"WAIT—" dolly quickly slaps her hand against the doorframe to stop her husband from entering. cub looks at her a bit incredulously, raising an eyebrow. dolly doesn't budge, squinting at him. "..babe, you can't be serious."

"i'm always serious, can't you see it on my face?" if dolly didn't know her husband, she would have thought he was actually unaware of what she was trying to suggest. annoyingly, he was really good at keeping a poker face, even when she was glaring holes into his face. "what?"

dolly bites back an eye roll as it crosses it's arms over her chest. "cub, look down at yourself." never one to refuse his wife (most of the time), cub glances down at his clothes. unsurprisingly, he's covered head to toe in splatters of dye, ranging from yellow, to green, to purple, and a concerning amount of blue and green on his hands and arms. "if you get any dye on my nice furniture, i will throw you out my window."

cub doesn't exactly doubt that, his wife is very strong. and he's witnessed her practically fling a hermit before, he would not put it past her to suddenly be able to launch him, even if he was twice it's size and weight. for about ten seconds, the two stare at each other, unwilling to back down. cub feels his lips twitch slightly upward, before he slowly raises his hands. dolly's eyes shoot open.

"NO!" the doll immediately squeals, ducking down and away from the door before he can grab her. "nonononono, please, come on! i just did laundry! you're such a jerk!" she yelps, half jogging backwards to keep her eye on him.

"what??" cub snorts, very amused by her senseless babbling. he slowly follows her around the outside of the tower, his hands still up and outstretched. "dolly, i just want a hug. i've had such a hard day at the firework factory, can't i relieve my stress by hugging my wife?"

"NO!" she immediately denies, shaking her head frantically. "you're doing this to piss me off—cub, seriously, i—just take a shower first! or go in the lake! hell, i-i'll even hose you off! why do you fight me on this every time!?"

"hm, oh man, that's a really good question…" the vex pretends to think, tilting his head to the side. "maybe because it's funny?" the smile on his face grows wider—sharper. "now come here and hug me."

"AGH! STAY AWAY FROM ME, YOU FREAK—" dolly's voice raises to a fever pitch as cub lunges at her again, immediately breaking out into a full on sprint down the hill the tower was on. cub, being a good husband, knows how to play the long game with her—and doesn't immediately sprint after it. no, that was an rookie move, especially when it came to someone like dolly, who has the ability to scale a small mountain in under ten seconds if she really wanted to evade a chaser.

instead, cub waits ten seconds, until she's out of sight. and then he waits another twenty seconds, because he knows his wife is going to take a while to find a spot to hide, when they both know she's going to choose the exact same spot she always chooses whenever she's trying to have time alone this season—the archway near the entrance of her tower, which is covered up by a plethora of vines and leaves on both sides. she's so predicable it's almost funny. he guessed he couldn't blame her though, there were only so many places to hide on such a short notice. cub takes his time walking down the hill, actually. to him, there's really no rush. dolly will still be there, the shower will still be there, and the dye, still fresh and damp on his hands, will definitely still be there. when he gets to the little alcove, he presses his back against the cold stone, and waits.

after a beat of silence, he hears the smallest bit of rustling, and the sound of his wife letting out a shaky breath. for a few more seconds, cub waits, and waits, and waits, until he catches sight of a delicate hand slowly pushing the vines away, and—

"AH! NO!" dolly shrieks when cub suddenly jumps in front of her and gently pushes her back into the alcove. immediately, the woman starts letting out nervous little giggles, her hands flying up to her mouth to cover them. "cub—cub, please, come ON—!" she can barely finish her sentence before cub basically tackles her down onto the grass, easily using his arms to cushion her fall, and keeping a good amount of his weight off of her.

"…you know, you are really bad at hiding." cub casually acknowledges, ignoring how quickly dolly attempted to swat and shove at him to escape. "i mean, just near terrible. you always choose the worst spot. i think you're worse than scar, and that's saying something."

