Sunday morning having come, Hiroshi snoozing like a log in his bedroom with clock already at 9 am. A mildly grumpy Nata came walking in, cuddling her blanket she had for the night. "Hirooo... wake uuup." she came muttering, herself having been awake for an good hour all alone by now.

  He just curled further into his bed cover, mind ignoring her pleading. She huffed angrily as she got closer, before climbing onto the bed and with light force, sitting on his stomach.

  Impact easily knocking him awake as Hiroshi was left in tired confusion to look who was the offender, only to see the mad cloud on top of him.

  "What is it that you need?" he said while still rubbing some of the eye gunk off. "It's morning already and I am bored waiting for you." she said, demanding him to get up.

  After a minute of processing of Samoyed's request, he lazily laid back down as if he was ready to return into his dreamland.

  "This is the last free day I get before work. could you just give me an another hour." but as he saw her keep the grumpy face, he knew her determination was far greater than him getting extra sleep.

  After a short stare down, Hiroshi gave up. "Fine, but you need get off me first."

  She quickly got cheered up, as she left the room with a happy tail wag. begrudgingly but knowing better than start complaining, he got up and put some clothes on.

  Before he could even reach kitchen for some breakfast, he noted Nata was watching TV, news talking about final bird migrations increasing in local areas, that included a lot of monsters, with also warning winter monsters to take care before summer heat strikes.

  Taking a moment to think through the stuff they have gone through these couple days, he let her be as he went to make some breakfast.

  "Did you eat anything yet?" he asked as he was making himself an usual sandwich. "No, can you make me some?" she said with a sweet tone.

  Shortly with the two sandwiches, he sat down next to her and handed her breakfast. "We are starting to lie now?" he calmly said, making her jump from surprise.

  "I don't mind it and I wont pry for stuff you don't want to talk about, but it would be nice if you were honest with me at least." he said, it was clear she was having something to do without him, and hadn't even eaten when she didn't need to wait.

  Nata couldn't help but feel slightly bad, but she gently got closer as her tail went to curl by his waist. "I felt alone..." she mumbled with light shame, as she took a bite from the sandwich, the bitter rye bread fitting her mood.

  As he started to eat as well, he gently placed his hand between her fluffy ears. "Thank you." he noted, relaxing on the sofa. "But you don't need me to wake up for it, you know. The bed has enough room if you need someone to be with you." he continuing, not much thinking of the implications, while Nata couldn't help but get little bit flustered.

  Spending the day mostly relaxing, and Hiroshi started showing some games he had on his console that was sitting under the TV, the time went nice and calm. Nata kept close to him, and giving some glances time to time, as thought of tomorrow worried her lightly.

  "So, how long would you be away again?"

  He paused the game as he responded. "Six hours at least. Worried you'd start feeling alone?"

  she shyly scooted closer with ears flopping down. "Y-yeah... I don't like being alone." she said in sad tone, as he could note she wasn't in her usual cheerful act.

  Silence leaving him question what could be the answer, before he glanced at his old phone he had forgotten to sell off, sitting on one of the counters.

  "How does calling me sound?" he asked, as she seemed to perk up with the idea.

  seeing she was curious, he decided to take the old phone and after some short work, got it to be good enough for her. "Just go here and press this to call me." as he showed her how to work it. in her excitement, she pressed it immediately.

  It didn't take long before his phone rang in his pocket, taking it out and before he could end it, he could see just out of his sight how excited she was just for the call. Deciding not to ruin her mood and play into it, he got up to head to another room before answering "Hello."

  A giggle could be heard, before a faint "Hi." was stated from the other side.

  "Bring it closer, I barely hear you."

  "Oh... sorry." she said as she brought it closer, making it clearer to hear her.

  "So, does this help?"

  "...I think so." she said with questioning tone, but she felt hearing him relieved some tension in her when he left the room.

  with that confirmed, he ended the call and came back to the living room, seeing Nata peaking over the sofa with tail whipping behind her.

  Seeing her in good mood, and having try at least, Hiroshi decided to finally ask. "you know, I have been wondering for couple days. You have been around for couple weeks causing trouble by Edith's count, but where did you come from?"

  Hearing the question, she froze on the spot before hiding behind the sofa, trying to think best way to answer his question. Once she had some idea, she peaked back over.

  "I am from Russia. I don't know where exactly, but town of Varkuta. I... well..." her mood seemed to get more depressed as she was considering if she should continue, before deciding that she should.

