Matt lay in bed, unable to sleep. It had been a very eventful day. He still could not believe that he watched cartoons with the fox kit that scratched him. The whole time that Matt was there Kyle stayed in the corner under the bed. Matt hated to admit that but it made his visit easier. He was still scared of the boy. He knew that it was an accident but he couldn't help what he instinctively felt. For both fox and bunny, they were going to need to get used to being around each other.

He got what he wanted from that visit. He knew the name of the fox. So why was he still awake? The answer was surprisingly easy. It was because Kyle was not ok. From his file he learned that sooner or later the fox ended up staying in his room most of the time. It happened at every orphanage he had been at so far. Matt felt responsible for accelerating the process but it was not really the reason why he thought that Kyle was not ok. He was forgotten by the system. Someone decided that the kit was not worth the money and effort that was needed to have a normal life. On top of that he was a fox, a species that not many orphanages wanted to take and mammals wanted to adopt. So that meant trying to get rid of him as soon as they could. That kind of attitude translated to teachers and caregivers. Even with the best intentions they did not want to invest time in a kit that was going to leave soon.

That did not sit well with Matt. Foxes had an incredibly low adoption rate. And that's just able-bodied foxes. A fox kit with a disability was more likely to end up in the foster system than getting adopted. So, for Kyle, odds were stacked seemingly insurmountably against him.

However, Matt could do something to improve Kyle's odds. He was visiting the orphanage once a week. He sometimes helped kits with their homework and played with them but they were already well taken care of. The bunnies get the chance to learn from so many people that all it did was make the teachers have less to teach. He could do something that would affect the fox kit in a positive way.

At that point he knew that he would not be able to sleep until he had at least a concept for what he was going to do. He reached for his phone and looked for any studies regarding foxes. Despite his nearsighted eyes making out the words on his phone clearly, Matt reached out and put in his contact lenses. Most of the articles he found were ones that he'd already seen when he was making his adoption plan. Most of the studies he had been reading beforehand didn't even include foxes in their data. Eventually, Matt abandoned his prior research and started afresh. It took the bunny over half an hour to find some recent studies about species that were considered problematic and had low adoption rates. It mostly focused on foxes, raccoons and hyenas. As he absorbed all the information on the report that he could, a smile grew on his face.

"""

The office was almost empty when he arrived on Tuesday morning. His company was rather flexible about work hours. You just needed to arrive before 10 am and work for 8 hours. At 7 am the building was almost empty. Matt was used to waking up early because he was often helping out on his parents' farm when he was younger. He also learned that he could do a lot of work in the morning when no one was bothering him and after work had plenty of time to go shopping or help at the orphanage.

After 15 minutes Liam showed up. As usual, he looked half-awake and was yawning.

"Morning." Liam said with a tired voice as he sat at his desk. It was interesting to share office space with a much bigger mammal. His desk stood out, being much bigger than all the others. It was close to the hallway so he would not need to pass smaller mammals and it didn't disturb the design of the office space.

"Hello!" Matt smiled. The bunny could tell that since yesterday some kind of unspoken tension between them disappeared. He already felt more comfortable talking to the hyena.

"Why are you arriving so early every day?" He said.

Liam blinked as he tried to get rid of his sleepiness as he turned his chair to face Matt. The hyena tilted his head to the side and furrowed his brow. It was unusual. Normally, after greetings they kept quiet unless they were talking about something work-related. So, even a very basic question like this, was something new.

Matt started the conversation with a smile but the longer the hyena stayed quiet and was looking at him with his head tilted, the more his ears drooped and his confidence wavered. Several emotions flashed on Liam's muzzle, though too fast to recognize. Finally Liam straightened up his head and yawned.

"I need to wake up early or I will get stuck behind my flatmates in the queue to the bathroom. You wouldn't believe how long it takes wolves to get ready in the morning."

Matt smiled and his ears sprang back up.

"Well they are bigger than you and have thicker fur so it takes longer to clean it." He pointed out.

Liam narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah… They say the same thing. Are you sure that you are not working for them?" His expression softened and his tail wagged softly.

"I am the one that gave them the research that shows the average shower time for different species." Matt said with a professional and matter of fact tone.

