For most people, expressing negative feelings could be as simple as an eyeroll or a timely sticking out of the tongue. But for Heather, she felt she was above either of those typical ways, and chose to show how much she was displeased with something by referring to vomit, therefore grossing out whomever had disgusted her. It was a method that always worked for her, and she had no intentions of ever changing it, no matter how many times people around her politely asked her to stop with the crudeness.

One such place that she had been asked multiple times to stop was the kitchen, where food did not mix well with the mental image of barf that was conjured any time she didn't like what was going on. The particular instance at hand, one where she was assisting Alejandro with making some authentic Spanish dish that he swore would be the most delicious thing she had ever tasted, had no less than three instances of her "catch phrase" being used, each one irking him a bit more.

The fourth time she said it, after a moment of silence that had been filled with the stirring of whatever was being cooked, was not preceded with him making a comment of any sort, causing him slight concern. "Heather, I'm afraid I don't understand what you're displeased about right now," he said flatly, as he turned his head to look at her. The sight he was greeted with, for just a split second, was enough to give explanation.

Her face had gone completely pale and she was holding her hands to her mouth, and by the time that he was giving her his complete attention, she was running away from where they had stood. Rather than chasing her, he decided to be a decent human and not burn the place down by leaving food on a hot burner, and went back to his cooking without so much as a second thought. A few minutes later, as he was finishing up and putting the dish into two bowls, she returned without a word, sitting down in the closest chair at the kitchen table. "Are you okay, Heather?" Alejandro asked, carrying the two bowls from the counter to the table and setting one in front of her. When she nodded in response, he didn't dare question her, instead putting his own bowl at his seat and sitting down. "Good. I would be quite sad if you didn't get to eat this delicious meal we prepared together."

"I...don't really feel like eating," she snapped at him, before ashamedly looking anywhere but near him. "Sorry to break that news to you."

"Oh, I find no reason for you to feel bad about not wanting to eat. Your attitude could use some work, but I understand, especially since you were just si—"

"I was not sick!" As if she didn't realize that he had seen how pale she had looked, she chose to deny the accusation. "I just remembered something I needed to take care of. That's all. Don't act like you know those kinds of things."

Taking a moment to eat a bit of what was before him, Alejandro couldn't help but crack a smile at her behavior. "Sure you did, and I will try my hardest to not assume anything about someone who has been much more than a sleeping companion for the past many months. Please forgive my utter stupidity on the matter."

"Whatever." She pushed her bowl away from herself, having not touched the contents even a bit. "I guess I can let it slide this time."

"That is most excellent to hear."

"Just because you talk all formally doesn't mean I can't sense sarcasm," she told him. "You really make me just want to..." Her sentenced ended with an abrupt swallow, as her face paled again and she rushed to get to her feet and away from the table at all costs.

Evidenced by the loud retching noises that seemed to be coming from mere steps away, she didn't make it very far at all. Alejandro sighed, putting his spoon in his bowl and getting from his seat to help his girlfriend out. "I hear you, and don't you dare get any closer to me," she croaked as he pushed his chair in. "I'm not sick. I don't need your help."

"Denial does not make the mess clean itself up, Heather."

She groaned, which was followed by more violent retching and then a loud thud as she hit the floor. "I'm not sick," she repeated, "and if you say I am, I'm going to kill you."

By this point he had already grabbed the tools necessary to clean the vomit from the floor and was making his way over to her, thankful that, from what he could tell, the mess was nothing much more than water. "By the looks of it, you are quite sick and most likely malnourished as well. You really should not deny things so much." He got down next to her and began cleaning, as she groaned more at his presence. "You should try to eat something, like the healthy meal we made. That has all the nutrients you need right now."

"More like, it'll just make me barf more, and no thanks to that." Her voice was weak, but, as Alejandro mentally noted, it was the first time since they had woken up that morning that she had used that word in a non-displeasure-expressing way. "I don't need to actually get sick because of your cooking skills."

"Who said anything about my food making you sick? If I can eat it and be perfectly fine, you can do the same. I am very capable of making things that are not lethal." At his own compliments, he puffed his chest out and acted as if he was proud.

But another comment from Heather, with her scratchy voice coming from a throat that had been subject to much abuse as of late, brought him back down to reality: "Yeah, well, this parasite you made inside me is trying to kill me, so you might want to bring your gloating down a bit. At this rate, it's going to kill me faster than anything you could cook."

"I feel the proper word to use here would be, as you always say, barf." He laughed and she muttered some choice words under her breath, most of which dealing with about how much she wanted to strangle him.

A/N: Originally posted to Tumblr on May 28th, 2014.

I, er, probably should explain myself as to why this was written in the first place. I already had my plans for [her, him, them] solidly in place and had told myself that I wasn't going to burn myself out on writing these two before I got to start writing that. Heck, I had never even written Alejandro before I wrote this fic - and it's that reason that I really needed to write this. The plot came to me somehow, and I took six hours to write this...three of which were spent on the first sentence. Whoops.