Serena gently placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey... You don't look so good. Maybe I should walk back with you, incase you feel faint or anything?" It might seem strange to some people how much concern showed through the blonde's voice.

But for Serena, this was the norm. She was also fairly certain that Aiden's current condition was a direct result of his mutation.

And Serena's mutation had nasty side effects, namely leaving her completely fatigued. And also.. if overused, the coughing up of blood.

She was also used to seeing such paleness. So it didn't really shock her. Her mirror reflected that look, so very often. She smiled at the boy. "I know how mutations can be a bitch with backlash, so let me lend you a hand." she said, softly but firmly.

She was touching him this was awkward. Her concern seemed real, though, at least as far as he could tell. "If I were going to faint, I would have already," he said, weariness making his tone a little dry. Although... there probably was the possibility of fainting from not eating. He hadn't had a spectacular breakfast, come to think of it.

He hardly needed help to walk back to the mansion though. "I'm fine, really," he protested. "I just get a delayed reminder of what I missed out on. It wears off." He shrugged off Serena's concern and went to grab his watch. The lack of dizziness or disorientation when he bent to retrieve it was proof enough of the transiency of his particular form of backlash. He did glance back at her with curiosity.

"I.. I take it you get something?" he asked hesitantly.

Serena noted that the boy, Aiden didn't seem to be too dizzy as he grabbed his watch, but that didn't mean that there was no need for concern. She knew extreme paleness was never a good thing, she also new how backlash felt.

However, this boy didn't seem too concerned with that, he just seemed to want to get away from Serena. She didn't take this too well. She had been having a BAD time with people recently, and this made her mad.

She calmed herself before responding to the boy with a slightly forced smile. "Yes, and It can be quite bad. It's normally just fatigue, but can be much worse if I over extend myself."

She smiled some more and walked up beside him. "Look, I would feel much better if I could make sure you get back to the building okay?" she put some of the usual warmth back into her tone. Ironically.

If Aiden were better at dealing with people, he might have noticed that Serena was not particularly pleased. Given that he was so, so far from being socially ept, though, all he noticed was that her smile was a little off. She must not be too comfortable talking about her mutation. Fair enough; it wasn't as if he adored running off his mouth to every stranger who happened past.

It was kind of awkward to have her insist on going with him, though, especially right after the whole mutation-discussion awkwardness. "It's really not necessary," he tried protesting again. "Didn't you just come out? You don't have to interrupt your own plans on my behalf."

What was with people trying to supervise him back to the mansion just because he'd got a little dizzy or concussed in their presence?

Serena bit back another wave of annoyance. Was this guy really that determined to be such a pain? She just wanted to make sure he would be okay by walking him back 2 minutes to the mansion, was that really so much to ask?

She quickly regained her composure. "I had already been outside, and had mainly gone for a walk." She lied. "Just let me walk you back to the building? I'm not that much of a pain to you after having only just met you am I?"

It was a fishing attempt to see whether the boy genuinely disliked her, or was just socially aloof. She was hoping it was the latter.

She had actually been feeling far more volatile in terms of her mood than usual lately. She guessed that was probably because of Leon, and Carrick, And Liz...

...

If that sounded awkward to Aiden, it had to be really awkward. He was pretty sure Serena'd been heading out to read or something. Still, if she were willing to lie about it...

He sighed. "I'm fine, really." Then he stopped. Oh. Was he coming across like he didn't want her personally around or something? No no no no that wasn't what he meant at all! His embarrassment shot straight to the fore. "What? No! That isn't it at all! It's just that... well... this is pretty common... and I suppose partially intentional... and I really don't want to bother anyone." He shifted awkwardly. "You're fine, really. You're nice."

It began to set in just how awkward the boy was. Serena immediately felt terrible for what she had said. She didn't mean to make the situation worse for him, she was just a little concerned.

She turned to Aiden. "Look, it's not a bother, I should probably get something to eat anyway. And I am still a little concerned, so how about I just walk back to the building with you and get something to eat, and then you can go and do whatever it is you want to do?" She stated, diplomatically.

She gave a warm smile. Nothing too flashy, just intended to make the boy feel a little bit more comfortable about the situation that he had found himself in.

