"Thank you for coming here, Proxy." Miyabi greeted as Eous walked through the office.

He waved happily to Soukaku, Harumasa, and Yanagi, who all looked incredibly tired as they reciprocated the greeting.

"Never get tired of seeing this place. Way better digs than the outpost." Eous commented as he stood in front of Miyabi's desk.

It was weird having to look up at her, since her desk was elevated.

"You rang, so here I am. How can Nova help?" He asked.

He wasn't able to detect the sighs coming from Harumasa and Yanagi. Soukaku was eager to hear why he was brought in however.

Miyabi clasped her hands together and stared into his eyes. Eous' smile didn't falter as her gaze turned into a leer, awaiting her orders. The stare-down lasted several more seconds before Miyabi cleared her throat into her hand and looked away.

"That was far more effective than I was expecting. You are truly commendable." She whispered.

Eous rubbed his nape and turned to the others. "What... just happened?"

"Chief, it's best you explain to the proxy why you've brought him here so late..." Harumasa suggested.

"I want to continue our training." Miyabi exclaimed with a stout nod.

Eous stared forward with no less confusion than before.

Yanagi rolled her eyes and sat up. "Chief, use your words."

Miyabi's ears twitched before she tried turning back to Eous. It was hard to hold her gaze until she saw he was also lost.

"I needed motivation in completing my work. I wanted to choose the most inspiring thing I could attain. You." Miyabi was glaring daggers at her desk as she spoke.

Eous laughed and threw his hands in his pockets. "Aw, thanks!"

"Chief, you're lucky the proxy is carefree or else this would've been a problem." Yanagi chastised.

"Lucky he's got no life, too." Harumasa teased, earning a wave off from Eous.

"But he's my Proxy. And we never finished our training." Miyabi reasoned with a frown.

"Woah, that's the boldest I've seen our ever stoic chief! Are you hearing this, Tsukishiro?!" Harumasa was wide awake now, darting his head between the Deputy Chief and the Executive Chief.

Eous' face was flushed red but he shook his head and turned to Miyabi. "U-Um, what training was that?"

"Bonding." Miyabi said with a proud nod.

Eous' head dropped as Harumasa began cackling at his embarrassment. It was a given that Eous normally never lost his cool, so seeing someone be so blunt with him was rare.

"So am I here to be eye candy?" Eous asked with a squint.

"Yes—" Miyabi was interrupted by Yanagi.

"No! She doesn't mean it like that. But... clearly your presence has lightened the mood. This paperwork of our reports was becoming a real drag." Yanagi explained with a smile.

"Glad I could help. Now that I've got higher clearance, do you guys want anything from the cafe?"

"Oh, oh! My language! Pork buns, please!" Soukaku had leapt over her desk and landed on his back with a tight hug.

"Oh, so he is here to be useful~ Can you grab me one of those tart pastries from the vending machine?" Harumasa requested.

"Six melonpans. To share of course." Miyabi added.

Eous turned to Yanagi with a smirk, pretending to write on a notepad.

"Just silverware. I have leftovers from my lunch." Yanagi chuckled and waved him on.

"Back in a sec." Eous nodded his head and crouched down to dash off.

Yanagi shouted in horror. "W-Wait! Please, don't, that will set us back tremendously...!"

Eous looked around at all the papers and winced, "Y-Yeah, uh, forgot about that. I'll walk."

•

Soukaku was nibbling through her pork buns in a hurry, trying to pace herself since he could only buy the last three they had.

Harumasa had nearly all his energy back after that laugh and the pastry, invigorated to get his work done and go home.

Yanagi was indulging in her bento with a smile, giving Eous a gracious nod after he set down napkins he brought too.

He walked around to Miyabi's desk and saw that she definitely sat on a platformed space. He chuckled, earning a pout from the chief.

"Allow me to relish in seeing you at this angle." She murmured.

"Aw, I can't sit up there with you? You gonna leave your proxy down here?" He asked with a smirk.

Miyabi battled between seeing him shorter for once, or having him in closer proximity.

It was clearly a hard one fought, because it seemed Eous made the decision for her thanks to Yanagi sliding him a chair from the free desk beside her. He used his tails to place it beside her and hopped up with a grin.

"You ready to dig in?"

Miyabi nodded, keeping quiet as she thought about how he looked before. With that on her mind as Eous unwrapped the first melonpan, she thought about more ways to motivate herself.

Eous slid the melonpan over to her and was about to open one for himself, but Miyabi suddenly held his hand.

"Huh? What's up?"

"That won't be necessary. We will be sharing." Miyabi reinstated.

"Oh, you mean like that? C-Cool." Eous set his down and took back Miyabi's so she could work. He took the first bite with a grin but noticed her eyes darting between him and her paper.

"Something wrong?"