Liam was caught by surprise with that answer. Matt was so quick and serious that for a second the hyena thought that he was telling the truth. Liam's sleepy mind finally caught up and he started laughing. It was a soft and cute laugh.

"To be honest, I was expecting a different kind of laugh coming from you." Matt said as he started laughing himself.

"Yeah, everyone does so don't worry." He brushed it off while still in a good mood. He heard that many times.

They looked at each other in silence. They got to that awkward point where they weren't sure if they should continue their conversation or go back to work. They didn not know each other that well yet. They both waited for the other person to make that decision.

"I am scared of you." the rabbit blurted out, before he mentally hit himself for choosing that as a silence breaker.

Matt looked away for a second from embarrassment.

"But I will not apologize for that. I will not apologize for something that I can not control. I just want you to know that I do not think that you will hurt me. I am not afraid of who you are but I am scared of what you are. I will work to overcome it but the only way to do that is by interacting with you. So please be patient with me."

Liam's ears went down as he sighed.

"Your reason doesn't make me feel better but I guess I understand." He scratched his muzzle. The hyena was almost twice as tall as the bunny. When they stood next to each other Matt was looking at Liam's belly. There was nothing he could do about it, but the hyena could see how overwhelming it would be for an essential giant to share the same office space as tiny rabbits. "It's good that you want to work on that, though. After yesterday I thought that you would be in denial for much longer. Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Kyle," Matt answered.

'Huh?'

"The fox kit that scratched me. I went to see him." Matt's nose was twitching "Even after spending time with him , I couldn't deny that I was afraid of the fox." He sighed and put his face in his hands.

"A disabled seven years old boy was scaring me...to be fair he is almost as tall as me."

Liam scratched the back of his head. "That's some heavy stuff." The hyena was not used to that type of conversation. Joking around with friends was more his forte so he went with what he knew.

"I am not sure if I know how to help you with your midlife crisis." Liam said, hoping his joke would lighten the mood.

"Hey! I am not that old!" Matt overactive being offended. "I'm only 28!'

Liam's eyes went wide.

"Really?!" Liam blurted out, before biting his tongue for saying something so insensitive.

"Yeah…" Matt said sadly, his ears drooping again. "Do I look that old?"

"No, no, no! You look good! It's hard to tell sometimes when mammal is a different species than you," Liam said, scrambling to backpedal his stupid comments. "You are just so far ahead in life than me. I just assumed that you had to be much older than me. I mean, I'm only two years younger than you and I'm still living with my old University friends to pay less on rent. And you've got your own house and want to adopt kits."

This time it was Liam who looked away embarrassed. Liam could not imagine himself being responsible for a pup. Even babysitting was too much for him.

"Thanks?" Matt was not sure if it was a compliment, but it didn't feel like an attack either so at least it was progress..

"I will try to help Kyle to get adopted." Matt said determinedly.

"Oh." Liam's ears got up. "How are you going to do that? Getting a fox adopted is as hard as getting a female hyena adopted."

Liam shuddered to think about non-hyenas adopting female hyenas without experience. They were bigger, stronger, and more aggressive than males. It was the reason why hyenas had a bad reputation. A lot of female hyenas in the city were in gangs and acted as one wanted the trouble of raising a teenage female hyena.

"Yeah. I can't guarantee that he will get adopted but I can give him the best chance." Matt got excited. "Surprisingly he has a better chance of being adopted than the average fox. The best chance has a fox who is good in school, healthy, with great personality, and, of course, with no connections to any shady businesses or mammals. There was a new study that came out recently that looked closely at mammals with low adoption rates and they found out something interesting. All groups had the same type of mammals in second place."

Matt paused dramatically. "Outsider mammals. In their study they did not have disabled kits so it is not a one to one comparison. Kits that were smaller and weaker than average mammals. The researcher suggested that it was because mammals like that were picked on by other kids. They were highly unlikely to have negative attributes associated with the species." His eyes shined. "Kyle could fit that category. His disability isn't life threatening and regular exercises are good enough to get him to walk with a cane. I would also need to trim his claws and brush his fur and tail…"

Liam nearly shot out his seat at the last part and interrupted Matt with a loud "No!" Matt's nose was twitching and ears lowered. He wasn't sure what he did wrong.

