THUD CRACK

Running through the forest, a sickening splat stood out amongst all the other sounds surrounding them. It was difficult to regulate his breathing, and he didn’t want to look at the tuners at his side. He knew what awaited them.

Boy and otter-girl burst through the foliage to a small patch of trees, where the canopy of the forest had been violently torn open. Leaves and twigs continued to slowly fall as the moonlight filtered in from above revealing…

“T-taika… Re-rebecca…”

A pair of bloody, mangled bodies lay before them. Clad in black and orange, the heat slowly dissipating from the once proud forms. Sticky red life drained into the forest floor, returning to the earth that once sustained their lives. The incomprehensibility of the sight they were witnessing sapped the strength from their legs as they fell to their knees. Tears refused to flow as they couldn’t accept the situation presented to them.

“They’re…”

“Sh-sh-Sho wh-what do we do…?”

“Paci, I…”

The world grew dimmer and colder, the broken links slowly fading away, taking the sharpened vision and warmth with them.

“P-Paci…”

“Sho…”

It all went black.

Shouri and Pacifica’s eyes shot open. For a moment the pair remained motionless, hearts racing unbearably fast. Shooting up, they quickly checked and found Taika and Rebecca stirring next to them from the sudden movements.

“Acero Park MA office…” Pacifica whispered, grabbing hold of Shouri’s shirt.

“They’re safe they’re safe,” he repeated, tears pouring down his face.

“Whas goin’ on?” Rebecca groggily asked.

“Morning?” Taika questioned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

The poor pair of fox girls were tackled to the bed and squished together by a bawling Shouri and Pacifica.

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After the weepy pair got it out of their system, the four sat up in bed.

“We had a nightmare,” Pacifica told the vixens. They both tensed up in response to that information, recalling the last instance of shared nightmares.

“We didn’t make it to save you two,” Shouri spoke with a breath.

“It was horrible.” Pacifica trembled.

A sigh of relief passed their lips; it was just a normal nightmare. Though, it was clear that it was intense enough to shake them. With that in mind, Taika and Rebecca pushed the pair down and lay atop them, holding their frightened companions tightly.

“We’re okay,” Taika whispered.

“Don’t be scared, everything turned out alright,” Rebecca added.

Assured that they were back in reality, and nothing bad had happened to Taika or Rebecca, sleep returned to the exhausted quartet once again.

Morning soon arrived, and with it a knock on the door.

Shouri opened his eyes, Taika laying on him, resting her head on his chest. Pacifica bore the weight of Rebecca.

KNOCK KNOCK

A second set of taps against the door woke the group as a whole up. They were all still exhausted, and now sported muscle soreness to boot!

“Fuck…” Shouri cursed. “Hang on!” he shouted, causing the three animal-eared girls to wince at the sudden loud noise.

“Must be Uncle Aiden,” Pacifica mumbled, still trying to force herself awake.

“Why’s that guy here?” Rebecca asked, refusing to get off of her perch atop the otter girl.

“Sho called Mom last night to let her know what happened. She said she’d send Uncle Aiden to pick us up.”

Prying Taika off of him, Shouri managed to sit up. “It’s a good thing too. I feel like shit right now,” the Maestro groaned.

Braving standing, the boy stumbled and had to catch himself on the wall. “Fuck fuck fuck,” he slowly cursed, his legs trembling from the sheer pain he was in. He shambled along the wall and found his way to the door, throwing open the lock. “You can come in,” he told the presence on the other side.

Sure enough, the door opened revealing it was indeed Priscilla’s fire Resonator, Aiden. “Morning Maestro Shouri.” The red panda man let himself into the room while Shouri hobbled back to the bed. “Y'all look like crap,” Aiden said with a grin.

“Thanks,” Shouri grumbled.

“It’s a bit nostalgic. I remember the times we tore ourselves up like this on hunts,” Aiden chuckled, flopping down onto the couch. “Let’s get you kids home so you can relax properly.”

There was collective groaning from the bed.

