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ASHE

A she woke up hot, she could feel someone breathing against her. She started to push up off the bed and Toby jumped off the bed, she watched him head down the hall. She followed quietly. Red came around the corner, “How are you feeling? Hungry?”

“Yeah,” Red immediately crossed in front of her heading into the kitchen. She followed him and leaned against the closest counter. “You have a dog.”

“Toby’s retired. I was his handler once.” Red was going through cabinets pulling out dishes and food. “Is spaghetti ok?”

“Sounds good. Is it really 9 o’clock?"

“I reset all the clocks to mess with you,” Red deadpanned, then relented. “It’ll be fine. We’ll eat and go back to bed. I do need to take Toby out though.”

“Why--”

“Can we save that topic for dinner?” Red interrupted. “How about we discuss how well you slept. You did, didn’t you?”

Ashe suspected she knew where this was going and smiled at Red’s back, “Why do you suppose that was? Let me guess, you are ultimately the reason, right?”