”Good.” Tarin said emphatically to Lee’s whispered agreement. He really hated to ask Lee to take all of that on, even hypothetically, but what else was he going to do? Somewhere in there, Tarin knew he didn’t even have to ask.

He was a bit surprised when Lee agreed that she wished she also knew what was going to happen ahead of time so it wouldn’t scare her so much.

“I can’t be sure…and you probably already know this…” Tarin said because he couldn’t, because it had never actually happened, “But I think it has to do with what needs to happen. I know we talked about it a little that night, but it’s….” Tarin couldn’t find the words.

“What if we talked to the Doctor at the Mansion? What if there was a safe way to look into it all?” he suggested. “If you think it’s a bad idea I’ll let it drop forever…but if they can help, it might be worth it.”

Lee’s other question could wait for just a moment.

Lee hated these talks. Hated having to put voice to doing everything she possible could to stop a merge. To agree that she wouldn't hold back against the man she loves.

But unfortunately, because of Tarin's powers, because of her powers (and the fact that she would not agree to outright get as far away as possible) it was necessary. Well, maybe not necessary to voice the fact, but necessary that, in the event a merge happened, she do everything she could to stop it.

The idea that a merge ended up being what needed to happen would have been completely ludicrous to Lee a decade earlier. But over the course of telling Tarin about what the merges were and what had happened…

It did seem to be that way. The fact was, just because something was needed in the moment, did not always mean that the same something was good. And the vast majority of the time, that is how things seemed to work with merges.

As Tarin continued speaking, Lee sat up straighter as she stared at him. A safe way?? How could they possibly look into merges, try to see if they were in fact an answer to what Tarin needed at that moment in a safe way when there was no way to know ahead of time what was going to be needed to keep damage to a minium or how to end it?

"I don't even have an idea how that could possibly be done safely."

Lee always balked at looking into anything that had to do with the second kind of merge.

If he was honest, Tarin understood exactly why she was so hesitant. Every single time Lee had experienced a merge it had been under absolutely catastrophic conditions. Horrible things had happened without fail…except for the time the merge had saved her.

Yes, it was easy for Tarin to sit here and hypothesize over something that was still only hypothetical for him. It just ate at him that he didn’t actually know how or what would happen.

Everything about Lee’s posture, her voice, the way she was looking at him suggested that exactly what she wanted to do was drop the topic and Tarin had promised to do so if she thought it was a bad idea.

So. Tarin nodded and looked down at their hands, giving Lee’s a squeeze.

“You’re probably right.” he said, then released Lee’s hand so he could stand up and move to the couch.

“I’m cool with TV or anything really…there’s no game on tonight.”

Lee could tell that Tarin wasn't overly thrilled with the answer that she gave him. But honestly, how could you possibly try to make a plan to do something like this safely when there was no possible way to know what would happen?

Still, Tarin nodded and did actually let the subject drop. As well as her hand, and Lee thought for a moment that Tarin was upset because of how that had gone.

But no, Tarin was standing up and moving to sit beside her on the couch. That was a relief, at least.

Shifting on the couch herself, Lee sat back and curled her legs up beside her as she leaned toward Tarin. Who said he was good with TV or whatever since there was no game that night. Lee nodded as she reached for the remote. Something pretty mindless would be good after how the day had gone.

It didn't take very long to find something to watch, and Lee settled in beside Tarin. But after a couple of minutes, she spoke again. "Maybe we could try cooking again in the next few days?" She suggested. "Definitely before Kevin leaves."

And that was that.

Lee was, in all likelihood, completely correct. Merges were completely unpredictable at best, and wildly dangerous at worst. Even if the Mansion was potentially equipped to handle looking into it more, it still wouldn’t be safe. It wouldn’t be safe for him, it wouldn’t be safe for Lee, it wouldn’t be safe for anyone else at the Mansion. If Lee had a boundary there, Tarin would respect that boundary.

As he settled into the couch, Tarin draped his arm around Lee as she did the same and found something to put on the TV. Tarin’s mind was still focused on what they’d been talking about, what Lee and Kevin had talked about, and what it all meant.

Lee pulled Tarin from his thoughts with her next comment though and he looked down at her with a raised eyebrow, “Yeah?” he said with a slight smile, “I could definitely get behind that. Maybe we’ll try your store this time instead of the one by the shop.”

