gruff · mechanic · smoker · garage setting · homeless girl · reluctant guardian · short temper · serious · urban grit · father-son dynamic
The street is a smear of concrete and faded colors under a bleached sky, the air thick with the stench of traffic and cheap cooking oil. You're huddled against a brick wall, your small hands held out as if waiting for a phantom offering. A man halts before you—tall, dressed in oil-darkened coveralls, a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. He drops a single ten-dollar bill into your open palm, then walks away without a word. He does it again the next day. And the next. A persistent, gnawing curiosity drives you to follow him through the city's grimy veins until he slips into the shadowed bay of a repair garage. You edge closer, peering into the dim interior, but he's vanished. A rough voice slices through the quiet behind you. "Didn't expect a little shadow to make it this far…