Lee didn’t say anything as she listened to Tarin, but it had already been getting worse. Once Lee had realized how much the elevator had been hard for Tarin to manage, they had tended to take the stairs. But Tarin had been able to, occasionally, still take the elevator with her before they had made their attempt at volunteering.

Since the building collapse, Lee had seen Tarin in an elevator only twice, both out of necessity only. And he had been almost as bad as in the elevator at the Empire State Building both times.

Lee nodded when Tarin said it was just what he knew to do; taking care of things himself. ”Maybe start with something less drastic?” Lee suggested after a few moments. ”Like the elevator occasionally or something.”

Lee thought that Tarin should start smaller. Like riding the elevator every now and then.

She wasn’t wrong and avoiding it like he had a tendency to do hadn’t done much to help Tarin deal with his phobia, but it was also so situational. Still.

”I guess that might be a better place to start….” Tarin admitted slowly, staring out into the apartment for a moment before his eyes fell on the food.

”I messed up your dinner.” Tarin said, nodding at Lee’s forgotten discarded plate. ”You should eat, I’ll heat some up later.”

Tarin agreed that the elevator was a better place to start dealing with his phobia than what he had done that day. Because really, if he couldn’t handle the elevator up to their apartment, even when she was there, how in the world had he thought that he could manage being in an even smaller box?

Dinner? Lee looked at the table and saw her plate sitting there, still almost completely full of food. Tarin pointed out that she should eat, and he was right; she had been pretty hungry before all of this had happened.

Reluctantly letting go of Tarin’s hand, Lee grabbed her plate so she could start eating again, then looked over at Tarin. ”You’re not hungry?”

It wasn’t that the food looked particularly bad. Tarin just didn’t want to eat any of it. His stomach was still a little bit queasy and the tension of the previous discussion hadn’t done much to help.

At least Lee was sitting up and grabbing her plate again. She had clearly been hungry when the food had arrived and had stopped eating when he’d finally admitted where he had been.

Lee asked if he wasn’t hungry and Tarin shook his head, ”Not right now.” he said, ”I’ll dig stuff out later and heat it up. I need to chill out for a bit.”

This was not going to help his case with Lee for trying the whole Danger Room thing again.

”The danger room is really cool though. Kevin is probably going to explode with glee the first time he sees it. ”

Lee started eating as she waited for Tarin to answer. It took a little longer than she would have expected, but she simply nodded at first.

Going all the way to the mansion to do what he did, it made sense that Tarin would have done it more than just once. That amount of stress and adrenaline…it made sense that he needed to relax before eating.

Lee had to laugh when Tarin commented about Kevin finding out about the danger room. ”He most likely will,” Lee agreed. ”Why do you think that wasn't part of the tour? He's going to want to be there all the time once he finds out.

“I really haven't spent a whole lot of time there myself, but it was really cool what is able to do”

Tarin nodded as Lee explained why they hadn’t included the danger room on the tour of the Mansion. In all likelihood Kevin would want to spend all of his time in the Danger Room once he realized what it was and what it did.

Now that he had seen it work first hand, Tarin had to admit that it would be a heck of a place to train up one’s powers.

Lee pointed out that she hadn’t spent much time in the danger room and Tarin supposed that made sense.

”I picked there because it was isolated and nobody had to be nearby.” he said, knowing it was kind of silly to bring up a point of contention again but unable to help himself.

”I did think everything through…it wasn’t just a whim.”

Lee wouldn't call the danger room isolated, there was a whole school of young mutants sitting above it. But it was built to withstand mutant powers.

But if things had gone wrong, if someone had touched him and a merge had happened, who knew what powers it would have? If it had wanted to get out of the danger room, and didn't bother with the door, who's to say what would happen? Maybe the danger room wouldn't have been able to contain the powers.

There was no way to tell what was going to happen until it was too late.

Lee didn't say any of this out loud, though. Tarin was now well aware of her thoughts on what he had done.

Instead, Lee simply nodded when Tarin said he had thought things through and ate in silence for a minute.

But then she got a thought. They had talked about her powers recently, with Tarin questioning if she had ever tried pushing the energy away from her.

”The danger room is probably one of the few places in the city it would be safe to practice my energy blast though,” she said. ”It dosn't make sense to go there just for that, but if I'm already there to visit Kevin or what not, maybe that's something I can do while I'm there.’”

Yeah, bringing it up again had probably been a mistake. Lee obviously didn’t agree because she didn’t say a single word as Tarin tried to get the point across that he hadn’t done anything particularly dangerous.

He was always careful. Lee should have known that and for some reason it really bothered Tarin that she didn’t seem to.

Lee just nodded and moved on though, now talking about how the Danger Room might be a good place for her to practice her energy blast thing that could throw grown men 15 feet through the air.

It was safe to do that, but not safe for him to practice not merging by himself?

Tarin didn’t say anything, he didn’t want to fight anymore but it was something he was going to have to think about.

