The heat was doing nothing but increasing. Surely it couldn't get any hotter than this? Everyone else was starting to seek shelter and coolness where they could. How was he supposed to keep from overheating when every shady corner was already occupied, if not so overcrowded as to be even hotter than in the sun?

Another such horrible day had passed with Aiden holed up in his poorly air-conditioned room, trying to kill time with video games and books until the temperature had spiked and begun to drop again. Such restriction didn't sit well with him, and by the time things had cooled off enough for him to suffer through he was very, very bored. And hot. But mostly bored now. Seeking something, anything different to do, he stalked through the halls. Except there really wasn't much he could do without going outside, and even as evening settled over the city it was way too hot to risk going out there.

And so he ended up in the living room. He didn't spend much time there, as there were other people in it more often than not. It was pretty empty for the moment, though, so he prowled inside. He supposed he could watch TV or a movie or something. Nothing else to do in here. He dropped onto the couch, sprawled wider than he normally would have thanks to the heat, and tried to decide if what was currently on was boring enough to try to change.

The day had been hot and far hotter than Leon would have liked, for the best part of the day he had been wandering around the city as the usual and trying to get a feel for the layout and hot spots. After learning nothing new of interest he had decided to just kick back and watch some T.V in the living room, hoping that it would at least make some of the heat bearable. It would be fair to say that it did not help the heat and served to make him slightly cranky and tired. 

As he sat there watching some old Doctor who reruns. This time it looked like it was the episode where David Tennant  saves the world from some evil witches and mets William Shakespeare, personally it was one of Leon's favorite episodes as it shows the great English writer and all of England in its not so glorious...glory. It was roughly halfway through when some boy that he had never seen before slumped down onto the couch next to the seat he was in. By the looks of him he was far to hot in this heat and rather bored by the choice of entertainment.

"Hey I'm Leon I don't think we have met yet, and I do hope you like Doctor Who." He said to the newly slumped boy, he hoped that being nice would help to keep him occupied and not reaching for the remote. After all he could try to change the channel but nobody denies Leon his entertainment...

Aiden tried very hard to figure out what was going on and why the guy also on the couch seemed to be so interested in it. He really did. He just wasn't seeing the appeal, though. Maybe if it weren't so hot, but... it was. It was disgustingly hot. And so he gave up on trying to figure out what the show was, much less what was going on in it. Heck, he wasn't even entirely sure it was a show and not a movie, or maybe some sort of social experiment in confusing audiences.

Oh. The couch guy wanted to talk? Probably easier to deal with and understand than the show. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully? "Aiden," he replied after a moment. "I haven't met most people." Even if he'd been there for what, two months now? Most of that had been spent avoiding people as much as was humanly possible.

Doctor Who? This was Doctor Who? Aiden peered at the TV again. He had heard a lot of stuff about it, mostly from obsessed people on the internet trying to bash in the virtual face of anyone who implied a disinterest or lack of knowledge regarding the... thing. Aiden wisely kept out of those conversations. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to have much of an option in this instance. Real life was so annoying. After just long enough to make things start to feel even more uncomfortable (for Aiden, at least), he found the guts to admit to his general uselessness on the subject. "Never got around to watching it to find out. I have heard it's good, or at least addicting to a curious degree,"

Oh so he had never seen Doctor Who before? This was a rare kind of person indeed, at least rare in the sense that Leon had almost never met someone who had not seen Doctor Who. There was something odd about Aiden to Leon it seemed to him that there was a secret behind all of the pauses, like he was trying to hide something. Of course it could have been just the heat starting to get to him and making him sluggish, but still it seemed odd.

"Really never seen it? Well this one is great the Doctor goes to William Shakespeare and they stop a load of witches together, I mean come on whats not to love?" He said to Aiden hoping that more conversation would make him open up and release what ever secret he was holding, if he was indeed holding one. Then there was the fact that he didn't met most people which again struck him as odd, seeing as it made sense if you where going to live here to try and get along with the other people here. But oh well each person was to there own he guessed as he spent allot of time wandering the city looking around. Instead of meeting the people around the mansion. 

"So why haven't you met most people? Because I spend allot of time around the city but even I meet some people." He said with a grin, he had decided to try and release some information about him and his lifestyle. Hoping that Aiden would in turn do the same, even if he didn't he wasn't about to give up on him it was too hot to be lazing around doing nothing. And if he couldn't have fun in the city then he was going to have some fun right here, or try to have some fun.

Shakespeare.

Great.

In the same sentence.

What, precisely, was this Leon guy on? No, that was rather rude and probably antisocial. He shouldn't think that about people, especially people he had known in any sense of the word for under five minutes. It took effort, but he managed to keep from asking a more polite variant of that question, instead going with, "Can't say I'm a Shakespeare fan." In his own head, he could be more honest. He'd despised Shakespeare from the first because he didn't get it even after people 'translated' it. Conri's paraphrasing and explanations helped a bit, but what was the appeal, really?

Stupid questions. Why was he trying to be social, again? All it led to was being asked stupid questions and not being able to (politely) escape without answering them, much less avoid thinking about them altogether. So, he grudgingly answered. "I haven't met most people because I've spent most of my time avoiding most people," he said bluntly. "It's not like I've been here long enough to meet everyone anyway." Witches, huh? Most anime witches were young girls with the magical power to exchange your face and rear from the other side of the planet while snacking on those little fluffy sandwiches.

Oh another new person? He thought as Aiden said that he hadn't been there long enough to know people. It didn't make much sense really to say that or it didn't make sense to Leon, who always thought the first thing you should do when new is introduce yourself. But also avoiding people now that just seemed rude and uncalled for. it seemed to him that Aiden had some sort of problem and that needed solving. One way or another.

