Rebecca’s eyes fluttered open on the morning of the twelfth. Almost immediately the girl wore a serene smile. The warmth of her Maestro wrapped possessively around her felt good. This was where she belonged. This was the only thing she ever wanted in life.

  She allowed herself a pleasured breath as she buried her face into his chest. Everything was right in the world.

  “Good morning my fiery little vixen,” tickled her ears. Her cheeks grew uncomfortably warm. That tone of his felt so indecent.

  It was at that realization she found they were alone. Where had Taika and Pacifica gone? She couldn’t hear them.

  “Come here,” her chin was pushed up and her lips were claimed by her Maestro’s.

  Well if they were alone then it was okay to be greedy, right?

  Her hands snaked around his back as she leaned into the kiss. They broke for a second to breathe before resuming their private affair. Another few founds left her heart fluttering and lips well moistened. She wondered how long this arrangement would last. She didn’t get much more time to ruminate on that, as her train of thought was derailed by Shouri’s next words.

  “Happy birthday Rebecca.”

  “Huh…?”

  Why was her face wet?

  Oh… she was crying.

  Why was she crying?

  “You knew?” her voice cracked as she spoke.

  “Of course I knew. I’d never forget such an important day,” Shouri whispered.

  She kissed him again. “I thought I’d be better than Taika…” she sniveled.

  “It’s okay Rebby, just let it out,” said Shouri.

  The vixen took him up on that offer, hiding her mess of a face in his shoulder and allowing her emotions to drain out.

  “Let it out,” Shouri stroked the back of her head as she trembled in his grasp. “Don’t want you crying when we go out.”

  “Wh-where are we going?” sniffled the fox.

  “To get your driver’s license, of course.”

  Her bottom lip trembled as the storm of emotion only intensified. She reburied her head into his shoulder and cried louder.

  All Shouri could do was chuckle and give her time to let it out. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be late.

  Rebecca’s heart was not meant to be still today. Her Maestro woke her up with his lips (something that lived rent-free in her head), and now they were at a driving school.

  This wasn’t even something she fantasized about – Rebecca Renard was a tool, not a person with hopes and dreams. Yet here she stood.

  “D-don’t you need a license too?” she brought up.

  He flashed her tuner at her. “Got mine already. Took the test last week.”

  Sure enough, Shouri’s newly minted digital driver’s license was displayed on the screen, showing an active date of October first.

  “That’s where you’ve been going all month…” Rebecca muttered, shooting him a suspicious stare.

  “Yeah, I had Cheryth arrange to take me here after our meetings were done for the day, and then do some driving to get the required hours,” he replied.

  Shouri grinned at her. “Not that I’m a fan of driving. But if you want to drive, I’ll make sure you can.”

  Rebecca folded her ears back, lowering her head. “You really did all of that for me?” she mumbled.

  “Dunno why you’re so surprised. I’m willing to take a spell for you; what is a driving test compared to that?” Shouri shrugged.

  Her sullen expression morphed into an annoyed glare. “I guess,” she pouted, earning a tousle from the Maestro.

  “Let’s go. There’s a lot of practical stuff they gotta teach you before they let you behind the wheel of one of these things,” he informed her. He took her by the hand and led her into the building.

  Rebecca looked around in awe at the small school they were in. Besides the check-in, there were a couple of offices and a classroom. From out the window in the back, she could see a full driving course and several cars adorned with distinctive “Learner Driver” stickers all over them.

  The Renard gulped. Sure, she liked cars and wanted to drive them, but this was a whole different beast entirely.

  Shouri’s effort to get his own license in full was all so she could do the same. He planned all of this to coincide with her birthday…

  She couldn’t let him down!

  The orientation was pretty mundane stuff. The teacher introduced the course material, which was all to be completed in one ten-hour class.

  “Are they serious!?” Rebecca hissed. They had gotten up pretty early, but still…

  “They have a bunch of options for course material, I just wanted it done in one go rather than the week of two-hour classes I did,” he whispered back.

  “I guess that’s better,” she conceded the point.

