Their return to the hotel room was uneventful, as was the remainder of the evening. Given tomorrow's plans, the Tomoshibi family retired to their respective rooms fairly early; Shouri and Taika shared his. Taika had been given several blankets and pillows as a makeshift bed, a luxury upgrade when compared to her previous living situation.

Regardless of her sleeping arrangement, she was over the moon. Sleeping on the bed next to her was her Maestro. A Maestro who cared! It was like she had been sucked into her books and was living all of her greatest fantasies. She wouldn't have even minded having a Maestro that just used her as a tool. Anything away from that mansion was an improvement.

But no, by some stroke of cosmic luck, not only did she manage to get a Maestro, but he chose her specifically. He told her that his parents had tried to set him up with many other Resonators; and apparently, Resonators from very prestigious clans at that. But out of all of them, he just found her on the street and said "You, I want you."

For the first time in her seventeen-year life, she had found genuine happiness.

"Such a mistake." "What good are you?" "Why are you still around?" "You're just a burden" "Just a waste of money." "Can you hurry up and die already?"

Such cruel words maliciously fired at her; vocal arrows filled with vitriol and hate, each one piercing her heart, reminding her of how trapped she was. They taunted and tore away at her psyche until-

"Hah?!"

Taika gasped, sitting up with a start, as she took in deep breaths; her heart raced as if she had just broken the surface of the water. It was still dark, though she had no trouble with sight. She was still in the hotel room she had fallen asleep in; with her Maestro no less. She peeked over the edge of the bed – he slept peacefully, so her sudden awakening hadn't disturbed him thankfully.

With a quiet breath, she attempted to go back to sleep. As she lay there, staring at the ceiling that dream haunted her. It was more like a nightmare really. Why was it that thought about them now that she was finally free?

Fear.

She was afraid. They hadn't left after all. There was the very real possibility of her previous caretakers hunting her down and dragging her away from her newfound paradise, by force. With that horrifying thought in mind, poor Taika didn't get any further sleep.

Shouri greeted the next morning by sitting up and stretching. He felt good. It had been a long time since he had felt so motivated. He glanced over at the nightstand and saw his new shiny black tuner sitting there. A big dumb grin rose on his lips. When compared to yesterday, he was like a whole new person. There was so much he wanted to do now – the previous apathy in his life was completely eradicated and he had Taika to thank for that. Rhythm was a hell of a drug, and he was an addict for sure.

There was quiet trepidation about the tuner's red control button but, he was upfront and honest with her about it, so that's all that mattered to him. He couldn't conceive a situation where he would use it on her.

He gently scooped up the device and reclined against the bed's headboard, navigating the many menus the tuner had to offer. He was still getting used to working his way through the interface, so a lot of it was trial and error.

Eventually, he stumbled across Taika's vitals:

VITALS STATUS Exhausted RHYTHM 36% 36% HEART RATE 107 BPM OXYGEN SATURATION 91% HYDRATION 45% LAST SLEEP EFFICIENCY 24% ACTUAL SLEEP 47mins TIME SINCE LAST SLEEP 6hrs 45mins ago

The boy furrowed his brow at the screen. If he was reading this right, she hadn't slept? He peered over the edge of the bed and took a look at his new Resonator. "Taika?" he asked. She slowly turned over. "Ah, buongiorno Sho."

Poor Taika looked awful. Her hair was a mess, and there were a pair of lovely dark circles under her bloodshot eyes. "Taika, what happened? Why didn't you sleep?" questioned the concerned Maestro.

"Che? How do you know I didn't sleep?" she asked.

Shouri slid off the bed and sat next to his fox. "Well, besides the fact that it's written all over your face, the tuner told me." He flashed the vitals screen that proudly graced the touchscreen.

She accepted the tuner from him, gently cradling it in her hands. Sure enough, it was telling him everything about her in real time. "That's crazy." She offered the device back to him.

"So what happened?" came the next question.

Taika lowered her gaze. She didn't want to worry him, so lying to him was her initial instinct. She slowly shook her head. No, he accepted her for who she was, she couldn't do that to him.

"I had a bad dream last night. I've been thinking about it ever since," she admitted. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

She sat there, dumbfounded by the consideration being extended to her. Honestly, it was too much to take in all at once. "Not right now," she decided. Her brain was screaming telling him everything was going too far. She wouldn't lie to him, but he didn't need to know the truth about where she came from.

Shouri already had a good idea of what the problem was, however. She ran to him and threw herself into his arms, begging for her freedom. What's more, she was willing to risk her autonomy if it meant she didn't have to go back to wherever she came from. The more she slowly revealed about herself, the more confident Shouri felt about taking her in.

"I can get you some coffee or tea or something. It might help you wake up," he offered. She blinked slowly, not all there. "We have a long trip home today," he added.

The girl perked up at that. Home? That's right; when they first met, he mentioned something about being on vacation. So that meant this room wasn't their home. She was going home. To her new home. Away from here, this place. She would finally escape. It was exciting.

