Hyperion wandered rather listlessly down Monument Alley, doing his best to ignore the copious and rather ostentatious Valentine's Day displays exploding across the store fronts on either side of him. It's not that he particularly objected to the day per se, but rather to the fact that his mother always used the days leading up to begin pointedly reminding him that it was high time he settled down, married a nice girl and got her pregnant with an heir and a spare. Apparently once this was done, his mother maintained, he would then be free to get some sort of lover and do as he wished. He'd repeatedly tried to explain the situation to her, but eventually had given up.
His maudlin thoughts suddenly made everything around him seem even more flat and pointless, so rolling his eyes at himself for his stupidity, he headed towards the bookshop, hoping for a bit of a breather and a nice non-romantic novel. He'd just entered the store when he noticed a familar face, and broke into a smile, his bad mood forgotten. "Charlie, is that you? How are you?"