Chapter 12

Chapter

Twelve

T he sandpit was the coolest thing in a long history of cool things. Well, it was actually really hot, but it was Hawk hot, and it hadn't burned him. Not even when they'd fallen asleep.

Of course, he kinda fit into one of Hawk's paws, didn't he. Well, not really, but into the crook of his dragon front arm, yes.

Wallowing in hot sand. Who knew? It was an amazing thing.

And it had eased his worry. Made it better.

"Where have you been?" Corbin asked him while he was making dinner, humming this song he could only hear in his head. Cosmo was starting to think of it as Hawk's song. Like their mating tune. Who knew?

"Hawk's volcanic sandpit."

"His what?" Corbin stared at him. "Get out."

"Tis true." He winked. "Instead of a pool, he has sand." Cosmo held out one hand. "I'm glowing, see? Very good for the scales."

"You're shitting me."

"Nope." He shook his butt a little, the song swelling. Hawk must be on his way.

In fact, Hawk came into the room just after that.

"Tell him, babe."

Hawk raised his eyebrows. "Tell him what?"

"About the sand."

"It's a pit? Actually, it's more like volcanic glass sand. It's black, super smooth, perfect for polishing."

Corbin blinked, expression hungry. "Dude, I'm jealous."

"Whyever for?" Hawk smiled at him. "We're family. You're welcome anytime."

Cosmo could feel his brother's shock, could see the hint of surprise. "Really?"

"Yes, brother. Really."

"Thank you." Corbin offered Hawk a quick smile, then peered into the pot, where he was making a vegetable soup from the last of the late summer bounty. "I think the pumpkins are almost ready to harvest. It's been an incredible crop."

"Oh, pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread. Just roasted pumpkin." Cosmo rubbed his hands together, very excited.

"Yum."

"I have a good recipe for pumpkin curry." Hawk began to talk food with Corbin, and he loved to see it.

Things seemed to be easier this evening. He wasn't quite sure if it was because he was relaxed or because things were simply going to be better with Hawk and his brothers as time went on. He wanted everyone to love Hawk like he did.

Well, not exactly like he did…

Cullen's laughter tickled his mind. We do love him, goofball.

I know, I just . "Is it weird to you too?" he burst out at the exact moment as Cullen walked in.

"Is what weird to us too?"

"There's no work. I mean there is housework, but there are no jobs. Gavin's not sending us anywhere. There is precious little beginning, middle, or end? It's just one long story."

It was Corbin who nodded first. "It is weird. Less for me, I think, than for the two of you, because at least I get growing season, harvest season, fallow season. Beginning, middle, end. Inside the house like this, there aren't any."

Hawk gave them all a sad little smile. "That is how life works. You do know that?" He softened the words with a smile and a blown kiss to Cosmo. "We have this timeline, and we wander along it inventing, building beginnings, middles, and ends."

Cosmo shook his head. "No, we're not simply inventing. We didn't make up our beginning. And the end won't come until it's both of us together. All of us. That's an eternity away."

Hawk came to him, hugged him. "You do know if you want to go back to work, I would come with you?"

Cosmo stared at Hawk. "Love. You can't just wander out in the human world. You are kind of intensely dragony. Cullen could cover you, but if something happened, and he slipped? Whoa. It would be a nightmare."

Hawk tilted his head, eyebrows drawing down. "What do you mean?"

Cosmo stroked Hawk's forehead. "Up here. Scales." He kept touching. "Eyes, dragon. Arms. Belly. You're very dragony, love."

Hawk looked shocked. "I suppose since I don't have to hold a certain form…"

Cosmo nodded. "Right. Just like I'm really pink. I could be not pink, but it takes some energy. Honestly, though, I like being pink."

He loved getting his dragon on.

"I love you being pink too." Hawk winked at him, and Cosmo had to grin because he could see the care in Hawk's eyes. "But I understand what you mean about us not going out."

"No. It's not like I won't take you out. It just means that we have to be careful about it." Cosmo figured there were just a few logistics involved.

Hawk shook his head. "I'm perfectly content here. I just don't want you to be unhappy, love. You or your brothers. If we need to have some sort of ceremony to make it where there's a beginning, middle, and end to the years, we could start celebrating the holidays? We've let several go by, I think, without notice since I came. Is that something that you do?"

"We've never celebrated the human holidays completely because we don't really know them as well, I suppose. But that could be fun." Cosmo liked the idea of like, decorating. He would get on Pinterest.

