"You sure you want to do this?"

Orion and I are standing outside of a large building. We're both staring up at the multiple floors. Orion decked out with his leather jacket, eyeliner (he's wearing contacts), boots, and tight black jeans, hands shoved in his pants pockets. Me standing beside him, dressed...well, regularly, with my t-shirt and jeans, also with my hands in my pockets.

Orion looks at me. "Yeah."

"Once we do this..."

Orion grins at me. "I know."

"Alright. After you, then." I hold out my left hand which still has the wedding band on it after a year.

My husband grins at me a bit and then walks towards the building. I follow, keeping my head down. He holds the door open for me and I enter wordlessly. Orion comes up behind me and takes my hand; I can feel it shaking. I smile, giving it a squeeze before releasing it.

"Relax. We're probably not even going to find anyone this go around."

"Y-Yeah," he replies, running his hand through his hair.

"And if we don't, don't be too disappointed. These things can take awhile, love."

He nods, his eyes becoming hard. "Yeah-trust me, I know."

I kiss his cheek just as a woman begins to walk up. She beams at us, stopping only when a small group of children run past her, laughing and shouting. She laughs too, scolds them to slow down, and then continues to walk to us.

Orion smiles and holds out his hand. The woman reaches out, shaking it.

"Thank you so much for seeing us," Orion tells her. He slips his hand back into his pocket once they're done shaking. "This is my husband, Tristan."

Every damn time he calls me his husband my heart flutters, even a year on. I love it.

"A pleasure to meet you," she says, shaking my hand and I smile at her.

"The pleasure's mine," I tell her.

"I just want to thank you both for your continued donations to our facility," the woman continues, smiling.

"Of course," Orion replies, "these group homes are very near and dear to me, so anything I can do to help out I will."

"So," the woman continues, "were there any criteria you would like to meet?"

Orion glances at me. He's the one spearheading this, and I know how much doing this means to him, so I gesture at him to speak.

"Older children..." he chuckles. "Everyone always clamors over the babies and seem to forget there are older children in need of good homes just as much as any baby." He holds up his hands. "Don't get me wrong, I love babies as much as the next person, but."

She laughs. "Of course--who doesn't love babies?"

"Ms. Halsey, Ms. Halsey!"

I look down. There's a little girl and a little boy standing at the woman's side. The little boy is tapping Mrs. Halsey frantically on the arm. The little girl is looking up at her with wide dark eyes.

I'm intrigued immediately. They're clearly twins. Both have naturally black hair and brown eyes. The little girl has her hair in two braid, and while she's dressed differently, I can't help but think of Wednesday Addams immediately.

"Thomas," Ms. Halsey says a little tersely, "I'm talking right now."

"I know," the boy who can't be older than nine says, "but Sam's locked the bathroom again."

Ms. Halsey chuckles, rolling her eyes. "Alright, thank you for telling me."

"You're welcome."

As the pair hold hands and start to walk away, Orion squats down.

"Wait you two. Would you mind coming here?"

The two turn around and walk back to Orion. I notice the little girl has freckles, and it's adorable. Very shyly they look at Orion. He smiles at them.

"What are your names?"

Nervously they look up at Ms. Halsey. She laughs. "Well go ahead, you can answer him."

"I'm Hazel," the little girl says. She's clearly the more bold of the two. And I can tell with how she's standing slightly in front of her brother she's the protector of the pair. "This is Thomas."

Orion continues to smile. "How old are you?"

"We're seven and three quarters."

That makes Orion laugh. I can't help but smirk. Orion looks up at Ms. Halsey for a moment. "Kids say the darndest things, eh?"

She laughs. "That's for sure."

Orion looks at them. "Are you guys twins?"

"Yes sir."

Orion glances up at Ms. Halsey again, eyebrows raised. "Polite."

"We try."

Orion gets more comfortable, sitting on the ground cross-legged. The children scurry back. Orion continues to smile at them disarmingly. "Do you mind if I ask you guys some questions?"

Thomas and Hazel exchange a look. Once again, Hazel speaks for them. "Okay."

"How long have you been here for?"

Hazel looks up at Ms. Halsey. Ms. Halsey replies for them. "Since they were one."

Orion looks back at the children, and he looks pretty choked up. "So you've been here for as long as you can remember?"

Hazel nods, and Thomas joins in, and then Orion nods with them. "Do you like it here?"

"It's wonderful," Hazel says softly. "I don't want to leave, because when we leave I won't be with Thomas anymore."

I put a hand to my mouth. I wasn't expecting that, and it just broke my heart.

"Why do you say that?" Orion asks, his voice shaking.

"Everyone knows that," Hazel replies, and Thomas side-steps to hide behind her.

"Hazel," Ms. Halsey says strictly, but it's not direct at Hazel. "Where did you hear that?"

Hazel rubs her eye with her fist and doesn't respond. So Thomas speaks up. "The kids tease us about how we're gonna be split up."

"That's not very nice," Ms. Halsey says, looking murderous. "Later on we're going to talk, children, and then I'll talk to whoever has said those things to you, okay?"

"Hey," Orion says, getting up on his knees. He reaches out and takes both their hands, one in each of his own. "That's not going to happen. I promise you."

They look up at Ms. Halsey, her mouth twitching into a small frown. She remains silent while her eyes flash like lightening.

"I promise you, Hazel and Thomas. Do you understand?"

"Yes," they both say quietly.

"Children," Ms. Halsey says, "run along now. I'll unlock the bathroom shortly."

Without another word the pair run off. As Orion gets to his feet a tear drips onto his cheek. He wipes it off quickly and takes a deep breath.

"I really wish you hadn't said that," Ms. Halsey says desperately. "There's a very real chance they are going to be split up. No one wants to adopt twins."

"I promised it because I don't break promises," he tells her strictly, sounding almost angry. "And it's going to happen because people do adopt twins, and I'm one of those people. I want to adopt them, because it's over my dead body they're going to be split up."