Tarin was relieved, at least they were off the topic of why Lee had been so different. It was a difficult topic to stay on long, because the answer was so vague. Because you were would have been Tarin’s ideal answer, but apparently he’d done alright with his stumbling and fractional sentences.

The cone was nearly gone now, and as he held the last little bit in his hand, Tarin heard a little whimper. Down he looked to see Axel practically dancing and doing his best to stay seated even though his front feet were dancing on the pavement. Tarin looked at the remaining cone…there was no ice cream stuck on it…surely it couldn’t hurt. “Oops…” he said, letting the cone tumble from his hand. Axel had it in his mouth before it even hit the ground. Perfect.

“Why you little sneak!” Tarin exclaimed, pleased with his acting ability and hoping that he and the dog would get away with their little ruse.

Lee’s answer to his question was more than satisfactory, Tarin thought as she explained her thought process the day she’d walked by the shop. “I was such New York newbie at that point…” Tarin said with a laugh, “I thought I was going to freeze to death while I waited for you to decide if you trusted me enough to come into the shop…and you’d given me that silly nickname instead of your real one.”

Tarin chuckled again, he was doing that a lot during this conversation. “We didn’t argue at all that day. We just had the first of many awesome Chinsese food experiences.”

Tarin was done with his ice cream, and they still had dinner to look forward to. Axel had finished the ice cream cone, though, and was back to rolling in the dirt. “Do we keep walking, or is our stroll down memory lane good enough for you?”

"Oops..."

Lee glanced over to see Tarin no longer holding his ice cream cone, and Axel ravenously eating something that disappeared to quickly for Lee to see what it was. It wasn't hard to put two and two together, though.

"Tarin!" Lee exclaimed, swatting her husband's arm gently. "Don't give him people food, it's not good for him!" The dog didn't seem to care, though; now that he had had his little treat, he was back to rolling around on the ground, quite contented.

He was still reminiscing about that day she'd come by the shop for the first time. Come by and then turned to walk away before even going inside, which had prompted Tarin to follow her out in the street wearing shorts and a short sleeved shirt, despite the fact that he thought it was freezing out. All to convince her to come inside so they could talk.

Lee smiled. "Did you already feel that way about me then?" Lee asked. She wasn't sure how, since they hadn't exactly talked much before that time at the shop, though. "Is that why you risked freezing to follow me like that?"

And again Tarin chuckled. This walk, this day, was feeling so much better than any they'd had in quite a while. Lee didn't want it to end. "We didn't argue, did we?" Lee asked, a small smile on her face as she thought back. Things hadn't exactly been easy, Tarin had at least vaguely told her about his merging that day, but they hadn't argued.

Then Tarin asked what she wanted to do. So Lee leaned back a bit on the bench, glancing at both her husband and the puppy at their feet. "How about we just stay here for a bit?" She suggested. "Axel seems ok to stay here, and I'm enjoying this.

"And what about Halloween?" Lee asked, glancing over at Tarin. "That was a really good night." They'd had a good night at the bar, that day, after she'd gotten off work, and Tarin had looked incredible in that tux he'd worn for his costume. Lee had only seen him dressed up to that degree on one other occasion: their wedding.

But Lee could still picture Tarin as he stood in the diner staring at her that day. The look on his face as he took in every little bit of her costume as she walked toward him.

Lee licked her lips slightly nervously for a moment before turning again to look at Tarin, this time through her lashes. "I still have that costume, you know," she told him, her voice soft, even slightly hesitant. "Other than the boots, I still have every piece of that costume somewhere in the apartment."

“I didn’t give him anything.” Tarin said loftily, trying really hard not to grin at Lee as he looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “I dropped that last little bit of cone and he caught it…it’s not my fault he’s already a champion cone catcher.” It actually made sense, and Tarin was surprised, he hadn’t really expected that. He rolled with it though, anything that got him out of trouble was okay in Tarin’s book.

Lee was still on the question train, though, and Tarin had to shake his head and chuckle a little bit. “No…not right then. I was just amazed you’d even come on my side of the city…I had to make everything okay.”

She agreed that they didn’t argue and Tarin nodded his head, “Nope, we had a nice talk…you finally gave me your name…and we chowed on some Chinese.” It was a good memory, especially how in stride Lee had taken everything he said about his powers. She hadn’t known then what they really entailed…but most people were freaked out from the very idea of what he could do. Not Lee.

