As Tarin explained the situation that he was planning on using his powers like that, to that extent again, Lee's hand started moving through his hair slowly again.

Recon only. To find the adapted that had been very frequently outside their apartment when she left for work. For over a month.

Lee had actually, if temporarily, forgotten about that since she had woken up from the nightmare. Though the situation with the mystery adapted had caused Lee so much worry, so far nothing had actually happened.

"That's actually a pretty good idea," softly admitted. "Just don't over do it, please?"

Lee smiled when she felt Tarin shifting around in the bed slightly, getting more comfortable, snuggling into her. Getting more comfortable herself, Lee's hand started moving in Tarin's hair again slowly..

Laying there in the dark, trying to sleep was definitely a lot easier now that Tarin was there. Lee still wasn't sure whether she would actually be able to fall asleep, but she was feeling a whole lot more relaxed with Tarin there than she had felt earlier.

"Always," Lee breathed after a few minutes.

Don’t overdo it…

Tarin actually huffed a little laugh at that. Something about Lee telling him not to overdo it when this entire night had been about overdoing it had a dark little bit of humor to it that Tarin couldn’t ignore.

Tarin moved to get more comfortable, his eyes already closed and Lee did the same. Laying here it was almost like they fit together. He’d thought earlier about how perfect things could be. Things weren’t perfect. In fact, they were kind of a mess, but laying like this it was kind of easy to forget that part. Especially with Lee’s hand moving through his hair.

He’d start looking for that other adapted soon. Maybe the next day…would the headache ultimately be better or worse if he pushed again and used his powers the way he had tonight to locate someone. It would be harder this time no matter what because he didn’t know who he was looking for, but Tarin was confident he could accomplish his task.

Still. Those were thoughts for the next day and Tarin let his body relax by increments as he laid there and just as he drifted to sleep he heard Lee say always and sighed, content despite the circumstances.

—-

By the time Tarin blinked his eyes open light was streaming through the windows and the room had that quantity of natural light that suggested that he’d overslept. It was the weekend, so there wasn’t much actual chance of that having happened.

Tarin was also alone, the other side of the bed cold, lending more credence to the thought that it was far later than he would generally sleep.

Tarin turned his head and winced slightly at the pain that sliced through his head when he did so. With the pain came the memories of the night before and Tarin laid there for a full three or four minutes to put the puzzle pieces together and remember everything that was real.

Tarin had killed a man the night before. He’d used spirits as a proxy but it had absolutely been his plan…a plan that he had carried out without a single shred of hesitation or remorse.

That still remained true.

Lee had been amazing the night before…had soothed all of his fears and his headache when he’d come home and absolute disaster. She’d also told him that if he woke and she was gone that she’d be in the living room.

Sitting up didn’t help the state of his head and Tarin knew that it was going to be a long couple of days as he recovered from the amount of power he had used the night before. Fine. It had been worth it.

Slowly sitting, then rising from the bed, Tarin took a minute to get his bearings before getting up and heading to the bathroom to brush his teeth and grab some more meds before heading out to the living room where Lee was right where she said she’d be.

Seeing her there, Tarin hesitated for a moment at the end of the hallway. She’d know he was there, but that didn’t matter. She’d said she hadn’t and wouldn’t change her mind…

”Good morning.” he said, voice a little rough as he made his way towards the couch, hesitating just a moment before leaning down to kiss the top of Lee’s head before sitting down next to her.

Realizing he hadn’t checked the time or grabbed his watch, Tarin ran a hand through his hair. ”What time is it?” What else was there to say?

It did not take long for Tarin to fall asleep next to her. That was not surprising; for most people, using there powers a lot was tiring. That, combined with his headache, she was glad that Tarin was able to fall asleep so quickly.

Lee, however, was not so lucky. She lay there in the dark for quite a while, going over in her head everything that had happened that night. Somehow, she had managed to pull Tarin into her nightmare. Had that always been something she was capable of, or was it something new?

Regardless, what Tarin had seen in her nightmare had prompted Tarin go go out that night and hunt Anton down. And, though he had pushed himself and his powers possibly further than he should have, somehow Tarin had managed to do in a few hours what no one had been able to in 14 years.

And then there was what happened when Tarin got home. The times that she was able to hear Tarin despite the fact that he hadn't actually spoken. Lee did not know how to explain that.

If it happened again, they could figure out what was going on. And if it didn't happen again, Lee decided that she would consider it to just be a weird fluke and leave it at that.

