1984: Winston's Harem

Katherine

//I am proud to say that this, a Nineteen Eighty-Four Winston harem fanfiction is the longest piece of work I have ever written. Thank you very much. //

Sometimes, Katherine would look at Winston. He was an intelligent man—a little callous, but sweet in his own way—and, sometimes, Katherine would be so blinded by this wit of his that, just sometimes, she would sigh to herself and forget that Winston was stupid.

He was stupid, an idiot, really. And so, so incredibly dense.

Syme looked at Winston with thinly-veiled interest. It was after a long work-day, where she and Winston had planned to go out and sit in at a proletarian bar, to switch things up a bit. The smell of watered-down alcohol permeated throughout the relatively crowded residence. With Katherine's reputation and her marriage to Winston, this outing would at most be a minorly suspicious incident, and, here, away from the prying eyes of the telescreens, it was much easier to relax. But Syme had to be here, already at a table somehow. With how fervently he had been pursuing Winston recently, Katherine would almost think he was her target. Katherine knew that Winston was well aware of Julia's feelings and intentions towards him, but with Syme, she wasn't as sure. It was like Winston was a magnet for dangerous romantic candidates, and, unfortunately, Winston was only aware of less than half of them, herself included. Katherine seriously suspected that Winston had never even considered the possibility that a man might be making the same moves on him. Well, she currently had more pressing things to worry about than her husband's extra-marital suitors, believe it or not. Like the information she was given at the meeting she just had with her long-lost, thought-to-be-dead, murderously resentful brother.

Jelly had no reason to be lying to her. Even if he was, she would have no choice but to believe him. He had something planted on Winston, and whoever was after it would not be inhibited by something so trivial as killing one Outer Party member.

Whoever it was, they would not touch her husband. Katherine had compiled a list in her head with what little information she had. It wasn't very long; after all, Winston did not interact with all that many people. Of the most frequent and suspicious, they had already encountered two since this morning.

Parsons was the first. Looking at the bulbous man, you would not be able to tell he had any more than two braincells, but Katherine was not fooled—at least, not after the incident this morning. Parsons had slipped a small device—presumably for tracking or recording—into the jacket Winston put over her shoulders, which she had returned to Winston before they had to separate to their individual stations. Winston may not have noticed, but a little extra spying would have made little difference if he had done anything suspicious during work, and Katherine wanted to believe that he was smart enough to avoid that. Though she noticed the movement Parsons made, she had been very careful not to react to it. She'll just have to keep a closer eye on him for now.

The second suspect was sitting in across from her and Winston at the moment: Syme. Katherine knew that he and Winston were on decent enough terms. She knew that Winston treasured his unorthodox intelligence as much as he treasures anything that the Party hates, and she knew she did not need to encourage him too much to socialize with the man. Of course, that might be different if Winston knew that she would be trailing them, every time, looking for any incongruencies that might have Syme end up on her hitlist.

Yes, she did have a list. O'Brien was at the top of it so far, with Jelly coming in a close second. Unfortunately, Katherine did not have the means to successfully execute them and live, so they were put on hold for now.

Syme was now talking to Winston about something like rations or numbers, and Katherine was only listening enough to know that whatever it was, it wasn't important. Winston clearly liked him. Syme could be impressively thoughtful sometimes, like in the way he paid for all three of their drinks and asked about some minor detail of Winston's work. Katherine would be lying if she said she were not a little jealous. Though she doubted that Winston would be unfaithful to her, she realized that, at least in his eyes, she represented much of that perfect Party obedience that Winston most hated. It was much the same reason he did not respond to Julia's advances, she was sure. If only he knew...

Tuning back into the conversation, Katherine quickly caught the gist of it. Syme was offering, very generously, to give Winston his chocolate rations.

"They've become a bit upsetting to my stomach," Syme states as an excuse. Chocolate? Upsetting his stomach? Bullshit. Winston seemed a little confused at that too. Syme saw this as well and decided to press on absolutely shamelessly. "I've always had a bit of a weak digestion for these things, but I don't want these to go to waste, especially since it's been of higher quality for this batch." Having said this, Syme reached in his coat and took out a full bar of creamy-looking chocolate. This wasn't the cheap ones they handed out to Outer Party members, Katherine knew. The rich aroma seemed to have had its effect on Winston. This was the sort of chocolate that Katherine, even with her full and unquestioning obedience, had only been able to procure a handful of times. This bastard was hitting low. Everybody loved real chocolate. Good chocolate. Winston was no exception. Katherine could feel the temptation herself, in fact. Damn Syme.

"Oh no, we couldn't possibly accept these," Katherine cut in. Winston nodded along (albeit a little reluctantly).

"Ah, it's no trouble!" Syme good-naturedly smiled in Winston's direction. "Though if it'll make you feel better about accepting this, we could each have a piece here." With this, Syme broke the luscious bar into three parts, handing the biggest piece to Winston, the second biggest to Katherine, and keeping the smallest for himself. What a vile and dangerous man this was. Katherine silently added him to her hitlist, putting him just slightly below Parsons. There was no way Winston had not noticed the flagrant favoritism, but—perhaps the aroma of good chocolate was too enticing—he did not comment on it. They all finished their chocolates, and Katherine was loathe to say that it was the best chocolate she had ever had.