James was confused once again as he looked at Elijah. "Am I not supposed to tell?" he asked suspiciously.

Elijah sat down. "Don't put me in this spot, Anthony. We can't take someone's child. If his family abused him and he wanted to complain then may be. But a kid can't just come up and ask you to take him home."

He didn't even want to answer James. But he had to tell him something. "I prefer it if I was still seen as single, not that I'm ashamed of Anthony. I care about him a lot but it's.. just better if people think he is my friend and occasional roommate."

Anthony chewed on the inside of his cheek. On one hand, he absolutely understood where Elijah was coming from, but on the other, there was so much he didn't agree with. He didn't want to argue with Elijah, but neither did he want to just stand by and be completely quiet. "My parents sure as hell would have been glad to see me gone," he overshared, and then went silent as soon as he realized that's exactly what Elijah didn't want him to say.

Anthony listened to Elijah speak to the kid. He did actually agree with the point he was making, there, but he didn't really want to talk any more about much anything, so he didn't voice his agreement.

"Why?" He asked Elijah, very confused now. He looked from the constable to Anthony and back. "My parents won't notice if I'm gone," he said. He looked back to Elijah, since he seemed to be the one that needed convincing. "And I can make you porridge."

Elijah sighed heavily. "That's not the point. If you just let yourself live with adults that doesn't make them legally your guardian. You could get them in trouble at any moment and they can't help you if you get into trouble. If you want to you can go to a judge and ask to be removed from your family and placed with another.."

He looked over to Anthony at his comment and sighed. "There are far more people who have children that they shouldn't have than I could count. It is cruel but there is no solution for it yet. "

Anthony liked Elijah, he really did, but god was he so fucking stupid sometimes. Did he really just decide that, 'oh yeah, telling this 9 year old who doesn't even know what the word 'manipulate' means to go to a judge is an absolutely fantastic idea'. And his 'oh well, nothing I can do about it' reaction at Anthony essentially admitting to him that he was abused as a child? He wasn't even mad at not being able to adopt the kid or whatever, he was just mad at Elijah.

Even though he felt angry and kind of betrayed, he knew better than to start arguing with Elijah right now. So he just stood there, watching the two speak, quietly seething with anger.

James lip began to quiver. He was not going to be adopted. Nobody wanted him. He began to cry. "I hate you!" He shouted, and he kicked Elijah. "And I'm going to tell everyone about your relationship!" He ran to the door.

Elijah was just trying to be reasonable in this situation. He didn't know why everyone was mad. He took Anthony's words as he was ignored by his folks. And his advice to speak to a judge was solid and he had hoped the kid would at least consider it. Now everyone was mad, he certainly wasn't going to chase down James. It would only make his words seem more believable.

He shook his head and stood to leave. "I am not dealing with this right at the moment. Please, if you want to talk about adopting we can talk about it later. Just ..." he couldn't think of words that would settle this situation. He just turned and stepped out to the market to get things for dinner. He hoped sanity would return by the time he got back.

Anthony couldn't find himself caring about James' 'threat'. He empathized with the kid's plights, of course, but he was simply too angry to even care about the threat he had made. And the fact that he was assuming that he and Elijah would talk about this like adults, when in reality Elijah essentially just slammed a door shut in his face did not help that in the slightest. Maybe he had just overestimated how much Elijah actually cared for him. And he certainly wasn't overreacting in the slightest.

Anthony certainly didn't want to linger at his house right now, of all places. Whatever. Anthony reasoned that if one of them is allowed to act this childish, the other is too, which is exactly why he just went to head straight for home after the initial shock had worn off. He didn't even know what he was planning to do other than just be petty and childish. Get drunk, probably. Out of spite more than anything else.