Awkward, that was one word or it.

Tarin wasn’t going to dwell though, the whole situation had come and gone and now Lee was pointing out that if he had simply listened, and stopped trying to get rid of her, Tarin wouldn’t have ended up back at the apartment without his backpack.

”It all worked out.” he said, shaking his head, ”You weren’t keen on keeping frozen veggies in stock and I had them in the shop.” Again, they were teasing and carefully dodging around the cause of the need for those veggies, but Lee’s voice had been light and Tarin’s could be too.

That had also been the first time he’d told Lee about what had happened to him. The day that Rachel and Kevin had come home. The first time he’d offered Lee and energy pick me up after he’d let her fall asleep in the shop.

There had definitely been worse days, nightmares and lack of pants excluded.

Lee was also certain that someone on this side had thought of a spaghetti sandwich and Tarin leaned back in his chair and signed, ”Well, there goes my claim to fame…” he said.

It certainly had all worked out. So very differently than either of them could have ever guessed. And so much better.

"That is true," Lee somewhat reluctantly agreed about the vegetables. "Though at the time, I hadn't realized just how versatile they were."

Not that it would have been very easy for Lee to have put the bags of vegetables on the bruises on her back and shoulders herself.

Lee had also had no idea at the time how nice the cold on the bruises would feel.

When Tarin went on to lament about his lost claim to fame, Lee shook her head. "If you really want to have a claim to fame, we can find something much better for you," Lee told him. "Like the hat. Or…practically anything else."

Lee hadn’t realized just how versatile frozen vegetables could be. Considering all the situations she’d been in over the years, Tarin was kind of surprised by that fact. Even when he’d been a kid his Mom had slapped a bag of frozen peas on injuries when they’d happened. ”Just another in the seemingly endless string of benefits.” he said.

Apparently being the inventor of the spaghetti sandwich on this side of the rift was not a worthy claim to fame. At least not according to Lee. She thought the hat was a better idea, but Tarin shook his head, ”Gotta keep the hat quiet. What if word got out and people from other teams started to use the magic? Wouldn’t want it to get diluted or anything like that.”

Tarin’s plate was clean now, and he had to admit that despite the way that the morning had started, things were really starting to look up.

”Guess I’m going to just have to keep thinking.” he said, pushing back his chair to stand, then snagging his plate to head back to the kitchen and clean up. This was a full service breakfast establishment, after all.

The list of benefits that had resulted from Tarin moving in was really starting to seem endless. Not all of them were huge or incredibly important benefits, but there were a lot of them.

And apparently the interdimensional hat magic was not something that Tarin could use as his 'claim to fame'. So that the other teams wouldn't be able to find out about it. So others couldn't also use the magic. "Well, I'm sure we can find you something," Lee told him. Though personally she didn't see the allure.

It was only when Tarin stood that Lee realized that he had finished eating. Glancing down at her plate, she realized that she was close but not quite finished eating herself. As was often the case, Lee had been quite distracted by Tarin.

It really didn't take long to finish the eggs and toast on her plate. And she stood, making her way to the kitchen with her plate herself.

Did Tarin need a claim to fame? No, he did not. Was it fun to joke about having one related to spaghetti sandwiches and magic hats? Absolutely.

Making his way into the kitchen, Tarin tapped the crumbs off of his plate and into the trash can before setting it into the sink. The pan was cool now, so he grabbed it and went to work getting it clean. Eggs weren’t all that hard to clean up and by the time Lee made her way into the kitchen, Tarin had cleaned up the dishes and was wiping down the countertops.

”I can’t remember if we were going to shop for the food stuff tonight or tomorrow.” Tarin asked, holding out a hand for Lee’s plate, he knew they’d made plans but between the nightmare and…everything else he couldn’t remember exactly what they’d decided.

By the time that Lee had made it into the kitchen, Tarin was already wiping the counter down and holding out his hand for her plate. As he was asking about when they'd planned to go shopping.

Right, they had planned to cook again before Kevin went to the mansion. That had been before everything that had happened this morning. "Tomorrow night," Lee replied as she handed Tarin her plate. "At least if we're still planning on getting Kevin to make dessert."

As Lee stood waiting for the moment it took Tarin to wash her plate, Lee thought about what might be good to make for dinner. "Tonight, we were going to clean out the fridge. Unless I get bored and do it this afternoon."

Oh right, they’d even talked about cleaning out the fridge that morning. Tarin nodded, ”Kevin making dessert might be the part that I’m most excited about.” Tarin said. ”Though, it’s going to be hilarious if he absolutely nails some kind of baked goods. It would be a very teenager thing to do.”

It took just a moment to wash and rinse Lee’s plate and just like that breakfast was done and over with.

Lee had mentioned that she might actually clean out the fridge this afternoon if she was bored and Tarin didn’t say anything, but he absolutely wouldn’t have a problem missing out on that particular chore.

Turning to lean against the counter, Tarin looked at Lee thoughtfully, ”We decided on pork chops of some kind, right?” he said with a small grin, “I’ll admit I’m having a hard time remembering anything before bedtime.”

Tarin was most excited about Kevin making dessert? Though, now that she thought about it, that might actually be the better thing to focus on. If she focused on Kevin's dessert, maybe she wouldn't get as stressed and nervous about cooking herself.

"That would be just my luck, Kevin doing that great making dessert on his first try," Lee said with a bit of a sigh. "I'd likely never hear the end of it, him doing a great job and the years of horrible cooking I did."