  The first part of the day was going over the basics of driving starting with how the licensing process worked. The requirements for a Resonator like Rebecca were pretty simple:

  1.) Shouri (her Maestro) needed to possess his full driver’s license.

  2.) She had to take the class they were currently attending (which was eight hours of road rules and safety in the classroom as well as a two-hour vehicle basics outside)

  3.) Finally she had to complete fifty hours total of driving with her Maestro present and ten of these hours must be at night.

  At least at the end of today, provided she passed the final written test, she’d walk out with her learner’s permit.

  The classroom section was boring in Rebecca’s opinion. A lot of the road rules were pretty easy to intuit, things like “stop at a stop sign”, while others were less obvious like what to do when traffic lights were out. Some other concepts discussed were things like how to navigate changing lanes, and highways, and even lessons on how to handle driving in inclement weather.

  She was thankful Shouri was by her side during all of this. Her mind was as sharp as her battle sense. It made the written exam a cakewalk since she was able to retain most of the concepts she had been taught over the course of the day. While their physical learner’s permits were printed out, they were guided out of the building and onto the practice course for the vehicle basics course.

  “How the fuck do they expect us to remember all that?” groaned the fox.

  “It was much more digestible in the two-hour daily courses,” admitted Shouri while rubbing his exhausted vixen’s shoulders. “It’s okay, this next part is more fun.” He patted her back and urged her over to where the others had gathered.

  “Alright!” The teacher clapped to get the attention of the class. “Please get into one of the cars, doesn’t matter which one.”

  With that in mind, Rebecca beelined for the red one out of the group of average sedans that sat ready for the students.

  Given she was one of the few Resonators in the class, she was simply faster than her competition and landed her first choice comfortably.

  “It wasn’t a race,” Shouri laughed as he took his place on the passenger side.

  “I wanted this one,” Rebecca stated adamantly, her tail wagging.

  “If you say so.” The Maestro smiled; glad his precious Resonator was enjoying herself.

  “Go ahead and sit in the driver’s seat! Don’t start the cars yet!” the instructor shouted to the class.

  Shouri and Rebecca went ahead and took their respective seats. There was a lot to take in all at once. Sure, she’d seen plenty of cars in her short life, but sitting behind the wheel itself was an entirely different experience.

  She took in a deep breath and extended her arms out, taking grasp of the wheel at the ten and two positions, just as taught in class. Her breath remained even as she eased her heart in the same way she did before a fight, her focus narrowing (again just as she did in battle).

  “Scary, isn’t it?” Shouri’s voice snapped her out of her tightened focus.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “A little bit,” admitted the fire Resonator. “They talk about how easy it is for one of these things to hurt someone… or worse,” she muttered.

  Rebecca looked over and watched one of the Maestros who was getting their license puking in the grass most likely from the stress of it all. At least she was more composed than that poor soul.

  The Maestro nodded. “That’s why you need to be responsible when you drive,” he warned. “I trust you,” he motioned to the other cars around them. “But they also trust you not to be reckless.”

  Rebecca nodded.

  After a moment of silence, Shouri broke into one of his patented explanations. “Vehicles like these run on engines called Harmony Drives. Rhythm is converted into electricity which is then run through a special motor which is basically electrically created magnets. By switching the polarities of these magnets, the motor uses the changing of the repelling forces of the magnets to rotate a shaft to create a mechanical force that allows the car to move by turning the wheels.”

  “Uh,” was all Rebecca could muster. “My brain hurts,” she decided after a moment, resting her head on the steering wheel.

  “Basically, all cars are powered by converting rhythm into electricity and electricity into magnetic force,” he simplified for her.

  There was one thing Rebecca latched onto. “Why don’t Scherzando try to eat cars then if they’re full of rhythm?” She couldn’t think of a time she heard of Scherzando attacking cars. In fact, something she was only recalling now was that cars were extremely safe to be in at night.

  “The rhythm cells are encased in dense rhythm-dampening material, similar to Vatonium, or Ceoíche cages,” he added. “All modern cars have Vatonium cages and a similar compound in their paints, so to a Scherzando it’s just a really big moving rock.”