Eventually, after much more time that Lee would have liked, she finally drifted off to sleep.

-----

Beep. Beep. Beep. [/font]

Lee groaned as her alarm dragged her out of a dreamless sleep. Shutting the alarm off, Lee turned to look at Tarin.

Who had barely even reacted to the noise. Tarin didn't often sleep through her alarm. Leaning over, Lee kissed Tarin lightly on his forehead before slipping out of bed and heading to the kitchen for coffee.

-----

Lee wasn't sure how long she had been awake - she had been studiously avoiding looking at the time - when she finally felt Tarin getting up and moving around. Only then did Lee grab her phone to check the time.

When Lee felt Tarin stop where the hall entered the livingroom, Lee turned to look over at him. But he didn't stop there for long before he was making his way toward her on the couch. "Morning sleepyhead." Lee asked, her voice light. Smiling a moment later as she felt him kiss the top of her head. "How do you feel?"

Then Tarin sat and asked what time it was. "Almost 1," Lee replied as she looked over at him. Then gave him a small smile. "I was starting to think I would have to go crawl back into bed with you if you didn't wake up soon."

Lee spoke and the light tone of her voice made Tarin smile even as he sat down on the couch.

Lee asked how he was feeling and Tarin ran a hand through his hair and yawned before answering. The headache wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been the night before, but it was most definitely still there.

”Head still hurts…” he said, looking over at Lee, ”I took something when I got up.”

Tarin had asked for the time and Lee obligingly provided it to him…much to Tarin’s surprise.

Maybe I did overdo it. he thought.

Outwardly though, he smiled slightly as Lee teased that she’d been thinking she might just have to get back in bed with him if he hadn’t woken up.

”I can always go back if you’d had your heart set on that…” he teased back, knowing full well what Lee had actually meant but relieved that things seemed so light.

”How are you feeling?” he asked, glancing over. It was daylight now and sometimes dark things felt better in the dark.

Lee nodded when Tarin said that his head still hurt. She had really been hoping that, with how late he had slept, his headache would be at least mostly gone this morning.

This afternoon, she mentally corrected herself as she leaned forward to grab her coffee off the table. Just in time for her to hear Tarin admit that he might have overdone things with his pets the night before.

"Just a bit," Lee agreed as she leaned back again and took a sip. "That's why I asked you not to overdo things next time."

As Tarin teased her slightly in return, Lee laughed a bit. "Maybe later?" Lee suggested with a grin and a wink. "I think I'm good here for now."

Tarin's next question was back directly to the point, and while Lee's voice lost that light, playful tone, it didn't become overly serious. "Still processing his and pieces I'm sure," Lee replied, looking over at Tarin. "But lighter. Like I was dragging around this heavy thing that I didn't even know was there, with me for years. And now, it's suddenly gone."

Tarin was just starting to settle back into the couch when it happened again.

Lee responded to something that Tarin most definitely hadn’t said out loud. It had been hard to tell the night before, when the headache had been debilitating and everything had been so raw. Now though…now Tarin was absolutely certain that he had not spoken that thought out loud. ”It’s a more narrow geographic area.” he said, letting it slide for the moment, ”I won’t have to work so hard to keep them all reigned in.” Now didn’t seem to be the time to bring up whatever it was that was going on with him, but Tarin knew the conversation had to happen.

Lee was laughing though as he teased and Tarin couldn’t help but grin back at that smile and wink from. Completely unbidden, but as they generally did, a few rather detailed thoughts about exactly how that could go manifested. Later.

Things were more serious now though and Lee was explaining that she was still processing everything that had happened. Tarin nodded and looked back across the ouch as Lee explained that it was like a weight she hadn’t even known she was carrying had been lifted.

He’d done that.

It had partially been exhaustion and the headache, but Tarin hadn’t lost a wink of sleep the night before over what he had done. It scared him a bit that he’d been so easily capable of what he had done, but who it had been vastly overwhelmed those feelings.

”Good.” Tarin said, ”You’ll never have to wonder again.”

Lee nodded when Tarin pointed out that it would be a much smaller area that he would have the spirits searching this time. That did make a lot of sense. Any time she felt herself stop siphoning outside, they knew that the adapted was in the immediate area.

"Ok, that's good then," Lee said. Because as much as she wanted to know who this was and what and why they were doing this, Lee also didn't want Tarin to end up like he had the previous night.

And speaking of the previous night, it was true that Lee would never have to wonder again. Never have to wonder where he was, would she ever see him, would he ever try something again? There was now no chance of that happening.

