Side By Side ~Echoes~

Good afternoon and the start to what promises to be a very eventful week! Bring it on! :0

Okay, so at first I didn’t know what you were referring to but when I watched the clips…OH MAN I REMEMBER THAT SHOW! What a blast from the past. Can you guess who I liked best? ..okay I’ll spare you the theatrics. Yup, that’s right: Nefer-Tina! Catgirls forever, yo. XD It’s so fun when you re-discover old gems! I watched a lot of television back in the day (after-school cartoons anyone?) so there must be lots of old tv tidbits lurking around in my mind I mean, everyone knows Pokemon, Digimon, etc. But there were lots of others… I asked someone if they knew what Medabots was and they had no idea! That’s more recent than Mummies Alive, even. There was this show called Monster Ranchers (what’s with all the “M” titles?!) as well but I was NOT a fan. That eyeball character with the bandana was so annoying! I didn’t like the male lead either. Otherwise I liked various shows to a lesser or greater extent. This is true for a lot of people but I was a total Sailor Moon addict. I clearly remember watching it when I was six. Plus I had the dolls and even the moon scepter or whatever it’s called. I used to fight my brothers with it, lolll. The American dub screwed a lot of stuff up apparently but I still enjoyed it. I was totally one of the kids who thought that rice balls were donuts (as portrayed in SM and Pokemon). Yeah, pretty dumb, but I know better now!! Thank god.

To my amazement Pokemon is still hooking kids even now! There were two little girls trading pokemon cards in Costa and one of them said “This is Pikachu! It’s my favourite! :D” So cute. Is it odd that I wanted Pokemon cards too at that very moment? I had a great collection back in the day… my pride and joys were my shiny gyrados and wigglytuff. I had them both in those plastic sleeves so they wouldn’t get damaged. Where has all that enthusiasm gone? All work and no play dulls the spirit. I know I have to be responsible adult but yeah. Can’t you explore all aspects of yourself, whatever your age? Sure you can. Believe it! /shot

Also I read your story (draft??) and it totally surprised me. I mean, I know Karelos and Cloud have problems, but it looks like they’re teetering on the edge of their relationship. For real this time. D: And even Noctis isn’t enough of a distraction? Guess he no longer has a purpose then... I don’t even know! Everything’s falling apart. The attraction is still there though so that’s something, even if it’s physical. Perhaps Karelos needs to breathe for a while and then see whether she and Cloud fit together after all. They do say familiarity breeds contempt. Not sure how true that is but it seems accurate in this case. So, if Cloud goes back to Germany, Karelos would miss him. Or if she doesn’t that’s an answer right there. I’m sure Tifa would be more than happy to take him back. o_o Lol poor Cloud if that’s the case… whatever happened to J anyway? Is there still something between him and Karelos, or are they just friends who get along swimmingly? I know they were together at one point but I’m not sure that relationship had any substance beyond a summer fling with a prince…

If only I had read yours before I wrote mine… now mine doesn’t work so well. Lololol. As you’ll notice, it involves a somewhat happy CK. See it as a contrast of the good times and bad times? Hopefully things between them patch up. Or if not, perhaps Karelos can get over him with Kratalie. Hehe… here’s to more stories from us! (:

Darkness comes early these days... maybe that's a good thing.

Karelos shivered, not knowing why these things crossed her mind at the most benign moments. She was safe on the couch in their apartment. The zombies in the room were on television. Nothing to fear. Even so, uneasiness washed over her. She curled up closer to the young man beside her. His smiled and rested his head against hers. This gesture normally soothed her, but tonight…

The wind whined outside like a creature in pain. Her dog, usually easygoing, hadn’t left her side all night. Karelos could see his fluffy form by her feet now; his sleep came in fits and starts. When he woke up, he glanced around the room with wide eyes before settling his head on his paws, staring at something that couldn‘t be seen. Animals had a sixth sense. He knew there was something out there tonight.

“Cloud?”

He leaned back a little to look her in the eye. “Are you bored of this already?”

Karelos took a second to realize he was talking about the TV show. She pushed all the strange negativity out of her mind. There was no need for it. Sometimes feelings were simply that, feelings. This sense of being lost at sea would pass.

“Nope! I can never get enough zombies!”

“Oh.”

Karelos ruffled his blond hair. “Don’t sound so disappointed. I know you’d prefer watching the news, but c’mon, we need to see this in case there’s an attack or something. You’ll protect me, right?”

“I wouldn‘t let anything harm you. You know that.”

“Why so serious?” she teased. “Zombies don‘t exist, Cloud. Although I’m not sure about Germany. There could be crazy things running amok there.”

“Like zombie Nazis?”

“Exactly!“ She laughed. “The boy has a sense of humour after all.”

Cloud ducked his head to hide a smile. “I‘m glad you think so.”

“Honestly, though.“ Karelos wrapped her arms around his waist. “Don’t think you need to change. You’re wonderful, even though you can go overboard with maintaining all those documents and cleaning.”

“Thank you.” He paused. “Was that a back-handed compliment?”

“Please. Who do you think I am, Josh? I was totally sincere.”

Cloud wrinkled his nose. “Why bring him up, of all people?”

“Don’t tell me you’re jealous.”

“Josh is just a friend. He gets me free coffee. You’re the boyfriend.”

“Good. That means I can do this.”

Cloud pressed his lips to hers and for a moment the world melted away. She wound her fingers into his hair, pressing herself as close to him as she could. Karelos felt his heart beating beneath her. Even after all this time, she still gave him an adrenaline rush. She couldn’t imagine being anywhere better than here, with him. Her boy.

Karelos withdrew for a breath of air and couldn’t help grinning.

“What?”

Her gaze dropped from his hair to his face. “Just don’t look in a mirror.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

He pulled her back down to him and the cruelty of the night was forgotten.