"You… you can't just touch fox's tail without permission." Liam could still see the confusion in Matt's eyes. " It is a cultural thing."

Matt waved his hand dismissively.

"In that case it will not be a problem. He's been in the system since birth. He won't know about that custom."

Liam shook his head gravely. "You are things you just know in your bones. From what I understand, foxes feel very strongly about their tails. It's reserved only for their family. I knew few foxes when I grew up and they were very clear about that. If you touch his tail without permission, you may lose whatever trust you build in him. So you need to let him brush his tail on his own."

Matt blinked in surprise. "Oh, thank you. That could have ended poorly before it even started." Matt smiled in thanks at the hyena, before his eyes drifted towards the clock and realised they'd been chatting for half an hour..

"I think that we should get back to work."

Checking his watch, Liam nodded. "Yeah, well good luck is all I can say."

The pair began typing, before Liam's ears perked up and he looked back over towards the bunny.

"Oh, one last thing. What kind of disability does Kyle have?"

"He's feral."

"""

"BC movies are so much better than the Wonder Cinematic Universe," Emma exclaimed. The week had gone by nicely with Friday coming sooner than expected. Matt's team was sitting together at the table during their lunch break, with Liam the newest addition at the table. Matt was glad that it had become a new norm for his team. Liam always insisted on picking the same table and sitting in the same configuration as he had the first time he sat with them and everyone else. They were happy to accommodate that small request.

"I prefer my movies to be fun rather than dark and edgy." Tom said as he popped a cherry tomato into his mouth.

"The only reason why you say that is because you have kits." The ewe said while pointing a fork at the hare. "WCU movies are more family friendly. You have to admit that BC movies are objectively better."

Emma looked over at the rest of the team for backup. "You have to agree with me."

"I don't watch any of it." Owen said, his head still glued to his phone, clearly not interested in the conversation.

"I like both." Matt shrugged.

Emma and Tom stared intently at Liam hoping that he would be a tiebreaker. He sighed. "I hate BC so WCU wins."

Tom lifted his hands in victory and Emma groaned. "You guys have a horrible taste."

She looked at Matt. "But don't worry. You can make it up to me. I need to go to a shop in the Meadow district. It is on the way to the orphanage so you can take me there."

"'m not visiting the orphanage today but I have no problem taking you to the shop." Matt said in between mouthfuls of his cucumber sandwich.

"Oh, did something happen?" Emma asked worriedly.

"No, I just changed my visiting day to Monday. They don't need that much help on Fridays because next day is a weekend and lots of potential parents are there as well. School nights are much more chaotic as well so I figured I'd go then. Plus, this way, I get to have a bigger weekend."

Matt smiled. He was telling the truth. He just didn't mention that the main reason for changing the day was to visit Kyle. It just happened that his first visit was on Monday and Matt didn't want to disrupt the schedule. He wanted Kyle to recognize the pattern quickly and grow accustomed to his continued presence.

"So you finally listened to me! Matt, the busybody himself, is learning how to relax." The ewe patted him on the back.

On the other side of the table, Liam looked puzzled. He wondered why Matt hadn't told his friends about his plan to help the fox kit. Was he hiding the fact he was helping a predator? Shrugging, Liam popped a few crickets into his mouth.

'He's still got a long way to go, I guess.' Liam thought as he crunched on his food, as he continued to ponder over Matt and his silence.

"""

Matt had a game plan. Over the weekend he did a lot of reading on Kyle's feral condition and all studies agreed on one single salient point: building up the kit's strength was the most important. So counterintuitively, the first step to bipedal walking was a quadrupedal playtime. It was relatively easy to get the kit to be able to walk with a cane. Of course in that situation his posture and gait wouldn't be perfect but he would be able to walk on two feet. He would be leaning forward with the angle between legs and belly being around 150 degrees. He just needed to be strong enough.

When it comes to physical therapy, it was mostly about getting the kit to straight up and get that center of mass inside the kit's body. So building back muscles, a lot of stretching and getting the joints in legs and hips used to standing upright. It was way outside of Matt's knowledge so he would probably have to have a physical therapist do it, or at least teach him the basics..

