No Mexican then…not that any wildly fancy places served Mexican. Besides that though, anything was fine.

”Well that makes things easy enough.” he said, ”I’ll figure something out in the next couple days and let you know.”

Yep, he was going to handle all of the details.

By now their food was there and Tarin grabbed the bag. It smelled great and suddenly he was actually hungry. Wild how that happened when you could actually think about things like eating.

”Ready?” he said, grabbing the door again so they could get home and eat.

Was Lee playing with semantics again? Well, technically yes, because Lee actually loved Mexican food. But the intent behind Tarin asking if there was anything that she didn’t like was so he didn’t pick a restaurant that she wouldn’t want to eat at.

Plus, Lee really hadn’t eaten Mexican in over a decade, with a couple exceptions of tex-mex when she had been in Texas with Kevin and that was all that had been available.

”Ready?”

”Definitely ready to get home,” Lee replied, smiling up at Tarin.

It really didn’t take them long to get to their building, up the stairs and into the apartment. ”I’ll grab plates if you want to start pulling things out?”

Things were pretty straightforward from there and the walk home was uneventful. In the lobby they went and up the stairs, mostly because Tarin didn’t want to try to stubborn his way through the elevator and potentially ruin the night. Tarin was going to do something about that soon though, and hopefully they wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.

Into the apartment they went and Lee went to grab plates while Tarin moved over to the couch to start setting things out on the coffee table. They’d gotten all their favorites and by the time that Lee emerged with the plates Tarin was more than ready to eat.

”As it turns out…food is kind of awesome.” Maybe not as awesome as the way they’d spent their time the rest of the evening, but as a consolation…food was pretty awesome.

It didn’t take Lee long to grab plates from the kitchen, but by the time she made it out to the couch, Tarin already had gotten everything out of the bag and ready for them to dig in.

And then Tarin spoke, and Lee burst out laughing. ”It’s kind of awesome?” she questioned with a slight shake of her head.

”Though,” Lee continued as she leaned forward to start loading her plate up. ”Am I imagining it, or does it smell better than normal?”

”Yep.” Tarin said with a kind of lopsided grin when Lee burst out laughing. ”I kept thinking earlier that I didn’t care if we ever made it to dinner tonight…but I may have been a little short sighted with that one.”

Lee was loading up her plate now and Tarin joined her in her endeavor thinking that if the food was this good from a take-out box, they were absolutely going to have to go there and eat sometime. Like they’d been supposed to do tonight.

Did it smell better than usual?

”I dunno, maybe… Or maybe we just worked up an appetite.”

Regardless, it was time to eat.

As she was laughing, Lee glanced over at Tarin . And when she saw that lopsided grin on his face, she felt her stomach do a funny little flip. Was it silly? Just a bit. But he also looked damn good, Lee couldn’t help but think as she turned back to the food on the table.

Lee shook her head slightly when she heard Tarin speaking. ”Yeah, maybe just a bit,” she said. ”Food is generally rather necessary, whether we want it to be or not.”

Tarin thought that maybe the food smelled better to her because they had worked up an appetite. That…was very possibly the reason, Lee thought as she started eating. ”It’s a good thing we always have leftovers, isn’t it?”

Lee pointed out that food was necessary and Tarin had to sigh a little bit. It was necessary, but inconvenient at times. This food was good though, and even if they ate it often, Tarin really didn’t mind.

As he ate, and ate well, Tarin couldn’t help but think back to what they’d been talking about earlier and how desperately Lee seemed to want things in her life to be normal. She was convinced that the literal Universe was out to get her, and if one took her history into consideration…it could definitely seem that way.

The thing was, Tarin kind of desperately wanted normal too. Until recently, he hadn’t had any idea what normal even was, but he was starting to get an idea and he really liked it. Tarin didn’t want adventure, he didn’t feel like he needed to do anything or make any kind of difference outside of this apartment.

If Lee wanted normal, then they would do everything they could to get Lee normal.

Was it a good thing that they always had leftovers? ”Yep.” he said simply, still too focused on his food to say too much more. He was also kind of tired…which really wasn’t all that shocking when all things were considered.

”So, was there anything else you wanted to do on our perfectly normal date night?” he asked finally and just the slightest bit teasingly.

Yes, it was very good that there were always leftovers because if the food had smelled better than normal because they had worked up an appetite, it was quite possible that at least one of them would need to eat again at some point that night.

Once they had gotten through most of the food on their plates, Tarin spoke again.

And asked what else she would like for her date night? Her ‘completely normal’ date night, as Tarin was calling it. Lee leaned back against the couch as she looked at Tarin.

