The last time Cafas had taken him out of the mansion, it had been extremely awkward and ended up making him deal with a very insensitive ex-neighbour. The previous time had resulted in extreme depression, self-hatred, and eventually outright sickness.

It might be wise to suggest that he stop going places with Cafas. Or going outside the mansion altogether, since there was the time where he saw Isabel, or saw Isabel stab Persi, or had to deal with a baby and then find his own way back. ... Yeah, leaving the mansion was a bad idea all around. He should stop doing it.

This time didn't have any room for debate, though. Cafas was going to bring Persi back from the hospital. Aiden couldn't not go, even though he had absolutely no idea what he was going to say or do or... or anything. He wasn't even sure he could look at his roommate.

There wasn't much time left to worry, though. They were at the hospital, a different one, but still a hospital. Aiden's skin crawled from the scent and colour, but when Cafas had to stop to fill out paperwork he couldn't exactly look comfortable hanging around behind him. He went on ahead. He ran through the directions in his head, a litany of turns (fortunately few) and floors and doors. He took the stairs, even though the elevator was closer. A few flecks of snow settled on the linoleum behind him and melted without so much as a sigh of regret.

He pushed into Persi's room before he could second-guess himself; he was entirely certain that this was the correct room and floor number, after all. He stopped a few feet in, the door swinging softly closed behind him.

Persi... looked like Persi. Not a happy Persi, but that was definitely still Persi.

"Excuse me - oh, I'm sorry, are you his girlfriend? I'll leave you two alone."

Aiden turned very, very slowly to glare at the nurse he hadn't noticed, a young woman in cartoon animal scrubs. "Excuse me?" he said softly, but hardly amiably. His fingers closed on empty air by his hip, fortunately. The nurse's sympathetic smile faded into embarrassment, but he wasn't feeling all that apologetic right now. Before he could find something more biting to say, though, the nurse excused herself and slipped out the door. He turned towards Persi. "What the hell was that?" he said bluntly. He was, of course, referring to the whole attempted suicide thing; the very idea of dating Persi, even if he were somehow female, had already been boxed up, mysteriously wrapped up in an invisibility cloak, and mailed to the farthest and largest active volcano on the planet for destruction.

Nurses were annoying. No, Persi was not eighteen and yes, that technically made him a child, but that did not mean he needed to be patted on the head and cooed at. Nor did it mean that he couldn't recognize pity, though he did sometimes manage to amuse himself by startling the nurses when he glared at them. What did they expect he'd do when they tried to bribe him... what, into happiness? Or just into lying to pretend he was happy? Even if that had been the problem, graciously condescending cookies wouldn't have solved it. On the other hand, graciously condescending cookies were less annoying than cartoon animals....

...Which were only slightly less awkward than roommates. Right. Persi had almost managed to not think about that. It was awkward enough dealing with people he didn't know.

...On the other hand, maybe the nurse would actually manage to be useful for once. Although there had to have been better ways to distract Aiden.

...Or maybe not, if the nurse managed to confuse Aiden that much. Or maybe he was asking something else? But there wasn't anything else he could be asking, unless Aiden had managed to forget what squirrels were or something, but that made even less sense. "Uh... a nurse?"

Stupid nurses and stupid roommates. Had they been so annoying when he'd woken up in a bed like this with no idea what had happened? Except he hadn't chosen the events that had put him there.

Aiden stalked into the room, pacing rather than looking at Persi. He didn't want to notice any details, to know just how badly he was hurt or what he had done to himself. His roommate's words stopped him mid-turn, though. "What? No!" He shook his head sharply, and might have done it again if he hadn't slapped himself in the face with his hair. He shoved the ponytail back and resumed his pacing.

"I don't care about some stupid nurse," he snapped, hauling himself back on track. "What I care about is why my roommate is so deluded as to think that there's anything he could fix by dying!" He whirled around and glared at Persi. Whether or not it was good that he wasn't wearing sunglasses had yet to be seen, but right now all of his stress and worry and, yes, anger wasn't exactly hidden, even if his body language hadn't been screeching it already. "What the hell were you thinking?"

He should have stayed in the danger room longer. He hadn't beaten out nearly enough of his energy.

"What? Yes she--" Except then Aiden was ranting more, and Persi kept getting more and more confused. Deluded? Persi wasn't deluded, even if it would be nice if he was, but it wasn't like Aiden knew anything about what Persi thought, so how would Aiden know Persi didn't think like him anyway? And he sounded angry. Why was he angry?

And fix--there were plenty of things Persi could fix by dying, especially for Aiden. Not that he had, of course, but that was because he hadn't died, not because it wouldn't have worked. Aiden wouldn't have to share his room, wouldn't have to go to Persi's gym lessons (and Cafas wouldn't have to teach them), the entire Mansion would have more food and money and space and everything for everyone, and people wouldn't be stalking around angry because Persi made them mad, and--there were plenty of things Persi could fix by dying.

