"We should do a bake sale," Emily suggested.

Shouri raised a brow. "You can do a bake sale."

"Aw come on, what do you even have going on so close to the holidays?"

The guildmaster looked up from his tuner. "Literally anything else," and went back to the anything else in question.

"Hey Sho!" Pacifica rushed into the office. "They're having a local game tournament, Supreme Slash Sisters! Can we go?"

"If by 'we' you mean you and Emily, sure," he replied.

"Why me?!" Emily shrieked, suddenly being volunteered for driving duty.

"You wanted to do a bake sale right? Who needs food more than a bunch of hungry gamers?" he pointed out.

Pacifica and Emily shared a glance. "He's got a point," the otter shrugged. "Maybe Rebby and Taika will want to come with," Pacifica pondered aloud.

"Let's go ask them!" Emily exclaimed.

As the two girls left to plan their bake sale/game tournament, Miro walked in.

"Shouri! I be finding out that Festival di Cappello is in a couple months and wanted to see if you would be going?" asked the little Natural.

"When is that?" Shouri mused, checking his tuner. "Ah, March 5th this year. Way too soon for us. But maybe we can plan something for then."

"Oh! I will look into it!" the earth Natural saluted and took his leave.

"Shouri!" Vince burst into the office.

Once more the guildmaster stopped what he was reading and sighed. "Yes?"

Vince took in a breath before speaking "Okay, so we crashed a wedding and-"

"Peace at last," Shouri breathed out.

"Yer people drivin' ya crazy?" asked Kai the kangaroo.

Shouri had walked next door to farmer Liam's place to escape the nonsense happening at home. "You could say that. I just wanted to read my book in peace," said the guildmaster, his eyes never leaving his tuner screen.

The kangaroo sat next to the Maestro on the porch swing. "Can't say I blame ya. Liam used to take up the bottle, 'till I knocked a coupla his teeth out for raisin' his voice at me. Good way to git him to quit it."

The Maestro nodded slowly.

"Want some corn?" the earth element asked.

"Taika'd like that," Shouri acquiesced.

The kangaroo hopped off the swing and made his way down to the barn, leaving Shouri alone with his thoughts. "How the hell am I supposed to buy everyone gifts if they're constantly hovering over my shoulders?" mumbled the boy as he got back to work.

He knew his rhythm fiends would find him sooner rather than later, especially since he took all three of his tuners to ensure there would be no snooping from his trio. Plus, since they were now going up to Canolapra to see Priscilla and the rest of Shouri's old friends, he had a safe place to get everything shipped to so Rebecca wouldn't go and shake the gifts or whatever (he figured her to be the nosy sort when it came to gifts.)

"I can get a couple gift cards for Paci's gacha games and maybe a new controller for her. Rebecca gets a fancy TV, and for Taika I can get her a tablet so she can read on a bigger screen," Shouri nodded to himself, making the selections. He was about to press buy when he realized a problem.

"Fuck, Paci looks at the Atmoni all the time." He frowned at the realization. He flicked the storefront page up and down with no real goal as he puzzled out how to resolve this issue.

"Oh duh."

By the time Kai returned with a bundle of corn, Shouri was on the phone. "Yeah, I'll send you the deets and delete the texts so they don't snoop. Thanks." He looked up to find Kai waiting there.

"Oh, thanks. I didn't actually expect you to come back with that much corn," Shouri chuckled.

"Figure I gotta keep y'all in good graces if I wanna scrap with yer fox again," Kai replied, handing the Maestro the stacked bag of produce.

"I suppose that's fair."

While Shouri was off getting hella corn, this left Vince and his duo to contemplate their day.

"Still can't believe we crashed that wedding," Mila broke the silence.

"They had it coming--they were inviting calamity by besmirching old fae lands," the fairy of the trio claimed, nodding to herself.

Vince shot a suspicious gaze at the fairy, his lips in a hard line. "Was it really old fae lands?" he questioned, arms akimbo as he towered over the little solar element.

"Yeah! Totally!" Zephyr asserted. "Definitely not because I wanted to check out her dress," she coughed as she spoke.