  "I fled... there was some stuff that went down, and I got kidnapped..." she got stuck again, clearly suppressing a lot of details "I got away from them, ended up here in Finland, and after years of wandering and learning from all kind of people, I got arrested couple times and after couple months of trouble, I was brought here."

  He was left speechless, as she was hanging slightly depressed against back of the sofa. She was looking at the floor, before shortly getting patted on her head.

  Without saying a word, she looked up to be met with Hiroshi's warm smile. "Thanks for telling me." he responded, as he went gently massage her ears.

  With it, it seemed to cheer her back up as they returned to relaxing and enjoying sunday happily together. He even went showing some games that peaked her interest, as he was left stew with the thoughts from the story she told.

  Monday morning came with his alarm blaring in his ear. Quickly picking the phone up, he shut it off.

  Before he could attempt getting up, he noticed a certain cloud having had invaded his bed and very much occupied spot on top of him, and it didn't help his situation as her head rising in morning stupor, she only had underwear on.

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  Hiroshi quickly looked away in hopes not to get in more trouble than he was in already.

  In a tired haze, Nata got up with almost no concept of existence on her face.

  After couple seconds of booting, she realized the situation, getting heavily flustered and getting off of him. "Sorry," muttered under her breath, as she quickly escaped the room to find her clothes.

  If the alarm didn't wake him up, the invasive Samoyed sure did.

  Getting up and dressing up, he checked the clock to confirm it was 8:00 AM.

  Checking on weather and news, he noticed Nata, after a quick dress up and calming down, was up and happily making breakfast for them. She got curious as he came to the counter and turning the contraption she hasn't seen before on.

  She couldn't help but take peaks at the machine like it was some kind of magic device. As he took notice, he couldn't help but chuckle. "That's a coffee machine. I can give you some to try, but I doubt you will like it." he admitted, he was never much of a bitter drink lover himself.

  Being too transfixed to much answer, eventually the breakfast was ready and served, but she could note how slow the machine itself was, slowly dropping a droplet at a time. about half way through, Hiroshi got up, turned the machine off as he poured most of the coffee into his own mug, but for her leaving a little sprinkle, with some milk in both.

  Handing her the mug, she took interest on sniffing it and checking the brown liquid at the bottom of the mug as he happily took his sip.

  With a lot of suspicion on the liquid, she greedily gulped all of it down, before she started to cough with clear disgust. "How can you drink something like this?" she pleaded in confusion.

  He only gave a light chuckle, pouring her some milk to wash her mouth with. "Took me a year to get used to it. But i doubt you need any for being so energetic." he admitted, but it was good to know just in case for both sake.

  As breakfast was finished, and both had some time to relax. To her displeasure, it didn't take long before Hiroshi got up and get ready to head out, putting on his own running shoes.

  "Leaving already, Hiro?" Nata said with sad undertone, not at all happy to see him about to leave her alone.

  "Don't worry." he said he gave a pat on her head. "There is food in fridge to microwave, and you can call me." he reminded her, which eased her mind but didn't stop her sad look.

  Hiroshi tried to think of a way to ease Nata's mind more, before remembering. "Say, how about I bring some cake to celebrate afterwards?" and with that promise, she seemed to cheer her mood enough to let him go.

  With last pats, a goodbye said and some waves, he was off to work.

  Arriving at the police station at around 9:20, he was hoping for a calm morning, only to get surprised seeing Edith and Kat debating in the entrance hall. His focus was quickly taken by Kat, who had her back against him, was wearing a dress that didn't match her personality at all.

  Taking couple steps in, he was frozen in the spot as he saw Kat's head to do smooth quick 160° turn to stare daggers at him while her body kept forward.

  Just the sight of it was able to make him have goosebumps.

  As she kept the stare, her body turned to join her head at confronting him.

  Before he could move a inch, she quickly pulled him into a headlock, squeezing her right arm tightly around his neck, taking him by surprise and nearly strangling him.

  "Tell me you didn't do anything bad to Nata." Kat muttered in anger to his ear, he was confused on what to say, as he didn't expect her to know about his fostering. Edith quickly came trying to calm the strangling harpy down.

  "Stop it, it was my idea to let her stay with him. And you'd agree this was better than her living on the streets for the weekend." she said, which seemed to ease the harpy's mind and grip, but still didn't let him free.

  "She accepted to come to my place, I didn't force her. Fed her, gave her new clothes." Hiroshi said with as much honesty he could give, hoping to appease Kat's concerns.

  With a angry huff, she released him. Taking a quick glance of Hiroshi that was rubbing his neck, before storming off through one of the back doors with talons clanking against the floor.

