Tristan enters the stairwell directly behind Aidan just as the door slams shut behind him. Sidestepping around the raven-haired gypsy, Trist makes his way towards the stairs pausing just before he ascends to the next floor. He turns to face Aidan, his expression and tone holding nothing but seriousness and gravity. "Look, I don't know what happened back there but you can't freeze up in here. They want you, Aidan, and hesitation could cost you your freedom."

Glancing away, Tristan takes a breath and chastises himself for coming off so strongly. Aidan isn't responsible for his emotions and he had no right taking them out on the gypsy, no matter how sound his advice actually is. "Look, I'm sorry." Tristan looks to Aidan, meeting the gypsy's gaze. "It's just that I don't want anything to happen to you. And I especially don't want to be the cause of it."

The gravity of Tristan's voice is not lost on the gypsy. While Aidan had welcomed the touch of familiarity, and the whitelighter's take-charge attitude - he still felt disconnected from everything. Aidan didn't have time to process the death of a human being. A death caused because of him.

It was so unlike those movies. He'd faced a vampire. He'd seen magic. But he'd never seen death. Nothing could have prepared him for it. So, instead of processing it, he pushes it aside.

"Look, I don't know what happened back there but you can't freeze up in here. They want you, Aidan, and hesitation could cost you your freedom."

The absolute seriousness of Tristan's voice makes Aidan feel even worse. (And my life...) The gypsy silently adds. Aidan frowns, biting his tongue and fighting back the fear welling up inside. The gypsy now not only feels horrible about the girl's death, but he also feels ashamed for, as Tristan put it, freezing up.

He hangs his head and stands in silence. But an apology follows, however unmerited, and Aidan looks up to meet the whitelighter's gaze.

"I know. And I don't want to be the cause of something happening to you either." Aidan's passion takes a front seat to his memory, and only seconds later does he remember that the whitelighter is invincible. "I mean, not that anything can happen to you, but you know..."

Aidan blushes, and hangs his head again, the sudden motion making a shock of hair fall over his forehead. "I'll do better, Trist, I'll try harder."

"Oh there are ways to kill an angel." Tristan says, his voice showing no enthusiasm for this fact. What immortal would like to admit that they are not truly immortal? Angels are no different. "Lets just pray that this Silas Hawthorne doesn't know of any, eh?" Tristan winks at the gypsy then turns and begins to climb the stairs, taking them one at a time. There was a lot of ground to cover and it was foolish to expend energy racing up steps.

"We gotta search the floors one by one until we find what we're looking for and lord only knows who or what we will run into along the way." Tristan stops at the first landing, directly in front of the door that leads into the second floor corridor. He looks over his shoulder and down at Aidan. "You ready?"

(I know he's ancient and all, but wow! Nice ass.)

Aidan dreamily stares ahead, as the object of his fantasy moves upwards on the staircase. His sexualizing things is a coming mechanism. It helped him deal with being alone, and it helps him now, in dealing with the death of a human being.

The gypsy boy lets his mind wander, a dreamy happy smile lighting up his face. He imagines a resort... with lots of sand and saltwater... Tristan in just his speedo and sunglasses... turning around, laughing, bending down to-

"You ready?"

"Huh?" Aidan looks blank. "Oh yea, right, who knows what'll run into us." The smile never quite leaves his face, but the gypsy boy now has to bound up the stairs two at a time to catch up. He doesn't bother to hide his slight flush, instead looking meekly at Tristan.

Aidan clears his throat. "OK. I'm ready!"

Tristan watches Aidan race up the steps to catch and can't help the eye roll, that is timed well enough to be missed by the gypsy during his ascent. He is reminded once again of the vast differences between Aidan and Clarke despite their similar looks. (Maybe he just hasn't had the chance to grow up yet?)

"Good. So if you're quite done..." He turns away from Aidan, staying ahead and leading the way. He opens the door to the second floor hallway and quickly passes through, with Aidan right behind.