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"You know, we can just go clothes shopping if you really want something different," Mila suggested.

Zephyr motioned at her, then herself, showing the massive size disparity.

"Right, well maybe someone could make something custom?" the cat offered.

"Wait wait, I got an idea!" Vince exclaimed.

…

"Here we are!" Vince announced as they got out of the Oltre they had booked.

"Uhhh… Vince this is a toy store," Mila pointed out, doing a double take to make sure she had read the sign correctly.

"I know, come on!"

The young Maestro led the charge into the store as Zephyr poked her head out of his jacket with curiosity. Immediately a musty scent hit them, it smelled of old wood and cloth with faint mildewing and the distinct flowery scent of burning incense.

"This is a toy store?" Zephyr questioned; she couldn't claim familiarity with them, but understood the concept at least.

"Yeah! Look here!"

Zephyr's eyes widened. There was an entire display dedicated to dolls, but more importantly, each of the dolls had clothes on them. Clothes that would fit Zephyr's tiny frame.

"Oh!" The fairy exclaimed.

"Hey Miro," Shouri waved as he returned to the guildhall, huge bag of corn in hand.

"Buonasera, Shouri. What did you get?" asked the inquisitive little Natural.

"Just some corn from Liam's farm next door," Shouri motioned with his head back to the west where he had come from.

"Oh! I am not knowing you know the neighbor!" Miro gasped.

"Yeah, Rebecca kicked his Resonator's teeth in once, nice guy," Shouri joked.

The Natural laughed, thankfully understanding the jest.

"What are you up to?" Shouri wondered.

"Is Saturday, so I am praying and studying scripture," said the Natural. Sure enough there were a couple books in front of him laid out on a blanket. It was like a tiny religious picnic, complete with food and drink.

"Ah, gotcha. Speaking of holy figures, the Festival of Hope is in like a week or two. I know me, Vince, and Colette's groups are heading out to see family, so it'll just be you and Emily," explained the guildmaster.

"We will defend the--" Miro furrowed his brow and pulled out his little dictionary,"--homestead!" he exclaimed.

"Figured you'd be down, but wanted to let you know before we all suddenly vanished," Shouri chuckled.

Miro nodded. "Io l'apprezzo."

"I'll let you get back to your studies," Shouri said, adjusting the bag in his arms again.

"Si, have a good evening!" sang the Natural before returning to his food and text.

As Shouri returned to his room he found himself totally alone, a rarity. "Huh," was all he uttered on the matter. He set the captured corn on the counter to figure out where to put all the newly acquired grains.

"Wonder what they're actually up to," he contemplated aloud.

"I wonder if Shouri actually thinks we're going to a game tournament," Emily pondered as she drove the girls (including Kaira) to the mall.

"He seemed pretty pre-occupied with whatever he was doing," Taika noted.

"He was getting our Festival of Hope gifts," Pacifica chimed in.

"How do you know--?" Rebecca stopped when she saw Pacifica's expression.

Taika hummed in thought, furrowing her brow. She had heard the day mentioned a few times; shoot they were even going back to Canolapra for the week. Familiarity she could not claim, however. "Festival of Hope?" She finally sought to sate her curiosity.

"It is Sage Sahji's day of celebration," Kaira began, glancing up from her book. "It is a day where you 'end' the 'desire' of your loved ones by getting them gifts," she explained.

"Also, there's usually a big meal where you try to get everyone's favorite meals," Pacifica added.

"Which is why we need to figure out what the hell we're getting for Sho," Rebecca chimed in.

Taika nodded. It sounded nice. She smiled. "I wonder what Sho wants."

"Us," Pacifica and Rebecca said in tandem.

"Well yeah, but besides that," the vixen's smile faded. The boy didn't want for many material things. He was obsessive over Resonators and Resonators exclusively. To say they were his desire wasn't just a joke.

"This is hard," Taika decided.

"Honestly he's probably not expecting anything from you three. So anything you get him will mean the world," Emily pointed out as they arrived.

Kaira furrowed her brows, pretending to be engrossed in her book. Once again, however, those ugly feelings rose to the surface. If only Colette was so easy.

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