Really the only person Persi would help more by dying than Aiden was himself. He hadn't succeeded, but still, he'd tried. It would have worked, if... whatever had gone wrong hadn't happened. Persi could figure that out later and fix it, sometime when he wasn't feeling stuck in a hospital bed with hospital clothes and bandages and not enough energy and a roommate yelling at him for trying when he should have been yelling at Persi for failing. It didn't make any sense. Aiden was yelling and glaring like he ought to be but instead of telling Persi what he should have done and how to do it right or everything he'd messed up by doing it wrong he was acting like he was mad that Persi had tried. But.... "But you hate me." It didn't make sense.

What was with that stupid, clueless expression? Aiden went back to pacing so he wouldn't have to see it. Idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot.

"Definitely deluded," he muttered, rolling his eyes. Was that really what this was about? Persi thought he hated him? Sure he was annoying, but he was hardly that annoying. "Hardly. Even if I were going to hate someone, you haven't done nearly enough to warrant it. What is it you think you've done anyway?"

Somehow Persi's lack of comprehension leached away at his rage and left his pacing with just a giant swirly ball of stress. If Persi had been bemoaning his lot in life or something, well, then he could probably stay angry. This was just Persi being Persi, though. Persi didn't normally get under his skin and make him furious, so why should Persi being normal now do that?

Aiden's answer did not help clarify anything. Possibly because it was a question. "What? I don't know. You just were glaring as soon as I showed up at your room." Also, Persi's arms itched. Which was pretty irrelevant, but distracting. And really difficult to do anything about, with them buried under bandages, though he tried rubbing along the (cut? Scar? Healed? He had no clue what it looked like now) arm anyway. "And it's my fault you have to go to the gym lessons, and share your room, and... the book wouldn't be torn, and you're always mad when I say your eye looks cool even though it does, and other people get annoyed when I'm drawing so it's not just you and even if I didn't annoy people drawing doesn't accomplish anything except wasting paper and art supplies and everything and I'm not good at anyone else and--" that was completely beside the point. Persi shut up once he realized.

"...And I'm not deluded."

He was still on about how they met? Of course Ai hadn't been overjoyed? New people were a pain. They were new. It wasn't anything personal. He should probably - nope, Persi kept talking. And the gym thing? Aiden rolled his eyes. Really. Really.

The eye thing was, admittedly, annoying. That was personal to Ai himself, though. He was still getting better at not annoying himself about it. How was he supposed to single Persi out for reacting to it as well?

Oh good, he shut up. Aiden drew in a breath. "You weren't the only one with issues," he pointed out, "and you were new. New people are always unknown. I don't like new." Back to pacing, but as he reminded himself he shook his head and rolled his eyes again. "It might have been weird at the beginning, but it was good that you got me caught up with Cafas. Or didn't you notice the uniform hanging in my closet? Really!" He snorted. "Or does it bother you that your roommate's with the X-Men?"

"Uniform?" No, really; Persi hadn't noticed much of anything recently. For that matter, he wasn't entirely sure what month it was. It had been really hard to think with constant headaches and obsessively stuck thoughts, and then he just... kind of hadn't really cared what else was going on, except figuring out how to kill himself so that it would be painful enough and he wouldn't get caught. Which he'd failed at anyway, so he should have been paying attention to other stuff, but still. "No. You're an X man? Don't you have to be like... an adult? All I know is they're on TV and Kaitlyn doesn't like them." Which was another problem. Persi should really try to find out stuff about the X men, probably. He had no clue how though; he couldn't really ask anyone. Kaitlyn would probably just get mad, and anyone else he'd offend by not knowing already.

...Also, the X men were completely irrelevant. How did they even...? Whatever. "And anyway the point is I annoy everyone and don't help anyone and don't..." That was hard to say. Persi ended up staring down at his arms instead of looking at Aiden. "don't do anything to make up for it, so I shouldn't be wasting everyone's time and resources and everything...."

Aiden dragged a hand across his face. "They have a trainee program, and you only have to be eighteen to be a full X-Man anyway. I have less than a year left until then." As for what this Kaitlyn person thought... Aiden didn't know who she was, and frankly, he really didn't care what she thought, especially about the X-Men. They helped people.

"Everyone's annoying sometimes. There's nothing special about it; it just means you're - normal." Huh. He'd been about to say 'human' and corrected himself. That was... interesting. "If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't have met Cafas." He shrugged. "You helped there."

He dragged his gaze away; it had inadvertently followed Persi's down to his bandaged arms. A shiver crawled along his spine and the room seemed to grow warmer. No, it was still in his comfortable range. "Not everyone has to do big, fancy things anyway. It doesn't mean you're a waste."

Huh. That made them the same age, didn't it? At least until one of them had a birthday. Probably Aiden, with as recent as Persi's had been. Still, for now they were the same age, which did not make a very encouraging comparison. Aiden was--apparently--now an official hero, and Persi was... nothing worth keeping around. Annoying and immature and weak and... supposed to be actually having a conversation, so maybe he shouldn't be thinking about that now. "Normal people aren't always annoying, they do good things to make up for it." Not that annoying was actually the point that mattered, but since it had come up.... "And you always complained about meeting Cafas." When he said anything, anyway, which was not particularly often, at least around Persi.


