They would probably need to eat at some point, but the need wasn’t urgent. In fact, Tarin was content to stay right where he was until Lee was ready to leave. He had eaten breakfast and lunch, and even if they never made it to dinner he’d be just fine.

So when Lee said she was content to stay right where they were, Tarin just smiled and stayed curled up right where he was.

Lee was talking again though, bringing up the other night at the bar when she had somehow known that he was the one approaching, even though she hadn’t really been able to see him.

”You know, you’re right. We never did revisit that…how did you know?”

Lee thought for a minute as her fingers started idly tracing along Tarin’s skin again. She was happy, and able, to stay curled up with him in bed, but she couldn’t stay completely still. Not with the amount of energy that she currently had.

”I’m not entirely sure,” she finally admitted, a crease having formed between her brows as she thought and tried to explain. ”The energy I feel has always felt the same. The only differences being how much or how strong it is because of how many people there are or how close they are. When there’s more people, the only way I can pick out individuals is by figuring out where each energy source is. Kind of like…”

Lee paused, trying to think of a metaphor that would be easier to understand as she looked up at the ceiling. And saw the dim lights that she had installed so many years earlier. ”Light bulbs.”

Lee nodded slightly. That was probably a good way to describe it. ”In a room with one light bulb, you can tell exactly where it is. As you add more bulbs into the room, it is all the same light, but there’s just more of it. If there’s 5 or 10 of them in a room, I can probably still point out each one, unless there’s a bunch in one spot.

“In a crowd, like the bar, it’s just everywhere and I can’t pick people out unless tehy get really close.”

Lee frowned slightly as she thought back to how it had felt. She couldn’t even explain the difference in how it felt to herself. It had just been different than everything else.

”Then the other night, it was like in a room full of white light bulbs, there was suddenly a yellow one that appeared. And I just knew somehow that it was you.

“Does any of that even make sense?”

Listening to Lee talk about her powers was fascinating to Tarin. Somehow she always knew what to say to make what she was explaining make sense. The lightbulb analogy was honestly great because it was something tangible. It had to have been overwhelming to feel all of that at once. The more Tarin thought, the more he remembered how Lee had literally been bouncing with energy that night.

Lee explained that when there was that much energy it all ran together and she couldn’t even really tell one source from the other unless they were very close.

Except, apparently, for him.

”That’s so cool….” Tarin said, trying to puzzle it all over in his head. ”And it’s never happened before?”

From there, all Tarin could think about as they sat there snuggled together was the fact that touch intensified Lee’s powers. ”What does it feel like?” he asked, ”How’s it different when I touch you?” he asked, fingertips resuming the path they’d slowly been following up and down Lee’s arm and shoulder.

Lee couldn’t help but smile when Tarin spoke. It was strange, and so different from just about every experience she’d had in her life, but Tarin always seemed so interested any time that she talked about what her powers were like. As though they were the most interesting thing in the world.

In a way, similar to how Kevin had been when he was younger asking others about their powers when he found out someone was a mutant.

”No, never,” Lee confirmed, shaking her head where it was still resting against Tarin’s shoulder. ”I can’t think of a single time before that where someone’s energy had felt different like that.”

But Tarin wanted to know what it felt like to have the energy flow into her, how it was different when he touched her. Describing what her powers did, what they were like had always been difficult enough. At least it had been when trying to explain it to everyone else. But Tarin was now essentially asking her to describe a sense that he had never and would never experience. Like trying to describe a colour to someone who had been blind since birth.

Lee was frowning by the time that she opened her mouth again. ”I don’t know,” she admitted softly. ”It’s…like the energy flows into me? But there’s no force behind it; it’s not like too much energy will knock me over or anything, so maybe saying that I absorb it is better? And the closer someone is, the more energy I feel, the more…intense it is? Even at the bar, if someone comes within a foot of me, even just their hand to touch me, I can feel that over all the other energy.”

Again, Lee paused, her bottom lip moving between her teeth as she thought. How did she explain the difference when there was contact? Because she did still feel the touch as well, but the siphoning was in addition to that.

”Remember how I described stepping into an adapted’s field was like the sound disappeared?” she asked. ”In a way, contact is the opposite. Let's say the energy I felt at the bar was like the volume was at 5. When someone comes within a foot, it’s like that volume from that person jumps up to 8.

