Kayden checked the cupboards of the room and found nothing but one coffee cup and plate.

“It’s a good thing I don’t drink anything other than coffee or water,” he thought out loud as he sighed after looking throughout his apartment. He reminisced, looking into his lover’s cupboards and always seeing an assortment of various logoed and graphics images displayed on each coffee cup. He would go out of his way to pick a newly designed cup each day, making it infinitely much busier work to wash all the cups after, but he enjoyed it. He looked at his black Obliturium cup and just stared at it.

“I should have bought some of those cups from Earth before I left…” Kayden said as he remembered the cups she gave him. He sighed and put it down.

“At least they gave me my coffee,” he remarked as he looked at his coffee beans and grinder and decided to grind some beans. The next day after the training grounds, he went to the armory and turned in his weapons.

“Good grief, these are a few generations old—how long have you had these models? Are you a collector?” the smith asked as he looked the sword hilt over. Kayden laughed nervously in response but dared not say anything.

“Want upgrades, Guardian?” he asked, and Kayden put down his ID card.

“Guardian Kayden Royal!?” he exclaimed, surprised.

“It would be an honor to give you what best stock I have, Sir Guardian!” he said eagerly as he moved to the back room and disappeared for a while, leaving Kayden to wonder. The smith appeared with several guns and a new hilt that was bigger and black.

“This beam sword is bigger yet lighter; they used a different energy current. And these guns reload on their own. They’ll overheat if you use up more than fifty-eight rounds, though. They’ve got a twenty-second cool down,” the smith said, and Kayden smirked.

“Want to try out the guns?” the smith asked, and Kayden grinned. He was led to a practice shooting range and led to one of the stalls with an Obliturium-lined mannequin at the other end of it. Kayden took out the pistols and aimed them before he started shooting twenty shots off, all aimed for the head as it sizzled and glowed bright red from the heat. His guns had a red glow at their base, and he twirled his guns before putting them back into their holsters. The smith whistled and patted him on the back.

“Not a disappointment at all! What work!” he exclaimed.

“Lots of training and practice since the academy,” Kayden said.

“Well, clearly, you weren’t anything to sneeze at,” the smith said as he led Kayden back to the front.

“Thank you for your business. I won’t register your weapons because of the…upgrade…I’ll register the next best thing to your ID. Don’t get caught,” he said, and Kayden grinned.

“Yes, sir,” he said before he headed back to the elevator.