Ice Planet Holiday (Ice Planet Barbarians, #4.75)

by Ruby Dixon

“Mistletoe is a plant. You hang it from the doorway—“ “Because it smells good?” he prompts. “Well, no, it doesn’t smell like anything.” “It…tastes good? And you hang it to remind yourself?” “Actually I think it’s poison.” He frowns. “This sounds foolish to me.”

“It’s about showing your woman that you care for her.” “By poisoning her?” “You don’t poison her!” I swat him with the cloth. “You hold the mistletoe over her head and kiss her.”

Aehako claps him on the shoulder, smiling. “We are going to have a No-Poison Day!” “Holiday,” Josie corrects, bursting into hoots of laughter. “Every day is no-poison day.”

“There is no reason to go,” Bek spits out. “There is work to be done! The brutal season was hard and we must store food for the next brutal season, not waste it on a feast to celebrate poison.” “What the hell is with this poison crap?” Tiffany mutters.

I crack an eye open and stare at the sad, wilted plant touching my cheek. “What the fuck is that?” From where he holds the twig of sickly-colored greenery, Vektal grins. “It is not poison! For the celebration. Now you will shower me with kisses, yes?”

“I brought these for you,” Hassen says to Tiffany, and holds out a handful of fresh-plucked plants. “They are not poison.”

Calm Dagesh takes one look at the fact that he now has twins and has to leave the cave to get some air. Even Maylak’s a bit surprised.

“Can we do it again?” he blurts after a moment’s thought. “With the tongues?”