Page 34 of Mistletoe and Mayhem
“And you need to call Ozen because…” Kian trailed off suspiciously.
“Because you stole my wallet?” Dorian replied uneasily. He really hated upsetting his mate. Especially after all Kian had done to help him relax the past few days.
Huffing out a laugh, Kian straightened. “I forgot about that. Fine, I’ll let you off just this once. But we’re not doing any activities, so it doesn’t matter. You’re supposed to be relaxing.”
Pushing off the side of the bed where he’d been seated, Dorian crossed the room to stand in front of his mate, taking his hands. “I appreciate everything we’ve done so far. I’m much more relaxed than I expected at this point. But I can see the toll the slow pace has been taking on you. You’re bored, Kian. And I won’t be able to relax knowing you’re unhappy.”
Kian’s mouth twitched, a frown trying to pull at his lips, though he tried to hide it. Dorian could see him trying to hide his unhappiness. He was doing his best for Dorian, but Kian hadn’t even pulled any pranks this week. He was suppressing who he was to make Dorian happy, and Dorian didn’t like that.
While he didn’t often participate in Kian’s pranks, he enjoyed watching the way he smiled when doing something mischievous, and the way he cackled when he got caught. He was never cruel about it, his pranks were relatively harmless and even those who got the more harsh pranks never complained to SR. They took Kian’s playfulness in stride, because he was kind and thoughtful, and if you treated him fairly, he proved to be a good ally. Dorian would take issue with anyone trying to dim his mate. His pranks and playfulness were part of who he was.
Dipping his head, he pressed a soft kiss against Kian’s lips. “Come now, dearheart. Let me pamper you a little. This vacation should be fun for the both of us.”
Kian sighed, leaning his forehead against Dorian’s as the mask finally slipped, and the strain around Kian’s eyes became more apparent. “I was trying to be good. You need rest.”
“Sharing experiences with my mate and caring for him is relaxing for me. It puts me at ease knowing you’re happy.”
A smile tugged at Kian’s lips, his tone teasing when he said, “Sap.” He followed it up with a sweet kiss, so Dorian knew he wasn’t complaining. He straightened with a nod. “Alright. Show me what you planned for us. I’m vetoing anything that will stress you out.”
Dorian figured he’d say that, so he’d thankfully crossed off things like skydiving and base jumping. He wouldn’t be able to stomach watching Kian do those things, much less do it himself.
He handed Kian the list, studying his beauty as he read it over. Those gorgeous blue and lilac eyes were captivating, and he wished not for the first time he had requested that Kian’s office be shared with his so he could look at them whenever he wished.
A light pink tinged Kian’s cheeks, and he twisted his mouth to hide his smile. “Stop staring at me.”
“Never,” Dorian denied with his own smile.
The activities were enjoyable,snorkeling to catch glimpses of the kraken city, a mixology course run by the bartender who’d invented the blood-based drinks Dorian enjoyed so much, that kind of thing. But it was when Dorian told Kian to return to his mischievous ways that seemed to ease his mate’s stress.
It wasn’t immediate, and it took some coaxing. Kian was unwilling to do anything that might stress Dorian out, and getting into trouble with the kraken police would definitely stress him out. But Kian’s pranks were never harmful, and he needed to let off some steam. So, to encourage him, Dorian planned his own pranks on his mate. Well, he tried anyway. He wasn’t as creative as Kian.
His first attempt at pranking his mate was a simple towel swap. They came in from the terrace after a swim, where two towels were supposed to be waiting for them to dry off. Dorian handed Kian his, but he’d swapped it out before and handed him a hand towel instead. His little prank backfired, because Kian just shrugged and dropped his swim shorts, drying off with the hand towel with no shame whatsoever. Dorian had to use hisown towel to hide his mate and spent the rest of the evening glaring at anyone who came close to Kian.
His next few attempts, he tried to get Mickey to help him. Mickey brought Kian a drink so obnoxiously decorated with those little umbrellas, it was almost impossible to drink it, but Kian just smirked and plunked a straw in the middle of all the umbrellas, completely unfazed by the prank.
It seemed that Dorian would need to up the ante to get his mate to prank him back. So, while was playing in the water, Dorian snuck off to talk to Mickey again.
“You want me to put glitter in the sunblock?” Mickey asked uncertainly.
Dorian nodded, glancing over his shoulder toward the beach. Kian was still swimming around and hadn’t noticed him yet, but he only had a minute or two to plan this out with Mickey before he noticed he was gone.
“You don’t think he’ll be mad?”
Dorian didn’t even have to think about that. “No. He loves pranks. Our mutual friend, Taron, had once ‘accidentally’ bumped into us at the market and swapped Kian’s shampoo out with some meant to change a person’s hair color. Kian laughed until he cried when he saw his reflection, then turned around and set a spell on Taron so that every time he was near one of his mates he’d trip and look like he was swooning.”
“Ohhh…” Mickey nodded slowly in understanding. “So we’re trying to prank a master prankster. And you only want to add glitter to his sunblock?”
Dorian resisted the urge to pout at the dubious tone. He could admit he wasn’t a great prankster, but he’d thought the glitter would be funny.
“Uh oh. I think he noticed us. I’ll do the glitter thing and bring you another drink just so he doesn’t get suspicious,”Mickey rushed out, hurrying away while Dorian headed back for their loungers.
Kian met him there, still dripping, a quirk to his mouth that said he knew exactly what Dorian was attempting and found it amusing.
“Why were you talking to Mickey?”
“My drink melted while we were swimming. I was asking for another.” That wasn’t a lie, though he had purposely stopped drinking it so he’d have the excuse, and when Mickey showed up with his drink a moment later, Kian let his sneaky behavior go with a shrug.
“No planning any activities tomorrow,” Kian insisted. “I’ve got plans for us.”
