Elle frowned. Kill me? They're all lunatics! "You're crazy!" Elle shouted as he stood up quickly and walked to the door.

Vlalan caught Elle's wrist, "Wait!"

"Why?" Elle shouted as he turned around, "So you can take me to that freaky place and lock me up?!"

"I won't lock you up!"

"That's what you say now but you don't even know what they'll do to me if they can't find out which of these stupid places I'm supposed to be in!"

"Now just hold on a minute," Vlalan tried and pulled Elle close his chest. "It was because your father asked me to, but I am going to protect you because I want to."

"Shut up and let me go!" Elle ordered trying to push out of Vlalan's embrace. "I hate liars!"

"What if I said it was the truth?"

Elle stopped struggling for a moment and looked up to Vlalan's face. He studied Vlalan's brown eyes for the longest time.

"So will you come?" Vlalan asked after a few moments of silence. Elle looked to his hands on Vlalan's chest. "Or do I have to drag you there?"

"I'm not a sack of potatoes!" Elle shouted as he started to squirm.

Vlalan laughed a little and held Elle closer, "I know..." He paused thinking over his next words. "I'll always protect you..."

-------------

Elle sat in the passanger seat of Vlalan's car quietly as they drove into town. They hadn't spoken since earlier that night. They couldn't think of anything to talk about. Elle was contemplating what he was doing with a mafia-seeming group member; while Vlalan was trying to see if there was anyway he could not get too close to Elle incase the boy did have to be killed.

After almost an hour of driving, Vlalan pulled into a huge business building's parking lot and parked the car. After it was off he put the keys into his pocket and moved to get out.

"Vlalan..?" He stopped and turned to Elle, closing the car door. "Are you sure you're on the right side...?" Vlalan blinked, studying Elle, who was fixated with twiddling his thumbs in his lap. "I mean... Who decides which group you can and can't be in? ...Doesn't it make more sense to just stop this fighting now before more people get hurt?"

Vlalan leaned back against his seat, "You miss your father?"

"That pompuss--"

"Whoa!" Vlalan covered Elle's mouth before he could shout. "Shh... This place is wired almost everywhere. You can't talk to so freely here.."

Elle pushed away Vlalan's hands, "I'll talk as freely as I damn well please--"

Vlalan held Elle's chin with his right hand and the back of his head with his left as he kissed the boy again. Elle's eyes went wide and he was too stunned to move even when he felt Vlalan's warm tongue push open his lips and search his own mouth for his tongue. When their tongue's touched Elle blinked and shoved Vlalan back.

"What are you doing!"

Vlalan rubbed the back of his head a bit after it had hit the handle above the door. He studied Elle's frightened and angry face before he sighed. "Sorry... Let's go.."

He opened the car door and got out. Elle got out and closed his door. Vlalan locked the car before closing his door and began toward an elevator door. Elle followed several feet behind him.

Damn! I'm getting WAY too close! If Nine-Nine-One or the others saw it I'm toast! Hmm... Maybe the kid's right and maybe I am on the wrong side..? No! No!! I've been with them for a while and I can trust them. They're right and the Christians are foolish. But if he turns out to be one of them.. I'll have to kill him.. No! I knew things like this would happen. I'll just get around it and shun him from that. Yeah...

Vlalan agreed to be distant emotionally from Elle during the ride up in the elevator. Obviously Elle wanted to be distant physically as he stood on the farthest side of the elevator from Vlalan possible.