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Tarin simply shrugged and turned toward his room and the bathroom. Lee stood there just watching him walk away, a frown on her face, until he turned into his bedroom.

This is not what their relationship was like. Even after the collapse at the building site, when she had actually forced a conversation that Tarin had tried walking away from, the situation hadn’t been like this between them.

Making her way back to the couch, Lee ordered dinner, then curled up with her arms wrapped around her legs. No, the only thing that she could compare this to was how Tarin had been acting immediately after the merge, when he had been trying to get rid of her.

But that didn’t make sense, everything that morning had been good. Normal.

This evening was anything but.

As she sat there, Lee could hear Tarin make his way into the bathroom, door closing, then a while later him making his way back to his room. If things were actually fine, Tarin would be making his way out to the living room again any moment.

But he didn’t. The minutes continued to tick past, and Lee didn’t feel Tarin’s energy moving.

Just as she was starting to wonder if she should go check on him, Lee heard the knock at the door. Getting up, she went to go get the delivery. Hopefully food would make things better.

Tarin was saying a lot to try and convince Lee that everything was fine and whatever it was he had done that day was nothing to worry about. All while not actually telling her anything about what it was that had happened. It all sounded very much like when she was trying to get Kevin off of a topic without actually telling him what that topic was.

And other than possibly the ‘you don’t need to worry’, he wasn’t lying to her, but that was only because he wasn’t actually telling her anything.

Plus, Tarin seemed to be stressing the word ‘fine’, which he had a tendency of saying when he was trying to tell her that his issues with the claustrophobia were ‘fine’. Including when they were in an elevator and she could see the near panic in his eyes.

Lee just raised an eyebrow at Tarin as she looked up at him. ”If it’s so much nothing to worry about, then why won’t you tell me what it is, Tarin?”

It had certainly been a tough day for Lee. It had taken a while, but she had finally managed to track down Dr Rossi, the woman Lee had needed (been forced) to talk to after she had had the breakdown after the fight at the pharmaceutical company after that dream so many years ago. Lee had tracked her down and scheduled an appointment to try and see if she was still a safe option. If she could still be counted on for more confidentiality than doctor patient privilege, as she had been at the Labs.

That appointment had been that afternoon, and the woman had been asking Lee plenty of her own questions, which quickly dug far deeper than Lee had ever thought that day would go.

Especially since she had sought out Dr Rossi for Tarin. He had asked who someone like them, with their powers and all the inherent issues that came along with them, could possibly talk to professionally to get help. That felt like it had been ages ago, but really was only a few months earlier.

Lee knew that Tarin wouldn't want to talk with Dr Rossi, but she didn't know what else to do. Since the building collapse, Tarin's claustrophobia seemed to just be getting worse. And while Lee was fairly sure she could continue talking Tarin through his panic attacks so he didn't end up in a position where a merge was possible, she also knew that she couldn't always be with him

By the time Tarin got home, Lee was curled up on the couch with a cup of coffee, staring at the TV but not actually watching it as she tried, again, to figure out what to say to Tarin.

Setting her mug down on the table, Lee got up to move over to Tarin (she could use a hug after the afternoon she'd had just as much as she needed the right words to magically come out of her mouth), but frowned when she heard his words as he was immediately heading to the bathroom. Even after going for a run by himself, Tarin always greeted her better than that before going to shower.

”What happened?” Lee asked, feeling a little anxious. ” Is everything ok?”

Lee nodded slightly when Tarin brought up that she never set her alarm for any more than 8 hours. It wasn’t such a hard and fast rule when she was able to sleep in the same bed as someone, especially if there was contact while she slept, but it was good and easiest to just stick with that.

Then Tarin was thanking her for trusting him like she had. Lee leaned in and gave him a kiss before pulling back with a smile. ”You have done a good job helping me wake up in the mornings,” she said. ”It’s such a habit to set my alarm every single night, so I really didn’t think about it. But if I had,” Lee smiled at Tarin again. Happily. ”I would have trusted you to wake me for a while now…”

Tarin didn’t know what time it was, but couldn’t check because his arm was trapped. Lee’s brain was still moving slowly, but she was only confused about how those two things were connected for a couple moments.

”Did we wake up like this?” Lee asked, a smile slowly forming on her face as she spoke. Only then did Lee move, shifting around in the bed so that she was no longer laying on his arm, but also so she could look at him easier.

”Didn’t you set your alarm?”

Lee had just gotten comfortable again when she heard Tarin speak, and she simply shook her head at first. ”You were really tired last night,” she explained rather than giving an outright answer. ”Or at least you seemed to fall asleep a lot faster than normal. And by the time I came back to bed, well, I was pretty positive that you wouldn’t still be sleeping 8 hours after that.”

Later that night, Lee slipped out of bed and quietly made her way out of Tarin’s bedroom. She had laid there snuggled up with him until he fell asleep, but Lee was not going to be able to sleep that night without getting rid of some energy.

It didn’t take Lee long to throw on some workout clothes and then she was heading down and out of the building, turning her siphoning back on as she went. She was starting to get used to not siphoning when she was around Tarin in order to try and avoid this exact situation, but there was no way she was going to be going running at night without it.

And that’s exactly what she did, running her normal path when she was on her own around the park.

A few hours and a few laps later, Lee made her way back home, and after a quick shower, she was crawling back into bed with Tarin. Lee wasn’t going to have a full night’s sleep, she never did when she needed to run. Not that that mattered all that much to her. But by getting just a couple hours sleep here, she would still be able to wake up with Tarin.

Which was a perfect way to end the night, Lee thought as she started drifting off. The night had not gone anything like she had planned, but to be honest, Lee wouldn’t have changed a thing.

When the kiss finally ended, Lee was a little confused for a moment. She had definitely forgotten what she had said before the kiss, and it took a little bit for her brain to make sense of what Tarin was saying.

But then a playful sparkle came to her eyes as she smiled up at Tarin. ”But I thought your girlfriend was here,” she joked. ”Guess we better be quiet, hadn’t we?”

Giving Tarin one more kiss, Lee pulled back and grabbed Tarin’s hand before walking out of the kitchen.