“Kid, it’s 7 AM on a Sunday morning, can this wait?” groaned Cheryth from the other side of the phone.

  “It cannot. I want my money now, also it's only midnight here,” said Shouri.

  They sat in the car in a huge, nearly empty parking lot. In the distance stood a large department store – Tuomart. Given the late hour, it was no surprise the foot traffic had waned to non-existence.

  “Sho be nice.” Pacifica pushed her Maestro’s shoulder from the back seat.

  He covered the receiver. “Fine,” he hissed back before re-addressing their liaison. “We’re buying stuff for the guild hall and having that money now would really help us out,” he put more politely.

  “Fine fine,” Cheryth said through a yawn. “I’ll get up and process your hunt. Should have the money in your account in like half an hour.”

  “Thank you,” Shouri sang.

  “Whatever,” and the line dropped.

  “Be nice,” Pacifica chided the Maestro. “She didn’t have to pick up the phone,” she reminded him.

  “Yeah, I got it,” Shouri grumbled. “I’m still a little bitter about being forced into this whole thing,” he admitted.

  “Turned out for the best though, didn’t it?” Rebecca asked.

  “Yeah…” Shouri couldn’t help cracking a smile.

  “We get to decorate! Come on! Let’s go!” Pacifica shouted, kicking open her door and bolting out of the car.

  “I wonder what snacks they have,” Taika pondered aloud as she made her exit.

  “I suppose we should follow them?” Shouri asked the remaining vixen in the car.

  “Probably,” Rebecca chuckled back.

  The walk to the front entrance was quiet. There were a couple of other Maestros and their Resonators loitering about. Shouri figured they must have been other hunters who finished up early for the night and decided to stop at the always-open establishment.

  “Fuck,” Rebecca cursed, holding herself as they were buffeted by the air conditioning upon entering the building. “It’s like October, would it kill them not to run the cold at full blast?” hissed the fire Resonator.

  “You’re fine.” Shouri rolled his eyes, smirking at the fox.

  Pacifica took care of grabbing a cart and rolled into the store proper.

  “What do we get first?!” The water element excitedly bounced as they walked.

  “Essentials first, then we can consider fun stuff,” Shouri told the group.

  “So like toilet paper, bed sheets, soaps, that stuff?” questioned the otter.

  “Right,” nodded the Maestro in the affirmative.

  “I want kitchen utensils,” Taika demanded.

  “Oh yeah, you cook,” Rebecca recalled.

  “It hasn’t been that long since I last cooked.”

  “It’s been like a month or so, maybe longer.”

  Shouri was content to allow his trio to talk among themselves. Looking around, there were far more Resonators in the building than Maestros. Some water elements leaned on some mops, gossiping about someone else in another department. A bear Resonator carried several large boxes down the aisles for his fellow Resonators who were re-stocking shelves.

  One of the few employed Maestros was talking to a lightning element in the electronics department about a new game coming out.

  It was quiet otherwise. Not many other customers meandering about.

  In his mental absence, the girls had run amok and the cart was now half full. “Hold on a second,” he spoke up.

  “Huh?”

  Checking the cart, he browsed their selections. “Paci, do we really need these bath toys?” he asked, squeaking a rubber duck.

  She stole it out of his grasp. “He’s cute!” protested the otter.

  “And the brushes?” Shouri retrieved the twelve-piece Resonator fur care set. He eyed the two foxes, who instantly deflected their gazes to Pacifica.

  She snatched the brushes from him. “We girls have to keep our hair looking nice!” Pacifica protested.

  “We can worry about fun things after we get essentials,” he reminded them.

  “Yes Sho,” the trio deflated.

  He sighed, shaking his head. “You can keep this stuff.”

  “Sho!” and then he was winded by his trio squeezing the life out of him.

  “Is this all gonna fit?” Taika questioned. She compared their very full shopping cart to the open trunk of their rental car.

  “We’ll have to make it fit. I’m not going back inside to try and do a return,” Shouri said, starting to move their purchases into the trunk.

  After loading the car (some bags sat at Pacifica and Taika’s feet), they were on their way home.

  Taika stared out the window, watching the streetlights streak by. The nearly full moon helped illuminate the dark roads around them. Shouri was reading out directions to Rebecca who kept her focus entirely on the road. Pacifica was falling asleep against her door.

  The lunar fox couldn’t help the warmth that flickered in her heart. Life was good.

  The car pulled up to the guild hall and they quickly unloaded the car, finishing in two trips thanks to everyone’s combined effort.

