Not only was Tarin not telling her that she was worrying too much, especially about something 'small' or 'unimportant' as cooking, but he said that it made sense that she'd probably never not stress about it.

Again, Lee just looked at Tarin for a moment before she was able to speak.

"You don't think I'm worrying or stressing over nothing?" Lee asked, her voice slow and quiet.

No matter what it was about, Kevin's father had always thought that she worried too much. Except for the rare few occasions early on when he had thought she wasn't worrying enough about merges. Which was very not true.

Even Rachel had commented a few times over the years that she stressed way too much over something as simple as cooking.

Why was Lee looking at him like that? Had he said something wrong? Was he still making too many assumptions about Lee and how much cooking stressed her out? That really hadn’t been Tarin’s intention at all and Lee didn’t wait long before she spoke.

She was surprised that he didn’t think that she was stressed out over nothing?

Brows drawing together slightly, Tarin shook his head, a thoughtful frown on his face. ”Why would I think that you were worried or stressed over nothing? You told me the last time we cooked why it was a hard thing for you to do.”

Tarin paused for a moment, “It’s not like you can help it anyway…” he continued, “You're not trying to walk in there and worry about it.”

Another pause while he thought, and then shrugged, “It doesn’t stress me out to cook, but it doesn’t stress you out to walk into an elevator. Same kind of thing, right?”

Tarin was now looking almost as surprised as she was feeling. She knew that she did worry a lot. It was kind of an inevitable thing with her powers, having lived on the street, the merging…

In a lot of ways, worrying is what had kept her alive at times. But everyone else always seemed to think that she worried far too much about everything.

But Tarin seemed confused about her even asking about that. And pointed out that her being stressed about cooking was similar to him in an elevator; most people didn't find the situations very stressful, but for them it was. And was valid.

Lee couldn't help but wonder if this was because Tarin just…automatically seemed to understand things so much more quickly and completely than anyone else really ever had, or if…

"People always complained and told me that I worried far too much," Lee eventually said. "No matter how big or small a thing it was, I worried too much. I figured this was just another of those times."

Well this was an interesting turn of conversation. Lee did tend to worry about things, and plan for things, and try to have as much control over most situations as was reasonable to have. Lee’s instincts were generally right though, and there had already been several times where her advanced planning had staved off problems before they’d even happened.

Apparently other people hadn’t seen things the same way though. They’d thought that Lee was qoverreacting and worrying about things she didn’t need to worry about.

”Well. I think we’ve established that I’m not everyone else.” Tarin said then paused for a moment as he thought.

”Do I wish you didn’t have to worry? Of course I do.” he said softly, “But it’s not my job to tell you what is or isn’t worth worrying about. It’s my job to help you when you do worry. To make it easier.” Like when Lee’s parents had come to visit. Sure, the visit had ended up an unmitigated disaster, but Tarin hoped that he’d at least made the preparations a bit easier.

”So yeah…just make sure you know that if there’s anything I can do to help, all you have to do is ask.”

Tarin really wasn't like anyone else, and Lee honestly loved that about him. Even if it did, in some ways, show her how things in her life had been been even worse than she had thought.

Of course it would be great if she didn't have to worry about things. But that was not what life was like for her.

When Tarin finished speaking, Lee gave Tarin a small smile as she stepped closer to him. "I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but you're pretty amazing," Lee said as she looked up at him. "I know you don't think you are, but it's true."

"And I'll try to remember to ask for help," Lee continued. "But I think I've been getting better at that."

Tarin didn’t quite know how to feel when Lee said he was amazing.

On one hand when she said things like that it made him feel like a million bucks, like no matter what happened, he was ready as long as Lee felt that way.

On the other hand…it didn’t feel like he had done anything amazing. It just felt like he was doing what he was supposed to do, the bare minimum in fact. Tarin wasn’t wildly experienced as far as relationships were concerned, in fact he was a relative novice in that sense. But when you cared about someone it stood to reason that you did things for them that helped them…not hurt them. Tarin didn’t understand how diminishing a loved ones worries and fears would ever be helpful.

Lee was close enough thst it would have been very easy for Tarin to reach out and bring her even closer, which would have been excellent but also would probably have gotten them back where they were the night before…so he settled for smiling down at Lee and shaking his head, ”You’re allowed to think it.” he said, ”And it’s very gratifying to hear.”

Lee was also agreeing to try and ask for help when she needed it, even if she really had been doing much better on that front.

”You’re doing much better, and I’m glad you’ll try to remember.”

It was only as she stood there looking up at Tarin that Lee realized just how close she had come to him. How easy it would be for Tarin to pull her close, or for her to wrap her arms around his neck.

The smile that he gave her made that all the more tempting to do, too. "Well, good," Lee said softly as she smiled back up at Tarin. "Because I don't think I'm going to change my mind on that."

It was also good to know that Lee hadn't been imagining herself getting better at asking for help.

Then another thought crossed Lee's mind, and her smile faltered a bit. "I'm not sure how things'll go if Kevin needs help," she admitted. "Unless we're eating really late that night, he's probably going to be working on the dessert before you get home."

The kitchen was too small.

That was the problem here.

The kitchen was too small, and that inevitably ended with the two of them being too close together. In fact, they were standing so close right now, and Lee was looking up and Tarin was looking down and it just wouldn’t have taken a whole lot to lean down just a little bit…

”Well good.” Huh?

