Not only was Tarin awake now thanks to Slate, but Tarin was also healthy. Well, healthy other than simply being very tired and weak after spending a month without moving, laying in a bed.

And with being awake and healthy, Tarin was complaining about not being able to eat. DocProf had eased up a bit now, or at least he wasn't getting upset every time that Lee simply gave Tarin a small sip of water, but somehow she didn't think he would let Tarin eat a sandwich like what Lee had practically been surviving off of since getting to the mansion. Nor did she think that he would let her get Tarin one of their normal meals.

So Chinese take-out was off the list too.

That really left Lee in a tough spot. She really wasn't much of a cook. There was a damn good reason that when they did actually have a home cooked meal, it was Tarin who did the cooking, and most of those times Lee not only stayed out of the kitchen, but also the apartment so as not to mess things up.

Which is why Lee was currently standing in the kitchen of the mansion looking completely lost. DocProf had agreed with her that jello would be alright for Tarin, and while in the infirmary it had sounded like a good idea, now that she was standing in the kitchen, not so much. She'd never attempted to make jello before in her life, and considering the fact that more than half the time she somehow managed to mess up screw up making mac and cheese...

"Why the hell did I think this was a good idea?" Lee asked herself with a roll of her eyes.

A red and white opaque cube shifted sides into a pinkish pyramid as old triangles vanished and new ones coalesced. Two smaller pyramids hung in the air next to the large one, warping slightly as Shin forced the very triangles they were made up of into other new forms. His brow was peppered with beads of sweat as the shapes merged, drifted, and bent backwards in upon themselves to please his sense of professionalism. All his focus was on the task at hand. Tearing his hands through the air like a trash compactor smashes inwards, Shin wrenched the shards together in a final clash. Pieces scattered into smaller pieces, hanging in the air like a glittering mist. Shin got up from his cross-legged seated position, pushing off the ground with one hand and a knee. Eyes closed, he walked towards the control panel. As he went, the mist vanished into nothing. It was still taxing him well beyond being usable in battle, but for now he was enjoying the practice of the task.

“Shape manipulation simulation 5 finished successfully. Turn on the lights.” The fluorescent bulbs overhead clacked on, pushing back the blankness of the darkened room one row at a time. When it hit the back wall, Shin grabbed his towel and dried his face. “Guess now I’ll go get a sandwich…”

~*~

The door swung open and Shin passed by Lee like a phantom, snagging a loaf of bread from the cupboard and some sandwich fixings from the fridge. Whipping out a butter knife, he spread the mustard and sliced the tomato, plopping some sliced turkey down on top. He sliced a piece of cheese and added it for the final touch. “There!” He admired his work, then finally noticed Lee.

“Hey.” She looked completely lost. “Something wrong?” Cupboards opened up as he grabbed a pot from below the oven and a packet of ramen from the pantry. “How’s Tarin this morning? I haven’t checked since the night before last…”

Hope whatever’s making her look like that isn’t bad news. The thought drifted to Shin’s face, where it became evident in the hesitatant look he was giving her.

Lee heard the door open and glanced over to see Shin walking into the kitchen. She smiled at him, and was about to say hi, but the young man seemed a little out of it, not even noticing that she was there, but simply went and started making a sandwich. So Lee shrugged it off and turned back to her own task. It would probably be best if she wasn't distracted by chatting anyway.

Then Lee heard Shin's voice, and she turned, a happy smile springing to her face as she heard his question about Tarin. "He's awake!" Lee exclaimed, her frustration over the jello temporarily gone. "Well, he should be resting right now, but he's out of his coma finally!

"He's starting to complain about not being allowed to eat real food yet, though," Lee said, her smile fading ever so slightly. "So I thought I'd see about making him some jello or something, since DocProf can't really say no to that, but now I'm really not sure why I thought that was such a good idea..."

"He's awake!?" Shin exclaimed. "That's great! How'd it happen? I'm curious... ah well, plenty of time for the details later. Point is, that's wonderful. I'll have to check in on him later. What's this about Jellos?" The counter was full of fixings for Jello, but Lee hadn't started making it yet. It looked like she didn't know where to start. Shin set his pot down on the burner, and picked up two of the boxes.

"Black Cherry, or Regular Cherry? Which would he prefer?" This next choice was important. It was vital to the success of the mission. Shin only knew how to make Regular Cherry. Or Lemon. "Lemon's an option too." The first step was to boil one cup of water. Shin got out the measuring glass and filled it to the one cup line, dumping it into his pot. He cranked the heat to five.

Lee nodded enthusiastically when Shin questioned Tarin being awake. And then the questions started, asking when, how, all that fun stuff. But before Lee was able to say anything, Shin was continuing on, saying that that could be answered later. Apparently at that moment, the jello was the more important thing.

