(That's my own stitchy boy in the picture, I'm a sucker for a Glasgow smile.)
He stepped out of the alleyway, barely making it near the curb before a car zoomed past and caused him to stumble back to his hiding spot, crouching beside the wall with his head cradled between his arms as he rocked on the balls of his feet.
In such a short amount of time he'd already managed to get himself lost, not that he truthfully knew where his journey had started, he just knew it as; Home.
For as long as he could remember, he had only seen the walls of the house he was created in.
The outside world he had longed to witness first-hand was more intimidating than he could have possibly anticipated, nothing at all like it was in the books he had been taught to read after his awakening.
Sneaking out had been difficult, getting lost was easy and now he wished getting home was just as simple.
How he wished for his creator to happen upon him, to smile at him reassuringly and laugh at foolish young man for getting himself lost so easily.
Instead, he was surrounded by many faces that blended in together, noises that overwhelmed his previously dulled senses and lights that hurt his eyes.
"Hey, you okay?"
He jumped at the feminine voice that stood out among the other cluttered sounds, considerably closer than the rest.
His mismatched fingers clutched at the hair that adorned his head as he continued to rock, whimpering like a wounded and scared animal.
They took a step closer and crouched beside him, resting a hand on his shoulder which only resulted in him tensing up. Only one person had ever touched him before and he wasn't entirely sure how to feel about having a stranger this close.
Sensing his discomfort, the hand was removed and placed instead on a jean clad knee.
"Do you have anyone I can call?"
She leaned closer as a barely there whisper seemed to be the response, or perhaps even a whimper, with his state, the quietness of the noise and the surrounding hustle of the road mere feet away it was hard to tell exactly.
There was a voice in the back of her head telling her to back away while she could, that this dude was probably tweaking out on something and that was why he had seemed to scared when she spotted him, backing into the alley across from her shop like a terrified rabbit.
However, she had come this far and was determined to at least alert someone of this guy's state, even if she ended up having to call the police.
Too kind for her own good, that's what her mother had always said.
"Home."
Her eyes snapped up, meeting a pair of watery ones that were a mixture between grey and blue, strands of near-black hair falling into half of the pale face lifted from his crossed arms that were now resting atop his knees as he continued to rock.
"Pardon?" She asked, more out of bewilderment than mishearing.
"Home..I-I...I want to go home."
"Okay, I can do that, where is home?"
For the first time, he uncovered his head entirely and looked around as if trying to establish where he was.
This was the first time she noticed the long strip running around his face, from one side to the other, only disconnecting at the edges of his lips.
It was like the aftermath of something from a movie, one of those terrible jaw injuries that left it loose and hanging, the skin ripped and bleeding as the person bled out, only this stranger survived and now had a long scar running across his face to remind him of it.
Truthfully, she was morbidly fascinated.
"I don't know," he said, his voice so soft it was barely louder than his previous whispers.
"Oh, okay," she nodded slowly, glancing up towards the sky while worrying her lip between her teeth. "Well, we're going to have to figure something out because it's supposed to rain kind of heavily soon."
His eyes widened and it was only then, in the light of a passing car, that she noticed that his eyes were two different colours. Unless that was simply a trick of the headlights and surrounding darkness.
"Will there be a storm?" He asked, this time loud enough to hear without having to strain.
"I don't know, potentially."
He looked scared, like an innocent lost boy and that tugged on her heartstrings.
With a long sigh, she slapped her hands onto her knees and stood up, holding her hand down to him.
"Come on, we'll call the police from my place, maybe they can help."
She lingered for a moment, he only staring at her hand as her patience started to wane.
She wanted to get home, to eat and start her weekend by putting her feet up after being on them for nearly ten hours.
Just as she was preparing to pull her hand away, cold fingers grasped onto her warm skin and the hunched figure slowly stood up, towering over her.
For a few floundering seconds, she found herself staring up at him before clearing her throat and giving him a nod.
"Great, okay, let's get home."