Pruned Trees Re-Sprout!! ~ Ragazza Volpe Magica ~

Warm, so warm.

She could feel the fire in his heart – not just his commitment to her, but a deeper, spiritual essence at his very core. They were really meant for each other huh? Of course, she had to phrase it that way in her head; a deep, uncomfortable warmth radiating from her.

“Rebecca? You okay?”

“GUH?!”

The vixen flung herself from her Maestro’s lap, spectacularly crashing onto the ground.

“Are you-?”

“I’m FINE!” the fox insisted, though her beet-red cheeks betrayed the validity of her claim.

Sparing his flustered fox’s feelings, Shouri drew a tuner from his side, taking inventory of the time. His eyes widened in disbelief at the current hour. “Fuck, it’s almost three in the morning. Pacifica and Taika are probably freaking out.” He brushed his hair back, sitting up.

“I’m surprised they didn’t come looking for me though. I left to check on you like five hours ago,” Rebecca noted, hopping to her feet.

Shouri agreed with her assessment. “I guess we should be the ones checking on them then.”

Getting to his feet, Shouri led Rebecca out of the common room. They made their way down the halls of the MA office. Rebecca’s ears twitched. “Hey, we’re all alone here.” Her eyes wandered from door to door as they crept through their Maestro’s quarters.

“Not surprised. This is such a small village I doubt they get many traveling Maestros here,” Shouri noted. “It’s like the first MA Office Taika and I ended up at after leaving home,” he recalled.

Rebecca nodded slowly. She had been told about that a little bit after she first became his. “Hopefully we haven’t pissed anyone off,” the fire fox joked.

“Just watch my back and make sure someone doesn’t cold cock me,” he snarked back.

“No one’s kidnapping you again without taking some third-degree burns.” Her toothy grin and confidence brought a smile to Shouri’s face.

They reached Room One, which they had been assigned, and with a wave of a tuner, the door unlocked and they slipped back in.

Taika was immediately visible wrapped up in a thin sheet, which further eased his heart. The vixen had spun the TV around to face the couch, and she was watching some movie at low volume. The window was open, the half-illuminated moon shining through.

“Pacifica’s probably asleep,” Rebecca whispered to her Maestro, catching the fact that Taika had the volume so low that she could still hear it with her sensitive hearing.

“Ah, that’s good,” Shouri whispered back. They crept over to the couch and sat with the lunar fox. “How are you feeling Taika?” the Maestro asked.

“Sick,” she replied simply. Shouri frowned, the bags around her eyes persisted and she seemed a bit clammy. Checking her tuner confirmed this fact, still listing illness and her rhythm not recovering as it should.

It was the same with Rebecca when she had gotten Rekindling Illness back in Canolapra. He knew Taika wouldn’t be back in peak form for about a week.

Taika turned his head towards her, leaning on him slightly. “I’ll be okay Sho. Please don’t worry about me.”

“It’s my job to worry about you,” he retorted. She didn’t have a comeback.

“So when’s Pacifica’s turn to get sick?” Rebecca asked.

“Don’t even joke about that. We’re keeping her hydrated if it’s the last thing I do,” Shouri said. His gaze turned to the lone otter girl sleeping peacefully on the huge bed.

“Avoiding deserts then?” the fire element continued to snark.

“Definitely. Not trying to kill two-thirds of my Resonators.”

After that little conversation, the three returned to watching TV. Rebecca and Taika each claimed a shoulder of Shouri’s. At some point, the two fox-girls draped their tails over him and before not too much longer they had fallen asleep.

“Nnn…” Shouri covered his eyes. It had gotten measurably brighter outside, which shone in through the open window. They were on the western side of the MA office, so they weren’t getting the direct brunt of the sun hammering on them, but it was rising.

As usual, he found himself waking up with his clingy Resonators all over him, sans Pacifica who remained in the distance claiming the bed for herself. Though he knew she’d complain later about being all alone. Rhythm addicts, the lot of them.

Sleeping on a recliner and now a couch didn’t make for the most restful of slumber, Shouri learned. Eight hours between the common room and their proper sleeping quarters didn’t give him the restful sleep he had needed after the exhausting day that was yesterday. In fact, his back was quite stiff.

“Girls wake up.” He shook the two foxes beside him awake.

“Mmmrgh…” Rebecca stirred, her eyes slowly breaking free from the grasp of sleep. “Morning?” she questioned groggily.

Taika too grunted, curling up and trembling slightly, her ears folded back. She still didn’t appear to be well, which wasn’t surprising.

“Rebecca, can you get the window?” Shouri requested.

“Yeah.”

While the open window was being attended to, Shouri wrapped an arm around the ailing lunar fox, pulling her closer to him. He placed his hand on the side of her head and gently stroked her hair while also focusing his rhythm on her. For his effort, he earned a smile from Taika and a soft coo of his name.

Rebecca flopped back down onto the couch. “So what’s the plan?” she inquired.