  “Bath…” Pacifica trudged to the bathroom with the towels, soaps, and brushes in hand.

  “Gonna go put this stuff in the office, I’ll be back,” and then Shouri was gone. This left Rebecca and Taika alone in the main room. Just them, a bunch of bags, and the bed.

  “Taika, help me make the bed,” Rebecca requested, having unpacked their new bedsheets.

  “Wait wait, let me try doing it by myself!” Taika’s beads exited from her shirt, floating around.

  The fire resonator considered the request with a thoughtful hum. “Give it a shot,” she decided after a moment. Stepping away, she allowed her fellow fox to work her magic.

  Taika focused on the bedding. She imagined how the beads would take hold of the four corners of the bedsheets. They expanded out as she saw in her mind and she easily slid the sheet over the mattress.

  “Great! Now the pillows!” Rebecca held up one of the pillows which didn’t have their cases on them.

  “Hrmmm…” Taika furrowed her brow, focusing hard on manipulating the pillows into their pillowcases. This was a lot more cerebral of a task than she thought considering she had to split her attention between holding the pillow up, then beads to act as her fingers to hold up and open the pillowcases. She managed to do the four pillows they got for the bed, but between all they had done tonight and this bit of manual labor, the poor fox was starting to feel it.

  Rebecca's lips curled down as she watched her fellow fox catch her breath. The tips of white invading her locks told the truth of the situation “I got the blanket,” said the fire element.

  And with that, the bed was made. Rebecca bent her knees, preparing to dive head-first right into the clean sheets, but ended up tackled by Taika.

  “What the FUCK?!” the fire Resonator barked.

  “Non! Bath first!” Taika scolded the other fox, keeping her pinned to the ground.

  “But baths suuuuuck!” whined Rebecca.

  “NON! You’re not getting in bed without cleaning the dirt out of your hair!”

  “Uuuuhg!”

  Shouri sat in the office behind their laptop. His eyes darted back and forth scanning their guild’s email box. As it turned out the glasses were a good purchase – not only for the aesthetics, but the much more practical purpose of the blue light filter that graced the lens.

  Headaches and eye strain made Shouri wish for death. His weak stave didn’t help matters in the past. Either way, the boy was paranoid and wanted to keep working.

  “…so if we get reptile Resonators, we’d also want to stock up on moisturizers otherwise they may not shed properly…” he mused to himself. “Hmm…” A certain Maestro came to mind.

  He leaned back in his chair. “Aura… where the hell are you?” Shouri muttered. He removed his glasses and set them next to the laptop before shutting the computer. “I guess that’s a problem for another night.”

  Locking up the office, he returned to his room, to find Taika pinning Rebecca to the ground. “Do I want to know?” he asked.

  “Don’t get on the bed until you bathe!” Taika shouted.

  Shouri pondered that thought for a moment. “Ah, we don’t have a washer and dryer.” He pulled out a tuner and jotted down that realization.

  “Sì, esattamente!” shouted Taika.

  “Sho, get her off of me!” Rebecca protested.

  “That’s a you problem. You think I can fight Taika off?” Shouri chuckled.

  “Sho!” Rebecca shouted, louder.

  It was at that moment that Pacifica left the bathroom, clad in her baby blue pajamas. The otter ignored everyone and fell face-first into the bed.

  “Have fun you two,” Shouri waved before making his way into the bathroom for his own shower.

  “SHO!” cried the vixen as he shut the door behind him.

  Sunday morning started proper with the quartet waking up bundled up in fresh blankets and sheets. Shouri was the first awake as always, but Pacifica wasn’t too far behind.

  “Morning Paci.”

  “Morning Sho.”

  Since Pacifica was in Shouri’s grasp this morning, they could share a quick kiss to greet one another.

  “What are we doing today?” whispered the otter so as to not disturb the still-sleeping foxes.

  “Taika brought up a good point about the clothes situation last night. Probably gonna get a washer and dryer,” he replied.

  “And after that?”

  “Dunno, depends on how long it takes.”

  “I see.”

  As they had no other pressing matters, Pacifica closed her eyes and lost herself in Shouri’s warmth for a bit longer.

  The next the bed stirred, the room was up in earnest.

  “So yeah, home store today for the washer and dryer, then we can grab some stuff to fix up the place a bit more,” Shouri was saying to the other two.

  “What all do we even need to fix?” asked Rebecca.

