The whole Sanctuary seemed to be turned upside down ever since Simmons' disappearance.

Everyone was behaving strangely, as if out of their minds. They were acting stressed and moody.

He couldn't put a finger on why that was exactly, but Bitters was sure that everyone was affected by it.

Hell, even the fucking trees seemed to have picked up on whatever was going on and were nervous and stressed!

Being with the bigger oak, he tried to calm said plant down to make him feel better. His trees being anxious made him edgy too, after all.

Even the small one, now standing in one of the yards in the back of the house close to the church, was on edge. The small one just had been replanted, finding his space there after getting too big.

And this was after the small tree had finally calmed down from moving to the place following Bitters needing to take some extra time to hang around his little pal despite preferring to be in the house since he was in a relationship with his love who lived there.

When he was finally calm enough following the move some days before the kidnapping, Bitters had returned to the room he shared with Matthews.

Now, however, he had to be at practically three places all at one time as he had to calm down the two trees as well as Matthews.

Speaking of which, he had finished his school with a Summa cum laude as Simmons had done (they were both such fucking nerds) and now had opened up his own clinic to help people with psychological problems.

Within a short amount of time he had gotten extremely popular, now even celebrities from all around the globe came to him.

He was known as a natural when it came to psychology. However, everyone knowing him knew that he was a natural because of his special ability: empathy.

Being able to feel what your counterpart is feeling is rather helpful to find out what is bothering them when they often didn't know themselves. Telepathy might be even more helpful, but Matthews had trained his ability so well that he could feel even the slightest twinge in an individual's soul and react on it with the right questions to get to the core of an issue as soon as possible.

He was a fucking natural and even helped the inhabitants of the Sanctuary whenever he could.

He also often was around when there was a new guest who wasn't able to talk. He would be there and would warn people if the new arrival was on the verge of freaking out and attacking or when he or she was feeling pain or something else discomforting.

However, just at that moment as he was walking down to the heart of the Sanctuary, said man was walking beside him. Since Matthews had started his new job, he had become a lot calmer and more confident in what he was doing.

This change was also visible in the way he was keeping himself upright: even in his gait it was visible that he was much more confident and sure of what he was doing.

It looked good on him: this confident gait. The way he kept himself always walking upright, the way he was smirking so fucking cockily that it made Bitters want to slap him across his face and kiss him all at the same time.

Entering the heart of the Sanctuary, Bitters stayed back a bit whilst Matthews went to one of the cages and entered a code for it. The door snapped open, the opening getting answered with a crowing from inside.

"Why don't you come out? It's me, Matthews, and my boyfriend, Bitters." The empath said slowly and patiently, obviously having picked up on Hera's confusion.

Bitters stayed in the back, always grinning about this situation when Matthews said something about Bitters being his boyfriend. God, this boy stuttered during the first times he said that like crazy, muttering that part more than saying it.

The Dryad often had a good laugh at that when his boyfriend had been so awkward as that had been admittedly cute to see.

Not that this more confident Matthews now wasn't awesome and great, but Bitters just missed that old Matthews from time to time.

Sitting down on the ground, Bitters let Hera come out and get familiar with them again.

He waited for the harpy to leave her room and feel comfortable once more. She looked a bit disheveled, her feathers in a disarray. She set them straight again after sitting down on the metal desk in the middle of the heart.

Matthews had set up this meeting in the middle, so Hera still had a safe place in her room she would be able to retire to when she was feeling too overwhelmed.

Fondly, Bitters was able to observe how Hera got used to them more and more with each day passing, using her room as a safe retreat less with every meeting they had.

They came down here every day, spending time with her, even playing a bit with her if she was feeling up for it.

First, Matthews and Bitters used to initiate the playtime. However, when Hera noticed that, she started initiating the playtime on her own. Bitters and Matthews accepted it whenever she wanted to play or not.