There was more though, Lee was happy to stay where they were and bring up old memories. Halloween…oh god that first Halloween had been special. Tarin didn’t miss the fact that she didn’t bring up the fight. If she wasn’t going to mention it, then by god he wasn’t going to either. But the costume…Tarin nearly groaned at the memory right there in the middle of the park. The way Lee had looked when he’d walked into the diner…it had almost physically hurt she’d looked so good. And what had happened after they got home and started watching the movie…Tarin sighed and took a deep breath, running a hand through his hair and grinning.

Then Lee had to go and bring up the fact that somewhere in the apartment were all the pieces of that costume…excepting the boots. They really needed to replace those boots, and all of a sudden Tarin just wanted to go home.

“Ungh…” He said, taking a deep breath again and looking away from Lee, “You’re killin me here…now I don’t want to do anything other than go home and make you dig it out…what were we doing out here again?”

"Uh huh," Lee replied as Tarin tried to convince her that he had simply dropped the cone and Axel had managed to catch it. She knew her husband, she knew that he hadn't accidentally dropped it.

That day she had first gone to Tarin's shop, though it hadn't been intentional, had definitely been a good day. A nice finish for a day that she had been fired.

Then Lee laughed slightly as she glanced over at Tarin. "We even shook on being friends, didn't we?" She asked, the laughter in her voice. "I'm glad we did, I wouldn't have found out about that Chinese place otherwise, but even then it felt a little strange to do."

Apparently, though, even just the mention that she still had most of the pieces of that Halloween costume was more than enough for Tarin. Lee heard him groan slightly, and saw him run his hand through his hair as he looked away from her. This sort of reaction, just by saying that? Lee smiled.

"I'll dig it out for you," Lee promised, her voice soft. "Not today, but I will.

"And," Lee continued, the smile still on her face. "We're out here taking Axel for a walk, and getting ice cream. Why? Should we be heading home already to get ready for tonight?"

Tarin had a feeling that Lee didn’t buy his little spiel about Axel being the mastermind behind the whole ice cream cone thing…but he wasn’t in the mood to worry about the ice cream anymore. Lee had brought up that whole costume idea, and all Tarin could think of was the way that Lee had looked in it. The way that Lee would look in it as soon as he could get her into it.

Lee was still talking about the day they’d decided to be friends, how they’d shook on it. Tarin laughed and shook his head, “We did shake on it. I was just glad that you weren’t afraid to touch me. That might have been when it started. You knew all those things and you still weren’t afraid.”

Something else Lee said, made Tarin chuckle and he gave Lee an arch look, “Uh huh, the Chinese is the best you got out of it, huh? I’ll have to remember that.”

Lee promised she’d bring out the costume, not that day, but sometime and Tarin tried really hard not to look like someone took away his best friend. Pouting hadn’t really ever gotten him anywhere with Lee before, there was no reason to think it would now. Instead, Tarin leaned across the bench and kissed his wife, “I’m going to hold you to that…probably more than once.” He said simply, then nodded his head.

“You’re right. We should be heading home to change.” Tarin said, looking down at Axel as he rolled some more, “This little guy is probably going to need a bath before we go too. Ready?”

Tarin thought that was when it had all started for him, when she had become so important to him, when he'd started to feel that he couldn't lose her, that day when she had shook his hand as they agreed to be friends.

But Lee's head dipped slightly as Tarin told her the reason, about how she'd heard about his merging power, about what could possibly happen because of it, and she hadn't been afraid to touch him.

"I was, though," she admitted, her voice quiet as she spoke. Her eyes were on Axel, who was once again rolling around in that puppy way of his. "At least a bit, I was afraid. But I would have been a hypocrite if I hadn't been willing to touch you. With how upset I've gotten when people have shunned me, or refused to touch me, over the years because of my powers, I couldn't do that exact thing to you, especially since we were starting to get along."

Was that too much? Well, it was out there now, at any rate. Plus, Tarin did realize now that she did worry about his merging to much more of what he considered to be a reasonable degree by this point. But that she wasn't going to let that stand in the way of the time they had together then.

"More than once?" Lee asked, an eyebrow raised as she looked over at the now much smaller distance after Tarin had kissed her. "I might bring it out more than once if you'll bring your cowboy hat out." Hey, who said you couldn't bargain for mutual benefit here?

Tarin seemed more than ready to head home to get ready for dinner. And, at his mention that they'd probably have to give Axel a bath before hand, Lee glanced down again; there was quite a bit of dirt and dust the dog had managed to find. "You're probably right," Lee admitted. Hopefully Axel would be more willing to cooperate with a bath tonight than he had on a couple other occasions. "And yeah, I'm ready." With that, Lee leaned over to give Tarin a quick kiss before standing up once more.

