Disclaimers: All characters belong to rightful owners.
Story concieved by Lee.


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As Sophia began walking down the street, a figure several storefronts away from their party stepped out of a door and put a padlock in place. His head turned automatically to scan the street, and then he raised his hand and gave a shout of recognition. "Sabiana!"

"Olhado!" Sophia exclaimed, pleasantly surprised; she'd assumed he had already left to meet her at her house, as the original plan said. The change on her face at that moment was startling: she shed the calm, grave expression and assumed an eager, rather childlike smile that seemed out of place simply for its rarity. Without even thinking about it, she raced ahead to catch up and opened her mouth to greet him.

He beat her to it, slight worry tinging his tone: "Sabiana, what are you still doing walking around? I thought you went straight home after you spoke with me..." No matter how well she might try to protect herself, after all, she was still but a little girl.

Her smile toned itself down a bit into something more sheepish. "I got delayed, and stopped by the pizza parlor for a milkshake. Oh, and I met a few people who were also going to the tree lighting." She motioned towards the others down the street. "I'll introduce you to them when they catch up."

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"Oh, I _know_ that he can top it..." Sam purred as he snuggled even closer to the Cajun boy's side. Licking his way up along Lukas' jawline, he nipped softly at the spongy lobe then nibbled lightly on this for a moment. Of course, the fact that Lukas was trying to steer the conversation in saner directions, only made Sam want to make it go in the complete opposite. Why was he so contrary? Even he couldn't say. It just seemed to go that way and, though he'd likely not admit it, even to himself, it helped to pull his mind from the unpleasantness of the earlier hours. Lost in the senses, he could forget just about anything, really.

"He could top you...." Sammy giggled further as now nipped the poor earlobe a bit harder, then soothed at it with his tongue. "...then he could top me. Or both of us at once, if he's feeling particularly talented."

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Parajo blinked as Darran suddenly seemed to freeze in his thoughts and, tipping her head, she silently went over the last bit of conversation to see what could have caused this. None of it seemed all _that_ bad, though; just the usual flirting routine. Maybe she'd read him wrong and he wasn't interested? Well, that didn't seem likely. Maybe she'd pushed it too far? That was a bit more likely.

Still, she was pulled from these thoughts as Darran managed an easy smile and this only turned to a grin as he issued a very blunt challenge. Unable to resist-- she's like her brother, can't turn down a game of chicken, ever-- she smiled slowly as she narrowed her eyes.

"How am I going to defend myself from that, huh?" Letting her grin spread to her entire face, she let all her muscles tense and, in a single graceful move, she pounced on the poor, defenseless bodyguard. Glomping him, she somehow or another managed to giggle into his ear. "How's this for a defense?"

Cordy, in the meanwhile, watched all this from his place on the bench. Still feeding himself bits of fried dough, he offered the two a benign buddah smile as his dark eyes took in all that happened. It was okay. His big sister was smart and the guy seemed nice. He fed Cordy good food. He was a good man.

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Nevan followed the group quietly as they made their way from the pizza parlor, but he paused as Sophia went running up the street toward an unknown man. He would have reached to stop her, but something about the sweet, simple, childlike expression on that normally rather humorless face made him stop short. Yes, there was definite recognition in that expression, but such happiness, as well, that he couldn't doubt that the unknown man was one whom Sophia trusted implicitly. Smiling to himself at this thought, he followed her until he caught up to girl and man.

"Yes, I'm sorry. We didn't mean to hold her up, if she had an appointment with you." Nevan offered as he gave the elder a soft, warm smile. Extending his hand, he offered this for Olhado to shake. "Still, it's very nice to meet someone whom Sophia seems to like so well. I'm Nevan Alraune. I teach Natural Science in Sophia's middle school."

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Dante, on the other hand, found himself trailing a bit behind the others, even as they left the pizza parlor, and even moreso once the little girl had run off. Of course, it was a bad idea to run off in _any_ city, but, in this one, it was downright deadly. Muttering a curse, he was about to call after the child when he noticed that she was merely going after some older man who was closing up his shop and who, apparently, knew her. Shaking his head, he walked up behind Nevan, but, pausing a bit away, he merely watched as the older man introduced himself.

