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Part Eleven

        Heads up: this chapter gets a little dark and depressing (mentions of death/killing/etc) but nothing extreme, and no actual gore involved. With that being said, happy reading!
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   Four boys sat in the living room, three crowded together amongst a single couch while they stared down at the fourth in Elijah's hands. It seemed the human was not going to let him go anytime soon, but neither of his friends were keen to argue against it. Especially not when the boy seemed to finally relax, if only a little, in Eli's hands.

   When Sam was brought to the living room and remained in Elijah's palm while the rest of the boys sat, he found himself under the impression that he might be killed later, but would first be evaluated. As much as it hurt to prolong the death, he figured he might as well allow his humans to ask their questions, even if the sole reason was because he hadn't had attention like this since his parents.
   Sam learned over time that he was a victim of touch deprivation, and that being alone for so many years led him to curl into the first sign of contact he could find. Even if it were a pinkie finger of a human intent on killing him, Sam allowed his tail to swoop around it and hold its position to avoid any more embarrassing actions. Without his tail, he might've gone so far as to wrap his entire body around the finger on instinct, and there was no coming back from that.
   He was having a hard enough time as it was.
  
   "So, can you tell us your name?" Elijah asked him, voice too gentle to control the slight cracks in his speech. He knew Skip might make fun of him for it later, and he resented that fact, but all he could focus on at the moment was how extraordinary the person in his hands was. Not to mention, he was bubbling pride in his chest at the thought of such a creature seeming to trust him and only him for the time being. Why else would he stay still, tail wrapped around his finger for everyone to see?

   Sam didn't say his name. He wasn't ready to talk yet. He could deal with being seen by a human, he was making do with being held by one, but actually raising his voice to announce who he really was took too much confidence and energy he didn't have. All Sam wanted to do was fall back into his nest and turn in for the rest of the late afternoon, texting his friends and forgetting this whole thing ever happened. Maybe, if he wasn't so scared, Sam would've been able to fall asleep in the hand carrying him. The thought was frightening, but the palm pulsed warmth into his bones and protected him from the world around him, whether the human knew it or not. Sam could appreciate Elijah never closing him into a fist, or holding him too close to his body.

   When it was clear the boy was going through too much to respond, Eli decided to take a different approach. One simple action might break him down again, so, as careful as he possibly could, Elijah smiled down to the tiny person in his hands.
   "My name is Elijah," he announced, allowing the boy to stare up at him with round eyes. Although the pointed tips of his nose and ears gave him sharp features, Eli found that when the boy had wide eyes, they were soft around the edges. "Um, I'm seventeen years old, I like to make people laugh sometimes, and long walks on the beach," he huffed.

   Leo watched Elijah with ever growing fascination, before returning his gaze back down to their new house guest.
   He couldn't stop staring at him. Not because of how small, or how impossible the scenario was, because that was irrefutable and already proclaimed by everyone else's thoughts.
   No, Leo could take his eyes off the small boy, because he felt something tick inside of him.
   Not the tick of anger, or any feeling he could identify. It was as if he put bread in a toaster, and was now waiting for the timer to go off and the toast to pop out with an audible ding and a scream lodged in his throat. It was a tick that told him he knew what was happening in front of him, but he couldn't place it for the life of him. Leo was a smart kid, someone that understood the ways of the world and tried his hardest to understand new information, but this...
   This would take time and more evidence to process. Even so, Leo remained as he was, quiet and sitting off to the side of Elijah, who continued speaking as if nothing were out of the ordinary.