  “Since we’re just working on our room I’d like to ask about what could be done about some of the walls and maybe grab some paint buckets,” Shouri mused.

  “The shower liner was really gross looking,” Rebecca commented.

  “While we’re there, I noticed the shower backs up, so we’ll need something for that and probably get a catch for the drain since me and Rebby have our tail fur and Paci’s long hair,” Taika suddenly joined the conversation.

  “Yeah, that is probably a good idea too,” Shouri hummed in thought.

  Pacifica was surprised Taika had thought of all of that on her own, but she wasn’t done.

  “Can we clean the carpets? They’re kinda dirty,” Taika added. “Maybe we can buy a steam cleaner?” she suggested.

  The otter felt her Maestro nod in agreement with that. “We can do that,” he said.

  With the plan for the day solidified, it was finally time to get up and get going.

  “Really can’t wait for that washer and dryer,” Rebecca grumbled, shuddering as she had to put on her clothes from the night prior.

  “Now that we actually have a place to call home we can get some real spare clothes,” Pacifica suggested as she brushed her hair for the day.

  “Hopefully they have same-day delivery on that washer and dryer,” Shouri mused to himself as he checked the news per usual.

  Taika was the last to join the family, exiting the bathroom on her own tuner. “We need that and that…” she muttered under her breath, fixated on whatever was displayed on screen. “Sho, make sure we even have hookups for a washer and dryer,” said the vixen.

  “Huh?”

  The lunar fox looked up from her tuner to find her loved ones staring at her.

  “Che?” she asked.

  “Uhh, hookups?” Shouri pulled out a tuner.

  “Si, you need intake for the water, and outflow for the hot air from the dryer. We can’t install a washer and dryer without them,” she explained as if it should have been obvious.

  Shouri looked up from his tuner. “Right, I see that here. I’ll be back,” and then there were three.

  “How do you know that, Taika?” Rebecca questioned.

  “Doesn’t everyone know how to hook up a washer and dryer?” Taika asked back.

  “No!” both Rebecca and Pacifica shouted.

  The fox furrowed her brows. What’s more, she earned the same perplexion back. Pacifica’s rhythm bristled as her gaze traced the fox - Taika was genuinely confused at the lack of what she considered basic knowledge. That only furthered the otter’s intrigue.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I guess we should defer to the expert then,” Pacifica decided.

  Rebecca looked between the otter and her fellow fox. “Yeah,” she mumbled after a moment.

  It wasn’t too much longer before Shouri returned and the morning trip could begin for real.

  The Residence Repository was quite a mouthful of a name, and while Pacifica had visited the massive multi-continental company in the past, there was a certain aspect of it she hadn’t ever questioned until her Maestro’s itchy rhythm urged her to do so.

  “I never understood why people call it Rezo Repo,” Pacifica pondered aloud as they walked into the warehouse of a store.

  Like any good home goods store, the building was massive, both in floor space and vertical height. All manner of goods one would need for furnishing, repairing, or renovating their homes were proudly on display. Appliances from lawnmowers to automatic dishwashers took up large sections of the floor, sharing space with aisles that hosted smaller things like screws, tools, and industrial chemicals.

  It had it all.

  “In 1979, there was a big credit card crisis, and RR was particularly nasty about repossessing financed appliances, even going as far as to hire professional hunters to back up their repo men. They earned the name Rezo Repo from this,” Shouri explained, his eyes focused on the article being displayed on the tuner.

  “Ah,” Pacifica nodded.

  “Ehi! Let’s order the washer and dryer!” Taika waved for the group to focus.

  “Right!” came three shouts of agreement.

  They didn’t need anything luxurious, however, Shouri was meticulous in reviewing each model.

  “We need something that’s going to be able to handle daily use,” he told one of the sales associates. “While we personally won’t use it that often, it’s not going to be just us. Probably a good twenty people’s worth of laundry,” he elaborated further.

  “Ah, then you’ll probably want one of these then.” Naturally, the salesperson was trying to earn a hearty commission and proposed one of the more expensive models. “This little beauty has all of the features you’d need for a dormitory or guild hall.”

  “Hang on a second,” Shouri was too good at not being swayed by someone else’s opinion. “What do you think Taika?” There was only one opinion that mattered here.

  “Non! This doesn’t have the right connection!” she shouted from the back. “The washer is fine, but the dryer uses a different hook-up.”

  “Well, we do have adapters-” the employee tried to argue.