Tarin blinked a couple of times and nodded as he remembered what they were talking about and smiled when Lee said she wasn’t going to stop thinking he was amazing. Well that just made him want to kiss her even more.

Lee’s smile faltered a bit though and Tarin felt his start to fade a little bit as he tried to figure out what had changed, then turned thoughtful as Lee explained her thoughts.

”Probably depends on what he decides he wants to make. And if he doesn’t actually want to cook we can pick something up. Maybe we do that anyway, just in case. Worst case scenario we have an extra dessert floating around for a few days.” Tarin said, rolling through a few possible solutions.

Lee was just standing there and looking up at Tarin as she smiled, and he was just standing there looking down at her.

And by the way that Tarin blinked at her when she spoke, Lee could only guess that he had been getting distracted. They weren't touching, but they were close. Really rather close. And it wouldn't take much at all for her to touch Tarin. For her to stretch up and kiss him

And they were very quickly getting back to where they had been the previous night.

Maybe they hadn't managed to get it out of their systems after all.

Taking a bit of a breath, Lee took a small half step backwards as Tarin shared his thoughts about what to do with Kevin and dessert. Buying a backup dessert did sound like a very good idea, actually.

"I guess we can just pick something out tomorrow when we're shopping," Lee said, still looking up at Tarin though there was slightly more space between them thanks to that small step. "Unless you've got a request for dessert?"

Lee took that little step back and Tarin had to laugh and shake his head a little bit. They really were a bit ridiculous, weren’t they?

Crossing his arms and leaning back against the counter slightly so that he wasn’t so much looking down at Lee as looking over at her he couldn’t help but smile. Lee spoke and Tarin nodded to her suggestion that they could pick up a dessert at the store when they got ingredients for the meal they decided to cook.

Dinner have a request? Tarin shrugged, he wasn’t very particular when it came to desserts and the stores usually had something good.

”I’m good with whatever.” he said, ”You’ve mentioned liking cheesecake several times but there’s been shockingly little of it in our daily lives…” surely that was a good option.

”Otherwise I’m easy to please.”

When Lee took that small step back, Tarin laughed and shook his head. Lee could only assume that Tarin understood the exact reason she had done it.

Part of Lee was glad that was the case because that obviously meant that he knew the feeling, knew what she had been thinking and feeling. But another, though quickly growing smaller, part of Lee thought it was absolutely ridiculous that they couldn't even stand near each other discussing dinner without completely losing track of where and when they were.

Tarin suggested that cheese cake would be a good backup plan with how often she had mentioned liking it. And how little of it she had had since he'd been around.

"That does despite good," Lee agreed. "Though for some things, if you have them too often they stop being so special."

Well. At least today they were able to make sensible decisions like reasonable adults. That was an improvement over the night before when even rational thinking would have been impossible this close to Lee.

Yep. They were doing well. Lee had taken a step back. Tarin had secured the space between them. They were talking about making dinner, the dinner that they were going to shop for and that they were going to cook from scratch in a couple of days. Kevin didn’t know it yet, but he was even going to make the dessert. They were definitely functional adults with functional plans.

Lee pointed out that cheesecake sounded good, but that some things stopped being special if you had them too often. That could be true sometimes. Tarin didn’t really feel that way about most of his favorite things though. In fact.

”Fair.” he said, ”But some things just get better every single time.”

When she had stepped back, Tarin had leaned in the other direction, against the counter. Putting that extra bit of space between them.

That made it far easier to think, though it by far had not been nearly as difficult as the night before to think of anything beyond Tarin.

Talking about dinner was also good. The idea of cooking was giving Lee just enough tension that it was making it a lot easier to let herself be drawn closer to him. To not move in and kiss him.

At least it was a lot easier not to until Tarin made that comment.

Lee didn't notice that she had drawn her bottom lip between her teeth slightly as she smiled at Tarin. "That is very true," Lee murmured after a moment. "Some things do keep getting better and better. For some things, I don't think that ever really stops being true…"

Pie.

That was definitely what Tarin had been talking about.

Pie, specifically blueberry pie, got better every single time he ate it. It was one of those things that simply was. Blueberry pie was better every time it was eaten.

Yes. He had absolutely. Definitely. Been talking about pie.

Or had he?

Lee certainly seemed to have thoughts. Deep enough thoughts that she had her bottom lip in her teeth. She must not have been aware that she was doing it, because if she had stepped a way in a clear indication of what she did and didn’t want…why would she almost immediately do something that she knew Tarin reallybbv enjoyed.

And she agreed. Some things really did get better every single time.

”Like blueberry pie.” Tarin said. Studiously trying to avoid looking at that lip that Lee had just been biting.

“Maybe it’s the same with cheesecake.” he added, ”Unless you meant something else…”

Lee was 95% sure that Tarin had not been talking about pie. Maybe what they were talking about was also true about pie, but Lee was sure that it's not what he had meant when he had first said the comment.

Just as she had not been talking about cheesecake. Yes, it was delicious every time that Lee ate it, and she did not see that ever changing.

But that was not what she had been referring to that got better every time.

The way that Tarin was not really looking at her at the moment only further proved the point.

"Cheesecake is really very good," Lee confirmed. "I don't think I've ever had one that I would say was bad. But there are definitely other things that just keep getting better and better every time…"