Another morning, another Taika getting up first to make breakfast for the family before a long road trip.

She made sure this time to make a ton of food – meats, eggs, toast, fruit, hashbrowns. Pretty much every common breakfast food she could think of she made. It would take them far, or at least that was the intention.

It didn't matter that she was tired at the moment, as she had plenty of time to sleep on the way there. According to Shouri they were going to be driving anywhere from eight to ten hours today. Based on what everyone else told her, it would get boring pretty fast with a lot of samey terrain.

Soon the rest of the room awoke and began their morning routines. Pacifica took a shower, Shouri read the news on a tuner, Rebecca just kind of sat around and vibed.

By the time Pacifica departed from the bathroom, Taika was plating the breakfast feast for her beloveds.

"Thank you for breakfast Taika," said Shouri. "Delicious as always," sang Rebecca. "Love you!" Pacifica shouted.

The vixen smiled warmly, giggling to herself as she returned to the kitchen to clean up while she pecked at her own meal.

"This is becoming a trend," Emily noted as she saw the group off. "Tell the rest of these slackers to get their driver's licenses so we can make them do this shit," Shouri snarked back. "You've been directly involved with both of these situations, but I suppose it would beat paying for delivery," said Emily with a laugh.

The two guild leaders remained quiet for a moment, appreciating the silence of the morning, only the van's harmony drive humming nearby. Finally, Shouri broke the silence. "Alright Ems, you're in charge, keep them in line."

She waved him off. "Yeah yeah, get out of here and don't hurt Rose too much. Don't want to know what happens if the tuner Ethereal vanishes from existence."

With that parting, Emily headed back into the warmth of her room, and Shouri hopped in the passenger seat where the full van awaited him.

Rebecca was in the driver's seat, Taika and Pacifica comfortably behind them in the second row, and finally Vince, Mila, and Zephyr were comfy cozy all the way in the back.

"Everyone have everything?" asked Shouri, turning back to see the rest of the occupants.

"We're good Sho!" Pacifica exclaimed, looking up from her tuner, while Taika gave a thumbs up, refusing to tear her eyes away from her own screen. "A-ok back here!" Vince called out. "Let's go! Let's go!" Zephyr excitedly shouted. "You heard them; let's get moving already," Mila chimed in.

Shouri looked to his partner in crime by his side. "Sounds like they're ready to get this gravy train moving," said the Maestro.

She smirked back. "Well, don't want to disappoint, do we?" Rebecca chuckled.

The trip began in earnest, though the scenery was pretty flat for the first third of the trip. They traveled straight north for this leg of the journey. Roughly around three hours into the drive, they stopped off in a small city, mainly to grab some food and recharge the van.

"God fuck, how did we pick the one van without cruise control?" Rebecca complained as she hopped out of the driver's seat. "Yeah, my bad, didn't think it was a feature we had to check for," Shouri scoffed as he made his way around to her side of the van to fuel it up.

Rebecca leaned against the vehicle while Shouri handled plugging it in. "You think they'll be alright wandering off on their own?" she asked, eyeing the rest of their traveling party who meandered into the plaza for snacks and a bathroom break.

"Yeah, I have Taika on detection duty, and Paci filled up her water bottle, so they can beat up anyone that hassles them if it comes to it," said Shouri.

"I guess I'll play guard duty and hang out with you," Rebecca tittered. "Implying you'd have it any other way," he said while ruffling her hair.

The quintet who wandered off found their way to the bathrooms.

"Now how did this happen?" Vince wondered. He was the sole guy in a group of five. "Don't fall in!" Zephyr shouted, waving to the boy. "You're the last one that should be saying that little miss," Mila scoffed at the fairy.

Taika stayed silent, keeping a careful watch on the group. She was well aware what kind of attention their group could get given their current composition. Pacifica and Mila blended in just fine, common Resonator species with common elements. But a fairy and a lunar were a different story – one of possible obsessive reverence and another of spiteful scorn.

Her beads rattled at the ready under her shirt the entire time she made use of the facilities.

"Taika chill." Pacifica placed a hand on her fellow Resonator's back while they stepped out of the restroom. "I'm also keeping an eye out. Or rhythm, I guess. People are kinda just minding their own business. Nobody's really paid Zephyr any mind," said the otter.

That was reassuring, and Taika's beads settled along with her nerves. There were a couple of nasty looks thrown in her direction, but she had long gotten over that.

"Chill girl."

Taika squeaked, suddenly feeling the Pacifica's fingers interlink with hers. "Anyone who wants to pick a fight with us is gonna be sorry," whispered the otter.

"Si…" Taika lost her fight against the smile as her lips rose. She squeezed the hand in her grasp back.

"We good here?" Mila asked, emerging from the bathroom herself, Zephyr sitting on her shoulder.

"Yeah, where's Vince?" asked Pacifica. "Present," the Maestro stepped out from one of the aisles with a couple of choice food items. "I think we have time to look around some more," he offered.

And so, the pack of Resonators (and their chaperoning Maestro) wandered about the store as a unit. Zephyr would not keep her voice down. So, it was only natural that some people took notice. Thankfully, for the group's sanity, the general public arrested their curiosity and any looky-looks kept a distance.

Finally, they emerged from the convenience store with plenty of snacks for the next leg of the trip.

"'bout time! We were about to go in heels blazing," Rebecca complained upon catching sight of their companions.

