”I thought you only watched the Mets,” Kevin said when Tarin started talking about the Rangers. At least it was the only team that he had seen on this TV.

After his mum left, Kevin just sat on the couch watching baseball. It was a little weird, he thought, but then realized that was probably because his mum was normally there too. Like she had been before. And even if she wasn’t right there, she was always still home.

Then Tarin spoke, and Kevin looked over with a shrug. ”It was alright,” he said, trying to make it sound offhand. ”And yeah. My cousins started getting really annoying. Uncle Josh let me go riding on my own this year, but he said my cousins were all still too young to go without an adult, so it was the easiest way to get away from them.”

“They always give me one of the mares that's a little chubby. But they said I got a lot better riding this year, so I'm hoping they'll let me ride a faster horse next year.”

Tarin shrugged when Kevin said he’d thought that Tarin only watched the Mets. ”Only really watch the Mets, but it’s good to keep up with other teams in the league. That way if we ever did make the playoffs, there wouldn’t be any surprises.”

For a minute Tarin wondered if Kevin was even going to answer. Had it been a weird question? This wasn’t the first time that he and Kevin had been there without Lee, but it did feel a bit weird.

But then Kevin started talking about the riding he had done and how he’d been allowed to go out on his own to get away from his cousins and Tarin was reminded again of when he’d done something similar.

”Mares can be tricky though. They have a lot more attitude than geldings...chubby or not. So they definitely didn’t give you a beginner horse. I’ll bet you’ll be tearing it up next year.”

Tarin paused there for a minute, eyes on the game as the 7th came to a close and the Mets still held their lead as the 8th got ready to start.

”What else did you get up to?” Tarin asked, deciding it was better to leave it up to Kevin to tell him since the teen would be repeating a lot of things to Lee the next day.

Kevin turned to look at Tarin with more interest as Tarin went on talking more about horses. ”Really?” He asked. ”I thought they just gave me the chubby one because she’s chubby and slow. Uncle Josh and Grandma have been having me ride her for three years.”

With a slight smile, Kevin turned back to watch as the next inning got ready to start. When Tarin spoke again, Kevin shrugged. ”I don’t know. Stuff,” he answered to start with.

”I wasn’t allowed to show my cousins, but everyone else was speechless about mum’s video,” Kevin continued after a few moments. ”I think grandma almost fainted the first time. And everyone thought my shield was cool. But it did get a little boring after a while. My cousins always threw the same things at it, so we knew it was going to block them.”

Tarin didn’t know the actual logic behind giving Kevin the chubby mare, but Kevin seemed happy with Tarin’s explanation. ”As far as I know,” Tarin said, ”She might be slow now, but I bet if you ask, she was something else in her prime.” it was a hunch, and maybe Tarin was wrong…but it wasn’t the most outlandish thing possible.

It made sense that the younger kids hadn’t been allowed to watch the fight video, but Tarin had to smile when Kevin brought it up. ”It’s such a cool video. She’s sparred a few times since, may not have been quite that impressive, but she’s better every time.”

Then Kevin was talking about his powers and Tarin had to shake his head. Lee was going to love hearing about all the things Kevin had thrown at him over the summer.

”How’s all that going? Is it getting easier to bring it up and down on command?”.

”You really think so?” Kevin asked thoughtfully. ”I’ll have to ask grandma about that.”

When Tarin mentioned that his mum had sparred more while he had been in Texas, Kevin looked at him in surprise. ”She got better??” he asked, the tone of his voice clearly evident that he hadn’t known that was possible. Then Kevin realized something about what Tarin had said and his voice got more excited. ”Wait. Were you there to see mum spar? Who was she sparring? Do you think I’ll be able to see her do it soon?”

As Tarin asked about how his shield was doing, how he was doing with bringing it up and down. ”Mosto of the time, yes. But it’s hard if I’m mad or frustrated. Then I have a lot more trouble taking it down.”

Tarin nodded when Kevin sounded surprised that Lee had gotten even better at sparring and at the same time Tarin realized that the way they were talking indicated that Lee hadn’t told Kevin about the last few times she’d sparred.

Kevin had questions too, and as quickly and excitedly as they’d come Tarin wondered just how much Lee had planned to tell Kevin. Oops.

”I did get to go.” Tarin said, ”And yeah she’s getting better, she’s practicing.” Tarin said with a smile, not mentioning any details or who Lee had sparred with in case she was purposefully withholding info. Maybe Kevin would let it go?

Whether Kevin was going to get to go and watch was another story, and not Tarin’s decision at all.
”I dunno if you’ll be able to go next time or not. You’ll have to ask. I am not the boss around here.”he said, deferring that question to the person who was, in fact, boss.

They moved on then to the vastly more comfortable topic of powers and Tarin nodded when Kevin explained that his shield was getting easier to manage…unless he was angry or frustrated.

That one was tough for Tarin. Unlike with the initial panic or the excitement Kevin had felt, Tarin felt a bit out of his depth. Anger and frustration were two things that he still wasn’t very good at handling.