At any rate, her Maestro was waiting for her input on his suggestion. She furrowed her brow. "I've never had coffee or tea before," she meekly admitted. "I can get you a little cup of each and you can try them," he presented his new offer. "That sounds like it could work," she replied.

"Okay, I'll be back in a sec, wait here," he instructed. And with that, he was gone.

Taika was left to her own devices in the small hotel room. There wasn't much to it, just a bed, a TV atop a dresser, and a bathroom all to themselves. Speaking of, nature was calling.

After taking a moment to make use of the facilities, she returned to her initial problem. Her Maestro was gone and she was left in the small room all alone. She could go out into the main suite rented by the Tomoshibi family, but she didn't know them very well, and trying to interact with them felt intimidating. Aura was probably friendly enough, but her Resonator and parents just seemed like an insurmountable wall for her to overcome.

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What to do then?

The balcony overlooked Nevepunto, but the anxiety of being spotted by her caretakers persisted from the night before – the curtains would remain drawn shut. The television offered her no help either, remaining cold and unpowered. Finally, there was the bed. She had seen big plush comfy beds like this in her previous living quarters, but she was never afforded one herself. Beds were for people who mattered and a lunar like her was at the bottom of the list of things that mattered, right under the rugs in the main hallway.

Taika looked around before jumping face-first onto the bed, rubbing her face into the plush pillows. "Ahhhh," she cooed happily. It was soft and comfy; what's more, Shouri's pillow smelled really good for some reason. She couldn't quite place the scent, but she found herself drawn to it all the same.

"You uh, comfy there?"

Her heart stopped. That was Shouri's voice. He had returned faster than she had expected, and she was face-deep in his pillow. "You could have told me the floor wasn't comfortable. We could have traded ya know," Shouri spoke after a moment of awkward silence.

The vixen sat up immediately. "Non!" She shook her head. "I was fine! Like I said-" she paused for a moment to yawn, "-the nightmares…" she muttered. "Well, as I mentioned before-" he set a pair of cups down on one of the nightstands that flanked the bed, "-we have a long trip home. You'll probably get a chance to sleep," he told her.

"Where is 'home'?" she asked, curious about their final destination.

"Riva Solare," he replied. Taika blinked twice. She furrowed her brow. "Umm, where is that?" she inquired. "Lybertera," the Maestro replied.

"Lybertera…" The girl continued to scrunch her face as she raked her brain for an answer. "That's across the ocean, right?" she asked with a sheepish grin.

Shouri returned her smile and joined her on the bed. He pulled the tuner from his side and brought up a world map. It began centered on their current location – the city of Nevepunto on the continent of Unis-Résonne. "We're here," he told his Resonator. She nodded quickly; intimately familiar with her hometown. "And we're going here." He zoomed out the map, moving it across the ocean and the massive continent on the other side of it, to the western edge of the landmass.

Riva Solare was off the coast, but it was basically on the entire opposite side of the world from their current location. The girl's eyes sparkled. She really would be totally out of their reach! So far away with her new Maestro! It was a dream come true for the fox girl, who failed to realize her tail was wagging excitedly. Shouri did notice how much his Resonator lit up at the revelation, which eased some of his worries.

While Shouri packed up his room, Taika sat on the bed with the two cups her Maestro had generously retrieved for her.

She first tried the tea. Immediately she winced. It was bitter. Setting that cup down, she figured the other cup must have been a different flavor. With a small smile, she brought it up to her lips.

Shouri watched his Resonator flinch from the cup of coffee. "You alright?" he asked with a chuckle. "These are both so bitter!" she exclaimed. "Here." He grabbed the cup of coffee and quickly left the room.

Minutes later he returned, with the same cup as before. "Try it."

The lunar fox observed her "new" beverage. It was a lighter brown than it had been before. She hesitantly took a sip. Her eyes opened wide; it was much sweeter now! There was still a tinge of bitterness, but this was much better than its previous incarnation. She began eagerly drinking the new and improved coffee, tail resuming joyous wagging.

"All it took was a bit of cream and sugar," Shouri chuckled to himself, returning to packing the room.

Taika clung to her Maestro as they walked through the busy airport. There were so many other Maestros, Resonators, and even Naturals wandering about the terminal. She had never been around so many people in her short life, and in all honesty, it was dizzying. She was frightened of losing her Maestro in the chaos. She carried his bags, not because he asked, but out of a sense of obligation – he chose her after all; the least she could do for him was carry his bags. It was part of her new lifelong quest to return his kindness.

Soon, they reached their first security checkpoint. These were a common fixture in Natural territories, which complicated the boarding process supposedly in the name of safety. Among the equipment installed was a metal arc with a screen mounted on the side of it, which was connected to all kinds of other nearby machinery. Next to the gateway was a large man in security attire. He was a Natural – a man with a canine head and covered from ear tip to toe in thick, warming fur. He eyed the pair of Resonators the Tomoshibi family had with contempt.