“Oh also, Jack is warming the pool just for you little Pacifica,” Aiden added

“WARM POOL?!” Poor Rebecca was almost catapulted off the bed from how fast Pacifica sat up.

“Damn girl what the fuck…?” Rebecca cursed.

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“This-”

“-is kinda-”

“-small.”

The younger Maestro and his Resonators stared at the sports car Aiden had rented for this little venture.

“Nonsense! You three will fit in the back fine, Little Pacifica can be in the front!” Aiden countered in a vain attempt to defend his honor.

“If you say so.” Shouri lightly kicked the tire next to him.

“Well, I’m sure you all will fit somehow, get in!” Aiden demanded.

After some struggle and fighting; a consensus was finally reached:

Aiden in the driver’s seat with Pacifica in the passenger seat (due to her larger tail).

In the back was Rebecca, Shouri, and then Taika behind Pacifica.

Needless to say, Pacifica was a little grumpy she didn’t get to sit next to her Maestro, while Rebecca and Taika got to claim a shoulder of Shouri’s to rest on.

Seating taken care of they were off. The land between Acero Park and Canolapra wasn’t too terribly interesting, mostly cornfields. “So Cici didn’t tell us much of what happened to you kids; how the hell did you end up out here?” Aiden inquired.

Rebecca and Taika both jumped, feeling Shouri take their hands and squeeze them tightly. They squeezed back and huddled closer, assuring him they were both fine.

Pacifica, sensing the emotional storm cloud in the back, answered for her Maestro, “Rebby and Taika got thrown into the sky by a big bird Scherzando.”

The red panda-man tilted the rear-view mirror back, angling it to catch Rebecca in it. “I’m assuming your wings saved the day?” he questioned.

“Yeah. At the last second,” she nodded.

“Burnt the hell out of yourself though, didn’tcha?”

“J-just a bit.”

Aiden nodded, keeping his focus on the road. “Where do they burn from?”

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“Heels,” Rebecca replied, unsure of where this was going.

“Want me to teach you pankour?” he offered.

“What’s that?” Shouri raised a brow, unfamiliar with the term.

“It’s a style of athletics red pandas practice with their ad-Lib to efficiently move through their surroundings,” Rebecca explained.

“More than that, it’s the practice of minimizing the stress and damage one takes while using Icarus’ Ala. The only requirement is that your flames come from your feet,” Aiden added on.

Rebecca furrowed her brows, sitting up straight as if to help her thinking “I thought only red pandas could practice it since you all have to keep contact with the ground in some way to use our ad-Lib for free.”

“Not at all, it’s about using your flames to help you climb and navigate terrain, especially urban settings,” Aiden informed the rest of the car.

Shouri nudged Rebecca. “He’s offering, might as well,” he whispered to her.

“Uh, sure,” the fire Resonator spoke up.

“Sweet! I’ll give you a crash course tomorrow.”

With that decided, Rebecca leaned up against Shouri once more. “You excited?” he whispered.

After a moment of thought, her lips rose. “Yeah.”

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“Warm pool ow warm pool ow warm pool ow!” Pacifica excitedly limped towards the house well ahead of her companions.

Priscilla stood by the door to greet the group. “You all look like crap,” the elder Maestro observed as soon as Shouri and his other two Resonators made it to the front of the house.

“Thanks,” the younger boy grumbled, struggling to walk by the homeowner.

As the weary trio removed their shoes, Priscilla and Aiden spoke about the morning’s trip:

“How was the ride?” Priscilla asked.

“Quiet, though tight on the way back,” Aiden replied.

“Toldya to get a bigger car.”

“Don’t be like that Cici, you know I can only see Little Pacifica as a tiny pup.”

“She’s a grown woman now.”

“I know I know. Oh!”

“What is it?”

“Gonna teach fire fox there some pankour.”

Priscilla perked up at that, looking at Rebecca, who was just waiting around for her Maestro (thanks to the timely annihilation of her socks and shoes). A knowing smirk rose on her lips.