”In my experience, those are the two hardest things to manage.” outside of fear, but Kevin didn’t need to think about anything like that yet.

”And they take the most time to figure out and separate. Remember when we talked about where your powers come from? It’s about making sure your feelings aren’t coming from the same place…and it takes time and a lot of practice.”

Tarin pointed out that Kevin’s mum was getting better when she sparred because she had been practicing. Kevin supposed that was normally true, but - and he’d never say this out loud - Kevin had already thought that his mum had been amazingly good in that video. And despite the ‘lessons’ that his mum had given him from that video, Kevin wasn’t sure how his mum could have gotten better than she had been.

But he’d have to ask his mum. Because she was the boss. ”What, she’s your boss too?” Kevin asked Tarin. He knew that his mum liked to be in control of things, but that seemed a little much.

After Kevin had shared that he was still having trouble with his shield when he was angry or frustrated, Tarin told him that those were the two hardest to deal with. Kevin sighed. ”But it’s part of me. Shouldn't that make it easy for me to figure out?” Kevin asked.

Tarin didn’t stop there. He went on to talk about where his power came from. About figuring out where that was, and that feelings weren’t from the same place.

Kevin frowned in confusion and sat in thought for a moment. ”But how do I figure out where my shield is coming from?” he asked, the frown still very much present. ”I just think that I want it up, and it…appears. Well, invisibly.”

Tarin actually laughed a bit when Kevin asked if Lee was his boss too while he tried to find the most tactful way to answer the question.

”If your Mom is in a room, it’s highly likely she’s the boss. Especially when it comes to what you’re up to.” Tarin said, thinking he was being absolutely fair considering what Lee had told him about her interactions with people up to and including X-Men.

Kevin’s question about his powers struck a chord in Tarin and he shook his head. ”It’s one of the hardest things about having powers.” he said, ”Knowing that there’s this innate part of you that you don’t necessarily understand.” he explained, ”That’s why it’s so important that you’re surrounded by and surrounding yourself with people who are going to help you figure that out.”

How did he figure out where his power came from? Tarin shrugged a bit.

” If you think it and it appears, then it’s probably more mental.” he said, tapping his ball cap, ”If you feel it and it appears it’s probably more physical.” he said, tapping his chest. It was abstract, maybe tooabstract for a 13 year old, but it was the best way Tarin could articulate what he was trying to say. ”Once you figure that out, you can figure out how your emotions affect the physical or mental things you do to make your power work.”

When it came down to it though, these were questions that Kevin was going to have to answer for himself, ”Figuring that out is a to start though, you might ask your Mom the same questions. I think it’s a little different for everyone, but more info is never a bad thing.”

Tarin didn’t directly answer his question about whether his mum was Tarin’s boss or not. Though Tarin did say that his mum was probably the boss if she was somewhere, no matter where that was.

Kevin had noticed that in a lot of ways; his mum only did paperwork, but Kevin had also seen her tell Matt that something had to be done at the bar, something Matt hadn’t been sure about, yet he did it. And his mum had taken charge when he had gotten in trouble at school.

Tarin had a lot to say about powers, again without saying anything directly. But Kevin sat and listened to everything that Tarin was saying. It was a lot to try and figure out. Was it mental or physical? How did his emotions change his powers?

Kevin shook his head when Tarin had stopped speaking. ”This is a lot harder than I thought it would be,” he admitted. ”I thought I would just have to practice using my powers and it would all be figured out. Other than being a zombie in the morning, mum doesn’t have any problems with her powers really, and doesn’t seem to have to do anything to use them.”

”This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

Truer words had never been spoken, and while it was still a complex and difficult thing to process, Tarin was glad that Kevin was finding it out this way.

The teen kept talking and Tarin looked at him for a moment while he thought about what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. Kevin was clearly suffering from the fact that when you’re around and with someone as much as Kevin had been with Lee it was easy to not see things.

”It really is hard sometimes.” Tarin said, ”But so is anything worth doing. You can just practice with your powers and figure out how to do what you want to do, but if you really want to understand them…that takes more work.”

Tarin took a deep breath then and let it out slowly, ”And I think it’s a little harder for your Mom than you realize because she’ works really hard to make sure nobody knows.” he said gently, ”Think about it, she has to always be thinking about how much energy she has. If she doesn’t have enough, she can’t get the things done that she needs to do, if it’s like tonight and she has too much, she has to figure out how to get rid of it before she can sleep. Every time your Mom goes somewhere or does something, she has to take all of that into consideration. It’s a constant balancing act, and she’s really good at it.”

It was even deeper than that, but Tarin realized that he didn’t know how much Kevin knew about how Lee’s powers were sensory for her on top of being a basic function and how jarring it was for her when her powers didn’t work. That was fine, the point didn’t need to be driven home all that hard.

”It’s also part of why she keeps training like she does. When she’s got a lot of energy like she did in the video you saw how fast and strong she is, she’s got to make sure she knows how to use her body so she doesn’t get hurt.”

