Aaron found that he was becoming more tired playing mind games with men and women, chasing them, playing around, and trying for something that was clearly going no where. He knew that being in his late twenties called for more responsibility, called for him to be more than what he normally was in a relationship. He couldn't help himself some days, couldn't help the desire to chase another pretty face. He ran a hand through his gel-lax hair, a day full of running his pub and running about to research and find the newest trends in restaurants to keep the good flow of patrons continuous. He hadn't even realized it but his birthday was approaching within weeks. He knew he'd see Desiree and Amara, his sweet sisters, but anyone else? He couldn't recall. There was no one significant in his life and it was, well, rather alarming. Not even a mate to drink with at the end of the day. He bit his lower lip and shook the memory out of his head.

Flourish and the Blotts was a brilliant place for him to get the new recipes he needed for the soups, the dishes, and other magical decorations for the winter season were necessary. As he maneuvered around the book stacks, he stopped himself short at the brunette standing in the aisle closest to him. She was, well, nothing short of beautiful. So he tried his hardest to think of a good greeting, but decided on introducing himself rather than a cheesy line or something more him.

"Hello," he greeted, biting his lower lip and offering her his hand, "I'm Aaron Ward." He paused trying to find a reason to strike conversation. "Any book recommendations?" He tried lamely, smiling to help, sticking his hands in the pockets of his grey slacks.

Aaron didn't believe in love at first site. As a pansexual man in his late twenties, life taught him to be less naive. Although he was pansexual, he knew of his charms and his looks, and he relied on those more than his actual - well, ability. However, with such advantages, life also taught him to be courteous of other people. If this woman, this lovely woman that was making his heart jump, was interested in him she would have made it just as apparent. So he decided that it would be wrong for him to hard press her, coerce her into a date, but he'd have to be more subtle. Aaron knew just what was attracting him to her.

Her eyes were most mesmerizing pair of eyes he'd ever seen.

He had seen grey-blue eyes, blue-green eyes, and even melds of both. He had seen eyes that were black as night but screamed emotions, he had seen brown eyes the color of mahogany; he'd seen a plethora of eyes. Eyes were the window to the soul and the color of her eyes could have only been described as the world's most enticing pair. There were shades of whiskey, of caramel, of things in the world he loved. He swallowed hard when she made eye contact with his, and that's when he decided he needed to do something he'd never done before.

He would settle.

When his eyes scanned over her, he quick as a flash of light took in the facts. She was shy, smart, and because of these two factors probably a hard working intelligent- student maybe? Probably, the youth in her face but not in her eyes said she was a college student. She could have very well been a Seventh Year from Hogwarts, but in Diagon Alley? Not likely. So a college student then he decided. He drew in the assumptions about her with ease, proud of himself just a little.

When their hands touched, he felt his heart jump to his throat reaffirming his 'settling' notion. It was foreign to him, and when he said settle he definitely didn't mean for it to be interpreted as 'forever' that was foolish and a reminder of the whole "love at first sight notion" (which he'd dismissed). When he decided to settle on her, he meant it in the way that he would not push for anything more than she was willing to give because from the hairpin smile gave him, he was willing to do just that. He released her hand quickly after giving her a quick shake, not wanting to freak her out.

"Don't be sorry," he murmured, clearing his throat to get rid of some of the hoarseness and nervousness that had built in him, "we're all entitled to our own thoughts." He added as an aforethought.

"Fiction huh?" He considered looking through the stacks for a fiction book, wondering what he'd fine interesting since he hadn't read for fun in quite a while, "I'm perusing this labyrinth of books for cook books myself, know anything about where I could find them?" Aaron asked before adding another sentence to keep the conversation going, if just for another moment with her. "If not what kind of fiction would you-uh recommend?" He could almost hear his puppy dog answers, his eagerness that he hadn't had in such a while. It was well, refreshing.

{{ OOC: SORRY LYD IT'S BEEN A CRAZY PAST FEW WEEKS >.< }}

Aaron blinked in surprise, for the most part when he said something others just tended to let fly by or over their heads. When she addressed it, he admired her lips for a quick second, pretty things they were. He dismissed the thought immediately, she wasn't about to jump into his arms and smother him with kisses (great thought that was however). So instead he closed off that part of his brain and tried to remember what it felt like when he had made "friends" back at Hogwarts. It wasn't too bad, it just wasn't enriched with flirty comments. He could do this. He quelled all the appearance based thoughts of her and went in favor of friendly thoughts.

