#illea

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Sh!"

I whirled around, finger on my lip to make the point to my husband. King Maxon Schreave crouched behind me, a faint smile on his face as he shook his head at me.

"I'm confident this is a good idea," I whispered, keeping my voice as low as possible. "We both need the fun, and Adele's kids were asking for it when they found a way to sneak in and short sheet our bed."

"Ah," said Maxon, nodding sagely like something had just clicked. "So they pranked us, and we need to prank them for revenge."

"No! That's not the point! It has nothing to do with revenge."

Maxon raised an eyebrow, but I just huffed.

"Maxon, we've had the weight of the kingdom on our shoulders since before we were married. You've had it on yours for your entire life! We're having a truly rare weekend off to spend with family, and we are owed some carefree fun in our twenties, alright?"

Maxon's eyebrows had raised part way through my answer, but now they'd relaxed back into a sweet smile. His eyes got a soft look in them that I truly couldn't get enough of, and he leaned into me a little.

"Have I told you lately that you are absolutely wonderful? And that I love you?" he asked. I matched his smile and leaned back into him.

"About an hour ago, at dinner. But I'm happy to hear it again."

Maxon leaned the rest of the way in and repeated himself, speaking right by my ear. I sighed, letting myself enjoy the rare moment of peace together. Sure, we were about to enact a much-needed pranking operation, but this was our vacation. We could take a moment to ourselves, too.

Since the end of the Selection, things had been stressful and high-stakes for Maxon and I. From learning about the rebels to learning about his father, the two of us had been dealing with heavy things since before our engagement. But with the attack from the Southern Rebels and the deaths of Maxon's parents, we'd been thrown immediately into the role of leading an entire country, the two of us, even before our wedding. We'd managed it just like we managed everything else—together—but it had never been easy, and for Maxon especially, it meant constant responsibility with very little breathing room. So, when we found a few days away from the palace with his Aunt Adele and some of our other closest family and friends, I decided to take the opportunity to give him a truly fun and carefree night like he should've had a long time ago.

And right now, that meant pranking all of our cousins before spending the rest of the night together doing whatever we wanted.

"Okay, come on," I said, leaning back from Maxon and shuffling a little towards the door of the big suite where all of Adele's kids were staying. "The hallway looks clear, let's go."

I rushed forward, staying quiet and low to the ground. Maxon followed right on my heels, practically bouncing and with a big grin on his face. It made my heart do backflips.

"Do you have the key?" I whispered to him. He nodded, slipping the key to the room out of his pocket.

"Perks of being the king," he whispered back with a wink. I took the key, letting my hand linger on his for a moment.

"Alright, let's do this."

I unlocked the door, then passed Maxon back the key. As planned, the room was totally empty. Everyone else was having a movie night downstairs. Maxon and I had excused ourselves with a made-up stomache ache on my part, then headed straight here.

"So what do we do first?" asked Maxon. He hovered right over my shoulder, ready to follow my lead. I smiled and turned around to face him.

"We have to move fast, so we can't do everything we brainstormed last night. But why don't you pick where we start? Dried nail polish puddle that looks like it spilled on their beds? Gelatin in the milk so they can't pour it out or take a drink like normal? Or potato to replace the soap bar?"

Maxon shook his head, but he was also grinning at me.

"Let's... start with the milk?"

"Sounds like a perfect plan to me."

Maxon and I moved through the room with less efficiency than I would've needed for a successful prank on my siblings back home, but this way was also more fun. Maxon was clearly having the time of his life causing a little harmless mischief, possibly because it was the first time in his life he'd been allowed to cause harmless mischief. We managed to set up all of our favorite prank ideas before heading back to the hallway, just a few minutes later than I'd been planning for us to make our escape.

Not a moment sooner than we got the door closed and locked again, we heard voices and footsteps coming our way from down the hall. Maxon whirled to me with wide eyes, and I fought to hold in a laugh as I grabbed his hand and pulled him after me in the opposite direction.

We made it around two corners before Maxon gave in, laughing as he fell into step beside me and pulled me closer. I shushed him, but it was pretty half-hearted.

"That was so much fun," he breathed when we finally made it back to our room. He slumped against the door, grinning from ear to ear, and I moved to stand in front of him with the same expression.

"I'm glad you thought so. We're probably going to have to be on alert for the rest of our vacation for buckets of water in doorways and similar forms of payback from the kids."

"Worth it," he breathed, reaching out to wrap an arm around my waist. He pulled me into his chest, and I leaned against him, resting my hands on his shoulders. I closed the rest of the distance between us to pull Maxon into a sweet, slow kiss. We took our time, and when we eventually pulled apart, Maxon had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"What's up?" I asked, moving one hand up to play with the hair at the nape of his neck. Maxon's smile took on a softer tone as he met my eyes.

"Nothing. Just... thinking about what it will be like when we get to do things like this with our kids. Someday."

I grinned. "You better start taking notes, sweetheart, because I'm calling team kid now. We're gonna work together to level the playing field against the literal king."

"Hmm, I suppose I'll have to come up with a better proposition for them then, won't I? Thankfully, you have plenty of experience with pranks, so I think I may be able to convince the kids to team up with me to level the playing field against a pranking master."

I laughed, shaking my head and pulling Maxon in for another kiss.

"Well, depending on how many we have, we might not get a choice. They might team up against us, leaving you and I to team up with each other or fall to their pranking power."

"Whichever version we get... I can't wait."

Maxon's eyes shone as he pulled me in for another kiss, and the love seemed to literally make him glow. I hoped he could see I radiated the same happiness. Whether we were dealing with the weight of the world or plotting hypothetical pranks, it always made things a million times better to be doing it with Maxon.

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