Dark chocolate eyes drew deliberately downward as the girl moved to dust the ball off, her feminine giggle seeming to insight his attention, the high pitched sound a foreign one and yet one he did not find he disliked. Perhaps he is many things in this life, his existence tied firmly to the animalistic world her prefers and yet he is still undeniably male and some things, like a girl's laughter, are attractive all the same, even if he cannot understand entirely why he finds himself amused with the delicate sound. He lingers just out of her reach all the same, unwilling to allow her entirely to close. He never did enjoy touch in any form, frequently recoiling from such a thing and still he remains wary of her proximity despite the laconic ease with which he holds himself and his lean, hard frame. Her words saw him lean ever so slightly closer this aforementioned 'apple', the word an entirely foreign one as he seems to test it upon his own tongue, if only to better commit it to memory.




"An Apple."




That it might, in fact, be food escapes him entirely until she presses it to her lips, teeth crunching into the soft flesh of the fruit as he watches with evident wonder at this seemingly commonplace gesture, head tilting once more to the side as if he watches a curious Bird, fathomless dark eyes held firmly against the fruit as he peers beneath those untamed ebony locks that are in desperate need of being cut. His hair is hardly long, more so, it is thick, wild and in every direction. Her offering of the apple once more however saw him readily recoil, looking towards it as if he had been offered a snake rather than a snack, arms folding back across his chest as he continued to stand in front of her, mind readily returning to his own thoughts as she spoke of Mom and Dad. He does not understand her sentence entirely, she speaks to quickly, with words he has never heard 'biological' being one of them, failing to understand she has been adopted, believing instead that she had been like him, left to fend for herself, although surely the Eastern Pack, had he gone to it, may well have attempted to help him as her family had. It was merely by chance of fate and the obsessive, possessive nature of his mind that had seen him pursue his childhood companion above anything else. She is not Tetra and yet....she is the closet he has been in years and he finds something almost soothing about her presence.




"I went to.....house....but all....gone....Mom and Dad...not there. Everyone was gone. I have been...looking."




He offers a shrug of sorts, little more then a roll of his shoulders, the bones beneath jutting out far more then they should in his skinny form. His ability to hunt has seen him survive this long and indeed were it not for the distances he has travelled- and continues to do so, stripping the meat from his bones as fast as he consumes it, he may well have looked as he should. He is fit, if anything, merely lacking the more obvious muscle. Her sudden gesture sees him freeze in place, her command to stay resulting in a slightly disgruntled look before he promptly and abruptly seats him self on the grass as the girl rushes off, dark eyes proceeding to follow her as she does, unwilling to allow her from his sight. He has been a lone for a very long time, has not sought the confines of pack for longer still and yet...in the presence of his own species some desires still linger. He does not want her to leave him. Her momentary absence however, sees his hand reach for the apple as he brings it to his own lips, mimicking her gesture, biting down where she had, hit with the rush of flavour before abruptly and violently spitting it out.




"Was better when...it.....was a ball."




The words are muttered more to himself as he returns the apple to the concrete bench, the scent of something far more enticing seeing the young man's attention deviate to the returning girl as his lips pulling into nothing short of a beaming grin that alights his features, handsome perhaps, if they could been seen beneath the dirt and hunger. He waits politely until she returns, having stayed just as she asked, Tetra having taught him this particular trick years ago and perhaps he is pleased with himself for remembering, though his eyes grow slightly wary once more as she begins to draw closer. Fortunately, she is given to halt, one hand reaching out to take the delicious morsel from her with evident glee, ripping into it like the animal he is entirely, barely seeming to chew as he inhales chunk after chunk, oblivious to the sacrifice of her last $10 to allow him this small pleasure. It has been years since he has had cooked meat, the taste a thrilling treat. Her final sentence managed to see a halt in his animalistic consumption as she asked after her brother.




"He is....here....I know. I know- but hard to...find....many scents but I...know he is....here. You will....help me look...yes? I have to find him...so I can...give him....this back. I promised."




He reaches into his back pocket now, long fingers easily plucking the small model car free, the little red Ferrari pale now, paint faded and worn, missing a wheel from the years spent in his back pocket, a toy Tetra had given him to borrow the day before the fire, a toy he had promised, fifteen years ago- to give back and for fifteen years he has been trying. They may say what they like about the boy, some many believing him incapable of anything beyond the most basic emotions and yet.....a creature that cannot feel does not treasure a toy for that long. He returns then to his meal-or what remains of it, pulling those last traces of meat from the limb with practiced care.




"When you go....home....can I....come with you? I will not...scratch your couch.....I promise."




The couch is not a scratching post, this he learned as a child, in the girls own home on an earlier visit and a promise to Tobias, clearly, means something. She is the last memory of pack he has and he simply does not want her to leave him behind....

madness, as you know, is like gravity: all it takes is a little push