It didn't make what had happened, what Anton do ot her disappear. Unfortunately that would always be there and having another nightmare about it would always be a possibility.

But now everything about that was in the past.

"Thank you," Lee said again, her voice soft, before she leaned in to give Tarin a kiss.

Lee seemed willing to accept that the smaller geographical area would help Tarin avoid the kind of headache he was dealing with this morning and Tarin nodded. If he could stay within his immediate range, Tarin wouldn’t have to keep breaking and reestablishing the link with the spirits. The work wouldn’t be nearly as hard.

Lee leaned over and kissed him, and Tarin kissed her back, shaking his head, ”You don’t have to thank me Lee.” he said.

She saved me in pretty much every way possible…how could I do less? he thought, even as he said, ”This is how this works. We take the good together and the bad together and we figure out how to make the bad better.” Chances were that there wouldn’t ever be a scenario as extreme as this one ever again, but Tarin knew without a doubt it didn’t matter. He’d make the same choice every single time.

They didn’t need to rehash it all over and over again. It was tempting because of how huge the previous night had been. Besides, they needed to talk. Tarin took a deep breath.

”It happened a minute again though…I never said I overdid it out loud Lee.” Something was definitely happening.

Lee might not have to thank Tarin, but she was still going to.

Before she was able to reply, though, Lee heard Tarin's voice. Twice. At the same time.

There was no question about it now. Somehow, for some reason, Lee was hearing Tarin say things, tell her things, that he wasn't actually saying.

What Tarin had said wasn't nearly as important. They'd talked about that before, in other situations, many times. Most often her telling him something along those lines.

So Lee just sat there looking at Tarin as he pointed out that it had happened again.

"More than once," Lee whispered. "I heard your voice at the same time you were saying something else."

Lee sat for a moment in silence, her brow furrowing in confusion over this whole situation. "How many ways can a person even be saved?" Lee ended up asking, her voice still quiet.

Well.

At least they weren’t crazy. At least what it seemed was happening was actually happening.

This was a problem though. This was a huge problem.

Tarin hadn’t had any idea that he had said something that anyone else could hear or how he had done it. It hadn’t felt different, he hadn’t done anything to make it happen.

It hadn’t been scary before. It was definitely scary now.

Tarin had known about the first time it had happened this morning but when…

Lee spoke, asking a question, and Tarin’s eyes widened a bit even as he blushed. It wasn’t that he hadn’t said things kind of like that before…he had. It was more that he’d specifically meant to not say that right now.

Cringing just a bit, Tarin looked at Lee for a minute, ”I didn’t want to say that…” he said, ”That's why I said the other thing…”

But, it was out there now. Scrubbing a hand over his face, embarrassed, Tarin sighed.

”Physically…mentally…all the things. I don’t know Lee, it was a half-formed thought that didn’t make it out of my mouth.” But it had made it out of his head.

”But you did…you have to know you did.” Surely he’d said that out loud before.

When Lee questioned what she had heard that Tarin hadn't actually said, he blushed. And looked extremely uncomfortable.

Tarin had opened up to Lee so quickly and seemingly easily from the start, and though him being able to verbalize the more emotional aspects, it was sometimes hard for Lee to remember that he was normally the exact opposite. That he had spent most of his life trying to stay as closed off to others as possible.

He hadn't meant to say what she had heard, which is why he had said the words that came out of his mouth.

Ugh, on top of everything else, this was confusing to think about.

As Tarin rubbed his hands over his face, Lee set her coffee back down on the table. "Sorry. I…" Lee didn't even know how to finish that thought. Sorry she'd heard his thought? As far as she knew, she hadn't done anything. Sorry she had questioned what she heard? All that really did was let Tarin know what she heard. It didn't change anything else.

Turning slightly to look at Tarin as he continued speaking, Lee nodded. Lee knew that she had literally saved Tarin, saved his life when she had found him in the park that spring. That she has saved him when she'd refused to leave him alone that weekend after the merge.

But were there other ways?

"I know," Lee said softly even though she hadn't actually gotten a full answer to the question she had asked.

"Okay, so we definitely know this is happening now," Lee said after a couple of moments. "But how? Why?"

Lee was apologizing. That hadn’t been what Tarin had wanted at all. It wasn’t that he minded Lee knowing what he had been thinking, he didn’t mind Lee knowing anything it was the fact that he didn’t seem to have any control whatsoever over what was happening.

”Don't apologize…” he said, ”You didn’t do anything wrong…” he said.

