The whole evening?

Considering the fact that the only thing he’d kept on this whole time was his watch, Tarin checked it and they absolutely did have the rest of the evening ahead of them.

”Does feel weird that a game is already over and it’s so early…” Tarin said.

And the Mets were in the playoffs. Interesting how he was able to remember that now.

”Were you planning to do anything for the rest of the day? Tarin said, voice amused as he continued to run his fingers up and down Lee’s arm.

A thought occurred to him and he leaned back a bit so he could look at her, ”Did you remember to turn off your siphoning?” he asked, because he had absolutely forgotten to remind her.

It did feel rather weird that the game was already over. The only times Lee had watched a baseball game, actually any game outside of the Olympics or the World Juniors tournament, that had been this early in the day had been on the weekend. So it was very strange that the game was over and there was still so much of the day left.

Tarin's hand had started running up and down her arm, goosebumps once again spreading under his touch. And as he asked about her plans, a shiver ran through Lee's body.

"No, no other plans," she told him. "I knew how important all of this was for you. Plus, it's an excuse to be able to spend the entire day together." Even if they had just spent the entire weekend together. This was a weekday, so that made the time special.

Feeling Tarin move, Lee turned her head to look at him. "I did," she told him. "Barely, but I remembered."

Lee didn’t have any plans.

Thank goodness, because Tarin had absolutely no plans to go anywhere for the foreseeable future. He did kind of wish they had some blankets laying around in here, but even that was secondary to the fact that he had no plans to move for the foreseeable future.

It also just felt good that Lee had specifically kept her schedule clear because she’d known how important this series had been for Tarin. In hindsight it felt kind of silly, but if things hadn’t gone well, it would have been nice to have Lee around to improve his mood. She had an excellent way of doing that, after all.

”Did I ever tell you how i got to be such a fan?” Tarin asked. It wasn’t the happiest story, but it wasn’t trauma laden and horrifying either.

And Lee had remembered to turn off her siphoning. Tarin breathed a little sigh of relief, another new thing for them in the past month had been his first experience with what Lee called a ‘crash’. It was something Tarin did not want to repeat any time soon.

”Well good. I did not do my job very well today. “ he said with a little smile. Getting to actually sleep with Lee was one of Tarin’s favorite things.

How Tarin had become a baseball fan? Lee couldn't remember him ever mentioning anything like that before. He had talked about baseball a lot, too, I've the past six months. About the rules, the players, other teams, history. Explaining there were actually two separate leagues that played together.

That one had taken a few different times with Tarin explaining for Lee to properly understand.

But not once had he told her how he had become a baseball fan. Or even hinted that there was a story there in the first place.

"I mean, baseball is a big thing in the States," Lee replied after a few moments thought. "Moreso in Texas, it seems. I just figured that was why."

Because she had looked up at Tarin when he asked about her siphoning, Lee saw and heard the sigh of relief when she told him she'd remembered.

Her crash earlier in the month, while unique in the fact that she had actually woken up with energy, had not been good. They never were.

She had known since the museum that a crash was going to happen. Five days later, when she was on her sixth day without sleep, Lee had given Tarin instructions for when it happened. To wake her up after 8 hours if he knew what time she had taken asleep. After 5 hours if he found her asleep and didn't know when she fell asleep.

And while simply today would have put her at no risk of crashing had she forgotten to turn her siphoning off, Lee knew that neither of them wanted her to go without sleep again any time soon.

"We were both very distracted. I don't blame you for not remembering."

Lee’s assumptions made sense. Sports were huge in Texas. Some high schools had facilities to rival small professional set ups and some schools set themselves up as factories to produce athletes. So yes…sports had been an integral part of Tarin’s life growing up.

But, that was only part of the story though.

”Growing up there was always some kind of sports on the TV or radio. My Dad liked everything. We didn’t really have time to go to many games though, or get really involved. There was too much work to do.” Then Tarin’s Dad had gotten sick, then his powers had manifested and everything had kind of gone downhill.

”We used to do fundraisers at Shea Stadium...it’s where the Mets played before Citi Field opened… Your group could work the gates to take tickets or check bags.” he explained. ”It was a nice way to get out and do something…”

”I’d watch people going in. Even though the team was terrible, they always looked so happy in their hats and jerseys, there were couples and families... You could hear the home runs sometimes and it just sounded fun. I started reading up on the team, and the history and just kind of loved it all. I started listening on the radio when I could, catching games on TV’s when I had a chance.” It had just grown from there to where he was now.

Tarin nodded towards the hat sitting on the coffee table, ”That was one of the first frivolous things I bought when I was out on my own.” That hat wasn’t artfully distressed, it was just old and he’d only ever worn it for games. Now it was magic, like so many things on this side of the rift.

That was it though, that was the story.

It wasn’t very impressive and it was probably kind of boring, but it did explain some of why he was so invested in the team.