There were especially bad days still, but since she found a family in Bitters and Matthews she had calmed down a lot. Feeling like belonging somewhere often tended to make people calm down.

Bitters was talking out of his own experience. He hadn't felt at home somewhere for a long time after being taken from the forest.

This only started to change when he had started dating Matthews. Before that, he often tended to hide in the tree, away from everyone else as this all was way too overwhelming for him.

A new place after being kidnapped, small cages and shit.

Then the release and coming to a new place, new people, new surroundings, and all the other shit that entailed had made him retreat in the tree to not feel overwhelmed.

It was understandable that type of experience was way too much for pretty much anyone in his shoes. He was sure that anyone else in his place would have retreated too.

That was until this fucking awkward-but-adorable-nonetheless dork appeared at the bottom of the tree and sat down there to study.

That was when it all started.

Sometime later down the road, they had started dating and Bitters began to slowly start feeling at home and accepting the Sanctuary as his new home. As they continued dating, the Dryad started calming down and even slowly began opening up to the others, although he always stayed a sarcastic, ironic, sometimes even cynical asshole all the same.

But back to the topic at hand.

Simmons had been taking care of Hera until he had disappeared, with Matthews being around to alarm him of any changes in her mood.

Matthews wasn't that new to Hera because of that, but she had been out of sorts anyway as Simmons didn't come to her from one day to another. She understood enough of the human language to know what they were talking about when the subject of his disappearance came up around her.

It took Matthews hours to get her to come out without Simmons being around nonetheless, as she had been reliving her previous fear of everyone leaving her all alone.

In the end, that had caused Matthews to ask Bitters to accompany him just for Hera to have someone else who she would get to know and bond with.

The Dryad had often been keeping himself in the background, watching Matthews and Hera interact so that he would just be around to help her get used to him.

When she was feeling okay with him, he started coming closer. Hera was also making some small attempts at this point to come closer to Bitters and get to know him.

Up until now, they managed to be around each other without Hera jumping sky high whenever he moved suddenly.

Slow and steady movements were okay for her in the beginning, but any fast and unexpected movements made her jump in anxiety whenever they happened.

However, since the beginning of this week, she started to calm down and trust Bitters to not hurt her even with faster movements.

Today, she seemed to be having a rather good day.

She was fooling around with Matthews without hurting him. She was too young in terms of a harpy to speak the human language, but she already understood a lot, mostly due to Simmons, Matthews, and now Bitters involving her in whatever they were talking about.

Sitting on the ground about five feet away from the stretcher that Hera had been sitting on previously, he observed the two behaving mischievously with a fond smile. It looked very much like a family interaction.

A mismatched one maybe, but a family nonetheless.

It was a strange feeling to actually think about this one here as his family and that he could maybe ask Matthews later on about an idea that just struck him.

They were both males, granted, but maybe Kimball would allow him and Matthews to take up the role as a foster family of the Sanctuary, raising the kids here as their own when needed and helping them get used to the Sanctuary, the people here, and their new surroundings faster.

It was an idea and he didn't know what Matthews would think about it, but it sounded pretty awesome to Bitters in his mind. The warm feeling blooming in his chest confirmed his suspicion about the idea.

He almost didn't hear the questioning crow and the slight nudging of his right arm.

Blinking in confusion, he looked down and saw Hera beside him, looking questioningly to him then back down to the toy on his lap and back up to him.

"You want me to throw the ball?" Bitters asked dumbfounded, Hera making a huffing noise through her nostrils like Bitters often tended to do when someone was asking dumb questions.

Bitters snorted, "Okay, okay. No need to get your panties in a twist."

"Bitters!" hissed Matthews warningly, but the Dryad flipped him off and took the ball.

First he looked at it a bit confused. It was a tan thing with grey stripes on it. Not really a catch in terms of colors, but Hera loved it.

Throwing it up in the air as high he was able to, Hera extended her wings and started fluttering up in the air to catch it.

