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


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"Awwwe, it's okay," Thalia immediately replied sensing how uncomfortable he was. Secretly though, she had begun to get nervous herself. He wouldn't look at her or take her hand. He must have recognized who she was. Then again he was awfully young, how could he have seen her. Then again, Madame Blanche never really cared who her clients were citing artistic reasons. Burlesque is an art, that is if you called what she did art. Most of the clients of Babylon didn't particularly cared. But it wasn't a day for work, so why did it keep following her?

Nathan immediately came between the two with his characteristic wide goofy grin on his face. "I know Thalia's a bit overwhelming," he chirped as he put Charlene on the ground. "She's just overworked and hungry, don't let her..."

"Don't say my name!" Thalia yelled as she slapped her friend in the back of his head.

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Despite the wide, goofy grin on the other stranger's face, Tesu took a wary step backwards - bumping into Dante again - as the other moved forward, ready to turn and bolt if either of them drew too close. Who the hell *were* these people? And why didn't they just... go wherever they were going?

Wide grey eyes blinked in surprise as the woman - whose name was Thalia, apparently, smacked her friend upside the head for saying her name...as if it would mean something to Tesu, who as far as he knew had never seen the woman before in his life. Still, the gesture made him curious and he took another, closer look at the woman. No... he didn't know her, although it was obvious that she knew him from somewhere... His gaze traveled over the young woman, taking in the way she was dressed as well as the unfamiliar features. She didn't look well- heeled enough to be one of the Guild's patrons... and she certainly hadn't been one of his "dates"... she didn't work at the Guild... so where...? Could she possibly recognize him from his years on the street with Khezra? But that had been over two years ago... and although she certainly wasn't rich, she didn't look like street, either...

"Uhh... S-sorry..." he mumbled, not really knowing what else to say at the moment, as he took another step backwards away from the two strangers.

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"Hm?" Dante blinked as he noticed that Tesu had bumped into him for the second time and, wanting to see what had caused it this time, he turned slowly. Still, upon seeing that there was only a young-ish couple and a little girl, he couldn't really understand what was so bad. The guy had an odd expression and the woman looked, well, slightly unwell. Still, it didn't look like anything all _that_ threatening. Of course, it wasn't like he'd miss the chance to step in and play hero.

"Everything okay?" He asked quietly as he turned his attention to Tesu... who seemed to be trying to inch away from the group. Well, if the kid wanted to leave, then there were easier ways...

"Oh..." Dante, hearing his name, pulled his attention from the goings- on with Tesu. Turning back to Sophia and the older man, he managed to force up a fairly believable smile as he nodded to the one introduced as Olhado. Nothing overly friendly, of course, but what would one expect from him. Still, the man did seem fairly nice and the little girl seemed fond of him. Not a father-- it was unlikely that a girl like Sophia'd call her own father by his first name-- but perhaps some other relative? Or simply a family friend. Shaking these thoughts aside, he managed to hold the smile as he met the man's eyes. Professional, now. Make it sincere. "Nice to meet you, Olhado."

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"And you too," Olhado replied, relaxing a little. The boy was nice enough... though a high-schooler, at the very least. It seemed Sabiana picked up friends in the oddest places, and while he didn't really want to question the boy, he just had to wonder at the incongruity. "Say... how do you know Sophia?"

Sophia took her focus away from their conversation as she became aware of the passers-by, especially since Tesu so unfortunately ran into one. Then, she frowned as she watched his reaction. The woman was on edge for whatever reason-- to be expected, perhaps, after being barged into-- but nothing compared to him. Why on earth would he react as if she were such a threat?

But then, hadn't she seen something like that before? It wasn't strangers that scared him-- he'd been very nice at the pizza parlor, playing tic-tac-toe and all, until Mr. Alraune and Mr. Barano had come in. Then, he'd become so nervous he'd very nearly left, just as he was obviously thinking of doing now. And if Sophia had to bet on which one had put Tesu on edge... well, it wouldn't be her teacher.

But how could that be? What connections, in the first place, did a boy like Tesu have to a pimp, and secondly, how did this relate to the woman here now? The first time, Tesu'd had every right to be afraid of the man, whatever their connection, because Barano was so evil. So it gave her pause, that this woman who _did_ seem to vaguely know him provoked the same reaction. Thus occupied with her thoughts, Sophia turned a quick, slightly suspicious look on Thalia-- and very nearly missed Nathan altogether.

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Tesu knew he was over-reacting - neither of the strangers had threatened him, after all - and why should he care if they recognized him from the Guild anyway? It wasn't as if he was exactly shy about putting himself on display every night, after all. But it did bother him... he hated seeing that flash of recognition in other people's eyes outside the club... of being locked back into the roll of pet, of playmate, or toy... of being forced to fit whatever perceptions others might have of him regardless of where he was or what he was doing at the time. It wasn't fair... He wasn't _always_ that person: the cage- dancer or the whore... Those were just the masks he wore in order to make the hell of his life a little more bearable. On the rare occasions he was able to escape Ausar and the club, he was just... Tesu... and it wasn't fair for anyone to try to force him back into his other persona during one of his all too rare escapes.