And at least Lee didn’t seem to blame Tarin for being distracted. They’d both been distracted.

”Distracted in the best way…but I’m still glad you remembered.” Lee crashing had scared him, no matter how prepared Lee had made sure he was. Waiting to wake her up had been even worse. They’d gotten through it together, but it was definitely something to be avoided if possible.

Lee listened as Tarin explained how there was always some kind of game on back when he was at home, either on the radio or playing on TV. But that all the work on the farm had kept him, or the family as a whole, from being able to do more.

Then 'they' did fundraisers at the stadium? They could only be one thing with the way that Tarin said it. But Tarin was actually remembering this as a happy memory, and Lee couldn't help but smile as she listened to him.

And of course the first thing he had done was to go and read about the team. That was such a Tarin thing to do that it made Lee's smile widen.

As much as she hated the entire group that Tarin had ended up with when he got to New York, she was glad that they had, if indirectly, given him baseball.

But then Tarin told her about getting his hat, and Lee shook her head. "Not a frivolous purchase," Lee told him. "An investment. What would have happened if you hadn't brought it with you?"

Lee laid her head back down on Tarin's shoulder, the smile still on her face for a few moments before she spoke again. "My parents kept trying to get me into sports," she ended up saying. "Soccer, baseball, dance. Even hockey and ringette at one point. Eventually they gave up and let me take voice lessons as well as my piano lessons."

Lee didn’t say anything after he’d finished telling his story, but the smile on her face told him how she’d felt about the whole thing. Lee almost always seemed to like when Tarin told her stories like that. He’d have to find other good ones to tell. Even if there weren’t a lot, there were still things he could tell.

And the hat…according to Lee that hadn’t been a frivolous purchase at all. It had been an investment.

What would have happened if he hadn’t brought it with him?

”It was the first thing I put in the bag.” Tarin said, ”There were other, far more practical things, that I left behind.” but he hadn’t been able to leave that hat.

Lee settled back against his shoulder and Tarin smiled as she explained that her parents had tried to get her into sports.

Trying to imagine Lee playing a competitive sport was a bit difficult, but Tarin and Lee ran all the time and she was an excellent fighter.

Something caught his attention though and he frowned thoughtfully, ”What’s ringette?” he asked, then smiled again at how Lee convinced them to let her pursue music instead.

”You’ll have to play piano for me someday…you’ve never done that” If she was half as good at piano as she was guitar, Tarin would be in for a treat.

Lee smiled when Tarin said that the hat was the first thing that he had packed. That made complete sense for him.

And obviously, Tarin had had to leave stuff behind when he came to this world. It wasn't like you had been able to rent a moving truck and drive it through an interdimensional rip in the middle of Central Park.

"What kind of things did you have to leave?" Lee ended up asking softly. Part of her wondered how she could have not wondered this before. Though, the question would have seemed far more relevant six years earlier when he had first arrived. Maybe Lee hadn't thought about asking because by the time she had gotten to know Tarin, he had been here for years and was well established in the shop.

"Ringette is…" Lee said slowly, thinking about how to explain her very limited knowledge of the sport. "It's kind of like hockey, but uses a rubber ring instead of a puck, and there's no contact. And a lot more passing than in hockey."

She really hadn't played piano for Tarin yet, had she? The keyboard had been right there, sitting on the other side of the room since before he had moved in, they had even talked about it a few times, yet Lee had not yet played for him.

"Maybe when we actually get up?" Lee suggested. At least that way she wouldn't forget again. Hopefully. "Depending on what kind of thing you want me to play, anyway. I can actually play piano, and sing, from sheet music, so there's a whole lot more options available."

What kinds of things had he left behind? Tarin actually had to think for a few moments..

“Mostly practical things like I said…” he answered slowly, “I’ve traditionally not been a big collector of knick knacks…” or artwork or anything like that. His room here was still pretty sparse, even after almost six months. “Left a lot of books…” he said, ”They’re heavy and don’t travel well.” It really was the one exception, “There’s several I never found over here…or a couple I did and I just know they were pretty significantly different but couldn’t figure out how.”

Other than that, it really had been mostly practical things. Bedding, small appliances… Things that he’d been fairly easily able to replace.

Lee was trying to explain what ringette was, at least in somewhat vague terms, and Tarin nodded at the explanation, not really thinking that he was probably out of her line of sight. Like hockey but a ring instead of a puck…more passing…no contact?

Weird.

As for the piano, Lee suggested she might play for him that afternoon and while Tarin knew it was wildly impractical to think that they wouldn’t eventually need to get up, at the moment it was the last thing he wanted to do…even if it was a bit chillier out here than it generally was in his room.

But…Lee was saying she could play piano from sheet music and that gave more options.

”That’s way cooler than hockey with no contact…” he said, with a smile.

Yes, Lee knew quite well that books were heavy and hard to travel with. That's why for a large part of her life she hadn't really had any books.

