Lee shook her head slightly with a smile. "You've lived here how long and you've never tried skating?" Lee asked. Though with how much Tarin complained about the cold in the winter, it wasn't that surprising. And having lived in the shop the last 6 years, he probably didn't venture outside much at all when it was cold.

"Remember, Tarin, you're not going to freeze this winter," Lee went on to remind him of their little bet with a wink. "Plus, going out and doing something like skating means coming home to hot chocolate and snuggling under blankets."

Turning back to the puzzle, Lee managed to fit another piece in before saying, almost as an afterthought "and maybe I like seeing you fall for me," her tone playful.

Lee seemed surprised that Tarin had never tried skating and he leaned back in his chair a bit and laughed, “What about me that suggests that at any point in the past I’d have just decided to take up skating?” he asked.

With the exception of going to the gym and getting food to eat as infrequently as possible Tarin really didn’t leave home during the winter. He’d had enough of the cold those first several years in New York to last multiple lifetimes.

If Tarin had to guess, Lee was probably right and he probably wasn’t going to be cold this winter. This seemed like one of those things that Lee was determined to do and as far as he had seen when she was determined to do something, it happened.

She also winked at him and Tarin just had to shake his head and grin.

The wink wasn’t where it stopped though, hot chocolate and snuggling under blankets? ”See, I feel like we could still do all of the rest of that without freezing half to death first. Or without the disaster that would surely be me on skates.” Tarin ran, but agility work was pretty far outside of his skill set. But she had winked, “But I could probably be convinced to try…You’re probably really good at skating aren’t you?”

Leaning forward again, Tarin tried to find another piece and was actually successful. At this rate they’d finish the outside relatively soon. Lee spoke though and Tarin grinned just a little wickedly across the table at her, “We established that earlier…” he said, “I can’t blame you for forgetting though.”

Really nothing about Tarin, what he'd ever said or done, would have even hinted at the idea that he'd skate. But she couldn't just give up, so she gave a shrug. "Well, running in the winter can suck," Lee stated. Something she was sure that Tarin knew quite well. "If it's going to be slippery, wouldn't it be more sensible to expect it by being on ice and skating rather than running on a path and hit an icy patch?"

Lee wasn't sure if Tarin would believe that logic, but it made sense.

And here Tarin was trying to convince her that they could to the hot chocolate and blanket snuggling without going outside first. "You're not going to freeze half to death," she repeated, rolling her eyes though there was a hint of a smile curling the corners of her lips. "And we could do that without going outside, but it's just not the same."

Tarin seemed to think that she was going to be really good at skating. Lee shook her head. "I'm okay at skating," she told him. "But Doug was easily able to outskate me by the time he was 6."

That grin…Lee couldn't help but think back to the night that they'd cooked. And then fallen through her bedroom door. That grin and those thoughts were not very conducive for behaving. Even with the puzzle.

"Who said I forgot?" Lee asked, that same puzzle almost forgotten at the moment. "Maybe I'm just ensuring that you continue to."

“You’re absolutely right.” Tarin said when Lee pointed out that running on slippery paths was dangerous. “Which is why I run inside in the winter.” It wasn’t as scenic or nice as running in the park, but when the weather was bad enough that it would be hazardous to run outside, he’d just run on a treadmill at the gym.

Lee was working hard to convince Tarin that the outside part was necessary to do the whole blankets and hot chocolate thing right and in spite of her mild exasperation he could tell she was smiling a bit. “And it wouldn’t be the same because we wouldn’t be half frozen.” . He was teasing of course, and they’d probably end up ice skating at some point once the weather changed, but it was still fun to go back and forth like this. They so rarely bickered about much of anything serious, so why not play?

”Maybe we’ll just have to try it both ways and see.”

It turned out that Lee wasn’t some kind of skating prodigy and that made Tarin feel a bit better about his chances of pulling this off without embarrassing himself too thoroughly. ”Well that’s a relief…” he said.

And she apparently hadn’t forgotten about their conversation earlier that evening, Lee was just bringing it up again. And ensuring he continued to…what? Fall? Yeah, that wasn’t gonna stop any time soon. Not when just sitting here across the table was almost unbearable.

They’d been doing so well too.

Taking a deep breath and leaning forward slightly, Tarin kept right on smiling and shrugged, “That’s good, but I’m always happy jog your memory if need be.” he said, before mustering the will power to go back to looking for puzzle pieces. Because they were doing a puzzle. For at least another while.

"Oh, well where's the fun in that?" Lee asked jokingly. Though, anytime that Lee had actually had access to a gym in the winter when she needed to run, she would always use the gym. Running in the park in the winter just sucked.

"That's a good plan, actually," Lee admitted when Tarin suggested trying it both with and without going out in the winter. "There's likely going to be days that even I don't want to go out."

That grin of his…When Tarin leaned forward over the table toward her, Lee did the same, the puzzle now completely forgotten between them.

By the time that Tarin had finished speaking, Lee's lip had found its way between her teeth, her head tilted slightly as she looked at him. "I would not object whatsoever to frequent reminders," she told him with a smile.