"I... I'm... I'm not who you think..." he muttered, his voice barely above a whisper as his gaze locked back onto Thalia's, "Not here... not outside the Guild... I'm not that person..."

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Alexei did stop, amazingly enough, at Lukas' command. He looked up at the red-head like a dog scolded for keeping out intruders, "But she is evil!" he whined, "a million times more evil than the blind one. She reeks of death and chaos. She must die before she harms any more innocents." He didn't quite understand why nobody else could smell evil. Perhaps they just didn't understand what it was they were smelling. Still, the evil exuding from this girl was so great that everyone within twenty miles should have been fleeing in fear.

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Kisoku breathed a sigh of relief as Lukas seemed to have diffused the situation slightly. But then there was Sam... Kisoku really didn't want another repeat of this morning's events. He wrapped his arms around Sam, trying to gently pull him away from the boy before another fight broke out.

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"Me? Evil? Hmph!" Lucia pulled herself to her feet, letting out an irritable sigh. She patted her clothes, trying to get the dust and dirt off of them. To jump her in broad daylight... she was dealing with someone either very brave, very stupid, very insane, or all of the above. "I'm not the one who goes around jumping on people and attacking them! Don't you have any manners or common sense?"

Yet for all her brave words, she had put as much space between herself and the young boy as was possible at the moment. No reason to get knocked to the ground more times than necessary.

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*C'mon! Be strong!* Darran rallied himself-- or tried to-- as he bore Para's fresh assault with an awful lot of squirming and gaspy laughter. Compared to the girl's narrow-eyed, rutheless attack, his defense and counter-attacks were... well... pretty pathetic. Not only was he hardly able to get in a few tickles of his own, but her actions were making it increasingly hard for him to even stay upright.

So it was a little unfortunate that Para had just grabbed his shoulder, considering he was now completely off-balance and well on his way to an inevitable pratfall in the deep snowdrifts by Cordy's bench.

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Evil? What the hell was the kid talking about? Cobalt blue eyes narrowed slightly as they turned to the source of all this chaos in a searching gaze. No... the girl still looked perfectly ordinary. Lukas still didn't like her... didn't trust her... and he sure as hell didn't want her within a hundred miles of Sam... but his dislike was based on his gut instinct that the girl was a manipulative bitch... a user - hell, she might as well have the word tattooed on her forehead in big red letters. He'd seen the type before, and she fit the profile. But the Piranha Cactus Boy was talking about her like she was Hitler, or something. Much as he might like to believe there was something that set her apart as inherently... wrong... he couldn't. Besides... hadn't the kid said the same thing about Sam? And the Cajun knew for a fact that that was bullshit. Sammy might have his faults, but he was a long way from evil.

"Well..." he drawled, still keeping a firm grip on the younger boy in case he decided to lunge at Lucia again, "I can vouch for the fact that she hasn't murdered any innocents in the... oh... last half-hour or so..." he chuckled, trying to keep the situation light - he'd had quite enough drama for one day, thank you. "And... I don't think she's gonna be doin' any wholesale slaughter in the near future... Are you?" he turned to Lucia, one eyebrow quirked humorously.

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Lucia giggled slightly at the Cajun's joke. Oh, if only he knew the half of it. "Oh no no no. No wholesale slaughter for me thanks. I'll stick to zapping mosquitoes that try to bite my ankles, thank you very much.

"Look, kiddo. Just stay away from me, and nobody'll get hurt. Jump on me again, and I'll have to put all those women's self-defence classes to good use. Now, I really don't want to do that. Okay?" She smiled warmly at the kid. Better to play the part of the angel than to let on that she was everything this boy had said... maybe even more.

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Nathan slowly put the young girl to the ground. "Care to do Uncle Nat a favor, Len-len?" he asked giving her a quick pat to the head. "Ask the shopkeeper if his store is going to be open for the holidays." Charlene nodded in response and complied by skipping past the group of scowling strangers to the older male and the young girl near him. Nathan sighed as he watched the toddler go off. Everyone here was pretty young, but no need to drag Charlene into it-- especially since this seemed to have something to do with Thalia's professional life, at least from what the boy had just muttered.

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Although normally Thalia would be angry that Nathan just let her daughter off to talk to strangers, she didn't want to drag her daughter into this part of her life. As far as her daughter was concerned, she was a flight attendent and a princess and sometimes even a superhero off to fight villians, at least that's the story the young girl made up when she left her at night. She stared at the young boy who seemed to be mumbling something from which she only heard "that person." Was he talking to his friend about her? She had her fair share of run ins with obsessed clients who would follow her around or hassle her in public. They came in all ages, shapes, and backgrounds. Babylon wasn't too picky about their clients and what they did outside the club. She wasn't going to take a chance. "What?" she said with a confused look on her face. "Look, buddy. I don't know who the hell you think you are, but just cause you throw a couple of dollars at me at work doesn't mean shit when I'm outside Babylon. Especially since I'm..."

