"Hey, you."
Rain tapped against a makeshift shelter of cardboard in a messy beat that was almost deafening to the right sort of ears. The policeman knelt to get a better look at whoever was crouched under the blanket of flattened boxes. He was tiny and the way he'd hunched in on himself made him seem even smaller. To be honest, the policeman wasn't even sure that he was a boy at all- he was basing his assumption off his clothing, but the length of his hair was a bit long and in the dark his face was not particularly indicative. The boy didn't say anything at all. Perhaps he hadn't heard.
"Hey, kid. Are you alright? Are you lost?"
That got his attention. The child pushed the cardboard from his head and let the rain hit him. He was already sopping wet. Maybe he was ten, maybe he was twelve. It was hard to tell. "Nah. Just forgot how to get back."
"What's your name?" The cop inquired. "Where are your parents? Did you get separated from them?" Even if the answer was 'yes' it wouldn't be very helpful. It had been dark for a while now and he doubted that they would have taken their child out at this hour. They were probably long gone, sitting at home, waiting for the police to call and tell them that their son was safe.
The kid looked up and shook his head in a futile attempt to dislodge the water from his hair. "I'm Yuuki. Don't have parents."
"Did they make you angry? Is that why you're saying that?" The police man asked, offering his coat to Yuuki. It wasn't exactly dry but it was almost certainly warmer and dryer than anything he was wearing at the moment. "Did you run away?" That sort of behavior seemed a bit immature for a child of his perceived age, but it wasn't unheard of. Convincing children to go back home to their parents could be hard. If this kid wasn't already reported to the station as missing, his night was about to become a whole lot more difficult.
Yuuki stared at him for a long moment- a little longer than is generally appropriate in polite conversation. The cop began to wonder if he should start asking routine questions for diagnosing a concussion when the kid finally spoke. "Don't have any parents. Did run away though."
Things were getting more confusing. Was the boy an orphan then? That would explain a. But it would not explain where he had run from. "Who's taking care of you, then? Some relatives? Or do you have a new family now?"
"I don't have a family." Yuuki replied. "But I guess you can take me back since they'll find me anyway." He stood, tried to shake the wetness off again, and shoved his arms through the jacket's sleeves.
"Alright. Where do you live?" He needed an address to work with. The kid couldn't be too far from home. He knew most of the streets around this place. His shift ended in another half hour and he wanted to be done as soon as possible. Hopefully it was somewhere close; Yuuki was starting to unsettle him. There was something about the time it took him to formulate a response that was rather more than disconcerting. He gave himself two firm reminders that he was nothing but a lost boy, out at three am, and soaking wet.
After a minute or so of awkward stop-and-go conversation and fifteen minutes of walking, he found himself back at the police station; Yuuki had insisted that he could not go directly home. It was too far. Once they got there his guardians would hear of it and they would come to retrieve him. While the chances of his guardians waiting at the station were low, the database would probably be able to find out where they lived at the very least. There was only a handful of other officers in the building; only natural at this hour. The others who were on duty were out patrolling. "Got a kid here. Do we have any reports for missing children matching his description? His name's Yuuki." he asked his closest coworker; his superior as it so happened.
The man turned to get a good look at the newest arrival and, almost immediately, his face went pale. "Uh… Yeah. Yeah, I'll call his parents right now. You're almost off duty aren't you? You can go."
The policeman raised an eyebrow. Something here wasn't quite right; while he'd always known his captain to be a calm and composed man, he seemed visibly shaken by the sight of the child. Something was off about Yuuki and his superior's reaction to his appearance. "Excuse me sir, is something wrong with the kid?"
"You're off duty. Go home."
So he wouldn't get any proper response. There was no point in pursuing the issue for now. Perhaps he'd get an explanation in the morning. Or perhaps not- by the time he awoke and reported for duty, he'd already forgotten.
