And what a coincidence that after a while Noah's little brother, and Anthony's adopted but hate crime disowned child should come along. James stopped and took cover behind a house. The man seemed to be crying again. He did that a lot. But it meant that he was weak. James left and returned with a stick. Then he charged - "AAAAAAAAAGH!" and hit the man with the stick.

Anthony was just enjoying his breakdown in relative peace and quiet, until nothing was peaceful and quiet again. Anthony stopped crying for a moment in sheer shock about this entire thing. What the hell? Is he seeing this right? He wondered for a brief moment whether the familiar-looking kid beating him with a stick was just a hallucination, because if so, it was the worst hallucination ever. 

Either way, it didn't help his mental state. "What do you want?" he asked through his tears. Worst case is that he was talking to himself like a madman, best case is that the person is actually real.

"I want you to leave town and never come back!" James said and he hit him again. "Also, I'm not afraid of you!"

Anthony was very confused, depressed and shocked. He was aware that absolutely noone liked him, but he didn't expect this kid to just come and beat him and straight up tell him to fuck off. "What? Why– why?" What could this random child have against him? Surely it can't be the time he adopted and then got disowned by him, because he was absolutely sure that was just a drug-induced hallucination or fever dream or something, and not real.

[CW: Reference to child sexual abuse. Ok I think we've had the entire list. I'm sorry]

"Because you do evil things with boys!" James gave him a few hard hits. He was going to show this guy that he was not afraid!

He thought he was having a breakdown before this, but it was insignificant compared to what he was feeling right now. "What?" The only thing keeping Anthony from just sobbing his lungs out is the fact that he was talking right now. "No......no, I do not!" And as soon as those words were said, he descended into another, much worse breakdown, just crying and sobbing his chest out.

"Liar!" James shouted. "You admitted it!" He kept beating the man.

:'(

"No, I didn't," was the only thing he managed to say before deciding that trying to convince this kid that he's not a predator wasn't worth it. Doesn't seem like he'd listen, even if he did try explaining it. So he just lost all traces of stability he had left, and just cried and sobbed even more.

James stopped hitting him and frowned. He didn't? Also, why was this man crying all the time? It was all very confusing. "You said you like boys."

The fact that the kid stopped hitting him was....quite surprising, but a bit of a welcome surprise. Anthony tried to steady his breathing, and it took a bit of time until it was at the point where he could talk normally again. "Men. Men. Not little kids. Not boys." He was a bit too out of it to even care about the fact that he's basically announcing to every passerby that he's into men. That didn't matter.

James still held on to the stick, but held it up indecisively. He frowned as he processed what the man said. "Oh..." he said. And then he lowered the stick.

Anthony had managed to calm down a bit, as it seemed that the accusations were over with. "Not– not boys. I don't do anything with them," he still kept on saying that, trying to convince the kid that he's entirely innocent in this case. It seemed that it worked, as he wasn't beating him anymore, but he was still cautious.

"But... I asked and you said yes..." James said, very confused. The man had been nice to him, so maybe he wasn't bad? Grown ups were so weird.

Now that it had dawned on him that his previous encounters with this kid weren't just hallucinations or something, he was much more prepared to deal with the situation. "I was.........confused?" He can't remember the specifics, but he's trying to. This was how he remembered it going down, at least. "I– thought you meant boys as in...men. Not kids."

"Oh..." James thought for a moment. He could question the man extensively, but we've cringed enough the man had seemed nice from the beginning. "Sorry I hit you..."

[cw: references to homophobia]

Was that it? He wasn't getting interrogated or beaten any more? It was difficult to believe. "...Right." Anthony nodded awkwardly. At least one person doesn't think he's a sodomite that should be in jail. That was a small victory in itself, wasn't it? "It's fine. It isn't your fault."

James looked at him awkwardly. He dropped the stick. "Will you still be my dad?"

That certainly took him by surprise. "...Do you want me to be your dad, again?" He didn't know whether he was cut out for that. Coupled with the fact that he.....actually has a boyfriend, now, and he can't just randomly show up at home with a child. Or, well, he can, but he shouldn't.

"Yeah. I could make you porridge again." And make his life ten times more difficult. And make him cry an average of five times a day. And come up with shitty hobbies. Fun stuff like that.

Would Elijah mind if he just came home tonight with a kid? "I'm sure that you'd be a great kid, but..." how does he begin to say this. "look, I have a.....man...partner...friend, that I basically live with, and it'd be a bit weird if I just came home tonight with a kid."

James pouted. "Why?" Whoever this guy was, James hated him already. "I can make him porridge as well..."

"Well– well, I mean, I can try and talk to him. About this," Anthony said, absolutely certain that he won't regret promising this to James.

"Would you give up your only child?" James asked in a small voice, conveniently forgetting that he had been beating the man with a stick moments ago.

Anthony didn't want to have to decide between this child who he barely knows and his boyfriend who he knows better. "I won't......have to give up anything. He's nice, I'm....sure he'll agree to having you around." Or, well, he hoped that he would agree to it.

"Its so sad and lonely, my poor orphan life..." James complained with a tragic voice. Of course, he could just go home, but... well...