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OOOOOOOOOOOOO-kay! Automatically, Darran's free arm came up across her back, while his other held the funnel cake well away from danger. Meanwhile, his brain was struggling both not to melt into a blissful puddle _and_ formulate some sort of coherent response. "Um... yeah... that'll do..."

My, Para sure knew how to make a bodyguard happy.

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"That'll do, huh?" Para giggled at Darran's reaction to this, but some part of her brain rationalized that since he didn't just push her away nor scream in absolute fury, it was all good. Narrowing her eyes, she drew back just as much as Dar's arm across her back allowed and, grinning as evilly as a cute girl can, she immediately went to tickle his ribs. Of course, she didn't know if he was ticklish or not, but the first reaction'd been so cute that it would be worth it. "Is this better, then?"

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Alexei was happily on his way home with Erik when he sensed it. The Evil. He veered off-course and headed in the direction It was coming from. Such a stench! He couldn't believe nobody else could smell it. Ah. Over there. It was the Blind One. But even more than that was that girl... evil clung to her like barnacles to a whale. He leaned up against a wall, warily calculating. Did the other two know they were in mortal peril? Could he take on both Sammael and the infinitely more evil girl? He wasn't sure. However, he had to try, try for the sake of the innocent. For Sergey. He carefully placed Erik out of the way before pouncing upon the demoness with a snarl of pure hatred.

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His nights had always been riddled with nightmares-- images and sounds of incredible sorrow and pain stemming from the lost souls of New Eden. Sleep had always left Nathan in a state of vulnerability due to his empathy powers, but somehow he had grown tolerant of the surge of emotions that would beseige him as he slumbered. Whether he had passed out from a hard day's work or a decided to take a quick cat nap before Charlene was brought over, he was never truly safe from them. However, even before he had ever crossed over to the human plane, Nathan was accustomed to the prayers and suffering of human around the earth. That didn't make it easier though, nor did it allow the human incarnation of God to get a good night's rest for as long as he could remember.

Early that day he had spoken to Thalia about attending a tree-lighting with Charlene. Sure, his part-time job at the nearby bagel shop worked him like a slave and left him exhausted every night he came home, but how could he refuse? He had been home for about two hours, and shortly passed out on his bed after entering his apartment. He had spent the entire time tossing and turning. Tis the season for increased sorrow and depression, and Nathan was receiving the worst end of it.

It took mere moments for a simple knock on his bedroom door to disrupt his troubled sleep. "Uncle Nate!" a cheerful voice of a young girl yelped from behind the door. "We're coming in." Shortly afterwards the voice of a older woman continued, "You better be decent."

In stumbled a young girl of about four years old who jumped on top of Nathan as he tried to make the best of his surroundings. Following the young blonde child was an young woman in her early twenties. She had long wavy red hair with blonde roots and soft amber eyes.

"Get up, Nathan," the young woman chirped as Nathan took his "niece" into his arms and stood from the bed. "It's not every day I get a night off."

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"So, Miss Len-len, what would you like to do before the tree- lighting?" Nathan said as he picked the young four-year-old into his arms. It hadn't taken him too long to get ready, and they were already well on their way to the park. "Do you want something to eat, like pizza or something?" he asked. If his memory served him correctly there should be a pizza parlor just around the block.

"Umm..." Thalia muttered as she fumbled with her bag. "We ate already. We're fine, really. Besides, that food is so greasy. We aren't all blessed with your arteries."

Nathan frowned a bit. He hated it when she lied, but she was so prideful sometimes. She was obviously hungry, probably didn't get paid enough this week to feed her and Charlene. The girl seemed fine though.

"Mommy gave me sausage and rice today," the four-year old chirped as she tugged on his collar. And I bet she didn't have anything for herself, he thought to himself. "Well, we can pick up something else before the tree-lighting, huh?" he said as they turned the block.

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"Not at all, I'm glad to meet you," Olhado replied, smiling and shaking the other man's hand. He then turned to Sophia with just the slightest hint of a frown, "I was going to leave a little while ago, when your father called and said to meet him at the park instead, since he was running late. But he never said anything about you being missing...?"