"I want to record this memory. Would that be wrong? Can I ask that of you?" Her ears twitched curiously, making Eous hum.

With a snap, Fairy made a small screen appear on the desk that pointed up at the two. He moved it to center between the two, pressed record, and held out the melonpan to her.

Her eyes sparkled as the scent of the pastry graced her nose. With a swift bite down, her eyes closed in delight as she began to nibble down where he first bit.

Eous subconsciously recalled his moment of weakness he shared with Jane. She didn't want to take his 'every' first. They never kissed, yet had sex, but he was somehow was far more embarrassed seeing Miyabi eat the same food he was.

His lips curled into a wider smile as Miyabi had her fill for the moment, allowing him to take another bite of his own.

~•~

"EOUS!" Wise and Belle yelled from downstairs.

He shot up, Ionizing in a moment's notice and appearing in the back room with a leer.

The two screamed in shock at the tall dark figure suddenly looming over them but it soon turned to squeals of excitement as they pointed to the HDD, where three printable receipts sat.

Eous groaned and crossed his arms before leaning down and huffing.

"What am I looking at?" His hoarse voice asked impatiently.

"It's Astra! Well, not her, but her manager from last time! She sent us an invite to her concert on New Year's!" Belle explained.

"Which means, we've finally got your last birthday present!" Belle cheered, squeezing him with a grin.

Eous rose a brow and glanced to Fairy, who had appeared to visualize zipping her mouth.

"Now we can relish in the concert without having to see all the hate comments." Wise mumbled with a fist pump.

"Hate comments?" Eous wondered, returning to his human form.

"As of today, ever since the announcement of her 'Astra-nomical Moment' New Year's Concert, discussions related to Astra Yao have consistently dominated the top trending searches at 8.26 million views." Fairy explained. "Negative opinions account for 14% of all traffic, mainly focusing on the following points:

#1: She's ugly—"

"That's too far! Beauty is subjective but calling her ugly is ridiculous. We won't let them get away with this!" Wise declared.

"Understood, Assistant Manager. 173,925 new accounts have been registered to launch a full-scale attack against all comments claiming Astra is ugly." Fairy announced.

Eous dropped his jaw at how swiftly she had prepared their offense.

"No, no! Deactivate them all and delete all those comments— I see you already did it!" Eous pulled Fairy's cheek feeling the rush of processing power in his head.

"Understood. Deactivation of all bots complete. Comments deleted..." She seemed almost saddened at the scolding.

"Sorry about that... Where were we?" Wise asked with a wry smile.

Fairy was released and continued. "Other negative comments mostly compare Astra Yao to the late superstar Joran de Winter. For instance: de Winter is a true classic, and Astra's nothing more than just an idol propped up by capital. How dare she try to ride on that legacy?"

Before Belle and Wise could refute, Eous spoke up.

"Why are we worried about this? Astra's a grown woman who's been in the industry for while, right? She'll be fine."

Belle sighed. "You're right. I'm sure she can handle it."

"I'm carrying my ass to bed. That bot attack gave me a headache, Fairy..." Eous winced as he walked away.

Belle and Wise chuckled at the shenanigans before glancing at each other mischievously.

"So, how do you want to handle giving him the big surprise?" Wise mused.

"Well~ let's leave it for after the concert. Let's let that night be far more carefree than setting that up." Belle nodded proudly.

"Yeah, it's best we cross that bridge when we get there."

But would they make it?

~•~

The day of the concert arrived, set on New Year's Eve to play into the New Year and celebrate another pass of life.

As Wise and Belle were getting ready, debating whether to dress light to buy merch, or come prepared to swing their light sticks, Eous was using his tails to cut his hair shorter.

He had been meaning to ever since he saved the Cunning Hares from the Cretan Hollow all those months back.

With a satisfied hum, he let Fairy get rid of all the screens he used and set down the scissors.

"There we go. Doesn't look different, just outta the way. Nice."

He brushed it back and let it fall before heading downstairs where he saw his siblings had decided to pack light to save for merch.

"Ah, there you are. From now on, down to the millisecond, we must enter two hours in advance." Wise sternly exclaimed.

"Traffic's good, weather's good, and all the tickets are in my pocket. Are you guys ready to head out?" Belle asked eagerly.

"Shouldn't I hold on to the tickets?" Eous asked skeptically.

"What? No. If you have to go off and save the day, how will we get in? They're in safe hands." Belle replied confidently.

Wise was skeptical too, but she had a valid point. Trouble did follow the trio everywhere.

"I feel bad we couldn't get a ticket for Eliza—" Wise was cut off by Eous.

"Trust me, she's making it a point to let me know she's loving her vacation." He muttered.

"Ah, great! No regrets! Let's get a move on! To the van!" Belle cheered, snatching their wrists and rushing out of the store.