  "My apologies on her. I just informed her about your foster role, and seems it got her into bad mood." Edith admitted.

  As things calmed down, "But you know, you did leave a pretty good impression on her." she noted with a cheeky grin. "I have seen her send people into hospital from smaller stuff, so congrats." said with more teasing tone with light elbow hit on his side.

  "What is her problem exactly?" he asked in confusion. After all, he understood the wariness but being so brutal is not something he has seen in many years.

  "She has seen a lot. Kat may be cruel, but that is to keep everyone at their best shape. For being one of the first in the forces, she has the heart that has kept this operation running here longer than it should have." Edith noted with clear passion.

  There was murky history behind them, but him knowing it wasn't from something bad like Nata's eased his mind.

  "So, how about we get you introduced to the station and where the changing room is." she continued, as bringing him along to show around the station seeing they had plenty of free time.

  He got to see plenty around, offices and couple gathering spots with all kind of people, and with Monster tamer side of facilities seemed to be heavy amount of all kind of monsters, and as seems Kat's notation on majority being women was right. Ranging from the usual animal people, to mythological like cyclops, imps, undead, ogres and so on. Some having foster families visiting, and others being with psychologist, going through processes and tests.

  taking nearly half an hour exploring the station, before finally Hiroshi was brought in front of the men's changing room.

  "Here's the key to your locker, it has everything you need. Kat will inform you on their utility later on." Edith said, as she handed him a key with tag on it reading '07'

  He couldn't help but sigh at the number, knowing way too well his history with it, before thanking Edith for the tour.

  With confidence, he entered, only to be met by plenty of men from different species and countries.

  Biggest comparison he could make is how much bigger they were, not by height but by build.

  Even if some were shorter than him, he'd know they were able to throw him across the room without issue.

  Taking things carefully, he went to his locker to get dressed up for the job.

  As he got to inspecting the suit, he got leaned on by a 6 foot german shepherd werebeast. "Well, if it isn't our new recruit. Hearshy was the name?" he said with unbelievable amount of confidence, as his paw was wrapped around his head

  "It's Hiroshi. And you are?" he said while trying to stand his ground, but the size comparison was intimidating.

  "Name's Ingolf Geissler. You know, you are way smaller than I thought for how much Edith complemented on you taking a truck hit without major injuries." the werebeast noted with a cheesy smile on his snout, as he got uncomfortable with being reminded by the past incident, and the fact they knew about it.

  Shortly an middle-easter looking man, around same size but looked way older than Ingolf, with a bushy beard complementing slicked hair, came near the locker they were on as he spoke up. "Endurance isn't about build, Ingy. you should know that, seeing how much you like getting papercuts." he said with calm tone.

  "I guess you are right." Ingolf huffed as he went to his locker, clearly mad at the man's intrusion, but knew better than spending time chitchatting this early in the morning.

  Seeing he was finally left free, Hiroshi continued to dress up into the uniform. "Thanks" muttered under his breath, not wanting Ingolf to hear it.

  "Don't mind him. He just has some few screws loose still. Likes to tease newbies on the first day." he said, trying to ease Hiroshi's mind.

  "Name's Azhar Khatib, but everyone calls me Az." the man continued, as he offered a handshake which Hiroshi was more than happy to return, as he seemed way more friendly than the canine companion.

  "Hiroshi Yasuda." he introduced himself as well just to be on friendly side. "I guess Edith spread words about... that incident."

  "yeah, she can be a tattletale at times, but that usually means she thinks you are more interesting than many others she works with." Azhar noted, trying to cheer him up. "Also, just so you know. I was one of the first foster parents for Nata." he brought up, taking Hiroshi by surprise.

  "Me and my wife love all of the energetic monsters, even if they can get hard to handle. I don't blame her for running away, but seems she saw something in you that she hasn't seen in anyone else." he said, an honest smile creeping onto his face.

  "Why are you bringing this up? And how did you know?" Hiroshi brought up, which got a gentle laugh from Azhar.

  "I saw you with her on saturday. And I just want to make sure you and Nata do well. After all, no one really knows what is with her. She is like box of mysteries, hiding something within her that we can only guess at." Azhar said, clearly sharing the curiosity on Nata's that Hiroshi had as well.

  Hiroshi was nearly about to tell him about what she told him yesterday, but he got a gut feeling that maybe he shouldn't. Not yet at least. He should know better before asking for help, he is her guardian after all, and he did admit she saw something in him, so he had to keep her trust up as well.

  With discussions quieting and clock slowly arriving at 10 am, he was ready for his first day as a monster tamer.