[takes place the day after this]

He’d found the keys -- attached to the dumbest keychain he’d ever seen, no less -- in the pocket of his suit jacket when he got dressed that morning, and a small slip of paper accompanying it that simply read ‘Dock’. It’d taken a few hours before he eventually bit (figuratively) and followed what barely qualified as a clue down to the docks with Onyx in tow. When he got there, he found a boat - he found a lot of boats, actually, what with it being a dock and all, but only one had a symbol he recognized, painted on the side of it. It was the same symbol he had tattooed on his wrist.

While he’d been hesitant of boarding, Onyx had darted on ahead, up the stairs and straight onto the deck before vanishing into the interior of the boat. A few minutes later, he reemerged, excited barks muffled by whatever the hell he’d found and was now carrying in his mouth. Asher couldn’t make out what it was, but when he heard ‘I want to suck your blood’ coming from the thing, in a bad Romanian accent, he decided he didn’t want a better look at it.

Onyx continued bounding around the deck, running laps when Asher finally joined him. The dog left for one more lap, but he never rounded the other corner again. Instead, Asher had heard a splash before he moved into the saloon area of the boat, but he wasn’t concerned. Onyx knew how to swim.

He was seated at the table within the boat now, his head resting against it, staring at the stupid keychain as it sat too close to his nose, forcing his eyes to cross slightly. He saw double for the second time that week. He’d be seeing it a hell of a lot more a few months from now, assuming all went well and Del gave birth to twins.

That word still scared the shit out of him.

A boat didn’t need to be fed or walked, but more importantly, it didn’t dance. Asher could certainly appreciate that much.