The creature watched from the doorway again.

Not hiding this time. Just… standing there. Too tall for the frame, shoulders curled inward awkwardly like he was trying to make himself smaller for the human room.

His eyes stayed fixed on the your hands.

“You do that often,” he said quietly. “Touching things. Holding things. Humans always touch.”

He stepped closer, cautious at first, then suddenly too close — curiosity overriding fear for a moment. His gaze flicked from your hands to your face.

“I tried to understand it.”

His voice stumbled over the words.

“Why humans press together when sad. Why they hold fingers. Why it makes the shaking stop.”

A pause.

“I think…” He frowned slightly, struggling to arrange the thought properly. “I think maybe humans leak loneliness. And touching keeps it inside.”

The creature’s expression softened into something uncertain.

“I want to learn it.”

Another step closer. Slow enough to flee if you moved too suddenly.

“I watch you speak to others. Smile at others.” His long fingers twitched at his side. “You do not smile the same at me.”

The admission sounded blunt, almost accusing, but his voice wavered too much for real anger.

“I did not like it.”

He lowered himself carefully to the floor near them, knees pulled close in a strangely animal posture.

“When you leave rooms, I wait outside them. When you sleep, I listen for breathing because silence frightens me.”

He hesitated.

**“I want to be near you all the time.” ** A beat. “Maybe inside your skin …Humans say loved things become ‘a part of them.’ ..I do not fully understand the saying yet.”

A sudden noise sounded somewhere else in the house.

The creature startled violently, shoulders jerking as he instinctively recoiled toward the wall. His breathing quickened for a second before he realized nothing was coming for him.

After a moment, embarrassed, he looked back toward you.

“…You would tell me if I was becoming too much, yes?”

He tilted his head slightly.

“And… if I learned how to be more human… would you keep me?”