As self-assured and confident as Lee generally seemed, it really was easy to make her blush. All Tarin had to do was mention something that Lee had done well and she could hardly look him in the eye…especially if that something had anything to do with the kitchen.

It was utterly endearing, much more so than the way she tried to deny it was anything special.

“You did though.” Tarin persisted just a little, ”And it was really special.” it had been the nicest thing anyone had ever done for him on his birthday, and even if it made Lee a little uncomfortable, this was one thing he wasn’t going to let her brush off.

There had been a lot of really good ideas lately and as Lee had said recently, it was about damn time and the way that Lee was looking up at him through her lashes made Tarin smile again as he took one of the last few bites of his piece of cheesecake.

“I’m glad you like it.” he said in response.

As for plans for the night, “The Mets play again tonight, but we’ve watched the last several games so I figured they could go it alone and we could do something else…did you have anything in mind?” he asked.

Why was it so easy for Tarin to get her to blush? Did he have some special knowledge to know exactly what to say to make her blush? That may have been at least partially the cause, because despite his insistence that he didn't really know what he was doing, he sure did seem to say exactly the right thing a lot of the time.

Or maybe it had to do with how easily she was able to open up to him, with both the good and the bad. How he was able to get her to actually be vulnerable without completely freaking out and shutting down.

Regardless of the reason, when Tarin reiterated what she had done, that it was something really special, Lee's blush darkened. "I just wanted to give you something you should have had a lot more of in your life," Lee whispered with a small shrug. "That's all."

The Mets were playing, but they didn't have to watch the game? Lee raised an eyebrow slightly at that as she looked up at Tarin. "No, I didn't have anything in particular in mind," Lee answered with a smile. "Though as long as it's with you, I'm sure it'll be good. What 'something' were you thinking of?"

Now Lee was blushing even darker and Tarin just smiled, he wasn’t going to push any further, he had made his point. Lee could try her best to brush it off, but Tarin had made it clear how he felt and he could tell from Lee’s reaction that she understood. At the time, he’d known that Lee didn’t like to cook, but the depth of her anxiety in the kitchen hadn’t been clear. It made the fact that she had worked until she managed to make the pie even more important.

Lee didn’t seem to have any plans for the night as long as whatever they were doing they did together. That was easy enough. The rest though.

“My thoughts pretty much ended at, ‘Not baseball’” he said with a shrug, “Not a puzzle though…” he added. The last time they’d had to resort to that was still too fresh in Tarin’s mind and it made him glare every now and then at the spot the silly things resided in the closet.

Finishing his last bite of cheesecake, Tarin turned to rinse his plate before grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and leaning back against the counter, “That pretty much leaves the usual…unless you can think of something new and exciting.” The usual was absolutely fine with Tarin, but he wanted to leave Lee’s options open, just in case.

Tarin didn't say anything else about the pie. Or about her blushing, thankfully. But Lee did see the smile on his face. He saw the blush, she knew. Saw it, and liked the fact that it was there.

Not baseball. That was a starting point for figuring out what to do, not a plan. But also not a puzzle. Lee laughed as her eyes glanced out of the kitchen toward the closet the puzzles were in.

"I guess it's a good thing that there's no reason here tonight for us to need to do a puzzle, isn't it?" Lee asked.

As Tarin rinsed his plate off and grabbed a bottle, Lee took the opportunity to eat more of her cake. Though when he spoke again, Lee smiled as she looked up at him. "The usual is good," she told him. "I like the usual."

That was, maybe, the only current upside to Kevin having moved to the Masion. It was so unbelievably silly, but they didn’t have to worry about grossing Lee’s son out every five seconds. Sometimes it was like simply existing in the same space as Kevin was humiliating for the teen and if Kevin witnessed even the most innocent display of affection that embarrassment became utter mortification.

Tarin and Lee generally did their best to avoid those situations, but every now and then they slipped up. Like they night with the puzzle. They’d went to incredible lengths to behave in the common area and Kevin had still managed to find a way to leave his room at a pretty inopportune time.

