Bratty was an understatement when it came to describing Dewdrop. He argued nonstop, he hissed and disagreed with things simply because he could, to be a pest and inconvenience. Nine out of ten times, he did it simply because he found it funny to be a pain in the ass. Particularly to his mate. He was just too fun to tease and bother. Maybe if he didn't make it so entertaining when he told him to do something and Dewdrop just replied with 'no', then he wouldn't feel such an inclination towards being a little shit.

But it wasn't changing anytime soon. Today, Dewdrop was being particularly bad for it. He'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed, and it felt like his short fuse was lit before the day had even properly started. From grumbling about his mate squishing him when they'd first woken up to constantly pestering him without any real reason to, the fire ghoul had clearly made it his mission to be nothing but an inconvenience all the way until the sun went down.

Even during dinner, he couldn't resist aiming the occasional kick at his mate's feet under the table while chewing like nothing was going on.

It was sort of inevitable that his mate reached the end of his rope, and if he was honest, that's what Dewdrop had been waiting for all along. There was something satisfying about getting under his mate's skin. Not maliciously, of course, but that endearing level of frustration was a sweet spot Dewdrop aimed to achieve. Just enough for his mate to take matters into his own hands, without pissing him off so much that they had to have a sit down and talk about the fire ghoul's behaviour later on.

And finally, it had all paid off. They'd hardly gotten through the door of their bedroom before Dewdrop found himself shoved up against it, the breath almost knocked from his lungs. His teeth flashed in a grin as he sucked in a sharp breath, gazing back at his mate with the same shit eating expression that he had done all day. He was looking at him like he was ready to put a whole litter of kits in Dewdrop, just the way he liked it. But he still wanted to make sure his mate was actually was rough with him as he was begging for, so he threw in one more comment for good measure. "Well? Don't tell me you're all bark and no bite, aren't you going to do something?"