Corbin nodded. "We could get a calendar. We could do all sorts of stuff. I kind of like that idea. You know, weird holidays. They have all sorts of things now, like. Bring your dog to work day. That kind of weirdness."

Cosmo blinked at Corbin. "We don't really have dogs."

"Well, we could." Corbin laughed out loud. "I mean, a lot of dragons we know have familiars."

Cullen shook his head. "No, but those familiars show up on their own. We don't do that."

Hawk tilted his head to one side. "I seem to remember having a familiar once. Not the way that omegas do when they have babies, but I do remember it. That was a long time ago. I think it was a big cat."

"Really? What kind?"

"Oh, I imagine it was something amazing brought over from Africa. Something no one had ever seen back then."

"That's really cool. I mean, not that somebody would take a lion away from their family and take it to Europe. But that you know all about how it happened. The story behind it." Cosmo had never felt as anchored in history as Hawk.

"I know all sorts of things, my love. If you think really hard on it and decide that you want a familiar, then one will show up."

"Is that how it happens?"

"Well," Hawk mused, "it can also work when someone in the family is having a baby and then the familiar is needed to help take care of the children, but that's not the only reason they show up. It's just like a brownie or another house spirit. When they're needed, they come."

"Do you really think so?" That was kind of an intriguing thought. He loved the idea of having more friends to enjoy, more beings to interact with.

It wasn't as if he was bored.

There was so much to do and so much to learn, and he had Hawk. He just felt unrooted, like it wouldn't take anything to just spin them away into nothingness. That was an uncomfortable way to live.

"Well, when you get pregnant, someone will come, right, Cosmo?" Cullen acted as if it was just a simple and easy answer.

"Well, I think it's more an if than a when, isn't it?" He wasn't pregnant now, and it wasn't like they hadn't been very, very busy.

"Oh. I suppose you're right. Maybe we can't get pregnant…" Cullen started creating balls of rainbow-colored light and juggling them.

"Maybe I don't want to," he shot back.

"You don't have to," Hawk growled.

"Of course you don't. Cullen was just being a dipshit." Corbin patted his arm before pulling him into a hug and squeezing him tight. "We have plenty to do without babies being involved."

"Absolutely," Cullen agreed, balls splashing to the ground. "Totally. So much. So many things. All the things we need to do, right?" Cullen gave him a worried, apologetic little smile. Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, not at all. "I really think that I walked into this conversation in the middle of everything. Should I make bread? Or something?"

"Or something. There's bread already." You're fine, brother. I'm just…it's sad. He forced himself to shake off any tension. "No one's in trouble. It's weird. That we're—I mean, the dragons get pregnant all the time."

"Well, not Brandon," Corbin pointed out. "Brandon had to have a little help."

"Right, Stella, the owl baby." Beautiful little clever girl.

Hawk looked like they were speaking a foreign language. "Stella the owl baby?"

Cosmo nodded, heading over to pull out some soup bowls. "Yes. Apparently, Brandon was having problems conceiving."

Cullen made a sad sound. "And he wanted to have a baby so badly, and after a lot of time…"

"Zeke talked to Auntie Arian," Corbin added.

"He did, and Brandon got pregnant, but she's not exactly a dragon like her fathers." Not that Brandon and Abe cared. Not at all.

"In fact, she's sort of an owl." Cullen suddenly grew feathers.

"Like a literal owl?" It said something that Hawk didn't even flinch at Cullen.

"Oh no. She's…" How to explain?

"She's very, very special." Cullen spread his fingers and there was Stella, tiny and perfect and brilliant, but absolutely not dragonkind.

"Oh." Hawk seemed fascinated.

"But he's only had the one baby," Corbin explained. "And they're both perfectly happy."

"And I'm perfectly happy without any babies." Mostly. It was really weird that he couldn't have babies. But he was happy.

Hawk pulled him close, kissing his temple. "I am happy with you no matter how we do it, love." And I should never have brought up babies. Your brothers are…very concerned.

They are. But that's just because they love me.

Mmm. So do I. Hawk nuzzled his cheek.

Corbin gave them a look. "Do you need to go get a room?"

"Nope. We're going to have hot chocolate. And maybe cinnamon toast. That's something you can make, Cullen."

"Woo." Cullen got to work slicing bread, and he turned the conversation to something else.

The last thing Cosmo wanted was to make everyone else as restless and weird as he was…