"I wasn't missing," Sophia replied simply, her face returned to its normal calm expression, "perhaps Umed thought I was still with you. At any rate, he expects me to come to no harm." Not because he trusted her so much, necessarily, but simply because he trusted the city as a whole to be good enough to spare little girls its evils. It was a point of view so foolhardy it bordered on delusional, but not even his experiences on the bench-- and not even Sophia-- could persuade him otherwise. Eventually, Sophia had had to conceed that at least it placed the responsibility for her well-being where she thought it belonged, in her own hands. As long as she was careful of where she went and what she did, she would be alright.

Olhado absorbed this explanation as his frown deepened. It wasn't his place to raise another man's daughter, but he had many issues with how her childhood was being handled. Not knowing Umed as well as she did, he assumed her father believed it safe for her to walk around unattended because of the gun carried in her bag-- and his mind, as usual, nervously shied away from this particular topic to seize on something else. "In that case," he said, smile coming back, "won't you introduce me to the rest of your friends?"

"Of course," Sophia nodded, and gestured to each. "This is Dante, and Tesu. My friend Olhado."

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There were definete perks to being a fighter... years of training had given Darran plenty of control over his reactions, his movements, and pretty much anything relating to his body. During a fight, the rush of adrenaline allowed him to highten his senses so as to feel it if someone was sneaking up on him, or even instinctively 'turn off' his nerves a little, so that blows wouldn't hurt him so much and cripple him before he could finish the fight.

However, all this was really only useful _during a fight_.

"Aa-ACK!" Abandonning the funnel cake to the mercy of the winds, Darran tried to squirm and writhe away from Para's fingers, breathless with laughter. "N-not fair!!" Promptly, and as well as he could while being tickled senseless, he tried to retaliate.

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Lucia was watching the boys with mild interest at best. Humans went about doing the oddest things... it was quite pathetic really. Not that she didn't like to see Lukas in a bind. Only a few minutes around him, and she knew that he would be a tough nut to crack.

'If only there were some wa--'

"ACK!!!" She squealed as something pounced upon her. Suddenly, she found herself on the ground with no comprehension of what was going on. It couldn't have been one of the guys. She had kept her eyes on them. She squirmed and struggled until she caught sight of the face of a human boy. Her face set into a scowl as she tried to push her attacker off.

'This kid is so lucky that I have to be Miss Nice,' she thought sourly.

"Guys! HELP!" She screeched once more, just in case the ACK and her falling to the ground wasn't enough to get anyone attention.

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"Ack!" Parajo squealed a bit at the sudden retribution for her tickling, but she did try to continue with her own fingers even as she attempted to twist away from Darran's own. Giggling breathlessly, she felt her cheeks color a bit, but she was determined to win the battle of the ticklings, regardless of what it took. Narrowing her eyes, she tried to get a firm graps on the other's shoulder with one hand as the fingers of her other only continued their assault.

In the meanwhile, Cordy sat calmly upon the bench. Munching the bits of food which hadn't been offered to the winds, he watched the two play with a smile that would be considered bemused on someone older than himself.

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"Luc! What's going on?!" Sam growled with more anger than even he expected as he heard their female companion screech. Disentangling himself from Lukas, at once, he groped out until he came upon the tangled mess and, finding bits of hair that weren't Lucia's he tugged on these just as hard as he could. "Get. Off. Of. Her. You. Fucking. Creep!"

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"You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not.. ummmm...." Little Charlene looked up at her Uncle Nat pleadingly in the middle of her song.

"Shout," Nathan finished as he tugged on one of her golden curls.

"It's pout, stupid," Thalia jumped in, as she rummaged through her purse for a piece of gum. Her stomach was killing her, but all she needed was something to chew on her get her through the tree-lighting ceremony. Then she could go home and rest for the evening, for once. She didn't have to leave her daughter at Nathan's and go off to dance for strangers, to be treated like a piece of meat and degraded to picking up dirty, crumbled up dollar bills to feed her daughter.

Nathan glanced over at his best friend. Her vehement response only confirmed his suspicious and only heightened his concern for the young mother. But he knew that an arguement would be futile, especially in front of Charlene. Thus, he only nodded in response and looked over at the toddler in his arms. "Pout it is then," he grinned as they made it past the pizza parlor.

"Yooooou better not pout I'm telling you why, Santa Claus is coming," she stopped momentarily for a dramatic pause before belting out the next line. "TO TOOOOOWWWWWWWN."

