King of Everything

What was the point in curtains when the windows still leaked? Put up curtains (pretty apparently), rain pours down again and curtains get all damp. Smell moldy like the ones he’d stripped down this morning had. The sun had been muted by the dirt on the outside of the windows, but its beams had still caught the motes dancing in the air – hopefully dust and not mold. He would be fine, Aliz, Eniko and Tavi too, all would heal fast. Not Alex though, maybe not Harmony either. Better not to be sorry than safe. Dumping the curtains in a pile in the corner - oh, he’d burn them later if he could get away with it, maybe on the Alpha’s land, see how well his fancy house would stand up to that. – Viktor dusted off his hands. He threw the window open, listening to it rattle in the frame. Air the place out. Make it smell better.

The sheets on the bed already did, the bathroom, although there was still so much that needed to be done to it. They were spreading out through the house, possessions seeming to grow like the mold. Harmony’s things everywhere, the smell of them a balm every time. Like her.

Viktor felt the tension in his chest start to melt away as he scooted out through the window frame and onto the porch roof. He paused as the tiles creaked under his feet, his hands slowly going to the frame, like that would save him if it gave way. There would be a sharp crack, a rumble and then he would join Alex in the kitchen the quick way. Maybe Harmony would feel charitable enough to help clean him up afterwards. Maybe. Aliz would say ‘told you so’, but she had no foot to stand on right now.

As the sound stopped, Viktor slowly drew his hands back again. He scrubbed them over his face, carefully not to be too forceful, although he wanted to be. Scream up to the sky, throw things – again – what had happened in the woods hadn’t been helped by her stubborn, argumentative attitude, but it had been started by his and that put the guilt for what had happened to her squarely on his shoulders. They slumped, his head tilting back far enough so that he could see a sliver of the sky above the loose joints in the window frame – the sash box hanging a half inch away from the house. A few screws, maybe some replacement beading if that was too far gone, and that would be fixed. Aliz was not so easy.

Trying to push it from his mind, Viktor examined the window frame, pushing pieces back into place where possible, digging his thumb nail into the wood to see where it was soft. Things with Harmony had been easier since she had come back and they had both told the truth. He knew what she was, she knew that he loved her, he knew she loved him. It was like the universe couldn’t let him have it all at once. Something good in one hand, something bad had to smack into the other, like a hammer slamming down on his fingers. Sick pain and panic, not passing quickly enough.

Already calculating what was needed, he scrambled back inside. Maybe hitting things with a hammer for a while would get some of this out of his system. Viktor was already picturing the relief of it, the way his bones would sing with the hits as he hopped back through the window that would soon stop rattling every time the window blew. He strained to hear where Alex, where the others were on the property as he walked downstairs. Knowing Aliz she was as far away from him as she could get.

Alex’s mutter rolled out of the kitchen as he approached, the thud and groan in its wake. They had all learned from nagyapa, nagyanya too – how to fix things, to take care of it themselves. His lips curled in a faint smile in an echo of his brother’s. No matter how much tension was in the house, Alex was always the one smiling, the peacemaker, the wise one. ”Hi,” he murmured, crossing to the fridge – as rickety as the rest of the house, but full size and working – retrieving a soda and one for his little brother. ”Put on head,” he instructed him, lifting his chin towards his brother as he passed the can over. ”Everything in house leaky. Roof, sinks, windows. We float soon, like boat with all the animals.” Animals including the family.

Still frowning faintly, Viktor leaned against the counter next to his brother. The first sip from the can was bliss, cooling a throat that had felt hot and raw from the moment he’d seen the hybrid’s fangs tear into his sister. ”Okay? Who knows,” he muttered, glancing down at the can before looking up. ”Aliz, she talk to you more. She tell you anything? She won’t talk.” To him. Viktor thumped the can again his chest, knocking a sigh out of himself. If he spoke to her nicer, calmer, maybe it would be different, but it was almost like he was incapable of it when it came to his sister.

Tagged: ALEX KOVACS * Word Count: 880

Viktor returned his brother’s nod as he passed over the can of soda and settled against the kitchen counter. Worn and rickety, like everything else in this place, but it still held his weight. All of them seemed to be carrying around some extra these days, mentally at least. As Alpha he should have been able to take it on his shoulders it. That was his job, but papa had just about started talking to him about all of that when the attack had come and what should’ve been ended up nothing but broken promises and dreams. Aliz and Alex weren’t kids anymore, but they were still too young for all that had happened to them. He was too young to have become Alpha, but he’d had no choice in that. He did have a choice in how much they had to handle and with Aliz he had definitely screwed that up.