Well, no, not everyone had to do big fancy things, but not everyone had to make up for doing horrible things either, so that was kind of beside the point. "Fancy things aren't... I mean, I don't do them either, but I don't do anything. Good," Persi clarified, because who knew if Aiden was the type to point out that Persi breathed or drew or whatever. "I don't do anything good. And I do do bad things so I shouldn't."

"You really think you're annoying twenty-four-seven?" Aiden blinked. Was that idiocy or self-centredness? "You're right that you wouldn't be normal if you were - but you aren't even annoying all the time you spend near me. I'm not even sure you make it to annoying half the time. Seems a bit of a stretch to get even that high."

"'Course I complained. He made me work and spend time around people. Who wouldn't complain? But he's not that bad a guy once you get used to him, even if he is a little too happy to punch or use how long you faint for as a measure of whether or not you've trained enough for the day." He was not overjoyed about that, but it wasn't really enough of a problem to try to get out of it. The good outweighed the bad, and good always seemed to come with bad anyway. What was new about this?

Aiden dragged a palm across his face. "Really. Bad things. The worst thing I can think of that I've ever heard of you doing is- this." He kind of failed at talking at the last, having to look away and just gesture blindly at the bandaging.

"Not all the time. I hope not all the time." If Persi managed to be annoying when he was asleep too that would probably be some sort of really horrible record. "But I never do anything to make up for being annoying."

"Well I still shouldn't have. And if you don't like spending time around people then I shouldn't be making you have a roommate.

Okay, that annoyed Persi. Not enough to turn the frown all the way into a glare, but enough to get it close. "It's not bad! I mean, messing up was bad and I need to figure out how to fix that, but trying was good. I just should've sooner."

Sheesh. Aiden dragged a hand across his face. Cafas punching Persi with due cause was feeling less and less far-fetched every time his roommate opened his mouth. Really. Aiden had his own issues but thinking 'never do anything to make up for being annoying' didn't manage to be one of them. A little self-reflection dealt with that fast no matter how messed up you were.

"You aren't making me have a roommate. School policy or whatever. You're way better as a roommate than plenty of the other people I've come across here anyway." Despite his tendencies to try to draw Aiden's eye, lose his shirt at unopportune moments, and apparently TRY TO KILL HIMSELF.

... What the hell.

What the HELL was wrong with him.

Really. Just - what the hell.

Aiden may have been so shocked by Persi's words that he only clued back into reality when his palm stung and tingled. Apparently he'd zoned out enough to cross the room and slap his roommate. Stupid idiot deserved that, that was for sure. What. The. Hell.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked, incredulous. "Being messed up enough to try that is bad. Trying to kill yourself is worse. If there's any good in any of this, it's that Cafas found you in time!" He raked a hand through his hair, muscles jumping with stress. He only noticed his elastic popping off distantly as he jerked his fingers free and returned to pacing, turning sharply enough to set a chill into the air each time. "If you ever try that again," he said abruptly, whipping around to glare at Persi again, stray flakes of snow settling on his shoulders, "I'll-" No, threatening to kill him wasn't going to work. That was the problem. "I'll lock you in the danger room with Cafas until you get your head on straight."

That sounded pathetic, but he really didn't have any better ideas.

What? Persi was too shocked to try to avoid the slap, or react to it at all apart from leaning back and staring at Aiden. He'd been--actually Persi had been punched plenty of times, but didn't remember specifically being slapped before. Anyway, being hit was fine. Persi was used to being hit. Being hit by Aiden, who normally spent too much time worrying about offending anyone to even be late to class--what? Persi didn't manage to find his voice again until a few minutes after Aiden's rant ended.

Once he did, though, he wasn't very inclined to agree. He'd already said enough to offend Aiden, he might as well take advantage of it to defend himself.

"Those aren't bad, and anyway they're the same thing, and I'm not--I am messed up, but not about that!" Persi had learned not to use his arms if he could help it before they stopped hurting as much, so he tossed his hair out of his eyes out of habit. "God doesn't like mutants, it's a sin, and you--you can do what you want, I guess, but I don't--" Anger broke surprisingly quickly into what Persi would call resignation, and most other people would call depression. Persi went back to staring at his arms. "I don't want to make the world worse, and I don't want to go to Hell, and this is the only way I might be able to fix it."

Oh, so this was about religion?

Aiden's glare shifted into mild incredulity. "Really. That's your excuse."

Aiden wasn't religious. He was plenty conservative in a number of ways, sure, but that was more for society than for religion. He'd check the non-specific denomination box if asked, and sure he figured there was a God up there keeping an eye on things. Religion didn't really enter into his life all that much, though. People went to church. That was fine. It was their prerogative.

Using it as a shield and an excuse to kill yourself was just plain stupid, though. "Turning yourself into a statistic with nothing left but a chunk of engraved rock to prove you were around isn't going to improve things," he said flatly. "If you're dead, you can never make things better. Besides, isn't there a bunch of stuff in the Bible about love and tolerance and not killing? Seems to me that intentionally causing pain and suffering to yourself and the people around you isn't exactly in line with all that."