before we even got coffee that morning.”

”Getting that coffee was just an excuse to be able to be around more people for longer before sitting in that bank for god knew how long.”

Tarin explained that she’d just been figuring out her new schedule when she’d started working at the bar, but that because of how her powers worked, her schedule meant she had a lot more usable time in her day. ”That’s how I was able to get so much done all the time,” she explained. ”Though, I did have to be a lot more conscious about remembering when the last time I had slept once I started the volunteering and everything else.”

And why at that point Lee had needed to start scheduling when she was planning to sleep just as she had been scheduling everything else. And preferably sleeping at least once every 3-4 days so that if something wrecked her schedule, she would have still had time before she crashed.

”I thought you were just horribly grumpy when you woke up and weren’t a morning person.”

Lee stood blinking at Rachel for a moment. With how easily her sister seemed to be able to know what she was feeling, often before Lee even knew herself, and how often Rachel was able to know when Lee was lying or omitting saying something, the younger woman seemed to be incapable of figuring out anything about Lee’s powers. ”Rach, how many ‘not morning people’ have a coffee maker beside their bed in addition to the one in the kitchen?” Lee asked. She knew that that was not a normal thing, even if it was an absolute necessity for Lee. ”All of that coffee in the morning is to chemically force my body to be awake enough to move so I can get energy to actually wake up.”

Rachel. Hadn’t. Realized.

”Oh come on…I was around Lee for like two days and could tell she struggled when she woke up.” he said.

Great. Rachel was probably going to run miles with incorrect assumptions about that, but Tarin didn’t really care at the moment. He wasn’t angry but it was sad.

”It’s like you and your brother picked a moment in time to freeze her and have just kind of ignored everything that’s happened since.”

He finished speaking and Tarin just stood there for a moment blinking in mild confusion at himself.

”I….I’m sorry.” he said, looking down at Lee for a minute before his eyes darted to the exit, ”Sorry…” he said again, this time to Lee.

Lee shook her head when Tarin said that he’d been around her for just a couple days when he’d realized why she had so much trouble in the morning. ”No, you’d been there for about a week,” Lee corrected, looking at her hand around her beer as she spoke, clearly forgetting about her unplanned nap at his shop. ”That was the first day you were out of your room before I had left the apartment, though.”

Honestly, before Tarin had been around, the only times that she hadn’t ‘struggled’ in the mornings were if she had still been awake because of too much energy or if she had had a boyfriend (or husband) right there in the morning and she could use cuddles or kisses as an excuse to get energy.

Lee had just thought that was how life was going to be for her. That that was her normal.

Then Tarin had come along, and showed her it didn’t have to be. Long before either of them had thought that something might happen between them.

Hearing Tarin speak again, Lee turned to look at him. To see him looking at her as he apologized to her. Lee shook her head. ”You don’t need to be,” she told him softly. ”You didn’t say anything untrue…”

Lee didn’t seem to think Tarin had anything to be sorry about and he relaxed incrementally as he stood there and looked at Lee since it was easier than looking at Rachel.

”It’s not like that…” Rachel said.

Tarin was still looking at Lee and he shook his head, ”It was the day Rachel and Kevin came home. You came with me to the shop.” he said softly. Lee still hadn’t wanted to let
him out of her sight, but he’d needed to get his stuff from the shop.

”You sat down for a minute and fell asleep.” Tarin almost smiled at the memory, he’d had no idea and had nearly panicked when Lee hadn’t woke up when her phone had rang the first time.

”It’s not like that Lee…” Rachel said again, shooting Tarin a quick dirty look that he returned neutrally.

”You don’t really think it’s like that, do you?”

Matt, had wisely gotten very quiet and was simply listening.

Tarin was still looking at her when Lee heard Rachel speak, but then Tarin shook his head and started speaking so she didn’t look away. ”Right…” she said with a nod. They’d gone for a run that morning before heading to the shop for Tarin to shower, change, and grab some things for moving to the apartment. And she had fallen asleep while he was in the shower.

Lee had almost forgotten that Tarin had offered, had voluntarily given her the extra energy she needed to deal with what was going to happen in the following few hours because it hadn’t been in the morning after a night’s sleep. And she’d had more to worry about that day such as talking to Kevin about Tarin moving in and dealing with all of Rachel’s questions.

”That was the first time a run ever tired me out that much,” she said, though Lee thought she’d told Tarin that before. It had also been the first time since she’d actually been in school where she’d run with only her ‘own’ energy, not excess amounts.