Anthony was not immune to James' lamenting. "Okay– okay, fine, you can stay at my home tonight if you want," he just gave in. "but if tomorrow my boyfriend says that he doesn't want you around, then you– then you can't stay." How was he even going to tell Elijah about this? 'Hi, I know we've been dating for like two months, but I found a kid and I think we should keep it.' Like...how?

James was torn between accepting the offer as it was and shouting at the man that he was a bad father and run away. It was cold, and so he chose the former. "Okay... Who is your boyfriend?"

Anthony was hesitant to give his name away. What if this kid goes shouting on the streets about them both being gay? Then what? Kids are volatile and unpredictable and he doesn't trust that information with them. "He's– he's a very nice and kind man. I'm sure that he'll be fine with you being around. I'll just have to ask him to...make absolutely sure that it's fine," Anthony was beginning to regret giving these promises, because....what if Elijah just decides that he doesn't want a child around? Then what? Too late to turn back, though.

"Who?" James asked again. He pouted. "Uncle Anthonyyyyyy," he whined.

Anthony frowned. "Look, I don't want to talk about him on the street where anyone can hear me, okay? So you can either wait until we get back to my home, or you can deal with what I told you about him already. Okay?" He was so, so close to just giving in to James' whining, but he had to be strong.

"Why not?" the boy asked. Once again he was confused by grown up logic. "Can we go to your place then? This alley smells of piss..."

"It— I'll explain later." This child probably didn't grasp concepts like homophobia. Anthony kind of envied him. "But...yeah, we can go back. I don't want to be here anymore, either." It was with that, that he began to slowly walk. He quickly realized that it physically hurt to walk (that's what happens when you get beat up to that extent), but he was just gonna try and power through it for James' sake.

James walked alongside him, wondering why Anthony walked so slow. "Can two men make a baby?" he asked.

Anthony hesitated for a moment, but only because the answer was just so obvious to him that he was kind of beginning to doubt it's validity. "No," he eventually responded matter-of-factly. "if two men want a child, they would have to adopt one." He was basically praying for this to be the worst of the questions James will inevitably ask. He seriously does not want to....explain gay sex to him, for example, or something of that kind.

"So you two can adopt me, because you can't have other kids anyway." James reasoned. "I can be like your accidental kid."

Anthony was glad that he wasn't being interrogated further, but he was also kind of concerned about why James would want to be an 'accidental' child. Was he just being overly sensitive, or was that kinda weird? "Yeah, I guess so," he shrugged. "I don't know if he actually even wants a kid, though. Guess we'll find out tomorrow."

"My brother don't want a kid, but he accidentally got one..." James said dryly. Then he stopped walking opened his mouth, closed it, and added: "Before he died...."

Anthony could tell that James was lying about the brother being dead. But he didn't say anything about it — from what he'd gathered, it didn't seem like the kid's family cared for him. So why should he care about them? "I mean, that's an accident," he shrugged. "if someone doesn't want to adopt a kid then they just....don't. It's not like you can accidentally adopt a child." Says the man who accidentally adopted a child.

"What if you were drunk?" James argued. Coming to think of it, perhaps he could slip something in that boyfriend's porridge.

Anthony wasn't sure whether to be honest or not. But he hated lying to kids, so honesty it was. "If I were drunk I would probably accidentally adopt someone," he admitted. Considering that he was drunk...alarmingly often, these days, maybe James getting adopted would be easier than he thought it would be.

"Okay...." James noted. He walked quietly beside the man.

Anthony was kind of beginning to regret saying that. He glanced at James. And looked away. And glanced at him again. "Are you– are you planning something?"

"No..." the boy said innocently. Not as long as that boyfriend agreed to adopting him. He smiled up at the man sweetly.

Anthony wasn't entirely convinced, but he was willing to give James the benefit of the doubt. "Okay. That's good, then. I trust you on that," Anthony said, before turning his focus away from James and back to....going back home. Even though he was essentially just slowly limping his way back, he was convinced that he was getting closer and that they were almost there.

James didn't know the first thing about keeping promises. But he smiled at the man. He was quiet again, until he got bored. "You're slow..."

Anthony sighed. "Yes, I know that I'm slow. It's not like I can walk any faster," he explained. Well, he could technically walk faster, but it would probably be extremely painful. Luckily, he was beginning to start to recognize the buildings he was seeing – which meant that his home was closer than he had thought it to be. That was good, at least.

"Are you drunk?" The child asked. It would explain the crying earlier that evening. "I can bring you some water...?"

"I'm not drunk," Anthony said, and for once, it was actually true. "where would you get that water from, anyways?" It was a rhetorical question. Anthony's heart probably leaped out of his chest in sheer relief as he saw his home in the distance. Finally, this goddamn night is almost over.

James shrugged. "A tap, in a yard... I could bring you there..." He was eager to show that he could be helpful.

"It— no. It doesn't matter. I don't want to go into any strangers' yards tonight," Anthony sighed. He pointed to one of the buildings that they were nearing. "look, we're almost home already." It didn't take very long for them to actually reach the building, and if they desired to do so, even go inside.