  “Non! No adapters!” Taika shouted back, not even giving them the dignity of looking them in the eye.

  “You heard the lady, no adapters.”

  They went through this song and dance another five times before they settled on a pair that pleased the vixen.

  “Can we get this shipped down to our guild hall right now? I’d like to hopefully get our laundry done tonight.” Shouri requested of the sales rep.

  “Oh? You’re representing a guild? Which one?” asked the employee. “I wasn’t aware of any guilds in Dalliva.”

  “I’m the guildmaster, our guild is Pruned Trees Re-Sprout. We basically just moved in like a day ago,” Shouri spoke a bit quieter than normal.

  “Oh! To think a guild would want to set up shop in this part of the continent! How exciting! We’ll get someone out there today for sure, let me just ring you up.”

  Word must have spread quickly throughout the store as Shouri and his Resonators were suddenly the guests of honor in the Residence Repository. There was no shortage of associates trying to help them with various aspects of their shopping experience.

  Needless to say, once their friends arrived, they would be handling trips to this particular store.

  “Delivery by 5 PM huh?” Shouri re-read their confirmation receipt once again on the ride home.

  It was roughly about two in the afternoon and they had spent a good chunk of their savings on things to spruce up their new abode.

  “We should clear the walkway for them when they get there,” Taika advised from the back.

  “Makes sense, yeah,” Shouri agreed with his first.

  “Can’t wait to get all our stuff washed,” Pacifica shuddered, hoping they didn’t smell too bad through their excursion.

  “What are we going to do while we wait for them?” Rebecca asked.

  “I was hoping Paci could help me steam clean the carpets. Since we’re renting it I thought we could just do all of the carpets through the building,” Taika said.

  “Oh! That’s a good idea, I’m sure the others would appreciate clean carpets!” exclaimed the otter.

  “Ah, that’s why you got so much of the cleaning solution,” Shouri realized.

  “Si! I’m also going to clean the mattresses. They’re a little worn but still usable,” Taika beamed.

  “Yeah, they weren’t bad. About what I expected from the MA Offices, to be honest.” Rebecca chimed in, her eyes still focused solely on the road.

  “Sounds like we have a plan,” said Shouri.

  Upon arriving back at the guildhall, Pacifica and Taika broke off and began their work.

  “What about us, bossman?” Rebecca asked.

  “Clear the way for the RR guys to come move the washer and dryer in, and then I guess you and I can walk the property and see what we’re dealing with,” Shouri laid out for his fiery vixen.

  “Sounds good!”

  With the way the front office was laid out, going through the front door was a bad idea. However, the back door was a double door leading into a storage area where the hookups were. Moving some junk out left by the last owners was all that was needed to give their guests the access they needed to move in the heavy appliances.

  With that matter settled fairly quickly, Shouri pulled Taika’s tuner from his side and spoke into her head. “Hey, Rebby and I are going to check out the rest of the property. Just shout if you need us.”

  “Okay, Sho! We’ll be here!” Her cheerful voice rang from the device.

  “Simple as, let’s go, love,” he smirked at the fire fox.

  Rebecca was too easy, her face reddening upon being addressed in that matter. “Y-yeah!” she said way louder than intended.

  Hand in hand, man and fox walked the property, finding all kinds of different fixtures dotting the landscape. One of the back corners of the lot had a small forest, and a river cut through the other corner. Most of it was empty land, and lots of grass grew unchallenged given the neglect from the previous owners.

  “This is a lot,” Rebecca noted. “How are you holding up?” She squeezed his hand. He squeezed back with a smile.

  “I’m fine. We’ve done enough walking about now that this is nothing,” he eased her concerns. “This is about four acres of land.”

  “How big is that?” Rebecca wondered.

  “Well, one acre is about the size of the pitch at Kalanichi Stadium.”

  “Holy shit…” Rebecca’s eyes widened. Granted, not all of that space was used for the battle, there was plenty of room around the regulation battlefield so emergency crews could stand by, but still.

  This was a ton of land.

  The wind blew down the field, the stalks of wild grass waving in the breeze. The river continued to flow in the distance and the trees rustled peacefully. The ambiance of nature was enough to get lost in. So much so, that Rebecca jolted when Shouri spoke next.

  “Eventually I want to build a battle court for sparring, a pool for Paci, and maybe another couple of buildings so we can have more Resonators here.”

  Rebecca leaned on him. “Yeah…” she cooed. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and the pair drank in the scenery for a bit longer.