“You’ll have fun with it,” the Maestro told the fox.

“Th-thanks?” Rebecca replied sheepishly.

“What’s her shoe size? I’ll have Aiden get her a new pair,” Priscilla asked of Shouri.

“Ah, I’ll send you the measurements and style. I had the last tailor give me the info on all their outfits just in case.” Shouri drew his tuner from his side.

“And back out I go.” Aiden rolled his eyes.

“You asked for this mister,” Priscilla huffed, turning away from her Resonator.

“I asked for a joyride, not running your errands.”

“Potayto potahto.”

With that spat out of the way, Shouri and his two vixens limped their way into the living room. Through the sliding glass door, they could see Pacifica was already relaxing in the pool. As soon as she caught sight of them she eagerly waved for them to join her.

Both Taika and Shouri remained rooted in place for a moment, slowly turning to Rebecca. “What?” she asked. “Go swim with her.” The fire fox waved their Maestro off.

“I don’t want to just leave you alone,” Shouri argued.

“Sho, go swim,” Taika suddenly cut in. “I swim with Paci every morning. I’m sure she really wants to swim with you.” She smiled. “Also, you heal faster in water, we don’t.”

Shouri opened his mouth to protest, but Taika was absolutely right on both counts. In fact, he hadn’t used the Nicchi family pool once since they had arrived. “Fine fine. But be good you two.”

“We will.” Taika nodded.

“Y-yeah, sure,” Rebecca mumbled.

While Shouri wandered off to change into his swim trunks, the two fox girls had command of the living room.

“What do you want to watch?” Rebecca asked, plopping down on the couch and grabbing the remote.

“Non so; was gonna read some more.” Taika shrugged, taking a seat opposite the fire fox. She took up the book she had left on the arm of the couch to resume reading.

“Okay, what do you want to listen to then?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“What do you like to watch?”

“Whatever’s on is fine.

“TAIKA.”

The lunar fox looked up from her book. “What?”

“You have to like something besides reading cookbooks,” Rebecca insisted.

Shouri walked through the living room, now sporting his green and white swim trunks. “Be good you two,” he reminded them before exiting the house through the back.

With a sigh, Taika lifted her nose from the book. She glanced around quickly. “I like romance,” she admitted.

“Eh?” Rebecca raised a brow.

“Really cheesy, smutty romance, okay?” Taika muttered quietly. “Especially if it’s a Resonator girl and her Maestro.” Once more she buried herself in her book.

Silence.

There was no lie there, Rebecca sensed that much. But why had Taika been so forthcoming with that information? There were easier ways to shut her up than just blurting out the truth. Honestly, though, Rebecca herself was curious now.

“So… you got any recommendations?”

“Che?” Once more Taika tore herself away from the cookbook she was in.

“F-for romance novels I mean. I was thinking about reading some stuff.” Rebecca quickly turned her head away, trying to hide the embarrassment on her face.

SNAP

Taika closed the cookbook and turned to Rebecca. Her eyes glowed violently blue with determination. “Okay, so my all-time favorite one is ‘An Inconvenient Etude’, but I’ve been reading ‘Fluffy Tail and Frisky’ though that might be a bit too intense for you, so maybe you could try reading ‘Lunar Eclipse of the Heart’ to test the waters,” the lunar vixen began to ramble, making Rebecca question her decision to start this conversation.

While Rebecca was being initiated into Taika’s one-woman book club, Shouri and Pacifica were enjoying the summer day in a heated pool.

“Maybe this wasn’t a great idea,” Shouri noted.

“What are you talking about? This is so greaaat…” Pacifica cooed, floating about.

“It’s hot outside and we’re in a heated pool.”

“Heat stroke is a myth and why are you worried? You’re linked to Rebby.”

“I’m worried about you.”

“I’ll be fine Sho, you worry too much.”

Twenty minutes later…

“I TOLD YOU!” Shouri barked as he ran the cold water from the outside shower over Pacifica.

“It was worth it!” the otter protested, lying on the ground while soaking in the cool water from above.