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That was that, Lee thought as she was walking down the street away from the shop. Her banging on the door of a storefront might not be that strange of an occurrence in New York City, but she had not expected the attention it brought to last more than a passing glance.

That man's curiosity, especially with how long he had been there before asking the question, had not been expected.

But it was done with now, and Lee could get back to searching for Tarin.

Except a moment later, Lee felt energy quickly approaching behind her. Lee spared just a quick glance over her shoulder to confirm that it was the man hurrying to catch up with her.

This could be an issue, Lee thought with a sigh as she continued walking. At least she didn't see any weapons.

A few moments later, the mag had come up beside Lee, asking more prying questions about her 'business meeting'.

And being in contact with Tarin's family.

Lee's eyes widened slightly as she came to a stop, turning to look at the too curious man. "And how would you know that?" Lee asked, her voice slightly hesitant. She hadn't said anything on the phone about Josh and Tarin being family, had she? She didn't think so. Just asking about Tarin and asking Josh not to worry Adele too much.

Unless this man also knew Tarin. But if that was the case, why didn't he just say so?

((OOC: this thread takes place just after the rift closed in 2018, when Lee and AV Tarin initially met))


3 July 2018
Lee was pissed. Tarin had been supposed to have been at her place hours earlier to pick Kevin up. He had wanted Kevin for Independence Day the following day, so Lee had suggested Tarin pick him up the night before. That way they’d get to spend the entire day together.

And then the man hadn’t shown.

He wasn’t answering his phone, either.

Which had meant that she had ended up dealing with a very upset 7 year old. Lee had done her best to distract the child, but it hadn’t been easy. Finally, though, she had managed to get Kevin to sleep with the promise that she would find out what happened and he would be able to see his father the next day.

Got him to bed, and finally to sleep, but much later than normal. At least it was summer vacation now.

After trying to call Tarin again, and still getting no answer, Lee told her sister that she was going to go figure out what happened, making sure that Rachel was alright to stay home with Kevin.

But as she made her way through the streets of New York City towards Tarin’s apartment, Lee’s anger quickly started turning to worry. Tarin had always wanted to spend as much time as he possibly could with their son. He’d very rarely been late for a pickup (much more often late dropping Kevin off because he had ‘lost track of time’ and they had been having fun). He had gotten much better control of his merging ability, and Lee was almost positive that there hadn’t been a merge since before Kevin was born…Not since Romania…

But there was always the possibility hanging over their heads.

Lee sped up as she made her way along the streets. Finally (not all that long of a time in all reality), Lee arrived at Tarin’s building and made her way up, only stopping when she came to his apartment door. Knocking. Then knocking again and again, louder each time when she didn’t get a response.

"Tarin!” She finally ended up calling out as she knocked yet again. "“I don’t care what the hell you’re doing in there, answer the door!”

Still no response. At least no response from the door that she wanted to open. Some of the neighbours had started opening their doors, telling her to cut it out.

Maybe, Lee thought, Tarin wasn’t actually home. Then she remembered him saying he had taken sleeping at the shop again, only having gotten an apartment again because of Kevin being around so much more.

Turning on her heel, Lee rushed down the stairs and back out onto the street. She didn't even need to think about it; she had been to and from the shop so many times, in so many different situations, that she could probably find her way there in her sleep. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t done it in the previous 5 years.

As she walked this time, Lee pulled out her phone, trying to call Tarin again. Voicemail. She didn’t even bother leaving a message this time. Then she took a deep breath and made another call.

Which also went to voicemail. Maybe he was actually busy, Lee thought as she waited for the beep. Or, more likely, he saw that it was her calling and was trying to pretend that she didn’t exi-

Beep…

"“Rupert. Do you know where Tarin is? He was supposed to pick Kevin up five hours ago and I can’t get ahold of him. Call me.” She pulled the phone away from her ear and was about to hang up when she had a thought. "And if it’s because you got it in your head again to shoot him, a heads up would have been nice.”

Then Lee had another thought and started dialling the phone again. It was far less likely to be helpful than calling Rupert, but Lee was quickly running out of ideas that she even remotely liked.

Again, voicemail. Really, was no one answering their phones tonight?

"Josh, it’s Lee. Tarin missed picking Kevin up l and I haven’t been able to get ahold of him. I was hoping that he’d told you something. Give me a call back as soon as you can? Thanks Josh.”

Slipping her phone back into her purse as she crossed the street over to the shop, Lee frowned. The shop was definitely locked up, though that was not a surprise at this time of night. But it looked dark in the shop as well. Not dark like the lights in the front of the shop were off, but there was still a glow coming around the curtain separating off the back room. No, the shop was dark as if there wasn’t one single beam of light coming from inside.

That didn’t stop Lee. The moment that she was within arms reach of the door, Lee was knocking hard on the glass. "“God damn it, Tarin!” Lee exclaimed, kicking the door to give her knuckles a moment’s rest from the knocking. "“You were never even this heavy of a sleeper when we were together. Open the damn door!”

Then she heard her phone ringing. Pulling it out as she leaned her shoulder against the door, Lee glanced at the screen quickly as she took a deep, hopefully calming, breath before answering. "Josh, did you listen to my message? No? Well, Tarin didn’t pick Kevin up this evening and isn’t answering his phone. Have you talked to him recently?”

