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Lee's parents' voices hadn't been lowered at all as they were asking about Tarin. Or about why Robert didn't like him. Not that it mattered, because it was no secret that Robert did not like Tarin. Plus Tarin was making his way into the living room right then.

And answering her father's question as he handed the man a bottle. Followed by asking if she wanted a beer.

Lee hadn't been planning to. In fact, what she was doing this entire evening had probably been the lowest priority when she had been worrying and planning. But seeing it offered, it looked good.

"Please," she replied as she reached out to take the bottle from Tarin with a smile. "Thanks."

Then Lee turned to look at her father. "And honestly, I think the reason is simply that they have the same name," Lee told her parents. "That and the fact that he doesn't seem to be able to adjust his thoughts or opinions when it comes to me and my life." Lee then took a long sip of her beer.

"Because they have the same name? Lots of people have the same name as other people," Lee's mother said.

"Exactly," Lee replied. "But he seems to think that because of that, that they are the same person though they are very clearly not."

Tarin told her that everything was perfect as he pulled her a little closer for a kiss. Returning his kiss, Lee gave Tarin a slight smile. "Maybe not perfect, but I can't think of anything else that I could do," Lee said, partially agreeing with him.

Tarin needed to get changed. He did. They had talked about what he was going to wear for this dinner; what would be good, what would be too much, what could be considered too casual. And Tarin had told her he would wear one of his button ups with nice jeans. Just like he had to the bar, and for their first date.

That would be good. But the problem right that moment was that it meant he had to move away from her, let go of her hand. Lee didn't want that to happen. But he wasn't going to be able to hold her hand the entire night anyway.

"Ok," Lee said softly as Tarin's hand finally left hers as he made his way out of the kitchen to his room.

Glancing around the kitchen, Lee's eyes settled on the stove. Tarin said the restaurant told him the food could stay in there, on warm, to keep hot. So that meant the food could stay there, but did she need to stay in the kitchen to keep an eye on it?

No, Lee decided, though she was quite nervous about that decision as well. If she had needed to stay in the kitchen to keep an eye on the food in the oven, Tarin would have said that. That was not something he would just assume she knew.

Glancing at the stove a couple more times, Lee made her way out of the kitchen and into the living room. Looking around to see if there was anything else that needed done. There was nothing that she saw. She had already even pulled the dining table out from against the wall so all five of them could fit around it.

Feeling Tarin making his way back out, Lee turned to face him. Just as there was a knock at the door.

Instantly, Lee's heart was beating faster. "It's going to be fine," Lee murmured, more to herself than to Tarin as she moved forward.

The door really wasn't far enough away, Lee thought, because before she knew it she was standing in front of it. Taking a deep breath to try and relax, Lee unlocked and opened the door to see her parents.

"Hi mum, dad," Lee said as she stepped aside for them to make their way inside. Which they did, though Lee's mother stopped to give Lee a hug on the way, which Lee returned more than a little awkwardly.

"Mum, dad, this is Tarin," Lee introduced once they had made their way further into the apartment. "Tarin, these are my parents Mary and Dave Smith."

All the planning that they had needed to do had been done and taken care of. Most of it had really been taken care of that same night after she had been on the phone with her mother. She and Tarin had figured out where they would order from for dinner, Tarin had offered to adjust his schedule so that he could get home earlier on Thursday night. Lee had told Tarin a bit about what had happened over the last decade, why these dinners did happen after how her parents had treated her. And, very importantly, that Kevin didn't know anything about all of that.

Most of what they hadn't been able to cover that night, such as deciding what food specifically would be ordered, had been sorted out the following day when Tarin had brought the menu home after work.

But that hadn't stopped Lee from worrying. And stressing. Tarin did a very good job distracting her and getting her to relax, but Tarin wasn't able to be around all the time.

What if her parents got there early? They had done that before. It always made Lee more stressed and more difficult for her to deal with them. What if, despite how her mother had been on the phone, they spent the whole time picking over the details of who she was, and who Tarin was, and….