"Oh really you're also new? I've been here a little while and come from England, so most likely my predicament is more troubling than your's." He said almost certain that he had some sort of problem or person troubling him, The tone that he used when saying this contained slightly less kindness in it, but not enough for Leon to think it hostile but he might have different ideas of what hostile is. 

He returned his attention to the T.V for a moment to catch the scene with the voodoo doll, personally it was one of his favorite scenes in the episode, to him it showed that no matter who you where how strong you where, someone could take you down. But again being Doctor who he wasn't taken down.

"So why do you not like to met people?" He asked him returning his attention to Aiden, putting on a half smile that could be seen as mocking by some people, but that was just one of the meanings to him. To Leon the smile was just another facial expression unless it was used on him in which case it normally makes him really angry.  

Aiden's expression cooled slightly at Leon's words. Perhaps his so-called predicament was more troubling. Maybe he had been run out of the country by a mob carrying torches and pitchforks. This was the sort of person he always tried to avoid. He didn't have the patience or interest in society to deal with them, so passing interaction with them off to more suitable people and making his escape was by far the best option.

"I'm sure your problems are worse to you," he replied flatly, trying as best he could to remain polite until he saw an opening to leave. Well, marginally polite. Stooping to the level of people like Leon was never a good idea, but they couldn't usually tell (or at least wouldn't react) if other people weren't as respectful as they ought or usually were. Sometimes irritating people had to be dealt with using a little bit of irritation.

Why didn't he like to meet people? Well, probably because of the risk of coming across people like Leon. That was a bit too blatantly rude to voice, though, so he made a light show of thinking about it before answering with a carefully controlled voice. It was too hot for this. "I prefer solitary pursuits. And I tend to be particular about the people I associate with." Translation? People are weird, annoying things and by far easier to get along with when fictional. Fictional people were good, because there wasn't any true interaction with them. Stupid little smile. Who did this guy think he was? Something should happen to let him escape with his sense of honour intact.

Leon could tell that he and Aiden would not get on very well, but oh well he could still try and provoke some form of reaction from him. That and he was kind of bored and thankful for the company, even though the T.V is on he has seen this episode so many times he doesn't need to be looking to know whats happening. 

"Well everyone's problems seem more important to them, because they are the ones with the problems. That and if they don't speak about the problems and stay away from people they tend to escalate." He said with a little more stress on the second half of the sentence. Most of the sentence was true and genuine advice and half was an attempt to get him to open up and speak about why he prefers being alone, he could understand why some people would want to be alone especially if they had some form of physical mutation or disease. But Aiden looked normal and it escaped him as to why he would avoid people. 

"So anyway why do you avoid people then? I mean like I could understand if you where really ugly or something but your not so why?" He said deciding to be blunt and straight to the point, rather that tip toe around the topic all the time, after all if he didn't ask he wouldn't get an answer. 

Aiden rolled his eyes, fully content to hide behind his sunglasses. Leon probably thought he was real funny, responding like that. He did have to grind his teeth a little at the little add-on, though, and especially at the way Leon emphasized it. Well, whether or not they escalated because the person with the issue rather depended on the issue, now didn't it? He could think of an easy handful of examples with a moment's thought.

What he said, however, was more carefully polite. "I have never been a people person, and as you can see I'm hardly staying away from people." He angled his head slightly more towards Leon. "Not that I'm dying to hear it or anything, but I don't hear you talking about your issues," he said pointedly, trying to edge the conversation away from himself. He really wasn't interested in some random stuck up guy's problems whatsoever, but it was better than being prodded and nagged about talking about himself. His life was his, and didn't need to be scrutinized and dissected by random passerby.

His stomach twisted and he tried to move his head back towards the T.V. slowly enough that it wouldn't look like he was running away. He had the presence of mind for that, at least, even if it was several very, very long seconds before he trusted himself to try to deflect the prying. "I... I'm not comfortable... dealing with people," he said at length. "I don't like most people. Hasn't changed." T.V. What was going on? He didn't have the faintest clue. He tried to look completely absorbed so that Leon might be put off asking more nasty questions and tried to feel completely absorbed so that he wouldn't think along nasty trains of thought.

Oh so he didn't want to talk about himself? Well he was sure that Aiden was not really watching the T.V but he couldn't really be sure what he was thinking whilst he's wearing those sunglasses, which was kind of a weird fashion statement. Not that he could talk about fashion as he is wearing a waistcoat...

Anyway he thought that he may as well humor the boy and talk about himself for a while, more specifically the reason his problem is worse. "Well if you wanted to know all you need do was ask, it all started long time ago.... you know what long story short. Got kicked out of my country." He said to Aiden taking care not to reveal to much, and he was fairly pleased with how he had worded it, even if it had sounded a bit short. But in truth that was the end result of the story and he felt no need to go into massive detail. 

"you see the issue with dealing with people is opening up, its not like you would just sit there and hope to get anywhere, and look at us we are practically friends." He said in a unusually happy tone, it wasn't as though he was purposely toying with  Aiden but it just came naturally before he could stop it. And although he would not admit it it was kind of fun.

Some people were superb story tellers. Other people were rather better at showing why they should never tell stories to anyone. Ever. It was nice when it was obvious which category people fell into, though it was distinctly less pleasant to be stuck dealing with the latter despite the clear label. He could leave politely when the show ended, right? Or maybe this guy would get bored then and leave?

Please don't let this be a marathon. Let it end soon. Please.

Heh, opening up. Like that was going to happen. Aiden was perfectly happy being an unsocial recluse who never shared anything personal with anyone. Ever. He certainly wasn't going to break that system for this guy. "No offence, but if this is what friendship is, everyone on this planet is a complete lunatic." Really. They barely knew each others' names, had been in the same room for what, five minutes, and would probably have to scrape to come up with one sentence of trivial details about each other.