Lee nodded as she listened to Tarin’s brother on the phone, but she started becoming aware that one of the people who had walked passed hadn’t continued far. She was feeling their energy standing stationary about 10 feet behind her. Close enough that they would easily be able to hear her end of the conversation. She frowned, not liking where this was probably heading. At least it was only one person who seemed to be hanging around.

"Thanks Josh,” she continued as she focused on her siphoning. "I know it’s a long shot, but could you ask Ash for me? And…Try not to worry your mom too much when you talk to her. Chances are, it’ll turn out to be nothing and I'm just worrying too much.” Yes, that was a lie. Lee just hoped that Josh wasn’t nearly as good at identifying her lies as his brother was. "Of course I’ll tell Kevin. And if you find anything out, call me no matter the time. I’ll be awake. Talk to you later, Josh.”

The person was still there as Lee hung the phone up and again slipped it into her purse. They hadn’t moved during the entire conversation. “Can I help you?” She asked, her voice raised louder than it had been while speaking to Josh so there should be no mistaking that she was speaking to them. Only after she spoke did Lee turn to look at the person

Like the Mets, Tarin said. Lee wasn't so sure of that herself, though the team had been doing well that season from what she had seen. Which was apparently much better than they normally did.

But then that grin started spreading across Tarin's face, and her own smile grew. Lee liked that grin. Liked it a lot.

She had been right. Tarin hadn't been talking about pie. As Tarin straightened up and looked directly at her again, Lee smiled up at him. "No, I was definitely not talking about dessert," Lee replied softly, unconsciously taking that half step forward again. "And while dessert is great, there are things that are much more enjoyable."

Much more enjoyable. Such as how things had been the previous night.

As Lee let the invisible man drop limply to the ground, she saw him become visible again. About the same time that one of the men who had been surrounding the mutant cried something about this being a trap. Because she was a mutant, too.

"The people who thought to gang up 5 to 1 on a mutant are calling this a trap?" Lee asked, slightly amused though mostly offended by the comment. All because she was a mutant.

"Not a trap," she continued, eying the remaining men to see who would come after her first. She had a feeling that they would have no issues with (trying to) hitting a woman. "No, you all were just stood enough to do this on my running path."

Suddenly, one of the men was growing very large. Saying that he would take care of her. This had to be that damn magic stuff that had appeared. Hopefully, it had simply made him larger and not also stronger. But even if it had, Lee knew she still had her speed as an advantage, plus her siphoning. Neither of which anyone here had a clue about.

As the large man started toward her, Lee felt energy dropping out of the sky toward the remaining men. If she hadn't seen the other mutant take off shortly before, the sensation would have been extremely shocking. As it was, it still felt weird, but Lee was able to keep her attention on the giant.

"Do you really think that simply being larger is going to make this easier?" Lee asked. The size difference between herself and trained MMA fighters had allowed her to sleep out of grapples and holds on multiple occasions. With the size difference being even greater here, and doubting the man had any level of actual training, Lee didn't see the odds being very good for him.

Arms held wide, in an attempt to get her in a bear hug.

Lee scoffed to herself slightly as the man charged. She was so much smaller than him now. Did he really think this would work?

As the giant was reaching her, leaning down in an attempt to grab hold of her, Lee quickly moved to avoid him, ducking under and around his arm.

Once she was behind the man's arm, Lee pivoted, turning toward him again. And shot a leg out in a strong kick at the back of his knee.

When Lee took that small step back, Tarin laughed and shook his head. Lee could only assume that Tarin understood the exact reason she had done it.

Part of Lee was glad that was the case because that obviously meant that he knew the feeling, knew what she had been thinking and feeling. But another, though quickly growing smaller, part of Lee thought it was absolutely ridiculous that they couldn't even stand near each other discussing dinner without completely losing track of where and when they were.

Tarin suggested that cheese cake would be a good backup plan with how often she had mentioned liking it. And how little of it she had had since he'd been around.

"That does despite good," Lee agreed. "Though for some things, if you have them too often they stop being so special."

It was only as she stood there looking up at Tarin that Lee realized just how close she had come to him. How easy it would be for Tarin to pull her close, or for her to wrap her arms around his neck.

The smile that he gave her made that all the more tempting to do, too. "Well, good," Lee said softly as she smiled back up at Tarin. "Because I don't think I'm going to change my mind on that."

It was also good to know that Lee hadn't been imagining herself getting better at asking for help.

Then another thought crossed Lee's mind, and her smile faltered a bit. "I'm not sure how things'll go if Kevin needs help," she admitted. "Unless we're eating really late that night, he's probably going to be working on the dessert before you get home."

Tarin was now looking almost as surprised as she was feeling. She knew that she did worry a lot. It was kind of an inevitable thing with her powers, having lived on the street, the merging…

In a lot of ways, worrying is what had kept her alive at times. But everyone else always seemed to think that she worried far too much about everything.

But Tarin seemed confused about her even asking about that. And pointed out that her being stressed about cooking was similar to him in an elevator; most people didn't find the situations very stressful, but for them it was. And was valid.

Lee couldn't help but wonder if this was because Tarin just…automatically seemed to understand things so much more quickly and completely than anyone else really ever had, or if…

"People always complained and told me that I worried far too much," Lee eventually said. "No matter how big or small a thing it was, I worried too much. I figured this was just another of those times."