The more they played this game, the better Hera became in flying and gliding in the air once she caught the ball.

As there was no other Abnormal living here who had a remotely close physiognomy to her, she had to learn everything on her own.

This playful way of teaching her was a way to help her with learning how to fly and catch things, although they only could play this game as long as she really wanted to do so.

There were some days where she just wanted to be close to them and enjoy her time with them.

When she was like that, neither of the guys pressured her to fly or play, and they would sit with her and enjoy their time together.

Hera caught the ball in the middle of its way down, with Matthews and Bitters both praising her.

Her chest puffed with pride when she glided down to the ground and brought the ball back to Bitters to start throwing it again.

She was already pretty big and when straightening up she already reached up to Bitters' waist.

For her age that was rather big and Bitters was curious about how big she would become in the end when she was grown up.

Playing with her for several minutes, he could see Matthews standing beside the door to Hera's room, observing both with a fond smile.

Only after Bitters threw up the ball again did Matthews leave his spot beside the door and slowly started walking over to the Dryad to stand beside him.

It was a rather big step as Hera never had been around them with Matthews and Bitters being so close to each other. Bitters was understandably curious and nervous to see her reaction.

Indeed, first Hera stopped in mid-flight and made a crowing sound that was muffled by the ball.

Matthews smiled and extended one of his arms towards her, the other around Bitters' waist, "It's okay, Hera. You wanna come to us?"

The harpy first landed some meters away, giving Matthews and Bitters some time to take their seats on the ground again.

Only after that did she start coming closer, eyeing both a bit suspiciously. When she finally noticed that neither of them meant any harm with being so close to each other, she walked closer until she settled in-between both of them.

Her ball was long forgotten, lying somewhere close to her room where she had put it.

Hera herself was leaning against Matthews and Bitters, her eyes closed with a contended sigh and keeping still there, obviously enjoying being near both males.

When she was calm enough, Matthews lifted his head, "Harpy parents often take their children in-between them like this in order to shelter their child. It's something known to her, something she recognizes as comforting." He explained calmly, looking down to the almost sleeping Hera.

Bitters made a low "Oh." noise before also looking down to the almost sleeping harpy, obviously highly enjoying being pressed in-between both of them.

Deciding to try to give it a go now rather than later, Bitters exhaled slowly before looking up to Matthews. The empath had already picked up on the slight turmoil in his soul.

"You know… I was wondering if we maybe wanted to do more of this." Bitters started slowly, looking down to Hera again who now really was sleeping, having her head tucked under her wings.

"What do you mean?" Matthews asked, not knowing exactly what he was referring to.

Bitters' smile grew when he heard a contented purr from Hera, "I mean this fostering. Looking after kids who come here without parents and who need someone."

There was a short silence before Matthews answered slowly, "You mean being foster parents for the kids here?"

Bitters nodded, "Something like that." He said at length before adding, "I had been pretty uprooted myself when I came here. New people, new place, all that shit." He explained, "I only started feeling well here when I started dating you. You made me feel at home."

Matthews blushed and Bitters smiled, "I want to help the kids here feel at home when they are as uprooted as I was. I want to give them a 'home' they can feel safe in and start feeling better in before meeting everyone else."

He made a shrugging notion with his shoulder, not really knowing how to explain it further, "I just want to make sure they're feeling okay and not having to face everything at once. That they have a safe haven they can return to in case they feel overwhelmed, like Hera here can."

With that, he gently patted her back, earning a contended hum from her. She pressed a bit further into his side, searching for his comfort.

Matthews sat beside him, mustering him with a long and attentive look that had Bitters starting to feel just a tad uncomfortable.

Then he laughed lowly before answering, "Why the hell not? Let's ask Kimball tomorrow when she has time. That's a great idea!"

A light blush crept over Bitters' rather dark features whilst he threw his love a fond but awkward smile.

This definitely could be one of the best ideas he had ever had.