But Rachel seemed desperate to know if Lee actually thought it was ‘like that’. Finally looking back at her sister, Lee shook her head. ”At the time, no I didn’t Rach. But how many years did we live together? How many hundreds of times did I stumble, barely conscious, to the kitchen for more coffee?” Lee asked. She wasn’t upset or angry. That was just her life, she’d thought, no way to change it because of her powers.

”After only two days, and he was unconscious for well over half that time, Tarin knew I needed energy not caffeine to wake up. And if anyone had reason that day to not want me to take any of their energy, it was Tarin. Yet he offered to let me take what I needed so I could get home to meet you and Kevin.

“All it took was this,” Lee said as she reached her hand out to Tarin’s hand not around her waist, her fingers touching lightly. ”Less than five minutes sitting there with just this slight contact and I was wide awake with enough energy to answer your questions and then talk to Kevin about Tarin.”

Lee remembered, and Tarin didn’t particularly blame her for forgetting. That day had been wild.

So had the rest of that weekend.

Lee pointed out that she’d never been that tired after a run before and Tarin could remember her asking him to slow. That was also the day he’d told her about growing up in New York.

Lee was talking to Rachel again now and Tarin kept his head down, not wanting to make the situation worse. Lee was absolutely right though.

Lee kept talking and Tarin frowned a bit when she mentioned that he’d been unconscious for a majority of those first few days. It was true, of course, but still uncomfortable to talk about.

That wasn’t the point of what she was saying though, and it had been such a simple thing to help.

”I never even thought…”

Tarin shook his head, ”Well, now you know.”

Lee was still looking at her fingers touching Tarin’s hand lightly when she heard Rachel speak again. Lee’s eyes closed as she took a deep breath. Rachel hadn’t thought about it. She hadn’t thought that something so simple for her could have such a huge impact on Lee’s day. On her life.

Pulling her hand away from Tarin’s now, Lee wrapped both hands around her beer bottle as she looked at Rachel. ”Being around people, even more so if I touch people, gives me energy. Getting too much energy, such as by spending a night at a bar, means I cannot sleep. But you never thought that getting energy in the morning might wake me up when two pots of coffee doesn’t?”

Lee wasn’t angry. It was all in the past. And while she knew what could be done to wake up faster, like many other things, this was just another on this list of things she thought weren’t possible for her.

”You also didn’t ask, though, Rach,” Lee continued, and if there was any emotion in her voice as Lee spoke to Rachel, it was simply sadness and disappointment. ”I didn’t think I needed to spell these things out to you because you were there to see it all, both in Toronto and here. But, so there’s no more uncertainty about what you do and don’t know about me…

“I do not, cannot wake up on my own. That is why yes, every single day I have to have that damn alarm. Which I set each and every night for no more than 8 hours after I go to bed. Because if it’s longer, I may not have the energy to get myself out.” Out of bed, out of the apartment, it didn’t really matter as both were bad.

”On the other end of the spectrum, when I have too much energy,” Lee continued, a crease forming between her brows as her eyes dropped to look at her hands. ”After the second night without sleep, I start counting the hours, the days, since I last woke up. Because somewhere around the six day mark, I crash. It’s hard and fast, doesn’t matter how much energy I still have, and I’ve never managed to set an alarm first. It’s terrifying.”

Taking another deep breath, Lee looked up at Tarin. ”I was around 75 hours that day.”

It was wild that they were having this conversation in the middle of a crowded bar. It was honestly a couch conversation. Still though, the things being said were important. Important for Lee to say and important for Rachel, and to a lesser degree Matt, to hear.

Tarin took another drink of his beer and shook his head a little. Everything about Lee’s posture, the way she took that deep breath and her eyes slipped closed, Tarin hated it. Couldn’t Rachel and Matt see how uncomfortable Lee was?

She was talking again though, and again Tarin tightened his arm around her just a little as she explained that she could never sleep more than 8 hours because if she did, she might not have the energy to get up the next day. Tarin had to give a little leeway there because he hadn’t ever thought about the why for the alarm. He wouldn’t forget now though.

Too much energy sounded just as bad though go, especially when it got so bad she was up for days upon days…75 hours at one point. Lee was looking up at him now and he shook his head. She hadn’t had an alarm to set. Tarin could tell why it was so terrifying.

Leaning down, Tarin spoke softly into Lee’s ear, just loud enough for her to hear, “You could turn it off. I’m not going to go anywhere and I don’t think anyone in the bar is going to be dumb enough to try anything after earlier…” it was already too late for tonight…but it could help.

Rachel looked thoughtful and honestly a little sad. Matt looked…impressed was the wrong word, but Tarin thought he looked like he got it.

”I’m sorry…” Rachel said frowning and the little crease that formed between her brows was so much like the one that Lee got that Tarin almost smiled.