Yikes, I apologize for the long wait. This is a short chapter I wrote last year. Therefore my style will be slightly different in the coming chapters. I haven't beta it yet because it's 3AM on a New Year Day. I'll have to reread the whole story some time soon. If I remember correctly, this is more of a cute filler chapter. Thrilling plots are coming up. Yes, I'm aware I'm owing quite some folks my promise. I'll get back to you as soon as I can as well. *cheer*

Anyway, enjoy the reading. I'll start writing the next chapter if I get enough encouragement from you~ time to catch my muse back again.

Oh and how could I forget to thank everyone for reviewing and subscribing? Even the un-signed reviewers. Thank you all very much! Enjoy.

Little Lily of the Valley

Sweet Echo

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Echo grinned widely as Eternity finally stepped out of his house for the first time in many months. He wondered how Eternity was going to catch up with his academic work for all the time he had been absent. The blond had been chasing after all of Eternity's classmates during his break and harassed them for their notes in order to pass them to the quarantined brunet. Some were not very pleased to be stalked by Echo and later found out that they had their notebooks stolen, especially before their test. The rest was rather docile and helpful.

What truly annoyed Echo was the fact that whenever he visited the Eternity at his home, tha bastard Halcyon was always there to interrupt them for no apparent reason whatsoever. This sort of unnecessary interruptions was starting to get on the usually passive blond's nerve. After hearing the stories from the vengeful Marguerite Lee concerning the bloody relationship between Alice and Halcyon, Echo had been very cautious and alert in Halcyon's presence. He couldn't bear to see Eternity ending up the same manner as the poor Natasha. The innocent girl was severely injured because of Alice's jealousy. As far as Echo would see, Natasha and Eternity were practically in the same situation. Both were not asked to be wooed by Halcyon and if Alice were to figure out that the bastard dark haired man's infidelity towards her, she would drive the gang leader to torment Eternity. Echo would not tolerate that type of cruelty. He had been doing all he could to distract the brunet from having contact with Halcyon but that effort, he knew, was not enough to stop Halcyon's advances.

For now, the blond had to carry out his plan B. Get Eternity out of his house and away from Halcyon.

"So where are we going after my months of imprisonment in my own house?" Eternity smiled, shielding his eyes from the penetrating sun blazing above them.

Tossing Eternity the extra helmet he carried on his motorbike, Echo flipped off the protection glass of his helmet, exposing his bright blue eyes, straight nose and a partial part of his lips. The blond made a thumb up. "Wherever you want," his voice was muffled by the helmet.

Eternity swung his slender leg over the motorcycle and settled himself safely. He quickly put on his dark red helmet on and hugged Echo by the waist. "I am thinking, maybe we can go to the amusement park. I have always wanted to have a look at the newest ride."

Echo smiled. It reminded him of their earlier teenagehood in high school where they would head to whatever which was the newest in town on his poor bicycle. Now that they were university students and the blond had gotten his brand new Yamaha motorcycled that cost him twenty thousand dollars. It's said that people changed, but as far as they are concerned, none of their old habits had changed. They were still the same old "Eternal Echo" from high school.

"Wait! Stop the bike for a second." Eternity called out softly, causing the startled blond to halt on the side of a relatively empty road. "There is a puppy there." He pointed at a little pup shivering at the junction. "I think it is trying to cross the street. I wonder why it is not crossing yet. I want to go have a look at it."

Parking the bike on the side, the brunet hopped down the motorcycle and walked towards the lost puppy. The small pup was indeed trembling from its little head to tail. It gave an occassional bark across the street.

"What are you doing, Eternity?" Echo asked, joining his friend on the side of the road.

Hugging the lithe brown dog in his arms protectively, Eternity cooed it with a soft hum. Its triangular ears perked up excitingly and let out a playful bark.

"This little fellow here is so cute." Eternity tickled it cutely. "If it is a stray, I want to adopt it."

Echo took a glance at the silver tag that hanged around the dog's neck. "It is owned. And its owner lives right across the street." He said and pointed at the house opposite. "The number on the tag matched with the house number over there."

"Aw, a pity," the brunet sighed and petted the pup on its soft, sandy brown fur. "Come on, we better get you home safely."

He positioned the dog into a comfortable position in his arms and crossed the pedestrian walk. As they crossed the road, a red car with its heavy music stopped at the pedestrian line. The driver, a man with a small moustache, wound down his window and leaned his head out from the car.

"The dog has legs. It can walk by itself." He commented with a snort.

