Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Perry
The second Sadie said the word prank, my brain lit up like one of those cartoon characters with a speech bubble above their heads.
A prank.
A real one.
This was one of those things I’d always dreamed of doing, but if you’re a socially anxious Little, it’s really hard to make friends and plan play dates and pranks. But thanks to Hope... now I could.
I was already picturing it. Hope trying—and failing—to look innocent. Daddy narrowing his eyes. Master—or hopefully soon Daddy—Lee pinching the bridge of his nose and looking to the heavens as if he was praying for patience.
It would be perfect.
It would be fun.
And if it nudged them toward claiming her?
Even better.
If I could get them to claim her, then I could work on getting Master Lee to claim me... but most importantly getting him and Daddy together. Honestly the lust that floated in the air whenever the two of them were together was insane.
I dropped my hand from the air and leaned in closer to the table. “Okay,” I said, lowering my voice like we were planning a heist. “What kind of trouble are we talking about?”
Sadie’s grin went feral.
But beside me, Hope went quiet. Glancing at her I noticed she wasn’t smiling or excited.
Instead, she was watching the table where Daddy and Master Lee were sitting with a pensive expression on her face.
The excitement in my chest didn’t vanish, exactly, but it definitely felt less jubilant.
“Hey,” I murmured, nudging her knee under the table to get her to look at me. “It’d be harmless. Right?” I looked at Sadie for confirmation.
“Obviously,” Sadie said. “We’re all about being safe here, but we have to keep our Bigs on their toes.”
Hope gave a small smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
And that’s when the boulders fell into the pit of my stomach and all of my excitement died away. Because... what if she doesn’t want to be pushed or claimed?
I’d been so focused on the idea of it—on the way she’d said I’d like them to be like it was a wish she was scared to make too loud—that I hadn’t stopped to consider that maybe she was still figuring it out.
Which was stupid, stupid, stupid of me.
It was only like a couple of hours ago that we told her it’s okay that she’s still playing the field and getting to know everyone and here I was pushing her after we told her we wouldn’t.
My stomach twisted.
“I don’t think we need to trick anyone into claiming her,” I said, the words coming out before I could stop them.
Sadie blinked at me.
Hope did too.
“They—” I cleared my throat and tried again, softer. “They already look at her like she’s theirs.” I risked another glance at the table across the room. “And Hope... well, Hope’s still figuring things out. When she’s ready, then maybe we can revisit the idea.”
This was one of the hardest things I’d ever said in my life. Because I didn’t want to wait.
Being patient and thinking about someone else’s needs super-duper sucked sometimes. Especially when I had so many needs and wants myself.
I wanted her there at breakfast. Wanted to argue about who got to play with my favorite blocks and watch her pretend like being Little wasn’t exactly what she was made for. I needed to call her my baby sister and have everything that came with that.
But the truth of the matter was... I didn’t want any of that if she was being nudged into it.
Not if she felt cornered.
Across from us, Sadie’s gaze bounced between our faces, her expression softening in a way that told me she’d picked up on the shift.
The prank energy had cooled, but it hadn’t died. Not completely.
I leaned closer to Hope, lowering my voice again. “How about,” I said carefully, “instead of trying to trick the Daddies into claiming you, we do something that won’t get anyone caught and just for the fun of it?” My thumb brushed over her knuckles.
“We could do that,” Sadie commented easily. “Does anyone have any ideas?” she asked the table at large. “Because the plan we were working on would definitely end up in a few of us having some hot bottoms tonight.”
Immediately, three Littles started talking at once.
“Switch the salt and sugar!”
“Hide all the forks!”
“Ooo! We could put googly eyes on everything!”
I snorted before I could stop myself. “Everything?”
“Yes,” the girl with the pink braids said solemnly. “Everything deserves eyes.”
Hope’s shoulders shook beside me, and there it was. The most beautiful sound in the world. Her carefree giggles.
Hope might be struggling with her Little side, but she was definitely feeling comfortable enough to let her out a bit more.
Sadie tapped her chin dramatically. “Okay, okay, we need something harmless. Mildly inconvenient and slightly dramatic. Nothing in the cafeteria or kitchen because I can still remember the spanking I got from the last time we messed with Chef Conner. And nothing so bad that would get Hope into serious trouble if we were caught.”
Sadie’s eyes lit up slowly.
“What about,” she said, lowering her voice until everyone at the table leaned in instinctively, “a delayed reaction prank.”
Pink Braids gasped. “Ooooh.”
I perked up immediately. “Tell me more.”
Sadie tapped the table once. “There’s one of the playrooms booked for tomorrow’s rope play workshop, right?”
A couple Littles nodded.
“Well,” she continued carefully, “what if that room… happened to receive a very enthusiastic glitter blessing tonight?”
The table went silent.
Then—
“You mean glitter bomb it?” someone whispered.
Sadie didn’t answer. Her beaming smile was answer enough.
“Like,” I said slowly, already picturing it, “in the air vents?”
“No, no,” someone on the farthest edge of the table cut in. “That’s too destructive. We’re not heathens.”
“How about a bucket over the door frame?” someone else suggested. “So when they open it—boom.”
Hope shifted beside me.
I leaned closer to her. “We’re just planning,” I murmured. “No actual glitter deployed.”
Yet.
She huffed out a soft breath. “Do you have any idea how long glitter lasts?”
“Forever,” I admitted.
She turned to look at me fully. “Exactly.”
There was something different in her expression now. Not anxious.
Thinking.
Then she took a slow breath and looked back at the table.
“Can you guys get into the playroom after they set up for the workshop but before the actual workshop starts?”
Every head at the table swiveled toward her.
Sadie blinked once. Twice. “Yeah,” she said slowly, clearly recalculating. “It’s already set up for tomorrow morning, and no one should need to go in there until just before the scheduled time… why?”
Hope shrugged, casual as anything. “Because we don’t need some elaborate setup. If you can get your hands on glitter, and a few of us sneak in there tonight, we can just sprinkle it around the room. Lightly. Like fairies spreading their dust.”
The table went very still.
“No traps,” she continued. “No buckets. No face full of glitter for anyone. Just… everywhere. On the chairs. The tables. The floor.”
A slow grin started pulling at my mouth.
“That way,” she finished, “we won’t have one Dom pissed because they got a glitter bomb to the face. It’ll just be… inconveniently magical.”
Silence.
Then Pink Braids whispered, awed, “You’re scary smart.”
Sadie leaned back in her chair, studying Hope like she’d just discovered a new species. “Oh,” she said softly. “You’re not a chaos Little.”
Hope raised a brow. “No?”
“You’re a calculated menace.”
Hope’s careful expression morphed into a bright smile. “You think so?”
Sadie nodded. “I know so. If Hayleigh were here, she’d so totally agree with me.”
My chest filled with warm pride at Hope. Maybe she would be the big sister and the boss of me after all. But that was something I could live with… if it meant I got to keep her.