Lee had thought she and Tarin had moved past dealing with that months earlier, but this was her parents.

Lee worried more as she moved around the apartment to see if there was anything else that needed to be cleaned. There wasn't; she'd already cleaned and organized and moved everything that needed to be done with all of her nervous energy the last few days. Even Kevin's room had been cleaned. She had also gotten ready well before her parents were supposed to have gotten there, wearing a black and white patterned dress, though she had gone to check her makeup and outfit multiple times since then.

But what if, now that Kevin's powers had emerged, they said or did something like they had with her? How she would deal with her parents wasn't a worry, she had many ideas of what she would do with them. But Lee was worried about how Kevin would take it, how it would hurt him.

Suddenly the front door opened and Lee turned to see Tarin walking in with the food. She'd been so stuck in her thoughts that Lee hadn't even felt him approaching the door or heard the key in the lock.

Following Tarin into the kitchen, Lee smiled. He'd even asked about keeping the food hot or reheating it. "Thank you, Tarin," she said.

"A magic hat from another universe?" Lee asked with a laugh. "Now that sounds rather unbelievable."

And in reality it was, but that didn't stop them, well Tarin from claiming it to be true. Though it was quite a coincidence that the Mets really did seem to do better when she was wearing his hat.

Lee was just pushing herself up off the couch when she felt Tarin's arm wrapping around her tighter, pulling her even closer to him than she had been. Lee had been planning on just getting up to go get the hats, but she liked this more, so let Tarin easily pull her close, smiling as his chin came to rest on her shoulder.

"I don't?" she asked in a whisper.

That wasn't the only thing Tarin said, and Lee's smile became even happier as she turned in his arms to look at him. Not the easiest thing to do with how close he was holding her. But once she had turned enough to be able to reach, Lee kissed him before murmuring against his lips. "Love you too."

"A real fight is never going to ask if you're ready," Lee pointed out as she watched Quin getting into a stance now. "A lot of times, you'll be lucky to see the first attack coming."

Lee started circling around Quin slowly, her arms hanging fairly loosely in front of her, around mid torso. Having never been formally trained, Lee didn't really have a ready or fighting stance. Not that one would have ever really helped her much in the past.

"When you end up on the floor," Lee continued as she feigned a lunge forward to punch with her right before going back to circling. 'You need to either get control and leverage over your opponent, or you need to get back to your feet, preferably putting space between you first, like I did."

Another lunge forward with a feigned right punch. Only this time Lee followed it up with a left cross.

Tarin didn't want her to forget that he thought she was impressive. With how often he said things like that, Lee doubted that she was going to be able to ever forget he thought that. But she also knew he wanted her to think that way about herself and…that was not nearly so easy to do.

Lee laughed at Tarin's reply to her comment. She loved that they were able to joke around like this. Especially when things were tense or stressful, playing around like this helped ease the tension.

"Well, what were you planning on doing with your girlfriend?" Lee asked. "You must have some ideas if you've been waiting all day.

"Though," Lee continued, looking up at Tarin with a playful smirk. "If she's that against sharing space with others, she sounds a little jealous. You sure she's the right woman for you?"

The sole reason that she didn't want that subject coming up was currently sitting in his bedroom. Because frankly, if the subject of how her parents had treated her once they discovered it was all just her mutation and not medical were to come up and their feelings got hurt because of what was said, Lee really didn't care. Yes, they had started doing better, and had continued to get a bit better over the last decade.

But that didn't erase what had happened. And if they didn't like comments about what they had done, that was their problem.

Lee did not want finding out about that to hurt Kevin, though.

As Tarin continued speaking though, a blush started to cover her cheeks. "Not in a few days, at least," Lee whispered, her eyes dropping slightly. She wasn't entirely sure when the last time was, but Tarin did have a tendency to say that kind of thing about her fairly frequently. Though she wasn't sure how wanting her son to not be hurt made her impressive.