That made Lee's smile fade a bit. Yeah, the jello. What flavour would Tarin prefer? It wasn't as if they had really ever had jello before. Well, not since they'd been together, anyway. "Um, I think regular cherry would be better," Lee said as she watched Shin setting the pot in his hand on the stove, followed by him measuring out some water and pouring it in the pan.

"Sorry, I don't mean to be a pain," she said. "I just thought jello would be easy, but once I got here, I realized I really have no clue what I'm doing..."

"Don't worry about it. I make Jello all the time. I'll show you how." Shin smiled understandingly, reaching into the cupboard for a medium mixing bowl. He set it on the counter, and opened the box of cherry Jello. The act of making something for Tarin seemed to be the important thing here.

"To get started, we boil one cup of water. We take our flavor packet and add it to the bowl." He did so as he narrated. The powder streamed down like a waterfall of sand. Once the water was at a boil, he stepped back. "You wanna do the next part? Just add the boiling water to the bowl."

As he left her to do that, he walked over to a drawer and picked a metal whisk up from the spoon assortment. He set it down on the counter a few feet from her and waited. "Stir it with the whisk after you're done. Two minutes, or until you can see everything's dissolved in the bowl. After that, add a cup of cold water to the mix."

Shin grabbed a few containers from the cupboard and set them out too. They stood at the ready, green and transparent.

Shin said he didn't mind at all. And he really didn't seem to. Shin had been amazing the entire time she'd been there at the mansion, coming to visit her, keeping her company, even bringing her coffee.

So why didn't Lee think of going to find someone to help her with the jello when she realized just how much trouble she would have with it?

But Shin was boiling the water, telling her what needed to do. And then asked if she wanted to do the next part. Lee glanced at the bowl of powder, and then the boiling water. All she had to do was pour the water in? Even she had to be able to do that without messing it up, right?

So Lee nodded, carefully pouring the water into the bowl as she felt Shin stepping away. But not too far. That was good, she wouldn't be able to do this on her own, she didn't think.

Before she knew it, Shin was setting something metal down on the counter beside her and telling her to just stir it all up for about two minutes, then to add another cup of cold water. That really didn't sound too hard, and with Shin there helping her, Lee didn't think she'd be able to mess it up too badly. So Lee picked up the whisk and started stirring, being careful to hold the bowl in one hand.

After stirring for a while, Lee took a close look at the liquid. It seemed like everything was mixed in. So she turned to the sink and carefully measured out a cup of cold water, then slowly poured it into the bowl and started stirring again.

After about a minute, Lee looked up at Shin. "Is that good?" She asked, truly unsure whether she had mixed it all up properly. "What's next?"

"Yeah, that's great. We're pretty much all done after adding the cold water. All that's left is pouring it into the square containers I set out, and sticking it in the fridge to set for about four hours. You can do the honors." Shin scooted the green container over to Lee, and held it in place for her to pour the Jello into. It looked good in the bowl right now; he knew Tarin would be glad for it.

"So, I guess we can talk about the details while we wait." He added, after they'd poured the mix into the bowls and stashed it into the refrigerator. He pulled up a chair and sat across from her at the table, drinking a cup of tea. "So what happened to cause the coma, and how'd we fix it?" A curious eyebrow arched. Whatever had caused it, Shin had a feeling it wasn't natural. Even DocProf had been boggled by the conditions of Tarin's coma.

Lee carefully pulled the still warm liquid jello into the container Shin had pulled out and was holding for her. Hopefully, thanks to Shin's help, the jello would set properly and Tarin would actually be able to eat it. She'd just have to try it herself, first.

But now it appeared to just be a waiting game for the jello. And since Shin hadn't actually been around the last couple days, this did seem like a good time to catch him up. Especially after his help.

Grabbing a Coke from the fridge, Lee sat down at the table with Shin. "We still don't actually know how it happened," Lee said slowly. "Tarin said he was tied up in a graveyard, trying everything he could to get away, but he couldn't. And then, he just wasn't in his body any more."

Lee paused and took a sip of her pop, then sat there and stared at the can for a moment before continuing. "Apparently he, his mind, spirit, something, has been around the whole time, but he hadn't been able to get back into his body until Slate managed to figure that out.

"It worked though," Lee said, looking back up at Shin with a bit of a smile. "And he's doing good, though I think Tarin thinks he's in better shape than he actually is."

"Huh..." Shin pondered the story. In his mind, Tarin floated around the graveyard, wailing behind tombstones. A rotting skeleton hand burst from the ground! "...So, an out-of-body experience then? Floating around the mansion for a month, watching but unable to do a thing to get our attention." Shin frowned. "Like a ghost. He should write about the experience. It'd be an interesting read..."

His mind wandered off for a moment, but he tossed the leash back 'round its neck. "Anyways, you said Slate helped? I met him once before. He didn't know how to play basketball. He really helped you? Glad it worked."

Shin was silent for a moment, thinking of what else to say. He took a sip of his tea. "DocProf checked him out, then? Is he fit to go yet?"