Kevin being at The Mansion definitely eliminated the need to be careful in the common areas, but it also meant that Kevin was gone. Tarin kind of missed the kid, snarky teenage commentary aside.

This was all beside the point though.

While Lee worked at finishing her slide of cheesecake, Tarin grabbed the remains of the cheesecake, got the box closed and put it in the fridge as she pointed out that the usual was good.

Tarin liked the usual too because the usual tended to mostly consist of the two of them curled up on the couch together watching…or not watching…something on TV.

”The usual it is.” Tarin said, ”They also had a turtle cheesecake.”

'The usual' was nice. And comfortable. And relaxing.

And didn't always involve actually watching TV.

That was the one good thing Lee could think of about Kevin being at the mansion now; they didn't have to be careful about what they were doing in the living room (or the kitchen, or entrance way) in case her son decided to come out of his room at the worst moment and be utterly disgusted by the fact that his mother showed physical affection by curling up with Tarin and kissing.

Like had happened the night they had ended up doing the puzzle.

As she finished her last couple of bites, Lee watched Tarin moving around the kitchen putting the cheesecake in the fridge.

"That sounds like it could be very good," Lee said as she stepped over to the sink to wash her own plate quickly. Then she turned her head to look over at Tarin. "Though, maybe since we are alone, we should skip the part where we pretend to watch TV."

Lee finished her last couple of bites of cheesecake and was finishing her plate as Tarin got the leftovers situation under control. Quickly enough that was all handled and Tarin was getting ready to head out to the living room to start the modern equivalent of channel surfing when Lee spoke. The turtle cheesecake did sound very good, maybe next time he’d grab one of those and they’d see how it tasted…

Lee wasn’t done talking though and Tarin stopped in the doorway of the kitchen as she pointed out that since they were alone, they should maybe skip the pretense of watching TV.

The kitchen wasn’t all that big and it only took Tarin a few steps to make his way back over to the sink where Lee had been washing her plate. Looking down at her, Tarin leaned against the counter again with a smile, “I’m listening…” he said, ”What should we do instead?”

Tarin had already been on his way out of the kitchen when she spoke. It really did not take him long to make his way back to her, just a few steps. There was a grin on Lee's face when she looked up at him, so close to her, as he leaned against the counter.

"Well, to start with," Lee said softly as she lifted her arms to wrap them around Tarin's neck. Then just stood there looking up at him for a moment.

"I'm not sure I've thanked you enough for that cheesecake." Was this just an excuse to get closer to him? Damn right, and not even a very good one. But Lee didn't really care about that at the moment.

Raising up onto her toes, Lee stretched up to kiss Tarin.

Sometimes when they were talking like this, Lee liked to play innocent or just a little bit coy. She’d suggest alternate activities, or pretend like she wasn’t catching the meaning of suggestive things Tarin was saying.

This was not going to be one of those times. No, this time Lee was grinning as she reached up and wrapped her arms around Tarin’s neck and he readily turned into her and wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her close.

Lee was thanking him for the cheesecake?

Uh huh. Tarin didn’t really care though, not even a little bit because she was stretching up to kiss him…a kiss that Tarin eagerly returned, tightening his arms around Lee more to pull her against him.

This was definitely better than channel surfing. ”You’re welcome…” Tarin eventually said against Lee’s lips, he wasn’t moving any further away, not even to talk.

The kiss had definitely lasted longer than Lee had initially planned it to. She was not complaining, though. Not one bit. And when Tarin finally pulled away from the kiss, just barely far enough that he could speak against her lips, Lee smiled.

This close to Tarin was definitely a good place to be, Lee thought as she looked the extremely small distance into his eyes. She loved the way that his arms immediately went around her waist the moment that she was close enough, the moment she wrapped her arms around his neck. Loved the way it felt when he pulled her closer against him.