"….shut up," if looks could kill, cub probably would be a pile of ashes right now. good thing they did not, and that dolly was really bad at keeping her giggles in check. "you still—y-you still have a chance to get up..and walk away right now." it's less like she's warning him right now, and more pleading. if cub was anyone else, he probably would have let her off easy.

cub, thankfully, is not anyone else. cub is exactly who, and where he wants to be right now. "i told you i wanted a hug." is all he tells her, before he quickly rolls onto his back, pulling her on top of him, and squeezing. the shout dolly lets exit her mouth is probably loud enough to alert people in an two hundred block radius, but cub doesn't exactly care. he's way too focused on getting dye wherever he possibly could—mostly on her dress, obviously, but the easiest place he could reach was her face, and the back of her neck.

"shhh," cub shushes his wife over her frantic shrieking and cackling. he's pretty sure she's called him every curse word in the book by now, but she's laughing so hard that he can't really make it out. "don't fight it, i'm just hugging you. can i not hug my wife? let me hug you, dude."

her squirming mometarily pauses, an indignant snort leaving her. "dude??" dolly laughs out, it's hands still weakly shoving at his hands. "are you serious, we're literally married! oh my god, you're such a geek!"

cub's only half listening at this point. not like he's trying to ignore her, never—but the way she laughed (her real laugh, not the polite laugh she does when she's in a crowd) always made his train of thought go a little bit off track. she was always attempting to be so much quieter—so much smaller than it usually was. she doesn't do it as much as she used to, but cub didn't really enjoy when she still tried. in fact, cub enjoyed when dolly the complete opposite. he liked it when she was loud. he loved it, actually. and the fact that he could make her laugh this loudly was something he almost honored. she looked so much better when she wasn't stressing herself out on how to be perfect.

…he's staring, he thinks.

"what?" dolly whines through a giggle, finally knocking cub back into the present. she's in the middle of weakly attempting to wipe the blue dye off of her cheek with the back of her hand. "what's that look for, old man?"

cub blinks a few times, before he gently shrugs. "what look?" he simply responds, deciding not to mention the natural fondness that had just washed over him less than three seconds ago. the vex presses both hands against the side of her face and spreads the dye around a bit more, snickering at the upset shout he gets.

"you're such a bully. you're so mean to me, all day!" the woman loudly complains, her bottom lip jutting out in an upset pout as she lightly pushes his hands away from her cheeks. "how do you sleep at night?"

"with your melatonin gummies." he snorts, slowly rearranging them both so dolly is slightly draped over his lap, his arms still loosely around her. when he feels her glare on him, cub only snorts again. "what? there's no one you can blame other than yourself. you're the one who married me."

dolly opens her mouth, but shuts it again with a little scoff, slumping her face against his chest. "that was before i realized you were a mega jerk times four." she snaps, but there's no venom left in her tone. "you were way nicer to me before we got married."

she wasn't exactly wrong, cub realized. way back when they first met, cub could tell that dolly was..he supposed fragile, was the word. and he wasn't really referring to the fact that she was made of porcelain. her mental and emotional state was—and he means this with all of the love in the world—as stable as a damp paper towel. so sue him for being a little careful with the idea of banter until they started dating.

"well, yeah." cub hums, leaning his weight back on the stone. "but that was before scar showed me what your limits were. and now i know you can handle me being a little mean, can't you?"

cub watches a steady shade of red creep up his wife's ears, and then down her neck. the doll purposefully avoids eye contact with him now, seeming more interested by the dye stains on his lab coat more than anything. "..whatever. i'm gonna tell scar you were bullying me today."

"he's not gonna do anything."

"…you're right, he's not gonna do anything." dolly repeats with a huff. "now, can we PLEASE go inside and take a shower? and put your coat in the laundry before it permanently stains."

"alright, alright." cub expects dolly to wriggle herself off him, but when she simply stares up at him, he raises an eyebrow. "are you, uh…gonna stand up, or..?"

dolly shakes her head quickly, wrapping her arms around his neck. "carry me?" she innocently asks, fluttering her long eyelashes towards her husband. cub likes to think he's immune to her usual tricks, but..

"yeah." cub's voice is just a fraction softer as he repositions his arms under her back and legs, grunting a bit as he pulls himself off the ground, lifting his wife with him. "whatever you want."

the doll giggles into the crook of his neck, and the sound makes "even if i want my pop up shop to stay open?"

"…come on, don't push your luck—"

"AWW! cub, please, it's the one thing i want—!"