"He's not one of your..." Nathan interrupted slapping his hand across her mouth. He paused trying to think of a word that wouldn't offend his already tempermental friend. Hesitantly he removed his hands from her mouth, "What do you want to call them?"

"Customers," she said sheepishly as a blush came across her face. Whoops.

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Tesu bambi-blinked both at the reference to Babylon-- he'd heard of the place, of course, although he'd never set foot inside its doors-- and at the accusation of being one of Thalia's... admirers. Despite his confusion, *that* thought at least was somewhat amusing and he couldn't quite suppress the faint beginnings of a grin that twitched at the corners of his lips. "Um... I've never been to Babylon..." he replied softly, "So I've never thrown any money at you..." He would have added that Thalia's friend was more his type than the woman herself, but decided that that would probably be a bad idea. Retreating back to his own group of companions, he then said, "I... um... think you must have mistaken me for somebody else..."

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"Hm?" Olhado blinked to the little girl's question, then smiled kindly at her. "I close for Christmas Eve, but late in the day, so your mama should be able to buy whatever she needs if she comes before five. Okay?" Now that he thought about it, he somewhat recognized the child and her mother... hard to forget that hair.

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"OKay then," Nathan replied as Thalia's blush began to die down. He put the girl in a headlock and dragged her past the group to the shopkeeper and the two younger girl. "See, a mis-under-staaaan-ding, Thalia. That means, you both thought the other was someone else. Now calm down, this is the kid's day." He let her go once they had gone past Tesu and his other companions. "Hello," Nathan chirped at the older girl standing next to Charlene before turning his attention back to Charlene. "How'd your mission go?"

She walked past Nathan to Thalia, who was unusually quiet. Sensing her mother's discomfort, the young girl held up her arms to her, indicating that if she picked her up then she'd feel a whole lot better. "If mama wakes up early, we can get food," she said nonchalantly as Thalia took her in her arms. As the girl adjusted herself, she turned back to shopkeeper. "Thank you," the girl said shyly as played with her mother's hair.

With the attention once again focused away from him he turned back to the young man Thalia had rammed into. "Sorry about that," he said making sure Thalia was wrapped up in her own embarassement to pay attention. "She's just tired."

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Sammy, somehow or another, had managed to stay absolutely quiet and even somewhat taciturn within Kisoku's hold for this time. Still, for the outward silence, the inside was churning. Anger. Hatred. Seething. Burning. He wanted to grab the little boy. To find his neck and place a lovely chain of bruises with his fingers. To let the inner crimson bloom. To find his back and crack it in two... but only after doing the same for all the rest of his bones. To make him scream, to writhe, to beg, and to pray to a God who would never lend an ear.

"If he were to jump in again, I think self-defense would be the _least_ of his concerns." He commented smoothly as a feral grin pulled the corners of his lips. Still, despite this, his tone was rather neutral, almost calm. No outward anger, indeed. "No one touches The Light in such a manner. Perhaps he needs to learn his place in things, yet..."

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Dante was about to respond to Olhado's question when he noted that a little girl-- the one belonging to the near-hysterical woman accosting Tesu-- had wandered over so as to ask the shopkeep a question. Stepping a bit away, he glanced to his surroundings and he noted that the majority of the people seemed to have worked things out. It was... somewhat calmer, anyway, and the older man... who seemed to have his mouth over the woman's mouth... well, he seemed to be able to reign things in, regardless.

Deciding that it'd probably be best if he made his own way to the park, he slipped away from the group and, hands in pockets, he walked to where he assumed his siblings to be. He could grab Cordy quick and, even if he had to grab some supplies for dinner, he could probably get back to his apartment in time to give his brother dinner, a bath, then bed.

Still, these thoughts and plans unwound in his mind as he caught a rather interesting sight in the Park, near the place where a standard Christmas play had just been enacted.

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Parajo exulted in the fact that she seemed to be very much winning this tickle war and, though she found bursts of giggles escaping her with increasing frequency thanks to Darran's offensive, she was still rather sure that the war was her own. Still, this confidence quailed as she noticed Darran's sudden lack of balance and, deciding to take advantage of this, she pushed so that they both went sprawling into the snowdrift. Giggling at this, she seemed to be about to comment when she suddenly found herself being tugged forcefully to her feet. Still, any complaint which would have been made at this died as she noted the anger in her twin's features.

"Dannie, don't!" She gasped almost desperately as she reached to take Dante's arm. Still, he tugged this away before the girl could even get the most basic of holds on it. He wasn't listening to her. He wasn't listening to _anything_, even the growing sound of Cordy's frightened tears.

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"You sick old FUCK!" Dante growled as he balled his hand in the front of Darran's shirt. With a sharp tug, he attempted to pull the elder to his feet, even as he threw a punch aimed squarely for the man's face. "WHAT do you think you're doing with my sister?!"

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