When Tarin asked about what they had decided on, Lee had to stop and think for a moment. That did sound about right, but Lee honestly couldn't remember whether they had settled on a recipe yet.

"Yeah, we did," Lee told Tarin with a nod. "I'll make a decision on a recipe today and send it to you. That way we both have lots of time to read it over."

Tarin shook his head with a small smile when Lee pointed out how it would make some kind of cosmic sense for Kevin to be successful at backing his first time. Lee swore up and down that she wasn’t exaggerating when she said she was terrible at cooking and it had taken her an entire day to make a pie, twice…but she’d made it from scratch and it had been delicious.

”Nobody can be good at everything.” Tarin said, “If Kevin is some kind of natural baker, we’ll celebrate it and make him cook dessert several times a month.” . Tarin hoped that Kevin would be tactful enough to avoid teasing Lee too much if the dessert he didn’t even know he was making yet came out.

They were almost on the same page as to what they were going to be cooking in a couple of days time, but Lee wanted one more look at things before she decided. It was a good idea for her to send the recipe ahead too, Tarin planned to almost memorize the thing so that things went as smooth as humanly possible when he and Lee actually tried to execute the dish.

”Sounds like a plan. Definitely don’t want another “medium-high” debacle.” Tarin said, poking a bit of fun at himself and how he’d almost burned the chicken the last time he and Lee had cooked.

Tarin did have a bit of a point.People couldn't be good at everything. No matter how hard Lee tried to be.

And she did try.

Tarin also had a good plan for if Kevin ended up being a natural baker. "That does sound like a good plan," Lee agreed, though she wasn't sure how happy her son would be about it. Especially as he would be needing to come home from the mansion in order to make those desserts.

Then Tarin tried joking about their previous cooking attempt. And…

Well, it really hadn't been that bad. Possibly.

"I think we'll both be better prepared this time," Lee pointed out. "That means it should go better, right?"

Lee. Didn’t. Argue. She didn’t try to correct Tarin or talk down about her cooking abilities when he pointed out that it was impossible for any one person to be good at everything. Tarin didn’t know if it really was or not, but he felt like it was progress in making sure that Lee stopped being so hard on herself.

Lee also thought it sounded like a plan to put Kevin on dessert duty a few times a month if he turned out to be some kind of dessert prodigy. Tarin figured it was all good things because that would mean that Kevin had to come home and Lee could have him at home. Chances were, though, that Kevin would be every bit as hopeless in the kitchen as every other teenager who had zero cooking experience. “What are we going to do if it turns out that we both always have good ideas?”

But Lee spoke and that little tinge of stress was back in her voice and she seemed unsure that things would go better but Tarin smiled, “We are both going to be much better prepared, and I think it will go better…” he said, ”And it went really well last time, we made really good chicken Alfredo.”

What was going to happen if they book kept having good ideas? "Well, I would guess that means we will have a lot of good things happening," Lee said with a shrug. "And considering we are both more than due for that, it's about damn time, isn't it?"

Was Tarin trying to reassure her that things would go well when they ended up cooking in a couple of days? It did sound like that. Had she sounded that nervous or worried?

But everything that Tarin said was true. After the first little mishap with the difference between high and medium-high, the alfredo had turned out very well.

"I'll try not to stress out about it too much this time."

Lee’s response was about the best thing she could have said. He’d been light-hearted with his comment, but her response was completely spot on. About damn time? Truer words had never been spoken as far as Tarin was concerned.

”I really like the sound of that.” he said, though in Tarin’s mind he’d already had a lot of really good things lately.

Maybe he’d jumped the gun a bit with his assurances to Lee that everything would be fine when they cooked in the coming days because she said that she’d try her best to not be stressed out and Tarin shrugged.

”If you’re stressed out by it you’re stressed out.” Tarin said, ”And if you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to do it.” he said. It didn’t really matter either way. The cooking was just something else for them to do together. If it stopped being fun, then it was time to stop doing it.

"So do I," Lee said with a smile. They both did really deserve good things to happen. And while the last five years hadn't been bad for Lee, definitely not compared to how things had been bad for her in the past, life also hadn't been good those last five years.


And Tarin, Tarin definitely deserved more good than just the last few months after so many years simply surviving.

Lee just looked at Tarin for a moment when he said that if she was stressed cooking, she was stressed. He didn't tell her that there was really no reason for her to be stressed or worried about it. Just that if she didn't want to cook, she didn't have to, even with them already having made plans to cook in a couple days.

It was unexpected enough that it took Lee a moment or two before she was able to respond. "I doubt cooking will ever not be stressful," Lee ended up telling Tarin. "But like I said, I'll try to not let it be too bad."

It was settled then, Tarin decided when Lee agreed that they were due for a lot of good things.

In the grand scheme of things, the two of them had probably built up enough cosmic karma that they should be winning lotteries and things left and right. It wasn’t the way the real world worked though, but somehow they’d found each other and Tarin thought that was more than enough. Lee got uncomfortable when he got too gushy so he settled for thinking to himself that he’d gotten paid back a huge chunk of that karma on a cool spring night at the bar.

But why did Lee look so surprised when he told her it was fine if she was stressed? Had he made her feel otherwise at some point? When Lee had explained why the simple act of cooking was so upsetting to her, all the pieces of that specific puzzle had fallen into place. It wasn’t as if she was worrying over nothing for no reason.

Eventually she spoke and Tarin nodded, ”That makes sense.” he said, “And I’ll be there to help, just let me know what I can do.”