Aiden insisted he was fine so James decided he would drop it. After all he would probably have to get used to hurting people accidentally with his power. Situations like this were inevitable at the end of the day.  What did the snow-boy mean "before something important"?

James wasn't usually nosy but the look on the other lads face suggested something unpleasant had just crossed his mind. Great, so he hadn't just given Aiden the mother of all bruises but he had also done something that would make his life difficult? A bruise? That seemed unlikely. He couldn't think of anything that a bruised face would effect, apart from maybe getting punched in the face again. Maybe that was it...he was into fighting? didn't want to get punched in the face again?

Or maybe Aiden was under some kind of surveillance at the mansion for getting in trouble a lot, again. James doubted it. This guy seemed quiet and only spoke when he was spoken to so far. Still there was the only other option and that was ridiculous. James was pretty sure Aiden wasn't the kind of guy who went around trying to look fabulous, so a bruise wouldn't do anything there either.

The nagging feeling that came with a missing piece of information came back and James gave into curiosity. The worst that could happen would be Aiden telling him to mind his own business. "So, just out of curiosity...what do you mean "Something important?"" James tried to sound casual and uninterested but he wasn't sure how convincing it was. The past couple of months he had only been talking to Leon really and after the incident, social interaction with HIM was incredibly unlikely. Wow, I honestly haven't talked to anyone in a while, Not even in lessons.

James was thinking about something. Aiden had no clue about what; he was happy enough having noticed that the other guy was thinking at all, at least beyond the usual people-are-always-thinking-something-or-other assumption. If it was pressing enough he'd probably mention something, though. People did generally seem to do that if they thought things were important enough to warrant it. Of course, standards of importance were definitely variable; things had to be extremely important for Aiden to bring them up, for example, as he would really much rather not be talking to random people, or even un-random people most of the time. There were the unfortunate people who just loved talking and would ask any random thing that occurred to them, though.

Oh! He was right. Um. What did 'something important' mean? Oh. Ahem. Right. "Just training stuff. I'd rather not have to explain why I'm getting more beat up in my spare time than in the Danger Room." He ran a hand through his hair until it snagged on the elastic. Yeah, wouldn't Cafas just love that... And then he'd probably take it as permission to start doing things that tried to bruise Aiden in training too. That would be awkward, and probably really painful, and he really didn't want to know how much he could heal before bruises hung around afterwards.

Training in the Danger Room, eh? Not something James had really thought of. He'd been told about it on his tour but he hadn't ever been in it. He had also heard about what was in it, though he wasn't sure if it were true.

"The Danger Room, eh? Been practicing with your mutation?." James wandered if Aiden also had problems controlling his power or if it was tied in with his emotions as his were. He still had problems with his watch and getting threatened. In fact, sometimes his right arm turned into steel with no apparent reason, but normally when people made him angry.

James wanted to ask, but he always thought asking people about their mutations was weird, like asking someone what colour underwear they were wearing. Then again, Aiden was perfectly welcome to ask about his, even if he didn't know it. Oh, what the hell. Might as well ask. "I have problems with mine, it kinda turns on by itself...when I'm angry or scared. I don't suppose you have the same problem?" Finding out Aiden did would be a relief, since he felt like the only one with a renegade X-gene.

"Oh. Not really." Well, kind of. He was kind of practicing 'how much work resulted in how much fainting,' but that wasn't the point of the training, so... The point was getting up to something at all resembling X-Men standards. And usefulness. Usefulness had a long way to go. "I'm actually a, uh, trainee with the X-Men, so I train with one of the actual X-Men."

Yeah, that was the downside to controllable mutations. They did things by themselves sometimes, didn't they? "Er... not really. Mine, well, uh, it's honestly about as controlled as my heartrate." He traded rubbing his forehead for rubbing the back of his neck. So so so awkward. "See, it's triggered by movement more than anything. I can do things that make it snow, but I can't do those things and not make it snow." He shrugged, embarrassed. "I wish I could toggle it," he muttered. "Leaving piles of snow behind is kind of a pain."

A Trainee with the X-men? What? Was he serious? James wouldn't have put Aiden down as the kind of guy who would join them, but then again, it was hard to judge mutants by their physical appearance. Besides Aiden sounded like he had it a lot worse than he did in terms of power-control.

If Aiden made it snow by just walking, James hadn't noticed, and again that wasn't saying much. His own was pretty easy to cover up...most of the time. What did X-Man training consist of exactly? He found it hard to image Aiden running in circles around a assault course with an instructor yelling "RUN FASTER MAGGOT!" at him.  On the other hand he couldn't imagine it being easy either. If the danger room really could just make anything out of thin air than what did they get up to in there? Simulations, which they beat a load of guys up or...something different.

James want particularly interested in joining anyone. Not at the moment anyway, he was just happy to live his life as it was. But he wasn't stupid and he knew that his powers would get him in trouble eventually. Or maybe something big would blow off and James would be forced to pick a side. In that case he would probably be happy to back the X-men, not that he would be much help.

"So, what do you do? Beat each other up or run some crazy mutant assault course?" James said jokingly.

"Beat... what?" Aiden blinked at James, bewildered and a little bit concerned. "That would be really one-sided." Sure, pit someone with Cafas' build and experience against a twig who couldn't throw a punch at a real person, possibly even if his life depended on him. That would go beautifully for the twig.

"It's really just fitness stuff mostly. Weights, all that. Cafas likes weights." He shrugged, feeling insanely self-conscious. This would be a really nice time for a change of subject, but all that came to mind was 'oh look! grass!' and the like. If James was so interested, he could go talk to an X about it. A real X. Or at least Evelyn; she probably knew everything there was to know about all this by now. That wasn't that bad an idea, actually. "You should go talk to them if you're interested," he told James, trying not to be too obvious about passing off the explanation card.