Lee frowned slightly when Tarin said that he had found some of the same books, but they were somehow different. "That would be so frustrating," Lee said. "Knowing that something is different, but not knowing what it is…"

After she had described about ringette and her playing piano, Lee blushed hearing Tarin's response. "The fact that I can read music is cool?" She asked, a little confused. "How do you think I learned how to play over a decade of lessons?"

Lee was sure that she had told Tarin this before, that she could read music. Probably when she was starting to teach Tarin guitar.

"I mean, I'm definitely going to be rusty, so I won't be able to play anything too complicated."

Tarin nodded when Lee empathized about how frustrating it must be when things were subtly different.

”It was easier at first because things were fresh in my mind. I knew when something was different. It’s when it’s subtle that it’s difficult. It’s been long enough now though that a lot of times I just wonder if I’m misremembering things.” In the grand scheme of things, six years didn’t seem all that long, but being fully immersed on this side made it easier to forget the things on the other side.

Tarin wanted to give examples, to explain what he meant in a better way, but he couldn’t even think of anything specific besides the coffee and a couple of restaurants whose names were different.

Lee seemed surprised that he thought her ability to read music was cool and Tarin shrugged a little bit, ”I mean, yeah…I think we covered that when you were trying to teach me to play guitar…” something that he was still absolutely terrible at doing.

”It’s still cool.” Tarin said when Lee pointed out she’d be rusty at piano and not playing anything complex.

What Tarn said about it having gotten more difficult over the years to know for sure that things were different here, or whether he was just misremembering things. Even normal memories could become difficult to remember as time passed, and you aren't sure you're remembering details right. Or you're sure that you're not.

Tarin still seemed to think it was very cool that she knew how to read sheet music. Lee just shrugged slightly. "It's like reading English, really," She said. "It takes time, practice, and repetition. The more you practice, the better you get and the faster you can read."

At least that's how it seemed to Lee. When she was younger, the more she practiced, and the more that she learned about music, the better she got at reading music. And when she had been first teaching Kevin to play, it had seemed similar. It was very slow to start, and he had to work out each note, but the more that he practiced, the easier it had gotten for him. He wasn't great at it, but he could read music.

"I'll have to take a look at what I've still got out," Lee went on to say. "Unless you want to help me dig through boxes to find all of my music books?"

It made sense, what Lee was saying about reading music. Tarin had a feeling that it was a thing that not everyone was very good at. Maybe with time, and practice, and the right setting, but Tarin just wasn’t convinced that it was something he’d be good at. Not everyone had an ear for music either, or the manual dexterity, or the patience.

Lee could insist that it was like everything else…but Tarin wasn’t convinced. He also wasn’t going to argue. Because he wasn’t stupid.

”That makes sense…” he said with a small smile, ”And I’d love to hear you play, no matter how rusty you are.”

Lee went on to say she’d have to look for sheet music and sort of questioned if Tarin would be willing to look through boxes with her.

”I’ll help.” Tarin said, ”Who knows what other treasures we might find in boxes.” he said. ”After how well the puzzle search went, how could I do anything else?”

A thought occurred to Tarin though and he tightened his arms slightly, ”Did you mean right now?”

Tarin said that it didn't matter how rusty she was playing piano, that he would love to hear her. Though, Lee realized after a few moments, her idea of rusty was probably very different than Tarin's.

Well, Lee thought as she lay there with her head still on Tarin's shoulder. If she did start playing more often, then Tarin could get to see the difference between what she thought was being rusty and not.

When Tarin said that he was willing to help her look through boxes, Lee smiled. Then laughed when he brought up the puzzles. Though they had actually started working on puzzles more often, and had even bought more grown up puzzles rather than Kevin's old ones that they had started with, those first couple of times had been…interesting.

"Oh god no," Lee replied to Tarin's question, turning her head to kiss his jaw as she felt his arms tighten a bit. "I don't want to leave your arms any time soon. The boxes will still be there later."

Lee laughed when he brought up the puzzles and Tarin just smiled. Like Tarn had said earlier, they were good at finding things to do. Puzzles or otherwise. They had managed to graduate to larger puzzles though. Probably a good thing considering that when they’d started they’d had trouble even putting together a children’s sized puzzle.

Tarin breathed a little sigh of relief when Lee made it clear that she was not planning to go digging through boxes right that moment.

”Thank god…” Tarin said as Lee kissed his jaw, ”I might have been just a little bit petulant if you’d have said yes.”

It wasn’t that Tarin didn’t want to hear Lee play, he actually did want to hear her play…very much. It was just that it was a special day. They were off early. They were stretched out on the couch and the last indeterminable amount of time had been amazing. Shifting gears to pulling out boxes and sorting through them just seemed wrong.

”So…if we’re not going to go searching for sheet music…” Tarin asked with a grin, ”What are we going to do?”