Eternity frowned unhappily at the driver's rude comment, but he ignored the man and continued to cross the street with the little puppy nesting in his arms.

"Hey, you hear me?" The driver shouted louder and banged on his car honk. "Damn that flat-chest bitch." He snarled, flinging his cigarette butt onto the cement floor.

Unable to retain his frustration, Echo walked menacingly toward the red car with his helmet's belt gripped tightly in his fist. "What did you say?" He asked the driver to repeat in a threatening tone.

The driver glanced up to the approaching blond. "What is your problem? I was just telling that bitch that the dog has legs, it can fucking walk. When you have legs, you walk on your own! There is no need to carry it like a fucking human baby."

Echo's smirked darkly and swung his dark blue helmet in a downward arc, smashing the bonnet of the car. The driver gasped and shouted an unhealthy string of curses. The blond lifted his helmet up and whistled at the damage he had caused. "That is for bad-mouthing my buddy, got it?" He gave the car a pat and walked to the side. "Oh," Echo turned around and grinned. "You have legs too. Why aren't you walking, Mr. Driver?"

The man mouth opened and closed. "You shitty brat," he yelled as he hammered his foot on the accelerator and drove away. Echo blinked at the unexpected ending. At least the driver had the shame to drive off peacefully.

"What was all the noise about?" Eternity asked after he returned the puppy back to its worried owner. From the side of his eyes, Echo watched the grateful owner hugging the puppy tightly before disappearing inside the house.

The blond shrugged nonchalantly and put on his unscratched helmet. "Just testing how hard my helmet is, you know." He eyed the unconvinced brunet. "Anyway, let's go to your amusement park before it closes down."

Eternity squealed eagerly at the reminder. "What are you waiting for then? Start the engine!"

Echo grinned in satisfaction. Eternity was such a kid sometimes. The ride to their destination was fairly short. Eternity immediately jumped off the bike, awing at the newly settled amusement park. Echo laughed as he took off his blue helmet and hung it over the bike's rear mirror.

"It has been awhile, hasn't it? The last amusement park we went was when we were sixteen." He sighed, walking up to the tiny ticket booth located at the base of a giant commercial sign.

"It is." Eternity smiled innocently as he poked a little jelly figurine that was displayed on the counter.

Echo let the end of his lips to curl upward and paid for the entrance fee for both of them. For all the years he had known Eternity, the brunet never brought money with him anywhere he went. Echo had tried to convince Eternity that money was important in case he got lost somewhere and needed some changes for a phone call. Nevertheless, the petite lad never brought his wallet, and it was always the blond who ended up paying for all the expenses. Not that money was an issue to Echo since his family was loaded and his part time job could easily cover up their cost. He just wanted the brunet to think ahead.

"Over here, Echo! Come here!" Eternity waved enthusiastically a few feet from the blond. "Check this ride out." He grinned excitedly as he shoved the pamphlet onto Echo's chest. The blond gulped nervously and glanced at the paper which showed one of the highest roller-coaster he had ever seen, in addition to all the semi-twists and insane side-twist at the far edge of the ride. "This will be so fun! We have to try it!"

"Must we really get on this?" Echo made a whining face.

He was never a man who loved height. In fact, he suffered height phobia. He had forgotten how many times in the past he was forced to endure his fear for Eternity's enjoyment sake. After all, Eternity's goal in going to amusement parks was to ride on the tallest and scariest roller-coaster. As his best friend, the blond had complied to the brunet's persuasion.

"Oh come on, don't be silly. They checked the safety of the rides everyday. You won't fly away in midair and die." Eternity pulled Echo towards the fearsome ride step by step.

"You never know. We can be, like, the first victims if the screws go loose while we are at the summit of the ride. Then we can all scream Halleluiah to the camera, smile to the descending angels that come for us, and then the free fall sensation, the last view of our life, then the ugly ground, squash! We died." Echo frantically described his horror in poor phrasing.

Eternity eyed the man with the look.

Echo scratched his head. "Ok, I sound pathetic." He said awkwardly.

"Yes, you do. Now I am going no matter what you say. You know how much I love rides. Fine, I'll go up there alone. You can sit here, go on the Merry-go-around and we will meet up after. Is that what you prefer?" The brunet pouted.

With a heavy sigh, Echo again fell into his friend's hopeless longing for thrilling rides. "You are so mean, sometimes, Eternity."

With a wide grin of victory, the brunet punched the blond in the gut. "When it comes to get what I want, yep. I am your big meanie."

"You owe me one, Eternity. A really big one," Echo looked up at the massive roller coaster. "Boy, I am going to be so sick after this."