What would they cook though? Surely Lee hadn’t made the suggestion without something in mind, he knew her better than that.

“Did you have something in mind?” he asked, definitely not thinking about how wildly diverse their topics had been over the course of the last several minutes.

When Lee heard Tarin's surprise at her suggestion, she looked up at him and shrugged slightly. "Sure?" Lee said. A couple months ago, this would have been unheard of, her suggesting that she, or even they together, attempt to cook something.

Yet here she was.

Tarin was suggesting they try a different store, the one she tended to go to rather than the one that was just closest to the shop, and Lee nodded. "That might work better."

"I was thinking maybe pork chops?" Lee replied. She had actually been thinking about what they could cook next for a while and hadn't come up with anything that didn't suddenly sound extremely difficult the moment she started looking for recipes.

Then Lee remembered that when Tarin had taken her to the rooftop restaurant he had decided to not get the pork chops, and there were a number of seeming 'easy' recipes out there for pork chops. Lee was definitely still anxious about how it would all go, but their last attempt with the chicken alfredo had turned out well.

”I’d like that a lot.” Tarin said when Lee confirmed that she did, in fact, want to cook again. That was an excellent thing considering how nerve wracking the first time had been for her. It would probably be nerve wracking again, Tarin thought, but maybe more success would breed more confidence. That was the way things worked, wasn’t it?

He’d just have to do his best to make sure that this time was as successful as the last time had been. Maybe he’d read the recipe more thoroughly this time to make sure he didn’t have to check so much. He’d look for things like medium-high so that nothing got burned again.

Lee also liked Tarin’s suggestion of going to the store closer to here as opposed to closer to the shop. It was the place she usually went, so it made sense that it would be easier and less stressful to find ingredients there.

Pork chops? Tarin nodded, “I like pork chops a lot. If you’ve got a recipe you liked, send it to me…otherwise I can look too.”

Lee smiled when Tarin said he would like for them to try cooking again. The anxiety that the idea caused had not disappeared, it was all still very definitely there. But Tarin liking the idea as much as he did, it did make it much easier for Lee to deal with that anxiety.

At least for right now. Until they got into the kitchen ready to cook.

Lee's smile widened when Tarin told her that he liked pork chops. She had guessed that based on what he had said when they went to dinner.

"I don't have one specifically picked out yet," Lee admitted. "Apparently, there is a lot that you can do with pork chops, so there's a seemingly infinite number of recipes out there."

"I think I've got it narrowed down, though," Lee said, reaching for her phone. It just took a few moments to pull up the links (and remember what they were) and send them to Tarin. "One is a lemon butter and the other is apple stuffed."

Nothing specific yet. That was alright, Tarin thought, wondering just how much work Lee had put into looking up recipes.

Tarin felt like he had seen or read somewhere that pork was especially versatile. Maybe that’s why Lee had been able to find so many recipes.

Lee had said that she hadn’t narrowed things down, but before he knew it Tarin had a message on his phone containing links to two different recipes.

Taking a few moments to open the links and read the recipes, Tarin thought he knew which one he thought looked easier, but he mostly wanted to know what Lee thought.

“They both look really good…” he said, “And I think we could take either of them on.” he said, and that was mostly true too.

Peeking back towards Kevin’s room to make sure he wasn’t heading out to visit, Tarin grinned at Lee, “Maybe this time we leave the doors a little cracked…” he teased, knowing full well the only reason things had played out that was in the first place was because their roommate hadn’t been in residence at the time.

Lee waited while Tarin glanced over the recipes. She honestly wasn't sure if she had chosen good recipes. Were they good choices? Lee thought they sounded relatively easy enough to do, but had she misjudged? That was quite possible. Likely, in fact.

So when Tarin spoke, Lee was relieved to hear that he thought that not only did he agree that they sounded good, but that Tarin thought that both recipes were potentially doable by them.

But then Tarin continued speaking and Lee blushed as she remembered what had happened after they ate when they'd made the chicken alfredo. "That…might be a good idea in general," Lee said, the blush still on her cheeks. "Unless you like falling for me."