"Any problems?" Shouri asked.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. "Non, just some sketchy looks, but no one said anything," Taika reported. "They wanted to gawk at Zephyr, but probably saw how tight we were being around her and decided against it. Didn't even need to use a drop of water," Pacifica added.

Shouri nodded. One less thing to stress about, he figured. "Good, Rebby and I will go in and do our business before we head back out."

"Have fun!" Pacifica smiled.

Back on the road without incident, Shouri had the wheel this time. Rebecca checked out the map while she had a moment in the passenger's seat.

"Huh, kind of a roundabout route we're taking," she noted. "Lack of good roads going straight to Loggiavento. Doesn't help that you can't even drive directly to the damn place," he grumbled. "Oh? How the heck are we getting there then?" "Ventallo Cave, it's a connecting cave system we can walk through on foot," he revealed. "Ah, sounds like fun." "Fucked up definition of fun, love."

The elevation began to steadily rise as they drove, but was still relatively flat all things considered. Small towns they passed through drew intrigue of the passengers who had never seen these parts of Lybertera before. Especially Zephyr who was practically glued to the window.

"Hey Zephyr," Vince finally spoke up. "Hm?" She craned her neck back to look to her new Maestro. "I know you said you left home before, but what did you do before you found us?" he asked.

Pacifica flinched. There was something about that question that kicked up a torrent of emotion in the fairy. The otter spun around in her seat.

"Hey Vince, she'll tell you about that when she's ready. There are some things that are best said with age," the water element made up on the spot to cover for the clearly (at least to her) distraught fairy.

"Yeah," Zephyr said quietly. "Maybe one day," she mumbled.

Shouri hummed in thought, keeping his eyes on the road, but filing away that reaction for later.

Six additional hours passed with one more stop at the halfway point to their lodgings for the night. Nine hours of sitting in a vehicle took its toll on the young travelers. Hitting the MA Office at about four in the evening local time (given they had crossed into a new timezone during their drive.)

"Uhg." Rebecca practically collapsed out of the driver seat, having traded with Shouri again during their second uneventful pit-stop.

"Yeah, after this shit I am not going anywhere for a while," Shouri similarly groaned, though thankful for their respite.

"I can take Taika and Pacifica to get dinner for you if you'd like Shouri," Vince offered. "Sounds great. Rebby and I will go collapse in our room."

With the plan settled, Taika and Pacifica handed their tuners back to their Maestro to get them checked in. They all walked in, and while Shouri was able to get his room with no issues. The same couldn't be said for Vince.

"Welcome to the Ganmyer Springs Maestro Affairs Office, how can we help you today?" asked the attendant as usual.

"We'd like to get a room," said Vince, sliding his solitary tuner over.

The attendant waited with a patient smile. Likewise, Vince waited to be checked in, but furrowed his brows with concern when the attendant didn't proceed like normal. "Is something wrong?" asked the Maestro.

"Where is your second tuner?" the attendant asked, pointing to the fairy sitting on Vince's shoulder.

And suddenly it struck them – the vital detail they had forgotten about in all their planning – Zephyr wasn't registered to anyone. Even if she herself had committed to being Vince's Resonator, in the eyes of the government, she was a stray Resonator and wouldn't be allowed to room in the MA Office. Normally they could resolve this by simply getting the stray Resonator registered but…

Thankfully, Shouri had yet to walk away and stepped up to the counter. "We're heading to Loggiavento to get her properly registered. We tried to get it done at the West Dalliva MA Office but they didn't have the right staff or equipment," the guildmaster explained.

"That is not my problem." Even with the blunt language, the attendant maintained their customer service tone and smile. "Our policies are concrete, Mr. Tomoshibi. You should know better as a guildmaster," they continued.

"Tch." Shouri clicked his tongue, and Mila had his back in this annoyance as she scowled at the employee.

Pacifica placed her hands on his shoulders. "Relax Sho, call Cheryth, we'll figure this out," she whispered.

He nodded. "Vince." Shouri motioned with his head to Vince, who collected his tuner. They stepped out of line to allow the next guest to check in.

"Sorry," Zephyr mumbled, her head lowered. "It's okay." Vince gently scooped her from his shoulder and held her close to his chest. "Yeah, we didn't think about it when plotting the trip," Rebecca added. "Guess we got too used to just walking in and not having trouble," Pacifica chimed in.

Shouri nodded in agreement while looking through their options on a tuner. "Rebby, you wanna drive or should I take the wheel?" he asked, still looking. "I got it, where are we going?" "Looking for a hotel. We'll dip into the guild funds to pay for it." "Ah."

The rest of the group quietly nodded – they didn't have much of a choice in the matter unless they wanted to figure out how to camp under the stars.

"AAAAAH!" Shouri's scream was muffled by the mattress he had thrown himself into. It was another hour drive, but they could finally unwind after the massive inconvenience that was the Ganmyer Springs MA Office.

Rebecca sprawled out on the bed, basically on the verge of passing out herself. Taika stared out the window of their third-floor room. Finally, Pacifica was in her usual spot: testing out the shower.

"What are we doing for food Sho?" asked Taika, tearing her curiosity away from the window.

Shouri turned his head away from the comforter. "Gotta order something. They only do breakfast here," he told the vixen. "I'm leaving food in your capable hands," and with that, he was back to being face-down in the mattress.

The vixen smiled. "Bene, Sho," she giggled, stepping over and plucking her tuner from his side to figure out what they could get delivered.

It had been a long day and unfortunately tomorrow would be longer.

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