As his eyes dropped to the table. Lee was confused for a moment. Then realized that Tarin had turned back to the puzzle. The puzzle they were doing so that this (and more) didn't happen.

Lee started laughing and shaking her head at herself. "Oh, we are not good at this…"

Where was the fun in that?

“I think not slipping on ice is a lot of fun.” Tarin said, “As well as not freezing while simultaneously sweating and not getting my shoes wet.” Tarin said, “Treadmill running kind of sucks though.” it did…but for all the aforementioned reasons, Tarin was happy to do it.

Trying both was a good idea. Tarin was apparently full of them tonight, but he was surprised when Lee said there were going to be days that she didn’t want to go outside, “I don’t believe it, “ he said, ”You had me thinking you were absolutely impervious to cold.”

The table wasn’t really all that big and when Lee leaned forward they were much closer than they had been just a minute before and Lee was biting her damn lip and that made getting back to the puzzle even more difficult.

Somehow though, Tarin managed and was just connecting the second corner piece to the side he had managed to finish when Lee laughed and shook her head, pulling Tarin’s eyes from the table and back up to her.

”We really, really aren’t.” He said with a slightly lopsided grin, ”But we are good at lots of other things…can’t be good at everything.”

Lee rolled her eyes slightly when Tarin said he had thought she was impervious to cold. "No, I still get cold," Lee told Tarin. "I just know how to dress properly. But when ice is forming on the scarf over my face because the water vapour in my breath is freezing, I try not to go out."

"Next thing I know, you'll be trying to claim that I can walk on water," Lee said lightly as she shook her head.

When they were both leaning forward, toward each other at the table, they were able to get pretty close. But thankfully not close enough, at least with where their chairs were at the moment, to make it easy to kiss. That was a good thing because Lee was sure that if it had been easier to kiss, they would be by now. Again. And with where they were at the table, all Kevin would have to do is look out of his bedroom to see them.

At least on the couch he would have to make his way into the living room; they would get some warning, if either of them were aware enough to notice.

Lee grinned back at Tarin when he emphasized two 'really's to say that they weren't good at focusing on something other than each other so they'd behave. "That is true," Lee agreed. Then she got a playful, teasing gleam in her eye as her grin widened. "Good thing we don't always have to be good."

“You’re sure to roll your eyes a lot.” Tarin pointed out with a slight smirk. “You’re just so confident about all things winter I just assumed.”

Those days in the winter where it was so cold that your breath froze were the absolute worst. Tarin had always completely avoided going outside on days like that in the past and would absolutely continue to do so. At least it seemed like he and Lee were on the same page there.

Would he claim she could walk on water, ”I mean…you just said that you were a good skater…that’s kind of like walking on water…” he helpfully pointed out. ”So I don’t even have to suggest it because you already said it.”

Lee really needed to stop looking at him like that, Tarin decided as she agreed that they were bad at behaving themselves. They weren’t really all that bad all the time, just when the mood was…elevated?

Lee spoke again and between that grin, the look in her eyes, and her words he just shook his head, ”No joke…because we’d be in all kinds of trouble.”

Taking another deep breath and sighing once more, Tarin looked down at the table and the puzzle pieces, ”This puzzle isn’t going to do itself though.” he said, ”What is it anyway?”

"Of course I'm confident," Lee said matter of factly. "I need to be if I'm going to win our bet, don't I?"

Lee just raised an eyebrow when Tarin tried to claim that she had already said that she was capable of walking on water. Because she had said she could skate. "We both know those are not the same thing," Lee said. She had been trying to show how ridiculous Tarin's claim that she was impervious to cold was. It wasn't fair that he had turned her statement around on her. "The ice on skating rinks is only, at most, an inch or two thick anyway."

Tarin was right. They really would be in trouble if they had to be 'good' all of the time.. Because there were times, days, where they just…couldn't.

Not that Lee wanted to keep her distance from Tarin and 'behave' at those times. But at those times, Lee needed to be close to Tarin, to touch him, to kiss him. Not just desire, there were times when it felt like an actual need, and Lee wasn't sure that at those times she'd be able to stop.

It was overwhelming in an absolutely amazing way.

But again, Tarin was right in that the puzzle wasn't going to do itself. Not that they had to do the puzzle. But they did need to stop talking, and thinking, and feeling like they had for the last couple of minutes. That had been the entire purpose of getting the puzzle out to work on in the first place. "At least if Kevin hasn't jumbled up the puzzles, this is Beetle Man, from Astonish Screen Dimension."

“I’m starting to feel like this is one of those bets where no matter who wins we both win…” Tarin said, when Lee said that her confidence was necessary to win that bet, “Losing that one is definitely winning for me and winning for me….” Tarin stopped that line of reasoning. If he won he got to choose how to warm up and they just kept getting distracted from the darn puzzle.

As for the walking on water. ”Ice is water.” he said, not willing to concede that particular point. Just because ice was solid water, didn’t mean it wasn’t technically still water.

Tarin didn’t know what Lee was thinking about, and it wasn’t like she was being particularly emotive at the moment, but there was something about the way she was sitting there and thinking that made him almost want to squirm in his seat. He checked his watch again, then sighed and went back to the puzzle as Lee explained who or what it was supposed to be.

