Page 136 of The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down
“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 meowedsoloudly, 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?”