Thalia sighed as she gave up her search for "nourishment." Well, the might have some vendors at the tree-lighting that she could get food from. As she looked up and examined her surroundings she caught sight of a group in fron of them. A young girl talking with the shopkeeper of the grocery store she visited when she had enough money, as well as three young men--two of whom she could have sworn she had seen from somewhere. As the trio moved closer to the group, she tried to discern where she had seen the two others beforehand. 'Work?' she shuddered at the thought. She wasn't sure exactly, but it was her day off. Nothing was going to take that away from her. "On second thought, how about that pizza," she said nonchalantly as she took hold of Nathan's sleeve.

Nathan raised an eyebrow at his companion's sudden change of heart. "You hate fast food places, though."

"No, I don't," she squeked as she tugged on his sleeves harder. She let out a sigh of frustration. "Let's just go!"

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Great. Just fucking wonderful... Could this day *possibly* get any better? Maybe lightening could strike him... or perhaps a piano could inexplicably fall from the sky and land on his head?

Glancing over at Alexei with an expression more of annoyance than any other emotion, Lukas sighed wearily. Did Cactus Pete really think he was helping? Not that he cared one jot if the kid bit Lucia's head off... but apparently Sam cared... quite a lot, from the look on his friend's face... and damn if Little Miss Perfect wasn't playing the helpless victim to perfection.

Although he knew he'd hate himself in the morning for what he was about to do, he couldn't allow Lucia the chance to play on Sam's sympathies too much... and it wouldn't hurt to let the bitch think that she was in Lukas' debt...

Circling around so that he was behind Alexei, he grabbed the smaller boy in a headlock. Placing his lips close to the other boy's ear, he hissed, "You're *not* helping, kid, you're just making it worse..." Throwing his weight backwards with as much force as he could muster, he attempted to break Alexei's hold on the girl.

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As he walked down the street with his companions, Tesu began to wonder exactly what he was doing with these people... these strangers... and why he was going to, of all things, a tree-lighting ceremony: a celebration for a season that had little meaning for him except for the boost that the seasonal revelry provided to his income. If there had been a reason for him to tag along, it disappeared when Sophia ran ahead to greet an elderly man who appeared to be closing up a small grocery store. Now that the little girl had a suitable escort, there was no reason at all to remain; certainly no one here would miss his presence if he were to leave.

As the others moved forward to greet Sophia's friend, the dancer began to fade back, offering a rather tense smile and a nod to Olhado when he was introduced. Dropping back further, he almost bumped into Dante who was bringing up the rear, but managed to skirt around the taller youth without mishap. When he'd finally made it to the point where he could slip away without attracting notice, he turned... and ran smack into some poor unfortunate who had, unbeknownst to him, been right behind.

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Thalia let out a yelp as she flew forward barely missing Nathan and Charlene. "Ummmm..." Nathan muttered as the girl in his arms giggled at her mother. He contemplated on whether or not to run into the parlor to protect the toddler from the impending wrath of her starving mother on the younger man. Then again, Thalia would calm down in the presence of her daughter. Most likely.

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Thalia growled as she picked herself up. She dusted herself off and looked up at the sky. "Calm down, this is still better than being at the club," she muttered with closed eyes. Letting out a sigh in attempt to relieve her tension she tossed a look at her four-year old before turning back to the idiot who walked into her. 'Can't curse in front of the kid, have to serve as an example,' she mentally noted as she faced her assailant. "You all right there," she said she stood up offering a hand to the pale young boy. 'Oh shit... I've definately seen this kid somewhere..."

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Although he didn't catch all that his victim had muttered, Tesu did manage to make out the word 'club' and flinched visibly, his grey eyes widening as he blinked up at the young woman he'd run into. Had she somehow recognized him? Women didn't usually patronize the Guild... and she was too old to be one of the club's employees - the brothel/club he worked at specialized strictly in... underaged entertainment. There was no mistaking the expression of vague recognition in her eyes however, and this more than anything else caused the dancer to shrink away from the offered hand as if the young woman were offering a blow rather than assistance.

Scrambling to his feet on his own, Tesu ducked his head, the long fall of his bangs veiling his eyes, concealing the embarrassed flush that stole across his pale cheeks. "I... I'm s-sorry..." he stammered, his gaze darting wildly around the street, looking for the best escape route.

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