It was the day after He had helped train Tarin. Weird session. Tiny box. The man had issues. Shin thought nothing of it as he dialed up Lee.

It had been a minute since him and Kealey had gone on a for real date, five months, at least. What with baby before and after, people had been tired and busy and tired and crazed. But Lee had offered. To watch. So he finally had decided to ask.

Kealey was a good judge of character. And shin had spoken Lee prayers. And praises. Lee walks through fire, Lee overthrows regimes. Lee raises a child as a single parent, on her own, and he turns out awesome. With no help. In another country. On the moon. He May have been lying on that last one. But she had put out a giant fire with him, or at least helped people. Before he’d lost contact. So he had lots to say, all good. Kealey believed him.

He called.

Lee answered.

Her cheerfully said “hi Lee!”

He was not prepared for the oncoming conversation. The angry billowing steam. The headlights. The whistle.

Woo woo

The day before had not been good. No it had been bad.

The day would have simply been rough if it had included just her extra 'activity'; going to see Dr Rossi, who she had not see since before Romania (maybe it would have been a good idea for them both to have seen the woman after that), to try and see if it would still be safe to see her, considering the things that could possibly be brought up.

If it would be safe for Tarin to see her to try and deal with the merge the previous spring, his claustrophobia, and the building collapse.

Dr Rossi, however, had treated it like an actual session, and must have gone back over 15 year old notes based on the questions that she had asked.

That on its own would have made the day bad enough, and Lee had been curled up on the couch when Tarin had gotten home.

But that hadn't been the only thing that had happened. Tarin had gone to the mansion to try and 'train' away the claustrophobia, the same way that the cult group he had joined up with as a teen new to New York had tortured 'trained' him to not use his powers in stressful situations.

More than that, Tarin had done it in a way to try and see how far it had to go, how bad it had to be, before he got the same sensation he had felt when she was digging him out of the rubble. The sensation they thought was the beginning of a merge.

And when Lee had found out what he'd done, Lee had been mad. And they had fought.

Things had gotten better, but the day as a whole had not been good, and Lee's emotions were still feeling raw even after a night's sleep and a morning run with Tarin.

Lee was just starting to think that she should head to the bar earlier than normal to distract herself from spiralling into the 'what ifs' when her phone rang.

Lee answered before seeing who it was that was calling. "Hello?"

>> "Hi Lee!"

"Shin?" Lee asked, confused for a moment. Then she remembered who it had been at the mansion that had 'helped' Tarin the previous day. One of the only two people he even knew at the mansion.

"What the hell did you do yesterday?" Lee went on to ask, the confusion gone, some of the anger from the previous night instantly back in her voice. "How in any world could you think that was a good idea?!"

He felt like he had been hit by a train. Even if it had been like two whole sentences the woman on the other end of the phone had spat out. The tone made them a lot more… something.

He took a step back, in real life. And just sort of like reevaluated his place in it. In existence. Ho boy.

She was mad. About yesterday. What had he even done yesterday? He spent a few seconds of dead phone silence trying to think on what had happened the day before.

Well. He had worn an outfit that had not quite matched. He had heard about that, at the end of the day? Had she heard about that? From who? Who had appointed Lee the fashion police? But no. Not that.

He had gotten street vendor food. Yeah. Probably a bad idea on any regular day. But he knew the guy who made the food. Trusted him with his guts. Was she reprimanding him for that? Wait. No. That did not even make sense.

Why was it, he could add together huge sums in his head nearly instantly, but could not put 2 and 2 together with people sometimes?! Oh right. Super powers.

Wait. Pooooowers. What had he done with powers? Well, he had helped with Tarin, so— wait. Had that not been a good idea?!

”-but he said thank you.” Shin finished a thought out loud.

The other end of the phone was quiet. It was quiet for what felt like ages. Had Shin just hung up when he heard her? It was possible. Tarin had probably told Shin that she had no idea what he was doing at the mansion yesterday, that she had had no idea what he was trying to do.

Lee was about to pull the phone away from her ear to check if the call was still connected when she finally heard Shin speak.

"-but he said thank you.”

Lee blinked in shock.

"He said thank you?" Lee asked incredulously. "And if he was saying 'thank you', would you throw him off the Brooklyn Bridge?"

Without realizing it, Lee started pacing the length of the living room behind the couch as she spoke. "Could you NOT see that he was a total wreak and just about having a breakdown in there?!?" Lee continued, her voice raising slightly as she went on. "The additional trauma you were heaping onto him? Nevermind how potentially dangerous the entire thing was!"

"God Shin! Did you even think about what would have happened if a merge had happened?! And not only that, but you put him through all of that multiple times!"

>>> "He said thank you?" Lee asked incredulously. "And if he was saying 'thank you', would you throw him off the Brooklyn Bridge?"

Did he want to get thrown off the Brooklyn bridge? That seemed like a bad idea. Maybe they could simulate it in the danger room, but why—

>>> “Could you NOT see that he was a total wreak and just about having a breakdown in there?!?"

Her voice rose.

>>> "The additional trauma you were heaping onto him? Nevermind how potentially dangerous the entire thing was!"

"God Shin! Did you even think about what would have happened if a merge had happened?! And not only that, but you put him through all of that multiple times!"

”Wait wait wait, hold up. A merge?!” Shin scanned his memory. A merge? That sounded like… fusion. He tried to remember Romania, then tried to remember what the hell they had talked about before the session.

Slowly, Shin said Tarin said… what did he say. I’m paraphrasing, but… “it looks like the tight places trigger me… for… for that. I was in a bad way by the time they got me out and if anyone had touched me….” And before that, all he asked was if I were familiar with other Tarin’s powers. The scary ones. And I said yeah, but I’m only vaguely. I don’t know all the nuances. I was there for Romania, but also blind and fighting and distracted and only hazily do I remember much of anything. All I remember was Tarin… yeah… him and the unicorn… something happened. But there was a lot going on and I never asked him to delve into what the heck happened so it might’ve just been some mutant powers working together or maybe that was the unicorn or… I probably should have asked for more than just saying “yeah.” I did tell him I’m familiar, but familiar like how I’m familiar with Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. I don’t know their whole life story. God. Maybe I should have asked. I just—“

He had to sit down. He sat down. He sat down in his favorite chair, and leaned his head against the palm of his hand as he rested his ear against the phone.

”My power summons literal razor blades of mental energy, and Lee. I focused on Tarin being scared and wanting to master whatever dangerous aspects of his power there were. And if anything, maybe I figured he wanted to AVOID those.” If he fused, there were no fusing partners. Nobody to do any fusion ha with… unless it also affected spirits, again, he had never asked on nuance. ”I just, I learned how to use my power, my razor blades, to frighing protect myself and others. And it hurt and it took years to really focus it so that I could armor myself with it without just shredding my entire body, and one mistake, and it’s like Sam when I rushed the job. So— I know how scary mutations can be, and I fully support helping people learn to cope with scary powers. With consent. Dealt with fire users who literally set their rooms on fire when scared, so— sorry. I just talked forever. But—“

but what? He didn’t really feel like anyone had done anything wrong here. Maybe misinformed, but—

Lee was not Tarin’s master.