He knew that Desiree and Amara would simply be on their arses laughing if they could hear his thoughts and it made him feel lighter, fonder, more on the ground and in touch with himself rather than a mess of words.

"Occasionally I play the role of chef," he replied to her question, before deciding to open a little more, "I own a pub-well restaurant in the making- called the Spiny Serpent. I'm trying to find ways to make it less Dark themed and more receptive to people who didn't wear black all the time." Aaron joked lightly, grinning a little for good measure.

"Fantasy huh?" He said stroking his chin, "I've always taken more to the non-fiction, historical fiction and whatnot but I'll be sure to look up Planet Z when I get the chance. Sounds brilliant with the way you describe it and whatnot." He hoped that last part didn't come off as too flirty.

"You're probably in college aren't you?" He took a miniscule step back, conscious that he might be intimidating her with this sort of proposition. "It's nice to know people still read. If you don't mind me asking, what are you majoring in?"

Aaron had to confess. He loved challenges and that was mostly the reason he'd taken ownership of the Spiny Serpent. Financially they were afloat, but they could be making more money. It wasn't that he was greedy however, he figured that despite their family money, he wasn't going to be reliant on his parents. He'd one day have a family of his own; not anytime soon, hopefully.

"The color scheme?" He blinked in surprise, taken aback by the idea. For months he'd been caught on the idea that the reason the Spiny Serpent wasn't making what it should have been was the location, the food, but not the decor. That hadn't crossed his mind yet. "That's- that's actually brilliant, Amerix." Another idea came to mind, but he didn't want to scare her off with the proposition of her becoming a consultant to his reconstruction of the Spiny Serpent.

"An Auror huh?" The first traits to come to mind were the memory of what most Aurors he knew; headstrong, brave, dull. He winced, Amerix wasn't any of those as far as he could tell. Reading wasn't exactly a pass time for the idiots so he figured that she would probably make a better Auror than most of them. He was glad to have met her so far, as far as he could see not only was she beautiful (with the grace of not knowing it), but smart and quite courageous. "I'm sure it's quite the adventurous major so far, the classes are well- how do they train you do protect others?" He asked honestly curious.

"The owner was dying when I took it over some time ago," he said, truthful, "he hadn't been making enough at the time so I reimbursed him and his employees for their troubles before taking over the staff. I changed it up a rather lot so far, but it's still not hitting the quota it should." Aaron had never been so honest in his life, but that's what friends did, didn't they?

Aaron was a pureblood man true, but he also held no privileges against other purities. So he had a muggle watch. Sue him. In essence, he had to be back in thirty minutes or so, but he found himself uncaring just a little bit for punctuality. It was a strange rush he got from defying his own principles, but he didn't want to leave the pleasant and rather unusual presence. Pleasant in the way that she spoke was with eloquence, albeit hints of nervousness, and unusual in the fact that he had not had a conversation in quite a stretch of time that didn't involve him having an ulterior motive. There was somewhat of an ulterior motive here (as always), but he didn't want to act on it.

Thirty minutes, Aaron, make it count, he thought to himself.

"Well, if you don't mind me asking of course, Amerix, what exactly made you want to be an Auror?." He paused, remembering that an important step in friendship was to trust the other enough to share details about themselves. "I became a shopkeeper over a Ministry official because of the delight the triumph of overcoming a challenge brings. The Spiny Serpent makes enough to stay afloat, but not nearly as much as places like the Leaky Cauldron, and before yourdecor comment I had simply chalked up it's lack of customers to it's unfortunate location in Knockturn Alley." He said as plainly as he could, unnerved by the honesty he was giving another human. Friendships take trust, friendships that turn into more also take trust, he thought to himself in a motivational tone.

"You don't have to say anything, if you don't want to. We can put the question on the back burner." He added, smiling reassuringly.

"Generous huh?" Aaron grinned genuinely amused by the thought, "well, perhaps that's something you could also help me with? I'm afraid despite all the cookbooks I'll buy I'm not quite sure what'll attract more pretty youths such as yourself to a pub."

Aaron wished, not briefly but a thought that was rather constant, that more people like Amerix existed. Then he wouldn't feel a perpetuating despise for most people. She was smart, durable, lovely, and thank the Gods only spoke when necessary. He was used to using someone and them using him back; an equal manipulation on both parts. He was used to women who played with men like cats did with yarn. That wasn't Amerix. Otherwise they wouldn't be in a bookstore still, they'd be having dinner and playing mind games. This wasn't something he was comfortable with. However, he find that the honesty thing, the friends thing, all of it was very - well, refreshing.

