IMPORTANT: this series contains: strong language and depiction of sexual abuse!!! Only read if you can handle these! Love you, and stay safe!

"So, we will be fostering a boy?" "Yes. Tau is one of our - let's say - complicated cases. He lost his family while one of the bush fires two years ago. Since then, luck wasn't on his side. He has been at about ten foster families without any success. He's very impulsive and aggressive at some point." "Aggressive", Kaami interrupted as we walked through a huge corridor. The dark carpet completely absorbed our footsteps and made everything seem quiet, almost spooky. As Kaami and I walked next to each other his hand brushed against mine.

"It's not like he can control it when he gets aggressive. It's like a trauma. If he has some adults around him who support him in his positive behavior, maybe the aggressive part will fade away." "You mean, like we have to spend some time with him and - poof - his aggression will magically fade away?" I knew, Kaami was sarcastic right now, but Cheryl didn't. She nodded slightly and added. "It will not fade like real magic, but we hope that he will be able to get a real family after the fostering time." "A real family?" "Yes. If you are successive, he will get into our adoption program and be able to have a forever family." "About that part-" I stopped so that she had to look at me. "If this is going well, why can't we adopt him? I mean, we will be his family for some time, I guess. He gets to know us and we get to know him. It will be like a real family. Why-" "I thought we have talked about that. We already made exceptions for you. Normally a gay couple wouldn't even be able to foster. You should be thankful for this chance."

I wanted so say something. I wanted to say anything, but Kaami´s hand stopped me from talking.

His tight grip held my shaking hand. I closed my mouth and just continued walking.

"See it as opportunity. You always can give him back. Most of the couples today signed a contract to adopt the kids after one or two years of fostering. If you don't get along. You just give us a call and we take him."

As if it was that easy. If we had decided to adopt a stray dog we wouldn't do it for some short time like one or two years. either!

 "We know that. Thank you. Can we maybe continue and meet Tau?" "Sure. Follow me. It's the next door to the right." She gestured at a wooden door. It was plain and white and looked like we were about to enter a psychiatric room.

"One thing about Tau: He doesn't like Ti-" "O my GOD! FINALLY!" Before Cheryl could finish her sentence, the door swung open and a rather fat man exited. When he recognized her he huffed and made a few steps forward. "I can't watch this brat anymore! I pity everyone who gets to foster him! He's a pain in the ass - excuse my choice of words! I'm happy you are here!"

Then he ran off and left us with the open door.

For a moment neither of us spoke.

Shit!

Cheryl staightened her whole body as she turned around with the brightest face of the whole world. It looked like her mouth would separ ate her face in two halfs any second. It looked hilarious. "Soooo", Kaami spoke first. "What did you want to tell us about Tau - until you got interrupted by this nice gentleman?" He crossed his arms and looked down right at her face, which changed to a bright red. "I, uh - I wanted to say that-"

 "GOD DAMN IT! FUCK YOU ALL!"

 Her mouth stood open like a small, round door - or a silent "oh".

The voice that had interrupted us again came out of the room we were standing right in front of. I had never heard an angry kid's voice - until now. It sounded like Tau wanted to destroy the entire world by yelling as loud and highly pitched as he could. "That's him", I asked, completely unnecessary. Who else should it be when the guy who just ran out of the room told us so?

"Jeah, that's him."

Cheryl's grin faded away - immediately. She sighed. "Let's get this over with. He can be really charming, too, you know."

We entered the room, which came out to be an entire, small apartment. Reminded me of my first one, when I came to town for university.

After passing a very tiny hall we entered a room. And when I say we entered a room, that's what it was: Just a room.

You could turn to every single side, but couldn't see anything. No pictures, no carpet, no bed - nothing!

Except one chair in the middle.

On the chair sat Tau.

I froze immediately and just stared at him.

 His skin was black. Not the black skin you talk about when talking about black people. His skin was unique. At first sight it seemed just black. But when he started moving his skin seemed moving, too, and different shades of purple and blue also appeared.

The moment we appeared, he froze. His mouth was opened in a silent scream and his hands stayed on the seating. Knuckles bunching out white.

White, wide open eyes stared at us. From Kaami to me and back.

Then he stretched out his arm and pointed at Kaami who had been staring at him as well.

"Is. This. A. TIGER?"

He didn't scream. His voice sounded unbelieving, nervous.

With the coffee cup in my hand I turned to Kaami and looked at him. He and the boy had locked eyes. Kaamis golden-blue eyes twitched left and right. His entire body was covered in fur. Orange and black and white. His round ears were flattened to his back head and his tail, that hung out under his button down shirt, see-sawed nervously.

Sometimes I completely forgot about the fact of having a fursona boyfriend. Well, it happened all the time because it didn't matter to me. I loved Kaami. Not for what he was but who. The what had never been important to me. But this boy seemed to be very concerned about the what.

Cheryl made a step closer. "Tau, these two are your foster parents." "My what?"

"Hi there. My name is Kaami", Kaami introduced himself. He tried to relax and waved at Tau, who still seemed very nervous. I moved closer, grabbed Kaami's hand and tried a smile. "I'm Nik. Nice to meet you, Tau."

 Silence.

 Then: "You're gay? You're fucking GAY?" His voice raised again. He jumped out of his seat in one single move. With his hands clenched to fists he stood there.

"This can't be real. You're kidding me! Cheryl! FUCK! What the hell?!" 

"Calm down, Tau. Let's talk." "I don't want to talk! You know me! You know my past! You KNOW I HATE TIGERS", he shouted, finger pointed at Kaami again.

