She smiled and took his hand. "Sure."

"It's still deceitful."

Jin led her to the door, "Diah will find his way back eventually."

"Kin won't do anything to hurt her."

"He had better not."

"I hope so...Think he's still mad?"

"I don't know..." Jin said with a small sigh.

"Your little love birds are about to leave without you." Isaac said from the doorway.
"Mm, you'd better go Diah." Anette's voice was venomous still.

Diah glared first at Isaac, then at Annet. "Would you please get over it? I didn't hurt you," he muttered before leaving.
"Oh...here he comes," Carol smiled as Diah approached them, his face pulled carefully into a soft smile.

"Ready to go?" He asked calmly, deciding against giving the angel a hard time.

"Yeah," he muttered, wrapping an arm around Carol's shoulders. She leaned into him, smiling gently. She still didn't realize why he was truly angry--she thought he was merely upset that he hadn't been able to keep his child away from a demon.

Marcus pulled up in front of them with the carriage and Jin moved to the front with Marcus, deciding to let Diah have a little time with Carol if he wanted.

Diah and Carol climbed in back and he held her close, sighing softly. "Hey..." she said with a confused look, "You okay?"
"I'm fine," he muttered, stroking her hair.
After a moment longer of looking on in confusion, she wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his bare chest, still not really understanding what was going on.

Jin glanced back at them, but ignored the spark of jealousy. In all honesty, he knew Carol would be better off with the angel, and their love would be allowed now that he wasn't her guardian.But of course, selfish as he was, he wouldn't give her up.

"Why do I feel like I'm missing something?" she muttered.
"Because you're silly," he returned. He kissed the top of her head, wishing for nothing more than that she was truly his to hold. But even had Jin not already set his mind firm in the decision that she was his, she clearly saw nothing more in Diah than a friend. Before it had been bad enough that he wasn't allowed to be with her--it was worse now the he just couldn't.

Jin and Marcus spoke to each other in low voices for the duration of the ride, and when they finally stopped at Jin's place he was quick to get down and open the door for Carol.

She hopped down, Diah following her closely. Giving them both a look like they were crazy, she asked, "So, am I off the hook for training today?"

"For today, I suppose. Isaac mentioned he wanted to pick up a few things, I sent Sue with him."

((That is what I named that one chick right? XD ))

"Poor guy..." Diah muttered and Carol laughed.
"She isn't...that bad...kind of...." With a shake of her head, she continued, "Anyway, he's gone, which is good for me. I can relax today."

Jin gave a small laugh, "She's not nearly as annoying after dark." He said with a small wink as he headed in, it didn't occur to him until after that he might have done better not to bring that up in front of Carol.

Diah felt a surge of anger that wasn't entirely his. Carol's hands had balled into fists and she pulled Diah's arm to her chest to restrain herself. Putting his other arm around her, he murmured, "Easy, he's just an idiot."
"Yeah, no kidding," she grumbled. While he felt bad she was upset, he had to admit that he preferred the anger to her other emotions. It felt much more natural to him.


((I don't think I ever really clarified what I meant by he's "emotionally connected" to her. He can feel whatever she is feeling, and mild emotions he can easily ignore, but if her emotions get strong enough, he feels them as if they were his own.))

Jin cast an apologetic glance back at them, but didn't try to defend himself.

Dropping Diah's arm, she moved in front of Jin. "I just want to make it clear right now," she said firmly. "If you should even try to do that kind of stuff with other girls, you can forget about me speaking to you ever again. I don't give second chances when it comes to that."

"So I have to keep myself 'pure' for you? Do you even come close to seeing the irony in that?" He said with a small laugh. He couldn't help but be irritated by being told what to do by someone that was supposedly under his control. Although, he couldn't say he cared much about the actual order. The women around him all seemed somehow... stale. Too eager to please, to readily available, too easy, and too overdone. Degrading as the view might have been, they degraded themselves without any help from Jin other than his cooperation.

"You're too far from pure to even hope to have the title." She took his hands, pulling him to her. "Just promise me. If you love me like you say, it should be no problem to keep your attention on me and away from them."
Diah frowned. The anger was gone, and now there was just that dull warmth that she had around him. It was annoying to have his personal feelings conflict so strongly with hers. Though, had he been less upset by her quick emotional turnaround, he might have noted how odd it was that he was still connected with her. The connection should have been broken when his status as guardian was revoked.

"I'll be good." He said as he played with her hair, "Heaven's women aren't much fun anyway." He glanced back at Diah. "Stop moping."

"I'm not moping," he grumbled.
"Not just heaven's women. The ones down here, too, are off limits." She knew it was probably a bit unfair to ask him to keep all his focus on her when she couldn't/wouldn't do anything with him either, but she wasn't about to let him run about screwing every girl he pleased.

"I know, I know." He said with a sigh. "I'll be leaving first thing in the morning, I need to set my wings for several hours first. I'll have to stay still, so if you want to sleep, that would be the time."

"I'm not tired." Looping her arms around his waist and locking her fingers, she asked, "Set? What do you mean?"