When Monday afternoon finally rolled around, he arrived at the orphanage ready to put his ideas to the test. He greeted Monica as he walked in.

"Hello."

"Hello," she replied cheerily. "People were wondering if you'd show up. I'm still surprised that you want to help Kyle."

Matt shrugged. "I have time. It also means one less thing that you need to worry kits can be really handful."

He adjusted his bag on the shoulder, mentally checking that he had brought everything. "Does he know that I am coming?"

"Yes. I told him on Friday so he had time to adjust to the news."

"Great. Also can I borrow a ball? I want to see if I can get him to play with me."

"Sure. You can get one from the playroom." Matt looked to a nearby door the white bunny was pointing at followed her white paw to.

Opening the door, Matt grabbed a big soft rubber ball that was safe for kits to kick around. The ball was bigger than his head so he guessed it should be good for the seven year old fox.

He stopped in front of the fox's room and took a few breaths. He felt his heart racing in his chest but at least he was able to get his nose twitching under control. He looked at the bandage on his forearm. Matt put a smile on his face and knocked.

"Hello Kyle. It is me, Matt. I'm coming in." He opened the door and walked in.

This time the room was more sunny. The curtains were pulled open from the window so afternoon lit up the room. Kyle stood at the end of his bed, his paw shakily gripping the frame for balance as his legs strained to remain upright. His big icy blue eyes stared at Matt, looking at the rabbit with unease.

"Hello." Matt waved softly and put his bag next to the door. "How are you?"

Matt sat on the floor a few feet away from the boy. The rabbit retrieved the ball he just got, before tossing it in his paws. Kyle's eyes followed the ball with great interest but he did not say anything.

"I was thinking that this time we can try to play." Matt gently set the ball on the floor. Matt's only goal was to get Kyle to move. He had read that canines loved chasing balls. He rolled the ball towards the apprehensive looking fox but not directly at him. It would bounce against the wall and get back to Matt. So Kyle needed to intercept it.

As soon as he rolled the ball he saw Kyle move. He turned towards the ball so one paw left the bed. Matt saw an excited look in Kyle's eyes, his tail starting to wag a little at the prospect of chasing the ball. Matt watched in amazement. But, just as suddenly his mood improved, the boy's mood changed. Confused, Matt tried once again but this time Kyle did not move, with only his eyes following the ball. After a few more bounced attempts, Kyle folded his ears against his head and looked very uncomfortable.

"I guess we can try another time." Matt conceded, trying to sound upbeat about it all. He could see that the fox kit wanted to chase the ball but for some reason did not.

"I guess I need to do more research…" Matt thought. Putting the ball next to the door, out of the way so the fox wouldn't be stressed about it, Matt went back to his bag and pulled his laptop out of it.

"Would you like to watch another episode of The Magic Classroom?" he asked. Kyle's sadness dropped away as he eagerly nodded and his tail flicked a few times.

"Ok then get on the bed and I will get it ready." Kyle clumsily climbed on the bed and waited for the show. Matt pulled a chair close to the bed so they could watch it together.

He put the laptop on the bed and, on purpose, set the screen at a bad angle so the show would be discolored.

"Is that angle good for you?" The fox shook his head. "Should I tilt it back or forward?" Matt asked, looking intently at the kit.

"Back." Kyle answered as he waited patiently for the show to start. His voice was soft and childish. Matt knew that the boy was only seven years old but it was still weird to hear such a childish voice coming from someone almost as tall as him. Matt smiled kindly. Kyle did not seem to realize that he talked to Matt, his eyes still glued to the screen. Matt adjusted the screen and they watched the show together.

Kyle looked relaxed as he watched the show. Matt tried to follow the boy's example and focused on the show rather than on the fact that he was sitting next to a predator. The program was made for children but it was still interesting.

After an hour of watching, Matt checked his watch, realising that he needed to leave soon. As the second episode came to a close, Matt switched off and packed up his laptop. Headin to the door, Matt picked up the ball and began to open the door. But, before he left, he turned to look at the fox, looking at him as he lay on the bed.

"I will see you next Monday. Bye Kyle."

Matt smiled and waved as he slowly began to close the door. And, just as the door was beginning to shut completely, Kyle waved back.