"You hate tigers?" Kaami kept holding my hand. He was shaking, like me. What was this all about? "He hates tigers? And you match the only people who he can't get along with?" His voice wasn't calm anymore as he faced Cheryl who made one step back.

"Fine, now why are you afraid of me, too?" She just shrugged.

This was all wrong. This whole situation was messed up! We were standing in the middle of an empty room like idiots.

"He is the only kid you will be able to foster", she whispered. "And you! You know exactly why you always get foster parents like that!" She gestured at us and I got the impression this was all made up for us so we would back off. This was like a theatre-play. She knew exactly what was wrong with that kid. She knew this would never work out. That was the reason we got matched. Just to show the faggots how unsuitable they were for fostering!

 The thought was disgusting.

 Tau started screaming like a dying animal. He completely lost it and went for Cheryl who couldn't step back fast enough. He grabbed her arms and started shaking her. "Why? Why? Why? I'll take everyone else! Anyone! No TIGER!" Tears fell out of his eyes.

"You had plenty of chances, young man." Cheryl's voice was squeaky again.

"Could we all CALM DOWN", Kaami's voice growled. Both, Cheryl and Tau froze.

"You sit down! And you", he pointed at Cheryl who flinched as her name was said. She nodded, then complimented us out of the room.

Tau stood there as if he didn't belong here at all.

"Now. What's wrong with him? Why can't he stand tigers?"

After we had closed the door we stood there, in the middle of the hallway. Looking at another, no one started talking. Cheryl was clearly shockey by what had happened the moment before. She still shivered and couldn't concentrate.

"Cheryl", I tried softer and touched her shoulder.

Finally she looked me in the eyes. Her own ones were wide open - light green.

"I-I'm sorry." She brushed a few hair-strands back into her knot as she looked from me to Kaami. "I didn't mean to offend you." "Well, that's a bit too late now." She looked at the floor while covering her chest with her arms as if she was feeling cold. I sighed. "It's okay. The situation isn't easy for either of us. We all want this to be over as fast as possible. Could you please tell us the reason, Tau got this emotional?" "Sure. Follow me." Her voice sounded tired. She didn't even try to be friendly anymore.

Cherly brought us to another room. This one wasn't as plain as the one Tau was still in but it didn't have much more furniture, either. There was a white desk in the middle. On its backside was just one seat while there were two on the other.

"Have a seat, please."

I was nervous.

What could possibly be the reason for such behaviour? I didn't want to know, but we had to! Otherwise we would never be able to foster this child!

"So? What's the matter with Tau?" "Tau got", Cheryl started talking. She still avoided looking at us, so she just stared at the table, where she had folded her hands as if she was praying. I also prayed this would be over soon.

"When his family died in the Bush Fires, we tried to find families who were willing to foster him as fast as we could. There was one family that immediately assured us to take him in. They already had two foster kids. We thought they knew how to handle a third one."

When she paused, Cheryl looked up at us - she looked up at Kaami. He just sat there and listened, arms crossed over his chest.

"They didn't", I asked. Cheryl shook her head no. "They knew how to handle kids, we thought they knew. After a few visits I recognized that Tau became silent when his foster dad was around. He didn't laugh, he didn't smile and he never wanted to touch him." "Touch?" "Yeah. After some time, most of the foster kids get comfortable enough, to touch their foster parents - like holding hands or leaning on their shoulder or hug. Tau never got close to his foster dad and when the man took him in for a hug, Tau completely froze or ducked as if he had to protect himself from the other man."

She stopped talking and kneaded her hands in discomfort.

"We hadn't recognized this behavior for so long."

I could feel shivers running down my spine. What was going on right now? Was this still about us as the people who were sitting right in front of her. It was such a weird feeling. Like too much pressure in the air. This feeling, like something bad was about to happen. "So we made an excuse to take him to the orphanage and to our psychologists. When we tried to talk to him, he - he-" Her voice started shaking as she lifted her hands and covered her face. For a moment we could only hear her breathing.

 "Cheryl?"

 "He broke down! He completely broke down! I've never seen a child like that! It was the worst thing I've ever witnessed! He told us, his so-called foster dad abused the kids. He forced them to touch him, to be naked around him, to- to"

Her voice broke completely.

I could hear her sniffle like a small kid. I fell silent.

"What did he do", Kaami whispered.

 "HE RAPED THEM!"

I almost jumped at her loud squeaky voice.

When she slammed her hands on the table her face was red, eyes wide open - infuriated.

"He fucked all of them the entire time! We had no clue, like the dumbest idiots! He played with us for years! We never asked any of the kids how they were feeling. We never talked to them when he wasn't around. We were so DUMB!"

Speechless I looked down at my hands. My fingers still held the cup of coffee Cheryl had given me about twenty minutes ago. I didn't feel like drinking any of it right now.

"But why - why did you match him with us if you knew his background", I asked. "I mean, Kaami can't change how he looks. He is a tiger. Why did you do that to both of us?"

"I didn't do anything. The principal wanted it. She said that if Tau got fostered by a tiger, maybe this would be good for him to overcome his trauma."

"To overcome his trauma?" Kaami jumped out of his chair. "His TRAUMA? Who do you think we are? Moments ago we were just some faggots you wanted the so called brat deport to and now we have the qualities of some psychologists? That's hilarious! We ain't no doctors nor psychiatrists. We are just a couple who want to foster a kid, because we aren't even allowed to adopt", he roared, then left the room.

Cheryl didn't stop him. She just sat there and stared at the closed door.

After a moment I also rose.

"Give us five minutes."