Nikolaus took a measured step back from the screaming boy. He tried his best not to let it show how startled he was by the sudden reaction, not what he’d expected following a light shake of the shoulder. Then again he could guess what the boy had been expecting, having felt the menace coming off the group of five who had been approaching him.

“They’re gone,” Nikolaus offered once the initial scream had subsided. The boy was still curled into a ball but the man standing over him hoped that he was at least calm enough to listen now and hear him. The curled-up-young-thing hadn’t even registered what Nikolaus had been saying when he first got near to him. Nonetheless, Nikolaus persevered, trying to be soothing but knowing that his voice tended to come out cool and distant-sounding. 

“I said, they’re gone. They’ve left. You can get up now. I think I surprised them, I only had to give one of them a wallop and they all ran off.”

Nikolaus waited, allowing a foot to tap as he wondered how long before the boy in front of him came to his senses, and bothered to uncurl. Nikolaus was in a hurry, he’d be late now, and that would throw everything off, but he couldn’t just leave the boy here shivering on the ground. Did he need to pick him up? Should he try to help him home? That would probably be useless, he barely knew his way around the city, and he could only imagine what the locals would think seeing him moving around in their precious urban paradise; they’d probably message the police.

‘Come on!’ he thought to himself. This was not how he’d planned to spend the afternoon. Sighing to himself, he knelt down next to the boy again. He knew he wasn’t actually going to leave him like this, best to brave another round of screaming and try again. Just as Nikolaus reached out a hand to nudge the prone figure once more a single eyelid opened, and he found himself trapped in the clutches of a very green, very direct gaze.