Anthony had thought it impossible for his mood to be even worse than it was before, but lo and behold, it had become even worse. He glared at James for a moment, and then went inside the house without another word. While it was true that he had been very foolish to give away to James even the little that he did, he hadn't expected such a reaction from Elijah. It was justified, of course, but it surprised him.

James knew when someone was angry and had been taught to fear the 'authorities', and so he obeyed and went in without a word.

Crane followed them and closed the door leaning against it. He put his face in his hands and took a long deep breath. "Okay.. someone explain what is going on. And maybe I misheard what he said?" He wanted this all to make sense .

Anthony clicked his tongue as he thought of the best way to explain this all. He rested his hand on his jaw, and then winced and pulled his hand away as he accidentally had touched a bruise there. That was the least of his worries right now, though. "So, uh," he started off, "you know how people do...stupid things, sometimes? Like, really stupid things?" What a wonderful build-up. "Okay — I'll cut the bullshit. I think I....kinda...accidentally adopted this child."

[Content warning: reference to verbal/emotional child abuse]

James was used to being called a mistake, so this didn't bother him in the slightest. What did bother him however, was the fact that Elijah knew his family and knew that he wasn't an orphan. He quickly pointed at the constable. "Whatever he's going to say, uncle Anthony, I have never seen this man in my life and he doesn't know me!"

"Wait.. what?" Elijah looked from Anthony to James. He visibly flinched at the term Uncle Anthony. "This..this isn't happening." He pinched the bridge of his nose to stop an oncoming headache. "First You can't adopt him. He has a family even if they are terrible." He glanced towards the boy. " And second you shouldn't be manipulating adults. You could get hurt and this is certainly trouble.."

Anthony frowned. To be fair, he was expecting and actually kind of hoping that this would happen, but it actually happening felt...bad. Anthony ignored whatever James had said, instead turning his full attention to Elijah. "Okay. Fine, I guess. But...do you actually think that he should stay...with his terrible family, then?" He didn't mind the whole 'not getting to adopt this child' thing as much as he minded the implications behind what Elijah said. Does he actually think that children in abusive situations should just...stay in those abusive situations, or was he just grossly reading into things?

"I wasn't mana... manelp..." He didn't know that word. Which was ironic.

Elijah shook his head and ran a hand through his hair in aggravation and began to pace to try to calm himself. "I agree, alright. I would love to move kids in bad families to better ones. But you can't just take someone's kid. His mother already attacked me in a bar." He would have asked if he'd recall but he remembered Anthony had left so he wasn't sure what he had seen.

He took a deep breath and looked to James. "Manipulate. And let me ask you.." He knelt down to look at him eye to eye. "Example, if we don't adopt you, do you intend to tell people about our relationship?"

Anthony was going to give Elijah the benefit of the doubt here, in that he'll trust him. And he definitely understood where he was coming from, but he wasn't sure whether he could completely agree. "When I was a child I was sure as hell dreaming about something like that happening to me," it never happened, though. And it made him feel all the more worse, knowing that James would be going back to a potentially abusive family. After saying that, though, he stayed silent and watched Elijah as he spoke to James.