The buildings are tall and everything smells so...unnatural. Bright lights shine in the night. He walks beside the road because if he walks on the road he might get run over. The ground under his feet is hard, and again, it's unnatural. As he walks the humans who pass him give him strange looks, well, he is a stranger here. They all hurry past him, except this one. A woman with pale hair approaches him, she smells...agitated. She peels off her outer layer of clothing- "here, take my coat," -her coat, and wraps it around him. He welcomes the warmth it gives.
"What's your name?" she asks. He doesn't know. He doesn't speak. She waits for an answer she's not going to get and then seems to realise it's not important. She wraps her arm around his shoulders and presses him to walk alongside her. "What happened to you?" she questions, but still he doesn't speak.
xxx
She brings him to a house and then to a room. In the room a fire burns, it makes him nervous to see the orange flames leaping, what stops the fire from burning everything?
She leads him to a seat and when he sits she peels the coat off his shoulders so it pools around his waist.
"Are you hurt?" she asks, as she surveys his face, arms and chest. He watches her face, the way her eyes dart about and the serious way she holds her mouth as she searches for a wound she's not going to find; it's not his blood. She appears to reach that conclusion and she looks at him with the first traces of fear in her eyes. But she doesn't need to fear him; she's not a threat so he won't hurt her.
"It's not your blood," she confirms softly for herself, standing and walking away from him. He stands, intending to reassure her, and the coat falls to the floor. He goes to her and wraps his arm around her shoulders, he'd felt comforted when she did that to him.
"What are you doing?" she asks in shock and moves away from him. He watches her, waiting for a signal about what to do next. He feels like he's on the right track, he'll find answers here, but he has no idea how to do that.
Pain, crippling pain. Bone-shattering, organ-tearing pain. Excruciating bodily pain followed by awareness. And then rejection. We don't want you anymore.Go away, you're different, you're wrong. How? Why? With the awareness comes a longing. South it says, head south. So he does, there must be somewhere he's not different.
He's pulled from the memory by a new voice.
"Cammy," it says and a man walks into the room. He has a smile on his face, that is until he sees the stranger. His tone remains pleasant enough but his eyes harden as he asks the question. "And who's this?"
"I don't know," she admits and the man gives her an incredulous look. Eventually the man looks to him for answers, but the stranger has none to give and seeing he won't get an answer, the man directs his questions to the woman.
"Why would you bring him here?" the man asks, pulling the woman- Cammy- aside.
"I found him wandering the streets, naked and covered in blood, he was drawing attention. And he looked like he needed help, so I helped him. Besides," she said, turning her head to glance at him, "he kind of reminds me of you." She finishes with a smile, and it makes the man's expression soften towards her but harden when he looks in the strangers direction. "I think he's in shock, or something," she continues, "he hasn't said a word since I found him. He just watches..."
"I'll get some answers," the man says, advancing towards him with hostility. The stranger's lips curl back in a snarl and instinctively he raises his fists to fight.
Fury, flesh, blood, fear. Snarls and claws. Jaws clamp together, teeth pierce a warm, furred throat. The smell of hot blood, whimpering, then stillness. Victory.
"Klaus stop," Cammy says, putting herself between them. The stranger backs down, he doesn't want to hurt Cammy. The man- Klaus- backs off too. "This isn't helping," Cammy tells Klaus, "let's clean him up and get him some clothes and try this the civilised way first."
"Fine," Klaus concedes. She turns to the stranger.
"Would you prefer a shower or a bath?" she asks and he has no idea how to answer that.
