Lee shivered as she felt Tarin’s fingers moving along her arm. It felt as though her skin was almost hypersensitive now, goosebumps and the shiver spreading so much further across her skin than Tarin’s fingers were reaching.

”If I said it as often as I want you to kiss me, we would never get anything done,” Lee informed him with a smile that he might or might not be able to see with how they were laying. Just because they were able to be responsible adults and control themselves most of the time, that did not stop the desire.

Tarin was now asking about her ribs, whether she was alright. After they had left the mansion on Sunday, he had been true to his word and fussed over her, making sure she was icing the bruised and swollen places from her sparring match. The entire night, as well as the next two days, to a lesser extent.

”They’re fine,” Lee said softly. Then continued because she knew that ‘fine’ wasn’t exactly a great answer for them. ”I didn’t even feel them. No pain or discomfort. Probably thanks to you.”

Lee spoke again and Tarin could have sworn he heard the smile in her voice even if he couldn’t see her face. It made him smile too. Had he stopped smiling?

”Worth it.” he said simply. It was still kind of hard to form full sentences, so anything more profound than that was just going to have to go unsaid.

When he asked about her ribs, Lee said that they were fine. Not just fine, but that she hadn’t felt them at all. That was excellent news and Tarin couldn’t help but think again how glad he was that Lee had remembered the Mansion as an option when she’d been hurt during her sparring match. The bruises were still there and Lee had been every bit as sore as she should have been from bruising, but it was nothing compared to how she’d have felt with the broken bones.

Thanks to him? Turning his head to plant a kiss on the side of Lee’s temple and shrugged a little, ”Is that an open invitation to keep fussing?” he said. ”It’s a balm to my fragile male ego when you stop being a badass long enough to let me take care of you every now and then.”

Lee smiled. It would definitely feel like it was worth it to kiss Tarin all the time, it would one thousand percent be a great way to spend time. But there were unfortunately very important things that they had to do such as eating and work. And less unfortunate demands on her time such as Kevin once he got home.

An open invitation for Tarin to fuss over her? Well, Sunday once they got back home had been far easier for her than it could have been. And with Tarin’s reminders when it was ‘time’ for her to ice again, her bruises had stopped hurting much sooner than she would have expected them to.

But it was also her stopping to be ‘a badass’ so that he could fuss and take care of her? ”I suppose it is,” Lee admitted. Even as recently as a couple months ago, Lee wouldn’t have been able to say that, she knew.

She really had gotten better about accepting help, hadn’t she? ”As long as you let me do the same on occasion.”

Lee supposed so.

Tarin figured that was the best he was going to get and didn’t argue when Lee said it because he knew how much effort it had probably taken for her to say that much.

”Good.” he said simply.

As long as he let her do the same.

Tarin had to laugh a little at that, but he wasn’t dumb enough to point out that Lee already fussed over him all the time. It had been that fussing that had brought them together.

”You got it.” he said, wondering what Lee thought fussy meant. ”Though, Ms Smith…” he gently teased, ”I am not the one in the habit of breaking my own bones.”

At first Tarin simply said good. That was…well that was good, Lee thought. Not that Tarin often did much of anything that would require her to fuss. Though, the elevator was still a huge problem, and what she was hoping to be able to do to help him would be considered at least fussing, if not going well beyond that.

But then Tarin went on to call her ‘Ms Smith’. And comment about her breaking her own bones. ”I wouldn’t call it a ‘habit’ when something has only happened once, Mr Brooks,” Lee pointed out.

”I do wonder,” Lee continued after a couple moments, her voice a bit more serious. ”If I should just give up on the whole ‘normal’ thing. Though, if this is what happens in place of normal date nights, I think I could manage to live with that.”

Lee was right, a single incident did not make a habit. Lee had also promised that she wasn’t going to hit something that hard again in training. ”How about coming home from training black and blue from head to toe? How many times does that have to happen for it to be a habit?”

Lee was serious now though, and it was kind of the last thing that Tarin wanted her to be. He wanted her smiling and laughing and teasing.

Shifting slightly so he could turn onto his side and look down at Lee Tarin studied her for a moment, ”What do you mean by normal?” he asked. ”Because this seems pretty normal to me.” Then again, maybe he wasn’t the best judge of what normal actually was.

