“I think we should stop for the night,” Vienna advised, lifting her glowing hands away from Shouri’s.

Shouri’s hands were still shaking even after Vienna had healed them. He glared at the bowl. There were five shining obsidian pearls resting in the basin. Several dozen dull orbs lay on the ground – the rejects.

“She better fucking appreciate this,” Vienna grumbled, folding her arms across her chest.

“You don’t know Taika very well,” Shouri retorted. “She will love these.” His eyes rested on the five pearls. “I know she will.”

“Hmph,” the lyrebird huffed. “You’re lucky I like your rhythm,” came the complaint.

“Yeah yeah.” Shouri rolled his eyes, rising from his seat. He stretched, groaning as he did so. He glanced back at the chair, noting the multi-hour stint he spent sat in it.

“Gotta remember to get up and stretch tomorrow,” the Maestro mused to himself.

“Can’t have you dying by twenty,” Vienna said with a smug grin.

“You do care,” Shouri snarked.

“If you’re dead, so is your rhythm,” the lyrebird chided him, wagging a disapproving finger.

Making their way out of the workshop, the two walked in relative silence through the temple, ending back out on the outer walkway. “Same time tomorrow?” Vienna asked.

“Probably, depends on when I go to bed,” Shouri replied.

“I suppose it does,” she replied before going her own way.

Shouri sighed, slumping over. “I need a drink,” he complained.

“What’s wrong Sho?” Taika asked.

The Maestro jumped, turning to face his Resonator. “Man, I really do need something; didn’t even realize you walked up on me,” he said, brushing his hair back with one hand. He looked his lunar fox up and down. The outfit looked strangely familiar, but he couldn’t place where he would have seen her wearing it before. “What’s that madman got you in?” he questioned.

“Rhythm suppressing clothes, it’s supposed to help my training he said,” Taika informed her Maestro.

“Oh, that’s why I didn’t sense you walking up.” He reached out and pinched the fabric of her robes. “It’s a nice material, but it must have Vatonium or some other rhythm-dampening material woven in,” he guessed.

Taika was content to smile and listen.

“Let’s get Rebecca and Pacifica and see what they’ve cooked up for dinner,” Shouri said, rubbing his gut.

The lunar fox nodded in agreement, her stomach growling in protest at the lack of sustenance. It had been several hours since they had breakfast. She was so focused on getting that bead through the paper that she hadn’t noticed her growing hunger.

“How’d your training go?” Shouri inquired as they walked.

Her ears folded back and she averted her gaze. “I didn’t expect to get it right away, but it didn’t go well,” Taika admitted quietly.

“What happened?”

“He wants me to put a bead through a paper target.”

“Like the ones at the MA Offices?”

“Yeah.”

The pair came to a stop. Taika kept her eyes away from her Maestro as he studied her.

“Stay here for a sec, be right back!” Before she knew it, Shouri had darted away, back in the direction they had come from.

He ran back not two minutes later, grabbed her hand, and placed something in it.

“What is it?” Taika asked. It was a small black pearl of some kind. It was similar to the bead she had been given to shoot at the target.

“What he’s having me do,” Shouri replied. “It’s a bead I made by hand, apparently it should work well with your powers,” he further elaborated.

She allowed the bead to roll around her hand. It felt nice. She rolled it up to her fingertips and studied it by touch. The surface was smooth, impossibly so, and carried a feeling similar to etude – the same sort of warmth she felt when holding hands with Shouri.

“You made this?” she questioned.

“Yeah,” he said with a nod. He held out his hands, palms out. “It uses a bit of my blood for each one, but supposedly it gets the best results,” the Maestro stated.

That was a bit concerning to the fox, but his hands didn’t have any cuts on them.

He noticed her scrutinizing his palms. “That Vienna girl healed me,” he spoke up.

Taika nodded slowly, furrowing her brows. She had yet to meet that girl’s Resonator but filed away that new factoid into the back of her mind.

“Anyway, let’s go see what Pacifica and Rebecca are up to,” he said, resuming their trek back to the room.

…

“Uhhh, what happened here?” Shouri asked upon their return to their lodgings.

“Drying her tail,” Pacifica replied without missing a beat.

Pacifica was sitting on the couch with Rebecca lying across her lap, face-down. An old martial arts movie played on the television. The otter was currently busy ruffling her fellow Resonator’s tail in a towel while partaking in the aforementioned movie.

“Is she okay?” questioned the Maestro.

He got a thumbs up from the face-down Rebecca. “If you say so,” he said with a smile.

“I think I want to try that hot tub before we try to figure out dinner,” Shouri announced to the room as a whole. He pushed on the small of his back, trying to stretch out the stiffness. “I’m too damn young for back problems,” the Maestro grumbled.

