"Winter? Are you in here?" Jacin shut the door behind him with his foot, careful to keep his hold on the box in his hands.
"In the kitchen, Jacin," she called from the back of the house.
They were currently staying in the European Union, outside Andorra Nueva. As ambassadors, they were often on the move, but this time they had rented a villa in the Spanish countryside to finish out the year. Winter liked to think of it as an extended honeymoon, but Jacin had noticed that she had been saddened when her hallucinations had taken longer to stop. She still had one or two a month, usually sudden and sometimes severe, like the one she'd had at dinner at a restaurant in the American Republic Jacin had booked for their anniversary. She had seen Aimery Park clawing his way out of her tomato soup, reaching for her neck. She'd screamed so loud, the wait staff had come in immediately, but only saw Jacin holding a crying Winter and whispering soothing words like he had done so many times.
So Jacin had decided she needed something to focus on.
Hence the box.
Jacin trudged in the kitchen and set the box down on the floor before coming up behind Winter, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his head on her shoulder while she washed a pot from dinner the night before. She glanced at him and smiled.
"You were up early," she said, scrubbing at a bit of burnt food.
"I went to pick something up for you." Jacin let go of his wife and leaned against the counter. "It's over there by the table."
She blushed. "A gift? For what?"
"For being you." He kissed her cheek, walked over to the box, and kneeled beside it. "Are you going to see what it is or not?"
She laughed and shut off the sink, wiping her wet hands with a towel before sitting gracefully on the floor next to Jacin. "Are you going to open it or not?"
"It's your present, you open it." He leaned back on his hands. "Go ahead, it won't bite. I think."
"What kind of gift might or might not bite me? Is it a-"
The box whimpered and moved. Winter gasped, momentarily shocked, then ripped the lid off. A fuzzy head peeked up over the edge nervously, two cream-colored ears folded back against a sleek black head. It perked up at seeing Winter and jumped up, two front paws catching on the lip of the box and sending both the creature and the box falling onto their sides. It whimpered again and Winter reached gently to cradle the puppy in her lap.
"A puppy, Jacin?" Tears glistened in her eyes.
He leaned over her shoulder to peek at the puppy. "Yes, a puppy. I thought you might want a new friend."
"I-wha-but how did you know I wanted a puppy? I was going to ask you tonight if we could look into finding one." She smoothed the puppy's silky hair and it nuzzled against her skirt.
"Are you serious? You've been looking at pictures of Ryu for hours. I knew you wanted a puppy before you knew you wanted a puppy." He sratched under the puppy's chin. "He still needs a name, you know. I don't think Harold is going to work for me."
"His name is Harold? Why would you get a puppy named Harold?"
"He was the friendliest. Left his mom's side all happy and tried to eat my shoe."
"Are you sure he wasn't just hungry?" Harold slid off Winter's lap and proceeded to sniff around the fridge. "He looks hungry."
"That's why I have food in the podship." Jacin jumped up and headed out for the food.
WInter watched Harold move around the kitchen, tripping over his too-big paws and wagging his tail happily. She patted the floor next to her and he came running over, jumping back into her lap. "You need a new name, puppy-friend."
She looked at his coat. His white ears and underbelly seemed to be the only light parts of him; his face was pure black, his body a slightly different shade of-you guessed it-black, and the tip of his tail seemed to taper off into a small bit of white. He was a big puppy, too, but Winter didn't know what breed he might be. Just then, the door opened and shut and Jacin came back into the kitchen carrying two large bags of large breed puppy food.
"Jacin? What kind of puppy is he?" She scratched behind Harold's ears and was rewarded with a sandpaper tongue licking her face.
"He's a Great Dane." Jacin ripped open one bag and retrieved a bowl from the cabinets.
"So he's a big pup?"
"One of the biggest." A handful of kibble landed in the bowl.
"What about Onyx?"
"Like the color?" A second handful.
"Like the sky from the biodomes on Luna." Winter paused. "No, not Onyx. What about Orion?"
"Like the constellation?"
He set the bowl on the floor and picked Harold up from Winter's lap, setting him down in front of the food. Harold sniffed and tentatively ate a few pieces. Apparently those few pieces convinced him that the kibble was good and he scarfed down the kibble like he'd never eaten.
"Orion was a hunter in old myths. He chased one of the goddesses and she cursed him."
"You want to name a puppy after a cursed hunter?"
"You're right, Orion isn't right. What about Ajax?"
"Like the old soap brand?"
"Not Ajax then."
"What if you named him after Ryu?"
"No, Ryu is is his own wolf. Harold needs to be, well, not Harold."
Jacin sighed and glanced at the bag of dog food. He stood up straighter. "What about Hero?"
Winter smiled. "Hero." She smiled at the puppy. "Come here, Hero!"
No-longer-Harold looked away from his bowl of food and bolted to Winter, tackling her in a flurry of kisses.