It happens more often than not that, if Zack's not booked in a match for Main Event, he stays at home in Florida and works on editing his and Hawkins' podcast. In the past, this may have bothered him, but he seems to take it more in stride now, Dolph unsure how to feel about that. But he finds himself on the road immediately after Thanksgiving, healed from a thankfully minor foot injury, and he feels strange about it, missing Zack. He thinks it must be because it's close to the holidays and he gets an actual taste of winter weather- snow and cold temperatures, and...
He sighs, fixing his messy hair under his winter hat, and continues on his way, hands deep in his pockets as he walks through the cold, brittle wind. "Where is it?" he mumbles, staring at his phone. "It has to be..." He looks up and blinks hard, spotting the sign hidden under some snow. "There it is!" His steps are a bit more cheerful as he pushes the door open and enters the store, suddenly overwhelmed by all of the options sprawled out before him. "Wow..."
He checks the time on his phone and laughs. "Good thing I have a lot of time until my flight." He turns and nods at the woman who comes bustling out from the back, looking a little frazzled.
"I'm sorry!" she exclaims. "The bell on the door is broken, I didn't know someone came in-" She bustles behind the counter and organizes things quickly before turning back to him. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
"Actually, there is," Dolph says with a smirk, turning hungry eyes to the rows of candy sprawled out before him on the wall. "Y'see, I've got a special someone back home and we were supposed to come here for work, but the company decided they only needed me this week, so he's missing out on all of this." He watches, glad when she doesn't even blink at the not-so-subtle "he" before continuing on, much more comfortable now. "So can you help me find a few things he wanted?"
"Of course," she says, walking quickly around the counter and examining the shelves with him. "What did you have in mind?"
-x
It's early morning when Dolph's flight lands safely in Orlando, and he's careful to be quiet as he sneaks into the house, gently toeing Kylo away as he pushes the door shut behind him. "Shhhh," he tells the cat, tugging something out of a paper sack and watching as he lazily lopes after the mouse toy, Draco looking on disinterestedly from a box he's sprawled across. "Lazy thing," Dolph teases, poking the cat and rolling his eyes as Draco flashes his fangs at him, not bothering to move beyond that. "Your father spoils you both too much," he says, before making his way down the hall to where Zack is still asleep.
He toes his shoes off and slips into bed next to him, wrapping his arms around Zack and listening as he stirs and groans, eyelashes fluttering against Dolph's jaw. "Morning, kid," he says quietly.
"Morning, bro," Zack mumbles back. "Hey, you're home early."
"Not really, I booked the earliest flight I could." He rubs circles in Zack's lower back and smiles as he sighs into his shoulder. "I brought you something."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. It's a little early in the day for such things, but I won't tell on you if you cheat a little on your diet." Zack makes a face, blinking up at him sleepily, and Dolph laughs, pressing a kiss to his lips before reaching over to snag a bag from where he'd left it next to the bed.
Zack sits up, staring at the bag. "You didn't," he says in shock.
"Oh, I did. Open it," Dolph grins, watching his face as he examines the logo of the specialized candy store they had wanted to go to together.
"Aw, bro," he says, pulling the straps apart and reaching in, pulling out handfuls of a variety of candies- candy cane flavored salt water taffy, spice drops, cinnamon imperials, gummy Christmas trees and snowmen, and coal candy. "Oh man, bro. This is... everything I planned on getting. How'd you know?"
Dolph laughs, leaning against Zack's arm and watching his face. "It was all you talked about for weeks, kid. You were so excited, it didn't seem fair that you didn't get to go, so it was up to me to make things right, huh?" He sits up and cups Zack's face, kissing him slowly. "I love you, kid. Merry Christmas."
Zack smiles, eyes gleaming as he kisses Dolph back. "Love you too, bro." Turning to look at the massive pile of candies, he shrugs. "You are going to help me eat all of this, aren't you?"
Dolph huffs, rolling his eyes. "I guess if I have to, kid," he says with a laugh, fingers already sneaking forwards the taffy.