Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
Miles
The next day, Aeson came to visit the kitten—and probably check on the egg—and I was…
unsure of how to bring it up. He’d shown up right after I’d gotten out of the shower after work—it had been a long and disgusting day, so I’d taken a second shower because who the hell wanted to be covered in goblin slime all night long?
—and even though I wanted to just crash on the couch and order takeout for dinner, I did my best to offer him a welcoming smile.
“Come on in, Ace.” I’d actually thought it was Win at the door—I really should give him a key.
He gave me a look and hesitated. “Are you sure? I don’t have to if you’re busy—”
“No, no. Of course you can come in. Sorry. It’s been a long day, but I’m sure Confetti will love to see you.
Plus, you can wear her out so maybe she’ll sleep tonight.
” She liked to wake me up in the middle of the night by jumping on top of my head and trying to play with me, the little turd. Cute turd, but definitely a turd.
That got a grin out of him, and he came inside. “Morty’s working tonight, so I thought I’d come over.”
“That’s cool. Win’ll be here soon. He went home to shower.”
Goliath came over to give Aeson some doggie kisses, and the teen hugged him. “Goliath’s here without Win?”
“Oh, well, Golly stayed here with Odin and Confetti while we were working, so…” I trailed off with a shrug.
The kids didn’t have a home, and now Aeson was here, and I didn’t know what to do. Should I ask him to stay here? I had the room. Hell, I had two bedrooms that no one used. Chaos and Ace could each stay in one. Or they could share if they wanted.
But if I asked, would they stay? Or would I scare them away and never be able to find them again?
That was the last thing I wanted to happen.
I felt… responsible for these kids.
Yeah, they weren’t my children, obviously, but they were starting to feel like… like family, I guessed. Or at least friends.
I rubbed my forehead, trying to get rid of the headache forming there.
I was tired, hungry, and really hoping Win would be here soon so he could make all the noise in my head disappear.
And because I kind of would really like some… cuddles.
Ugh.
What was he turning me into lately? How had I become addicted to his snuggles?
“How’s the egg doing?” He nodded toward the nest in the living room.
“Good. No change.”
Aeson dropped to the floor the second Confetti trotted into the room, and the kitten meowed so loudly, sounding like she’d found her long lost best friend. I supposed she had.
“I’m ordering food. What do you want?”
Aeson cuddled Confetti to his chest, looking up at me from the floor and looking like the young teenager he really was. “I guess I won’t be able to convince you that I don’t need you to feed me?”
I snorted. “Yeah, not happening. I’m ordering you—and Chaos—food, whether you tell me what you want or not.”
“Morty doesn’t get off till nine.”
I shrugged. “Then you can take his food with you, and you guys can eat it later or tomorrow or whatever.”
Aeson stared at me for a long time before he finally said, “Um, what about Chinese?”
I offered a smile. “Perfect. What do you and Chaos like?” I remembered a few of the things they’d eaten when we’d eaten Chinese at the gnome house, but honestly, that was too long ago to remember details.
Aeson listed off a few things he and Chaos liked, and I decided to order all of it. I knew what Win would want, so I went ahead and placed the order. I knew he was as hungry as I was after the day we’d had, so I didn’t want to wait any longer.
He came in a few minutes later without even knocking—I’d left the door unlocked for him—and he kissed my cheek, then smiled at Aeson, saying, “Hey, kiddo. How’re you doing?”
Aeson nodded, using a wand toy to play with both Confetti and Odin. “I’m good. Been working a lot this week, but I finally had today off, so I thought I’d come see how Confetti’s doing.”
Winter greeted all the animals, including Sola, who was on her perch, watching over all of us like we were her minions. It was cute—I loved it.
Then he sat on the floor across from Aeson, saying, “She’s been doing great. She’s eating more and more wet food every day, so we’ll probably be able to wean her from the bottle by next week.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Yep. She’s doing awesome, and she and Odin are either playing like this or cuddled up somewhere together. And when Goliath’s here, they usually wind up cuddling with him too. I have a ton of pictures. Wanna see?”
Aeson nodded, so Winter pulled out his phone, found the pictures, and passed it over to the kid.
Aeson asked, “Can I send myself some of these?”
“Yeah, sure. As many as you want. I’ll start sending you updates if you want?”
He nodded. “Definitely. Thanks, Win.”
Winter smiled softly at him, then looked at me. “Did you order food yet?”
“Yep. Chinese. Should be here in about twenty.”
He sighed in happiness. “Thank god. I’m starving.”