At her story he was surprised and a little pissed; if he'd been younger he wouldn't have allowed such a thing to happen. He took shit from no one, except maybe his sisters because they were rather pushy and he tended to just do as they pleased to avoid confrontation, and he found himself wanting to offer her comfort. Gently, slowly so she could stop him if he wanted, he placed one of his hands over hers and looked into her eyes, ignoring the skip in his heart beat in order to show consoling.

"Whatever they said to you could not have been true. Your reason for becoming an Auror is magnificent. Your reason for wanting to be an Auror is enough to tell me that you're stronger than most would assume and that'll give you an element of surprise that other's would never have." He paused, letting his hand linger for just a moment, to savor it before moving his hand back into his pocket. "In fact, I'd say you're smarter than Aurors I know."

"Would you mind working with me on fixing up the Spiny Serpent?" He asked, not bothering to beat around the bush. "You're well-versed in this kind of knowledge and I appreciate that kind of eye." Aaron grinned warmly for good measure.

Aaron usually took pleasure in knowing he had the upper hand in any situation; power was not to be shared after all. Except with Amerix there was no want in him to have the upperhand. If anything it thrilled him to see her do so, she was a magnificent woman from what he'd seen and heard so far. From his own perspective she was, without a doubt, the most fascinating woman he'd made contact with. Despite the butterflies in his stomach and the skip of his heart beat that made him feel more eight than twenty-eight, he knew the differences between the usual twits he took home and one like Amerix standing before him. He'd never before been so entranced by a single person.

Ah, there it was. The reason for her shyness, he thought angrily at the knowledge that it had been humans who had hurt her in such a way that this beautiful youth could no longer trust wholeheartedly. Someone had hurt Amerix enough to not easily give her trust. For her precaution had been about protecting herself, he understood this. He reached out once more, to console again, give her a sign of trust. However, he paused amidst his movement to touch her and instead offered his hand palm up, awkwardly (he really hadn't been in the business of comforting young women), as if trying to offer his hand to hold.

"I know I don't know you very much at the moment, Amerix, however, I would like to be friends with you," then more, his brain added silently, "because you're brilliant, and I am once more hopeful at the knowledge people such as yourself exist." He smiled then in manners that did not tend to describe himself: genuinely, warmly, sincerely.

He nodded his head at her reluctance to help. "You've done a wonderful job giving me ideas, I don't doubt that you would not let me down, and the physical stuff is what we've got magic for."

In all honesty, Aaron was quite humbled by this experience. It was honestly strange for him to not be consistently flirting with a person, coercing them to go home with him, to even sneak a kiss or two before they got back to his place when he'd romance them there. Then - well he was going onto a tangent, he seemed to be doing that quite often, but the point was, he hadn't made "friends" in a long time. Amerix was a perfect beginning, she was shielded clearly, but he had no ulterior motive in becoming friends with her. He just didn't want to be one of those guys who was surrounded by no one in St. Mungo's if he ever got sick. She was a clever girl, if a bit shy for his tastes, but she was clearly holding back from becoming something great. Well, there was also the matter that something had happened to her in her past that changed her opinion of herself. This young witch should be gallivanting through life, boys falling at her feet, life coming to her with ease because of her beauty.

Except she wasn't.

For that, Aaron grew more fond of Amerix.

"I'm not used to showing affection," Aaron told her honesty as he gave her hand a squeeze back, feeling a squeeze in his heart just as tight, "and this is my way of doing so, properly I hope." He grinned nervously at her. It was genuine and boyish, a sort of smile he hadn't smiled in a long while. The words he didn't say, he sort of wished he had said aloud: "You're the first friend I've made in a while, and I want to be more, but I don't want to scare you off." She probably would be shocked and run off nervously, which he really didn't want. So he said nothing, just squeezed her hand and stared down at her fondly.

"I-" I don't want you to speak so badly about yourself, because you can't possibly be a terrible person, "I will be the best friend you could ever ask for." He grinned boyishly again. "I mean I'm me, how couldn't I be?" Aaron, being Aaron was actually only half-kidding but he hoped she couldn't tell.

Aaron glanced down at his wrist, crap, he realized how fast time had flown. So he pulled his hand away, cursing the loss of warmth before taking out a business card.

"It's a good way to do things," he commented as he looked over the card to ensure all the information was on it before he handed her the card.

"Owl me here, so I can owl back and we can do the whole getting to be best friends thing." He said smiling down at her, honest and pure. "I've got to run, but I'll be in correspondence immediately." With that he gave her a wave from over his shoulder as he sauntered out of the bookstore, cookbooks forgotten.