Before he could get away, Taika grabbed his arm. “Huh?” He turned to find her pleading gaze.

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“Me too,” she mouthed, mustering up as pathetic of a pout as she possibly could.

A thin smile spread across his lips. “Come on,” he mouthed back.

The pair excused themselves to the bathroom, finding their clothes bag already waiting for them. “Oh,” Shouri realized upon finding his swim trunks and spare shirt hanging on the sink what had happened while they were gone.

Taking turns, the two swapped into their respective swimming attire and slipped into the hot tub.

“Ahh, I needed this,” Shouri let out a pleasured breath as the warm jets soothed his sore back.

“Yeah,” Taika cooed, similarly relaxing next to her precious Maestro

They remained that way for some time, Taika eventually resting under Shouri’s arm as he stroked her hair.

It was easy for the pair to lose track of time in the comfort of both the hot tub and etude.

KNOCK KNOCK

Shouri and Taika snapped to taking hold of each other and looking around in fright at the sudden noise.

“Sho! We’re hungry!” Rebecca shouted from the other side of the door.

“We’re going ahead!” Pacifica also informed them.

The Maestro let out a sigh, calming his suddenly racing heart. “We should probably join them,” he told Taika.

She considered that thought for a moment before pulling herself up and kissing him. He smirked at her. “Alright, we can be a couple minutes late I guess,” he said before wrapping his arms around her.

----------------------------------------

“Surprised you wanted to leave them alone like that,” Pacifica noted as she and Rebecca walked down to the dining hall for (hopefully) dinner.

“They could probably use the extra etude,” Rebecca replied simply. “I dunno what that Ethereal is having them do, but both of them were wrung dry of rhythm,” she informed the otter.

“Really now?” Pacifica hummed in thought.

It was at this point they entered the dining room. Just like the day before, there was already food waiting for them and her – the mysterious girl, Vienna.

Shouri wasn’t here to stop her, so Pacifica immediately approached the strange girl. “Hi Miss Vienna, was it?” the otter greeted the woman.

She finished chewing her food and slowly set down her utensils before turning and meeting Pacifica’s smile with a glare.

“What?” she asked through her teeth.

The water element gulped, shifting a foot back. “I er, wanted to know your history with my Maestro,” she managed to reply.

Vienna’s eye twitched. “My assistance was needed because you were useless,” she replied.

Pacifica’s eyes widened as if she had been stabbed by a hidden dagger. “But I, what?” she stammered.

The tailless lyrebird continued twisting the proverbial knife as she rose to her feet. Despite being shorter than even Taika, she still managed to tower over the otter. “I cleaned up the mess you created,” she clicked her tongue. With that said, she began to walk away.

“Hey!” Rebecca stepped in Vienna’s path.

“What?” Vienna sneered.

“What yourself? The fuck’s your problem?” growled the vixen.

Vienna studied Rebecca for a moment before exhaling sharply through her nose. “Barely passable,” she mumbled, brushing past the fox and leaving the room.

As soon as Vienna was out of earshot, Rebecca stomped the ground, scorching the wood floor underneath her. “She’s so lucky she’s a Maestro or I’d caved her stupid skull in,” the Resonator snarled.

“Useless…” Pacifica remained rooted in place.

Instead of chasing after the mystery woman, Rebecca stepped over to Pacifica and placed a hand on her back. “Hey,” she said.

“Useless…” Pacifica repeated.

“Cut that out,” Rebecca whispered, rubbing her fellow Resonator’s shoulder. “We were caught off guard and we-”

“No,” Pacifica cut her off. “It’s not good enough.”

Rebecca glared at the otter.

Pacifica refused her teammate’s gaze.

“Then we train,” stated the fox.

“Train?” Pacifica raised her head.

“I’ll do what I can to help you get stronger, or at least have a better battle sense,” Rebecca told her.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Shouri’s voice startled the two Resonators, who had been focused entirely on each other.

“What happened?” he asked.

Rebecca explained the situation with their training and Vienna’s comment.

Shouri nodded, grunting in annoyance. He placed a hand on Pacifica’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about Vienna – she has unrealistic standards on how strong Resonators should be,” he said. This didn’t help Pacifica’s mood, so Shouri continued, “That being said, if this is something you want, I’ll support you one hundred percent.”

That earned a smile from the otter, who stepped forward and hugged him tightly. “I don’t want to be a dead weight.”

He returned the hug. “You’re not. Even if you told me you never wanted to fight again, I’d still keep you by my side,” whispered the Maestro.

Rebecca joined the hug. “You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for,” the fire element added.

Finally, Taika completed the group hug. “Don’t beat yourself up over something some nobody said,” the lunar added.

Despite the tears that spilled, nobody mistook her true feelings – not with the big smile Pacifica wore.