“Me too.” I sat beside him, and he put an arm behind my back, hand resting on my hip as he pulled me closer into his side. “Today was a lot.”
He snorted. “Yeah, it really was.”
I leaned in, letting him take some of my weight, physically and metaphorically. He was so good to me, and I found myself leaning more and more on him, and he seemed to… like it.
I’d never had that before.
We stayed that way with Aeson playing with the cats, and Winter and I simply being with one another for a long time, and when the doorbell rang, Winter was the one who got up.
He brought in the food, so we moved to the table, and of course, Aeson had the kitten in his arms the entire time.
We ate and hung out, and neither Win nor I brought up anything about foster homes or runaways.
We were both unsure since we hadn’t planned for this, but I wanted so badly to ask Ace—and Chaos—to stay here.
Aeson hung out all night, and when Chaos came to pick him up, I was surprised the kid came to the door.
“Do you want to come in?”
He glanced past me at Aeson and Confetti, and I had a feeling that he missed the kitten too.
So I opened the door wider and waved him in. “Come say hi to the animals and get some food.”
He nodded, not making eye contact, as he walked in and immediately dropped down to the floor in front of the kitten. Win shot me a grin from his spot on the couch, so I went over to join him.
We watched the kids playing for a little while, and my eyes started to droop. I was ready for bed, and I really, really, really wanted to ask them to stay, but I was too nervous that they’d take it the wrong way and run away from us.
Plus, I wanted to talk to Win about it.
Chaos gasped loudly, and my head snapped over to him. He was standing in front of the nest. “Holy shit, did you guys see this? There’s a crack.”
Win, Aeson, and I all jumped to our feet and rushed over to get a closer look. Sure enough, there was a large crack running down the side of the egg.
“Holy crap,” I breathed out as Win wrapped an arm around my back, kissing my temple. “We’re gonna have a baby dragon.”
Aeson let out a strangled squeal-like sound that had all the animals jumping and staring at him like he’d suddenly grown three heads.
“Oh my god! I’m sooooooo excited! We have to call Lyric—they texted me to ask me to make sure you guys didn’t forget about them when the dragon hatched.
Holy crap.” He turned to me. “Can we stay? I know it can take hours, and it’s late, but we’ll be quiet.
We can watch the egg if you guys want to go to sleep or something. ”
“Of course you can stay. You’re always welcome here. You don’t even need the excuse of watching a once-in-a-lifetime dragon egg hatching.”
He snorted and threw his arms up in the air like he was silently cheering, making me and Win chuckle. Chaos shot him a small smile but quickly refocused on the egg.
Win said, “I’m gonna call Mags.”
“Yeah?”
He glanced at me. “Is that okay? If I ask her and Nash to come?”
I kissed his cheek. “Of course. You don’t even have to ask.”
“Thanks, sugar butt.” He pecked my lips, grinned at me, and pulled out his phone.
I yawned and stretched. This was really exciting, and I didn’t want to miss it, but I also wanted to get some sleep. It could take literal hours for the dragon to hatch.
After Win got off the phone, Chaos and Ace were talking excitedly, which was cute.
I said to Win, “Oh, I have an air mattress upstairs. We could set it up in here for the kids, and you and I can nap on the couch—and Lyric, Maggie, and Nash, if they come early. We can all take turns keeping watch until it’s ready to come out completely.”
“That’s a good plan. I think those three are waiting until we text them that it’s actually happening.”
“That works.”
“Where’s the air mattress? I can go grab it.” I waved him off, but he grabbed my hand and kissed it. “Why don’t you move the coffee table out of the way and maybe get some snacks and stuff while I get the air mattress and set it up?”
“Okay, fine. It’s in the last bedroom’s closet. On the floor.”
“Got it.” He gave me a wink and headed for the stairs.
“Miles!” An excited whisper woke me. “Miles, wake up!”
I jerked awake and hit my head on something hard.
A groan that sounded like Winter filled my ears, and I winced.
“Sorry, Win.”
“It’s okay. Didn’t need my chin, anyway.”
I snorted, turned from where I lay on his chest, and gave said chin a quick kiss before focusing on the teenager in front of me. “What’s up, Ace?”
He bounced on his toes. “The dragon’s hatching!”
My eyes widened, and I sat up, narrowly missing Win’s chin. “It is?”
Ace bounced in place again. “Yes! Come on!” He ran back over to the nest where Chaos was already sitting, staring at the egg.
I helped Win to his feet, and we lumbered over at a slower pace, and I pulled a chair over because I was way too tired to stand around at—I checked my phone—four o’clock in the morning.