So he didn’t have to understand his powers? He could just simply practice them, get better at using them, without understanding where they came from in him, if they were mental or physical? That did sound a lot easier, Kevin thought. And would definitely take a lot less time and effort on boring things. But…

”I tried not to use my shield on the plane,” Kevin said. ”Or in the airport, really. Cause I didn’t know if it would drain something even more important than my phone. That’s something important to figure out that would be more than just practicing, isn’t it?”

Tarin went on to explain about his mum’s powers. And Tarin knew a lot about his mum’s powers, Kevin realized. If everything Tarin was saying was true, and Kevin had no reason to think he was lying because he hadn’t, then he knew more than Kevin did.

”Well yeah, mum’s a perfectionist,” Kevin replied with regard to how his mum was so good with her powers. ”But how do you know all that about mum’s powers, Tarin? She really thinks about that all the time?”

But Tarin continued speaking, and Kevin looked at him in shock. ”Mum can hurt herself because of her powers?” He asked. ”She hates the heavy bag, but uses it all the time. She always just says it’s part of training when I ask why she does it when she doesn’t like it.”

”That was probably a really good idea and it’s smart that you thought about it.” Tarin said when Kevin said he had tried not to use his powers on the plane. Tarin hadn’t even thought about the possibility, but it was probably worth figuring out if Kevin’s powers could mess with mechanical things that didn’t have batteries. Hopefully that realization and thought hadn’t made the flights too stressful though.

”And yeah, things like that are a good reason to dig a little deeper.”

They were talking about Lee now and Tarin wondered again if he was saying too much, but it was kind of too late now. Hopefully Kevin would be able to apply some of that tact he’d displayed earlier to keep Tarin out of trouble.

Lee was a perfectionist, but her standards for herself tended to be far higher than anyone else almost to an extreme degree. But how did Tarin know so much about Lee and her powers?

Tarin shrugged, ”I pay attention.” he said, ”And ask questions. I told you it was important.”

Apparently Kevin had never considered the fact that Lee could hurt herself if she used her powers. Again, Tarin hoped he wasn’t overstepping when he nodded his head, ”Bones, tendons, ligaments, and muscles can only take so much force. The harder you hit, the faster you move, the more force you generate. It’s important to compensate for that with good form and technique. The opposite is true too, what if she doesn’t have very much energy and can’t move very fast?”

It all kind of tied back to knowing on a deeper level how your powers worked. ”So yeah, she thinks about it all the time.”

Kevin couldn’t help but sit a little straighter on the couch when Tarin told him that it was smart he’d thought not to use his powers on the plane. Kevin’s mum had told him a few times before that his family in Texas didn’t have a lot of experience with mutant powers, really not since his father had been a kid, but they had all been pretty good about his powers, Kevin thought. Though at one point, Uncle Josh had said he’d been ‘irresponsible’ letting the younger kids throw so much at his shield. So having Tarin say what he’d done, or rather not done, on the plane had been smart made Kevin feel good.

Tarin paid attention and asked questions? Kevin couldn’t remember hearing Tarin asking his mum questions about her powers, so that must have been only when he hadn’t been around.

Kevin realized that he really hadn’t ever asked his mum questions about her powers. He’d grown up with his mum’s powers being there every day, so he had thought he knew about them. But with what Tarin was saying, Kevin realized that hereally didn’t know as much about his mum’s powers as he thought he did.

His mum could move fast enough that she could hurt her muscles? Or bones. Did that mean she could move fast enough, or be strong enough, to break her bones? That was absolutely wild to Kevin. ”She didn’t hurt herself like that in the video. She can move faster than that? How?” Kevin asked, then paused for a moment. ”I know she doesn’t have a lot of energy often. Like every day. But if she doesn’t, why would she be sparring? She doesn’t even take me to the gym in the mornings to punch the bag because she doesn’t have the energy for that.”

Kevin really seemed to be focused on the fact that Lee trained so that she didn’t hurt herself.

”You’re going to have to ask her some of this yourself…” Tarin said, ”But athletes get hurt all the time by pushing themselves too hard. It’s the same thing, just on a larger scale.”

Tarin knew that Kevin didn’t know much about what Lee had done in her past and that he’d only recently learned about his Mom’s time in the camps during the registration act. None of that was appropriate for Tarin to talk about though, it just wasn’t his place, so Kevin was just going to have to actually talk to Lee if he had more questions on the topic.

The game was almost over now though, and the Mets had managed to keep the lead.

”How did things go with the girl with the freckles?” Tarin asked after a few moments.

Kevin sighed when Tarin said that he would have to ask his mum most of these questions. ”It’s because she doesn’t think I’m old enough to know things, isn’t it?” Kevin asked. Though maybe, he thought, she’d tell him more if he actually asked questions now that he had his powers.

Tarin also pointed out that athletes got hurt because they pushed themselves too far and Kevin nodded. ”Ok, that makes sense.”

But then Tarin went to ask how things had gone with the ‘girl with freckles’. ”Oh, um, yeah,” Kevin said, embarrassed, as he turned to look at the TV again.

”She blushed when I said her freckles are cute,” Kevin finally said quietly, a little flushed and not looking at Tarin now. ”Is that good? But she said she likes me too.”