  “That makes sense,” Rebecca nodded.

  “That’s also why there was a whole section on proper maintenance and making sure the car isn’t leaking rhythm,” Shouri reminded her.

  “Right, it’d be bad if a Scherzando started chasing cars down the road.” She shuddered at the thought.

  It was at this point the teacher began giving instructions.

  Seatbelts on first, naturally.

  Check mirrors.

  Windows down to hear instructions.

  Doors closed.

  Then it was time.

  “Go ahead and start the car!”

  Another deep breath as Rebecca reached under the wheel column and pressed the start button located there. With her highly sensitive rhythm, she noticed it “pricked” her rhythmically speaking. Sure enough, the reason for this became clear as soon as the vehicle’s engine started.

  “Welcome Rebecca,” was displayed on the screen in the center console before resting on a map screen with a clock in the corner.

  “The car won’t even start if you’re not a registered driver,” Shouri reminded her.

  She nodded.

  Shouri glanced at his tuner and noted it flipped to drive mode and disallowed him from texting or opening any other distracting apps while the vehicle was started, despite him not being the driver. “Hm, must be because she’s a learner and they want me to focus on her rather than whatever I want to do,” he mumbled to himself. “Smart system.”

  Though something he did note was spellcasting was still entirely on the table. Probably as a defensive measure in the event that it was needed.

  The teacher stopped by the car. “Oh good, you’re already ready to go,” they noted. “You’ll go first then. Put it into gear, and drive the circle. No need to press on the gas, just take it easy and get used to how it feels while the car is in motion.”

  After the teacher stepped away, Rebecca flicked the car into gear and pulled away from the car’s resting space.

  Shouri remained quiet, allowing her to focus on the task at hand. It was slow going, not even a fraction of the speeds she wanted to feel.

  But she was trained better than some adrenaline junkie.

  In this way, it was just like her ad-Lib training. Start slow. The speed will come with time.

  Rushing foolishly would only get her hurt.

  That wasn’t a mistake she was willing to make again – especially with her irreplaceable Maestro by her side.

  “It’s really mine,” Rebecca held out her learner’s permit card as they returned to their room at the Lyreann MA Office. It didn’t feel real, yet there it was in her hands, all her information, her picture, her rhythm signature burned into it. All hers. Something to cherish and protect.

  The pair stopped in front of their room. “I hope you had a good birthday,” Shouri said.

  “It was the best,” Rebecca replied. “You’re the best,” where she thought her mouth stopped it continued. “I love you, Sho.” Her hands snapped to her mouth as her heart froze upon realizing what she had done. Sure, they kissed… maybe it was more appropriate to call it making out, but they kissed and that was one thing, but she hadn’t ever vocalized her feelings like that.

  It wasn’t a lie but… how…

  …would he react…?

  She didn’t want to see; she didn’t want to hear. She was horrified. Even after everything he had done for her, everything they had been through together, she still denied he held anything but a small fascination for her.

  Maybe that’s why…

  “I love you too, Rebecca.”

  …it was unbelievable for her to hear those words in return.

  Her strongest stave was emotion, her social sense. Years of being treated as an object taught her to focus on the expectations of those around her. To be the perfect tool is to understand what is demanded of you. Rebecca learned this at a young age and it shaped her identity.

  And yet, that same stave that was purpose-built to be useful only to a weapon was telling her she was loved as a person. Not a familial love, but romantically desired by the Maestro standing before her.

  “You what…?” she dared to ask.

  “I love you. I don’t know how else to say it,” Shouri sheepishly averted his gaze. He frowned, making her heart sink. “I’m surprised you’re the first to say it though,” he mused.

  “What do you mean?” Rebecca squeaked, her heart continued to hammer uncomfortably in her chest.

  “Neither Taika nor Pacifica has said a word to me about their intentions, though I doubt they’re any different from you,” he replied.

  Rebecca gulped. “N-now what?” she managed to get out.

  Shouri placed a hand on her shoulder. “We talk. All of us.”