She hadn’t. This was on him. They had thought for a moment the night before that maybe it had been the dream, but it didn’t seem like that now. This was all him.

Lee knew? She understood what he had meant? It didn’t look like she did and Tarin shook his head.

They knew what was happening now. Why?

Tarin tried to refocus, to bring it back around to the problem at hand, but it kept going back to Lee apologizing and his absolute and complete inability to put important things into proper words even when his brain decided to take things into its own hands.

Why was this happening though? Why had it just started to happen?

”Maybe…maybe it’s because I overdid it?”[/i] he said, “Maybe it’s the headache…maybe it will go away?”

That didn’t make sense. He’d had headaches before and this had never happened before.

Tarin took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh.

Why am I so bad at this?

Rationally, Lee knew that she didn't need to apologize. Even though she had said the previous night that maybe this all had to do with her pulling Tarin into her dream, Lee didn't know how it could be her pulling these thoughts from Tarin's mind. If she was doing that, wouldn't she have been pulling all of his thoughts, not just random ones?

Even if she had done something 'wrong', if she was the reason she was hearing his thoughts, Tarin would probably still think that she didn't need to apologize.

Lee wasn't going to take the apology back, though. Instead, she reached her hand out for Tarin's and gave it a slight squeeze as he mused that maybe this had all happened, was happening, because he had over did it with his powers the night before.

Lee frowned. "But that doesn't make sense either," Lee said slowly. "I mean, not that mutant powers 'make sense', but you would think that overusing your powers would make them less until you recover. Or make you have a harder time controlling them. You know, something to do with your actual powers, not something brand new. It's not like your a telepath, you see spirits."

And Lee couldn't even ask the only telepath she knew. Or a millenia old unicorn shifter who had seen just about everything. Because she had lost contact with both over a decade ago and didn't even know where to start looking.

Why am I so bad at this?

Lee bit her lip for a second. Tarin had looked so uncomfortable the last time. "D-did you want to know when I hear things?" she asked. "And I don't care if it's well thought out or makes complete sense…"

Tarin mused over the fact that maybe pushing himself so hard the night before was what was causing this.

Lee didn’t think that was the case though. Lee thought the opposite should be true. That it should be harder for him to control the spirits.

Tarin didn’t know if Lee was making assumptions based on prior knowledge or if she really thought that, but Tarin tilted his head slightly as he looked at her and frowned. In his mind he’d always been a very specific kind of psychic…that’s what his trainers in the group in Queens had always thought too. At the time he’d never been able to do anything like this, no matter how hard he’d tried or been made to try…but that’s how he’d always been categorized.

”I can see spirits even if I can’t use my powers Lee…” Tarin said slowly. That much was absolutely true. When an adapted was around, Tarin could still see, hear, and interact with spirits…he just couldn’t link up with them or make them corporeal.

”I talk to them in my head as much as I do out loud…you know that.”

Was that what was happening here?

Maybe I broke myself…maybe it’s bleeding over…

Did he want to know when it happened?

Lee looked so unsure when she asked that Tarin suddenly felt awful, ”Of course I do…and I don’t mind you hearing things…” he said.

”It’s just…” Tarin paused for a moment trying to decide what to say, then realizing that it literally didn’t matter because she was hearing a bunch of things anyways. This was a time for total honesty, ”I think things…and I feel things with you like I never have before and I think a lot of things that I don’t say because I can’t help what I think...”

God this was awful.

”Does that make sense?” he said a little helplessly.

"I can see spirits even if I can’t use my powers Lee…”

They really hadn't talked about it much, it wasn't the kind of thing that you wanted to reminisce about, but Lee could distinctly remember Kevin's father saying that the collar shocked him when spirits had wandered by him in the camp in Romania.

This must be another difference between their powers, Lee thought.

And Lee supposed that Tarin did speak to the spirits in his head, but she must have underestimated the extent of that since he was saying that he did it as much as he spoke to them out loud.

Lee frowned when she heard Tarin's thought that he broke himself, but then he was speaking. "Nobody can help what they think, Tarin," Lee pointed out as she gave his hand another squeeze. "Of course that makes sense. And I think plenty of things that I don't say out loud either."

"I don't think you broke anything," Lee continued, giving him a small smile. "Maybe it's all just a horribly timed growth of your power? Based on what I've heard from others, it's not like they generally have warnings that it's about to happen. I know I didn't before I sent Kevin's father flying across the room without touching him or the first time I turned my siphoning off."