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And disappearing.

Cullen held it together for the most part, until he saw little Elliot. Standing there, little hand opening and closing over and over again as he waved goodbye.

That was it. It was all over but the crying.

Actually, there was a lot of crying. A lot of crying.

It was Cosmo who stamped his foot, finally, and caught his attention. “That’s enough. It’s not like they’re even going to be gone an entire day. We can totally cope for one whole day. Let’s go eat potato chips. Or popcorn.”

“Pa-corns!” Elliot cheered.

“That’s right. We could make popcorn and watch a movie.”

Cullen glared at his brother, not feeling like making nice. “They’re out there without us.”

Cosmo raised one eyebrow. “Guess what, butt munch. You and Corbin went out without me a lot. Do you remember Poe’s nest of v-a-m-p-i-r-e-s? Was I there? No. Why do you think that was?”

“Oh stop.” He didn’t need to be lectured.

“No, this is what happens. You get pregnant, you have to take responsibility for it.” Cosmo handed him Emily. “Now, we are going to take the children, and we are going to make popcorn, and then we are going to watch movies. Together. Cuddled up in the blankets.”

“Fine, but if you have some kind of a vision, I’m going to kick you. You cannot do your stupid vision thing while I have the babies.” That thought was terrifying.

“All right,” Cosmo conceded. “If that happens, we’ll go to Mother’s.”

He tilted his head. “We could all just kind of go to Mom’s.”

“And leave the house unprotected? And what if they need us? No.” Cosmo’s lips tightened. “Come on, we can do this. We’re going to have to learn how to do this.”

Cullen guessed that Cosmo was right. He hated when Cosmo was right.

But he was. So he smiled for Elliot, then kissed Emily’s cheek, and they went to Corbin’s area of the house to make popcorn. Elliot loved to listen to it ping against the pan.

He also listened hard for Orion and Corbin and even Hawk, who he rarely heard, but he could if it was an emergency.

“You’re going to give yourself a headache,” Cosmo said, putting oil and kernels into the pan. Cosmo wasn’t much for unitaskers, so he didn’t have an air popper.

“I go bye-bye wif Papa soon.” Elliot reached up toward the stove.

“Nope. Hot.” Cullen swooped Elliot up and into his chair. “Oh, my little gargoyle, I think that we should stay here right now, but soon we’ll go bye-bye and see the other dragons, okay?”

“Okay.” Elliot just didn’t want to be left out.

He got it. He didn’t either, but he did have his little butterfly to worry about.I love you, bug. More than I can say.

He felt a little—well, it was honestly like a flutter, like an honest to goodness butterfly in his belly.

He frowned, stilling with his head cocked, as if there was some way for him to hear the feeling.

“What’s wrong? Everything is okay?” Cosmo glanced at him.

“I think the baby just moved. I don’t want her to move, not until…” He began to panic. “Not until Orion comes home. She needs to not move. I want him to feel the first time she moves.”

“It may be a couple of days before that happens. You can usually feel it before.”

Cullen glanced at his brother, tears making his vision swim. “You’re sure?”

“Yep, that’s one of the benefits. Goes along with hormones.”