Tarin nodded his head as Lee explained, “Of course you were. You would have to be an idiot to be completely unafraid of that, Lee.” He said softly and reassuringly, “Concern, fear for personal safety, those things I can handle…I encourage them. Meeting people who have learned not to let those things rule their lives are shockingly few and far in between.”

They were similar in far more ways than probably either of them had ever realized. Their powers were different stories completely, but they’d dealt with the same problems and isolation. Tarin wondered as they sat on the bench if every mutant felt that way, he was sure that there were some…but were he and Lee different? Was that why they worked so well?

“All you ever have to do is ask darlin’” Tarin said, taking the opportunity to play just a little bit dirty himself. It was only fair, if Lee could bring up that costume the way she had…and not deliver, the accent was totally fair game. Lee was ready to go, the ice cream was gone, and Axel had finished transferring all the dirt in Central Park into his coat. The white parts nearly matched the brown.

***
It didn’t take them all that long to get back to the apartment…it did take quite a while to get Axel washed. The little dog had decided he did not like water unless it was dirty and in puddles. A bath turned him into a wildcat. Eventually, though, after soaking Tarin and Lee, the little dog was clean and running out to the living room to pout with his toys.

Tarin shook his head and leaned against the counter in the bathroom, legs stretched in front of him on the floor, “I don’t know about you…but I could use a shower.” Tarin said, a slow smile spreading across his face as he studied the object of inquiry, “That took a while…we should totally conserve time and water and shower together.”

Tarin brought out his accent in full force after she said that he needed to bring out his cowboy hat more often. And said that all she needed to do was ask for the hat to appear. Lee rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly; well, of course Lee knew that she could just ask Tarin to put on his cowboy hat any time she wanted him to, but where was the fun in that?

Still, there was a wide grin on her face even as she was rolling her eyes at her husband. It didn't really matter what it was he was saying, Lee had a feeling it would be really hard for her to not smile any time she heard that accent coming from his lips.

***

Home they went, and into the bathroom to give Axel a bath. A bath which, if anything, the dog had been less cooperative about than any previous baths they had given him.

Finally though, they finished, and as the puppy went running off, to hide, or pout, or just plain get away from the water, Lee leaned against the wall beside the tub as she watched Tarin doing the same against the counter. Watched Tarin as a smile slowly spread across his face.

"You think that it'll save time," Lee asked, her voice slow as if she were thinking this through as she was speaking. But a smile was growing on her face as well. "If we both shower together?" Lee knew that that was an absolute falsehood, it always ended up taking longer if they had a shower together, but she did like the idea.

Starting to get up, Lee changed her mind part way, and ended up just crawling the couple feet over to where Tarin was sitting. Then gave him a kiss before speaking again, her smile growing. "Come on. We'd better hurry up with the shower. To save time."

Tarin could see the look, the slow smile on Lee’s face when she echoed his opinion on the benefits of showering together. It looked like she was thinking, but Tarin knew that the decision was already made. It was one of those things that Tarin knew these days. Another benefit of marriage, he supposed.

This was more like it, he decided, smiling over at Lee as she thought over her decision. There hadn’t been any talk of nasty memories, only the good…and now they were playing around just like everything was normal. Tarin’s grin widened even more. “It’ll save time and water.” He confirmed.

Lee moved, and Tarin was just about to start getting up when she changed directions and started crawling in his direction. Tarin didn’t know if it was a singular skill that women possessed, but something as simple as crawling across the floor was so sexy that Tarin clenched his teeth. It was just something about the way she moved. Then she was right there, kissing him and Tarin’s arms snaked out to wrap around Lee’s body and pull her close.

Lee pointed out that if they were going to save time in the shower, they’d better get moving and Tarin grinned against her lips before getting to work on her clothes, “You make a good point, but we can’t shower in all these clothes.”

It would save time and water, apparently. Lee still doubted that that would be exactly true, but she didn't say anything about it. Well, at least their actually bathing part of the showers did tend to save time...

As she was crawling over to Tarin, Lee saw the expression on his face. Her smile just widened as she closed the remaining distance. It was amazing, really, what she was able to do to Tarin, how she was able to get him to react, by doing something as simple as crawling a couple feet over to him.

But once she was there, and once she had pressed her lips against Tarin's that thought went out the window. As she felt Tarin's arms wrapping around her, pulling her closer to him, Lee leaned into the kiss more, her own arms going around his neck.

Huh, Lee wondered as she felt Tarin pulling away from her slightly. What was he talking about? And then she felt a tug on her shirt as Tarin started trying to help her out of her clothing, for the shower of course.

"Well, we better hurry up and get out of them, hadn't we?" Lee asked in return, giving Tarin another, sort of quick kiss before moving her hands down to his waist and pulling his shirt off over his head.