First Impressions: Joshua (G/t)

Joshua sat in the schoolbus, eagerly awaiting its arrival at his home. He sat alone, the seat next to him occupied only by his backpack. Tapping his foot impatiently, his gaze shifted every few seconds from the view out the window to the backpack next to him, then back again. After what felt like hours, he looked outside and, seeing that the bus wasn't even halfway there yet, sighed heavily.

He tried distracting himself, thinking about his homework, his TV shows and games, his art, but inevitably his mind kept drifting back to his backpack, or, more specifically, to one of its contents in particular.
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He had found it during recess. At the time, he was simply wandering the halls as he usually did, enjoying some time to himself in some of the less-transited parts of the school, his mind preoccupied with the mundane matters of his everyday life. It was then that he saw, out of the corner of his eye, something small moving on the ground, not far from where he stood. Assuming it was some sort of bug, Josh, who had an avid interest in insects and other small creatures, drew closer to it, hoping to get a better look. As he crouched down over it, he found that it looked nothing like any sort of bug he had ever seen. If anything, it looked like an inch-tall human being.

Josh lowered a hand down in front of the little thing, and the creature, which had until that point only been standing still and looking up at Josh, suddenly started moving away from him. The way that it moved looked exactly like the way a human being runs, supporting his suspicion that it was, in fact, a bug-sized human being.

Josh slowly moved his hand forward to grab the little whatever-it-was, when the creature, looking back over its shoulder at his approaching hand, tripped and fell down. From its fallen position, it looked up at Josh and then curled up into a ball, visibly shaking.

Josh felt a twinge of guilt and compassion at the creature's show of fear, Josh moved slowly, almost tenderly, to pick it up. Pinching its frail little body between finger and thumb, he gently lifted it and set it down on the palm of his hand, then closed his fingers over it. After making his way back to the classroom, Josh pulled out a pencil box from his backpack, emptied the contents out onto the bag and deposited the little creature inside it before placing it back in the bag. He would wait until he was home before taking another look at it.
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Josh's mind snapped back to the present, suddenly aware that the bus had almost arrived at his home. He grabbed his backpack in anticipation, and when the bus pulled up in front of his house, he stood up and got off. He moved slowly so as to not damage his little captive. At the front door, he pulled out a housekey and went in. His parents both worked late and he had no siblings, so he basically had the house to himself for a few hours.

He went upstairs to his room, closed the door, set the backpack against his desk, took off his shoes and sat down on a chair. He unzipped his backpack, carefully pulled out the pencil box and set it down on the desk.

Taking a deep breath, Josh opened the box up and looked on the little creature inside. A million questions passed through his mind. Was it a fairy? A tiny robot? A small human? Could it understand his voice? Could it speak? But on seeing the poor thing cowering in the corner, he felt that the only question that mattered was "A-Are you ok?"

The creature looked up at Josh with a cautios expression on its face. "Can you understand me?" He asked, and got a slow nod in response.

"Um... can you talk?" The creature stood up, a little shaky but visibly more relaxed now. Josh moved in closer to get a better look at it and for a better chance of hearing any reply. He could see the creature's mouth moving, but couldn't hear any of it. "It's no use.", He said. "You're too small."

Now that the creature was standing up, Josh was finally able to get a good look at it. It definitely looked human. It was wearing a red tshirt and blue jeans, had dark hair, and looked male, about the same age as Josh.

Josh leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, trying to think of a way to let the little guy communicate with him. Soon afterwards, he had an idea. He reached into his poscket and pulled out a phone, opened up an app for writing, and placed it in the box with the tiny. "Can you press those buttons?"

The boy climbed on carefully and walked onto the screen. He stood on the L key and jumped up, successfully pressing the button. "Oh, good!" Josh said. "You can use this to talk to me. Now, can you write your name?" The boy walked around the phone from letter to letter, typing out the word "Isaac".

"Isaac, huh? Well, my names Josh. Nice to meet you," he said with a friendly smile. He held out a finger to the Isaac, who gingerly extended one hand to touch it. Josh then moved the finger up and down, emulating a tiny handshake. "Don't worry", he told the inch-tall boy. "I'll take really good care of you from now on." Isaac looked up at him hesitantly. He must have seen something reassuring, though, because he almost immediately stepped forward and hugged Josh's finger.

Aww, how cute, Josh thought to himself. Now, how am I going to handle this?