Glad that Alex had listened to him and put the cold can against his head at least, Viktor took a deep gulp from his own. The house was a step up, at least, even if it meant living too close to the Alpha hybrid. ”Thanks to Harmony?” he huffed out, amusement creasing his face for a moment before the grim lines settled back in. ”You’re right. It’s home. Better than we had before.” And it would improve with time. Maybe the old man still planned to sell it when it was done, but if he could find some way to start earning money they could buy it from him.

He glanced down at his can, toying with the ring pull on the can. Despite them being more settled now, things between him and Aliz were still rocky. Their relationship had always been that way, but this time for worse. He’d refused to back down to the hybrid and his little sister had ended up paying the price for it. Viktor made a low sound of agreement in his throat, his gaze twitching back up to Alex. The corners of his mouth lifted in reassurance that he knew he could open up to him. Alex asking if it was easier for him to talk to Harmony had him laughing though. ”Maybe. Not always easy for us to talk. End up arguing. Same as with Aliz.” Although when he had needed to get things off of his chest, his fears, his grief, the memories that swum around in his head and brought tears to his eyes sometimes, Harmony had listened to him.

”She thinks I smother,” Viktor admitted tightly. In his defence it had been about keeping the pack safe rather than being the sort of asshole who didn’t believe women could handle things. He had seen the way Aliz had fought against the hybrid and his people, and the way that Harmony had taken down the hunters who had come for him, while he’d been useless, rolling around on the ground, bleeding and poisoned. His shoulders tensed at the memory, the can crumpling faintly in his grip. ”I try. She doesn’t come.” The sigh hissed out as he set the can aside. Like the metal, his lips crumpled faintly, something approaching a half smile. ”Knowing her, she not talk to anybody, she just go and try to kick Alpha ass.” And would pay for it. Surely Aliz knew better than to try and push those limits.

Catching the way Alex’s hands floated through the air as he made that exploding sound, Viktor snorted and tried to make his shoulders relax. ”Was going to hit windows and do that. Might bring house down though. Minden rozoga.” It was all rickety. The old man was going to be lucky to have any of the original house left at all when they were done. ”You want to hit things too? Aliz your twin. Close enough to feel too.” He lifted a hand and thumped it against his chest. Maybe it wasn’t like some people thought and the twins felt everything that happened to the other, but they were still close and had spent all the time isolated with just the family for company.

Tagged: ALEX KOVACS * Word Count: 691

Viktor’s head bobbed slowly in an echo of his brother’s nod. He had promised Harmony that this would be good for them. Somewhere safe for the pack, a home. What had happened with the Alpha had put a dark cloud over it all, but what had happened wouldn’t rob them of what this was supposed to be. Maybe Aliz wouldn’t feel the same, but she would understand in the end. It was better to stay here than to tear up the roots they had put down and run again, with no guarantee that the next place they tried would be any better than this one. The Alpha, well, that was something else they would deal with eventually.

Viktor’s smile didn’t last, but for a moment it was there, his brow’s rising above that smirk. ”Don’t smother you same way I do them,” he argued, but he was glad to hear that it wasn’t too much from someone in the middle of it. Frustration and a short temper always had him going further, cracking down harder than he planned to. ”Should be another way. Like nagyapa.” He hated comparing himself to his grandfather, or even their father, but he was the only Alpha he had known until that rohadék had appeared in the woods, trying to stamp his claim on their land and on his pack.

What was between him and Harmony had less to do with him being an Alpha and more to do with him truly seeing her. If her mother had deserved the title love might have been more familiar to Harmony. Viktor made a low sound of agreement in his throat. It had taken almost losing each other to wring the words out of them in the end. ”A better heart than she admit,” he agreed. ”I try to make sure she see now. She deserve love, someone to protect her.” He tried to tell her that as much as she would accept now, the dam had broken and the words were there on his tongue the moment he looked at her now.

It should have seemed that Harmony was the hardest one to get through, but that had always been Aliz. Their mother had always said they were too alike, stubborn, butting heads. Viktor didn’t know if that was the case, but it only took them minutes in each other’s company to have them clashing. ”Everything feels … bigger for her now,” he muttered, trying to verbalise what vampires were meant to be like. That just made the arguments bigger, meaning she needed Alex and the others more than ever. Lips pressed together, Viktor straightened up, looking down at a little brother who had always been wiser than his years. ”Jó testvér vagy.” A better brother than he was. Alex had a way of wringing what was wrong out of you and finding some way to make it better. Viktor nodded slowly, agreeing with his brother. Aliz needed to talk to somebody before the explosion came from her.