James suppressed a smirk. The idea of "Beating each other up" seemed to horrify the other mutant. The person he trained with was evidently not the kind of guy you simply had a sparring session with. Plus Aiden didn't seem like the kind of guy who liked getting punched. James sometimes forgot he was harder to beat up than most.

As for weights, that sounded like James' kind of thing. But not if he had to try joining the X-men to do it. Maybe later in his life he would choose to help with the fight for equality between humans and mutants. After all it was an issue close to his own heart. Maybe if James did something good with his mutation his Mother would forgive him for being what he was, an unlikely outcome. But one he didn't mind considering.

As for the name Cafas, James had never heard it. Presumably this Cafas figure was an X-man. Either way Aiden didn't want to talk about it. He would have been a lot more comfortable if the other teenager had just told him to shut up.

James sighed. "I get it. You know you could have just told me to shut up?" he said with an amused smile.

Did he do something funny? James seemed to think so. Ignore it or react like he'd meant to be humorous? He was pretty sure he'd meant to be perfectly serious, especially about getting beaten up by Cafas. Chances were that would be over too quickly for him to build up any snow, and then he'd be too busy being crippled and/or dead to make any more, so he'd just be agony forever. Or at least close enough to forever for it to feel that way...

At any rate, Aiden tried to go with ignoring James' expression. Pretending that whatever it was had been intentional seemed too likely to backfire, especially after spending so much time thinking about it. He didn't have much longer to think about it, though, because then he got to think about how badly he'd messed up and made it obvious that he didn't want to talk about himself and been rude and offended James.

Except that expression looked more amused than anything else. Aiden blinked. So had he offended James or not? What was he supposed to do now? Agree? Apologize? Agree with what? Apologize with what? Oh why couldn't the mansion get closer any faster this was so agonizingly painful why did he agree to try to be social at alllll

Or his mouth could just start rambling. "No - um -what I - er - I mean -" He was so bad at this. Could he trade in snowmaking for environmental fusion and just fall into the ground? Please?

When Aiden started mumbling incoherently James began to get a bit worried again. People didn't just start muttering under their breath. Either he had said something to upset his fellow mutant, he had gone insane suddenly or the bump on his head was worse than it looked.

He looked at Aiden questioningly. "Are you SURE you are okay?" a hint of worry in his voice. James liked the other socially awkward teenager and felt like he could maybe sympathize with his social difficulties. It seemed like he was worried about looking weird, but James was way past that point. He was happy to get along with anyone who was weird. Someone who was a prat on the other hand...not so much. It took a lot to make someone seem strange to James.

"That lump on your head isn't worse than it looks is it?" James felt slightly stupid asking again, but Aiden was mumbling random, incoherent stuff so what was the guy to think?

Sinking into the ground wasn't the only way to go. Invisibility wouldn't be too bad. It'd solve quite a few issues. Or levitation. That could conveniently backfire and send him shooting off into the infinite sky. Pretty much anything controlled by will or emotion could backfire usefully, really. Any of the apparently infinite varieties of telekinesis, especially the elemental stuff. Wider-scale weather manipulation. Gravity inversion. Oh, that would be effective.

Okay. Hah. He was stuck in an insanely awkward social situation with a bruising lump on his forehead. Okay wasn't an option. He probably should do something to find out if it was going to do anything permanent, though. He had no clue if he could heal brain damage, given that it was, you know, brain damage. "I think it's okay," he said, trying to be reassuring while also attempting to hide his general flusteryness lingering from offending James. He was still confused about whether or not he had actually offended him, though, which just added a whole new layer to the head-spinning mix.

"So long as there's nothing permanent it should be fine, really" Aiden insisted. "It'll go away as soon as I have to work again. Don't worry about it." They should be worrying about getting back to the mansion and going their separate ways so Aiden could go hide and not deal with people and awkwardness again.

Right, Aiden insisted that it was okay, it looked painful and might have even given the other mutant a concussion, but it was fine. After all, this kid was an X-trainee. So he was probably used to pain. Well, that made sense to James anyway, as a logical explanation.

Aiden was so obviously hating the situation that James felt sorry for the guy. He considered not talking at all, but that wouldn't help the awkwardness what-so-ever. He was also curious as to why Aiden was so socially awkward, but he doubted there was a reason. The mutant was probably just like that naturally.

"I don't suppose it would help the situation at all if I told you that I suffer from social anxiety around girls?" James asked, hoping he wasn't coming across as weird but he wanted to make a point here. "So, I kinda know what its like, and that it sucks big time." He wasn't particularly embarrassed about admitting it out loud. Considering anyone who saw him talking to a girl would realize that he was hopeless and that his words got stuck in his throat so that a comment like "No, you go first" came out as something like "Urmm...I....ah....you can..." followed up by James screaming "Speak, speak like a normal person dammit!" in his head.

James was also hoping that by saying he had noticed Aidens social awkwardness wouldn't make him run away. Like he would if someone said "Hey, why are you so socially awkward." Okay, maybe he hadn't said it quite like that but still...that the impression he really didn't want to give.

"Social... anxiety?" Why was James trying to use fancy terms? Aiden just didn't like dealing with people. He didn't have to 'have' anything. Why did people try to make things more complicated than they needed to be?

And more awkward. Definitely more awkward. "I'm fine. I should really get back and see if it's today or tomorrow I'm meeting with Cafas next..." Escape time! "I'll see you around, okay?" Or not. Not seeing him around would be fine with Aiden too. Ending this current awkwardness was the current priority, and he could deal with running into James again later, if it happened.

Or not deal with it! That was an option too. He lengthened his stride to hasten his escape, hopefully without looking toooooo much like it was an escape.