“I think I want to get us back to Lyreann probably within the next hour. We can get Taika to sleep, maybe nap ourselves,” Shouri mused aloud. He pulled one of the tuners from his side and began looking up train schedules to make sure they would get there in time.

“Should I wake Pacifica?” Rebecca asked.

“You should wake Pacifica.” Shouri nodded solemnly.

“Sho… ho fame…” Taika whimpered as the group power-walked to the train station. She had on Shouri’s jacket, which was baggy on her thanks to the difference in their frames. The hood was draped over her head, but again due to the size difference, it was obscuring her vision.

Shouri had hold of the lunar’s hand, leading her along to the station. “We’ll get some M’kroc’s when we get there,” he told her.

“Hungry now,” the fox whimpered sadly, but offered no physical protest to the plan, continuing to be guided along to their destination.

Sure enough, as they walked into the train station and got their tickets, their train pulled into the platform. There was a small crowd of people gathered, probably working in the larger settlements and commuting to and from their day jobs. Either way, none of them paid Shouri or his gaggle of girls any mind, most just waiting for the doors to open.

“Just made it,” Rebecca noted as they waited for the train doors to open.

“Sleepy.” Pacifica stood with her eyes closed, swaying ever so slightly.

The doors parted ways, allowing the waiting travelers to board. Shouri and his group entered last to find their seats. It thankfully didn’t take long, and the weary young adults allowed themselves to enjoy the brief moment of peace they had been granted.

What should have been a pleasant day trip had turned into an exhausting stressful trip to a distant MA Office that saw one of their ranks taken out of commission for the time being. It was an unspoken agreement between the four that they just wanted back in their room in Lyreann with their pajamas so they could sleep properly.

Just about an hour later they found themselves back in Lyreann. They picked up breakfast from M’kroc’s and hastily returned to the MA Office they were using.

BEEP!

The lock released on the door of Room 36, and with it, they had returned to their temporary home.

Pacifica and Rebecca shuffled in first, then Taika, and finally Shouri, closing the door behind him. They all changed into their pajamas and ate breakfast.

Rebecca stepped around the room and shut all the curtains to darken the room. She returned to their laundry pile and regarded it with a frown. “Probably should do something about this,” she mumbled.

Shouri and Taika had already gotten cozy in bed. “I guess we’ll deal with it later,” the fire Resonator said with a shrug. With that, she joined the two in bed.

Last but not least was Pacifica, who had to have her morning shower. She slipped under the covers and wrapped herself around Taika before quickly drifting off to sleep.

Morning to day, day to evening; their slumber was only broken by Shouri’s tuner ringing.

“Who’s joining the shit list?” Shouri rose with all the bitterness of one who had been wronged for the last time. Rebecca rolled over and grabbed her tuner from the nightstand, rolling back to present it to her Maestro.

“What,” Shouri answered.

“You coming out tonight?” Colette asked innocently enough from the other side of the phone.

“No,” and he hung up.

Fwump!

And back down he went, his Resonators instantly attaching themselves to him like magnets. He snorted in annoyance, trying to return to sleep after it had been so rudely disrupted. After a moment or two, he grunted in frustration and quickly thumbed up a text to Colette.

“Give me 20 minutes.”

“What are we going to do? Taika is still sick,” Pacifica pointed out.

“You three can just go. I’ll be fine here,” Taika urged.

“Absolutely not. I am not leaving you alone for that long. Me and Pacifica going to get breakfast every morning was already pushing it.” Shouri retorted quickly. Though with two Resonators with strong emotional staves, he knew he couldn’t hide the turmoil in his heart. He did want to go.

“But Sho! This is important! You have to go!” Taika pleaded. She ground her teeth, brows turning up with concern. “You have to…” her voice cracked as she trembled with emotion.

The room fell to silence.

Shouri laid there, closing his eyes in thought.

Taika clenched her jaw tight, hiding her face from view.

Rebecca furrowed her brows internalizing the frustration of the situation.

After basking in her friend’s feelings, Pacifica took in a breath; holding it for a couple of seconds before she spoke: “I’ll stay with her.” All eyes turned to the water-element.

“Wha-?” Shouri raised a brow.

“You can leave Taika’s tuner with us, and you take mine. If we need you we’ll call you,” Pacifica suggested. “You and Rebecca can go. I trust her to keep you safe.” The otter’s gaze was solely on their party’s fire-element.

“Me?” Rebecca muttered, feeling put on the spot. “I suppose I can stick close to Sho and the Feroce Resonator can do the heavy lifting,” the fire fox mused aloud. “Maybe that Kaira chick can pitch in too.”

Shouri hummed, his gaze passing around the three Resonators that clung to him. They were all varying levels of uneasy regarding the situation, but in the same respect he could sense they shared in his sentiment: anything they could do to avoid another Cecil they wanted to do. He lifted the tuner he was texting on and thumbed up a response.

“Rebecca and I will come down there.”