He'd have to talk to both of them when they brought Tarin the Jello to get his bases straight (and his facts). The things Tarin saw... it certainly would be interesting to see what he'd gained from everything after he was feeling fit enough to share.

Shin seemed really interested by what had happened to Tarin. Extremely interested, thinking that it would make a good book. Lee couldn't help but think of all those books from the shop she had ended up reading while Tarin had been unconscious. Because if he actually ended up writing something about what he'd been through, that the kind of thing it would be considered as. And if that was the case, it really wasn't worth it.

"Yeah, he really did help," Lee said with a nod. "I doubt Tarin would be awake right now if it wasn't for him. But yeah, I know what you mean about Slate...he asked me to teach him how to make a sandwich..."

Then it was quiet in the kitchen for a couple moments, her and Shin simply sipping their drinks. It wasn't uncomfortable, though, it just felt like two friends sitting there, but not having anything they actually needed to say at that moment.

And then Shin asked about DocProf checking Tarin out. "Yeah, he has," Lee replied with a nod. "He seems to be ok now, though his muscles are still really weak."

"Ah." Shin thought about that for a second. It made sense that muscles would grow weak with disuse. Like when someone stops thinking for themselves and their brain shuts down. "Think he'll need anyone to help him with rehabilitation? Like, take him on walks or something? Guess you can handle that yourself, though." Shin added the last part with a faint smile. "The mansion's great for that. I always check out the garden on my morning run. And this time of year, the first flowers are peeking through the snow. It's Spring soon, you know."

He took a sip of his tea, and a glance at the clock. Still not four hours later yet. "Wonder what else there is to pass the time... guess we could pop in and say hi to him. He'd probably appreciate that. Better than sitting around waiting for Jello to set, at least." Shin shook his head with a smirk.

Yeah, Lee was definitely appreciative of all of Shin's help and support over the previous month. And this was just one more of those things that, while Lee wouldn't have expected to have someone offer her, it really didn't seem at all out of character for Shin.

"Actually, I might need a bit of help there," Lee said with a bit of smile on her face. "Tarin seems to think there's nothing wrong with him. Like at all. So I might end up needing some help making him take things slowly."

Then Lee heard Shin say that it was just about spring, that the first flowers were just starting to poke through, and she tilted her head as she looked at him. Was it really that late in the year already that the flowers were starting to come up? Yes, Lee knew that it was the middle of March, Tarin's birthday had come and gone already, but were the flowers coming up already? She hadn't exactly been walking in the park recently to know personally.

What else could they do other than sitting there while they waited for the jello? Waited the four hours for the jello. "I bet you're probably right, Shin," Lee said with a smile. Now that Tarin was awake, joking around was coming much easier. "I'm sure he'd like to see a fresh face, he's probably getting a little tired of having just me around there."

Shin raised an eyebrow. "That's not true. That's impossible. I'm quoting Star Wars here, but the quote applies. I doubt he'd get tired of you." Shin smiled and finished off his tea. "But that doesn't mean a fresh face would be the worst thing. If you're ready, we can go now. . Just gotta grab my coat."

Not that it was particularly cold inside. It's just that if they were going outside, he'd need something warmer than a smile. Coat now on, he looked towards the door. "You ready?"

On the way to the room, Shin commented on helping Tarin take it easy. If it helped, he was for it. He remembered his own times in the hospital beds. He'd had problems taking it easy too. Good thing he'd had friends to help him slow down. He supposed this time, he could be the 'friend'.

Shin said that he doubted Tarin would get tired of her being there. She had been joking, but Shin didn't know just how on the nose he was with his comments. How many times during their relationship had Tarin commented ho he just wanted to be locked in a room, or the apartment, with her. But Tarin wasn't healthy enough, strong enough, for anything like that yet.

Realizing what she had been thinking about while sitting across the table from Shin, Lee's eyes dropped to her pop can and she shook her head infinitesimally.

Shin was up for going to see Tarin, though. That was good, Lee thought that Tarin would enjoy seeing the young man. Though, she thought with a bit of a frown as Shin was putting his coat on, he might hate Shin. Tarin had seemed to take an almost instant dislike to every other man in her life before this point: her former roommate, any friends she had made, her brother. Why would this be any different?

Pushing that thought from her mind too, Lee stood up when she saw that Shin was ready. She wasn't sure why he needed his coat, but supposed it was better than just leaving it there in the kitchen.

It really didn't take long to get down to the infirmary, it never really did. And on the way, Shin agreed to help her make Tarin take it easy while he was recovering. That was good, very good. If Tarin had someone other than herself and DocProf telling him to slow down, not to push himself too far, maybe, just maybe he'd actually listen.

And then they reached the infirmary. Stepping through the door, Lee's eyes immediately searched out Tarin's bed as had become normal for her over the previous month. Only now, there was a smile on her face. "Honey, I'm home!" She chirped out softly as she made her way over. Boy, what a difference just a couple of days, and Tarin being awake, could make on a girl's personality.