They quickly jogged to join the long waiting line. "Hurry up, the line will get longer the more we wait."

The ride itself was frantically traumatizing for Echo who felt extremely sick right after a few jerks while their car slowly climbed up the rail. He suppressed his nausea and forced a weak smile to reassure Eternity next to him. He tried to look at the empty sky before him and felt his stomach sunk. He had completely forgotten that they were sitting at the front seat of the ride. There was no one in front of them. The rest of the people were all behind them. Echo wanted to just jump out from his seat and disappeared to somewhere far away. He glued his tense body back against the plastic seat and clenched his palms tightly around the arm seat.

"Alright, here comes the best part of the ride!" Eternity shouted and cheered loudly along with all the other thrill-lovers behind them.

Just when Echo forced his eyes opened, he felt a shift in gravity. Unconsciously, he let out a lame scream as their train leaned over the curved edge and headed for a free fall. "Holy shit!" He managed to shout out a coherent curse while the train ran down another eighty-degree vertical angled rail. On the other hand, Eternity who sat on his right was screaming merrily, flagging his arms freely in the air. He was having a good time.

"That was the best ride ever!" Eternity stretched as they walked down the stairs, passing by all the other waiting riders whose eyes were watching the coming ride.

Echo wobbled slightly. "Never, ever, again." he muttered to himself and covered his mouth with his palm in case he suddenly felt like puking. His thoughts were all fuzzy. Leaning on Eternity's small shoulder for a support, they headed for a small ice-cream stand.

"Hey Echo you look terrible, how about an ice-cream?" Eternity proposed, eying the chocolate and vanilla twist picture.

Echo glared at the ice-cream commercial board and groaned. "If eating ice-cream can make me feel better right now, I will be buying the whole stall down."

The brunet laughed and leaded the dizzy blond to a seat and dumped him there while he ran to the ice-cream stand and ordered a chocolate sundae for himself and a strawberry one for Echo. He quickly put down the desert on the table, under a large parasol. Echo sighed and fished out his wallet. The brunet took the money with a smile and ran back to the stall and paid the employee.

"Thanks Echo," Eternity grinned and stuffed a mouthful of the chocolate sweet in his mouth. Echo nodded gloomy and slumped over the table, burying his face in his crossed arms.

"Arg, no more ride, please?"

Eternity patted the blond on his back with a concern frown. "Seeing the terrible state you are in, I guess we should go home."

"Right. How are we going to go back? I am the only licensed driver here." Echo muttered.

"I can always try to drive us home." Eternity suggested with a hint of excitement. He had always wanted to drive on Echo's black motorbike.

"And get us killed?" The blond chuckled softly. "No thanks. I value my life. I still want to graduate from university, get a job at engineering and… yeah."

Eternity raised a brow at his best friend's incomplete plan of his life. "What about finding a nice girl and have a family? I can't see you as the loner guy."

Echo lifted his eyes upward to meet Eternity's. They stared at each other for a split second in silence before Echo dropped his head back into his arms. "Nah," he shook his head faintly. "I already have someone more important. And no other girl is going to change that."

"Oh? What's this?" Eternity grinned widely. "How come I never knew you have a girl already? You never tell me. Come on; tell me who this lucky girl is?"

"Nah, it isn't what you think." Echo murmured "Ok, ok, stop talking and let me rest my throbbing brain."

"You got to tell me about this one day, promise?" The brunet finished up his sundae with a slurp.

Echo remained silent and sighed. "One day, I will tell you. Promise."

"Alright, you lazy bum." Eternity clapped his hand to catch Echo's attention. "Get up, we are moving to somewhere more comfortable if you want to rest."

After their snack, the small brunet pulled the blond off their seat to allow other people to rest on and headed towards the tiny park behind the ice-cream stall. He gently sat down and yanked the nauseated blond downward, causing the back of his head to fall awkwardly onto Eternity's lap.

"Here, rest then we will see if you feel better after an hour." Eternity leaned his back against the trunk of a tree and closed his eyes. "Get better soon; I am not going to sit here until tomorrow morning."

Echo smiled happily, enjoying the soft breeze that smoothed their skin. Within a few minutes, the two boys dozed off into a peaceful slumber.

~To be Continued~

Please Review otherwise this story is kinda stuck. I have other plot rabbits begging me to work on other stories. Anyway, I'm sure with your encouragement, this story will be done! Thanks for reading this story. Reviews return like usual 3

Oh! HAPPY NEW YEAR! May you all be healthy and joyful.

~Kalista Jia~