Chapter 82: Petty Pranks (3)
Adrien was currently sitting on the temporary bleachers with the other girls, watching the students in the martial arts class fight in pairs. And most of them were shirtless, to the embarrassment and delight of all the girls beside him.
And Adrien was enjoying it too. Though he wasn’t paying attention to anyone else other than Mikyle. Well, except for when the first arrived and he had been shocked over Brayden’s new hairstyle. . .a small part of his attention had been focused solely on that until he got over initial shock and his eyes found Mikyle in the crowd of boys.
Adrien already knew how slender yet broad Mikyle’s shoulders were, how solid and tone his muscles were when they flexed under his skin, how well-defined and mouth-drooling his abdomen was, but seeing all of that out in broad daylight, Adrien couldn’t help but marvel all over again.
Mikyle stood facing his opponent. His golden skin shined with a thin layer of sweat. His golden hair was visibly darker near the roots. Adrien wondered just how long they had been training for Mikyle to visibly show this much exhaustion since he usually didn’t sweat much even after two rounds of long and intense sex.
Adrien’s eyes hungrily followed the well-defined and muscular arm that belonged to Mikyle as he landed a strike with his palm. His opponent managed to block it, but the force caused him to slide back. Dust flared up around the opponent’s legs due to the shear force.
Even with a shirtless and sweat-soaked Mikyle a few yards in front of him, Adrien did not forget to pay attention to his companions, though he mainly only kept an ear out, paying attention to their conversations. Well, it was more like half of his attention. But he still noticed a few things.
Lady Evelyn would occasionally glance at the others, but her eyes usually stayed focused on her boyfriend who was doing pretty well against his opponent. Adrien had a feeling that she was like him and was secretly and openingly enjoying their partner’s current state.
The other girl, the one that Adrien still didn’t know the name to, had been openly watching the martial arts’ students, commenting about every boy that had caught her eye.
Mikyle’s skin glistened beautifully and his clothed legs looked powerful as they expertly moved around the field. Adrien didn’t know much about martial arts, but even he could tell that Mikyle was really good.
His eyes flicked to Aefre for a second. The girl, who was most likely his cousin, was still wearing a worried expression on her face.
"Will it really be that bad if Cedric and her are matching?" Adrien finally asked, knowing that Aefre had been wearing a concerned expression ever since their earlier topic of conversation from when they had first arrived nearly ten minutes ago.
"Yes," answered Evelyn after having heard his question. Her eyes were still focused on Oliver, and she nearly flinched when his opponent landed a blow on him.
Aefre slowly nodded, her blonde hair slipping over her shoulders from the movement. "If it’s Cedric, then yes. She still hates him for the way he had spoken to her when she confessed to him two years ago."
"What?!" Adrien shot right up into a standing position in his surprise. Aisley had asked Cedric out before?! I thought she may have liked Prince Nathaniel? At least, that was how it seemed in the novel. Was I really that off about her preferences? Aisley was beautiful, magically gifted, and the daughter of a Duke, so she could literally choose anyone she wanted! So why Cedric? Adrien’s thoughts were a jumbled mess as he tried to work through them, though it was without much success.
"That’s right. My sister told me about how she had liked Cedric for his looks, but then he had insulted her pretty badly. So now she hates his guts." Aefre’s words were blunt and crude, showing her distaste on the matter. . .or more like her distaste of Cedric and the humiliation he had put Aisly through.
Just what in the world did Cedric say to her? I can easily imagine Brayden pissing someone off, but Cedric is usually more subtle about it. Ack! Now I kinda really want to ask Cedric about it, but no way in hell will I do that! I’m curious but not that curious! Plus I highly doubt that he would ever reveal anything about such a private matter to me!
But it really was unexpected. Adrien never would have guessed that Aisley used to like Cedric. He sat back down, his mouth still hanging open slightly from the shock. "That," his voice broke as he tried to figure out what to say, "that is really unexpected." He settled on voicing his inner thoughts.
All three girls nodded in agreement, each wearing expressions that showed that they knew what Adrien was feeling.
"I’ve heard from a few upperclassmen that Lord Cedric and Lord Brayden were really popular when they first enrolled," Evelyn informed him as if she was reading from a textbook.
They were popular? Those two? But it really shouldn’t have been that surprising. If Adrien really thought about it, the two of them were quite attractive– Cedric with his quiet, calm, bookish appearance, and Brayden with his loud and energetic appearance that was similar to a puppy. But their personalities suck. They used to be nice and cute when they were little, but now they’re just handsome jerks with rotten personalities.
"I heard that Brayden still attracts quite a few eyes among freshmen. There had even been a few girls in our class who had fallen for Brayden at first sight. Though most of their crushes didn’t last long." Adrien found himself nodding along to Lady Evelyn’s words, easily picturing what she had just told him.
"It would be hard to like a barking dog for too long," the words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them. The three girls turned to stare at him with openly shocked and amused expressions.
Aefre lifted a hand up to her lips to hide the small smile spreading there.
Lady Evelyn on the other hand didn’t even try to hide her smile. "That is a very apt description," her silky voice commented with approval.
The other girl, Adrien really needed to figure out the name of, nodded in agreement. "He looks like a well-behaved gentleman but yaps like a small dog."
Adrien found himself laughing upon seeing and hearing these girls’ opinions on his second brother. As he was laughing, he felt a burning gaze on him. Upon turning to look in the direction of where the gaze was coming from, he found frowning blonde eyebrows and dark, smoldering red eyes.
* * * * *
Later that evening, Adrien found himself in his room, his back pressed up against the wall. Mikyle stood in front of him, his body leaning close as he caged him in.
"What was so amusing that it had your attention pulled away from me?" Mikyle asked, showing a rare hint of jealousy.
Adrien found himself gulping involuntarily. He had a feeling something like this would happen after he had found Mikyle staring so intently at him during his training.
Adrien’s blue eyes looked up into Mikyle’s red ones. "Lady Mari Bell," Adrien had finally relearned the girl’s name, "made a very apt and funny observation about Brayden. She compared him to a small, yapping dog," Adrien explained. His words brought a smile to his face. "I also really love what you did to Cedric and Brayden."
Mikyle’s firm lips broke into a smile, his red eyes glowing with amusement. "Lady Bell is very observant. And I took fine care to pick colors that would suit your brothers."
Adrien’s lips twitched, his smile growing into a grin. "It was perfect. But, why did you choose pink for Cedric? It’s causing a few problems for Aisley."
Mikyle’s pleased smirk twitched until it disappeared. "Right. I nearly forgot about the beef she had with him. I’ll change the color tomorrow. Would green or yellow suit him more?"
Wait, he was giving me the choice? "Green," Adrien finally said after some deliberation, "it’s the closest color of a snake. Unless you wanted to do brown or orange for him?" If Brayden was comparable to a yapping dog, then Cedric was most like a cunning snake.
Mikyle’s smirk returned. "You may refuse to fight back physically, but you certainly do have a way with words." He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Adrien’s temple. "I’ll see what I can do."
Adrien leaned into the touch, laughing at Mikyle’s words. "You just want to keep ranking those two," He accused playfully.
"I do. Playing small, little pranks like this can be utterly satisfying. Especially when my targets are insufferable fools."
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