Tasha opened the door to her apartment and was greeted by an unmistakable odor. She hastened to shut the door and grimaced. It had been a long shift and Alice knew her stance on lighting those things up. Alice could have at least tried to clear out the smell before Tasha got home. Tasha locked up the door behind her and set her bag down, crossing her arms as she went into the living room where she found Alice perched on the couch, laptop open, typing furiously.

“Hi honey, I’m home,” Tasha said with sarcastic sweetness. Alice grunted in reply, and kept typing.

“You know, I’ve asked you time and again not to light that shit up in here, Alice. Thanks for being so considerate.”

That got Alice to look up from her screen. She pushed her glasses up her nose and brushed her bangs out of her eyes. “Sorry, Tash. I needed it. I figured just one wouldn’t hurt.”

Tasha sighed and uncrossed her arms, undoing the belt that held her holstered gun. She set it down on the coffee table and Alice unconsciously recoiled a bit, after all these months still looking at the gun like she expected it to stand up, point in her direction, and fire on its own.

“It’s alright,” Tasha said. “I’m going to go change.”

Tasha hurried to the bedroom which was thankfully without that smoky odor, and opened the window, taking a few cleansing breaths. She took her time changing her clothes, and when she came back out into the living room, a sheepish looking Alice was emerging from the kitchen with a beer for her.

“Peace offering?”

Tasha took the beer with a smile. “Yeah. You know I hate the smell of those incense sticks though, Alice.”

“I know! I just needed one to calm me down.”

Tasha raised her eyebrows. “What happened now?”

“Nothing, just some idiot on one of my forums. I can’t believe how biased some people are. I mean, it’s 2013.”

Tasha put on the tv and took a long swig of her beer as Alice complained. Tasha loved Alice but she couldn’t care less about whatever argument on the internet Alice had gotten into that day. Tasha was settling into a comfortable state with Alice’s chattering as pleasant white noise when she realized that Alice was waiting expectantly for an answer. Tasha hadn’t heard the question, but played it off as though she had been listening.