It was dark in the room and Tarin couldn’t really see Lee after he asked if she was sure she wanted him there. Even if it was just for tonight, it would have made sense if Lee wanted time to think about things. To figure things out. To decide how she felt about what he had done and what that meant about him, what it meant about a lot of things.

It would have absolutely made sense, but Tarin didn’t know what he’d do if she left or asked him to leave. It wasn’t fair, but it just…was.

Lee didn’t leave though and Tarin could see her sitting there. Was she thinking? Deciding? He waited and didn’t say a word until she turned and laid down beside him. Still afraid to move, like it would shift something and she’d suddenly be gone, Tarin just waited until she reached out and laid her hand on his face.

She’d always want him, nothing would change that.

She knew what he’d done, and was still saying that.

”Okay.” he whispered back in the dark, a shudder of relief moving through him as any other words caught in his throat, “Thank you.”

Tarin wanted to reciprocate, wanted to find the right words to say, but his head was still pounding.

You’re everything to me he thought as his brain struggled to find the right words to say and string them together in a way that made sense without sounding too much And I’d do anything to make you safe and happy

At first, Tarin simply said 'okay' and thanked her for telling him that she'd always want him. Was it strange that she was saying that after what he had told her? After what he had done that night?

Maybe it was, Lee thought as she rubbed her thumb across Tarin's cheek as they laid there. Normal people didn't go out in the middle of the night to search out someone with the intention of killing them. A normal person would be horrified by that, wouldn't they?

But normally, a person wasn't kidnapped and kept prisoner in a pretend house with so little energy that they couldn't even move.

You’re everything to me. And I’d do anything to make you safe and happy.

Lee blushed, glad that the room was dark. "I know you would, Tarin," Lee said, her voice still soft. "How's your head doing?"

Tarin knew he hadn’t said that out loud. He had still been trying to figure out what to say beyond the completely insufficient okay’ that had come out of his mouth after Lee had gone out of her way to assuage all of his fears.

Lee responded to those fractured thoughts though and again, Tarin was relieved at her response.

How was his head? ”It feels like it’s going to crack open.” he said honestly.

”I overdid it…I’ve only ever done that one other time and there were way more spirits that time. I couldn’t get out of bed for two days. Then I came here.”

He took a slow deep breath, ”I didn’t know what else to do though…I don’t think I’ve ever been so angry…”

There was more though. They’d been dancing around it a bit because of everything else that was going on.

”I didn’t say that stuff out loud before though…” he whispered into the dark, ”I think something is happening to me…”

Lee frowned when Tarin said his head felt like it was going to crack open. Lifting her hand, Lee moved her fingers up to his temple and rubbed gentle circles for a few moments before running her hand through his hair. "I wish I could do more…"

Tarin continued speaking, though, and Lee ran her fingers through his hair slowly as she listened to him. "But if you didn't say it," Lee said slowly after a few moments. "Then how did I hear you? Because I know that I heard your voice."

Lee scooted closer to Tarin in bed, wrapping her arms around him. "Maybe…" Lee said. "Maybe not. Maybe it's something weird happening because of the dream?"

Lee’s fingers moved to his temple and Tarin sighed. The movement felt good and and he sighed as her hand moved into his hair.

She wished she could do more? She couldn’t. Time and the painkillers were the only sure fire cure, ”Feels good though…” he said

Lee spoke again and as she asked how she could have heard him if he hadn’t spoken, Tarian Shook his head slightly. ”I don’t know… he mumbled, ”But it’s happened more than once tonight…”

Lee scooted closer and wrapped her arms around him and Tarin wrapped his around her too.

Maybe it was something to do with the dream?

”It didn’t happen before…” he said, but it was half-hearted and Tarin honestly hoped it was true.

It was easier to talk here in the dark, feeling Lee there against him.

“You’re sure you’re okay?”

Lee was glad that what she was doing at least felt good, even if it wasn't going to actually help with Tarin's headache. So even after she moved closer to him, Lee continued to run her hand through Tarin's hair.

It had happened more than once that night? Hadn't Tarin said at least once, other than when she hadn't seen his mouth move, that he hadn't said something after she had replied to what she heard?

"How many times?" Lee asked. "I know that it didn't happen before. It's never happened any other time. But no one has ever come into my dream before…"

Was it actually likely that Tarin coming into her dream was the cause of this…weirdness? Lee wished it would be something that simple and it would stop soon, but she didn't think that was very likely.

