Ugh, Disgusting.

Those words coming out from the drunkard's mouth instantly caused all of Alec's peace to fly out the window as his previously calmed rage ignited once again.

Huh, he must have really mellowed with age if someone thought he could talk to him this way! Did they really think he was weak and helpless just because he looked like this?! Hahaha.

The unsteady calm that had previously settled over him washed away like it was never there in the first place.

One drunk man, staggering around and looking generally depressed and pissed at the world, whilst another looked sober and panicking, stood in front of him.

"Excuse me?" Alec said, wondering if it was just because he was so on edge that he heard wrong.

"Yooou hEArd meee," the drunk slurred, staggering and pulling his friend in the other direction. "Whatchuuu lookin' at!"

"Hey, Henry, shut up already," Philip whispered furiously to his friend. He did not sign up for this damage control today. "I am so sorry," Philip apologized to the kid. "He's been having a terrible day."

The kid was looking at the ground, trembling slightly. Poor kid! He must be so terrified. Philip tried harder to reel in his friend, but the man was too strong for him to move easily, especially when he wasn't consciously controlling his strength.

Alec gritted his teeth, feeling the bubbling anger in the depths of his stomach. All these adults treating him like a kid. Ah, he would have been fine had they just waited for him to get a good night's sleep before provoking him.

He would have calmed down. Years in the clan compound had tempered his anger somewhat, but with the memories filled with the colour of blood, he couldn't keep his cool as easily.

"Hah," Alec laughed, the standard laugh that he used now. It sounded very gentle, but somehow Philip felt chills go down his spine at the sound. What was this that he was feeling?

Henry, on the other hand, completely missed any of the implications. The sound of Alec's laughter set of the memories of the laugh that those people that betrayed him a scant few hours ago off. "Whaaat do yoOu think yer laughin' at ehhhh! Yer juuustt like those bastaaards!"

"Shut up already, idiot," Philip said, looking nervous. He gripped the man's shirt with his strongest strength, only to be thrown off to the side. He didn't know why he was feeling this way about a kid of all things, but he wasn't one to overlook his instincts.

Henry was drunk and completely not in the right state of mind. The things the other man had spilled under the influence of alcohol made him feel upset that he'd been right about those four, as well as Henry's wife.

So, as a well-meaning friend, Philip once again got up and rushed towards the man, holding him back from doing something that he would regret in the morning.

Henry shook off Philip's well-meaning hold, lurching towards the brat. At this point, it didn't even occur to his addled mind that a normal child wouldn't have reacted this way, nor the fact that he didn't really want to do this at all. He would regret this when he sobered up, but that was of no concern to him now.

All the alcohol had rushed towards his brain, the pure adrenaline causing him to move. Though it was the laugh that had triggered him, it was also because of the feelings he had left for his son that apparently wasn't even really his son.

At this moment, his son's image had overlapped onto the boy in front of him, and all Henry really wanted to do was hug him and wail. He wanted to ask whether or not he was really his son.

To Alec and Philip, however, his actions had a completely different meaning.

As Philip looked on, horrified, as he once again desperately tried to reel in his friend. Alec was watching with cold eyes.

Though he would not make the first move, once it was made, then Alec would give himself free reign to retaliate.

Everything he thought about mellowing out was utter idiocy. He supposed that it just took the right amount of force to trigger his temper.

The drunkard in front of him, Henry, was the strongest that he'd met so far in this town. At the transitional foundation stage, the man had the same magical capacity as Elias did.

However, he was also flat out drunk and not in control of his movements and thought processes. Whether or not he was really able to use his strength to the best degree was another matter.

As Henry swooped in with his arms stretched out, Alec dodged with the smallest movements possible, jumping back. This amazed Philip, who was generally useless in a fight.

Philip stopped himself from interfering because he could see the cold calculation on the boy's face. Something told him not to get in their way, otherwise something bad might really happen to Henry. A voice whispered to him, telling him to wait.

Alec watched Henry's clumsy swipes at his body, only dodging when the drunkard got too close. The growing frustration on the drunkard's face was really very therapeutic and doing wonders for his boiling anger.

Henry growled, abandoning his previous attempts at not hurting the boy. His reasoning had slipped away with him, and he didn't even know what he was doing anymore. What was he even doing right now? He couldn't remember.

Before long, the blurry figure of the boy was replaced with the appearance of Gred and Briggs, who looked down on him as he lay collapsed on the grassy ground.

The mocking, taunting words echoed again in his ears, causing him to see red.

Henry roared with anger, subconsciously using his standard support boost to increase his speed. Swinging at the figure before him, not a sound filtered through to his ears, so he missed Philip's cry of alarm as well as Alec's questions.

"Mister, you should really stop now, alright?" Alec repeated again, smiling. Though his words were polite, they were laced with honeyed poison, and Philip felt the chills that he was feeling intensify.

"Ahhhh!"

Alec twitched, his eyes shuttering. The damn drunkard wasn't even listening to him. Then again, he was also at fault here for even trying to reason with a drunkard of all people. He should have just decked him hard to put him out of his misery to begin with instead of wasting his time.

However, would this count as OOC or not?

This was the perfect time to test it out. With a person who was drunk, and another who looked like he was disbelieving whether this was real or not, he was sure that whatever they would try to spread would never be seen as anything other than a drunkard's delusions.

"Fight meee like uh… a mann!" Henry yelled, seriously aiming for Alec's face.

Just as Philip was about to interfere for real and disregard the little voice in his mind, Alec's smile grew a lot brighter.

"Heh. An old drunkard like you, picking on little kids? If mister wants me to hit him for real, then I'll gladly do it, you know?" Alec's tone of voice completely didn't match the sarcastic words that were coming out of his mouth.

This time, as Henry's fists approached, instead of dodging, Alec ducked under it due to his small frame, launching his own punch just as Henry's punch was about to connect. He hit the man in his solar plexus with about half of his strength.

Just as Henry was about to be elated that his punch landed, he realized that his vision was growing further and further away from his target.

As he slammed into the nearby building, an overwhelming feeling of pain assaulted his nerves as the vertigo hit him all at once, causing him to lurch to the side, puking.

Alec smiled, clicking his tongue. "Disgusting."

He dusted off his hands, walking back calmly as the last of his temper faded back into nothing. He felt like he fit a lot better in his own skin now. He felt a lot better than he usually did.

He almost felt like whistling, and the feeling grew even more when he realized that the Mainframe's voice wasn't coming. That meant that this wasn't considered as OOC even though he wasn't saying things that classified him as 'gentle'. All he had to do was keep up the standard smile, and he was good to go.

This was the best news he got in all eight years of his life!

Philip was questioning whether or not he had actually ended up drinking with Henry without realizing it.

Henry, who looked at Alec's smiling face, burst into tears all of a sudden as he started sobering up. The sight of Alec's smile burned itself into his mind.

Alec clicked his tongue and brushed off his clothes, leaving.