Lee blushed and Tarin grinned, he couldn’t help himself, then she spoke and he laughed.

“I love it when you blush like that.” he said candidly, “And falling for you both literally and figuratively has worked out exceptionally well for me so I can’t complain…” he added.

Hadn’t they just been talking about cooking dinner though? Weren’t there still some logistics that needed to be worked out? ”Let me know what you decide about the recipes, or if you want me to pick between the two and I’ll make sure I’m better acquainted this time so we don’t have to work so hard to remember all of the steps.”

An idea occurred to Tarin and he thought about it for a moment before speaking, “Maybe since Kevin has so much commentary he could be in charge of dessert. He can provide an ingredient list and we can pick everything up for him when we get the dinner supplies.” he said with a smile, clearly pleased with the idea. Just because they were punting that part of the mean to Kevin didn’t mean it had to be complex.

Lee bit her lip, the blush deepening slightly, when Tarin commented on it. Then smiled when he continued. "You do?" Lee questioned. "And I should hope that falling for me hasn't turned out badly."

They did still have things to figure out about the dinner. Such as which of the two recipes that Lee had narrowed it down to they would actually attempt to make.

Lee glanced at her phone to look at the two recipes again. "Let's go with the lemon butter one," she said after a couple of moments. "As good as the apple one sounds, just the name makes it sound more complicated."

And it was Tarin's turn for a good idea, and Lee grinned over at him. "That sounds like a great plan," she told him.

“Mmhm…” Tarin said when Lee questioned if he really liked it when she blushed that way, ”Probably because at least in this case, I know exactly what you’re thinking about.”

As for the other, “My words were ‘exceptionally well’. “ he said as a postscript, simply because it was true.

Lee decided they should go with the lemon butter recipe and Tarin nodded in agreement. That was the one he’d thought looked simpler, and simpler was definitely a good thing. The one with apples looked good though. Maybe they could save it for sometime down the line.

Lee was usually the one with good ideas, but every now and then Tarin surprised both of them and came up with something good on his own. Kevin always did have a lot to say when Lee tried to cook, and he’d been so surprised when he’d found out that Tarin and Lee had cooked the Alfredo that he’d thought it was from a restaurant.

Now Kevin could try his hand at making something. Maybe they’d grab a backup too so any mistakes wouldn’t result in a lack of dessert.

”Now we just need to choose a day.”

Lee smiled, the blush staying firmly in place as Tarin spoke. "Oh you know, do you?" Lee questioned, an eyebrow raising as she looked up at Tarin. "If that's so, maybe you can answer something for me…"

Lee paused for a moment, biting her lip as though in thought as she looked up at Tarin. "Which puzzle should we do next? Because I can't decide between the castle or the forest."

That was definitely not what she had been thinking that had caused the blush. Lee had most assuredly been thinking about after the dinner they had made themselves and eaten, when they had literally fallen through her door because they hadn't been able to tear themselves away from kissing to open the door without leaning against it.

That had been a good night.

Lee didn't even think that they had a puzzle with either of those pictures on it. She really only had a few puzzles that she had done with Kevin when he was younger.

But logistics and planning…Things that needed to be done when you were trying something unusual to you that required prep work.

"Three days?" Lee suggested. "I don't want to add this onto what Kevin's thinking about tonight, so that would still give him a couple days to figure something out and give us a list. Then we can do the shopping and cook on the third day?"

If she’d been thinking so studiously about puzzles, why was Lee blushing so hard, Tarin couldn’t help but wonder. He knew the answer and grinned a knowing grin at Lee as she tried to deflect.

It was a bold move, biting her lip like that too. Lee was really pulling out all the stops for distraction.

”Uh huh….” Tarin said, looking Lee right in the eyes, that knowing smile morphing into a slight smirk, ”I’m sure that’s exactly what you were thinking about .”

That really had been a good night.

They couldn’t keep talking about it though, it really wasn’t practical at this point, and they still hadn’t worked out all of the logistics for the next meal that they were going to cook.

Lee suggested three days. One day to give Kevin a chance to digest everything he’d learned tonight and two nights to prep the dessert he was going to make.

Tarin nodded his acceptance of the idea, ”Three days sounds perfectly fair.” he said, glancing at the TV and trying to figure out what they were watching.