The comment about bringing the house down was supposed to be a joke, but for a moment it looked like his brother believed that he might just do that. Viktor managed to chuckle and shake his head as he extended a hand down to Alex to help him up. ”Be fine. Just messy maybe.” He knew better than to leave that for Harmony to find later. The sad smile that touched his brother’s lips knotted his gut up. Reaching out, he clapped his hand on Alex’s other shoulder, squeezing in a sign of support. ”We distract together, yes? Take minds off all of this…” He gestured with his other hand, encompassing the whole of the house, the people who would fill it with life later.

Thankfully, instead of going back to the leaking pipes, Alex agreed to help him out. Hitting things always got rid of frustration faster than a slow repair on something. ”Harmony cut foot, she cut me,” Viktor agreed, mock sighing. He helped get the newspapers in place, making sure they stretched far enough into the room. They would break from outside, the glass spilling in instead of out onto the roof.

He scrambled back out, offering Alex a hand so they ended up out there together, balanced on a roof that was thankfully taking his weight. One corner of Viktor’s mouth curled into a smile. ”Lucky for you, I am. Grip hammer careful,” he warned, demonstrating his grip on it before he tapped lightly at the corner of the bottom pane, the one that already had cracks running through it. For now they could replace it with a pane from one of the attic rooms. Tomorrow he would go into town with measurements to get fresh glass. ”You think frames can be saved?” he asked Alex, digging the claw hammer into a corner of the frame to reveal solid fresh wood beneath the weathered wood on top. He was sure that with a few fresh nails they could be, but he wanted Alex to absorb the knowledge that apa had passed on to him. .

Tagged: ALEX KOVACS * Word Count: 851
Translation: Son of a bitch / You're a good brother / Dad

Yes, different to nagyapa, because nagyapa had instinctively known what to do. If there had been a time where he was fumbling around in the dark, feeling completely lost, then it had been so far back none of them could remember it. Even at the end nagyapa had been so sure that he was doing the right thing – he had been the one with the doubts that had tried to claw their way out through his heart. Viktor’s lips quirked up faintly at the corner. Where Aliz could tear him down about what he’d done wrong, Alex would always build him up. ”Hope it be right way some day.” When he’d learned from all those mistakes.

Learning from his mistakes with Harmony had felt like it would kill him. The burn of her touch in the closing wound in his side lingering after it had healed, the burn in his stomach, in his heart lasting far longer, feeling like it would entirely consume him before she’d come back. Alex had always been positive that she would, but he hadn’t known it until Harmony had walked into the room like she hadn’t been gone at all. ”Köszönöm.” Viktor said honestly. ”Make sure you remind if she asks.” Humour laced his voice, but he wasn’t really kidding. Out of all of his siblings – and Tazi too – Alex had been the one to embrace Harmony being with them first, and he knew that no matter what, his little brother would be the one to fight to keep her with them, to keep her safe, if anything happened to him. What had happened to Aliz had already brought the thought of that too close again.

If it had been him it would’ve been easier for them all. Maybe he would’ve wanted to retreat to lick his worms, but he could shoulder the burden. Instead Aliz had paid the price for his temper and now every shift for her felt a shift for him too. Viktor huffed out a brother, one that was faintly amused. ”You see all bad habit,” he argued lightly. His brother had seen the worst of what they were, but instead of being bitter about it, he’d handled that with the same tenderness and care, a heart far bigger than his own worn where everybody could see it. His own warmed at the compliment that slipped out of Alex. As they gathered themselves up, Viktor pulled his brother into a one armed hug, ruffling his hair lightly.

God forbid they leave another mess for Harmony to see. She would tell him they had to hire someone to clean again – still ridiculous when they each had two hands. Viktor winked at his brother, only feeling slightly apprehensive as he climbed out onto the roof with Alex. ”If can be,” Viktor agreed. He would be on his knees in their room afterwards, sweeping every inch multiple times. Better he get glass splinter than her. Same with Alex. Maybe it would be better to handle most of it himself, but having his brother as his side felt good.

When Alex had been in the kitchen with nagyanya and mama, he had usually been outside, working on the vehicles, keeping the generators going, learning at nagyapa’s elbow. Now he was trying to do the same with his brother, making sure that he could handle these things if he had to. Pride shone in Viktor’s eyes as he pulled the hammer free. ”Good,” he confirmed. ”Leave more money in pan for Harmony to decorate. She has list, long as leg.” Viktor puffed out his cheeks, only half playing at being exasperated. He grinned as he let the air out, carefully stretching up on his side to get rid of the top panes. ”You want to measure for glass? Tape in box.”” Viktor lifted his chin towards the tool box as more glass rained down. At this rate it wouldn’t take long to get the other window taken out too. They could maybe make it to town and back, and get the windows in before the light started to get bad later.

Tagged: ALEX KOVACS * Word Count: 685
Translation: Thank you