Forever Strong

A/N: Power to the people! ...Yeah, that's all I have now.

The clouds cried for them, or more plausibly, laughed at them so hard they cried, not too long after their departure of Meltokio. Zelos, all too familiar being under a down pour, walked the dirt-to-mud path with a cheerful composure. Sheena, however, could be mistaken for the embodiment of pure malevolence, glaring daggers at any rain drop that dared crossed her path, and not surprisingly she was running out of patience and daggers.

Zelos stopped whistling. "What's the matter, hun? Just a little rain, should clear up sooner or later."

"It's not the rain that bugs me..." said Sheena quietly; she peered down at her sodden garb in disgust. Zelos, however, took no note of that.

"Lemme guess... you hate the mud!" he threw out.

She grinned, "No..." she craftily stuck out her foot in way of his path. "...are you?"

"No, not—" With that, Zelos took to the air, plunging head first into a pit of muck. Luckily for him, his exsphere gave him quick reactions, and he managed to stick his hand out to attempt to catch himself. But as he soon learned, you can't bounce in mud.

Sheena burst into laughter, leaving herself completely open for a cheap shot. Zelos took a stab at wiping the mud off his face, but remembered then that his hand was covered in more mud, just making it worse. Not overly-proud of his achievement of making himself look like a complete fool, he gathered a slushy hand full of mud and compiled it into a ball.

"So that's the way you want to play, huh?" he said with a gleam in his eye and chucked the ball of mud at the Summoner.

His shot hit her square on the shoulder, causing her laughter to come to an abrupt halt. "That's it? You've got nothing on me considering you're covered in it!" she jeered. Little did she know, Zelos had an ace up his sleeve.

He got up out of the mud and hung his head. "Yup. You're right. I'm not one to mess up a lady's clothes, so how about a truce?" he held out his now brown hand, acting lessons from years ago coming in handy now more than ever.

Sheena was reluctant to near the man known for having several aces, but she forgot her cares looking at him covered in splotches of wet dirt. She went to shake his hand. "Truce."

Unexpectedly, Zelos grabbed her arm and pulled her into him, but turning her facing away from him. She screamed in surprise. "You called a truce!" her protest was barely louder than a squeal as she struggled vainly to escape his hold.

"I merely suggested it, never agreed to it." He replied slyly, even with a hint of seduction in his tone.

"Just lemme go!" growled Sheena.

"If you insist..."

Zelos released his grip on her. Unprepared for such answer, she slipped, landing the same puddle of mud Zelos had. "Goodness, Sheena! You have such a disposition for falling into holes!" he said, in mock surprise.

She couldn't help it. Her growl aspirated into a hearty laugh. Zelos however, thought she had gone mad, and laughed only from nervousness, all the while mentally accumulating a will.

Still slightly chuckling, Sheena managed to stand up on shaky legs. "I'll admit that was a pretty amusing scheme you had going on there. Hard to believe those filthy Renegades that were always getting in my way... we're actually led by you. If it wasn't for Martel's wishes to spare your life, I'd kill you right now.

Ahahahaha... oh wait. Wrong scene.

"That was pretty good for one of your plans, Zelos." Sheena smiled, trying to wipe the mud off her apparel, but met the same results Zelos had. "Honestly, you had me fooled."

"The great Sheena! Caught off guard!"

"Ehehe, whatever!" she blew off with a wave of her hand. "Hurry up, or I'll leave you behind!"

Zelos blinked and stumbled to find his footing. "He-Hey! What's the rush?"

"I'm not walking all the way to Iselia in these grimy, soaked clothes. Next river we find, I'm washing up."

Zelos smiled like an idiot. "You mean, we're washing up."

A few moments and one slap mark on the face later, Zelos sat on the soggy ground, cross legged, cross armed. He resembled a child in a candy shop who had been for grounded from any and all forms of sugar.

"Perverts need love too, ya know!"

And ironically at that moment, the sun decided to poke its sorry head out from behind the clouds and say hello.

Dear Corrine,

I kinda feel guilty for starting that mud-fight. Not to say it wasn't fun, but it may have given him more reason to think I'll return his feelings completely. On the other hand, it may make it even easier to stay friends with him.

Now that I look back, I'm glad I have a traveling companion. I highly doubt my clothes feel the same way, but sometimes to have fun, you have to get a little dirty.

...Again with the sayings!

Something that just came to my mind is, whether I want to or not, I may become a little perverted myself simply by being around Zelos for extra span of time. It'll probably be pretty long come to think of it. We do have a long way to go to reach Iselia. Why do those stupid Iselians have to isolate themselves from everyone else!

I look back at Zelos, he's just sitting there. Then I remember why. Which reminds me, I have a question of you, Corrine...

...are there perverts where you are?