Serena really did understand bothers over mutations. She was fairly certain that the doc worried over her quite a lot. Her mutation always took it's toll. Thank goodness he didn't know about the coughing blood side effect. He'd never had to deal with her when she had become injured due to that.

She would never hear the end of that.

Well, if she were this insistent...

Aiden sighed and gave in. "All right." He straightened his watch a little before starting back towards the mansion, slowly. "It is common, though," he added quietly. Common and harmless enough that Cafas used it to tell if he had worked hard enough yet or not, anyway, and if his trainer, a full X-Man, used it that way, who was this girl to disagree?

She probably just didn't have enough information to see their point, though. That was probably all it was. "I heal automatically when it's snowing," he explained. "So I don't really get tired as long as it's still snowing, but I only make it snow when I move enough, When I stop, everything I missed out on kind of stops in for a little visit. It's just sudden is all."

Serena smiled to Aiden as they walked. It was actually true that she could do with getting something to eat. And she could do with a cup of tea. She was actually feeling rather cold now.

She nodded in understanding. "I won't go into specifics, but my mutation tends to leave me extremely fatigued when I stop using it. So I kind of get how you feel. And I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, but regardless now, We're going back and I could do with a cup of tea."

She smiled. She hoped that she was not making this already clearly socially awkward teenager feel even more socially awkward.

Okay, walking with Serena wasn't that bad. It was still more awkward than walking by himself, and he wasn't going to keel over on the way. Still.

Her mutation tired her out? Sounded like a lot of the manipulation powers Aiden had heard of so far had things like that. Maybe it was good that his just did its own thing. It was certainly more predictable and easier to deal with. "You like tea?" he asked absently. Maybe it would finally get cold enough that he could drink it comfortably without leaving it in the fridge all day first... Iced tea was okay, but some tea was better warm..

He rested a hand on the end of one of his batons and waved it around slightly, somewhere between awkward and contemplative. How cold would it have to be for things intended to warm people up not to bother him?

Serena nodded in response to Aiden. like didn't quite get the point across... On her average day, Serena got through at least 5 cups of tea. If she was awake in the early hours of the morning, which was quite a frequent thing, she was normally drinking tea as it had both a calming effect on her and was also caffeinated.

"I drink rather a lot of it, habit I picked up from my older brother a while back a guess." she added.

She wondered if he was just making conversation in regards to the tea, or whether the boy himself was also a tea drinker. "Why do you ask? Do you like it as well?" she asked warmly.

He nodded faintly and tried to ignore the brother comment. "I used to drink it," he admitted, but shrugged a shoulder and gestured vaguely at the snow behind them. "Iced tea loses some of the appeal after a while, though, and it's only just grown cool enough that I don't have to worry about heat anymore." Except when someone jacked some of the heat in the mansion, like at the doors. Why did people do that? Walking from nice cold air into a huge blast of overheated dusty air was about as welcome as that warm air being the breath of an enormous hungry monster.

On second thought, it was less welcome. The monster might at least be interesting for a few moments.

Hm. Where did talking to random people fit into that scale? At the moment, Serena seemed less unwelcome than a slap of heat, but he wasn't yet convinced she beat out the theoretical monster's potential curiosity with her lack of physical intimidation. Other people probably had no chance at all.

Serena tried to enjoy Aiden's company while at the same time doing her best to make him not feel uncomfortable. It had been tricky, but she felt she had managed to deal with the extremely socially awkward teenager rather well.

She smiled to him gently as the reached the mansion. "Well, I'm glad you're okay Aiden. And It does suck that you have trouble drinking tea, but hopefully if it gets a little colder it would be doable for you. Anyway, I should go and get myself something to eat and drink, enjoy the rest of your afternoon"

The british girl gave him one last smile and then walked away, moving through the warm burst of air as she opened she the mansion doors, she grinned. It sucked that he seemed to be stuck in the snow, Serena rather enjoyed the warm.

She walked towards the kitchen almost immediately. She felt it was time for a cup of tea and maybe finding one of her classmates to chat to. She no longer felt the need to read after that burst of social awkwardness, maybe a bit of social butterfly behavior was what she needed right now.