  A huge truck made its way onto the large property, parking in front of the sole building that occupied the land.

  Shouri stepped out to greet the laborers tasked to move their new appliances in.

  Naturally, a Maestro stepped out of the driver’s seat, hopping out and appraising the property he found himself in. He wore a polo embroidered with the RR logo and a name tag pinned to the breast of his shirt. Affixed to his belt were a pair of tuners – both blue.

  Opposite the driver came two Resonators. The first was a huge mass, bigger than even the behemoth that was the grizzly bear, Saul. She stood well above anyone present and it was a wonder she even fit in the truck cab. Adorning the top of her head were two tiny circular ears, and the rest of her body was pure muscle.

  Her size was only more apparent when the second Resonator of the duology made his appearance. None of the quartet saw him first – they smelled him.

  That wasn’t to say he smelled bad, quite the opposite in fact. The first thing that hit Shouri was the distinct and calming aroma of coconuts. It was as if someone had cracked one open and allowed it to waft about the property.

  When the small boy finally made his appearance, he too had tiny ears like his fellow resonator, though his were shaped ever so slightly different.

  “Guildmaster Tomoshibi?” asked the Maestro.

  “That is me,” waved Shouri.

  “Evening,” the mover extended his hand, which Shouri readily accepted. “Name’s Jacob, these two are Chloe and Don,” he motioned to his pair who joined their Maestro on the driver’s side of the truck.

  “Hey,” Shouri greeted the two Resonators.

  At first, Chloe glared at the small Maestro, snorting at him. Though with a gentle pat from Don, she greeted him properly. “Good evening,” she said.

  “Hippos tend to be a bit temperamental, but Don’s got her in line, don’t worry about them,” Jacob advised.

  “Right,” Shouri said with a nod. He couldn’t claim familiarity with either Resonator type, but this was a fantastic opportunity to learn more.

  “I’m assuming the smell has something to do with it?” Shouri guessed.

  “Bingo! You’re sharp. Capys like Don can give off a pleasing aroma that calms hostilities. It’s actually pretty common practice to keep a capy or two with a hippo to keep ‘em calm,” said Jacob.

  Shouri nodded, filing that information away for later – don’t take in a hippopotamus without a support capybara to pair with them.

  Needless to say, Chloe proved the extra Resonator’s worth of investment was worth it. She easily picked up the massive appliance and carried it around the back with Shouri’s direction. She placed it down and wandered off to grab the dryer. While she did that Don was quick at work getting the connections installed to the washer. By the time Chloe had returned with the dryer, Don was already running a test rinse cycle.

  “Looks good there boss, got good water running,” Don told Shouri.

  “That’s good, we need to wash our clothes. Ate a dirt tsunami the other night,” the Maestro chuckled.

  The capybara raised a brow. “What does yer guild do?” Don asked, while his partner in crime moved the dryer in place.

  “Oh!” Shouri was almost caught off guard by that question. Typically, people were just satisfied that he was a guildmaster and didn’t look any further into it. “We’re a Resonator aid guild. We take in Resonators who are down on their luck and between Maestros and match them with a Maestro that fits what they want to do.”

  The two Resonators stared blankly at the boy, which wasn’t lost on Shouri.

  “Maybe I didn’t explain it right we-”

  Don shook off his surprise, waving his hands quickly. “No no, I get it. It’s just kinda shockin’, ya know?”

  “Coulda used something like that when we were looking for our Maestro,” Chloe finally spoke. “Pretty hard to find a Maestro willing to take a pair on at the same time,” she admitted.

  “You’re happy with him, Jacob I mean?” Shouri asked, quieter.

  “Yeah! Dude’s great. Reminds me of my dad a bit. He was stoked to already find we were paired up,” Don said excitedly. “Just took us a long time to find him. Woulda been nice to know a place like this existed is all I’m sayin’.”

  That did relieve Shouri’s concerns. Even Chloe seemed pretty content with manual labor.

  “Let me make sure you’re set up so you can wash those clothes,” Don rushed around the back to get the dryer hook-ups in place.

  Shouri remained quiet, considering the words of the two Resonators.

  “Alright Mr. Guildmaster, yer all hooked up!” To demonstrate, Don turned on the dryer which hummed as it tumbled the air contained within. “Purring like a dream.”

  “Thanks again, both of you,” Shouri nodded to the pair.

  “Have a good one boss!”

  And with that, the two Resonators left the young guildmaster alone with his thoughts. He smiled. This is what he wanted.