all we didn't say

”Not waste,” Viktor bit out, his lips pinching tight enough to have them blanching. ”All get eaten in end. Cold or hot, not matter.” It might just have been the two of them in the house now – and even if it wasn’t, he’d have eaten it cold later – but tonight the others would come home. All of them hungry, ready to paw through the fridge to find something to eat. It had always been the same back home, although there was no boxes of food to just throw together, everything was made from what they managed to grow, fish or hunted. When everything grew scarcer in winter you ate whatever was put in front of you – no pushing plates away, no complaining.

Could he have ordered Eniko, Tazi and the twins to do more around the house? Maybe. Although Aliz would refuse to do it just because he had been the one to ask her. Back home it was just expected. All pitch in, but this was different and everything that highlighted that was just another twist in his gut. How much he was supposed to do as Alpha, how much he couldn’t do. Did Harmony want him to trot every one of his failures out for them all to see?

”And do same work, twice, no point. Easier to make more.” Although undoubtedly they’d find something to put together for themselves if they got desperate enough. They’d spent months on an island with even less than they’d had to eat at home. Aliz, Eniko and Tazi could’ve hunted for their own, but Alex would need something more than prey. One word now would’ve been enough to have Alex doing whatever Harmony had asked. Out of all of them his little brother had gotten closest to her. That sweet smile would’ve spread over his face and he’d have been stirring the pot of mac and cheese within seconds while Harmony put her feet up.

His brows knotted together as he turned towards her, his gaze dropping to her stomach – in case. No, she would have told him if anything had changed there, not that she had even been considering it before he’d brought it up. Then she’d made it clear that his mental image of what a girlfriend should be like was ridiculous. The shattered pieces of that opinion swirled around in his brain now, never quite matching up with the angry woman in front of him. Harmony wasn’t like any of them and she’d never let him thin that she was.

Viktor gritted his teeth, his lips peeling back slightly as he snarled at her. Always mocking the village, so primitive, women so under the thumb there. Not her. Harmony did everything her own way and pushed him to do everything to make that happen. Curtains, new rug, everything cleaned and polished. Now running water wasn’t good enough to clean dishes either. ”No, not obedient,” he growled. ”Always fight, always look down. Like dishes washed in river there. Hands work yes? Can wash dishes in sink, just like family can make own food.” Breaking off into growling Hungarian about where he was meant to find and afford a dishwasher in the first place. Money didn’t grow on trees, not even in this screwed up town.

Dragging his hands over his face, he gave up trying to push his point in the end, It would only be shoved back in his face and in a month or two there would probably be a shiny new dishwasher sitting in the kitchen, making all of them lazy. No cook, no clean, just waited on hand and foot – and not by Harmony. Viktor threw his hands up and stalked towards the front door, knowing that fresh air and space was the only thing that would stop their tempers bubbling like the pot of pasta. The argument carried on in his head, only his side of it clear, although he could imagine just how Harmony would respond to it. ’Never needed dishwasher for whole house of people before. Why now when hands can do?’ His own would end up in the sink later, doing the clean up of the dinner prepared just for two.

He was almost to the door, the words in his head rolling away like thunder when she snapped back. Frowning, Viktor spun around on his heel, glaring at her. ”Did stop arguing. Last word yours, always yours.” Only she’d spun around on him like he had spoken back to her. ”What more you want to hear? Want to argue forever? Yell til walls fall down because you no drop it.” It could have gone quiet, peace slipping back between them with a little distance. When dinner was ready he’d have slipped back in, apologies on his lips – although no offer of the dishwasher made, he wasn’t that soft.

Tagged: HARMONY * Word Count: 808