Knocking.
Persistent knocking.
I opened one eye.
"Sanctuary is asleep."
"One hour."
Penelope. Through the door. Not remotely interested in negotiating.
"Sanctuary remains asleep."
"Get up, Alash."
"Working on it."
"You haven't moved."
"Internally, I'm sprinting."
A pause on the other side of the door.
"One hour," she said again, already walking away.
She hadn't waited to hear if I actually got up.
Efficient.
Slightly insulting.
Also, unfortunately, effective, because now I was awake enough to be annoyed about it, which meant I was awake enough to stay awake.
I sat up anyway. Dream Haven stayed exactly where it belonged, tucked against my side, blissfully uninvolved in this entire ordeal.
Washing up took longer than it should have. Getting the uniform right took longer still, mostly because the jacket had opinions about which way the silver trim was supposed to sit and I had none.
[You have been staring at that sleeve for eleven seconds.]
'I'm negotiating with it.'
