Kalos Quest (Vol.4): Finale

113. Take a Break, Axel!

Before Axel could ask for further instructions, he had been dragged into a wild car ride given by none other than Kace himself with Luna and Bonnie in the backseat.

Axel frowned. What did Professor Sycamore mean by 'take a break'? Clearly, this was no time to be joking around. However, it was given to him as a mission, which meant he could not disobey this order.

Take a break... He glanced sideways at the rest of the quartet. They probably took it as having fun, which I guess isn't wrong.

Their thinking wasn't the problem— he was the problem. As far as he was concerned, he had never really been on a fun outing with his friends due to his loner tendencies back in the days.

Still haven't changed though. I wouldn't call travelling with Luna an outing of any sort. It's more like a work relationship, isn't it?

The concept of friendship and fun suddenly felt foreign to him. Do the three of them see him as a friend? Or that of a work companion? How about his Pokémon? It felt as if the boundaries were blurred.

Well, whatever. He felt as if he couldn't care less.

That aside, Axel had to say that Kace was a horrible, carefree, driver. He wasn't bad enough to crash the car— but the ride was incredibly bumpy, and Axel found himself holding onto his seatbelt with dear life as Kace made a lot of sharp turns and swerved a lot.

Bonnie was casually humming while going on her phone in the backseat, controlling the music on the speakers in the front (she's been blasting some upbeat love songs). She seemed to be used to this rough ride, as she was not bothered at all.

Luna wasn't particularly startled or anything, but she didn't look like she's enjoying it either. She simply stared out of the window, occasionally looking at her phone and talking to Bonnie.

Finally, after what felt like forever, they arrived at a town, and Kace demonstrated his questionable parking skills, which ended with a big jerk and a sigh of relief from Kace.

"Good job on not crashing the car today," Bonnie gave Kace a happy pat on the back, much to Axel's concern.

"You've crashed before?" All of a sudden, Axel was glad that he was still alive.

"No....?" Kace said slowly, as if carefully choosing his last words.

"They're just kidding," Luna said, walking past the two, who started laughing as if they were crazy, "this way."

Bonnie and Kace were silly, but somehow, Axel didn't hate the feeling of being around them. It somehow made him feel included. It felt so long ever since he was able to spend time with these three friends of his. The sight of their backs was somewhat reassuring.

That was what he thought until they brought him to a maid cafe.

Kace in particular had a mischievous grin on his face, with Bonnie hiding a laugh. Luna looked away, as if to say that she wasn't part of this plan and only went along with it.

"I'm leaving."

Before Axel could leave, Kace pulled him back by the hood of his jacket, dragging him in much to his reluctance.

What did he do to deserve this?

"Don't worry, this place has good food reviews!" Bonnie assured him, leaning closer to his ear with a whisper, "plus you can get couple snapshots."

"The hell am I going to do with that!" Axel's face flared red, shoving Bonnie to the side with embarrassment as she giggled. Teasing and flustering Axel and Luna about their ambiguous relationship had become a pastime of hers.