”Hey now,” Lee argued when Tarin started questioning her coming home bruised. ”That really only happened the once, too. The first time with Tony really wasn’t all that bad. I didn’t have many bruises at all. And yes, this time was worse, but it still isn’t nearly as bad as when I fought Michael.”

This last time with Tony really hadn’t been much worse than her first sparring match with the spirit. And if it hadn’t been for the fact that Lee had felt she needed to prove her abilities to her siblings, even after they had seen her spar, they never would have even found out about the broken rib; DocProf had said that it might not have even been visible on an x-ray.

As Lee was pondering giving up on trying for normal, Tarin started moving and she frowned until she realized that he was just moving onto his side to be able to look at her easier. And told her that what they were doing seemed pretty normal.

”Sure it is,” Lee did agree. ”After the date. I don’t think it’s exactly normal for this to happen before getting out the door for a date because of a kiss. Even if we say that my needing to run for 3 hours later to have a chance of sleeping tonight is ‘normal’...”

Lee took a deep breath and shook her head slightly. ”Every time I think that I’ve actually managed to get normal, it feels like the universe laughs and throws some unbelievable situation at me.”

”I know…” Tarin said, not wanting to discourage Lee from her sparring activities. He knew she liked doing it, and that it made her feel good to know what she was able to do if the need arose.

As for normal. Lee spoke and Tarin listened. He listened well and tried to figure out exactly what it was that Lee wanted. They’d talked before about how she craved normalcy and as Lee repeated her thought that the universe was somehow laughing at her with all its curve balls, Tarin tilted his head a little as he looked down.

”You’ve said that before, but what is normal?” he asked.

He wasn’t trying to be purposefully antagonistic, but…

”Because I think what just happened was perfectly normal regardless of timing. If we can’t end up here just because of a kiss, then what are we even doing?” he said and leaned down to give Lee a quick kiss.

He didn’t address her need to run, though it did make things easier when she managed to remember to turn off her siphoning before they ended up like this. Tarin did feel just the slightest bit guilty there.

”I’m serious though, tell me what normal is. Maybe you don’t have to fight the universe alone.”

Tarin wanted to know what was normal, what she wanted to be normal. Because then he would be able to help her fight the universe to getthe normal that she had been wanting for so many years.

Having real normal would mean that Lee wouldn't feel the need to know how to fight to be able to protect herself and Kevin. It would have meant that she wouldn't have allowed Kevin to start going to the gym at age 6 because that meant he would start learning how to protect himself since she couldn't always be there.

But that ship had sailed decades ago.

”I mean, in a perfect world, I would like to not have to worry about my son being able to protect himself if he needs to.” Lee paused, taking a breath. She really wished that were true, but also knew that with the way the world still was toward mutants it was naive to think Kevin would never have to do that.

”But I’d settle for being able to go out with my boyfriend or family without worrying that something will happen that most people would find unbelievable. And for those kinds of things to be actually rare enough that I don’t just deal with it without batting an eye because it’s just another thing…”

Like needing to be told to let the bouncers do their job when out at the bar with Tarin. Like teaching Kevin at 7 years old how to get to his father’s place from multiple places in New York as a ‘just in case’ back-up.

Like volunteering for a community building project just blocks from home and ending up in a building collapse.

The day had been horrible, and there were definitely still things that they were having to deal with, but in a lot of ways it was just another thing added to the list of what she’d had to deal with.

And that was so far from the normal that she had hoped, that she had thought that she and Tarin were actually starting to settle into.

It was a mixed bag for Tarin as Lee pointed out the things she’d need to really call life normal. It did not escape his notice that she carefully avoided mentioning any circumstances that involved him, but Tarin knew that they absolutely were more things on that list. Things that had pushed her further away from normal.

” Those are all things you’re working for though. Kevin can fight, but he’s hardly had to.” Changing the world was a tall order, but they’d both seen evidence of that change.