”Uh…huh….” Tarin said, nodding like that made any sense to him whatsoever. He’d just keep putting pieces together and hope it made the time pass more quickly.

There was also something else. ”I should probably eat something.” he said, blinking at the pieces on the table. Lee and Kevin had been talking when he’d gotten home, then the cooking show, then they’d totally forgotten about pretty much everything and started a puzzle.

"Well yeah," Lee said, her voice more serious than it had been in the previous few minutes. "That's the best kind of bet, isn't it?"

Tarin was dead set on the fact that ice was water, so that since she said that she could skate, he was convinced that meant she had said she can walk on water. "Alright. I guess I should keep in mind that you think ice and water are the same things the next time you ask me to grab you a drink."

Lee's explanation of what the picture on the puzzle they were making didn't seem to help clear things up and help him understand what it was.

But before she was able to try and explain it more, Tarin mentioned that he should probably eat. "That completely slipped my mind." Lee said. "With everything that ended up happening tonight. Kevin and I just had leftovers because they've built up a bit much."

"Do you want any help?"

It was, indeed, the best kind of bet.

Lee clearly thought Tarin was silly for his insistence that ice was water and he just shrugged, fully expecting to get a cup of ice the next time he asked for a drink of any kind. That was fine. The ice would melt into water eventually. Because it was water. So, Tarin just smiled. “Fair enough.”

At his announcement that he needed to grab something to eat, Lee admitted that it had slipped her mind that he hadn’t eaten. Tarin couldn’t blame Lee at all for that, it had completely slipped his own mind.

Lee and Kevin had just had leftovers and Tarin nodded. Things had been building up in the fridge over the last few days. If Kevin and Lee hadn’t eaten it there was probably even some pizza in there and that sounded far better than leftover pizza should have sounded.

Did he want help?

That was a dangerous question, but Lee had said that things were a bit built up. What if he got the wrong leftovers out and ended up sick? Was that just an excuse to get Lee to come with him into the kitchen? Tarin thought it probably was and so he sighed and gave Lee a warm grin.

”I’d absolutely love some help, but I think you’d better stay right there in that chair.” Tarin said, pushing his own chair back and getting up to make his way into the kitchen.

Lee had offered to help Tarin in the kitchen, offered to help grab food because they often did do that together. Whether they were grabbing the food when all three of them ate together, or putting leftovers away after eating, they had developed an ease of working together in the kitchen (for this, not cooking) where they almost didn't get in each other's way in the narrow space.

And though they often did that together, Lee also knew that Tarin was perfectly capable of doing it on his own.

"You're probably right," Lee agreed with Tarin as she smiled across the table at him as he got up. Because while they often managed to work around each other easily in the kitchen, there were times when they…didn't. And they got rather distracted. Much to Kevin's disgust the couple times he had walked into the kitchen.

So while Tarin made his way into the kitchen to grab food, Lee turned her attention back to the puzzle in front of her. As she worked away, Lee did notice one thing: it was much easier to focus on the puzzle pieces and finding where they went when Tarin wasn't in the room.

Yeah, doing the puzzle, with a table between them, had been a very good idea that night.

He was probably right, Tarin thought as he walked past Lee and into the kitchen.

Tarin wondered just how long he could stall. There was pizza in the fridge and he pulled it out along with a plate and set about getting the food heated up in the microwave. Yes, there were better ways to heat up pizza, but this was the easiest and Tarin didn’t have the energy or the patience to wait.

Still, he had to think, it was the right call to come in here and do this on his own. The last time they’d gotten into the particular type of trouble they were trying to avoid had involved this exact kitchen and pizza.

Pulling out his phone, Tarin fiddled around on the internet until the pizza finished heating up, pulled it from the microwave, then stood for a minute trying to decide what he was going to do.

If he went back out to the table, the same thing that had been happening all night was just going to happen again. It was going to keep happening until the clock actually started moving instead of crawling at a glacial pace.

So. Tarin stood in the kitchen, leaning against the counter, and started to eat his pizza. Maybe if he was just in a different room for a few minutes he could clear his head….

Lee could hear and feel Tarin moving around the kitchen getting his food as she worked on the puzzle.

It was kind of weird, though. There were days where she and Tarin had no issues; they were able to function and be around each other, whether Kevin or others were around or not, and they wouldn't have trouble keeping their hands (and lips) off of each other the entire day.

Then there were other times, like that evening, when no matter what they did, what they talked about, they didn't seem to be able to stop themselves unless there was physical distance between them.

And even then it was difficult.

Now that she had been left on her own, Lee was making half decent progress on the puzzle. Not that she was racing through it or anything, but she was managing to find matching pieces and fit them in quicker than she had been before.

But slowly, the minutes were ticking on, and Tarin had stopped moving in the kitchen. It was just leftovers, all he had to do was put the food on a plate and warm it up, it really shouldn't be taking so long.

Unless he was trying to give them time to cool down. In hopes that the time apart would make things easier.

It might. But it didn't always.