New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Alex and Kary both decided it was the safer bet not to keep him waiting. With a clever use of a little mana, they rushed through alleys and side streets, making record time to the gym.

Without breaking a sweat, or even getting slightly out of breath, the pair entered the gym like a gust of wind, scaring the two young girls at the desk.

They had to hard brake on the polished cement floor before they crashed through the gym gates. And with a fit of laughter, they proceeded through, ignoring the pale girls at the counter.

But the next three hours with Clark were less than enjoyable. The trainer drove into them hard, for making him wait so long, even though they insisted they had a reason.

After three hours of hellish slave-driving, rough sparring against him, and more training, the two of them pulled out of the gym looking haggard.

Unfortunately, the day was hardly over.

Alex still needed to call Jack and tell him about what had happened that morning. This wasn't something that should just fly under the radar.

The conversation was brief, as the old man was busy with work, and preparing for something big, apparently.

But Alex did get Jack's word that he would make sure this never happened again.

He wasn't sure how the old man would do good on that word, but he had a feeling he would, regardless.

With this done, the last thing Alex and Kary needed to do that day was a bit of shopping, as he had promised.

Alex could already feel the dread rise inside him.

He hated shopping.

Not with Kary or with anyone, particularly. But shopping in general.

He always had.

Alexander felt like spending hours roaming the mall, just to get a few pieces of clothes, was a waste of time. Time he could have spent playing games or keeping the house clean.

But he had said yes to Kary and wasn't one to rescind his word.

Surprisingly, though, Kary wasn't a slow shopper. She zoomed in and out of shops, carrying increasingly more bags, which eventually all landed in his arms, for some reason, as they zigzagged through the mall like mice on cocaine.

It took a little under two hours, which Alex still found to be a long time. But they did so many shops and now had so many bags with them.

"It's like you are making yourself a second wardrobe. Could we have done this in maybe more than one trip?"

Kary giggled at how simply his mind worked.

"Oh, love. This is only the first trip. We will make a few more."

Alexander's heart dropped at the mention of more shopping sprees.

'I don't want that…'

He could already imagine having to carry all those bags, and his mind reeled.

But Kary was only teasing him.

"Don't worry, darling. I will go with someone else next time. I won't force you to come."

Alex tried sighing silently, but failed miserably, exhaling loudly in relief.

He got curious, though.

"Who will you be going with? Do you have friends in the city?"

Kary nodded her head.

"I have a few. Though I only recently told them I was staying here more often now. So they have already asked when we could hang out."

"Huh. Well, then that reassures me. I thought I was taking you away from all your friends and family."

Kary giggled again.

"I grew up in a small town. Most of my friends have moved into the city. Either here or in Quebec. I hadn't seen most of them in a while, because of it. Moving here actually gives me a chance to reconnect with them."

"That's nice. I wish I had friends to reconnect with, too. But ever since my parents' accident, I pushed most of them away. I felt better alone. And now I doubt they would give me the time of day…"

Saying this out loud, Alex realized how sad I sounded. He felt a wave of melancholy wash over him.

But Kary grabbed his wrist, smiling at him warmly.

"Don't worry. You have friends. They might not be old friends, but they stay your friends."

Alex smiled back.

"I know. Anyway. Let's get back home with all this. I'm getting hungry and some good ol' mac'n'cheese sounds good. The cheap brand. It'll wash away all the fancy food we always eat, he he."

Kary laughed a bit as they headed out of the mall. They had come here on foot, but returning home on foot, with all these bags, seemed like a stupid idea.

So she called a cab service, and they talked about the game as they waited for it.

"I heard from the commanders that you had offered them all a deal for the Inter-Alliance Military Exercises of next year and beyond. Care to share with me what it is?"

Kary still wanted to know what he had offered to them, and what his plans were, since he had done all this on his own. But the commanders had been mum about this, since they were all in the presence of each other at the moment it came up.

"Huh? Where did you hear that? Did you speak to them?"

Kary smiled at him and winked.

"I had a few hours of fun with all of them. Let's just say they were more open to discussion after getting slammed into the floor a few times."

Alex looked at her with a raised eyebrow but didn't pry.

"It was a tempting offer for all of them. And I only needed to play my cards right. But I still won't tell you."

"Aww. Why?" she whined.

"Because you'll find out in a few hours anyway, darling. Why ruin the surprise? Matter of fact, everyone will find out in a few hours."

It was Kary's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Everyone?"

"Yeah, everyone. You'll see," he answered, a cocky smile stretching on his lips.

Their cab arrived as he said this. A small van, with plenty of room for all their bags in the back, and space for their legs in the seating area.

It brought them home promptly, and a luggage carrier helped them carry the shopping bags upstairs for them.

Only a few hours of the day remained before they needed to log back in. Sunrise was pretty early, in New Eden, after all.