“When you touch me,” Lee lifted her hand away from Tarin’s chest and then placed one finger against his skin, lightly tracing along his collar bone. ”It’s like the volume in that spot is turned up to 11. Everything else further away is still there, and I’m still getting all the energy from everyone around, but it’s harder to notice because of how much more I feel from the contact. And it’s not just in one spot.” As Lee continued, she added each finger individually onto Tarin’s chest before eventually letting her entire hand press against his skin. ”It is every single point of contact.”

It hadn’t ever happened before. Never in the entire time that Lee had possessed her powers had someone’s energy felt different.

But his had…did?

Tarin was absolutely grinning now, even if Lee couldn’t really see him. It would have been silly to jump to any overly romantic conclusions and Tarin knew it…but this was still something new and he was the first.

”Yep,” he said, ”Super cool.”

As for what her powers felt like, Tarin could tell that it was hard for Lee to put it into words. He could understand, energy levels weren’t something that most people had to think about it or even be aware of. Lee was utterly and completely unique in that sense.

Lee did her best to explain though, and the analogy she picked was perfect to get the major points across. Proximity mattered a lot, and touch mattered even more.

Goosebumps followed Lee’s finger as she trailed it over Tarin’s collarbone, spreading down his chest and over his shoulder and arm as she spoke and her other fingers and eventually her whole hand joined.

Every single point of contact.

”I like that…” Tarin said, hoping it didn’t sound too weird and hoping Lee didn’t think he just meant her hand on his chest. Surely she already knew he liked that. He couldn’t really feel any difference, but knowing… ”It’s like we’re even closer.” Especially when they were like this.

Tarin thought it was ‘super cool’ that she had felt his energy differently than everyone else. And it was really, but it was also strange to Lee.

Once she had gone on her long, probably confusing explanation about what her siphoning felt like, what it felt like when there was contact, Tarin replied very simply stating that he liked it.

Did that mean he actually understood what she had said? At least as well as it was possible to understand without having a power that worked in a somewhat similar manner.

A smile and slight blush appeared on Lee’s face the more that she thought about what Tarin said. ”You think it makes us closer?” she asked after a couple moments. ”Even though you can’t feel any of it? All of this contact does make it extremely hard to notice much of anything else other than you…”

”I do.” Tarin said quietly, trying to figure out how to put what he was thinking into words, a slight smile on his face.

”Even though I can’t feel it.” Tarin confirmed, kind of wishing that he’d stayed where he could see Lee as he spoke. ”You just said that in a whole room full of people, some of which you’ve known for years that you were able to pick me out of the crowd.”

”Then you said that when we touch, it’s even more intense.” Tarin paused there, suddenly feeling a little shy despite their current situation, ”And we touch a lot.”

”So yeah, I don’t have to actually feel it to know…if that makes sense.”

Lee’s smile and blush grew as Tarin spoke. ”I suppose I did say that, didn’t I?” Lee asked softly. ”I really have no idea why I was able to pick you out. Since it seems to be a thing now, I would have thought I would be able to with Kevin, or even Rachel…”

Lee trailed off, thinking more about this. It was interesting that she was able to sense Tarin like that and not anyone else. ”I wonder if it is because we touch more,” Lee pondered. ”Or do you think maybe I’ll be able to do this with more people at some point?”

Another moment’s thought and Lee shook her head. ”Sorry, don’t know why you would know that. But we should test this out more. I haven’t paid much attention since that night whether your energy feels different or not since then. I think it does, but like I said, I can’t really notice any other energy when we’re like this.”

”Yep, you did.” Tarin said, his silly content little smile still plastered on his face.

Lee also didn’t know how she was able to tell the difference, ”It isn’t more interdimensional hat magic, is it?” Tarin said, but that didn’t really make any sense. There weren’t a lot of people who had crossed the rift and stayed, but there were enough that Lee probably would have noticed if their energy was different.

Lee was still musing over things though, it would have made sense that she’d recognize Rachel or Kevin before she’d recognize Tarin. Maybe all the touching did have something to do with it. They’d done things a little backwards in the relationship department and there hadn’t been a day without significant physical contact between them since the night at the bar…even if it wasn’t always like this.

Now Lee was suggesting that they test things out and Tarin was grinning again because that just sounded kind of fun. ”Anything you want.” he said, ”Just tell me what to do.”

Lee was sure that she could hear the grin in Tarin’s voice. She couldn’t see it with how they were laying, but it sure sounded like other times when he would grin.