”Rachel and Robert did seem to finally get it, even if it shouldn’t have ever needed to be that hard…”

It was just another thing that Lee had managed. Besides…

”You said that things had been good for a long time too…before…all of this.” Before Lee had realized what was happening in the park and Tarin had crash-landed into the middle of everything with all of his drama, and all of his problems, and all of his complications. It wasn’t self-deprecating, Tarin wasn’t planning on going anywhere, but it felt disingenuous to pretend like his presence hadn’t made things more bizarre. ”Maybe the hard things will keep getting fewer and farther between…”

Tarin had honestly hoped for something actionable, and the realization that he might not be able to help as directly as he’d hoped was frustrating.

”Maybe even the universe has trouble throwing things at me when all I really do is take Kevin to school?” Lee asked, somewhat jokingly.

Though she honestly did think that was why nothing really happened during those 6 years; because that was basically all she did do. Take Kevin to and from school, stop at the bar as briefly as possible and do most of that work at home, and go to the gym once or twice a week. Not a whole lot of room for the universe to throw problems and disasters her way.

”It really would be nice if that turns out to be true,” Lee said softly. ”Do you think you can be optimistic enough for both of us for that?”

”The people who make a difference rarely live quiet lives.” Tarin said, softly when Lee pointed out that the only time the universe left her alone was when all she did was take Kevin to school.

It had come up over and over again that Lee had felt like she’d had to act. She’d had to go to Romania, she’d had to step up during the hostage situation, she’d had to come out that night when she’d seen the news report and recognized a horrifyingly familiar trend.

The thing about it was that Lee hadn’t really had to do any of those things. Lee was just the kind of person who did those kinds of things because someone had to. Tarin knew because he had always done the opposite.

Tarin didn’t say it out loud because he didn’t know how to say it without making it sound like sometimes things were Lee’s fault. That wasn’t it though. None of the things that had happened to Lee should have been necessary. The world shouldn’t have been the way it was to force anyone to endure the things that Lee had been required to endure.

Could he be optimistic enough for the both of them? It was a question that Tarin might have laughed at even six months earlier. Nobody had ever accused him of being an optimist.

”I can.” he said, snuggling back down so he could pull Lee closer, ”If you promise not to give up. I like our normal, even if it isn’t perfect.”

”The people who make a difference rarely live quiet lives.”

Lee sighed softly. That was a very fair point, and was understandable when she was doing things with the Kabal, like the trips to Columbia and Romania. And as much as a lot of the things that had happened had really sucked and were horrible, Lee could accept the fact that things happened then because of the level of what she was doing.

But she wasn’t making a difference anymore, not really. She was living a quiet life keeping to herself. The universe should let her do that now, right?

Lee smiled when Tarin spoke again, as he snuggled back down into the bed and pulled her closer again. Tarin agreed that he could be optimistic as long as she promised to not give up. ”Alright, I won’t give up,” Lee said as she snuggled closer to Tarin. ”And I like how our lives are too.”

Lee wasn’t going to give up on normal and Train was going to be an optimist. There was nothing like shooting for the moon and settling for landing among the stars, he supposed.

One thing was obvious though, whatever his hang ups were, whatever issues he had rattling around in his head, Lee did not need to be worrying about whether or not Tarin would fall apart in an elevator and make a scene, or need to find stairs to get them anywhere. With as much as Lee already worried, Tarin needed to find a way to handle his problems himself.

”You said earlier, you’ll need a run tonight…” he said after a few minutes just snuggled up in the bed, ”Do you want to try and grab some food, or do you just want to stay right here for the time being?”

That decided, they just laid there for a few minutes, and Lee just closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of Tarin being beside her, his arms around her. Yes, they often were like this, but that didn’t stop Lee from being very happy and grateful for it. Especially when just 6 months earlier Lee hadn’t thought that anything like this would happen again.

Lee didn’t have to go for a run that night, it had been over a week since her last sleepless night so she easily could have stayed awake because of her energy levels. But if she wanted to have a chance of sleeping that night, and the only reason it felt important that she did was because it would be sleeping with Tarin, Lee was going to have to get rid of quite a bit of energy. Things in the shop had happened quickly and Lee had forgotten to shut her siphoning off.

”We’ll have to find food at some point, but I’m happy to stay here for now,” Lee replied with a smile.

”You know,” she continued slowly after a couple of moments. ”With everything else that happened over the weekend, we never really talked about how I knew it was you behind me in the bar.”