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Harry stared into the relatively bare cupboards, his brow furrowed. In his hand, he held Quinn's meal plan for the next few days, comparing it to the ingredients—or lack thereof—that they already had. Evidently, they needed to do some shopping.
For a few minutes, he tried to figure out how the situation had gotten so dire, because when it came to the domestic side of things, their life typically went fairly smoothly. It was usually external factors that turned their daily lives into a chaotic mess. For example, when it came to their meals, Quinn and Ethan usually had the weekly shops well in hand and if Quinn didn't have time to cook, Wes shifted from sharing the kitchen to taking full control of it.
Which usually often included moving everything around to suit his personal preferences, which then led to an unhappy Quinn a few days later because he couldn't find anything anymore and had to move everything back. Despite his lack of voice, Quinn definitely had ways of making his opinions and feelings known.
Wes had definitely been in charge of the kitchen the past few days, he recalled, rubbing the scar on his forehead. In addition to his usual shifts at the Clinic, Quinn had been called in almost daily to the private clinic his family ran and had even spent the night there a few times the past week. And Ethan was not only finalizing a thesis, but also preparing a few grant applications. He was neck-deep in paperwork, only surfacing to eat and even that was only after several reminders.
Harry rubbed his scar again before he straightened his neck and turned around. "Wes!" he called, adding a boost of magic to his voice so it would drift throughout the entire house.
Within a few minutes, a Pareya entered the kitchen, a curious look in his indigo-hued eyes. "Yes?"
Harry gestured vaguely at the cupboards. "Someone needs to go grocery shopping." Someone being Wes.
The Pareya's mouth opened and his jaw moved a few times as if he wanted to give a knee-jerk reply but he wasn't sure how it would be taken. He finally settled on, "I'll go fetch Wes."
And before Harry could react, he had already left, going to find the other Pareya. Harry suppressed a groan, already sensing that this was going to turn into a bigger issue than expected.
A few minutes later, a Pareya entered the kitchen, a curious look in his indigo-hued eyes. "Yes?"
"Someone needs to go grocery shopping," Harry repeated patiently. Same height, same build. Same eyes, same hair, same facial features. Same mouth movements and urge to repress the knee-jerk reply. "I'll go fetch Wes."
He wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or cry. "Or—” he said quickly, before the Pareya could disappear. "I could go with you to find Wes, and instead of playing revolving door, we can figure out who's going grocery shopping."
They didn't have to go very far. Wes was in the den, fussing at Alec for getting the carpet wet—again.
The Merrow glanced in their direction, an annoyed look in his blue eyes. "Make him stop." The threat was implicit—if Harry didn't, he would.
"I'd like to see you try!" Wes snapped.
Harry's lips twitched ever so slightly. If someone had told him a few years ago that he would know a set of twins who could beat Fred and George at their usual game of switching places, he wouldn't have believed them. But not only were Wesley and Weston identical twins, they had nearly identical names and were completely unashamed about using that to their advantage—in fact, outside of their Clan and Harry's Circle, many that knew "Wes" weren't aware that he was a twin. Keeping the two straight at home was simultaneously very amusing and very headache-inducing.
"Someone needs to go grocery shopping," he said for a third time.
One twin glowered at the other, who sent an identical glower right back. "I told you to handle it! I've got work to do."
Ah, that was Weston.
"Being a nag isn't work. Besides, you didn't give me any reason to go. It's not worth it."
And that was Wesley, the homebody of the pair.
“Well, the last time I tried to do something like that, it was nonstop complaints for a week because it was either the wrong brand, the wrong type, or wrong amount."
And with that, Harry understood the crux of the issue. Wesley was the more domestic of the twins, the one who could cook and clean and had clear preferences on what he needed or used for those tasks. But he also generally refused to leave the property, unless he was providing his twin with an alibi or ordered to. And depending on his mood, sometimes not even a direct order worked. Meanwhile, Weston was the public-facing twin, but a general failure at anything domestic. Which apparently included grocery shopping.
In hindsight, this probably explained why the twins had been so cranky the past day or so—they had seen the brewing issue but they were also the perfect embodiment of their element, too stubborn and proud to compromise. And Harry had walked unknowingly into the brewing storm.
"You know, if either of you mentioned this yesterday, we could have gotten groceries delivered," he remarked idly as he tried to think of a good solution. But deliveries had to be ordered at least a day before and…
"Too many opportunities for poison," the twins mattered together, identical scowls on their face.
Off to the side, Alec snickered.
In reply to all three of them, Harry made a face. Ordering something from a restaurant wasn't an option because, as his Bonded would say, there were too many opportunities for poison. Plus Harry would have to justify both the expense to Theo and explain why they weren't following the meal plan to Quinn after all his hard work, neither of which sounded particularly appealing at that moment. And they'd go through all this again tomorrow, something which future-Harry wouldn't thank him for.
A few heartbeats later, he clapped his hands together. "Plan," he announced. "Wesley, you and I are going grocery shopping. Weston, go help Ethan with his grant applications. And Alec..."
"Is going to go get Quinn from the Clinic and file notices for a few days of leave," a smooth voice said for him. Harry turned his head to look at Theo and shared a smile with his Alpha.
Predictably, there were protests from the twins. For his part, Alec gave a bow that tread the line between being careless enough to signal his displeasure at being ordered about and respectful enough to not trigger Theo's Alpha instincts. Harry listened to the complaints with half an ear while he summoned his and Wesley's coats.
"Why am I the one who has to go?" Wes grumbled as he made sure Harry's coat was zipped up all the way, then summoned a pair of hats and scarves for good measure.
"Because of the two of you, Ethan is more likely to allow Weston to help him."
"And why not any of your brutes?"
"I'm telling Wikhn you called him a brute," Harry murmured. The glint in Wesley's indigo eyes made him suspect that the Pareya would enjoy the Fae's reaction. “Do you think the house would be this quiet if any of them were around?"
“…point."
Harry raised a hand to rest on Wesley's shoulders and rolled his eyes when the other man caught it and placed a mitten on it. Really, it wasn’t that cold out. “Consider it a learning opportunity, since we haven’t gone shopping together yet. But …if you really don't want to come with, I'll find someone else,” he said. "I'm sure the extra time will be useful for you to reorganize the kitchen back to how Quinn likes it."
The satisfied smile that had started to appear on Wesley's face immediately turned into a scowl. Harry returned the look with an unapologetic grin.
"Market and back,” Wesley grumbled, holding out a hand. "No side stops."
Still grinning, Harry grabbed the hand with his mittened one. "No side stops," he agreed.