Then Tarin went back on to his whole ‘interdimensional magic’ thing, and Lee just had to shake her head with a little laugh. ”If that’s what this is, I think I would have noticed something else in the last 7 years,” Lee pointed out.

Once again, Tarin told her that he would help her however he could, she just had to tell him how. ”We’ll need to have more people around, so obviously not in the immediate future,” Lee mused. Because she really did not want to get up and leave Tarin’s arms. ”Maybe try and figure out a way for you to try and sneak up on me, or get close or something without me seeing you, and see if I can tell that it’s you?”

Yeah, the whole interdimensional thing didn’t really make sense, as easy and facile as it would have been for that to have been the explanation. It was also interesting to think that the energy from different universes was different “colors”.

Lee had ideas around how they could figure everything out though, and while they were good ideas, Tarin actually had to laugh when Lee suggested that he try to sneak up on her.

”That sounds like an excellent way to get my nose broken if you don’t realize it’s me.” He thought for a minute, ”Maybe once Kevin is back we can take turns walking up and see if you can figure out who is who.” That would kill two birds with one stone. If there was anyone else who Lee would be able to differentiate from the masses it would be Kevin.

”Maybe we can also incorporate his shield so he can show off. Might entice him to actually participate.” .

Lee shook her head again. ”Well, we’d plan it, I’d know that you were trying to sneak up on me. Not that you actually could if my siphoning is working. But we’d be trying to see if I can tell it is you or someone else coming close. Not if someone can sneak up on me.”

Tarin went on to suggest having Kevin help, that the two of them could take turns and Lee would have to guess who it was. And that Kevin could use his shield as well.

”Hmmm, I wonder if I would be able to sense you if you're standing behind Kevin with his shield…” That was one area of testing her son hadn't tried before going to Texas.

Well, at least as far as Lee knew.

Lee pointed out that it would be next to impossible for him to sneak up on her under normal circumstances and of course that was true. With that in mind, Lee’s idea seemed absolutely feasible. It was actually really close to what Tarin had suggested, but his plan involved Kevin instead of just the general public.

Now Lee was musing about whether or not she’d be able to tell Tarin was there if he was behind Kevin’s shield. ”I guarantee he’ll be willing to experiment with his powers.” Tarin said. As for whether or not Lee would be able to feel Tarin there, ”I’d think that if you can’t sense Kevin you’ll have a hard time sensing anyone behind there, but it’s definitely worth figuring out. That could be important for Kevin to know too.”

That said, Tarin had another thought, ”Somewhat unrelated, and I’m sure you have, but have you ever tried making your powers work in reverse?”

Lee nodded. Of course Kevin would be up for experimenting with his powers. Moreso that than helping her figure something out with her powers. But Lee would take it anyway.

Tarin seemed to think that if Kevin’s shield was up, that it would automatically block Tarin’s energy as well. Lee laid there in thought for a couple more moments, her fingers starting to move again. ”Maybe. If Kevin’s shield is actually like a wall in front of him, I can see that it would block your energy from me too,” Lee said slowly.

”But what if his shield is just…kind of fully wrapped around him? Like a bubble or something? If that’s the case, maybe I would still sense you behind him.”

It was definitely something to figure out, both for her peace of mind as well as something important for Kevin to know.

Had she ever tried using her powers in reverse? Lee took a breath as she thought back. ”I have. A couple times,” Lee replied after a moment. ”After we got back from Columbia, we took some private classes to learn how to fight and were sparring together. All of a sudden, he was flying through the air away from me. I didn’t touch him.

“It seems to use most of my energy, and is obviously an actual force that can do damage, so it’s not something I’ve really been able to experiment with.”

Lee continued to muse over Kevin’s powers and she made an excellent point. Was it more like a wall or was it more like a bubble that was just around him? Tarin had assumed it was like a wall,
Kevin probably knew by this point.

And Lee had tried her powers in reverse. Apparently she and the other Tarin had gotten into the sparring ring together after the whole mess in Columbia. While Tarin could see the need or desire for that course of action, he had to admit that the other Tarin was either way braver or way dumber to get in the ring with Lee.

…as was evidenced by the fact that Lee had thrown the other Tarin across the room without touching him.

And it was something Lee hadn’t spent much time experimenting with since clearly it could be dangerous. ”What if you could figure out how to only release some energy? ” Tarin asked, ”Might be worth looking into under properly controlled circumstances.”