"I think this is a good place to start," she murmured, her lips still against his.

A good place to start? Tarin was pretty sure that this was a pretty good place to beginning, middle, and end. As he had proven before, Tarin knew he could stay like this for ages, just kissing Lee, just holding her close. She felt so good against him and for a moment he just reveled in it as they kissed.

When they stood like this, it was such a quick way to get to that point where the rest of the world literally stopped existing and since they were the only ones in the apartment at the moment, they had the luxury of that being a perfectly acceptable state of being.

They were in the kitchen though, and another thing that they’d established was that it was difficult to walk while kissing, and removing clothes, and any other number of things that they’d tried to do while walking over the past few months. That thought in mind, he finally pulled back from the kiss for real, but just far enough to rest his forehead against Lee’s, another one of his Tarin’s favorite things to do.

“Better be careful or we’re going to end up with a new dessert every time I come home and the fridge only has so much space…” . Tarin thought he might have said something like that when Lee had made the pie too…but if this was the thanks he got…

As they stood there, Lee's entire focus was on Tarin. The warmth of his body against hers, the strength of his arms wrapped around her, the feeling of his breath against her skin, the sensation of his unique feeling energy flowing into her. In a way, it was almost too much.

And yet, Lee practically always wanted more. Tonight she didn't need more, not yet. But that didn't stop her from wanting more.

Which, with it being only herself and Tarin, alone, for the rest of the night, wasn't going to be an issue .

But then Tarin pulled away, and Lee was disappointed until she felt him resting his forehead against hers.

This was good too. Lee was smiling as she looked up at Tarin.

Then laughed when she heard him speak.

"Somehow, I think we'd find a way to manage if you did that," she told him. "But I can find other things to thank you for, if you'd prefer."

A whole refrigerator of dessert was one of those things you fantasized about having when you were a kid and daydreaming about what you’d do when you were an adult and had adult money. You’d fill your fridge in your big house with every dessert you could think of and you’d eat those desserts for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and nobody would be able to stop you.

This was way better than dessert though Tarin thought as Lee laughed and looked up at him from that very short distance between them.

They may very well have been able to figure out what to do with that amount of sweets, but it was apparently unnecessary.

”Like what?” he asked. Maybe doing just a bit of fishing for a compliment.

”Or we could just cut all the pretense and you could just say you want to kiss me.”

What else could she thank him for? "Well, lets see…" Lee mused softly. " I could thank you for being incredible..." Definitely true in her eyes. "For the years of working out..." And that was very much appreciated. On a daily basis. "For always being there for me…"

As she spoke, between each thing, Lee gave Tarin another soft kiss.

Or she could just do that. Simply tell him that she wanted to kiss him. "Always," Lee whispered honestly. There were not many situations where kissing Tarin wouldn't make things immensely better. She then gave Tarin another, longer kiss. During which her fingers slowly found their way into his hair.

Finally, eventually, Lee pulled back enough to speak again, a smile on her face. "But where's the fun in that?"

Okay, so maybe fishing for compliments had been a bad idea because Lee came through and started listing things and now it was Tarin’s turn to blush. Lee’s list of things ranged from incredibly gratifying to incredibly flattering and every time she said something, Lee gave Tarin another kiss that he returned with a smile. Maybe they were close enough that Lee wouldn’t notice the blush.

And she always wanted to kiss him? Tarin knew that Lee certainly liked to kiss, and they they spent plenty of time kissing, among other things, but hearing Lee actually say that she always wanted to kiss him sounded like the kind of thing that Tarin would say that would cause Lee to ask one of her skeptical questions. Tarin loved it though, and this time when she kissed him and it lasted longer, he leaned into the kiss, shivering slightly as Lee’s fingers moved into his hair.

This time it was Lee who pulled back and it was Tarin’s turn to be disappointed as she did so.

Where was the fun in that?

“I see your point,” Tarin, voice soft as he leaned back in for another kiss. What had they been talking about again?