”That’s a really good point. Didn’t you say it really wipes you out though?” he said, ”I can go along if you want…”

Lee nodded. ”It does quite a bit,” Lee confirmed. ”At least it has every time that I have done it. Which is one of the reasons I’ve never really done anything with it. Travel to…wherever for a whole ten seconds of training. But if I’m already at the mansion for something else, it makes more sense then.”

Tarin asked also if she wanted him to go with her because of the fact that it did use up most of her energy. Lee smiled up at Tarin. ”That would be nice,” she told him. ”You don’t need to every time I go, though. Not if you don’t want to.”

Then Lee sat looking up at Tarin for a moment, thinking. Even though he said that he wouldn’t do it anymore if she didn’t want him to, Lee knew that Tarin wanted to get the claustrophobia dealt with. He wouldn’t have done what he had today if he didn’t.

”If, once you’re more comfortable with elevators I can go with you,” she said softly.

Tarin nodded when Lee explained why she tended to avoid practice with that particular power because she could literally only try it once before she was worn out. It made sense considering the fact that people had so rarely been willing to help Lee out in the energy department. All that work for what seemed like little payoff would be counterproductive.


Lee pointed out that he didn’t have to go every time and Tarin nodded, ” I wouldn’t mind at all…it’d be good to see how Kevin was doing too…if you don’t think he would mind.” he said a bit awkwardly.

Lee was quiet for a minute then, Buren kept looking at him and Tarin looked back steadily, wondering what she was thinking. Then Lee spoke and Tarin smiled a little tightly, “If you really want to.” he offered. “ I was supposed to think about triggers and write down what goes through my mind when it’s all happening…” he said, ”Maybe you can help me sort through it all…”

Lee shook her head, her smile widening slightly when Tarin said he’d like to go so he could see Kevin too. ”Oh, he won’t show it at all if there’s any other kids around,” Lee said. ”But I honestly think he would like you to come. He’s asked if you were home a couple times when he’s called. Said he had a question about baseball.”

At least now Tarin was willing for her to come along, to be there. Not that Lee wanted to be there to see it, but she would be able to be there for Tarin. And she'd be there if, god forbid, it actually happened.

”Of course I can help you with that,” Lee said gently. ”Just let me know when you're ready to do that.”

Tarin smiled much more broadly when Lee pointed out that Kevin would probably like it if Tarin visited him in the Mansion. Even if Kevin didn’t show it.

Also, Kevin had wanted to talk to him? About baseball? Tarin just had to grin about that one regardless of how rough the afternoon had been. ”Really?” he said, ”Did he tell you what the question was? You could always give him my number and he could text or call if he wanted…surely someone down there knows about baseball thought.”

It also seemed like Lee was willing to go along the next time Tarin ended up at the Mansion to work on his stuff. It nagged a bit at that part of him that wondered if she was just trying to mitigate any potential damage, but things like that weren’t productive.

”Not for a while.” he said, then sighed a little, ”Shin asked about therapy too. I don’t know how it would possibly help though.”

Had Kevin told Lee what the question was? Lee shook her head. ”Unless they like watching sports that they don’t understand, there’s almost guaranteed to be someone in the house with him who could answer the question. I think he might just miss watching baseball with you. Josh tends to talk a lot more during games.”

Lee nodded when Tarin said it wouldn’t be for a while. That was probably for the best. With what Lee had seen the previous weekend when they were in the elevators, it unfortunately didn’t look like Tarin was going to feel even remotely close to comfortable in an elevator anytime soon.

”It might not end up helping,” Lee had to agree, her voice quiet. ”But then again, it might help. Or if it doesn’t help with the claustrophobia, it might help with something else. It did actually help me when I saw her before.”

”Huh.” Tarin said, the word a statement rather than a question when Lee said she thought Kevin probably just missed watching games with Tarin. Kevin was hard to read sometimes, especially when he liked something. The idea that Kevin actually liked spending time with him was…surprising in a good way.

Lee was talking about the therapy thing again now and Tarin took a deep breath and let it out slowly. There was a very short list of things that Tarin could see a therapist helping with and there were several of them that he just was not going to talk about with anyone outside of this room. Hell, he hadn’t really talked about that with anyone in the room. They had lived it, and it was enough.

”I don’t think it’s for me.” he said.

The last couple years, it had grown harder to tell when Kevin actually enjoyed something that his friends didn’t think was ‘cool’. Such as doing anything other than going to the gym with his mum.

But Lee also knew that he had inherited his determination (some would call it stubbornness) from both of his parents, and like her, if it wasn’t something that he wanted to do or something that he had to do like homework, Kevin just wasn’t going to do it.

So the fact that he actually came out and watched baseball with her and Tarin, and a few times she’d seen it with just the two guys watching the game, meant that he actually enjoyed doing that.

But Tarin didn’t think that therapy was for him. ”Can you try it, at least?” Lee asked. ”I know it won’t be easy, but I think it could be good.”