"Tuners," his voice was deep and gruff; the way he spoke was almost robotic. He motioned to the scanner next to them, a practiced gesture. Aura stepped up first. She scanned her red-bodied tuner and Damian walked through without her having to say a word. A checkmark appeared on a little screen near the scanner. Aura herself walked through right after.

The guard stared down the remaining Maestro and Resonator, seeming to scowl harder at the presence of the lunar Resonator. Shouri gulped and nodded slowly to himself. His gaze fell to his own tuner. He didn't have to do this on the way here, but now on the way back had to adjust to being a proper Maestro. Stepping up he scanned the device. "G-go on Taika," he muttered to his Resonator. The lunar fox was equally nervous. She had gone through the procedure to become Shouri's Resonator, but it still didn't feel real to her.

She stepped forward and through the scanner. There was a beep, and the same green checkmark appeared on the screen just as it did with Damian. Shouri himself followed his sister's lead and walked through as well. Taika felt a sense of relief. It made her partnership with her new Maestro feel official. There were several more checkpoints they went through just to get to their plane the process the same as the first.

"Boy, they sure do take security seriously in these Natural airports," Shouri's mother noted. "It may have been faster to have had Damian stay at the house," the father added. "Absolutely not," Aura growled at her parents. "Especially not after the shit you gave Shouri."

Taika listened to the conversation with intrigue. She had gathered that Shouri's parents were being pushy about their children having Resonators, but she didn't know the exact scope of the situation. Unfortunately, the conversation ended there. She wasn't exactly sure how her Maestro's parents felt about her. She hoped that they liked her, but she wouldn't hold her breath, especially given her element.

The girl stuck to her Maestro's side during the entire boarding procedure. She had never been on an airplane before, but the process of getting on one seemed overmanaged. Granted, she didn't have a good frame of reference on how anything worked besides what she had read in books, but even so, there was just so much waiting. Waiting in line to put their bags on the conveyor belt, waiting in line to go through security, waiting in line to wait in line to get on the plane itself. It just seemed like there should have been a more efficient way to handle all this.

Regardless of the slight annoyance the fox felt, she was still over the moon. Less than twenty-four hours ago she was waking up to do her daily tasks; now a full day later, she was about to take a plane to the other side of the world to begin her new life. It was completely unbelievable. She had to pinch herself occasionally as a reminder that she wasn't dreaming.

It wasn't until they got on the plane that Taika realized what a foreign environment this was, starting with her seat. "Uhhh…" There was nowhere for her tail to fit.

"Oh!" Shouri realized the problem immediately as he watched his new Resonator compare her body to the chair she was supposed to sit in. "Here." He pulled out a section of the seat near the base where she could put her tail, which had plenty of room to curl it up comfortably.

Sitting down was far more comfortable than she envisioned, especially after Shouri's timely removal of the "tail canyon" covering.

"Did you want the window seat?" the Maestro inquired. "I didn't even ask if you'd be comfortable with it," he clarified.

The curious Resonator had been staring out the window as he had spoken up. She turned back to him. "Why wouldn't I be?" As if to answer Taika's question, the soft background hum began to get louder. "Wait, what's happening?" asked the Resonator, nervousness in her lilt. Her attention returned to the window as she tried to piece together the happenings outside the plane. With a sudden lurch, the world outside the plane began to move.

"We're moving Sho!" she exclaimed, much to the ire of the rest of first class. "Yeah, plane's gotta move to get us home," Shouri chuckled. "Here, put your seatbelt on." He helped her fasten the safety device around her waist.

Now secured in place, the vixen's line of sight could return to the little window she had to peep through. The plane slowly taxied down the runway, allowing her a good view of the wide open space afforded to the massive machine. It moved with a slow methodical crawl, really giving her time to take in every detail. In the books she had read in the past (mainly fiction) if the characters rode on a plane, they never really detailed the experience of air travel. It was usually just a quick hop, skip, and a jump with the characters suddenly being at their destination. At that moment Taika came to a chilling realization: she had no frame of reference for what was about to happen.

The large metal beast came to a halt. "We stopped," the girl noted. "I can't see what's going on," she pouted. She wouldn't pout for long, however, as the machine began to move once more. However, this time it raced down the pavement at speeds Taika had never experienced. She could feel the force being exerted on her as the machine moved faster and faster. "Sh-sh-sho!" she squealed.

"It's okay, just don't look," Shouri tried to reassure her.

However, she failed to heed his advice and looked, just in time to see the ground retreat from her vision. Taika lost her cool and buried her face into Shouri's arm. "Moriremo! Moriremo! Perché io?!" The poor frightened fox clung to her Maestro for dear life.

"Shhh, shhh, it's okay…" he whispered, stroking the girl's head as she shook and whimpered in fear.

"A-are you sure this is safe, Sho?" She raised her head, still trembling. "There are hundreds of thousands of flights per day, we're perfectly fine," he assured her.

The Resonator could only squeak fearfully and re-buried her face in his arm. It was going to be a long flight home, but he could rest easy knowing he finally had a Resonator he was happy to be with.

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