His Vice

Ch 11

Anyone will tell you that sometimes a family with an infant has a messy house, consisting of toys scattered across the carpet, a mess in the kitchen with not a moment to clean it, you're exhausted, trying not to have a mental heart attack.

But, after two days of not only an infant, but three dogs, two of which barked so loudly and instantly that it rung in your ears and attacked anyone that came through the front door, and trying to keep them away from the infant at the same time. She thought she was losing it, hearing the dogs bark and the baby cry, pretty much catatonic, sitting on the couch staring at the white wall of the living room for god knows how long, a duster in one hand, and a plastic fork and a squeaky toy squirrel in the other.

She couldn't take it, and it had only even 48 hours! she couldn't live like this! She didn't even look at the door open when it opened, Max glancing inside at the mess noticeable from the foyer, the black Dobermans coming down the stairs, chasing elderly Zuni like she was a play-toy.

The baby crying in the crib. He turned on the light in the nursery, finding Maxxy standing in his crib, tears streaming down his little cheeks. He picked up the boy, starting to get a little worried. It definitely wasn't like Harmony to leave Maxxy alone. He stepped over the mess, stumbling into the living room, finding her paralyzed form on the couch. He raised an eyebrow, suddenly snapping his fingers in front of her open eyes, try and to get any reaction at all. But, nothing.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. He picked up the pacifier from the living room floor, running it under the sink in the kitchen before placing it in the infant's mouth, quieting him of his screaming. Then, there was the handle whistle, so loud it echoed through the rooms. The Dobermans were there in seconds, sitting professionally with chests puffed out, ready for instructions. He let them out into the backyard, picking up Zuni and placing her on the couch to lean against Harmony.

He wasn't necessarily mad about the mess the house was, he was actually kind of expecting it. Those Dobermans had been trained to be lead by those with a powerful aura, who knew they were the boss and weren't afraid to make it known to the dogs. Harmony wasn't the kind of person that could control them, it wasn't her fault. But, did he know he would find that the Dobermans in his absence had upset the baby, trashed the furniture, and were terrorizing Zuni in her 16 years of age, he wasn't happy about that.

He cleaned up the floor of the feathers from the ripped couch cushions and pillows, the chewed chair legs, and shredded blankets, all while trying to entertain the child in his arms. When Harmony found herself come back into focus, the first thing she noticed is that the dogs weren't barking anymore, which made her sigh in relief. Maxxy was on the carpet in the living room by her feet, in his fenced playpen, stacking his alphabet blocks. She could hear the vacuum going upstairs, and decided to follow it.

She peaked around the corner of the master bedroom, where Max was, dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a black muscle t-shirt with a bandana around his forehead, holding his hair back, except for a few loose tendrils around his eyes. His hair had grown so much since the last time she had seen him two years before, it was now nearly down his shoulders, he kept having to push it back out of his face. She just watched for a few moments, when he lifted the shattered pillows and threw them into a plastic bag while vacuuming the carpet for feathers at the same time.

Gentle Max was back again, and it was hard not to fawn all over him, he was by far the sexiest Max of them all. She felt like one of those people staring at their love from afar, wishing she could do nothing but touch them, but knowing how unattainable they were would make that impossible. Max, at least as far as Harmony knew, had grown up with people tending to his every whim. She wondered if he had ever cleaned a day in his life before today, she doubted it. But, just like everything else Max did, he did it with determination.