When Tarin asked if she was sure she was ok, Lee laid there in thought as her hand continued to run through Tarin's hair. "I…" Lee took a deep breath as she paused a moment. "I think I am. It might not have fully sunk in that he's gone gone, but I'm glad he is."

As Lee fell into silence, she bit her lip. There was one thing that she did still want to know about everything, something that Tarin hadn't told her. "How?" Lee ended up breathing.

She hoped Anton had suffered.

How many times has it happened? ”Can't be sure…” Tarin said, ”When I got home…I hadn’t said anything.” he said softly. He’d thought maybe he had, but now he was sure he hadn’t. ”When you realized, maybe once or twice before…”

Nobody had ever been in Lee’s dream before? That could have been it. It was all such a mess. So much had happened so fast tonight that Tarin just didn’t know.

Lee’s fingers in his hair, the darkness, and the painkillers dulling the edges of his headache had Tarin finally relaxing, and as the tension ebbed from him his focus shifted from what he had done to what Lee needed.

She thought she was okay, it hadn’t sunk in, but she thought she was okay.

Good.

It was quiet for a few minutes and Tarin sighed.

Then Lee spoke again and Tarin knew exactly what she was asking even if she only said one word.

”Big pallet of bricks from really high.” Tarin said voice soft but firm, ”It was way too kind, but I couldn’t get close.”

When Tarin had first gotten home he hadn't said anything. Yet she had clearly heard, in Tarin's voice, that he was dead. But he hadn't said it. Meaning, Tarin hadn't meant to tell her.

Frowning in the darkness, Lee debated whether she should ask this question or not. And while not knowing wasn't the end of the world and wouldn't change anything, Lee knew that not knowing would bother her. "Were you planning to tell me?"

Tarin clearly understood what she was asking from her one word. And he answered. "I hope he suffered before he died," Lee whispered before she knew what she was saying. "Even if it wasn't for long enough."

Then Lee's mind caught up with her mouth and her hand hesitated as it ran through Tarin's hair. "I…uh…"

”Absolutely.” Tarin immediately said when Lee asked whether or not he’d been planning to tell her what he had done.

”I would never have kept this from you. Not after what I saw.”

Tarin had potentially planned to keep the details from Lee just because he hadn’t wanted her to know any more than she had to know…just in case. As soon as she’d asked he’d told her.

And Lee hoped that Anton had suffered. She hoped that he had suffered before he had died. Tarin was fairly certain that hadn’t happened. There had been too much weight and it had been going too fast when it all had hit.

Lee’s hand paused in his hair and she seemed shocked by her own words after a moment.

”There’s not enough suffering in the world for what he did.” Tarin said, voice much colder than it had been a few moments before. ”He’d been living on borrowed time for fourteen years and I still cannot believe he even got that.”

He was getting angry all over again. Tarin didn’t know the other Tarin and generally tried desperately hard to never give an opinion one way or another on the things that the other man had done. It wasn’t Tarin’s place. This though…this made no sense. If he could do what he’d done tonight it would have been every bit as easy. He’d been right there in Manhattan for god’s sake.

Tarin didn’t say anything though and he hoped that Lee wasn’t in his head for this particular train of thought. Tarin also steered himself away because the anger made his head hurt more.

It was over and Lee never had to think about it again and wonder if that bastard was still out there.

"Good," Lee said softly.

Tarin didn't think taht there was enough suffering that Anton could have ever endured taht would be enough for what he'd done to her. And…while Lee might not go quite that far, the amount of suffering that Anton deserved was very high.

"This feels wrong to say, but thank you," Lee said before leaning in to give Tarin a quick, soft kiss. "And for not telling me before you left, because I wouldn't have let you go. But I am glad its done."

Yes, it felt very weird, wrong, to be thanking someone for doing what Tarin had that night, to be glad that someone was dead. But this was also Anton, and that changed everything.

"How is your head doing?"

It didn’t sound weird to Tarin when Lee thanked him. If there was anything he could understand it was why Lee was thankful.

She was also grateful he hadn’t said anything. ”I'm still sorry I lied.” he said as Lee kissed him, and he was…but he had also known that there was no way Lee would have let him do what he had ultimately done.

”And it doesn’t feel wrong Lee. It feels right.” and it did, like something that had been imbalanced in the world had been righted.

Lee asked again how Tarin’s head was and he was quiet for a moment as he took inventory. The truth of the matter was that the headache wasn’t going to just go away. Pain meds would help take the edge off and make him feel less like he was going to pass out or throw up, but the headache would probably be there for a couple of days.