There were definitely a couple things that she could think of, but she figured those were pretty expected and going to happen. They'd really only stopped some of those things because they had needed to get food and actually get home.

”Well,” Lee said, matching the teasing tone in Tarin's question with playfulness in her voice. ”There is this rather handsome man that I would like really like to crawl into bed with after I take a run tonight…”

Lee seemed to be seriously considering his question and Tarin sighed contentedly as he set his plate down on the table to wait a bit and decide if he wanted any more food.

Lee had leaned back against the back of the couch, and Tarin followed suit, wondering exactly what was running through her head and hoping that if there was more she wanted to do, she would tell him.

When Lee did speak, it was Tarin’s turn to laugh and shake his head, ”Well, when’s he gonna get here, because I was kind of planning on calling it an early night and I don’t want to have to get up to unlock the door….” he teased right back. Knowing full well what Lee meant.

”Jokes aside, that sounds amaizing…” he added a moment later.

Tarin laughed, and then teased right back. Lee was grinning as she leaned forward to set her plate down before leaning back and looking over at Tarin again.

”Oh, are saying that I should text him to hurt up and get here then?” she asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked over at Tarin.

But then Tarin continued speaking and Lee smiled. After she went for a run, Tarin would be asleep when she was ready to crawl into bed. Especially after a night like tonight, the most he tended to do when she climbed into bed was to roll toward her slightly, but he rarely woke up.

Lee then grabbed her phone, typing out a quick message before setting it back down, and a moment later Tarin's phone have a notification.

”Something like that…” Tarin said when Lee asked him if she should get the hands on guy over there soon.

Then Lee was on her phone and Tarin tilted his head slightly, curious about what she was doing. A moment later, Tarin’s phone vibrated and he chuckled, as he pulled it out of his pocket.

The text was from Lee and he raised an eyebrow and typed a quick message back to her, a slight smirk on his face as he did so.

This was so silly and Tarin loved every single second of it. Tonight had been really really great.

Lee was looking over at Tarin out of the corner of her eyes when she saw him reaching for his phone. And she smiled when she saw him raise an eyebrow at what he’d read on the phone.

Then he was smirking and typing something as well, and Lee got very curious about what he would be replying. Especially since he hadn’t yet said anything about the text that she had sent him.

But a moment later, her phone got a notification. Curiosity peaking, Lee picked her phone up again and read the reply from Tarin.

And had to press her lips tight together to keep herself from bursting out laughing. Not only had Tarin taken her playful teasing in stride, he’d run with it and went even further.

Now that the urge to laugh had passed, Lee bit her lip, smiling as she reread the message. He couldn’t talk because his girlfriend was there? What they were doing and what they were saying, well texting, was utterly ridiculous.

And Lee loved it. Because it was playful. And fun. And they felt secure and safe enough with their relationship and each other that they could joke like that.

”Well, if you wanted to call it an early night, maybe we should see about getting these leftovers put away,” Lee ended up saying. Because the sooner they did that, the sooner they could head to Tarin’s ‘place’ before she went for her run.

After Tarin hit send he ordered if maybe he had taken the joke too far, so he watched Lee carefully as he waited for the text to send and be received.

It didn’t take long and Tarin had to think that Lee didn’t look like she was upset. In fact she was biting her lip in the not serious or upset kind of way that made him squirm just a little.

Tarin hadn’t been entirely serious about calling it an early night, but there was just something about the way Lee suggested that they put the food away that had Tarin nodding and sitting up to close the food containers ”Would absolutely be a shame to waste the leftovers when the food was so particularly good.” he said as he stood and gathered things to take to the kitchen.

It was still rather early to be honest, but if Lee had a say in matters Tarin wouldn’t be going to sleep in the immediate future.

But that didn’t mean that they couldn’t head to bed.

With how quickly Tarin got up and started gathering the leftovers up, Lee could only assume that he was on the same page as her. Which was very good.

It didn’t take long for the two of them to get everything cleaned up and into the fridge. Leaving the two of them standing in the kitchen. Stepping in front of Tarin, Lee looked up at him for a moment before stretching up to give him a kiss. ”I love you,” she whispered as she pulled back.

The best thing about take-out, besides the fact that it could be brought home, was the fact that it was easy to put away. Tarin walked to the kitchen to do just that and Lee followed him.

For a few moments everything was quiet as they got things situated in the fridge and the dishes washed and then they were done.

Tarin turned to leave and Lee was stepping in front of him and stretching up for a kiss that he happily returned.

Then Lee said she loved him and Tarin couldn’t help but smile, ”I love you too.” he said, a small thrill still running through him as he said the words. ”Thanks for a great night.”