”Not so bad right now..” he settled for saying. It wasn’t at all a lie, his head was much better than it had been when Tarin had walked into the apartment. ”Thank you for the meds.”

Lee smiled into the darkness of the room when Tarin apologized for the fact that he had lied to her about the reason he had left the apartment that night. "It's understandable, in this case," Lee told him.

Normally, the idea that Tarin had lied to her about something this important, it would have felt like a betrayal. For so many reasons, honesty and truth were vitally important for them.

But this, it didn't feel like that. It was necessary. Lee wasn't even remotely upset about the lie.

Tarin didn't think that her thanking him, that anything about all of this felt wrong. He thought that it actually felt right.

Maybe Lee would think, would feel that way when it fully sank in that Anton was dead, that he really was gone. That he could never find her again. But at that moment, despite being glad the man was gone and being thankful for what Tarin had done…it didn't feel right. Not in the sense that it was the right thing to do.

At least Tarin's head was feeling better than it had been. "Of course. Anytime," Lee replied when Tarin thanked her for getting the painkiller for him. "But, just maybe, don't use your powers to quite that extent again?" If Tarin had actually sent all of the spirits he had been able to find out searching, and made them refocus when they got distracted…

That was a lot of spirits.

"Did you want to see if we can fall asleep again?" Lee asked after a couple moments. "Or just continue to lie here?"

This seemed to be a night full of strange absolutions and weird admissions. Then again, it had also been a night full of things that no normal person in their right mind would do.

Tarin didn’t question it. That would have been dumb.

Lee didn’t say anything when Tarin said that what he had done had made things more right in the world. It was hard not to say anything to try and convince Lee that it was like that. That tonight he’d made the world a better place.

Tarin kept his mouth shut though. If he had to convince her, then she didn’t really believe it in the first place and Lee was the one who needed to believe it.

Lee thought it would be a good idea for him to not use his powers to that extent again. Lee was probably right, but Tarin shrugged slightly in the dark. ”Gonna do it at least one more time.” he said. Because he was going to find the adapted that had been following Lee around.

Did he want to see if they could fall asleep or did he want to continue to lie there?

Tarin was exhausted on top of the mental strain of everything that he’d done, it had also taken a lot of out of him physically and he hadn’t had a lot of sleep before Lee’s dream.

”I should probably sleep.” he said.

Lee's hand stopped moving through Tarin's hair when he spoke again. He was going to do it again? At least one more time? But why would he do that. Tarin had said, emphatically, that Anton was dead. The entire time that she had been trapped there, Lee had not see or felt anyone close to that creepy house. Not until the day she was found.

"Why?" Lee asked. "Because you don't need to. It was only him…"

Tarin said that he probably should sleep, which considering everything was probably a very good idea. "Alright. I love you," Lee said, leaning in to give Tarin a kiss. "Hopefully I can fall back asleep. I couldn't earlier…"

She definitely hadn't been able to. But she hadn't had Tarin beside her at the time, didn't have his arms around her.

And hadn't known that Anton was, well maybe not dead yet, but that he would be.

Then Lee remembered something that Tarin had said earlier. Or, maybe not said but something that she had heard from Tarin. "And if I'm not here when you wake up, I did not change my mind," Lee told him. "I just couldn't sleep and went out to the livingroom."

Lee’s hand stopped moving through his hair and Tarin blinked open eyes he hadn’t realized he had closed to look at her as she spoke.

Context was important and he’d given absolutely none when he’d casually said he’d do the thing Lee was asking him not to do again.

”Gotta figure out who’s been outside. I should have thought about it sooner.” he said, then realized he was leaving out more context in the situation.

”Just recon this time.” Nothing had happened so far beyond Lee being uncomfortable. That was more than enough to get whoever was responsible scared shitless, but Tarin wasn’t in the business of indiscriminately ending lives. Surely Lee already knew that, but Tarin wanted to make sure.

Tarin knew he should sleep, everything in him was screaming at him that he needed to sleep, but more than anything he wanted to stay where he was with Lee, talking quietly in the dark. It was normal, it was grounding, it made him feel human rather than whatever that had been that had sat in the park earlier in the night.

Lee kissed him and Tarin kissed her back, snuggling in to get more comfortable as she spoke again, his eyes closing as she explained that if she was gone when he woke up it was just because she couldn’t sleep. How had she known he’d worry? It didn’t matter.

”Love you.” he said simply in response, hoping he could sleep too, if for no other reason than a reprieve against the pain in his head.